The Long Run

What is the phrase? It is a marathon, not a sprint.

Rodney Hancock, an avid distance runner, has learned quite a bit about the value of putting in the time to get things right.

And the recipient of the inaugural Dale Rempel Award of Excellence – presented in September at the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada’s (IBAC) Annual General Meeting in Saskatoon – has got quite a few things right over his more than three decades in insurance.

The annual award is meant to recognize someone who has made a significant difference in the professional development of insurance brokers and to honour Rempel’s tireless commitment to advancing and promoting broker education.

Having known Rempel, IBAC’s highly regarded former president who passed away in 2012, personally and professionally makes the honour all the more heart-felt. “Dale was a close friend of mine,” says Hancock, senior partner, president and chief executive officer of McFarlan Rowlands Insurance, which is based in London, Ontario and maintains 14 offices across the province.

“Dale was hard-working and he really was a strong believer in the broker being the main conduit for selling insurance,” he says.

It is an idea Hancock – who has served with broker associations at the local, provincial and national levels – has no problem getting behind, having dedicated significant time over the years in the name of broker education.

Achieving his Canadian Certified Insurance Broker (CCIB) designation in 1993, Hancock has delivered, among other things, CAIB (Canadian Accredited Insurance Broker) and CPIB (Canadian Professional Insurance Broker) programs, as well as reviewed IBAC courses.

More recently, he was involved in a forward-looking venture that marries broker education and professional development, serving on the committee responsible for finding a university post-graduate program for brokers.

Hancock was instrumental in selecting Laurentian University’s online MBA program, and has participated in negotiations with university representatives to secure an agreement enabling brokers to earn advanced standing credit for CAIB and CPIB, in pursuit of an MBA degree through the university.

The program was designed to train people to become managers within the brokerage business, he says. “As insurance brokers, the one thing that we need to do better, as we get larger, is become better at our business,” he emphasizes.

“You can be a wonderful sales person and you can attract people to you, but at some point, you have to know how to manage a business. You can’t really do that by the seat of your pants as you get larger,” he adds.

A LEARNED MAN

Hancock would never argue against education, seeing its value regardless of the form it may take. Born in the southwestern Ontario community of Galt, Hancock did not venture far for his own post-secondary education – although certainly far enough to meet his demand to be able to live away from home – attending the University of Western Ontario.

He received a PhD in psychology and later became a professor and researcher in social psychology.

In 1979, though, his course changed when he opted to continue teaching, but also began working at Rowlands Insurance Brokers Limited. By 1984, he was president and, after acquisitions and mergers from the mid-1980s through the late-1990s, McFarlan Rowlands Insurance came into being in 1998.

“I like solving problems for people,” Hancock says, calling it not only fun, but also rewarding when “someone comes to you with an insurance problem and you figure it out for them and give them what they need.”

Hancock has had those opportunities, both in business and as part of his volunteer positions, not least of which include serving as president and chairman of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario, and as an IBAC director and co-chair of its professional development committee.

Also rewarding is building a business – but building it in a way that upholds broker traditions and fosters independence. “We started out with a few offices and kept buying more, but never really lost a sense of smallness,” Hancock says of McFarlan Rowlands Insurance, which today is among the largest independent insurance brokerages in Ontario.

“I find it rewarding to have built something that I think is going to go on and it’s a big part of what I’ve done lately – to try to make sure the independent model, the independent brokerage that we’ve developed here, continues on.”

The brokerage, the roots of which date back to 1896, got big by steadfastly remaining small. “We buy the brokerages in the small towns and we leave them in the small towns. They get the advantage of being big, but being small,” he says.

BUILDING INDEPENDENCE

At the heart of the model is independence, Hancock suggests, reporting that the brokerage has 14 like-minded shareholders, each of which maintains local operations. If a shareholder leaves, the shares are bought back by the brokerage.

Maintenance of that local feel is key. “People, in the end, I still believe, will want to have a conversation with someone they know about something that’s important to them,” Hancock contends.

“I totally get why people who are young shop online,” he says, “but as you acquire more stuff, it becomes more complicated and that is where brokers have a big advantage, especially outside of the large metropolitan areas.”

Hancock says he was surprised to recently learn how much younger people value a conversation, not simply being “contacted” or doing everything online.

The one-on-one conversation was something he more frequently associated with an older demographic. “Something has changed. I’m not sure what. Maybe it’s this constant exposure to (online) and finding out it’s great for getting information, but if you can’t understand what they’re saying to you, you have to find somebody to talk to,” he says.

“Talking to someone who is not going to give you pat answers is much more satisfying and rewarding and comfortable.”

Hancock regards it as key to strike a balance between traditional and modern approaches. “As brokers, we have to accept and find a way to keep up with all the technology changes,” he says. “We can be as warm and friendly and whatever as we like, but we have to not bury our heads and think that’s enough. We have to give people the opportunity to buy insurance the way they want to.”

But it is also important to choose people who are best-suited to meeting current and future demands of running a business. At McFarlan Rowlands Insurance, “what we try to do is identify those people who are good with people. We can teach them insurance; we can’t teach them to be personable.”

Hancock still keeps his hand in teaching, but does so a little closer to home, with employees at the brokerage.

“I can get just as excited about teaching them because it’s wonderful when they figure it out,” he says. “I like that feeling when they have that, ‘Oh, I get it,’ moment. That’s still fun to me.”

Rempel would likely agree.