San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
USAA TOP EXECUTIVES THROUGH THE YEARS*
military background. In what ways does that influence how you operate USAA and how you’re perceived by customers?
A: From my personal standpoint, it is a huge honor and an obligation I have as a nonmilitary person to lead this organization in a thoughtful and excellent manner. I think most days I bring a little bit extra to the party because I know I’m a civilian and not someone who actually wore the uniform and truly appreciates what the military experience is all about.
But I’ve been here for almost 34 years. I’ve had a chance to see USAA grow and develop, to learn about what the military experience is all about, and I am deeply committed to and passionate about us doing our best to serve military families.
The responses I’ve received from members have been positive. There are always naysayers out there who might question why we don’t have a military person leading USAA. But I would also make the argument that these are large and complex businesses that we are operating today, and it’s important to have someone who cares for, has passion for and understands the military experience but also can bring the experience of what these businesses require. That’s the blend I work to bring every single day.
Q: What business lines or services might USAA add in the future?
A: We’re going to continue to do what we’ve done for 100 years, which is look at the needs that military families have and then look at our ability to fulfill those needs.
(One example) is helping with small business insurance. We’ve historically only insured our members with their personal needs, but this past year we began with small business. It’s a huge opportunity to expand our offerings and serve them in a way that we’ve not historically done. We’ll continue to look at other opportunities.
Q: What is your outlook for 10 years from now?
A: The commitments we have as a company to have the best customer service and to deliver our products and solutions at the lowest possible price are hallmarks of USAA, and I would expect that those continue to be the hallmarks 10 years from now.
We continually meet our members where they are. In 1922, that was with a typewriter and the mail. When I think forward to the next 10 years, I think the use of data and artificial intelligence and great design will be the hallmarks of how we re-engineer and reimagine the member experience and connect with members across the globe in new and exciting ways.
One of the things we’re working on right now that was really brought on by the pandemic but is very supportive of our activeduty members who are deployed at times was changing
the nature of auto insurance from fixed coverage over a fixed term to be structured on how well you drive and how often you drive.
Our new capabilities with our SafePilot program — set your rate by how well you drive — and our acquisition of Noblr, which we are in the process of scaling now, will really put in place a fantastic offering to pay by the mile.
Q: What else was in the time capsule?
A: There are some interesting artifacts. We’re a great planning organization, so he delivered all the plans from 50 years ago. A Sears catalog was in there. When I was a little kid, the Sears catalog was a big deal, and my dad was a huge Craftsman
tools guy, and so it was cool to see the catalog in there.
There are videos of the ceremonies from back then and videos of the evening news with Walter Cronkite. Now, the big challenge will be finding a device that will actually play those tapes.
What I found fascinating is this very simple formula about USAA that I support today, which is take care of our employees, ask them to take great care of our members and make prudent financial decisions. Everything else has a way of working out. And when you read through the materials from 50 years ago, Gen. McDermott was on exactly that same track.
It speaks to this power of the mutual association that is USAA, where we’re owned by our policyholders and the connection between our members and our employees is extremely strong because our interests are aligned.
Q: Regulators have imposed fines on USAA Federal Savings Bank in recent years. Are those issues behind the bank? How has that affected USAA’s reputation with customers?
A:
We’ve grown phenomenally over the years and over the last 10-plus years grew as well. We’ve been very upfront that during that last period of growth, we didn’t invest sufficiently in our infrastructure to be able to manage our (information technology) risk and our compliance risk to the standards that are expected, quite frankly, by me, by our board of directors, our members and regulators.
We have been working diligently and continue to work diligently to resolve those challenges and put USAA on a strong footing. I feel very confident about our leadership team, the plans we have in place, the work that’s underway and the progress we’re making on that front.
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
A: What is so amazing about USAA is this sense of mutuality of being owned by our members and having this great relationship between our employees and our members. I think it’s just a really powerful way to manage a business.
In 2022, as we talk about how companies ought to participate in their communities or more broadly, it’s great to just reflect back that USAA was doing this because it was the right thing to do from the very beginning.
People here at USAA know that their work matters, that there’s a more important reason than just doing the work, and that’s serving families, members who will put a uniform on, who put themselves in harm’s way, who have defended our freedom and our way of life. To know that the work we’re doing here supports those who are responsible for us to live in a free country is very special.