tomorrow 8:45 a.m. session Tony Markel

Mr. Markel, vice chairman of Markel Corporation, who has been involved in the industry for more than 40 years, was also president of NAPSLO in 1982 and recipient of the Charles A. McAlear/NAPSLO Industry Award in 2005--an award that honors members who have made significant contributions to the surplus lines industry.

He spoke to NAPSLO Daily about the long-term strategy that transformed his company in 2009--a topic sure to come up tomorrow when he and three other leaders discuss their views on industry challenges and share visions for addressing their toughest issues.

"It certainly was not done to address the short-term vagaries of the market, but more of a long-term play--to set us up to be more relevant and more powerful for our wholesale producers," Mr. Markel said, describing the overhaul that essentially wiped away the separate identities of four wholesale-driven E&S operations--Essex, Markel Southwest, Markel Underwriting Managers and Markel Shand.

"We went through a total transformation and amalgamated all four surplus lines operations, with their product specialties, into One Markel." Now operating through five regional offices instead of four separate companies, One Markel "is going to make all of our products available to all of the wholesalers," he explained.

"It was a very trying process, but the dividends are starting to come in," he said, noting that Markel officially pulled the switch on the transition in March 2009.

"We think the amount of investment we have made in the physical rework of our company--to be closer to the client with all of the product diversity that we bring, and the investments we're making currently in software support packages--speak volumes about our commitment to the wholesaler," Mr. Markel said.

"Coincidentally, I think it's going to be the platform for moderate growth this year, in spite of the fact that the [overall] market is not going to do us any favors," he added.

Explaining why growth is a possibility, Mr. Markel explained that under the previous setup, the four subsidiaries operated independently of one another, which meant that a wholesaler would have to represent all four in order to have access to all of Markel's products. Now every Markel wholesaler has access to every Markel product.

"It creates regions where we're a lot closer to the wholesalers with one window into our offerings... We are geographically closer," he said.

"They have access to our entire suite of products, and we're physically closer with all that that means--a better relationship and more face time."

The restructuring was not an easy one, but no one expected it to be, Mr. Markel reported. "We had four well-entrenched, independent silos or profit centers. Frankly, to tear them completely down and rebuild...took a lot. We had to add a lot of people," he said, noting that many employees had to be moved geographically. "There were issues of old staffing relationships that did not work in the new regional [structure] that had to be nurtured," he added.

"We knew it was going to be a Herculean task, [but] we're on the other side of it.... Most of the heavy-lifting has been done, and we did it in a soft market, which frankly--if there's a good time to do it, it was probably last year. So we feel good about it."

Having stepped away from managing the day-to-day operations of the company in early 2008--moving from his prior roles as president and chief operating officer to vice chairman--Mr. Markel said he wasn't personally involved in handling most of that heavy lifting. Still he's gratified by the outcome, partially measuring the success of the effort through the feedback of the company's wholesale partners.

Mr. Markel said the company actively sought feedback from 30 wholesale partners--six months into the process and again just recently--and on balance, the wholesalers gave the effort high marks.

"We got a very good report card in terms of strides made and problems solved. But clearly the message is that we've got more work to do--more work to do in terms of making sure that all of our producers know about all our product offerings now that they have access to everything."

In addition, "we've still got a few service issues and bugs to work out... Certainly not unsolvable, but we've got to do it."

Mr. Markel noted that the rework also gives the company an opportunity to review its wholesaler relationships--a process that will probably result in severing some ties.

"I don't mean to be cavalier or high-falutin about it, but some agents value what we do, and some agents don't necessarily add value--at least we don't seem to be numbered in their list of high-ranking markets in their shops," he said.

"We are consciously going through a process of evaluation that I think will end up reducing the number of agents that represent us in an effort to put our time, our money and enhanced service to those who do."

The company doesn't have any target in terms of the number of agents that will be cut. "It's an agent-by-agent analysis and discussion, and I'm sure there will be some fallout," Mr. Markel said, speculating that the number of wholesale offices representing the company could fall by as much as 15-to-20 percent.

"The first thing is to see if we can get these agents to give us enough volume and an appropriate hit ratio to justify the appointment. Failing that, we'll call them," Mr. Markel said.

"At the end of the day, it really boils down to people, and we really feel very strongly about the relationships that we enjoy with wholesalers," he said.

"The commitment to the wholesaler that we have is long-documented and unquestionable," he said. The physical rework of the company over the past year is further testament to that, he said.

Special Reports /

Markel To Discuss Long-Term Strategy

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