TV

[00:00:02] Paul Lucas:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the latest edition of Insurance Business TV as we celebrate one of this year's fast brokerages. Yes, each year we source growth figures from insurance brokerages across the nation to discover pound for pound which firms are enjoying a rapid rise. And among this year's winners, and not for the first time, was Alliant Insurance Services. Now, in this edition, we welcome its CEO, Greg Zimmer, to find out more. Greg, welcome to Insurance Business TV.
 

[00:00:29] Greg Zimmer:
Well, thank you, Paul. Great to be here.
 

[00:00:32] Paul Lucas:
So, Greg, Alliant has experienced remarkable growth in recent years, consistently ranking among the top insurance brokerages in the nation. So give us some tips. What key strategies have driven this accelerated expansion, of course, particularly in a highly competitive market?
 

[00:00:48] Greg Zimmer:
Well, it certainly is a competitive market and the business plan hasn't changed. You know, it's the same business plan today that it was 25 years ago. It's simple to talk about, but more difficult to execute on. It all starts with the people. Our business is a people business. It's simple as that. If you have the best people, you're going to do great things. So when we are looking to attract talent, we are always looking for the best people, those that are entrepreneurial, driven, self-starters, technically proficient, like to work as a team. And it just builds upon itself. So it all starts and ends with the people from my perspective. Now there's a lot that's behind those people that we're very proud of and everything from the infrastructure we've put in place to the various programs we've put in place to the levels of expertise within the organization that we've put in place. So our people can continue to deliver the best solutions to their clients. And that's what we do day in, day out.
 

[00:01:57] Paul Lucas:
And of course, mergers and acquisitions have played a significant role in your growth as well. So just give us, again, some tips if you can. How does your company ensure a successful integration of those acquired firms? Because obviously you want to maintain your core values and your service standards as well.
 

[00:02:15] Greg Zimmer:
Well, I will tell you, at least relative to our competitors, we're not highly acquisitive. You know, the bulk of our growth has been organic. It continues to be organic. It continues to be driven by the people that we've brought up within the organization. When we do make acquisitions, it's important at the outset, before we make the acquisition, to have a really good plan and a good idea as to how that organization is going to fit into Alliant. So there's a ton of pre-work that we do in terms of not just integration, but cultural. And having, you know, the worst thing you can do, in my opinion, in our business is have miscommunication, particularly between buyer and seller. So we spend an extra amount of time on the front end making sure that the party that's joining us has a very good idea as to what life at Alliant will be like. So then they can make an informed decision as to whether or not that's right for their organization. And without that... If you have that at the outset, everything else tends to fall in place. So we have always been an organization where we want to integrate. We want the business partners that are coming over to want to be part of Alliant. And as long as we're on the same page from that perspective, things tend to work out very, very well.
 

[00:03:50] Paul Lucas:
People first approach definitely working well for you. And of course, you've expanded across a wide range of industries, including public entities, construction, healthcare. What criteria does the firm use to identify and prioritize those new market opportunities?
 

[00:04:07] Greg Zimmer:
Well, it's interesting. Most of those, quote unquote, new market opportunities are really an extension of existing businesses that we're in. So it's not as if we're just randomly saying, one day we're going to go focus on this vertical or that vertical. I'll give you an example. Thirty plus years ago, we became a large player in the public entity space, the public sector space, with clients ranging from cities, counties, states, other municipalities. And what we found was there was a very natural offshoot to that because a lot of the public sector business had, as an example, hospitals. So, you know, county hospitals. And that became the foundation for building a healthcare practice within Alliant. We also found that within the public sector, there was a very, very heavy concentration of property. These public agencies own a lot of property. That became the foundation for what is now a very large real estate practice. We, again, using public sector as an example, public agencies and Indian nations tend to work, you know, they're both governmental entities. So there was a very natural offshoot for us to go from the public sector into Indian nations. So most of what we've done in terms of expanding verticals has been just a connection, another branch, if you will, to a broader and broader tree as opposed to just randomly picking new verticals to pursue.
 

[00:05:53] Paul Lucas:
Clearly, your firm has been evolving, but of course, it's not the only thing evolving. There are risks evolving out there as well. Cybersecurity, climate, regulatory change. How are you innovating your service offerings in order to stay ahead of client needs?
 

[00:06:07] Greg Zimmer:
Well, it's one of the beauties of how we operate within Alliant. So within Alliant, we are very much a singular business. We are not simply a collection of agencies. We're not simply a collection of a bunch of individual offices. So what we're able to do, the infrastructure that we've built provides us the ability to have seasoned professionals that are experts within their field, whether if it's on a product side, it could be cyber, it could be property, it could be casualty, it could be comp, whatever the case may be. But more importantly, we're able to drive that intellectual capital through the organization in a very effective manner because we are so integrated. So it's one of the reasons why we continue to be at the forefront from new product development. I will also add to that the fact that we are not only a retail broker, but we also have a very large program administrator, i.e. MGA operation, where we have the ability in conjunction with our carrier partners to develop new product that specific to marketplace needs, that also gives us another advantage. Having that skill set in-house has clearly paid off over the last 20 or 30 years.
 

[00:07:35] Paul Lucas:
Clearly, with the majority of your answers today, it all comes back to the people, right? The skill set there and so on. Clearly, culture often cited as a key differentiator in service industries. So if we just bring it full circle, Greg, and we go back to that. How has Alliant been able to cultivate such a high performance culture that supports, I guess, both employee retention on one side, but also client satisfaction amid that rapid growth?
 

[00:08:00] Greg Zimmer:
Well, I'll tell you, Paul, it really comes down to how we built this company starting 25, 30 years ago, which is it all starts with the people and it all ends with the people. But in addition to that, you need to give these great people the tools that can help them be successful with their clients. So we have spent a ton of time building out resources, infrastructure, a team-based concept to help our people be successful in front of their clients. So to us, culture is creating the right environment and structure and products so our people can be successful in front of their clients and as long as they can be successful in front of their clients the clients want to stay so that's part a part b is in addition to creating a great environment for people you also need to create you also need to compensate them fairly so a big part of the Alliant story is in terms of compensating our professionals not only from a from a ordinary compensation perspective, but also providing them equity opportunities within the firm and make them owners within the business. Our belief is owners try harder, work harder, care more about what they're doing day to day. And so we have done what we hope to believe is a very good job of spreading equity ownership within the business to its broadest levels. In fact, I'm not aware of... any organization within our space that has a broader equity ownership story than Alliant. And it's something we're very proud of.
 

[00:09:54] Paul Lucas:
No doubt there will be plenty of people looking to follow in your footsteps, Greg. Huge thanks for your time today and huge congratulations as well, of course, to Alliant Insurance Services on being named among this year's fast brokerages. And if you want to hear more from leaders like Greg, well, keep it right here at Insurance Business TV.