Climbing Corporate Ladder

Graduates usually have high expectations about becoming the next millionaires in the finance industry. But I can assure you that fairy tales never come easily in this highly competitive market.

Once you step into the workforce, you should quickly forget your academic and sporting achievements, and even your so-called self esteem. In order to succeed, you must realise that banking is essentially a people-oriented business.

In short, this means you must identify the people who have the greatest power and authority to propel your career. It’s vital to know exactly what your direct boss wants, and not focus on your personal achievements.

So, forgot financial modelling and risk analysis, here are three rules I think every junior banker should follow.

Know your boss
It should be your number one goal to understand your line manager’s working style and personality because this will help to avoid future conflicts. As a senior HR person at my own firm told me recently: “In many cases, subordinates can’t fulfil their supervisors’ expectations as they don’t know what their bosses want.”

Respect the hierarchy
Generation Y employees often incorrectly consider their managers to be their buddies, especially if they are a similar age or went to the same university. But this means trampling over the firm’s hierarchy and it will ultimately backfire.

Never express your emotions in the office
In the face of criticism, youngsters often fail to control their emotions, especially if they haven’t been scolded in public before. Do not fight back against your boss under any circumstances. It is better to acknowledge and correct any problems.

Never talk bad about your boss or company
Never talk bad about your boss or company in formal or informal gathering. Negative news travel faster than lighting. Your boss will be preparing your exit faster than yu can say "Hi". You will not know what strike you.

Life Insurance Agent

Every year there are many new comers joining insurance sales business, at the same time, there is a mass exodus of insurance agents leaving for other fields giving reasons such as lack of training, inadequate support, dysfunctional supervisors etc.

More often than not, the actual reason why insurance agents quit the business is because they did not make the money they want from insurance selling. Very few people will leave a business if the business brings them the kind of income that can support their desired lifestyle.

There are always people considering a career switch to insurance business. They are curious to know how to go about to become insurance agents. Perhaps before they look for the answers to "how", they may like to seek "why". If your reason to do something is not compelling enough, it is always very easy for you to give up your endeavor.

The number of insurance agents quitting the business could have been much reduced if they joined the industry with the right reasons. The right reasons must also be strong and resilient enough to stand all trials and tribulations.

The following are the 5 wrong reasons for joining insurance business:

Try it out
A successful insurance business is the result of well thought planning and diligent execution. Equally important is the presence of purpose in life and goals in the business. A try-it-out attitude bears little commitment and anybody with this outlook most probably will not go far in any business venture.

Life insurance business in particular requires long-term commitment because one of the reasons why your customers buy the life policies from you is because of their belief that you would stay long enough in the business to service them.

Just look for a job
If you are looking for a job that gives you an income just good enough to settle your household bills and meet all your basic needs, then insurance selling can be a very tough job for you. You may find that it is not worthwhile your efforts to earn that kind of money.

There are times you may find yourself working twice as hard but making the same amount of income like what you made in your previous job. We always pay a huge price for having a self-limiting belief.

Get bored with existing job
Insurance is not a place for you to escape from your job problems. Many who are frustrated with their existing jobs may not be very happy with insurance selling too.

If you are in insurance selling, you are always in emotional roller coaster. You can get upset, frustrated, disappointed but there are also moments of joy and excitements to balance out. The question is whether you are ready for such roller coaster ride.

Looking for more free time
Insurance business allows you to be your own boss, at the same time this can also work against you because you can decide not to work.

Having more free time to yourself should not be the immediate objective you have in mind when becoming an insurance agent. You can only be rewarded with more leisure time after years of hard work and after you have built up substantial amount of passive income such as renewal income.

Learn more about insurance
When you venture into insurance business, there are plenty of learning opportunities but learning is only a means to bring you to where you want to go. If you want to know more about insurance business and the reason for you to be an insurance agent is to learn, then you will not go far.

Once you believe you learn enough, you would have already achieved what you want and there is no more reason for you to stay in this business. Insurance business is meant for people with big dreams and huge ambitions. They see opportunities in insurance business and believe insurance will take them to their dreams and goals in life.

They arm their belief with entrepreneur spirit and they want to own a business that they can proudly claim is theirs where they can put their signature on it. They are emotionally attached to their success and are willing to sacrifice for success.

If you are thinking of becoming an insurance agent, one of the questions you would like to ask yourself is why you want to join insurance business. The answers to this question would provide an insight if you are ready for this business.

iQuit - A Great Loss

Apple's legendary co-founder and top ideas man Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive in a move long expected after he began a dramatic fight with cancer.

Jobs is a living legend in Silicon Valley. He is the beloved visionary behind the Macintosh computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad as well as the iTunes online shop.

Born on February 24, 1955 in San Francisco to a single mother and adopted by a couple in nearby Mountain View at barely a week old, he grew up among the orchards that would one day become the technology hub known as Silicon Valley.

Jobs was 21 and Steve Wozniak 26 when they founded Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs's family home in 1976. Under Jobs, the company introduced its first Apple computers and then the Macintosh, which became wildly popular in the 1980s.

Jobs left Apple in 1985 after an internal power struggle and started NeXT Computer company specializing in sophisticated workstations for businesses. He co-founded Academy-Award-winning Pixar in 1986 from a former Lucasfilm computer graphics unit that he reportedly bought from movie industry titan George Lucas for $10 million.

Apple's luster faded after Jobs left the company, but they reconciled in 1996 with Apple buying NeXT for 429 million dollars and Jobs ascending once again to the Apple throne.

Since then, Apple has gone from strength to strength as Jobs revamped the Macintosh line, revolutionizing modern culture and launching a "post-PC era" in which personal computers give way to smart mobile gadgets.

The YES Man

As a leader, one of the most critical things you need to do is put the right team of people in place to support your agenda. Selecting these people correctly will be key to your success. One of the most common mistakes that leaders make is to surround themselves with “Yes Men”. Worse yet, as leaders become more powerful, sometimes they use their authority to create Yes Men by ensuring that it doesn’t pay to speak your mind on issues.

A Yes Man is someone that won’t challenge your position and in fact they will always tell you what you want to hear and then scurry about to execute your plan. Generally, Yes Men can be easily found in a crowd because they are the up and coming risers, trying to advance their careers as quickly as they can. Early on they seem to have a lot of success with their strategy of pleasing the leader at all costs.

It may seem like a good idea to surround yourself with Yes Men for two main reasons: 1) they will execute as directed and 2) they will never challenge your authority. However, here are some of the potential drawbacks of surrounding yourself with these types of people. For example, to gain credibility you have to implement successful projects. Just because your Yes Man executes as directed doesn’t mean the project will be successful. Often, front line knowledge is required to make a project successful. If you surround yourself with people that don’t challenge your plan, you may miss out on critical information that would otherwise make your project successful.

Yes Men tend to become resentful over time. It can be a slippery slope that starts when they don’t feel recognized or appreciated for their loyalty. Or they may feel that you abuse your power over them. Because they want to succeed, they are not likely to rebel openly but it is common for this type of individual to go underground and subversively undermine you. They may succeed in their efforts if they are your only source of information. People who are forced to become Yes Men under your watch, are the most dangerous of all because they are taking a step backward and they may feel that their confidence is under attack.

Your vulnerability in this scenario can be mitigated if you make it your business to “know your business” by listening carefully to credible people that dare to speak their mind.

A smart leader will encourage honest dialogue because it fosters mutual respect between them and their employees. It’s important to listen to differing points of view and then make your decision. Obviously, people will come at an issue based on their own background and experiences as well as with their own agenda. But it’s incumbent on you to give due attention to their arguments.

Leadership by consensus is weak leadership and that’s not what we are advocating here. But what we do recommend is that you pay attention to your decision making protocol to ensure that it is sustainable over time. That means you will need to rely on your team over and over again so take care to avoid creating an environment where they can’t highlight risks and potential opportunities in your plan.

A good protocol to use involves breaking the project up into clearly delineated phases. In the first phase allow your team time to contribute freely to your planning/strategizing including encouraging debate, pointing out risks and entertaining alternative solutions. Follow that with phase two, a period for your decision making and then bring the team together for a clearly defined third phase of implementation where you clearly articulate your expectations. Other phases include circling back for continuous improvement. This methodology will leave everyone feeling that their input was considered and will reduce the possibility of creating Yes Men under your regime.

Arrogance

In a recent incident in a leading Italian restaurant in Bangsar, two tycoons (both Tan Sris), came in with a horde of bodyguards and were miffed to find that there was no private room available to them. They then refused to pay corkage for the wine they brought with them although the restaurant had invested in an extensive collection of wines.

The restaurant, to their credit, refused to budge on this policy and the two big shots rather than exit with their tails between their legs, reluctantly agreed.

At the end of their meal, in spite of being told that it was a non-smoking area, both insisted on lighting up a pair of gigantic cigars (possibly compensation for some sexual inadequacy) in the dining room. Again, to their utter dismay, the restaurant would not allow them to do so and suggested they go to the bar below where they could continue their discussions on their deals and the possible union of their respective children.

The two left vowing never to return to that fine restaurant that only insisted on adhering to long standing policies. Good riddance, I say. Such people are a burden to society and we should be shamed by the inordinate respect given to these titled rogues.

Anyone know the name of this restaurant: We whould give them a big award - for their courage and standing-up to top-dog.

Words Of Wisdom

There is not that much that separates the business world and politics as far as alliances are concerned. In politics, it is said that there are no permanent friends, only permanent interests. Politicians are fond of referring to their adversaries as “strange bedfellows” but will not hesitate to climb into the same bed if it suits their interests.

In the world of high-finance, bitter rivals can easily sleep on in the same bed, so long as it is good for the bottom line. For some business people, however, friendship is not a word that exists in their vocabulary. Many good friends who go into business together learn the hard way that years of friendship count for nothing once the business issues get into the way.

RBC Takaful

The risk-based capital (RBC) framework for the takaful industry is expected to be implemented in the first half of next year, paving the way for stricter capital requirements for Islamic insurance.

The move would enable takaful players to hold appropriate level of capital to undertake risks in their daily operations.

Takaful Ikhlas Sdn Bhd president and chief executive officer Datuk Syed Moheeb Syed Kamarulzaman said currently the exposure draft of the framework had been released and feedback was being collected from the market.

“We do not expect any delay in the implementation for the RBC framework for the takaful industry as it has been talked in the industry for a while. Unlike the conventional RBC framework, which was given a one-year period for compliance, we expect the actual execution for the RBC to be in a much shorter timeframe,’’ he told a briefing at the 1st Malaysia Insurance Summit 2011.

Moheeb, who is also the chairman of the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA), said he was upbeat that all the takaful players would be able to comply with the framework upon its implementation.

He said there were one or two takaful companies currently “fine tuning” their portfolio to meet the framework.

Asked on the portfolio mix of the RBC for takaful compared with the RBC for conventional insurers, he said it would be slightly different as there might be heavier loans for credit-base weightage for the former resulting in higher charges for some takaful players under the takaful framework. This is in view of larger loans portfolio for Islamic finance coupled with lesser number of players in the takaful market.

The RBC framework for the conventional insurance sector came on stream in January 2009.

Under the conventional framework, insurance companies are required to have a minimum of 130% of supervisory capital-adequacy ratio.

The capitalisation of the insurance industry currently is strong at a CAR of 224.6%.

At present there are 11 takaful operators and three retakaful operators with another retakaful operator about to join the stable.

According to Moheeb, this year he expected the growth rate for the industry to exceed 20% for the family and general takaful business, higher than the previous year, with the inclusion of three new family takaful operators into the market.

Meanwhile, The Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) CEO Khadijah Abdullah said the insurance industry as a whole was projected to grow by 12% this year supported, amongst others, by the Government’s various stimulus plans and other legislative initiatives as well as the historically low interest rate environment.

According to the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) that in addition to these numerous initiatives announced in the Economic Transformation Programme, including the private pension plan and worker insurance scheme, economic conditions in the country are ripe for further life insurance development.

She added the current consumer confidence in Malaysia has also shown marked improvement, rising to 107 points on the latest Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index - its highest score since the third quarter of 2006.

The General Insurance Association of Malaysia (PIAM) meanwhile reported that, in absence of any further adverse impacton the world economy, the association foresees the outlook for the general insurance industry this year to be positive with an increased demand for insurance in all areas.

Likewise, MTA also expects the Islamic insurance industry to continue to improve on its 10% market penetration, particularly by expanding into rural areas.

Khadijah said Malaysia and other Asean insurance markets should consider implementing the proposed Solvency II framework to be launched next year in the European Union (EU) so as to synergise the domestic industries as to be at par with other advanced markets.

This new framework would create a new scenario for the EU insurance legislations to facilitate the development of a single market in insurance services in Europe, whilst at the same time securing an adequate level of consumer protection, she noted.