Words of Wisdom and 8 Questions with Neal Stanley
Question 1:
Your name is Furman K. Stanley. Where does Neal come from?
Neal:
My real name is Furman Kneeland Stanley Junior.
My great-grandfather’s name was Furman Kneeland, and he had one child, my grandmother. Her first child was my father, Furman Kneeland Stanley.
I was his first child—and so my father named me, Furman Kneeland Stanley Junior.
My great-grandmother was still alive when I was born, and she said, “There's no way that this family is going to have another Furman. We're going to call him Neal.”
That name stuck for the rest of my life.
Question 2:
Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up, go to school, etc.?
Neal:
I grew up in northern New Jersey in a little town called Glen Rock. I graduated from Dartmouth in '64.
After that, I went into the Army. I was stationed in Germany and served as an operations officer. We were actually on the border between East Germany and West Germany and there were still walls and fences as well as active gunfire. I was assigned to Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive. I was in a combat unit and replaced an officer who had been killed. I returned home and resigned from the Army right after the Tet of 1969.
Fortunately, I survived it all…there were good times and ugly ones as well, but I learned a lot while in the Army. One key thing I learned was the American way is not always the only way. It is a way. People in other cultures live their lives differently and have different priorities than we have. You have to learn how to understand differences and adapt yourself to become effective and successful.
Question 3:
How many years have you been in the insurance industry and what drew you to it?
Neal:
I started in '73, so 47 years.
After Vietnam, I moved to San Francisco and went to law school. I graduated and was reasonably successful doing trial work. But I realized it wasn't for me—most of the top line attorneys that I knew gave up everything else in life for their work and destroyed their families. I was about to have a child and decided to go in a different direction.
Then I was approached by an insurance company that wanted a corporate lawyer and they offered me the job. I actually made more money than I was making trying cases.
After a couple of years, the president of the company came to me and said, “We'd like you to run one of our operating divisions for us,” and I said, “Great, but I don't know a whole lot about the insurance business.” He said, “Don't worry, Neal. If you screw up, you've always got a job here.”
They sent me to Hawaii!
The little company that I was running was having problems. They just couldn't grow. Virtually all of our agents were Asian and had lived in Hawaii their entire lives. We needed help so I went to our best agency owner, Bill Hiraoka, and I asked, “Bill, we can’t grow our business, what's the problem?” He replied, “Neal, your company isn't committed to the Islands. You send people over and they spend three years here, and then they go back to the Mainland. We need people who are committed to the Islands.”
I went back to the office and asked all my managers, “How many of you want to stay here for the rest of your career?” One guy raised his hand. I said, “Fine. I'll have all the rest of you back on the Mainland within the next six months.”
I replaced all but one of the management staff with local people, and, of course, we were off and running with new business.
Question 4:
You were with United Valley for many years. How did that relationship come about?
Neal:
In the mid-1990s, after running a few insurance companies, I opened a consulting company, and one of my clients was United Valley Insurance Services. It was one of the first networks in the United States. They needed a strategic plan, and asked me to help write one.
The CEO, who was a good friend, said, “Neal, I can't implement this without you. You have to join us.”
What I thought was going to be a short three- or four-year job ended up being 15+ years. We built United Valley into quite a substantial organization, and that was a very enjoyable ride with some wonderful people.
While at United Valley, I learned how to acquire insurance agencies and books of business, and we acquired quite a number of them. I also learned how to build a network. We had a great team at United Valley.
If you have a special team, you can accomplish a tremendous amount.
Question 5:
What are you proudest of in your career and why?
Neal:
I've had the thrill of working with some really fantastic people. Many of them have gone on to run insurance companies and insurance agencies, as well as other businesses. When you realize you helped them along their way, it is a very gratifying feeling. I’ve enjoyed success in this business, but I’m proudest of having the opportunity to share that success with some incredible individuals.
My friends ask me, “Why are you still working?” I'm really not working. I'm doing something that I really enjoy. I have a lot of experience in certain areas, and if I'm able to help somebody with that experience and my health is good, which it is, thank goodness, and I've got the time, why not do it?
Question 6:
How do you think AgencyKPI is going to help networks?
Neal:
At United Valley, we decided we needed more information on the business our members wrote. We made it a priority and built a data warehouse.
We came up with a system to extract the data out of the operating systems of the member agencies. We were sort of the pioneers in doing this. After a lot of work and money, we had a reasonably decent data warehouse. We took the data that we had at that point, as rudimentary as it was, and we were able to go to insurance companies and say, “We know more about our books of business with you than you know about us.”
We were able to negotiate override agreements and other incentives by using the information in the warehouse. We recouped the investment that we made in the system in less than a year.
While the United Valley system gave the network information that was valuable, the system in development at AgencyKPI is revolutionary. Not only will it capture data from the individual agencies, but also it will combine data from the insurance companies—and on a real-time basis.
Now the networks, member agencies and the carriers can use the data to build their premium bases, manage their books of business and write new business.
AgencyKPI is on the leading edge of this technology. The company’s system will go a lot further, because it will help reduce the operating expense of the networks, the agencies and the carriers.
Question 7:
We hear you're a grandfather, and sometimes you're outed by your grandson for breaking some of “Mom's Rules.”
Is there any truth to these scandalous rumors?
Neal:
There is truth to that rumor, and I'm proud of it.
I waited for a long time to get my grandson. My daughter is a wonderful woman and she lives her life in an orderly manner, therefore, she's got rules for her son.
However, some of those rules do not get applied when I show up. If he wants to watch a video with me, he's going to be able to watch a video, even though he's only supposed to watch them on Saturdays.
Then there is the food thing and the rules get stretched there as well. I don’t allow much, but he’s definitely a chocoholic so, of course, he gets chocolate when PopPop is around! That's what a grandfather is for, right?
However, I do get scolded by my daughter but there’s always a little smile on her face when she takes me to task.
Question 8:
It's an uncertain time for many people. Because of your longevity in the business, and the places you've been, do you have any sage advice to offer?
Neal:
One, I'm a man of faith. I believe that God has a plan for everything but we often don’t understand it. Yes, these are very difficult times. I don't know what the outcome will be, but I do know that we will advance and learn from this situation. I've been in a lot of situations where there'd be reason to panic, but I don't panic. That doesn't mean I'm not concerned, but if you make sound decisions based on facts and maintain your faith, the answers will be found.
My wife likes to tell me, “The glass is always half-full with you.” And I feel like I’m a positive person. I also feel that in times of adversity, such as we're going through right now, are the best opportunity to find new ways of doing things and to change.
And change is really important. When I was a young man, I realized that if I didn't adapt to changing conditions, I was not going to be successful.
The same applies to conditions today. We adapt and make the changes to allow us to keep moving forward. Look for opportunities and see where good things are occurring. Enhance those, and never lose faith. Never, ever lose faith.