Protection that's no racket adds up to one highly motivated firm

When visiting the boss of a company, it’s not often you see them frantically finishing a blog post.

But then again Tom Baigrie, CEO of LifeSearch, a life insurance and income protection intermediary, is no ordinary boss.

Mr Baigrie has had an interesting career and the CEO bounces around the LifeSearch’s new office in Leeds with boundless energy.

LifeSearch is looking to expand and its Leeds office will be the primary point of growth. To allow for this growth the company late last year relocated into the Broad Gate building.

However, Mr Baigrie wasn’t always destined to lead a life insurance business.

Born in South Africa, he left his native country for London and started a job selling insurance in 1981. After turning that into a financial advisory business, Mr Baigrie broke out on his own by launching Bagire Davies in 1984, along with Arthur Davies.

“I grew that business and in fact sold it this year to Standard Life,” says Mr Baigrie.

It was the 1990s that the seeds for LifeSearch’s formation were sown.

Mr Baigrie said: “Back in the 90s I helped a customer protect their family. The wife was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years later and then died a few years after that.

“They had little children and that was just the best day’s work I had ever done bluntly speaking.

“I think I did more good on that day than helping any number of rich people get slightly richer or pay less tax.

“So when it came to setting up a business that we hoped would grow and become an important financial services business I decided I could get worked up about protection.”

LifeSearch was established in 1998 and today the company employs 350 staff with 120 of them based in Leeds.

The philosophy of helping others is transferred to staff at LifeSearch. Mr Baigrie uses the ancient Greek word Agape to motivate his staff.

“The word Agape can be translated as the love of the good one can do for another,” he says.

“It’s really cool if you go to work thinking I’m here for the love of the good I can do for another.”

The business is looking to conquer more UK market share.

Mr Baigrie said: “We estimate that we have around 5.5 to six per cent of the UK market in these policies. We aim in a few years to get to 10 per cent of the market and go from there.”

He added: “It may be that this isn’t our last office in Leeds and that we need another one in three or four years. But there’s quite a lot of growth capacity here.”

Despite this Mr Baigrie insists that money isn’t the main driver for the business.

He says: “The money is the side effect of what we do well. We protect around 1,250 families a week. That’s the stat I focus on. We do around 2,000 to 2,500 policies.

“ “We spend a lot of time and effort making sure that our culture actually believes that as opposed to just being corporate rubbish.”

In order to get the best service for customers, Mr Baigrie believes a business needs to treat its staff well.

The CEO of LifeSearch says that was one of the motivating factors for moving to the new office at Broad Gate.

He said: “If you want your team to treat your customers really well then you have to treat your team really well. Spoil the customer, spoil the team. I mean spoil in a good sense.

“All our offices coincidentally are on the top floor of their buildings. We like to give our people a bit of a view and have an atmosphere that makes work fun.

“This was by far and away the nicest office we could find in Leeds at the time we were looking.”

LifeSearch also has a partnership payout similar to the John Lewis model.

“Broadly speaking, between a quarter and a third of the profits of the business are paid out in February of the following year to all staff who have been here three years,” says Mr Baigrie.

But a more important factor than pay and plush offices is “whether people feel their job is important and doing good”, he added.

Mr Baigrie said: “I make sure I meet everyone in the company as soon as I can after they join. I tell them that story about that family I helped. I tell them that the only way to help people is to be honest.”

He also urges what he calls “corporate humility”, treating any mistakes by staff with tolerance.

LifeSearch’s presence in Leeds isn’t a total coincidence. As a schoolboy in South Africa, Mr Baigrie and his classmates were urged to watch football “a proper sport” instead of rugby by their British teacher.

The first game that Mr Baigrie happened to watch was a Leeds United match in the 70s. The raucous match left an impression on the young Mr Baigrie.

So when the company was looking to expand to open an office in the North in 2006, he insisted they come to Leeds.

Mr Baigrie says building the business over the past 18 years has been a rewarding experience.

Even if at times there has been frustration because the protection market is not “very dynamic” and “insurers are very slow to change”.

“I’ve loved every minute of it,” Mr Baigrie says. “Building a business is great fun.”

Mr Baigrie wants there to be more education and awareness around life insurance, praising Vitality’s “outstanding” communications campaign.

In life insurance Mr Baigrie certainly seems to have found something that he can get “worked up” about.

Tom Baigrie factfile

Title: CEO of LifeSearch

Date of birth: 25.05.61

Lives: Wandsworth, London

Favourite holiday destination: Cape Town, where I am originally from

Last book read: It Starts with Why by Simon Sinek

Favourite film: No Country For Old Men

Favourite song: Indian Sunset by Elton John and Bernie Taupin

Car driven: Lexus

Most proud of: LifeSearch

Education: Bishops College in Cape Town and “University of Life” in England