Pierre Morrisseau
We have certainly been living through interesting times these past few years. Leadership has faced numerous challenges—some “once in a hundred years” events. Still, I am happy to report that the vast majority of our clients have thrived as they turned up their creativity and ingenuity, leaned their businesses, and opened their minds to new ways of operating. But as we all know; our work is never done. Change is the only constant, and leaders are looking cautiously toward 2023.
In a recent Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey, leadership’s greatest focus for 2023 boiled down to four “P’s”: People, Purpose, Prices and Productivity. I would agree and over the past year, we at OneGroup have doubled down in these areas as well as investing heavily in new technologies to increase our productivity and effectiveness in serving our clients in the new hybrid work environment.
While growth has always been the leading priority for any company to survive and thrive, we’re seeing from research and across our large client base, that there has been a dramatic shift in thinking toward the human capital that makes sustained growth possible. Our focus, like many others, has been on finding superior talent with superior work ethic. We have increased our training capabilities to ensure our employees have a clear path to growth and success with our company. We have organized our thinking and operations to recognize where an employee’s true talents and passion lie in order to maximize both retention and productivity. We have also focused intently on our workforce diversity and inclusion to allow us to take advantage of the broadest array of views. We feel strongly that these changes are allowing us to build a strong culture with a deep sense of purpose.
By way of disclaimer, as an engineer by education, I had always leaned toward data and process. Measuring data as gathered—a snapshot of time—allowed us to track our progress and amend our processes. However, limited our thinking to what “was” and prevented us from seeing what “could be” if we allowed for more flexibility and creativity within our workforce. I am very pleased to report that the results have been impressive. We certainly continue to capture and review data, but we now focus equally on how we can remove barriers to productivity and innovation. I believe this is creating a place that is more rewarding for employees and leading to better growth for our company.
Finally, the more troubling “P”—Prices—is a concern every leader is watching closely going into 2023. The Gartner survey showed that 62% of CEOs reported that inflation was expected to be high and to persist over the long term.
In our industry, we have been seeing steady increases in insurance premiums. There are many causes including higher overall prices for homes, automobiles, and repairs as well as increased risk in many areas including environmental, cyber-attacks, and supply chain woes to name a few. We see this putting a strain on business and draining dollars that could be deployed to increase productivity and growth. To combat insurance price volatility, we have expanded our risk analysis team, focus on identifying cost drivers and utilize our team of experts to find better solution. We also leverage our scale to offer clients more carrier options.
Given all of the challenges we each share in our own industries, CEOs are an optimistic bunch. The latest Chief Executive CEO Confidence Index showed that CEO optimism soared 14% to nearly 6 in 10 believe that by this time next year, the country will be well into recovery. I, too, am confident that our work today will contribute mightily to our success in 2023.
I would love to hear your views and what you are navigating change. As always, I am happy to share what we are doing to grow our business.