Eileen C. McDonnell
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company
August 2020
Penn Mutual has undergone a massive digital transformation under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Eileen C. McDonnell. McDonnell collaborated across the C-suite to achieve this growth, in partnership with CIO Greg Driscoll, a member of Evanta’s Philadelphia CIO community. McDonnell connected with us to discuss digital transformation, effective communication, and weathering the storm of 2020.
As CEO, what would you say has been the biggest factor in enabling the transformation of Penn Mutual to where it is today?
We set a strategic direction that stayed true to our founding mission and has remained consistent for the past decade. These guardrails have enabled us to successfully execute on the tactics necessary to continually enhance the experience of financial professionals, their clients and our policyholders.
Can you walk me through what conversations look like whenever it comes to getting everyone involved to see the big picture? What is your role in communicating the direction?
We pride ourselves in being a relationship-based company. The greatest challenge is in helping everyone imagine the benefits of embracing technology and migrating to digital platforms that make it easier for people to do business with us while maintaining our personal touch.
We’ve taken a very thoughtful approach to finding the optimal combination of digital and human connections throughout the sales and service experience. We’ve been able to demonstrate that our enhanced digital capabilities have driven an increase in top and bottom line growth by driving productivity and efficiencies.
One of my favorite roles is that of Chief Storyteller—bringing our shared vision to life and building momentum by shining a light on the people and stories behind our success.
How did you work with your CIO to meet your transformation goals?
Our CIO Greg Driscoll is a transformative leader and vital member of our Executive Team. Greg leads the service team and over the years has rolled up his sleeves to learn the business from beginning to end. In partnership with President and Chief Operating Officer Dave O’Malley, they set out to make Penn Mutual “irresistible” to do business with.
We were first to market in delivering a fully automated, end-to-end solution for processing and underwriting new life insurance business, as well as client service. In addition, Greg’s mantra of “mobile everywhere and all the time” led the company to invest in laptops, work-from-home kits for the entire service team and other systems that made our current remote work environment seamless. We rely on Greg’s expertise and leadership well beyond his CIO title.
How is Penn Mutual continuing its transformation journey amidst the massive disruptions of remote work and economic uncertainty?
We are grateful that our business is operating well in the remote work environment. Within days of leaving our offices, our teams in the home office and across the country were fully operational from home, including making sure everyone in the home office and the field had laptops, secure VPN, and access to online collaboration and communications tools. Our migration from paper to digital accelerated quickly as we secured a partner to scan all incoming mail and moved to e-signatures and e-delivery of policies. Our online portals for financial professionals and their clients handled increased volume and were fortified with enhanced security measures.
We continue to prioritize the health and safety of our associates, their families and our communities and plan to continue to work remotely through the rest of 2020, at the earliest.
Because we manage risk for a living, we are familiar with economic uncertainty and have successfully navigated similar challenges throughout our 173-year history. We are carefully managing our resources and are confident in our ability to navigate this challenge as well.
How has the pandemic changed the way you work with your C-level team? Do you have new expectations of this group?
During 2020, two members of our C-level team retired. We are now forming and storming with new members. Historically, we have been a high-performing team and with the acceleration of some major trends in our business, the tempo has certainly picked up even further. The expectation is that we will continue to set the pace for ourselves and our competitors.
COVID of course isn’t the only crisis we’re facing today. How have civil rights demonstrations across the country made you rethink how you support associates and customers of color?
On Juneteenth, the Penn Mutual Board of Trustees sent an open letter to our associates reaffirming our culture of inclusion and our intolerance of discrimination and violence of any kind. That was reflective of our culture and not an entirely reactive move. We are proud of the diversity of our 11-member board, which includes five female and two African-American members.
Back in January, well before the national social justice protests, we retained a renowned Diversity, Equality and Inclusion consultant to help us evolve as an organization and lead workshops for our teams. We’ve also recently made significant contributions to regional and national organizations that promote equality and reinforce our long-standing emphasis on education and job opportunities as drivers of positive change. We continue to listen and learn and are involving our leaders and all associates in this journey to ensure their voices are heard and their contributions are valued.
Have you been forced to re-imagine the company’s vision and culture during this time? Who are you leaning on to help make that happen?
Fortunately, we haven’t had to re-imagine our company’s vision because we were well down the path of designing processes and technology which are compatible with today’s business realities. We have always placed a large emphasis on our culture. We firmly believe that our success begins and ends with our people. Looking ahead, I will lean on all of our associates to help us evolve and strengthen our culture. One thing is for certain—we will all be forever changed as a result of the times we are living through today. As in the past, I know that Penn Mutual will emerge even stronger!
If you could distill it down, what would you say are the 1-2 most critical things leaders should be doing right now to ensure their organization weathers the storm?
Top on my leadership list is communication! The root of most problems is the lack of communication, and the solution is usually clear communication. I learned early in my leadership experience that it takes seven different times in seven different ways to get your message across. In March, we started holding Zoom calls with all of our associates every other week. Dave and I host them, and we feature other leaders to share updates on the company’s performance, priorities and answer the questions that are on people’s minds. Even more important is the fact that the agenda is developed based on requests and inquiries we receive from associates. Survey and anecdotal feedback is overwhelmingly positive with a strong desire to keep the calls going.
The second area I recommend leaders consider is to focus on what you can control. Especially at a time when many people feel like they have no control over the pandemic, the economy and the divided nature of our nation, it’s important to remind ourselves of what we can control and then give our people the freedom and the help to do so.
Special thanks to Eileen C. McDonnell and The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company.
by CIOs, for CIOs
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