QBE had grown rapidly into one of the world's largest insurers, with more than 16,000 employees operating across 60 offices in over 50 countries. As the organisation expanded, different regions had developed different ways of talking about the business, the brand and its role in the world. At the same time, a new CEO was preparing to take the reins and wanted a clear vision, strategy and cultural platform to unite the organisation around a common direction.
There was also a broader challenge. Insurance was widely perceived as a highly technical, complex and often uninteresting industry. Many employees had become disconnected from the bigger story behind what they did and why it mattered.
The challenge was to create a compelling idea and a common language that could engage employees, align a global organisation and provide a clear platform for the next chapter of QBE's growth.
I discovered that insurance isn't about risk. It's about possibility. Without insurance, businesses don't grow, infrastructure doesn't get built, and ambitious ideas never leave the drawing board. Insurance is one of the invisible forces that make progress possible.
I also discovered that QBE had a long history of assessing and taking on risks that other insurers wouldn't touch. From Formula One drivers to complex commercial ventures, QBE had built its reputation on a willingness to back opportunities that others considered too difficult or uncertain. This wasn't recklessness; it was expertise.
Behind QBE's appetite for risk sat a deep actuarial capability that enabled the organisation to understand, price and manage risks that competitors often avoided.
I developed a purpose-led brand strategy built around a single organising idea: Make It Happen. Internally, this became the cultural platform that aligned leadership, employees and behaviours across the organisation. Externally, it evolved into the positioning platform "Made Possible By QBE", reflecting the often-unseen role insurance plays in enabling progress and allowing society to function.
Deliverables included brand strategy, visual identity, brand guidelines, leadership forums, employee engagement programs, workshops, EVP development, employment branding, office experience, website and annual report. I first shared the new strategy with QBE's top 70 Global Leaders in New York.
The work gave 16,000 employees across more than 60 offices and 50 countries a common language for understanding and explaining what QBE stands for, what it does, and how it does it. The new strategy was first launched to QBE's top 70 global leaders in New York, creating alignment at the highest levels of the organisation before cascading throughout the business worldwide.
Internally, it aligned leadership and employees around a shared understanding of the organisation's purpose and the role each person played in bringing it to life. Externally, it provided a single positioning platform and brand story, enabling QBE teams worldwide to communicate with a consistent, coherent voice.
Employee research showed that 93% of employees understood QBE's vision, strategic mission and values, while 85% understood their role in bringing the strategy to life. A further 86% reported greater confidence in explaining what QBE does and why it matters.
“Richard worked with our Global CEO and executive team over the period 2012 and 2013 to help us to define, articulate and live our brand vision, values and marketplace positioning. Using his methodology, he quickly cut right through to the heart of who we are and what we do, and delivered a Brand Blueprint for QBE across the globe that totally redefined how we saw insurance, our role in the world, and what we needed to do to make it happen. The way Richard works is unique. He is highly collaborative but not compromising. He is lateral and imaginative in his thinking, yet deeply pragmatic. He is direct, honest, but not threatening. His way is to 'invite consideration' of his ideas, not to push or force them upon other people. He has a real and lighthearted touch that opens people up to his thinking and ideas, and gets them on side. At the core of Richard's work is his interest in people and understanding how people think, feel and behave. He intuitively gets what motivates and engages people, and he brought this empathy, energy and enthusiasm to every piece of work he did for us — from presenting at our leadership forums to running staff workshops, developing our Brand Blueprint, creating our EVP, and in the way he related to every QBE employee he came into contact with. Needless to say, I would fully recommend Richard to any organisation or leadership team considering his services.”
