Our insider running a $60bn global broker

As broker consolidation makes some risk managers feel like a commodity being traded between the global intermediaries, the Worldwide Broker Network represents a major alternative that you may not be aware of. Mark Geoghegan reports on a refreshing encounter with its CEO Olga Collins… One of the least edifying insights to arise from the sprawling mass of negotiations surrounding the Aon-Willis Towers Watson (WTW) merger that have arisen in many corners of the globe, is the almost complete absence of focus on what the largest customers of insurance feel about the situation. A particular low was hit in New Zealand recently, when the relevant authorities revealed that they had been offered the divestment of “WTW’s largest CRB [corporate risk and broking] customers serviced out of New Zealand” to satisfy competition concerns. One wonders what the customers felt when they read this. Did they know they were tradeable assets belonging to brokers? Brokers often brag to underwriters that it is they who ‘own’ the client, but most observers had hitherto assumed they didn’t mean it quite so literally. Naturally, my interviewee is someone who would take completely the opposite view. Olga Collins is the sort of CEO who will surprise the unprepared. This is because she sits at the head of the Worldwide Broker Network (WBN), a global broking organisation that in 2020 brought in $6bn in revenues and handled about $60bn in gross premiums. If WTW and Aon finally convince the right judges that they should be allowed to merge, this would make her the CEO of the world’s third-largest broking organisation. Yet, it is a network that you could be forgiven for not being aware of until now. Founded in 1989 in western Europe, initially as a reaction to the increasing integration of the European insurance market, the WBN now has more than 100 member firms across 90 countries. It exists to enable independent brokers around the world to compete with the dwindling group of wholly-owned global intermediaries. Given the tempest of M&A sown first by MMC’s 2019 acquisition of JLT and harvested in Aon’s proposed merger with WTW, it is perhaps no surprise that I found Ms Collins optimistic about the prospect of big-broker clients falling through the cracks and into her net: “I love disruption in our marketplace – with all that commotion in the industry we see an opportunity to cater to those clients who fall through the cracks because their current brokerage teams are more focused on their internal changes. People are worried about their future, so essentially clients get lost in the shuffle,” she asserts. This is where WBN comes in. Members are all independent but agree to trade under centralised rules of engagement around fees, compliance and non-disclosure. The secretariat organises training and conferences and it makes centralised IT systems available to those that wish to use them. It is a competitive network, not a franchise system, so multiple members can compete with each other from within the same territories. Peer review is 360 degrees and the club claims it only allows in top-quartile players from each territory. I ask Ms Collins if it is realistic to expect WBN’s coalition to be able to compete with the might of the 100%-owned, shared profit and loss accounts and unified command of the global brokers? The response is strong: “The feeling is that we are different, not inferior,” Ms Collins states, before going on the offensive. Received wisdom has been that because the wholly-owned global brokers are ultimately all contributing to the same profit and loss, collaboration and client focus should be heightened. Ms Collins is not having this: “Let’s not kid ourselves that the fully-owned networks actually exist. We have seen the owning phenomenon in geographies where it simply doesn’t make P&L sense. “We have brokers in our network who do business for large global brokers, even though their owned offices exist in that specific country.” We’ve all been there. Suffering poor service from one of the weak links within your own network is enough for many to seek dispensation to use independents who can provide a better level of service. Asked whether there are any notable gaps in the global network, Ms Collins is adamant that the WBN is just as global as any of its competitors and the only gaps are those enforced by trade embargo and sanctions restrictions. Ms Collins then highlights another core claim – a lower level of staff turnover at independent brokers. Folks at smaller brokers tend to have a lot more autonomy and receive higher levels of responsibility at an earlier stage in their careers. As a consequence, those able to handle the pressure tend to gain higher levels of job satisfaction and stay where they are. The executive adds that the collaborative WBN model is often a lot more flexible than that of the global broker, where sometimes the smallest bits of cross-border activity hit the brick wall of minimum brokerage fees. Her members don’t bear centralised overheads and therefore don’t have to work under such edicts. They have the flexibility to decide their own minimum levels. “I remember having a minimum premium policy placed in a country for $2,500, but then the brokerage fee was $3,000, so it becomes a little bit lopsided. “We have that cost structure related exactly to what the requirements of the client are and we can have flexibility,” she explains. After this answer, I am struck that Ms Collins is one of most client-focused interviewees I have encountered in my time as a journalist. It turns out that this is because she is speaking from experience. A little digging reveals 14 years at UPS, the last five of which were spent overseeing the global logistics firm’s complex insurance programmes in a staggering 220 countries. So, Ms Collins is very much one of us. She is also a native Pole who has forged a life and career in the US, so again she herself is a global citizen serving global customers. Seven subsequent years running the multinational practice of US broker and now Brown & Brown subsidiary, Beecher Carlson, have led her to her current role, which she assumed in April 2021. I ask if the network is known for any product strengths in particular. Given the scale of the organisation, the answer is that by necessity it does pretty much everything everywhere. After all, when you’re servicing a global client you end up brokering every class of business almost by default. Ms Collins’ passion is never far below the surface, particularly when she is slaying myths about the cultural differences between jurisdictions and their claimed effects on service levels. “When I was told that service standards differ from country to country, being a foreign national in the US, I took it upon myself to prove that stigma to be wrong. “The cultural issue is not the reason, it is the result of poor relationships and poor network management,” she explains vehemently, busting cultural myths one by one. Take this for a slapdown of the popular prejudices about the Gallic summer work ethic, or lack thereof: “It could be August in France, where the world thinks that France is off for the entire month, but I’ll get a call back immediately from the head of international at our partner firm.” Touché! A significant portion of WBN’s business is in employee benefits (EB) and Ms Collins also extols the virtue of WBN’s joined-up thinking in this regard: “We have those two very big portions of our industry (property and casualty insurance, and EB) working as one. We don’t work in silos, like many of our competitors do, and in a global world I think there are many commonalities between the two sides.” After all, if clients don’t differentiate in the same way, why should their brokers? “From the client’s perspective, nowadays there’s a lot of connectivity and discussions at the same table between the risk manager and the HR manager, so starting to look at their needs in a holistic way is exactly what WBN delivers,” says Ms Collins. A final and very refreshing revelation is that whereas many brokers keep their clients on a tight leash, barely letting them out of their sight, this network has the confidence to bring them inside the tent and allow interaction with the member firms servicing their business. “I myself would bring some of our more complex clients and organise a meeting with let’s say, 40 of their country representatives in one conference room. I’ll tell you with 100% certainty that does not happen with our competitors.” Ms Collins asserts. So, as the big brokers carve you up in smoke-filled rooms from which you are excluded entry, do not despair – it appears there is an alternative, claiming it is only too happy to listen to your requirements and give you the service you need, wherever in the world you need it. As the big three bicker among themselves and their regulators, inviting your local WBN representative along to your next tender might be a smart move. If nothing else, it will immediately serve to focus all the minds in the room back onto you.

Our insider running a $60bn global broker

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