Aon’s Case: Innovation vital to (re)insurance industry maintaining relevance amid new challenges

By James Thaler

June 9 - (The Insurer) - Aon CEO Greg Case said that the emergence of generative AI and “trillion dollar market cap companies” means that the (re)insurance industry needs to innovate to maintain its relevance, while touting his company’s progress on its 3x3 Plan unveiled in October 2023.

Case made those comments in an interview with The Insurer TV following the conclusion of Aon’s first investor day in nearly two decades.

Case said that the event, held in New York City on Monday, was aimed at showcasing Aon's progress on its 3x3 initiative and momentum behind its Aon United strategy.

“We talked today about (how) over the last 50 years and in the decades of the ’70s and the ’80s, as the economy grew, the risk industry, as we all know it, actually increased share,” Case said Monday.

“Literally, the influence (of the insurance industry) actually went up for two decades. But for the last three decades, that's actually declined as the economy has grown,” he explained.

The Aon CEO cited the emergence of “trillion dollar companies” and generative AI as examples of opportunities for the industry to tackle.

“And our message is we’ve got to break that trend and we're going to break that trend and that is (through) straight up, real innovation on solutions that can actually bring more capital in with our insurance partners,” Case said.

AIMING TO ADDRESS VOLATILITY

Case also said it is Aon’s mission to “understand volatility and do something about it in ways they couldn't have before," meaning "innovation is fundamental to that equation.”

Aon’s 3x3 Plan has been focused on the build out of dedicated risk capital and human capital units, establishing client leadership functions and supercharging its investment in technology through its Aon Business Services unit.

Case said that the 3x3 Plan has been targeted at “connecting a global firm to serve clients more effectively.”

“We've come to a place (where with) the level of demand that (clients) are encountering, we saw a tremendous opportunity to really accelerate that strategy, and that's the 3x3 Plan,” he explained.

“Those three commitments for us meant we could accelerate our strategy dramatically, and we've done that,” Case said.

“We put a billion-dollar investment behind it, and today was the halfway point. We wanted to actually update our investors on exactly where we are at the halfway point in the 3x3 Plan, which has been exceptional,” he continued.

“It's enabled a number of investments on behalf of our colleagues, for our clients, that have been exceptional. It enabled the acquisition of NFP," he noted.

“So, for us, there's a lot to talk about and we wanted our investors to really get a chance to see the team as well who are driving this, and I think we accomplished all those today. We're pretty excited about it,” he added.

CLIENT AND COLLEAGUE CENTRICITY

Case said that one of the key messages to analysts and investors throughout the investor day was the centricity of clients and colleagues to the business.

“First and foremost, we started our investor day talking to (shareholders) about clients and colleagues, and we get to the middle of our investor day (with the focus is on) clients and colleagues, and at the end (it’s) clients and colleagues,” he explained.

“So, as we've said to our investors, there's no substitute for clients and colleagues. (If) we get that right, by the way, the derivative outcome is tremendous shareholder value. So, they are absolutely connected. We think our shareholders really understand that and they appreciate it very, very well.”

Case also said that the message from Aon management to the firm’s clients and colleagues is “opportunity.”

“They tell us the challenges they face every day, what they have to endure, to both defend their business but also grow their business,” he commented.

“And we want to bring them solutions. We want to ‘wow’ our clients about how we can help and support them, defend the house or build the house. And that's what today was about,” he added.

“There's more content now than ever before to do that, and we're investing heavily behind it again, a billion-dollar commitment to try to reinforce that. And we're doing that.”

Case said that a highlight of the investor day was hearing from clients directly and the feedback they shared on Aon’s enterprise client experience.

“That was absolutely fantastic. And our colleagues love it,” he said, pointing to a staff survey showing 86% engagement from colleagues as the highest it has ever been.

“They're on fire with the potential of what we can do on behalf of clients,” Case said of staff.

He also said the message to Aon’s other trading partners is that “we’re in this gig together.”

“We want to support in every way we can a better set of solutions on behalf of clients that we know have to work with our trading partners. So, we think there's a lot in this day for everybody,” he concluded.