Cameron McKerchar
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Tell us about yourself and your business
I have been in the insurance industry since 1994 and an insurance broker with Tudor Insurance Australia since 2004, assuming the Managing Directors role in 2018.
As an insurance broker I am in the privileged position to help both businesses and individuals protect their assets and transfer risk via a comprehensive insurance program. I specialise in identifying key risk exposure to my clients’ businesses and offering specific insurances to protect them, their business and their assets should the worst happen. And If the worst does happen, I will be there to guide you through the claims process at all times.
For more than 30 years, Tudor Insurance has provided personalised insurance solutions and claims advocacy that put clients first. Using our expertise, professionalism and market strength, we broker the most comprehensive insurance coverage available at competitive rates to give our clients peace of mind for continued lifestyle protection and prosperity.
We are a culture-focussed company with a strong commitment to teamwork. We share a common goal of safeguarding our clients’ property assets so they can enjoy lifestyle protection and prosperity into the long-term future.
Each member of our experienced team is expert at assessing the property risks and exposures of individual businesses across a diverse array of industry sectors, and recommending the right insurance products and coverage.
With care, respect and integrity at the heart of our service delivery, we take pride in our professional approach to efficient and effective claims management, and arranging risk management services that mitigate against any kind of loss or damage.
You can find out more about Tudor Insurance at tudorinsurance.com.au
What was the journey that brought you to your current role?
Like 99% of people, I feel into the insurance industry in 1994 when trying to work out what career path I was going to take once I left school. Growing up in a small town in New Zealand there wasn’t too many options in my local area. I happened to see an advertisement in the local paper for an office junior at one of the local insurance offices so I applied thinking at least I could work while I worked out what I wanted to do with my life. I applied and got the job – probably by default due to the isolated location!
I soon feel in love with insurance after realising how important the industry was to everyday life, in particular seeing how we assisted people to rebuild their lives following a major flooding event in 1995. This event really bought home the value of insurance to me.
I learnt many valuable skills with my first employer by holding roles in Domestic Insurance, Commercial Inspector, Claims and Schemes management. In 2001 I took the plunge and moved to Australia without a job and quickly gained an account management role with SGIO Insurance in Melbourne. Initially I was working as a direct to market business insurance specialist before moving to the broker relationship role with SGIO.
In 2004 I accepted a role as a Senior Account Executive at Tudor Insurance Australia.
What’s behind your success?
I believe there are 2 elements to my success to date.
Firstly, I believe in ongoing education. You can never know too much and you can definitely never know it all. I have been very fortunate to have wonderful managers and mentors in the past. They have feely and willingly shared their knowledge with me over the years and this is something I endeavour to do myself. This combined with continual self-learning via the likes of NIBA, ANZIIF and Steadfast has assisted me in getting to where I am today.
Secondly is my genuine want to help others. For me this is a core belief that needs to be held for anyone working in the insurance industry as the heart of all we do is to help others. I have a strong desire to see others grow and succeed in what they do. I take great pride in helping other achieve this. This applies equally to our clients and our team at Tudor Insurance Australia.
What’s a mistake you’ve made that you’ll never make again?
I live by the motto of “short term pain for long term gain”.
One mistake I made was not dealing with an issue in a timely manner because I thought it was, or would be, too hard and the outcome would be a disaster. I soon learnt that taking the easy road out makes the outcome a disaster rather than dealing with issue then and there. Communication really is the key.
Taking the easy road out is something I will never do again as this only leads to much harder times in the future.
What’s the one secret about your field or industry you wish everyone knew?
How interesting it actually is!
People hear insurance and automatically think “how boring”. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
What other industry can you learn the internal workings of virtually every other business you deal with. Whether it is meeting with the corner milk bar owner or a local tradesman, visiting a large industrial manufacturing plant or the boardroom table of corporate entity in the CBD, no two days or clients are ever the same.
What are your predictions for the industry for the next few years?
Undoubtedly there will be more regulation, for the better and our industry needs to embrace this and continually try to improve what we do for the end user, our customers.
Technology will continue to evolve our industry. This has a long way to go, particularly with some of the bigger players on the underwriting side of the industry. We are seeing improvement in this all the time with some of the newer entrants to the market making a massive impact.
One thing that will never change is the need for interpersonal relationships. Everything we do is built on relationships however I do believe that technology can only improve this for all parties.
What’s your main goal for the year ahead?
To continually improve our business internally.
If we focusing on what we do as a business internally and the experience we provide our staff this will have a wonderful flow on to our customers.
We constantly remind our staff that if we look after them, we know they will look after our customers and we seek feedback on how we can do things better internally to help them.
Happy staff equals happy customers and a happy customer base is the greatest from of marketing you can have!
Follow Cameron on Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram and Tudor Insurance.
