Do not expect Mr Robert Benmosche, President & CEO of AIG, to balk at making tough or unpopular decisions and then look back and second-guess them. Expect him to take up the cudgels for his people, even if that means resisting decisions he believes would be unfair to them. Expect him to charge and talk tough. After all, he has earned a reputation as a “bull in a china shop”.
He is probably a bull, he would say, though maybe not one in a china shop. But a bull he is when it comes to his style of management and leadership.
“I’m aggressive, I’m tough, and I’m going to charge and get things done. When we have a tough thing to do, I’ll get in, I’ll work with people, but in the end, people must believe in your vision and that you believe in them,” Mr Benmosche said.
This style can be traced back to his background in the military. He went to New York Military Academy in 1959 and in 1966 served in the US Army during the Vietnam War based in Korea.
“In the military, people looked to me for leadership, because it’s about their lives – it’s about their families. The first guiding principle of leadership is that people actually count,” he said.
Works for his people
He charges and takes charge, but he makes it clear who he is working for. “You got to make sure that people are on board and people have a sense that you are working for them. They don’t work for you,” he said while pointing out the mistake of many leaders who want everybody to respect their importance.
“You need to understand that people are important. Once people feel confident, they will do wonderful things,” he said. “But if you create fear in people, they aren’t confident you’re going to stand by them, and that makes them afraid to address their mistakes.”
It’s people first
This ability to understand and motivate people appears to be one of his biggest strengths as a leader, something he readily put to use on his first day at AIG.
“The very first day I was here, I went to visit Financial Products people in Connecticut. They were at the epicentre of the crisis, and I said up front, ‘Tell me what happened. Tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what your issues are.’ And I think they were glad to see me – a CEO hadn’t shown up there since Hank Greenberg, which surprised me,”
he said.
“These were the people who really understood the products that were hurting AIG, and we needed them to stay and help, so I asked them for their support and guaranteed I would help them, and I thanked them and apologised for how they were being vilified in the press.”
This understanding and appreciation of people is bolstered by his principle of honesty, which he believes has helped AIG succeed. “Convincing AIG of that was my job, and it took me a while to get people to believe that, but they did believe that in the end,” he said. “All of AIG’s people knew we were interested in their welfare. It was what made us successful.”
Leaving his vineyards behind
In hindsight, he did not have to go through the hard work of convincing AIG people to believe in him or through the humungous work of taking the helm of a company in the throes of collapse. Back in 2008 at the height of the AIG saga, he was happily tending to his vineyards in Dubrovnik, Croatia, enjoying his retirement after serving as MetLife CEO for eight years.
But he did. “It came to a point where I felt someone needed to start demonstrating that people in this country could fix problems, and we didn’t need government and regulation to tell us how to do it. That being said, we do need ground rules of what is the appropriate way to do business. And then we need to let capitalism take it on from there…”
By 2009, he was ready to step in and show that the insurance industry was already a well-regulated industry, and that what happened to AIG was outside the ambit of insurance regulation.
“As a shareholder in the industry, at MetLife, I also was concerned about the whole industry continuing to fall apart – what was good for AIG, I believe, was good for the insurance industry,” he said.
Defender of AIG employees
When he did step in, he had to take on what he considers the biggest challenge of any crisis: making sure not to panic the people. “That’s what we had, public figures trying to panic people and attacking people and vilifying people. And that was my hardest job, getting them to stop so that the people could come to work and pay back the country.”
Finding an AIG that was big and unfocussed, its employees struggling with low morale and its businesses siloed, the first order of the day was to restore morale. “When I arrived, I went out there publicly and said some aggressive things about the company and our people,” a move that he thinks helped gel the company.
“They wanted somebody to fight for them, to tell them that there was hope, that this company could make it, that their jobs would be here one day, that their families would be able to continue the life they’ve had,” he said.
“And so that was my first initiative, to just get out, rebuild the morale, get people to understand that we’re going to succeed and here’s how we’re going to succeed with a vision.”
It is never one person
With that vision, AIG has focussed on its core business, sold off its non-core assets, repaid the US government, and created a company that works as one, with a new slogan “Bring on Tomorrow” to boot. And credit for this feat has often been given to Mr Benmosche.
But the credit belongs to the people of AIG, he said. “It is never one person, or even 10 or 100. It’s the 63,000 employees at AIG today who make it great. We’re a corporation made up of talented, driven people, who delivered on an enormous promise,” he said.
“Together, we did something that many people feel is not done much anymore in the corporate or political realms – we made good on our promise.”
Two more years, for now
Going forward, he wants AIG to focus on its core insurance operations, to continue to re-emerge as a strong global insurer. “You will see us continue on the commercial insurance side, which is already strong, and we are also going to become a global consumer sales organisation of all life products.”
But with the news that he would be staying on as CEO for only two more years, will he still be around to lead the company in doing these down the road?
“Two more years is what I’ve told the board for now. I don’t know, quite frankly, how my health will hold up.” He was diagnosed with cancer in 2010, but has remained optimistic of his health and still runs almost 15 miles a week at 68 years old.
“I know that it can be treated but not cured. Right now the treatments are going very well. So the doctors told me, ‘Be optimistic,’ because there’s nothing else to be. And so I am.”
Making sure he smells the roses
For now, he said, he is having a wonderful time. “The doctors have always been very clear that there is no cure for the type of cancer I have, but I’m enjoying life until they tell me it’s starting to affect me again.” He has never publicly disclosed the type of cancer he has, saying in past interviews that it would be a distraction.
“I just live every day and enjoy myself and have a lot of fun and make sure that I smell the roses. My grandmother used to say to us, ‘Give me my roses when I can smell them’.”
And should the day come when he leaves AIG, he hopes to spend more time at his villa and vineyards in Croatia and enjoy himself, as well as spend time with family and friends.
“But I’m not there yet – I’m still enjoying myself here, and I think there’s work to do, and I’m excited to do it.”
The International Insurance Society (IIS) has announced Mr Benmosche as the 2013 Insurance Hall of Fame winner. He will be inducted at the 17 June gala dinner in conjunction with the IIS
49th Annual Seminar in Seoul, Korea, 16-20 June 2013.