Breath Of Fresh Air

Falling short of the requirements for dental school admission was one of the greatest things to ever happen to Glen Johnson, president of the Ontario Mutual Insurance Association (OMIA).

After a career spanning more than 30 years in the insurance industry, Johnson has announced his plans to retire within the coming year. He laughs as he recalls his foray into the industry, citing the process of elimination, curiosity and serendipity as some of the driving forces that led him to his current role. It’s clear from his tone that while he may have inadvertently stumbled across OMIA as a career option, he considers himself lucky to have been part of the association for the past three decades.

Johnson is a native of Cambridge, Ontario. After realizing his childhood dream of dentistry would not become a reality, he turned his focus to business, quickly ruling out a career in accounting or sales. An ad for an insurance adjuster position, tacked to a placement board at McMaster University, piqued his interest. The element of investigation involved in the job was enough to sell Johnson on considering the insurance industry as a career path.

After searching out a job in the adjusting field, he landed a position with Crawford & Company (Canada)’s Toronto office. The five-week training course in Atlanta, Georgia, and the use of a company car were the icing on the cake, he chuckles. After a stint with Crawford’s Toronto office, Johnson happily transferred to the company’s new Kitchener location. It was an opportunity for him and his wife, his high school sweetheart, to return to their home turf, he says.

Four years later, in 1978, fate in the form of cabin fever would take Johnson’s career around its next corner.

“As far as getting to the mutuals, I was actually snowed in one day — one of those big snowstorms in the 1970s — saw an ad in the paper for an office manager at the Ontario Mutual Insurance Association and scribbled out a hand-written letter,” Johnson recalls.

“I sort of did it because I was bored and couldn’t get out of the house and ended up getting an interview and getting the job.”

He started off as office manager, before working his way up to the position of vice-president in the mid-1980s. He finally became president in 1990.

GETTING OUT THE BRANDING IRON

The most remarkable thing about landing the job with OMIA, he notes, was the fact that until that point he had never heard of the farm mutuals. Even after spending all of his childhood summer vacations working on his grandparent’s farm in Lucan, Ontario, and working as an independent adjuster for four years, he admits the concept was new to him. That sparked what would become his pet project over the years: developing a provincial branding program.

“Because I worked on the farm every season, I never saw the end of a little-league season, and I used to think about my buddies back in Cambridge playing baseball,” he recalls of his time on the farm. “But I think in the long run, it really helped me because I understand farming and the rural community. It’s completely different than the urban setting.”

Together with his team at the association, they focused on the common elements between and significant selling points of the more than 70 farm mutual insurers at the time (today there are nearly 50). Some of those mutuals had existed for as long as 150 years. “The fact that they operate on an insurance-at-cost basis, they’re owned by the policyholders and the policyholders are the directors and they are financially secure because of the guaranty funds they set up, these points link [the mutuals] all together,” he says.

In keeping with the concept guiding the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC)’s “Bipper” program, OMIA developed the logo of a black ‘M’ — with a red maple leaf in the centre — that mutual insurers feature on their letterhead and signage, alongside their own logos.

“Probably the biggest hurdle would be that the companies all brand themselves in their local communities,” Johnson said. “They are all very independent companies and they do co-operate to a great degree through the association, but that was the biggest hurdle.”

It seems ironic one of the first tasks Johnson tackled as association president would also be among his last. As OMIA prepares to move into its new headquarters early next year, Johnson says it’s time to refresh the brand. The new headquarters building is at the juncture of the 401 and Highway 24, where thousands of cars will whiz by every day. “The association is in the process of hammering out a fresh brand. It’s a good time for it,” he says.

OLD ISSUES, NEW SOLUTIONS, TRADITIONAL VALUES

The brand may be changing, but some of the issues are seemingly timeless — including the public perception of Ontario’s auto insurance market. In 1977, the year before Johnson joined OMIA, the farm mutuals had made their foray into the auto market. The issue of how to address the needs of consumers in a volatile market has been a major point of discussion over the years, and will likely continue to be, Johnson says.

In the history of its operations, the association has worked with each one of the province’s three government parties; each time, auto insurance was a key issue.

“I think there is a need for the industry and the government to help consumers to understand what drives the price of auto insurance better than we currently do,” Johnson says, adding that price and availability are two factors that launch the auto insurance issue into the realm of politics. “I think there will always be an insurance cycle, especially in auto insurance. I think part of the solution in dealing with that is making sure that consumers understand what drives those prices.” Johnson acknowledges the industry does not have a great public image. “The farm mutuals probably have a better image than the average company, but the industry in general — including us — does not have a great image,” he says. ” So when you are trying to tell consumers what drives the price of something like auto insurance, right up front you have to deal with the fact that they’re going to be reluctant to believe you. It’s a tough sell, I know. But I think it’s important that we just keep hammering away at it.”

While the rest of the industry grapples with issues of succession and retention, Johnson believes the best part of working in the farm mutuals industry is the sense of camaraderie.

“I think the highlight of working here has been the type of people I’ve worked with,” he says. “People come into the farm mutual system and they don’t leave. That tells you that it’s a good place to work. There’s a real team feeling: we’re the little guys and we have to work together and stick together to be able to compete with the big guys and there’s something fun about that.”

As he prepares for retirement, Johnson hopes the OMIA will maintain its current value system on which it has been based for the past 126 years. It has been based on principles such as cooperation and compromise, he says. “Even though they [the mutuals] compete on their borders, they have to continue working together in order to enjoy the success they have enjoyed in the past.”