With more than 12 acquisitions and mergerssince starting business in 2006, Lapre Scali & Co. InsuranceServices LLC, Scottsdale, Ariz., keeps growing with offices inArizona and Nevada and licensed in all 50 states. Terry Scali, CEOof Lapre Scali, first acquired assets of National CommercialInsurance & Surety Specialists Inc., and following thesuccessful growth and sale of Scali's first agency, he saw anopportunity to build another new and bigger firm by partnering withMike Lapre and his successful operations. Lapre and Scali knew eachother from previous insurance activity in the marketplace.

Related: Lapre Scali named a finalist in the Commercial Agency Awards forExcellence.

The Lapre Scali acquisitions were purchased strategically toestablish offices in Arizona and Nevada cities, and have been acombination of turnkey offices and small agencies, books ofbusiness and producers with books of businesses, including programsof business that had a tactful fit.

“Lapre Scali is very selective in its acquisitions and isreviewing and assessing possible acquisitions on a regular basis,”Scali said. “There is no target number of acquisitions.Opportunities avail themselves on a recurring basis. They must becomplimentary to the growth and market objective, and also providethe opportunity for organic growth beyond the initialacquisition.”

With a book of business composed of 76 percent of commercial, 18percent of personal lines and 6 percent of life and healthinsurance, Lapre Scali had a gross premium of $95 million last year.Staffed with 147 associates, Lapre Scali focuses on sales programand acquisitions; it also has invested heavily in the sales andmarketing segment of the company. It has added 20 revenue producersover the past 30 months, resulting in a total of 32 producers.

Lapre Scali has built its organization with the finest agents,brokers and customer service representatives, who have extensiveinsurance experience with large, national brokerage firms andinsurance companies including Marsh, Willis, Aon and Wausau/LibertyMutual Insurance.

Growing its business

Along with its company's experience, Lapre Scali competes withthe largest national agencies because of its full-service approachto its clients' needs.

“There is no account too small, no need too minor, no requesttoo tedious; Lapre Scali clients count on the company's dedicatedemployees to negotiate terms, reduce insurance costs, manage claimsand simplify the process. Lapre Scali's priority is to surpass theclients' expectations,” Scali said.

Lapre Scali believes in the application of enterprise riskmanagement, which deals with the client firm as a whole and a broadrange of risk including:

• Strategic, including mergers and acquisitions, R&D, customsand market share
• Operational, including business interruption, supply chain,fraud, efficiency and safety
• Human capital, including employment practices, turnover andleadership
• Legal and regulatory
• Technology, including intellectual property and informationsecurity
• Financial, including foreign exchange and credit
• Reputation, including market share and branding

Enterprise risk management goes one step further thantraditional risk management, which only look at loss and risktransfer to protect assets at a fixed cost, by looking at risk ashaving both upside and downside potential.

Lapre Scali uses the same processes for all large accounts. Theduties of an agent or broker are to provide adequate and propercoverage at the lowest possible cost; they must be capable offitting parts together to produce a greater outcome.

Lapre Scali updates its producers and accountmanagers on process and procedures, regulatory environments andform/coverage changes, and all have access and use an in-houseelectronic resource center managed by the agency for all relatedinformation, guidance and checklists to help provide the bestpossible value and service to meet the customer's needs. LapreScali offers weekly administration meetings to further facilitatechanges and updates on an agency-wide basis through video andteleconference.

The legal and regulatory environments in which Lapre Scalioperate are constantly monitored and audited by coverage experts,who also work with its agents and account managers to ensure thatLapre Scali holds itself to the highest standards in servicingcurrent and prospective customers.

And although the agency has considered social marketing as a wayto increase marketing and identity branding, Lapre Scali does notfeel compatible with social networking such as LinkedIn.

“While LinkedIn provides an avenue for business contacts andcredentials, clients do not buy their insurance off of LinkedIn,”Scali said. “There is no substitute for being personally involvedin your marketplace and building a network of contacts throughface-to-face meeting. It is also beneficial to have an informativewebsite where you can direct potential clients for informationabout your company.”

HR and IT departments

Lapre Scali's HR department is unique compared with traditionaldepartments because it operates as a revenue center on the P&L.more coming on this. The department is staffed with three highlyqualified HR consultants and analysts with moiré than 50 years ofcombined work force experience. Teresa Buelow, HR director, waseven named a finalist for Arizona Business Woman by ArizonaBusiness Magazine's January/February 2011 issue. She has also beenranked in the top ten of top executive women in business by ArizonaBusiness Journal in their April 2011 issue.

Lapre Scali is able to tailor services to meet many clientelesectors, from manufacturing to medical institutions, to retailbrokers, non-profits and ministries. Its niche sector is employmentcompliance including, job descriptions, employee handbooks,policies and procedural implementation.

Recently a client with 75 employees who all worked from homeoffice, engaged Lapre Scali to assist in completing payroll formsfor its employees. Lapre Scali had the client's employees meet atthe agency branch closest to their homes. Lapre Scali's staff roseto the occasion much to the satisfaction of the client, and LapreScali was able to efficiently put him into compliance.

The IT department at Lapre Scali stays on the forefront oftechnology providing across the agency a platform of expediency andefficiency, merging technology and timing to advance the agency inits technical and software solutions. The agency promotes greentechnology solutions.

Lapre Scali initiated a project over a 6-month period to move toa high tech data center located in Phoenix with a centralized flowof distributed high-speed data communication. Lapre Scali now has afarm of servers under one roof, where it is able to see and serviceall of its local and remote office locations from one central hubin Phoenix.

This project will result in significant dollar savings andefficiencies to the organization, and continue to support theseamless acquisition integration efforts.

Future insights

The future growth at Lapre Scali will be a combination oforganic and acquisition, with plans to broaden its path tocontiguous states while expanding its national reach. The goal isto double the agency's size every 5 years or faster, if theopportunities present themselves. The firm is positioned forgrowth, and the acquisition team can mobilize and integrate veryquickly.

“The agency seeks to capitalize on opportunities to acceleratethat growth when possible in its current markets in Arizona andNevada,” Scali said. “Further strategic expansion will be in thecontiguous states to Arizona, including southern California andeast of Arizona, across the southern half of the U.S.”

Scali is Lapre Scali's sole managing member. The three membersin current ownership of Lapre Scali include: Lapre, 10 percent; TMSLLC, 25 percent; and S&V LLC, 65 percent. Lapre Scali utilizesemployee stock ownership and have 15 employee owner/partnerscurrently. 
When asked how other independent agencies can findsuccess, Scali points to attitude, gratitude and daily effort.

“Agents and agencies need to keep their fingers on the pulse oftheir customers, the marketplace and the economy, anticipatingneeds, planning for future growth, always developing markets,opportunity and talent, and being grateful for their current andpast success,” Scali said.

Other advice Scali gives independent agencies for findingsuccess include:

• Doing more with less is an often used cliché, but agents andagencies need to know their available capacity and manage toit.
• Controlling costs to leverage capacity can make the differencein whether an agency is profitable, earning a return for itsshareholders and building enterprise value.
• See your agency as a business, run it as a business and enjoydoing it.
• Build and support a talent and culture where people want tocome to work for you and be successful; where companies want to dobusiness with you and where customers seek you out for your addedvalue.