Celebrating 70 Years of (m)Powering Better Outcomes in the P&C Claims Process
This year marks Mitchell’s 70th anniversary
When Glenn Mitchell first founded the company, he used his technical knowledge, repair expertise, and ability to connect pieces of information in order to simplify complex processes. Ultimately, he created a better way of doing business and better outcomes for his customers.
Mitchell remains committed to finding new ways to bring value to our customers—whether through expanding product and service offerings or by adopting new technology innovations. Today, with continued focus on technology, connecting and expertise, what was once a mom-and-pop shop has grown to be one of the largest technology providers to the Property & Casualty insurance industry. And whether it’s through strategic industry partnerships that connect our clients to the value chain, new solutions within our existing markets, or those that extend our impact to other areas of the claims process, we look forward to finding new ways to bring value to our customers.
In recognition of this milestone, we asked President and CEO, Alex Sun, a few questions about how Mitchell has changed over the years and what his strategy and vision are for the company.
How has Mitchell remained true to its roots, and how has it evolved over the years?
Looking back at how Mitchell started 70 years ago, and where we are today, I love how Mitchell has remained true to its roots and evolved over time through bringing in technology and connecting the supply chain.
70 years ago, the company was founded by Glenn Mitchell, and what he did was use his technical expertise in repairing a vehicle and connected that with information that was available in the marketplace at that time. He was one of the fathers of creating an entire industry. Since that time, we’ve leveraged that core value of expertise by bringing it forward, and added to it by bringing in technology to automate tasks and embracing the supply chain to create connectivity solutions. Ultimately, what we’ve done over the years is create value and stay relevant to our customers through the delivery of good information, expertise, technology, and connectivity.
What has fueled Mitchell’s success over the years?
When I think about what’s fueled Mitchell’s success over the years, the first thing that comes to mind are our customers. Our clients do very important work and are absolutely passionate and committed about their purpose in the world. That, in turn, fuels our ability to develop very strong and trusted relationships with them, because we recognize the importance of the work they do and the important role we play in fulfilling their mission. So for me, it’s really about our customers and what they do, and the people that we have, and the passion that we have for serving them well.
"...it’s really about our customers and what they do, and the people that we have, and the passion that we have for serving them well."
What’s also really contributed to the company’s success is this desire to remain relevant to the success of our customers. We define success as an ability to find other ways to continue to add value in the process of handling an auto physical damage claim, a worker’s compensation claim, or an auto injury claim. Over the course of the last few decades, Mitchell has done a very good job of identifying those areas within the claims process, depending on the line of coverage, and finding opportunities to bring automation, expertise, or some sort of connectivity solution to make that process more efficient and fair for our customers and their end customers. The last thing I would say is that the foundational element of our success is our people. We have a great culture of people who are passionate about what they do, love the work that our customers do, and are really focused on innovation and bringing insights and valuable information to the marketplace and to our customers. https://player.vimeo.com/video/164949322
You’ve been CEO for almost nine years—what is your strategy going forward?
As I enter my ninth year as CEO of Mitchell, one of the things that gives me comfort is the fact that our strategy fundamentally has remained consistent. We really think about it in three critical strategic building blocks. The first is, what are the solutions that we want to deliver to market? What adds the greatest value? What allows our clients to deliver better outcomes to their clients and for their constituents? The second is, are we using the right mix of technologies to make the consumption of solutions and products faster, easier, better? And then, lastly, do we have the right culture, the right people in the organization who are committed to the innovation and responsiveness that the market and our clients expect from us? https://player.vimeo.com/video/164949320 From a product standpoint, one of the things that we focus on is this notion of one-stop shop. Today, we believe that buyers of technology, whether they are consumers or enterprises, want fewer, more strategic relationships. Our view of the world is that we need to become more of a one-stop shop for cost-containment solutions in the P&C claims process. We believe that it is really important to make the consumption of our solutions easier, faster, and better. We think of it in the form of enabling technology. Can we create a single delivery platform to make the implementation and the maintenance of those technologies easier? And then, do we have the right business technology framework that allows us to bring data across the organization together, given all the aspects of the claims process that we touch, to provide really interesting and insightful information on what drives claims performance for an organization.
“Today, we believe that buyers of technology, whether they are consumers or enterprises, want fewer, more strategic relationships. Our view of the world is that we need to become more of a one-stop shop for cost-containment solutions in the P&C claims process.”
That’s a very exciting part of our strategy, but the underlying technology is the even more exciting piece. That’s because one of the things we focus on is making the whole greater than the sum of the parts—essentially taking these collections of products and services, and through the use of technology, be it integration or data, creating a set of capabilities in which the combined use of these solutions yields a better outcome than the individual use of any of those products on their own. In the end, none of this would be possible without having the right culture. We believe very strongly in having a definitive way to deliver products and services to the marketplace—and that is what we refer to as The Mitchell Way.
What is your vision for the future of Mitchell?
Looking forward, I don’t think there’s ever been a more exciting time for Mitchell and for our customers. We’re going to stay true to our strategic commitment of delivering great solutions, expanding our capability, and delivering it with world-class technology. The interesting thing about the world now is that technology advancements are creating a better capability for us to be even more innovative. And we continue to find other areas within the claims process value chain, whereby developing that capability in-house, we can create a-whole-is-greater-than-the-sum outcome for our clients.
When you look back at changes in the industry, what amazes you the most?
As a technology provider to the P&C claims market, what amazes me most is the breadth of technology and service solutions that currently exists in the marketplace. There is such a large and complicated set of processes to handle a claim, whether it’s an auto claim or a workers’ comp claim. It is astounding how many different solutions an insurance company, and even the value chain, needs to use to service the needs of a vehicle owner or injured party.
What are the most interesting and exciting things about being a part to the P&C industry today?
What most excites me about being a technology supplier to the insurance industry is just the sheer amount of transformation that is happening. There is an incredible need from our customers for us to provide technology that allows for their business models to evolve. Equally important, there are so many technologies available to us to create those new and interesting solutions.
For example, both the automotive repair and workers’ compensation industries are going through very compelling transformations. The needs of their clients are rapidly evolving and what it takes to be competitive going forward requires a compelling vision of how one uses technology to win in the marketplace. By either creating more compelling consumer experiences, delivering dramatically more efficient and effective processes, or gaining even better insights into what drives operational performance, technology is the core enabler to each of these existential strategic themes. Be it a focus on consumer digital capabilities, better decisioning/predictive engines, or much greater integration amongst next-generation systems, there has never been a more interesting time to be a technology provider to this industry.