News Archives - Page 29 of 53

A Leader in the Pensions Sector

Posted on August 9, 2019 | by root

TPT Retirement Solutions is a leading provider of UK workplace pensions, specialising in Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes. Following TPT Retirement Solutions’ CEO, Mike Ramsey, recently being named CEO of the Year for the United Kingdom, we took a closer look to find out more about this award-winning industry expert.

With more than 70 years’ experience in providing pensions, and with £10 billion of assets under management on behalf of their 300,000 members, TPT Retirement Solutions is one of the UK’s leading occupational pension schemes. As a notfor-profit, they have sought to distinguish themselves through a dedication to their members – offering a level of centricity that few can match.

As Mike explains, this memberfirst ethos trickles down across the entirety of the business, dictating TPT’s approach, services and – ultimately, future. “TPT’s flagship product, DB Complete reduces the amount of time and money a client needs to spend running their Defined Benefit (DB) pension scheme, whilst maintaining a high level of professional governance under our DB Master Trust arrangement. Since our establishment in 1946, we have been keeping pensions simple, accessible and easy to understand.

“Our research indicates that we can typically save at least 30% on the total costs of running a DB scheme, and the size of TPT means that we can provide innovative and cost-effective solutions for those who face a challenge with their legacy DB pension arrangements. TPT Retirement Solutions accesses institutional funds at wholesale prices, with cutting edge investments and strategies.”

Worthy of particular note are Mike’s achievements as CEO, which secured his position as CEO Monthly’s UK CEO of the Year. Mike implemented a revolutionary strategy that transformed every tier of the business and its operations. “Chief among our core challenges was that we need to ‘break out’ of the not-for-profit sector and engage with schemes across the whole spectrum of the Defined Benefit (DB) pension market. Secondly, we have invested in our service delivery to ensure that existing customers continue to receive the very highest levels of customer service. The whole time ensuring members are engaged with their pension fund and achieving the best possible outcomes.”

As a result, TPT has seen remarkable growth during Mike’s tenure, and today they are making considerable efforts to solidify their enviable position in the market. “TPT is currently in advanced discussions with 16 Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes which are considering joining its DB Master Trust. The schemes represent about £1.3bn and over 18,000 members, and are from industry sectors such as manufacturing, logistics and retail. There’s also a strong resonance amongst the Building Societies, cooperatives and other mutual organisations.”

Address: Verity House, 6 Canal Wharf, Leeds, LS11 5BQ, United Kingdom

Website: https://www.tpt.org.uk/

Telephone: 0345 123 6660

Outstanding Excellence in Automotive Finance Services

Posted on August 9, 2019 | by root

Black Horse is one of the UK’s leading vehicle finance providers with an established presence across the country. In May, the firm was recognised as one of 2019’s Financial Leaders with the title of ‘Most Outstanding Finance Providers for Motorhomes’ by CEO Monthly Magazine. Following this success, we spoke with Black Horse’s Managing Director, Richard Jones, to find out more about their ethos, clients and history.

As part of Lloyds Banking Group, Black Horse consider Halifax, Bank of Scotland, and Scottish Widows as peers, acting as testament to their pedigree and impressive heritage. Yet, Black Horse’s success certainly stands on its own: partnering with over 4,500 dealers nationwide they provide a personalised approach to customer service and bespoke financial solutions across the UK.

As Richard explains, the company’s success has been defined by this dedication to the customer journey. “We pride ourselves on our clear and transparent communications with our customers in order to make finance as straightforward as possible. When you become a Black Horse customer, you are automatically registered with our online self-serve service, which will enable you too quickly and conveniently access and manage your account. You will also receive a personalised welcome video, sent by SMS, explaining the terms and conditions of your policy. Furthermore, we operate a Customer Contact Programme which contacts a number of customers within 24 hours of their purchase to check they understood the product and the process was professional and transparent, with a feedback loop to dealers.

Annually, we support 350,000 customer to finance the car, motorbike, scooter, caravan and or motorhome of their choice.

“Delivering a great customer experience is vital for any organisation, whatever their sector. As customer needs change, so too must the offering. Progression is not a choice, it is a necessity.” Richard says.

On the back of this, Black Horse have swiftly differentiated themselves in their industry, amassing no end of accolades from significant outlets over the years. Black Horse continue to flourish with a culture defined by constant improvement of the customer journey. “We continuously look to advance our current propositions and the support we offer to our dealer network. We utilise Net Promoter scores both from our Dealer Network and Customer Network to allow us to understand needs and to develop solutions accordingly. With this in mind, we were proud to be the winner of ‘Best Use of Digital to Improve Customer Experience’ at the UK’s Digital Experience Awards.”

Some of the company’s strongest assets are its partnerships with dealers groups and manufacturers, which includes some of the most prominent names in the automotive industry, as Richard discusses in more detail. “We have partnerships with large manufacturers including Jaguar Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Tesla. But we also see ourselves as partners to each and every dealer group we work with, providing them with the right materials, training and skills to offer our products through a transparent customer journey. We have various ways in which we approach potential new partnerships. The utilisation of the Black Horse website allows dealers to register their interest to become a Black Horse Dealer. In this way, our existing dealer network act as our strongest advocates, highlighting what we can do to fellow dealers that aren’t currently dealing with us.”

Finally, Richard offers some insight into Black Horse’s team, which – again- promotes an idea of personalised service and solutions. “Black Horse have a dedicated team of account managers, who hold specialist knowledge within their own fields. Our account managers are committed to supporting dealers and helping them respond to everchanging customer behaviours. We empower dealers to build strong customer relationships, understand the conduct agenda and provide training and tools to help customers understand finance driving positive customer experiences.”

Company: Blackhorse

Website: www.blackhorse.co.uk

Making Compliance Simple

Posted on August 9, 2019 | by root

The healthcare and pharmaceuticals industries have to move quickly to constantly adapt to an environment that has become defined by innovation and evolution. In this ever-changing landscape, RedefineCompliance look to be a tonic, with a goal to make compliance simple. Following Dan Sherry, RedefineCompliance’s CEO, being recognised as the 2019 CEO of the Year for the United Kingdom, we endeavoured to find out more about the company’s ethos, culture and future.

“In order for compliance to be effective it must be simple, that is fundamental.” – Dan Sherry, CEO of RedefineCompliance Ltd.

The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are two of the fastest changing industries on the global business landscape. Driven by technological innovation, the sector’s goliaths have created a large-scale ‘arms race’, as each – in their efforts to corner a new product or segment – become eager to capitalise on the benefits of being first to market. The role of regulation is to keep pace with the fastest of these conglomerates to ensure the safe and efficacious use of medicines and medical technology. As such, regulation can be perceived as complicated, complex and convoluted, difficult for many companies to understand and to monitor. Compliance has become a matter of expertise, and when it comes to expertise, we believe that few can match RedefineCompliance’s positive and effective approach to these challenges.

As Dan explains, Redefine Compliance was created from the ground up to make regulatory compliance simple and easy to digest, reducing the complexity for companies and their employees. “We are experts in building effective compliance programmes in the Pharmaceutical industry. We make compliance simple for the organisations that we work with, through the design and implementation of governance structures, process architecture, management systems and training solutions. As members of BSI, and through the utilisation of tools such as ISO quality management architecture, we provide effective & strategic advice and guidance on compliance and regulatory management; ethical interactions in healthcare, however, remain a focus for the company.”

“We want compliance to be simple and jargon free. Moreover, we always aim to embed our ways of working within the organisations that we work with, so that they build their own internal capabilities and are able to continuously improve
RedefineCompliance : Making Compliance Simple their compliance programs long after we have finished our work.” By approaching compliance from this new, innovative and positive perspective, RedefineCompliance might be considered disruptors in an industry which can be perceived, on the whole, slow to evolve in order to meet the ethical, regulatory and technological challenges that exist today. Instead, with RedefineCompliance’s commitment to simplicity, they act as silencers to the problems that plague good compliance, ensuring accessibility and seamlessness where complexity normally reigns supreme.

Though they focus primarily on the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, RedefineCompliance’s expertise extends beyond both to cover a plethora of sub-sectors and areas. “As briefly touched on, the company specialises in ethical interactions within the healthcare community, with a primary focus on ethical promotional interactions, materials and activities, with a fundamental component to embedding good compliance being training. Finally, we are working towards being able to provide guidance at a more generic corporate level, covering all aspects of privacy, confidentiality, contracts and agreements in the future.

Dan continues, adding more insight into the company’s methodology. “Good compliance requires a holistic approach and so we have acquired the tools to create comprehensive compliance programs that cover the breadth of our client’s businesses. From internal architecture and procedural developments through quality management and third-party systems integration, we ensure that companies can improve compliance and remain complaint going into the future, continuously evolving.”

Yet, ultimately, it is RedefineCompliance’s founding ethos of simplicity which is their core distinguisher. “At the end of the day, we see simplicity as a key strategic factor and driver of effective compliance behaviours and capabilities at any organisation,”

Going hand in hand with this idea of simplicity is RedefineCompliance’s dedication to ‘people’, whether that be their clients, their team, or the patients that their everyday actions will impact. “Our passion is people; internally with who we recruit for each project, and the organisations we provide our services to. People are the key to our organisation, as a fundamental practice we hire entrepreneurial minds that strengthen our culture of behaviours. Our people deliver great project outcomes: they are great communicators with positive mindsets. So that we remain a target to great talent and draw skilled individuals from different experiences, backgrounds and industries to both ‘think big’ and outside of the box.”

This idea of communication is key to the ongoing success of the business, as Dan continues. “In order for each project we take on to be successful we make communication a core focus and to ensure that there is strong collaboration between our people and our clients. We ensure that we offer full support to the clients we work with.” There can be no doubt: communication and clientcentricity will be the pillars to RedefineCompliance’s ongoing success.

“We exist to go above and beyond. We aim to provide the best Return on Investment for our clients for the services we provide. We aim to stand out from the crowd, be bold, different and ahead of our peers.”

Here, Dan offers more information on the dynamics between their team and clients. “We strive to work with forward thinking clients, those who are ready to make a change for the better in their organisation. As we work within healthcare, we make sure to keep a real focus on patients and everything we recommend aims to empower our clients to enhance their culture of compliant behaviours and capabilities with a focus on them making a considerable impact on improved healthcare outcomes. We endeavour to work with clients who want to make a difference to patients.”

“Pharmaceutical and Medical Technology exists to improve overall patient care and patient outcomes in a safe and ethical way; all individuals in these industries should have this at the forefront of their minds in order to deliver the best for patients.”

As we come to the end of the interview, Dan moves on to discuss the challenges that RedefineCompliance are currently facing. “Some of the key challenges we see in industry include, the continuing development of leadership capabilities in compliance and regulatory where typically development of leadership capabilities may be focused on the commercial teams. Jointworking between industry and
healthcare organisations is another challenge and mastering these interactions is key to the ever-changing landscape of holistic treatment pathways. The utilisation of technological innovations such as artificial intelligence and social media is fundamental, but these new technologies bring with them significant challenges in regulation and capabilities within the healthcare landscape and we will be endeavouring to begin to address some of these key challenges at the RedefineCompliance Expo on Thursday 19th September 2019. Of course, with Brexit and GDPR also being at the forefront of our minds.”

Following on the back of the success of the organisation, the future of RedefineCompliance is defined by expansion as it looks to move into new markets. “Shortly, we will be launching our sister company, RedefineProfessionals. We will be targeting recruitment for the highly skilled and talented individuals in industry; primarily in the regulatory and compliance space within Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Medical and Commercial roles. Finally, going hand in hand with this, we are also building our team internally with marketing capabilities and, by the end of 2020, we aim to offer exciting strategic marketing services that meet rigorous compliance and regulatory standards from concept through to delivery.”

This idea of constant development and adaptation remains a crucial element to RedefineCompliance moving forwards as Dan concludes in his closing comments: “We aim to work collaboratively with regulatory bodies and industry associations to ensure that we deliver the most compliant and up-to-the-minute advice, information and services for our clients. We remain committed to our mission to provide simple compliance solutions to our clients and partners, with ethical interactions and delivery of the best outcomes for patients our primary goal.”

Company: RedefineCompliance Name: Daniel Sherry, CEO & Chief Consultant

Address: Regus, Beacon House, Stokenchurch Business Park, Ibstone Road, Stokenchurch, High Wycombe, HP14 3FE, United Kingdom

Website: https://www.redefinecompliance.com/

Telephone: +4477 0136 1564

Most workers would prefer to be replaced by a robot than by another human

Posted on August 8, 2019 | by root

While people generally prefer to see jobs go to people rather than to robots, this preference reverses when they consider their own jobs. In that case, they prefer to be replaced by robots, new research from Stefano Puntoni, Professor of Marketing at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) reveals.

In an article published in Nature Human Behaviour today, coauthored by Armin Granulo and former RSM faculty Christoph Fuchs, findings show that people experience more negative feelings when they are replaced by another person than when they are replaced by a robot. This creates a psychological incentive for people to prefer being replaced by robots.

However, while comparing one’s abilities to a robot may be less of a concern to people’s self-worth in the short run, robotic replacement is perceived as more threatening to people’s economic situation in the long run.

“This is the first paper to explore the unique psychological correlates of technological unemployment. As more and more occupations are affected by automation, this is an increasingly important topic. Interestingly, when technology replaces human workers, it has a unique psychological effect. People realise that the differences in abilities between robots and themselves might not be short-lived but permanent, indicating skill obsolescence,” says Professor Puntoni.

“We hope that, particularly in times when policymakers are discussing strategies intended to support workers who have been displaced by technology, our work encourages more research on the psychological consequences of technological unemployment before technological progress disrupts specific jobs and occupations.”

The researchers indicate that their findings can help develop programmes to cope with negative consequences of workers being replaced by intelligent machines. Such programmes can help to reemploy job seekers and reduce negative effects on mental and physical health.

For instance, the research shows that those workers who attribute their job loss to automation would benefit from resources wholly dedicated to interventions targeted at upgrading skills and retraining.

As technological progress is expected to affect millions of workers in a wide variety of occupations in the coming decades, it is important for the stability of society that we understand potential threats to the psychological wellbeing of affected workers, and how this transition will affect their long-term economic prospects.

10 helpful pointers to deliver an engaging presentation

Posted on August 5, 2019 | by root

Standing up with a mic in hand can be a comfortable disposition for some of us. We might find that we’re natural born presenters and the audience listen because they’re confident that the words about to be delivered, will inspire and motivate them.

However, that isn’t the case for all of us. If standing up in front of a group of people and speaking doesn’t come naturally, we’re here to help. Read our top ten tips to help you deliver a presentation that really connects and reaches your audience.

Remember, seconds count
Imagine you’re robbing a bank, you aren’t going to take the time to introduce yourself, you need to grab the attention of the teller and get out of there. A presentation is no different, get in, and with a piranha-like bite, you attack, ensuring your audience hones in. Often you are going to be using a digital presentation that will include your topic title, and they will already know your name. ‘Different’, in this circumstance, is detrimental.

Aim to be understandable
It may seem like a given, but the major failings of most speeches are that the audience simply cannot understand it. The best speeches in the history of time were delivered succinctly and weren’t overflowing with jargon. The biggest mistake one can make is to overcomplicate the language used — it doesn’t simply confuse the listener, but it will more than likely cause you to trip up as well.

But why me?
As much as we might not like to accept it, no one in life owes us anything — it is up to us to earn their attention. We cannot expect to warrant someone’s appreciation straight off the bat, simply because of who we are. They are going to give up their precious time to listen to us, but why should they? Tell them of your experience in the area, and reason why you are the one standing up to make the presentation as opposed to them.

Pay attention
If you are expecting your audience to pay attention to you, you need to pay attention to them. That said, learn your presentation, or at the very least, the basic structure beforehand. Yes, off-the-cuff might work for one in a thousand, but no one wants to listen to someone stumble their way through their presentation with Mr Blobby-like co-ordination. Rehearsing a handful of times in front of family, friends, or even the mirror, will give you the confidence to act upon their reactions, as opposed to aimlessly talking to a screen.

Watch your timing
No one is here to suggest that a slide of a PowerPoint should take an hour, but if you try and rush through the first slide, by the second you will have lost all your audience in transit. Take a step back when you are initially planning your presentation: work out exactly how many ideas you wish to propose and assign an appropriate amount of time to each. Similarly, breathing can be incredibly under-rated — don’t starve yourself of oxygen.

Emotion
No one wants to walk out after a presentation and think, ‘well there goes half an hour of my life I’m never going to get back’. Therefore, add at least the tiniest portion of emotion. You don’t have to put in a performance deserving of an Oscar but showing your audience you are interested in what you’re speaking about is essential —if you don’t care, how can you expect them to? Obviously, we won’t always be tasked with speaking about a topic we would die for, but by racking your brain and coming up with why it’s important to you, you’ve certainly made a start.

Gauge your audience
Not many of us would have the same conversation with our mother and grandmother as we would do in the pub on a Saturday afternoon after football. The reason we don’t is because we can successfully take heed of our audience — and a presentation is no different. Jokes are often inappropriate in a presentation, but if you’re going to use them, at least make sure they are going to be understood.

Imagery
Using pictures and diagrams throughout your presentation can be a fantastic method of grabbing attention, as an overload of text can often prove to be challenging to divulge, particularly if it’s a large group. However, if you are going to go down the road of using images, make sure that they can be easily seen and interpreted. The sheer quality of a picture can act as a make or break for the entire success of your presentation.

Tell a story
This is something that many people will struggle to do — it requires a lot of creativity. Rather than telling jokes, this can be the perfect way to get your audience laughing, and for that, they will remember you. Your story can be whatever you want because it’s your story. Make the detail as extravagant as you like, just be confident that the content of the story relates to the purpose of your presentation.

Get the ending right
What the audience will hear at the end is the first thing they are going to remember afterwards. It is no surprise that the cliché of ‘going out with a bang’ has stuck around for so long — because if we don’t, we’ll be forgotten in a flash.

Article provided by Where The Trade Buys, a UK company offering professional booklet printing services for businesses.

Standard Industries Appoints Justin Skala as CEO of BMI Group

Posted on August 2, 2019 | by root

Standard Industries, a global industrial company and the world’s largest roofing and waterproofing manufacturer, today announced the appointment of P. Justin Skala as CEO of BMI Group, effective September 1, 2019. Tom Anderson will remain with the company as President and COO, focusing on manufacturing, supply chain, and research and development organizations.
David Winter, co-CEO, Standard Industries, said “Our strategy continues to focus on positioning BMI as the leading solutions provider to our customers. Finding a great leader to implement this strategy has always been our priority. With Justin’s proven track record of leading teams to build and scale innovative, customer-facing, global businesses, we believe he’s the right person to drive strong and sustainable growth at BMI as we continue to chart our course in the market with innovative and superior products.”

Skala joins BMI from the Colgate Palmolive Company where he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Growth and Strategy Officer, leading all of the commercial growth functions globally as well as the sustainability efforts for the $15 billion corporation. Prior to that role, Skala served as the Chief Operating Officer for North America, Europe, Africa and Eurasia, and held numerous leadership positions of increasing responsibility across all regions and divisions over his 37 years with Colgate. He has been an Independent Director of Yum! Brands, Inc. since 2016.
“It is a privilege to be joining BMI at this pivotal moment when the company is rapidly evolving to capitalize on new opportunities while strengthening its market leadership position,” said Justin Skala. “I’m inspired by Standard Industries’ mission to lead a more modern approach to industrialism and I look forward to helping BMI realize its full potential as a world leader in the roofing and waterproofing industry.”

“Justin is the ideal leader to guide BMI forward, with his proven record of attracting and leading extraordinary talent to successfully grow a global business,” said David Millstone, co-CEO, Standard Industries. “Paired with his unique background in strategy, product innovation, and sustainability, Justin will unlock new opportunities for the BMI Group both in Europe and in the rest of the world.”

Why efficient energy management starts with quality data

Posted on August 1, 2019 | by root

Tom Anderton, Product and Services Manager, TEAM Energy, explains why we put quality data at the heart of our digital energy management solutions, and so should you.

Utility costs are often the second or third largest cost for an organisation, and often the one under a lot of scrutiny from a budget cutting and sustainability point of view. Having the right tools to help you manage, control and reduce energy usage is paramount.

We can’t support our customers to build an optimised energy management service on a foundation of poor data quality. For us, data is at the heart of everything we do and is the beginning of efficient monitoring and targeting. Good quality data is crucial for your business. It is the key to compliance, streamlined budgeting, and surpassing carbon reduction targets. It also provides ultimate portfolio transparency in the mission to drive down consumption.

For energy professionals the “no news is good news” approach is not good business practice. Being able to “right a wrong” as soon as it’s happened is essential.

To facilitate the most accurate monitoring, targeting and reporting of energy and consumption, we believe that quality data needs to have the following attributes:

• Accuracy – data correctly reflects what is being measured and its expected behaviour

• Completeness – all expected data is present and without gaps

• Consistency – data conforms to a required format that agree with each other

• Timeliness – data is available to support fulfilment of energy management duties on time

Data that is not accurate, complete, consistent, and timely can lead to:

• False reporting

• Ill-conceived energy strategies and activities

• Unreliable forecasting, capacity management, and procurement strategy

• Flawed compliance submissions (SECR, GHG, for example)

• Disengaged stakeholders who no longer trust the reports and data they are seeing.

And even the smallest anomaly in data can cause a significant skew on the truth.

Advanced data quality
We are working hard to keep our energy management solution relevant to the needs of energy professionals from a range of sectors. The one thing all energy professionals have in common is data. Our new data monitoring suite promotes proactive energy management with robust and auditable data, supporting the four pillars of data quality. Reliability and completeness of information is assessed without having to review streams of data manually.

High quality data can be achieved through the data monitoring framework, addressing the following issues:

• Gaps – where there are gaps in the interval meter read data that has been received

• Unexpected data – where data has been received but was not expected (e.g. where a site has closed, or a meter has been disconnected)

• Overdue – where data is due based on how often it is expected to be loaded, but has not been received

• No data – completely missing data for all time

This functionality gives energy professionals a transparent and single version of the truth and it has capability to find and respond to the issues quickly. Users can define their own monitoring strategies within the framework. These can control whether or how the system searches for data gaps, overdue data and unexpected data in periodic channels.

Trend analysis
Our work to give further confidence in data comes in our next software upgrade which delivers a new trend analysis feature. This will automatically analyse incoming periodic interval data to identify suspect or erroneous readings, to check whether data is in line with what is expected.

There are two core functions that this supports:

• Dynamic profiling checks the most recent performance against a previous time period which
helps to identify step changes in trends: spikes and drops

• Fixed profiling measures the most recent performance against a fixed and defined profile,
helping to monitor against very specific thresholds (i.e. specific baseload monitoring or identifying potential water leaks by checking night-time periods)

Trend analysis builds on the data monitoring framework ensuring that data issues and notifications are raised in a consistent and standardised way. It prompts investigative action and is:

• Proactive – automating monitoring and alerting allows energy teams to be notified of suspect utility usage

• Time saving – removing the need to trawl through data or reports to identify potential issues

• Focused – prioritising fixing issues and saving energy rather than finding them in the first place

• Flexible and customisable – allowing users to adjust the checks to suit their needs

Data is a one of the most valuable resources an organisation owns, and Sigma puts data at the forefront of energy management strategies with crystal clear clarity.

We know how important data is, which is why we are continuing to enhance our solution with data monitoring features. Further releases will deliver advanced consumption trend analysis and exception reporting, and greater data transparency in estate management. These are all set out in our product roadmap.

GREEK CEO WINS AWARD FOR HIS HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS DURING THE TRAGIC FIRES IN GREECE

Posted on July 31, 2019 | by root

Seajets, one of the largest fleets in the Med reveals its social responsibility identity with a humanitarian award for its CEO, Marios Iliopoulos

“Seajets’ mission is to provide comfortable, fast, safe and reliable transportation for every visitor”

The best way to experience a Greek summer is by island hopping. There is one company who has taken this task at heart to provide the best experience with a fast and reliable passage – Seajets. Officially launched as a passenger line in 2002 today operates the largest network of high speed vessels in the Med and worldwide that covers more than 250 connections from Piraeus, Rafina and Crete for the islands of Cyclades. There are 17 vessels servicing 26 Cycladic islands and Crete.
The difference between other liners and Seajets is that timetables are announced as early as possible for the benefit of travel planning. However, most of the services by Seajet to the islands of Cyclades run throughout the year which at many times can be a lifeline and the only connection islanders have with the mainland.
Seajets is closely linked with many events where the company is a headline sponsor continuing and building on its social responsibility profile. The true character of the people who make up Seajet came to the rescue during last year’s devastating wildfires in the area of Mati. The CEO of Seajets,Mr Marios Iliopoulos, received an award for his contribution and assistance during this national tragedy at a memorial event that marked the first anniversary of this momentous event.

From the very first moment Mr. Marios Iliopoulos was next to the victims of the tragic incident. With personal concern and with a high sense of responsibility, professionalism and social sensitivity, he helped with rescue boats throughout the night, along with Seajets’ crew members and local fishermen rescuing 600 people who had fled to the sea.

According to press sources at a luncheon given by the Diocese of Syros, the Bishop of Syros Dorotheos, will , also, present an award to Mr Iliopoulos for his longstanding and commendable social contribution to the inhabitants of the Cyclades and the islands of the Aegean.

91% of recruiters say umbrella usage set to soar

Posted on July 30, 2019 | by root

An overwhelming majority of professional recruitment companies expect umbrella company usage to soar in response to changes to IR35 in the private sector. That is according to new research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo).

A survey of the trade association’s membership revealed that 91% of the professional recruitment firms polled believe that an increasing number of contractors will shun PSCs and turn to umbrella companies due to the new rules which come into effect in April 2020.

In addition, when the same group were asked if they expect most of their contractors to agree to working ‘inside’ IR35 after the changes come into effect, two thirds (67%) said ‘no’.

Previous research from APSCo following changes to off-payroll working in the public sector in 2017 found that 55% of professional recruitment companies had witnessed a drop in the use of PSCs, with most of this movement into umbrella companies.

On the findings, Samantha Hurley, Operations Director at (APSCo) and Co-Chair of HMRC’s IR35 Forum, commented:

“It is unsurprising that our membership expects an increase in umbrella company usage: it is reasonable to expect that employers which engage contractors directly are likely to be seeking ways to mitigate risk. Contingent workers, meanwhile, look set to increasingly move away from PSC solutions if their assignments are caught by the new rules.”

“However, while the majority of service providers are compliant and ethical, there are exceptions to the rule. Following changes to IR35 in the public sector our members reported an increase in unscrupulous umbrella companies which were very willing to exploit contractors’ wishes to make up some of the shortfall in income because they were being taxed as employees. We essentially saw non-compliance in the umbrella sector replace non-compliance in the form of false self-employment.”

“It is vital that anyone seeking to engage an umbrella company ensures that they are able to differentiate between ethical providers and those which sell non-compliant solutions. All APSCo affiliate umbrella companies, for example, commit to a strict code of conduct and undergo a rigorous application process. They are also required to undertake an independent annual compliance audit which is carried out by one of four equally robust providers: Saffery Champness; EY; Professional Passport or the FCSA.”

The 2019 Global CEO Excellence Awards Press Release

Posted on July 30, 2019 | by root

CEO Monthly Magazine Announces Winners of the 2019 Global CEO Excellence Awards.

United Kingdom, 2019– CEO Monthly magazine announces the winners of the 2018 Global CEO Excellence Awards.

Every ship needs a captain, someone who can plot the course and navigate the waters rough and calm. That is why CEO Monthly has chosen to honour those individuals committed to driving business growth and baring the responsibility of making crucial corporate decisions which can make or break a business entity.

Discussing the success of this year’s winners, Katherine Benton, Awards Coordinator commented: “From showing sure and certain management of a business enterprise, to displaying integrity and tenacity in the face of adversity or considerate corporate governance and a commitment to society, the Global CEO Excellence Awards is returning for its 4th year to celebrate the business leaders of today. I am proud of all of my winners for their hard work and commitment and I wish them the best of luck in the future.”

To find out more about these prestigious awards, and the dedicated professionals selected for them, please visit https://www.ceo-review.com where you can view our winners supplement and full winners list.

ENDS

Notes to editors.

About CEO Monthly

A business is only as good as its leadership, and whilst it takes many hands to make a company work, CEOs hold the majority of the responsibility and power in any organisation. This is a tough challenge, and as such through this dedicated publication, bought to you by internationally renowned publishing house AI Global Media, aims to offer the very latest insight, interviews and profiles of Chief Executive Officers from across the corporate landscape.

Free to subscribe to, the publication offers a dedicated newsletter, an ever evolving website and a series of awards designed to showcase the hard work and commitment of businesses from every market and every region.

Keeping pace with the ever changing corporate landscape around the world, CEO Monthly’s dedicated editorial team work diligently to provide the latest news and updates, drawing on their network of contacts from across the globe who span every major industry and sector, providing comment and insight which is invaluable.

Need for rare earth materials in high-end product applications will augment growth opportunities

Posted on July 29, 2019 | by root

Frost & Sullivan’s latest analysis, Global Rare Earth Materials Market, Forecast to 2025, reveals that a global uptick in infrastructure development and electronic vehicle demand are key factors driving the $5.40 billion global rare earth materials market growth. Growth is augmented by the rise in neodymium magnet, lanthanum, and cerium-based application requirements in countries such as China, Japan, Korea, the US, Brazil, and Western Europe and a necessity for rare earth materials in metallurgy and battery applications. Frost & Sullivan expects the market to grow at a robust CAGR of 7.0% from 2018 to 2025.

“There has been significant demand for rare earth materials, especially for use in the production of high-end permanent magnets. Demand is strongly characterised by niche requirements—high-purity, specialised rare earth material products with extremely customised application characteristics. End-user electronics, technology and automotive industries prefer such products even though procurement is pricey,” said Ganesh Dabholkar, Senior Analyst, Chemicals & Materials in Infrastructure & Mobility.

Major mining companies are focusing on extensive market research of client needs to offer the most cost-effective products for specific applications and to create tailor-made solutions in order to gain purchase preference and long-term customer loyalty.

“Manufacturing customised products that meet specific application requirements will be key to tapping major business opportunities and competing with the likes of Lynas Corporation, Iluka Resources, and HEFA Rare Earth Canada Co. Ltd.,” noted Dabholkar.

Aspiring participants should aim to tap additional growth opportunities by:

· Forward integration, developing their own processing capabilities and establishing a strong sales and distribution network to leverage their E&P strengths.

· Building long-term pricing contracts with raw material suppliers to effectively manage rare earth material price fluctuations for sustainable profits.

· Leveraging the demand for products, which are of high purity and mandate specific compositions to meet high-end applications, as relatively higher margins exist in high-end product applications, rather than in conventional applications.

“Although there are significant growth prospects, the rare earth materials market is restrained by China’s dominance in terms of reserves, product supply, project investments, and consumption,” noted Dabholkar. “Environmental concerns regarding extraction and use of rare earth materials and a growing trend to research alternative materials, recycle, or find other low-cost rare earth products are factors further hindering market growth.”

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Global Rare Earth Materials Market, Forecast to 2025, explores the factors and trends that have shaped the global rare earth materials landscape, the challenges that lie ahead, and the opportunities that can be tapped. The research provides a detailed analysis of the growth opportunities for key players in the rare earth materials space.

Health at Hand : Redefining Healthcare, the Middle East’s Telehealth Solution

Posted on July 26, 2019 | by root

As champions of the telehealth market in the MENA region, Health at Hand are the key to revolutionising the global healthcare market through doctor-on-demand services, driving the sector into the modern age of business. As a result of their considerable efforts, the firm’s CEO, Charlie Barlow, was recognised as 2019’s Health Tech CEO of the Year for the Middle East and North Africa in CEO Monthly’s 2019 Business Elite spotlight. Eager to find out more about their innovative services, we spoke to Charlie who discussed how Health at Hand have distinguished themselves in this competitive arena.

Healthcare has, by all regards, remained rather traditional in the face of vast paradigm shifts that have embraced industries of all sizes around the world. Technology, the great driver of change, has accelerated and revitalised industries that were growing stagnant or tired. The global transportation industry, for instance, experienced a paradigm shift with the arrival of Uber, capitalising on a readilyavailable technology and the ever-growing gig economy. In the years since, others have moved to follow in Uber’s path – Careem, Lyft, Via, and Gett being the most prominent among them- springing up to bring an altogether more client-centric approach to on-demand travel services.

It’s in this vein that Health at Hand was established, combining an accessible everyday technology with a very real, very present need: acting as a muchneeded disruptor in an industry that was showing signs of fatigue, stumbling when development control of their own healthcare – a quality that cannot be overestimated in an environment that can often be defined by the exact opposite: long wait times, a lack of efficiency, bias and inequality. As Charlie explains, this patient-centricity has helped quickly differentiate the company in a sector that was eager for change. “Health at Hand is a patient centric business, truly democratizing the patient experience. Aware that telehealth is a new experience for many, we are proud to have the highest doctor accreditation standards in the region, and we go over and above what is required of us from a data privacy perspective. We have a multi award winning technology platform, having won Innovation of the Year at the 2018 Middle East Insurance Industry Awards, and late last year won a significant scholarship with Google in Silicon Valley. Perhaps our most significant endorsement is our partnership with Allianz, who have chosen to work with Health at Hand across their 4,500,000 clients in the MENA region.”

“There is no doubt that we are regarded as the thoughtleaders in the MENA telehealth space and are proud to work closely, and consult to, regional governments and health authorities.”
Naturally, Health at Hand’s success has also been the result of a dynamic team of expert doctors and a best in class technical team. For Charlie, the company has thrived as the result of their efforts in a market that, though ripe for opportunity, has its own challenges to overcome. “Our staff are absolutely fundamental to our success. With offices in the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, we are culturally and gender inclusive and operate with a flat structure, and with a focus on collaboration and innovation. In addition to our brilliant technology team, our doctors are the shining lights.
and innovation was in demand and sorely needed. Here, Charlie offers more background to the company’s inception: “As the first fully-licensed, and Dubai Health Authority regulated, telemedicine company, Health at Hand is changing the primary healthcare landscape across the MENA region. As an online doctor solution, our vision is to bring the highest standard of healthcare to everyone, wherever and whenever it is needed the most, with a strong focus on ‘ethical health’.

“Health at Hand allows patients to see doctors from the comfort of their own home or office, through the development of our own proprietary video-based application. We provide video consultations with a wait time of a few minutes. Services provided include: sick notes, e-referrals and medicine delivery. Anyone can download the free Health at Hand app from the Google Play or the App Store to access our highly qualified doctors.”

Convenience is, ultimately, only part of Health at Hand’s unique offering. “Crucially, Health at Hand removes the difficulties associated with visiting a doctor, providing quantifiable cost-savings for corporates and insurers, while at the same time reducing the abuse surrounding the over prescribing of medicine.” It is, above all else, a necessary tool in the face of growing demand and dwindling resources.

Charlie continues, outlining the core innovation-first ethos of Health at Hand as they look to pivot a sector that should -always- put the patient at the centre of its services. “We were the first healthcare company in the MENA region to commission a telehealth white-paper and are currently following this up with our second white paper, the region’s first comprehensive healthcare study of blue-collar workers. Providing a solution for all, we strongly advocate that access to quality primary healthcare is a basic human right rather than a privilege for the few.”

At the end of the day, Health at Hand puts the patient in – a quality that cannot be overestimated in an environment that can often be defined by the exact opposite: long wait times, a lack of efficiency, bias and inequality. As Charlie explains, this patient-centricity has helped quickly differentiate the company in a sector that was eager for change. “Health at Hand is a patient centric business, truly democratizing the patient experience. Aware that telehealth is a new experience for many, we are proud to have the highest doctor accreditation standards in the region, and we go over and above what is required of us from a data privacy perspective. We have a multi award winning technology platform, having won Innovation of the Year at the 2018 Middle East Insurance Industry Awards, and late last year won a significant scholarship with Google in Silicon Valley. Perhaps our most significant endorsement is our partnership with Allianz, who have chosen to work with Health at Hand across their 4,500,000 clients in the MENA region.”

“There is no doubt that we are regarded as the thoughtleaders in the MENA telehealth space and are proud to work closely, and consult to, regional governments and health authorities.”

Naturally, Health at Hand’s success has also been the result of a dynamic team of expert doctors and a best in class technical team. For Charlie, the company has thrived as the result of their efforts in a market that, though ripe for opportunity, has its own challenges to overcome. “Our staff are absolutely fundamental to our success. With offices in the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, we are culturally and gender inclusive and operate with a flat structure, and with a focus on collaboration and innovation. In addition to our brilliant technology team, our doctors are the shining lights.

Our focus is on value-based healthcare, and all our highly qualified doctors are specifically trained in telemedicine. Being a relatively new concept for the region, we work hard on ensuring that a user’s first Health at Hand telehealth consultation is a great experience.”
In many ways, the Middle East was the perfect proofing ground for Health at Hand. As a hub of technological and business development, it offered the right balance between eager adopters and regulatory criteria. Equally, it is a rapidly changing region with an ever-increasing need for a healthcare service that can be flexible and robust enough to sate demand. Essentially, by being able to meet the region’s high standards and expectations of healthcare, Health at Hand have a proven ability to flourish in almost any other market.

“Telehealth in the MENA region has come a long way since Health at Hand was incubated in 2016 and our great working relationship with regional regulators, including the Dubai Health Authority, has led to quick and necessary regulatory reform. We are however cognizant of the fact that this is a highly regulated sector, as it should be, and no corners should be cut at the expense of the patient. With an increase in diseases of affluence (e.g. obesity and diabetes), an ageing population, an increase in life expectancy, telehealth in the MENA region is at an inflexion point. Health at Hand are proud to be at the forefront of this growth as we continue to provide ethical healthcare across the region.”

Finally, in his closing comments, Charlie touches on the future of Health at Hand as they prepare for a promising year ahead. “Telehealth has never been needed more in the MENA region, with healthcare inflation at all-time highs and health insurers running at loss ratios of circa 105%. In 2019, Health at Hand will not only cement our place as the market leader in the United Arab Emirates, but we are looking at entering between three to five new countries across the region within the year. With regional governments moving towards mandatory health insurance and mandatory telehealth utilization, these are exciting times.”

Company: Health at Hand

Address: Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Website: https://www.myhealthathand.com

Telephone: +971 55 637 1615