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The Higginbotham Way: 'Practice What You Preach'
The story began in 1948 when Paul C. Higginbotham returned from military service to open a small personal lines focused insurance agency in Fort Worth's Riverside neighborhood. More than 70 years later, Higginbotham has grown to become one of the nation's largest independent agencies, ranking as No. 15 on Insurance Journal's Top 100 in 2019.
Rusty Reid, Higginbotham's chairman, president and CEO, believes the strength of the firm has always been its employees. Reid began at Higginbotham in 1986 as the firm's twelfth employee. He was promoted to CEO at age 27 and he implemented the agency's employee ownership model.
"It all starts with our employees," Reid told Insurance Journal. "Our mission statement is to exceed expectations of our employees. Our vision statement is to be the best place for employees to work. And our value statement is to be a family to our employees."
This employee-focused and family culture has not gone unnoticed even in an organization that operates with more than 1,000 employees.
"It is a community within a...