This large regional insurer was in deep financial trouble. It had lost its rating – critical to its ability to underwrite new business. Its property and casualty (P&C) business was badly underperforming, battered by recent hurricane losses and stagnant growth. Top management resigned, a new CEO was brought in, and the troublesome life business was shut down.

Over the past 18 months, we have helped the CEO transform the performance of the P&C business. An initial diagnostic showed the company had an opportunity to grow, but that improving its value proposition to agents, so as to win more business from them, was critical. Agents were looking for a carrier that was easy to do business with and offered a strong relationship focus. By transforming the operating model through technology and process improvement, the carrier could create a unique offering in the market while reducing operating costs.

The team adopted a “lean operations” approach to simplify processes. It also needed to build organizational skills. And it designed a more efficient technology platform to enable straight-through processing and simpler claims-handling. In part as a result, the company is back in the black, and the stock has doubled in the past two years.