T&R: Are there particular areas of the world that clients are more focused on or that you are focusing more on?
Davies: There are a number of areas of growth. Political risk is definitely an area of focus and we just launched our Political Risk Map for 2011, which is a terrific outline of the globe and where political risk is increasing and how clients can help navigate through that successfully.

T&R: How are you allocating capital with regards to Aon's cash flow and balance sheet?
Davies: It's a very big focus for us as we manage Aon going forward. We think about our business in terms of cash management and we value our business on a discounted cash-flow basis and therefore we've been taking a much more serious look at cash-flow management and forecasting accuracy, and we're really trying to optimize the capital to get the best return to shareholders. And one of the things we are doing is redeploying that capital in a share buyback. As you saw in the fourth quarter, we did $150 million in share buybacks and one of the reasons we're doing that is because we really believe our stock is significantly undervalued. We see huge upside potential for the firm, in both the risk and people segments and therefore redeploying that capital in share buybacks will generate a significant return to shareholders.

T&R: Where is the company now, following the acquisition of Hewitt last year, as Aon looks toward the future?
Davies: The acquisition closed on the first of October, so we are in the very early days, in the first couple of months post-close. But we're having terrific progress. We are seeing a very positive reaction from clients, which was really our primary focus. The team is very focused on delivering for clients. We've seen a number of new wins, both in the large-market space where Hewitt had a terrific presence and in growth in middle market. We're also seeing really good excitement with our colleagues. We've got the management teams in place across the businesses and our clients are really recognizing the breadth and depth of the products and services we provide. And then lastly, we are focused on delivering the $355 million of total [cost savings] by 2013, and we're well on track to deliver $242 million of total synergies by 2011. So we feel very good about the progress, although it's very early days.

In 2009, Davies talked to T&R about Aon's approach to political risk, in Doing Business in a Volatile World. And in 2008, she discussed Aon's standardization of its information reporting, in Cross-Border Data Patrol.