More Commission For Agency Force

The government is reviewing the Operating Cost Control (OCC) guidelines introduced in 1996, including looking into revising life and general insurance agents' commission rates, a move that may cause the premiums for new policies to go up.

Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai told Sin Chew Daily the government had proposed that insurance companies absorb the additional costs incurred for providing higher commission to insurance agents, saying insurers enjoy high profit margins and definitely have the ability to afford higher commission payouts without having to pass them on to new policyholders.

The National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance Fieldforce and Advisers (Namlifa) has asked for the commission for agents to be increased to 221% from 177% currently, whereas the General Insurance Agents Association of Malaysia (Perwakim) is seeking a 5% increase to 15%.

Lim disclosed that Bank Negara Malaysia deputy governor and representatives from the finance ministry and the two associations had met to review the cost guidelines regulating life insurance agents, and to discuss agents' requests to increase their commission rates.

He said the central bank will submit a report on the matter to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak next week.

Asked if insurance companies would increase insurance premiums as a result of increased costs arising from higher commission rates, Lim said there are 14 insurance companies in Malaysia, and suggested that consumers shop around to get the best deal.

Namlifa president Sethu Karuppan told Sin Chew he was confident that insurance companies would absorb the extra costs and not increase the premiums on new policies.

He said it was time the commission rates, which have not been revised for more than 10 years, be increased.

Perwakim president Athi Rao also believed insurance companies would not burden new policyholders as the association asked only for a small increase of 5% in commission.

As living and operating costs have been going up, he said the increase sought by the association is very important to its 35,000 members as there had been no increase in commission over the past 20 years.

RIP Blockbuster

Dish Network Corp. plans to close a further 300 Blockbuster stores in the U.S. in the coming weeks, leaving the video chain with less than one-third of the stores acquired by the satellite-television company in 2011.

The closures will result in the layoffs of 3,000 employees, or about 40% of Blockbuster's workforce of 7,300, a spokesman for Dish said Tuesday.

About 500 Blockbuster stores will remain open in the U.S. after the moves, Dish said. In comparison, the video chain had roughly 5,700 outlets across the country as recently as 2005. The emergence of video-on-demand services, and rival DVD rental companies such as Netflix Inc., eroded Blockbuster's business over the past few years.

Dish inherited 1,700 stores when it bought Blockbuster out of bankruptcy court in 2011 for a net cost of $226 million. Since then, the satellite-TV company has been closing underperforming stores, including 650 last year. In the second and third quarters of last year, the Blockbuster unit incurred operating losses, Dish has said. The company hasn't yet reported results for the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Blockbuster's U.K. arm called in administrators last week to sell or wind down the company after Dish failed to find a buyer for it.

RIP HMV

 

Collapsed music and movies chain HMV could be saved after restructuring firm Hilco took over the retailer's debts from its lenders Lloyds and Royal Bank of Scotland.

It is the first step towards rescuing the iconic music and DVD business after it collapsed into administration last week under debts of £176m. Buying the debt gives Hilco effective control of the business and buys time for the administrators.

Details of the potential rescue came as the stores started to accept HMV gift vouchers again. The administrators caved in to pressure to reverse a previous decision that had made the tokens worthless.
Hilco, a restructuring specialist, is thought to have the support of music labels including Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony for any takeover, having already bought HMV Canada in 2011 for £2m.

The record labels are said to be concerned that without a recognised specialist music retailer on the high street margins could be squeezed even further by cut-price supermarket and internet offers.
It is believed that the businesses, which are some of HMV's biggest suppliers, may be willing to cut the price of CDs, DVDs and give HMV generous credit terms – something afforded to Hilco in Canada.

Although Hilco has not bought HMV outright, buying the debt hands them effective control.
Hilco is now expected to work with administrator Deloitte on moving the 92-year-old business forward and could save some of the 4,000 jobs and 230 stores under threat.

RIP Atari

 

Reading the news that Atari’s (ATA) U.S. subsidiary is filing for bankruptcy was a little like hearing that Bob Hope died—in that you were surprised to discover he had been alive all that time.

Oh, Atari. Atari! Lodestar of my youth. If you’re too young to remember Atari’s heyday, back in the early 1980s, then you didn’t know that Atari was the jam. Let me put it to you this way—in ’75, two nerds named Steve went to work for Atari to develop a game called Breakout. They went on to start Apple (AAPL).

Leadership In Small Business

Are you a leader just because you run a small business? No. But you need to be. Without business leadership, your small business ship will circle aimlessly and eventually run out of power.
Effective business leadership demands a captain of the ship, not just someone who's standing by the helm. Leadership is active, not passive.

Cool-headed, farseeing, visionary, courageous - whichever adjectives you choose, leadership is a winning combination of personal traits and the ability to think and act as a leader, a person who directs the activities of others for the good of all. Anyone can be a leader, even if the only person they're leading is themselves.

But you can't be a leader just by saying you are. Business leadership, like leadership of any kind, needs to be worked at. Transform yourself into the kind of leader your small business needs with these five keys to business leadership.

For Effective Business Leadership:
1. A leader plans.
The core of business leadership is being proactive rather than reactive. Sure, leaders are good in crises - but that doesn't mean they sit around letting crises develop. Leadership involves identifying potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis proportions – and the ability to identify and reap potential windfalls. So good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their plans to new circumstances and opportunities.

2. A leader has a vision.
Vision is essential to good leadership. Vision provides direction and without direction, there’s not much point to all that planning; your small business will still flail about. So if you don’t have one already, take your first step towards business leadership by creating a Vision Statement for your business. Because it embodies your dreams and your passions, a vision statement will also serve as a leadership vision.

3. A leader shares her vision.
Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your business leadership develop. As you tell your leadership vision to others, you will strengthen your own belief in your vision and strengthen your determination to make your leadership vision become reality. And other people will start to see you as a person who's "going places". Your business leadership skills will grow as you and other people recognize you as a person with leadership potential.

4. A leader takes charge.
At this stage of business leadership, you put together your planning and your leadership vision and take action. Whether it's implementing a specific plan to improve your business's bottom line or responding to a crisis, you, as the leader, are the one who makes the decisions and sees that the appropriate actions are carried out. You can't just "talk a good game" to be a leader; you need to act and to be seen as taking effective action for the good of your small business.

5. A leader inspires through example.
If I asked you, you could easily name three people whose leadership qualities inspire you. If I asked you why, you’d tell me about the things these inspiring people did or are doing. Leadership is defined through action. Therefore, in developing your own business leadership skills, you have to act in ways that are fitting to your leadership vision and your self - all the time. We can all name many actions of other people whom we admire, but what inspires us is the integrity that gives these actions meaning.

The Value of Business Leadership
Learning to be a leader isn't easy because it takes a conscious commitment and consistent effort to develop one's business leadership skills. But on the positive side, anyone who is willing to make the effort can become a good leader.

And as good business leadership is critical to business success, your efforts to improve your leadership skills will be amply rewarded. By working on these five keys to business leadership, you can be the leader your small business needs.

Effective Leadership

Change is the only unchanging features in this changing world. Everything surrounding us changes with the passage of time to be in line with modernization. The ongoing business environment is no exception when it comes to this trend. Modern business is on a triumphant march through tracking changes via hard work from the most efficient business leaders.

Effective leaders adopt strategies and techniques to try to win or take the lead in the competitive market, which is ultimately a game of “survival of the fittest.” In both good and bad times, there is always a need for quality leadership.

The success of a business or an industry is mostly dependent on the leaders it gets or inherits. The successful implementation of desired leadership techniques is crucial for meeting the changing demands in business. The mystique of leadership in and of itself makes it one of the most widely debated, studied and sought-after commodities in business.

The Meaning of LeadershipLeadership is the social process of influencing the behaviors of others without posing any threats of violence. It is a process of influencing the thoughts, attitudes and behaviors of others by setting a direction that helps visualize what they can hope to achieve or what lies ahead for them. It’s the capability of getting other people to do something significant through harnessing their efforts jointly.

Leadership in a very ordinary sense refers to creating a group of followers whom another individual leads. Merely accompanying a group of people isn’t leadership unless the person actually is choosing and showing a direction to the followers. Without followers a leader isn’t a leader in spite of having the desired qualities or nature of a leader.

The Essence of Leadership in BusinessThe nature of business leadership is both a complex and compelling phenomenon. Many discussions of leadership confuse personality, important objectives, formal position and specific behaviors with acts of leadership. It may involve certain characteristics, but leadership is not confined to these characteristics; rather, it’s all about influencing others in a substantial way.

Whether the setting is a business, a government, an educational institution or in an athletic setting, most people would agree that having a good leader is desirable. A good leader is someone like a good physician. Just as the physician must identify the patient’s disease accurately to ensure the effectiveness of the prescribed treatment, the business leader must also be able to diagnose problems, values and voices while finding effective solutions.

In leadership you push past the average expectations by carrying a sense of mission, motivating, learning and inspiring new ways of thinking. This is known as transformational leadership. It emerges as the most updated and diversified techniques in the field of Leadership theory and practices to boost workforce competency and performance.

Leadership and Management in Business
True leadership in business is a subtle quality, and thus we often confuse management duties with personal style with leadership. Management and leadership are related, but they are not the same. You can be a manager or a leader; you can also be both or neither. The biggest difference between managers and leaders lies in the way they motivate others. When executing plans as a manager, you focus on supervising results, comparing them with goals and correcting deviations. In contrast, as a leader you focus on energizing people to overcome hurdles in reaching goals. Effective leaders hunt pressing issues such as influence, power, dependence, and policies for change.

Power, achievement and affiliation shape the basic human needs and are acquired over time to result in legitimate reward, coercive, referent and expert powers in business issues affecting leadership behaviors. If as a leader you have a high need for institutional power rather than personal power, you may be more effective. Personal power can be transformed into leadership abilities through the adoption of different approaches to leadership and adjusting your perspective of what the meaning of “power” is.

What we must remember when trying to expand and embrace the idea of being a leader ourselves is that leadership encompasses the field of a widely discussed phenomenon in the business world. A leader overnight is not made, created or born. The growing influence of global culture and workforce diversity makes the task of being an effective leader that much more challenging. In a very simple and straightforward manner, leadership is all about energizing people toward a specific goal. The theoretical and practical knowledge regarding leadership may facilitate you to implement perfect leadership strategies in business development and activities which you can then embrace using the required adaptability and emotional intelligence to succeed as a business leader.

Integrity Is Forever

Comment Now

Follow CommentsFollowing CommentsUnfollow Comments

If I could teach only one value to live by, it would be this: Success will come and go, but integrity is forever. Integrity means doing the right thing at all times and in all circumstances. It takes having the courage to do the right thing, no matter what the consequences will be.

Building a reputation of integrity takes years, but it takes only a second to lose, so never allow yourself to ever do anything that would damage your integrity.

We live in a world where integrity isn’t talked about nearly enough. We live in a world where “the end justifies the means” has become an acceptable school of thought for far too many.

Sales people overpromise and under deliver, all in the name of making their quota for the month. Applicants exaggerate in job interviews because they desperately need a job. CEOs overstate their projected earnings because they don’t want the board of directors to replace them. Entrepreneurs overstate their pro formas because they want the highest valuation possible from an investor.

Investors understate a company’s value in order to negotiate a lower valuation in a deal. Customer service representatives cover up a mistake they made because they are afraid the client will leave them. Employees call in “sick” because they don’t have any more paid time off when they actually just need to get their Christmas shopping done. The list could go on and on, and in each case the person committing the act of dishonesty told themselves they had a perfectly valid reason why the end result justified their lack of integrity.

Move up http://i.forbesimg.com tMove down

People can gain power quickly and easily if they are willing to cut corners and act without the constraints of morality. Dishonesty may provide instant gratification in the moment but it will never last. I can think of several examples of people without integrity who are successful and who win without ever getting caught, which creates a false perception of the path to success that one should follow. After all, each person in the examples above could have gained the result they wanted in the moment, but unfortunately, that momentary result comes at an incredibly high price with far reaching consequences. That person has lost their ability to be trusted as a person of integrity, which is the most valuable quality anyone can have in their life. Profit in dollars or power is temporary, but profit in a network of people who trust you as a person of integrity is forever.

 

Every one person who trusts you will spread the word of that trust to at least a few of their associates, and word of your character will spread like wildfire. The value of the trust others have in you is far beyond anything that can be measured. For entrepreneurs it means investors that are willing to trust them with their money. For employees it means a manager or a boss that is willing to trust them with additional responsibility and growth opportunities. For companies it means customers that trust giving them more and more business. For you it means having an army of people that are willing to go the extra mile to help you because they know that recommending you to others will never bring damage to their own reputation of integrity. Yes, the value of the trust others have in you goes beyond anything that can be measured because it brings along with it limitless opportunities and endless possibilities.

Contrast that with the person who cannot be trusted as a person of integrity. Warren Buffet, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said it best:, “In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first one, the other two will kill you.”

A person’s dishonesty will eventually catch up to them. It may not be today, and it may not be for many years, but you can rest assured that at some point there will always be a reckoning.

A word of advice to those who are striving for a reputation of integrity: Avoid those who are not trustworthy. Do not do business with them. Do not associate with them. Do not make excuses for them. Do not allow yourself to get enticed into believing that “while they may be dishonest with others, they would never be dishonest with me.” If someone is dishonest in any aspect of his life you can be guaranteed that he will be dishonest in many aspects of his life. You cannot dismiss even those little acts of dishonesty, such as the person who takes two newspapers from the stand when they paid for only one. After all, if a person cannot be trusted in the simplest matters of honesty then how can they possibly be trusted to uphold lengthy and complex business contracts?

It is important to realize that others pay attention to those you have chosen to associate with, and they will inevitably judge your character by the character of your friends. Why is that? It is best explained by a quote my father often says when he is reminding me to be careful of the company I am keeping: “When you lie down with dogs you get fleas.” Inevitably we become more and more like the people we surround ourselves with day to day. If we surround ourselves with people who are dishonest and willing to cut corners to get ahead, then we’ll surely find ourselves following a pattern of first enduring their behavior, then accepting their behavior, and finally adopting their behavior.

If you want to build a reputation as a person of integrity then surround yourself with people of integrity. Do what is right, let the consequence follow.” It serves as a daily reminder that success will indeed come and go, but integrity is forever.

Boss Versus Leader

When good leadership is in place in a company, it can be felt throughout the entire organization. With good leadership, corporate culture isn’t forced, it is developed. Communication is daily and open. Everyone understands the vision and goals of the organization, and everyone has input into how they can be improved. Employees feel that they are an important part of the whole and that every job matters within the company.

Decisions for promotions are based on picking people of integrity whose talents and experience best fit the positions. Employees are encouraged to compete with their own best to get ahead and they understand that helping their coworkers to succeed is the best way to get ahead themselves. The result of good leadership is high morale, good employee retention, and sustainable long-term success.

 

Bad leadership can also be felt throughout the entire organization – only not in a good way. Corporate culture becomes a meaningless term where leaders claim it exists while employees shake their heads in frustration. There is a lack of clear, consistent communication from leadership to the employees.

As a result, the office is run by rumor mill, politics and gamesmanship. Employees are uncertain of the company’s goals and objectives for success and they have no idea how they fit into that picture, or what their level of importance is toward making it happen. Decisions for promotions are not based on integrity or talent, but rather they are based on who can talk the biggest talk or who is deemed to be the least threatening to the current leadership team.

Employees are taught play dirty against coworkers to get ahead by watching as it is continuously rewarded by leadership leading to the Lobster Syndrome of tearing one another down throughout the organization. The result of bad leadership is low morale, high turnover, and a decreased ability to have any sustainable success.

To become a truly great company it takes truly great leaders. And there is a huge difference in bosses and leaders:

Move up http://i.forbesimg.com tMove down

 

Companies cannot afford to have poor leadership if they want to truly succeed – and I don’t just mean in terms of financial success. I define success as far more than just money. I define success for a company as having a good product or service that adds value to the lives of its customers, while providing a positive working environment that allows employees to grow and flourish in their talents and abilities as well as their personal value system, all while generating a profitable return for shareholders.

If a company isn’t doing all three of those then it isn’t truly successful. Employees cannot flourish under poor leadership, and when they are faced with having to follow poor leaders, companies risk losing their very best and most talented people. Don’t risk allowing poor leaders to lead your organization.

For anyone who is ever granted the opportunity to take a leadership position,, remember that being a true leader doesn’t come from a title, it is a designation you must earn from the people you lead.

Malaysian - Sick & Sicker

Increasing affluence and standard of living may prove to be a double-edged sword as more Malaysians are succumbing to lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart problems, and certain cancers in Malaysia, which before this were more commonly associated with developed countries in the west.

Alarming statistics published in the fourth National Health and Morbidity Survey released in 2011: one-third of Malaysians are obese or overweight. One in three has high cholesterol levels. One in five Malaysians is diabetic.

Four out of 10 Malaysians above 30 years of age have high blood pressure, which is worse than in developed countries. Malaysians in general get heart diseases at 10 years younger, earlier, than our Western counterparts. While coronary artery disease cases in the West have mostly become stagnant, Malaysia is catching up and even overtaking the region in diabetes and obesity.

Malaysia as the fattest country in Southeast Asia, and sixth in Asia only behind some Middle East countries. Obesity in Malaysian children goes in parallel with increasing cases of diabetes, especially those suffering from Type 2. Unlike Type 1 where the body fails to produce insulin from young, Type 2 patients are resistant to insulin and catch it in their adulthood. Type 2 makes up 90 per cent of diabetes cases.

Malaysia has a high percentage of diabetes patients: around 15 to 20 per cent, compared to eight to 10 per cent elsewhere. Five years ago, it was only slightly over eight per cent.

50 years ago, it was more common for Malaysians to get stomach cancer since lack of refrigeration technology caused them to eat more carcinogenic cured, pickled, and salted food.

How Much Insurance Do I need

When you build a house, you need a good foundation to protect you from range of circumstances. Insurance protection does the same. It is the “foundation” of the plan. Do we protect what we have built for those we love?

In financial planning, we divide risk management into several main areas: property and casualty insurance, liability insurance, medical insurance, disability insurance, life insurance and long-term care insurance. Which type of insurance would fit best with your budget?

Most of us walk the tightrope when we don't do our financial planning. Our loved ones are the ones climbing on our back while we walk this tightrope. And they trust us enough to follow us on this journey of life with its uncertainty.

 On the issue of risk management, the dilemma is: “How much life insurance do I need? What kind of insurance should I purchase?”

To determine how much is enough is easy. What would you want for your surviving spouse and children to have if you were not there? A good rule of the thumb is that your coverage should be equal to five to seven times your annual household income. Another guideline is that you should have death benefit equal to 10 times annual earnings.

Similarly, to determine what type of insurance to purchase, you have to begin by looking at your cash flow. How much money would you dedicate to this goal? The priority is to get coverage and the peace of mind that goes with it. Secondly, look at which type of insurance would fit best with your budget, depending on your cash flow.

Finally, have you ever wondered how a hot air balloon reaches its destination? At different altitudes, the wind current changes, thus effecting which direction the balloon flies. Skilled ballooners know this and release the burner at just the right time without procrastination so that it does not drift dangerously off course.

Just like our goals for our loved ones, we need to stop putting off what needs to be done to protect our family and our life's goals. Stop walking the tightrope and build that foundation. Indeed, insurance is the foundation your family needs.

Higher retirement Age - Medical Insurance

The reluctance of insurers to provide medical coverage for the elderly is one of the hurdles employers face in extending the retirement age of workers. This is among the issues that the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) would like the government to address when considering amendments to the Retirement Age Act.

MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan said the attitude of insurance companies toward older people made it expensive for employers to provide medical benefits for workers past the age of 50.

“Even if medical insurance is granted, the premiums are higher,” he told FMT. “MEF feels older employees should not be discriminated against.”

The Retirement Age Act, which raises the compulsory retirement age from 55 to 60, comes into force this July 1. It will go through a trial period of six months, during which the government will gather feedback for future amendments.

Possible More Commission For Agents

Earlier, president of National Association of Malaysia’s Life Insurance & Financial Planning Advisers (Namlifa), Sethu Karuppan said in line with its vision and mission, Namlifa would continuously engage in activities that could help elevate the livelihood and professionalism of their members.

He said activities such as ManLIFPs, Mega Convention and Akard Award ceremonies were examples of their contribution towards the life insurance industry.

According to him, Bank Negara Malaysia is concurrently embarking on a semi-liberalisation exercise on the cost control guidelines, introduced in 1996. He said it was well intended to benefit consumers and to create a competitive atmosphere amongst the insurers, in a healthy environment.

Namlifa, he pointed out, as an important stakeholder, would continue engaging with BNM and LIAM to ensure that a fair and equitable method of practice was in place that would ensure a win-win situation for the consumers, shareholders and the agency force.

CIMB Sold Aviva - Sun Life

A consortium of Canada's Sun Life Financial Inc and Khazanah Nasional Bhd has agreed to buy British insurer Aviva plc's Malaysian insurance joint venture with CIMB Group for about RM1.7bil (349 million pounds), sources said on Sunday, helping the Canadian company to expand its Asian foot print.

Sun Life Financial Inc and Khazanah edged out rival Manulife Financial Corp to win the eight-month old auction, sources familiar with the sale process said.

Britain's No.2 insurer Aviva is exiting from marginal markets across the world and the sale of Malaysian unit is part of that overhaul. Last month, Aviva sold its U.S. business for $1.8 billion (1.1 billion pounds), its biggest disposal, aimed at boosting its underperforming share price.