Noor Takaful: Ethical & Sharia-Compliant Insurance Solutions in UAE - Essay Sample

Introduction

Insurance can be described as an arrangement in which organizations take in providing a guarantee of compensation for damages, certain losses, death, and illness in return of a specified premium. Located in UAE, Noor Takaful is an insurance company founded on May 15, 2008, in Dubai world trade center to offer general and customized insurance services to families, companies, individuals, and groups. The main objective of the company was to provide ethical and Sharia's compliant, unique, innovative, and comprehensive Islam Insurance (Takaful) products that support and improves the advancing requirements of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) economy and the GCC. Besides, the Noor Takaful Family aimed at providing a wide range of medical and products with affordable prices to cater to individual customer segments, as well as packaging aimed at corporate sector clients. The company often commits itself to be the best in the middle east. The com contemporary approach to Islamic insurance has enabled it to offer innovative products and services to its customers for a long time now. Some of the innovative products by the company are Motor Takaful, Medical Takaful, Travel Takaful, Personal Takaful, and Commercial Takaful, all supported by GCC's e-Takaful service providing immediate quotations and online payment facilities.

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Noor Takaful has been consistently being identified as the best company, and that has maintained a high level of quality of services in the insurance sector. The company has received various awards, for instance, Takaful Insurer of the Year in the region in 2012 at the MENA Insurance Awards, Insurance Leadership Award fin 2012 at Takaful Summit for Best Marketing in the Middle East and Best Insurance Operator in the GCC area at the CPI Islamic and Finance award in 2012. As such, the objective of this document is to comprehensively analyze the Noor Takaful Insurance company history, growth, marketing strategy, features, products, statistical data, and the advantages or benefits that result in the organization that has aided in its growth.

History of Noor Takaful

Noor Takaful has its history dated back to 2008. The company was founded in 2008, and it includes the Noor Takaful Family as well as the Noor Takaful General. It was established so that it could provide a broad range of Islamic Insurance (Takaful) general and customized insurance products and services. The company offers its services to different people and individuals, families, groups, as well as other companies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (Onagun & Al Raei, 2013). These companies abide by the law that requires life and non-life insurance businesses to be separate legal entities according to the Federal Law No.6 of 2007.

Noor Takaful is a type of company that is categorized under the Public Joint Stock Company, and it ventures in the Insurance industry. The headquarters of Noor Takaful is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Noor Takaful is located in different places, and it has 3 locations. It is managed by a board of directors who include H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum who is the Chairman, Rajesh Sethi, the CEO, and Karim Khan, who is the Chief Financial Officer. Some of the products that Noor Takaful is involved with include Personal, business, medical, motor, travel, and commercial Takaful (Onagun & Al Raei, 2013). It also provides different services, such as Shari'a Compliant Insurance. Noor Takaful has employed 161 employees, and it can be accessed through its website, which is www.noortakaful.com.

Noor Takaful's commitment is to become the best in the Middle East in the Takaful (insurance) sector. It, therefore, ensures that innovation is key to the company, and it always ensures that it provides a series of innovative products and services. It also ensures that the status of all clients is considered, therefore, creating a package to fit them. These packages include individual customers as well as packages for the corporate sector clients. Noor Takaful has various partners who take on projects with them, and one of the major partners in the Noor Bank.

Various values lead to Noor Takaful. These values include innovation, determination, customer centricity, responsibility, and integrity (Onagun & Al Raei, 2013). These values ensure the company is led in the right direction and that it is determined to provide the best services to the customers. The values also ensure that the employees and the board of directors focus on achieving the organizational vision through having a competitive advantage over their competitors in the insurance sector. The company has ensured that various channels such as flexible, modern, and state-of-the-art channels are built to ensure that they provide top-quality protection.

Various people and bodies have recognized the leadership that Noor Takaful has displayed in the market in the world. Their achievements have led them to be awarded many coveted awards in the insurance industry. These awards include the Best Takaful Company UAE 2019, Best Medical Takaful Provider UAE 2019, and Most Ethical Brand of the Year 2019 and the Ethical Insurance Provider of the Year 2019, among many other awards. Other awards include the Best Customer Service Takaful 2018, Sustainable Marketing Practices Award, and the International Business Excellence Award 2018(Onagun & Al Raei, 2013).

Despite the challenges in the market that Noor Takaful experiences, it has always strived to ensure that it has given back to society as much as the company can. It has therefore been involved in sponsoring different activities in UAE as well as around the globe in partnership with other companies. The events that it has sponsored include the World Takaful Conferences, Pakistan vs. Australia Twenty20 cricket matches, Ramadan prayer timetable in the Al Emarat Al Youm newspaper as well as sponsoring Pakistan vs. New Zealand Twenty20 matches. The company was also among those that sponsored the Leaders in Dubai 2009(Netrakanti, 2020).

Over the years, Noor Takaful has been seen to market its products through different advertising campaigns. The tag line that is used in the advertising campaign by Noor Takaful is usually "Because you never know what life has in store" (Netrakanti, 2020). This enables them to market and promote travel, motor, medical, and marine products that they are involved with as the years progressed. Noor Takaful, the need for online use and promotion has increased, and this was the main reason why it launched the e-Takaful and became the first online Takaful operator in GCC. It has, therefore, embraced technology and integrated the operations of the company with various media platforms. The central media platform that the company uses is the LinkedIn account, which has 14,000 followers (Policybazaar, 2020). These platforms are used by Noor Takaful to give various updates to customers. For instance, information about the Brand Ambassador of the Month and other crucial information such as concerning recent developments may be passed to the customers through the platform. The company also has a corporate website used to support the services of the company and also helps the e-Takaful.

Noor Takaful has cooperated with the government to do various things. This includes the Ministry of Climate Change, where Noor Takaful signed the Dubai Declaration on Sustainable Finance. Noor Takaful is also a Participating Insurer (PI) by the Dubai Health Authority (Netrakanti, 2020).

Growth

Noor Takaful being among the first Takaful Insurance companies to be established in the United Arab Emirates has reported significant increase along the years, particularly in the year ended 2018. The company reported a significant double-digit profit in the year 2018 the same year it celebrated ten years of increasing consumers/customer base.

During an event held at Mina Al'Salam to celebrate the company anniversary, the company reported an increase in premium value by 5% in the year 2017 (Khan, 2018). The company CEO noted that the company has tremendously grown in the last ten years in the UAE by helping residents understand sharia-compliant insurance that often calls for the highest level of ethical standards. The main objective of this is to help customers find value and peace of mind. As a result, the company was able to improve its pricing within the insurance sector. With new regulations and better enforcement by the authorities, the company aims at more significant consolidations and scrutiny, which will benefit end-users.

At the World Takaful Conference held earlier in 2019 in Dubai, various analysts and speakers congratulated the company for being at the center of the insurance sector growth with an estimate of 11.5 Million US dollars, which is AED4224 (Khan, 2018). This shows Noor Takaful commitment at the forefront of the Insurance sector in the Middles East has been critical in their success. The most performing industries in the company were noted to be General Takaful and Medical Takaful, which have offered double digits in the growth.

The company operations are split into medical and life insurance, which accounts for 80 percent of its business. The remaining 20 percent covers general insurance, which has a customer base of 50,000 characterized mainly by warehouse, commercial and residential; 20000 cars, 200000 medical customers, 200 yachts, and 10000 life insurances (Khan, 2018). The Takaful industry trend is often characterized by a price increase, which results from inflation and new types of procedures in terms of regulations. As such, they expect growth in medical insurances as a result of a growth in new processes and advancement in modern technology due to the recent Dubai Health Authority order for cancer treatment to be included in insurance covers.

The adherence to the latest market trends has helped the company in ensuring friendly customer and employee experiences, which have won the various award, particularly in 2018. The company was recognized by multiple industry awards from the Insurance Authority and other independent organizations. Its growth and the ability to win them prizes won the following awards are as follows:

• Insurance Authority awarded them the Happiness Center Initiative Award
• International Business magazine awarded them the Best Customer Service Takaful 2018
• Yallacompare awarded them the Insurance company provider of the year
• Global Banking and Financial Review, London, granted them the Best Takaful Company UAE 2018

Besides, the growth of the company has been overly supported by its ability to follow the sustainable, ethical campaign. The process requires materials such as papers or bags to be developed either through non-biodegradable materials or through recycling. In order to understand how the company has achieved such tremendous growth, the next section will be looking at the company marketing strategy that has significantly assisted the company in the growth process

Marketing Strategy

The marketing plan in a business is a form of a blueprint that helps a company in examining how they will influence their customers to buy their goods and services. The marketing plan entails the following parts:

• Pricing strategy of their products
• Sales and the distribution plan
• Products and services offered by a company
• Advertising and various promotional plans

Pricing Strategy

The pricing strategy involves coming up with a comprehensive plan on how prices for products and services will be determined. The rates to be set for the goods and services have to be competitive yet helpful in making logical level of revenues (Magalhaes, D'OreyD'Orey, Pereira, Cardoso, Cairrao, and Figueiredo, 2020). The prices must be fair enough for both the customers and the company to enhance the continuity of the company. Noor Takaf...