Kareim Cade is president and CEO of Great Lakes Benefit Group, located in Southfield, Michigan.
Paul Wilson: How did you get your start in the benefits industry?
My mother was in the insurance business, and I received a degree in insurance and risk management in 1994 from a small private school. I came home, got an insurance license from the state of Michigan, and failed so miserably that my mother fired me.
The best thing she ever could have done for me was to fire me, because she told me I was lazy and trifling, and she was right. I was all of those things! She said I couldn't make it in this business, so I went and taught school for two years. I got back into the business in 1998, on the voluntary side. In 1999, I was in a client's office positioning some voluntary benefits and he said, “Look, this is all great, but you should just take over everything we're doing.”
PW: What has helped shape your mindset as a broker?
I've had three good mentors along the way. They weren't doing things the traditional way, so right out of the gate as they took me under their wings, I think they saw I was always looking for a different way of doing things. I saw the business was very transactional; very little time was spent looking at the issues going on inside of a group. Unfortunately, because it had been done that way for so long, the expectations of the business owners and organizations was that was how business should be done. But those mentors who hadn't taken the traditional path helped get me into a more disruptive way of thinking.
PW: How are you and your company taking advantage of turmoil and changes occurring in the industry?
My mentor in the financial services industry shared that their business began to evolve back in 2009, shifting toward a fee-based model. That made me think we may need to start moving more toward the consulting space, because when the ACA came out, there was so much confusion. How do you take the complexity out of it?
Although a lot of the old heads weren't willing to learn new tricks, we were. We were coachable, teachable and pliable. There is always opportunity when there's confusion, and we realized we needed to get into the analytical side of things. When you have data, you can begin to look at things differently and create an overall cost containment strategy.
About three or four years ago, we retooled the company. We went from around 50 agents down to about 10 people who have specific strengths and are the best of the best, and we started looking at analytics and cost drivers.
The challenge was that a lot of our groups were still fully insured, and in that space, we weren't going to get the information. So we started educating our clients and explaining that if you understand the data and partner with us, we can help you get out of this every-year strategy that we've all been using. That's not going to work for you any longer.

PW: What are the biggest challenges you face now?
I think it's the mind shift. You have to figure out how to come back and reinvent yourself, put your entrepreneur hat back on. You have to constantly change. That's one thing that attracted me to this business; I knew it would never be mundane.
When Zenefits and these other groups started coming out, you realized there were going to be people coming in to disrupt our business. It caused us to dig in and say, OK, we have to be willing to restructure, retool and change our mindset across the board.
When carriers are shrinking commission rates and everyone else is changing and moving, you've got to look up and say, “What do we need to do to remain competitive?” We brought in a research and development team to find out, what are the trends? What should we be looking at differently?
PW: How do you remain innovative and progressive without becoming distracted or overwhelmed by all the noise out there?
I'm the guy who says, “Yeah, we can do that,” and we end up flying the plane and building it at the same time. I suffer from that salesman's disease. You've got to have somebody else who can balance that out.
One of my research guys, his idea of a great day is sitting in front of two screens for 12, 15 hours and just going through data. I'd go crazy doing that, because it's not my deal. It's a balancing act. As you can imagine, we're always being called by people and everyone has the latest and greatest idea.
PW: What are your favorite things about your job?
Making an impact. We do a lot of union business, and in that space, you're helping people change the way they approach their benefits. We were at an open enrollment meeting recently and I told the plan participants, “We would never drive our car into a dealership to be serviced and not ask what it's going to cost. When I buy tires, I compare prices at two or three places and yet I'll go in and take it as gospel when my doctor says I need a knee replacement without even getting a second opinion.”
We tell clients, “You need to make a demand on your broker and your carrier about what you expect, and so do your employees. They need to tell their PCP and their specialists, 'For the dollars I spend with you, this is what I expect back,' the same as we'd do anywhere else.” That's what motivates me. Although it seems very small when we're doing it, a little bit of success yesterday, a little bit today and a little more tomorrow and over the course of years, we'll be able to look back and say we really made an impact on this industry.
PW: How can the industry do a better job of attracting new talent, while becoming more diverse and bringing in young people who represent all Americans?
About eight years ago, I went to a NAHU convention. There were about 800 attendees, but only maybe 15 people of color. When considering the demographical trends, I think, how is this not being represented in our industry?
I think the first thing is we just need to talk to people of color. One thing we've prided ourselves on is speaking at one of our local universities.
Our latest recruit to the agency is Bangladeshi. We came to his class, we spoke about what we do, we talked about the industry, and he became an intern for us. The intern process is a phenomenal way to get people interested in what we do, because they just don't have a clue about what we do, or why we do it.
You can talk about the entrepreneurial side, you can talk about the residual income aspect of the business, and there are a number of other things that are attractive to people. But also, look at how you can get certain groups of people more involved. For example, here in Michigan, we have a huge Bangladeshi population. As a business owner, why wouldn't I train some folks to come in who look like the population who lives here? If the business model is changing, if the demographics are changing, I need to be able to address that. If I can't speak fluent Spanish, I'd better find somebody who can.
We even talk about it in the grade schools and high schools. I go in for career day and say, “Hey, I probably have the most boring career of anyone you're going to hear from. You're going to hear from a police officer, a doctor, but without insurance, you can't take a car off the lot, you can't buy a home, and the law now says you must have health care.” I think the industry should be up on a mountaintop saying, “Whatever you do in life, you're going to need insurance to do it.”
PW: What are your sources of inspiration and innovation?
I've been on the board of our local NAHU organization now for seven years. When I went to the Capitol Conference the first time, seeing the whole process and talking to folks about all of it really piqued my interest. I realized, wow, this is much bigger than me. This is much bigger than selling a product.
When I look at some of our union clients, they are the working poor, and they deserve to have access. But what does that access look like? Even if they do have access, they don't always know how to access their access. I've been blessed to lead a great life, but there comes a time when you draw a line in the sand and say, OK, it's no longer about me. It's about the impact I can make. How do you help the folks who can't help themselves?
PW: Finish this sentence: The key to success in this industry going forward is…
My grandma used to say, “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not get bent out of shape.” You have to be open to change. If you think you can keep doing the same thing all the time and plan to do that heading into the future, you should get out of the business today.
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