Swot Analysis Of Sun Life

5.0 Culture

Venturing into a foreign market may bring abundance of benefits. However, there are many hurdles that a company could face and difference in culture is one of them. Therefore it is important that the company understand and adapt to the host country’s culture when doing business there or the business may fail. Often, companies which fail to understand the culture of the host country are not able to devise marketing strategies that attract customers.

Sun Life Financial Inc. is Canadian company and therefore is of western culture, which is totally different from Malaysia’s culture.

However, the entry method taken by Sun Life, through acquisition, is definitely a plus point as this way Sun Life is able to gradually learn the culture

It is necessary for any business to gauge the buying behaviour of its market place so that they know how to position and attract their target market. In the context of Sun Life’s business in Malaysia, the following discusses the relevant determinants of insurance subscription / purchase.

It is important to note that the stimulus to purchase insurance voluntarily is not the scale of potential loss but rather the likelihood of the loss occurring. Generally, Malaysia is less susceptible to natural disasters like earthquake, storms and hurricanes. Therefore, there is no real need for purchase of insurance covering such disasters. However, with the increase in other forms of losses due to accident (road, rail, sea and air), more and more people are purchasing life insurance policies. Insurance companies should position their products accordingly.

There are also some insurance which are made mandatory by the Government, which almost guarantees insurance companies a substantial amount of business. These include motor and house (new) insurance. Consumers have no choice but to purchase such insurance when purchasing cars and / or houses. For this purpose, Sun Life must form partnership with banks, motor sales companies and housing developers to garner their share of the

At the same time, Sun Life had a very strong and prominent partner, i.e. Khazanah Nasional. Khazanah which almost wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance and is the investment wing of the Government. CIMB Group on the other hand, had been in the financial sector for a long time and owns CIMB Bank which is the second largest bank in Malaysia. This made Sun Life Malaysia financially strong and also spread the risk of Sun Life Financial Inc. On the same note, Sun Life was able to ride on the partnership with Khazanah and CIMB by acquiring Government businesses, as well as marketing its product through these partners. Of course, one of the most significant advantages of this acquisition / partnership was Sun Life’s capacity to obtain a Takaful licence in Malaysia. It should be noted that not all insurance companies in Malaysia have Takaful licences. With the acquisition, Sun Life had an immediate business and market share in Malaysia. It was able to gain the knowledge of the local market in a short time frame and hence able to grow its business at a fast