Travelers 2008 Annual Report Download - page 5

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managing risks in order to achieve an appropriate return for
our shareholders. Nothing in that approach or in our culture
has changed.
No doubt, the current environment presents us with significant
risks — risks of which we are very mindful and which we intend
to address thoughtfully. We believe, however, that this environ-
ment also presents us with significant potential opportunities.
We believe that our strong balance sheet and liquidity position,
taken together with our thoughtful approach to risk taking,
position us extremely well for these opportunities.
Thanks to our Board, employees and agents
I would like to take a moment to personally thank our Board of
Directors and to offer our gratitude and best wishes to Dr. Glen
Nelson, who joined our board in 1992 and is retiring this year.
Glen has helped us successfully navigate the changes in this
company and in this industry for the past 17 years, and I will
miss his thoughtful insight and guidance very much.
As we look ahead to 2009, we expect it will be a challenging
year, but whatever the year holds, we believe that we are well
positioned. Most of all, we have 33,000 employees, the best
team in our industry, and because of the successful strategies
we have employed here at Travelers and that I have outlined
in this letter, we benefit from the best that our people have to
offer. And we have approximately 14,000 independent agents
who are committed to providing the best possible products and
services for their customers. I believe the success we continue
to experience, even in these difficult times, is the direct result
of the continued hard work of all these individuals, and for that
I am most grateful.
Jay S. Fishman
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Enterprise Response Strategy Tested
by 2008 Storms; Proves Highly Effective
When Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas coast in
September and cut a swath of destruction across the
middle of the United States, Travelers Claim employees
were immediately available to help customers. Before the
storm made landfall, teams of trained and equipped Claim
professionals were ready to get to work.
Our decision a few years ago to develop an innovative
Enterprise Response strategy and a National Catastrophe
Response Center meant that the Travelers Claim organization
was able to quickly deploy thousands of cross-trained
employees from other areas of the country to help
customers, rather than, as is customary in our industry,
relying on outside contractors.
Even in the midst of widespread evacuations and telecom-
munications outages, Travelers was able to contact most of
our customers within 48 hours of their reporting a claim to
us and inspect, provide payment, and close the majority of
all claims reported within 30 days.
This new model has allowed Travelers Claim employees to
not only assist customers in their time of greatest need, but
also to build relationships that withstand the test of time.
Scenes such as this one, below, were commonplace throughout
Hurricane Ike’s path, which started on the Texas coast and moved
north through the Midwest. Travelers’ new response strategy means
that employees are on site immediately following a storm and are
able to help policyholders very quickly.