It’s a funny month, August – with December, possibly the only month that is very different workwise these days from the others. Work seems to have lost much of its seasonality in recent years but in August, we take a leaf out of the Parisian’s book and clear off on long family breaks, jostling for space with millions of other families doing exactly the same thing. Even with Blackberries, the normal work patterns are broken down as project teams are missing vital cogs and getting face to face with brokers/colleagues falters in the face of blanked out diaries.

This August was particularly different for me personally. Little Rory was born on the 8th after keeping us waiting for nearly two weeks and then shortly after, a dear friend died at 38 years old after a long illness – delight and relief to grief and great sadness in just 5 days. Working life has been a bit hit and miss, with paternity leave and learning the ropes of getting everyone out the door on time in the morning – parental man-marking isn’t so effective when there’s two of you and three of them!

So September brings a frantic return to normality as everyone tries to catch up on all the things that couldn’t happen in August – although there is no new coat and pencil case, it’s the same feeling, fresh dewy mornings and the sense of battle re-joined. The last four months of the year is when the following year can be won and lost – this time last year we were just starting to implement our push into Corporate Risks and our Personal Lines refresh which have both been instrumental in our success and growth this year. You can’t rest on your laurels, so we have some new big tricks up our sleeve for next year that will be keeping us very busy through to December, so watch this space. Now December really is a funny month…

Phil Bayles (Director: Broker Key Partners)

I caught myself reflecting over the last week or so, that maybe I have started to sound like my mum, or even worse my Grandma.

And this is how I came to that conclusion…

The last 2 years still remains on paper the worse recession certainly in my lifetime. We all know someone who’s lost their job, a business that is struggling or worse, or someone who feels their home maybe under threat.

Yet over the last week or so, the bank results are turning around, the equity markets rallying (for a bit at least) and certainly lots of evidence of a mood that doesn’t reflect things are at their worst in the business world.

I add to that my own personal feel-good factor that comes with our own results at Aviva. In summary, we thought they were pretty strong and this was reflected in the analyst and press feedback. Here’s just a few of the quotes…

“Investors are rightly waking up to Aviva’s attractions.”

“We expect the shares to react positively as the numbers reported are ahead on all measures.”

“We are going to lift our numbers and we still believe that despite today’s share performance, the stock can trade at higher multiples.”

So all in all, some signs for optimism.

Then I was chatting to my niece, who’s in her early twenties, and for her age group these are the most difficult times they have ever seen. She was telling me about friends who own their own homes who now have negative equity and that brought back my memories of ‘the winter of discontent’. How my dad (who was an ex-army chef) baked bread because there was none in the shops and no sugar for weeks.

Added to the constant doom and gloom were power cuts and candles and that popular quote ‘it will get worse before it gets better’. (I would like to remind you that I was 7 at the time!)

I pulled myself up short just before I said the time honoured phrase ‘back in my day’, and just as I caught the mixture of awe and pity in my niece’s eyes, I thought about my Grandma’s recollections of having to walk four miles to school and back each day, or spending her school hols potato picking. I thought maybe I had the same look of awe and pity in my eyes at that time?

So maybe these aren’t the worse ever times and just maybe we are on the road to recovery. Certainly it’s all relative depending on your perspective.

And maybe…just maybe…I am getting old.

Janice

xxxxx

Have you noticed how the TV shows running at the moment are all repeats, the insurance trade press don’t seem to have quite as much heavy-weight copy as previous editions, the roads are that much emptier and the Sunday Times can now be lifted off the newsagents shelves without risk of a hernia?

Yes you’ve guessed it, we are now officially into the ‘Silly Season’. Schools out for Summer, Cornwall is full and we’re all heading to the sun for some well deserved downtime, its that slow part of the year…But hold on a minute…slow part of the year?…That’s not really true these days…Is it?  

There certainly seems to be no let up in terms of the pace of life in the insurance business and there’s certainly enough going on at the moment to keep all our summer days busy. Take last week’s announcement by NIG of their intention to exit from the personal lines broker market. Such changes require us to constantly be on our toes, ready and capable of responding to broker requests to help, especially as our business is wholly committed to the personal lines market. That’s why we’ve moved quickly and mobilised all our resources. Yes the holiday season is at its peak, yes we have a few of our people out of the business but we are here and open for business, whatever the time of year, whatever repeats are showing and no matter how empty the roads are! 

P.S. We recognise that we’re currently at the height of the holiday season, so you may be unable to get hold of some of your usual account management contacts. So to assist you, we have created a secure mailbox for you to send in your requests – evolve@aviva.co.uk.

Brian Spinks (Head of Corporate Marketing)

The above video is a message from Aviva & Railway Children in response to our 1 Day charity campaign which took place throughout June – for more information, please visit www.aviva.co.uk/1day

 

This is my third week in the new role as Regional Broker Director and it’s been all the usual things you would expect starting a new role; busy, a little bit daunting, but most of all exciting.

One of the hardest things is picking the right things to get involved in, or more importantly the things to leave alone!

The thing I keep coming back to as my guide is the importance of momentum, I am a strong believer that the right momentum creates energy and luck!    

In sport it’s obvious, Argentina have it (my bet for the World Cup), the English football team didn’t (admit it, we all saw it coming!), but we do in the Cricket with an ashes series on the way.

It happens at home too and although you try and fight it, the outcome is inevitable. For example, 6 months ago I found Jo, my wife, looking on Right Move…and guess what?! We are in a new house!

Sometimes it’s harder to spot at work as you tackle emails, phone calls and deal with the day to day challenges, but there are opportunities to stand back and spot things.

Last week was such an opportunity and perfect timing for me as I was lucky enough to spend some time with a large number of brokers at our annual Key Partner Conference.

It’s obvious we have come a long way since this time last year. Our teams across the country are doing a great job trading locally, momentum is with us, so my job is to help keep up the pace, no radical changes just listening to teams and brokers to understand where a tweak can help!

There may be times when we need to kick start or inject new energy into a particular area so I will be looking at this over the coming weeks and months. As I get to meet more and more of you, I am eager to hear your thoughts.

Oh by the way, something started at the conference that will need no help in building sustained momentum, a new nickname for Phil Bayles – ask me when I see you!!!!    

Gareth Hemming

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>

Wow, how good is this!  53 years old and I’ve actually been asked to write a piece for Janice’s Blog!

My name is Alan Drury and I work with the Broker Trading Teams across the North West of England, Nottingham and Northern Ireland.  I’ve operated in most markets in the UK but now ‘almost’ feel an honorary Northerner having lived in the North West since 1993.   I actually still like Eastenders though rather than “The Street” as my PA calls it..! It helps me keep in touch with my Essex roots.

Over the last couple of years my role has extended to pick up the teams in Northern Ireland and Nottingham and it has been great to meet a wider spectrum of our broker partners from different territories as well as some great underwriters doing a super job in very aggressive and competitive market conditions, (I’ve seen a few cycles come and go as well and this is a tough market to trade in, make no mistake!)

Our industry is blessed with a predominance of fantastic and interesting people and most broker entrepreneurs I meet are working really hard to stand still as the economy remains tough and I suspect will do for some time as those green shoots we keep hearing about emerge into increased trading confidence across all the sectors of UK business. 

Good Independent Brokers providing great local service supported by committed and skilled teams offering both risk advice and choice of products have little to fear as most of them have built a strong enough platform to weather any economic storm.  Over the last couple of months, I have just started hear a bit more optimism and confidence about future trading that augurs well for 2011 anyway.

You have to be resilient in our business especially as a soft southern Essex boy trying to carve out a living in a harsh Northern landscape.  My sophisticated knowledge of quality football has helped me through the tough times being able to watch my beloved Colchester United when they visit this hot bed of soccer at many a venue, like Rochdale, Bury, Tranmere and Stockport!   Another season’s hopes are however dashed as we hit the play-off places and then got the usual nosebleed dropping down to mid table mediocrity.  Gutted, but I’m feeling good about next season though…(heard that before, anybody…?)     

Alan Drury – Head of Trading (North-West & Northern Ireland)

I’ve forced myself to analyse why and I think it comes down to two things: the ‘head’ reason is that government actions can and do have a significant impact on you/your family’s life (just ask the Greeks!). The ‘heart’ one for me is the fascination I feel in witnessing this huge national sales pitch, extending across the whole of the UK, 24/7 – it’s like a time-constrained war with 650 mini-battles to be won and success or failure being so finely balanced – who would have thought that a Granny going out for bread in Rochdale would becoming a defining moment of the campaign?

So you can imagine, with all of my excitement why I find members of the ‘Apathy Party’ somewhat frustrating – we are all highly sophisticated consumers these days, we can all make preference choices on coffee, sofas and holidays, you would think we’d be able to make political choices too, even if it’s just the lesser of evils.

It also pays to make clear choices in the insurance world. The key part of a Broker’s job is to help their clients make the right choices around their insurance cover and provider – all insurers are not the same and clients won’t thank their brokers if they have a poor claims experience or the insurer they were recommended is facing it’s own financial difficulties – as with most things in life, price and value are two different things. With insurance, as in politics, you need to look below the glossy surface and examine the true character.

Insurers also have choices – brokers come in all sizes and quality levels and the two aren’t necessarily correlated. At Aviva, we have made very conscious choices of the brokers we wish to work closest with – they are all shapes and sizes but the common thread is professionalism in looking after their clients needs and the quality and trust in our relationship.  Treat us as a partner and we’ll do the same.

The key difference between the election and insurance choices is that brokers and insurers have to prove themselves day in day out – delivering on our promises and justifying the loyalty we are shown or our customers will walk.  You only get one chance every 5 years to make a choice on your government – a sobering thought and one that should make even the most ambivalent choose choice over apathy next Thursday.

Phil Bayles (Director: Broker Key Partners)

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