With Russell L. Philpott, Executive Vice President, Staebler Insurance
How is the brokerage celebrating?
Are you doing any client or charitable initiatives? Our Staebler 150 Committee has a full year of celebrations planned! We kicked off with an open-house event at the office that welcomed our clients and business partners. We also have several staff appreciation events and client giveaways planned for the summer. It’s impossible to make it 150 years in business in isolation. We’re excited to include and acknowledge the contribution of our team and clients to helping us achieve this milestone.
A core value to Staebler and a central theme of commemorating our 150th year is charity and community involvement. We’re committed to distributing $150,000 worth of charitable donations throughout the entire year. Our very own employee-run Staebler Charity & Community Involvement Committee is maximizing the impact of those donations by identifying causes and organizations to contribute to based on need and reach. Additionally, we’ve launched unlimited volunteer days for our team to empower them to make a difference in areas near and dear to their hearts.
Another core value to Staebler is continuing education and professional development. That leads us to partner with local, renowned educational institutions in our region to support their initiatives through various gifts and awards, such as the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College.
How has the brokerage evolved over the years?
Well, considering that Edison invented the incandescent lightbulb in 1879—six years after J.M. Staebler began—it’s fair to say that the brokerage has evolved quite a bit over the course of its history. One hundred and fifty years ago, King Street was a dirt track between two villages. At its start, the Staebler office consisted of a small workspace at the back of a bookstore, where a single insurance agent operated—probably by candlelight. Customers would have arrived at the office via horse and buggy, and insurance policies would have been hand-written documents with just a few lines of text.
Fast forward to today—the Kitchener-Waterloo Region is a very different place. King Street is now a bustling central roadway that connects two thriving cities by light rail transit. High-rise buildings, top-tier educational institutions, and world-renowned technology organizations call the region their home.
Given that Staebler Insurance has seen two world wars, a great depression, and now a global pandemic, the business’s longevity is a testament to its adaptability and resiliency.
What are your plans for the next 100 years?
Still waiting on the hover board we were promised—excited to see that come around. In the meantime, our ambition is to continue to serve and support our community, and empower our clients and employees alike to conquer life’s challenges and achieve financial security and quality of life. We plan to run a socially responsible business and to be there for our clients when they need our advice and advocacy. To be there for our team to support them through their personal and professional development. And to be there for our business partners and work together to deliver solutions to our clients.
What’s your brokerage’s greatest achievement?
Certainly, our culture stands out as something that we’re particularly proud of. Especially during the pandemic, with so much decentralized and remote work, there were widespread concerns throughout the industry that culture would be vulnerable to the work-from-home model. It was something we paid a lot of attention to and we were thrilled to see our team champion our strong corporate culture all throughout the pandemic and into the future. To this day, we continue to get very high onboarding survey feedback from our newer staff around our culture of being welcoming and truly invested in each other’s success and professional development.
Over the years, Staebler consciously decided to focus on hiring for fit rather than credentials. This has helped us shape our culture, and provides more opportunity to get good at hiring from other industries. As a result, we’ve become very proficient at introducing new people to the insurance industry and opening up a new career path. Our robust internal training and mentoring program facilitate the journey from inexperienced talent to a skilled insurance professional.
Since 2010, Staebler has worked closely with the Conestoga College insurance program to host a Staebler + Conestoga Day each year. During the pandemic, we pivoted to a virtual event, but last year we were thrilled to be back in person and hosting the students in our offices to give them a hands-on view of the broker role. That has been a wonderful opportunity for Staebler to advocate for the broker channel to our up-and-coming graduates.
What’s the most interesting fact about your brokerage?
There’s a lot of interesting facts to choose from: J.M. Staebler was mayor of Berlin, H.L. Staebler served as chair of the public school board and introduced music into the curriculum, and F. Keith was a jazz pianist and performed with the KW Symphony Orchestra.
What I find most interesting is that Staebler Insurance has been one business, owned by two families, and seen three generations of each. J.M. Staebler established Staebler Insurance and then his son, H.L. Staebler, and grandson, F. Keith Staebler, later owned and operated it. In 1978, the first member of the Philpott family to own and operate the business, Lorne Philpott, took over. Since then, his son, Stephen, followed in his footsteps, and these days it’s me and my sister Joanna at the helm.
We’re proud to be an independently owned and operated family business for our entire existence. Preparing for our 150 year celebration was an amazing opportunity to dive into the rich history of the business and the community at large.
