out of office - d2 icmif conference
day 2 of the icmif conference, who the heck they are & an interview with jan kamp justesen (ceo of lb forsikring in denmark)
On 13-15 November, I attended the ICMIF Biennial Conference hosted in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
375+ delegates from 35+ countries, most of which being CEOs, C-suite executives, senior leaders or directors.
I’m not in that list. I’m a lowly 24 year old analyst and as such I’m part of something they call the Young Leaders Program, a cohort of about 50 deemed to be the future of the industry. Tall call!
In this season of Out Of Office, I’ll be sharing an insight, finding or story from each plenary session that really called to me; and some tangential events around the conference that I found awesome.
This post covers Day 2 of the conference. You can read about my Day 1 experiences here.
What even is an ICMIF?
Hi, sorry. I only just realised that I’ve never described what the ICMIF is - so here’s an obligatory spiel on who they are, what they do and what I have to do with all this.
ICMIF (International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation) is an international body, think United Nations or World Wildlife Fund, dedicated to connecting purpose-led insurers via a unique, non-competitive network of brokered knowledge, development programs and cross-border partnerships.
That’s a mouthful. Just view them as a not-for-profit (but not quite a charity) who aim to build a more resilient, well-protected world by supporting the mutual insurance companies who help make it happen.
Naturally, they are a voice of representation for this otherwise overlooked sector (we make fairly small profit + insurance is a very unsexy industry). They inform, educate, and make aware the power of mutuality to policymakers, global business consultancies, media and academia.
Now, where do I come into this?
I work for a mutual insurance company in Australia.
Specifically, I’m a pricing analyst. I do the mathematical magistracy that decides the number you see on your insurance bill. My job is to make sure each person, most of the time, pays a fair price for their level of risk - ensuring that I collect enough dollars to cover claims, expenses and the required surplus to keep my mutual afloat (5 cents on every dollar).
The reason I ended up on this invite list is more related to my previous role.
To this day, I can’t really explain what my role did but I was practically the Swiss Army Knife of the business who hopped between departments to do whatever analytical or writing work was necessary in the finance, sales, broking or risk & compliance teams. I was also the first touch point for a vast amount of reporting that went to the Board of Directors.
A necessary part of that role was keeping informed. Alas, I had a seat in practically every important management meeting with high visibility of what was happening throughout the business; all while the higher-ups had high visibility of me and my work. This includes the CEO and Board.
Note: I noticed that a lot of people in the Young Leader Programme have or had similar roles to this one i.e. Executive Assistant, Chief of Staff, Advisor to CEO. It really is a combination of what you know and who you know.
I’m the first young delegate to be sent and certainly not the last. It’s a great development opportunity and excellent way to reward and retain top talent after all - not that I’m top talent, it’s a small pond here.
Needless to say, I’m extraordinarily grateful for this Buenos Aires excursion and it’s certainly one that has and will retain me!
Okay enough introduction, let’s talk conference.
D2 ICMIF Conference
Day two started exceptionally with a word from our non-mutual sponsors who talked about unlocking new opportunities in a new risk landscape. I could listen to Mona Kothari-Chitala (Microsoft, Canada) talk forever on the applications of generative AI in the insurance and mutual industry. “The better the question, the better the answer.” She prompts, a line of thinking brought not only to ChatGPT but all manners of communication and business.
On putting a purpose-led strategy into practice, Steve Prentice (Thrivent, USA) proposed a radical proposition: adding generosity into your wealth plan. ESG and green investing is one thing (and a little too overdone I feel) but this one is completely unheard of to me - a fund that actively locks funds away for charitable use. I also liked a quibble from one of the Canadian presenters who said a good purpose statement is distilled, like a jar of maple syrup (1 gallon of maple syrup needs 40 gallons of sap!)
The most vigorous speaker of the day was Belen Gomez (Rio Uruguay Seguros), opening lunch my claiming economics is full of hot garbage. On incorporating sustainability for better business performance, she argues that resources are not finite and needs are not unlimited and that there is more than enough to go around equitably. An interesting stat that she mentioned, and I hope it was translated properly, was that the amount of food eaten in by August of the year is enough to feed to human population for the entire year.
Returning to the buzz topic of AI, how can us mutuals embrace transformation for value creation? Here, Andrew Johnston (Gallagher Re, USA) gave words to a nibbling thought I always had. Present-day AI is so obsessed with becoming hyperpersonalised assistants, creating the illusion of 1-to-1 service. Would this be the way moving forward? Is this a healthy use case? It’s algorithmic in nature and bends its answers to appease the user, like TikTok, and has a tendency to trap you in an echo chamber of your own making.
To conclude the day, Virginia Lingiardi (Grupo Asegurador La Segunda, Argentina) presented a wonderful illustrated summary she had been doodling. After several hours of dark-room discussion, this showing had really woken everyone up.
A roundtable discussion with CEOs
As part of the Young Leaders Programme, I woke up at perilous 7:15am to attend the CEO Roundtable Discussion where 6-8 of us Young Leaders had the opportunity to interview an established, seasoned CEO in the industry over sausages, fruit and mediocre coffee.
My table was assigned to Jan Kamp Justesen, CEO of LB Forsikring, one of the largest mutual insurers in Denmark sporting the ferocious tagline of “Together, we make insurance redundant.”
Steep claims, big guy.
Over the far-too-short hour, the table delved across a range of topics that I was impressed at how Jan could keep tabs on the bombardment from all of us.
Here are some of my notes:
A man of many hats, Jan has a love for both the technical and managerial attributes of a given role. He attributes part of his success to his twisting career path (including Head of Claims/Reinsurance, Chief Risk/Finance/Value Officer and now CEO) and how he’s had to and actively enjoys flipping between doing THING and managing people who do THING. This audacity to challenge himself and always do something outside of his comfort zone has helped pave his executive path today.
More importantly, he attributes most of his success by simply being a good colleague. The most important skill for a CEO is people management, whether it’s managing board expectations or inspiring your men to act in accordance with the organisation’s value and purpose. This trust and loyalty is gained via empathy, and that’s both on a leader and follower front - to be a dependable colleague who is competent, and more importantly delightful to work with.
Side note 1: The top can be very lonely.
As CEO, he must NEVER make a major decision without his trusted, curated executive team who are masters in their respective areas.
As CEO, he must be the DUMBEST and SMARTEST person in the room, listening to the recommendations of his subject matter experts, reorienting them to complete the big picture.
There were few team leaders/managers in our group, and one of them had an excellent question about the more troublesome parts of people management when you have both people above you and reporting to you.
What do you do if you don’t agree with a higher-up decision but must communicate that with your team? Jan admits that, while difficult, there will be these scenarios where we must suck up to management decisions. In the meeting room, we can and should air out any frustrations and recommendations - but once we leave it, we keep our head down and the poker face is on. As leaders, we are responsible for presenting a united front for our people.
In the vein of leadership, Jan makes the observation that people in higher positions (C-suite) tend to get sacked not because of lack of skill, but failure to cover blindspots. This again reinforces his first point about how most good leaders have regularly shifted between the technical/managerial identity. There is incredible value in having a well-rounded team with view points that conflict constructively, closing out one anothers’ weaknesses. It is your job as leader to curate, keep and inspire this dream team.
Side note 2: Not everyone can and should be CEO.
There are only so many CEO spots open in the world. The stress of it also differs between publicly traded companies, smaller organisations or start-ups.
It’s a disastrously steep flag on the hill that surrenders other potential joys in life.
Have an honest look at not just your career goals, but overall life goals, before tucking it in your bucket of dreams.
Finally, in-line with LB Forsikring’s ferocious mission and a bit of a scientist himself, Jan emphasises the importance of fostering a culture of innovation. Innovation should not only come from the executive level or that tiny team of gremlins that no other department understands. Innovation must be baked into all levels of organisation, encouraged through empathetic leadership, open conversation and active listening.
Yes, it can be scary:
Calling out bad behaviour, process improvement items or optimisations that might end up making yourself redundant.
Allocating funds, people and attention to something that might not even work.
But think of it like developing a vaccine - if we try, we may fail, but if we don’t, we will surely die.
In the off chance that you read this, Jan, thank you for your incredible bits of wisdom.
And in the higher yet minuscule chance that any of the other Young Leaders on my table read this, it was delightful to hear from you too! You’re all very inspiring and it’s so uplifting to be around accomplished and actively-engaged people, it really is.
