The 19th annual McGrigor Group Strategy Day took place virtually this year, as everyone is now accustomed to Zoom.

A significant benefit of the virtual format was the more than usually International make-up of the meeting with participants from Washington DC, New York, San Francisco, Bahrain, London, Denmark, France as well as from MGG UK HQ in a very sunny Hampshire. On the downside we had to pass on our usual bonding lunch and post event dinner/party but this was more than compensated by the eclectic mix. We were very grateful for our Middle East Associate, David Axtell, attending throughout the day, for our colleague, David Vogdt’s report from MGG Specialty projects in Benin, and for a number of other associates (Lola, Olga, Avanti..) dialling in from around the globe in the afternoon.

Our Board Advisor, the esteemed Per Bay Jørgensen, kindly gave us his insights into what clients look for when buying consulting. MGG US PHM Associate, Professor Ron Goetzel, provided us with an enlightening perspective using some lessons from COVID in the US on how business and public sectors could and should work together. Our West Coast Venture investor associate, Casper de Clercq, provided an insightful review on insur-tech innovation and areas for future investment. Sheldon Brickman, our US M&A Associate, took our ‘spotlight on me’ session. With PHM and Wellbeing rising up the corporate agenda, we were also delighted to have the actuarial and behavioural insights of our UK associate, Colin Bullen, (from Bratlab) on ROI strategies for wellbeing programmes.

We reviewed our year vs the goals set at the last meeting. Despite the harsh impact of the Covid pandemic we were pleased to report that we had an acceptably successful year considering the circumstances.

Below, you can listen to Professor Goetzel on ‘Washington Post Live’ talking about the presentation he gave to MGG. Ron is Senior Scientist and Director of the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies (IHPS), John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Vice President of Consulting and Applied Research, IBM Watson Health.