The purpose of AIA—to help millions of people live “Healthier, Longer, Better Lives”—applies not only to its customers and the communities it serves but also to its employees and agents. AIA brings together a multigenerational workforce representing more than 70 nationalities. Its purpose sits at the core of the company’s culture, from its leadership philosophy to its employee health and well-being program.
We spoke with Cara Ang, AIA’s group chief human resources officer, about how the company’s purpose-driven culture, operating model, and leadership ethos empower its employees to continuously learn and grow.
What are you most proud of about AIA?
Cara Ang: Our purpose—to help millions of people live “‘Healthier, Longer, Better Lives.” It is at the heart of everything we do, guiding the decisions we make and inspiring us to support and protect the well-being of those we serve. Our purpose shapes our culture and sets us apart from our competitors.
As our group chief executive and president, Lee Yuan Siong, says, it’s our “strong culture of empowerment with accountability that differentiates AIA. Our culture reflects our people and is a product of the decisions and actions each of us takes every day. It underscores our ability to adapt to capture new growth opportunities and sustain our outperformance over the long term.”
AIA has a clear growth strategy and a performance orientation. We understand that delivering sustainable results is about incorporating our purpose into our core business strategy in ways that benefit our customers, communities, and financials. Guided by our operating philosophy of “Doing the Right Thing, in the Right Way, with the Right People … the Right Results Will Come,” we aim to shape a culture that drives the right values and behaviors from our high-performing talent so we create value for all stakeholders over the long term.
How does AIA’s operating model contribute to the success of the company?
Cara Ang: The essence of our operating model is empowerment within a framework. We’re guided by the philosophy that if we do the right thing, in the right way, with the right people, the right results will come. We operate in 18 markets, and the leaders and employees in these markets know their customers and communities best. We empower them to achieve their ambitions by building their expertise and providing the resources and guidance they need.
We’re guided by the philosophy that if we do the right thing, in the right way, with the right people, the right results will come.
Over the past few years, our focus has been ensuring our business units have the right technology, digital and analytics people capabilities, and investments to support the delivery of compelling propositions and a leading experience for our customers.
Our empowered, or decentralized, operating model is core to the success of our business. This helped us stay resilient and adapt quickly to a rapidly changing operating environment during the global pandemic. All 18 of our markets experienced different levels of infection rates and containment measures at different times; it would have been impossible to respond fast enough if managed centrally from our group headquarters in Hong Kong. Empowering our business unit CEOs with the freedom to react quickly to their changing local situations was key to helping our people and sustaining the resilience of our businesses through this very challenging period.
State of Organizations: Lessons from leaders
We have evolved the way we work, too, with the aim of creating an organization that is simpler, faster, and more connected. In several of our markets, we have introduced new organizational designs to enable our strategic priorities. We are putting people closer to the decision-making process, which leads to better outcomes and a nimbler and more empowered organization.
How would you describe AIA’s leadership philosophy?
Cara Ang: We are very mindful that having effective, clearly focused leaders at every level of our organization is a prerequisite to success. Our three leadership essentials—clarity, courage, and humanity—define the behaviors we desire and are deeply rooted in history; the Chinese philosopher Fushan Yuan first set out their importance, and we adopted them following our IPO in 2011. They shape our culture, define our aspirations, and drive our employees’ development and progression at AIA. Every employee is expected to embed our leadership essentials into their day-to-day activities.
They shape our culture, define our aspirations, and drive our employees’ development and progression at AIA.
How is AIA building key capabilities for the future?
Cara Ang: We have four types of capability building within our “catalyst for growth” framework: core leadership skills, sustaining business excellence, developing skills for the future of work, and building functional capabilities. We ensure every program has a business sponsor, not an HR sponsor, so there is clear business ownership and demand for the capabilities we’re developing.
I’m very proud of our recently launched reskilling and upskilling programs for data analytics, business analysis, and agile ways of working. We had a growing demand in these areas, but we didn’t have the talent supply, so we created several new learning journeys that included screening, training, and practical work experience to build these capabilities internally.
We also recently expanded our succession planning programs to grow and develop future leaders and cultivate greater gender diversity among our C-suite. Today, women hold about 42 percent of senior leadership roles in AIA, and we will continue to prepare and support women to maintain a gender-balanced leadership team.
What additional skills changes have you seen, and how are you preparing for them?
Cara Ang: We are acutely aware that the skills required in the industry and for the future of work are evolving rapidly. One of the areas we have been focused on is developing our technology, digital, and analytics talent. We knew if we kept doing the same thing and hiring from the same places, we wouldn’t be able to meet our rapidly expanding needs. In addition to “buy” and “borrow” strategies, we had to build more of these capabilities internally.
The State of Organizations 2023
HR worked closely with our group technology colleagues to develop a strategy to map out the demand and supply of digital talent across geographies. We leveraged the highly skilled expertise of our shared services centers in China and Malaysia to provide the group with tailored, demand-led services. We have also been upskilling our people in this space to support the group’s digital transformation journey.
How does AIA invest in employee health and well-being?
Cara Ang: Our people’s well-being is fundamental to our performance and sustainable growth. We’ve launched AIA One Billion, a bold ambition to engage a billion people to live healthier, longer, better lives, and this ambition starts with our own people through our comprehensive well-being program known as WorkWell with AIA. It was designed to support the physical, mental, social, and financial health of employees through a range of initiatives, employee benefits, and tools tailored to the needs of each business unit. We collect a lot of detailed employee feedback and data points to help us understand what works and what doesn’t and use that to inform our planning for the next cycle. We strongly believe that this comprehensive investment in employees’ well-being will pay off for our people and our business.
This interview is part of the Lessons from leaders collection within The State of Organizations 2023 report. These conversations were conducted by members of McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice with leaders of organizations that exemplify best practices relating to the ten most significant shifts facing organizations today.
Cara Ang is the group chief human resources officer at AIA.
Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.
