"Work hard, there is no substitute for hard work."
With a background in loss adjusting, Tim Jarman knows that trust is key. Winning trust means listening deeply to understand clients’ needs and challenges. Accessible and responsive, he tunes into the human aspect, communicates intentionally, and drives innovative results without compromising integrity. It’s about acting quickly with solutions that restore lives, businesses and communities when they need it most.
As a hands-on leader, he has a hard time staying still in and outside the office. Tim loves staying active and spending time outdoors – for the time being he’s given up football but he does enjoy playing golf. His competitive side comes out on the course.
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Table of Contents
Thank you for accepting my interview invitation! I’d love to know how you ended up becoming an entrepreneur? Tell me your story.
Tim Jarman: My career began as a claims handler in Norwich Union in Brighton, England. Following that, I moved to Excess Insurance in the UK to specialise in Employer and Public Liability claims before starting my loss adjusting journey with McLaren Dick and Company in Brighton in 1986. If I’m honest, way back then, the only reason I went into adjusting was to get a company car! But what perhaps started out with the wrong motivation was quite pivotal in reality, in terms of where I’ve ended up today.
In late 1987, the south east of England was hit by a massive storm. Managing claims through that period was a baptism of fire, but I learned an enormous amount.
I became a qualified loss adjuster in 1994 and also became the McLarens Brighton Manager that same year. I then was promoted to Associate Director of McLarens in 1996.
I moved to Sydney Australia with my wife and three young boys in 2001 to take on the role of Deputy Managing Director of the owned aspect of McLarens (it was a franchised operation at the time). I then became the Managing Director in 2002 and was on the Board of the Franchise operation. In that role, I was also responsible for the overall management of McLarens’ Pacific Isle operations of Fiji and Vanuatu.
I joined Crawford as its Chief Operations Officer in 2008 and became the President of Crawford Australia in 2019 – this is the position I hold to this day.
Tell our readers what your company does differently than your peers and why that difference is so important to your audience?
Tim Jarman: Crawford is the only company in Australia that can handle a claim from ‘first notification of loss’ through to litigation where necessary. We have specialized experts at every single stage of the claim lifecycle. There is no other business in Australia that can come close to saying that.
When clients are only dealing with one company for any given claim, there are efficiencies to be gained. Time is money – if we can do things more efficiently, we’ll pass that saving onto our clients. To give you an example: a client might use a specialty loss adjusting house that only does major and complex loss and nothing else. Then the claim becomes litigated, so the adjusting house must engage a third-party law firm. That law firm then must get up to speed on the claim, often on an hourly rate. Whereas when you work with Crawford, we are one team. If a claim becomes litigated, our loss adjusters can speak to our lawyers at HBA Legal and move the claim along quicker. What client doesn’t want to get ‘more for less’? Our motivation for diversification in our business has entirely come from delivering better value for our clients.
When clients work with Crawford they know they get:
- Quality that sets industry benchmarks: consistent, quality service, delivered promptly.
- Expertise that is deep and eminent: our clients can depend on people who understand the industry and their business.
- Digital that simplifies: we advance technology to simplify every part of the claims process, even the most aggravating ones.
Running a business, your’s or on behalf of someone requires great leadership skills. What are some of the biggest challenges you faced as you took on a leader’s role and what did you learn?
Tim Jarman: My biggest challenge was succeeding the previous President of our Australian business who had been my boss for 11 years and was very well known and respected within the local industry. The business had been incredibly successful under him for nearly 20 years and I had to make sure it remained successful under my leadership.
It was important for me to quickly set out my vision for the business’ future direction and highlight that my approach would naturally be different to that of the previous President – because after all, we are all human and we are all different. Everyone has a different leadership style and that’s normal, but when the person before you has been in the seat 20 years and done a brilliant job, then it’s big shoes to fill and it’s an adjustment for the people you lead too – I think it’s important to recognise that.
Obviously, many years ago, we were not using Microsoft Teams or any kind of technology like that, and so I set out on a tour of the major offices around the country to meet and greet with our people and to deliver my message. This also enabled me to engage with certain aspects of the business that I had not been overly involved with previously, despite being the COO.
It was also critical to get the local executive leadership team engaged with my vision and to hit the re-set button under my leadership. Many of those people had been my peers and now I was their boss so, when you are in that situation, your approach requires careful consideration.
My main learning through this time was that despite the fact that the previous President was very successful (and he’s someone who remains in the business today in another part of the world), I had to run the business my own way, to be my own person and live the values that I believed were important to me and the business.
Now many years down the track, I am pleased to say that the business has remained successful and has continued to grow.
Success is not an accident. What are some routines and habits you learned to master that contributed to your current success?
Tim Jarman: Work hard, there is no substitute for hard work.
Be prepared for road blocks along the way, but try not to worry. A long time ago I taught myself to not worry about things. I did this by looking back at situations I had worried about and I realised that they simply were not worth worrying about, or that worrying didn’t change anything. Even if a worse case scenario materialises, you can work through it to achieve an outcome. In saying this, it’s also critical to ensure that your moral compass is in check. If you do something that is against the law, plainly wrong or immoral, you may have something to worry about!
One should have a bit of an edge about them, a bit of sense of urgency, otherwise complacency can creep in. But being on top of things, across things, is very different from worrying about things. Worrying isn’t productive.
Also, I always try to make time for people, whether they be customers, colleagues or friends. I believe that most people appreciate the time you give them and in doing so you develop more trusting relationships that are important as you move through your work life. Equally, treat people as you would want to be treated – if you do this, you cannot go far wrong.
If you make a promise to someone to do something, make sure you deliver on that promise because your reputation depends on it. Having people being able to trust in what you say is an enormous part of building relationships and relationships are part of the key to success.
On a lighter note, whenever I have a particularly tricky meeting to attend, or I need some extra assistance in a difficult situation, I wear a pair of cufflinks that I inherited from my grandfather – they give me something extra and have not let me down yet. I have to be careful not to over use them though because if I do, they may lose their power!
Can you share with us defining moments in your journey, please give us details and stories to illustrate?
Tim Jarman: My most defining moment in my career so far has been moving from the UK to Australia in 2001 with my wife and three young children; we had not been to Australia previously and really knew nobody here. We were determined to make it work and so we sold our house in England and shipped all our possessions out here.
When we arrived, I discovered that the business I came to join was not what I expected it to be from my previous discussions in the UK. The business had a lot of debt and was in financial difficulties that were preventing it from growing. Somehow, we had get the business back to a steady place and build it up to be financially viable into the future.
I remember going home after work on the first day and trying to put on a brave face in front of my wife. I wanted her to feel that we had made the right move and that our future in Australia was bright. But in reality, that is not how it felt at the time. My wife is no fool and she saw through it after about a week! I had to share with her some of my concerns, but also convince her that we would be able to get it right, albeit at the time I was far from convinced of this myself. I think had I told her the whole truth at the time, we would have been flying home on the next plane. But after a lot of hard work, my colleagues and I were able to get the business back on to an even keel, pay off its debts and turn it into a profitable entity.
I learned a considerable amount about myself through this experience and probably, for the first time, I realised how resilient I could be in the face of adversity.
What are the five things you wish someone had told you before you became an entrepreneur?
Tim Jarman: I’d say:
- Trust your gut
- Know your numbers (that is: the financial state of play of the business)
- Treat people as you want to be treated
- Protect your integrity at all costs
- Make sure you have a good team around you
Oftentimes we hear: “Your network is your net worth”, please share your thoughts on that adage and illustrate your experience.
Tim Jarman: This is so true. Here, I reflect on what I have said earlier in terms of relationships being part of the key to success.
By maintaining a relationship with a previous CEO at McLaren Dick and Company, I was offered the opportunity to join Crawford, and joining Crawford was an opportunity that has ultimately worked out very well for me.
You never know where your network may lead you, or what opportunities it will throw up. But equally, what you may be able to offer people in your network….business is a two-way street.
What are some professional or even personal goals you plan on tackling during the 2022 year? Share the battles you expect to face.
Tim Jarman: I have a number of professional ambitions in 2022 and beyond that which revolve around the people working in the business I lead and how we continue to develop the culture of organization in Australia.
On a personal note, I am aiming to reduce my golf handicap by a further two shots before the end of the year, and then to reduce it by a further two shots in 2023…..I will then be happy with my golf game, or so I say now!
With all the social media platforms available, it’s increasingly difficult to be present everywhere. Which ones do you favor for your company and why?
Tim Jarman: For us, as a B2B, it’s all about Linkedin. There are so many social options these days that it can be hard to know where to focus your efforts but we put our efforts into Linkedin because we are not a consumer brand. Our clients are other businesses and Linkedin is where businesses are having conversations with one another. I love Linkedin because it has given us a platform to publish our own stories to a broad audience. For a long time we’ve been able to publish our own narrative on our website but that relies on people actually going to your website. Social networking has changed all that, it’s fabulous.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Tim Jarman for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Tim Jarman or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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