After a Kafkaesque beginning to a career in insurance, Peter Staddon soon found his feet and is now Biba's head of technical services. Peter Carvill reports.
In a meeting room overshadowed by The Gherkin, Peter Staddon walks to the selection of teas on a side-table and begins ruffling through them, explaining how big a fan he is of the humble cuppa. Stirring a fruit-flavoured bag into a cup, he reveals he has five appointments after the interview, a forthcoming trip to Northern Ireland and an ongoing consultation with the Government over private medical insurance (PMI).
In between sips of his tea, Staddon, the head of technical services for Biba, talks quickly and words tumble out, but only because he has a lot to talk about.
He never planned or dreamed of a career in insurance, yet in 1971 he found himself interviewed for a position at Seascope.
"I was told to go and have an interview with a man named Tony Harris at Ibex House. Well, there are 70 companies there in that building. I went to the fourth floor and they had no idea who I was. I had no idea who they were. They said if I couldn't find him, then to come back and they'd give me a job.
"I was then told to go to the ninth floor. I walked in there and they said they weren't recruiting. The next thing, I was in the boardroom with two of the directors and they said, 'We were actually talking this morning about getting a junior in the policy department. Can you come back in a fortnight?' So I went back after two weeks and was given the job."
Staddon cites his colleagues at that time as the people that helped him foster his love for the insurance industry, in particularly Harris who he worked with at Seascope. "It was great to work for these individuals who were working with the British Insurance Brokers' Association (Biba). They had a passion for the industry, and they fed this through to me."
Starting in marine insurance, he was often called upon to help with ensuring his clients' other properties. "One of my clients had a necklace worth $7m [£3.6m]. In my entire time at Seascope, that necklace only came out of the bank once and it was because the particular lady was going to a function with Princess Margaret. I had to wake up an underwriter on a Friday afternoon at about 3.30 and he politely told me to go away because he'd had a very good lunch and was dozing gently."
Passionate people
After 15 years at the firm, it was time to move on. Finding protection for the on-land properties of his clients made Staddon realise he wanted to expand beyond marine insurance. He joined Edward Lumley in 1986, and then moved to Heaths in 1991 where he stayed until he joined Biba in 1996. Along the way, he gained his professional qualifications. "I took them as I was working. I was with people who had such a passion for the industry and the amount they could teach you in a day-to-day environment was, to me, really beneficial."
The move to Biba in 1996 came after he saw an advertisement for a technical services manager. As he tells it, he was not the only person who had spotted it. "One of my staff was leaving and she came into my office and said, 'Have you seen this? This would suit you.' It was then brought to my attention again and I thought somebody was telling me something. So I sent my CV off, was invited to go and have an interview with the chief executive and the company secretary. I was invited back for a second interview and they gave me the job."
Staddon sees his role, and that of Biba as an organisation, as one of being able to push the insurance industry forwards. Reflecting on current issues, one of the things he is looking at is how products complying with Sharia law could be developed. "You obviously have feelings on lots of things. I've got a thing on Sharia law. It's interesting how the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has just shot himself in the foot. I think he is right to raise the issue. I'm not convinced his arguments are that well thought-out but he's a greater intellectual than I'll ever be and maybe he's got some other agenda there. But I have looked at other things where we could be doing more."
Staddon is eager to talk about the setup of Biba, and how it spends the money it raises. "Even though we generate income from a number of sectors, we actually use that. It's got to be remembered that we are a non-profit distribution association. We have a surplus because it is appropriate we make one. But the surplus we make goes back into the coffers, back into the members who own us. It allows us to take counsel on certain things and we've taken on a lot of opinion on regulatory issues."
And most important is the membership of the brokers themselves, and the jobs they do for their clients. Staddon says it is of the utmost importance that a broker adheres to a simple code of conduct, following one principle - doing the best for the customer. "Brokers are the conduit to excellence at the end of the day. The idea is finding the right price for the right cover, and not compromising on that."
Overall, he believes brokers and Biba best serve their industry through promoting best practice in dealing with consumers. And Staddon believes the majority of brokers operate fairly and add large amounts of value to transactions. However, what improvement comes down to is being able to not only advise customers, but to advise them well. "What we need to do as brokers is make sure the information we're giving to our clients is sufficiently wide enough for them to actually analyse the risk and make the appropriate decision because it's the insured who decides on which carrier they should go with. I think price is a factor that should be put in the equation but it shouldn't be the only factor. The broker doesn't deserve to be fed - they earn that right."
Biba, he says, needs to be part of the same culture of adding value, even if it means standing back from the process. "We are not involved in the day-to-day transactional chain because we can't add value. If we're not adding value, why should we be there?"
Staddon believes that while insurance is not the most exciting subject, the issues it touches on are because they impact on most aspects of society. There are a number of things on Biba's agenda, including older PMI customers and the rates of fees and commissions.
Staddon says that he has become aware that many brokers are unsure what commission they should be taking. Likewise, brokers often do not know what a fair rate would be. Staddon admits that neither he nor Biba has definitive answers. "We're looking at the difference between a fee and a commission. So what we're doing is that we're in consultation with some people. Brokers will be able to use an algorithm with costings to get a handle around what they should be charging."
Future potential
PMI is another area that Staddon, and Biba are looking to, especially as he sees a potentially difficult future just 10 years down the line. "A growing population of older people is quite frightening. In a decade, we're going to have something like 12 million people in retirement. The NHS is straining now. When you think of the potential ramifications of the case going through Europe, which will allow people to go to other countries to get treatment, we are going to be inundated by people coming here to get very good quality because we have such a fantastic NHS. We're going to find that people are going to have huge problems so there should be some sort of facility to do that."
He would like to see a tax concession given to PMI customers over the age of 65 but realises such an outcome is unlikely. "I met with Philip Hammond MP and he was adamant that all parties would say no. I think that's short-sighted and the Government needs to think about what the population wants.
"It's a battle we should be seen to be fighting but I'm not convinced we are going to win." n
