Q&A with Peter Davis (He/Him), Head of Customer and Distribution, Commercial Insurance Zurich UK
08/15/2021
How did you get into the insurance sector?
I fell into insurance by accident, like many people – but that’s the beauty of our industry: just how broad it really is. I started my career in Paris I studied for my degree in France, had a summer job at Aon, went back for a second summer job, then I had a three-month contract and eventually I was offered a full-time job.
I joined Zurich seven years ago as a Global Relationship Leader. The ‘GRL’ role, as it’s known, is a customer facing role looking after our largest customers in the Commercial insurance segment. Since then I’ve enjoyed working in a number of roles and now lead our Customer, Distribution and Captive teams.
What have been your career highlights?
For me, what I love about what I do is the sheer breadth of the things I get involved in. It’s true for the job that I have now but also all the roles I’ve had. They’ve always been really varied, so working with different industries, different types of clients whether they are UK clients or global clients. It’s impossible to pick a single highlight, but I have so many great memories already of people I’ve worked with and customer projects that I’ve been involved with.
So, I imagine you don’t tend to have one, but what does a typical day look like for you?
I did laugh when I saw this question, you’re right there is no typical day. What I often say when people talk to me about wanting to work in the Customer and Distribution Management team (CD&M) is, if you like having an atypical day then it’s the team for you. If you like structure to your day, it is not the team for you.
But in all seriousness my day is always punctuated by things we need to deal with and often quickly, because that’s why we’re here obviously, to help customers and brokers but also help our own teams solving any topics and issues that might come up.
What my days always have in common is I start early and use the time to catch up on a few things. I like to start the day catching up on the news. Partly because current affairs interests me but also because you need to know what’s going on in the world if you’re going to work with customers – we have to have a window into their world to really understand how we can help them. So that’s how I start and then normally there will be a series of meetings with my direct team but also lots of other teams in Zurich. So, I try to share my time between one to ones and group conversations in the CD&M team and then the wider business and also of course customers and brokers.
What is the main focus of your role?
It’s making sure that we are bringing to life everything that relates to our customers. So that might be managing customer relationships, it might be being the voice of the customer internally, it might be challenging our teams on ‘are we thinking about this from an external perspective?’ It might be working with brokers; it might be developing new propositions… but it’s really clear to me: it all goes back to the customer.
What would you say is the top lesson you’ve learnt?
I would say that sometimes those days which feel like the hardest moments and the projects that make you feel like you might just want to give up…actually, those are often the things that build your career. Two, five, ten years down the line you will actually talk about them in a job interview. Or you will use them as a reference point to help you solve some other problem that arises. So the things that seem easy and fun are great and you should always make the most of them but be sure to embrace the really difficult moments as well, because those are the ones that ultimately create the most opportunity and fulfilment in the long run.
So, you already mentioned that you stay ahead of customer developments how do you keep ahead of insurance developments?
My answer to this is, never stop looking and learning. This means everything from the industry press, talking to customers, talking to brokers, talking to associations like Airmic. I would encourage people to see opportunity in every moment when they engage with someone as a chance to learn something. Especially your own colleagues and I really can’t stress the importance of this enough. There’s so many different roles and teams and specialisms in an insurance company or any other company that by talking to each other you’ll learn so much about the wider organisation, and I really mean that. Building on that, share what you learn and encourage others to do the same.
I know you listen to a couple of podcasts, have you got any recommendations for one’s people should check out?
Airmic have a podcast that’s very worth a listen to. I find them really useful because there are many different participants from across our industry. Another that I like to listen to in the mornings is the FT Morning Briefing which is about 10 maybe 15 minutes - it’s a really quick snapshot of a few things that are going on in the world.
You’re also co-chair of the Global Pride at Zurich network tell us a bit about the work that the network does?
Pride at Zurich globally is made up of lots of individual in-country groups and we’ve done that deliberately because: firstly every country is different and every culture is different, and secondly because every country is in a slightly different place in its journey around LGBT+ inclusion. We believe that LGBT+ inclusion is best achieved by working in partnership with each of the countries rather than only trying to take steps forward solely at a Group level.
We have a number of global initiatives so for example we’ve done a lot of work on mobility, where our people might be moving between countries and also fundamental things like our procurement contracts which sound less obvious but are an important focus. We’ve got some great information on the Zurich website about our approach and we profile some of our people.
We are also there to facilitate helping our businesses and teams around the world, giving them a voice and access to what they are all doing through our internal workplace group which is open to everyone. We also launched our Allies network, which is really important as it gives all colleagues a chance to get involved and voice their support.
What’s been a Pride at Zurich highlight for you in the last few years?
It has to be when Zurich was named, for the first time, as a Top Global Employer by Stonewall. At the time, and still even now we are the only insurance company in the world that is on the list of Top Global Employers. It was the moment where we recognised that we had taken some significant steps forward in supporting LGBT+ inclusion and it was an amazing feeling. There’s more to do and we’ll keep going!
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
I think it’s be yourself in what you’re doing. So, aim to be the best at what you do, but do it as you. You don’t necessarily have to do something in the same way every other person before you has done it.
What would you do if you weren’t working in the insurance industry?
Easy one: I always wanted to be an airline pilot but for several reasons it didn’t happen!
What one thing would people be surprised to know about you?
So, I think this is a one-dimensional question and I’m going to give you a non one-dimensional answer hopefully.
There are so many things about us as individuals that different people will find interesting as they get to know us in life. So, some people won’t know that I lived in France for seven years. Some don’t know that I’m married to an opera singer and he brings a completely different perspective to life. Some don’t know that I love tennis because I don’t talk about it very much… take your pick! I hope that somehow answers that question and it goes back to something I said earlier – talk to the people you work with!
What do you love about working at Zurich?
I love the fact that we are an organisation that cares about people. Whether that’s our customers, brokers, partners or us as employees. Even if that doesn’t mean that every conversation is easy or that everything happens in exactly the way we would like it to. For me Zurich is a company that really has a purpose at the core of what we do. Particularly in the last couple of years everything that is related to our people promise, our planet promise, our customer promise. We are clear about exactly who we want to be and what we want to do.
Thinking about inclusion again what are your hopes for inclusivity in the insurance industry in the UK?
My aspiration is that we get to a place where this is second nature, when we don’t even have to talk about this. But in the nearer term in terms of practically how we get to that I would love to see a much more diverse group of people coming into our industry. That means sexual orientation, it means gender, it means background, it means ethnicity, it means many things – exactly why there are two important words: diversity and inclusion.
We need to be careful that we don’t fall into a ‘buckets’ way of thinking. I am a man, who is gay, who is also white… That’s just three things that make me as a person and that’s the same for every individual – we have many things which make us into each individual. It links back to my answer about not being one-dimensional: nobody is just one thing and I passionately believe that we need to get to a place where we look at everything someone brings to the party.
What’s one thing you would like to see allies do to improve LGBT+ inclusion in the industry?
Be seen and be heard. That might mean calling something out, it might be helping someone understand why a particular phrase or term they use isn’t the best term. It might just be being visible so that other people who are getting ready to come out actually realise others are completely comfortable with them and will create the safe space. If we are all the best of ourselves, then as an industry we will continue to achieve great things.