I wrote the CEO’s remarks at the monthly officer lunches and the annual off-site leadership meeting. He would use this framework to personalize his remarks. This was from an officer lunch in July 2007.

Welcome

• Today’s meeting marks a very special milestone. As you saw from last week’s e-mail, we have completed our new mission statement.
• Our senior leadership team was deeply involved in every aspect of developing this document, from inception to revision to finalization.
• All of you have played key roles as well, by providing us with your comments and feedback in the officer sessions and throughout the entire process.
  • Senior executives who facilitated those meetings reported how well-prepared, thoughtful and passionate you were about being a part of the process.
• I want to thank you for your help, input and support.
• We listened intently to what you had to say and your feedback has been incorporated into the final version.
• I’d like to share with you a few highlights and details.
  • Briefly review document:
  • Why we developed it.
  • What it’s meant to be
    • Shared vision/roadmap for the next 3-5 years.
    • Way we’ll transform the company into a consumer-focused organization.
    • Other.

Here’s part of a speech I wrote for a senior executive to present at the company’s annual sales meeting in March 2012. The speech was very well-received.

Let’s do a quick flash back to 2011. For me it’s The Year That Shall Live in Infamy.

We started the year with the Groundhog Day blizzard in the midwest and northeast. February and March brought tornadoes and hail. In April the midwest and southeast were battered by tornadoes including the F5 tornadoes that caused severe destruction throughout Alabama and Georgia.

May, June and July saw flooding, tornadoes, wildfires and more hail damage.

I don’t know about you but at that point last year I was beginning to wonder whether the Mayan calendar was off by a year! Or maybe something we had said started a new round of Biblical plagues.

In August we got a visit from hurricane Irene, and if that wasn’t enough, the usually mild month of October brought snowstorms throughout the northeast that broke all-time records and caused historic damage.

But good news, things are starting to look up. The weather last November and December was uncharacteristically mild. And now we seem to be experiencing the winter that hardly was. I don’t want to jinx it, and of course, Mother Nature is fickle and weather is always subject to change, especially as we head into spring storm season and then hurricane season. But we’ll be ready. We’re staffing up our Claims Storm team, exiting some coastal markets, expanding our reinsurance programs, and making sure we stay financially strong so we can always deliver on the promises you make to our clients.
Let’s look at the economy. After five years of a persistent, severe and historic downturn, the signs are starting to tell a better story. Here are just a few news flashes and leading indicators:

• Last month the Labor Department reported that the jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent in January, a three-year low, which sent stocks and bond yields climbing.

• U.S. car sales are up, and though they’re far from their previous highs, as you can see, the trend is favorable. One particular bright spot is General Motors, which was on the ropes and in bankruptcy two years ago. Last year GM earned 7.6 billion dollars, its best annual profit ever, and resumed the title of world’s largest car company. How’s that for a turnaround?