USD Magazine Fall 2014

T

he untold story of McGee’s stewardship is the cultural transformation at one of

America’s oldest and, at one point, stodgiest of enterprises. Son of an Irish immigrant bus driver, McGee rose to stardom at Bank of Ameri- ca. His last job there entailed run- ning the bank’s more than 5,000 branches, then the largest network in the nation. An expert on the intricacies of insurance McGee was not, and learning themwasn’t his goal. His mission, rather, was to surmount a crisis — and that would require radical change in The Hartford’s culture. The old guard, McGee says, took every opportunity to warn him that insurance was one arena where rapid innovation wouldn’t work — and that if he knew enough about the industry, he’d realize that. The top objective for these managers was a laudable one, certainly —managing risk. But they took this aim to such extreme that growth froze as a result. Executives frequently criti- cized any decision aimed at major change as “too risky,” according to McGee and other insiders who witnessed the interactions first- hand. Another obstructionist strategy was to keep calling for more data and endless analysis, until the initiative faded from view. McGee captured The Hartford ethos with a catchphrase — “It takes the time it takes.” Coupled with this inertial sensibility was a process for decision-making that made it all but certain nothing would change. Frequently, it wasn’t even clear who had the authority to make a decision. Just about anyone in the chain of com- mand who objected had the veto power to kill a daring idea. “They’d have endless conversations around data,” says McGee. “These were smart people, who knew the facts, but couldn’t make a decision.” The employees characterized the process as “the polls never close,” meaning once a decision seemed to be made, it could be changed by more “voting,” or discussion.

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