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Lessons from Starbucks: Q&A with Lucy Arkell, IBAO

Taking brokerages into the future means a different mindset.

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That’s the kind of thinking that brokers should adopt as they work to take their businesses to the next level, according to a new Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) pilot program. The Beyond Best in Class pilot “is one of several leading edge approaches that we are introducing designed to assist our member brokers in transitioning their business operations,” says IBAO CEO Randy Carroll.

The association joined forces with Gore Mutual Insurance Company for the pilot phase. The insurer sponsored 12 broker participants to take part in the initial three-day workshop session in Cambridge, Ontario last week.

Canadian Insurance Top Broker spoke to Lucy Arkell, education manager at the IBAO, about the program and its possibilities for brokers in Ontario and beyond.

1) What’s behind the Beyond Best in Class program?

Things are changing so fast in the global economy and technology. Brokers can’t keep doing what they’ve done in the past. The program helps them address the question: where do you need to go to stay in business and grow your business?

We talk about Starbucks. When things started to go south there, [former CEO] Howard Shultz came back, saw that none of the old models worked, and looked at new ways to expand the business, like instant coffee. [He saw that] old models may not be the key to success.

The program sets the stage for brokers to look very critically at their own business and strategize how to move forward.

2) What broker operations issues does it address? And how are they addressed?

The focus is on how they do business: what their relationship is like with partners, marketing, who they’re targeting and how they’re targeting them. We look at resources that speak to what’s happening in each of these places.

Coming out of the first session, they have specific tasks to do in each area they’ve identified and collaborative work to do between sessions.

While the program deals with the critical brokerage practices of customer relations, branding and marketing, human capital, technology, brokerage operations and finance, the primary focus is to encourage brokers to change the way they think about employees, clients and insurance company partners.

3) What broker-carrier relationship issues are addressed? Or broker-client issues?

The insurer relationship piece is not the focus, but it looks at how we can better work with partners, how they can support us, and how we can solve workflow issues together.

Among the broker-carrier relations addressed: technology and efficiencies, workflows and developing more customer-centric value propositions. [When it comes to] broker-client issues: understanding customers and market, value proposition, brand essence, delivering on value proposition and keeping and attracting customers.

In both instances, it focuses on evolving tomorrow’s business model.

4) What does Beyond Best in Class involve in terms of time commitments and tasks?

It’s a five-day program–broken up into two sessions completed over a six month period–geared to brokerage principals and senior managers.  Between sessions, the participants are involved in monthly collaborative learning and must complete exercises that require them plan and begin applying 4 D (dynamic, different, dominant, disciplined) thinking to begin implementing meaningful, long term change.

5) How can brokers get involved once the pilot phase is over?

Following the pilot group, the program will be opened up to IBAO’s other insurers and the full membership later this year. Everyone recognizes the need, and there’s a real demand for this out there. We have a lot of insurers waiting in the wings. My hope is that it will be as much insurer-driven as it is broker-driven.

6) Will the program eventually roll out across the country?

Potentially. We want to nail it here in Ontario.