SIFM Young Professionals represent a growing and dynamic group within our organization. “Spotlight 2024” articles are a series of interviews with some of these outstanding young leaders in the insurance industry.
Here’s what Robert Cedrone has to share:
UNIQUE INSIGHTS
Seeing everyone I’ve grown up with and started my career with achieving success both professionally and personally is incredibly inspiring to me. To that end, I keep a list on my phone of things that are most important to me (personally and professionally); short and long-term goals, and a pathway to achieving them. Using my phone allows me to capture ideas while still fresh.
My goal is to learn as much as I can by placing myself in scenarios that push me outside of my comfort zone. After spending 14 years in public accounting, I feel most comfortable with the accounting aspects of my position.
However, I now find myself being more involved in the company’s operations and financial planning – areas that were new to me. I am enjoying the new challenges!
It takes time and effort to work across functions and divisions. And it is challenging to understand the goals and objectives of all while finding a commonality that avoids an adversarial environment. I try to keep a fun and light atmosphere which helps in building a strong team of all age groups. Even during the most stressful moments, having a “gallows humor” can help break the tension.
FAVORITE PROJECT
The Finance Department’s mantra is: automate, simplify, and expedite. Since joining Spinnaker, we have implemented fairly simple changes, these have helped to accelerate our financial close by over 25 days to adhere with SEC reporting deadlines. We’re excited to figure out how to continue to improve the quality and speed of our processes.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Spinnaker has experienced a lot of change over the past couple of years: acquired by Hippo, became a public company, launched two new carriers, and we are experiencing rapid growth. The organization operates like a start-up – allowing new ideas and projects to percolate.
I oversee the Accounting, Reinsurance, Treasury, and Accounts Payable Departments. Recently, my focus has been accelerating and automating our financial statement close process to comply with expedited SEC filing requirements as a newly publicly traded company under Hippo Holdings, Inc.
2024 VISION
I think the insurance industry, particularly property, needs to figure out how to maintain profitability with a rapid increase in the frequency and severity of large catastrophic events that impact the bottom line. It will be critically important to see how insurance companies better integrate cutting edge technologies into their processes.
SUCCESS PATHWAY
Currently my hobbies are whatever my kids are interested in. My son is 5 and my daughter is 2 years old. So we are into princesses and Legos.
In college, my accounting 101 class was the first time I truly felt that a course had real-world application. I think that insurance chose me – I was assigned to a P&C insurance company and found the business fascinating.
Throughout my career, mentors have been extremely supportive and involved in my development. One piece of advice was that ‘perfect is the enemy of the good’. Being a perfectionist cripples productivity; so I try to prioritize and focus my efforts and those of my teams.
Although I learned leadership skills through trial and error, my time in public accounting provided a great training ground for building managerial skills. I certainly stumbled more than a few times, but the key was acknowledging what wasn’t working and tweaking my approach accordingly.
Only a few years ago, I never would have imagined being able to effectively work as a team in a mostly remote environment. I now see how it’s possible to do so using collaborative software. Encouraging colleagues to meet in-person is still a great way to ensure that each team member is on their path to success.