Perspectives | The New Face of the Client Relationship Business

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The New Face of the Client Relationship Business

September 22, 2005 - New York City. Monthly breakfast meeting of the New York Chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society. Moderator: Zakia Campbell, Executive Director of Morgan Stanley.

We went to this meeting mainly to catch up with clients and friends whom we had not seen since the summer recess. The single featured speaker was Gregory C. Case, the new CEO and president of mega broker Aon. It seemed to us that RIMS had lobbed him a softball topic.

Mr. Case, who came to Aon from outside the insurance brokerage business, is the new face in town. He spoke about the importance of delivering value to clients. Value throughout the year, not just at renewal time. Value manifest in strengthening the client's balance sheet and stabilizing their earnings. Value for the risk manager in raising the visibility of risk management issues.

Aon under his leadership will focus on three areas:

  1. “Demonstrate the delivery of impact to clients.”
  2. “Spending our money on activities that create value.” and
  3. “Making Aon the destination of choice for the world's best talent.”

 

 

The meeting ended with a Q&A session in which we learned that he is not too high on enterprise risk management, that transparency (as to where their money comes from) does not create value but that Aon will not accept contingent fees and that Aon is not (like Marsh) going to abandon middle market accounts. We were not surprised to see our former colleague Walter Thomenson rise in defense of Intego, when Mr. Case debunked the idea that Intego is advantaged because it has no legacy (of Spitzer and other enforcement actions against it.)

As he said at the beginning of his presentation, "clients will separate the winners from the losers…" We felt that he really meant this — and that he was not just tipping his hat to this audience which included a lot of experienced and discriminating risk managers.

For those who would like to learn more about getting better value our of their insurance broker, visit our Insurance Broker Selection Service page. We may be able to help you put a new face on the broker who serves you.