News Analysis - PB Management Event: Planning for the recovery

On 6 October, senior broker managers gathered in London for the PB Management Event at which respected industry figures shared their thoughts on strategic matters. Delegates also attended a variety of seminars and interactive question and answer sessions.

Trevor Lee, consulting and coaching partner at The Partnership, opened the event, providing guidance on how attendees can grow their businesses in a tough trading environment. He told the audience that it was beginning to look unlikely that the UK will experience a "lost decade" such as the prolonged recession experienced by the Japanese economy in the 1990s. Lee outlined the factors that businesses can use to address business economy problems, using what he termed the 'four Cs': context, customers, capability, and cojones.

The 4Cs by Trevor Lee
• Context, as in current outlook, is often unfavourable for our businesses but we have to understand and plan around it.
• Customers have changing employment patterns, contracts, outsourcing, multiple employers and greater impact on technology in workplace patterns.
• Capabilities mean leveraging anything around the organisation, finding a niche within a niche and really drilling down to differentiate your business.
• Having cojones is about the business success that we observe; it is much to do with personal and organisational mentality, the positive mental attitude enthused through, across, up and down a business. The drive, energy, creativity and passion of businesses' personalities to a significant extent depend on the people running them.

Lee told the audience: "The best people are determined to get it right no matter what. They are open to new ideas and change in order to constantly improve and get the rewards they deserve. If you are not passionate about your business, you simply won't give it your best."

Developmental necessity
Brian Ablett, associate trainer at Marlborough Training and Consultancy, took up the theme of passion for business and highlighted the skills of recruiting and retaining staff. Ablett warned against seeing employee engagement as a luxury, using research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development showing that the average cost of someone joining a company at junior management level is £7,250, representing the combined costs of recruitment, advertising, interviewing and training.

As well as encouraging managers to have induction programmes in place, Ablett recommended creating or reviewing exit interview procedures; a show of hands in the hall revealed that only 50% of attendees have them. Ablett said: "They are worthwhile as a fantastic form of feedback; your good staff are often the ones who go first because they are known in the field."

Ablett explained the difference between textbook management and its real-world counterpart, the latter working on the human rather than only the statistical level. He continued: "Good supervision won't be noticed: it will be taken for granted. Talk to people and listen to them to find out what they can offer you."

Concluding, Ablett pointed out that the life cycle of a team has to take time to evolve from birth through adolescence to maturity. He added: "The maturity stage of a team of people is reached when they are working together cohesively with great answers to suggestions and using each of their strengths. The downside of losing two or three staff members from that team is going back to the young stage again."

There was plenty of opportunity for networking and delegates had the choice of attending two of the four seminar sessions on offer. Alasdair Stewart, head of corporate development at the Chartered Insurance Institute, explained the importance of, and how to achieve, chartered status, while Aviva looked ahead to explore the key drivers for the insurance market over the next five years.

Mike Crane, commercial director at LV, opened the floor to brokers, asking for feedback on how insurer service could be improved with a thought-provoking and lively debate addressing subjects such as whether pricing rather than service is the biggest differentiator for moving business. In the session hosted by accountancy firm Littlejohn, partner and head of broking David Roberts and colleagues presented their thoughts on funding types and the possible routes to securing resources that brokers could take.

Phil Barton, chief executive at Jelf Insurance, described his vision for the future of the Bristol-based broker. He spoke about commercial lines broking and his belief in creating clarity, simplification and accountability as the key to success for stakeholders. Barton also revealed the company's re-branding and participated in an audience question and answer session based on the PB Sentiment Survey. The panel that closed the event included Phil Bunker, managing director at LV= Broker, Laurent Matras, managing director at Groupama Insurances and Alasdair Stewart, who all discussed the difficulties of improving commercial rates.

Ablett on money
"Recognition is probably more important than a pay rise. A bonus, although wonderful to receive, is a short-lived piece of success. The trouble with salary is, after a few months, it is amazing how quickly it becomes the norm. Money is a very expensive way of motivating people that does work but only in short bursts of time. A more cost-effective way of motivating staff is through recognition, a sense of responsibility and people being trusted."

• PB is already working on exciting plans for the 2011 conference. Contact Oli Henry for sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities.