Sarath Reddy

A phone call he hadn’t planned for

Sarath started working at 16, by necessity, doing 12 hour shifts to keep things running. That phase, he says, taught him responsibility much faster than life usually does.

His first proper job was in a BPO. Then, in 2009, a call from Naukri opened a door into insurance. It wasn’t something he had planned. He took the leap anyway, and it changed his life.

On his very first day he was handling group health policies for large companies. Over time he noticed something that has stayed at the centre of his work ever since: nobody really understands their insurance when they buy it. They understand it when they claim.

Trust is built when honesty costs you

Years ago, a client who had just come back to India after two decades abroad asked Sarath about a simple personal accident policy. Someone had already quoted them a premium more than thirty times what it should have cost.

When Sarath gave them the right number, they didn’t believe him. The difference was so large they assumed something was wrong. It took a word from the person who had introduced them before they agreed to go ahead.

Almost twelve years later, the relationship continues. That company has grown from four people to more than a thousand. They don’t compare quotes every year, and when another broker approaches them, they simply ask them to speak to Ethika.

Sarath leads Ethika’s relationships across 750+ companies, many of them the India arms of groups headquartered in the United States, Europe and Japan. Nine in ten stay with us, and he will tell you why in one line.

Sometimes the honest answer is no

There are times when Sarath tells a client, I don’t think this is the right decision.

Some companies want to give their people the best possible benefits. Others need to keep cost under control. Both are valid. HR wants certain benefits, the CFO is asking how much the company should spend, and a broker’s job is not simply to agree with one side. Often, trimming a benefit makes more sense than removing it altogether.

If a client still goes ahead against his advice, he explains why he disagrees and what could happen later. The decision stays with the client. But they should know that what they save today may matter far more on the day of a claim.

The same habit shapes how he compares policies. Two quotes can look almost identical on price and still differ on dozens of small benefits across 30 to 40 pages, an ambulance limit here, a sub limit there. Nobody notices until the claim. So compare the product benefit by benefit first, then look at the price.

Leaders who learn to listen

At one point Sarath noticed that whenever something came up and the team had to wait for his yes or no, he had become the bottleneck. That can happen in any business. It cannot become the normal way of working.

So he puts real weight on a strong second layer: people who understand the business well enough, and have enough authority, to decide when the founders are away. It takes time. You give people responsibility, let them take decisions, and stay close enough to support them. The real test, he says, comes when you are away.

He applies the same thinking to disagreement. He doesn’t believe younger people struggle to disagree. They already question decisions and say what they think. The real question is whether leaders are comfortable hearing it. At Ethika he asks his team to bring solutions, not just problems, and if someone disagrees, he asks what they would do differently. A good idea gets heard, whoever brings it.