Insurance Company Helps Needy Children
RHONDA SCHAFFLER, HOST: Ahead on BUSINESS UNUSUAL, a major health insurance company lends a helping hand to some needy children. The CEO of Playboy Enterprises explains how to boost a brand. And a lunchtime favorite returns to its aristocratic roots. That's all ahead on BUSINESS UNUSUAL. Welcome to BUSINESS UNUSUAL. I'm Rhonda Schaffler. Corporate philanthropy has been criticized as nothing more than a public relations tool or a tax write-off. But some CEOs are trying to disprove that claim. AFLAC CEO Dan Amos is a case in point. Being a Fortune 500 CEO may fill up the majority of the day, but Amos still finds time to drop by the AFLAC Cancer Center in Atlanta. So how does he do it? He joins me now from Washington to explain. Thanks so much for joining us, Dan.</s>DAN AMOS, CEO, AFLAC: Thank you for having me.</s>SCHAFFLER: Let's talk a little bit about this center. We'll get to business in a moment. But why did you set up this center? And why are you so personally committed to it?</s>AMOS: Well, all you have to do is go by and meet the kids, and you'll see the need that's out there today in terms of helping children with cancer and blood disorders. And we just feel like that it's important to find the research and the cures to try to get rid of these dreaded diseases.</s>SCHAFFLER: You also spend time, though, visiting the center and playing with these kids. How has that changed your perspective on business on a day-to-day basis?</s>AMOS: Well, I can remember when we decided to invest in this organization, Children's Health Care of Atlanta, one of the things I thought is that it would be very difficult to go by and see the kids because you look at them and you feel sorry for them. But that's not the case. With these kids, they have such strength, and they're so strong, and what they do in terms of fighting this disease. And you have to look at the positive, not the negative. And we've seen childhood cancer whereas the cure rate was only 40 percent, now it's above 80 percent. So you have to accentuate the positive and bad glad for the blessings we've seen with these kids that are making it.</s>SCHAFFLER: It must also do something for your corporate image.</s>AMOS: Well, certainly we believe it has some impact. But I can tell you that our employees themselves have gotten involved. Our employees and our agents, or sales associates, have raised an enormous amount of money for the center themselves. Last year alone, they raised over $500,000 of their own money for the center. And every year they try to beat that number because they feel like it's such a great cause. So it's not only been our corporation, it's the employees themselves.</s>SCHAFFLER: Let's talk a little bit about your business, the insurance business. You've had a lot of success in your company. You're also the biggest international insurer in Japan. That market, though, is changing a little bit. Tell us a little bit about some of the obstacles you might face going forward.</s>AMOS: Well, we're going to see deregulation continue to evolve in Japan. And we believe it has great opportunities for us to broaden our product line. We announced back in September that we had formed an alliance with Daichi Mutual (ph), which is the second largest life insurance company in Japan. And there are 50,000 agents who will start selling for us. And so we're excited about that and believe that will help our business grow in the year 2001 and beyond.</s>SCHAFFLER: Tell us a little about plans for growth here in the</s>U.S. AMOS: Well, our duck campaign has been a tremendous success for us. It has increased our name recognition, the AFLAC duck has. And we continue to grow our business through that. In fact, the AFLAC ducks that we give away to many of our clients and things we also sell on our web site. And we donate those funds to the AFLAC Cancer Center. So we tie that back together as part of our philanthropy. But all in all, I can tell you that the U.S. is having very strong sales this year, as they did last year. And we believe it will continue to grow as consumers have to pay more out-of-pocket expenses with their health care plan.</s>SCHAFFLER: Dan, that duck really is something. How did you come up with it? And did you ever imagine that it would be so popular?</s>AMOS: Well, I don't think any of us ever dreamed it would be this popular. But we certainly knew it was a bold move to try to do something where you make a little bit of fun of your name. But ultimately, it has made our agents have an opportunity to talk about our company to consumers. And they have bought the product because of that. So it's been great.</s>SCHAFFLER: When people talk to you about the company that you run, do you want them to talk to you more about the success of let's say that duck campaign or the philanthropy? What's more important to you?</s>AMOS: Well, I think our company, it's important to look at it as an overall company. You need to look at how our growth rate has been in terms of our compound growth rate of earnings, which has continued to be one of the top in the industry. Also, you have to look at how we've done in terms of paying customers in claims. And I think that's important. And then how we treat our employees. We're listed for the third year in a row as one of the 100 best companies in America to work for. And then, finally, of course our philanthropy. So I think it's a combination of everything and being well-rounded as a company and not just concentrating on one particular part.</s>SCHAFFLER: Dan Amos, CEO of AFLAC, thanks so much for joining us on</s>BUSINESS UNUSUAL. AMOS: Thank you for having me.</s>SCHAFFLER: And just ahead, talking shop. Two CEOs discuss everything from brand building to dot-com demise. That's when we return.