Lance Miller Co-Founder and CEO, Surex
Lance Miller is a co-founder and CEO of Surex. Before starting Surex, he was the Board Director at Alberta School Employee Benefit Plans Edmonton. He has also served as a Chief Officer at Martec Group for over 11 years. About his education qualification, he has pursued the Harvard Business Analytics Program from Harvard University.
1. Tell us about your role in Surex?
My role at Surex is I am the initial founder and CEO of the company. I brought in Matt Alston as my business partner who also cofounded the company and brought the dream of Surex to a reality.
2. Can you tell us about your journey into this market?
My journey into the insurance tech space really came out of fear. I had bought a traditional brick and mortar insurance office back in October of 2005. At that time the bank act was being reviewed and there was a lot of fear that banks were going to get into insurance. Having just bought my office, the purchase was 100% financed and the cash flowed almost to the dollar, in fact in my first year my income was only $12,000/yr. While I had a monopoly on insurance in the small town of Magrath where I purchased my office, there were two banks. I knew that if banks got into insurance, there was a good chance it would bankrupt my purchase and put an end to a short lived career in insurance. With this fear, I began to really try and answer the question “Why would anyone want to do insurance with the banks verses with an insurance broker?” While I pondered on this for months all my answers came down to the fact that banks had great online tools that our industry lacked. This gave the foundation for the plans to offer a good digital experience in the general insurance market and the birth of Surex.com.
3. How do you think technology is redefining Finance Space?
Technology is redefining the finance space by really allowing companies to optimize their operations. I have always said Technology is not a strategy and is like a weapon of mass destruction. In order for technology to have the desired effect it has to be based on accomplishing a strategic objective and be aimed very well at the target you wish to achieve.
4. How has introduction of technology empowered insurance sector?
Technology has empowered the insurance sector by moving some decisions out of the hands of actuarial science. Having a team of actuaries that apply their predictions based on the limited outcomes they can realistically look at. Through technology and AI tools we can now look at data and run thousands of scenarios and predictions in mere minutes. It also allows us to deploy human capital in the areas that truly matter in our industry by allowing technology to run with the tasks that it can perform, we are able to optimize our work force and workflows.
5. What features of your services helped you in gaining and maintaining the position of fastest growing insurance brokerage firm?
I believe the feature of our business that allowed us to gain and maintain the position of the fastest growing insurance brokerage is our ability to look at insurance from the buyer’s perspective. Too long brokers have told customers how they need to interact with them and what is expected of them as a client. We have been able to turn that upside down to some extent and work with our clients on a platform and terms that work for them. It gets harder all the time to maintain this customer centric focus but I truly believe it is essential to our success.
6. What are your views about the near future of the insurance sector?
My views about the near future of the insurance sector is that we have only begun to see the tip of what will be expected of us from customers. As customers continue to interact more and more with the Amazons, Ebay, Social media sites, and online services their expectations on our industry will continue to increase. I think insurance companies are going to feel this pinch the most. It is no longer acceptable for companies to take weeks or months to issue policies, it will be expected that complex declaration pages will need to be replaced with easy to read and understand summaries. Bad actors in our industry can no longer hide and will be forced to change or exit the industry. We have a lot of work to do with consumers on the value of insurance and really gaining their trust, I think there are very few insurance companies that are accomplishing this and in fact the actions of some are advancing the distrust in the consumer’s eyes. fintech news
7. How do you differentiate your online insurance platform for your competitors?
Our differentiation really is around our ability to capture what the consumer expectation is. Consumers want choice, they don’t want to have to worry about if they are getting a good deal or not. That is why they use a broker, so they can worry about this for the consumer. There are huge AI potentials to help meet the consumer expectations. In the near future, once a consumer finds Surex, they will have no need to ever shop their insurance again. Surex is developing AI tools that will meet the expectation of the consumer so they will never need to worry about their insurance again.investments
8. What advice would you like to give to the Startups?
The advice I would give to a startup is have a clear vision of what your trying to build and what problem your trying to solve. Vision is a misunderstood tool yet is so powerful if it can be harnessed. You have to look at your company 5 years down the road and know what it looks like, who is working there, what the work environment is, what your customers think of you, what your building looks like, you have to be able to see every detail of your business 5 or 10 years out and then work towards achieving that vision. Goals are great but without a vision tying it all together your shooting at moving targets.
9. Which Startup technology has grabbed your attention?
I am really keen right now on all things to do with big data. The gold of the future is data and being able to mine that data and interpret it correctly. To be honest I can’t think of a startup right now that I am watching closely. I stay pretty focused on Surex and what we are doing, while I watch the market and try to stay aware of what is happening, I don’t really follow any businesses to close.
10. How do you prepare for a Technology-centric world?
I think the question of how to prepare for a technology-centric world is really the wrong question. I see so many people focusing on technology to solve their business problems. I would say the opposite, the best thing you can do is not get distracted by all the technology buzz and focus on your strategic objectives. Be clear on what you want to accomplish and look at what technology exists to help support that vision.
Technology isn’t a strategy, don’t get lured in to flashy lights and buzz that tech can solve it all.
11. Can you tell us about your team and how it supports you?
Surex has a fantastic team. We are growing so fast that we are constantly rebuilding our business. It is not abnormal to have 4 or 5 significant changes in a year, it takes a strong and dedicated group of people to keep pace with that level of change and keep staff positive and reacting positively. I have 6 direct reports that work with me to coordinate all the moving parts at Surex. We have 3 main streams at Surex; Run, Grow, Transform. While I manage the grow group I also coordinate with the Run and Transform teams to ensure we have a united vision moving forward. It helps to have a fantastic business partner too. Matt Alston runs our transform group and also as a cofounder has significant say in the direction of the business. We don’t agree on everything but have found a way to work together that truly benefits the business. I hear horror stories about partnerships but at Surex, we don’t have those issues. When problems arise, we check our ego’s at the door and find the solution to the problem that benefits the company. We don’t worry about who was right or who was wrong.
12. What are the major developments you are planning, in recent time?
Our major developments are really around some great tools we are building for our customers. I can’t spoil the big announcement but get ready as Surex will be releasing a consumer tool that does not exist in the North America insurance industry. This initiative will truly allow consumers to never need to look for another broker again. Surex will be the place to be for your insurance needs.
13. Which book are you reading these days?
I read a lot of case studies right now. I am taking an 18 month course from Harvard University on data analytics. It is the Harvard Business Analytics program, well worth the time. Other than that, I am reading a book called Keeping up with the Quants, and some textbooks on strategic planning. Not a compelling reading list at the moment. But some great books I have read in the recent past are; The Anatomy of Peace, Finding Ultra, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The Biology of Belief and I recently reread a couple of my favorites The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and Think and Grow Rich.
14. We have heard that you have a very joyful work culture, we won’t mind having a look at some of the pictures?
Our team is the best, in fact we believe in our staff so much we want to highlight them as our hero’s! So we put them in our ads!
