The firm's name, Insurance Management Company, is almost generic.

Its contemporary storefront office in downtown Erie is usually overlooked by the thousands of people who pass it every day.

But looks can deceive. What goes on inside its doors has earned the 62-year-old firm two prestigious awards for quality in recent years, and its president John Bloomstine, willingly tells how it accomplishes that level of quality.

"We provide service beyond expectations," he explains in a stroll through IMC's 7,800-square-foot office at 123 W. Ninth St.


Members of the Bloomstine family, who operate Insurance Management Co., gathered in the company's meeting room. Seated are William C. Bloomstine, patriarch of the family and retired company president, now a senior associate, and his daughter, Beth Dubik, vice president and treasurer. Standing are sons Chris Bloomstine, left, vice president and secretary, and John Bloomstine, president of the firm.

Members of the Bloomstine family, who operate Insurance Management Co., gathered in the company's meeting room. Seated are William C. Bloomstine, patriarch of the family and retired company president, now a senior associate, and his daughter, Beth Dubik, vice president and treasurer. Standing are sons Chris Bloomstine, left, vice president and secretary, and John Bloomstine, president of the firm.
 

For its accomplishments in quality improvement and its adherence to the ideals of Total Quality Management the family-owned insurance brokering and risk management firm earned the Highest Achievement Award from the Erie Excellence Council in 1993.

Then in 1994, IMC progressed even higher. It won a coveted Keystone Award from the Pennsylvania Quality leadership Council.

Bloomstine, 34, with his brother, Chris, 36, and sister, Beth Dubik 37, comprise the board of directors of the firm, and are the third generation of the Bloomstine family to operate the business. Chris is the firm's vice president and secretary, and Dubik is vice president and treasurer.

Founded in 1933 by their grandfather, Ralph C. Bloomstine, the firm operated as the R.C. Bloomstine Agency, a sole proprietorship, at first in the 2500 block, then the 2700 block, of Parade Street. When the elder Bloomstine died in 1956, his widow, Louise, took over the business, which she operated until 1964 when it was incorporated. Her sons, William and Ted, operated it until 1972, when they split it into two firms - IMC, operated by William, and the R.C. Bloomstine Agency, operated by Ted.

William opened IMC's office in the 700 block of State Street specializing in commercial, industrial, and institutional accounts.

The company's offices were moved to 132 W. 9th St. in 1978, then across the street to their present location in 1989.

On Jan. 1, 1990, William, now 61, turned over the company to his three children. He remains on the staff, as an associate in risk management.

Currently, IMC serves 125 commercial, industrial and institutional clients who have operations in 38 states and expend approximately $25 million annually to pro-cure insurance and risk management services. Some local and area clients include Lord Corporation, Erie Forge and Steel Corporation, Millcreek Township, Allegheny College, EmergyCare, and Blair Corporation. One client, St Mary's Home of Erie, has been served by the Bloomstine family since 1934.

IMC employs the equivalent of 26 full-time staff members, 23 of whom are actually full-time employees. The firm is an agent/broker for 26 insurance companies.

IMC offers insurance services in such areas as Workers' Compensation, including loss rating plans, sophisticated cash flow analysis, payout matrices, and pyramiding letter of credit analysis; liability, including general, product aviation, malpractice, errors and omissions, directors and officers, and automobile; bonds, including construction and employee dishonesty, political risk including embargo, credit contract frustration, and currency inconvertibility; property/boiler and machinery, including business income and service interruption; and transportation, including inland and ocean.

In the past decade, IMC has strived to access foreign insurers, such as Lloyd's of London, for a variety of coverages, including complicated product liability and political risk.

The two laurels won by IMC did not come without intentional effort. As John Bloomstine explains, the company, at the suggestion of some clients who were involved in the quality movement began a concerted effort to use the tools, techniques and processes of Total Quality Management, a management philosophy that stresses the use of specific, intentional practices (Continuous Quality Improvement) to improve product quality and customer satisfaction.

"The ones who were quality-oriented began asking about quality," he says. "That got us interested. Then my father's foresight got us into it."

But even a casual observer can see that IMC's office functions in a markedly different way than a typical office does, right from the beginning.

Upon entering IMC's door, a visitor was greeted by a sign, welcoming her by name, in front of receptionist Shelly Pontious' desk. Pontious confirmed that all expected visitors were acknowledged in that way.

Before showing the firm's modern, royal blue and oak-partitioned office space, Bloomstine pointed out its showcase of a room, the conference room dominated by a 10-foot-long mahogany table formerly used by Lloyd's of London. While the antique table is striking in its beauty, rife with history, and remarkably practical, the most significant characteristic of the room. The most important thing, Bloomstine stresses is what happens in the room at 8:15 every weekday morning.
 

Every morning, IMC's entire staff meets around the table for an hour to an hour and a half, discussing the needs of clients. This "all hands" daily meeting, say the Bloomstines, has proven to be the company's greatest success at conquering waste and inefficiency.

"It works for us," says John Bloomstine, acknowledging that the practice appears to be expensive, time-wise. "Everybody buys into decisions here. ...With 25 minds there is a tremendous array of opinions, tremendous resources. With most problems, somebody has run across that before."

Topics typically discussed at the morning meetings include client service issues, what happened the last workday, what is expected to happen this day and in the near future, effectiveness and efficiency of services and operations, and educational items.

Bloomstine continues his tour by showing the firm's semi-open office area. There are no private offices at IMC. Even his own paper-strewn desk sits in the middle of the area, open to the sights and sounds of the other workers. That is intentional, he points out. Associates hear each others phones ring and overhear their conversations. They are quick to help each other out and do not hesitate to ask each other for help.

On a prominent wall in the office area hangs what IMC calls its "Covey Board," (named for Stephen Covey, the author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People") a 4-foot by 8-foot lightweight foam board divided into five sections: Important/Urgent, Important/Non-urgent, Less important/Urgent, Less important/Non-urgent, and New items. Strewn over the board are an array of self-stick notes, suggesting various individual or team projects. The items, posted by any associate, are discussed at the morning meetings. There, consensus is reached regarding whether or not action should be taken. An individual or team volunteers to take action and a completion/report date is determined.

Bloomstine credits the use of the board for greater efficiency, improved communication, and, ultimately, improved client satisfaction. But, he adds, it is not perfect. The "Less important/non-urgent" section is virtually useless. If a matter is not important or urgent it doesn't merit anyone's attention.

An entire wall at IMC is covered with flow charts and graphs documenting the firm's structure and monitoring how it is doing in a multitude of areas, including timeliness of service and clarity of billing. Since adopting Continuous Quality Improvement, the firm has seen marked improvement in virtually every area, says Bloomstine.

In the competitive, rugged individualistic atmosphere of today's business world, does IMC's open, teamwork approach create problems with conflict or lack of personal identity?

No, replies Bloomstine, emphasizing that a major part of quality management is empowerment.
"People are encouraged to make decisions based on their own judgment or knowledge," he says, adding that associates are free to make their own decisions on matters affecting their own work. The matters discussed at the morning meetings are those that affect others.

As for conflict, "Luckily we don't" he says. He attributes that to having a staff with positive attitudes, and to the internal non-competitive environment the firm encourages. The teamwork approach was evident when Bloomstine was asked what makes IMC remarkable. Not wanting to answer the question alone, he called his brother, his father, and several associates into the conference room to help answer.

As associate Ron Franklin said, "We try to put ourselves in their (clients) place and perform. They say of us, "they put themselves in my place and do what I would like to do if I were smart enough."'