Aon plc (NYSE:AON) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Eric Andersen: Greg, maybe I can give a little bit of color with regard to a client example just to bring it to life because I can’t stress how important this is for us and what we do for our clients. We were recently engaged by a global firm and a specialized industry who is looking for just better risk advisory services around the world for their risk strategy, both globally and as well as locally. And to do this, we use resources from all of our solution lines in multiple spots. And on the surface, I would say this is the kind of work that we love to do for clients but just thinking about what you were just saying, Greg, when I dig back to what we used to do, right? When we were operating under these sub brands of Aon Risk services, Aon Benfield, Aon Hewitt and the others, it would have been a pretty disjointed process for us.

There would have been all sorts of internal barriers within the firm that would have distracted us from the focus on the client. We had internal P&L issues, like resource allocation, revenue sharing, incentive discussions. I think you all get the point. But today, with the Aon United structure, we have 5 region leaders, 4 global solution line leaders who are focused solely on delivering for that client under the Aon brand. With 1 P&L operating around the world. And it is powered by the Aon Business Services model which allows us to actually deliver that capability in a uniform way globally.

Christa Davies: And Eric, I would just say that Aon United sets the stage for Aon Business Services to be successful, I agree with everything you both said. And I would add 3 things. The first is innovation at scale is an essential part of our ability to deliver results for clients as we continue to find applications and solutions developed in 1 area and then scale it to clients globally. We can’t do that without Aon Business Services enabling seamless connectivity across the globe. Second, Aon United is not a field of story. It’s designed to enable our colleagues in every way, deliver better results for clients which translates into stronger top and bottom line performance. And ultimately, that translates into free cash flow growth, as evidenced by our billion in free cash flow and 24% free cash flow margin as we put our highest and best use of the capital which we believe will continue to drive long-term value creation for shareholders.

Translating revenue into free cash flow is a scaled operational outcome and it’s done at scale globally in over 100 countries, tracking by day, by country with great accuracy. This is not possible without Aon United and the detailed operating model we’ve got powered by Aon Business services. It makes us all really excited about the 2023 go-forward momentum and how we scale this operation to deliver innovation for our clients.

Greg Case: So David, that was way more than you asked for on the initial piece that you asked a very important specific question. What we’re trying to convey is the answer to that is key but it really is fundamental to sort of how the integrated approach happens and how it drives performance. And how we’re not complete with the journey. There’s a lot more opportunity ahead of us. And it also connects with our colleagues because they love driving the solutions that Eric described. It creates engagement. It creates excitement around. If you can wow a client, you’ve done something that is truly kind of makes the week in the month. So it’s a huge opportunity and we stress it here because it’s so fundamental to our success with our clients and obviously, with all of our investors as partners as well. So hopefully, that’s helpful.

David Motemaden: No, thanks so much for the thorough answer. I really appreciate it.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Michael Ward with Citi.

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