48: 48th CONKERS' CORNER: 19th July : Conker’s Corner speaking with Steve Tunstall

Welcome to the 48th CONKERS’ CORNER recorded on 11th June 2017. In this interview, I have the pleasure of speaking with business man, entrepreneur, thought leader, speaker, author, CEO & Co-Founder of Inzsure.com @TunstallAsc Steve Tunstall.

Steve grew up in North Nottinghamshire on the edge of a mining community, his Grand-father was a Miner and for a while his Father was also a Miner, later he worked as a Council worker. His Dad advised him to “never go down the pit”, fortunately enough for Steve, when he was leaving school he did not have much choice because most of the mining pits in the nearby community had closed. Steve’s Mother was a Teacher and she had different ideas for him, encouraging him that he could go anywhere and be anything he wanted.

Steve stayed on a school at did A Levels, he explains, “I did exceptionally badly, passing only one of them”. He points out that this was in the early 1980’s where within the mining communities, there was not a lot for anyone to do with regards to jobs/employment. Therefore as an 18 year old, he applied for a variety of jobs. He explained “I applied for around 150 jobs without getting even one interview”. So Steve did a part-time course in Mechanical Engineering, which took him to Cumbria, working at Sellafield. This was to be the beginning of Steve’s fantastic education, employment and entrepreneur journey. He was always looking “to upgrade his skills and upgrade himself”.

This drive would take Steve all around the world as a global Insurance/Insurtech thought leader and ambassador. Steve now has over thirty years of experience in owning, running and future proofing companies. He has been CEO, Managing Director or equivalent in seven companies in four countries managing teams of up to 500 employees and based in Asia for over 20 years.

Steve has been recognised as the No.1 worldwide influencer in Insurtech, according to the Global Instech 100. He features in the Top 20 Global Influencer lists of Rise, Richtopia and Onalytica in the areas of Insurtech, Fintech and Blockchain and has a significant presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr. He is always looking to grow, learn more, share his knowledge, nurture others, whilst always remaining humble, this is his style of leadership and entrepreneurship.

Steve had always been interested in investing and saving for his future, however he explains that when starting out, he was not a consistent investor and a bit too flighty. He admits that he would have been well served by Warren Buffet’s advice to buy, hold and don’t lose money. He explains that whilst still in the UK in the 1990’s he did a little bit of trading in stocks. He says that he was “ill-formed and swayed by the influence of lots of people, which probably he should not have listened to”. Many of his early investments “were less than stellar”.

Nowadays, Steve has a significant proportion of his investments in Tech stocks such as Facebook, ETFs and cryptocurriencies. With his current business Inzsure.com http://www.inzsure.com/ leveraging cryptocurrency even further. Inzsure is an aggregation solution transforming commercial insurance built on Ethereum – a derivative of Blockchain. The platform leverages chatbot interfaces on a mobile first platform powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and informed through intensive data analysis. The radical transparent business model significantly lowers frictional transaction costs and improves both speed and security. Plus enables SME’s to purchase insurance via a technology platform direct from the global insurers. Steve buys into the vision of where of cryptocurrences is going long-term and now has a significant proportion of his wealth in cryptocurrencies.

The topics we discussed include: -Asian Financial Crisis; -Crisis Management; -Risk Mitigation/ Risk Management; -Commercial disputes; -Turnaround expert; -Entrepreneur: Aspiring to run your own company; -The Asian story; -Leadership; -Insurance -Insurtech; -Learning; -Winning investments; -Mistakes; -Bitcoin; -Ethereum; -Cryptocurrencies; -Artificial Intelligence (AI); -Working across Asia; -Not-for-profit work; -Google; -Facebook; -Complacency of business models; -Case studies & Resilience; -Lessons learnt; -Compounding investments; -Warren Buffett; -Nasim Nicolas Taleb;

More recently Steve’s interests and experiences in risk mitigation and risk management have led him to write his book “RISK and the Asian CEO: Take Risk, Take Care – A practical guide to risk management in Asia. His book has been described as the “First book ever dealing with the specifics of Asia in both culture and behaviours. This is the corner-stone of successful and meaningful risk management in an Asian organization”. As “it covers it covers the reality of risk management as needed and perceived in the Asian environment. This is a must for everyone who wants to understand what risk management means or should mean outside of USA and Europe”. For those in the C-suite, leaders and entrepreneurs, this could be a must read. Listen now to gain insights into how Steve invests and learn from the lessons in his successful and insightful investing journey. A journey that has also taken him around the globe, where he is also recognised as an author and global thought leader in the Management Risk, Insurance and Insurtech space.