The agency business—like
college football—is changing on almost a daily basis
What happens in your business or job when there
is a “win”? Do all employees and clients cheer? Do all those
involved in your business share the excitement of winning?
By Dr. William T. Hold, CIC, CPCU, CLU
In a classic moment of professional football history, Coach Vince Lombardi was seen rapidly pacing the sidelines during a game screaming, “What the hell is going on out here?” at his Green Bay Packers team.
He was a remarkable man who had a profound impact on football, sports, and in many ways the psyche of America. Since his untimely passing some five decades ago, his name still resonates atop the world of professional football. The Lombardi Trophy, of course, is awarded annually to the Super Bowl Champions. And he reached his legendary status in less than eleven years of coaching professional football.
There he was, on the sidelines, one of the most impactful coaches of all time yelling, “What the hell is going on out here?” He saw what was going on: pushing, grabbing, and shoving instead of blocking, tackling and running hard. He wasn’t sure why they were playing this way, but he was sure that if they didn’t change, they would lose the game.
How many times have you sat in your office or in a meeting asking essentially the same question regarding your job or business? What in the hell is going on out here? Hopefully, you will not get mad at yourself, believe that you are mentally deficient, or become embarrassed.
Coach Lombardi was on the sidelines confused; he knew all the rules of the game, he had a record of success, he was a legend and, yes, he was confused trying to manage his business. We should never forget that, in today’s world, football is an enormous business on both the professional and collegiate level.
Depending on your point of view, the insurance community is blessed or cursed by a large number of advisors and consultants dispensing advice on almost every aspect of management, especially “agency management.”
We are aware that the agency business is changing on almost a daily basis, as is football, most notably college football. In fact, both now share an interesting similarity: They are both products and businesses.
Insurance agencies provide valuable services yet as business entities they are bought and sold in large numbers much like a commodity. College football produces valuable services in that it provides entertainment and an important pathway for universities/colleges to raise money and establish loyalty.
And, in recent years, it has become more common for players to be essentially purchased or hired for their services.
The game
In today’s environment, we may be able to learn more about our business or job by watching a college football game than what consultants and advisors are attempting to tell or sell us.
While the game and the business are not identical, the issues, the challenges, and the basic solutions are not that dissimilar. In many cases, it’s a lot more fun to watch the game than listen to consultants as you can watch the action in real time.
At game time, we see the opening ceremonies and the crowd. What we observe is a oneness among the fans of each team. The fans are not cheering for the English or chemistry departments or the College of Business, they are united as a university/college in supporting a common goal: “winning the game.”
And when their team wins, all those cheering win and the school wins. That victory becomes a rallying point for the entire university and the expectation for the next victory.
What happens in your business or job when there is a “win”? Do all employees and clients cheer? Do all those involved in your business share the excitement of winning? How many of your co-workers got to play a role on the winning team? Do they even know you had a win? Do you really know what you won? How are you preparing for the next challenge or the team you will play next?
The players
As the players come onto the field, we look at the numbers and names on the jerseys and we realize that there are a lot of key players whose names we don’t recognize. In similar fashion, we have remote co-workers whom we really don’t know or have a strong relationship with or see frequently.
Perhaps the greatest changes in our business and in college football directly involve the key ingredient in the game of football and business. That is the people who actually play the game, who devote themselves to always playing their best game.
Without resorting to mind-numbing detail, acronyms that defy explanation, and jargon known only to enthusiasts, the structure of college football has changed dramatically in just a few years, as has the business environment for a wide range of the nation’s workforce.
The change in college football has come from two developments. First is the “transfer portal,” which allows players to easily move from one university to another and play immediately. Second, the NIL (name, image and likeness) rulings and guidelines allow players to receive payments from a wide variety of sources while playing football or other sports in college.
These monies are in addition to those from traditional athletic scholarships. The amounts now paid to “student athletes” can, have been, and will probably continue to be in the millions of dollars.
Questions relating to job mobility, compensation, and the status of an individual as an employee or independent contractor are neither foreign nor unimportant in the agency business. However, what brings these issues to the forefront and dramatizes their importance is how they have been revealed in college football, their potential impact and the solutions implemented.
All of the above have been escalated and intensified by the pursuit of one simple goal: “success now.”
Success now
In businesses large or small, and in college football, the emphasis on success or winning now has become increasingly dominant. The pressure for “success now” becomes even more important when the business or team is having or has had several losing seasons.
Obtaining better players or employees is an obvious answer. Access to more talented and experienced players has never been greater because of the transfer portal and NIL money.
No longer does a coach have to build a team over several years. That coach can build a winning team in a year if the university and its supporters have the financial resources.
Hiring experienced people from competitors and offering bigger financial rewards is not a foreign concept in the agency business. Are these actions successful? Not always!
If “success now” is achieved, the expectation will be continued success. Will the actions taken by business management and coaches achieve continued success? Will the better players, coaches, and managers simply move on to something better?
In many cases, the “success now” emphasis means increased coaching and management changes and greater compensation.
In addition to the relationships and factors already discussed, the concentration or aggregation of influence and financial resources has changed the agency business and college football. The significance of agency mergers and acquisitions and the rise of larger football conferences cannot be overestimated.
The important questions are: Will the small survive and what unique values will they offer to promote survival and growth?
Transparency
Understanding “what the hell is going on out here” is hard when you can’t always see or don’t know or understand the facts or the situation. Transparency has and continues to be an important regulatory issue in everything from underwriting to solvency to commissions.
While college football is a sport, it is a business involving literally billions of dollars and millions of people every year. Its foundation is thousands of universities/colleges that have a great deal of autonomy in how they conduct their business.
Given the monies now being paid to players, their ability to move freely between schools and the limit of time they are actually enrolled as a student, questions are raised:
- How much money are “student athletes” receiving?
- Are they subject to the same eligibility requirements as other students?
- As they move from one university/college to another are they affiliated with that institution primarily because of the money involved and the professional sports opportunities?
- How will the parents of non-athlete students and supporters of all kinds react when these and other questions are answered?
The answers to all the above questions lead to possibly the most important question: Are these “student athletes” really students or are they “employees”? And if they are employees or independent contractors, why do they have to be a student to play college football?
Athletes who meet typical admission and continuing eligibility standards can still play and receive scholarships and related benefits. Once again, there are remarkable similarities between agency and college football management.
Final result
As the game ends, we look at the scoreboard one more time. Some of the fans and players are happy, some are sad, and others are disgusted and just want to get the “hell” home.
As in business, the scoreboard is just a result. It doesn’t tell you the how’s or why’s but it does give us some insight into “what the hell was going on out there.”
The author
William T. “Doc” Hold, Ph.D., CIC, CPCU, CLU, is executive chairman of The National Alliance for Insurance Education & Research, which he co-founded in 1969 as The Society of CIC. Under his leadership, The National Alliance has grown to become one of the most prestigious insurance education organizations in the world. In this column Doc shares his personal insights and opinions, which are not necessarily those of The National Alliance or its board members.
