Picture this. The BIBA conference, a hundred or more brokers, late at night in a hotel bar, a great atmosphere and sense of goodwill. Not too difficult an image to conjure up?

Add to that a stand brimming full for 2 whole days, a team that felt like it was on top of its game, a new CEO, listening and talking to brokers and business being done all round.

Then the icing on the cake, trade press headlines you are making are only positive ones.

Then just for good measure one of my favourite people pops by, an industry leading figure, one who’s not been shy to share his own views of when he thinks you’ve got it wrong. And as he comes by your brimming full, bustling stand he says ‘what a difference a year makes eh?’

There wasn’t a stand I would have preferred to be on, a team I could have been prouder of, or any better I could have felt about the few days of BIBA 2010.

So maybe I was dreaming, any minute I’d wake up, and maybe my bubble would burst. That said if I was dreaming surely my feet wouldn’t be hurting quite so much.

So is this blog purely me blowing my own trumpet, revelling in a great few days, telling you how good we are? Hopefully lots of you will know me better than that, an old boss once taught me that self praise is no praise and I always remember it.

This blog is about the one thing in those few days that did burst my bubble, just a tiny tiny bit, a really small thing that happened as I left the bar full of brokers to nip to the ladies.

This little incident happened in the ladies loo, when one of our trading managers, Maureen Varlow, known affectionately as Mo, turned to me, gave me a big hug and said 3 little words. Not my favourite 3 words, the ones that I share with brokers all the time. What mo said, the 3 little words shared during the hug were…….”we miss you.”

I said “yeah but…can’t be everywhere…v busy…don’t make me feel bad……. sorry, sorry sorry” and she said “I know all that, and I don’t want to make you feel bad, just wanted to tell you that we miss you.”

And I haven’t been able to shake those 3 little words since.

There is a danger when you become a full time part of an Exec team the internal pull, the number of meetings, the building of a new team takes you away from what’s important. And I’ve been really focussed on making sure that isn’t the case in the external world, that I still spend my time listening too and working with brokers and partners. I can’t afford for that to happen, we don’t have a business without customers.

And maybe between trying hard to keep brokers and partners happy and trying hard with the Exec team and working with my own direct team, I have missed the most important people a bit, the ones who our brokers deal with everyday.

I’m not kidding myself that they won’t survive without me, they will, I just know that I’ll do a better job if I remember those 3 little words.

Lots of love,

Jd

To find out more or make a donation, please visit www.aviva.co.uk/1day

Transcript

Janice – “Hi everyone. Just sitting here reflecting on what a difference a year makes, so this time last year we were gearing up to become Aviva. Now it seems we’ve been Aviva forever. I’m just fresh from the BIBA conference, where we had a fantastic time with the buzz around our stand, the feedback from brokers and the way they are feeling about Aviva at the moment is fantastic and again what a difference a year makes.”

“I also spent alot of time with brokers talking to me about what we could do more with 110 and how we can take 110 forward and there is a real huge interest from our broker community around doing something for charity. One broker even suggested that every 110 broker cycles around all the different offices of our brokers. The timing of that seems fantastic when we are just launching and working on our Street to School initiative and I did just see the videos that the corporate social responsibility team have been working on to promote the Street to School initiative and I have to say I can’t watch those videos without becoming tearful and to me that shows what a hugely fantastic thing this is to support and I don’t think there is anything we can be doing better with our brand to celebrate a year of being Aviva than supporting the Street to School initiative… I just love everything about it and if we can gear up the power we have got in our broker community that would be fantastic….fantastic support, so we’re working on ideas of how we harness all the broker support we have got and all the different charity work our brokers do to help support the Street to School initiative.”

“To celebrate a year of Aviva, and kick start our efforts for Street to School, for every piece of renewal business or new business you place with us in June through our brokers, we will be donating money to the Street to School charity, in support of the Railway Children*. I’m now going to handover to Heather Smith, whose going to tell you more about what we’re doing for this fabulous cause. Thankyou.”

Heather – “Thanks Janice. I’m Heather Smith, Head of Sponsorship and Corporate Responsibility, here in the UK and I’d like to talk to you about our Aviva Street to School initiative as Janice has been talking about. Well first of all it’s a global initiative impacting across our 26 countries worldwide and by collecting together as ‘One Aviva’, we believe we can make a difference to the 500,000 kids around the world who are homeless and at risk. But it’s not just a global issue, it exists here in our own backyard in the UK and it’s a hidden issue most times. About 100,000 children run away from home or care every year in the UK, in which about 1 in 6 will sleep rough and find themselves in horrible situations, so that’s why Aviva Street to School exists. We believe that by supporting them over the next 3 years, we can make a real difference.”

“So your help and your support can make a difference because you’re out there in the market, you network with lots of people and ultimately if you want to get involved in volunteering and fundraising, we’d be delighted and we can help you.”

“So here’s the film to set the scene and really show you what the cause is all about and the difference you can make by being a part of it. Thanks”

<Aviva/Railway Children promotional video plays>

Even as I start this blog I know it has the potential to be somewhat random. I start the week of BIBA a bit bleary eyed, on the 7.10 train from Norwich, after a great weekend. Darrell and I spent Saturday night with John and Jennifer in Southwold, and they were in great form. Although I have to say, spending too much time with someone who constantly reminds you that life free of corporate stress is fantastic could get a bit tiresome, and he did mention it a time or twenty. For the many of you who’ve asked me what he will do next, I can confirm exactly what I’ve said all along, he’ll enjoy life to the full, but never again in a corporate world.

Then on Sunday England won the cricket world cup!!!!

Whilst I agree this isn’t the main event of the summer, it is still cause for huge celebration. A rooky twenty year old getting man of the match, the romance of KP’s mad dash to see his new son born then racing back for another heroic feat of batting, a bowling line-up every world side would want, and the icing on the cake was beating Australia. As I watched on Sunday, nervous right until the point of needing 5 from 21 balls, I reflected on just what confidence can do for a team. Momentum is everything, and whilst there have been some great, in hindsight, selection changes, the biggest plus this team have is confidence. The moment of yesterday for me came from a terrible missed catch from Stuart Broad, he was miles off, but instead of his head dropping a few balls later he redeemed himself with a great catch, probably harder than the one he missed. That’s what happens when a team has momentum and confidence, heads don’t drop for long, belief is everything, they rally around to encourage and support, and success comes. And the captain, despite his own batting form, deserved every bit of the respect and admiration of a team that know what a fantastic job he’s done, because the thing he gives them most is the belief that they can win, that they are world beaters.

Sorry for my rambling indulgence in cricket commentary, it’s a little known secret that my alternative career choice would be a sports commentator, so I got a bit carried away. How I would love to be sitting here in July writing similar commentary on the football world cup.

I also strongly believe that the psychology of winning is the same in any walk of life, from sport to politics to business, and as a leader the very best thing I can do for my team is instil confidence, and encourage them to believe they can win.

So back to BIBA, our team are out in force, we’re hosting more brokers than ever before, we come into the event feeling good about the momentum we have as a team, and as a business. The world is not getting any easier, and isn’t likely to for some time, but relying on the world changing to bring success is like hoping Brazil can’t play in the world cup, and what football fan would ever want to say that out loud. So if you see us out and about at BIBA, if you drop in to the stand for a morning after cure all smoothie and bacon sarnie, when you speak to the team, hopefully you’ll get a sense of a team with momentum and confidence, a team starting to win.

Janice xxxxx

Whoever said insurance was dull? Back when I used to buy helicopters for a living maybe, if I thought about it, I might have thought that comparatively it was the duller option. But events of the last week or so have proved that not to be the case.

Firstly, I finally said au revoir to my old boss, close friend and mentor, John Kitson. Now life with John was never dull. He left the industry as he did everything in life, with style, humour and huge personality. I can honestly say I’ve never worked with anyone like John, he has the ability to make me laugh, even when I want to cry, and behind that much loved quirkiness is a business brain that most would envy.

I say au revoir and not goodbye, not because I believe he’ll be back in this industry, although if I had a fiver for every time I had answered that question over the last few months I’d be getting rich. For the record, lest you’re tempted to ask, I don’t think he will. As long as I’ve known John he’s had a pretty clear plan and I’ve no doubt that he’ll now make the most of every minute of his new life. But John and I will keep in touch, we already are, he text me on Easter Monday asking about March numbers. And maybe, when we meet up, every now and then he’ll allow me to share a few tales from the riverbank. I’ll trade it for the latest gossip, which I know he’ll be dying to hear.

John loves to gossip. On the day before he hung up his blackberry, I bumped into him at the train station. I was heading back to Norwich, he and Jennifer were heading for a farewell dinner with a broker. I shared the news about Quinn, and for a split second I could see him thinking, his brain going at 100 miles an hour, maybe contemplating that things could be getting really interesting just as he bid us farewell.

Which brings me on to the other thing that’s made life interesting over the last week…Quinn.

Maybe not a surprise……

Maybe not enough to lead us to a hard market overnight…….

And maybe not as widespread an impact in the UK as it will have in the Irish market…….

…………………That said if you’re business is insurance, your job or your livelihood is impacted and it will leave you with plenty to worry about.

Making money out of insurance is far from a sure bet. The tough years more than offset the good years, cash generation and investment returns means that new entrants are a plenty, and it’s really easy to look like you’re making lots of money in the early years and find out later that you’re not. I won’t join in the press frenzy and commentary about a competitors’ demise, and the whys and wherefores of what happened but what I will say is that even in a business where it takes years to know how profitable the business you are writing today is, if it looks like you’re defying gravity, you probably are.

 Out of this frenzy I have only 2 hopes:

- that despite the pressures our business customers still face, we do see rates harden. Insurers’ results across the industry make interesting reading, and there isn’t one of us that doesn’t want to see a harder market. The events of the last week aren’t enough alone, but they certainly can’t hurt.

-  that those of us that have been around for hundreds of years, and will be for hundreds more, can be there for the brokers and clients that need us now, tomorrow, next year and in many years to come. That maybe we see a bit more value associated with the long term players, the bigger brands, and the peace of mind and certainty that this brings for our customers and brokers

So an eventful week, setting up an even more eventful year. Saying a regretful au revoir to an old and trusted friend and a welcome goodbye to a competitor in the market. How can insurance ever be DULL?!

Janice

xxxxxx

Is it me or have the Daffodils been a long time coming this year? Over the last week we’ve seen the very first signs of spring after a winter that felt like it would never end.

A bit of sunshine seems to put a smile on most faces, certainly mine as the first daffs appeared in my garden last week. This coming weekend we alter the clocks. Losing an hour of any weekend is hard, but driving home in daylight makes it all worth it.

So maybe it’s the spring in the air that’s bringing a few signs of optimism, I’m certainly detecting some. Before you all get carried away and tell me my optimism is misplaced I’m not kidding myself that the challenges are getting any easier, or that the markets are lending a helping hand, or that our customers are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. But there are signs fuelled by a little relief, a belief that ‘it will be a tough year, but not as quite as bad as last year’. 

With the spring in the air and a vague hint of optimism, hopefully comes a renewed energy. Energy to take things on and make a difference rather than accept them as our fate.

For me this renewed energy couldn’t come at a better time, because it feels like there are some big issues around that will impact the broker market, decisions to be made and issues resolved in the coming months that could have a profound effect on our industry. One such issue that brokers have raised with me is the issue of changes to fees and levies and how strongly you feel about the potential impact on your businesses and your customers. The debates on the subject bring lots of passion, challenges and concern. So what better time to channel this energy into a cause you genuinely believe in.

One thing I genuinely believe in is that whatever the issue, brokers in the UK should have a louder and united voice…..

You represent a huge proportion of UK businesses…..

You have built businesses of which you should be proud…..

You are entrepreneurs, braver than most of us who stick to the relative comfort of the corporate world….

…. so be bold and work together to make even greater use of your influence.

How did I get from daffodils and spring to one broker voice?! I’m not even sure on that one, there’s no telling how my mind works.

What I do know is that over the last 4 years I’ve grown to share your passion and belief in the broker world, and what better time to make the most of that passion than when spring is in the air.

Lots of love

Jd

I am an avid reader. If I’m honest I like feel-good books, a bit of escapism. I’ve worked out that it’s impossible to switch my brain off, to stop my mind wandering to the latest work issue, so I have to make sure I occupy it in other ways and reading becomes like therapy.

As I said I like feel-good books, the girlier the better, the sort that if you were bothered about image you’d hide the titles behind a Financial Times, especially when on business travel. Not that I do worry about image too much. Those of you that have seen me dash into a meeting wet through from the rain, dragging my wheelie suitcase behind me, will know that I’ve never quite mastered the corporate image thing. What you see is what you get!

Anyway back to reading! For some reason one of my Christmas presents from my stepson was a book that was a bit more depressing, or so I thought, a book about the struggles of a family with a terminally ill daughter. I’ve left it on the shelf for weeks, but then I ran out of reading matter options and thought I’d give it a try. I have to admit to shedding a few tears along the way, but in some strange way I still think this book fits the feel-good category. Especially so this past weekend.

This weekend my nineteen year old nephew had a real scare. I’m very close to my nieces and nephews, they are fantastic young adults and I’m hugely proud of them. Now my nineteen year old nephew, as most nineteen year olds, has the world at his feet; at Uni, beautiful girlfriend, football team captain, thinks he’s indestructible. So when his arm swelled up he thought it couldn’t be anything serious, he had probably just slept on it funny, after all when you’re indestructible how could it be anything serious?!

After some considerable persuasion and coercion, he ends up at the hospital on Sunday and in the high dependency unit by Monday. Now I’m not writing about this for the sympathy vote, he is on the mend, and I’m sure his mum has aged ten years, but he’s taking things in his stride. All this trauma together with my very sad, but strangely uplifting book got me thinking.

We all have good days and bad days at work, I admit to having the highest highs and the lowest lows, and work does this for me. But every now and again something happens in life that reminds you about perspective, which puts work and all its challenges in the rightful place in the order of things.

This weekend’s medical scare and my reading material reminded me of the need for perspective. I know those in my team will remind me some more the next time they see me forget this lesson.

Take care

Janice

xx

The feedback on the video blog came flooding in, we even made backchat, seems most of you appreciated my willingness to make a fool of myself! I wonder once John has departed will I manage to force myself out of my comfort zone quite so much, in a strange sort of way I hope so, though maybe a purple mermaid costume is a once in a lifetime thing!

I can’t believe it’s the first Friday in Feb, 5 weeks into my new job, with my new boss who is out and about getting to know as many brokers as possible.  Like most I spent January trying to exercise, be healthier and cut down my alcohol intake, although sometimes I think I’m in the wrong job for all that, plus the fact I’m far too easily led astray.

A whole month and a bit into the new year and the general consensus seems to be that we’re gearing up for another tough one. Certainly customers and clients are yet to see a light at the end of the tunnel. So when something hits your desk that makes you smile, makes you proud, makes you think it’s all worth it, then you have to make the most of it. This is a year to savour the silver linings.

For me, seeing the quote below was the highlight of my January:

I’m an insurance broker and like us all I love to moan about the insurers we represent. If they paid us 99% commission and issued policies within 30 seconds of inception we would still complain about remuneration and service, that’s what we do!

But wait, did I really find myself saying today that Aviva are really helping us with their latest promotional material and window stickers and adverts? Did I really say that the Personal Best equivalent rates appearing on my CSC system are really coming up trumps for us? Did I really say that our account manager Dave Elsey is taking such an interest in us and being in useful regular contact? Did I really come back from the BIG seminar recently hosted by Jo and the gang enthused about Aviva caring about and helping the smaller broker?

The answer to all these questions is amazingly, YES, so well done all at Aviva, long may it continue.

The reason I love this is because it captures so much what we’re trying to do, trying to be for brokers. If I am asked to prepare a presentation this is what I want to say, this one quote tells me it’s all worthwhile.

That’s not to say I don’t get my fair share of complaints to deal with, speak to my fair share of brokers who tell me it’s not working. But this quote tells me the art of the possible, the silver lining, and as I said this feels like another year where we have to make every single lining count.

Here’s to silver linings.

Take care

Jd

(Quote provided by Gary Stockbridge – Abacus Insurance Services on the Aviva Broker B.I.G. Forum, 22nd January 2010)

Maybe I should dedicate my first blog in my new role to confirming that Aviva’s broker strategy is unchanged. But I won’t because you’ll hear that lots and lots from Mark and David in the next few weeks and months.

Maybe I should dedicate my first blog in my new role to explaining the new structure, but that would be far too internally focussed, and there’s a danger you’d all lose the will to live.  

Maybe I should dedicate my first blog to extolling the virtues of our new CEO, but you’ll see lots of him for yourselves over the coming months.

Maybe I should just stop for a minute and reflect….

If I had a fiver for every time I’ve been asked about my job in the last few weeks I’d be a long way to joining George and John and putting my feet up for good.

On one particular day I got asked the question 47 times, mostly by brokers, and always with good wishes.

So now it’s all out in the open, the fact that you’re stuck with me confirmed, I’ve been reflecting on how I feel.

Last week I didn’t have a minute to do that. I didn’t stop to think about the milestone of joining the Exec and what it means, I didn’t really stop to enjoy or celebrate the moment.

So on the advice of John, David and Igal, I did take a bit of time over the weekend to savour the many emails and texts of congratulations. I did stop to enjoy the flowers from my hubby and my mum and family. I did stop to reflect on why I don’t feel more different.

And what I decided is that the overwhelming feeling I have is that I’ve come home. My working life is all about relationships, my dream job is one that’s all about relationships, the thing I value most is the relationships I’ve built with brokers and partners over the years.

My heart and soul is in the broker business….. and they do say home is where the heart is.

Janice

xxx

It’s the last Friday in October, it’s five’ o’clock on a Friday afternoon and it’s dark. I can’t stop yawning, so maybe it’s fast approaching time to go home.

Somebody asked me how I was yesterday and I answered with a really enthusiastic and genuine “I’m great”, which I am, they were completely taken aback, said “there’s not much great around at the minute”, maybe it’s that time of year.

This is the time of year when frenzy takes hold. The frenzy of hitting this years numbers. The frenzy of all the things that absolutely must be done before Christmas is upon us. Contracts to sign, renewals to win, presentations to do, conferences to conference, new things to launch, finishing this year with a bang, starting next year on the front foot, keeping the momentum going, and so on and so on…

And the world we live in doesn’t get any easier, the market is still tough, and will be for a while, and green shoots emerge and then get doused with weed killer.

And then there’s the small matter of Christmas, presents to buy, stuff to do, trying to be original, ticking things off the list, or is that just because I’m a woman?  I was in Manchester and Liverpool earlier last week, the Christmas decorations were up in the airport, and it sent me into a frenzy of Christmas shopping.

And to add to it all there’s getting up in the dark, going home in the dark, and the prospect of only shortening days for the next 4 months.

So maybe that’s why there’s “not much great around at the minute”.

Sorry I didn’t set out to depress you honest…because I am great at the minute, I love this time of year, and I LOVE CHRISTMAS…and in a funny and strange sort of way I think I love frenzy.

So why am I great at the minute…?

Well for a start sitting on my desk are 6, yes SIX, framed finalist nominations for 6 different categories in the Insurance Times Awards.

…and this week we launched our press ads to support the broker TV ads, and all the feedback say’s they’re really hitting the mark.

…and we’ve now held 6 conferences for Broker Independence Group brokers, and they are proving to be the start of something really special

…and I’ve already attended my first black tie dinner of the season, I’m trying hard to be tee-total from Monday to Friday to prepare myself for the onslaught.

…and I can see so much progress amongst all the frenzy, towards numbers, renewals, sorting stuff out.

…and I love frenzy, in a funny and strange sort of way I think I’m good at it.

And at the end of this frenzy I can see light. A strong end to this year and some green shoots that we’re nurturing and protecting, and so much potential for more.

So when the time comes at the end of it all, the last days of the old year, the first of the new, the days when nobody uses blackberrys or phones (if they did I wouldn’t answer), the days when the frenzy stops for a bit, by then I’ll be exhausted, spending whole days in my PJ’s watching old films and darts on the telly. By then don’t mention the word frenzy, I’ll be all frenzied out.

Take care

Janice xxx

Looking back over my old blogs, you might get the impression that I have lots of holidays…….I don’t, just the average amount, I do seem to talk about them a lot, so I’ll apologise upfront as I’m about to do it again.

I just got back from holiday last Wednesday, I normally wait until after the summer rush then sneak off when everyone else is back, it means everywhere is quieter and we can really escape it all.

I am one of the few people it seems in today’s mad world who fiercely defends my holiday time, no blackberry, no phone, not even a newspaper. I read 8 books on this trip, some really girly rubbish (but I like it), some courtroom drama stuff and a big period drama for when I ran out of everything else. I completely forgot about the rest of the world, work couldn’t have been further from my mind, it was wonderful.

So maybe I have a different perspective because I missed all the excitement of the last few weeks…..

Maybe I have a different perspective because I have just had 2 weeks complete downtime…..

Maybe I have a different perspective from catching up on all that’s passed in a couple of hours of reading emails on a plane…..

Or maybe I just have a different perspective……..

I left for my holidays on a high! We had just hosted a hugely successful broker conference, we were a few days from our Aviva broker TV advertising going live, the feedback from brokers was and is fantastic, awareness of the Aviva brand was at it’s highest point ever and exceeding the 2009 targets, and we felt like we were starting to win in what remains a hugely difficult market.

So when I came back to see some of the press coverage about Igal leaving the UK to take on a new role in North America, it felt like I’d entered the twilight zone. I was expecting flashing lights and that weird music, because what I was reading was so far from the reality of the world I thought I was living in. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live in a rose tinted world, I’m not naive, we’ve had our moments, but it did all seem a bit out of balance.

The headlines certainly didn’t relate to the world I recognised before my hols. Neither did they seem to represent the man I worked alongside for the last 2 years. And I’m pretty sure not one of the 200 plus brokers who were with us at the conference a few weeks ago recognised it either.

Outside of the twilight zone I can only reflect my own perspective. I’m sad about the news that Igal is leaving the UK to take on a new role in North America. We’ve come a long way, it’s starting to feel like the tough stuff is behind us, and we have built a great platform to grow, all at a time when very little in the market or the economy has been in ours or anyone else’s favour. 

I’m pretty sure that the twilight zone and the real world won’t get mixed up. That what’s been written will be taken with the big fat pinch of salt it deserves, and that nobody is expecting a full scale reversal of all that we’ve done, just because the headlines hint it will be so. Brokers will judge us on our actions in the real world, and that’s all I can hope for and expect.

Janice