Pros

Amazing size, sophistication and complexity. You can grow in experience and responsibility as fast as you can handle it. I've been with AIG for more than 10 years and have learned more than I think I would have anywhere else. Other insurance companies seem so slow to move forward and actually get stuff done. AIG is always evaluating and re-evaluating what we are doing. Is this the right approach? How can we do it better? What's the right way.....don't just keep doing it one way because we always have. And, there's an increased focus on doing things more consistently across divisions, globally. I think we are going to be so much stronger and better in the next 12 to 18 months.

Cons

Recently, the stock value has been killing us. Also, the size can be overwhelming at times. Communication is a challenge because of this. As a leader in the insurance industry, AIG is always in the spotlight. This is definitely a double edged sword. Things are easily blown out of proportion and misunderstood by the outside world...and then AIG has to react and waste money and resources on the wrong things at times, just to appease the public eye. For example, we are one of the most diverse organizations in the world, but we had to form a diversity department, with high paid salaries. Some of this is good, but I think we may be spending too much money in this area. Also, it seems some people used to manage people and even when their jobs change and they lose their staff, they're still here, collecting a high salary and doing "special projects", at a high expense to AIG. While this is a nice thing for the individual, I don't think we can afford it as a company.

Advice to Senior Management

Reduce all the overhead....high paid consultants and senior managers without any staff, too much money spent on diversity group, too many home office marketing people, especially at industry events...people definitely notice this as unecessary expense.