Often it is only when you have an opportunity to step back and take stock of where you have been that you can appreciate the trajectory that brought you to where you are today. For Steve Redgwell (pictured), CEO of PIB Group’s Specialty division, reflecting on the almost four decades he has spent working in insurance brings to mind how fortunate he is to work with “some incredible people that become your lifelong friends” and to have a career that still brings new opportunities every day.
Having joined the industry at 17 as an office junior, Redgwell wasn’t long in the role when he availed of an opportunity to become part of Heath Lambert group where he remained for 21 years, latterly as MD of their placement business. In 2007 he joined Aon and brought his experience to a variety of roles, including as chief broking office for Aon UK and managing director of its national business.
It was a little over two years ago that he stepped into PIB, leading a division that includes almost 900 people – a role that he relishes as he has always found the people leadership aspect of insurance remarkably fulfilling. It’s when you get that piece right that you create a great environment for everybody to work in, he said, and it has always been a key area of focus for PIB.
“A large part of what has made PIB’s journey to date so exciting is [that focus]… getting your people to come along on that journey,” he said. “That’s getting their feedback and their insights from all the different businesses they’ve worked at before they came here… If we can bring all those minds together, and allow people to bring their thoughts and ideas to a place that’s willing to listen – that’s what it takes to build a better business.”
PIB’s specialty division boasts an impressive geographic spread, with offices across the length and breadth of the UK, and the business has doubled in size since the end of 2019. Its growth has been phenomenal, Redgwell said, and that’s partially through acquisition, partially through strong organic growth and partially due to the great talent the business houses and the loyal client base it is continually growing.
The division is comprised of a multitude of different specialties, each serving different industry sectors, which are being continually bolstered by carefully selected acquisitions. PIB Group has now made over 50 acquisitions, he said, while there have been about 18 acquisitions into the retail broking space – each of which have brought in new areas of expertise or enabled the division to further enhance existing areas of specialism.
“We’ve been very strategically focused on the acquisitions we make,” he said. “And that also falls in line with the people that we bring in as well because we want them to be able to come in and add something to us that helps us thrive in the world in which we trade… This is a business with great people and a great geographical spread and it’s a business pushing continued investment into each of our offices and each of our divisions.
“We truly believe by continuing to add to our talent pool and capabilities, then we can show a very different business to our clients and so we encourage our people to make those investments in people and other areas. [We’re not] a consolidator, but we’re actually an investor in businesses. And when we bring in new businesses, we work with the leadership to make further investments and to support the businesses they’ve been growing so strongly over all those years, rather than letting them die on the vine.”
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Redgwell noted how incredible it seems that PIB Group is only six years old given how far it has come and how much it has managed to achieve in that relatively tiny period of time. The specialist division knows that it hasn’t got everything right, he said, and that it still has a lot of maturing left to do, but there are also “opportunities galore” ahead and he and his team are looking forward to tapping into them.
“We’re always looking at PIB Insurance Brokers and how to can improve it in everything we do,” he said, “whether that’s in our day-to-day client service, our broking, our ability to trade in the insurance market, our claims proposition, or how we [publicise] our capabilities so our clients are aware of the ways we might be able to help them.”
Building on two and a half years of work dedicated to providing the right foundation for growth, 2022 is set to be a year of change for PIB, he said, as underpinned by five key pillars. The first of these is to make some fundamental changes to create an environment where account handlers and account executives can spend more time with their clients talking about their businesses. The second is to become stronger in its ability to trade in the national insurance market.
The third is for PIB to greater align its claims proposition and service to the demands of its clients – and provide better data around that. Fourth on the agenda, he said, is a renewed focus on client service as required by their buying needs. The fifth and final pillar is dedicating resources to understanding the dynamics of how clients buy – and ensuring that clients are supported dependent on their needs rather than an arbitrary number.
“This is a big year of change for us, but one that comes from two years plus of work,” he said. “We always try to look three years ahead, to the business we’re becoming and the environment we’re moving into, so we can see what we have to do today that ensures we’re ready for that change, that new environment and that new way of working. Because if you wait for it, you can’t possibly change to respond to it and, therefore, you’re always on catch up.”
