The Operator
Execution, delivery and performance, gets the hard thing done.
Tricia Griffith reads as The Operator, the leader whose authority rests on making a complex enterprise run well rather than on grand pronouncements. As Progressive's chief executive, and in her appearance on The David Rubenstein Show, she comes across as someone who treats execution as the strategy, translating ambition into discipline, process, and measurable performance.
“Yes, we started our diversity inclusion initiatives really in earnest when I was there. We started our first employee resource groups, which was progressive African American Network and our LGBT plus. Now we have nine. We really set forth a strategy of how we're going to make sure everyone can bring their whole self to work.”
“Prior to COVID, we already had about 25% of our call center people and some claims people that worked from home just because it worked better for them. I imagine we're doing some surveying as we think about returning of what percentage will that still work for. I think in person in the office, hallway conversations are so important.”
“Yeah, so its original name, the company was founded in 1937 by Joe Lewis and Jack Green, and they were two attorneys in Cleveland, and they didn't know what they wanted to do, but they wanted to be able to serve the non-standard customers in Cleveland that needed insurance. And so they borrowed 10,000 from Joe Lewis's mother-in-law.”
“I think there's sometimes things you don't give up. So Jack played high school and college football. It was important for me to go to as many games as I could of his, and I worked my way around that so I could do that.”
The David Rubenstein Show: “Tricia Griffith”
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