Andrew Moss: Sport can spread a message of unity, says Aviva chief

6am

Aviva's chief executive gets up at his Wapping flat and heads straight for the gym, which will give him some thinking time before his first meeting. That is at 7.45am at Mansion House, where Andrew Moss will take his place on the Chancellor's "High Level Group" made up of senior figures from the financial services industry.

The agenda of today's get-together, unsurprisingly, revolves around the market turmoil that just refuses to go away alongside a discussion on regulation. "The mood was reasonably sober," says Mr Moss. "There is a feeling that knee-jerk regulatory reactions to the current financial turmoil – which is certainly not over – would be slightly dangerous."

He adds: "Aviva is in a relatively comfortable position, our credit exposures are very limited. While we are not immune, I think this reflects our innate conservatism as a company. If you're running an insurance company you have to take a long-term view in the interests of your policyholders and your shareholders."

Aside from the chance to discuss issues like this with the Chancellor and senior officials, Mr Moss also values the sessions as "a good opportunity to meet up with some of the banks that we work with".

10.30am

Mr Moss has walked back to Aviva's City headquarters. On arrival he will sit down with his PA, Hilary, to deal with correspondence and review any letters from customers which he tries to deal with personally: "I feel if they have taken the trouble to write to you, then you should write back," he explains.

He also manages a coffee with the head of Aviva's fast-growing Asia Pacific division. The two also discuss events in Chengdu – NU, sadly, has life insurance claims to deal with from the Chinese earthquake. Some of the company's staff have also been lost.

"We have been, I think, making absolutely certain that we pay those claims extremely quickly. That is what you would expect a life insurance company to do when things go wrong, we are there to help people. When you get these sort of events, making sure you get help to people quickly does make a difference."

11am

Mr Moss has returned to his office, which offers a spectacular view over St Paul's, at least for the moment (a skyscraper is planned that could remove some of the appeal). Here he is meeting one of the City's leading insurance analysts. "We need to listen to what our investors and representatives of our investors have to say to us. This is a stimulating meeting, really updating on how we are progressing on the One Aviva, Twice the Value vision that we have set ourselves," says Mr Moss.

The strategy will mean a couple of thousand job lossesin the UK, but Mr Moss isquick to insist that it is about more than that.

"Yes, regrettably, some people will lose their jobs from our UK general insurance business, but I think we as a company do our best to make sure they are treated fairly. We are transforming that business, but the broader vision is about more than that. It is about growth in the company, and making sure that all of our 57,000 people are working together with one objective in mind. We have set out our stall and they (investors) are waiting for us to deliver."

The meeting is followed by a telephone call with Andrea Moneta, former finance director of Unicredit, the Italian bank, who will become Aviva's head of Europe. Mr Moss wants to discuss his plans for his first 100 days.

12.30pm

One part of the One Aviva strategy is to finally bring the company together under one brand. This will see the end of the Norwich Union name in the UK, Hibernian in Ireland and Commercial Union in Poland. To prepare for this Mr Moss gets together with Amanda Mackenzie, who joined in March to head up marketing. "She was showing me some material on the look and feel of the new brand. It's the second time she has done that – we didn't like the first attempt, but her team has come back with something which I really do like now. You are going to see Aviva promoted pretty heavily during the next few months, for example, through sponsorship of UK athletics."

Mr Moss describes this as a "really effective" way of getting the brand seen internationally. "The BBC screens the big meetings to over 100 countries, but we also go into schools. We touch about 1 million schoolchildren every year, encouraging their physical development. That's a thing I really like about the sponsorship."

The sponsorship also, partly, inspired Mr Moss's "One Aviva" idea. "Our ceo in Asia came into my office a couple of months ago with two newspapers, one from Australia, one from China. There were large colour photographs of an Australian and a Chinese athlete competing in the UK with Norwich Union blasting out of the back pages. Of course we operate as Aviva in these countries. It was a huge wasted opportunity."

1.30pm

Having snatched a sandwich, Mr Moss goes into a lengthy meeting with one of the credit ratings agencies. Aviva is rated AA, and Mr Moss wants to ensure it stays that way, and so needs to sit down and explain his strategy. "The rating is important to us. In some cases we make 20- or 30-year promises to our customers, and we want them to be sure that we will be around."

He also finds time to call his daughter, Sophie – the Moss family is currently on tenterhooks because she has just finished her finals at medical school. After this, he takes the time to walk the floor, putting his head around the doors of the investor and public relations departments, along with finance and mergers and acquisitions, all of which share the top floor with him. He then meets another of the 100 banks the company works with: "Maintaining relationships like this is an important part of my job."

4.45pm

Mr Moss has to present to 90 senior managers in Chicago – the company's new centre for North American operations. To meet him, Mr Moss does not seem like a natural presenter – he has a reserved, and understated manner, without any of the brash over-confidence shown by some business leaders. However, he is a big believer in these events.

"At a time when the external markets are difficult it's very important that you set your internal course and the teams understand what you are trying to achieve," he says. "What we are trying to do is really get the top 450 people in the group to clearly understand and engage in our vision and decide what they can do to make it happen. These meetings have been getting better, and have been quite inspiring to me. It's the first time we have done this, getting these 450 together, and I've been delighted. I think it will pay off in a big way."

When the company opened its Chicago office a couple of weeks ago Aviva's top team stayed in the same hotel as one Barack Obama: "One of our guys bumped into him. He seemed to be very amenable to having a chat, he was probably under the mistaken impression that our chap had a vote!"

Mr Moss then heads to the RAC Club for dinner with his Indian board, including the company's joint venture partners Dabur. One of that company's investments is in a team that played in India's inaugural Twenty20 cricket premier league. "We talked about business for a long time, of course, but I was very, very interested in talking to them about the tournament. I love cricket, I always have, and Sachin Tendulkar is a brand ambassador for us. Their team got to the semi-finals this year."

The tournament has been controversial with some, butMr Moss believes it is here to stay: "It's been a huge success out there, and I think it is inevitable that English players will go out there."

The CV

Name: Andrew Moss

Job: Chief executive, Aviva

Marital status: Married to Susan, with four children.

Education: Law at Christ Church College, Oxford; trained as an accountant with Coopers & Lybrand.

Career history

2007- Group chief executive, Aviva plc

2004-2007 Group finance director, Aviva plc

2000-2004 Director, finance, risk management and operations, Lloyd's of London

1997-2000 Chief financial officer, investment banking and markets, HSBC Group

1995-1997 Head of group asset & liability management, HSBC Group

1989-1995 Assistant director, group treasury, Midland Montagu/HSBC Markets

1988-1989 Vice-president and head of fiduciary compliance, Citibank NA