During World War II, Henry Clay Conner, Jr., went missing in action for more than 30 months.
After surviving in the jungles of the Philippines — something he said happened only because of trust and partnership — he returned to the United States and opened advisory Conner Insurance in 1949 in Indianapolis. There, he found that his relationship-building skills acquired during the war were a boon to business.
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“It sounds like a crazy connection, but that’s how he saw it: relationships are the key to survival,” says Ben Conner, Henry’s grandson and the third-generation CEO of Conner Insurance. Today, relationship-building still drives Conner and his team. For clients, that translates to helping them understand what benefits actually mean to employees: “If a client has a $12-an-hour employee and a plan with a $3,000 deductible, can they afford it?” he says. “Our litmus test is, If your employee has a sick child or needs to fill a prescription, can they? If we can’t answer, we’re missing the mark.”
For his own team, that means creating opportunities of connection, even throughout a life-altering pandemic. “Last summer, we’d have food trucks come to the office, and our team would with their families,” he says. “It was outside, distant, but together. We have to maintain the relational side of the business. Because that’s what drives business.”
