Time to look forward

New NIBA Vice-President Nick Cook says it’s time to stop looking in the rear-view mirror, to take the industry to new heights.

While Nick Cook has spent most of his career with larger broking firms and underwriters, he hasn’t forgotten his roots.

“My career started in Newcastle but then I moved to Tamworth, where it was just me and another person in the office on the high street there,” he remembers. “I went to see clients myself, out on their farms, and I got a strong sense of what regional and country people deal with day to day.”

The past 25 years have been in Sydney, looking at risk and solutions through a corporate lens, but Nick retains his appreciation for the endurance, resilience, and sense of community in rural Australia.

As Executive General Manager – Partner, Broker Services & Agencies for Steadfast, Nick maintains his connections to the bush. “Our Steadfast brokers aren’t centred in office towers around the capital cities, there are thousands of Steadfast brokers looking after their clients, in the main streets of country towns. We try never to lose sight of what our broker network needs and how we can help and support them.”

Having spent over 20 years on the underwriting side of insurance with Zurich, Nick says his appreciation of “both sides of the fence” is a key benefit he will bring to his role as Vice President of NIBA. “I give perspectives on how brokers interact with insurers and what insurers think about that interaction,” he says. “People often talk about the hard market, but for me, it’s just the market, and we need to know where insurers are positioned, what business they are looking for and how they are managing claims, so we can achieve the best for our clients.”

Looking at the major issues confronting the broking industry, Nick identifies the changing demographic of brokers as a concern. “A lot of baby boomers are now entering the retirement phase; they’re the ones who have built brokerage businesses and they are starting to step out, for the younger generation to come through.

“My focus is how NIBA can remain relevant and attractive to that changing demographic. How we can ensure our next generation of brokers stays engaged.”

Nick believes the industry has been distracted in recent years by regulation. “Now that Michelle Levy has released the Quality of Advice Review, for me the regulatory and compliance distraction is starting to ebb. My goal is for us to focus on the positive – to look through the windscreen, not the side or rear-view mirror.

“What is NIBA’s role in the future? How can we deliver on the strategy the NIBA Board puts in place to not only remain relevant but offer a compelling value proposition, across the generations? Each of these has different needs; the one coming through now consumes professional development and networks in a way distinct from the more mature generations. How do we ensure that more mature brokers can fully harness technology to benefit their jobs and their clients?

“We have to bridge the generations and one size does not fit all.”

Nick says NIBA and the Board need to continue to develop strategies that offer newer brokers the benefit of their experience but understand insights come from different and fresh perspectives.

“This is what is going to help build our brand and our profession. I think the focus on regulation has distracted us from painting a better picture of insurance broking. It’s the sort of thing you hear at job Expos; NIBA has a stand, with PwC on one side and Allens on the other. Kids walk in and go either way.

“Then there are the advertisements that show a chartered accountant jogging over Tower Bridge in London. This is something you can do as a broker. We have to find ways of capturing the imagination, of joining the dots in people’s minds that a professional career that offers a great lifestyle and remuneration is available in broking.”

But the conversation goes beyond remuneration. “When Steadfast talks to young people, the salary is not the major thing for them. They want to talk about how this career reflects on the 360 of their lives. Can they ride to work? What is the organisation doing on ESG? What is the position on diversity and inclusion?

“I wouldn’t have considered these things relevant when I joined the industry, but they are key to the conversation now, to get people attracted to insurance and the careers available in broking. And, for me, an important way of demonstrating that comes back to the regional focus, particularly when you look at the major natural catastrophe events we’ve seen, where the broker helps puts people’s lives back together.

“You can’t walk down the main street of Lismore without seeing the forefront of climate change; we need to communicate how cognisant brokers and insurers are in looking at solutions and strategies to really help customers. The next generation wants meaningful work, and this is a great example of how we make a valuable contribution to the community.”