Dharmala Manulife - A Marketing Strategy

The president director of Dharmala Manulife, a large, successful Canadian-Indonesian joint venture life insurance company, faced a significant disruption to operations due to social unrest in Jakarta. Moreover, the Asian financial crisis had resulted in a massive devaluation of the rupiah, in terms of the U.S. dollar. Thus, premiums on U.S.-dollar denominated policies had become prohibitively expensive almost overnight. Policy surrenders, redemptions, and lapses were occurring at an alarming rate. This erosion of the company's client base also meant that sales agents (who worked solely on commissions) were not only losing clients, but were also facing a tremendous challenge in writing new policies in light of the economic, political, and social chaos. Given the external situation, the president director and his senior management team were forced to develop effective strategic marketing decisions. The case asks students to consider the marketing plan for the launch of a new product designed to address the market realities and how to manage the commissioned salesforce in light of the disruption to operations.