An overachiever is an overachiever,
no matter in what profession he
may find himself. When hiring someone for a job that requires quick
thinking, good customer relations and an
eye for detail, it probably doesn’t matter
much that he’s unfamiliar with your business, as long as he’s willing to learn.
Jim Bonner, vice president of The
Graham Company, is a prime example, as
someone who entered into the insurance
business after a career in nuclear engineering and hit the ground running.
Smart Business talked to Bonner about
the skills he brought from his former profession and how being detail-oriented is a
key part of being an effective insurance
professional.
How does your background as a nuclear
engineer translate to skills used in the field
of insurance?
I was an officer on a nuclear submarine,
and on submarines, almost every procedure involves two-person control, in that
two people are checking on any one operation in order to prevent human error from
sinking the ship. When I came to The
Graham Company, I was surprised to see
that in a very similar fashion, every insurance policy is checked by two people
before it goes out the door. We don’t leave
anything to human error. We want to minimize the chance of any errors by having
two-person reviews of our work product.
The insurance policy is a contract that’s
going to be relied upon when disaster
strikes. That is not the time to find out you
have a problem with your insurance policy.
Insurance and nuclear submarines are
different fields, of course, but in both cases
you have to pay attention to the details,
and at the same time be aware of the big
picture. In a submarine, it doesn’t help you
to know that you’re heading in the right
direction if there’s a sea mountain right in
front of you. With insurance, you have to
be meticulous about the details, but also
look at the big picture of whether the coverage is correctly aligned to our customer’s
operations.
One of my tours of duty was on a submarine during new construction. We actually lived on the submarine as it was being
built. So both from a construction standpoint as well as a manufacturing standpoint, I have a very good understanding of
construction sites as well as the manufacturing processes, which has helped me
understand the many challenges our customers face on a daily basis.
What is an example of a similar system
used in both of your professions?
The two-person check system really
works. With the audit process in the Navy,
there was always a self-assessment by outside organizations to quantify the effectiveness of the crew. At The Graham Company,
we have an auditing procedure that’s done
on all of the account managers during their
insurance renewal process to quantify their
effectiveness at following procedures and
providing the best work product for our
customers.
Why would someone from a different background be a good fit for the insurance profession? How is one assimilated into the business?
Our company hires people who have the
aptitude for the job and have demonstrated
success in their prior profession. We are
able to train them on the insurance and
merge that with the culture of detail that
we have here. We also have a nice mentoring program to help with the transition.
When I joined The Graham Company, I had
six months of classroom training, which
was followed by three years of mentoring
by an account manager who had more than
11 years of experience. We have continually refined and developed that account manager training process.
As an officer, did you learn about working
with people?
Certainly. A submarine crew is a pretty
tight-knit group of people. I learned how to
communicate effectively and how to work
with people who come from all kinds of
different backgrounds. Every person is different and has a unique way of learning and
working. As different as we may have
seemed on the surface, we were united by
the same mission in building and operating
our submarine.
The environment in my current job is
similar — we all come from different
places and have different educational and
vocational experience, but we are united
by the common goal of serving our customers. On a daily basis, we deal internally
and externally with all kinds of different
people — from a laborer on a construction
site to the chief executive officer.
Working with clients is an enjoyable
aspect of the job because you see so many
different ways of approaching business.
We are fortunate to work with some of the
top businesses in the country; our customers are top performers, and they
expect the same from their insurance broker.
How else did your background prepare you
for your current position?
JIM BONNER is vice president at The Graham Company in
Philadelphia. Reach him at [email protected] or (215)
701-5294.