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Each month, Indianapolis Business Journal features a question-and-answer session with an Indianapolis business leader about the topic he or she knows best. The following is an edited version of an interview with Stephen Hilbert, chairman of Conseco Inc., conducted with senior writer John Ketzenberger.
Hilbert has seen the life-insurance holding company grow from $12,000 in startup capital to more than $7 billion in assets and 750 employees in Carmel in just eight years. Here, he talks about Conseco's past, present and skeptics.
How did Conseco's management evolve, and what is your place in it?
When this company started, it started in very humble beginnings. If someone would have asked me in 1980 -- or in 1982, when we became an operating company -- "Where do you see yourself in eight years?" I would not have said, "We're going to be right at $7 billion in assets, and roughly $11 billion at the end of first quarter 1991."
But as far as management goes, we always looked at bringing on the best people. Early on we couldn't afford a top-flight chief financial officer. We couldn't afford the best legal advice in-house. And we couldn't afford the best actuarial talent or marketing talent. So instead of having it in-house, we did it vis-a-vis consultants. Through our acquisition process we have been able to not only get assets and distribution systems, we've also been able to get top-quality individuals.
I've got five executive vice presidents. The executive vice presidents are responsible for marketing, accounting/actuarial, legal, investments and operations. Each week I have an executive meeting, and we outline where we are, talk about strategies, and we look at how we can be more efficient at what we're doing. We take a look at what the environment is for investing our capital and what it is for bringing dollars in the door through distribution. We set our accredited rates.
It's an all-encompassing management strategy. Even though I'm not involved in marketing directly, I'm not involved in operations directly, I'm not involved in the accounting directly or the investments directly, I am involved in where we're going from a strategy point of view.
I believe it's important that not only am I involved in those areas, but that each of...