Tech-Focused Way of Life

I'm all Hartford," says Ramani Ayer, chairman, chief executive officer and 30-year veteran of The Hartford Financial Services Group, when asked about his past work experience. During his climb through the ranks at the carrier of property and casualty, group benefits, life, reinsurance and investment products, Ayer was ingrained with a Hartford philosophy. At the Hartford "technology is perceived as a strong enabler of competitive advantage," he says. "We have all been brought up in this company to think that way."

Ayer's Hartford "upbringing"—which included stints as the vice president of HartRe and president of Hartford Specialty Co.—also taught him a thing or two about the importance of enterprise-wide innovation. "If you only have one way of doing things better than your competition, it will not be too long before they are able to catch up and do even better than you," he says.

Ayer does his part to steer the organization toward innovation by scrutinizing suggestions during interactive discussions of ways to increase progress and opportunities within the company. Ideas are conveyed to Ayer at lunch meetings with the heads of the application IT groups, or through informal discussions that take place several times a month with David Annis, The Hartford's CIO.

"Ramani is a real thinker," says Annis. "He loves to question, probe and drill down exploring options and possibilities. Whether you are solving a problem or developing something new you will always walk away from the table with a new perspective that you didn't have when you first sat down."

Ayer simplifies the seemingly daunting task of heading a company that strives to remain technologically innovative by breaking strategic opportunities for advantage into three groups. The first of these priorities is improving the ease with which policyholders and producers do business with The Hartford, according to Ayer.

"Our latest innovation is thehartfordinvestor.com," says Ayer. "Brokers can access everything from their customers' records to tools and manuals that help them understand the latest in investment strategies." Although this site was also designed with policyholder self-service in mind, Ayer stresses the importance of providing advisors with information to better guide customers. "These services are especially important now because many customers are finding that they need an advisor to help manage through tough markets," says Ayer.

Restructuring for Skills Portability

Creating efficiencies within internal processes at The Hartford is another opportunity for competitive advantage that Ayer stresses. In an attempt to build synergy among its previously autonomously functioning P&C business units, the position of CIO of P&C was created recently. The restructuring promotes the portability of personnel among P&C divisions for better allocation of skills within the entire group.

Using technology to improve business decisions that are made within The Hartford is another of Ayer's priorities. "The Hartford uses technology to develop intelligence and insight into opportunities for achieving better growth in new markets, as well as exploiting growth in existing markets," says Ayer. The carrier's insurance program for small businesses is an example. "We have successfully used data mining to analyze potential markets and to develop new products to serve those markets," he says. Online learning courses for the purposes of professional development also improve business decisions made by Hartford employees.

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RAMANI AYER

Chairman and CEO, The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. (Hartford), $167 billion in assets.

BACKGROUND:

Previously, EVP of The Hartford; prior to that, SVP. Ayer also served as VP of HartRe and president of Hartford Specialty Company. Ayer holds master's and doctorate degrees in chemical engineering from Drexel University (Philadelphia) and a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai).

ONE PERSON I'D LIKE TO MEET:

"I get to meet just about everybody I want to meet."

HOBBIES:

"Besides work, I love to read and travel. I spend my spare time working in the community."