The 50-year insurance career of the broking stalwart John Lincoln (pictured) offers a shining example of the achievements, the variety and the fun to be had from working in insurance. In a moving post on LinkedIn, Lincoln expressed his gratitude for the career he has enjoyed – which saw him work in all three Lloyd’s rooms, set up a retail broker in 1991, and establish Cobra & Compass Networks and London Markets.
The true mark of the impact he has had on the profession and those who make up its ranks, however, can be seen not in any retelling of his admittedly illustrious CV but rather in the reaction of his peers to the news of his semi-retirement. Old colleagues, former rivals and lifelong friends alike paid tribute to his talent, his passion for insurance and – above all - his commitment to honesty and integrity as the hallmarks of a successful career.
“I was quite blown away by the reaction to my message,” he said. “It was quite emotional to see people who had retired years ago responding. I was shocked to see how many people wrote to me and still remember me. I was really happy about that. But that message of honesty and integrity has always been number one in my book. I learnt that lesson 50 years ago from Ian Stacey at Lloyd’s and it holds true today because lies always come back, so just don’t lie. If you tell the truth, you’re never going to get found out.”
But Lincoln’s career is more than just a testament to the power of an insurance career, it also offers a stark warning to the profession – insurance cannot afford to take a ‘closed ranks’ approach to what the talent of the future looks like and where it comes from. He has long been passionate about the energy, talent and transferable skills of school leavers, he said, perhaps unsurprisingly given that he joined the profession at 17.
“I was in school taking my A-levels and one Friday afternoon, I was a bit bored in class and so made my way down to an employment agency to see if they had any jobs,” he said. “I was only messing around really; I wasn’t even dressed for an interview but they said they could send me to one right away. So, I went for the interview, but I wasn’t really interested in it.
“But at the end of the interview, [the interviewer] gave me access to a computer, though not the kind of computer we would know now, and we started doing percentages. And he could see that it sparked an interest in me, as I was quite good at maths. He told me that’s what we do all the time here, we deal with percentages, and that if I came back Monday in a suit, we could do a proper interview. Well, that sparked my interest, so I had an interview on Monday and I started on Tuesday. And the next day I went into Lloyd’s and met my first underwriter – Ian Stacey.”
That was in 1972, Lincoln said, and, looking back, it’s incredible to see how the industry has moved on. In those days, young men coming into Lloyd’s got work as a broker, while young women would come in as PAs or typists. The change that has happened over time has been driven by people like that interviewer, who understood the value in identifying the strengths and talents of individuals and tapping into those to generate enthusiasm.
“That guy realised at the time that I was probably cleverer than I was trying to make out to be, because I wasn’t really interested,” he said. “But he saw a spark and thought ‘this guy has got something, let’s get him involved’. And when he had an interest in me, that sparked an interest in what the job had to offer. While at school, that wasn’t really happening.
“That’s why I’d love more school leavers at 17 and 18 to get into the industry. I know the graduate programmes work really well for some people, but I’ve taken on a lot of school leavers who, after four or five years, have gained their insurance qualifications, without student debt and while being paid, and who now have four or five years of experience in our industry. And that’s a great asset for those people who don’t want to go to university, and some people don’t.”
A generation of people over the last 10 years or so have been artificially encouraged down the route of believing that going to university is the only way to achieve a long-term and successful career in a respected field. But as somebody who has spent 50 years in insurance, Lincoln said, he’s clear in his message that this is simply not the case.
However, the insurance profession needs to take the steps necessary to communicate the opportunities that are available to school leavers and the success and fulfilment that an insurance career can bring. Part of this, he said, goes back to identifying the sheer variety of roles that exist within an insurance business, from broking, to marketing, to legal services, to HR, to admin, to compliance.
There’s something in insurance for everybody, he said, and that’s the message he wants to deliver to young people considering their options for the future. Mentorship and sponsorship opportunities are critical to delivering that understanding to a wider audience, which is why he continues to engage in multiple initiatives to support the push to bring great talent into insurance.
The sector has an opportunity to start targeting the leaders of the future, if it can embrace the incredible range of backgrounds that they come from. Initiatives like awards or celebrations for young achievers are an important part of nurturing the next generation of talent, he said, as ambition and competition are a critical part of developing the required skills and edge to succeed in insurance.
“I think if you look back even 50 years ago, there were not a lot of working-class people in the London Market, and that has changed completely,” he said. “So, if you were from a working-class background, you wanted to succeed, you had that ambition. And the one thing I always wanted was to make my dad proud of what I achieved. Every day was about making him proud of what I was doing.
“Then he died 22 years ago and a lot of my success was after that. I know he would be really proud of my success, but more that it was delivered under that mantra of honesty and integrity. I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved. I’ve been very lucky, I’ve had good mentors and a great career, and I wouldn’t change a single thing.”
