The Challenge

New York Life Insurance Company is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #78 on the 2024 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations with Total Revenues of $54B.

Our relationship began in 2008 when Ted Mathas, CEO, invited us to partner with him and other key executives to assess the company’s culture and develop and help execute a change agenda to refresh the company’s 160 year old culture and position the company for sustained business success.

Key challenges included:

1. A changing business environment including increasing market volatility, changing demographics and increasing competition

2. A changing business strategy focused on developing a broader portfolio of life, annuity and investment products

3. Retirements of key executives and the assurance of a smooth transition to leaders entering the executive ranks

4. A changing corporate culture moving from strong risk aversion to prudent risk taking to enable a more agile organization achieving higher levels of business performance and employee engagement

The Solution

CEO Mathas and his executive team engaged us to:

• Review New York Life’s current and future business strategy, operating models, behaviors, and cultural attributes

• Conduct face-to-face interviews with the top 13 executive members

• Conduct a series of focus groups to obtain the input and perspective of leaders and employees from all levels of the organization

• Administer a culture assessment across the organization

• Create a Findings & Recommendations Report

• Design and facilitate a half-day executive briefing of findings, implications and next steps

• Develop a Change Strategy for moving forward

After completing this Phase I scope of work, the company engaged us in (1) assisting the change culture steering team, (2) coaching CEO Mathas and a group of other executives, (3) working with multiple executive teams, and (4) working with the head of Agency and his team to assess and develop a culture change strategy for his organization, before working with multiple executive teams

Outcomes

The company has continued to grow over the sixteen years we have been in partnership.

• Revenues continued to rise coming through the 2008 financial crisis with the company being heralded as one of the “safest” companies in the country

• The company has expanded its footprint in the market with a broader selection of competitive product solutions

• Engagement and performance have remained coming out of the pandemic

• The company has successfully moved through multiple leadership transitions including handing the reigns of CEO from Mathas to Craig de Santo in April of 2022

We are currently partnering with the company in developing the Managing Partners of Agency who head the regional offices across the U.S. The program “The New York Life Change Leader Experience” draws from Healthy Companies’ 25 years of research in Grounded and Conscious Leadership and includes interviews, surveys, various tools and applications plus interactive sessions with cohorts of 20-40 MPs. The goal is for the MPs to strengthen their leadership as they execute the company’s Foundational Business Strategy for greater impact and future success.