“For me, success is about being really comfortable in your own skin. There are mega-giants out there and some of the biggest businesses in the world are insurance brokers. But I believe there’s space for everyone if you get that purpose and indemnity and value proposition piece right. And three and a half years into our journey, it feels pretty great to be so comfortable in our skin.”
In an interview with Insurance Business at the beginning of the year, Daniel Lloyd-John (pictured), CEO of Broadway Insurance Brokers, highlighted how the business had grown to command almost £12.5 million in GWP, looking after in excess of £2 billion worth of assets on behalf of its customers. In the second part of this interview, he shared insights into what’s happening in the wider insurance market of the UK – and where Broadway’s growth ambitions fit into this.
Among entrepreneurial businesses, there’s a clear appetite for the specialist risk and insurance advice offered by firms like Broadway, he said, particularly from either private business owners or high-net-worth individuals whose requirements are typically more complex and non-standard.
Lloyd-John believes this is why the insurer marketplace has thrown its weight behind the brokerage – he sees a continued appetite for broking that’s delivered through a consistent lens of providing quality advice, backed by trust and transparency.
“There’s an appetite for an increased focus around disclosure, which means us getting as close as we physically can to the issues facing our clients, both traditional risks and new and emerging risks,” he said. “Broadway’s client base is now very mixed, and we have a fair proportion of pan-European and international clients which means that risk exposure requires another level of focus around disclosure.
“If we get that right then we’re able to present incredibly detailed market proposals and market presentations to an insurance marketplace which I can see is open for business.. But you’ve to get to support underwriters because they’re incredibly busy and they need help in cutting through the haze and understanding what it is that a client is all about. I think that’s where we’ve done a really good job, which is why we’re continuing to see strong organic growth which is ultimately the test of how you’re maturing as a business.”
Looking back to when Broadway was just an idea fermenting in his mind back during his “year in the garden” in 2019, Lloyd-John noted that his reading of the market was an accurate one. There’s no lack of competition in the insurance broking marketplace, he said, and broking remains one of the most represented sub-sectors of insurance in any geography across the UK and Ireland, but there’s always room for businesses who are looking to do the right things the right way.
“What I think carries the most weight is having complete clarity on the audience you’re looking to assist,” he said. “In our case, it was about being bold enough at the beginning of the journey to recognise that we needed to be focusing on mid-market and corporate clients with non-standard and complex requirements. That meant being brave enough to accept that not everyone is going to be a Broadway client and to give our trading partners a clear view of what a Broadway client is and how we’re going to support them.”
With an eye fixed on the future, Lloyd-John highlighted that the firm is not driven by GWP growth -however, that’s not to say that growth is not on the agenda, he said, echoing the quote attributed to Richard Branson that, “If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough.” He believes Broadway belongs in the key regional marketplaces in the UK.
There is an undertone of broker fatigue in the market today, he said, and there’s no doubt that there are some brokers left who feel uninspired about where the market currently stands. In response, he wants to see Broadway expand into these regional marketplaces and repeat its success story to date, bringing together other brokers on that journey.
“I see us continuing to grow, and continuing to redesign our infrastructure, operational design, oversight and governance,” he said. “When you get to be a bit larger, you’ve got to make sure your house is built on solid foundations. So, we’ll continue to broaden the capabilities of Broadway and to evolve and diversify our client mix.
“I think the firm is going to double in size through delivering strong, profitable organic growth as we approach maturity. And I see my real job as one of preserving our culture to make sure we can sustain it as we grow.”
