Barton defines Alkeme as a “people business” that delivers an improved customer support platform through the use of know-how.
“There’s been a lot of pressure points on the business from technology, and that’s fallen off lately because of certain pressures in the market. But really, we use tech to optimize our business,” he stated. “[W]e’re shaping the business using tech around the edges, but really understanding that, at the middle, it’s people-driven and people-powered.”
Regarding acquisitions, Barton “[looks] for pieces of a puzzle that fit together”. He is creating his firm by “adding people that provide a significant opportunity for other stakeholders to cross-sell, to work together with, and to ultimately provide a better customer service perspective”.
Barton expects the following 5 years to be a interval of alternative and problem for insurance coverage brokers by way of strengthening relationships and working at a better scale.
“If you don’t have scale in the business, you’re going to have a hard time attracting talent, you’re going to have a hard time building a business,” he stated, explaining that “running a lifestyle business” shouldn’t be the identical as creating wealth.
“You’ve got to take whatever money you’re generating on the lifestyle side and you’ve got to invest it outside of insurance to create wealth. And so our [value] proposition, if you will, is [to] de-risk your business. Take your lifestyle business and move it into a wealth creation vehicle. And that is all done through scale.”
Barton factors out that scaling brings alternatives to extend staff’ wellbeing and happiness and enhance the standard of merchandise delivered to customers.