Which professional lines business is seeing significant growth?

Jen: [00:00:07] Hello, everyone, and welcome to Insurance Business TV. I’m Jen Frost, editor of North America at Insurance Business. Today, I’m joined by Stephen Billyard, CEO of the award winning Billyard Insurance Group. And perhaps fittingly, you might think BIG was recently named Barnes and Wilcox, big brokerage of the year at the 2022 Insurance Business Canada Awards. Steve, thank you so much for joining us today and welcome to the show.

Stephen: [00:00:35] Thanks, Jen. It’s a pleasure to be with you.

Jen: [00:00:37] And congratulations on all your recent achievements as well, Steve.

Stephen: [00:00:41] Thank you. Thank you very much. We were really excited to finally be recognized in that space. It’s something that all of our team members at BIG took very seriously. And for many years we’ve been hoping to achieve that recognition. So this year was pretty special for us all.

Jen: [00:00:54] Awesome. And speaking of achievements, what is the secret to BIG’s organic grown success?

Stephen: [00:01:00] Yeah, well, certainly I get asked that question a lot. You know, we we are the fastest organic growing brokerage in Canada. And so everybody, I think, thinks they’re looking for a silver bullet. That one thing that that you do to 10x your company. But it’s you know, it’s never quite that simple. You know, I think what we’ve done is a number of things very well, and we’ve stayed focused on a few key principles technology, branding, training, support, but most importantly, people. You know, we sought out and empowered the best, brightest and youngest in the business. And we’ve put brokers and agents at the forefront of our strategy. So every decision that we make is geared towards how do we make the frontline brokers job easier, faster, better, so they can do what they do best, which is take care of their clients and grow their business. And, you know, while we’re not perfect at it, it’s actually a hard, hard business to bring change in this manner. But I think that ethos, it’s with that ethos that we get better and better every day.

Jen: [00:01:53] Absolutely. I mean, nobody’s absolutely perfect, are they? Steve? So one question I do want to ask you is whether there was any big challenge that big overcame last year.

Stephen: [00:02:03] Well, I think I think we faced, you know, staying in that same vein, which is attracting and retaining top, top talent, being the center of our business strategy. You know, we it was also the biggest challenge that we face this year and I think the biggest challenge that the entire industry faced. You know, the fact is the insurance industry is moving very fast right now, whether you’re on the broker side, the insurer side or the MGA side. And there’s just a shortage of experienced, talented insurance professionals out there. So, you know, we we worked pretty hard to overcome it by by cultivating a culture and an environment that attracts top talent, that be a place at the top talent want to work. And  so I think we’ve been very successful at building a brokerage that people want to build their careers at. And the second part of that is really putting an emphasis on learning and development. So in the places where we couldn’t find top talent or great people to to fill the roles that we had, we focused on just finding great people and then turning them into great insurance professionals with our with our learning and development resources.

Jen: [00:03:00] Talent seems like such a challenge for everyone at the moment. Absolutely. Now, Steve, we’ve spoken a bit about 2022, but I’m interested to hear what you think your big achievements or what you hope your big achievements are going to be this year.

Stephen: [00:03:14] Well, you know, I want to make major strides on our mission, which is to be a leading national insurance brokerage and lead the digital insurance revolution. We’re expanding as we speak into British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. But we’re continuing our growth in Ontario, Alberta and Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. And we’re building a technology platform that is going to empower our brokers to service and sell more efficiently and provide the data we need to run our businesses more effectively. I think if we can accomplish that, I’m very satisfied with where it’s going to put us in the Canadian insurance marketplace by the end of 2023.

Jen: [00:03:47] So you spoke a bit about digital and tech there and how important it is to yourselves, and this is perhaps more one for the wider market, and that really is to what extent do brokers perhaps risk being left behind if they aren’t really embracing digital today?

Stephen: [00:04:01] Yes, I think I think to every extent, honestly, I think if you’re not embracing digital today, it really is the only game. So if you’re still just talking about it, if you’re just thinking about it and you’re not doing it already, you’re already falling behind. And so or perhaps you’re just waiting to be consolidated by someone who is. And so and that’s a business strategy as well. But I think for us, at least in our ethos, technology is everything. And it’s why our mission is to lead the digital insurance revolution.

Jen: [00:04:27] Thank you, Steve. And what other market trend might you be keeping an eye on at the moment?

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Stephen: [00:04:32] Well, when I when I think back to the unpredictability of the last 24 months, inflation increasing claim costs which will impact the profitability of our of our insurance carriers supply chain issues causing claim service issues. It’s been a real challenge over the last 24 months for the carriers to to deliver on their claim service promise because of the supply chain and inflation challenges they faced and the technology integration with our intermediaries. I think our industry has to do better than we’re doing and it has to financially perform in order to thrive. And our customers are demanding more from us than ever before. You know, we’re coming through this period where where the weak spots in our industry have been exposed and the winners in the year ahead will be those that make progress on these issues.

Jen: [00:05:16] So the winners will be the ones that make progress on these issues. You heard it here first. Well, Steve, thank you so much for joining us today. It’s been great having you on the show. Thank you.

Stephen: [00:05:26] Thanks for having me with you, Jen.

Jen: [00:05:28] And thank you also to you, our viewers. Don’t forget to check out more of our podcast videos and daily news at www.insurancebusiness.com/ca. I’m Jen Frost, Editor, Insurance Business.