Ungratefull

A "KIND and generous" New York mum donated a kidney to help save the life of her boss - who then turned around after she got what she wanted and helped fire the woman, according to an explosive new legal complaint.

"I decided to become a kidney donor to my boss, and she took my heart," Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, said. "I feel very betrayed. This has been a very hurtful and horrible experience for me. She just took this gift and put it on the ground and kicked it."

In papers filed on Friday with the state's Human Rights commission, Stevens charges that she was clearly set up by Jackie Brucia, 61, her once-ailing boss at the billion-dollar Atlantic Automotive Group (AAG), which operates several new-car dealerships.

Stevens said she first got to know Brucia, one of the West Islip company's controllers, while toiling as a clerical worker for the firm starting in January 2009. Stevens then left the company in June 2010 to move to Florida. But when she returned to Long Island for a visit that September, she stopped by the office and talked with Brucia, a discussion that included Brucia's health problems and "her need for a kidney transplant", the papers state.

Stevens said that Brucia told her she had located a possible donor, a family friend.
But "because she was naturally a kind and generous person, Stevens told Brucia that, if necessary, she would be willing to donate a kidney," the document says.

"Brucia ... told her, 'You never know, I may have to take you up on that offer one day,'" the papers say.

Soon after, Stevens decided to move back to Long Island for good and asked Brucia if she could return to work there. She had a job with the company again within weeks.

Then, two months later, in January 2011, Stevens said, Brucia "called me into her office and said, 'My donor was denied. Were you serious when you said that?' I said, 'Sure, yeah.' She was my boss, I respected her. It's just who I am. I didn't want her to die."

Brucia had been "apparently grooming her to be her 'backup plan,'" according to the papers.

But while Stevens was a close health match for Brucia, she was not a perfect one. So the doctors agreed to allow Stevens to donate her left kidney to someone else in the transplant group so that Brucia could move up the waiting list and get her organ from someone else.

Stevens said she did not realise that she was in for serious pain, discomfort in her legs and digestive problems after the surgery on August 10, 2011. She said she felt pressured to return to work on September 6, before she was ready - even while her boss was still recovering at home.

When Stevens went home sick three days after her return, she said, Brucia actually called her from home to berate her. Brucia did not return phone calls. She was spotted outside her home on Friday getting into a limo with plastic cups and what appeared to be a bottle of pink champagne.

Takaful Malaysia

Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd (Takaful Malaysia), the only pure takaful operator listed on Bursa Malaysia, has been forecasted to see consistent earnings moving forward, thanks to the large regional Muslim population, currently low family takaful penetration rate and its niche expertise.

OSK Research Sdn Bhd (OSK Research) stated in a research note, “The takaful industry has been experiencing strong growth in Malaysia during the last decade on the back of various government initiatives to promote the country as a global Islamic financial centre.

“We see tremendous potential in the life takaful business as demand for healthcare strengthens due to demographic shifts, coupled with the fact that the family takaful penetration rate was merely 10 per cent of the population in 2010.

Takaful Malaysia with a market capitalisation of RM508 million was presently the only takaful operator which offered a 15 per cent no claim rebate for all its general insurance products and selected family takaful products.

In terms of gross takaful contributions, Takaful Malaysia was ranked second in 2011 with a 21 per cent market share. Zooming specifically into general and family takaful, Takaful Malaysia was ranked second for both categories with a market share of 19 per cent in 2011.

OSK Research expected more competition moving forward especially from bank-backed takaful operators, considering that they can distribute their products aggressively via their branches.

Malaysia’s penetration rate for overall life insurance in 2010 stood at 41 per cent of the population, or 2.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), which is low compared with that in developed nations such as Singapore (6.1 per cent) and Japan (7.5 per cent),

Meanwhile, the penetration rate for takaful in Malaysia was about 10 per cent of the population of which the Muslim segment comprised more than 60 per cent; this indicated a large untapped market.

“We believe that the life insurance industry will grow at more than eight per cent annually as its growth rate is usually two to three per cent above the country’s GDP, while the takaful industry should continue to enjoy a double-digit growth of 20 to 30 per cent as the population becomes more familiar with the concept of takaful insurance moving forward.

OSK Research also believed the group’s Indonesian operations offered immense potential as the family takaful penetration rate stood at only one per cent of the population in a country with more than 213 million Muslims.

Takaful Insurance Deceleration

Growth of the takaful or Islamic insurance business is slowing, industry statistics show, increasing pressure on the sector to boost efficiency, roll out new products and explore new markets.

Takaful, which has its core markets in the Gulf and southeast Asia, is one bellwether of consumer appetite for Islamic finance. But profitability has been hit by fierce competition and rapid growth of workforces at takaful providers in past years. The industry's big challenges include building product awareness and making consumers realise the importance of saving over the long term.

The market opportunity is significant, according to a report last year by Swiss RE; conventional insurance accounts for 83.1 percent of all premiums written in Muslim countries, it estimated.

Meanwhile growth in Bahrain and Malaysia, regarded as the most well-developed takaful markets, is also showing signs of flagging, though it still outpaces conventional insurance.

Malaysia has proved more resilient but has followed a similar trend, according to data from that country's central bank. Takaful assets grew 18 percent in 2010 against 28 percent in 2007.

The deceleration could be hard to reverse because of shrinking sales force in the industry. The number of employees involved in general takaful sales in Malaysia peaked at 32,997 in 2009, when it soared 107 percent from the previous year; but it contracted 5 percent in 2010, while staffing for the conventional insurance industry fell just 2 percent.

Its Not The Skill But Cultural Fit

Candidates with the right skills are being overlooked by employers more interested in "cultural fit"with their company. The trend is being seen across a wide range of industries and even in highly-skilled roles like project management.

For most roles soft skills and cultural alignment is just as important - if not more important - than technical ability. There’s been a considerable push by employers to hire for a cultural fit. While “cultural fit” can cover a range of skills, employers were mainly looking to align the candidate with the values of the company – be they an entrepreneurial attitude, the proper work-life balance, creativity or how they communicate with others.

You can hire someone as a project manager for a big infrastructure project for example and a big portion of the success of that project will be how that person sells it throughout the business and communicates change.

If someone doesn’t know how to get everyone on board to drive this change, they can be the most technically gifted person in the world, but if they can't get that part right it isn't going to be a success.


If the person has the right attitude and they really want to be in your business - which is critical to a company's cultural success - the rest can be learned. Hiring purely based on experience had come back to bite employer in the past with great candidates on paper not working out.

If soft skills aren't there they rub people up the wrong way and it's a lot more damaging. You don't get the best out of not just one person but everyone that person works with. They're disruptive and can become a poison ivy.

According to a research of 20,000 new hires, 46 per cent of them failed within 18 months. More importantly when new hires failed, 89 per cent of the time it was for attitudinal reasons and only 11 per cent of the time due to lack of skill.

7% to 10% Growth

PETALING JAYA: The life insurance industry, which registered total new business premiums worth RM7.92bil last year, is expected to grow by between 7% and 10% this year despite the global external headwinds.

Industry players said they were bullish on the insurance sector and growth would be supported by the Financial Sector Blueprint, low insurance penetration, roll-out of projects under the Economic Transformation Programme, and the 10th Malaysia Plan as well as tax incentives for private pension plans.

For life insurance, the penetration rate stands at 42.83%, while takaful is about 10%.

Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) said: “The Malaysian economy is expected to grow by between 5% and 6% this year with the services and manufacturing sectors spearheading expansion. With these developments, coupled with the low insurance penetration rate in the country, the industry is forecast to achieve a growth of between 7% and 10% this year.”

According to analysts, this figure is achievable as the growth of the insurance industry is usually 2% to 3% above the country's gross domestic product (GDP). LIAM said the introduction of the Financial Sector Blueprint (2011-2020) by Bank Negara was key to the prospects for the industry not only for this year but for years to come.

Focus on retirement planning and healthcare financial solutions as enshrined in the blueprint would benefit the industry as Malaysia's population became more mature, it noted.

While the Government was in the process of establishing private retirement scheme, LIAM hoped similar incentives would be given to life insurance companies to introduce annuity plans catering to retirement needs which would boost industry growth.

It said the introduction of the 1Malaysia Micro Protection Plan would not only provide affordable insurance coverage to small businesses and micro enterprises but would help raise penetration rate of insurance in the country.

The industry, LIAM said had performed moderately in 2011, charting several highs in different categories such as the annual premium individual business whereby it achieved a growth rate of 8.9% with investment-linked business out-performing traditional business.

Total premium for policies grew at 9.4% for individual and group policies combined. Annual premium investment-linked business with a smaller base enjoyed a stronger growth of 12.5% against the traditional annual premium business which grew at 8.5%.

In absolute terms, traditional annual premium business added more than RM1bil in premiums during the year, while investment-linked annual premium business stood at RM771mil, LIAM noted, adding that regular premium products and investment linked ones would be key growth drivers.

Kurnia - SOLD

Insurance Australia Group's (IAG) associate, AmG Insurance Berhad, has made a A$483 million acquisition of Kurnia Insurans Berhad.

AmG Insurance, which is 49 per cent owned by IAG, was Malaysia's fourth largest motor insurer and eighth largest general insurer.

It has reached an agreement to buy Kurnia, Malaysia's largest motor insurer, for A$483.7 million, IAG said on Friday. IAG will pay 49 per cent of the price, about A$235 million. The acquisition will make AmG Malaysia's largest general insurer, with 13 per cent of the market.

Malaysia's general insurance market grew by 7.8 per cent last year in local currency terms and is expected to grow by six per cent each year for the next three years.

IAG has been involved in the Malaysian market since 2006, securing a distribution deal with AmBank Group and moving to 49 per cent of the AmG venture. AmG's co-owner, AmBank Group, also has an Australian link with Australia's ANZ bank taking a 19 per cent stake in the lender five years ago.

UniAsia Up For Sales

Billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary’s DRB-Hicom Bhd may sell its stakes in Uni.Asia Life Assurance Bhd and Uni.Asia General Insurance Bhd, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

Singapore’s United Overseas Bank Ltd owns the rest of the two companies and may also sell its stakes, said the people, who asked not to be named because the process is confidential.

DRB’s 51 per cent stake in Uni.Asia Life is valued at RM149 million (US$49 million), while its 34.7 per cent stake in Uni.Asia General is worth RM107 million, according to a November research report by Hong Leong Investment Bank.

Selangor-based DRB’s debt-to-equity ratio jumped to 22 times as of Dec 31, from 14 times three months earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Uni.Asia Life, which appointed a new chief executive officer in January, had assets of RM2.2 billion as of March 31, 2011, according to its annual report. The insurer’s profit fell 15 per cent that fiscal year.

Uni.Asia General, whose assets stood at RM1.1 billion a year ago, posted a profit of RM36.2 million for fiscal 2011, compared with a loss for the previous year.

In January, DRB bought 42.7 per cent of carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd. from state-run investment fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd for RM1.29 billion. DRB said at the time it may use internal funds or borrow money to finance the purchase.