Briefing: When competitors collaborate…

By Kelly Ogley

Last week, on 14 November, I had the pleasure of attending one of the industry’s flagship events – the 2024 Insurance Times Broker CEO Forum.

Some readers may question why a group of chief executives, who often compete with each other, would want to get together for a few days.

You may think we’d want to keep our secret sauce to ourselves, but it’s actually the opposite. The forum’s a group of likeminded people who want to make our industry the best it can be, so that we can ensure it continues to flourish.

The jam packed agenda covered a wide range of subjects, from industry hot topics to the wider UK economic landscape and how brokers need to balance competitive pricing and regulation to ensure we remain agile, while also ensuring we remain client centric.

The regular debate about insurer service standards got a full airing, with some discussion on what we really mean when we talk about poor service. Do we mean service standards? Or are we talking about acceptance rates?

Are we, as brokers, sending the right risks to the right market to help ensure we all work productively? As a sector, we only win if we collectively delight our clients, so it’s critical we provide feedback to our insurer partners when we and our clients are let down. Feedback is, after all, a gift.

AI and talent?

We then followed up this discussion with the potential juxtaposition of a discussion on artificial intelligence (AI), followed by a lively debate on the war for talent.

With the onset of generative AI, should we fear for jobs in our sector? Many of us have seen the clickbait headlines of Elon Musk claiming all jobs will eventually be taken over by the technology, so should we fear technological advancement?

The general consensus from the experts in the room was that AI may transform many jobs, but that ultimately we will still need human brokers and insurers – phew.

AI will remove a lot of the entry level and grunt work we do today, as well as providing technical advice on products, terms and clauses, for example.

While this sounds great, it led us to our next topic – talent. When we all started in insurance, we learnt and developed by doing many of these tasks. In my day, that involved issuing hundreds of continuation cover notes while waiting for full policy documents from insurers – maybe service standards haven’t changed afterall!.

At the tender age of 16, I was issuing legally binding agreements, ensuring that cover and terms and conditions were accurately represented – quite a frighting thought when I look back.

This was a repetitive task but, like many other entry level jobs, it provided me with a solid foundation on which to build my career. We need to plan our journey with AI carefully, so that we avoid the unintended consequences of embracing AI – losing the building blocks of competency.

Learning by osmosis

Another hot topic discussed on the day was the pros and cons of hybrid working.

It’s fair to say there’s definitely different schools of thought on the issue, from those that are 100% hybrid all the way to those mandating full time back in the office.

It’s simple. The question we should ask is which solution is best to develop and engage our people, build a culture where people want to stay and see their career flourish and where we can ensure we delight our clients. For me, that’s in the office.

Overhearing conversations on the placement of complex risks, broking to an insurer or dealing with a tricky situation is invaluable – and being in the office is the perfect place to learn by osmosis.

We often refer to ourselves as a people-based industry – and the Broker CEO Forum is the epitome of this.

It involves people coming together from across the UK, with different business models and different product lines, but all networking and having healthy debates to ensure our industry continues to thrive. All of this is coupled with lots of fun and lifelong friendships – and I am proud to work for such a dynamic industry with such amazing people.