Spring 2008 issue of Terry Magazine - (Page 22)

Restless and ambitious, they sort of threw a An unlikely tale for three brothdart at a map, looking for the largest city in ers in a failed mill town in rural the Southeast without an insurance company. Georgia. The dart hit Columbus, and off the Amos boys hustled to hang out a shingle on an old Prof. Leverett taught frame house. They launched American Family guiding principles Life Assurance Company with $50,000 in What was Dan Amos up to these borrowed start-up capital, 15 employees and years? Back in Florida, he helped 60 independent agents, six rooms and 1,000 out in the family’s variety store, square feet. stuffing Easter baskets, sweepOne of the Amos brothers, John, was a ing floors. He ran his snow cone visionary lawyer with big dreams. Second business. When he was 10, he brother Bill was an internal operations guy. expanded into winter operations, Paul was the marketer — and father to a photographing kids on Santa’s ginger-haired son named Dan, who showed knee. early potential, becoming president of his After arriving in Columbus Junior Achievement chapter at age 16. at age 15, Dan joined the local The Amos brothers struggled, selling Methodist church, played some policies door to door. To raise cash, they football at Columbus High. (An also sold ownership shares in Aflac. They injury sidelined him, so he became hocked their homes to keep things going. a team manager.) He made his But their labors eventually revealed two grades and worked at Aflac sumthings, two magic bullets, which would set mers, earning his insurance license Aflac apart. before college. The first transforming idea stemmed Off he went to UGA in 1969, from family tragedy. where he pledged Sigma Nu. He When the Amos brothers’ father died held the job of senior class presiof cancer, the healthcare bill stung. Wasn’t dent and he majored in risk manbereavement bad enough in itself, without agement, falling into the sphere of unforgiving medical bills? Couldn’t they Terry’s risk management guru E.J. have protected themselves in some preLeverett. planned way? “Most everybody who works here The Amoses dreamed up a supplemenat Aflac,” says Amos, “has heard me tal cancer insurance policy they could sell talk about the three principles of for $24 a year to a family. It would pay risk management I learned from Dr. a lump sum if cancer struck; caregivers Leverett. I’ve made the point that could spend the money any way they they not only apply to business but needed. to your personal decisions. First, you The Amoses now shifted their focus don’t risk a lot for a little. Second, you from selling these door-to-door policies don’t risk more than you can afford to to targeting small companies, 5 to 500 lose. Third, you always consider the employees. They worked through human odds. These principles have been the resources departments; no one else sold filter for most every decision I’ve made insurance this way in the U.S. at the time. since UGA.” Aflac soon found sales taking wing. After graduation, Amos took fullAmos (shown here with his Boykin Spaniel, Dru) recharges his batteries at his The second transforming idea came time work with Aflac and shipped off farm in Harris County. “He likes to fish, hunt quail, or just sit on the porch watching in 1970, when John Amos visited the to Alabama and north Florida from the breeze,” says his wife Kath elen, a 1982 UGA law graduate. Married in 2005, the World’s Fair in Osaka, Japan, and noticed 1973-1982. When he started, his tercouple’s blended family has five children and three gran dkids. how many Japanese wore surgical masks ritory — “sixth or seventh in the comto avoid cold germs. pany,” he says — produced $600,000 Now this, John realized, is the place annually. It produced $10 million a to sell health insurance. year when he left — and he was Aflac’s top gun in sales. It took a few patient years to win approval to operate in Japan, He had flared into full view, suddenly a bona fide candidate to but in 1974 Aflac became the second insurance company there, and succeed the first-generation Amoses in the executive offices. the first insurer to start after World War II. Headquarters brought him home to be company president in It was a license to print money. 1983. He took a $100,000-a-year pay cut for the post, but even Today, Japan is the source of 70 percent of Aflac’s income, and then the top office wasn’t a lock. company policies insure one in every four Japanese households. In The three Amos brothers produced five children, and Dan was terms of individual policy sales, Aflac is No. 1 in Japan and the U.S. low on that totem pole of succession. “I never saw myself as CEO of 22 • Spring 2008 Terry College of BuSineSS

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Terry School of Business - Spring 2008

Terry School of Business - Spring 2008 Contents Quick Bites Research & Innovation Gatherings Best CEO in America An Unlikely Rock Star Fire & Flavor Beyond the Bench Terry Memo Economic Scorekeeper Class Notes

Terry School of Business - Spring 2008

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