A Million Bites

Brown & Brown has grown into a major player in the insurance brokerage business through 300 small acquisitions. The key: Create a competitive and lucrative sales culture and cut all fat.

As growth strategies go, building by acquisition isn't for everybody.

But everybody isn't Brown & Brown, Inc., the Daytona Beach- and Tampa-based insurance brokerage firm that ranks seventh in revenues in the United States—and ninth in the world. For them, years of careful acquisitions—300 in the last 16 years—and one key 1993 merger with Poe Insurance of Tampa, has built a company of great financial strength and influence.