Monday Meeting: Jeffrey B. Scott, CEO of Olympus Insurance Co.

Dec. 07--As a kid, Jeff Scott impressed friends and family with magic acts and his ability to solve the '70s and '80s puzzle craze, the Rubik's Cube, in minutes.

Now he has different puzzles to solve. He serves as CEO of Olympus Insurance Co., which moved its headquarters to Palm Beach Gardens not long before Florida's 11-year streak without a hurricane landfall came to an end.

Hurricanes Hermine and Matthew could have been worse but still produced more than 130,000 claims statewide, serving as reminders of the risks that confront Florida.

Olympus, founded in 2007, has about 85,000 customers and covers property worth $45 billion. That ranks it among the state's top 25 property insurers.

Scott sees a large and growing role for technology, from drones to oversee disaster damage to automated sensors that might be able to detect broken pipes and shut off water. In the long run, that could save consumers money and protect lives and safety, too.

"Embedded in our Olympus culture is to innovate every day, so we think a lot about how best to implement these technologies," Scott said. "Ten years from now, the impact of technology on our industry will be profound."

Name: Jeffrey B. Scott

Age: 50

Hometown: Albany, N.Y.

Where you live now: Jupiter

About your company: Olympus Insurance Co. was founded in 2007 as a preferred property insurance market for independent agencies. In 2015, we consolidated our operations and relocated our headquarters to Palm Beach Gardens. Today, through the execution of an agent-based organic growth strategy and careful underwriting standards, Olympus insures 85,000 Florida homeowners, representing $45 billion of Florida property. Particularly rare for Florida, we insure homes up to $5 million of insured value (market value is often multiples of insured value) on one of the most comprehensive coverage policies in the industry.

We are exceptionally conscious of risk and meeting our commitments to policyholders under extreme circumstances, something Florida is certainly accustomed to. As a result, we share our risk with some of the strongest reinsurers in the world for both catastrophe losses and, importantly, noncatastrophe losses. These reinsurers pay 70 percent of our everyday losses and 100 percent of hurricane losses over $1 million and up to our modeled probable maximum loss for a 200-year storm. To put that in perspective, Hurricane Andrew was a 40-year storm.

Our broad policy coverage and this reinsurance conservatism is what sets Olympus apart from its competition.

How your business has changed: Like most industries, technology is driving significant changes. Obvious examples include applications that allow insureds faster and more efficient means to make policy changes, payments and claims. However, future technology applied to our industry will be much more transformative.

Network connected devices, better known as the Internet of Things or IOT, will monitor, communicate, and perform loss mitigation functions. Consider an IOT device such as a water sensor that will immediately detect a broken pipe, turn off the water, alert and dispatch loss prevention or cleanup services. Or IOTs that identify dangerous conditions such as electrical shorts, gas leaks, carbon monoxide, smoke, fire, intruders, even a child that has unexpectedly entered a swimming pool, and instantly communicates the danger to insureds and the appropriate responders (e.g. EMS, police, fire departments, plumbers, electricians, utility technicians etc.). Drone technology will safely and effectively allow for detailed property inspections and faster disaster response. Artificial intelligence and "facial" recognition technologies will identify the manufacturer, brand and model of damaged materials and personal contents, where they are available for purchase, and at what cost.

These technologies will save consumers money and, more importantly, save lives and property. Embedded in our Olympus culture is to innovate every day, so we think a lot about how best to implement these technologies. Ten years from now the impact of technology on our industry will be profound.

First paying job and what you learned from it: In truth, I can't remember a time I didn't have a paying job. As a little kid I was fascinated with magic. At my seventh birthday party, I put on a little magic show and next thing I knew I was getting paid gigs. Fifty dollars every weekend to an 8-year-old in 1974 was a lot of money! At age 10 I did this great magic segment on a PBS children's show called "The Big Blue Marble" where I played a magic student and this other 18-year-old magician played my teacher. One of my better-paying jobs for sure.

Eventually, I moved on from magic and basically did whatever came my way to make a buck. In 1981 and '82 there was this craze over a puzzle called the Rubik's Cube. Everyone was obsessed with this thing, there was no YouTube to show you how to do it, and I got it down to under 2 minutes. Suddenly students, teachers, even people in my dad's office were paying me a few dollars just to put their cube back together! Best of all, they messed it up in short order and were back the next day. I learned the ingredients of a perfect business. A product or service others could not easily duplicate where everyone's a repeat customer! Warren Buffett refers to this as a business with an economic "moat."

From my Rubik's Cube fortunes, at age 14, I bought my first car, a 1973 MGB, for $800. It was a "wreck" but figured I could get it fixed up and running by the time I could legally drive and maybe get a date.

I got my first official W-2 job a week after I turned 16 at McDonald's for $3.85 an hour and a free lunch if you worked more than a four-hour shift. Flipping burgers for seven hours was brutal and it was then I learned the definition of "work."

After six months at McDonald's, I moved on to pumping gas, changing oil and tires, and cleaning bathrooms at a Mobil gas station. Same pay (minus the meal) but they let me work on my car in the bays after hours. Parts for the MGB were expensive, as was dinner and a movie for two, so I bought 500 of these cool, fake "Ferrari" fold-up sunglasses from a classified ad in The New York Times for $1.20 each. I'd pump a customer's gas, lean into their window and show them these mind-blowing folding sunglasses. At $15 a pair (2 for $25), they sold out in two months. The profit covered everything I needed for the MGB plus a tux and a limo to the junior prom with a supermarket cashier from my psychology class I had a crush on. Once the MGB was looking and running great, I moved on to the only logical job for a 17-year-old with a convertible: a Domino's pizza delivery boy. I made a ton of tips and sped around town with my friends until 2 a.m. What could be better?

What I learned from all this is pretty straightforward. Do what you love to do, put in any amount of effort and hours to do it and you will not only maximize your chances of success but also never "work" a day in your life. Case in point: The 18-year-old magician from that PBS TV show stuck with the magic he loved and did OK for himself. His name was David Copperfield. About 20 years ago, my wife and I connected with him backstage after one of his shows. His fame notwithstanding, he remained humble and kind. We laughed about "The Big Blue Marble" show and hanging out at Lou Tannen's magic shop in NYC learning from the old masters. He stuck with his passion and became one of the world's most famous magicians, I surmise, never having "worked" a day.

As an aside, the cashier from my junior prom happens to now live in Jupiter, too, which is a good thing because we married in 1990.

First break in the business: My big breaks were my life's many intersections with incredible people. Every business opportunity or success I've enjoyed was the result of the genius, hard work and support of others.

Best business book you ever read: Berkshire Hathaway Letters to Shareholders, by Warren Buffett

Best piece of business advice you ever received: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." -- Mark Twain.

What you tell young people about your business: Learn everything you need to know to run the company because it's a certainty that, in time, someone of your generation will have that opportunity.

What do you see ahead for Palm Beach County? I'm originally from Albany, N.Y., and for some reason not a lot of folks move there to retire. In other words, population growth will not be an issue for us. Our challenge will be controlling and shaping it in a way that preserves a wonderful way of life and offers opportunity to young people.

Where we can find you when you are not at the office: Working on bikes with my son or designing/building high-end media servers and speaker systems. I find it nearly impossible to disconnect from work but tinkering with engines and electronics puts me fully in the present.

Favorite smartphone app: Uber and WaZe. No clue how I ever lived without them.

What is the most important trait you look for when hiring? Three actually. Ambition, intelligence and strong moral character. Importantly, if they lack the last one, the first two can do a lot of damage.

___

(c)2016 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)

Visit The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) at www.palmbeachpost.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.