Mitchell & Whale’s bold new plan to become a Top 20 brokerage by 2030

By aiming for a customer experience that consumers expect and receive from non-insurance companies, Mitchell and Whale is planning to become a Top 20 national broker by 2030.

“We are not targeting an experience that we know exists inside of insurance,” Adam Mitchell, president of Whitby, Ont.-based Mitchell & Whale, told Canadian Underwriter in an interview Tuesday.

“We are reaching to a higher standard that we feel needs to be built. For nearly a decade, we have had the expanded 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and weekend hours as availability. That is becoming table stakes.”

Mitchell & Whale is looking to improve speed and convenience as part of an ambitious new strategy that the brokerage will officially launch Aug. 1. Of particular note, the brokerage aims to become a Top 20 Canadian brokerage with more than $1 billion in gross written premiums by the end of  this decade. Since 2009, Mitchell and Whale has grown from $2.5 million in gross written premiums to over $41 million.

“As a customer, when I buy something online, I will really only go to the store if I need to touch and feel it and see it,” Mitchell told Canadian Underwriter. “When you are shopping online, you are shopping on, ‘How fast will it get here? What is the shipping speed? And what are the reviews?’ The world is changing really quickly and we feel this deserves to push this envelope, and so we are going to invest pretty heavily in this customer service vision.”

Another part of the growth strategy is to invest in technology and talent acquisition. This includes recruiting computer programmers and data scientists.

Canadian Underwriter asked Mitchell Tuesday for some details on the company’s current and planned investments in technology and analytics. “I am not sure we have the full scope and depth of how deep this investment is going to go, because I get the impression it is a bit like a child who will continuously be fed and nurtured and growing,” Mitchell replied.

He noted the brokerage has built lead management software in-house, which it now licenses to other brokerages.

“There is a lot more in the pipeline. That is becoming a robust division,” Mitchell said of his brokerage’s technology and analytics.

So if you are a brokerage principal looking to sell your book of business, should you be talking to Mitchell and Whale to potentially buy your business?

“I would love to have the chat to see if there are synergies. We grow as a business pretty efficiently but I think we could be a pretty clever partner for the right mix,” said Mitchell.

But a major part of Mitchell & Whale’s growth strategy is organic growth.

“I am not saying M&A won’t play a part of it, but it’s not part of the makeup of that particular equation.”

Feature image via iStock.com/Dilok Klaisataporn