Risk & Business Magazine Gillons Insurance Fall 2015 | Page 6

A Busy Year at Gillons

Changing Times at Gillons and in the Insurance Industry
BY: MYRON ROMANIUK, PRESIDENT & CEO, GILLONS INSURANCE

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ife at Gillons has been a very busy one
in 2015. The Insurance Industry is
changing fast and Gillons is no different
with many changes occurring this past
year.
For Gillons, it started with the retirement
of long time partners Grace and Duane
Cridland who retired in the spring
after 35 & 30 year careers at Gillons
respectfully. Both Grace and Duane
were very instrumental in helping build
Gillons to what it is today and were
strong supporters of the communities we
transact in. We wish them all the best as
they enter into the next phases of their
lives.
In June, Gillons’ entered into an
agreement with Lake of the Woods
Insurance headquartered out of Kenora
to merge the two operations. Tracy
McDonald, President of Lake of the
Woods Insurance and a long-time
acquaintance of Gillons believed it was
inevitable that we would merge someday
as our cultures and beliefs were similar.
Both organizations felt now was the
best time for the merger as it allows
us to increase our strong, specialized
“Northern” customer service throughout
the region.
With the addition of three Lake of
the Woods offices, in Kenora, Longlac
and Geraldton, Gillons Insurance
Brokers now has representation in 11
communities throughout Northwestern
Ontario.
As we have expanded geographically,
we saw the need to refine our Purpose,
Mission and Beliefs at Gillons. Gillons
continually strives to have our people

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want to work for us. In doing so, we
have implemented ways to truly inspire
our staff to work for Gillons. Through
constant communication and clarity,
well defined career paths, training and
allowing our team members to give back
to the many communities and businesses
who support Gillons, we are on our way
to achieving this goal.

Automation, efficiency and the ability to
harness information effectively will be
key to Gillons as we continually tweak
our operation to better serve today’s
consumers. I am sure by 2020 more than
half of the touches and methods we use
today in our brokerage will be replaced by
something that doesn’t even exist right
now.

We also have introduced a new
Leadership Operational Team and
Operating Compass to help guide them
along . Our Leadership Team is a breath
of fresh air as they bring new ideas to the
table every day, manage our day-to-day
operations and constantly challenge us as
an Executive to be better.

New and emerging risks are pushing
to the top of the “concerns” and “lack
of prepared” lists across all industries.
Risks like cyber, reputation, social media
and hiring/retaining employees are all
areas of concern. Technology is moving
so fast, it is outpacing insurance products
and security systems. It is an interesting
fact that 85% of data breaches are due
to human error such as when someone
opens an email, leaves a computer on at
night connected to WI-FI or enters sites
that extract information. Keeping up to
date with these at Gillons has allowed
us to steer our customers with their
business needs and we look forward to
continuing on with that. This means
more training for our employees and
helping to prepare our customers for fast
reputation management if and when
something goes wrong.

The speed of business seems to be
increasing at an almost exponential
pace. An aging workforce, generational
differences, productivity, the technology
revolution, disaster preparedness,
organizational communication,
reputational risk and emerging human
resource challenges are all significant. All
are evolving day by day. .
I am sure if any one of us reflects back
10-15 years, the predictions then about
how many businesses would be using the
internet in 2015 as part of their business
would be interesting.
The internet has opened up an
incredible dynamic and opportunity
for information, marketing and
sharing. Social media has literally
turned customer service upside down.
Consumers today are more informed and
empowered & expect quicker responses.

RISK & BUSINESS MAGAZINETM FALL 2015

The future truly is going to be a very
challenging but opportunistic one. We
at Gillons are here for the long haul and
look forward to working with our client
base to take this challenge head on!
Myron Romaniuk, CET, CAIB, is the
President & CEO at Gillons Insurance.