It’s amazing how being away for a couple of weeks can change your perspective. We’ve just come back from a fantastic couple of weeks in Scotland and a few things have struck me since I’ve been back. First, it’s amazing how quickly children adapt to life without TV – the youngest learnt to ride a bike, and the eldest two have become scrabble addicts. Second, we’re having some building work done – and before we went away we were starting to get to the “is it worth it and will it ever finish stage”. Well, it isn’t finished, but the progress was great. We can now see exactly what it will be like when it is and all the old feelings of excitement and anticipation came back.

Which is exactly how I feel about work too – getting our personal lines offering right is a massive task and when you’re stuck right in it everyday it’s really easy to lose track of how far along the way you are. But looking at things with a fresh and rejuvenated eye, it has made me stop and think about just what we have achieved over the last twelve months since we started on this journey, and whilst I know there’s still a long way to go, I can really start to see it taking shape. And, just like our house, it’s not simply me being over-optimistic, but in the same way as our neighbours (who are being great about the disruption) have made some positive comments, we can see our success coming through in our numbers, in our surveys, and in what our brokers are saying.

So, while I still get frustrated from time to time, things don’t always go exactly as I’d like, and there will be some changes and more disruption to the plans, we’re well on the way and I’m excited again because I can see the time when the decorators start work, we’re going through the snagging list and Mrs Hudson is buying soft furnishings…(note to self, start to withdraw credit cards discretely!)

Sam Hudson (Head of Broker Personal Lines)

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)

 

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

‘I wanna be elected’ sang Alice Cooper

You may ‘wanna be elected’ but it can’t be easy when you hear conversations along the lines of ‘they’re all the same’, ‘not much difference between them’, ‘difficult to tell them apart these days’.  Leaves you wondering what it is that makes people choose?…. but they do.  Decisions made on a whole raft of things from the rational to gut feeling. But I wonder if customers … the people who buy insurance products and services… sometimes feel ‘they’re all the same’ when they think about insurers?  How would we perform in the equivalent of a ‘ ‘Prime Minister Debate’?  Would customers feel ‘they’re all the same’ because they feel we treat them ‘all the same’?  Does the owner of body repair business feel we understand what his business really needs or is he seen as ‘another garage’?

In politics we hear about the ‘presidential style’. It’s all about personalities.  Does that mean we’re judged on the basis of our people?…their professionalism, their ability to understand and respond to different customers. Would the customer judge us on the way that we really understand and recognise how they manage risk?…they are people not ‘risks’.   

Or is it less about the ‘cult of personality’ and more about detail, the substance and the promises we make and deliver?  Is it the case that the ‘product-is-just-the product’ or is there more to it?  What does segmentation really mean to the owner of a business?…is it just a different title on the cover of a standard product?  Does the detail and the understanding that is built into the promises show that we know what the customer needs?

So how should we be judged?  Unsurprisingly we’d hope to be judged on a coalition. A coalition of the right blend of the professionalism of our people coupled with substance of our products. Of course unlike in politics the customer has the benefit of advice…they don’t need to understand all these things.  They have the benefit of advice from their broker, whose knowledge is based on far more than 2 or 3 public debates.

With the wranglings at Westminster, the challenges in our market and with it already being May, perhaps another of Alice’s songs sounds far more appealing… ‘School’s out for Summer’.

Eric Franz – Head of Commercial Proposition

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)

Paul:    Yes, I’ll do a guest blog, but only if I can do a special one.

Brigid: Paul, what do you mean, ‘a special one’, special like the Canadian Hockey Team? (Brigid Murphy)

Paul:    No, although they were impressive.

Brigid: So what have you in mind?  This isn’t an attempt to use the blog to promote Specialist Lines is it Paul?  The blogs are meant to inform, not promote.

Paul:    Yes, I realise that, although I would just like to mention that as I’ve travelled around the country recently, Perth, Birmingham, London, Southampton, Plymouth, Exeter and Bristol I’ve also met some of my teams in Professional Indemnity, Marine, Engineering and bumped into the Bonds, D&O, GPA and Latent Defects teams.  The breadth and depth of their knowledge and expertise is mind blowing.  They are a special bunch and at times unsung heroes.

Brigid: Paul, get to the point.

Paul:    OK, well I was in the pub last Monday and we were having a warm down session after my keep fit class.

Brigid: Paul, is this relevant?

Paul:    Yes.  Anyway we got talking about football and Jose Mourinho came up – you know, the ex-Chelsea Manager, now Inter Milan.  Well he regarded himself as ‘the special one’ and that got me thinking………..

You see, he was good, knew his job, was a skilled coach, and understood his business.  He had real self belief.  He might have overdone it occasionally, but he really got results.

I think the people we work with are a bit like that.  Special I mean – but more of the shrinking violet side of this, only we don’t perhaps tell everyone how good our people are.

So, as the blog is about informing, rather than promoting, I’d like to do a special blog about our staff, and just inform whoever reads this that our people are pretty special too.

Is that OK?

Brigid: Yes it is, our people are special.

Paul:    So, there it is then – my special blog.

Paul Charlton, Aviva’s Head of Trading for West, South Wales and Specialist Lines

“Would you guest on Janice’s blog? It’s an opportunity.”

Hmmm. I tend toward Ambrose Bierce’s view; Opportunity defined as ‘an occasion for grasping a disappointment’.

I’m an Underwriter……..well I’m heading Aviva’s new Corporate Risks team…….. but I’m an Underwriter (even the Insurance press said so)…typical of the breed…glass half empty (far too frequently of late!) Why would any one be interested? Can you blag a blog?

But then – on reflection, the interest in Aviva’s latest initiative has been incredible: internally and externally.

Again, typical Underwriter: paranoia to the fore – unsure of a public launch; didn’t want the noise; nervous of perceptions: conscious of legacy. Lets prove ourselves, get ourselves established. Want to listen to our partners and clients, not make announcements. It wasn’t as if there was a lack of opinion in the market (always impressed with certain individual’s belief in their own divinity, untroubled that their pronouncements have all the accuracy of a long range weather forecast).

And actually it’s been fantastic:

- the support, counsel, reception from brokers…brilliant: a real spirit of generosity.

- the commitment from all the team across Aviva to get the business up and running.

- building the team, a core of Aviva’s best with a blend of the best in the market.

- interest from around the business – our internal tele-conference briefing on the launch was one of the best attended with hundreds phoning in.

- winning our place on one of our key partners panels for corporate business at the same time as we were establishing the unit.

- attendance at two of our brokers conferences and the warmth of response.

- success of the two launch events superbly put together by our Marketing and Events team.

- achieving our January plan and from a personal perspective one of the most exciting developments in my 30 year career.

Still lots to do and best that I leave as I started with a thought from my life coach Mr Bierce:

‘Future – that period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness assured.’

Paul Sullivan (Head of Corporate Risk Solutions)

(nb. both quotes by Ambrose Bierce from the Devil’s Dictionary 1911)

“John, can you pick up a new role….can you take us back to number 1 for personal lines in the broker market……oh, and do it in 2010 please…..oh, and take the brokers with you by becoming the Aviva face on personal lines” ……..mmmm I thought………another massive personal lines challenge I thought.

But on the basis that I have seen Aviva (old NU) through the halcyon days of “quote me happy”, the riding on the crest of the aggregator wave, big partner accounts such as Barclays and Ford, and niche areas such as ‘pay as you drive’….and in more recent times launching into the broker market with the flourishing Club 110 and Broker Independence Group, Facility 110, Fast Trade, the brand change to Aviva…maybe I’m the right man for the job after all!

You know it was only a few years ago that the old Norwich Union was no.1 in broker personal lines, with thousands of regional brokers trading hundreds of thousands of NU policies…well, those times are about to return.

The key to success is to make a weighty investment in pricing and technology and, in tandem, treat every broker who trades personal lines individually; engaging them, listening to them and then responding with action. Good news is we’ve already begun.

We have brought our new sophisticated rating to the broker market. The same rating that has proved so successful over the past 9 months in our direct business. “At last”, brokers are saying, “there will be alignment between direct and broker prices…transparency…thank goodness…with the only difference being the cost to distribute”.

And its already started…seeing our conversion rates dramatically shift in a matter of weeks.

In July, we launched our prototype new web system, Personal Best. In just 10 weeks we are seeing thousands of quotes being placed across hundreds of brokers. The only place in the broker market you can get our ‘Aviva deals’. Currently, motor is offering 12 months for the price of 10, and home is offering free contents cover when buying combined. It has been so successful – we’ve listened, and already released version one, replacing the prototype with a much improved version.

So, what if you use a software house? That’s changing too! Going live this week are our exclusive new software house rates…..initially with Insurecom, but soon to follow with the other software houses. Early signs are that we have dramatically improved our competitiveness…its starting…but there is so much more to come. Price, product, offers, service, distribution, IT, account relationships will all be stepping up a gear or three. Keep watching.

On being asked to guest blog, I couldn’t let the blog go without mentioning a certain Mr Kitson.

It was nearly 10 years ago that an energetic, passionate, excitable John Kitson asked me to join him to be part of the team to run our flagship corporate partner, Ford.

Since then, I’ve spent many years being his FD, his strategy guy, his marketing man, his Aviva voice, his Norwich City partner in crime, and not in 10 years has there been a dull moment!

He has been an inspiration to me and many others. As we moved from the success of FordInsure, to the marketing heyday of “Quote Me Happy”, to Pay as you drive, to Club 110 to Aviva…he will be sorely missed from next year.

Whilst work is what we do, imprinted in my memory is John the ‘individual’. Whether its his 8 sugars in his coffee, his love of bakewell tarts, his infectious energy, the fact he was on the pitch after Ronnie Radford’s equaliser at Edgar Street (Hereford v Newcastle 1972), or him never passing the ball in a 5-a-side, our passion shared for Norwich City, his relentless expletive texting to me as the canaries went down to Fulham 6-0 and Colchester 7-1, or our visit to India where he not only lived on bananas and muesli bars for a week but he also forgot to update his visa at Heathrow and joined us a day late!

For many different reasons, it has been full of memorable personal and work experiences working with John.

And as one ex-footballer said as he signed off…”It’s been emotional”.

I work for Janice, for those of you interested in the order of things but order and the usual run of things have not been high on the agenda of my life of late. In fact it’s all been a bit surreal and has included meeting a swarm of ladybirds, conversations about sonic mnemonics (I’ve had conversations about Sonic the Hedgehog with my 7 year old son, Tom before but that didn’t help), the level and use of prosthetic make-up, as well as my first experience of being a casting director – and yes I was sitting on a couch (we don’t do stereotypes at Aviva – its really not us!)

So let me try to explain. It all started on a quiet Sunday in Norfolk and the family were all packed up and ready early for a trip to the coast (had to be up early to beat the hordes of stay in UK BBQ summer types!). The sun was actually splitting the sky, so with picnic blanket and picnic ready, cricket bat and rugby ball packed, windbreak (essential item on the North Norfolk coast) in the boot we set off to the seaside. However, on arrival not all was quite how it should be. The whole coast had recently become the home to millions (no exaggeration) of ladybirds and other such bugs and all of them seemed rather attracted to the windbreak, the picnic blanket, the picnic and more amusingly the mother-in-law! Bright clothing particularly yellow or white were not the order of the day. A strange start to my week indeed.

Next came work and I was faced with the exciting prospect, after months of hard work and preparation, of  getting to the business-end of producing the TV advert for brokers.[ As a quick update we’ll be filming the broker advert in the first week in September]

“So Brian, we’ve developed this sonic mnemonic for your broker business insurance TV advert, what do you think?” ……said the Producer of the advert

“Sonic what?” said I

“Now for hair and prosthetic make-up… “

“Pathetic what?” said I…..clearly this advertising game is tricky

“Now if we can move on to item 14 on the agenda – casting the extras” – says the Producer…..

I’m faced with a series of pictures of models – sorry actors, sorry extras – Equity and all that have different levels I’m told – “Which ones do you think Brian?”

“Never mind what I think – what will the rest of Janice’s management team think when they find out I’m spending time casting extras, discussing sonics and choosing the right level of make-up”  – I exclaim!

“Do you not know we’re in a recession, trading can be tough out there, brokers are toughing it out but it’s hard. And I’m here doing hair and make-up!”
……….. Silence

I sip my Chai Latte (I’m at a top London creative agency so excuse my drink choice) and compose myself…my mind turns to an editor’s comment in a certain trade press magazine this month (sorry Tom – not yours). And the quotes come flooding back….

Aviva “is putting its money where its mouth is for the sector” – for the sector I chant!

“now its (Aviva) swing back to brokers looks like a real and thoroughly considered strategy……the campaign will underline the main messages the industry has so far failed to say…that expert and individual advice from a regulated local broker is essential if you run a commercial enterprise…..the insurers move has to be applauded”. Has to be applauded I chant!

Suddenly, hair and make-up plus the right choice of sonic and extras seems not too frivolous an activity for the working week but instead a really important piece of work. An activity to support brokers in these difficult times, an activity that is ground-breaking and promotes the whole industry, but also an activity educating businesses across the UK about making the right choice when it comes to insurance.

And based on those thoughts I hope to have many more surreal weeks to come…just without the bugs!

Brian