While you may need to take a pause or move investment dollars into other areas, you must be able to articulate that in a strategic review, which most companies do on an ongoing basis.Īre you able to sustain an entrepreneurial environment even with a company at the size and scale of State Farm? This also comes back to the articulation of your strategy based on feelings about the marketplace and where the growth opportunities are. There may be times when short-term earnings are affected as you do some repositioning or even change some foundational things that you know are important to create growth opportunities in the years to come. Where investors recognize your track record, you can, hopefully, have some confidence that they will stick with you as you make the necessary adjustments. It’s all about finding a balance in creating growth momentum at a publicly traded organization or even at a mutual like State Farm. In running large businesses, can you make the long-term investments you need with all of the short-term pressures? So I equate sustainable value creation with growth because, if you are growing, you are showing a sustainable creation of value that attracts customers to you. How I grow today may be different than how I grew a year ago or five years ago, and with customers, technology, and connectivity today, a portion of growth five years from now will probably be derived differently than it is today. I tend to look at it through the lens of growth from the standpoint that if I’m growing, it shows that I am maintaining a relevancy in the marketplace. There is an important mindset around sustainable value creation. What does “sustainable value creation” mean to you and, as you look to the future, will that phrase stick? State Farm is ranked number 41 on the 2014 Fortune 500 list of largest companies. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company is the parent of the State Farm family of companies. Commercial auto insurance, along with coverage for renters, business owners, boats, and motorcycles, is available. In addition to providing auto insurance quotes, their 18,000 agents and more than 65,000 employees serve over 82 million policies and accounts – nearly 80 million auto, home, life, health, and commercial policies, and nearly two million bank accounts. State Farm ( ) and its affiliates are the largest providers of car insurance in the U.S. He joined State Farm in 1975 at the company’s Dallas, Texas, regional office and became President and Chief Executive in 1985, and was elected Chairman of the Board two years later. A graduate of Illinois Wesleyan, Rust holds both juris doctor and master of business degrees from Southern Methodist University. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Caterpillar, Inc., Helmerich & Payne, Inc., and McGraw-Hill Financial.
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Rust currently serves as a trustee of The Conference Board, the Committee for Economic Development, and Illinois Wesleyan University. Hunt, Jr., Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy. He has served on the boards of America’s Promise Alliance and the James B. Chamber of Commerce and The Financial Services Roundtable, and a member of The Business Roundtable. is nationally recognized as a leader of business community efforts to improve the quality of education in the United States.