What does AIG do?

Incredible success

This is an amazing number: the annual profit is 9.3 billion dollars, the shareholders' equity is 82.8 billion dollars, the annual income is 8 13 billion dollars, and the total assets are 678.3 billion dollars. This is American International Group (AIG). 19 19 was established in Shanghai, and now its headquarters is in new york. Its participation areas include insurance, pension management services and financial services. Its second CEO, HankGreenberg, is the most powerful person in American insurance industry and a very attractive person. His perseverance, impatience, strong willpower and indefatigability are all reflected in him.

He served as CEO of AIG for 37 years and worked in AIG for 45 years. During his tenure, he made AIG's market value soar to the highest $654.38+073 billion, and its earnings per share increased by 654.38+07% annually. We can always see Greenberg's seemingly invincible cordial smile from AIA posters.

Greenberg came from humble origins. His father opened a candy store in eastern new york, but he died when Hank was 5 years old. His mother remarried to a farmer in northern new york, and his childhood memories are full of getting up before dawn to milk cows and catching muskrats and minks. 1942 Greenberg used a fake birth certificate to enlist in the army, when he was 17 years old. He participated in World War II, served in European and Korean war zones, and nearly died many times. He never gave up his pursuit of knowledge. After getting a high school degree, he entered the University of Miami and finally graduated from New York Law School.

1953, by chance, he quarreled with an employee supervisor in the European accident insurance claims office in Manhattan, which laid the foundation for his future. Greenberg thought this man was too rude. He roared furiously in the vice president's office and called the European employee supervisor a "madman". Unexpectedly, he got a job as a new employee in the insurance industry with a weekly salary of $75. 10 years later, he became the assistant vice president in charge of accident and health insurance.

1960, Greenberg was poached by CorneliusVanderStarr, another company in the insurance industry, which was the predecessor of AIG. Starr, a 27-year-old Californian, set up a small insurance firm in China on 19 19, which was also the first foreign insurance company to provide insurance services to China people in that year. He achieved great success in China, and his business soon expanded to Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. But in America, Starr's business was delayed. He bought a company with a large sales volume and promoted insurance to citizens and small companies, but it still didn't improve. So he pinned his hopes on Greenberg.

Greenberg abandoned the traditional model and chose a sales model similar to that of a brokerage company, accepting enterprises as members. 1968 Starr's heart began to fail, and when he died, he appointed Greenberg as his successor. A year after Greenberg took over, AIG went public with a market value of $300 million.

He thinks he is a game rebel in the boring insurance industry. In the1960s, when people generally thought that the insurance industry should not expect any innovation, Greenberg thought that "innovation can be done". AIG began to provide conditional guarantees for non-traditional risks and paid attention to deductibles to attract market attention. Since then, AIG has been exploring new types of insurance business-among them, Internet identity theft insurance, hijacking insurance, offshore oilfield insurance and hacker insurance were launched before peers in 2003.

At that time, most internet companies thought that their company's safeguard measures were good enough, and there was no need to spend extra money on insurance. When AIG's hacker insurance business was first launched, it was also quite cold. However, when a series of famous websites such as Yahoo, Amazon and Yi Bei were hacked at the end of 2003, Internet insurance business became popular immediately, and AIG's insurance business increased four to five times that month.

AIG's product innovation ability won Greenberg great prestige and became an important factor to promote AIG's rapid expansion. PeterEastwood, senior manager of American International Group, once commented on his innovative ability. "We spend a lot of time on brokers and customers, asking them directly about their concerns, the affairs they face and the shortcomings of the existing insurance market? With this, we have established a dominant position in many fields. "

In order to extend AIG's insurance coverage to all corners of the world, Greenberg will operate a network around the world. AIG's member companies have reached more than 30 countries and regions around the world through various sales channels. Greenberg spent a lot of time traveling around the world and signed many important agreements. A former AIG executive said, "In the past 10 years, I have been to China 48 times. How many company executives can surpass me this time? "

On AIG's website, the slogan "Weknowmoney" is hung. Perhaps, for AIG, money is just a number game they play. Looking at the territory of AIG, we have to admire Greenberg's great ambition.

AIG Group has four major businesses, property insurance and life insurance are the largest and longest, and financial services, pension services and asset management are also growing steadily.

AIG has representative companies in every major market. The main general insurance subsidiaries are American Family Insurance Company, New Hampshire Insurance Company and Pittsburgh National Fire Insurance Company of Pennsylvania. In the field of life insurance, AIA, American International Reinsurance, American International Guarantee Corporation (Bermuda), Nanshan Life Insurance in Taiwan Province Province, China, AIGStar Life Insurance, AIG Pension Insurance Company, AIG American General Life Insurance Company and SunAmerica Life Insurance Company are all included in AIG's pocket, and they have millions of customers all over the world. International Financial Leasing Company, AIG Financial Products Company and its subsidiaries, American General Financial Company and its subsidiaries are all financial service companies of AIG. It mainly provides aviation insurance, capital market, customer finance and premium finance. The retirement savings and asset management business is carried out by VariableAnnuity Life Insurance Company, AIGSunAmerica Asset Management Company, AIGSunAmerica Life Insurance Company, AIG Global Asset Management Group, subsidiaries or related companies, providing customers with professional stock, fixed-interest securities, real estate and other investment management services.

In the 2003 report, Greenberg pointed out that AIG's leading position comes from its underwriting ability, insurance product innovation ability, financial ability, excellent service and processing ability. Through its branches in 130 countries, AIG has achieved its global leading position.

Greenberg has a strong sense of control and business, and the skills of playing with money and legal rules have been perfected. For many years, he has been struggling with competitors and regulators, and gained a reputation for belligerence. He is familiar with the rules of Wall Street. Someone once commented that "he can do anything for the stock price".

A Wall Street person who has been dealing with Greenberg for a long time commented on him: "Even the sound of stones falling in the company can't escape his ears." His internal audit of the company has reached a fever pitch, and he has hired 65,438+000 people to find out AIG's wrong practices. Their opinions will be transmitted directly to the top of the company and everyone needs to respond immediately. In addition, Greenberg needs to spend 50 hours every autumn to convene 25 different organizations to hold budget meetings, and each organization needs to bring its own business plan. And the CFO HowardSmith, must read these business data accurately according to his regulations.

One of Greenberg's college classmates commented on him like this: "He works almost 24 hours a day, maybe more, 36 hours. But he likes it. "

Throughout AIG's history, it is Greenberg's persistent work attitude and ambition to "meet everyone's requirements in the widest field" that has pushed AIG to become the largest commercial insurance company in the United States and one of the most valuable financial groups in the world. He established a complicated ownership structure and corporate governance mechanism, and created many dazzling new insurance products. Now it seems that these coveted and enviable financial skills have also become tools for him to control the company, plunder wealth and evade supervision.