Making Goals Work | BTalk Australia

On October 11, 2009

Making Goals Work | BTalk Australia

[podcast] Janet Horton gives some sound advice on effectively setting and tracking employee goals. Often they're used by HR to track performance but bear little relation to what occupies people day to day. How do you fix it and make goals work for you?


On October 11, 2009

Free the Oppressed Allstate Insurance Agents!

American companies have made an art form out of cutting employee salaries while making them work longer and harder. Insurers are not immune. A recent survey by Claims magazine showed that "stunted wages, heftier workloads and shriveling benefits" continue to plague its members. But occasionally these Les Miserables mount the barricades and revolt.  That's what's happening at venerable Allstate Corp., where the normally good-natured good-hands insurance agents are taking on the country's largest publicly traded home insurer. The National Association of Professional Allstate Agents has published and distributed a petition to the Internal Revenue Service questioning whether Allstate lived up to its side of the bargain since it converted the majority of its sales force from employee to independent contractor...


On October 11, 2009

Insurance Regulator Says ‘No’ to Playing Fast and Loose

The perennial joke about the National Association of Insurance Commissioners is that its acronym NAIC stands for "No Action Is Contemplated." But if anything can rouse these sleepy state commissioners, it's the threat of a federal insurance regulator taking over their turf and making them redundant. And so they awoke in February to a new Chief Executive, Terri Vaughan, former Iowa insurance commissioner, whose mandate is to make the 50 state regulators look more relevant at a time when even the venerable Paul Volcker is hinting that they have outlived their usefulness. In rapid succession NAIC started doing things like investigating the credit rating agencies and making it easier for foreign reinsurers to enter the U.S. market. It also ordered...
On October 11, 2009

Filtering the BI Fire Hose

How can we make the most of Web data services for business intelligence? As enterprises seek to gain better insights into their markets, processes, and business development opportunities, they face a daunting challenge -- how to identify, gather, cleanse, and manage all of the relevant data and content being generated across the Web.
On October 10, 2009

Was Your Home Blown Down or Washed Away? Only the Court Knows

Ever since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005, flooding New Orleans and causing more than $40 billion in damage, insurers have been fighting the battle of "wind versus water" with their policyholders, states attorneys general and, ultimately, in the courts. This week the insurers got a big setback. In a unanimous decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in favor of a coastal property-owning couple who basically argued that their home was blown down before it was washed away. Why is this important? Property insurers like State Farm, Allstate, Travelers and Hartford cover wind damage and other kinds of mayhem, but they don't cover floods. Flood insurance is provided by the federal government, but the kicker is: only up...
On October 10, 2009

All Aboard! Accused Fraudster Allen Stanford Rides the D&O Train, Courtesy of Lloyd’s

It's never a good sign for the prosecution when the judge starts weeping for the defendant. But the case of R. Allen Stanford, who stands accused of masterminding a $7 billion investor-fraud scheme, could fare even worse for the insurance industry. Insurers such as Chubb, Ace and American International Group provide Directors and Officers insurance, in shorthand, "D&O." Its purpose is to protect corporate board members, chief executives and other top officials who can be subjected to malicious lawsuits. Their companies buy it for them so they'll be productive and happy. But insurers aren't stupid. They always include a clause that says if the insured knowingly commits fraud or other crimes, the policy is void. Stanford made headlines when his...
On October 10, 2009

Marriott’s $466M Timeshare Loss

Marriott International lost $466 million in timeshare writeoffs last quarter, following an announcement last month that it would stop developing any new luxury-residential and new timeshare properties. The company said it would finish building any development still under construction. In an earnings call, Marriott president Arne Sorenson said that the company is dropping pricing to "accelerate cash flow" and that more than half of its timeshare customers are now paying cash for one-week timeshares and not relying on company financing. "Our timeshare business looks forward to a stronger economy," he said. Despite the sugarcoating, critics took aim. “I took issue with the whole timeshare debacle,” said Bryan Maher, managing director at Collins Stewart LLC. “Taking a write-down [of that size] shows that you let that...


On October 10, 2009

Bonobos Wants to Do for Pants What Zappos Does for Shoes

Brian Spaly's quest for the perfect pair of pants led him and former roommate Andy Dunn to start a Web-only clothing company that wants to sell men's trousers that fit -- without the need for fitting rooms. Business is good for their company, Bonobos, though it's too early to tell whether the startup can achieve the heights of another online apparel store with a remarkably similar beginning.


On October 9, 2009

Why Does the AP Chase Phantom Enemies?

The AP's CEO Tom Curley has made another provocative speech, this time at the World Media Summit in Beijing. Many parts of the speech were well-informed and insightful, particularly about the way the media world is changing and how fundamental those changes are, but Curley also continues to denounce the “free-riders and pirates” who allegedly are the AP's greatest enemies. Forgive my skepticism, but I have yet to ever hear any actual names, let alone learn the web addresses, of these alleged scofflaws. In order to gain credibility with those of us who cover the media industry, and therefore probably scan more websites, blogs and content aggregator sites than does Mr. Curley, he is going to have to start naming names....


On October 9, 2009

Amazon Q2 Revenue Up, Income Down

With its Q2 earning announcement, Amazon has shown its ability to bring in the dollars even in the face of a tough economy. What it's having a difficult time doing is keeping the cash once it's in.


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