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The Registrar of Long-term Insurance has initiated regulatory action against Old Mutual Life Assurance Company of South Africa (“Old Mutual”) for non-compliance with Directive 159.A.i (LT & ST). The Directive sets out the requirements that insurers must comply with when outsourcing an aspect of their insurance business to another person.
Luxury goods group Richemont recently delivered a solid set of financial results for the year ended 31 March 2013. Chairperson Johann Rupert remains one of the most powerful and captivating business speakers around and one of the analysts at Investec forwarded us this note of some comments Rupert made to the analyst community recently:
Although winning in business is important, it’s how we win that matters. Winning the goodwill of customers by giving them better service or a better product is much more critical. Winning should not be about making more money. It’s about doing the best that you can AND doing what’s in the long-term best interests of all your stakeholders, be they customers, your staff or the environment. We should demand this much from companies’ leaders and their boards
South African financial markets have been rocked this morning by a 20% decline in the share price of African Bank Investments Limited (Abil). The banking group had fallen sharply after the release of interim financial results for the six months ended 31 March 2013. While various social media and news channels have been absorbed with the sharp decline in the Abil shareprice, the folks at ETM Analytics managed to pull together the attached graph showing just how unsecured lending had ballooned in South Africa over the last few years.
“It’s probably no coincidence that ‘policy’ and ‘police’ have a common etymological basis,” says Andy Rice, a brand strategist. “But if a social media policy is only sustained by vigilant policing (= “control”) your brand is in trouble!” Jessica Hubbard investigates why your brand needs a social media policy.
When the disclosure requirements were introduced, it enabled the man in the street to see what the CEOs of listed companies were being paid. However, it also enabled the CEOs themselves to see what other CEOs were getting paid. Those CEOs who were getting less than their colleagues threw their toys out the cot and demanded that their salaries be brought in line with those of their peers. Gain Symanowitz explores why CEOs get the big bucks.
In this edition of JSE Direct Simon Brown talks to Tandisizwe Mahlutshana about this week’s Finweek cover story, “Why education should not be compulsory”. Brown also takes a look at why platinum stocks are getting slammed, Calgro M3, Afrimat and Raubex results and the World Economic Forum on Africa. Book Ends features three books this week. Tune in!
Trade and industry minister Rob Davies painted a bleak picture of the local small business environment yesterday. Liesl Peyper reports on the minister’s plans to boost small business over the next year.
Have you ever received advice from someone a good few years older than you? Most of it was probably sage advice. Did you listen and change your habits? Probably not. Very often, it’s only after we’ve experienced the painful consequences of ignored advice, that we finally listen.
We all hate meetings. The world’s most productive and successful companies have come up with strategies to help them get the most of their meetings. Hopefully some of these will help you too.
