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Ian Geden's pultry have followed him through seven moves to different regions of the country

SINCE the age of 14, when he kept his first bantams, to his present job as head of the rural insurer NFU Mutual, Ian Geden still finds time to keep poultry.

"I'm a frustrated farmer really," said Ian. "I would love to have the time to run a smallholding - maybe one day I'll get the chance. However, having an interest in poultry means I get to know other poultry rearers and smallholders which ensures I get honest and direct feedback on what they need from their insurer."

Ian's pride and joy are his Lavender Pekin bantams, which he has kept and occasionally shown for more than 20 years. He also rears Pyle Dutch bantams and blue laced wyndotte bantams. In his one-acre garden near Evesham, he also runs a small flock of East India bantam ducks and has been known to fatten turkeys for Christmas.

Throughout a career spanning more than 35 years at the rural insurer, Ian's chickens have followed him through seven career moves around the country.

Ian joined NFU Mutual in 1969, direct from grammar school as a professional trainee. Over his long career with the insurer, he has worked in 17 roles before becoming chief executive in 2002.

"I quickly found that I liked NFU Mutual's culture. It was, and still is, a very ethical organisation, there to do the right thing by the customer.

"The way we do business is based on face-to-face service and advice delivered via local offices. It's quite a contrast to the trend to close local offices and either deal with customers through remote call centres or the internet which has been adopted by many financial services institutions.

"The comments of our customers clearly shows that our way of doing business suits them. That's backed up by the fact that nine out of ten of our customers renew their Insurance with us year on year - something almost unheard of in the insurance industry."

He explained that as a mutual - owned by its policyholders - all of NFU Mutual's effort went into looking after customers.

"That's from advising on the right products to meet their needs and making sure we deal with claims fairly and quickly. A good example of our claims response was the floods across the Midlands.

"When the floods hit, we put our emergency disaster plan into action. A claims team was put in place to co-ordinate the response and teams of claims staff and flood damage restoration companies were put on stand-by ready to go in to damaged properties when the waters receded.

"At times of disasters like the current flooding, our local office network and the fact that their staff know most of our customers and where they live or farm really helps."

By bringing in a special claims team, he said that NFU Mutual was able to see some of the worst-affected people very quickly and where necessary provide cash to help them with immediate needs such as emergency accommodation.

"Our mutual status enables us to respond to crises like the recent flooding without concerns about the effects on shareholders. We're determined to maintain our mutual status for this reason.

"For any successful business complacency can be a risk. I'm determined that won't be the case at NFU Mutual. We're working hard to be more efficient, and to continue growing. To that end we're looking for places to open new offices while expanding our existing 300 offices, and improving our computer systems and staff training.

"However, we won't be doing anything that in any way dilutes our close links with the rural community.

"Indeed we've recently relaunched our regional boards of customers to give them a stronger role in the running of the business.

"We're also looking hard at the possible effects of climate change. Global warming is forecast to create more volatile weather patterns leading to more hurricanes, storms and floods so we are working closely with scientists, and government to look at possible future claims scenarios and do everything we can to prepare for them. It is also vital that the government delivers on its promise to improve flood protection."

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