Biography
He was born on January 31, 1862 in Chicago, Illinois.
With only a high-school education, he began work as an office boy in the Chicago office of the New York Life Insurance Company. By 1898 he had risen to the position of vice president. Perkins played an important role in the development of New York Life.
A strong believer in the Efficiency Movement, he sought out instances of waste and believed that any practice could be improved by careful analysis. For example, he noticed that the old routine of farming out territory to middlemen, who in turn appointed men who did the actual soliciting for policies, was inefficient. The local agents were underpaid and often made misrepresentations in order to get initial premiums. Perkins, starting in 1892, made the local agents and solicitors permanent employees, and by introducing in 1896, his system of benefits based on length of service and value of policies written. He opened up new insurance markets in Russia and Europe.
Read more about this topic: George Walbridge Perkins
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