DMU has celebrated its commitment to peoples beliefs and the part it plays in their wellbeing with the official launch of OpenFaith.

Mayor of Leicester Sir Peter Soulsby joined Interim Vice-Chancellor Andy Collop at the event which was held in the Breathing Space at DMU, along with Phil Scarffe, DMUs Head of Student Welfare, and Mej Rahim, Student Cohesion Officer.

Faith and wellbeing advisors with Sir Peter Soulsby in the Muslim prayer room

OpenFaith is a part of #HealthyDMU and incorporates faith and spirituality into wellbeing and welfare services.

OpenFaith encourages students of all faiths and no faith to come together in celebrating diversity and humanitarian values.

The initiative encourages students and staff to access a variety of spiritual facilities including the prayer room, chaplaincy and the Breathing Space.

It is open to all regardless of belief and encourages staff and students to be able to explore spirituality, faith, religion and all belief systems in an open and accessible way.

As part of #HealthyDMU, all OpenFaith related activities, such as meetings, masterclasses and visits, focus on the health and wellbeing of students as well as supporting growth and personal development.

Following a tour of the facilities, Sir Peter said: This event today represents all the very best in Leicester and all the very best in DMU. You not only have a very diverse university but you are in a uniquely diverse city.

I do not for a moment pretend everything is perfect, although we do things better than any other city I know.

The diversity and cohesion that we are so proud of is always a work in progress so OpenFaith and this Breathing Space are important.

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Be inspired. Come to our next DMU Open Day

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Visit our #HealthyDMUhub

DMU is exemplary in the physical connection it has with the city but what is amazing is the extent to which the people in the university set out to be an integral part of the city too.

This is more than just a physical space. It is about a community and the communities within that. With that I congratulate you and wish you well for the future.

Interim Vice-Chancellor Andy Collop said: We are very proud of our diverse community of students and staff and one of the great things we can do as an institution is to support that diversity and allow it to flourish.

People are at the heart of the university and faith plays an important role for many of those peoples wellbeing.

Harminder Singh Jagdev is Sikh faith advisor at DMU. He said: This space is brilliant. Since I started in September I have seen more and more people coming here and using it. I hope that growth continues.

Mej Rahim, Student Cohesion Officer at DMU, said: I think this space is integral to the student experience.

People look for a place that they belong and this has become really popular with the students. We have people of different faiths and no faiths coming together and talking to each other and breaking down barriers.

Posted on Thursday 20th February 2020

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DMU launches OpenFaith to recognise people's beliefs and its part in their wellbeing - De Montfort University

On what was a filthy night in northwest Belgium, amid the swirling wind, rain and hail, Jesse Lingard reached a milestone. It was his 200th appearance as a Manchester United player. For context, that is 48 more than Dwight Yorke, 23 more than the late Duncan Edwards and remarkably fifteen more than Eric Cantona.

Lingard joins a century of others in Uniteds 200 club. At a sporting institution of this size, stature and ambition, no player reaches such a point without having the talent and application that is required to succeed there. This may be an era of mediocrity in Uniteds long, trophy-laden history but it is nevertheless a proud and commendable achievement.

And yet, Thursday was otherwise an evening for Lingard to forget. Only a few United players performed well in the 1-1 draw with Club Brugge and Lingard was not among them. He was far from the worst, further still from the best. But, as is increasingly the case with Lingard, he received more criticism than any of his equally ineffective team-mates.

Some of it is understandable. It is easy to see what many supporters think Lingard should be producing when looking at new recruit Bruno Fernandes. The Portuguese has only made three appearances to date this latest outing came as a substitute and lasted just nine minutes but it is already clear that he makes things happen in a way that Lingard, Juan Mata and Andreas Pereira do not.

And as United are still in the market for another creative, attack-minded type capable of playing as a No 10, it is hard not to conclude that Lingards United career has only one direction of travel. His contract expires in the summer of next year, when United can automatically extend Lingards existing terms for a further 12 months. By that point, will they want to? And willLingard himself?

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The answer to both of those questions will almost certainly be no unless his long standing struggles for form and the relentless, sometimes gratuitous criticism of his performances have subsided. Lingard is attempting to turn things around.He has scaled back his social media habits. He does not read the newspapers.Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has spoken positively but also sincerely about the players efforts to improve in training.

And yet, it is also only natural for Lingard to be affected by hisform and the near-constant criticism. Last weekend, he reacted to the death of television presenter Caroline Flack by lamenting the pressure of social media and the national press in the public eye. Its actually a joke, he wrote. All human beings have feelings we are not robots. He has not tweeted again in the days since.

Any high-profile attacking player who only has two goals and an assist to show for their efforts midway through the season must accept they will be scrutinised, but this pervasive idea that Lingard is a worse player than the majority of his team-mates is wrong. It foregrounds the most challenging 18 months of his life and career and it forgets the previous two-and-a-half years of progress and personal development under Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho.

Solskjaer, by contrast, has not managed to elicit the same level of performance. Lingard has never been an easy player to categorise, but he does not fit neatly into any of the Norwegians preferred systems. There once was room for the bustling, energetic and hard-working presence that Lingard was when at his best. At 27-years-old, there is no reason why he cannot be that player again. But in order for him to rediscover that form, a change of scenery feels more and more necessary.

Earlier this week, amid all the fury about Paul Pogbas long-term future, it went relatively unnoticed that Mino Raiola publicly confirmed he is now representing Lingard as well as Pogba. For sure, I will reach out to Ole. I only wish him all the best, Raiola said as part of his spat with Solskjaer. Wishing him all the best is wishing Paul Pogba all the best, and wishing Jesse Lingard all the best.

And what may now be best for both Lingard and United is a parting of ways. It would be a shame for an academy-produced, locally-sourced first-team player to leave the club but the incessant debate on Lingards true ability is beginning to develop some common, neutral ground. Whether you believe he is a talented player or not, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is in need of a new start.

See more here:
Jesse Lingards problems at Manchester United may only have one solution - The Independent

Coles

A new partnership between Essendon Football Club and Coles is set to help Tiwi female football players to realise their dreams of becoming AFLW players.

The five-year partnership aims to unearth the newest stars of the AFLW by providing new opportunities for talented female footballers to make their way through Essendons Tiwi Pathway Program to the VFLW.

Talented footballers from the Tiwi Islands will live, train and play in Melbourne for Essendons VFLW team and receive mentoring and support from Coles, the largest private-sector employer of Indigenous Australians with more than 4,400 team members working across the country.

The young female talent will have a full immersive experience at the Club, focused on professional and personal development, elite training and preparation.

Coles becomes the official partner of the Bombers Tiwi Womens Pathway Program, the official supermarket partner of the Essendon Football Club and the official shorts partner of the clubs VFL Womens Team. The partnership is in addition to Coles support of the AFLW and AFL competitions which will see a focus on important issues such as health, nutrition, inclusion and community support.

Coles Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Ronson said Coles is excited to partner with the Essendon Football Club to inspire and support young Indigenous female footballers from the Tiwi Islands.

Supporting Indigenous communities is something we are passionate about at Coles. We are so inspired by the stories of these incredibly talented women and are delighted to be supporting them on their journey from the Tiwi Islands to Melbourne and hopefully help them realise their dreams of playing in the AFLW, she said.

Essendon Chief Commercial Officer Justin Rodski said it was a truly immersive partnership that would strengthen the Clubs female football pathways.

We are so proud to align with a national brand like Coles, who like our organisation, are genuine and committed to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities right across Australia, he said.

This partnership also reflects both organisations investment into providing mentoring and professional development opportunities for young female football talent in remote communities like the Tiwi Islands, while also providing a worthwhile immersion experience in Melbourne to support their footballing dreams.

Coles fresh ambassador and award-winning chef Curtis Stone, who has spent time exploring the culinary delights of the Tiwi Islands in his program Surfing the Menu, gave the players a warm Melbourne welcome by sharing some tips and tricks in the kitchen, while the girls showed off their skills on the football field.

The way womens football has progressed is just unbelievable. To meet these three incredible women from the Tiwi Islands which is this beautiful little remote part of Australia right up just off the coast is such an honour. To see them come down and chase their dreams, its amazing because I bet these girls one day will be heroes for the next generation, Curtis said.

VIDEO: Essendon and Coles team up

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Coles and Essendon team up to unearth more Tiwi talent - Mirage News

COLUMBUS Feb 21, 2020 (Thomson StreetEvents) -- Edited Transcript of State Auto Financial Corp earnings conference call or presentation Thursday, February 20, 2020 at 4:00:00pm GMT

State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP of Commercial Lines & MD of State Auto Labs

Welcome, and thank you for standing by. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to State Auto Financial Corporation's Director of Investor Relations, Natalie Schoolcraft.

Thank you, Carol. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our fourth quarter 2019 earnings conference call. Today, I'm joined by our Chairman, President and CEO, Mike LaRocco; Senior Vice President and CFO, Steve English; Senior Vice President of Personal and Commercial Lines and Managing Director of State Auto Labs, Kim Garland; Senior Vice President of Data and Analytics, Jason Berkey; Chief Actuarial Officer, Matt Mrozek; and Chief Investment Officer, Scott Jones. After our prepared remarks, we'll open the lines for questions.

Our comments today may include forward-looking statements, which, by their nature, involve a number of risk factors and uncertainties, which may affect future financial performance. Such risk factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in our projections or forward-looking statements. These types of factors are discussed at the end of our press release as well as in our annual and quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Financial schedules containing reconciliations of certain non-GAAP measures, along with other supplemental financial information, are included as part of our press release and available on our website, stateauto.com, under the Investors section.

Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [3]

Thanks, Nat, and good morning, everyone. First, I'd like to welcome Mayor and congratulate him on getting the opportunity to file the most innovative and exciting company in the P&C space. Welcome, Mayor.

Next, let me update you on some internal changes we made at the beginning of the year. I asked Jason Berkey to lead our Data and Analytics area as our Chief Data Officer reporting to me. We believe that a combination of technology, data, analytics and innovative culture will be a key factor in who wins going forward. Therefore, we felt it was critical to creating this focused and centralized group. With this change, I consolidated our business lines, both personal and commercial, under Kim Garland's leadership. Kim previously led personal lines before moving to commercial lines, so his institutional knowledge will ensure a seamless transition.

Now for the results. 2019 was a year that had many twists and turns, ups and downs, but ultimately, it was a successful year. We started this journey to modernize State Auto just a few years ago, and last year, we took another significant step forward. At the end of the last year, I said the turnaround of State Auto was complete. I was mostly correct. Unfortunately, there were 2 areas that we had covered early in 2019 that needed additional intention. There were some flaws in our personal auto product and our personal auto platform. While I'm disappointed that these challenges put us behind our schedule, I'm pleased that we have put fixes in place and entered 2020 prepared to compete across all our lines of business. Kim will address the product challenges in auto and what we fixed in 2019 and the changes that are coming early this year.

The auto platform needed some additional work to improve both the speed and stability as well as enhancements to improve our processing of auto endorsements. The vast majority of that work was completed by the fourth quarter of last year, with just a handful of updates that will be resolved in the first quarter. Again, while these fixes were not anticipated as we entered the year, I'm pleased that we were able to make the needed adjustments. This is the benefit of having a modern digital platform.

Unfortunately, the result of our misses was a year where we did not grow across auto and failed to make an underwriting profit, both unacceptable results. As a veteran of this industry and specifically auto, I'm confident we can and will bounce back from this poor year. We understand the business and now have a stable and innovative digital platform upon which we will place an appropriately competitive product.

There is room for State Auto to write a significant amount of auto insurance. Our digital approach and emerging product will allow our agents to win their fair share of this competitive line. While we hit bumps across auto and failed to meet our expectations, the news was mixed but much better in homeowners. We continue to achieve a significant growth, a clear indicator of the power, again, of our digital platform and well-designed product. As our auto product comes back and becomes more competitive, whole will benefit as we anticipate an increase in multi-policy sales.

Of course, growth without profit is unacceptable as well, so we consider the overall home results a disappointment. We look carefully at the results and know that we had a significant level of both cat and non-cat weather. In addition, we had a handful of fire losses, particularly in the fourth quarter. The combination resulted in a combined ratio well above our expectations. Now we do not use weather, cats or otherwise or fires as an excuse. We own the results, and we expect to return to profitability this year.

Now commercial lines had an outstanding year. We have consistently expressed a belief that these lines presented a unique opportunity for State Auto. Once we exited large commercial and E&S, lines that are both unprofitable and a distraction, we knew our focus on small and middle market commercial would lead to realizing the potential in commercial lines. 2019 was our first major step in that direction.

Our digital platform for commercial auto and small commercial has been embraced by our agent partners as well as newly designed products that provide better segmentation and matching of rate to risk. Our middle market success has come without the benefit of our new platform. Instead, our culture, which is the foundation of the new State Auto, properly empowered our team, resulting in gains in both efficiency and effectiveness. In the second quarter this year, we will -- we anticipate the start of the rollout of our middle market digital platform. This will allow us to be even more efficient, helping all 3 components of the combined ratio of growth, loss control and expenses.

I'm especially pleased that we grew across all commercialized products other than workers' comp. We believe we can grow workers' comp, but we refuse to file the market trends where rates continue to be set at unprofitable levels. Our focus remains on underwriting, claims handling and getting the appropriate rate. That discipline will offer some growth in 2020, even with the undisciplined pricing in the market. Workers' comp will be the final line on our new platform. Once complete, our agents will be able to write the complete package for both small and midsized commercial on the same digital platform.

We just launched our farm and ranch product on Connect, again, our digital platform. This is so significant because the product has a level of innovation and sophistication that is unique in the industry. Our rapid growth in this line will also be boosted as we add 8 new states, states we are currently in with the rest of our commercial lines business. As I noted in the second quarter, we will start to roll out a middle market commercial, leaving only workers' comp, which should be in the market by the end of the year.

As happy as I am about our commercial growth, I'm ecstatic about the profitability. We still have lines that need attention, but the underlying loss ratios are generally performing to our expectation. We believe our products have been well-designed and are built for ongoing profitable growth. The key, as always, for consistent profitability across commercial will be our expense ratio.

In an industry not known for innovation, words can't capture the pride I have in our team's technology achievement. We set out just a few years ago to modernize this 99-year-old company. Indeed, we were, at the time, a 95-year-old startup. As we enter year 5 of this journey, we have brought State Auto to the front of the industry with our digital technology and new products. The cost was not insignificant, but with the largest part of the investment now behind us, we can continue to build the scale that will lead to efficient growth.

Achieving scale on our platform is key to getting a competitive expense ratio. We will continue to be disciplined about our expenses as we have been for the last few years. Even with the large investment in technology, we have been able to get some expense ratio improvement, but we are now at the point in our journey where we must prove the value of our investment with profitable growth.

2019 was an incredibly challenging year, and our results did not meet our expectation. We take full responsibility for those results. However, numbers do not tell the full story. We now have our digital platform in place for the majority of our products, products that have been rebuilt with sophisticated modeling and pricing. We have stabilized and improved that platform across our largest line. This year, we will complete the rebuild of our auto product that began last year, allowing us to continue our journey to profitable growth in this key product.

Finally, our unique culture continues to be the driving factor in our success. We are building on a lead team of professionals who are innovative, empowered and passionate about winning. We entered 2020 as an organization that is ready to compete and win across personal and commercial lines of insurance.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Steve.

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Steven Eugene English, State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP & CFO [4]

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Thanks, Mike, and good morning, everyone. As you can see from this morning's release, STFC reported net income for the 2019 fourth quarter and full year that was significantly greater than the same corresponding periods in 2018. The swing in net investment gain or loss is the primary reason as it reflects the change in unrealized gains and losses on equity securities and other invested assets in accordance with the new rules that went into effect last year. This new guidance has created the volatility it was predicted to create.

On an operating basis, which excludes the impact of net investment gain or loss, STFC reported $0.29 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to $0.67 in the fourth quarter of 2018. On a year-to-date basis, STFC reported $0.63 per diluted share in 2019 compared to $1.20 for all of '18. Included in these results are the ongoing personal and commercial insurance operations as well as the impact of the specialty runoff business. The lower level of operating earnings is primarily driven by underwriting results with higher combined ratios.

Looking at combined ratios on a GAAP basis, comparing fourth quarter 2019 to 2018, the GAAP combined ratio of 100.4 is 5.8 points higher than the fourth quarter a year ago. Quarterly results can fluctuate, but our fourth quarter cat loss and ALAE ratio of 7.7 is 5.1 points higher than the cat ratio of 2.6 reported in the fourth quarter of 2018.

2 items -- 2 significant items drove the higher level of cats. First, we recorded additional specialty Irma and Harvey losses in response to claim development we are seeing beyond what was expected. Loss development seems to be impacted by efforts by insureds and public adjusters representing insureds seeking damages by late reporting of claims and/or seeking additional damages beyond what we believe we owe on claims already reported. We added to these reserves in the second quarter of 2019 as well. Some of these claims are or will possibly end up being litigated. This drove the 6.6 million of cat loss for the quarter in specialty runoff. Specialty adverse development added 2 points to the quarter and 0.9 year-to-date. For the quarter and year, these cat losses are the most significant story within specialty.

Second, we recorded an estimate of $16.5 million for storms in late October of 2019 impacting the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Collectively, this is $23.1 million of the $24.8 million for the quarter. Comparing fourth quarters, the non-cat loss and ALAE ratios for the fourth quarter of 2019 rose 2.3 points compared to the fourth quarter of '18, and the GAAP expense ratio declined 1.6 points when comparing the same 2 periods. On a year-to-date basis, the GAAP combined ratio of 102.7 for 2019 compares to 100.6 for '18, an increase of 2.1 points. The cat loss and ALAE ratio was up 2.2 points, the non-cat loss and ALAE ratio was up 0.9 points, while the GAAP expense ratio declined 1 point. Each successive quarter, the impact of the specialty runoff has become less and less impactful, and the focus continues to be on the adequacy of our reserve estimates.

I will turn the attention into our personal and commercial segments. As can be seen from our press release disclosures on a statutory basis, our personal and commercial segments' combined ratios were 97.1 and 101.2 for the 2019 fourth quarter and year-to-date, respectively, compared to 92.8 and 98.6 for same periods of '18. Our personal segment drove the overall higher combined ratios in 2019, with quarterly and year-to-date combined ratios above 100, while our commercial segment reported improved results and combined ratios below 100 for the same periods of time. 2019 personal lines underwriting results in the quarter and for the year when compared to the same periods in 2018 were impacted by higher cat losses, ALAE ratios and higher non-cat loss and ALAE ratios. These were somewhat offset by slightly improving expense ratios. The personal lines book grew 9.1% for the year in 2019 when compared to '18.

2019 commercial underwriting results were much improved, with combined ratios of 86.5 and 97.0 for the fourth quarter of '19 and full year '19, respectively, compared to 90.4 and 101.2 from the same periods a year ago. For the year, commercial lines loss and the LAE results improved 1.8 points when compared to 2018, and the expense ratio declined 2.4 points on the same basis. Commercial lines grew over 12% when compared to 2018 for both the quarter and the year. Kim Garland will provide greater product detail in his prepared remarks.

To wrap up my comments on underwriting results, let's spend a few moments on prior year loss development and expenses. For the year, personal lines reported 1.7 points of net favorable development of prior year non-cat loss and ALAE reserves compared to 4.9 points a year ago. 2018 development included 2.9 points of favorable development for homeowners compared to 0.1 point of adverse development for '19. Homeowners has not aligned a business where we expect significant amounts of development as it is short-tail property. For the year, commercial lines reported 12 points of net favorable development of prior year non-cat loss and ALAE reserves compared to 10.1 points a year ago. We continue to see favorable experience emerge on workers' compensation. The absolute dollar amount of development was greater in 2019 than in 2018. But keep in mind, the book has been shrinking, so current year earned premium is less contributing to the higher ratio impact in 2019 as well. Small and middle market commercial reflected higher amounts of favorable development, while commercial auto was roughly half of what it was in 2018.

On a statutory basis, the total personal and commercial lines expense ratio for the year ended December 31, 2019, at 34.4% compared to 35.6% a year ago, a reduction of 1.2 points. With overall growth of 10.2% and net written premium, the expense ratio did benefit from scale. Base commissions, though, as a percentage of net written premiums is trending down as more of our book is comprised of business written on our digital Connect platform. With lower overall underwriting profitability, associated variable compensation was less in '19 as compared to '18, and offsetting these items is the normal pressure from increased fixed costs such as wage and salary adjustments for associates. There was no material dollar change in our project-related costs, although those costs focused more on middle market, farm and ranch and workers' compensation lines of business as compared to commercial auto and small commercial in 2018. With continued rollouts of our Connect system and growth, we would expect to see the overall expense ratio continue to improve as we move forward.

Moving on to investments. Net investment income was up sequentially from the third quarter of 2019 but lower than last year's fourth quarter. Year-to-date, net investment income was $80.4 million compared to $84.9 million for 2018. $3 million of the $4.5 million decrease was in fixed maturities split evenly between traditional fixed income, securities and tips. The overall fixed maturity portfolio and amortized cost declined during 2019. A contributing factor is the settlement of specialty claims and runoff. Overall, specialty reserves are down $85.2 million from December 31, 2018, and stand at $233.7 million as of December 31, 2019.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Kim.

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Kim Burton Garland, State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP of Commercial Lines & MD of State Auto Labs [5]

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Thanks, Steve, and good morning, everyone. I'll be covering both personal and commercial lines this morning. For both the fourth quarter and the entire year of 2019, it is the tale of 2 different stories. I'll start with commercial lines. 2019 was a historically good year for State Auto, which produced a 4Q '19 combined ratio of 86.5 versus 90.4 in 4Q '18 and a 4Q '19 written premium increase of 12.6% versus 4Q '18. And for the entire year of 2019, our commercial lines produced a combined ratio of 97 and a written premium increase of 12% versus 2018.

The highlights of the quarter and the year for commercial lines. The commercial lines expense ratio dropped 2.4 points in 2019 from 42 to 39.6. Growth continues to strengthen with all of the commercial product lines, except workers' compensation growing in 2019. Commercial new business premiums increased 76% in 2019. Our product is currently on commercial Connect, while commercial auto and commercial umbrella gained traction in 2019, and it continued in January 2020 as we wrote $9 million of new business written premium in these products on the Connect platform. This is almost the amount of new business that we wrote for all of commercial lines in an average month in 2018.

The challenges of the quarter and the year for commercial lines were the following: the commercial auto combined ratio is still above 100, 102.5 for 4Q '19 and 104.9 for all of 2019. We need to both get more rate in commercial auto and continue to improve the expense ratio. And while we have maintained pricing discipline in workers' compensation, we are still shrinking in this product line. We still need to solve how to both maintain pricing discipline and grow.

There are many opportunities in front of us, including farm and ranch Connect, which launched its first 5 states earlier this month. With our farm and ranch Connect rollout in 2020, we will be entering 8 new states.

CPP or middle market Connect is scheduled to launch its first state, Indiana, in the next couple of months. And while we have started to get traction with the products currently on commercial Connect, BOP, commercial auto and commercial umbrella, there is still a tremendous amount of untapped upside potential for these product lines on commercial Connect.

Also, we have only scratched the surface of the expense ratio benefit for commercial lines from Connect. For all of commercial lines, a percentage of premium on Connect is the following: In 2018, it was 1.8%; as of 1Q '19, it was 5.2%; as of 2Q '19, it was 6%; as of 3Q '19, it was 6.4%; and as of 4Q '19, it was 7.5%.

While our commercial lines business still has much work ahead of us, 2019 was a year where the business significantly advanced. I could not be prouder of our commercial lines associates, and we all believe that we are just getting started.

For personal lines, 2019 was a year of challenges for State Auto. Our personal lines business produced a 4Q '19 combined ratio of 103.9 versus 94.7 in 4Q '18 and a 4Q '19 written premium increase of 6.8% versus 4Q '18. And for the entire year of 2019, our personal lines business produced a combined ratio of 103.9 and a written premium increase of 9.1% versus 2018. Personal auto is the product line where State Auto was challenged the most in 2019. Our results reflect those challenges.

For 2019, our personal auto results are a combined ratio of 103; a written premium growth rate of minus 0.1%; a policies in force growth rate of minus 7.2%, which is a minus 5.1% policies in force decline if you exclude Georgia legacy; a new business count growth rate of minus 13.2%; and a retention level of 67.9. For 4Q '19 alone, our personal auto results are a combined ratio of 114.1; a written premium growth rate of minus 5.9; a policies in force growth rate of minus 7.2, again, minus 5.1 when you exclude Georgia legacy business; and a new business count growth rate of minus 20.8%; and a retention level of 67.9%. These are unacceptable results. Questions are, why did these results occur? And what are we planning to do about them? Walking through some history will help explain these results.

First, our objective back in 2015 and 2016 for personal auto was to become a predominantly preferred auto insurer that also wrote the entire spectrum of personal auto risks. This was different than State Auto's historical personal auto strategy of focusing on writing "prime of life" personal auto risks.

When we talk about the higher risk end of the personal auto risk spectrum, we are not talking about no prior insurance risks, but we mean risks with activity, lower credit score risks and minimum limits risks. The industry might describe these risks as standard risks and the better end of nonstandard risks.

From day 1, we understood that to successfully manage this entire spectrum of risks, we had to effectively manage both the preferred book of business and a standard better nonstandard book of business, and that successfully managing these 2 books of business required doing things differently for these 2 books of business, different approaches to pricing and different operational requirements.

Our struggles in personal auto predominantly come from not effectively managing our standard better end of nonstandard personal auto business. Over the last couple of years, we have been evolving our pricing, raising rates on the standard better nonstandard risks and evolving our operations. For example, significantly reducing the number of risks where we accepted 1 month down payment.

Our poor 2019 highlighted that our mistake was not making changes urgently enough or aggressively enough in the area of rates. Generally, our rates for standard better nonstandard business were still lower than they needed to be. And our operations. Our operational approach and execution still resulted in underwriting and premium leakage that was higher for a standard better nonstandard book of business than it was for our preferred business. These mistakes in standard better nonstandard rates and operations resulted in us attracting a higher percentage of these risks than we expected at rates that were not adequate.

To address these issues, we will be taking the following actions: One, we will be implementing an updated personal auto pricing model that lowers rates for ultra preferred and preferred risks and increases the rates for risks at the higher end of the risk spectrum; and two, we will be making operational changes in underwriting and sales that reflect the reality that managing a standard better nonstandard personal auto book of business is different than managing a preferred personal auto book of business. We know what we need to do to improve the results of our personal auto business, and the team is ready and able to execute these changes.

Homeowners also struggled in 2019, but our homeowners story is much different than our personal auto story. For 2019, our homeowners results are a combined ratio of 106.8%, a written premium growth rate of plus 19.4%, a policies in force growth rate of plus 12.5%, a new business count growth rate of plus 20% and a retention level of 75.

For 4Q '19, our homeowners results are a combined ratio of 94.4%, a written premium growth rate of plus 20.7%, a policies in force growth rate of 12.5%, a new business count growth rate of 13.1% and a retention level of 75%.

In 2019, Texas represented 27% of State Auto's total homeowners business, and 2019 was a bad weather year in Texas. There are 2 issues here to consider: One, are the catastrophe and weather loads in our Texas homeowners rates adequate? Generally, we believe that the catastrophe weather loads in our Texas homeowners rates are appropriate; two, with Texas, representing 27% of our total homeowners book of business, our homeowners results are very dependent on the weather in Texas in any given year. We need to increase the growth of our homeowners business in other states so that Texas makes up a smaller percentage of our homeowners business. This will be a focus in 2020.

Again, our results in personal lines are unacceptable. That being said, I'm thrilled to get the opportunity to work again with our personal lines business and associates. During my 6 weeks back in this role, the 1 thing that has been crystal clear is that the personal lines associates are eager and ready for the work ahead of them to improve our personal lines business.

When I look across our 7 major product lines, personal auto, homeowners, commercial auto, small commercial, middle market commercial, workers' compensation and farm and rance, 6 of them are in good condition and well positioned for immediate success, and one, personal auto, has a meaningful amount of work required to get it to our desired state.

And with that, we will open the line for questions.

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Questions and Answers

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Operator [1]

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(Operator Instructions) Our first question today comes from Paul Newsome from Piper Sandler.

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Jon Paul Newsome, Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst [2]

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A couple of related questions. First, I was hoping you could kind of give us some more detail on the auto retention situation and how you think or hope that will change in the future. And then I was hoping as well, relatedly, if you could talk about the auto insurance's market environment. Lots of concerns that it has become a very, very competitive market. And how does that make it -- has that made the challenge of trying to improve the profitability, the book more difficult? Or...

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Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [3]

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Thanks, Paul. I'll let Kim weigh in on both. I've got quite a view on the market environment that I certainly want to share as well. But I think Kim can talk about retention and some thoughts on the market.

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Kim Burton Garland, State Auto Financial Corporation - Senior VP of Commercial Lines & MD of State Auto Labs [4]

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So I think retention is going to be a combination of a couple of things. So I think on the first side of retention, it's sort of things that we do ourselves. So I mentioned, I think, when we look at rates at both ends of the spectrum, I think we are probably priced a little bit high on the preferred end of the spectrum and a little bit inadequate on the sort of higher risk end of the spectrum. And so as rates are stable or down in preferred, that should help preferred auto versus the retention. Also, Mike mentioned that we have brought greater stability to the platform, and I think greater stability is going to help our agents sort of -- their renewals be less -- have less systems-related issues. And so that should help our retention also. I think a third aspect of it is, last year, we mentioned we had stopped writing a bunch of 1-month down payment, and that business had very low retentions. And so the fact that we aren't writing that business anymore is going to help the retention of a book as a whole. And so there are a lot of things. If we think about each of these markets, I'll call them preferred standard, nonstandard individually, those things should help retention levels in those markets individually.

But 1 of the things I mentioned was because of some operational issues and sort of prices being lower than they needed to be at the higher end risk of the spectrum, we probably attracted a bit more of that business than we were expecting, and that type of business just has general lower retention levels. And so I think what you will see over the coming year is a shift more and writing more preferred business, which just brings a higher retention level. And so as that mix changes, that will be as important a driver as the individual sort of things that we are working on.

When I think about sort of the state of the market, again, it's -- we look at -- I think when we set rates, we look at both what our actuarial indications are and both the competitive position in the market. And I think while we have seen the market getting more competitive, when we go market by market, I think we believe that we can put rates in the market, especially in the preferred, ultra preferred end, that are both adequate and competitive. And so we think even though personal auto is always competitive, and it continues to get more competitive, that we will be in good position there. I think what we will see is, at the higher end of the spectrum, we will take the rate that we need to take. And so we may not be competitive on some of the standard or better nonstandard risks, and that part is fine with us.

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Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [5]

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Yes. And Paul, just to add some commentary. I mean, it's very clear that companies that are spending between $1 billion and $2 billion advertising, and there's a handful of them, they're going to win their fair share of the marketplace. And those advertising dollars, obviously, are driving customers to their site, and they are able to close those opportunities. So it would be foolish not to suggest that there's going to continue to be some level of consolidation towards the top of the market, particularly with a handful, and I truly mean just a handful, of companies that are pushing into that space.

The thing that's interesting about the auto market is that it's extraordinarily inefficient. And what I mean by that is that if you go out, I'm sure you've done this, and get 5, 6, 7 quotes, the range of rates that will come back to you would be surprising. And they're not always the companies that are spending those $1 billion and $2 billion to drive those opportunities. So there is opportunity for more than just a handful of companies to consolidate.

Now do I believe the old line mutuals and the old line regionals are dead men walking and are not going to be able to compete successfully? 100%. Because you have to have some core things. You've got to have a very efficient system to make the process seamless if you're selling through an independent agent. And you've got to have enough efficiency in there that you can have, at least a competitive rate because your expense ratio reflects that.

The other thing that's a misunderstanding about the market is that independent agents are either walking away from auto -- and by the way, a lot of those regionals and small mutuals are trying to switch to become commercial underwriters because they're literally not seeing a future in auto, which creates more opportunity for those tweener companies like State Auto. But the other misconception about it is that agents are just kind of accepting this change and not adjusting themselves. We have a significant number of our agents who are what we would call digital agents or at least a portion of their business is that they go -- they set up online search engines, and they are driving customers to their website. They get the advantage of kind of having that local presence. And they are doing quite well in that space. And what they're really looking for are partners like State Auto that have also a digital presence.

And so the combination of the inefficiency of the market, the bottom dwellers who will start exiting creates opportunities in that space for companies that have a level of innovation around their platform and their products, especially with things like telematics and some of the other changes that our team has been launching and will continue to launch into 2020.

So we're actually all in on auto. I know some of you who look at the market from the outside don't agree with that. But we have a very strong feeling that we can win more than our fair share of that business, and we'll continue to pursue it.

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Operator [6]

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(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Meyer Shields from KBW.

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Meyer Shields, Keefe, Bruyette, & Woods, Inc., Research Division - MD [7]

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Great. [I wanted to push] auto for a second. When you talk about managing the books differently, does that encompass handling the claims differently? And can you talk about your capabilities on either end of the spectrum?

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Michael Edward LaRocco, State Auto Financial Corporation - Chairman, President & CEO [8]

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Edited Transcript of STFC earnings conference call or presentation 20-Feb-20 4:00pm GMT - Yahoo Finance

Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market report comprises of a huge database about the recent discovery and technological expansions observed in the industry, complete with an analysis of the impact of these barriers on the markets future development. This report moreover focuses on current business and present-day advances, future methodology changes, and accessible entryways for the Personal Financial Management Tools market. The progressions & frameworks are one of the important segments that clear up an entire execution and incorporate key geological analysis.

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Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers:

Celltrion,Pfizer (Hospira),3SBIO,Novartis (Sandoz),Dr Reddys,Celgen Biopharma,Cadila Healthcare,Hisun Pharma,Torrent Pharmaceuticals

Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Segment by Type, covers

Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into

Table of Contents 1 Personal Financial Management Tools Market Overview 1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Personal Financial Management Tools 1.2 Personal Financial Management Tools Segment by Type 1.2.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate Comparison by Type 2020 VS 2026 1.2.2 Compact Type Personal Financial Management Tools 1.2.3 Standard Type Personal Financial Management Tools 1.3 Personal Financial Management Tools Segment by Application 1.3.1 Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Comparison by Application: 2020 VS 2026 1.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market by Region 1.4.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Size Estimates and Forecasts by Region: 2020 VS 2026 1.4.2 North America Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.3 Europe Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.4 China Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.4.5 Japan Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Growth Prospects 1.5.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 1.5.3 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Estimates and Forecasts (2015-2026) 2 Market Competition by Manufacturers 2.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity Market Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Share by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.3 Market Share by Company Type (Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3) 2.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Average Price by Manufacturers (2015-2020) 2.5 Manufacturers Personal Financial Management Tools Production Sites, Area Served, Product Types 2.6 Personal Financial Management Tools Market Competitive Situation and Trends 2.6.1 Personal Financial Management Tools Market Concentration Rate 2.6.2 Global Top 3 and Top 5 Players Market Share by Revenue 2.6.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion 3 Production Capacity by Region 3.1 Global Production Capacity of Personal Financial Management Tools Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Market Share by Regions (2015-2020) 3.3 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.4 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.4.1 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.4.2 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.5 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.5.1 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.5.2 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.6 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.6.1 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.6.2 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 3.7 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production 3.7.1 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production Growth Rate (2015-2020) 3.7.2 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production Capacity, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2015-2020) 4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption by Regions 4.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption by Regions 4.1.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption by Region 4.1.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Market Share by Region 5 Production, Revenue, Price Trend by Type 5.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Market Share by Type (2015-2020) 5.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Revenue Market Share by Type (2015-2020) 5.3 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Price by Type (2015-2020) 5.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Share by Price Tier (2015-2020): Low-End, Mid-Range and High-End 6 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Market Analysis by Application 6.1 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Market Share by Application (2015-2020) 6.2 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2015-2020) 7 Company Profiles and Key Figures in Personal Financial Management Tools Business 7.2.4 Main Business and Markets Served 8 Personal Financial Management Tools Manufacturing Cost Analysis 8.1 Personal Financial Management Tools Key Raw Materials Analysis 8.1.1 Key Raw Materials 8.1.2 Key Raw Materials Price Trend 8.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials 8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure 8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Personal Financial Management Tools 8.4 Personal Financial Management Tools Industrial Chain Analysis 9 Marketing Channel, Distributors and Customers 9.1 Marketing Channel 9.2 Personal Financial Management Tools Distributors List 9.3 Personal Financial Management Tools Customers 10 Market Dynamics 10.1 Market Trends 10.2 Opportunities and Drivers 10.3 Challenges 10.4 Porters Five Forces Analysis 11 Production and Supply Forecast 11.1 Global Forecasted Production of Personal Financial Management Tools (2021-2026) 11.2 Global Forecasted Revenue of Personal Financial Management Tools (2021-2026) 11.3 Global Forecasted Price of Personal Financial Management Tools (2021-2026) 11.4 Global Personal Financial Management Tools Production Forecast by Regions (2021-2026) 11.4.1 North America Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 11.4.2 Europe Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 11.4.3 China Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 11.4.4 Japan Personal Financial Management Tools Production, Revenue Forecast (2021-2026) 12 Consumption and Demand Fprecast 12.1 Global Forecasted and Consumption Demand Analysis of Personal Financial Management Tools 12.2 North America Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Country 12.3 Europe Market Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Country 12.4 Asia Pacific Market Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Regions 12.5 Latin America Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools 13 Forecast by Type and by Application (2021-2026) 13.1 Global Production, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type (2021-2026) 13.1.1 Global Forecasted Production of Personal Financial Management Tools by Type (2021-2026) 13.1.2 Global Forecasted Revenue of Personal Financial Management Tools by Type (2021-2026) 13.1.2 Global Forecasted Price of Personal Financial Management Tools by Type (2021-2026) 13.2 Global Forecasted Consumption of Personal Financial Management Tools by Application (2021-2026) 14 Reseach Finding and Conclusion 15 Methodology and Data Source 15.1 Methodology/Research Approach 15.1.1 Research Programs/Design 15.1.2 Market Size Estimation 15.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation 15.2 Data Source 15.2.1 Secondary Sources 15.2.2 Primary Sources 15.3 Author List 15.4 Disclaimer . And More

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Personal Financial Management Tools Market Trends, Growth, Development, Segmentation, Product Types, End-User Industry, Geography and Forecast from...

Written by Debraj Deb | Agartala | Updated: February 21, 2020 5:12:21 pm The state government honoured three people from the near-extinct Chaimaar ethno-linguistic group, who are the last speakers of the language. (Twitter/Biplab Kumar Deb)

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Saturday urged the people of the state to respect and uphold all the mother languages and said that his government is working to ensure that all the languages are equally honoured and developed in the state.

Speaking at an event organised by the Bangladesh Assistant High Commission and state government to observe the International Mother Language on Saturday, Deb said, It is our responsibility to respect and uphold all mother languages; this is the spirit of this day. Mother language is the most important thing required for personal development apart from riches, good proteinous food, and other things. Our own languages can provide us peace alone.

The event, which was held in Agartala, saw a colourful rally headed with tableaus and resonating stories of Bangladesh Liberation War and the ensuing recognition of International Mother Language Day. Diplomats of the Visa Office and Assistant High Commission paid floral tributes to the martyrs of language movement who lost their lives to the Pakistan Army on the streets of Dhaka of present-day Bangladesh in 1952.

The chief minister also said that Indians had learnt English only after it was imposed on them by the British colonial rulers.

British have ruled the world for long. French, Spanish, English are popular because they have colonized the world. But PM Modi has set a standard by carrying his mother language, the chief minister said.

If the British didnt rule for 200 years, how many Indians could speak English? Didnt we have languages or scripts before that? English and foreign languages were imposed on us due to imperialism and everyone knows that no race can be developed by imposition. British imposed their language to impede our development, he added.

Bangladesh Parliamentarian Md. Abdus Shahid, who joined the event, paid respects to the Language martyrs who laid down their lives protesting the imposition of Urdu on East Pakistan and the millions killed in their struggle for independent Bangladesh nation.

Speaking on Indo-Bangla relations, Shahid said the relationship between the two neighbours have reached its peak and is still growing.

Relations between India and Bangladesh, especially Tripura, is at its peak. Our relations are still growing. We have achieved historic achievements like the Land Border Agreement and many other understandings. We believe problems between us can be solved by discussion and no third party is required in this process, he added.

The state government honoured three people from the near-extinct Chaimaar ethno-linguistic group, who are the last speakers of the language. Chaimaar is a tribal clan in the Halam community and one of Tripuras 19 recognized indigenous communities.

Our governments main target is to make sure not even a single language gets extinct. We have felicitated three persons from the family of Lalrilsem Halam who speak Chaimaar, the last speakers of this language as a sign of our commitment to develop all the languages, said Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

We have also recognized Kokborok (lingua franca of Tripura tribals) along with Bengali and are working to develop this language. We are also working to develop Chakma, Reang and other languages. It is birth-right of a child to speak the language learned from mother, he said.

International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999. It is observed every year to promote linguistic, cultural diversity and multilingualism since February, 2000.

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It is our responsibility to respect and uphold all mother languages: Biplab Deb - The Indian Express

Gautam Gupta, Partner at M13 Ventures and former CEO/founder of NatureBox

Gautam Gupta has seen both sides of the entrepreneurial landscape.He started his investing career at General Catalyst, investing in companies such as BigCommerce, GoodData, Honest Company and Grammarly.He then went on to be the founder/CEO of NatureBox, a digitally native brand of snacks. Last year, he returned to the investor side as a Partner at M13 Ventures.We sat down to discuss his view on the future of brands and how big companies need to be changing their approach to the future landscape.

Dave Knox:What do you believe to be the defining characteristics of the brands of the future?

Gautam Gupta:I think in terms of brands, some things will change and some things will never change. Starting with what will never change, consumers will always want a value proposition that is clear above all else. The brand and the product have to deliver a great value proposition. I think that's first and foremost. Second, successful brands will always be consumer focused. They will always be trying to figure out what are the problems that this brand can help a consumer solve.

What will change is brands have to become like people. Consumers want a relationship with the brand that extends well beyond the product. They want to understand what the values of that brand are. And that's why I think you're seeing brands become more vocal in the political arena. I think that's only going to continue. The other thing that I think will change is brands are going to be multichannel from day one. It just doesn't make sense to sell a product only in one place. The Internet has been a democratizing force where consumers can buy products online, offline, and from dozens of different retailers and different outlets.

I think the other thing that's going to change is if you think about the way brands were started 10 or 20 years ago, there was a constraint around the business model or the channel. If you were Procter & Gamble, thinking about starting a new product, you had to think about how to bring that product to market given the constraints of the retail environment and the margin requirements that a partner like Walmart might have. I think what has changed is now you can start products and brands that are unconstrained by those factors.That's pretty exciting because you're starting to see entrepreneurs innovate in areas that probably weren't possible 10 years ago.

Knox:In venture capital, you're not investing in the next trend of tomorrow but a much longer time horizon. How do you think about the ripple effects of consumer change and how that will play out over a decade

Gupta:One of the interesting things about technology right now is the pace of consumer change has only increased. If you think about the adoption of new technologies, it's pretty incredible to think about the number of smartphone devices that are out there in the world and just how quick that adoption has happened. Today the reality is technology is just being adopted so much faster. And so we do think a lot about these ripple effects with technology and what happens once a new technology is introduced.When smartphones came out, they came with cameras, with GPS and with other sensors that created the opportunity for things like Uber and Airbnb. If you think about technologies like autonomous driving, it is easy to think about subscription car services.But I think one of the interesting impacts that a technology like that may have is people will start to live further away from where they work because if you don't have to actually think about driving, you can be very productive sitting in the car getting work done.

That might enable you to live two hours away from your office. And that's pretty compelling because that could create interesting investment opportunities around real estate. Also think about voice recognition where voice is a fundamental technology shift. Kids are growing up learning how to interact with Alexa and Google Home long before they learn how to type. When you think about what applications that's going to enable vs a keyboard world, its pretty exciting.

Knox:Where should large brands be prioritizing their focus and resources given these coming shifts?

Gupta:One of the things large brands need to take stock of is where their core capabilities exist. Historically, large brands had incredible consumer insights, incredible R&D capabilities and their ability to get a product onto the shelf is unparalleled. No startup is going to compete with P&G in the ability to get a product onto the shelf. Large brands need to realize that one of the big core competencies that they have is actually around distribution.

If you think about the distribution muscle that a company like P&G or Kraft has, they can start to leverage that capability to jumpstart new brands. Whenever I talk to someone in a large brand, I ask them what if you weren't beholden to the brand portfolio that you had today? What if you viewed your business as test and learn? Get things into the market, see what works and then double down on that. And so that's what I'm personally very excited about in terms of where large brands could start to shift and spend their time and focus. I think in addition to that, the thing that I would tell any large brand is to really start to consider vertical integration opportunities and opportunities to be closer to the consumer.

Over time you're going to see brands move into different areas and different services like what Tide has done around dry cleaning and washing service they have.I feel like that's going to be commonplace in the future. Anything that can give you exposure to the consumer, where you have that direct relationship. And so that's one of the big things I encourage brands to think about is just don't be constrained by the current business model, the current set of distribution options, but just really think about the use cases for the consumer and be willing to do things that maybe don't look like they could scale.

Knox:What categories are you watching the most when it comes to looking for that next big game changing company?

Gupta:As it relates to e-commerce and direct to consumer brands, there are two spaces that I'm looking at.The first is high order value, highly considered purchases.For instance, I'm really interested in what the next generation of home appliances looks like. It's a little bit off the wall, but if you think about it, how much time did you spend thinking about the refrigerator and the dishwasher in your house? These are huge purchases. And so I actually think that there's a lot of that purchasing process today happening offline. There's no reason why it couldn't happen online. A lot of the research is happening online anyway.

The other thing that I'm always looking for is highly recurring, high frequency purchases. Think of that as the next Dollar Shave Club; anything that a consumer is thinking about on a daily basis. I personally like the supplement realm, personal care products and things like that. Consumers are thinking about it every single day because they are interacting with that product every day. That's pretty special.

Knox:Startups and venture capital are fast moving to say the least. How do you approach own personal development to stay ahead of things.

Gupta:I spend a lot of time talking to people who are naturally curious about technology and sort of through osmosis trying to understand what are they thinking about.But beyond that, I try to keep a very open mind. If I feel like I'm being dismissive about a certain idea, I'll try to actively stop myself and take the other side of the approach. The other thing is every year I focus on learning one new area of expertise. This year it's been really learning about Amazon and that entire ecosystem.So I talk to as many smart people as I can to understand what is going on with that company and the platform they have built.I want different perspectives.If you're a brand today, how do you think about Amazon?Are they a friend or foe? Every year I to try to pick one big thing and really spend some dedicated time figuring it out.

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How Brands Need To Adapt To A Changing Landscape - Forbes

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Asian Wealth Management and Asian Private Banking - IQ-EQ announces partnership with Blue River Partners - Hubbis

The national unemployment rate remains around 29%, according to Statistics South Africas Quarterly Labour Force Survey. Even more concerning is the the unemployment rate of young people between the ages of 15 and 34 years, at 56%.

However, while South Africa is far from realising the employment goals set out in the National Development Plan 2030, there are pockets of progress being made in creating jobs for young people.

Barriers keeping young people out of work

Education

The primary barrier to employability is education.

Among young people, university graduate qualifications clearly improve the chances of being employed, with 33% of young graduates unemployed. While still shockingly high, this is less than the average 15- to 24-year-old rate of 56%.

For those who make it to tertiary level, access to university education is not only impeded by financial restrictions. Most young people in South Africa do not even have university education as a prospect.

Despite the country spending more than 6% of its GDP on education(more detailed information can be found here), about half of learners drop out before completing high school. Fewer than 5% who start primary school end up with a university qualification, according to the International Monetary Fund 2019 Working Paper, Struggling to Make the Grade: Weak Outcomes of South Africas Education System.

Access to finance

Having access to some form of finance positively impacts future labour market outcomes. According to the Harambee Youth Employment Accelerators November 2018 Breaking Barriers Quarterly Enrolment Report: "Access to any household income improves the probability of long-lasting employment by almost 50% because there is funding for the high costs of work-seeking."

Work-seeking costs include internet access, printing and transport costs that entry-level recruitment company, Lulaway, estimates to start at around R550 per month.

Access to networks

Young work seekers from under-resourced communities also rarely have access to the social networks and contacts that can assist with job leads and provide career advice and professional mentorship.

According to data from Lulaway, 30% of new young employees were likely to leave their jobs within three months if there was no support or mentoring in the workplace. The recruitment company advises companies to provide regular feedback, engagement and a clear indication of career growth.

To assist with the integration of young people who are new to the world of work, some companies are introducing mentorship programmes.

Investec, for example, facilitates mentorship between staff and recipients of the companys bursary programme, while Aurecon pairs young employees who are new to the company with a mentor to help guide professional and personal development.

Harambee advises that companies also offer financial literacy and wellness programmes, particularly to entry-level employees.

Interventions and how they are working

The Public-Private Growth Initiative (PPGI), initially positioned in the Presidency in 2018, is a five-year collaboration between government and the private sector.

Between December 2018 and June 2019, government met with representatives from 21 business sectors to discuss how the two could work together. Forty-three private sector projects were identified as having the potential to create 155 000 jobs and inject R840 billion into the economy over the next five years.

Projects include the expansion of an abattoir, the establishment of automotive parts manufacturers, forestry plantations and paper processing plants, and an agricultural development agency.

In his 2019 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa referred to the success of the PPGI. The initiative has facilitated commitments to 43 private projects in 19 sectors of the economy over the next five years.

The Presidential Jobs Summit, convened by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) in October 2018, engaged government, business, labour and community to discuss how jobs could be retained and created.

A total of 77 commitments were made, ranging from investment in job creation, small and medium enterprise (SME) development, education and skills development, to create at least 275 000 jobs over the next year.

Banks also committed to targeted loans and investments for black-owned enterprises, to the value of R100 billion over five years. Reporting in August 2019 on progress made, minister of employment and labour, Thulas Nxesi, said that the most serious constraints to job creation since the summit have been the issue of electricity supply; bureaucratic government processes, including the difficulty for businesses to obtain water licences; and the visa issues that impacted the tourism industry. Nxesi committed to more robust implementation moving forward and said that stakeholders in the process would meet monthly, rather than quarterly.

The Youth Employment Service (YES), launched in early 2018, aims to create one million work experiences in five years. This business-led collaboration with government and labour aims to stimulate demand-driven job creation through company investment and by leveraging existing government initiatives such as the Employment Tax Incentive and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Codes.

YES aims to place unemployed youth in minimum 12-month work experiences and training opportunities; develop critical skills, particularly in digital, business administration and innovation; and develop SMEs in townships, through YES Community Hubs. Work-seeking youth register for employment opportunities on the YES website and, once selected, are invited to attend interviews.

To date, over 32 000 work experiences have been facilitated. In his recent State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa announced that YES would be expanded, and would work with TVET colleges and the private sector to give more students practical workplace experience.

The CEO Initiative, launched in 2016 as a collaboration between business, labour and government, received an initial R1.5 billion investment from corporates for the development of SMEs, with the ultimate goal of creating new jobs. In 2019 the SA SME Fund, established by members of the CEO Initiative, received R1.4 billion from the Public Investment Corporation (R500 million) and 50 local companies.

According to the SA SME Fund 2020 Review, the goal over the next five years is to invest in and help scale 200 sustainable black SMEs, five world-class black entrepreneurs and 10 significant black-owned businesses. "To this end, the Funds capital will be fully deployed by the end of the 2020 financial year, divided between venture and growth (equity and debt) capital," says Fund Chairman Adrian Gore. The Review states that the Fund "has made significant progress in its investment strategy and deployment of funds", and that to date it has committed R925 million to growth and venture capital investments, R400 million to growth investments and R525 million to venture capital.

The Employment Tax Incentive (ETI), previously known as the Youth Wage Subsidy, was introduced in 2014 to incentivise the employment of inexperienced and untested young workers. A tax subsidy is paid to eligible employers for the first two years that a new and qualifying candidate below 30 years is employed, with the size of the subsidy dependent on the workers earnings. In 2015, Treasury stated that 270 000 young people had been employed by 29 000 companies under the scheme in its first year. However, an ETI report also found that companies were underclaiming significantly. The ETI was originally planned to run until December 2016 but was extended until February 2019 and then again until February 2029.

The Jobs Fund, an initiative of the National Treasury, was launched in 2011 with the target of creating 150 000 permanent jobs. Initially, an amount of R9 billion was set aside by the South African government to co-finance projects through a combination of grant and match funding by public, private and non-governmental organisations that significantly contribute to job creation.

The Jobs Fund offers funding in four categories: enterprise development, infrastructure, support for work seekers, and institutional capacity building.

By December 2018, 170 000 permanent jobs, 55 000 short-term jobs and 20 000 internships had been created, and 220 000 beneficiaries had been trained. The Fund supported 126 projects and allocated R6.7 billion in grant funding, which leveraged co-financing of R9.5 billion towards job creation.

Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator works with employers from various sectors to promote inclusive hiring practices that focus on young people.

The organisation sources, trains and places unemployed young people from under-resourced backgrounds into first-time jobs.

Harambee identifies candidates where existing corporate recruitment networks do not reach, and assesses and trains the youth through bridging programmes. Newly trained youth are then placed in jobs that match their skills.

To date, Harambee has supported over 700 000 work seekers, placed young people in 160 000 jobs and work experiences and partnered with 500 companies.

Bonds4Jobs is an innovative impact bond incubated by Yellowwoods and Harambee, together with the Gauteng Provincial Government and the private sector, including The Standard Bank Tutuwa Community Foundation.

Impact or pay-for-performance bonds are a funding model in which investors provide working capital that is returned with interest when results are delivered.

In this instance, funding is provided to organisations that upskill excluded youth and place them into jobs in growth sectors.

The Gauteng Provincial Government has committed to repaying investors when results are delivered, using the Tshepo 1 Million youth skills empowerment initiative. Tshepo 1 Million targets unemployed residents from Gauteng, aged between 18 and 34 years old, with at least a grade ten education. Furthermore, the individuals must be first-time work seekers with no more than 12 months work experience. Bonds4Jobs aimed to achieve 600 youth job placements in its first year of the four-year pilot study. This was achieved after nine months and all the investors had their money paid back with interest.

The National Business Initiative (NBI) is a membership-based organisation of companies from different sectors.

One of its focus areas is skills development, particularly supporting company partnerships with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges.

For example, the Construction Industry Partnership, launched by the NBI in 2006, facilitated partnerships between TVET colleges and construction companies to improve the colleges responsiveness to the industrys skills needs, with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a strategic partner.

This is the first of a 2-part series on youth unemployment by Zyaan Davids Anter, content manager at Trialogue and editor of the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook. Views expressed are the author's .

The full version of this article was first published in the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2019, available for download from https://trialogue.co.za/

Excerpt from:
ANALYSIS | Young and unemployed in SA: What's being done, what's working, and what's still a barrier - Fin24

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Youth development and activities : What is youth development?

Pakyong , 19 Feb : Youth development is a procedure which prepares a young mind to meet the hurdles of adolescence and adulthood and reach his/her full potential. Youth development is encouragement through activities and experiences that help youth develop social, emotional, physical, and cognitive capabilities. There are different areas where youth development can be focused and probable outcomes can be generated.

In workingrelated area where intended outcomes can be demonstrated when there is skill in work readiness and awareness of options for future employment, Looking for a good career option, and completion of educational requirements basic involvement in training that climaxes in a specific opportunity for career advancement, involvement in meaningful work that offers satisfaction, and self-sufficiency, Positive attitude about ones ability and future in working in a particular place and to learn and grow.

Suggested activities could include a good internship, work experience including summer jobs or projects, network forming activities, mock interviews, visits from representatives of specific industries to speak to youth participants about the employment opportunities A career goal can be set and planned, various workshops pertaining to job coaching or mentoring, learning activities using computers and other new workplace technologies.

In learningrelated area one should observe basic aptitude in math and reading, problem solving, ability to think analytically toward a positive outcome, logical reasoning, ability to regulate ones own skills and areas of weakness or need for further education and training, should process sense of creativity.

Suggested activities could include initial and ongoing career/ vocational assessment, formal and informal, Identification of ones learning styles, strengths, and challenges, Creation of a personal development plan, learning activities such as service-learning projects in which youth apply academic skills to community needs, Showcasing of work that highlights a youths learning experience an essay, painting, an exam, etc, forming of a learning plan that includes long and short term goals and action steps, group problem-solving activities, preparation classes for various competitive exams, teaching activities that enhance the skills of the tutor as well as the student.

In succeedingrelated area one should understand growth and development as both an objective and a personal sign of physical and emotional maturation. He/she should possess practice of good nutrition and hygiene and exercise. Ability to independently assess situations and environments capacity to identify and avoid risky situations and activities at all cost, ability to learn from various situations and avoid them in the future, and being confident and knowing ones self worth.

Suggested activities can include workshops on benefits and consequences of various health, hygiene, and human development issues, including physical, emotional and cognitive development training in conflict management, life skills and resolution touching family, peer, work life balance, workplace relationships, community researching to create a resources related to physical and mental health, food planning and preparation activities and other social activities that offer opportunities to practice skills in communication, negotiation, and personality presentation, also sports and other recreational activities.

In Connectingrelated area one could ensure quality relationships with adults and colleagues, interpersonal skills such as ability to build trust, handle conflict, value differences, could be an active listener, and efficient communication, sense of belonging, valuing and being valued by others, being a part of a group, could possess the ability to empathize with others, have ones own identity apart from and in relation to others, knowledge of and ability to seek out resources in the community, ability to develop personal and professional relationships, to motivate others, to share power and distribute tasks, ability to work as with a team, to resolve conflicts to create and communicate a vision.

Suggested activities could include workshops in public speaking, research on historical or current leaders, contact with local leaders, planning to change something in the community or within the youth program.

In leadingrelated area could include ability to motivate others could have the ability to share power and distribute tasks, to work with a team, to resolve conflicts, to create and communicate a vision, to manage change and value continuous improvement.

Suggested activities could include mediation resolution training, workshops in team dynamicsand in project management.

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Youth development and activities : What is youth development? - Sikkim News