Latest / Elevate Podcast: Powered by Braden / Elevate Ep 40: True Leadership with Patrick Gallagher, Executive Vice President & COO of Gallagher

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Elevate Ep 40: True Leadership with Patrick Gallagher, Executive Vice President & COO of Gallagher · Elevate Podcast: Powered by Braden

• 0:13
  Welcome to the Elevate Podcast powered
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  by Braden. This is your front row seat
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  to the stories of local leaders, both
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  nonprofit and for-profit, who are
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  shaping our community. Every episode
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  brings you leadership insights, lessons
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  from challenges, and practical
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  strategies you can use today. And yes,
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  we'll keep it real and have some fun
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  along the way. If you're ready to
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  elevate your leadership, hit subscribe
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  and follow us on LinkedIn for updates
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  and behind the scenes content. Now,
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  let's dive in. Hey everybody, Jason M
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  here with another episode of the Elevate
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  Powered by Braden podcast. And as you
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  can see, we're not in the studio in
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  Fisers. The view out these windows, if
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  you could see it, is gorgeous from the
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  11th floor. So, we like it. It's a great
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  place to be. But Patrick, where are we?
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  >> We are in Rolling Meadows, Illinois,
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  which is about 10 miles west of here.
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  So, when you say we're a Chicago land
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  area business,
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  >> yeah, it's a beautiful building. Act,
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  thank you for joining me on the show.
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  Glad to be here.
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  >> And and your role at Gallagher today is
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  >> I'm executive vice president and chief
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  operating officer. Not to be confused
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  with operations officer. Not it means
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  the five operating divisions port.
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  >> Gotcha. Okay. All right. So that's what
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  you're doing today, but that's not where
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  you started. So let's go back to the
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  beginning. Where you from originally?
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  >> I am from uh Glen View, Illinois. Proud
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  Glenberg South uh student and not far
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  from here. Northern suburbs Chicago.
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  >> Gotcha. All right. So what did high
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  school look like? What were you back in
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  high school those days?
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  >> High school I was uh I was pretty into
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  sports. Sports. Sports was life.
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  >> Okay. high school also, you know,
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  started dating my wife in high school as
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  we talked about.
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  >> Oh, we did talk about that, right? Uh,
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  but yeah, high school was mainly uh
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  baseball, soccer, school, and my wife.
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  All right. So, so at the time,
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  girlfriend, lots of sports. So, thinking
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  about where you were going to come out
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  of high school, thinking about college,
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  where'd you think about going and what
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  were you thinking about doing those
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  days?
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  >> Well, I could have played sports at some
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  smaller division three or division two
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  schools. I opted to go to one of our
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  family schools. All the men in my family
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  had gone to Cornell University. Okay. A
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  lot of the women in our family had gone
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  to Boston College. My sister went to
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  Cornell and I went to Boston College. So
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  you guys flipped the you had to do it.
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  So I was I was try I tried a baseball
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  and soccer uh but didn't make either
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  team. But I really wanted to go to a
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  city school, bigger school, someplace
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  that had roots. I thought college was
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  kind of my stretch school and uh all
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  worked out. All right. So, gotcha. So,
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  let's go where you studied.
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  >> I did general management. I've known
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  that I wanted to be in the family
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  business for my basically my whole life.
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  And so, I knew kind of what I want to do
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  and I I start studying that as soon as
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  possible.
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  >> You know, that's interesting. I've
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  talked to a lot of you second, third,
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  fourth gener generation family business
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  folks. Some are from the beginning know
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  this is what they want to do. So, I'm
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  curious, you've known this from the
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  beginning. Where did that come from? Was
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  it just the conversations around the
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  dinner table kind of where did that
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  spark for you to know that you wanted to
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  come to Gallagher?
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  >> Yeah. So I mean this the company is
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  called Arthur J. Gallagher Company and
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  that's my greatgrandfather. But we
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  didn't do a million dollars in revenue
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  until 1968.
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  So we started in 27. Took us 41 years to
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  do a million dollars in topline revenue.
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  So it was really down to two brothers.
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  my grandfather and his brother, my great
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  uncle. And my grandfather was the sales
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  guy and my great uncle was kind of the
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  business guy. G he set the Gallagher
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  way, set our mergers and acquisition
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  strategy, made sure we'd pay profit,
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  took us public. My grandfather, on the
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  other hand, was salesman extraordinaire.
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  Most fun guy. Yeah. And he loved
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  insurance. Just loved it. So every
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  Christmas, every Thanksgiving, every
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  Easter, there was an insurance side of
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  the table. It's a big Irish Catholic
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  family. And there's a non-insurance side
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  of the table. And from the kindergarten
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  onward, I wanted to be at the insurance
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  side of the table, hearing about all the
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  fun stories that people were doing,
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  selling the cats.
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  >> Gotcha. And my grandfather was probably,
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  you know, a very good innovator in this
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  business, but he had more fun. And he
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  knew I loved sports. So he would always
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  bring it back to kind of sports. If you
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  say, you know, you love getting a hit in
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  baseball, that's like winning cow. You
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  love scoring a goal in soccer, that's
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  like winning a cow. So, if you love
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  sports, you're going to love insurance.
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  So, it just stuck with me from a very
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  early age. I want to be like my grandpa
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  and I want to be at the insurance end of
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  the table and I want to compete and have
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  fun. What a great mentor. And at a young
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  age, tying it back to sports so you can
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  really understand kind of where you were
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  that time in your life. All right. So
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  coming out of school, what was that that
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  first role coming out of college? What
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  did you end up doing?
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  >> Well, so we have in the family back then
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  we had a mail room. So I worked four
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  summers uh delivering mail, you know, in
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  my kind of my high school years.
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  >> Okay.
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  >> Uh and uh so that was my first real job,
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  mail room. And then we have a robust
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  internship program. We really believe in
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  developing our youth and bringing people
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  into this great industry. So, uh, after
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  your sophomore year of high school or of
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  college, sorry, is when you start the
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  internship program. So, you got kind of
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  two years of internship program between
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  sophomore and junior and junior and
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  senior. And then if if it all goes well,
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  you start right after your senior year
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  is done. So, real in the business true
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  internship, I started uh software.
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  Excellent. All right. So between now and
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  and back then you had a couple of
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  different goals and you ended up I think
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  in in London for a period of time. So
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  what was the role there?
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  >> Well, so you know there there's a old
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  ethos within the family. You gota you
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  got to do what we do for a living. So
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  you have to basically sell at that time
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  it was million maybe now it's a million
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  five. You've got to really show that you
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  can be a producer in the insurance
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  brokerage business to be able to put
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  your hand up and say you want to go into
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  management. So I did want to go into
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  management, but I had to do the selling
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  and the servicing and the managing of
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  book of business. So from 22 when I
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  graduated college to about 27, that's
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  all I was doing. I was I had a niche in
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  the construction practice here in in the
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  Chicago land area. Uh, I called the
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  subcontractors that were getting big
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  enough to take self-insured retentions
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  and I had kind of a good run until I was
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  27. I built my broker business to about
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  a million six and at that point the the
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  family ethos was you had to be at a
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  million.
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  >> I had done that. So I raised my hand. I
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  say, you know, I'm looking for
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  management roles. Yeah. And one of the
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  first ones that came up was London, you
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  know, just to run our business in London
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  that heavily services our retail
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  businesses here in the United States.
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  London has a thing called voids of
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  London and that is a very specialized uh
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  place to to take it and share its risk.
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  And uh so we had lots of Florida wind
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  and uh a bishop's plan that we used to
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  to sell to most of the arch dascese in
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  the United States and California
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  earthquake and energy all kind of gets
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  placed in the London market. At that
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  time we were probably $80 million
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  outside of the United States. So it
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  wasn't the biggest business in the
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  world. But the unique thing about it is
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  the the clients were really our sister
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  companies. So it was easy for a naive
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  27year-old and with the right last name
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  to go to London to be able to call on
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  sister company business here in the
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  United States. So I ran our specialty
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  business. I did that from about 27 to uh
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  about 2930.
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  And at that that's wholesaling. So
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  that's really being a specialist and
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  representing the Lloyd's market to the
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  United States. um we wanted to build
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  that out and offer it to more people
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  than just our sister company retail
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  business in the US. So we started doing
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  business internationally, finding
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  partners in the Caribbean, in Australia,
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  South Africa, Latin America, Mexico. And
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  so we started not just doing business
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  with our retail arm and that was very
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  fun. So I've traveled all over the world
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  from the age of 27 to 30 drumming up
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  specialty business. And then we had a
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  unique thing where we we bought a
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  business. There was a business that uh
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  had long history called Heath Lambert.
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  And within Heath Lambert in the UK that
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  was back to being a retail business and
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  I was the only one on the management
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  team who'd ever run a retail business.
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  And they've all they'd all been brought
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  up in that specialty Lloyds of London
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  world. So I was put in to run the UK
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  retail and that was a lot of fun. And I
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  mean that was different travel that was
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  taking trains from London to Leeds,
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  London to Bournemouth, London to
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  Manchester. Not as glamorous as going to
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  Perth, Australia, but certainly, you
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  know, was back in my comfort zone of
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  doing retail insurance and actually
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  dealing with the customer. Um, and then,
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  uh, after a couple years of that, we
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  were looking at more acquisitions and I
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  I felt like the the the chassis was
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  built to the UK both on a specialty and
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  a retail basis, and I was able to come
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  home.
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  >> Gotcha. Okay. So, five years total of
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  that.
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  >> Yeah. About five and a half.
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  >> Were you married at the time?
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  >> I was. I moved there with a uh with a
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  six-month-old. So, she was born in uh
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  March and we moved in December. Okay.
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  So,
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  >> not not the easiest condensing of my
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  wife time to London, but she loved it
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  more than I did.
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  >> So, you guys enjoyed the time over
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  there, obviously. But she she was from
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  here because she was a high school
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  suite,
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  >> but being over there, you guys enjoyed
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  living over there and having kids at the
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  time.
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  >> We did. So, we went there with a
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  six-month-old and we had two more there.
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  I have a I have an interesting story. I
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  delivered my second baby. She was 10
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  days overdue. We went to the hospital.
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  They said, "You're not far enough along.
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  Please come back in 6 hours." And uh
• 10:26
  about 40 minutes later, me and my
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  mother-in-law kind of helped my wife
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  delivered the second child. Yeah. At
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  home in our bedroom.
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  >> I don't recommend it.
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  >> Yeah. So, so for those watching,
• 10:39
  probably not something everybody wants
• 10:40
  to do, but hey, congrats. That's
• 10:42
  >> certified.
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  >> All right. So, three kids total at that
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  time. You finally come back home. So,
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  now you're back in the Chicagoland area.
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  What's that? What's the next role?
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  Uh the next role is coming back to run
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  the Midwest retail business in the
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  United States. We grown that to about uh
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  $250 million of
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  >> you know terrific growth over the years
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  right just just expansion from you know
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  all the way back in the beginning until
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  now when you when you think about what
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  you guys are doing today I I think most
• 11:11
  people know the name the organization
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  but it'd be great just to share what are
• 11:16
  you guys doing what all is the breath of
• 11:18
  your guys' services you built today.
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  Yeah. So, we have we have a pretty
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  consistent four-pronged approach to
• 11:24
  growth. We are a growth company. We are
• 11:26
  a sales and marketing company. Uh growth
• 11:29
  is ingrained in our blood. We try to
• 11:31
  double the business every 5 to seven
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  years and that's basically 15% compound
• 11:37
  annual growth annually and we do that
• 11:39
  for four key principles. We want to
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  outrow people organically. So that's
• 11:44
  he's selling more insurance to more
• 11:46
  customers that then we do mergers and
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  acquisitions which we've been in the
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  game of since 1984. So we've been buying
• 11:54
  great businesses all throughout the
• 11:56
  United States and the rest of the world
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  that either give us a new geography to
• 12:00
  sell what we're good at or give us
• 12:02
  something new that we're good at that we
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  can sell in the other geographies.
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  uh you know the insurance agents and
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  brokers is a very fragmented uh
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  industry. There's probably 39,000 agents
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  and brokers throughout the United States
• 12:16
  and another 15 to 30 out in the rest of
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  the world. And we're always looking for
• 12:22
  people that fit our culture but give us
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  a little leg up. So we we like to say we
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  we want to be in Leeds as much as
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  London. We want to be in De Moines as
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  much as Chicago. We like boots on the
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  ground. But then we like specialties and
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  if we can marry those two then continue
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  to have that confound will grow grow
• 12:40
  through. So it's organic, it's buying
• 12:43
  great businesses that do what we do.
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  It's being dogged about quality and
• 12:48
  efficiency and just be better for our
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  customers.
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  >> And then it's holding on to this unique
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  family culture that I think makes us the
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  most collaborative and entrepreneurial
• 13:00
  business in the world. Now, that is our
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  ethos for growth. What we actually do is
• 13:05
  we've got a big property and casualty
• 13:07
  business, which is basically going out
• 13:09
  to commercial accounts and talking to
• 13:11
  them about the risk profile in their
• 13:13
  property, their general liability, their
• 13:16
  auto or workers compensation, the
• 13:18
  directors and officers, heirs and
• 13:20
  omissions, lots of different types of
• 13:22
  products throughout many different types
• 13:24
  of industries and verticals. As I said,
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  my specialty was construction, but we
• 13:28
  have marine, transportation, energy,
• 13:32
  school districts, churches, that's
• 13:34
  property. Then there's employee
• 13:36
  benefits. So you're actually you know
• 13:38
  working with uh commercial accounts for
• 13:41
  the most part to understand you know how
• 13:44
  to attract and retain the best employees
• 13:47
  through compensation through the
• 13:49
  benefits that they're provided through
• 13:51
  the retirement benefits that are
• 13:52
  provided through some wealth advice and
• 13:55
  so you're working with CHRO's on making
• 13:58
  a great combined employment package for
• 14:02
  for employees and the biggest portion of
• 14:04
  that is obviously the own.
• 14:06
  >> Yeah. So healthc care benefits then we
• 14:08
  have wholesale businesses like I was in
• 14:10
  the U in the UK and I you know you're
• 14:13
  basically helping retail business people
• 14:16
  with their hard to place risks. So you
• 14:18
  think of our job working with a customer
• 14:22
  that is a standard manufacturer. There
• 14:24
  are many carriers out there that want to
• 14:26
  do business. So you say standard
• 14:28
  manufacturer Hartford Travelers AIG
• 14:31
  Chub.
• 14:33
  Well, what if you're a dynamite
• 14:35
  manufacturer? There's not Hartford, a
• 14:37
  traveler's choice that really wants to
• 14:39
  write test. So, the high cuts of risk.
• 14:42
  You have to go to outside specialists
• 14:45
  and more bespoke carriers that have
• 14:48
  freedom of rate form to be able to, you
• 14:50
  know, really create a program that suits
• 14:53
  that more difficult to place risks. We
• 14:56
  have wholesale.
• 14:57
  Recently we've gotten into the
• 14:59
  reinsurance business in which is very
• 15:01
  exciting for us. Reinsurance business is
• 15:04
  actually helping the Harfords the trial
• 15:06
  there was the AIGs the chub with putting
• 15:09
  together their portfolio of reinsurance
• 15:12
  that allows them to take the risks that
• 15:15
  they're taking. Yes. So that those
• 15:17
  carrier Jacob Munich re and Swiss reure
• 15:20
  and so we have a very robust reinsurance
• 15:24
  business now. And then the final thing
• 15:26
  is uh garded basset which is our claims
• 15:28
  and frustration business. And that
• 15:31
  started as self-insured. So people that
• 15:35
  have a business that has the balance
• 15:37
  sheet that can take a big amount of
• 15:40
  their own risk and don't want to just
• 15:42
  transfer that to an insurance company.
• 15:44
  They want to manage their risk.
• 15:47
  They will take a hundred thousand or a
• 15:51
  $1 million retention and they'll call
• 15:53
  that self insurance. Well, they still
• 15:55
  need somebody to pay their claims.
• 15:57
  >> They're not an insurance company.
• 15:58
  They're not using the standard insurance
• 16:00
  companies. They need to process and
• 16:03
  manage their claims on general liility
• 16:05
  autoresence
• 16:08
  the one third party administr.
• 16:11
  >> Okay. Awesome business. So, I sell all
• 16:14
  those. Yeah. So, all that stuff. You get
• 16:16
  to be in sales. What a great job. I
• 16:18
  mean, this this is such a cool business.
• 16:20
  We usually go into technology next, but
• 16:22
  I want to flip the script a little.
• 16:23
  Let's talk more community. And I want to
• 16:25
  go that route because of culture, right?
• 16:27
  The when you talk about your business
• 16:30
  and business here. You guys had the
• 16:32
  Gallagher Way, all these things, but
• 16:34
  it's a family culture first. I'm curious
• 16:36
  with the growth, you know, everybody
• 16:38
  across the United States, across the
• 16:39
  world. How are you continuing to to
• 16:42
  expand that culture and to deliver that
• 16:45
  out to all your teammates across the
• 16:46
  globe?
• 16:47
  >> Well, first culture is what you make of
• 16:50
  it. I mean, you have to believe it and
• 16:52
  you have to talk about it and you have
• 16:54
  to audit it and you have to care. And
• 16:57
  since we've always had this as a pillar
• 16:59
  of who we are as an organization in an
• 17:01
  industry, let's be honest, that has a
• 17:03
  lot of family business.
• 17:05
  Um, as long as you are dogging your
• 17:08
  approach to saying it matters, saying
• 17:10
  collaboration is what makes us different
• 17:13
  and therefore you have to have a culture
• 17:14
  where you want to bring in your
• 17:16
  teammates and work with them. In an
• 17:19
  industry filled with family members and
• 17:21
  the human element of selling insurance
• 17:24
  and being the, you know, the the trusted
• 17:26
  advisor on a commercial account that is
• 17:28
  really looking to protect their life's
• 17:30
  work. culture can can be so important.
• 17:35
  And so, yes, we're growing in a rapid
• 17:38
  clip. Yes, we have 72,000 employees
• 17:40
  throughout the globe. But if you care
• 17:42
  about it, you talk about it and you
• 17:44
  audit for it. All our leaders know that
• 17:47
  the number one thing that I'm coming in
• 17:49
  to look at their businesses is how do
• 17:52
  the people react to the leader? Is the
• 17:54
  leader following our culture? Does the
• 17:55
  leader have, you know, sort of name on
• 17:58
  the door type integrity that I'm looking
• 18:01
  for in all our leadership? And, you
• 18:04
  know, it's it's just been such a special
• 18:06
  sauce for so for so long. We hold on to
• 18:09
  it tightly.
• 18:10
  >> Hold on to it tightly. It people like
• 18:13
  it. And you can go, you know, I've been
• 18:15
  in Europe recently at a president's
• 18:18
  club, which is what we call our awards
• 18:20
  event. The culture is strong. I've been
• 18:23
  at an acquisition that we recently did
• 18:25
  in Germany. We only did that acquisition
• 18:27
  because their culture was similar to
• 18:29
  ours. I'll go to Australia this year,
• 18:32
  New Zealand this year, back to the UK
• 18:34
  and numerous amounts of times. And I'm
• 18:36
  looking for culture and I'm talking
• 18:38
  about culture and it is community based.
• 18:41
  So when you when you bring it to
• 18:42
  community, you know, we like to say when
• 18:45
  we've got these that we like a guy who
• 18:48
  is the head of the Rotary Club in Green
• 18:51
  Bay, Wisconsin, wears too much plaid and
• 18:53
  lives and dies for the Green Bay
• 18:55
  Packers. That's the person that the
• 18:57
  community is going to trust to bring in
• 19:00
  all our niche expertise and resources
• 19:02
  and collaboration and global footprint.
• 19:04
  So we want people that are part of the
• 19:07
  community. I'm active in our community
• 19:10
  here in Chicago and I know most of our
• 19:12
  production force and our service teams
• 19:14
  throughout the world are involved in
• 19:16
  their own communities in their own
• 19:18
  different ways. We started the business
• 19:22
  here really took off when my grandfather
• 19:25
  figured out a way to help arch dascese
• 19:28
  itself was in time at which every school
• 19:31
  bought its own insurance every parish
• 19:34
  every church bought its own insurance
• 19:36
  and that just didn't allow them to get
• 19:38
  economies of scale and buy the right
• 19:40
  amount of insurance at the right price.
• 19:42
  my grandfather kind of created a program
• 19:45
  for the arch dascis of Chicago that
• 19:47
  worked so well that we basically sold it
• 19:49
  to every arch dascese in the United
• 19:51
  States. So there's a heavy uh tinge
• 19:54
  towards the Catholic church. Um
• 19:57
  having learned that growing up from my
• 19:59
  grandpa and my grandma, I really did get
• 20:02
  a connection to the inner city, but I do
• 20:05
  deep deeply care about the inner city.
• 20:08
  And so my probably my two biggest
• 20:10
  community involvements right now are
• 20:13
  urban initiatives which is a uh social
• 20:16
  emotional learning through soccer and
• 20:18
  sport
• 20:19
  >> because I thought that was really
• 20:20
  important. Meaning girls Alba and we
• 20:22
  provide that to hundreds of thousands of
• 20:25
  inner city CPS students and they get to
• 20:27
  become athletes but they also become
• 20:30
  mentors. they could come to coaches and
• 20:32
  we really believe that that social
• 20:34
  emotional learning and not at the home
• 20:36
  or at school learning is super
• 20:39
  important. So I'm highly involved in
• 20:41
  that and I'm involved in the Red Cross.
• 20:43
  Red Cross does so many great things.
• 20:45
  Think about the Red Cross and as
• 20:47
  somebody comes in after a hurricane, you
• 20:49
  know, so that you know the insurance
• 20:50
  background did draw me to that. But Jay
• 20:52
  do so much as far as blood. They do so
• 20:56
  much fire preparedness. did you so much
• 20:59
  after a fire?
• 21:01
  >> I love I love the community. I love the
• 21:02
  culture. If you make it a pillar, if you
• 21:05
  talk about it and you said audit, I
• 21:08
  really like the idea of auditing. It
• 21:09
  means actually checking, making sure
• 21:11
  we're doing what we're saying we're
• 21:12
  doing because that's what's going to
• 21:13
  allow you to keep that culture as you
• 21:16
  continue to grow and continue to it's
• 21:18
  kind of your goal, right? That's that's
• 21:20
  who you guys are what makes you guys
• 21:21
  special. So, terrific thoughts. I love
• 21:24
  the idea also working with the kids,
• 21:26
  getting them played soccer, getting them
• 21:27
  outside, get them getting them exercise.
• 21:30
  There's a lot of things that can happen
• 21:31
  when you get them doing something
• 21:33
  outside, doing something together
• 21:37
  gives them an opportunity to do
• 21:38
  something good as a as opposed to doing
• 21:40
  something making a bad choice. Crown Day
• 21:42
  is what led me to it. Number one, I can
• 21:45
  look back at my high school friends and
• 21:47
  say the ones that had some activity
• 21:50
  doesn't have to be sports.
• 21:51
  >> Yeah. some activity that meant that they
• 21:53
  were busy from 3 to 5 5:30 interacting
• 21:57
  with other
• 21:59
  adults that were leaders or mentors.
• 22:02
  They're all doing extreme deals, right?
• 22:05
  People that went home at 3:00 had other
• 22:09
  opportunities and you're not not doing
• 22:11
  as well.
• 22:11
  >> Well, you have choices at that point,
• 22:12
  right? Between the bells, if you're a
• 22:14
  Catholic school or a good school system,
• 22:16
  between the bells, we can keep you
• 22:17
  focused. It's after the bells, you have
• 22:19
  choices. Well, if you have a choice to
• 22:21
  go do something good, that's great.
• 22:22
  That's what we want you to do. If your
• 22:24
  choice to go to something bad, well, you
• 22:26
  might choose that as a young kid. Some
• 22:27
  of us did. Not all of us, right? But
• 22:30
  some of us chose some of those things.
• 22:31
  Was able to do some things after school
• 22:33
  that kept me going down the right path
• 22:35
  that happened to be sports. But you're
• 22:36
  right. Whether it's sports or if it's,
• 22:38
  you know, if you sing or dance or, you
• 22:40
  know, play in the band, whatever the
• 22:41
  case is, it's something that gives you a
• 22:43
  better opportunity in choosing something
• 22:45
  negative. So, as you think about the
• 22:48
  growth and kind of what's happened in
• 22:50
  your organization over time, just a
• 22:53
  quick thought, not a deep dive of the
• 22:55
  technology, but just thoughts on
• 22:57
  technology in general. I know you've got
• 22:59
  an entire tech team and all those things
• 23:01
  here to be able to help pushing the
• 23:03
  business forward, but just your thoughts
• 23:04
  on technology and how it's mainly going
• 23:05
  to evolve the business.
• 23:07
  So it's really important that you know
• 23:09
  we're coming up on our 100redy year
• 23:10
  anniversary and and you know over the
• 23:13
  course of our hundred years the view for
• 23:16
  a hundred more is that we want to be an
• 23:19
  integrated business. So a lot of people
• 23:22
  in the insurance brokerage space have
• 23:24
  gotten copycatted us on the acquisition
• 23:27
  front uh but by buying people and
• 23:30
  rolling them up but not integrating.
• 23:33
  >> So they leave them home. So you're still
• 23:35
  the Green Day office and you still do it
• 23:37
  your way. And you got the New York
• 23:39
  office, the New York office does it the
• 23:41
  New York way. And we did that in the 80s
• 23:43
  and 90s, but we really wanted to pull it
• 23:45
  together. And you know, we are much more
• 23:48
  cruise ship that speedboat in our
• 23:51
  decision-m processes, but we wanted to
• 23:53
  integrate. We wanted the same product.
• 23:57
  We wanted the same outputs. We wanted
• 23:59
  the same technology data out of our
• 24:01
  Green Bay office and our New York
• 24:02
  office. So we started back in like 2000
• 24:06
  to really lean into technology and
• 24:09
  integration and that allowed us to do
• 24:11
  great things through our Gallagher
• 24:13
  centers of excellence. So I we have
• 24:15
  17,000 people in India alone helping us
• 24:18
  improve our quality and efficiency and
• 24:20
  you can only do that through using
• 24:22
  technology. So we got a head start by
• 24:24
  having the integration strategy and then
• 24:27
  building out our centers of excence that
• 24:29
  are attached through technology. You
• 24:32
  know, we've seen the improvement in our
• 24:33
  business from the in advent of the
• 24:36
  computer through to the
• 24:39
  dot eras into handheld phones. And
• 24:43
  because we're integrated, we could use
• 24:46
  some things a similar way, we can really
• 24:48
  spend a lot of time investing in our
• 24:51
  technology that's going to help the
• 24:52
  entire platform.
• 24:54
  >> So, we've been doing that for for many
• 24:56
  years. uh the probably the last five to
• 25:00
  seven years it has been an absolute uh
• 25:03
  diligent review of how we're going to
• 25:06
  collect clean data
• 25:08
  >> and use that clean data to have a much
• 25:11
  better digital experience with our
• 25:13
  customers. You know, insurance broking
• 25:15
  had been clunky until 2010. Everybody
• 25:18
  has been through a renewal where their
• 25:20
  insurance broker asks them for 72 bits
• 25:23
  of information. Everybody's been
• 25:25
  clamoring for more digital experience
• 25:27
  and a better technology play. So, we've
• 25:30
  really built that uh with clean data and
• 25:34
  with unified ways of doing stuff across
• 25:37
  the platform in our centers of
• 25:38
  excellence. We are heavily poised toward
• 25:41
  what we might be calling the AI era
• 25:44
  right now.
• 25:44
  >> Yeah. And it's funny. I I did my
• 25:48
  dominant priorities in October and
• 25:50
  November of last year. There's only one
• 25:52
  mentioning of AI in all my dominant
• 25:55
  priorities and I would tell you as of
• 25:57
  five six months later all down all our
• 26:01
  AI and it's you know we've got a lot of
• 26:05
  uh really cool stuff going out on a
• 26:07
  corporate level we're leaning into
• 26:09
  co-pilot and GPT and claude and all that
• 26:12
  sort of stuff on bigger projects. Think
• 26:14
  of analyzing policies, comparing
• 26:18
  quotations between what AIG is offering
• 26:20
  and what Chub is offering.
• 26:22
  >> Uh doing some really cool things in
• 26:25
  Galler Bassin on summarizing claims. I
• 26:27
  mean like a a bad back claim can create
• 26:30
  800 pages of documentation. We can
• 26:32
  summarize that quarter page lots of
• 26:35
  things. But what I really am excited
• 26:37
  about is how our entrepreneurial great
• 26:40
  people out in the field. We're watching
• 26:42
  a thousand flowers bloom how they're
• 26:45
  using it to improve what they're doing
• 26:47
  for the customer. We will industrialize
• 26:50
  that after a while of course but right
• 26:52
  now it's just fun to say what are they
• 26:54
  doing in the uh you know Tallahassee
• 26:57
  office and let them do that kind and
• 27:01
  what are they doing in benefits over in
• 27:03
  the Houston office and let's let's let
• 27:05
  these things percolate a little bit.
• 27:07
  Yeah, but we industrialize them and
• 27:08
  really share them. But the you know the
• 27:11
  new AI whether it's you call it LLM
• 27:15
  or it was RPA before it was RPA there's
• 27:19
  always technology an integrated model
• 27:21
  like we've got we can embrace it. Second
• 27:24
  thing I would say against our you know
• 27:26
  what positions us in the marketplace is
• 27:28
  we just don't have that high of a debt
• 27:31
  level
• 27:32
  >> and we don't have high interest rates on
• 27:34
  our debt. So for 15 years, our major
• 27:36
  competition has been aggregators that
• 27:39
  have gone out and created high debt
• 27:41
  ratios and high interest rates and they
• 27:44
  just haven't had the ability to invest
• 27:46
  technology the way that we have. We're
• 27:48
  spending hundreds of millions of dollars
• 27:52
  each and every year making ourselves
• 27:53
  better.
• 27:54
  >> But as I said, we're a fragmented
• 27:56
  industry where there's 39,000 agents and
• 27:58
  brokers.
• 28:00
  90% of the time we compete, we compete
• 28:02
  against somebody substantially smaller
• 28:04
  or an office of one of those aggregators
• 28:07
  that has not actually been integrated.
• 28:09
  Yeah.
• 28:09
  >> So they don't have the technology play.
• 28:11
  So every time technology comes into
• 28:14
  play, Gouter has a leg up. know your
• 28:16
  thoughts on tech are interesting and I
• 28:18
  like the idea of allowing people in
• 28:20
  Tallahassee and different places to go
• 28:22
  solve client problems and leveraging
• 28:24
  technology and get you said flowers
• 28:27
  blooming letting them go bloom because
• 28:30
  they've got the core and the pillar and
• 28:32
  the culture they're out trying to solve
• 28:34
  you're in the people business you're out
• 28:36
  helping people solve their problems
• 28:38
  right you happen to one of the products
• 28:40
  that you guys happen to be able to sell
• 28:42
  but they're solving problems for clients
• 28:45
  leveraging the technology to be able to
• 28:47
  do that more and more human way gives
• 28:49
  you even more of a leg up. I mean,
• 28:51
  tech's going to be very helpful for you
• 28:52
  guys. That's just terrific here. We just
• 28:54
  think it's a real enabler for still a
• 28:56
  very highly human element. That's right.
• 28:59
  You are you are still going to want a
• 29:02
  human being that you trust to sit down
• 29:05
  and say your life's work is protected
• 29:07
  the best it can be at the most
• 29:09
  affordable rates with the best insurance
• 29:11
  company. And that's how we helped you
• 29:15
  put this program together. How how we do
• 29:18
  the technology that enables us to
• 29:20
  deliver that quotation is changing every
• 29:22
  day. You know, Patrick, your story all
• 29:24
  the way back from learning the business
• 29:26
  from your grandpa, having him break it
• 29:28
  down, talking about sports and pieces
• 29:30
  like that and wanting to be like him,
• 29:32
  you know, traveling over to Europe,
• 29:34
  doing those types of things. Terrific
• 29:36
  story. It's great to hear how the
• 29:38
  leadership and organization are
• 29:39
  communicating amongst your team. The
• 29:42
  growth of the business has been
• 29:43
  terrific. Congratulations on that. Thank
• 29:45
  you.
• 29:45
  >> So, I'm curious outside of work before
• 29:47
  we finish up. If you're not having fun
• 29:50
  selling and working in the business and
• 29:52
  doing all those great things, what do
• 29:53
  you do for fun?
• 29:55
  >> I'm a pretty active guy. We we I love to
• 29:57
  golf. I love to water ski. I like to
• 30:00
  downhill ski. I'm not as athletic as I
• 30:02
  once was, but I still if I could be
• 30:05
  active, uh, golf's probably my biggest
• 30:07
  passion, but just to drive a caddy for
• 30:10
  many years growing up as well, while I
• 30:12
  was working at Pell Room, so I love
• 30:14
  being at golf course. And my wife is an
• 30:17
  angel, so spending time with her is is
• 30:21
  big part in all that, too.
• 30:22
  >> All sounds a little bit like my
• 30:23
  background as well. And, you know, five
• 30:25
  kids and, you know, wife from high
• 30:27
  school, we share a lot, G.
• 30:29
  I appreciate you hosting me in a
• 30:30
  beautiful building. I appreciate the
• 30:32
  book that we'll take back to
• 30:33
  Indianapolis with us. We'll get it up on
• 30:35
  the shelf tomorrow on the shelf.
• 30:36
  >> We'll put it up there. And thank you so
• 30:38
  much for sharing your story. Well,
• 30:39
  thanks for reaching out and I appreciate
• 30:40
  what you're doing here. I' I've watched
• 30:42
  a couple of your podcasts and I think
• 30:44
  you're doing a great job of finding uh
• 30:46
  what makes really important people tick
• 30:49
  and honored that you take the time.
• 30:52
  Thanks.
• 30:52
  >> Awesome. Thank you.