For Lee Wood, the complexities of heading a large-scale organisation boil down to three essential elements. There are the financial and operational dimensions which underpin and reflect performance in the eyes of customers and other stakeholders. And there is the team-building and staff development aspect, with all that entails in terms of recruitment, training and brand reputation.
“As a leader, though, my job is also to project the path forward, to be the more visionary side of the house,” says the chief executive in Hong Kong for leading insurance company MetLife. “I’m still driven by the numbers, but you have to get the balance right to deliver on expectations and be in line with the commitments that you make.”
Though a long-time Asia resident, Wood grew up in California – and discovered the thrills of skiing – after his parents moved the family from Atlanta in the late 1960s. His father was a Methodist minister, whose liberal views on civil rights weren’t always popular in Georgia; his mother a teacher who later became a successful stockbroker after working her way up from an entry-level post as a switchboard operator.
“We were a socially active family who stood by our principles and accepted there are certain battles you have to fight,” he says. “For example, my dad helped boatpeople resettle in the Bay Area after the Vietnam war.”
Starting in 1981, Wood studied for a four-year BA in mathematics at Occidental College in Los Angeles, but an exchange at Waseda University in Tokyo during his junior year proved to be an eye-opening and life-defining experience.
“It was the bubble era of the Japanese economic miracle,” he says. “Some classes were in English, but the programme put a real emphasis on understanding the culture, so I also taught at a school in the Japanese Alps and stayed with a local family. They were wonderful and are now like grandparents to my own kids; we still see them once a year.”
On graduation, he joined the Equitable Financial Company in New York as a management trainee, attracted in large part by the prospect of a posting at the firm’s recently opened office in Japan.
“If you’re a math major, they automatically assume you want to be an actuary, but I was more interested in the overall business, and the international aspect was a big pull.”
Initially, though, a trainee’s work was all about answering phone inquiries, filing, doing reconciliations, sitting with the pricing people, and generally learning the intricacies of the insurance industry from the ground up. In due course, he moved on to sales, earning a living on a commission basis and coming to appreciate that every client inevitably has different needs and priorities.
“It was great experience. I got my hands dirty and learned about following orders and, later, making the tough decisions and hard choices when it came to things like ‘rightsizing’ and cutting headcount.”
By the mid-90s, though, the time seemed right to step away from the insurance industry and go back to school. Accordingly, Wood signed up for an MBA and a master’s of divinity at Emory University in Atlanta with clear personal goals in mind.
“I wanted to study business ethics and look at the value system tied to religions and other beliefs,” he says. “It’s important to have principles that drive our choices. In any business, you have to give value for customers, but you also have to do it in the right way.”
When he then rejoined the insurance sector with ING Group, the opportunity came in 1999, perhaps later than originally planned, to return to Tokyo. It happened after he revived his Japanese while showing a group of colleagues from Tokyo around head office. They were on the lookout for a director of marketing and quickly followed through with a firm offer.
Success there soon opened other doors, first as chief marketing officer with ING Antai in Taipei and then to a series of senior roles in Asia with industry heavyweights AIG, AXA, Allianz and HSBC.
“I’ve always chosen places where there is an opportunity to build and grow the business, which can be start-up or turnaround situations,” Wood says. “I look at the job and ask myself what are the problems, will it be interesting, and do I like the people.”
Now with MetLife, the focus is on building a multichannel sales force, ideally taking agent numbers from today’s 900 or so up to around 1,500. It’s an aggressive target, but demand for life, and health, accident and critical illness cover for families and small businesses means it should be within reach.
“The market is changing with digital players coming in and the China aspect,” Wood says. “Our aim is to increase financial literacy and keep putting customers first, which is part of the company’s core ethic. We have very transparent open discussions, and using Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits” gives us a shared language which encourages staff to be reliable, trustworthy and proactive. In other respects, I don’t impose my values per se, but I do have a voice.”
Away from work, Wood is keen on all sports and is in training for an eight-mile charity run from Pok Fu Lam to Aberdeen to raise money for Room to Read, an NGO which builds schools and promotes literacy in less developed countries.
“I believe it’s very important to get involved in community activities of this kind, particularly causes which support education and children,” he says. “In fact, in retirement, I’d like to teach math and coach cross-country in Oregon: that would be a nice way to spend time.”
This article appeared in the Classified Post print edition as Grow forth.
