Executive Summary

Significant benefits can accrue from having a demographically diverse boardroom. Among other things, a demographically diverse board is more likely to represent the composition of a companys employees, customers, and suppliers and can therefore provide a board with a better understanding of the companys key constituencies. Thus, a demographically diverse board may help a company identify and respond to market shifts and changes in consumer expectations more effectively than a homogenous board. But this is only true if the board maintains cognitive diversity as well as demographic diversity. In interviews with 18 boards of directors, the author found that cognitively diverse directors were frequently able to share valuable insights with their fellow directors, expanding the boards understanding of the company and the strategic and operating issues it faced. They also found that they were more likely to ask tough questions and challenge the proposals of management and their fellow directors than incumbent directors who were long-tenured or had personal or professional relationships with others in the boardroom.

Influenced by state legislation as well as the efforts of institutional investors and other diversity advocates, companies have been adding more diverse directors to their boards than ever before. In 2019, a record 59 percent of the directors added to the boards of S&P 500 companies were women or were men belonging to a racial or ethnic minority group. Now, as companies seek to navigate numerous issues few have faced before, including a worldwide pandemic, a lingering trade war, changing consumer demands, and widespread protests regarding racial inequality, even more may be seeking to increase their diversity. But what characteristics should boards look for when adding directors to improve gender, racial, and ethnic diversity to ensure that these new directors also enhance diversity in the boardroom from a practical perspective?

While it is commonly assumed that individuals who differ in demographic characteristics will bring new backgrounds, viewpoints, and perspectives to a boardroom, often this is not the case, at least in how many public companies have historically hired demographically diverse candidates. The problem is that too often demographically diverse candidates are chosen because they have backgrounds similar to those of incumbent directors; they fit in well with others on a board.

In our experience, public companies wishing to increase their diversity benefit the most by recruiting candidates who also help improve cognitive diversity in the boardroom. Our views are derived from a study of the effects of cognitive diversity on board performance we conducted involving eight underperforming companies that were subject to past shareholder activism by our firm. At each company, an employee of our firm, an activist hedge fund manager, or one or more other individuals we nominated or approved, was added to the board. We interviewed on a confidential basis 18 directors who served on the boards of these companies both before and after changes were made to its composition. Through these interviews we were able to ascertain whether the directors added helped improve cognitive diversity in the boardroom and, if so, gain insight into the impact that any increase in cognitive diversity had on board performance.

Our research revealed that improving cognitive diversity on a board can significantly enhance its performance, particularly when cognitively diverse directors are added with professional backgrounds, skills, and perspectives in areas pertinent to a companys business or strategic plans who lack ties to the CEO and other directors. Cognitively diverse directors were frequently able to share valuable insights with their fellow directors, expanding the boards understanding of the company and the strategic and operating issues it faced. We also found that they were more likely to ask tough questions and challenge the proposals of management and their fellow directors than incumbent directors who were long-tenured or had personal or professional relationships with others in the boardroom. As one incumbent director we interviewed said, It is hard to vote against the CEO if you are going to see him that weekend at the country club. Over time, however, the presence of engaged, cognitively diverse outsiders in the boardroom made incumbent directors more comfortable asking questions, suggesting alternatives, and expressing dissent. This, in turn, helped boards more effectively oversee management and improved decision-making.

Another director we interviewed said,The new directors [on our board] brought not just a diversity of opinions and perspectives, but a diversity of behavior a willingness to openly challenge management and other directors, which was missing from the boardroom. By having more open debate, it created an environment where others saw it was good and healthy to have frank discussions regarding important decisions. When members of the board began challenging each other and listening to each others viewpoints it led to positive outcomes. Good healthy disagreement led to good decision-making.

To improve both cognitive and demographic diversity in the boardroom, we recommend that boards recruit racially, ethnically, and gender diverse directors who enhance diversity on two additional levels: first, by adding professional backgrounds, skills, and experiences in areas that are needed to meet the companys strategic and operating needs; and second, by introducing new views, perspectives, and approaches to problem solving.

Improving the diversity of professional backgrounds on a board by adding directors with skills and experience that are needed in the boardroom is an efficient way to expand a boards knowledge base as well as improve its ability to advise and oversee management. Identifying directors who can introduce new views, perspectives and approaches to problem solving is a more time-consuming undertaking, given that these qualities typically are not discernable without speaking at length to candidates and their references. Taking the time to do so, however, can significantly improve board decision-making. Directors we interviewed informed us that they observed healthier debate, more robust discussions, and more focused and fact-based decision-making after the boards they served on became more cognitively diverse.

Significant benefits can accrue from having a demographically diverse boardroom. Among other things, a demographically diverse board is more likely to represent the composition of a companys employees, customers, and suppliers and can therefore provide a board with a better understanding of the companys key constituencies. Thus, a demographically diverse board may help a company identify and respond to market shifts and changes in consumer expectations more effectively than a homogenous board. While such insights can be invaluable, demographically diverse directors with strong business backgrounds in areas that are needed on a board may be better able to incorporate their insights into the context of a companys business. It is for this reason that we recommended in 2019 that L Brands which was subject to criticism that the marketing of its Victorias Secret business was no longer aligned with womens evolving views of beauty, diversity, and inclusion add more female directors to its board with experience in areas including merchandising, marketing, and international business development.

Based on the results of our study, we compiled recommendations for boards interested in improving gender, racial, and ethnic diversity to incorporate into their director recruiting process to help them identify demographically diverse directors who also help improve cognitive diversity and board performance. These recommendations include the following:

While labor intensive, diligent director recruiting can help boards identify candidates that maximize the diversity they bring to the boardroom. If a board approaches addressing diversity concerns solely as a check-the-box exercise, we believe it is doing a disservice not just to itself but also to the company and its shareholders.

Finally, our study revealed that the work of a board is not over once it has assembled a demographically and cognitively diverse group of directors. To make sure that a board benefits from enhanced diversity in the boardroom, it must have a culture that values diverse perspectives. Directors with strong professional credentials and unique perspectives are of little benefit if this is not the case. As an experienced female director we interviewed stated, You can have all the diversity in the world, but it wont matter if you dont have the right culture.

We therefore recommend that boards work diligently to establish a culture that embraces diverse insights and ensures that they are shared and incorporated into the decision-making process. A survey of 700 directors conducted by PwC in 2019 revealed that 43 percent of the respondents found it difficult to voice a dissenting view in their boardroom. These findings indicate that many boards may benefit from examining their culture to ensure that diverse perspectives are truly welcomed in the boardroom.

If a board is truly committed to fulfilling its role and responsibilities effectively, improving diversity in the boardroom both demographically and cognitively and fostering a culture that welcomes diverse perspectives must be made a priority. In todays dynamic and competitive global business environment, ensuring that boards are performing to the best of their abilities and are able to help companies innovate and respond to challenges and disruption is a business imperative. The competitiveness of our companies and the long-term success of our economy depend on it.

Read more:
How Diverse Is Your Board, Really? - Harvard Business Review

The employee performance software market research report provides a comprehensive study of market share, size, growth aspects and key players.In addition, the report contains brief information on the regional competitive landscape, market trends and drivers, opportunities and challenges, distributors, sales channels, risks and barriers to entry, as well as the analysis of Porters five forces.In addition, the main objective of this report isto provide a detailed analysis of how aspects of the market can potentially influence the future of the employee performance software market.The report also offers a comprehensive analysis on competitive manufacturers as well as new entrants also studying with their brief research.

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In addition, this report also contains a price, income, market share and the production of the service providers is also mentioned with precise data.In addition, the global report on employee performance software mainly focuses on current developments, new possibilities, advancements and sleeping traps.In addition, the Employee Performance Software Market Report provides a comprehensive analysis of the current situation and opportunities for advancement in the employee performance software market worldwide.This report analyzes important key elements such as production, capacity, revenue, price, gross margin, sales revenue, sales volume, growth rate, consumption, import, export , technological developments, supply and future growth strategies.

In addition, the Employee Performance Software report provides a detailed analysis of the competitive landscape in terms of regions and the main service providers are also highlighted as well as the attributes of the market overview, business strategies, finance, developments employees and the employee performance software market product portfolio.Likewise, this report includes important data on market segmentation by type, application and regional landscape.The employee performance software market report also provides a brief analysis of the market opportunities and challenges faced by key services.This report is specially designed to know the precise information on the market and the state of the market

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The key players covered in this study

Oracle Saba SAP SumTotal Systems ultimate software Cornerstone OnDemand Performly Impraise MAUS BambooHR Namely Zoho Corporation BreatheHR TrakStar ClearCompany Actus Insperity Reviewsnap PeopleGoal Beisen

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Market segment by type, the product can be divided into

On-site cloud based on theWeb

Market segment by application, divided into

Small business Medium business Large business

Market segment by region / country, this report covers

United States Europe China Japan Southeast Asia India Central and South America

The objectives of the study in this report are:

Analyze the global status of employee performance software, future forecasts, growth opportunities, the key market and the main players. Present the development of employee performance software in the United States, Europe and China.

Establish a strategic profile of the main players and analyze in depth their development plan and strategies. Define, describe and forecast the market by product type, market and key regions.

In this study, the years considered to estimate the size of the employee performance software market are as follows:

History Year: 2013-2017 Base year: 2017 Estimated year: 2018 Forecast year 2018 to 2025

Main points of the table of contents:

Chapter One: Report Overview Chapter Two: Trends in Global Growth Chapter Three: Market Share of Major Players Chapter Four: Distribution by Type and Application Chapter Five: United States Chapter Six: Europe Chapter Seven: China Chapter Eight: Japan Chapter Nine: Southeast Asia Chapter Ten: India Chapter Eleven: Central and South America Chapter Twelve: Profiles of International Players Chapter Thirteen: Market Forecast 2018-2025 Chapter Fourteen: Analyst Views / Findings Chapter Fifteen: Annex

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Orbis Research (orbisresearch.com) is a one-off help for all your market research needs.We have an extensive database of reports from major publishers and authors around the world.We specialize in delivering personalized reports to our customers requirements.We have complete information about our publishers and are therefore sure of the accuracy of the industries and verticals of their specialization.This helps our customers to map their needs and we produce the perfect market research required for our customers.

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Global Employee Performance Software Market 2020: Classification, Application And Specifications, Industry Overview, Analysis Of The Main Key Regions...

High-Performance Nonwovens Market 2018: Global Industry Insights by Global Players, Regional Segmentation, Growth, Applications, Major Drivers, Value and Foreseen till 2024

The report provides both quantitative and qualitative information of global High-Performance Nonwovens market for period of 2018 to 2025. As per the analysis provided in the report, the global market of High-Performance Nonwovens is estimated to growth at a CAGR of _% during the forecast period 2018 to 2025 and is expected to rise to USD _ million/billion by the end of year 2025. In the year 2016, the global High-Performance Nonwovens market was valued at USD _ million/billion.

This research report based on High-Performance Nonwovens market and available with Market Study Report includes latest and upcoming industry trends in addition to the global spectrum of the High-Performance Nonwovens market that includes numerous regions. Likewise, the report also expands on intricate details pertaining to contributions by key players, demand and supply analysis as well as market share growth of the High-Performance Nonwovens industry.

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Leading manufacturers of High-Performance Nonwovens Market:

Market Segment Analysis The research report includes specific segments by Type and by Application. This study provides information about the sales and revenue during the historic and forecasted period of 2015 to 2026. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth. Segment by Type, the High-Performance Nonwovens market is segmented into Nylon Cupro Filament Polyester Polypropylene

Segment by Application Clothes Sheet Packs Medical Materials Other

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Potential impact of coronavirus outbreak on High-Performance Nonwovens Market 2020: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Trends, Growth and Forecast...

Sometimes, to get the proper perspective, you have to take the long view. And other times, you need the extremely long view. It is with this in mind that we ponder the nature of the IT sector, the impact that the coronavirus pandemic is having on it, and prior crises that are of a similar magnitude even if caused by a different set of circumstances.

The analysts at IDC have just put out their figures for the server market for the first quarter of 2020. Given that the coronavirus pandemic was not in full swing in the three-month period ended in March, depending on how this all goes, server spending could drop more or collapse quite a bit. Or not. No one really knows. And that is why perspective really matters at times like these. As we are fond of pointing out, an economy never goes to zero, and what is quite awful often feels a lot worse than it could be if economies really did come to a screeching halt for an extended period of time. Saying this does nothing to minimize the pain that companies and their employees are feeling right now. All we can tell you is that we have gotten through bad situations before, and bad situations are always different in their own way.

We have always believed that our appetite for compute is a kind of economic indicator. It is not the normal kind of leading or lagging indicator, but more of a measure of our hopes and aspirations mixed with our need to get the normal work done. And without question, that normal has been changing and expanding over the years as the lines between personal and business use of computing have blurred. Even as Moores Law has made systems incredibly more capacious and incredibly less costly per unit of compute, storage, and networking, we continue to need more than Moore. And so the market grows. Even if you inflation adjust the spending data, which has the effect of ballooning spending more the further you go back in the past, it grows. (More on that in a moment.)

Before we get into the massive trend analysis we have done spanning back to 1999, which is the height of the dot-com bubble 21 years ago and which was a massive undertaking digging through the Google search engine finding ancient quarterly reports from IDC, lets talk about what was happening right here in the first quarter of 2020.

On the face of it, the numbers didnt look too bad, but this was against a relatively easy compare, since the first quarter of 2019 was not as good as it might have been thanks to the choppy spending by the hyperscalers and cloud builders who represent somewhere around a third of server revenues and maybe close to half of the server shipments in any given quarter. Server revenues in Q1 2020 were off 6 percent to $18.61 billion, and shipments were down only two-tenths of a point to 2.58 million units. Considering what was going on in China and spreading into Europe and the United States at the time, this was not terrible. This is surprising, really. And a testament to just how dependent we all are, in one way or another, on the datacenters of the world.

If you look at the trend since the Great Recession, as we have traditionally done here at The Next Platform, you can see that there is perhaps more drama than these numbers show. You always need to look at the sequential as well as the year-on-year data to get a better feel for what is going on. Here is what that IDC server data looks like over time:

As we have been talking about for a few years now, something different happened in 2017, and part of that was that main memory and flash memory prices went through the roof at the same time that companies started loading up some of their servers with GPUs to accelerate various workloads. CPUs got a lot more expensive too, even if they did offer a lot of throughput. Prices for memory, flash, and CPU cores have come down in the past two years, and that is reflected in the aggregated server revenues, establishing a new baseline that is somewhere around $22 billion per quarter, about twice the baseline between 2010 and 2016. Server shipments are trending upwards, gently, and also took a bit of a hook up and to the right starting in 2017.

As you might expect, the so-called volume server segment, which is for machines that cost under $25,000, was off only 2.1 percent, to $15.1 billion, according to IDC, while high-end iron costing more than $250,000 had a 9.1 percent decline to just under $1 billion. Most of that was for IBM mainframes and high-end Power Systems, by the way.

Just so you have it handy, here is the play by play in server sales by vendor for the past nine quarters by vendor:

And here it is represented graphically since the Great Recession:

The original design manufacturers, or ODMs, who make custom gear for the hyperscalers, cloud builders, and other service providers continue their rise, but this is only a portion of the machinery these top tier companies buy. Remember, traditional original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, who make machinery for the datacenter masses such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell, Inspur, Lenovo, and Sugon all have businesses that sell semi-custom machinery to some of the Super 8 and a few of the smaller hyperscalers and cloud builders, too. So you look at the ODM figures in the table and chart above for a sense of the growth in spending by these big companies, but not as an absolute measure in spending. Be careful not to conflate the two.

As you can see, the first quarter was a big drop for the ODMs that IDC tracks as a group from the third and fourth quarters of 2019, and the fourth quarter of 2018 and the first and second quarters of 2019 were also disappointing compared to their prior quarters. This business is inherently spikey, it looks like, just as IBMs own business has been, as you can see in the chart above. The mainframe cycle is literally Big Blues heartbeat. Dell had a difficult Q1 2020 and HPE had a worse one, and there is no way to sugar coat that and it is, in both cases, largely a reflection of enterprises large and small and in between cutting their server spending when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

While we find these first quarter numbers interesting, we took the time to cast the IDC data all the way back to the first quarter of 1999 to set us up for a proper comparison if the Great Infection recession of 2020 to perhaps 2021 turns out to be on the same order of magnitude of the Dot-Com Bubble Burst and the 9/11 Recession of 2000-2001 or the Great Recession of 2008-2009. And just to be clear, creating this data set from the publicly available IDC data was a tremendous pain in the ass. We do it because we love you, and we love the truth. Our only regret is that we didnt do this starting back in 1990. . .

So lets get to it. Here is the server revenue and shipment data from Q1 1999 through Q1 2020, inclusive. Our apologies for the data labels being so small on the X axis. Take a look:

If you just take this data as it is over time, it looks like the current Hyperscale and Cloud Boom is the biggest and baddest revenue generating event in datacenter history, and that the investment is so much larger than it was during the dot-com boom. It also looks like the decline from Q4 2019 to Q1 2020 is almost as bad as the one over several quarters in 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst.

There are a few things to consider there. First, the buildup in spending in 1999 was not just for the buildout of the corporate Internet, but also because of the need to buy systems to adapt applications for the Y2K date bug. Enterprises bought a lot of capacity in 1998 and 1999 for this purpose, and they were not even close to burning it off until 2002 in a lot of cases. And by then, the existing recession had been in full swing for a while and was accelerated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

High-end server spending cycles and normal Q4 budgeting cycles drive that regularly spiking line from 2001 through 2006, which trends up and to the right slightly over that time. Shipments trend up a lot faster, and that is because X86 machinery is eating the datacenter at this time, with market share that rose from about 80 percent of machinery at the beginning of this chart in 1999 to something around 99 percent two decades later. At the peak of the dot-com bubble, Sun Microsystems and Oracle were the default configuration of server, operating system, and database for every new company, and every established company wanted to be like a startup. It got a little harder after 2001 for Sun and Oracle, but they kept growing in the enterprise. Here is a vendor chart that goes all the way back to 1999:

Just to make things consistent, revenues for Compaq and Hewlett Packard are combined in the chart above even though that deal was not announced until September 2001, a week before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as it turns out. The combination of HP and Compaq was supposed to create a rival to IBM, and it sort of did, but most of the parts that made the new HP like IBM have been sold off and it is basically back down to the core Compaq server business these days. Sun Microsystems peaked and frankly disappeared from the public IDC data as others rose in prominence in the server business in the wake of the Oracle acquisition of Sun in a decade ago. The rise of steady rise of Dell is worth noting, and it has moved aggressively to rival the latest incarnation of HP, called Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

It is the Others category, dominated by other OEMs, ODMs, and weird hybrids that are now shaping the market. Individually, Dell and HPE are the biggest server vendors. But collectively the ODMs and OEMs like Lenovo, Inspur, and Sugon are getting huge swaths of business. It is a different world, and one that is difficult to adapt to.

We stared at these images above for a long time, and then realized something important. Over such long periods of time, you really need to adjust the old data for inflation. Between 1999 and 2020, the US dollar has appreciated by a factor of 53.9 percent, which is a lot. A dollar in 1999 bought that much more than a dollar does today. So we went through the quarterly data and applied the inflation rate versus a constant 2020 dollar to the IDC data for total server spending. And you can see how bad the dot-com bubble bursting really was for the server business when you do that adjustment:

Now you begin to see the proper magnitude of the dot-com bubble bursting, the doldrums after that, the repeatedly W-shaped declines of the Great Recession and its aftermath, and the rise of the hyperscalers and cloud builders. And also the very large drop, by comparison, that just happened in Q1 2020. It is about half as bad as the drop at the end of the dot-com boom, but it is happening over one quarter, not three. And, more importantly, we dont know what the next data point is going to be.

We will know soon enough, because June is coming to a close in a few weeks.

Just for fun, and to get a better gauge of revenue over time, we did the same inflation adjustment for the major OEMs from two decades ago IBM, HP, Dell, and Sun against all others. Take a look at that:

This, we think, is a better measure of the relative strength of vendors over time. It still is not a good situation for the OEMs, mind you. And they are having a tough time generating profits even when they can generate revenue.

As part of this exercise, we also took our aggregate server capacity and server price/performance index and cast it all the way back to 1999. As a reminder, this takes the number of servers shipped, the average number of sockets across the market, the average number of cores per socket, and the relatively performance of a core to come up with an aggregate performance sold each quarter. (This is important: This is a sold by quarter metric, not an aggregate installed base metric.) We then dived that into the revenue generated by that capacity to come up with a relative value of server capacity metric. Here are those two curves, plotted out with inflation adjustment on the server revenues all the way back to 1999:

Those are two of the prettiest exponential curves you ever will see. This illustrates a bunch of things, but foremost, it has been harder to get the price/performance of capacity to improve than it has been to sell more capacity as time has gone by. By our math, the performance sold each has increased by a factor of 323X comparing Q1 1999 to Q1 2020 the number would have been slightly higher if Q4 2019 figures were used because unit shipments were down by quite a bit, but were compensated for somewhat by having more cores in systems, we think. (This chart is largely educated conjecture. We understand that.) And after inflation adjusting the revenues each quarter, the relative price/performance has improved by a factor of 368X. This is another way of saying that spending on servers is, relatively speaking, pretty constant at the endpoints of all of these lines. But in the middle of these curves, it waned as gauged by inflation adjusted currency.

What is interesting to us is that just as we were getting back to a server market with the strength of the dot-com boom, COVID-19 might com along and pop this bubble. We shall see. With the world being ever so much more dependent on computing, we think any server recovery, should there be a decline, will happen much faster than for other kinds of capital equipment.

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Server Spending Measures Aspiration As Much As Oomph - The Next Platform

By now, theres little chance you havent heard or seen the name BTS, the undisputed kings of K-pop. And should the worlds course not have been changed by the current pandemic, BTS rappers RM, J-hopeand Suga, and vocalists Jin, V, Jimin and Jungkook would currently be on their 37-date world tour to support their fourth Korean album, Map of the Soul: 7.

On 18 and 19 April (the dates they were due to play Seoul Olympic Stadium), their label Big Hit Entertainment aired Bang Bang Con, a free two-day live stream of archival footage from previous concerts and tours. More than two million fans (known as Army) watched simultaneously, with the total views toppling 50 million.

This weekend, on 14 June at 10am BST, BTS will perform a 90-minute pay-to-watch online concert Bang Bang Con: The Live thats bound to pull an audience of record-breaking numbers. The social engagement is consistently unsurpassed; earlier this year, Jungkook broke his own record by amassing over two million likes on five different tweets, breaking the previous record set by Barack Obama. He is also the most searched for K-pop Idol on Google and YouTube while in 2019, BTS were the most Googled boy band in the world.

Photography Monica Kim

As theyve grown to become multimillion-selling, stadium-filling superstars, there has never been a singular answer as to how and why a non-English language pop group managed to break into the upper echelons of the western record industry. Multiple factors have been woven together to form an irresistible and, more importantly, unduplicatable recipe thats seen BTS achieve four US number-one records in under two years and cumulatively sell over 20 million albums.

Whether its your first time with BTS or your thousandth, Vogue looks at how they became one of the greatest pop groups of all time.

Prolific in that they release new material every year, BTS have given their extensive catalogue a narrative by creating album trilogies or series to fully explore their subject, rather than race wildly from concept to concept. From criticising socio-political systems on tracks such as No More Dream (on which J-hopesays to Rebel against this hell-like society, give your dream a special pardon) to expressing their fear of no longer being able to perform on Black Swan, their depth of thought, constant creative exploration and lyrical candidness is a source of inspiration and comfort to their millions of fans.

Where they endeavour to stand out amongst their pop peers is through a propensity to integrate so-called high culture with popular culture. Take, for example, 2016s Blood Sweat & Tears; the song combines trap, moombahton and tropical house while the video takes lavish inspiration from Hermann Hesses 1919 coming-of-age novel Demian, whose Jungian psychology would also form the basis of their 2019/2020 Map of the Soul series.

BTS refuse to be confined by genre, shifting from epic ballads (Spring Day) and moody emo anthems (Fake Love) to crowd-shaking bangers (Fire) and turbo pop like Boy With Luv (featuring Halsey) and DNA. The latter is a major milestone for BTS its their first video to reach one billion YouTube views, their first entry on the US and UK singles charts, their second US gold single, and marks their US TV debut with a much-lauded performance at the American Music Awards.

Known as the golden maknae (the youngest member who is good at everything he does), Jeon Jung-kook is the most Googled idol of 2019 and, with his cover of Lauvs Never Not last month, set a world record for the most commented-upon tweet and fastest Twitter video to reach a million views (it took just 10 minutes!). Jungkook is one of the least active members on social media, making his appearances something of an event, but his bandmates arent far behind, regularly racking up a staggering two million likes per post. Over the years, BTS have constantly updated Army with their passing thoughts, holiday snaps, jokes and selfies using their Twitter account just as a close friend would, becoming part of their fans lives in much the same way.

In the face of a western industry unwilling to make room for a foreign-language boy band, BTSs global growth was never through traditional means, such as radio play. Instead, their social media nous and content strategies via video platforms including YouTube and V Live became their springboard, helped exponentially by hundreds of fan translators who tirelessly translated lyrics, social posts and much of the groups video content, allowing for non-Korean speakers to fully connect with the members.

V and Jimin try a shooting game, while Jungkook and Jin play DDR.

Photography Monica Kim

Since 2017, US television has become a powerful friend in pushing them deeper into the general publics consciousness. Whether morning news or late-night talk shows, BTSs camaraderie turns even the most sedate interview into beguiling, entertaining chaos. Despite having only one fluent English-speaking member, BTS are adept at hooking in viewers, smoothing out cultural and language barriers with an instinctive charm and earthy humour, comfortably taking a spot in millions of western households where previously Asian artists had rarely been seen.

The Late Late Shows James Corden was the first host to give the band the spotlight. Im constantly impressed by their work ethic, Corden tells us via email. Theyre always so full of respect, not only for the environment theyre working in at that moment in time but also, and most importantly, for each other. Watching them grow from their first appearance on our show to where they are now has been jaw-dropping. As a group, they remain so dignified, so full of joy, that it drips down to everyone around them. Particularly their fans, who are the most incredible collection of young people. Its clear that they are only about doing something good, being good people, keeping the whole thing in this bubble of positivity. And that in itself is the rarest of experiences in todays day and age.

Much has been written about South Koreas male pop stars love of flamboyant costuming and elaborate makeup. BTS, in particular, are seen as major figures in positively changing western attitudes towards Asian men as sex symbols and steering masculinity away from toxic norms.

Yet, like so many male artists, BTS had to reach this point through learning and did so by first acknowledging the sexism and objectification in some of their early lyrics and videos. Their growth over the years can be seen in their lyrics, which now focus more on self-realisation and shared experiences, the embracing of powerful female collaborators (Halsey, Sia, Nicki Minaj, and South Korean pop queens IU and Suran), their openness when dealing with emotional issues both personal and within the group, and their wearing of pink, pastels, sequins, frills, skirts, purses, chokers or corsets without reservation.

This appreciation for the power of clothes and their unrivalled influence has endeared them to the fashion world. BTS, however, have very few official fashion endorsements, preferring to buy only what appeals to them. So when they decide to wear a particular item, not only does it promptly sell out globally, it makes headlines for doing so, cannily furthering their name beyond the fandom.

One rare partnership was with Dior, who created the stage outfits for last years Love Yourself: Speak Yourself tour. Diors creative director, Kim Jones, said at the time: I love BTS because they are really great guys and also super into fashion. They all have their personal taste and style and it works so well together. Everyone I know is kind of crazy about them!

There were many who hadnt taken BTS seriously as new cultural icons, but that changed in 2018 when the group were invited to speak at the UN, where BTSs message of self-love was heard loud and clear in an eloquent, moving speech for Unicefs Generation Unlimited campaign. Like most people, I made many mistakes in my life, RM said. I have many faults and I have many fears, but I am going to embrace myself as hard as I can, and Im starting to love myself, little by little. What is your name? Speak Yourself!

This wasnt the first time theyd used their huge platform to raise awareness. For years, the members have individually donated to varying causes including animal welfare, scholarship funds, cancer charities and food drives. Their partnership with Unicef was created, says Gmin Seo, of Unicef Koreas corporate partnership and philanthropy team, from a shared ambition for a world where children and young people are free from violence and bullying. [BTS has] raised awareness of Unicefs #ENDviolence campaign [] all over the world. Both in person and through their music and social media channels, [BTS] have helped young people open up about their own experiences of violence, bullying, encouraged love and kindness.

J-Hope, RM, and Suga shoot hoops.

Photography Monica Kim

Their work is global. The group recently contributed $1 million (806,000) to Black Lives Matter, which was immediately matched by Army, frequent fundraisers themselves, who rallied around the #MatchAMillion campaign set up by One in an Army, raising $1,026,531 within 24 hours.

BTS also spoke to those graduating in isolation or lockdown as part of Dear Class of 2020, alongside Barack Obama, Beyonc and Lady Gaga. If any of you feel lost in the face of doubt or uncertainty, or the pressure of starting anew, dont rush, said Jin, his words poignant amid the worlds current social changes. Allow yourself to take it easy. Take it one step at a time.

A major factor in BTSs success is in their relatability and emotional transparency, which has remained steadfast even while occupying the superstar bubble. Its been captured from the get-go, through vlogging from their tiny studio space in the early years, lighthearted variety shows such as Run BTS!, and behind-the-scenes clips, known as Bangtan Bombs. A more polished version of the latter became the 2018 YouTube docuseries Burn the Stage, followed by a movie adaptation that eventually broke the US box office event-cinema record previously held by One Direction.

A second docuseries, Break the Silence, which began in May this year, once more let us into their lives on the road, peeling back the curtain on their dazzling live show but also the members uncertainties and the head-spinning enormity of their fame. Here, they question who they are, how theyve changed as people and what the future may hold. As fans, what we expect from artists has changed rather than mystery and eccentricity, we ask for authenticity and accountability, demanding it even when their celebrity and wealth has cut them off from the everyperson.

Even as the accolades pour in, BTS use their fanbase and the constant documentation as sounding boards and grounding mediums. In Break the Silence, RM, ushered into an upscale restaurant and agog at a towering wall of expensive wine, admits incredulously, Even when I go to the Grammys, I still think, What am I doing here?! Its hard not to warm to the biggest pop group on Earth when theyre laughing at, rather than being sucked into, the absurdity and surrealness of fame.

More from British Vogue:

The rest is here:
How BTS Became The Undisputed Kings Of K-Pop - British Vogue

May 28, 2020 07:00 ET | Source: Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)

multilang-release

OTTAWA, May 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) released its 2020 Canadians Deserve a Better Internet Report, which provides an overview of Canadians views on key digital and internet policy issues. The report will help inform policy discussions ahead of the Canadian Internet Governance Forum, which has been rescheduled to November 24th and 25th due to COVID-19.

Overall, the report shows Canadians growing anxiety about cybersecurity-related issues, including a significant drop in their willingness to disclose personal information for better content and services online. In 2019, 72 per cent of Canadians said they were willing to disclose some or a little personal information in exchange for valuable content or service. Only one year later, with the exception of online banking services, the vast majority of Canadians say they are unwilling to share their personal data in exchange for better online services.

Key Findings from Canadian Internet Users:

Executive QuoteIts clear from our report that Canadians are feeling the need to restore trust online. Right now, many Canadians worry that the dangers online outweigh the benefits especially when it comes to privacy. COVID-19 has shown us that going off the grid is no longer an option; digital forces are knocking on the front doors of our homes through new smart, internet-enabled technologies and digital surveillance tools. But Im optimistic that the entire sector can work together and strike the right balance that provides the assurances Canadians need to ensure the internet remains a trusted part of their everyday lives.

--Byron Holland, CIRA president and CEO.

Join us at the Canadian Internet Governance ForumThe Canadian IGF is Canadas leading multi-stakeholder forum on internet policy issues. This years event has been rescheduled from March to November 24th and 25th, and will be held online as an all virtual event in response to COVID-19. The inaugural Canadian IGF last year in Toronto brought together over 200 representatives from government, civil society, and the private sector to tackle public policy issues facing the internet.

The postponed event will feature a similar program as the original, including keynote speeches and panel discussions on issues including encryption, AI, cybersecurity and more. CIRA is one of the many organizing partners and this years presenting sponsor for the event. The forum is also sponsored by CANARIE, Cybera and ICANN.

About the Canadian Internet Registration AuthorityThe Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) manages the .CA top-level domain on behalf of all Canadians. CIRA also develops technologies and servicessuch as D-Zone DNS Firewallthat help support its goal of building a better online Canada. The CIRA team operates one of the fastest-growing country code top-level domains (ccTLD), a high-performance global DNS network, and one of the worlds most advanced back-end registry solutions. You can learn more at https://cira.ca.

Josh Tabish Corporate Communications Manager

Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)

Tel: 613-875-3741 | Email: josh.tabish@cira.ca

Visit link:
Report finds massive drop in Canadians' willingness to disclose personal information for free online services - GlobeNewswire

Among many executive positions in an organisation, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is sometimes considered to be one of the most strategic, and rightly so. When the firm in question is an operator in the financial services sector, then the office becomes even more critical to be thrown to just anyone.

Besides being responsible for fiscal operating results, the CFO is the senior executive directly responsible for managing the financial strategy, decision and actions of a company. He tracks cash flow, analyses the companys financial strengths and weaknesses, and fill in for the lapses, reducing operations costs and increasing income.

In other words, we can say that the job of the CFO is to ensure that the company is highly profitable so that no matter how high its share price might be, if listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, it would still be termed undervalued.

This article looks at the CFOs in Nigerias tier one banks, their profiles, their last 3 years records and projections for 2020.

READ ALSO: Billionaire investors in the Nigerian Insurance space (2)

UgoNwaghodoh, Group CFO, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA)

Ugo is a seasoned financial analyst and accountant with experience spanning assurance, advisory, financial control, financial modelling & programming, strategy and business transformation, investor relations, corporate restructuring, risk management, mergers & acquisition, business integration and project management.

He has been the Group CFO at United Bank for Africa Plc since 2011, managing the performance, financial control, portfolio investment and investor relations among others. Before then he was the Divisional Head, Financial Control and Investor Relations between 2008 and 2011.

He also had a brief stint as Group Chief Compliance Officer, and as Head of Special Project (Corporate Mergers). He was Head, Performance Management, Strategy and Business Transformation for about 3 years, where he drove the cost optimization initiatives of the bank, and engaged in policy formulation.

Before UBA, he had worked as Manager, Assurance and Business Advisory Services with PriceWaterhouseCoopers Nigeria for 8 years, and 2 years in Kenya on secondment.

He has a degree in Accounting and Finance, and MSc in Finance & Management from the Cranfield School of Management, Cranfield University.

He is a fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA).

His last 3 years performance

UBA, under Nwaghodohs watch, had a fairly unfavourable 2018 as cost to income ratio increased from 57.8% in 2017 to 64% in 2018, and profit after tax almost remained the same increasing only slightly from N78.59 billion in 2017 to N78.60 billion in 2018.

The bank, however, staged a comeback in 2019 with cost to income ratio reduced to 62.7% while profit after tax increased by over N10 billion to N89.08 billion.

Share price however declined from N10.3 in 2017 to N7.7 in 2018 and N7.15 in 2019, probably not Nwaghodohs fault though, since this happened across most financial services institutions. In addition, the bank also paid N30 million as fine to the CBN in 2018, a situation which led shareholders to cry out to Apex bank for what was termed unfair penalties.

Nwaghodoh, however, has a beautifully designed investor relations page to his credit, with answers to Investors FAQs, analysts reports and credit ratings for the bank, shareholders information and news among others.

Oluseyi Kumapayi, CFO Access Bank Plc

Kumapayi joined Access Bank in 2002. Before then, he was with the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) where he served as Financial officer.

Kumapayi got his MBA from the Kellogg school of management, Northwestern University, and has been severally endorsed in Corporate finance, risk management and business strategy, financial analysis, mergers and acquisitions, financial modelling and investment banking.

He also attended the INSEAD course on Risk Management, London Business School (LBS) High Performance People Skills program, Euromoney, Assets and Liability Management, Strategy Master Class and Mergers and Acquisition. He is a Certified Chartered Accountant.

Now lets look at the banks three years performance under Kumapayi.

For the cost to income ratio, Access bank has remained profitable over the last three years, but now the question would be how profitable?

Cost to income ratio reduced from 72.40% in 2017 to 65.30% in 2018 showing that the banks strategies succeeded in reducing the ratio of cost to income and making more profits. However, 2019 recorded a negative progression to 68.7%.

This is in spite of the fact that profit after tax grew significantly to N97.5 billion in 2019, from N94.98 billion in 2018 and N53.6billion in 2017.

Overall, we can say the indices point to greater progress made in 2018, compared to 2019.

Note also that the merger between Access Bank and Diamond bank started in 2018, running through 2019 before it was eventually sealed with the launching of the new Access logo, and the slogan access more. The role of a CFO in a merger of this magnitude is ourightly priceless, given that not all merger talks result in a successful merger of assets, shareholders, and even management team.

There is also the acquistion of controlling equity interest in Transnational Bank Kenya Plc, which Access Bank undertook in October 2019.

Share price at last day of the year progressed from N10.45 to N6.8 to N10, showing that share price dropped most in 2018, which interestingly happened to be the most profitable year so far. In the same 2018, Access bank paid N20 million in fines to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Kumapayi has kept the investor relations page of the banks website duly updated with annual financial reports, investor news, credit ratings, upcoming events, shareholders information and news.

Oyewale Ariyibi, CFO, First bank of Nigeria Plc

Before becoming Chief Financial Officer at FBN Holdings Plc, Oyewale Ariyibi had worked with Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp) as Chief Finance Officer, and at Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria as Country Financial Controller.

He has a cumulative 23 years experience in banking and financial services, business assurance, tax management, business process review and consulting across several institutions.

He has been certified in areas such as capital raising, tax planning and cost management, operational risk management, strategic and corporate planning, compliance and business assurance amongst others, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (ACIT) and Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (ACIP).

So what has he done with First Bank in the last three years?

Profit after tax has been on an increase, from N47.78 billion in 2017 to N59.74 billion in 2018 and N62.09 billion in 2019. This is laudable given that 2016/17 was not the best times for the Nigerian economy.

Share price has however dropped from N8.8 in 2017 to N7.95 in 2018 and N6.15 in 2019.

This may be no fault of his given that he has managed to keep the cost to income ratio stable at 80.17% in 2017, 80.15% in 2018, but it increased slightly in 2019 to 81.31%.

Note that the FBN Holdings also paid a fine of N32.65 million to the CBN in 2018.

This trend can be considered worrisome not only because FBN holdings has the highest cost to income ratio among the tier one banks, but because it is the only of the five banks where cost to income ratio did not reduce over the last 3 years.

This probably explains why shareholders earned 0.25 dividends per share in 2017, 0.26 in 2018 and 0.38 in 2019, the least dividends declared by any of the top banks.

The investors relations page of the banks site is a bit unclear and it is not easy to access needed information, but once a site visitor gets past the initial confusion, one can see shareholders information, corporate governance reports, financial highlights, unclaimed dividends, press releases and news.

Ariyibi might need to ask some pointers from his colleagues in other tier one banks.

Recently, Ariyibi led engagements with regulators towards FBNs intention to divest its 65% holdings in FBN insurance Limited.

Mukhtar Adam, CFO Zenith Bank Plc.

Mukhtar Adam was appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Zenith Bank in 2018, and is currently the Group Head, Financial Control and Strategic Planning Group of the bank.

Before this, he was the banks Deputy CFO, and sometime before 2014, he headed the Financial Reporting, Tax Management and Strategic Planning Groups, overseeing the entire Zenith Groups financial reporting.

Adams worked in Financial Services Group of the Nigerian and Ghanaian practices of PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PwC), as a Senior Consultant, before joining Zenith Bank in 2007.

Adam holds a PhD in Finance from the Leeds Beckett University (UK); M.Sc. (Finance Financial Sector Management) from University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies, (UK); MBA (Finance) from the University of Leicester (UK) and B.Ed. Social Sciences (Economics and Management) from the University of Cape Coast (Ghana).

Many feathers for one mans cap, we must agree!

He also holds a Diploma in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), and Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ghana (ICAG).

So, what has Mukhtar Adam achieved for Zenith bank since he took over from Stanley Amuchie in 2018?

Its been three progressive years for this tier one bank as cost to income ratio has continued to decline from 52.70 in 2017, to 49.30 in 2018 and further down to 48.8% in 2019. Commendably, this progression is not just a result of cutting down operation costs, but increasing income.

Profit after tax for 2017 stood at N173.79 billion and increased to N193.42 billion in 2018 and spiked further to N208.84 billion in 2019.

Whatever magic wand Adams holds over the bank, it must be working well because among the five tier one banks, Zenith bank has consistently had the highest profit after tax for the past three years.

Share price of the bank also moved from N25.6 in 2017 to N23.05 in 2018 and further down to N18.6 as at last day of 2019.

However, this cannot be counted against him as share price is subject to a whole range of extraneous factors. In the 2018, the bank paid N10 million fine to the CBN.

With his input, the bank also maintains a detailed investors relations page with press releases, credit ratings, corporate governance reports and financial updates. In addition to the BOT which pops up to help guide a visitor through the page and answer inquiries, Adams also appears to be one CFO who spells out his key financial strategies on all aspects of the banks operations, on the investors relations page.

Adebanji Adeniyi, CFO, GT Bank

Adeniyi became CFO of GT bank in 2013.

Adeniyi has been certified competent in risk management, portfolio management, risks and investments, Operational dynamics and Associated Risks among others, and has over two decades of professional experience.

He gained his early experience from notable companies including PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Arthur Andersen (now KPMG).

His banking experience comes from his stint with Lead Bank Plc, and his years at GT Bank. He is a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA), and also holds a MBA.

So, what has he been up to in the last 3 years.

For Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, cost to income ratio reduced from 38.2% in 2017, to 37.2% in 2018, and to 36.1% in 2019

In addition to its gradual improvement, GT bank has maintained the best cost to income ratio among the top banks.

The bank has also maintained a high profit after tax after Zenith bank. GT Bank recorded N170.47 billion profits after tax in 2017 and this increased to N184.64 billion in 2018 and N196.86 billion in 2019.

Like other banks, however, share price has dropped over the years from N40.75 in 2017 to N34.45 in 2018 and N29.7 in 2019. In addition to this, GT Bank also received a heavy penalty of N24 million in 2018 from the CBN.

In terms of profitability, both for the bank and for investors, Adeniyi is getting it right.

The bank also has a well laid out investors relations page detailing corporate and financial information, outlooks and insights, upcoming events and investors news, shareholders information and annual reports.

Kudos!

Read more from the original source:
CFOs of FUGAZ and their 3-year performance record - Nairametrics

Just 34 teachers were dismissed for poor performance by the NSW Department of Education last year, sparking calls for better oversight of the state's educators to improve outcomes for students.

New data from the department showed the number of teachers dismissed actually increased to hit a 10-year high in 2019, out of an available workforce of 90,000.

Fewer than 600 teachers have been dismissed from the department over the past 11 years, with 179 leaving because they failed an improvement program. The same number were convicted of serious charges, and 171 were sacked for sexual misconduct.

Principals and the union said the data did not reflect the true numbers of teachers leaving because of performance issues, as many quit before the formal process finished.

But the figures come after an auditor-general's report found flaws in the department's monitoring of teacher quality across the state's 2200 public schools, and said it was not doing enough to help teachers improve.

In 2015, just six teachers were dismissed due to "inefficiency", or failing an improvement program, and the following year there were eight. But that increased to more than 30 in each of the past two years, after the length of the program was halved to 10 weeks and the department provided extra support to principals.

Last year, the department also sacked twice as many school leaders for performance issues than it had in the previous decade, dismissing two head teachers, an assistant principal, a deputy principal and a principal.

Other reasons for teacher and principal dismissal included alcohol dependency, breaching boundaries and unlawfully accessing a student's personal information.

Craig Petersen, head of the Secondary Principals Association, said the figures did not reflect the true number of teachers leaving the system because of pressure due to their professional performance, as many quit before formal processes were finalised.

Craig Petersen, head of the Secondary Principals Association.Credit:Janie Barrett

"There's a lot of things that principals and head teachers do at school before we get to a formal improvement program," he said.

"Some teachers pull the pin voluntarily, and the [department's] data is not capturing that. There's also few principals who would take on more than one [improvement] program at a time.

"They are exhausting, emotionally as well as physically, and it really distracts you from a lot of other things that need a priority."

Mr Petersen said empowering principals to select some staff on merit had reduced problems with professional performance.

Angelo Gavrielatos, the president of the NSW Teachers Federation, said there were performance issues in every profession, and the department's procedures which ensured a fair process had been negotiated with the union.

"The figures may not necessarily tell the full story because many people may separate from the service either through retirement or resignation," he said.

David Hope, the president of the Northern Sydney District Council of P&C Associations, said teacher performance was a difficult but important issue to address.

"Historically, the Department of Education has run a system which makes it almost impossible to dismiss any teacher on the grounds of performance an approach which has demonstrably failed to put the student first," he said.

"In recent years, the department has put a lot more effort into leadership training and professional development, and in redesigning the workplace with, for example, modern versions of team teaching."

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The department's data said it employed around 49,000 permanent teachers, and another 45,000 were registered to work on a casual basis.

In 2019, 53 NSW teachers were involved in performance improvement programs, which represented 0.06 per cent of the workforce. The auditor-general's report cited a UK report that assessed the quality of teaching as inadequate at 3 per cent of its schools.

Rachel Wilson, an education academic at the University of Sydney, said the data showed the need for a better understanding of the teacher workforce.

Jordan Baker is Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald

Nigel Gladstone is an investigative journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald.

Continue reading here:
Calls to ramp up scrutiny of teacher performance - Sydney Morning Herald

If you're new to Valorant and just got access to the Valorant closed beta, you'll see that it offers both a ranked Competitive mode and an Unrated mode. The regular Unrated mode is available from the start, while the Competitive ranked mode must first be unlocked by completing enough Unrated matches. Once Competitive mode is unlocked, players can start playing for a competitive rank, which is a reflection of their current skill level and will affect how Valorant's matchmaking system pairs them with other players in future ranked play. But not everything about Valorant's ranked system is clear from the start and you might be wondering how it works. How many Unrated matches do you need to play before ranked mode unlocks and how do you earn your first rank? And what are the Valorant ranks anyway? In this guide we'll break down all your questions about Valorant's ranked system, as explained in Riot's official blog, so you know what to expect when diving into Competitive ranked mode for the first time. A new Valorant launch date trailer just dropped, so with the game launching out of beta soon, now is the perfect time to learn how ranking works--but take note, your rank and all your stats will reset when the beta ends on May 28.

To unlock Valorant's ranked mode, which is officially called Competitive mode, you have to complete 20 Unrated matches. It doesn't matter if you win or lose, you just have to play 20 regular games through to completion. Winning or losing Unrated matches will have no effect on your rank once you do unlock Competitive mode. You are only graded on performance in a Competitive ranked match.

To get your first rank, you have to complete a total of five placement matches in Competitive mode. Your performance during these matches will determine your first Valorant rank. Find the list of possible ranks and skill badges, and a deeper explanation of how Valorant's ranked system works--including ranked tiers--below.

There are a total of eight ranks in Valorant. Each has three ranked tiers except for Valorant, the top rank possible. That makes for a total of 22 possible ranked tiers, each represented by its own skill badge. Riot has provided a handy graphic showing off its ranked system, which you can see below. The competitive ranks and their corresponding ranked tiers are as follows.

According to Riot, "winning games is the most important factor in gaining rank," but your personal performance plays a big part in that too. Performing "exceptionally well" can help you rank up faster, while performing worse than you have in previous matches can hurt your competitive rank. It gets a little more complicated, though. As Riot explains, the way Valorant determines your early rank puts much more scrutiny on your personal performance, but eventually, winning matches becomes the more important determining factor. Once you receive your Valorant competitive rank, you will be matched only with players within two ranks of yourself.

Much of the way ranked mode works, according to Riot, is built to combat smurfing, rank boosting, and ensure balanced matches for all competitive players. But be aware--ranked mode only just went live in late April, when the Valorant beta hadn't even been live for a full month, so the more nuanced ins-and-outs of this system may change as Riot gathers data and feedback.

No. Your rank doesn't reset in Valorant if you haven't played in a while, but if you're inactive for 14 days, it will be temporarily "hidden" until the next time you play a match. That doesn't mean it's disappeared or decayed, just that it won't be displayed for other players until you become an active player again yourself.

"We want to be confident that when others see your rank, it's an accurate reflection of your skill," Riot explains.

No. After the Valorant beta is over on May 28, all competitive ranks will reset, so all players will start fresh on Valorant's June 2 release date. You will have to follow Riot's instructions for achieving a new competitive rank based on the rules at that time. We don't know how the competitive ranked system might change before launch, so we can't say much more than that.

Valorant's new Competitive mode was introduced shortly after patch 0.49 was pushed, and it is currently only available in the EU and NA regions. Gameplay-wise, it is no different than Unrated mode. It is still 5v5 team-based matches, set in the same maps, with the same objectives and win conditions. You can still solo queue or queue up with a full five-person party. The only difference is that Competitive mode has a ranked system, which means after playing a few rounds unranked, you will receive your first ranked badge, and then only be matched with other players of similar ranks. Winning matches can increase your rank, and losing them can decrease your rank. That also means if you queue up with a party, you'll all have to be within two ranks of each other.

Valorant is still in closed beta until May 28, and the balance of its ranked system is likely to change even post-launch. We'll keep you up-to-date on Riot's Valorant updates, including future patches and other adjustments to its ranked system. For now, read up on how to get your Valorant beta key if you haven't already and--if you're ready to dive in--learn some top Valorant tips and tricks.

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I am 35 years old with two children aged four and one. I started investing in the following funds at the start of this year for my childrens education: Axis Bluechip, Axis Midcap, Axis Small Cap and Mirae Asset Focused. I have a systematic investment plan (SIP) of 3,000 per month and aim to increase this over years to an amount of around 10,000 in the next five-seven years. Would this suffice considering the current inflation and increasing education expenses? When I searched for good funds, most of the funds were from Axis Mutual Fund. Is it a bad idea to put a lot of my investment in the same fund house? Is there a better allocation?

Name withheld on request

Different types of financial goals have different characteristics. A goal for a retirement corpus can have a specific target amount, but it is possible to be flexible with the time frame (as in work a few more years or less). An education goal is rigid in terms of time frameas in when the money will be requiredbut it can be flexible in terms of the amount required (government or private college; in India or abroad).

The amount you are investing now is insufficient for fully catering to the need of higher education. With two children, you would need to save and invest about 20,000 per month over a period of 15 years to get to a corpus of around 1 crore, which would be required for four-year professional degrees for both of them at that time. So, consider increasing your SIP amount to the maximum of your ability as soon as you can.

Investing in funds that belong to predominantly a single fund house is not a good idea. The reason is that funds from a single fund house tend to perform well or poorly in unison due to similarities in fund management styles or investment philosophies. You can always find funds from other asset management companies (AMCs) that are similar in nature and equal in performance capability. For example, you can consider funds such as Kotak Standard Multicap and DSP Midcap. Also, please review your portfolio every year to keep it up to date.

Srikanth Meenakshi is co-founder, PrimeInvestor.in. Queries and views at mintmoney@livemint.com

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Avoid investing in different funds of a single AMC as they perform in unison - Livemint