Case Study: How people can propel progress

A series of engagements enabled DBH Consulting to help Birmingham-based Cobbs, Allen, Hall embark on a new road to greater profitability.

Not long ago, independent insurance brokers Cobbs, Allen & Hall set an ambitious goal for itself: Reach $50 million in revenue by the year 2011.

Accomplishing that goal would require the 121-year-old agency to perform like never before. But so far, the professionals at Cobbs, Allen & Hall have met the challenge. In 2007, for example, they exceeded the brokerage’s revenue target of $30 million for the year.

If you ask CAH’s leadership for the secret to its success, they’ll tell you simply: 1) Have a plan, and 2) make sure each employee feels like a stakeholder in that plan.

“We spend a lot more time than your typical broker on strategic planning,” says Bruce Denson, chairman of CAH. “And it’s not like this attention to planning is burdensome or takes away from production. It makes us focus more on what is really driving our engine.”

DBH Consulting facilitated CAH’s strategic planning process and has since worked with departments and divisions within the company to develop their own plans, each of which is tied to the larger strategic plan. Denson estimates that “100 people are involved in our planning process, and that number is probably even conservative.”

For so many agencies and brokerages, the planning process yields little more than a thick binder that is relegated to a shelf in the boardroom. Not so at CAH. So far, some 15 initiatives have been launched out of the strategic planning effort, all of which have played a part in elevating the agency’s performance. An example: An intensive role-playing session facilitated by DBH helped national sales producers change their thinking – and approach – on initial sales calls. The session showed them how to establish true dialogue with prospects, rather than pitch them on insurance products and services.

“The process brought dialogue to our company,” says Crawford McInnis, who heads CAH’s National Accounts department. “We’ve had more positive dialogue among our company and planning team than we’ve ever had in the past. DBH showed us how to talk to people.”

The level of activity that’s resulted from the strategic planning process (and its resulting initiatives) points to the second driver of CAH’s growth: Follow through.

“In my career, I’ve seen many plans lacking in proper follow through,” Denson says. “That just doesn’t happen here. My staff and I have monthly follow-ups on our strategic plan, and we bring DBH Consulting back each quarter to facilitate a review of our progress.”

That quarterly review has proved to be pivotal for Cobbs, Allen & Hall. It adds an impartial third party to the internal mix when taking a hard look at what’s being done to execute the strategic plan. That third party helps the company’s leadership confront the obstacles and challenges that threaten progress to goal. It also helps establish the role and responsibility of each person at CAH in helping the agency grow.

This broad involvement of people in the company’s planning and execution is also represented prominently on the CAH Web site: “[Our] growth came about through our team of people. People committed to new ideas and old truths. People committed to the long-term good of our company, which begins, and ends, with the long-term good of our clients.”

“It’s true that everybody has a voice in where the agency is going,” Denson says. “People speak up and are heard, regardless of their title or position in the company.”