Up the ladder

John Haber-Smith is a director of John Ansell & Partners in the City. Founded in 1981, it has 12 staff. Most of its income comes from four specialist schemes, covering gyms and fitness centres, outdoor activity management, leisure centres, residents’ association buildings and management committees, as well as wine and spirits importers and wholesalers. The firm has a GWP of about £6m.

How did you make it to where you are today?

After my A-levels in 1975, I joined Commercial Union’s training programme. Two years later I went to its north London office but found having to do just house and shop insurance a bit dull. I missed the buzz of the City so after another two years I joined a small firm of Lloyd’s brokers. Within months we were sold to a fringe merchant bank that had a small broking operation.

It was unsatisfactory and all our commercial business was leaving us. My colleague John Ansell realised the only way he could keep his clients was to set up on his own. Four of us then set up John Ansell & Partners. We were a general insurance broker in those days. John Ansell died in 1989, while another partner has retired and the third is effectively a sleeping partner. I have a new shareholder now, too.

What are the key challenges ahead?

Growing the business. Doing what we do but more of it – and more efficiently. Maintaining our independence is important as it is valued by both our clients and insurers. Insurers are sick to death of takeovers and networks while clients are experiencing a lack of service. Expertise in the industry is at an all-time low.

What has changed the most since you started?

The way business has been transacted. It was always about personalities and relationships and it still is but we have taken a lot of the paper processing out of things. IT has chopped out a lot of that, making it more efficient but that in turn means that there are fewer people. You have to have stronger relationships with fewer people.

What advice would you offer someone just starting out?

Get a qualification. I don’t just mean a CII qualification, I mean a portable one that will help you move in business. Strict insurance qualifications are less relevant today. Try something like marketing or business administration or accountancy. You want something that will help you get on in industry or commerce – a broad business understanding.

What is the biggest mistake you have ever made?

Not turning business away earlier. When I started, a broker was the place where you’d try to place every bit of business that turned up, come hell or high water. We ended up with business that was not a natural fit. We’d been forced to sub-broke certain bits on lower margins. We weren’t servicing the client the way we would have liked to because we didn’t know their trade and were not directly involved with the carrier. We weren’t building up relationships with the carrier or the client. Now we politely point them in the direction of another broker.

“There is no real advantage to chopping and changing in hard and soft markets.

John Haber-Smith

What is your biggest success?

Focusing on specific areas. You make a lot more money by focusing on the profitable business and you can do that more efficiently. We re-engineered the business about eight years ago and it really was a transformation.

Talk about some of your contemporaries and friends.

I respect Cobra executive director John Lincoln. The way he supports people has to be admired. If someone has ever helped John in the past and they need his help then he will go out of his way to help them. We need people like John but we don’t need people like Michael Bright [Independent Insurance founder]. If you are ever tempted to do anything dishonest or to take a flyer, just remember what he did and all the people who were hurt and let down by him.

What is your unique selling point?

Being focused, independent, reliable, respectable and solid and having long-term relationships. We’re trying to deliver for the carriers and the clients. One scheme has been with the same carrier since it began, one has stayed with the same underwriter, even though he has moved carrier; one has changed carrier only once; and the other is relatively new and so has only had one carrier. There is no real advantage to chopping and changing in hard and soft markets. You need a relationship with the carrier through all phases of the cycle.

When you are not working, what do you do to relax?

I have a place in Florida so I like to get over there several times a year. I spend time with my family. There’s also a gym and pool two doors from the office.

What is your favourite book/film/football team?

Book – I’d like to say Dickens or Shakespeare and sound erudite but the reality is I like John le Carré, John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell.

Film – the Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise.

Football team – I don’t know one end of a football from another. I like motor sport. Anything with an engine that makes a lot of noise gets my interest.