Join Chad Barr in a conversation with James Berkeley on how his firm, Ellice Consulting, is helping executives and organizations dramatically improve their operating performance. James talks about his “past”, his passion and his ability to apply that rapidly to transform his clients’ futures (increasing revenues, improving image, happier clients, faster growth, reduced risk and so on). Over a near 25 year career, James has sat in almost every seat in the “house”. An adviser to multinational businesses, an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, an investor and a Board member, he brings a unique perspective of someone, who has successfully tested his powerful approaches in the real world, not just on white boards in a sterile executive’s office. He also brings a “blast of fresh air” (success practices from other industries and geographies) to industry sectors that are awash with corporate executives and so called “experts” swimming in endless industry data and information.

Why is September and January recruiters’ hottest months? In our daily work, it is easy to get sucked into the minutiae of the work and job. The summer vacation or beach weekend is a very valuable opportunity to reflect for a moment on our careers. What is exciting us, what is boring us, what do we want to do more of and what do we want to abandon. James provides an action list that any ambitious manager or executive would be wise to listen to.

Faced with demands from customers, shareholders, employees, business partners and regulators for short and long-term growth, it is not capital or regulatory issues that are humbling executives, it is a lack of self-esteem. Maintaining a high level of self-worth and self-confidence is critical to business success. We recharge those levels by learning and applying new skills, applying them successfully in our daily work and most importantly, increasing our resilience. Honest reflection at the beach is a great starting point for prioritizing where we need help in the next 12 months and doing something about it. Don’t let the time go to waste.

Whether it is a weekend in the Hamptons, a vacation on a Greek island or a Maldivian atoll, James offers tips on what executives can do before, during and after your vacation to become more effective and efficient resolving open issues in your work, job and career. After listening to this you might even surprise yourself about the level of power and influence within your control.

The speed and quantity of information about publicly and privately run insurance and reinsurance businesses is at an all time high. Yet in the public arena, the quality of information generated by rating agencies, banking analysts, in-house investor relations and others is woefully inadequate. James looks at the work of banking analysts in this talk and asks why their questioning and analysis is so shallow and rarely forsees key industry events or trends until it is too late. James offers tips to analysts on how they can gather sharper insight from top management in the insurance sector and apply that to the knowledge of retail and institutional investors to make wiser investment decisions.

James addresses challenges that private healthcare insurance consumers, carriers, administrators, consultants, investors and employers face today with the emergence of multiple private health insurance exchanges. He offers suggestions on how they can stay competitive while maintaining a high level of quality service for their clients. He also draws comparisons with exchange models and development outside the sector, providing clues to who will and most likely won’t profitably grow in the sector.

The insurance and reinsurance business in North America, Bermuda and London has disproportionately relied on young people with a family connection, to attract the brightest and best people to the sector. There is a bifurcation between those young people who stay for a short while and those who build a career in the field. In those first few months and years in the business, the key is the beliefs and behaviours of the “lynchpins”. The formal and informal leaders, customer interface with the organisation, employee development processes etc that hold the whole business together. In firms at the operational level, where there is goal congruency with senior management intent and mutual shared interests, there is a tremendous correlation with bright young people sticking around. Learn to understand what your firm needs to do to dramatically improve its’ ability to attract the future stars.

A convergence of the economic crisis, new resulting regulations and growing consumerisation are potentially leading to a perfect storm for insurance distributors and advisory firms. James addresses areas that the people running those businesses often overlook, which in turn means lost business and revenue.

Data is largely worthless unless it is transformed ultimately into wisdom. Several large brokers have sought to harness the power of their data to provide their clients, business partners and their own firm with a competitive advantage. Yet these platforms, GRIP, Willis Connect and so forth are largely irrelevant if first, the underwriting teams in insurance distributors are not fully energised and empowered to apply their own knowledge to the broker’s data and information in order to make wise strategic decisions. James gets to the heart of an insurer’s ability to dramatically improve their success converting their marketing into closed business. Understand what and where to prioritise investment, why and how to build a real competitive advantage.

The challenge in many brokerages and insurance carriers today is to retool products and distribution networks to more closely align with the needs of increasingly restless and savvy customers. Historically, many firms have pensioned off their “grey matter” at a given date. Yet it is precisely, the expertise and knowledge found in those senior managers close to retirement, who if their strengths are productively deployed to specific work and projects could dramatically assist the firm with this important challenge. Learn tips, approaches and best practices to enhance the firm’s competency to address this need.