Ep250: Adrian Cox Beazley: Managing the grey areas consistently well

Todays’ podcast is another really positive and uplifting meeting
with someone right at the top of their game. Fresh from posting
record annual profits of over $1.4bn on a top line that exceeded
$6bn for the first time, it was perhaps understandable to find
Adrian Cox, CEO of Beazley in excellent spirits. Whilst the
market may be peaking in terms of pricing, speaking to Adrian it
certainly doesn’t seem to be peaking in terms of profitable
opportunity, and much of this podcast is a dissection of global
specialist insurance opportunities in the world and how a
top-tier progressive underwriter like Beazley is positioning
itself to make the most of them. Whether it be fast-emerging new
classes of insurance relating to the decarbonisation of the
economy, burgeoning new geopolitical risk and complexity, the
rise of parametric covers, the application of artificial
intelligence or indeed the fast-changing dynamics of how
insurance is transacted, this encounter reveals positive new
thinking and investment in abundance. Listen on for all this and
more. I think if you listen closely enough you can hear a
distillation of Beazley’s distinctive culture coming through, not
just in what Adrian is saying about the issues of the day, but in
the way he is saying it. It seems that it is possible that rigour
and discipline combined with worldly curiosity and a willingness
to allow controlled experimentation in the understanding that not
everything will go to plan can all form key parts of a successful
business culture. This is another good episode to file away for
when you’re in need of a morale-booster. Adrian’s enthusiasm and
good humour are infectious and I think you’ll enjoy listening to
this as much as I enjoyed recording it   LINKS: We thank our
naming sponsor AdvantageGo: https://www.advantagego.com