Company Logo's

The way we see it a company logo has two purposes:

1.  It must be memorable.  (Does the company come to mind at a glance?)
2.  It must somehow reflect the values of the company.  

Our Logo is simple.  "It looks like a little kid drew it"  is what we often hear.  That is because it was in fact designed by an 10 year old.

Here is the original:

 We tested it against some of the "cool" designs that the graphic artists came up with.  The one the kid did beat the heck out of the high dollar one in "I'll remember that one" department.

As for representing our company values?   Take that you $390 an hour corporate image consultants!  You have been beaten by a child.   (Not just beaten, but trounced, shamed, pwned, owned and just flat humiliated).  Our kids are central to our values at Lime Tree.  We think we should show it.

Good People.

 There are two things that make  a great company.

1. Great people.

2. An environment where those great people can be themselves.

As a startup company it's critical that no one ever says the words “it's not my job”.

Fortunately, with some direction from the folks@hirebetter.com we have come up with a method that really works. Our single most important hire is in place, and amongst the chaos of trying to put together a new venture, without asking, the employee came to me and said: “what can I do to help?”

So now I have good people. It's up to me to foster an environment where they can be fulfilled.

The 20% percent rule

A friend of mine reminded me recently  about his 20% rule.

It's pretty simple. No matter how good a vendor or supplier or in our case an underwriter is, it is bad business to allow them to have more than 20% of our destiny in their hands.

Yes, there are people and companies that are fully aligned with me ––– for the moment. The problem is that as humans are priorities change. People die. People fall on their swords. People get thrown on the bus. People simply  retire.  When that happens, there is a shift in priority, sometimes subtle sometimes radical. Sometimes you can't even see it when it happens.

So, to all of our good carriers, we must tell you we will meet our volume commitments to you; however we do have a 20% rule here. We do need to spread our risks. And we need to publicly state this.

One Phone

E-mail addresses, phones, chat, US mail, my kid screaming from his bedroom.

The whole blackberry thing where people have to be immediately available. I'm drowning. I have  three voice mail boxes that manage. My e-mail inbox fills up faster than I can read.

Enough!

I have been thinking about it for a long time.

Now I only have one phone number. One phone. One voicemail.

 I have ended all the other phone numbers.

Yes you can still call and reach me from switchboard, where an actual human will pick up the phone. But since technology is supposed to make our lives easier rather than more complex, we are using the technology to allow the receptionist to put you through to my one phone.

This does require different thinking. It is not wise of me to answer a phone call while I'm driving down the road if that phone call requires that I stare at the computer screen. It's a bit of a conundrum to me. Should I answer it and apologize? Or should I ignore the phone call?   But in the end I think it's just about returning your voicemails.

As an entrepreneur, I am my company so I do not have any reason to not answer phone calls. I will tell you that during family time and when I tuck in my little girl in bed I don't care if Mr Obama is calling I'm not going to answer the phone.

Somehow along the way I had a crazy idea in my head that when the phone rings I have to drop everything. That's simply not true.

Now, I know that I do have to be available and responsive to people who leave me messages, but that's what voicemail is all about. I can get back to you in a reasonable amount of time.

So if you want to reach me, 512-590-1977. If you want to talk to the nice girl at the reception desk  800-561-7206.

Good News at Lime Tree (the best kind)

We got this photo by email  from Misbah one of our lead technical guys....

In true absent minded new father status, we don't have the name, weight or any other details.

We assume this much:  10 fingers,  10 toes and  a healthy mom and happy father and grandparents.

Setting ourselves appart

The insurance business is basically simple.

To the agent there is only three things that a managing general agent can deliver:

1. A good policy (a strong form and secure paper)

2. A good price.

3. Ease of doing business with the managing general agent.

When you consider these three factors, there is only one that any managing and general agent can do to be unique.

You may have a good policy, but you will never be the only one who has a good policy for a sustained period of time. If you are making money in a line of business, there are 100 other underwriters who will jump in behind you. We all know that this is a business of copycats. Nothing is secret because all of your actuarial information is passed around among the reinsurance community and the regulators.

You may have a good price. But this industry is littered with the remains of the irrational player who has come in and undercut prices, gotten themselves in trouble and disappeared.

So this is what's so odd.

When I went to the various associations to find out what the average time was for a quotation and for policy delivery, no one is even keeping the industry best practice metric. When you ask these guys how fast do you turn around a quote, you usually get the same answer: "We can turn it around really quickly if we have to."

But that is not the question I asked. The question I asked can be answered with a number of hours. When I asked how long does it take you to produce a quote I would hope that someone could say we return a quote in 21.4 working hours.

But nobody actually tracks it.

Effective May 1, 2010 Lime Tree Underwriters will track the number of business hours every single one of our quotes takes. We will note how long we take. We will note how long our underwriting partners take. Our goal is to always make that number smaller.

Not only that, we will put the time it took us on the cover letter of every single quote we send to our agents.

Yes, part of what we're doing is screaming to the market "were faster than everybody else"

But what we're really doing is causing ourselves to focus on that number. And by focusing on that number we truly will be faster.

It is just one of the ways we think we can distinguish ourselves as the easiest people to do business with. We believe we can sustain that advantage over time.

The best places to work....

I have always liked companies that hold themselves out to be the best places to work. You see it plastered on the side of Southwest Airlines planes and at other quality companies. I've always noticed that the quality of the product that I purchased from them is always very very good when they are one of the best places to work.

I have known a number of people here in Austin who have made the Austin business Journal's best places to work list. I found these people engaging intelligent and they really have the loyalty of their people. On top of all that they turned out great work.

I recently discovered that Business Insurance magazine sponsors a list of the best places to work in the insurance industry. They have a category divided up into small medium and large institutions. Being me of course I want to have nothing to do with in becoming a large institution. Small is great with the definition of up to 250 people.

As soon as I found out about the list, I read it. I saw the top 10 small companies to work for in the 2009. And low and behold, a guy know who runs an agency in Las Vegas Nevada Capstone Brokerage was on the list. In all my dealings with them may have been selfless and just downright charitable with her time: Way to go Jade! While it doesn't surprise me, congratulations!

Having said all this, while I do not like to add to our company goals, less we chase too many of them: I really would like to make this list within three years. So I'm putting it out there publicly so that all of you may hold me accountable to this goal. It's the one goal I cannot have my employees hold me accountable for.