MARKETING AGENCY OF THE MONTH
Mortenson, Matzelle & Meldrum fosters and nurtures talent
By Dennis Pillsbury
The M3 Commercial Account Administrators who make up the agency's service team.
Independent agencies that started in business in 1968 are considered to be relatively young; but when you add in the fact that Mortenson, Matzelle & Meldrum, Inc. (M3), Madison, Wisconsin, didn't start writing property/casualty business until 1985, you've got a virtual fledgling. And, while the management is chock full of young professionals, the agency has behaved with surprising maturity for one so young--having an active perpetuation plan that has already been implemented twice, having a strong focus on the client, including five full-time risk management professionals and having an employee benefits expertise that would be the envy of many, far older agencies.
As noted above, the agency started in business in 1968, when Loren Mortenson decided to leave the captive life agency ranks and strike out on his own. He was joined by Richard P. Matzelle in 1970 and the two operated the agency as a life and benefits agency. Toward the end of that decade, they looked at brokerage business as a way to grow. Then in 1985, there was a dramatic shift in direction as Charlie Meldrum and Rick Kekula, both of whom worked with a P&C insurance agency that leased space from Mortenson, joined M3 to establish a property/casualty practice in the agency. One focus they brought to M3 was a focus on home-grown producers instead of operating on a brokerage basis. The move to growing their own proved efficacious as is evidenced by the growth in personnel from 15 in 1985 to 100 by the year 2000. Today, the agency has 115 employees in offices in Madison, Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Wausau and Green Bay. Total revenues are on track to close the year between
$19 million and $20 million. The property/casualty practice accounts for about 55% of revenues, and the employee benefits 45%. M3 began the geographic spread in 1998 when it acquired a property/casualty practice headed up by Dale Van Dam in Milwaukee and began an office there. Following that, it added people in the other three offices "to allow us to serve the needs of our clients and provide us a greater presence throughout the state," Mike Victorson, president and chief operating officer, points out.
Perpetuation
"Our perpetuation plan started the day we joined forces with Mortenson, Matzelle & Associates," Charlie Meldrum, CEO observes. "Key management people were groomed for leadership positions and stock was made available as quickly as possible. My experience as an insurance company marketing rep and producer for a large independent agency taught me that almost all agencies wait too long to perpetuate. When the owner decides it's time, he or she is surrounded by people who can't afford to buy the owner out." In 1994, the ownership group was enlarged to nine shareholders and Charlie Meldrum was named president and CEO. This year, the next generation of leadership was asked to step up when Mike Victorson was named president. "Our agency has a history of generously encouraging and offering opportunities to the next generation of leadership. Charlie, Rick Kekula and others were the beneficiary of this approach to running our agency, and that generous spirit was exemplified again this year. We now have 20 shareholders and a regular process for adding new ownership. Supporting and growing the next generation of agency leadership and subsequently perpetuating our agency is a part of our culture."
Rick Kekula, executive vice president, adds, "Of course, any perpetuation plan is greatly dependent on finding and having the right people. We've invested heavily in finding the right people for the roles that we need and in fostering and nurturing those people."
"As one of the newer shareholders, I am excited about the energy behind M3 and the passion we have in focusing on the customer," notes Dale Van Dam, executive vice president, branch operations. "We treat our team members with respect and trust, and our return on human capital will continue to make us a winning team."
M3 also has an intern program that has paid off. "We've partnered with some of our insurance companies on an internship program," Mike Moore, executive vice president of M3's property and casualty division says. "We get interns from the University of Wisconsin risk management department for which Loren Mortenson was a benefactor. The companies bring them in to their school and then they work at M3. We make certain the interns have a real function within the agency. Our people truly love the opportunity to work with the interns and share their enthusiasm. The interns leave here knowing what we do as independent agents. The program has really worked well. We've had three interns go through the program--one is now working at Chubb, one is working here and the other is back in school."
He continues by noting that the agency uses a fairly rigorous screening process for all new hires. "We have several people involved in the interviewing process so we get a better picture of the candidate and can determine how he or she will interact with the people with whom they would be working and whether they will fit into our culture." The two key areas in this process are:
* Consistency in approach regardless of level. "We are professional and thorough. We put candidates through multiple interviews."
* Enthusiasm that is brought to the interviews. "We readily share our enthusiasm for our jobs and our goals for the future. That way people know they are coming in to a growing, energetic team."
Risk management
As important as it is to focus on finding and nurturing the right people, equally critical to the success and growth of M3 has been a relentless focus on solving clients' problems. "We made a decision in 1989 to bring risk management personnel on staff in order to provide a higher level of consulting service to our clients and to allow us to advise on more complicated risks," Mike Victorson notes. "The decision to invest in our services by having on-staff risk management talent has allowed us to focus on the middle market more aggressively." Today, the agency has five full-time risk management personnel. "We work with insurance companies to develop safety and loss control programs for our clients. We also provide health insurance data analysis, reporting and budget forecasting to clients that have self-funded or heavily experienced rated health or workers compensation plans."
Some of the new talent that has been developed at M3 (from left): Matthew J. Wieseckel, Account Executive; Dillon J. Holewinski (standing), Account Executive; and Scott S. Lanphear, Senior Risk Manager.
Rick Kekula points out M3's strategic relationships with companies and RiskProNet in saying, "Our clients expect us to have the best relationships with the insurance markets in order to serve their needs. We take this commitment seriously by actively participating on the agency councils or advisor groups for many of our P&C and EB companies. In addition, our participation in RiskProNet provides our clients with national and international risk management and insurance placement expertise."
Mike Moore adds, "We also pride ourselves on the professionalism of all our people. We have a number of people with CIC, CISR and CPCU designations. And those people who don't have a designation have a plan focused on getting one. We believe it is very important that our professionals be well educated in insurance not only so they can help our clients, but also because it helps them feel better about themselves. They are confident in what they are doing and that is reflected in the manner in which they interact with clients."
Employee benefits
Mike Moore continues by pointing out that the professionalism of the M3 people "has allowed us to develop a teamwork approach to solving all our clients' problems. We have equal bench strength in property/casualty and employee benefits. That gives us the resources and ability to meet the property, casualty and employee benefits needs of our clients effectively. There are not many agencies that can offer a commercial client the level of expertise, resources and relationships that come with a P&C and a Benefits practice as established as ours."
Mike Victorson adds, "Our emphasis on education allows us to have people from such different backgrounds. We spend the money to send people to producer schools. We have an outsourced trainer who coaches our people on the skills necessary to deliver for our clients. We've invested a great deal of time and effort to find good people so it just as important to spend money at the other end to retain and grow those people."
Charlie Meldrum observes, "I would have to say it's working. We have a large number of people who have been with us for 10 years or more. We've really got a tremendous group of people who consider themselves M3 employees and take great pride in what they do and who they do it for. They truly live up to our pledge to our clients to make every effort to ascertain and understand the needs of our clients and to provide that quality service which we, if in a similar circumstance, would have applied to ourselves."
Mike Victorson adds, "I wonder sometimes how it happened. There's nothing snazzy about our success. We do have some nice niches, but really, I think it comes down to our work ethic and commitment to professionalism that has attracted the right people to come to work for us, and that has led to our success. You can't plan everything. There's an important element in this business that was passed on from Loren to Charlie to me--focus on quality people and client needs and good things happen."
Charlie Meldrum concludes, "Our success is hard to boil down to a single sentence. It is a product of listening to the client, proving ourselves to our company partners, treating our employees with respect and having fun while we work hard. Our reputation for treating our clients well, working honestly and fairly with our insurance companies, and respecting our employees is more important to us than short-term profits."
Mortenson, Matzelle & Meldrum exemplifies those values that are the linchpins of the Independent Agency System and the reason it remains the predominant marketing force in the property/casualty business. It is for this reason that we salute them as our Marketing Agency of the Month. *