Governments around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the power of partnering with private sector companies such as Aon to combat pandemics, climate change, cyber attacks and more. On this episode of “On Aon,” host Alex Lewis welcomes Aon’s Public Sector Partnership CEO Joe Monaghan for a discussion about the critical value of joining private and public sector forces to make a real impact. Joe shares a high-level view of the opportunities that these partnerships create as well as the key to Aon’s successful delivery of their most innovative initiatives.
Governments around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the power of partnering with private sector companies such as Aon to combat pandemics, climate change, cyber attacks and more. On this episode of “On Aon,” host Alex Lewis welcomes Aon’s Public Sector Partnership CEO Joe Monaghan for a discussion about the critical value of joining private and public sector forces to make a real impact. Joe shares a high-level view of the opportunities that these partnerships create as well as the key to Aon’s successful delivery of their most innovative initiatives.
Additional Resources:
Hear Joe in another Aon podcast, Aon’s “Public Affairs Update.”
The Insurer: Public bodies’ insurance interest spikes as Covid-19 bites budgets
Public Sector Partnership Pandemic Fraud Video
More on Aon’s Public Sector Partnership and Aon’s Public Sector Solutions page
Tweetables:
“My biggest inspiration is the opportunities that we have here at Aon.” — Joe Monaghan
“We’re thinking very critically about how we can develop new tools and new solutions to create impact on behalf of governments.” — Joe Monaghan
“One of the critical elements in terms of finding solutions here is finding ways to align all the incentives.” — Joe Monaghan
“We’re working as an insurance industry to help the government analyze the cost benefit in a way that is meaningful and credible.” — Joe Monaghan
Voiceover:
Welcome to On Aon, a podcast featuring conversations between colleagues on, well, Aon. This week, we hear from Joe Monaghan talking about Aon's public sector partnership. And now this week's host, Alex Lewis.
Alex Lewis:
From pandemics to climate change to cyber attacks, the governments of today are facing a whole plethora of different issues to try and protect their people, but they are not alone. More and more governments recognizing the power of partnering with the private sector, and companies such as Aon, to join forces to really make an impact. I'm Alex Lewis and today I am delighted to speak to Jay Monaghan who leads Aon's public sector partnership to delve a little bit more into our collaborations. Joe, how are you? How are you feeling today?
Joe Monaghan:
Great, Alex. It's a pleasure to be with you.
Alex Lewis:
Excellent. Thank you for joining us. So Joe, you work in a particularly fascinating part of the business. What really inspires you and what can we do as Aon to make the world a better place?
Joe Monaghan:
Well, the public sector partnership is a group of colleagues that was brought together to really maximize the impact of Aon's global network with government clients. And we're part of the new ventures group, which is really Aon's innovation center thinking about large net-new opportunities. The biggest inspiration is the opportunity. We have so many amazing colleagues globally that do wonderful things for colleagues every single day. Working with that network, collaborating, finding new solutions, finding ways to replicate great existing solutions for public institutions is very exciting. And it's very exciting especially at this very important time of transition as we hopefully move faster and faster away from the effects and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alex Lewis:
And of course, it's impossible to have a conversation without mentioning pandemics. We've seen governments throughout the world approach how they've managed it in very, very different ways. But for you, what are some of those lessons learned going forward?
Joe Monaghan:
Yeah. The COVID-19 experience is very interesting because all individuals and all institutions globally have been navigating it. And there will undoubtedly be significant lessons learned and it will take decades to unpack all of that. But even now we have a sense of some of the things that worked well and some of the things that didn't work so well. And there's clearly a sense of the need and the role of government institutions, and also the value of private institutions and that collaboration that has helped us navigate. For example, you really required national governments to provide fiscal and monetary stimulus. That is absolutely clear. And without that stimulus, we would be in a much more precarious economic situation. That partnership and the adaptation that comes from the flexibility of the private sector has also been critical. And think about what Aon did overnight basically, almost all, virtually all of their talent went to remote and virtual engagement with colleagues and clients.
Joe Monaghan:
That's happened across businesses globally. And it's been pretty effective. You think about also the adaptation and the flexibility in the development of vaccines, which has been a public-private collaboration. A lot of the funding, obviously from the public sector, but the innovation and the development from various private sector entities. The development of those vaccines has been completed at an astonishing pace. And the lessons learned from that will equip us going forward to have even faster development of new solutions with respect to healthcare. So there are all kinds of lessons learned and it's really about applying those lessons learned going forward. And what our group is focused on is how do we create permanent solutions out of these lessons learned for government institutions.
Alex Lewis:
Perhaps you can give us some examples, a few little teases into what impact have we already have, not just for governments, but also their communities, the taxpayer.
Joe Monaghan:
Yeah. We work, Alex, as a firm with thousands of government clients globally. And we serve them in many, many different ways across all of our solution lines. Our network of colleagues, we work closely with that network, is always striving to bring new solutions to our government clients. But just to highlight a few of them, we've got some really great experience, for example, in Australia. A recent win with their terrorism pool. We're doing amazing things, for example, in Ireland with the national health service there. Those are two areas with respect to terrorism risk insurance and with respect to health, health care and cyber related exposure, where Aon has a strength.
Joe Monaghan:
But one of my favorite ones is work we've done on behalf of the FBI. And that work was completed around the re-imagination of their recruiting and talent assessment process for their special agents. Our human capital team developed an entirely new process for them. And in fact, won an award, a federal contracting award for the quality of that program. And the quality, not just in terms of the special agent, the individuals who were brought in, but the fact that it was the most diverse set of special agents that the FBI has ever had. And at a time where we see enormous change within the law enforcement community, the work that our team was able to do to have real impact, I think is truly inspiring.
Alex Lewis:
A fascinating example. Absolutely amazing to think we can come to work every day and think our firm is having an impact with the FBI, but also really boosting diversity and help setting that path for us across all industries. So amazing examples. But I'd like to pivot back a little bit more into the delivery. How did we achieve this? Because of course Aon's very well known for the work that we do with other private sector companies. But you've of course adapted those skills and presumably brought in unique characteristics to work with the public sector. What's been your key to success there?
Joe Monaghan:
Yeah. It's a very good question. One of the core elements of it, as you point out, we have great colleagues across the network who have been working with government institutions for a long time. What we were missing and what we seek to do with the public sector partnership is to think holistically about the needs of government clients. And that's really our focus. It's on understanding from the ground up the challenges and needs of government institutions and thinking very broadly about our existing capabilities, where we have solutions that make sense for government institutions. But probably more importantly, where we invest to develop new solutions. Because of course the needs of government are changing. The challenges they face are evolving. And we need to be very thoughtful and client centric in how we develop those solutions.
Joe Monaghan:
That's really what we're focused on. Those two critical components. Bringing our network together, understanding all of our existing capabilities, finding what works well, replicating it across the network, truly being Aon United in how we approach this vertical of public sector. And then thinking very critically about how we can develop new tools and new solutions to create impact on behalf of governments.
Alex Lewis:
We frequently turn on the news and unfortunately see the impacts of hurricanes, earthquakes all across the world. And this is where I think there's a huge opportunity to address the underserved by helping communities, businesses in areas where they don't have protection by bringing in new capital from the private sector. I think there's a lot of willing, which is fantastic. But what are some of those obstacles that you think we need to overcome to really make the most of this opportunity?
Joe Monaghan:
Yeah. Of course, you're right to point out the protection gap. A lot of people have focused on that. A lot of people in our industry have focused on it. You look, for example, at Hurricane Harvey. I think it's something like 90% of the individuals that had flood damage were uninsured for flood. So we see significant gaps between the insured loss and the economic loss. And quite often government steps in to pick up that slack. One of the critical elements in terms of finding solutions here is finding ways to align all the incentives. And that starts, I think, with a shared understanding of the risk. One of the things that we're spending a lot of time on with our clients at the national level, but also at local and provincial and regional levels that are exposed to flooding exposure or earthquakes or hurricanes, wildfires, elements that are many of them, certainly with flooding risk and with wildfire and brush fire risk, with hurricane risk, going to be exacerbated because of climate change.
Joe Monaghan:
Institutions are trying to understand and quantify that risk. And for many public sector institutions, they don't have the experience in quantifying the physical risk in the way that, of course, we do in the insurance and re-insurance business. And so our capabilities are resonating with them. They see the value in just trying to understand what is the frequency of severity and what does that distribution look like? What does that actually mean? But their exposures go beyond the physical asset. It goes beyond that physical location. There are a knock-on effects associated with that. For example, you have a major hurricane come through an area. It's going to have physical damage, of course, to many buildings and physical structures, roadways, but it has all of these knock-on effects in terms of the local economy. Knock-on effects in terms of road closures that mean that businesses that are even un-impacted by the storm can't get customers because the access has been closed off. Impact to the sales receipt revenue, the sales taxes that have come from that. Massive cost associated with debris removal.
Joe Monaghan:
Many of these exposures real world costs are born net by government. And so helping them understand and quantify that exposure and then creating innovative solutions that make dollars and cents for them to execute. Because you have to remember with government, it's always a trade-off. And if you buy something like an insurance policy that is as an intangible benefit. You may or may not get a recovery from it, but you're spending real dollars today. Those dollars could be used in a very tangible way to update a school or put more firefighters in your community. That cost benefit and weighing of options is something that is very difficult for many public policy makers to decide, because they don't have a context for choosing between those options. And so they're left saying, "I have a maybe, kind of, could of get a benefit by spending this money on an insurance policy that maybe I'll get a recovery on." Versus, a real life investment in their community. And we need to be better as an insurance industry at helping them evaluate that cost benefit in a way that is meaningful and credible.
Alex Lewis:
It's absolutely fascinating and so interesting to get that perspective, that different perspective, almost behind the scenes of governments that we hear from every single day. While you're tackling some of these huge issues of today, what do you do to relax and rejuvenate?
Joe Monaghan:
Well we have, my wife and I, three relatively young daughters, nine, seven and four. And so they keep us pretty busy and we have a lot of fun hanging out with them. Although, I will tell you, Alex, that my seven-year-old informed me last evening that I'm in fact not a cool dad. But one of her friend, Emma, Emma's dad is cool. So it's a work in progress, but they certainly keep you grounded.
Alex Lewis:
Joe, you're very cool to us.
Joe Monaghan:
Thanks.
Voiceover:
This has been a conversation on Aon and our work with the public sector. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this week's episode tune in, in two weeks for a discussion of Aon's innovative work in intellectual property. To learn more about Aon, its colleagues, solutions and news, check out our show notes and visit our website at Aon.com.
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