“Success”, so the saying goes, “has many fathers”.
Although ideas may originate with one person, it takes a group effort and mix of a range of skills and experience to be exploited in full.
It is, I would suggest, quite easy to pay lip service to the notion of teamwork.
That is particularly true when individuals are so wedded to their concept of how organisations should operate that they simply can’t bring themselves to allow it to be diluted by others’ input.
When Broadway launched four years ago, it was born of my belief that there was a better way to advise private clients and businesses about the process of managing risk.
Insurance broking should not just be about the annual policy renewal merry-go-’round.
Instead, clients could make genuine gains by having advisors willing to understand their circumstances – their needs – more closely and liaise with providers to secure cover which was precisely what was required.
Insurers too would know on a more detailed basis who, what, where, when and how they were insuring.
I’m glad to say that I was far from alone. In fact, in the years since I have been joined by incredibly talented, experienced professionals who share that perspective and have been able to enhance my original vision of what Broadway could be.
Together, we have built an organisation which is very different from most of its industry peers but something which has clearly struck a chord with its intended audiences.
That is very much apparent from the last 12 months alone.
Broadway began with an emphasis on Private Client and Corporate insurance.
We were determined not just to be counted as trusted advisors in specialisms which had traditionally been siloed – regarded as separate – by other broking businesses.
We recognised that many entrepreneurs, for instance, had requirements which overlapped those two areas.
That insight has helped us develop real momentum, progress which has seen work in both our Private Client and Corporate divisions up by more than 50 per cent each over the course of the past year.
Our rigorous commitment to excellence in practice and standards also made it natural to appoint a Director of Director of Operations and Compliance – a particularly timely and important appointment given the introduction of more exacting Consumer Duty guidelines by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in July 2023.
Last autumn, we also rounded out our structure with the launch of a Healthcare team that we had always envisaged as a complementary service to our existing offer.
In its first year, it has generated £1.5 million in Gross Written Premiums (GWPs).
Its impact has most recently been marked by being listed for two prestigious insurance industry awards, showing the degree to which our work has caught the attention.
Everyone at Broadway, however, understands that the best illustration of our ability to act as custodians of others’ interests is to take care of each other.
We very much adopt the same attitude to managing the risks which we may all face as we do for our clients.
It is, we would like to think, proof positive of the Broadway way.
In that sense, success not only has many fathers but a fair few children, all of whom we consider ourselves as having a responsibility for as Broadway continues to grow.
Written by Daniel Lloyd-John, Chief Executive, Broadway Insurance Brokers