What motivates Aon colleagues to show up for their clients every day? Why do we do what we do and what do we deliver to our stakeholders? How do we bring solutions to life for our clients? The answers to these big questions can be found in the exciting recent announcements that galvanize around Aon’s strategic future. In this episode of “On Aon,” host Fernanda Joaquim welcomes Aon’s Chief Culture Officer Kelli Clark and Global Head of Brand Stuart Green for a conversation about Aon’s efforts to shape decisions for the better to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. They discuss Aon’s longstanding tradition of excellence, recent changes and exciting announcements about ways that Aon is working to elevate the purpose, proposition and people shaping Aon's brand experience.
What motivates Aon colleagues to show up for their clients every day? Why do we do what we do and what do we deliver to our stakeholders? How do we bring solutions to life for our clients? The answers to these big questions can be found in the exciting recent announcements that galvanize around Aon’s strategic future. In this episode of “On Aon,” host Fernanda Joaquim welcomes Aon’s Chief Culture Officer Kelli Clark and Global Head of Brand Stuart Green for a conversation about Aon’s efforts to shape decisions for the better to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. They discuss Aon’s longstanding tradition of excellence, recent changes and exciting announcements about ways that Aon is working to elevate the purpose, proposition and people shaping Aon's brand experience.
Additional Resources:
Aon’s website, featuring the new brand
Learn more about Aon’s purpose and values here: Who we are
Watch our Aon Story video
Report: Helping Organizations Chart a Course for the New Better
Dive into our recent survey of 800 global C-Suite leaders, “A New Approach to Volatility: The Importance of Making Better Decisions.”
More on the Aon United Growth Ownership Plan for colleagues
Tweetables:
“In many ways the relevance of Aon should be stronger than ever.” — Stuart Green
“Our colleagues are passionate about serving clients.” — Kelli Clark
“We aim to present Aon to the world in a way that amplifies our purpose and proposition.” — Stuart Green
“It’s incredible to see how far we’ve come… but we’re really only at the beginning as we continue this evolution.” — Kelli Clark
Voiceover:
Welcome to “On Aon,” a podcast featuring conversations between colleagues on, well, Aon. This week, we hear from Kelli Clark and Stuart Green about Aon's brand story and purpose. And now, this week’s host, Fernanda Joaquim (pronunciation attached).
Fernanda Joaquim:
Hello, everyone. My name is Fernanda Joaquim and I've been a colleague at Aon for two and a half years. And currently, I sit as communications manager for Latin America working out of my vibrant city of San Paulo, Brazil. Today, we are featuring an insightful [inaudible 00:00:53] discussion with Kelli Clark, Aon's chief culture officer, and Stuart Green, Aon's head of brand and reputation. Kelli has been an Aon colleague for nearly three years and has 20 years of experience leading culture, change and communication strategies and initiatives across a variety of industries.
Fernanda Joaquim:
Kelli is a storyteller and a strategist. She uses her communication ability and passion for people to create thriving team cultures, keeping colleagues engaged, informed, and excited about their work while also serving as executive advisor to C-suite leaders. Stuart has over 30 years of international experience in brand management and design working across Europe, the US, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. He is passionate about brands and their ability to help drive choice, loyalty, and ultimately value for all stakeholders. Thanks for being here today, Kelli and Stuart.
Kelli Clark:
Great to be with you, Fernanda. And Stuart, as always great to be with you as well.
Stuart Green:
Thanks, Fernanda. Yeah. Looking forward to this. Hi, Kelli.
Fernanda Joaquim:
So we're seeing several exciting announcements that galvanize around Aon's strategic vision for our future, including a new purpose and proposition that gets straight at the heart of what motivates our Aon colleagues to show up for their clients every day. Can you tell us more about this focus?
Stuart Green:
Well, I think it's important firstly to create some context. So we all know from the last two years that we're living in a more volatile world. We've all experienced it, but that volatility expresses itself economically, demographically, geopolitically, more than it ever has. So in many ways, the relevance of Aon to that context should be stronger than ever. So we asked ourselves some fundamental questions. Why do we do what we do? And what do we deliver for our stakeholders? How do we bring solutions to life for our clients? And what impacts are we creating in the world around us and who are we as a firm and as colleagues? So you could almost ask yourself a very provocative question and say, if Aon didn't exist, would we even need to create it? And that forces you then to think about why you exist.
Stuart Green:
And that's what a purpose is. It seeks to set out why we exist as an organization, what our higher order aim is, what our fundamental belief is. It's driven by insight into client needs and the role we play in the world, but it also considers the demands of the societies and the communities in which we operate. So it goes beyond pure commercial ambitions. So it's a really important foundation for the whole organization. So we define Aon's purpose as being to shape decisions for the better to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world. Now, those words are really important. They were very carefully crafted. It took a long time and brevity is often one of the hardest things we do in our business, but they give direction to our whole organization. We then said, okay, how do we articulate the value we offer to clients?
Stuart Green:
And that's what a proposition does. So that reinforces the purpose. It helps us deliver on it. So Aon is in the business of better decisions is our proposition. That's intentionally succinct, it's intentionally short and it's intended to be our elevator pitch. So next time your 10 year old daughter asks you what does Aon do, you'll probably be able to answer that better. You can say we help make better decisions, better decisions around health, better decisions around risk, better decisions around filling the gaps. So that's essentially a lot of the work we've been doing and Kelli and I have been involved in, in the last, I was going to say few weeks, Kelli, but I think it's been a little longer than that.
Kelli Clark:
A little longer than that. Yeah. And if I think about what this means for our colleague and client experiences, it's in my mind, this is where the magic happens when you take our purpose and proposition and you bring it into what our colleagues do every day on behalf of our clients. And so if I think about a colleague experience, one of the things that we've done as we've done this work is really clearly articulated that we believe at Aon colleagues are more relevant, more connected and more valued, and ultimately able to achieve their full professional potential through a career at Aon. And then that just naturally flows into the client experience. I wondered, Stuart, maybe if you wanted to pick up on how that works.
Stuart Green:
Yeah. And we've intentionally chosen threes I've noticed. The client. Yeah. The client experience is delivered through a three-step sequence as well. Easy to remember. Better informed, better advised, better decisions. So better informed because our analytical capability, our access to data and how we use it. Better advised because we're driving insight from that data and foresight in terms of prediction, predictive capability. That enables the client to make a better decision, which we can then help them execute on. So there's a direct connection and sequence between the colleague experience and our ability to deliver on the client experience.
Fernanda Joaquim:
Thanks, Stuart and Kelli. It is amazing to see how we at Aon are bringing all that to life. And Kelli, we have introduced new values as well. Can you tell us more about that? How did we come up with them?
Kelli Clark:
Sure. I would love to tell you a little bit about our values. This is actually something I'm quite passionate about and really proud of where we've landed. We have three new values, committed, united and passionate. And so the way that we say these are we are committed as one firm to our purpose. We are united through trust as one inclusive diverse team. And we are passionate about making our colleagues and clients successful. And so, as Stuart mentioned, it does in some ways, feel like a couple of weeks and in other ways it feels like it's been a lifetime of work to get to where we are. But for the past 18 months, we've really been looking at how we need to bring about what we're calling our Aon story, starting with our purpose and proposition and being grounded in our values.
Kelli Clark:
And so while a lot of work was done to redefine our operating model and our organizational structure and really look at the strategies that we're deploying, we also did extensive work to understand our culture. We call that work a cultural diagnostic, where we asked colleagues about their experiences at Aon today and what they were dreaming about when they thought about what Aon could be in the future. We talked with colleagues all across the organization and all solution lines, functions, and geographies. And we really got a clear indication about what motivates us as colleagues, what makes us jump out of bed in the morning and what we're passionate about. And it's not surprising. Clients are our rally point. They are what we care about. They're why we come to work every day. Our colleagues are passionate about serving clients and then other things came through in that diagnostic.
Kelli Clark:
Our colleagues were also asking for things like strategic clarity, shared vision and inspirational leadership. They were asking for us to be more articulate around our purpose and proposition. And so we've been able to deliver all of these things as well as areas like inclusion and diversity, where our colleagues wanted us to be a firm that talked more about how we're driving diversity across our teams and how we're creating a culture of inclusion. And so we really boiled down our findings into a few themes that then became our values. And we took these values and themes to the Aon executive committee. And they felt that committed, united and passionate represented where we are today and also aspirationally where we want to go in the future in line with our purpose and proposition. So I'm really pleased with the journey we've been on and where we've ended up.
Fernanda Joaquim:
That's fantastic, Kelli. After all, building a business driven by purpose starts with our own walls with our own people. So it's great to see all those internal articulation and we have an evolved visual identity to align with this as well. Stuart, can you tell us more about how we are signaling this evolution externally?
Stuart Green:
Yeah. So I think it's important to put visual identity into some wider context. So people often think brand is such a nebulous word, isn't it? And some people think it's logo types. Some people think it's advertising. Some people think it's taglines and of course it's all those things, but a lot more. So we think of the delivery of our visual identity system through the lens of experience. So how we are viewed and understood is the sum of the many experiences people have with us, a myriad of touchpoints, some we control and some we can only influence. So it basically requires us to be joined up, responsive and act coherently across all parts of the colleague and client journey. So in order to do that, you need to present yourself to the world in a certain way. And that's what the visual identity system is trying to do. It's trying to present the Aon to the world in a way that amplifies our purpose and proposition. So it's intentionally trying to convey clarity, confidence, and feel decisive.
Stuart Green:
So I hope when people look at that system, they feel it's saying that. The clarity comes through because it's allowing us to amplify our messages. It looks confident. It's not superfluous. It doesn't have overly decorative elements, but it looks bold and decisive and professional and expresses what we think we're about. So one of the things, there's a few pragmatic things we have to consider around being fit for digital and fit for the digital age. The current system we have has served us really well, but it was developed a long time ago and the world is very different today. So something like 70% of all touchpoints are now digital. So our system has to work within that. And that balance between flexibility and consistency is important too. We want to present ourselves as a coherent singular organization. We have one brand. We want to grow the value of that, and the equity of it, but we also need to allow the different parts of the business to express themselves and amplify their point of difference to their clients. So it's a difficult balance, but we think the system does that.
Fernanda Joaquim:
Thanks, Stuart. It is fascinating to see all the elements of our brand coming together to represent Aon consistently across every impression and every experience. That's awesome. And how are we signaling and celebrating the shift with fellow colleagues?
Kelli Clark:
Yeah, that's a great question. Actually, I will have to just give you a nod, Stuart. Some of the brand assets that you've been creating have been incredibly inspirational for colleagues, but one of the things that's also quite interesting about this is we've been on this journey for a while. So while some of this is new, much of this is just our continued evolution. And so it's really great to see how we've continued to build on the things that have served us well, and then just make them better and evolve as we go. So one of the things that I am so proud of and get goosebumps about every time I talk about is the way that we have served our colleagues over the past year. So we've really tried to meet them with where we are in the world, as we've managed so many competing priorities in a really complex, and as Stuart mentioned at the very beginning, a volatile environment. We've done some things such as offered global holidays. We've increased our mental health benefits.
Kelli Clark:
We've enhanced our wellbeing programs, and we've really tried to focus on the whole colleague as a whole person. But as we ask our colleagues to commit to our new values, we're really excited to do something that I've never done in my career before and it's been amazing to be a part of, but we introduced this past week, the Aon united growth ownership plan, and this is a one-time stock-based award that was actually offered to all of our colleagues full-time and part-time that essentially enables them to share in the success that they have created for the firm to get us to this point and really signals the investment that we are making and that we believe in their role and the role that all of our colleagues will play as we continue to grow. And so it's incredible to see how far we've come as a firm. And it feels in some ways as though we're really only at the beginning as we continue this evolution.
Kelli Clark:
And so when I think about the way that our colleagues show up in the world, they're essentially our brand. They are the face of Aon in the world. And for us to be able to reward them with such a generous award makes me so proud of our leaders and our colleagues and our firm.
Stuart Green:
Yeah. You made a really important point there, Kelli, about how the underlying strategy hasn't changed. We continue to work with a one firm mindset, bring the best of Aon to clients and drive growth for the firm through the Aon united blueprint. We talked about colleagues there has been critical to our business. A lot of the fundamental principles of the Aon story and the way we're thinking of that are based around a concept of something called the service profit chain, which was a Harvard business research program in the mid-90s, which literally looked at companies that where their primary asset is their people and essentially links employee satisfaction to customer loyalty, to profitability. So think of that as being people, product, profit in that order. If you look after the people, the people have a better chance of looking after the product, you will therefore make profit and it's sequential in that way, as opposed to the other way around, let's make a lot of money.
Stuart Green:
Let's focus on what we do and then, oh, and by the way, we got some people so it's intentionally sequential in terms of putting colleagues first, who will then look after what we do and service our clients well who will then actually help make money for the firm and more importantly, have an impact on the world around us and the society in which we live. So it's no coincidence that if you look at the best places to work and some of the studies that exist externally, the companies that put a high priority on their people tend to perform very well, both economically, financially, and in terms of retention and just motivation, happiness of people. This is very key to the very essence of what we're trying to achieve here. We will deliver impact in the world, through our colleagues, through a client experience sequentially.
Stuart Green:
And this is very important part of what all the work we've been doing. It's a very important, critical part of the Aon story. And that experience is underpinned by our values, by Aon united, by the operating model, and obviously delivered through the lens of our purpose and our proposition.
Kelli Clark:
Yeah, it's interesting, Stuart. You'd referenced the service profit chain study from the '90s. And in fact, last week I was reading a recent Harvard Business Review article where they were still talking about how the make or break difference when organizations are where we are, is that companies and organizations have a better chance at success when they focus on their people during their evolution. And so it was true in the '90s. It's still true now. Focusing on your people is the right path to choose. And I couldn't be more proud of our leaders, our firm, and of the direction we are going to bring out the best in our colleagues as we bring our best to our clients.
Fernanda Joaquim:
That was absolutely inspiring. As a colleague, I must say it is such an exciting time to be part of Aon. Thank you both so much for this conversation. And before we sign off for today, I'd like to ask you both one more question to learn more about you. So Stuart, what's a hidden skill of yours that is not on your resume?
Stuart Green:
I'm a closet musician, but I'm terrible. I have to say, I'm terrible. And I play guitar. I play piano. I try violin because I did it as a kid and I can only play for myself. And actually I started, I will play with and for my son, but that's only because he's learning too. We don't tend to get embarrassed with each other, but yeah, it's a well-kept secret quite honestly.
Fernanda Joaquim:
Not a secret anymore. And Kelli, what's your purpose?
Kelli Clark:
That is quite a question to end our discussion on, Fernando. But maybe if I just sum it up, one of the things that brings me life every day is when I can see how I bring out the best in other people. And so when I wake up every morning and I really start my day, I'm trying to take a few minutes to think about what I need to accomplish in a day. I try to stay grounded in if I continue to just bring out the best in other people, usually that is the path forward. So I don't know if it's necessarily my purpose, but it's definitely a grounding and guiding thought for me as I go about my work.
Voiceover:
This has been a conversation “On Aon” and the purpose, proposition and people shaping Aon's brand experience. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this week’s episode, tune in in two weeks for a discussion on emotional wellbeing and gratitude. To learn more about Aon, its colleagues, solutions and news, check out our show notes, and visit our website at Aon dot com.