{"id":329,"date":"2021-03-02T13:22:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T13:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/continuing-the-conversation-with-mike-hamilton\/"},"modified":"2022-08-15T11:51:39","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T15:51:39","slug":"continuing-the-conversation-with-mike-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/continuing-the-conversation-with-mike-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"Continuing the Conversation with Mike Hamilton &#8211; Episode #3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 180px;\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/beyond-the-challenge\/embed\/episodes\/Continuing-the-Conversation-with-Mike-Hamilton---Episode-3-eqpfps\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Host Sandy Dougherty continues the interview with Mike Hamilton, Senior Vice President of RBC. They talk about innovation and technology in the insurance business and the changes that are occurring.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Read the Transcript Here<\/h2>\n<div style=\"overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; background: #eee; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\n<p class=\"p1\">(intro)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Beyond the Challenge is a podcast where executives in the insurance and financial services industry share their insights and experiences. Hosts Kevin and Sandy Dougherty talk with today\u2019s top business leaders about what keeps them up at night and the biggest opportunity organizations can capitalize on today. We encourage you to listen, share, and subscribe to our program.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Kevin and Sandy Dougherty each have over 20 years of experience in insurance and financial services, corporate leadership, and executive search. They\u2019re the owners of Global Corporate Solutions and Global Corporate Leaders. Global Corporate Solutions partners with organizations to gain efficiencies and contain costs. Global Corporate Leaders partners with organizations to enhance and evaluate talent.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Beyond the Challenge podcast is sponsored by Exactuals, perfecting payments and the data driving them.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Welcome to Beyond the Challenge. Here are your hosts, Kevin and Sandy.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">(interview)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Today, we are talking with Mike Hamilton, SVP, Chief Distribution and Marketing, with RBC Insurance, about the challenges faced by carriers to grow their bottom line and stay relevant in a post COVID-19 world. As head sales and distribution, Mike Hamilton is responsible for leading the RBC Insurance sales and distribution team across all of Canada in multiple channels. Mike, welcome to Beyond the Challenge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> Thanks, Sandy. Great to see you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Can you tell us a little bit about your background?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> It started quite a while back, I would say, 25 years ago. I started with Merrill Lynch, went through their professional development program and became Merrillized down in Princeton, if you will, and built a block of business over the course of seven years and had a relatively successful timeframe. From there, I went to Jackson National Life during all the insurance regulation era with the gentlemen of Bob Saltzman and Dr. Greg Salsbury and, basically, revamped they, as an insurance company at the time, which was roughly an $8 billion company, and over the next three years, we took it to a $65 billion company got into acquisition mode and had quite a bit of success and I learned a ton from that opportunity. From there, I joined a venture capital firm, got involved in mergers and acquisitions of insurance companies and ended up running American Pioneer, Constitution Life, Heritage Health as well as Pennsylvania Life back up in Toronto, Ontario. So I became their global president, if you will, of acquisition of companies that they purchased and the idea was to turn them around, build them to a point that they\u2019d wanna be acquired by a third party and did that very successfully and roughly three to four years later, we sold Pennsylvania Life to La Capitale out of Quebec and then I was recruited by Nationwide out of Columbus, Ohio, as President of their NFN, or Nationwide Financial Network, and all the agents selling property and casualty, life, health, wealth, retirement funds, working alongside people such as Peter Golato and working for Mark Thresher. Great, just a great opportunity and I really enjoyed my time. I spent roughly four years at Nationwide and then RBC recruited me, Royal Bank of Canada, to come up to Toronto to run their insurance network across Canada to revamp it as a multi-line distribution opportunity, both as a manufacturer as well as proprietary brokerage distribution, and that was basically nine years ago and I\u2019ve enjoyed my time since and have had some great successes, challenges, opportunities, and I\u2019ve really enjoyed my time so I continue to hang my hat with RBC today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Mike, so far, insurance carriers have weathered the COVID crisis exceptionally well, largely due to investments they had already made in networks, applications, laptops, and more. The crisis did expose a number of gaps and vulnerabilities. The challenge now facing leading carriers is how to adapt business strategies to accommodate a new way of working and still grow revenue. From your experience, how can insurance carriers embrace innovation and transformation to improve performance and drive long-term growth?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> It\u2019s a great question and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a magic button on this one, Sandy. But I believe the reality of how to grow for the future is to embrace this innovation, to look at this COVID as an opportunity, especially within business, and to throw away a bit of the rulebook, the old ways of doing things. Again, having been in a number of industry seminars and talking to other companies and being on panels, what I find interesting is we still have \u2014 there still is a mindset that we\u2019re gonna get through this and get back to normal. I think the normal\u2019s done. I think the muscle memory of our clients has readjusted. The new clientele, our Gen Z\u2019s and our millennials and Gen Y\u2019s, all wanna do business in a different way, a safe way, and to encompass professionals that embrace their needs. They\u2019re asking something different today than they\u2019ve ever asked. And as opposed to being a mono-line product pitch group, they\u2019re looking for, \u201cHow do you manage my risk? How do I attain my goals and solutions over the long term? And how do I continue to be the best I can for the long term? And, oh, by the way, I want it all done right now and can you \u2014 all I wanna do is be able to hit a button. Can you help me do that?\u201d And companies need to embrace that. I don\u2019t necessarily think we have all the solutions but having those ideas versus sitting back, waiting for the ultimate change will be challenging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> What do you see is RBC\u2019s biggest growth strategy?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> I think when I look at it, the greatest growth opportunity, not only are we developing new products to address new demographics and how we\u2019re engaging our clients on a day-to-day basis, but what I view as the market is more of a generalist format. We built a community within the insurance industry that, \u201cI am a great life insurer,\u201d \u201cI am a great investment insurer,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m a great PNC-er.\u201d I think as we move forward, a generalist format means, \u201cI want all my needs taken care of and I don\u2019t wanna talk to five companies or I don\u2019t wanna talk to five specialists. I want an individual to bring all those resources to bear and take care of my needs because you know who I am, you have my data, and take care of that.\u201d When I think of some of the competitors, you think of an Amazon. Amazon knows the next book you should read just based on what you previously have done. Facebook, based on your interests of the sites you\u2019re going to, knows what other interests you may have. We as an industry need to start thinking like that. We\u2019re far from perfect but I think that\u2019s the next growth opportunity. And being a multi-liner and one of the largest, if not the largest multi-liner in Canada, gives us a great opportunity to do that and specialize as opposed to a mono line, to be generalized across all lines and across enterprise, our initiative is to take care of the clients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> What are some other revenue generators that you\u2019re exploring right now?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> Yeah, it\u2019s \u2014 I think we\u2019re looking at a number of revenue models, not just in delivering product but also in delivering services. So, for example, we just got off the aspect of talking about the mono lines. If I can provide a mono line company, other resources or one of my channels to supplement their needs. So, if you take a very strong life insurer, provide them the opportunity to do home and auto, or take a home and auto provider and give them the opportunity to sell group insurance or to sell life and living benefits or to sell investments. What it does is it provides them a greater span. The problem is is most of these individuals or organizations don\u2019t have those skills and I\u2019m very proud about the fact we\u2019ve developed those skills and we\u2019ve become quite good at it in creating a cross-enterprise relationship depth that we can take to the market. And so, in doing that, you know, there\u2019s gonna be a fee for that, whether that\u2019s part of the service fee, whether that\u2019s part of the commissions, but there will be a fee to that but what it does is it gives a broker, gives an agent, gives a company greater retention of the long-term value of that client and that\u2019s just one of the areas we\u2019re looking at. The other areas, we\u2019re looking at niche categories of the business. You know, again, it\u2019s been talked about for a long time of whether that\u2019s CPAs, military, first responders, looking at different elements and being able to fit those needs and those family categories over time. So, we\u2019re continuing to look at that and continuing to build upon that so that we can hit the market running in the right way but meet them where they sit as opposed to just creating a fancy new product which isn\u2019t what they want. They want a process. And being able to embed ourselves in a number of our competitors to do that allows them access to the model without having to make the investment, which probably is out of the category right now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Do you see carriers moving towards concentrating on being only product manufacturer or distributor or do you see them still trying to do both?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> Yeah, I think it depends \u2014 I really think it depends on the manufacturer. Some manufacturers are incredibly strong at that. I think what being able to not only deliver and distribute product in addition to producing product is it\u2019s a great test case. You\u2019re able to look at the market, how they react to certain models and broaden it out. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s gonna be a line in the sand that companies make a decision to absolutely do one or the other. I think what companies need to look at is more of, \u201cAre you gonna be multi-line or are you gonna be mono line?\u201d and that\u2019s their current challenge. Because if you mono line, you\u2019re gonna be outpaced by everyone else. But also when we look at it, we have such a consolidation in the MGA and AGA market because the smaller groups are having such a hard time creating those relationships and being a value to producing entities and I think, as a whole, they have to get better, they have to bond together and open up the doors as opposed to, you know, if you will, we used to be very protective of our blocks of business, right? We used to sit there and say, \u201cOkay, I\u2019ve got my thousand clients or 5,000 or a million clients, no one\u2019s gonna touch them,\u201d but the reality is whether it\u2019s in the States or in Canada, a big part of our new business are just exchanges of the clients, between, about 35 percent is an exchange between companies, because they\u2019ve changed product lines, they\u2019ve changed pricing, they\u2019ve changed underwriting. But the reality is is that can\u2019t be the ongoing model. It has to be how do we engage generally to meet the needs where they\u2019re at and being able to look at it more consistently and making it easier to engage versus just saying, \u201cI\u2019m a great life insurer and I\u2019m gonna provide term UL and whole and that\u2019s all I\u2019m gonna do for the rest of time.\u201d I think that\u2019s gonna be very challenging for any organization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> How is RBC dealing with tech debt and investing in new technology?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> That\u2019s a very good question and what we do is we do a layout, obviously, the financials for if it\u2019s replacing manual work, whether that\u2019s reconciliation, paperwork to paper apps and we\u2019ve been able to do that. I think the next challenge is taking, if I wanna invest in new technology, how does that operate in concert with what I have? We\u2019re still in the process, and to be perfectly candid, we\u2019re still in the process of replacing a lot of manual systems and multigenerational technology systems that are outdated. I mean, we still have COBOL programmers. And so, what we\u2019re doing is trying to consolidate all of that into a technology network that we can have one solution to be able to go to what they call the data lake, to be able to dip into that data lake and be able to draw those proficiencies out long term and then we can be a lot more nimble and, in the current term, pivot a lot faster than we\u2019ve ever been able to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Sandy:<\/b> Mike, thank you for your time today. Really appreciate being able to learn more about how you and RBC are trying to grow your bottom line and stay relevant in this post COVID-19 world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>Mike:<\/b> Great. Thanks, Sandy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">(outro)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>Thank you for listening. Please make sure to subscribe and share so we can stay in touch. If you would like to learn more about how Global Corporate Solutions and Global Corporate Leaders can help your organization recruit the best talent, increase your diversity, and save money, please visit our website at www.thegclgroup.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Host Sandy Dougherty continues the interview with Mike Hamilton, Senior Vice President of RBC. They talk about innovation and technology in the insurance business and the changes that are occurring. &nbsp; Read the Transcript Here (intro) Beyond the Challenge is a podcast where executives in the insurance and financial services industry share their insights and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegclgroup.com\/gclgcs2021\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}