About Howard Kettner

Professional

As the Founder and CEO of GroupHEALTH Global Benefit Systems – a company with more than 100 employees serving over 2000 client organizations across Canada – my mission is to make a tangible and significant difference in the value that benefit plans provide for both employers and employees.

GroupHEALTH packages insurance services that are shaped to each individual organization. We create unique value solutions by including disability management services, employee assistance and wellness programs, as well as a range of regional and industry-specific benefit plan solutions.

Our Edge

Our competitive advantage is founded on our personal relationships and frequent conversations with our clients. Our clients are some of the smartest, most innovative people in the world; and by listening to what they face each day, we discover how to deliver change that matters.

Over the past 25 years we’ve developed a technology called WEBSonline. It addresses a full spectrum of administrative challenges faced by HR Professionals, Payroll Administrators, CFOs, and business owners. WEBSonline enables GroupHEALTH clients to optimize the cost effectiveness of their benefit programs while maximizing the value to employees and their dependants.

Our Success

In 1983, GroupHEALTH started in Prince George, BC, in a sparse office encompassing only 250 square feet. While I’ve been very fortunate in experiencing the company’s growth, sales figures and accolades are not what validate me. Instead, I am most proud of being able to contribute on a team that consists of individuals who genuinely care.

In addition to the competitive advantage given to us by our clients’ suggestions, kind words, and referrals, GroupHEALTH has also been blessed by the remarkable individuals that I work with each day. I am amazed by their willingness, capability, and commitment to make practical changes to our services in response to client feedback.

Working at GroupHEALTH

Although I am employed at GroupHEALTH Global, it would be wrong of me to term what I do ‘work’. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing than what I do 300+ days a year with GroupHEALTH. I’m humbled by the clients, Partner Advisors, Insurers, and team members that have stuck with us as we’ve adapted to the enormous changes in our industry.

I like to think that a typical day at work for me is spent visiting with friends; nothing more, nothing less. The visitation might take place in Gander, Saskatoon, Montreal or Prince George. It might involve members of our 40+ Partner network offices, our enormously supportive insurance company provider network, our clients, or our staff team; but the day is still spent visiting with friends. At times these are friends who cared enough to muster the courage to tell us what we could be doing better. At other times they are folks who are not yet clients, but they are willing to tell us what we need to do to attract their interest and loyalty – and that is solid gold.

Management guru Tom Peters would likely coin my unofficial designation at GroupHEALTH as “Howard Kettner, MBWA” (Management By Wandering Around). How can one do anything but relish and thrive in a job that consists of walking around and meeting with folks that offer never-ending ideas that contribute to one’s fulfilment!

I am very grateful. At GroupHEALTH, we get more than we give – and I’m keenly aware of that fact. Every morning when I wake up, I’m cognisant that in some fashion throughout the coming day I need to level that playing field. Each day I try to do something significant and tangible to give back to the folks that have contributed so generously to the success and growth of our organization.

Family

Family is another integral part of what makes me who I am. With 7 children, family is as important to me as the air I breathe.

Although my children are scattered across Canada, and indeed the world, they are still very much a focus to my life. It is hard to believe that my first domestic air travel was in 1978 at the age of 23, and in this day and age I have a daughter younger than that preparing for life in Nepal.

How things have changed. I recall leaving home, faced with the challenges of inflexible and impractical long distance communication. Often days, weeks, or months would elapse without communication with my parents or siblings.

Nowadays, communication is both easy and practical. In this arena, the result is my children are mentoring me rather than the other way around. They understand the future. If I make it to the future of business, whatever that may be, I believe it will be as a result of their assistance in navigating this new communications frontier.

Family Connections

As my children mature, I am continuously awed and amazed to see which of my influences surface in them. All four of my post-teen children are entrepreneurs, navigating the challenges and successes of being in business for themselves. We assist each other in any way we can, maximizing opportunity and creating personal satisfaction by meeting the needs of our respective clients.

My children and I share an appetite for adventure and an interest in technology. And, along with my wife Coral Dawn, they create a level of joy in my life beyond what I could have hoped for and certainly beyond what I deserve. Where has all this taken me? And where will it take me in the future?

As I moved into my 40s and 50s, they coaxed me into running and downhill skiing – both pursuits that I’d previously never experienced. They engaged me in downhill mountain biking and road cycling adventures such as GranFondo 2010 – a 120km bike ride from Vancouver to Whistler. And they encouraged Coral and I as we trekked to Everest Basecamp.

I wouldn’t trade my family connections and experiences for anything.

Heritage/History

Looking back, I am fascinated by how my various unplanned adventures have influenced my life’s journey. One experience which I fondly look back upon provided me with my first encounter with sales and the risks and rewards associated with it.

Growing up in Northern BC, I learned many valuable lessons as a 12 year old paperboy. In those days I was required to provide verification to the newspaper that I’d spoken with every home in the neighbourhood about the opportunity to become a subscriber. From my perspective, it wasn’t a big deal – I was walking past the houses anyway, so they might as well be customers – right? I was blessed to have such an incredible sales training experience at that age. Unlike adults, I don’t think kids get sales call reluctance since they develop a pretty thick skin on the playgrounds of youth. Having an adult say ‘no’ was simply that – sure it was ‘no’, but it wasn’t a big deal.

As a young paperboy, I also learned how to retain my clients. If I did what I said I was going to do by providing a personal service, my clients would be happy. As a paper boy, this meant on-time delivery to each house, placing the paper in a dry spot where the animals couldn’t get it, and perhaps ringing the doorbell to hand-deliver it with a cheery greeting. These simple touches defined the service experience – and the feedback was usually immediate; in most cases a warm ‘thank-you!’ reinforced the extra effort I had expended.

As with all sales processes, there were challenges and obstacles. For the paper route, there were the dogs. I carried a stick to protect myself if required, while my brother had found that most of the critters could be satiated with the cookies he kept in his pocket.

Then there were the collections… Yes, we had to collect every dime owed for the paper by ringing the doorbell on the first of every month on ‘collections day’! Some forgetful folks would move away without paying the bill and this was an unfriendly introduction to the risks associated with being an entrepreneur. Non-payment was not the paper’s liability; so at the age of 12, it was all on me. Other customers would not have the monthly subscription fee, so I’d need to make a note of that and collect on the date that they said they’d have the money. If I forgot to do that, I would lose the profits – and the costs.

I managed sales, service, and delivery issues through rain, cold, hail and sleet – and don’t forget the dogs. I was introduced to the pitfalls of collections and cash management: don’t spend it all on chocolate bars at the corner store located at the midway point. Who gets the privilege of that kind of training today before graduating from university? I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The lessons welded into my conscious and subconscious through those experiences shaped my thinking in a hundred ways throughout the years – again reinforcing a sense that I have gotten far more than I’ve given – or deserve, and will need to stay healthy and live long so that I can give back to the people, the organizations and communities that have blessed me.

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