PROFILE

Top table at Tower

Almost 20 years ago Jonathan Beale arrived in New Zealand without a job, he tells Matthew Martin about his journey to become MD of partnerships with Tower Insurance.

BY MATTHEW MARTIN

When Jonathan Beale moved to Auckland in 2002 he and his wife Helen had nowhere to live, no friends and no job.

Thankfully, Beale tells ASSET magazine, he now has all three along with two children, both born in New Zealand, and says their move from the UK was the best decision they made.

Beale now leads the partnerships’ team at Tower Insurance, a role he has been in since January after 15 years at ASB where he ended up as the bank’s general manager of wealth.

He sits at the top table at Tower as the company’s managing director of partnerships and looks forward to the challenge of creating more business through partnership building.

Born in Birmingham – he’s still a West Bromwich Albion fan – his family moved to South Wales when he was a child. Beale went on to earn a degree in economics from University College in London.

“I think I ended up enjoying London more than I did university.

“But by the end of university, Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister and there were few jobs out there for graduates so I kind of fell into financial services.”

His first job interview was held in a pub in Cardiff when a friend invited him to meet his boss, “... and over a few pints of lager he gave me the job on the spot as a financial consultant”.

“When the contract arrived it was 100% commission, the client base was actually the Yellow Pages – but to be fair it was a brilliant way to start and the training I got was off the chart.

“I still hear myself saying things I used to say back then in the 90s.”

Beale then took a job with Legal and General and his first day on the job was an interesting one – to sit a three-hour exam on product knowledge in a hotel in southeast England.

“If I passed I could stay for two weeks and they would teach you how to deal with customers – if you failed you were put on the ‘bus of shame’ and driven off.

“I passed, but it taught me a lot. If you are sitting in front of a customer and talking to them about any type of product you are to recommend for them, you have to know what you are talking about.

“Just saying ‘I know my product’ is nonsense – because you should,” he says.

He then moved back to London to join Lloyds Bank where he met his wife Helen who was working in private banking with “super-wealthy” clients.

“I found Lloyds much easier as an adviser – going from a cold calling environment with a very small client base to a bank was awesome for me.

“I had a computer on my desk and a list of telephone numbers.”

After four years at Lloyds and a move to a specialist finance company working with corporate clients and large pension schemes Beale says he was ready for change.

“I was following a certain path in the UK and was struggling to work out how to get off it. I had always been an adviser, but I didn't want to be an adviser at 40 and talked to myself about what I wanted to do with the skills I had learned as an adviser and how I could use them elsewhere.”

Life changed dramatically for the couple after a holiday to New Zealand.

Beale says it’s the typical story of a Brit coming to New Zealand, travelling around in a camper van and going home to “cold, dark southeast London and thinking ‘what the hell are we doing here?’

“When we left the UK we had nowhere to live, no friends and no job, but that’s improved immensely – I’ve got all three now.”

Their teenage kids both attend Takapuna Grammar and the family live on Auckland’s North Shore at Stanley Bay. “I come to work on the Devonport ferry, so it’s very hard to get stressed on the way to work compared to cramming yourself onto a train or tube.

“I actually can’t remember ever being sick in New Zealand.”

Beale soon found out they had made the right choice and he could put to good use the skills he had learned as an adviser in the UK.

“I could see there was a massive opportunity here to train and lead, and help people understand what advice is and how to engage your customers.

“So I got more into leadership roles at Westpac and the 15 years I had at ASB were just awesome.

“They gave me great opportunities to develop into finance and asset management and then KiwiSaver – I don't think that may have happened if I stayed in London – I think my timing coming to New Zealand was really good.”

Now, after a little more than three months at Tower, working for his old boss from ASB Blair Turnbull, he’s got his feet under the desk and is enjoying his new challenge.

“My team here is smaller than the team I had at ASB and I’m liking that, it gives me more time to think, plan, strategise and actually do stuff.

“One of the reasons I joined Tower was growth aspirations and partnerships – and while that’s always existed it’s never been elevated to the top table – it’s never had an MD running it.”

Beale says while partnerships are not a new concept, many businesses are realising how important they can be and “... make sure we understand partnerships are a different and smart way to access customers”.

“Tower is in a great position to kick on – innovate, disrupt and make the customer experience better – there are lots of great things happening here.

“The insurance market in New Zealand is dominated by two large organisations and that is about 70% of the market. What Tower wants to do is go after that 70% – not the 30% remaining – and I think New Zealand needs more competition in that space.”

At ASSET magazine we like to ask the people we profile what has been the best and worst advice they have received in their lives.

For Beale, the worst advice came from an unlikely source, his Cambridge University-educated father.

“Oh, he’s a very smart guy and gave me lots of great advice ... but when I was starting out in my career it was ‘Jonathan, my advice to you is to keep your head down and work hard, people will notice you.’

“Definitely the worst piece of advice I’ve ever been given – people don't notice you if you keep your head down.

“They notice you if you talk about what you are good at and get out and about – you need to be talking about what you want to do and to get out there and do it.

“When I started being much more open and out there it gave me a clear and concise idea about where I was at and what I wanted to do.”

He says the best piece of advice was found while on an ASB development course some years ago in Taupo.

“The one thing that stuck with me was about what is possible – having a mindset around what is possible and getting rid of that word ‘can’t’ – and to focus on what it takes to do what you want to do.” A