Latest / The David Rubenstein Show / Tricia Griffith

Transcript

Tricia Griffith · The David Rubenstein Show

0:00
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Best. Bloomberg Best is about the insight
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Speaker 1: seven hundred journalists and enalysts in more than a hundred
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Speaker 1: twenty countries around the world. I'm at Baxter and I'm
0:24
Speaker 1: did the Spelly Greeny on this weekend edition of Bloomberg Best.
0:28
Speaker 1: Because of the components, the safety component. In addition, think
0:32
Speaker 1: of the inflation of medical cost why auto insurance is
0:35
Speaker 1: so expensive. If you could take you know, Emma for
0:39
Speaker 1: a couple of hours while I do this presentation, I
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Speaker 1: will baby see your kids and you and your husband
0:43
Speaker 1: can go out on the weekend. Progressive CEO Tricia Griffith,
0:47
Speaker 1: I'm bartering for childcare for her six children. Do you
0:50
Speaker 1: own a home? Yes? Discount plus some insight into Progressive's
0:54
Speaker 1: best known personality. All this and more coming up in
0:58
Speaker 1: the next hour of Bloomberg Best to all right, and
1:03
Speaker 1: you know one thing most people love to have, right,
1:05
Speaker 1: but don't love to pay for is insurance right? That's right,
1:08
Speaker 1: denise auto insurance, homeowners insurance, liability insurance. But for those
1:13
Speaker 1: in the business, said, they look at it from the
1:15
Speaker 1: other side, right, it's all about, you know, measuring your risk. Yeah,
1:18
Speaker 1: And David Rubinstein had a chance to ask the CEO
1:21
Speaker 1: of Progressive all about it. And David starts here on
1:24
Speaker 1: the David Rubinstein Show Peer to Peer Conversations by asking
1:28
Speaker 1: Tricia Griffith about the company's business model and advertising. So
1:33
Speaker 1: for those who aren't familiar with Progressive Um and probably
1:36
Speaker 1: if you watch television, you would be familiar because you
1:38
Speaker 1: have a lot of television ads, right, And I'm just curious, Uh,
1:41
Speaker 1: why is it that automobile insurance companies seem to advertise
1:44
Speaker 1: a lot. I see your competitors advertising. You advertise a lot.
1:47
Speaker 1: Is that because people really will be guided in their
1:49
Speaker 1: insurance decision by the advertisement. It's just a really competitive industry,
1:54
Speaker 1: which is always odd because it's something you're required to have.
1:57
Speaker 1: So it's not like, you know, do you pick a
1:59
Speaker 1: different soft drink or a beverage, but it is required.
2:03
Speaker 1: But it is so competitive that to be out there
2:05
Speaker 1: and be top of mind and be in the shortlist.
2:07
Speaker 1: You really have to be advertising. So you have a
2:09
Speaker 1: famous character in your insurance uh one of your some
2:12
Speaker 1: of your ads called flow, a woman that plays UH,
2:15
Speaker 1: I guess an insurance person. Um. Does she get a
2:19
Speaker 1: certain percentage of all the all the new business she
2:21
Speaker 1: brings in because she's so so good or she doesn't
2:23
Speaker 1: have that deal. She does not have that deal? She um,
2:27
Speaker 1: she is paid for her contract and she's doing fine.
2:30
Speaker 1: Let's talk about this year now. A lot of the
2:33
Speaker 1: auto insurers are up this UH this year in part
2:36
Speaker 1: because people aren't driving as much. And the theory is,
2:38
Speaker 1: if you don't drive as much, it's hard to have
2:40
Speaker 1: an accident. So if I presume there are fewer people
2:43
Speaker 1: claiming UH, you know that they've had an accent and
2:46
Speaker 1: therefore you don't have to pay out as much. Is
2:47
Speaker 1: that why your stock is up? You think? I think
2:49
Speaker 1: that might be one piece, But I think we've also
2:51
Speaker 1: continued to grow not only market share based on units,
2:56
Speaker 1: based on policies and force and really, um, if you
2:59
Speaker 1: think about it, yes, immediately in March, vehicle miles traveled
3:04
Speaker 1: have been reduced and losses went for that. But as
3:07
Speaker 1: states have reopened, it continues to go up. And right
3:09
Speaker 1: now we're still not pre COVID level of driving. We're
3:13
Speaker 1: about eight to ten per cent down, but those lost costs,
3:16
Speaker 1: that gap is closing in because we're seeing more and
3:18
Speaker 1: more people driving more often. And so that that lasted
3:23
Speaker 1: a couple of months, and then remember many companies gave
3:26
Speaker 1: back credits or have reduced rates. Now let me ask
3:29
Speaker 1: you about that. If you get a rebate, that was
3:31
Speaker 1: because you voluntarily thought it was a good idea, or
3:34
Speaker 1: the regulators said you have to give back money. Why
3:36
Speaker 1: did the automob I'm sure started giving back money to
3:38
Speaker 1: their policy holders. We did it because it was the
3:41
Speaker 1: right thing to do. I mean, we immediately saw driving
3:44
Speaker 1: vehicle miles traveled go down. It went back up pretty
3:48
Speaker 1: quickly to twenty, etcetera. But we sat down and said, okay,
3:51
Speaker 1: this we don't want margins that big. It's not the
3:53
Speaker 1: right thing to do. We want to be competitively priced,
3:56
Speaker 1: and so we gave credits for UM both April and May,
4:01
Speaker 1: and then subsequently we're very analytically driven, so we went
4:05
Speaker 1: sort of state by states, channel by channel, product by product,
4:09
Speaker 1: and so far we've given We've had rate decreases in
4:12
Speaker 1: about thirty five states, and those those are baked in permanently.
4:16
Speaker 1: So today when people have an accident, Today, when they
4:19
Speaker 1: do have accidents, the accidents are more expensive than they
4:22
Speaker 1: used to be. Is that because the cars and more complicated,
4:25
Speaker 1: more expensive to repair? Yeah, they absolutely are a couple
4:28
Speaker 1: of reasons. One is the components of the car. So
4:30
Speaker 1: I started as a claim drop and the cars in
4:34
Speaker 1: the bumper repair or replacement would be a couple hundred dollars,
4:38
Speaker 1: and now they could be upwards of a thousand, two
4:40
Speaker 1: thousand dollars because of the components, the safety components. In addition,
4:44
Speaker 1: think of the inflation of medical costs. So if you're
4:46
Speaker 1: injured in an accident, that's another component of the increased severity.
4:51
Speaker 1: So let's suppose i want to get some automobile insurance. Um,
4:54
Speaker 1: I'm now seventy one years old. Am I a good
4:57
Speaker 1: risk as a seventy one year old? Or you'd rather
5:00
Speaker 1: have somebody who's twenty five and more alert. That is
5:04
Speaker 1: one variable, So we we look at hundreds of variable.
5:07
Speaker 1: So depends on where you live. Do you live in
5:09
Speaker 1: a congested area, do you live in the rural area.
5:12
Speaker 1: What is your driving history? Uh? Do you have our
5:16
Speaker 1: usage based insurance? That way we know what time of
5:18
Speaker 1: day you drive, how many miles you drive, have you
5:20
Speaker 1: had any violations. There's so many things that go into it,
5:24
Speaker 1: so age is only one component. When I was a teenager,
5:28
Speaker 1: you know, I was told that teenagers are not good
5:31
Speaker 1: drivers and insurance is expensive. Is that true today? Insurance?
5:34
Speaker 1: Is it more expensive? Or teenagers are not good drivers?
5:37
Speaker 1: I will say that having six people that drive in
5:40
Speaker 1: my family that we've added over the years, we can
5:43
Speaker 1: call them youthful drivers. Uh. The issue is that many
5:46
Speaker 1: many are good, but they just don't have that maturity.
5:49
Speaker 1: They haven't had the experience. And I remember saying, because
5:52
Speaker 1: you know a lot of times you'll get rate increases
5:54
Speaker 1: if you add on a youthful driver. And I challenged
5:57
Speaker 1: that when I first got this job, and then I realized,
6:00
Speaker 1: having six youthful drivers, that there is a reason you
6:03
Speaker 1: paid a little bit more. You were in home insurance
6:05
Speaker 1: now and you bought a company that helps you get
6:07
Speaker 1: into that. Why do you want to be in a
6:09
Speaker 1: home insurance business? For us, it was really access to
6:12
Speaker 1: more of the preferred customer, especially on the independent agent sides.
6:16
Speaker 1: We had a relationship with a SI American Strategic Insurance
6:19
Speaker 1: for years. We had we had a small ownership in them,
6:23
Speaker 1: and their values were very much aligned with us, and
6:27
Speaker 1: so we decided to go ahead and purchase them. And
6:29
Speaker 1: it's been a really nice transition, a really great acquisition.
6:33
Speaker 1: And so now you know, having sort of the whole
6:35
Speaker 1: picture for whatever you want, auto home, your boat's, motorcycle, commercial.
6:41
Speaker 1: And that's why we're continuing to expand because I think
6:43
Speaker 1: it's really important to diversify. Is the home insurance business
6:47
Speaker 1: very profitable now? The home insurance business, it depends on
6:50
Speaker 1: what company you're talking about. We have struggled a little
6:53
Speaker 1: bit because of wind hail catastrophes, and we also have
6:58
Speaker 1: been obviously growing our mom all across the country. We
7:01
Speaker 1: were in about five states for many years, and so
7:03
Speaker 1: we're learning a lot about the product model. So have
7:06
Speaker 1: you looked at our results. We will be profitable, but
7:09
Speaker 1: we're doing the same thing we did on the otto side.
7:12
Speaker 1: We're getting very surgical in our segmentation to understand, um
7:16
Speaker 1: the right rate for each home. Are you thinking of
7:19
Speaker 1: getting into the life insurance business and you're in the
7:20
Speaker 1: other insurance businesses, why not get into life insurance? Well,
7:24
Speaker 1: right now, we have a great relationship with an unaffiliated
7:27
Speaker 1: partner that we get a commission when we send them
7:29
Speaker 1: to the company, and that's been working really well, and
7:34
Speaker 1: we actually are considering that we have a life insurance
7:37
Speaker 1: company filed in Ohio. UM More to come on that.
7:40
Speaker 1: People say that there's eventually going to be driver lers
7:43
Speaker 1: or autonomous cars, and of course the theory is they
7:46
Speaker 1: will never have an accident because they're perfectly programmed. Is
7:49
Speaker 1: that something you worry about as cars that don't have accidents?
7:52
Speaker 1: Or you're not gonna worry about that right now? I
7:54
Speaker 1: don't worry about I mean from a society perspective, you
7:57
Speaker 1: want to have less accidents. It's good for society. Everyone
8:00
Speaker 1: has been affected by someone who's been in an auto accident. UH.
8:03
Speaker 1: What I think about, I don't put my head instand
8:05
Speaker 1: But what I think about is timing, realistic timing. That's
8:09
Speaker 1: also one of the reasons why I think about I'm
8:12
Speaker 1: not just executing on our current plan, but expanding and
8:15
Speaker 1: exploring other other uh possibilities adjacencies to to grow our business.
8:20
Speaker 1: I will tell you that when you look back at
8:23
Speaker 1: some of the headlines in two thousand twelve that say
8:26
Speaker 1: this type of car is going to be fully autonomous
8:28
Speaker 1: by tift. Uh, it'll take longer, and I know that
8:33
Speaker 1: that's said. Again we're preparing for a possible smaller auto
8:39
Speaker 1: insurance industry, but again we have so many opportunities with
8:42
Speaker 1: other adjacent models, including home and then some of the
8:45
Speaker 1: other things we've talked about, whether it's tnc or commercial
8:48
Speaker 1: or small business, all the things that we've expanded to
8:51
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years. Now. Elon Musk has
8:54
Speaker 1: said he's going to have an autonomous car out there
8:57
Speaker 1: at some point and not to distant future, and he's
8:59
Speaker 1: also said, anybody that's an insurance agent, why don't you
9:02
Speaker 1: call me up, because we want to hire insurance agents.
9:04
Speaker 1: We're going to be in the automobile insurance business. Is
9:07
Speaker 1: that something you're worried about a lot? Not really, because
9:11
Speaker 1: I think people I love our culture and I think
9:13
Speaker 1: they love we're working here, and I think that we
9:15
Speaker 1: have a huge future. I think that they're The technology
9:20
Speaker 1: is absolutely there, and I can see a car going
9:22
Speaker 1: from point eight to be in a geo fenced area,
9:25
Speaker 1: but there's a lot to be done. I think it
9:27
Speaker 1: will be a little bit longer than most people had
9:30
Speaker 1: predicted even years ago. Let's talk about progressives background. Progressive.
9:36
Speaker 1: It's a great name, Progressive, that's a very positive word. Um.
9:39
Speaker 1: Was that the original name of the company? When was
9:41
Speaker 1: the company started? Yes, it was the original name. The
9:43
Speaker 1: company was founded in nineteen thirty seven by Joe Lewis
9:47
Speaker 1: and Jack Green. And they were two attorneys in Cleveland,
9:50
Speaker 1: and they didn't know what they wanted to do, but
9:52
Speaker 1: they wanted to be able to serve the non standard
9:55
Speaker 1: customers in Cleveland that I needed insurance, and so they
9:58
Speaker 1: borrowed ten thousand from Joe Louis's mother in law, and uh,
10:02
Speaker 1: that's how Progressive was born. And you might know Peter
10:05
Speaker 1: Lewis who ran the company for a long long time. Uh,
10:08
Speaker 1: he was the second CEO, and then Glenn Renwick and
10:10
Speaker 1: then myself. How did you get started at Progressive and
10:13
Speaker 1: at the bottom? Pretty much? Is that right? Yeah? I
10:15
Speaker 1: went to Illinoi State University at marketing degree. I wanted
10:18
Speaker 1: to go into something something in marketing, but all through
10:21
Speaker 1: high school and college I worked in retail. So and
10:24
Speaker 1: oddly where I went to school is the home office
10:27
Speaker 1: of State Farm and everybody was doing internships there, and
10:30
Speaker 1: I'm like, who wants to work in insurance? So I
10:32
Speaker 1: went to a retail company for about six months. It
10:36
Speaker 1: was it was called Furrow Building Materials. It was like
10:38
Speaker 1: a think of like a Lows or a home depot.
10:41
Speaker 1: I was like, what am I doing? I'm mixing paints.
10:43
Speaker 1: I'm actually forklift certified. And I was driving home one
10:47
Speaker 1: day with my hard hat and I said, I gotta
10:49
Speaker 1: I gotta look for something different. And what I wanted
10:52
Speaker 1: to do is work somewhere for a couple of years,
10:53
Speaker 1: pay off my school loans, and then go to get
10:56
Speaker 1: my m b A. So I went home and opened
10:59
Speaker 1: the classified ads. I'd never heard of Progressive. At that time,
11:02
Speaker 1: we were less than a billion, and I thought, clean
11:05
Speaker 1: drop trainy, this sounds interesting, nineteen thousand, that will help
11:08
Speaker 1: me pay off my debt and made the call. So
11:11
Speaker 1: the job is will be a claim adjuster. Correct. So
11:14
Speaker 1: what I would do if if I've had your claim
11:17
Speaker 1: and you were injured, I would go out and talk
11:19
Speaker 1: to you about your injury and and guide you through that.
11:22
Speaker 1: I would crawl under your car and let you know
11:24
Speaker 1: how much it took to get it repaired. I would
11:26
Speaker 1: kind of manage your whole file. I did. I also
11:28
Speaker 1: did special line, so I was a motorcycle wrap UH,
11:31
Speaker 1: and I basically handled the entire file. So I was
11:34
Speaker 1: in body shops, crawling under cars, and in your house
11:38
Speaker 1: talking to you about your injury. You've obviously risen up
11:41
Speaker 1: from the lowest position to the highest position, and you
11:44
Speaker 1: had many different positions in between. One of them, which
11:47
Speaker 1: is very unusual to have for a CEO, maybe sadly,
11:50
Speaker 1: is to be the head of human resources. So how
11:53
Speaker 1: did you go from being the head of human resources
11:55
Speaker 1: to being the CEO? Well that you to me to
11:57
Speaker 1: actually take get the HR or old job from having
12:01
Speaker 1: mostly claims experience during the fifth first fifteen years, I
12:04
Speaker 1: had a little bit of sales and a little bit
12:05
Speaker 1: of claims. And Glenn Renwick, at the time, my predecessor UH,
12:10
Speaker 1: interviewed me it was it was actually an odd circumstance.
12:14
Speaker 1: I went for it. I wasn't going to because I
12:16
Speaker 1: don't I don't have any HR experience. I have some
12:18
Speaker 1: maternity leaves, but that's about it. And people kept calling
12:22
Speaker 1: me from around the company saying, you have to go
12:24
Speaker 1: for this. You love diversity, you love metrics, we need this.
12:27
Speaker 1: So finally I had a pre interview lunch with Glenn
12:30
Speaker 1: to see if I could even go for it. Uh,
12:32
Speaker 1: he put my name in the hat and gave me
12:35
Speaker 1: the opportunity, and I will always say it was a
12:37
Speaker 1: risk for him. He does not say that, but that
12:39
Speaker 1: was really the turning point in my career. And then
12:42
Speaker 1: you know he was He watched me and I did
12:46
Speaker 1: that for six years and made a lot of big
12:48
Speaker 1: changes that we still have now. And the president of
12:51
Speaker 1: Claims came up, and that's my dream job because I
12:54
Speaker 1: love claims, I love helping customers. I was able to
12:57
Speaker 1: do that. That's seventy cents of every dollar premium comes
13:00
Speaker 1: in your paying on claims, so that's the big business piece.
13:02
Speaker 1: And then he gave me all things customer facing, so
13:05
Speaker 1: I had our call centers and claims and then I
13:08
Speaker 1: was CEO before the CEO role. So I really credit
13:13
Speaker 1: Glenn for guiding me, giving me opportunities, coaching me, and
13:17
Speaker 1: sponsoring me. So as kind of human resources, you must
13:21
Speaker 1: have instituted some policies that changed the company's face. Because
13:25
Speaker 1: your company has been voted the number one most diverse
13:28
Speaker 1: company in the United States and some surveys. Is that's
13:31
Speaker 1: something that you implemented and put into into practice. Yes.
13:35
Speaker 1: We started our diversity inclusion initiatives really in earnest when
13:38
Speaker 1: I was there. We started our first employee resource groups,
13:41
Speaker 1: which was Progressive African American Network and our LGBT plus
13:45
Speaker 1: now we have nine. We really set forth the strategy
13:48
Speaker 1: of how we're going to make sure everyone can bring
13:50
Speaker 1: their whole self to work. It was a big piece
13:52
Speaker 1: of our culture and we started looking at the data.
13:56
Speaker 1: We continue to work on it, though it's not something
13:58
Speaker 1: that you can ever get a check mark. And if
14:00
Speaker 1: you look at at senior leadership, we have opportunities there
14:03
Speaker 1: and in fact we're working on some really aggressive objectives
14:06
Speaker 1: for the next five years with my team to continue
14:09
Speaker 1: to change that. Your chairman of your board is a woman,
14:13
Speaker 1: and obviously you're a woman. Is there any other Fortune
14:15
Speaker 1: five Hunter company where the chairman is a woman and
14:18
Speaker 1: the CEO as a woman. There must be none. I
14:20
Speaker 1: don't think so. And we actually have twelve twelve members
14:24
Speaker 1: of our board and six or women and one of
14:26
Speaker 1: the female as a person of color. So when you
14:29
Speaker 1: were for the CEO and guess in line to be
14:32
Speaker 1: the CEO, did you think that they were going to
14:34
Speaker 1: give the job to a woman, or you thought this
14:35
Speaker 1: will revert to the normal forum and we'll find a
14:37
Speaker 1: nice white male that we can give it to. I
14:40
Speaker 1: was hoping to give it to the person that thought
14:42
Speaker 1: was the best fit for Progressive at the best time.
14:45
Speaker 1: And I remember interviewing with the board for several years
14:49
Speaker 1: during the process, and one of the board members said
14:51
Speaker 1: to me, so you want to be a CEO, And
14:54
Speaker 1: I said, no, I want to be the CEO Progressive
14:56
Speaker 1: And that was what really was meaningful to me. So
14:59
Speaker 1: had I not found the role, I'd still be here.
15:01
Speaker 1: And um, and there were lots of other opportunities to
15:05
Speaker 1: have a great CEO other than myself. So UM, when
15:08
Speaker 1: you were able to go into your office, you were
15:11
Speaker 1: well known for walking into the cafeteria and sitting down
15:15
Speaker 1: with the average person. Why did you do that? Why
15:18
Speaker 1: didn't you just eat in your office with other executives?
15:21
Speaker 1: Because that is my way of getting to know people
15:25
Speaker 1: and and really feeling what's going on with the company.
15:28
Speaker 1: And when you break bread with people, they open up
15:30
Speaker 1: to you, not just about great things, but about things
15:33
Speaker 1: you they want to change. And for me, I think
15:35
Speaker 1: because of my roots as a claimed rep trainee. I
15:38
Speaker 1: was wondered what the executed and we don't have an
15:39
Speaker 1: executive cafeteria. All of his eat in the regular cafeteria.
15:43
Speaker 1: It's a very different type of company from that perspective.
15:46
Speaker 1: But literally it motivated me to be a better leader.
15:49
Speaker 1: Every time I walked up to a table of you know,
15:51
Speaker 1: five people and said may I join you? And they
15:54
Speaker 1: gave that horrible look like please, no, please no, and
15:57
Speaker 1: I sat down. I had five new friends, and I
15:59
Speaker 1: just to me, it's it's an important part to be approachable.
16:03
Speaker 1: If you feel connected and you trust your leader, you're
16:06
Speaker 1: going to run through the wall for them. So when
16:09
Speaker 1: you sit down with people at the employee cafeteria, did
16:11
Speaker 1: they ever say, by the way, i'm underpaid? There's that,
16:14
Speaker 1: never a thing, never say that. They'll sometimes talk about
16:17
Speaker 1: how they wish they could make more, what can they do,
16:19
Speaker 1: how can they get there? People are pretty pretty open
16:22
Speaker 1: and honest with me. So as I talked to you,
16:26
Speaker 1: you're not in your office, I assume you're at your home.
16:29
Speaker 1: That's correct, him in my little library off of our bedroom.
16:32
Speaker 1: And have you been running progressive from your little office
16:35
Speaker 1: there for a couple of months now. Yes, Ever since
16:38
Speaker 1: mid March, I go in sometimes once a week just
16:41
Speaker 1: to get my mail and to check things out, but
16:43
Speaker 1: I don't see anyone. And in fact, where I'm sitting here,
16:46
Speaker 1: my son who's in film school, filmed me weekly for
16:50
Speaker 1: several months so I could send a video out to
16:52
Speaker 1: all of the progressive people. Has it been difficult to
16:55
Speaker 1: run the company remotely this way? It hasn't been difficult
16:58
Speaker 1: for me. It's been unusual well, and I don't love
17:01
Speaker 1: it because I love the interaction. I think the biggest
17:03
Speaker 1: part is the claims organization, because that is face to face,
17:07
Speaker 1: especially when you're looking at vehicles. Um. But we immediately
17:10
Speaker 1: were able to use videos and pictures to do the
17:13
Speaker 1: best job we could to estimate vehicles, and we're doing
17:17
Speaker 1: pretty well, and I'm I'm very proud of the organization.
17:19
Speaker 1: When the world comes back, which hopefully it will be
17:22
Speaker 1: in some point in time, when we have a vaccine,
17:24
Speaker 1: do you expect that all your employees will come back
17:26
Speaker 1: and work in the offices or now do you think
17:28
Speaker 1: you could have people working remotely and maybe save money
17:31
Speaker 1: by not have as much office space. How do you
17:33
Speaker 1: think about this in the future? Prior to COVID, we
17:37
Speaker 1: already had about of our call center people in some claims,
17:40
Speaker 1: people that work from home just because it works better
17:43
Speaker 1: for them. Um. I imagine we're doing some surveying as
17:46
Speaker 1: we think about returning of what percentage will that still
17:49
Speaker 1: work for. I think in person, in the office hallway
17:54
Speaker 1: conversations are so important. So although I think it might
17:57
Speaker 1: increase from that, if you fast forward and there's a
18:01
Speaker 1: vaccine and people feel comfortable, I think a lot of
18:04
Speaker 1: people will come into the office. I think that that
18:06
Speaker 1: is something that we worked through. We've done a really
18:09
Speaker 1: great job, especially with technology, but I know many people
18:13
Speaker 1: really miss it. You and your husband have six children, right,
18:16
Speaker 1: is that right? Six children? Yes, hers and ours all right,
18:19
Speaker 1: So when you have six children and you're running a company,
18:23
Speaker 1: isn't that kind of complicated? I mean, how do you
18:25
Speaker 1: have time in the day to do anything else? It
18:27
Speaker 1: was very complicated as I was as I was growing
18:31
Speaker 1: in going up through the ranks, and my husband worked
18:35
Speaker 1: as well when I was in HR for a couple
18:37
Speaker 1: of years. UM. He also we met it progressive, so
18:40
Speaker 1: he worked there and we both had travel jobs. And
18:43
Speaker 1: at one point he said, when our oldest was going
18:45
Speaker 1: into high school. He said, you know, one of us
18:48
Speaker 1: probably needs to stay home. I think you have a
18:50
Speaker 1: longer runway. And uh so he decided to stay home.
18:54
Speaker 1: But I think I treat it like everything else, assume
18:57
Speaker 1: something might go wrong. And so when we were both
19:00
Speaker 1: traveling and I knew I had a big presentation, I
19:03
Speaker 1: knew that morning I would go into somebody's room and
19:06
Speaker 1: someone would have an ear infection. And so I created
19:09
Speaker 1: a network of friends that stayed home, and I did
19:11
Speaker 1: an old fashioned bartering system. So if you could take
19:15
Speaker 1: you know, Emma for a couple of hours while I
19:17
Speaker 1: do this presentation, I will babysit your kids, and you
19:20
Speaker 1: and your husband can go out on the weekend. I
19:22
Speaker 1: treated it. I always had planned beast indeed, just like
19:24
Speaker 1: you do in business. What would you say the leadership
19:26
Speaker 1: qualities that you brought to the table or that you
19:29
Speaker 1: most admire. I mean, I think the ones I brought
19:31
Speaker 1: to the table were being genuine, being authentic, communicating, uh
19:38
Speaker 1: you know, just um all the time, painting the picture
19:41
Speaker 1: of where I want the company to go. And I
19:43
Speaker 1: think that's really important. I think people, uh, you know
19:46
Speaker 1: you only you're only a leader of people want to
19:48
Speaker 1: follow you, So do people want to follow you? Do?
19:52
Speaker 1: Do you? Do? You have? You know, a great attitude
19:55
Speaker 1: but also a certain paranoia to make sure that we're
19:58
Speaker 1: always doing well. And for me, I think what I'm
20:01
Speaker 1: most proud of and I think why I continue to
20:04
Speaker 1: get jobs after that hr job was I form really
20:07
Speaker 1: great teams. I don't always have to be the smartest
20:09
Speaker 1: person in the room. I know collectively what a team needs,
20:12
Speaker 1: and I love having really great debates. And the only
20:16
Speaker 1: thing better than those debates are the unity, the power
20:19
Speaker 1: in the unity. When you come you know, you come
20:21
Speaker 1: out and you're you're solidified as a management team, as
20:24
Speaker 1: a leadership team. So sometimes people say it's very difficult
20:27
Speaker 1: for women to have it all, to have a family
20:30
Speaker 1: and also have a great professional career. It's obviously possible.
20:33
Speaker 1: You would You've obviously done it. So what would you
20:36
Speaker 1: say is that the trick to having it all and
20:38
Speaker 1: and getting it all done? If you were to give
20:40
Speaker 1: advice to some younger woman, I think there's sometimes there's
20:43
Speaker 1: things you don't give up. So Jack played high school
20:46
Speaker 1: and college football. It was important for me to go
20:49
Speaker 1: to as many games as I could have his and
20:52
Speaker 1: I worked my way around that so I could do that,
20:54
Speaker 1: and sometimes that meant working, you know, at ten o'clock
20:57
Speaker 1: at night to catch up on things. But it was
20:58
Speaker 1: worth it because my kids tell me even now, they're like,
21:02
Speaker 1: you went to more things than most stay at home
21:04
Speaker 1: moms because I was so obsessed with making sure I
21:06
Speaker 1: got to almost everything. So if you were go to
21:09
Speaker 1: a football game or something like that with your kids,
21:12
Speaker 1: do people come up to you and say you're the
21:13
Speaker 1: CEO of Progressive or you try to avoid telling people
21:16
Speaker 1: you're the CEO Progressive when you go to those kind
21:18
Speaker 1: of family events. It's funny because my husband says all
21:21
Speaker 1: the time, why do you play twenty games with everyone?
21:24
Speaker 1: Because people will say where do you work? And I'll
21:26
Speaker 1: say for insurance company? Where in Cleveland? What do you do?
21:29
Speaker 1: I'm corporate, so I'll do all these things so fun
21:32
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I'm the CEO. UM. What I have
21:35
Speaker 1: found if you're on a plane when they're when you
21:38
Speaker 1: used to be on planes, or you're somewhere, a good
21:40
Speaker 1: way to not get in the conversation is they'll say
21:42
Speaker 1: what do you do? And I say, I fell insurance,
21:44
Speaker 1: and then no one talks to you. So that's why
21:46
Speaker 1: I found the right the right thing. I've no people.
21:49
Speaker 1: I live in a smaller town and my kids went
21:52
Speaker 1: to a small Catholic school, so everybody knows me. When
21:55
Speaker 1: I got the job. The day that it was announced,
21:58
Speaker 1: I was headed to our son's school after the workday
22:02
Speaker 1: to go to his lacrosse game, and our PR department
22:05
Speaker 1: kept saying, you know, the Wall Street Journal wants to
22:07
Speaker 1: talk to you. This place wants to talk to you.
22:08
Speaker 1: And I said, I'm headed to a lacrosse game. Let
22:11
Speaker 1: me call my mom, let me call my sisters, let
22:13
Speaker 1: me enjoy this. And um, I finally said, stop calling
22:17
Speaker 1: me because I wanted to be present in the moment.
22:20
Speaker 1: And actually I talked to my five other children and
22:23
Speaker 1: Jack was on the field, and uh, during halftime, I
22:27
Speaker 1: went up and I said hi, and I went to
22:28
Speaker 1: talent and I said, hey, I need to tell you
22:30
Speaker 1: some news. He goes, I know, Mrs Ceo, it's it's
22:33
Speaker 1: it's your trendy on Twitter. Suppose somebody came to you
22:35
Speaker 1: from Ohio and said, you've run one of the best
22:38
Speaker 1: companies in Ohio. You should be governor of Ohio. Would
22:41
Speaker 1: you have any interest in running for office. I think
22:44
Speaker 1: government would frustrate me. I like to get things done,
22:47
Speaker 1: I like to move forward, and I'm a big believer
22:51
Speaker 1: in compromise. So for me, I I don't think government
22:55
Speaker 1: is in the future for me, I think I loved
22:56
Speaker 1: I'd love to do some philanthropy, maybe a border to
23:00
Speaker 1: who I'm on a public board now and uh, and
23:03
Speaker 1: do some things with my husband to help the country.
23:06
Speaker 1: And the higher calling of private equity that doesn't appeal
23:08
Speaker 1: to you, I'll let you do that. And you've been
23:12
Speaker 1: listening to Tricia Griffith, CEO of Progressive on the David
23:16
Speaker 1: Rubinstein Show. Peer to Peer Conversations