30 years of
Schwegler Associated

Born in Switzerland, made up in London, living in Italy. How does Christian Schwegler started his career?

My educational path started in Switzerland and it goes on in the Middle East. My family moved there to open a jewelry, where I spent most of my adolescence. In 1975, during Lebanese civil war, the factory was plundered and I decided to move to London, having no clue of what I would have done. Love brought me to Italy, precisely to Milan, where I did my first jobs.

How did you decide to become Loss Adjuster?

I found myself in a moment of life where I felt very unsatisfied. At that time my job did not gratify me, I was not following my ambitions. It is very common to feel lost at 30, even for today’s kids. Some people just settle for their life, I became aware of the fact that I wanted to change it, to improve, to widen my horizons. Will power was surely the first step. As a freelance I came into an apparently strange world: the insurance market.

Why do you call it strange?

As a Swiss German a lot of things were very difficult to understand, it took me some time and intellectual efforts to understand how this market worked in Italy and of course, three decades ago, the structure was different from today, slower and complex.
Back then I carved out a space in a familiar branch: jewelry.
My journey in the insurance sector began from there, but I wasn’t very lucky. In the 90’s the sector was in trouble, there wasn’t much work, but giving up was not my cu of tea. I was ready to risk and I decided to invest in a little market niche that in my opinion could have been an occasion: the sport injuries sector.

An then came the success?

No, I wouldn’t say that. I found a lot of closed doors, a lot of people telling me that injury insurances were not useful, that I should not specialize in a single branch but diversify the areas of risk. I said yes to difficult clients, accepted important challenges in a market controlled by bigger competitors, overlooked false nicknames, but I never made compromises and in 2000 Schwegler Associeted had 30 employees.
We widened the sectors of expertise and during those years we managed the medical civil responsibility of about 25% of hospital beds in Italy. We were the market leaders as Loss Adjuster.
From 2005 work increased dramatically in the niches (sport, art, money transport) and we had always tried to be updated and up with the times, not to settle for anything in order to offer quality services and to become, along the years, a synonym of excellence.

Is this your real secret?

There is no secret, the market is evolving and we need to adapt to the change. I started sending reports by mail, obtaining the payments approval by telephone. I saw the advent of fax, that speed up the communication, to make it until today, the digital era.
I have always trusted my collaborators, I surrounded myself with experts specialized in their own field.
From time to time, younger people become part of the team, helping me to update my point of view, sharing insights about the present. To those guys I can transmit my experience.
Today we managed to be totally digital and, with our platform equipped with digital intelligence, we have a more efficient control of information flows and of the service management we are offering to our customers.

Will you call yourself commanding? How do you manage the relationship between different generations inside the team?

Commanding? Absolutely not. I am serious and precise in my job, but the company’s growth is due to the people I surrounded myself with. Without them I couldn’t have made it. I am surrounded by people that have different views from me, long-time team experts and youngers with fresh ideas. Thanks to this exchange and interaction we can improve everyday. And if someone fails? Oh well, we all fail and we all make mistakes, that’s how we learn.

What are the values on which you built your work?

Transparency, no doubts. Our deontology force us to be super partes and ethically correct. We inform our clients about their rights, we show them the reality of the situation, not what they want to see. We are respectful and professional with others. If, for any reason, we are not able to do something, we must be humble and conscious about our capabilities, avoiding abuse of power and the presume to know everything.

Today, 30 years after the constitution of Schwegler Associeted, what is your evaluation?

Why making an assessment? I am not looking at the past glories, I am always looking at the future, to what I can do to improve. Life taught me that you will always be judged on your last work, not on your past successes. The strong passion is what motivate myself everyday, the will to solve problems, to find a solution for my customers together with the team.
Economics should never be the main objective, in my opinion the aim is to offer a service at the best of our possibilities. If we work with commitment, loyalty and professionality, success will come.

Today, what is your suggestions to those who want to become Loss Adjuster?

In 2021 growing up in this sector is very difficult, you cannot invest, a few people have the courage to risk, to jump in and try. My suggestion to the young people is to define a goal and do not create obstacles. To pass over the obstacles that they will meet along their path, with will and ambition.
I have a deep Swiss vein, precise and organized, but Italy passed me imagination, a priceless ingredient for every job.

Quoting Sandro Pertini: “Politics without fantasy is mere technique”

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