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How can ethical business practices and a focus on fairness shape a company's culture and success?
What role does mentorship play in fostering the next generation of business leaders?
In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we're delighted to speak with Donna Scully, co-owner of Carpenters Group, about her journey in building an ethical business and her passion for mentoring young entrepreneurs.
Donna shares insights from her 30-year career in the insurance industry, discussing how she and her business partner John shaped Carpenters Group around core values of fairness, customer focus, and employee wellbeing. She reflects on the challenges and rewards of running a business with strong ethical principles, and how this approach has contributed to the company's growth and positive reputation.
Quote of the Episode
"We wanted to be really good at what we did, and we want to try and be proud of what we did and the way that we did it. And the way that we achieved it."
For Donna, success in business isn't just about financial results â it's about building something you can be proud of, treating customers and employees well, and making a positive impact. This philosophy has guided Carpenters Group from its early days to its current position as a major player in the insurance industry.
Key Takeaways
Donna emphasises the importance of investing in people and technology to deliver excellent customer service. She discusses how Carpenters Group has maintained its commitment to fairness and ethical practices even as it has grown to over 1,500 employees. Key elements of their approach include:
Focusing on customer needs rather than short-term profitsInvesting in technology and training to improve service deliveryCultivating a no-blame culture that encourages innovation and problem-solvingPromoting diversity and providing opportunities for career growthBalancing business needs with employee wellbeing and work-life balanceDonna also shares her perspective on mentoring, drawing from her own experiences of being supported in her career and her current efforts to guide young entrepreneurs. She stresses the value of taking opportunities, continuous learning, and developing both technical skills and emotional intelligence.
Best Moments
"I think for me and John, our view was, well, if you do it well, there's always room for you and there's always a place. So, we're going to give it a go."
"We try to run a no blame culture. I mean, I'm sure people... would say that's it's not perfect, but, you know, you try to say, you know, we get things wrong."
"One of the things I've always done since I was young and I don't remember not doing this, is I take every opportunity that comes. So, if someone says, do you want to try that? I'm in."
"Everything is about relationships. Everything is about communication. When you have bad relationships with bad communication, it doesn't matter how smart you are, you won't solve problems."
Key Quotes
âI felt like sometimes the customer focus was a bit lost and for me, one of the things that John and I decided early on was that we wanted to be really good at what we did, and we want to try and be proud of what we did and the way that we did it and the way that we achieved it. And what's funny is. You make money.â Donna Scully
âWhen something goes wrong, I think instead of going, oh my God, I need to lie on the floor and drink six bottles of wine and scream. I go, how are we going to fix this?â Donna Scully
âThank God I'm not bad at my job because I'm so bad at other things. But then, that, that keeps your feet on the ground. You can't be great at everything.â Donna Scully
âSomeone having that belief in you is very powerful.â Donna Scully
Topics Covered
00:00 Welcoming Donna to the Podcast
01:03 Donna's Journey with Carpenters
02:39 Building a Customer-Focused Business
05:02 Challenges and Entrepreneurial Spirit
08:07 Technology and Business Growth
11:25 Navigating COVID-19 Challenges
13:45 Balancing Work and Personal Life
16:27 Balancing Work and Family Life
17:33 Building a Supportive Work Culture
19:43 Reflecting on Milestones and Achievements
22:28 Embracing Opportunities and Challenges
24:34 Mentoring and Advice for the Next Generation
28:48 Young Entrepreneur's Journey
31:36 Final Thoughts and Reflections
About the Guest
Donna Scully is the co-owner of Carpenters Group, a leading provider of insurance and legal services in the UK. With over 30 years of experience in the industry, Donna is known for her commitment to ethical business practices and her advocacy for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She is also passionate about mentoring young entrepreneurs and supporting various charitable causes.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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How can insurance companies better support working parents in the years after they have children?
How should working parents endeavour to maintain a healthy work-life balance, and what practical measures should employers introduce to facilitate this?
Despite the implementation of some measures to mitigate this, having children can be something of a kick in the teeth to working parents. This is particularly true for new mothers who typically suffer the financial burden of potentially sacrificing their career and struggling to return to it later on. These issues, and much more, underpin the work of Jess Heagren, Founder of Careers After Babies, who we are delighted to be speaking with on this episode. Jess shares her personal experience of juggling her former insurance career with motherhood, and her insights into how employers can better support their staff through this challenging transition.
Quote of the Episode
âWhat does âgoodâ for us look like? It looks like happy, healthy, nurtured children who have one parent around most of the time, but we both get to have professional fulfilment as well. That's our version of âgoodâ. That will look different for everybody else. I think all the time we go along with a very traditional societal view of what âgoodâ looks like, which might be, the amazing mum who's baking from home and doing all the art and home-schooling, while her husband goes out to work and earns ÂŁ200 grand a year. I think that's completely incongruous to today's society, and the way we are as people.â
Ultimately, Jess is keen to reassure working parents that there is no need to strive for an idealised version of their lives, where their work, marital and parental responsibilities are always in perfect equilibrium. Instead, she suggests that parents should identify their own unique idea of what âgoodâ looks like to them, which will vary from couple to couple and family to family. She is sceptical of traditional notions of work-life balance or the gender disparity of mothers remaining at home whilst fathers go to work. Of course, for certain families this may be what âgoodâ looks like to them. However, it should not remain the standard, generalised model for all society to defer to, if we are to address continuing gender inequality in the workplace.
Key Takeaways
Many women in insurance and other related industries spend years building great careers, flying through the ranks and reaching the brink of huge success, only for it all to come crashing down when they have children. Many have to resort to part time work and experience little career progression, or quit their jobs entirely. The support infrastructure within professional services businesses for mothers and fathers alike, is woefully underequipped for modern parenting attitudes and ideas around work-life balance.
For Jess, the pandemic was a key lesson for all society that work-life balance as it currently functions is wholly inadequate for sustaining a happy, healthy workforce. The system is broken. Whilst endeavours to introduce flexible working solutions have been broadly introduced across our industry, there is still much work to be done. There is, however, an appetite from many organisations to put the work in. Workplaces can facilitate change in this regard, and must evaluate the ways in which they cater to working parents, and the support mechanisms on offer for them before and after they have children. There is a financial incentive for doing so also. Not only would such support infrastructure create a more broadly happy workforce, leading to greater productivity and thereby positively impacting businessesâ bottom line; it would also enable great talent to remain in the industry, even if at a reduced capacity for a certain number of years.
It is crucial, Jess argues, that workplaces foster a culture which encourages and enables people to be their true selves. Being authentic to who you are makes one a better leader, and a better individual contributor. The dynamic of living with a work and nonwork version of oneself, and navigating between the two on a day-to-day basis, is extremely psychologically damaging. It upholds a mindset that, in the workplace, one can never really switch off, or have a bad day. Organisations that place employee wellbeing in every regard at the centre of what they do have well-performing, and more loyal employees, leading to better results for the business overall.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âWhen you work in insurance, I think because I'd spent my whole career in it, I never realized that that imbalance of women to men was unusual. It's not until you get older, and you get more senior, and you suddenly start to look around and think, âWell, hang on a minute. Nobody else in here really looks like me or sounds like meâ. And you become increasingly aware of your femininity.â
âIf we're to take a positive from the whole pandemic, it's that we all learned that we haven't quite got this work-life balance thing right. Whether we're looking at mental health, whether we're looking at physical health, whether we're looking at caring responsibilities, whether we're looking at general happiness levels, we don't have it right. The system is fundamentally broken because it doesn't enable that.â
âBarristers have one of the biggest gender pay gaps going. The average is 14%. I think theirs is about 29%. For me, there's a very linear relationship⊠we know that there's very little gender pay gap at 30 and it quadruples by the age of 40. The average age to have a child is 32. It's abundantly clear what happens in that time period to drive gender pay gap and inequality. It all comes down to how well we cater to working parents and how well we're supporting women and having children.â
âI think we currently live in a time where being the best at everything has a set of expectations with it that arenât healthy or achievable.â
Resources
Careers After Babies Report: https://www.careersafterbabies.org/careers-after-babies-report
Careers After Babies Accreditation: https://www.careersafterbabies.org/careers-after-babies-accreditation
The New York Times â Millennial Men Arenât the Dads They Thought Theyâd Be: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/upshot/millennial-men-find-work-and-family-hard-to-balance.html
About the Guest
Jess Heagren is the Founder of Careers after Babies and the author of the so-called landmark Careers After Babies report published in 2023 which went viral on LinkedIn. Prior to this, she worked in the insurance industry as a corporate strategist, and in her last insurance position she was a Strategy and Distribution Director in the commercial part of DLG.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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Fehlende Folgen?
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In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we dive deep into the world of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the insurance industry with Glenn Hirchfield, founder of ALJ Consultancy. Glenn shares his extensive experience in M&A, offering valuable insights for both buyers and sellers in the insurance market. From the importance of cultural fit to the role of technology in valuations, Glenn provides a comprehensive overview of the current M&A landscape and offers advice for those considering selling their business.
Quote of the Episode:
"There is a flawed assumption that people are only interested in how much they can get for their business. And it's rarely, if ever, true that that's the primary driver for people." Glenn Hirchfield
Key Takeaways:
The importance of cultural fit in M&A deals The value of honesty and transparency in the selling process The role of advisors in navigating the M&A landscape The impact of technology on business valuations The significance of soft skills and personal factors in M&A decisionsBest Moments/Key Quotes:
"Be yourself. Say things as they are about your business, because if you do the opposite and try and pretend that you are something that you're not, regrettably it gets found out."
"Please don't go into selling your firm thinking it's going to be easy. There are times when it's horrendous."
"We see life-changing amounts of money often getting into the hands of people that have lived quite frugally and who have really devoted their entire career to building up something."
Resources:
ALJ Consultancy website https://www.aljconsulting.com/
About the Guest: Glenn has over 30 years in financial services, with a vast network of senior contacts and experience from AIG, ACE, and senior UK broking roles. As CEO and founder of ALJ Consulting, he specialises in originating, structuring, and executing deals in the US and European insurance markets. He is also an operating partner at Apollo Global Management.
With deep expertise in M&A consulting and private equity, Glenn helps clients achieve strategic goals, providing tailored financial services and technology solutions. He assists private equity firms pre- and post-deal and helps sellers find buyers.
Glenn's capital-raising experience offers clients valuable M&A insights. He aims to deliver discreet, value-added services for client success in today's fast-paced market. Glenn is married with three children, is active in his local church, and enjoys golf and cricket.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we sit down with Mike Keating, CEO of the Managing General Agentsâ Association (MGAA), to explore the dynamic world of MGAs and their evolving role in the global insurance landscape. Mike shares insights into the growth and challenges within the MGA sector, the importance of strategic partnerships, and the exciting innovations driving the market forward. We also delve into the MGAA's rebranding efforts and their annual conference, which highlights the theme "The Power of Partnerships." Additionally, Mike discusses the critical role of the next generation in the industry and the importance of attracting young talent to the world of insurance.
Quotes:
"The MGA community is truly global and continues to grow at a very fast pace, with significant developments in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia." Mike Keating
"We've seen excellent insure tech MGAs launching worldwide. However, the challenge often lies in balancing investment in technology with effective product distribution strategies." Mike Keating
"Never take partnerships for granted. Understanding and aligning the objectives of all stakeholders is critical for success in the MGA ecosystem." Mike Keating
"We have a moral obligation to showcase how exciting and dynamic the insurance industry is. From insuring sports stadiums to Formula One, there are endless opportunities for young professionals." Mike Keating
Resources:
Managing General Agentsâ Association (MGAA): www.mgaa.co.uk
MGAA Annual Conference: www.mgaa.co.uk/mgaa-conference-2024/
MGAA Podcast - MGA Conversations: https://mgaaconversations.podbean.com/
About the Guest:
Mike Keating is the CEO of the Managing General Agentsâ Association (MGAA), where he leads efforts to support and promote the MGA sector within the insurance industry. With a career spanning over three decades, Mike has a wealth of experience in insurance, having held senior roles at various prominent organizations. Under his leadership, the MGAA has grown to represent over 230 members, placing billions of pounds into the UK and Irish markets. Mike is passionate about fostering innovation, building strategic partnerships, and advocating for the next generation of insurance professionals.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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What responsibility do small insurance firms have to implement sustainable practices, and encourage their clients to do the same? What initiatives can SMEs put in place to cut down on their carbon footprint without compromising their bottom line? Or is a transition towards sustainable efforts ultimately commercially beneficial?
At Macaii we believe that podcasting is the best way to learn, and this episode of Changing the Conversation is a testament to that endeavour. We are thrilled to be speaking with Gillie Fairbrother and Mike Wrathall in a highly engaging and informative episode covering the importance of embracing sustainable practices as an industry, and the practical steps smaller firms can take to do so. This conversation cuts through the buzzwords and vague broad strokes discussions about a need to create change, highlighting the profound responsibility and the various opportunities that sustainability represents for our industry.
Quote of the Episode
âThe insurance industry as a whole has a massive role to play in sustainability. It's an investor. It's one of the biggest investor groups in the world. It's an enabler of business. So, whether you're an oil rig or a new wind farm, you need insurance to get that project off the ground. What the insurance industry chooses to insure is what happens, effectively. So, if the industry moves away from insuring so-called âdirty economyâ things over a period of time and moves towards insuring new areas that are breaking ground, it can really enable those new areas, new climate technologies to get off the ground, and it can help phase out the other areas.â
When assessing our sustainable responsibilities as an industry, it is key that we examine not only the direct, first-hand carbon footprint of our own businesses, but also those of our clients. By insuring our clientsâ businesses, we are effectively interconnected with their sustainable efforts, or lack thereof. By insuring businesses that deploy or harvest fossil fuels, we enable them and must take some responsibility for the damage they cause to our environment. Equally, this presents an opportunity. If we can encourage our clients to transition towards new practices and green technologies, we can precipitate extensive, sustainable change across an array of businesses, industries and economies.
Key Takeaways
As an industry, we have the power to nudge the business community in the right direction with regards to sustainability. We can use policy terms to behaviourally transition clients away from outdated practices, ratcheting premiums up and down in response to sustainable endeavours. Yet, whilst we undoubtedly hold significant power in the sustainability conversation as an industry overall, our economy is primarily comprised of small businesses (99%) which may feel somewhat powerless to contribute anything significant beyond compliance with sustainability regulations. The same is true for small insurance firms. Both Gillie and Mike affirm that firstly, it is key to identify what your businessâ exposure is, and identify where to play in the sustainability space. Could your business cover a new or growing area, such as climate tech or wind farms? Can you incorporate sustainable efforts into your policies to encourage good behaviours in your clients?
Ultimately, our industry aims to make its clientsâ businesses more viable and successful. If we are to encourage sustainable efforts in our clients, it is key to identify and illuminate the demonstrably positive impact of such practices on their bottom line. There will always be a range of client needs with regards to sustainability, with some simply wishing to comply with regulations, and others aiming to positively impact the planet through their work. Wherever our clients fall on that gradient of ambition, articulating the opportunity for their bottom line will always help to push them up that curve. Not only is sustainability ultimately a profitable enterprise. We are now at a stage economically where sustainable practices cannot simply be considered a tick-box ethical business practice exercise. A failure to implement these broadly across insurance and into the businesses we support as an industry will lead to catastrophic economic consequences in the not-too-distant future. As Mike argues, âthe only real growth story for the economies and businesses of the century is going to be a sustainable oneâ.
Mike notes that we ultimately need to create a circular, regenerative global economy which forefronts sustainability. This will be highly reliant on digital connection, supplanted by an array of climate technologies that will become increasingly significant in years to come. In 2018, 9.1% of the worldâs economy was circular, but in 2023, this had fallen to 7.2%. We cannot afford to go backwards. Ultimately, the insurance industry will bear the brunt when climate disaster strikes. We have a responsibility and a clear business incentive to be ahead of the curve and encourage our clients towards sustainable practices, today.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âWe [Davies Group] are actually rebranding to responsible business. But I'm very much keeping that in the background. Like our pillars don't change. We've always aligned with people, planet, and our purpose which aligns with ESG. But it's still everything we're doing as a business and our commitments arenât changing. Letâs just get rid of the noise and get on with the work.â
âWe have an opportunity as an industry to drive change. But it's hard for businesses to go ahead of regulation. And are we getting the right regulation?â
âDigital connection is absolutely essential for the move to anything like a circular economy.â
Resources
Larry Finkâs 2024 Annual Chairmanâs Letter - https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-annual-chairmans-letter
The Circularity Gap Report 2023 - https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023
About the Guest
Gillie Fairbrother is the Director of ESG at Davies Group, a professional services business which provides support to the insurance industry.
Gillieâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillie-fairbrother-2723a320b/
Mike Wrathall is an independent consultant working across sustainability and digital. His background is in digital transformation and sustainability strategy, having previously worked in Monitor Deloitteâs sustainability and climate strategy team.
Mikeâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-wrathall-03880a67/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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Has the Consumer Duty really changed the insurance landscape to protect customersâ best interests? Are any poor practices still slipping through the cracks? What changes can we implement as an industry to maintain a rich ecosystem of knowledge even as people retire?
In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we are thrilled to be speaking with Donna Robertson, Managing Director of Squared Insurance Brokers! She discusses the challenges of balancing personal responsibilities with your career ambitions, and how the industry needs to reformulate its approach to hybrid and remote working solutions. Furthermore, Donna is deeply interested in treating clients fairly. She elucidates her frustrations with the Consumer Duty which, she argues, has failed to institute many practical changes for customers.
Quote of the Episode
âAlthough there have been the technology advancements, I wouldn't say on a whole that the industry has evolved very much. I think we're still getting caught out by practices that we should have left in the dark ages. I know that the AFC are doing a huge piece on Consumer Duty. Has it actually changed anything in the landscape? I would say probably no, other than not selling GAP insurance anymore. I wouldn't say there's been other changes. The changes that I would like to see are on a more practical level.â
For Donna, beyond the more superficial shifts to our working practices and the transmission of data, generally our industry is little more efficient or accommodating to clients than it was when she began her career 25 years ago. She argues that clients continue to be subjected to unfair treatment via various unsavoury practices (notably in motor fleet and liability insurance) that need to be struck out.
Key Takeaways
A key area of concern highlighted by Donna which Consumer Duty has failed to address pertains to motor fleet insurance. She argues that it is very difficult for clients to switch their cover provider as the holding broker can retain the clientâs information for a five-day period before releasing it, and thereby limit their options. This can create very challenging circumstances for business owners. For example, Donan cites an incident from within the last six months when she was approached by a client who had been put on an extension by their existing broker, and the terms of their cover had increased from ÂŁ100,000 to ÂŁ400,000. They had only two days to find an alternate solution, and the holding broker refused to release the confirmed claims experience to the client. Thus, the client was unable to get a hold of their own data to pursue alternate cover. Given that they had a fleet of over 100 vehicles, and the business couldnât function without insurance, the client was forced to accept these terms, a deeply compromising position given the cost-of-living crisis. Insurance brokers should never be adding to the problems of clients, but the current state of motor fleet insurance effectively facilitates, or even encourages this.
Donna suggests that this cynical type of poor broking practice is becoming much less common, but the onus is on the FCA and other broking institutions to intervene and prevent further client mistreatment. Donna empathised deeply with this client and their powerlessness in this predicament. This is exemplary of what previous guest Sam White terms âright brainâ thinking. This is an empathy-led, creative approach more typically associated with women, which the industry would hugely benefit from a more active incorporation of. As a people-facing industry, everything we do is reliant on relationships rooted in trust, which Donnaâs empathetic approach is more likely to honour than purely analytical, numbers-led âleft-brainâ thinking.
Yet, due to the industryâs current flexible working infrastructure, it is incredibly difficult for women with children to balance this responsibility with their career ambitions. There are countless tales of women forced to leave their workplace as it failed to offer part time, remote, or flexible working solutions. While the pandemic led some companies to become more accommodating in this respect, there is still much work to be done. This departure of talent constitutes a significant loss of knowledge for the industry.
This is accentuated by the rapidly aging nature of the insurance workforce. As people retire, swathes of knowledge are further detracted from the industry. Donna advocates for new apprenticeship programmes to create a new foundation of insurance knowledge, but argues that the age limit for such schemes should not be capped. What if someone wants to try a new role or industry in their forties or fifties? These schemes would enable us to bring in such people and let their prior experience and expertise facilitate new ideas and alternative decision-making.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âJust because you've got children, you still have your own career goals that you want to get. And it would blow my mind that I would speak to some women, and theyâd say, âwell, I've had to leave this workplace because they can't offer me part time or flexible workingâ. And what a loss! What a loss of that knowledge and talent.â
â[Our industry] is built on relationships and you build that trust with your clients. It can be a numbers game, but I do believe it's much wider than that. It's getting to know clients, and know what's going on in their world, to be able to then service them properly.â
âI think a lot of men have the stronger voice, and we [women], think that we don't have an opinion, or we don't have a good enough opinion. But women can sometimes look at it and see a different perspective, and see other things that maybe the other side, the more analytical brain, isn't seeing. So, speak out more often, your thoughts are good, and you might come up with something that nobody else has thought of.â
âIf somebody wants to start a new role in their 40s or 50s, they've got transferable skills. So, let's make it easier for businesses and bring them in, especially when we know weâre going to have that loss of talent at the other end.â
Resources
Squared Insurance Brokers â https://www.squaredbrokers.com/
About the Guest
Donna Robertson is the Managing Director of Squared Insurance Brokers, which she launched in late 2019. She has 25 years of industry experience, and advocates for greater flexible working accommodations and fairer treatment for clients.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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How will Insurtech continue to reshape the industry in the coming years?
What factors, material and psychological, continue to curtail the insurance market from innovating at a steadier pace?
In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we are thrilled to be speaking with Insurtech trailblazer Ed Gaze! Whilst Insurtech is having a substantial impact on the wider market and facilitating innovation more broadly, many insurance businesses remain steeped in archaic traditional processes. Ed argues that this, along with considerable red tape around gaining capacity and distribution for new ideas, drains momentum from the marketâs efforts to innovate. Ed suggests that businesses that wish to do so must assemble diversely minded teams who share a unanimous passion for experimentation and are motivated by the prospect of trying new ideas and alternative approaches.
Quote of the Episode
âI think, generally, we need to get everyone on better data. The better the data, the easier it is to move and change things, and understand what's going on. But the core thing [behind fuelling innovation] is having people [who are] motivated to make change happen and are not motivated to hold back. Sometimes we can be a bit risk averse. Insurers are in the business of risk, but they're also super risk averse. Trying to help them take a bit more measured risk in certain places would be really helpful.â
Ed observes that insurersâ attitude towards risk is somewhat oxymoronic â whilst we work to manage and evaluate the risks of our clients, we are very reluctant to take any risks to assist in this process. He notes that while there is a general need across the industry for greater access to and examination/implementation of data, the primary obstacle curtailing innovation is one of attitude.
Key Takeaways
The insurance industry is steeped in history, and as such, it is underpinned by an array of seemingly cemented processes. The digital revolution poses a significant challenge to this, as other financial services transition to data-first approaches, so too must insurance. Innovation is also often stymied by a reluctance to justify change. Profitable businesses may see no reason to innovate given their present success, and non-profitable businesses may lack the necessary funds to try something new. As such, for innovation to become more firmly cemented, there needs to be motivation within a given business to pursue change.
Ed notes that innovation must be underpinned by a passion for new ideas, a motivation to pursue them, and a no-judgement attitude towards mistakes when they happen. Innovation should be allowed to unfold quickly and fluidly, so that lots of new ideas can be tested and embraced or abandoned in quick succession. Itâs key, therefore, to get the right people on board in a business, who are all motivated in the same way.
However, Ed highlights that diversity of thought is also crucial with regards to innovation. This can manifest in many different ways â for example, people from different cities or countries may therefore have contrasting life experiences, for example. Alternatively, people who studied radically different subjects at college or university will be equipped with unique skillsets and knowledge. When placed in a team of uniquely minded people, all inspired to innovate, great new ideas and approaches will emerge. Innovation, ultimately, is about applying ideas in new ways that are commercially viable. A diversely minded team will be far more equipped to pursue this end than a room of people who have all vaguely pursued the same path in life.
Edâs long-term vision for the future of insurance is to make it easier for Insurtechs to innovate and for innovative ideas within corporates to be tested. There are considerable roadblocks to quick experimentation of ideas from capacity and distribution. Edâs fast-paced approach to innovation is underpinned by a desire to learn more â even if an idea fails, so much can be gleaned from the attempt, hence why innovation in insurance is never wasted effort.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âSometimes if you don't give yourself a deadline and you just let things tick along, you just don't get that kind of drive to finish it. When we're all so motivated and pushing and working hard to do it, we then get that passion across to the other people within the insurer that need to approve it.â
âCulture is hugely important. You take a person in one business who's not able to get stuff done, put them in another business â same person, same skills â and they could be super successful because of the culture, because of people being willing to listen to what they've got to say, or being willing to experiment and learn.â
âInnovation is about applying the applying ideas in new ways that are commercially valuable. Innovation isn't necessarily about creativity. It's not about creating something brand new, necessarily. It's about taking things that are right there already, and applying them in a new way. And doing it in such a way that's commercially valuable.â
Resources
Innovative Risk Labs: https://www.innovativerisk.co.uk/
JustParent: https://www.justparent.co.uk/
About the Guest
Ed Gaze is a paragon of Insurtech innovation. Having managed the Lloydâs Lab for four years, Ed has since become the CEO of Innovative Risk Labs (IRL), a broker which helps to launch new Insurtech MGAs in the UK. He is also the CEO of JustParent, the UKâs first parental leave insurer.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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Why does the insurance industry continue to be plagued by a reputation that it is untrustworthy, exploitative and profit centric? What can we do internally and via our communications with the public to reorient this perspective and thereby foster a healthier relationship between customers and insurers?
An array of deep-rooted psychological factors continue to inform negative public attitudes towards insurance. The ramifications of these are multifaceted â active pursuit of a career in the industry is a rarity, hence our current recruitment crisis, and there are generalised misconceptions of what we really do. In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we are very pleased to be speaking with the prolific Sam White: entrepreneur, podcast host, and CEO of Stella Insurance! Sam dispenses her wisdom regarding the need for better communication both within insurance teams internally, and between the industry overall and the general public.
Quote of the Episode
âEverything is about relationships. Everything is about communication. When you have bad relationships with bad communication, it doesn't matter how smart you are, you won't solve problems because you'll be sat in a siloed box, and you won't be able to get engagement from other people. So, that piece around getting people to tap into their emotions and then communicate from a position of emotionality and not rationality [is crucial].â
For Sam, we must identify the emotional crux behind every issue our customers may face. Historically, insurance communications have been characterised by a tendency towards clinical, ârationalâ, thinking, which fails to acknowledge and respond to the real issues at hand. As a people-facing industry, we must embrace the human side of what we do. Thus, in our external engagements with the general public, it is paramount that we recognise when we make mistakes, and the efforts we are implementing to correct them.
Key Takeaways
As a frequent guest on Morning Live and BBC Radio 4, Sam uses this public platform to try and bridge the gap between presiding misperceptions of our industry, and what we really do. She argues that more people need to follow her lead and explain how the industry is responding to public frustrations and demands in universal terms. She notes a defensive tendency on behalf of the industry at large to avoid taking accountability of our failings. Sam suggests that, if we can openly acknowledge the errors we make as an industry, people may be more willing to listen as we strive to address and overstep them.
Using the public platform in this way to alter public perceptions of insurance may also facilitate our recruitment efforts. To get future generations engaged with the notion of a possible insurance career, we need to cultivate excitement, thrusting insurance into the mainstream. For example, Sam has partnered with former Married at First Sight cast member Julesâ shapewear brand â every time a customer purchases a Stella Insurance policy, they will receive an item of shapewear. This subtly draws insurance into the mainstream and creates a positive association for Stella and the industry overall. Sam is wary of the insurance industryâs efforts to communicate with the public about what we do. These are typically sallied by an alienating rhetoric only comprehensible to those already in the industry, which has no resonance for the general public.
Samâs championing of the human side of insurance is not only geared towards our need to alter our public perception. She argues that the mass exodus of top talent from FTSE 100 companies is entirely unsurprising, and attributes it to toxic, dehumanising work environments which fail to recognise the psychological impacts of blame culture and dictatorial hierarchies. For Sam, the culture in corporate insurance environments is scaffolded by a clinical proclivity towards profit above all else, de-sanctifying the psychological safety of team members. Ultimately, people are finding themselves unwilling to continue working in such environments irrespective of how much they might be paid. As an industry we must learn how to foster psychologically safe environments, particularly as the next generation of insurance professionals, who have entirely different expectations regarding wellbeing in the workplace, begin to rise the corporate ladder.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âI want us [as an industry] to be much more engaged with the public. When the BBC comes to me and asks me for comment, one of the most common things they say is, âWe couldn't get anyone else to speakâ.â
âI think people want to understand what's going on. I think if we can open up that conversation and be a bit more open to the criticism, then we'll do a lot better generally.â
âWe do have a big job to do to make insurance a bit more fun, and sexy, and interesting. Despite the fact that it is in so many different areas, it has a really negative association with it. We're not coming together enough as an industry to go, âOkay, how do we tackle that?ââ
âWhat I see in these large corporates is over the last couple of years, they've been under massive pressure⊠People have got to a point where they've gone, âI don't care how much you pay me, you cannot pay me enough to go into an environment where my humanity is completely ignored, where I get screamed at by somebody who has no emotional regularityâ.â
âWhen you're under stress and you've got lots of stuff going on, that's when most teams have less contact, less communication. Everybody goes off into their silos. That's the exact opposite of what should be happening. That's the time that you have to double down on spending time together, on understanding each other, on having the hard conversations, because that's where you get to a better space.â
Resources
Human Business with Sam White Podcast â https://www.deezer.com/us/show/445082
book â about tribal instincts. you have a tribe of people that are like you â and a natural distrust of people that are not like you. hierarchies that are accepted and self-hierarchies that are not.
I Am (2010) â dir. by Tom Shadyac
About the Guest
Sam White is the CEO and founder of Stella Insurance, a financial services business offering insurance products tailored to women's needs. Sam is the co-host of BBC Radio 4âs âToastâ, and a regular on BBC One Morning Live, where she shares her insights into the current state of the insurance industry.
Samâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samwhiteentrepreneur/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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What is the Insurance Museum and who is it for? Can it help to reconstitute public perceptions of the industry and to educate children and young people about what we really do?
Given the rapidly evolving nature of our industry today, itâs easy to forget that our work rests on the shoulders of a centuries-old legacy rooted in the heart of London. The founders of the Insurance Museum intend to cultivate a renewed interest in this history and heritage amongst both industry professionals and the general public. In todayâs episode of Changing the Conversation, we are thrilled to be speaking with Howard Benge, Director of the Insurance Museum, about the projectâs creation, its intentions, and long-term ambitions.
Quote of the Episode
âWhen I first came into this [project], the first thing that that really hit me was how much sandstone, how much history there is. The history and heritage of the insurance sector is so broad and so deep.â
The Insurance Museum was established as a charity in 2020, with the intention of becoming a physical space in London SE3 to tell the global story of insurance from its birthplace. During his research for the project, Howard uncovered an immense array of fascinating material charting the expansion and development of Lloyds and the industry more generally, into what it has ultimately become today. Matching the primarily digital nature of insurance itself in 2024, the museum currently uses digital platforms (linked below) to bring the history of the sector to life.
Key Takeaways
The Insurance Industry aims to be inclusive in its outreach, and be suitable both for insurance professionals and the general public: anyone with an interest in the interest, but particularly children and young people. To this effect many components of its digital presence are targeted towards this demographic, with the intention of unlocking an early interest in the insurance industry. Howard notes that roughly 36% of us have chosen our career by the age of seven. The proportion of those children who would consider insurance as their future profession is slim to none â most likely do not know what insurance is, nor the profound extent to which it underpins the global economy.
Thus, the museum aims to inspire, educate, and in the long term, support the industryâs recruitment efforts, by making insurance a career that is actively chosen rather than one that it simply fallen into. If we can positively reinforce children or young peopleâs interest in insurance, we can begin to shift the tides regarding our industryâs ongoing reputational crisis.
To do so, the museum aims to explain the multifaceted nature of our industry through explorations of an interesting angle. Every child in England is taught about the Great Fire of London at the ages of 6/7, thus providing an ideal springboard with which to explore the importance of insurance, and the applications of numerous subjects through it. Howard emphasises that it is key to emphasise how insurance infiltrates everything we do â it is a fundamental, if typically unseen, facet of our daily lives, which is a very exciting prospect for children to consider. Meanwhile, amongst young adults, Howard suggests a need to tap into their interest in inequality and injustice. For example, presenting the industry from the angle of how the big insurers aim to tackle climate change could facilitate engaging discussions which may enlighten young people about a career they hadnât previously considered or known about.
The museum ultimately intends to cultivate a deep level of engagement in insurance; to make it fun and compelling for young people, and also enriching and informative for older people and insurance professionals seeking to learn more about the history of their industry. It will not be a museum of policies and fire marks, but an inspiring space where stories are told.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âThe reason for the existence of the insurance museum⊠is to inspire and educate and support the recruitment process; bringing the really young kids to make insurance a career you choose, not one that you fall into.â
âWhat do we do with insurance today? When we grow up. we all have insurance. In fact, you could even extend that to âInsurance underpins our lives. From the moment you're born, you're covered by insurance.ââ
âDon't think of it as a collection, but more of a space⊠thatâs all about engaging. A real deep level of engagement, whether that is just having fun, understanding a bit more, spending valuable time, trying to understand other people's opinions. All of thatâŠ. It's going to be museum where we're going to tell all the stories: marine, aviation, fire, life insurance. We're going to look at those difficult stories as well⊠itâs a place where weâre going to celebrate insurance, and promote insurance, and get everybody in.â
Resources
The Insurance Museum: https://insurance.museum/
Insurance Museum â Fire Insurance Exhibition: https://insurance.museum/fire-insurance-gallery
Insurance Museum â Dr Nicholas Barbon: https://insurance.museum/rising-from-the-ashes/part-2#section-67442620
About the Guest
Howard Benge is the Director of the Insurance Museum, appointed in 2021. He has worked as a heritage professional for 25 years; in nine of which he took up several roles for the City of London Corporation, managing the Guildhall Library, various museums, Billingsgate Roman House and Baths, and the City of London Police Museum, amongst many others.
Howardâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-benge-87a3092/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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We are very pleased to be speaking with Gary Burke, Founder of Rabbits From Hats, about the distinction between transformation and change, and how businesses can smoothly implement transformation projects. In conversation with Sarah Myerscough, Gary highlights the importance of adopting a âhorizontal viewâ of change if transformation projects are to achieve their intended goals for a given business.
Quote of the Episode
âCompanies look at this stuff far too narrowly, far too vertically. They really need to just pause and look sideways, so they get more of a horizontal view. The organization does not exist in a bunch of disparate silos. It's all connected.â
When contemplating transformation projects, Gary postulates, itâs very easy for business leaders to view their organisations in terms of their composite parts, rather than as a cohesive whole. This misperception can lead to disaster; if a given transformation is not considered on a broader, company-wide basis, certain considerations may be left forgotten. As such, throughout the episode, Gary emphasises the need for a âhorizontalâ view of change which considers how it might affect the business from every conceivable angle.
Key Takeaways
Gary pinpoints two fundamental issues typically encountered when insurance businesses implement transformational change:
A lack of understanding about what transformation will involveInsufficient capability and expertise to deliver itFor Gary, both of these issues are generally derived from there being no overarching, wholesale, holistic view of the business and its innerworkings. This is further underpinned by a common misconception that âchangeâ and âtransformationâ are functionally synonymous. Businesses adopt small-to-medium-sized change projects all the time, be it the adoption of a new software or the restructuring of a team. Such projects can impact how the business operates, hopefully to drive efficiencies, but without fundamentally altering it. Conversely, transformation projects impact the business at every conceivable level. As such, to tackle a transformation project with the mindset of a change project can never be successful.
Gary suggests that the senior leadership team must set the tone for how the company must behave throughout the transformation process. If several groups, perhaps with conflicting views and ideas, are to be involved in this process, a collective consensus on the intended outcome of the transformation project must first be reached. This establishes a base goal which everyone across the company can defer to. Subsequently, each team can collaboratively work backwards from this goal, to understand the key things needed to achieve it. Once the points of uncertainty about the nature of change have been smoothened over, this can be a non-contentious process â what will be the most effective way to achieve this transformational outcome given the resources held by the business?
To determine the success of a transformation project, a wide array of metrics must be consulted. A holistic approach to measuring success must also be adopted. This must be derived, first and foremost, from the baseline of what the business already has, prior to the implementation of the project. The success of transformational change can only be understood by reference to how the business previously used to function. There is a lot of hesitance, particularly in insurance, to attempt transformation projects. Gary argues that there is no empirical evidence to suggest that such programs inevitably lead to failure. Instead, he suggests, businesses must always understand in detail what exactly they are getting involved in by undertaking them, and consider how their innerworkings will be fundamentally altered as a result.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âAs long as you know the outcome, then that's the thing to focus on. The technology is an enabler. It enables you to do something in the best way possible, the most efficient way possible. So, as long as you can agree what needs to be done, then you can have conversations about how it needs to be done.â
âIf an organization's doing anything, the whole point of doing it is for a reason. The specific outcome that you want from doing the stuff you're doing. So, if you've got a dozen people or a dozen different groups involved, you should be able to all agree on the outcome you want.â
âCalling something that's quite small⊠a transformation project gives the wrong impression, because it creates the idea that transformation is easy; you just do this and this and this. So âtransformationâ is badly used [as a term].â
âThere's a lot of stuff that companies can do and should do themselves to put themselves in a really much better position to actually start any transformation, rather than getting an army of consultants in from day one. The things that they [consultants] ask to be done, the organization should be able to do themselves at a fraction of the cost. They are just not aware that they are good things to do beforehand.â
Resources
A Transformation Lens: The Savvy Business Leader's Approach to Transformational Change by Gary Burke
Rabbits From Hats: https://www.rabbitsfromhats.co.uk/
About the Guest
Gary Burke is the Founder of Rabbits from Hats, a transformational change advisory and consulting firm. He has been working on projects in this space since the mid-90s, primarily in insurance but also in other sectors. In the last decade he has been focused first and foremost on general insurance and the London market, and in 2023, his book âA Transformation Lensâ was published.
Garyâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-burke-transformational-change/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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What are âfrontingâ and âhybrid frontingâ? How do they differ? And what unique opportunities can these solutions afford MGAs and the wider UK insurance market?
In this episode of Changing the Conversation, we are thrilled to be speaking with Paul Jewell, CEO of Bridgehaven Insurance, the first hybrid âfronterâ in the UK. At the forefront of this alternative distribution solutionâs introduction to the UK market, Paul is well-placed to discuss the disrupting influence of fronting, having already made a sizeable impact across the pond in the US. He elucidates why fronting presents such a powerfully unique and profitable option to MGAs, and its benefits to the wider market.
Quote of the Episode
âSimplistically, [fronting] is just a term for capacity or an insurance solution⊠An insurance company acts on behalf of somebody else, usually a single, or multiple reinsurers. itâs very common for international companies, [such as] Pepsi Cola, a US-based company who may want an insurance solution in the UK, but they may have their own insurance solution provided by a US company. So, what they do is they have a âfronting partnerâ, a âfronterâ, in the UK that âfrontsâ for that business, i.e., issues the insurance policy, and they reinsure back to the US under the master agreement. Thatâs traditional fronting. Itâs most common for multinationals and those types of organisations.â
Fronting is a hugely beneficial market solution, enabling multinationals to streamline their insurance provisions to ensure a continuity of cover across the various markets they operate in. Equally, this presents a big opportunity for those insurers, namely MGAs in the UK, who can provide this solution, as it grants them access to unique capacity derived from alternative markets they wouldnât otherwise have operated within.
Key Takeaways
Hybrid Fronting slightly differs from the traditional approach outlined above. In contrast to the Pepsi example, in which the fronting company would reinsure 100% back to the US, a hybrid fronter would retain a variable amount of that risk themselves. Thus, through this model, the insurance company issuing the policy retains risk to their balance sheet. Furthermore, the hybrid fronting model is more focused on underwriting profit. Fronting for Pepsi and issuing a policy to reflect their US-based cover is a matter of compliance, as youâre not allowed to issue American policies in the UK. Meanwhile, a hybrid fronter retains some amount of that risk, so premiums and claims stay in the UK with that insurance company. Thus, hybrid fronters can benefit from hugely diversified portfolios, and a focus on profitability through partnership with a broad range of reinsurers.
Paul anticipates that fronting and hybrid fronting will become an increasingly powerful disruptor in the UK market. He argues that MGAs are particularly well-suited to operate in and benefit from this space by providing unique services and distribution in a more flexible and agile manner to traditional insurers, which aligns with the aims of prospective fronting partners such as Bridgehaven.
Additionally, he suggests that reinsurers themselves can also benefit from this type of distribution. If a reinsurer has relationships in other jurisdictions, and wishes to provide capacity to a particular customer group in an alternative market whilst remaining compliant in the UK, a partner can front for and retain risk on their behalf. Paul also notes that captives may be interested in this solution, particularly given the governmentâs recently asserted interest in making the UK a jurisdiction of choice for those subsidiaries.
Paul anticipates that many more fronters are likely to emerge in the UK in the next few years. The profitability of this approach has enormous potential in bringing new, diverse capacity to the UK market. He dismisses the notion that hybrid fronters will compete with one another for this capacity; by contrast, the disruption they will cause to the broader market through this solution will more powerfully hit the traditionally big insurance players.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âMGAs are growing at a much faster pace than the traditional insurance sector because they're providing unique services, unique distribution, unique products, they're meeting customer demands, they're much more flexible and agile... So, we feel that over time, the hybrid fronting solution will actually be a quite an interesting disruptor for the UK market in providing different solutions that will fit some of the partners in the UK, particularly MGAs, which is growing space.â
âWe have a dedicated model that supports MGAs. We are not attracting or targeting customer groups directly. We donât service brokers directly, we only support through MGAs, so thereâs a reduced conflict of interest.â
âI think hybrid fronting can bring alternative capital [and] advantages from additional commission profit shares. I think it gives much more flexibility to enable [MGAs] to grow the alignment of interest because there's reduced conflicts of interest with other distribution. I also think there's a potential better of transparency⊠Each party sees the same level of information. Thereâs no mystique.â
âTalk to us or talk to other fronting partners directly. There's nothing wrong with direct engagement. We don't have a prescribed way of doing it. The only thing I would encourage your listeners to understand is that there is a process to go through. Often, there needs to be things like business plans, data sharing, and information⊠[so] they need to be prepared for the conversation.â
Resources
Bridgehaven Insurance: https://www.bhvn-ins.com/
About the Guest
Paul Jewell is the CEO of Bridgehaven Insurance, with 35 yearsâ experience across various roles both UK-based and internationally.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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In this episode of the Changing the Conversation, we are thrilled to be speaking with Phil Denman, Co-Founder and CEO of four-section MGA, Capacity Insights! In conversation with Macaiiâs Sarah Myerscough, Phil explains his philosophy for establishing partnerships with experts external to the insurance industry, and how these can help us to keep apace with customer interests and regulatory demands.
Is it possible for any insurance company to address customer desires without delegating any tasks to external experts? As we rapidly transition towards digitisation, how do we keep an eye on the unintended consequences of new digital practices, particularly with new regulatory measures to consider? Having established what your company is good at and what your customers want, how can you align both of those propositions?
Quote of the Episode
âI see this modern, fast moving insurance market that we work in being a sort of an ecosystem of partnerships. Whether that's technology, whether that's people providing parametric claim settlement, or data services, whether that's partnering with different claims providers where we can. Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, being a leader in the delivery of high-engagement, subscription-type services, as a fully regulated entity, with all of the cost and rigour and robustness that comes with that. We may be compartment with people for some of the faster-moving engagement services, certainly in terms of digital health, digital assistance, digital claims services. We will come outside of our own organisation and partner with people for that, for that engagement layer.â
Phil suggests that the insurance market today will flourish or flounder on account of how quickly and effectively we can partner up with and incorporate the insights of experts external to our industry. Particularly with regard to technological proficiency and digital services, it is key that we can provide a platform that is easy and user-friendly whilst also mitigating any potential unintended consequences to satisfy the regulators. Itâs impossible for us to be experts at everything, and outsourcing certain processes to people who can provide those areas will, Phil argues, be the differentiating factor that eventually keeps some companies afloat, and leaves others in the dust.
Key Takeaways
Our buying cycles have been completely reoriented by the high-speed nature of the Amazon business model and others of its ilk, fuelling an âI want it yesterdayâ mentality underpinned by getting products quickly, with as little administrative hassle as possible. Yet, insurance is a complicated product. Phil suggests that delivering a such a simplistic customer journey necessitates a significant amount of complex work and technological expertise. Great products, he notes, are complex products, masked with a veneer of ease and simplicity from the clientâs perspective. To facilitate this, Phil argues, it is essential that we begin to collaborate more with digital partners who can provide the expertise you might not have in-house.
âWe canât be everything to everyone,â Phil notes, and as such developing such partnerships will become a core means by which our industry can begin to meet these aforementioned customer expectations. Capacity Insights themselves have made many changes in this regard. Phil notes that the company has re-engineered its product process to begin with customer needs, and with regulatory expectations in mind, thereby deploying a 360-degree view of the various levels that products need to deliver on.
Data management is a crucial aspect of delivering a smooth customer journey. While we have access to more data than ever, its oversaturation can often prove a hindrance rather than a help. Phil argues that data should be perceived as a pillar of support rather than an illuminator in determining customer outcomes. The need to carefully navigate the use and implementation of data perfectly exemplifies Capacity Insightsâ partnerships-based business model. The company has recently signed a contract with an external actuarial consultancy providing data storage and analytics. This brings huge benefits to a business of Capacity Insightsâ size. The company simply wouldnât have been able to build a data warehouse and insight function internally with nearly the same functionality, let alone the extensive cost considerations. Phil considers outsourcing in this manner to be a theme that will become increasingly significant across insurance in years to come, particularly with regard to AI. To keep ahead of the curve, insurance companies must remain nimble, highly technically proficient, and empowered by technology, which can be externally provided.
If youâre an intermediary in the UK or Europe looking to deploy medical, dental, travel or personal accident insurance, consider getting in touch with Phil, whose contact details are linked below!
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âWe are constantly challenging ourselves to say, âWhat is it that we are good at?ââ
âI'm not even sure the experts in AI are truly experts in tomorrow's AI. It is such a complex, fast-moving sector that I just question whether, in the future, we will all be the experts of all that we survey. We're starting to see, being the entity that we are, we will have to partner with people who can provide these areas that we're not experts in.â
âGreat products aren't simple products; great products are actually complicated things that are delivered in a way that makes them feel simple.â
âAnd I think the global giants, who obviously are a massive force, in our online marketplaces, I think they will have as many challenges as we do, just at a different scale. Maybe their desire to partner for what they might see as core functionality around technology, AI engagement, there may be less desire, less corporate appetite, and a greater inner inertia to try and be that jack of all trades. They're trying to be experts across this huge gambit of technical proficiencies, which I think will be hugely challenging for them, just as it is for our business.â
Resources
Capacity Insights: https://capacityinsights.co.uk/
About the Guest
Phil Denman has worked in and around the schemes market for thirty years. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Capacity Insights, a four-section MGA underwriting travel, medical, dental, and personal accident claims.
Philâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-denman-38188a9/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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Welcome to Changing the Conversation: The people in insurance.
The brand new, reimagined evolution of The Insurance Brokerâs Podcast, brought to you by Macaii Ltd!
In this podcast episode, insurance veteran Bryan Falchuk discusses the need for a fundamental reassessment in the insurance sector amidst changing external dynamics like climate change and supply chain disruptions. Brian argues that traditional cyclicality in insurance rates no longer applies due to shifts in global capital, creating challenges for insurers and customers alike.
He advocates for re-evaluating risk coverage and pricing models to design products that meet today's exposures. Brian highlights innovative solutions like parametric insurance tailored to specific risks such as tornadoes or hail damage.
Additionally, Bryan emphasizes the role of institutions like Lloyd's of London in driving industry-wide change, calling for bolder leadership and operational efficiency.
Drawing parallels between personal development and industry evolution, Bryan encourages resilience and a "how might we" approach to overcome challenges and drive innovation in insurance.
This podcast offers a succinct yet thought-provoking perspective on the future of insurance, urging industry players to adapt to the evolving landscape.
Quote of the Episode
"This is about figuring out a completely new way to address the market. It's not just a cycle; it's a shift. Capital doesn't work the way it used to. It's not just a pot of money in one place anymore; it's totally fungible, moving around globally. So when macroeconomic factors like climate change, supply chain disruptions, or labour shortages affect risk and its costs, capital just keeps flowing. We're in a conundrum where insurance is neither affordable to buy nor to sell at a market-clearing rate. That's the fundamental shiftâit's not temporal."
"We need to not tinker; we need to start afresh. We've iterated on policies forever, but we must stop framing ourselves in the old world. We need to ask: What is the exposure? What are the core coverages needed today? Building coverage fit for the actual exposure is crucial. Then, we must reassess how we analyse risk and price for it. Just raising rates won't fix fundamentally broken risk analysis and pricing models."
Key Takeaways
Shift in Insurance Dynamics: The interview highlights a fundamental shift in the insurance industry, moving away from traditional cyclicality to a new paradigm driven by global capital fluidity and macro-economic factors like climate change and supply chain disruptions. This shift challenges traditional approaches to risk analysis, pricing, and coverage.
Need for Fresh Perspective: There's a call for a fresh perspective in insurance, advocating for a departure from tinkering with existing policies towards a complete reassessment of exposures and coverages. This entails designing coverage tailored to modern risks and leveraging better data and processes to analyse and price risks accurately.
Embracing Adaptability and Innovation: The industry's response requires flexibility and innovation, both in creating and adjusting coverage to meet evolving needs and in operational leadership to drive efficiency and effectiveness. Embracing a mindset of resilience, learning from failures, and persisting in the face of challenges is essential for personal and industry-wide progress.
Resources
Bryan Falchuck - https://bryanfalchuk.com/
Bryan Falchuck LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanfalchuk/
Insurance Evolution Partners - https://insurance-evolution.com/
About the Guest
Bryan is a best-selling author, speaker, and life coach who has overcome major adversities to achieve success. Bryan has drawn lessons from his experiences to inspire others to succeed.
His book "Do a Day" has earned praise and awards, including the Literary Titan's Silver prize and 5-star ratings from book reviews. His upcoming book, "The 50 75 100 Solution: Build Better Relationships," focuses on fostering happier, healthier, and more supportive relationships.
As a sought-after speaker, Bryan addresses topics such as success, motivation, culture, and innovation at various events. He tailors his presentations to suit both large and small audiences, drawing from his extensive experience and expertise.
With nearly a decade of coaching and mentoring experience, Bryan helps individuals and corporations achieve their goals across different aspects of life. He believes in a holistic approach to coaching, addressing leadership, health, career, relationships, and more to inspire overall success.
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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Welcome to Changing the Conversation: The people in insurance.
The brand new, reimagined evolution of The Insurance Brokerâs Podcast, brought to you by Macaii Ltd!
In light of the wide array of changes across insurance we have observed recently, we are shifting the direction of the podcast to speak to those in the industry who are doing things differently, having identified a sticking point which they hope to resist against.
This new iteration of the podcast is all about highlighting the people, the passion and the professionalism that drives our industry.
In todayâs episode we are very pleased to be speaking with Ajay Mistry, Co-Founder of iCAN! Ajay is an expert in all things networking, and throughout the episode, he offers his advice for approaching industry events, and his insights for maximising your presence on LinkedIn.
Quote of the Episode
âNetworking is all-encompassing⊠it's all about building relationships, and whether that's through stuff after work, whether that's in meetings, whether that's phone calls you're having with colleagues internally â there's so many different types of networking. One thing that's really fundamental is that things are changing; people are more accessible than they ever have been, because of social media and LinkedIn. There are more networks available than ever to join. So, if youâre ever lonely, there's a really quick way to find people.â
Networking has always been closely associated with insurance. It is an inherently people-facing industry. Now, through LinkedIn and other social media platforms, we have immediate access to the very people we could and should be forming promising connections with, There are more networks than ever to join. This can, in one respect, make the prospect of networking feel even more mountainous and daunting than before. On the other hand, digital networking can provide a less pressurised way to get to know a potential contact before meeting them in person. It grants a platform through which an initial layer of trust and connection can be established before that first meeting where it can more organically flourish.
Key Takeaways
For most of us, the prospect of networking is profoundly uncomfortable. It can often feel shrouded by a certain seediness; since there is a âbusinessâ element underpinning each conversation you might have at a networking event; it can make the process feel inauthentic. Ajay suggests that it is always key to establish a personal connection first and foremost, and not to worry about the bottom line. A mutually beneficial connection can only ever emerge from any given conversation if both parties are genuinely interested in one another, and demonstrate this by actively listening to one another. If you find yourself lost about how to start a conversation at an event, for example, remember that everything is in context. Talk about the event, or a speaker you just heard from. This provides a springboard from which you can transition into a casual, personal conversation.
Ajay offers five top tips for networking, all of which can help you to forge more organic and authentic connections:
Whatâs the worst thatâs going to happen?The world is full of abundance, not scarcity â there will always be more opportunities to networkIf you donât ask, you donât getHave a plan â come to every event knowing what you want to get out of itYouâre the product of your systems, not your intentions â if you want to network, put an event in your diary and go to itAjay is also an expert in using LinkedIn to effectively distribute your unique message. It provides an excellent form of passive communication, by distributing your message across the homepages of all your connections and empowering them with the choice of whether to engage with it or not. Consequently, regularly posting effectively does the networking for you, even when youâre not in the room. Using LinkedIn to talk about important topics relevant to the industry will clue your connections in to your status as a well-informed and motivated insurance professional.
During the episode, Ajay highlights employee resource groups as a great means of promoting networking within businesses. These are in-house, employee-led groups focused on a specific strand of diversity, be it ethnic minorities, the LGBTQIA+ community, young industry starters, and many more. You donât have to belong to these groups to network with them, and they can both add an extra layer to oneâs job, and facilitate good business in-house and in collaboration with another companies.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âPeople feel there's a seediness or dirtiness that comes with the word ânetworkingâ, but actually, it's just about building relationships for a benefit to yourself or the other person at some point. If you go in with the mindset of âI want to help other peopleâ, or âHow can I give back?â, all of a sudden it changes from a seedy way of doing things to âI'm helping actuallyâ and therefore, âI'll give something give forwards and get something backâ.â
âIt's hard to quantify, but look at the people who have done very well in this industry. They've done it because of networking. The traditional âold boysâ networks, yes, they are antiquated in their viewpoints. However, they started for a reason; there's some good best practice there in terms of people have helped each other and now theyâre helping each other later on. That cycle is very important. And the more people that get in that cycle, the more that people can move forward.â
â[With LinkedIn] you're giving people the choice of how they want to receive information, if they don't want to receive it, and they don't want to listen, that's their choice. By putting the power in their hands, it's very empowering for them, because they get to choose. When it comes to direct communication, itâs different. Because then you're forcing someone to make a decision.â
Resources
iCAN â Upcoming Events: https://www.i-can.me/events-2
iCAN - Coffee with the CEO: https://www.i-can.me/coffee-with-the-ceo
About the Guest
Ajay Mistry is the Co-Founder of the Insurance Cultural Awareness Network (iCAN), the Founder of Gambit Partners and a board member of the CII Broking Board.
Ajay Mistry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1ajaymistry/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Chief Ideas Officer at Macaii, formerly Boston Tullis. She hosts/co-hosts several podcasts and is known for her knack in connecting with people. Sarah excels in bringing out the best for video, podcast, and live events, helping clients showcase the human side of their business.
Sarah is passionate about the evolving dynamics of the insurance industry and enjoys conversing with innovators, trailblazers, and long-term advocates of change.
Website: www.macaii.co.uk
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In this episode weâre thrilled to be speaking with Stephanie Jonas, Chief Operating Officer at JonasRe! In conversation with Boston Tullisâ Sarah Myerscough, Stephanie articulates how developing a passion for the industry can lead to a highly fruitful and rewarding career. She explores the cultural shifts developing across the insurance world in the last few years, the changes she anticipates in the near future, and how we might reassess the way we market ourselves to prospective new industry entrants.
Quote of the Episode
âWe're learning constantly. We're never good enough. We never know enough. We have to be lawyers, we have to be advisors, we have to be accountants, we have to be compliance officers. We run the gamut of people's large businesses, making them feel better about their assets and how they're going to be protected. So, we are one and everything to all ⊠This is not a transaction, we're not purchasing clothing, we're not buying pallets of paper, we are literally dealing with people's livelihoods, and all their assets, and it becomes very ingrained in you, if that's how you choose to play it.â
Sarah notes that for many people, developing a passion for working in the insurance world is an unexpected phenomenon. Stephanie suggests that this unfolds due to the sheer multiplicity of tasks, roles, and opportunities on offer in insurance. In any given day, brokers and insurers alike must wear a variety of different hats, all with the same incentive of managing a given clientâs risks and finding solutions tailored to their specific needs. It is this variability of an insurance career which could perhaps become the key means by which we market ourselves to the next generation of insurance professionals.
Key Takeaways
For Stephanie, an insurance career becomes exciting when it is no longer approached in transactional terms. Our industry is ultimately built upon the people we meet and the conversations we have; not all of which will be easy, but which are all underpinned by the goal of delivering solutions to clients and thereby protecting their livelihoods and assets. When broking is no longer approached purely as a monetary exchange, and instead as a trade of resources and knowledge, it is easy to become hugely passionate about what we do as an industry. Changing the conversation in this way may lead those external to our industry to re-evaluate their preconceived notions of what we do.
Stephanie argues that if she were to market our industry to a group of teenagers in a school, she would ask them to think about everything in their environment â what are the materials? how was it made? how is it maintained? â and to consider the worst-case scenario if something were to go wrong. The resulting answers are microcosmic of the problem-solving we do as an industry, often dealing with potentially millions of pounds and many peopleâs livelihoods. In highlighting the scale of our industry and its pervasiveness in all aspects of life, we can highlight the variety of the work that we do, which could be hugely inspiring to young people seeking an exciting and multifaceted career.
Reflecting on JonasReâs work with various large global business across the past few years, Stephanie notes that companies are becoming increasingly concerned about removing risks from their balance sheets. Requests for new and different types of cover are becoming increasingly frequent. Hence, Stephanie argues that in the future, retailers will necessarily become more focused on managing risk than pursuing transactions. Insurers and brokers alike will need to become risk managers first and foremost, instead of taking a more general approach of accepting orders and flinging back a price.
For Stephanie, there is no reason not to quote a risk. If JonasRe isnât equipped with knowledge of a capability, they will find someone who is. Consequently, the business is constantly branching out, exploring new fields of knowledge and avenues of market opportunity. Thereâs no reason to turn a risk down, and even if your quote is rejected, you will nonetheless have acquired new knowledge with which to approach future risks.
Stephanie would be thrilled to hear from anybody looking to increase their volume in Canada, namely underwriters or specialist brokers interested in building up their business in the Canadian market. Her contact details are linked below!
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âI think [an insurance career] is very, for lack of a better word, sexy. It's bigger than investment banking; there's lots of money passing through; the people we deal with have billions of dollars going through Lloyds every year in premiums. We deal with the top people in the world, the top companies as well. You don't have to be the biggest or the best, you just have to try the hardest and give your best. And you have to really love it.â
âI think there has to be a big change in people becoming risk managers first, instead of accepting orders, flinging them out into the world and bringing back a price. That's where I think the change is going to be and those who do it are going to be very successful, and those who don't, may just remain stagnant.â
âThere really is no end to finding solutions, pricing, risk management risk allocation, there really just isn't. There's really never a reason to say no.â
âWe want to be the people that are going to give more [and] give better, bringing that capacity and that knowledge to our clients to take that weight off their shoulders, because that's what we're here for.â
Resources
JonasRe: https://www.jonasre.com/
About the Guest
Stephanie Jonas is the Chief Operating Officer of JonasRe, a wholesale brokerage based in Toronto, with a wide range of risk specialisms.
Stephanieâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniejonas1000/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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How can brokers better advise clients with deficient cybersecurity architecture? What steps can we and our clients take to raise our cyber resilience and reduce the potential damage of an attack?
Businesses that havenât suffered a cyberattack are in the minority, or alternatively, they simply havenât discovered that it has happened yet. Infoprotect reports that 51% of businesses have suffered from a cyberattack or breach in the past year alone. In this episode of the Insurance Broker Podcast, returning guest Brad Fraser, CEO of Infoprotect, speaks about how we can improve the cybersecurity scaffolding that is so crucial for our data-centric industry, within our own businesses and those of our clients. In conversation with Boston Tullisâ Sarah Myerscough, he explains that while we are all potentially susceptible to a cyberattack, we need not cower in fear of this possibility. He outlines a straightforward and systematic approach for improving your cyber resilience, without deploying any of the jargon that often makes such advice inaccessible.
Quote of the Episode
â[Left of bang is] a term that was coined by the military, I think in the Iraq War. It's about being prepared and able to protect yourself before the attack happens. Be aware of your surroundings, have a situational awareness, and make sure that you've taken all the steps, because the last thing you want to happen is an attack to take place, and you're not prepared. Then you have to launch into a survival mode and scramble to get everything sorted out, and you suddenly realise, âI didn't do the basics. So, it's about situational awareness. When it comes to cyber, it's really around resilience⊠Just being resilient, and following the steps that can help you be resilient is so important.â
Much of the advice often distributed with regards to cybersecurity is retrospective, and only applicable after an attack has already taken place. Brad emphasises that to truly minimise the risk of such attacks, we must implement an array of systems and procedures by which they can be warded off. He offers a ten-step plan for building cyber resilience, also outlined in a blog on the Infoprotect website linked below, through which both small businesses and large enterprises can assess the state of their cybersecurity and implement measures for improving it. In doing so, you can ensure that your business and your clients can always remain âleft of bangâ of any potential cyberattack.
Key Takeaways
When youâre putting out fires in your day-to-day work, itâs easy to overlook good procedures for maintaining healthy cybersecurity, and to allow any deficiencies within your digital infrastructure to go unchanged. Such nonchalance is exactly what cyber attackers aim to identify and exploit when targeting businesses.
Brad asserts that we must take a proactive approach to managing cybersecurity and building cyber resilience. He argues that this must begin with a comprehensive risk assessment of your digital infrastructure, thereby establishing a baseline from which your systems can become more resilient to attack.
Data has become the backbone of our industry, and therefore its secure storage and management is paramount. If our data is compromised in a cyberattack, the fallout will not simply be the loss of money and resources attributed to recovering it, but also the reputational damage of having insufficient cyber resilience. Brad argues that good data security is hinged upon several often underexamined areas of cyber resilience:
Asset Management â how is your hardware and software infrastructure built to ensure that systems are impenetrable?Vulnerability Management â once you have cybersecurity software, are you keeping it up to date? What condition is it in?Identity & Access Management â who can access the various systems within your business?Instilling cyber resilience is not about raising hysteria about the prospect of cyberattacks. Rather, once youâve got a plan, you become prepared, and able to respond in the event of an incident. Cyberattacks should be assessed and planned for like any other tangible emergency. To facilitate this, itâs key to de-jargonise the conversations happening within this space, so that brokers and their clients alike are able to more easily comprehend the importance of cyber resilience measures, to prevent the worst from happening.
Infoprotect offer a cyber resilience package to help brokers with managing their clientsâ cybersecurity. To find out more, visit their website linked below, or contact Brad, who is happy to help!
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âWho has got access to your data? And what do you do with it? Do you encrypt it? Do you keep it in a separate repository? Do you keep it offsite? Do you back it up? What do you do with your data? Your data is so important to your business, and if it is stolen and shared, that's the last thing you want to happen.â
âThis is not putting fear into people. It's purely saying, âJust be ready for thisâ. It may or may never happen, and if it doesn't happen, well, that's good, isn't it? Who cares if it happens or not? Let's be ready for it. That's the most important thing.â
âWe need to make the internet and our whole way of communicating over the internet safer.â
âUnfortunately, there's a lot of people out there that are using fear. And they're using jargon and they're using buzzwords and they're saying, âYou're always going to be in trouble.â Follow the basics. Get your layers [of cyber resilience], go through those, and you're going to be much better off than people that haven't.â
Resources
Infoprotect â Cybersecurity: https://www.infoprotect.co.uk/cybersecurity/
Infoprotect â 10 Steps to Cyber Resilience: https://www.infoprotect.co.uk/blog/10-steps-to-cyber-resilience/
OpenText â What is Cyber Resilience?: https://blogs.opentext.com/cyber-resilience-definition/
About the Guest
Brad Fraser is the CEO of Infoprotect, an IT solution provider that designs complex technology solutions for clients. He specialises in Cyber Security and Data Backup as well as having a host of experience in security services and managed solutions.
Bradâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradfraserentrepreneur
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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How can LinkedIn be used for reaching your target demographic?
What kind of marketing content is most likely to facilitate a return on investment, and how can this be calculated?
In this episode, weâre excited to be speaking with Catherine France, an insurance copywriter who specialises in using LinkedIn to help attract and convert clients. In conversation with Boston Tullisâ Sarah Myerscough, she illustrates how you can target LinkedIn content to your intended demographic, and explains the steps you need to take in order to project a trustworthy and reliable brand presence.
Quote of the Episode
âIn terms of sales vs non-sales content, when I'm talking to my clients, and we're building their profile on LinkedIn, we are very much focused on educating, informing, giving value, as opposed to selling. It's probably like the 80-20 rule: 80% of the content we put out is information, and then 20% might be information with a call to action, that's more sales.â
Itâs easy to assume that the best way to garner sales through your marketing content on LinkedIn is to directly promote the services and products you offer. However, this is more likely to alienate than entice your ideal client, particularly if they have little to no knowledge of the insurance industry. Catherine suggests that a great way to subtly market your business whilst simultaneously capturing the interest of potential clients is to post educational and informative content, perhaps explaining different kinds of policy or common insurance misconceptions. Prior to doing so, you should establish who your ideal client is, and what challenges they might be facing that you can assist with. How much do they know about insurance? Subsequently, you can target your marketing content towards such individuals.
Key Takeaways
With 875 million people on LinkedIn, all of whom need insurance, the service provides a huge wealth of potential clients that you can attract to your brand. We live in the age of content, and quality posts on your LinkedIn page can be hugely beneficial in capturing the interest of potential clients. However, before you start posting, there are other considerations you should make which will help your content to reach the right demographic.
When it comes to social media marketing, the focus is often always on your content and the engagement it receives, but potential clientsâ reception of your posts is often entirely contingent on the initial impression made by your profile. If someone sees your post, the next thing they will likely do is to view your profile, to garner a sense of your legitimacy and trustworthiness as a brand. To optimise this, you should ensure that your contact information is clearly visible. Additionally, you should enable creator mode in order to add a link to your businessâ website onto your profile. The âSummaryâ section effectively serves as your businessâ digital shopfront. In 3000 characters, you must explain what you do, who you help, and how. Being overly general in this description can be potentially confusing or alienating; thus, it must contain specific details tailored to capturing the interests of your specific ideal client.
Having optimised your profile, you must also examine your LinkedIn network. Most insurance professionalsâ network will be full of insurance professionals. To change this, use search filters to find people in the particular business sectors you would like to connect with. Connect with as many people as possible, but avoid sending them private messages â this is likely to deter them from your brand. Make those connections, and allow those people to view your profile and determine whether they would like to correspond with you or not. This further emphasises the importance of having a well-curated and informative profile.
Subsequently, you can begin to contemplate the type of content you should post. As previously mentioned, deploying educative content, by using simple language and relatable stories from a non-insurance perspective, can be highly lucrative in drawing people to your brand. This enhances your reputation as delivering valuable knowledge. Furthermore, posting a diverse range of content is key. Behind-the-scenes posts shared by company staff often receive the most engagement, as they emphasise the faces behind your brand, thereby humanising the business and further amplifying its trustworthiness.
How do you identify a return on investment with marketing? Post likes and shares can be misleading, as they donât necessarily correspond with new sales. Catherine argues that the key metric with LinkedIn marketing is profile views, either on personal or company pages. If posts lead to profile views, this means that they are drawing people to potentially want to reach out and ask for help or further information. To facilitate this, posting consistently quality posts covering a diverse range of topics, whilst also targeting your ideal client is essential.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âThe profile really is like having another webpage. If you haven't got a website, then you can use it like a website. Make sure that you've got a banner image, a decent headshot photo, that your headline is clear, saying what you do and who you help.â
âThink about your ideal client, you know, who are they? What are their challenges, what's keeping them awake at night? Then, talk to those people.â
âI think the key metric for a personal page, and probably a company page as well, is that profile view. It's actually who's gone on there and viewed your profile.â
Resources
Catherine France - https://www.catherinefrance.com/
About the Guest
Catherine France is an insurance copywriter, who helps insurance executives create consistent quality content to help them attract and convert their dream clients. This ranges from writing blog posts to social media captions, helping them build their website, and more.
Catherineâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-france/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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Are you keen for your business to remain aligned with the latest innovations across the industry? Would you like to learn more about how new digital processes and platforms can energise and streamline your productive output?
In this episode of the Insurance Broker Podcast, we are very pleased to be speaking with Merlin Beyts, Head of Content at ITC DIA Europe! In conversation with Boston Tullisâ Sarah Myerscough, he explains what attendees can expect at the businessâ exciting upcoming event at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, from 27th to 29th June! Uniting leading experts from across the industry, and giving a voice to professionals from adjacent industries, the event intends to further propel the future of insurance, facilitating discussion between insurers, brokers and Insurtech innovators.
Quote of the Episode
âWhat I've noticed working in events⊠is you sometimes can fall into the trap of having the same conversations about the same things, and you really do need those innovators to sometimes say something that's perhaps controversial, say something that perhaps people don't necessarily want to hear. It's always great to have those innovative opinions so that we can really drive things forward.â
The ITC DIA Europe event intends to provide a springboard for innovation, by hosting speakers who will push boundaries and encourage introspection for attending businesses, to evaluate how they can embrace new technology and form partnerships with which to stride confidently into the future. With so much change constantly rattling the industry, precipitated by the necessitated transformations during the COVID pandemic, it is through embracing change and constant innovation that insurers and brokers alike can continue to thrive throughout the unforeseeable.
Key Takeaways
The ITC DIA Event intends to promote widespread innovation across the industry, by uniting Insurtech creators alongside traditional brokers and insurers under one roof. There are many businesses out there who can help the traditional insurance industry to drive innovation, and the event aims to facilitate discussions and promote collaboration between the old and the new.
This is reflected in the structural hybridity of the conference, combining a traditional approach whereby everyone can move around and meet different exhibitors, alongside a âfestival feelâ whereby people can sit down, relax, and have meaningful conversations and create powerful connections. Through this approach, the event aims to enable both Insurtech innovators and insurers and brokers to achieve their business goals, attaining the confidence to incorporate new digital practices.
Merlin notes that some brokers have expressed a reluctance towards adopting new digital tools, perhaps for fear that it may eventually lead to certain areas of traditional broking becoming obsolete in the face of startlingly adaptable artificial intelligence. Yet, he argues that truly successful businesses will be those that embrace change.
The ultimate focus of the event is the future of our industry. Where will insurance be in a few yearsâ time, and what changes does your business need to make to remain in the running? To book your ticket, visit the registration page on ICT DIAâs website, linked below!
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âOne of the big things that we are incredibly keen to make sure is on the agenda is just how many enablers there are out there who can help the insurance industry really drive innovation. That's the whole goal of everything that we do, whether it's an event, whether it's a webinar, is to is to push the industry forward.â
âIf you're an insurance provider looking to looking to accelerate your innovation, looking to automate your underwriting processes, improve your claims experience, we've got all of those people that can help you do that. Similarly, if you are looking to engage with those people from a tech provider side, or even from an MGA standpoint looking to partner up with carriers who have a large customer base, we're going to have a lot of those people in the room as well.â
âThere's a quote that I read from Andrew Horton, when he was CEO of Beazley and is now the Group CEO of QBE Insurance. [He] said, essentially, change is inevitable, and the truly successful people are going to be the ones that embrace change. I think, hopefully, we're going to see more adoption of digitization at the broker side of things.â
âThe key word is innovation. But what we want to make sure we're doing is taking innovation, which is a very broad term, and actually put that into action. How do you get better? How do you actually improve your customer experience?â
Resources
Register to attend ICT DIA Europe in June: https://www.digitalinsuranceagenda.com/events/itcdia-europe/registration-itc-dia-europe/
About the Guest
Merlin Beyts is the Head of Content at ITC DIA Europe. In this role, he oversees the businessâ digital content, including articles, interviews, and webinars.
Merlinâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/merlin-beyts-652ab0168/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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Why is it so important to set Net Zero targets on an individual business level? Is there anything regional or provincial brokerages can do to help curb the impact of climate change?
In this episode of the Insurance Broker Podcast, weâre thrilled to be speaking with returning guest Adrian Saunders, Commercial Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance. Ecclesiastical recently conducted a survey investigating brokersâ attitudes to Net Zero target setting and carbon emissions reduction, which has yielded some slightly disappointing, but not entirely surprising results. In conversation with Boston Tullisâ Sarah Myerscough, Adrian shares the highlights from the survey, and emphasises the imperative of raising climate awareness across the insurance industry, and providing greater resources and information for small businesses looking to make a difference.
Quote of the Episode
âWe need to have a shared responsibility, across business, across society⊠and recognise and accept that responsibility and do something. Surely we're all better for doing something than saying, âThatâs too difficult, I can't do anything.ââ
National brokerages are leading the charge with regards to setting Net Zero targets and announcing climate-conscious commitments. Itâs all too easy for smaller businesses to say that thereâs nothing they can really do to help deter climate change, as any impact they might have would be negligible or insignificant in the broader scheme of things. Yet, it is only through an acceptance of a collective social responsibility, at every level of industry and society, to cutting carbon emissions and cultivating new, climate conscious ways to conduct our lives and business, that any substantial change can be made, and this crisis can be avoided. No business is too small to set Net Zero targets.
Key Takeaways
In the year since Ecclesiasticalâs last climate awareness survey, understanding that Net Zero is a good thing has grown by 40%. Alongside this, 39% of brokers nationwide have established targets for becoming Net Zero. Yet, the growth in brokers setting these targets over the last year has been marginal, and the part of the market that seems to be lagging is regional and provincial brokers. Only 10% of regional brokers, and only 4% of provincial brokers, have set Net Zero targets.
Perhaps of even greater concern is that only 12% of all respondents to this yearâs survey think itâs important to their clients that they have a carbon Net Zero mindset, with no change in this attitude from last year. This is contradicted by the fact that nearly three quarters of brokers have affirmed the importance of climate consciousness. Furthermore, all businesses are increasingly interested in the ethical stance of those whom they are trading and cooperating with.
What can we do as brokers to reduce our emissions and become Net Zero? How do we get started? For Adrian, in every facet of a business, you will probably be able to identify a change you could consciously make to become more climate responsible, such as introducing hybrid meetings to reduce travel emissions. Before we implement these changes, we first need to build a climate-conscious environment within our businesses. This must begin with a strong level of understanding about climate change, accompanied by a narrative about what you will do as a business to combat it. We must identify our carbon footprint, both on a business level and an individual level, and the opportunities we have to make a change.
Understanding how we can combat climate change is at the very essence of what we do as an industry. Insurance is all about managing risk, and the prospect of climate catastrophe is the biggest risk we all face today. Ecclesiastical have curated several great resources regarding how brokers can become more climate responsible, including a series of webinars linked in the Resources section below.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âWhat our research shows is that national brokers, therefore bigger brokers with access to more resources have got, got targets and a greater level of awareness. As you come down the scale of size of broking businesses, there is less awareness and target setting. Maybe there is an element of, âWe're too small for this to be important. We're too small to make a contribution.â And I think what I would say to that is, âNobody is too small.ââ
âI think brokers have got a huge role to play. You know, brokers are skilled and trusted advisors. That's what brokers do for their living. They've got the trust of clients, they understand what client's needs are, and they understand what their challenges are. So, by modelling some of this behaviour, I think brokers have got a really, really key role to play in, in business at large.â
âWhat are those practical actions towards Net Zero? It's about creating that environment. Understanding what your impact is, equally understanding the opportunity, and doing something.â
Resources
Ecclesiastical â Practical actions to reduce your companyâs carbon footprint: https://www.ecclesiastical.com/brokers/training/practical-actions-net-zero/
About the Guest
Adrian Saunders is the Commercial Director of Ecclesiastical Insurance. Heâs worked in both the company and broker markets, and specialises in developing new enterprises within organisations, and re-engineering existing processes to develop strategy and increase ROL.
Adrian Saunders | LinkedIn
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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How can small brokers navigate the various and insistent industry pressures that have emerged in recent years? Is it possible to sustain a client-first bottom line whilst also incorporating new digital data processing practices and becoming increasingly reliant on remote customer interactions?
In this episode of the Insurance Broker Podcast, weâre very pleased to be speaking with Alistair Body, Business Development Director at Momentum Broker Solutions. In conversation with Boston Tullisâ Sarah Myerscough, he discusses the numerous pressures facing small and independent brokerages, including consolidation, the shift to digitalisation, and regulatory red tape. He emphasises the importance of retaining focus on the primary goal of effectively advising clients, and explains how firms like Momentum can help to support brokerages struggling to remain afloat amidst all these aforementioned challenges.
Quote of the Episode
âThe insurance industry has always been a people business. So, let's try and free up more time for [brokers] to do just that. The momentum proposition is about effectively creating an infrastructure in an environment where you've someone's got your back, whether it be your clientâs money, their insurer relationships credit control, marketing, and so on. And just taking all that away from you. And just going back to the bare basics of letting you do what you do [best]: looking after your clients.â
Given the rapidity of change in the industry in recent years, itâs become easy to lose sight of our primary aim as brokers: to advise and support our clients through genuine interactions. While this has been complicated due to the shift to remote conversations as a result of the pandemic, these interactions remain our raison dâĂȘtre. Thus, the opportunity for small brokerages to consign some of the challenging behind-the-scenes processes that enable fruitful client relationships to supportive businesses like Momentum is certainly worth considering.
Key Takeaways
Beyond the broader everyday challenges that have accompanied the past few years, this period has also brought considerable changes to how brokers conduct their business. This whirlwind of rapid change includes vast market consolidation, the increasingly urgent importance of carbon emissions reduction, and additional regulatory constraints. These, alongside the fundamental service challenges wrought by the shift to digitalisation and the emergence of new, highly efficient data processing software, have placed enormous pressure on small, independent brokerages. What is the solution to this, other than selling up and getting out of the industry altogether?
Alistair suggests that, first and foremost, we must return to the basics, and remember what our primary function as brokers is: to look after clients. Yet, our increasing industry reliance on data arguably conflicts with the desire to be a people-centred business. Is it possible to work in accordance with the data, whilst also fulfilling the needs of clients on an individualised, personal level? For Alistair, there is always a need to drive towards greater efficiency, in insurance and every industry. However, not all clients fit in the boxes that data-processing software may create. We must therefore remain flexible and versatile, finding ways to write risks that may not necessarily be ideal.
Another key issue is the ever-expanding red tape of compliance. Regulatory demands are often one-size-fits-all, and fail to account for the specific needs of small or niche brokerages. This is where firms like Momentum can lend a hand. Momentum specialises in supporting small and independent brokers to persevere through issues surrounding compliance, and the various other industry pressures that have emerged in the past few years, including the mounting necessity of carbon emissions reduction, profound economic turbulence, and changes in client behaviour.
Momentum will be at stand G20 at this yearâs BIBA conference. To find out more about how they can support your business, find them and have a chat!
Best Moments/Key Quotes
âWhen you look at what's been thrust upon independent small businesses these days, you've got additional compliance concerns, you've got more talk around equality and diversity, we've got the DSG, we've got net zero, it just keeps going on and on and on. I think for a lot of these businesses, they simply don't have the internal resource or the internal knowhow to manage these things.â
âIt's about looking after clients. It's about supporting them and their businesses or their personal insurance requirements, and giving them the advice and seeing the value that they created. I think it's just really going back to basics and focusing on what they're good at, and then ultimately using the services of Momentum or others to provide them the support [that will] allow them to get on with it.â
âPre-pandemic, we would probably have a lot of brokers considering the move to direct authorization. Whereas it seems very much now that it's the other way around.â
Resources
Momentum - https://momentumsolutions.co.uk/
About the Guest
Alistair Body is the Business Development Director at Momentum Broker Solutions. Momentum provides support to small, independent and startup brokerages, helping them to grow and thrive.
Alistairâs LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alistair-body/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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