Where do you turn for young talent? How do youmentor young agents?

RobCohen: We recognize the need to constantly attract andgrow young talent in the insurance industry, as they are our futureleaders. IMA has a very robust and atypical summer internshipprogram that imbeds college juniors and seniors into ourdepartments for 8 to 10 weeks. Every intern is assigned a teamlead, peer mentor (a junior IMA associate) and veteran insurancementor. Our interns work on critical assignments which includeclient visits, travel to other IMA offices and internal andexternal meetings. Additionally, they receive industry recognizedtechnical education. The program culminates in a presentation oftheir experience to IMA executives. This isn’t your typical copyand errand type of internship. This past summer we assigned a youngassociate as the team leader for our summer intern resulting in awin/win situation where the IMA associate was able to act in asupervisory capacity to hone his future management and leadershipskills.

When young associates join IMA they receive substantial trainingfrom a variety of sources including on-the-job training, formaltraining and educational insurance courses. Additionally, they areencouraged to reach out to senior associates to form informalmentoring relationships. Young associates also are often therecipients of individual success plans that specifically outlineshort-term stretch goals as a means to long-term career developmentand advancement. IMA strongly believes in promoting from within andlooks to bring in the best possible “long-term” associate with eachentry-level hire. In addition, IMA offers a full-time managementtrainee program designed to groom outstanding MBA candidates tobecome the next generation of leaders at IMA. Former trainees nowhold executive positions at IMA.

KevinMcPoyle: Young talent is sought after by everyone inthe industry. Talent is an undefined term so you have to know whatyou’re looking for in terms of experience, cultural fit (ethics,customer orientation, service ethos, etc.) and whether someone hasthe skill set and attitude to fit with our current team. Often wefind account manager and producer candidates either through searchfirms or through word of mouth within the industry and often fromoutside the industry. We also reach out to universities with riskmanagement programs such as Temple, St. Joe’s and Penn State forinterns that may lead to permanent offers. In these cases, you musthave an intensive training process to get new employees up tospeed. We use mentors, a workflow and a defined process to makesure employees are getting the repetitions to achieve a level oftraining and understanding of coverage enabling them to make adifference in the risk management programs of current and futureclients.

MarcEagan: Most of our recruitment has been throughassociations that we have developed with parents of the youngpeople. These new recruits are above-average individuals who have agreat ability to associate with people. After all, insurance salesis about who gets on with whom.

The new producers are mentored by some of our more seasoned proswithin the office. This mentoring process is vital to setting thestage for these young recruits to get on and stay on the rightpath. It accelerates the learning curve.

Read on for the agents' take on areas of growth andtechnology use.

What services or lines of business areyou focusing on for growth in 2012?

McPoyle: We never want to be labeled as aprofessional firm capable of only one or two areas of expertise. Wewill continue to provide broad support to our clients in allP&C coverages. As always, we will leverage the success storieswe have created within our existing client base and will seek outcompanies in the similar industries with the goal of repeating thesame results. In 2012 we will invest more time in educating ourclients and prospects on the fast and changing exposure tocyber/information risk. If you have a computer hooked to theoutside world, you have a potential exposure. As larger amounts ofdata can be stored on smaller pieces of equipment, the risk of thedata falling into the wrong hands grows as well.

Eagan: We are concentrating on a few niches, inparticular cyber liability. These lines of coverage require a lotof research in order to offer them properly. It is not just thepolicy language but the federal and state laws that may come intoplay.

Cohen: We are expecting to grow in all lines in2012. Even in tough economic times there are certain companies andorganizations that are growing and it is our goal to find thosecompanies and convince them to become IMA clients.

How has technology helped your agency become moreefficient, productive and valuable to clients andcarriers?

McPoyle: Our Xchange product, which allows forgreater communication and sharing of information between us and ourclients, has proven to be a significant tactical advantage. Thecollaborative workflows we’ve created from that platform haveenabled us to increase our productivity without increasingheadcount. That’s efficiency defined! We are able to perform “deepdives” into a prospect’s risk management and insurance programs indays when at other places the same process would take weeks. We cando more and at a higher quality level than most other firms becauseour platform and workflows allow us to do so.

Eagan: We all feel it was well worth theinvestment to beef up our IT department. Social media is here tostay, so we hired an individual to specifically handle this area.We are trying to focus on how technology in its ever-changing formcan be best used by our agency when dealing with our clients,comparing partners and in dealing with the public in general.

Cohen: IMA’s sound technology infrastructureallows our brokerage to function efficiently and productively. Weutilize several cutting-edge technology-based products and servicesthat add significant value for clients and carriers, such as aproprietary application for aggregating details about healthcarevendors, or custom solutions like risk control mobile e-forms thatallow our consultants to perform site inspections and capturereportable data in real-time using iPads and cell phones.

We also manage our internal client servicing activities based onproprietary technology and workflow developed by IMA. Thoseservices are measured based on our own custom reporting methodologyaccessible by business units throughout the enterprise. This allowsour organization to support the diversity of our client’s needsbased upon our consultants’ expertise, regardless of geographiclocation.

Next - the agents speak on 2011 challenges and buildingrelationships with clients.

What was your biggest challenge in2011? How did you overcome it?

Eagan: South Louisiana has experienced somerough going over the past 5 years due to Hurricane Katrina (andHurricanes Rita and Gustav) and the unprecedented problems causedby the BP oil spill. As a major agency in the New Orleans area, werealized the importance of understanding these risks. We havesuccessfully overcome this challenge by:

1. Seeking out new insurance companies willing to write businessin our state
2. Working with the Louisiana Dept. of Insurance to assist inidentifying new regional carriers to listen to our story
3. Showing insurance companies the millions that have been spenton restoring and improving the regional infrastructure and ourlevees
4. Identifying the legislation that has been passed upgradingbuilding codes ordinances, etc.
5. Convincing the standard admitted carriers that currently writecasualty lines to jump start the property marketplace and changeperception that insurance and reinsurance executives have had.

Cohen: Finding ways to grow was difficult toachieve in a market that has both soft pricing and a tough economy.We overcame this by doing comprehensive strategic planning andidentifying those areas where we could grow and then working theplan.

McPoyle: Our biggest challenge in 2011 was toreplicate our new business volume and success of 2010. While theeffort was in place, the prospect focus was not in many cases. Thesoft market did not further any sense of urgency among many C-levelexecutives to consider change and more effective support. We seeour new business momentum shifting, however, as we become more wellknown in the market as “last year’s best-kept secret.”

How do you build a trusting relationship withclients?

McPoyle: Integrity, transparency and having ourclients know their interests, in all cases, at all times,supersedes any interest we might have. We back those fundamentaltouchstones with smart people who are client facing and alwaysconsidering how to best support the goals and outcomes sought byour client. An attitude such as that, repeated consistently overtime and circumstance, builds tremendous trust.

Cohen: Trust is earned the old-fashioned wayand there are no shortcuts. You build relationships with clientsone day at a time. Trust is earned over time by doing lots oflittle things really, really well.

IMA is a valued advisor to our clients. They entrust us withtheir greatest assets, confident that IMA will perform in theirbest interest. We become part of our clients’ team, an allyassisting with the identification and management of risk. Businessowners trust IMA because we think like business owners—and, asemployee owners of IMA, we are.

IMA is privately held, which makes a difference to our clientsin that we have an independent, entrepreneurial andnon-bureaucratic approach to assist our clients in meeting theirobjectives. Being independent and employee-owned means that we canre-invest in the company and hold ourselves accountable; we aren’tbeholden to quarterly performance reports.

Eagan: One step at a time. Over the years, wemade sure to deliver a consistent level of world-class service.Clients have become accustomed to this level of responsiveness andwe know we must continue to deliver the very best that we can. Wecan’t have any broken windows.

Read the agents' opions on legislative issues,direct writers and the soft market.

What legislativeissues are you interested in?

Cohen: We are interested inhealthcare reform and surplus lines reform. State issues we followinclude broker compensation, countersignature litigation andproducer licensing.

Eagan: Naturally, two large issues on thefederal level stand out for us—the healthcare issue and theNational Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). We will continue to watchboth of these as they will have a huge impact on how we managegoing forward.

McPoyle: We are concerned aboutthe viability of NFIP and the impact losing that support mighthave on the property market and on the decisions made by clientswith that need. It's never been perfect as a tool. But it certainlyis better than the client retaining all the risk. We alsowatch the changing nature of privacy laws and -tortreform how they relate to liability for our clients.

How do you differentiate your agency and products fromthe competition of direct writers?

McPoyle: We differentiate from others with ourhigher level of product knowledge, greater access to alternativecarriers and markets and our orientation on providing the clientwhat is best for them to achieve their goals regardless of carrier.Direct writers, representing just one carrier don't have the accessor the luxury to provide the same market breadth an independentagent can. As a leader in customer service and support, wehave the ability to go well beyond the normal serviceexpectations and actually invest with our time and talents with ourclients in reducing their cost of risk. We find directwriters primarily price oriented. If we do our jobselecting the right prospect, one who appreciates and understandsthe value of a well-structured program, we limit the times we"bump" into direct writers.

Cohen: By providing value added services.At tough times such as this, these services truly mean something toour clients.

Eagan: Providing options to our clients issomething that our direct writer competition cannot do. People liketo see what’s available in the marketplace. In addition to optionswhen placing business to get the best value, businesses andindividuals look to receive a certain level of service, some morethan others. We as an independent agent can deliver on that.

How is your agency adapting to the continued softmarket?

Eagan: Actually, here in South Louisiana, weare really not seeing a soft market like most of the rest of thecountry. Ever since 2005 and Hurricane Katrina, we have seen a hardproperty market, both on the commercial as well as in the personallines areas. When you look at rates on line, the cost of a typicalhomeowner’s policy may startle you.

Cohen: We believe that we are currentlymoving out of the soft market as we’re seeing pricing stabilizing;but with that said, our goal as a company is to grow and enhanceour profitability regardless of market conditions.

Growth has been a problem for many brokers during this recessionand soft market. In order to grow you must be willing to invest,even in tough economic times. Because we have no debt, we’re ableto invest in new offices and expand in new markets while ourindustry peers may be contracting. In addition, we have beeninvesting more money back into new programs and services forclients; these in addition create other growth opportunities.

IMA is well equipped to manage through a recession because wespecialize in multiple industry segments. For example, even thoughthe construction practice is down due to the economy, the energypractice and technology practice are performing at high levels. Wehave purposely avoided concentration risk in our business model,and thus we are diversified enough to maintain strong performanceacross a variety of industry practice areas.

McPoyle: We started this business in a softmarket so for us it's been a consistent philosophy of leanoperations and management. We also position ourselves on thesame level as our client's accountants and attorneys from botha partnership and compensation standpoint. We were never shyabout educating our clients how we are compensated because it givesus the opportunity to explain what they are paying for.

In 2011, we developed the "One Minute fromNormal" concept to help clients and prospects understand thatinsurance programs cheaply built and poorly servicedoften cost more in the end. We're helping torefocus those who we come in contact with about why they haveinsurance and what it is designed to do in support ofthem following a claim.