YouSaid · the spoken record

Tricia Griffith

lines on the record: 29
first: 2020-10-12
most recent: 2020-10-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“I think government would frustrate me. I like to get things done. I like to move forward and I'm a big believer in compromise. So for me, I don't think government is in the future. For me, I think I'd love to do some philanthropy, maybe a board or two. I'm on a public board now and do some things with my husband to help the country.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I finally said stop calling me because I wanted to be present in the moment. And actually I talked to my five other children and Jack was on the field and during halftime I went up and I said hi and I went to tell him and I said”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's funny because my husband says all the time why do you play 20 games with everyone? Because people say where do you work? And I'll say, for an insurance company, where in Cleveland, what do you do? I'm corporate. So I'll do all these things. So fine. I'm like, okay, I'm a CEO. What I have found if you're on a plane when you used to be on planes or you're somewhere, a good way to not get in the conversation is they'll say, what do you do? And I say, I sell insurance. And then no one talks to you. So I found the right, the right thing. No people, I live in a smaller town and my kids went to a small Catholic school, so everybody knows me. When I got the job, the day that it was announced, I was headed to our son's school after the workday to go to his lacrosse game. And our PR department kept saying, you know, the Wall Street Journal wants to talk to you. This place wants to talk to you. And I said, I'm headed to a lacrosse game. Let me call my mom. Let me call my sisters. Let me enjoy this.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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. And sometimes that meant working, you know, at 10 o'clock at night to catch up on things, but it was worth it because my kids tell me, even now they're like, you went to more things than most stay-at-home moms because I was so obsessed with making sure I got to almost everything.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think the ones I brought to the table were being genuine, being authentic, communicating, you know, just all the time, painting the picture of where I want the company to go. And I think that's really important. I think people, you're only a leader if people want to follow you. So do people want to follow you? Do you have a great attitude, but also certain paranoia to make sure that we're always doing well? And for me, I think what I'm most proud of, and I think why I continue to get jobs after that HR job was I form really great teams. I don't always have to be the smartest person in the room. I know collectively what a team needs and I love having really great debates. And the only thing better than those debates are the unity, the power in the unity when you come, you know, you come out and you're solidified as a management team, as a leadership team.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was very complicated as I was growing up through the ranks. And my husband worked as well. When I was in HR for a couple of years, he also, we met at Progressives. So he worked there. We both had travel jobs. And at one point, he said, when our oldest was going into high school, he said, you know, one of us probably needs to stay home. I think you have a longer runway. And so he decided to stay home. But I think I treat it like everything else. Assume something might go wrong. And so when we were both traveling and I knew I had a big presentation, I knew that morning I would go into somebody's room and someone would have an ear infection. And so I created a network of friends that stayed home and I did an old-fashioned bartering system. So if you could take, you know, Emma for a couple of hours while I do this presentation, I will babysit your kids and you and your husband can go out on the weekend.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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. So although I think it might increase from that 25%, if you fast forward and there's a vaccine and people feel comfortable, I think a lot of people will come into the office. I think that is something that we work through. We've done a really great job, especially with technology. But I know many people really miss it.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It hasn't been difficult for me. It's been unusual, and I don't love it because I love the interaction. I think the biggest part is the claims organization because that is face-to-face, especially when you're looking at vehicles. But we immediately were able to use videos and pictures to do the best job we could to estimate vehicles. And we're doing pretty well. And I'm very proud of the organization.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, ever since mid March, I go in sometimes once a week just to get my mail and to check things out, but I don't see anyone. And in fact, where I'm sitting here, my son, who's in film school, filmed me weekly for several months so I could send a video out to all of the progressive people.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They'll sometimes talk about how they wish they could make more, what can they do, how can they get there. People are pretty open and honest with me.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because that is my way of getting to know people and really feeling what's going on the company. And when you break bread with people, they open up to you, not just about great things, but about things you they want to change. And for me, I think because of my roots as a claim drep trainee, I always wondered what the exacts did. And we don't have an executive cafeteria, all of his eat in the regular cafeteria. It's a very different type of company from that perspective. But literally, it motivated me to be a better leader. Every time I walked up to a table of, you know, five people and said, may I join you? And they gave that horrible look like, please know, please know. And I sat down. I had five new friends. And I just, to me, it's an important part to be approachable. You feel connected and you trust your leader. You're going to run through the wall for them.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was hoping to give it to the person they thought was the best fit for progressive at the best time. And I remember interviewing with the board for several years during the process. And one of the board members said to me, so you want to be a CEO? And I said, no, I want to be the CEO progressive. And that was what really was meaningful to me.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think so, and we actually have 12 members of our board and six are women and one of the female is a person of color.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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. It was a big piece of our culture. And we started looking at the data. We continue to work on it though. It's not something that you can ever get a check mark. And if you look at senior leadership, we have opportunities there. And in fact, we are working on some really aggressive objectives for the next five years with my team to continue to change that.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The president of Claims came up, and that's my dream job because I love claims, I love helping customers. I was able to do that. That's 75 cents of every dollar of premium that comes in you're paying out on claims. So that's a big business piece. And then he gave me all things customer facing. So I had our call centers and claims. And then I was COO before the CEO role. So I really credit Glenn for guiding me, giving me opportunities, coaching me and sponsoring me.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, to me, to actually take get the CHRO job from having mostly claims experience during the first 15 years, I had a little bit of sales and a little bit of claims. And Glenn Renwick at the time, my predecessor, interviewed me. It was actually an odd circumstance I went for it. I wasn't going to because I don't have any HR experience. I have some maternity leaves, but that's about it. And people kept calling me from around the company saying, you have to go for this. You love diversity. You love metrics. We need this. So finally, I had a pre-interview lunch with Glenn to see if I could even go for it. He put my name in the hat and gave me the opportunity. And I will always say it was a risk for him. He does not say that, but that was really the turning point in my career. And then, you know, he was, he watched me and I did that for six years and made a lot of big changes that we still have now.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Correct. So, what I would do is if I've had your claim and you were injured, I would go out and talk to you about your injury and guide you through that. I would crawl under your car and let you know how much it took to get it repaired. I would kind of manage your whole file. I also did special lines, so I was a motorcycle rep. And I basically handled the entire file. So I was in body shops, crawling under cars. And in your house talking to you about your injury.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I went to Illinois State University marketing degree. I wanted to go into something in marketing, but all through high school and college, I worked in retail. So oddly, where I went to school is the home office of state farm and everybody was doing internships there. And I'm like, who wants to work in insurance? So I went to a retail company for about six months. It was called Furrow Building Materials. It was like a, think of like a Lowe's or a Home Depot. I was like, what am I doing? I'm mixing paint. I'm actually forklift certified. And I was driving home one day with my hard hat and I said, I got to look for something different. And what I wanted to do was work somewhere for a couple of years, pay off my school loans, and then go to get my MBA. So I went home and opened the classified ads. I'd never heard of progressive at that time. We were less than a billion. And I thought claim drep trainee, this sounds interesting. $19,000, that'll help me pay off my debt.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“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. And that's how Progressive was born. And you might know Peter Lewis, who ran the company for a long, long time. He was the second CEO and then Glenn Renwick, and then myself.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not really. I think people, I love our culture, and I think they love working here, and I think that we have a huge future. I think that the technology is absolutely there. And I can see a car going from point A to be in a geofenced area, but there's a lot to be done. I think it'll be a little bit longer than most people had predicted even years ago.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is eventually going to be driverless or autonomous cars. Course, the theory is they will never have an accident because they're perfectly programmed. Is that something you worry about as cars that don't have accidents or are you not going to worry about that right now? I don't worry about. I mean, from a society perspective, you want to have less accidents. It's good for society.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Home insurance business is very profitable now? The home insurance business depends on what company you're talking about. We have struggled a little bit because of wind, hail, catastrophes, and we also have been obviously growing our model across the country. We were in about five states for many years. And so we're learning a lot about the product model. So if you looked at our results, we will be profitable, but we're doing the same thing we did on the auto side. We're getting very surgical in our segmentation to understand the right rate for each home. Are you thinking of getting into the life insurance business? Have you in the other insurance businesses? Why not get into life insurance? Well, right now we have a great relationship with an unaffiliated partner that we get a commission when we send them to the company. And that's been working really well. And we actually are considering that. We have a life insurance company filed in Ohio more to come on that. People say that”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are in home insurance now and you bought a company that helps you get into that. Why do you want to be in the home insurance business? For us, it was really access to more of the preferred customer, especially on the independent agent side. We had a relationship with ASI, American Strategic Insurance for years. We had a small ownership in them. Their values were very much aligned with us. And so we decided to go ahead and purchase them. And it's been a really nice transition, a really great acquisition. And so now having sort of the whole picture for whatever you want, auto, home, your boats, motorcycle, commercial, and that's why we're continuing to expand because I think it's really important to diversify.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your driving history? Do you have our usage based insurance? That way we know what time of day you drive, how many miles you drive, have you had any violations? There's so many things that go into it. So age is only one component. When I was a teenager, I was told that teenagers are not good drivers, insurance is expensive. Is that true today? Insurance is more expensive for teenagers or not good drivers? I will say that having six people that drive in my family that we've added over the years, we call them youthful drivers. The issue is that many are good, but they just don't have that maturity. They haven't had the experience. And I remember saying, because a lot of times you'll get rate increases if you add on a youthful driver. And I challenged that when I first got this job. And then I realized having six youthful drivers that there is a reason you pay a little bit more.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have an accident today when they do have accidents, the accidents are more expensive than they used to be. Is that because the cars are more complicated, more expensive to repair? Yeah, they absolutely are. A couple of reasons. One is the components to the car. So I started out as a claim drop and the cars in 1988, the bumper repair or replacement would be a couple hundred dollars. And now they could be upwards of $1,000, $2,000 because of the components, the safety components. In addition, think of the inflation of medical costs. So if you're injured in an accident, that's another component of the increased severity. So let's suppose I want to get some automobile insurance. I'm now 71 years old. Am I a good risk as a 71-year-old or would you rather have somebody who's 25 and more alert? That is one variable. So we look at hundreds of variables. So it depends on where you live. Do you live in a congested area? Do you live in the rural area?”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A couple of months, and then remember many companies gave back credits or have reduced rates. Now, let me ask you about that. If you get a rebate, that was because you voluntarily thought it was a good idea, or the regulators said you have to give back money. Why did the automobile insurers start giving back money to their policyholders? We did it because it was the right thing to do. I mean, we immediately saw driving vehicle miles travel go down 40%. It went back up pretty quickly to 20, et cetera. But we sat down and said, okay, we don't want margins that big. It's not the right thing to do. We want to be competitively priced. And so we gave 20% credits for both April and May. And then subsequently, we're very analytically driven. So we went sort of state by state, channel by channel, product by product. And so far, we've given, we've had rate decreases in about 35 states. And those are baked in permanently. So today, when people...”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Paid per her contract and she's doing fine. Let's talk about this year. Now, a lot of the auto insurers are up this year, in part because people aren't driving as much. And the theory is if you don't drive as much, it's hard to have an accident. So I presume there are fewer people claiming that they've had an accident and therefore you don't have to pay out as much. Is that why your stock is up, you think? I think that might be one piece, but I think we've also continued to grow not only market share, based on units, based on policies in force, and really, if you think about it, yes, immediately in March, vehicle miles traveled have been reduced and losses went for that. But as states have reopened, it continues to go up. And right now, we're still not pre-COVID level of driving. We're about 8 to 10% down, but those lost costs, that gap is closing in because we're seeing more and more people driving more often. And so that last.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, for those who aren't familiar with progressive, and probably if you watch television, you would be familiar because you have a lot of television ads, right? And I'm just curious, why is it that automobile insurance companies seem to advertise a lot? I see your competitors advertising, you advertise a lot. Is that because people really will be guided in their insurance decision by the advertisement? It's just a really competitive industry, which is always odd because it's something you're required to have. So it's not like, you know, do you pick a different soft drink or a beverage? But it is required that it is so competitive that to be out there and be top of mind and be on the short list, you really have to be advertising. So you have a famous character in your insurance, one of some of your ads called flow, a woman that plays, I guess, an insurance person. Does she get a certain percentage of all the new business she brings in because she's so good or she doesn't have that deal? No, she does not have that deal.”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You could take Emma for a couple of hours while I do this presentation, I will babysit your kids and you and your husband can go out on the weekend”
2020-10-12 · The David Rubenstein Show · Tricia Griffith · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source