King of finance, king of fun
Article Date: Nov 24 2005
Peter Cullum is shaking up the insurance sector by injecting a sense of fun, having boldly rejected the rituals of corporate life for the thrill of building his own business. Towergate Partnership is now heading for £2 billion turnover and Cullum has been showered with awards for his achievement. GrowthBusiness meets the UK’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Insurance is not a sector associated with an inspiring sense of entrepreneurial spirit – ironic really, considering embracing, assessing and managing risk is the raison d'être of this abstruse game. In spite of this, however, convention and tradition dominate a sphere stereotypically controlled by the old-boy’s network, where your school tie and Oxbridge badge carry more kudos than achievement, ability and accomplishment.
In this formal, stifling, corporate environment, Peter Cullum is a breath of fresh air. Executive chairman of Towergate Partnership, he’s enthusiastic, innovative and more than a little unorthodox. He’s built a colossal insurance group with annual turnover of £1.35 billion, amassed through an aggressive acquisition strategy of specialist insurance agencies. But he has maintained a small-company culture, permeated with his unconventional approach to underwriting. And his success has just earned him the prestigious title of UK Entrepreneur of the Year at the recent Ernst & Young national awards.
‘Research into the perception of insurance in the UK suggests we’re marginally less popular than estate agents!’ he laughs. ‘Insurance equals dull in people’s minds, so we’ve strived hard to make Towergate something atypical. At the core of that is our company culture.
‘It’s a cliché but I want the 3,000 people we employ to enjoy it, as that will filter through into the manner in which we deal with clients. To prove it’s not just management rhetoric, we’ve even appointed a director of fun, who organises trips out and family away-days for staff. Last year we took 600 people to Brussels as a thank you for their hard work.’
Breaking with the norm
The story of the birth of Towergate is a testament to how Cullum, now aged 55, has always shied away from the obvious business path. Born and educated in Norfolk, he was a high achiever from an early age and went on to earn an MBA at City Business School, London. At 21, he then became the youngest person ever to become a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute.
‘It’s pretty much an automatic route into a corporate life of number crunching,’ Cullum muses. ‘By the time you’ve reached that stage, you tend not to consider being an entrepreneur. I became the archetypal corporate man.’
He joined Royal Insurance Group in 1969, moved to Commerical Union in 1975 and on to ITT London & Edinburgh seven years later. Then came the turning point – being headhunted in 1991 to join small, struggling insurance firm, Economic Insurance, as managing director.
‘The company was in difficulties and it was up to me to turn things around,’ he says. ‘It was my first taste of running a business and it was intoxicating, I loved it.’
The management team engineered a buyout in 1993, purchasing the company for £6 million with the financial assistance of venture capital firm Candover. ‘They invested most of the £6 million,’ says Cullum, ‘with a £300,000 total contribution from the rest of us. Five years later, we sold the company to Hiscox, the Lloyd’s operation, for £32 million. That just goes to show what the incentive of venture capital backing can do for you!’
