" Intangible Assets with Attitude"
By Peter van Aartrijk, Jr. ©2005

Brutal honesty cleared the air and revenues per employee leaped 50% in two years.

Their Challenge: In 1996, Tom Corkhill was frustrated by stagnant revenues per employee-- his chosen measure for success--although everyone in the agency seemed busy and they were selling lots of insurance.

Their Solution: Work on the intangibles (e.g. morale) and the tangibles (sales) will follow. His mantra: "Good employee culture makes sales."

Something is working, because productivity is up by 50%.

Anyone who runs production at a successful small business understands that employees, more than processes, stand between success and failure. In the insurance business that truism often is lost on independent agents, who can spend all day shuffling papers, facts and figures. But Tom Corkhill believes his has cracked the code.

"We decided to go a little deeper to see what we could change and we came up with an answer, which was a culture change," he said.

To make that happen, Corkhill brought in Carol Howe, who runs a management consulting business in nearby Altamonte Springs. Howe started monthly discussions for Corkhill and his staff where they talk about handling fear and risk--rather than insurance and salesmanship.

That was in 1996. ----- There was a sizable jump in profit, in sales, and of course we had better morale and were able to give better service.

Corkhill Agency employees meet with Howe at a conference center on the second Wednesday of every month. -- ----

What happens in those two hours a month?

"It's amazing what happens," Howe says. "We help people recognize that we basically don't tell the truth; we allow unspoken resentment; we allow people to work in isolated compartments; we sabotage our own self-interest.

"So, we address the unspoken matters right off the bat. Most people are used to hiding and not speaking up. That destroys the culture.

"I had the feeling that everyone in the agency was working in their own isolated area, getting only their work done without the sense of people working in a team," Howe continues. "That sounds like a cliché, but it makes a difference.

 People now are less fearful, not driven by a fear of failure but by helping people. You're able to come up with new ideas and to think more clearly and more globally. You become a lot more efficient when you decide you're going to stop playing games."

Corkhill acknowledges that the group session isn't a traditional sales and marketing improvement process, but "if the person won't pick up the phone there's no sales going on anyway."

He says his staff is more courageous in sales presentations, less defensive about making mistakes, and shows more creativity and collaboration in solving everyday problems.

"For the Corkhill agency, now the highest priority of any sales presentations is to genuinely help people and to establish a relationship," he says. -----

Before the Howe sessions, "we used to go out to dinner and talk about how we would make some changes but underneath that everyone had their own agenda and they weren't open," Corkhill says. "How can you be creative if you're upset about something? Most of our life is at work. We have an obligation as an organization to make it a place for people to come where it's fun." -----

And profitable. Early on in the improvement process, Corkhill promised that if revenue per employee increased he would match the agency's 401(k) plan at 100% up to 4% of salary. "I don't know where our productivity will peak," he says. "It's no longer the issue anymore. It's the culture. As long as culture is moving in the right direction, I'll fund the 401(k).

 "Clearly, the agency principal must commit to this sort of emotional shift," Corkhill stresses. "It isn't for every agent now. It will be for the others when they're ready. I think a lot more independent agents would still be independent agents today if they had been willing to do this."

Excerpts by permission from:  Independent Agent's Magazine
February 2000 Article