Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Would You Rather Be James Bond Or The Most Interesting Man In The World?

Many of us identify with the larger-than-life image of James Bond played by Sean Connery. He's a man's man, attracts women with ease, and can defend himself when needed (or wipe out armies of adversaries whenever he wishes).
Although I insist that I'm way beyond hero worship, in my secret heart-of-hearts I sometimes dream of having the qualities I imagine are part of the James Bond mystique. Although the image is one of charisma, health, and wealth, the reality for men is often quite different. The James Bond films are based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond (code designation "007") appearing in novels by Ian Fleming, a real life "James Bond," who was a Navel intelligence officer during World War II.
Unlike the fictional character in his novels, Fleming, like many men who went to war, later suffered PTSD. In 1961 Fleming, a heavy smoker and heavy drinker, had a heart attack and three years later, at age 56, had another heart attack and died on his son Caspar's 12th birthday in 1964. Eleven years later, Casper committed suicide with a drug overdose and was buried with his father.
Another image of the modern man is portrayed in Dos Equis beer commercials as "the most interesting man in the world."
"The most interesting man in the world" is a distinguished older gentleman, played by actor, Jonathan Goldsmith, who is shown through film clips of deliberately varying quality to have led an extremely eventful and colorful life, packed with over-the-top heroism and adventure. There are generally two types of ads: one features the man in a bar environment giving advice or opinions about various subjects, and the other features a narrator describing the man's distinguishing, but quirky background. Some examples include:
"If he punched you in the face, you would have to fight off the strong urge to thank him."
"He lives vicariously through himself."
"He once taught a German shepherd to bark in Spanish."
"His personality is so magnetic, he is unable to carry credit cards."
"Bulls flat out refuse to fight him."
"They say he once found the fountain of youth but didn't drink from it, because he wasn't thirsty."
"He can speak French in Russian."
"He's been known to cure narcolepsy, just by walking into a room."
"He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels."
"Even his enemies list him as their emergency contact number."
"He is The most interesting man in the world."As one blogger commented, "It takes serious balls to claim you're the most interesting man in the world, but the current Dos Equis spokes-character is trying his darndest."
As one blogger commented, "It takes serious balls to claim you're the most interesting man in the world, but the current Dos Equis spokes-character is trying his darndest." Interestingly, Goldsmith, the real man behind the ad, first established himself as an actor in Western films, appearing in over 25 films in that genre. In the 1976 film The Shootist, Goldsmith played a villain who was shot between the eyes by hero John Wayne, who fired blood capsules from a special pellet gun at pointblank range into Goldsmith's face for seven painful takes.
Rather than trying to emulate the "most interesting man" character, we may do better by following in the footsteps of the real-life person. According to his bio Goldsmith enjoys wine tasting, and he has been quoted saying, "I actually don't drink beer at all. In fact I usually spend my nights reading a book, not partying with women."
If you were picking a role model, who would it be? If you were raising a son, who would you like him to become? If you were going to live happily ever after, who would you want to be with?

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Departmentalization Of Insurance Companies

The company treasurer or controller may be a functional officer rather than an executive officer. The same thing may be true of the legal counsel. Often, functional officers are eventually elevated to the position of executive officers by promotion to a vice-presidency. Thus, although the office of legal counsel may not be recognized by the charter of the company as an executive office, the counsel may be made an executive officer by promotion to the position of "vice-president and legal counsel."

In a small insurance company, just as in any small business, departmentalization may be theoretical; that is, employees may perform functions in several departments. Executives, especially, may have charge of several departments. In the large company, of course, the various territorial departments may be virtually companies within themselves, in that they may be staffed to perform every function necessary to that department without assistance from any other department.

A small company may have a tendency to be more trustworthy and less complicated, but a larger company is less likely to fold, and would probably be cheaper. But all companies are different, so it is up to you to decide which can provide the best life insurance.

There are at least five bases of departmentalization: functional, product, territorial, customer, and executive interest.

Functional departmentalization is based upon functions performed. Thus, there would be a legal department, an investment department, an agency department, an advertising department, a purchasing department, a claims department, an engineering department, and the like.

Product departmentalization determines the scope of a department by the type of product with which it deals. In an insurance company, there may be a life insurance department, an inland and ocean marine department, fire department, liability department, automobile department, accident and health department, and others.

Territorial departmentalization means the departments are determined by the territory over which they exercise jurisdiction. Thus, in a large insurance company, there may be an eastern department, a western department, and others. Most companies which do business outside their own country will have a foreign department. The foreign department may be further broken down, for instance, into a Latin American Department and a European Department.

Customer departmentalization establishes departments by the nature of the class of customers with which it deals. Customer departmentalization is often difficult to distinguish from product departmentalization, the two being sometimes virtually identical. In insurance home office operations, pure customer departmentalization, for example, will be found in a reinsurance department, which deals with sales to other insurance companies; a special risks department, which handles the large self-rated accounts; and a group department, often including salary savings and pension trusts, which sells only to employers and in the mass rather than to individual policy buyers.

An easy distinction would be a department that deals exclusively with life insurance rates without medical, versus a department that deals with life insurance rates that require an exam.

Finally, executive interest must be recognized as a very practical and frequent basis of departmentalization. Departments may be organized along the lines of the interest of any given executive or executives in the business, even though those interests may be somewhat diverse.

The bases of departmentalization vary from company to company. They also vary within any one company. Many of the departments of a company are organized along functional lines, although much use is made in the insurance business of product, customer, and territorial departments.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Real Estate Realities and Technology

Real Estate Realities
Whenever we say the word real estate the thing that pops into mind is flashing dollar signs. It is considered the shortcut to quick bucks. But ever wondered what really this industry is about and why it is the second largest employer after agriculture in India. It is the most coveted dream- to own their own house- most coveted investment-returns cannot be matched and it gives you steady income (read rent)- what fixed deposit, mutual fund, metal can hope to do this? Most importantly it is because on an average 60 % of a person's income is locked in real estate. We also have the issue of our weaknesses also being our biggest strengths. It is the only segment of an investor's wealth which is yet unregulated and has no entry barrier unlike stock brokerage and insurance. Market penetration is as yet low on an organised level. Translated this means potential and first mover advantage. We see a host of international property consultants and corporate houses entering the market. Though it is attracting a lot of attention these very problems shatter the quick buck dream. No proper information, uneducated and uniformed brokers are the biggest problem. Add to your woes is a highly informed customer who is soon considering to become a DIY-(do it yourself) customer. It is easy to have 200 leads but it is very difficult to match these leads, go through the documentation and close the sale. But it is even more difficult to collect your commission. Having put forth a general view I will still say it is the best time to be in real estate. You have virtually no competition if you decide to be professional, competent and deliver. Remax is the World's largest brokerage network and doing this work in an organized manner. Visit Remax India website for details on how to join organized real Estate network in your city.

Real Estate: A Technology Trauma
Yes you read it right! Technology is the all-pervading presence in our lives including our very own real estate. The nearest our industry has come to technology is: flashing smart-phones and no it's not because you use the smart-phone as a smart-phone. It is but a status symbol. I guess I am being too harsh. For the slightly more tech-savvy listing on a few popular portals and subscribing to a hundred different groups is what they do!
Yes my friend you did use technology-EUREKA! The real question is what did you GAIN out of it? The answer probably left you with what I call Technology Trauma. It affects those who don't understand this mammoth thus don't use it or use it but don't get the gains.

There is a lot to technology but here we will cover a few common ones. We shall have more posts taking in each aspect in detail. The problems:
Property websites: Lack of MLS system makes it difficult to check if the property is genuine. www.remax.in follows the MLS system which most of the other portals did not do.
Google Broker Groups: Number of Broker Groups available without a proper filter system. At Remax India, there is a huge network of Brokers and that too in your city. It covers almost all of the major cities in India.
Popularity on Search engines: Huge number of property websites with few genuine hits on each. Again you have an advantage with www.remax.in which could be easily searched through various search engines like Google and Bing.