Purpose
Our purpose is to help our professional members (and their families) to protect their dreams and to live the lives they want to live.
Vision/mission
(To be) The No-brainer (financial solution) for brainy people.
Tagline
Success is better, Shared.
Context
Founded in 1941 during the Second World War by a group of eight dentists, today PPS is the largest multi-disciplinary group of graduate professionals in South Africa with over 150 000 members.
PPS offers tailor-made insurance, investment and healthcare solutions exclusively for graduate professionals.
PPS is the only financial services company in South Africa that operates under the ethos of mutuality and that focusses exclusively on graduate professionals. The company belongs to its members – they are its shareholders. The company is also under the governance of members through their involvement in the board. The board consists mostly of elected members, representatives of professional associations and some co-opted specialists who join the board by invitation.
The PPS Profit-Share Account is the organisation’s unique differentiator. This is the mechanism through which members with qualifying products share in the success of the company. Every year a portion of PPS annual profits and investment returns are “paid” to its members via allocations to their Profit-Share Accounts. The funds in the account accumulate over a member’s working life and vests on retirement. Members get 100% of the business profits distributed to them; their profit allocations are not impacted directly by their individual claims experiences.
Value proposition
Mutuality, Exclusivity, Intelligent Solutions
Mutuality
Mutuality is an uncommon business model in South Africa where most large financial institutions are either privately held or publicly listed. There are a handful of South African companies, particularly financial services companies, that operate as mutuals and cooperatives. By size of assets, PPS is one of the larger mutuals in the country.
For many ordinary people, mutuality is a foreign concept only found in textbooks. The first order of business for PPS when in engaging in the market is to educate the people about mutuality, a notion they find too good to be true.
Marketing a mutual
The need to educate members and potential members about mutuality remains constant because the concept is not really well understood in the country. The focus of this case study is the PPS campaigns focussed on mutuality. They also have product-centric campaigns.
PPS launched its first-ever television advert in 2012. The objective of the TV campaign was to simplify and explain the concept of mutuality in a way that would make it accessible to a market that has little understanding of what it means. The advert told the story of two rival bakeries and why one succeeded and the other not. They worked closely with ICMIF and the agency in developing the creative concept.
The mutuality explainer
They developed this video to help members understand what it is that differentiates the PPS mutual model in a “sea of sameness”. The video also explains how the model eliminates the unavoidable conflict that comes from shareholder interests vs member interests. By virtue of membership, all PPS members have an ownership interest in the business. (The full value of this ownership only becomes apparent on retirement when the PPS Profit-Share Account vests). This is a valuable educational tool that helps members to understand the unique benefits that come with being a member.
The mutual business practice
In 2019, PPS launched a bold new proposition called PRO-FiT. The name is a play on the word “profit” and the concept of fitness – which can be applied to physical, mental and financial fitness. PRO-FiT is a platform that allows self-service as well as leveraging the power of the community for good. They recognise that professionals are time-starved and therefore value convenience and efficiency.
By creating a (broker-inclusive) self-service channel and curating select offers such as “U cook”, a prepacked meals service and Advantage Learn, a high school maths tuition service PPS “manufactures” time in the hand of the professional. The Profit Share Playzone is a tool in PRO-FiT that allows members to do scenario planning and view how a combination of solutions not only gives them great cover but also creates value through the profit share.
Conscious not to offer another rewards programme in a world filled with rewards programmes; the PPS answer is to provide solutions that specifically add value. The Short Term Insurance business offers members convenient concierge services like six chauffeur services per annum, licence disc renewal and fine payment services. In South Africa, paying fines and renewing licence discs can consume an inordinate amount of time waiting in queues.
Investment fees left unchecked can deplete the value of an investment. To address this problem, PPS Investments created the Family Network, a solution that allows members of a family to save in individual accounts that are grouped in order to give them access to lower fees based on their combined asset value. Creating a micro scale of the mutual model.
Finally, through sponsorship of flagship events with professional associations, PPS positions itself as a thinking partner for professionals in South Africa. In 2018 PPS hosted its first-ever “Singularity U” PPS Members Forum with leading thinkers from across the globe.
Profit Share Booster
This is the latest innovation launched by PPS (as of October 2020). The Profit Share Booster is an elegant solution that rewards members for incorporating diverse solutions from PPS into their portfolios. The more products and solutions that a member takes up, the higher his or her profit share participation. This concept draws on classic symbiotic relationships found in nature. Further illustrating how the unique PPS model creates a “mutuality” beneficial relationship by design.
Success, truly shared
In 2019, PPS released a series of member stories. In these intimate, true short stories, members shared how PPS helped them to triumph over adversity and what it really means to be a PPS Member. The stories have happy endings and highlight how much members stand to receive in money and peace of mind on retirement.
Mutuality is at the centre of the PPS identity. It is how PPS enriches the lives of its members and enables them to live the lives they want to live. It is the sole focus of the business. Judging from PPS’ consistently great returns, sustainability and growth in members over the years – success is truly better, shared.
