Retail to the Rescue, but... ‘Zombie’ Stores Still Face a Battle to Service Debt

Retail has undergone some major transformations triggered by the pandemic.

With unemployment and disease surging in the US it is a paradox that the stock market is on a high. Another paradox is that private consumption is strong, with 2021 likely to be one of the better years in two decades. The reasons people shop remain essentially the same, but the mix and the tools differ.

Covid-19 prompted quarantines around the world and forced businesses to change the way the operate. In the US, private consumption counts for two-thirds of the total economy, with retail sales of about €5tn.

Retail matters. It is a major employer with a 19 percent share of labour income. One in four Americans works in retail, the largest private sector employer.

According to The Wall Street Journal, retail sales (excluding gas, auto and food services) rose 6.4 percent in the first 10 months of 2020. The paradox of the surging stock market is explained by the flow of private savings in a period with unattractive interest rates. There has also been a massive transfer of wealth to the richest sector through Congress’ Covid rescue packages. “Helicopter money” through unemployment support has given the US economy support as it is being spent instantly, with quick multiplication effects.

"Before coronavirus swept about 15 percent from retail sales last January, only 11 percent of retail sales happened online."

Private consumption remains strong. The shoppers on the top of the wealth and income pyramid are doing fine. Staying home in your tracksuit with no transport cost or restaurant bills saves a lot of money.

What is changing is where and how consumers shop, and what they buy.

Despite the new safety protocols, punters keep shopping. Our love for physical stores is very much alive. Brands still matter, as do value and affordability.

Still, overleveraged retailers has gone bust. During the first nine months of 2020, 27 retailers declared bankruptcy: JC Penney, Neiman Marcus, and J Crew disappeared from shopping malls. Zombie retailers such as Macys are saddled with debt they cannot service.

Shopping malls are disappearing, from 1,800 a few years ago to around 400 now. The consumers prefer outdoors shopping or individualised locations over large generic spaces. The drive is on to make stores safer, more efficient, and more productive (with, for instance, cashierless checkout).

The split is no longer just between bricks-and-mortar stores and online purchasing: people are buying online and picking up in-store. “Dark stores” are being used as retail distribution to fulfil ecommerce orders. Such omnichannel strategies requires sophisticated integration for a seamless customer experience.

Department stores are reporting sharp sales declines, as are auto dealerships and restaurants. But essential businesses (e.g. Costco) are reporting homebound consumers are spending more on food, home goods and fitness products. With increased home time, alcohol sales are surging, and flat-screen TV monitors are moving well.

Before coronavirus swept about 15 percent from retail sales last January, only 11 percent of retail sales happened online. eMarketer predicts e-commerce to grow to 19 percent of total retail sales by 2024. In 2020, the sector grew 32 percent to a value of some €800bn. Much of the acceleration came as more consumers avoid stores for essential items such as groceries. Discretionary spending in consumer electronics and home furnishings reflects a new, pandemic-driven lifestyle. The growth in e-commerce offset the slight decline in brick-and-mortar retail.

While the e-commerce pie is expanding, so is the share of the top 10 “etailers”. Amazon’s sales grew 39 percent to $310bn, way ahead of number two, Walmart with a six percent share (and an annual powerful growth rate of 65 percent). eBay is third, Apple fourth.

Technology drives the new retail experience. AI and data stimulate the interest via personalisation. Data analysis and consumer insight boost sales in real time.

Etailers are innovating message- and voice-based shopping, video chats and augmented reality. In the future of e-commerce, argues IBM’s Ian Fletcher: “You will, in augmented reality, communicate with a chatbot speaking to your digital twin, a replicant avatar which may know you better than yourself. In such contactless society, the danger is the loss of social skills.”

Live-streaming is big in China and used to advertise, sell and train staff. When Walmart invests heavily in TikTok it demonstrates the confluence of retail and the virtual world.

Sales conversion is boosted with making online buying personalised and easier, including buy-now, pay-later consumer finance payment solutions and faster check-out via single-click. New channels such as social and mobile e-commerce have been added.

On the infrastructure and logistics side, developments include using robotics for the fulfilment process and to help automate in-store operations such as scanning shelves and moving products.

Retail winners in the future will be the adopters of new technology, omnichannel delivery and consumer insight. But old-school virtues such as value, affordability, great products and customer focus will not lose their potency.


IFC’s Blended Finance Department: Blending Public and Private Finance to Invest in Challenging Markets

What can be done to encourage more private investment in developing countries, especially the poorest and most fragile? This question lies at the heart of the development challenge today.

Governments and development institutions alike recognise that the private sector is essential for ending extreme poverty. But getting investors to enter those markets has never been easy, despite continued progress in improving countries’ overall investment environments. The COVID-19 crisis has only increased the real and perceived risks of doing business in developing countries. But it is more important than ever to sustain and grow a vibrant private sector that preserves and creates jobs and delivers essential goods and services.

[caption id="attachment_18899" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Articulating the Rationale for Blended Concessional Finance. Source: IFC[/caption]

One approach has emerged that could help make a difference: the blending of concessional funds from development partners with commercial investment funds from private sources. Blended concessional finance is proving to be effective at encouraging private investment in challenging markets, helping create and sustain markets, introduce new technologies, and accelerate economic development.

Blended concessional finance can help buffer contextual risks that would otherwise make it impossible or unaffordable to invest, even when the underlying business proposition is sound. Or to target funding at projects with positive spillovers, for instance first movers in a market that is costly to develop but makes it easier for future investors. Or to nudge investors into overcoming misperceptions or outdated behaviors that have held back, for instance, financing for women entrepreneurs.

IFC has deployed and refined this tool for nearly two decades, with a total of $1.6 billion in concessional funds used to support 266 high-impact projects during 2010-20, mostly in the poorest countries. Growth has been substantial, with commitments reaching nearly $500 million in fiscal year 2020. The results have been promising—donor funds have leveraged $6.1 billion in IFC financing and more than $7.1 billion in investment from private sources.

Blended concessional finance has been successfully deployed across sectors and regions. For example, through IFC’s Small Loan Gurantee Program, IFC and the IDA Private Sector Window (PSW) are investing in a Togo-based mortgage refinancing company to increase access to housing finance and strengthen local capital markets. In Afghanistan, IFC and the IDA PSW are supporting a power-generation project that will help the country meet its vast energy needs. In Malawi, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) Private Sector Window and IFC are helping farmers tap into the global demand for macadamia nuts. In Pakistan, the Women Enterpreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi) is supporting IFC’s investment in Sarmayacar, a fund that provides early stage funding and training to start-ups in Pakistan – with a focus on high-impact women-led startups. In Uzbekistan, the Canada-IFC Blended Climate Finance Program is helping bring an additional 100 megawatts of solar power to the grid.

With many lower-income markets remaining below investment grade, blended concessional finance is one of the tools that is helping address the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals—particularly those related to employment, growth, and poverty reduction. Blended finance is also being used to provide rapid liquidity support and helping preserve jobs for firms struggling because of the COVID-19 crisis. Several such programs were launched by development finance institutions in response to the pandemic, especially in the most high-risk markets.

However, the effective use of blended concessional finance requires knowledge and experience that is relatively new to governments and development practitioners, in part because of the complexity of combining public and commercial funds. When wrongly targeted, it can be wasteful at best and distort or destroy markets at worst.

A clear diagnostic and rationale is critical to ensure that the only activities supported are those that deliver significant developmental benefits and would not occur without the use of blended concessional finance. Furthermore, these investments must show a well-mapped path to sustainable commercial financing without subsidies. Good governance is also paramount: there must be transparency regarding the use of public funds, processes that address potential conflicts of interest, and the separation of operational decisions and decision-makers from those on blended concessional finance.

Together with other Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), IFC has been at the forefront of developing and upholding high standards  for blended concessional finance. In 2017 an IFC-led working group developed a set of Enhanced Principles for Using Concessional Finance in Private Sector Investment Operations.

Recognising that transparency is essential, IFC informs development partners, its Board and the public about the key parameters of concessional transactions. Public documents disclose the proposed use of blended concessional finance on a transaction-by-transaction basis, the instruments to be employed, the estimated amount of financing, the rationale for deploying concessional finance, the expected development impact, and the estimated subsidy as a percentage of total project costs (for projects mandated after October 1, 2019). A revamped IFC project website provides easy access to this information for all IFC blended finance transactions. The website shares this information for all IFC blended concessional finance transactions (please see below to learn how to access these projects).

To avoid a race to the bottom, where concessional resources are being used not to de-risk highly developmental projects that wouldn’t otherwise happen, but solely to benefit the investor, we need to continue to strive for improved governance, coordination, transparency, and the use of minimum concessionality.

IFC recently released a report as a practitioner’s guide that summarizes its experience in blended concessional finance. It highlights best practices for articulating the rationale for using blended concessional finance; examines approaches for robust transparency, access, and governance; explains how to extend the reach of private sector projects into lower-income countries; and discusses recent financing innovations such as returnable capital contributions. The report, Using Blended Concessional Finance to Invest in Challenging Markets—Economic Considerations, Transparency, Governance, and Lessons of Experience, covers these topics in-depth and provides a practical primer about the key elements of this tool. Click here to see the full report.

Other useful resources:

Joint Report by the DFI Working Group on Blended Concessional Finance for Private Sector Projects (December 2020 Update)

IFC’s Blended Finance website

EM Compass Note 72: Blended Concessional Finance: The Rise of Returnable Capital Contributions

EM Compass Note 66: Blended Concessional Finance: Governance Matters for Impact

EM Compass Note 60: Blended Concessional Finance: Scaling Up Private Investment in Lower-Income Countries

To access detailed information about all IFC Blended Finance projects, visit the IFC Project Information and Data Portal and click “Blended Finance” on the left side of the screen under Refine By. Click on All to view all Blended Finance projects or select them by facility (for example, GAFSP TF).

About IFC’s Blended Finance Unit

IFC’s Blended Finance Unit blends funds from donor partners alongside IFC’s own in order to catalyze investments that would not otherwise happen because of market barriers. These funds can be used to undertake high-risk, high-reward projects that have strong potential to improve lives and reduce poverty. From fiscal year 2010 to 2020, IFC has deployed $1.6 billion of concessional donor funds to support 266 high-impact projects in over 50 countries, leveraging $5.8 billion in IFC financing and more than $6.8 billion from third parties.

About the Author

[caption id="attachment_18900" align="aligncenter" width="255"] Author: Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante[/caption]

Kruskaia Sierra-Escalante is an Acting Director/Senior Manager in IFC’s Blended Finance Department and in charge of managing a pool of contributor funds of over $5 billion focused on accelerating IFC’s engagement in the most developmentally impactful areas:  IDA and FCS countries, climate, infrastructure, gender, SME and agriculture. Since 2013, Kruskaia has managed IFC’s blended finance facilities for climate with more than $1 billion in bilateral and multilateral donor-contributions for climate-smart co-investments in IFC projects. During this period, IFC’s blended climate finance portfolio doubled in volume and helped IFC enter riskier markets. She also manages the IDA Private Sector Window, created in 2017 to support private sector development, growth, and job creation in some of the world’s least developed countries. Prior to her current position, she headed the Blended Finance unit, a governance unit performing credit review, quality assurance and knowledgesharing functions and served as IFC’s Global Lead Counsel for Climate and Blended Finance at IFC.

Kruskaia holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs, with a concentration in Economics and Public Policy, from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law. Before joining IFC in 2003, Kruskaia was at Chadbourne & Parke, LLP, working primarily in project finance in the power sector.


SASB CEO Janine Guillot: Following Personal Passions Into the World of Sustainability

[caption id="attachment_18945" align="alignright" width="300"] SASB CEO Janine Guillot[/caption]

Janine Guillot, CEO of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), has an enduring love of the great outdoors that has stoked and strengthened her passion for sustainability.

Guillot graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and began her career as a technical accountant and auditor at Ernst & Whinney, predecessor to one of the world’s largest professional services networks, Ernst & Young.

“I’ve always been interested in sustainability, and I am very passionate about sustainable agriculture,” says Guillot. “I serve on the board of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), which has put conservation easements on over half the agricultural land in Marin County, California.

“Much of that land is now certified organic, and there’s a local, sustainable agricultural community that has survived and thrived because of MALT easements. My work at SASB is also connected to what I’m personally passionate about. I couldn’t be luckier.”

Guillot’s career has taken her around the world and afforded her experience of the complementary fields of public accounting, operations, strategy, risk management and finance. She joined SASB in 2015, following leadership roles at Bank of America, Barclays Global Investors and the California Public Employees' Retirement System.

“I originally joined SASB with the belief that disclosure drives improved performance on sustainability issues, which delivers a win for companies, investors and society,” she said. “SASB is a critical piece of market infrastructure to enable sustainable economic growth.”

Guillot started as head of SASB’s investor outreach, and launched the Investor Advisor Group (IAG) to unite leading asset owners and managers — now 55 from 12 countries, responsible for $41tn in AUM — in support of sustainability standards that provide a consistent, comparable and reliable metrics for financially-material, decision-useful ESG information. IAG members call for strong sustainability reporting from their portfolio companies, and push for alignment with SASB standards.

“Securities regulators in the US and beyond increasingly recognise that the financial implications of business-critical ESG risks and opportunities are relevant to their fundamental objectives: to protect investors, to ensure that markets are fair, efficient, and transparent, and to reduce systemic risk,” Guillot wrote for the online media platform investESG. “Market-based disclosure standards, such as SASB’s, are a key tool to achieve those objectives.”

Corporate sustainability has been slowly building for some time, according to Guillot, but recent progress has been truly remarkable. “The huge change in the last five years has been large mainstream investors coming to believe that performance on sustainability issues impacts risk and return. There’s been an increasing focus on how to integrate sustainability considerations into investment decision-making in a rigorous and systematic way across entire portfolios. There’s been a sea of change in the last year, and it’s a result of investors being more vocal about their interests.

“As the world rapidly evolves — facing opportunities and challenges from technological innovation to climate change — corporate financial reporting also needs to evolve. We don’t need to replace traditional accounting, but we need expanded information sets to really understand what’s driving corporate value over the long term.

“Risk to a long-term investor is more multifaceted than volatility and includes risks that evolve over a very long time, like climate. To effectively deliver long-term returns, you need to manage multiple forms of capital, including human capital and environmental capital. But there is a gap between developing these beliefs and implementing them, and that gap is the availability of data — standardised data that connects sustainability to financial performance.”

In November 2020, SASB announced its intention to merge with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), a global coalition promoting communication about value creation in corporate reporting. The unified organisation, the Value Reporting Foundation, will provide investors and corporate leaders with a comprehensive reporting framework across the full range of enterprise value drivers and standards to advance global sustainability performance. This benefits the work of like-minded organisations, including the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, which has already expressed interest in future collaboration.

“Sustainability disclosure is at the top of the agenda for many,” says Guillot, “creating incredible momentum towards simplifying the corporate reporting landscape. By merging two organisations focused on enterprise value creation, we hope to clarify the field. We stand ready to engage with the efforts of the IFRS Foundation, IOSCO, EFRAG, and others working towards global alignment on a corporate reporting system.”

Headquartered in London and San Francisco, the Value Reporting Foundation will commence operations in mid-2021, with Janine Guillot at the helm and staff spread across the world.


SIS Group Founder and Chairman Jaspal Sidhu: Making Quality Education Affordable

[caption id="attachment_18952" align="alignright" width="288"] SIS Group Founder and Chairman Jaspal Sidhu[/caption]

The SIS Group of K-12 Schools is focused on providing affordable, quality education in developing countries.

Jaspal Sidhu, a Singaporean, heads Indonesia’s largest and most reputable chain of private schools operating at multiple price points under the brand SIS (www.sisschools.org). The group is in a strategic partnership with the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation and a private equity fund.

“My father was a doorman and he worked hard to educate us,” says Sidhu of his motivation. “We need to equalise some odds out there.”

This core value pushed him to conceive his “half-fee” education business model in which every new school established is set at half the annual tuition fee of the previous one. To ensure all-round standards where no SIS school operates in isolation, Jaspal Sidhu created an eco-system he calls Vertical Collaboration. The sharing of ideas occurs freely all year round, up and down the tuition fee pyramid, resulting in impressive student outcomes for all learners within the entire group. SIS has been recognised by groups including the Financial Times (UK) and the IFC (World Bank) for its transformational work.

SIS is known for its project-based programme comprising three of the world’s best curricula; Singapore, Cambridge and the International Baccalaureate. The Singapore Programme is constantly rated as the world’s best in OECD’s international PISA ratings. To prepare SIS students for an unpredictable world, life skills are honed under the group’s specially designed initiative PACE system: Perseverance, Analytical Thinking, Collaboration and Entrepreneurism. SIS students consistently perform above world averages in international examinations, and many have moved on to top universities.

“The most important jigsaw piece in any school is the teacher,” Sidhu believes. “How can we find teachers who can consistently make those connections with their students? The education industry is broken. We need to look elsewhere for solutions. Why are companies like Google, Apple, Face Book and Starbucks so successful? What can schools learn from them?”

In its effort to establish schools further down the tuition fee ladder under its new brand Inspirasi, Jaspal formed a partnership with Deloitte Singapore to design an innovative Playbook to hire and train teachers using cutting-edge HR ideas from outside the education industry. The Playbook centres around eight core qualities of an outstanding teacher, researched and laid out by Sidhu using the acronym, EFFECTOR™. The group is now in an active partnership with Oxford University to scale the EFFECTOR™. model for developing countries through the application of international grants and CSR initiatives.

[gallery link="file" size="medium" columns="2" ids="18954,18955,18956,18958,18959,18960,18961,18962,18965,18967"]

“The diverse leadership we have today in our group is highly motivated and keen to make an impact in whatever they do,” says Sidhu. The SIS and Inspirasi group believes in the power of a robust feedback system which gives voices to all stakeholders. Best-practice and good governance earned a call to help in an initiative by the IFC and Harvard University to develop a set of principles called “Ethics in Education”.

The group is currently in an expansion mode in South East Asia and is exploring opportunities in Africa. It continues to attract the attention of international investors each time it goes to market to raise capital.

https://youtu.be/Eop_kpXf23w

Jaspal Sidhu regularly shares his ideas in regional and international conferences and often quotes his mantra. “If you are sitting on something good, you need to make that good available to the largest number of people in the best possible way.  That is why we do what we do.”

But this is a CEO who also has a “funny bone”; Jaspal Sidhu is the three-time amateur stand-up comedy champion of Indonesia.

The SIS Group of Schools (www.sisschools.org) was awarded the Best International Educational institution 2021 by CFI.co


Free Trade in Retreat in Europe due to Environmental and Labour Standards

The EU free trade baton, carried by the UK until Brexit, has been relayed to the Stockholm Six of like-minded liberal countries pushing back against French and Italian pressure for Europe to get tougher on trade defence, and relax on subsidies.

Germany was invited to join the informal group but has demonstrated a slightly worrying lack of excitement as it gravitates away from its liberal instincts towards the more interventionist approach preferred by France, Italy, and several others.

The strengthening of the Paris-Berlin axis in the wake of the economic slump, and the willingness of Chancellor Angela Merkel to leverage her country’s financial might to help troubled member states weather the Corona pandemic has shifted the EU’s trade priorities. Previously unfashionable ideas and concepts have gained currency: industrial policy is back, as are protectionism and state support for corporates deemed of strategic importance. In France, economists are no longer reluctant to call for a “Buy European Act”, and point to the US, where domestic suppliers have long enjoyed a significant edge thanks to discriminatory legislation such as the Buy American Act of 1933 which, though watered down since, remains in force.

Paying the Price

In a note distributed earlier this year, the Conceil d’Analyse Économique (Council of Economic Analysis) argued that environmental concerns justify raising duties on, for example, EU car imports. However, the note admits that tariffs will probably not encourage the reshoring of automotive production. The council’s economists also warn that consumers may end up paying a hefty price for their insistence on stricter carbon emission and labour standards. According to the council, the best opportunity comes from a post-corona reappraisal of supply line cost and resilience, leading carmakers to lessen their dependence on distant suppliers.

Currently working on a trade policy review, the European Commission adopted the concept of open strategic autonomy to channel and contain the pressure exercised by governments responding to changing domestic attitudes and heightened concerns about climate change, national security, social inequality, and — of course — post-Covid recovery. However, the commission has so far failed to delineate the novel concept which is, essentially, a rhetorical vehicle.

The policy review, the first since 2015, is a cautious attempt to move away from blind adherence to free trade. Pundits have been quick to point out that the principle, as such, has never truly existed. Even the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada — almost universally hailed as a touchstone — runs for 2,255 pages. The hastily negotiated EU-UK trade deal — curiously enough the first in history to introduce obstacles instead of removing them — needed 1,246 pages to cover its meagre objectives.

Free trade as a shifting ideal is no longer progressing towards liberalisation. Systemic disparities are, in part, driving that trend. China’s state-sponsored capitalism — a rather unique form of dirigisme — has managed to muddy the waters and reignited the call for a return of industrial policy where states or, in the case of the EU, a supranational entity set out clear objectives and provide the legal and fiscal framework to ensure their implementation. The creation of European champions to nibble at the hegemony of US big tech is a priority for a growing number of European leaders who should, perhaps, know better than to expect miracles — or ground-breaking innovations — from corporates feeding at the state’s trough.

Minor Champions

Europe’s few homegrown minor champions — Booking.com, Skype, Spotify, and SAP — did not grow out of policy initiatives. Some of the more promising and successful ones were quickly snapped up by US companies. Skype, created in Estonia, was acquired by Microsoft in 2011 for $8.5bn. Booking.com, originally Dutch, went to Priceline for $133m in 2005 and is now worth an estimated $75bn. Only Germany´s SAP and Sweden’s Spotify have managed to reach the trailing end of the major tech league under their own power. Wirecard, the great hope of the European fintech sector, went bust when its creative book-keeping practices were uncovered by The Financial Times.

After the UK left the EU, Sweden seems to have taken the lead in protecting the autonomy of consumers in the face of slowly rising protectionism. The Stockholm Six are, however, not the fierce and buccaneering free traders they appear to be. Germany is but a pro forma member of the group while the Netherlands, duly invited to partake, appears to be having second thoughts as well.

Last year, the Dutch and French trade ministries jointly published a “non-paper” — EU jargon for a thought exercise — calling for tougher enforcement of environmental and labour standards. It also proposes the introduction of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism — a rather clumsy euphemism for an added tariff burden and one unlikely to fool anyone. The mechanism would hit hardest those countries that fail to contain their carbon footprint.

The note bluntly suggested the deployment of trade policy as an instrument to provide additional leverage to the imposition of strict standards. Usually at loggerheads over trade, Paris and The Hague have staged a remarkable rapprochement after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte came under heavy criticism at home for his eagerness to secure parliamentary approval of the EU-Canada trade deal, which only narrowly passed the Lower House and may yet be blocked by the Senate.

The EU-Mercosur trade deal that the commission successfully negotiated in 2019 is also facing opposition. Environmental groups are particularly incensed at the alarming increase in Brazil’s rate of deforestation and the country’s alleged mistreatment of its native inhabitants.

Even Stockholm Six initiator Sweden is not so sure that free trade is the end-all, cure-all it was once held to be. Here too, growing environmental concerns and distorted competition from low wage and low regulation countries have spurred a national debate on the merits and demerits of open borders. The ambitious climate goals of the EU and its individual member states seem to clash with frictionless trade.

So far, the European Commission has not managed to incorporate its lofty standards in any major trade deal. Its trade policy review still dwells at the wishful thinking stage. There are many practicalities to consider before the 2016 Paris Agreement on Climate Change can be elevated to a set of legally binding obligations in any future trade deal. Though 190 of the 197 parties to the deal have ratified the agreement, its incorporation as an added dimension to free trade deals runs into trouble over the extraterritorial imposition of EU law. Not all signatories of the Paris Agreement display the same level of dedication to its full implementation.

Although the reasoning on free trade has changed from economic benefits to environmental concerns, the current debate is not that new: free traders and protectionists have always clashed, albeit with a certain civility. Both the tone and intensity of the debate on trade have changed. The pandemic and its economic fallout have reopened public discussion on questions that, until about a year ago, appeared settled.

The fact is that free trade is in retreat; reshoring has become a buzz word, and industrial policy is experiencing a second coming of sorts — no longer the preserve of nostalgic economists dwelling on the fringe, but a possible centrepiece in the post-corona rebuilding of shattered and indebted economies.


South Africa Teetering on the Edge of Political and Economic Precipice

[caption id="attachment_19022" align="alignright" width="300"] South African President Cyril Ramaphosa[/caption]

Keep South Africa Safe: the slogan is stamped on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s favourite facemask, and could refer to more than just the pandemic.

The country is embroiled in an epic struggle to save the rule of law from falling prey to the caprices of political factions apparently more interested in lining their pockets.

The struggle has economic and financial implications. After he took office in 2018 with a promise to wipe out corruption and patronage, Ramaphosa sparked a brief renaissance of sorts. Overseas investors returned, business picked up, and consumers regained a modicum of confidence which has since proved remarkably resilient. However, the South African president has also gained the reputation for painting vast and attractive vistas that fail to materialise, or get bogged down in arcane political disputes.

Ramaphosa’s intention to ease regulation, cut red tape and improve the business climate has largely stalled. A cautious man, who prefers consensus over confrontation, the South African president has repeatedly run up against some ruthless adversaries – often not susceptible to reason or the powers of persuasion – within the governing African National Congress (ANC).

The former ANC chief negotiator at the constitutional talks in the 1990s, and reportedly Nelson Mandela’s preferred successor, Ramaphosa is failing to display the conciliatory skills that earlier helped to shape the nation. With only two years left as ANC president, time is running out. In fact, crunch time seems to have arrived.

Captured State

The State Capture Commission investigating allegations of widespread corruption and abuse of power under former president Jacob Zuma is entering its final weeks. The commission has certainly captured the attention of a nation disgusted by reports of the systematic looting of the country. If there is one uniting factor, it must be public anger at thieving politicians and their collaborators. Videos showing shady businessmen and officials counting stacks of banknotes have been broadcast countless times, sparking revulsion each time.

Some 250 people have been ordered to testify before the State Capture Commission. Zuma showed up only once – in 2019 – to deny any wrongdoing and to walk from the proceedings accusing “lawless judges” of abdicating their constitutional post for political expediency. About 40 witnesses, including a former cabinet member, gave sworn statements directly implicating Zuma in unlawful dealings, auctioning off executive authority to, among others, members of the Gupta family, who allegedly became the de facto rulers of South Africa during Zuma’s nine-year tenure.

Ordered to testify and respond to the accusations, Zuma refused – twice. The commission has now asked the Constitutional Court to arrest him for defying the summons in what is widely considered a litmus test of the rule of law. Zuma remains barricaded in his sprawling Nkandla estate where some 250 members of the Military Veterans Association, in full battle dress, prevent the arrest of their patron. Edward Zuma, the former president’s son, said authorities would have to kill him should they come for his father.

Politicised Judges

Zuma junior explained that his father was unwilling to co-operate with the State Capture Commission because the judges have been “politicised”. The ensuing stalemate has left the government, and the judiciary, alarmed. Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, who presides over the commission, said that if Jacob Zuma’s contempt of court were left unaddressed, there would be “lawlessness and chaos”. According to Nicole Fritz, of the legal NGO Freedom Under Law, South Africa’s constitutional project is under siege: “If action isn’t taken against Zuma, you cannot ask the average South African to respect the law and adhere to it,” she said.

The nation is following these events in the hope of discovering where the real power lies. Ramaphosa has managed to rally his supporters to reiterate his party’s unwavering support for the commission and its investigation. The party’s top six leaders have appealed to Zuma to rethink his attitude and co-operate with the judges. In late February, during a meeting of the ANC national executive committee called the celebrate the party’s 109th anniversary, Ramaphosa said again that the ANC had been weakened by corruption. “The constitution and the rule of law are sacrosanct components of our democracy,” he said, “and all people in the country must respect these principles.”

The ANC leadership realises that Zuma’s arrest could split the party, causing it to lose power. Brinkmanship is, however, not one of Ramaphosa’s strong suits. His entire career was forged by consensus-building and avoiding conflict. That seems to have run its course. In a sign that the ANC fears an electoral backlash, the party has promised to vet its candidates for local and national polls. Candidates for public office who have even minor blemishes are to be excluded from the running.

That will prove a rather tough job, as there are few people of any prominence in the ANC who are blameless. Even Ramaphosa’s name has popped up in relation to alleged improprieties. Initially praised for his handling of the Corona pandemic, he landed in hot water after it transpired that numerous PPE contracts had been allocated to his friends, some of whom apparently became overnight billionaires.

Economy Reeling but Resilient

While the stalemate continues, South Africa’s economy is reeling under the impact of the pandemic. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni faces the near impossible task of reining-in spending while preserving whatever economic impetus is left. The fiscal strain is taking a heavy toll. National debt is expected to equal the country’s GDP by 2026. In the absence of meaningful economic growth, and with declining tax revenues, the deficit will this year rise to 11 percent of GDP.

The Treasury Department’s own forecast had been darker still (-15 percent), with better-than-expected tax collections providing a windfall which the government now hopes to use for the acquisition of tens of millions of covid-19 vaccines. Mboweni is expected to raise additional revenue by increasing excise duties on the sale of alcohol and tobacco, leaving corporate and income tax schedules unchanged.

Mboweni has stated that he will not raise taxes on high income earners to stem to outflow of professionals and entrepreneurs. The finance minister is also acutely aware that a failure to demonstrate resolve may yet provoke a sovereign debt crisis.

South Africa has, in fact, weathered the pandemic better than expected. Though GDP retracted by about seven percent last year, consumer spending has proved resilient. A timely boom in mining and agriculture has spared the country from the worst. Ultra-low interest rates have helped as well. Employment levels have remained fairly stable, with most of the jobs lost at the beginning of the pandemic reappearing late last year.

The metaphorical ball lies in Ramaphosa’s court. Should he fail to make his predecessor comply with the constitutional court’s arrest order, South Africa may yet face a meltdown of its political order and its economy. That is unlikely to withstand a breakdown in the rule of law, with the attendant risk of spooking investors and creditors.

The president must win the current game of chicken being played, lest he lose the last vestiges of credibility – and the power to steer his country through the remainder of the pandemic.

Much depends on proving that Zuma is not a law unto himself.


Q&A with Michael Glinski, CEO of Porsche Schweiz: Alternative Fuels, an Unbroken Legacy, and a Sports Car’s Place in the Modern World

[caption id="attachment_19025" align="alignright" width="300"] CEO of Porsche Schweiz: Michael Glinski[/caption]

Porsche: it’s always been a ‘dream’ car. But what does the future hold for the famous marque in the years ahead? CFI.co finds out in discussion with Porsche Schweiz chief executive Michael Glinski.

How has your background helped you as the CEO of Porsche Schweiz?
I came of age at Porsche, so to speak. The positions I held at Porsche AG were very helpful to me when I came to Switzerland three years ago. In Stuttgart, I was in charge of sales for the Western Europe region, and before that I was the head of finance at Porsche France.

My network at the company is obviously a big help, as is the experience I was able to gain at headquarters and in other markets. I'm now even appreciative of Porsche's culture, its solidarity and team spirit. These values are also at the forefront of my work at Porsche Schweiz.

What are some important management lessons you have learned?
Porsche has always promoted fair and sportsmanlike behavior, whether internally among its employees or externally with our suppliers and customers. That's a key part of the company character, as well as something I live in my day-to-day work at Porsche Schweiz AG. Another thing I was able to learn at Porsche is to be toleratant of mistakes. That's something I appreciate working from the Swiss market together with Porsche AG, and I try to encourage an open culture of mistakes with my own employees — while insisting that they learn from them.

Another very important thing: at Porsche, we never rest on our laurels. All problems bring opportunities, and in every crisis there is a chance to emerge stronger. At Porsche, you learn to always look forward to the next challenge.

How has the auto market changed over the last few years — in Switzerland, Europe, and globally?
The car industry is going through the biggest transformation in its history. It has recently changed more than it had over the previous 50 years, and will do so even more in the years to come.

The overarching trends are electrification, digitalisation, and connectivity. Honestly, 10 years ago, who could have imagined an electric Porsche? It's not just the product that is undergoing a major change, as electric cars become ever more connected and digitalised. Also changing are the ways in which our customers are buying cars.

We started selling our sports cars online in Switzerland this year, because these days consumers expect to be able to make purchases wherever and whenever they want. Cars will not be an exception here. Yet, at the same time, our customers want to experience the Porsche brand more intensively than ever before. Many of them consider the personal interaction with our dealership staff to be one of Porsche's key areas of competence.

In the future, we want our customers to be able to move seamlessly between the digital world and Porsche Centers. Throughout all the developments in the past, and all those that will come in the future, something will be unchanged: it will be the customers' eyes, which light up whenever they start the engine of a Porsche — on the left side of the steering wheel, of course.

What is your take on smart mobility and digital convergence?
Our vision is clear. We want to be the most successful brand for sporty and exclusive mobility. That's why we're expanding our new mobility services like Porsche Drive premium rentals in Zurich and Geneva, and our vehicle subscription programmes. What we're especially interested in is connecting all of these different opportunities of mobility in one ecosystem, which allows us to offer an exclusive and dynamic mobility experience from a single source.

As far as digitalisation and connectivity go, for Porsche it is about concentrating on the right things. We're not going to digitalise everything, only what benefits Porsche customers. Like the first standard-series integration of Apple Music in the Taycan.

Or let's take autonomous driving. That feature makes sense for Porsche drivers when they're stuck in traffic or looking for a parking space. But I'm sure most of our customers want to drive over Swiss alpine passes themselves, with their hands on the wheel. Which is why we're interpreting these technologies entirely on our own terms. In the future, customers will be able to drive the ideal line on the racetrack — autonomously, in their own cars.

What is Porsche’s electric car strategy?
As of 2025, we expect every second car we sell worldwide to have an electric drive, either fully electric like the Taycan, or partially like the plug-in hybrid models of the Cayenne and Panamera. Given that markets in different parts of the world will develop at different speeds, we're going for a mix of efficient combustion-driven cars, dynamic plug-in hybrids, and innovative electric sports cars. We're also studying synthetic fuels, called efuels, because if our cars already out there should be powered in sustainable ways, then synthetic fuels can play an important role.

Which car brands do you consider Porsche’s nearest competitors, and what are some points of differentiation that make Porsche stand out?
We're keeping an eye on the competition, but concentrating on our own product portfolio. We only bring a new model onto the market when we're absolutely convinced we've built a real Porsche. Which means an unmistakable sports car — in its engineering and its design. This was done superbly with the Taycan.

As one example, the usual 400-volt architecture for electric cars just didn't seem right for what we wanted in the first all-electric Porsche sports car. Porsche stands for performance, and that has to apply to charging as well. So we were the first manufacturer to double the system architecture to 800 volts. This technology comes from racing, and it powered us to three overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The higher voltage means the system draws lower levels of current for the same performance. That means the wiring can have smaller profiles, which in turn reduces weight and installation space. Moreover, the high-voltage system loses less power, which means a higher continuous output when driving and charging. At high-speed charging stations, the Taycan takes less than 25 minutes to go from five to 80 percent.

What does the future hold for the premium/luxury automotive industry?
The key trends of electric mobility, digitalisation and connectivity will continue. But sustainability will play an ever greater role.

It has always been a part of our company's strategy, because we want to keep reducing negative effects on the environment while increasing the benefits for society at the same time. We're already well along the way here. The first all-electric Porsche sports car is on the market, and the Macan will be next.

We're also studying how we can use synthetic fuels to be CO2-neutral with our existing cars. In short, we're increasing the efficiency and sustainability of the various drive systems we already have. As a brand with a nearly unparalleled connection with racing, we can draw on an enormous amount of expertise. Just look at Le Mans or Formula E. You can only win if you can cover more ground than your competitors on a tank of fuel, or a charged battery — that's the essence of efficiency. But aside from decarbonising the use of our products, we also want our production to be CO2-neutral. And, we’ve already come a long way. We've reduced CO2 emissions per car manufactured by more than 75 percent since 2014.

Additionally, our site in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen already is CO2-neutral. Our long-term goal is to become a zero-impact company — one that has no impact on the environment throughout its value chain. That's why we'll be investing more than €15bn over the next five years in electric mobility, sustainable production, and the digital transformation.


Katia Coudray, CEO of Asteria Investment Managers: Leading from the Front, Keeping Focus on Specific Goals

Asteria Investment Managers chief executive Katia Coudray is a leader who has proven her mettle many times over.

[caption id="attachment_19028" align="aligncenter" width="900"] CEO of Asteria Investment Managers: Katia Coudray[/caption]

She has more than 20 years of experience in investment functions and executive roles. Coudray created and co-founded Asteria Investment Managers, which is part of the REYL Group, in 2019.

Since then, she has been managing the asset management company with a dedication to impact investing.

Asteria focuses on accelerating the transition to a sustainable global socio-economic system. Putting people and their ecosystem at heart, the firm creates investment solutions aimed squarely at financial return and positive impact.

Its overriding goal is to put the most capital possible to work.

Katia Coudray has a career history of executive level posts, and an impressive list of qualifications. She was previously CEO of SYZ AM, the asset management entity of the SYZ Group, and a member of the group's management committee.

Before joining SYZ in 2011, Coudray was director of the innovation and multi-management platform of Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) for 10 years. During her time there, she was in charge of developing a comprehensive investment offering in emerging markets in Russia, Mena, Asia, and Latin America.

Coudray is convinced of the need to adapt modern finance to the evolution of society by making capital converge on sustainable and promising investments. Impact finance must be democratised, she believes, by giving access to all types of investors through private and liquid investment solutions. She holds a Bachelor's degree in economics, and is Certified Financial Analyst CIIA, CFPI. Katia Coudray also holds an ACAD board member certification in administration, and completed an advanced management programme at IMD Lausanne.


IBM Thought Leadership: Transform Bank Business Models and Client Engagement With Open Hybrid Multicloud

[caption id="attachment_19104" align="alignright" width="300"] Author: Paolo Sironi[/caption]

Paolo Sironi is the global research leader in Banking and Financial Markets at IBM, Institute of Business Value. IBV is the thought leadership centre of IBM. In this article, Paolo discusses banks' transition to new business architectures based on open hybrid multicoud, to reinvent client engagement on platform economies.

What do you see in the future of banks in the post-pandemic world?

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed thousands of lives, stricken many more ill, and devastated entire economies. In response, many financial institutions have safeguarded employees, enabled alternative working models, focused on business continuity and resilience, and learned new ways of serving customers.  Yet, the post-pandemic economic environment is unexplored terrain. Long after the medical threat has passed, the pandemic will bestow lasting consequences on business and society. Depending on the scale of government assistance, credit defaults could be higher than during the 2008 global financial crisis. Lower interest rates could prevail globally, potentially accelerating compressed net interest margins and impacting a key revenue stream for banks.

The new normal for financial services could compel banks to embrace continual reinvention of their business models and solutions. Forward-looking financial institutions can seize this opportunity to accelerate their migration to a new business architecture, essential to win in the platform economy.

This architecture can be built on next-generation customer experiences embedded in customer ecosystems, enabled by AI engagement and digitalized end-to-end journeys. It relies on a data environment transformed with structured and unstructured, open or proprietary data. Advanced analytical tools and AI help manage vast information flows and help banks to contextualize their offers inside non-banking client journeys.

This new architecture can be security-rich and compliant with effective risk reduction and more efficient compliance operations. Finally, operations can radically transform to be digital, agile, and intelligent, with modernized applications deployed on open hybrid multicloud environments. They can be designed for virtually zero risk tolerance, at structurally lower cost, and offer entire new ways of working and serving clients.

What is open hybrid multicloud, and why does it matter for banks?

Open hybrid multicloud is a foundational environment enabling effective digital transformation that integrates traditional computing platforms with private, public, and managed cloud services. In essence, a hybrid cloud becomes a virtual computing environment that aligns workloads and interfaces with the most appropriate computing platform. All these services need to be managed as though they were designed to behave as a single unified environment. Open hybrid multicloud is a logical solution for banks, because it offers them the needed flexibility while addressing all security and cost concerns.

Accelerated digital adaptation and macroeconomic factors have driven structural changes in the banking industry. Banks are rethinking their business models and operations to remain competitive amid economic, industry, and consumer-related shifts. Part of this includes migrating to a new business architecture to better accommodate today’s digital reality, and the shift from output economies (how many products do I sell) towards outcome economies based on platform engagement (how do I help my clients achieve their personal, business and financial goals).

 In building this new digitally agile architecture, banks are challenged to balance their infrastructure platform need for flexibility to support business model innovation and digital transformation with security and compliance requirements. An open hybrid multicloud environment that offers a mix of public cloud flexibility and private cloud customization is ideally suited for the financial services industry. While the benefits of moving to open hybrid multicloud are clear, the path - which workloads to move and when and where to move them - is a bit muddier. An industry-tailored approach designed to prioritize workflows according to both technical and business criteria can help clear the way with a map toward success.

What is IBM “How to” for banks to successfully migrate to an open business architecture?

Recently, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) published a paper Banking on Open Hybrid Multicloud addressing the key question: “How do I determine what functions sit on which platforms?” The goal, obviously, is for each of the various environments to handle what it does best, with each workload in the right place for reduced risk, increased agility, etc.

This requires not only looking at the puzzle from a technical point of view, but also considering the business objectives. An organization has to make decisions about which workloads to prioritize for public cloud, which ones to prioritize for private cloud, and which to leave on a more traditional platform. They also need to separate what can be done—in terms of ease and feasibility—from what should be done from a strategic standpoint.

Making these decisions requires an industry-tailored approach and framework to evaluate workflows and determine the appropriate operating environment. By evaluating workloads according to industry-specific benchmarks, a bank can align and prioritize each workload with an optimal platform - traditional, private cloud, public cloud, or public cloud - designed to support a workload’s unique requirements. Both operational and business criteria should be considered in workload evaluation: a robust multicriteria evaluation framework can help determine the optimal platform for each workload, with both a business and operational perspective.

This entails evaluating each workload’s requirements related to five critical elements:

Resiliency. Evaluate the volume, stability, and business criticality of the data and transactions involved.

Responsiveness. Consider the latency, response, and service requirements associated with the workloads.

Digital maturity. Evaluate the evolution of the financial institution’s digital transformation from monolithic operations to modular services. Workloads more easily decoupled from other workloads without loss of interoperability are candidates for migration.

Risk, security, and compliance. Gauge the regulatory requirements and security features associated with a workload. These can vary significantly depending on a financial institution’s security posture and geographic and segment regulatory regime.

Business case. Examine expected investment requirements, cost and revenue benefits, and potential impacts on competitive advantage and disruption.

Each bank has to make its own individual decisions about how to configure and manage the sub-components of its operations and how much flexibility is built into the open hybrid multicloud set up it deems most advantageous. The evaluation criteria can help guide these decisions, identifying and mitigating real and perceived hurdles.

[caption id="attachment_19103" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Evaluating workloads for migration to open hybrid multicloud[/caption]

What can banks achieve with this open business architecture?

A dramatically different normal calls for financial institutions to play a crucial role both in their business operations and in their clients’ lives. They’ll need to step up and guide customers through economic and financial instability. And they’ll need to help those customers navigate and even thrive in an uncertain world. Taken together, the challenges of this next environment point to the need for open business architectures.

Until now, client-centric operations have been anchored to products typical of “output economies,” in which customers are those who buy. The next normal might accelerate the transformation to human-centric, service-based platforms, ones that place relationships front and center.

These platforms are based upon value-generating interactions that are typical of “outcome economies,” in which customers achieve their goals through seamless experiences. Consider interactions that create transparent banking relationships, directly or digitally augmented, with trust generated through a value exchange between banks and their most precious assets, their clients.

Therefore, banking architectures and their corresponding business models could see a dramatic transition. A bank’s purpose could evolve from credit institutions, which provide relevant accessory solutions (payments, investment, insurance), into platform-driven centers of competence (CoC). These CoCs would integrate lending operations into advisory relationships for families and businesses. The emphasis shifts from distribution channels of lower-margin products to relationship-based services built on client engagement and experience as discussed in my latest book on banking economics “Financial Market Transparency”, which provides theory and principles for a new engagement mechanisms that allows banks to remain sustainable and competitive against Bigtech players.

The bank of the future will redesign customer proximity not only by using data to personalize their offers (output economy), but also by infusing AI into interactions. The “data-driven bank” will be based on the “data-enabled client.” This model generates new value, understanding how digital relationships can truly create closeness and positive impact even during a crisis such as a pandemic lockdown.

Trusted digital relationships are not only the real asset of financial institutions facing a different normal, but a necessary mechanism to help communities weather the storm, and emerge robust and ready for the future.

About the Author

Paolo is the global research leader in banking and financial markets at IBM, Institute for Business Value. He is one of the most respected Fintech voices worldwide, providing business expertise and strategic thinking to a network of executives among financial institutions, startups and regulators. He is a co-host of Breaking Banks Europe Fintech podcast, and celebrated author on quantitative finance, digital transformation and economics theory. Paolo's literature explores the biological underpinnings of financial markets, and how to bolster with technology and business innovation the global economy’s immune system in today’s volatile times.

Paolo’s website: thePSironi.com


Sergi Herrero, Co-CEO of VEON: Product as Mission

[caption id="attachment_19186" align="alignright" width="290"] VEON Co-CEO: Sergi Herrero[/caption]

"The distinctions between telecoms, technology and data companies are vanishing rapidly. What lies ahead of us is seamless digital opportunity."

Sergi Herrero spent 12 years in the San Francisco Bay Area during the heyday of tech, serving as Facebook’s global director of payments and commerce partnerships.

He joined VEON in mid-2019 as the head of its new Ventures division, and shortly after was confirmed as co-CEO alongside Kaan Terzioğlu. Herrero spearheads the digital services side of the business, while Terzioğlu focuses on strengthening the foundation of the business – connectivity, where the company is mid-stream an ambitious 4G deployment programme to double the customer reach of its high-speed networks.

Herrero believes that VEON’s huge customer base puts it in the same league as social media giants such as his past employer. He has brought the same customer-centric mindset to VEON. He and his team believe that the best way to serve customers is to build great products with an intuitive user interface and ensure these products are regularly adapted to meet the changing needs of customers.

Herrero leads the vanguard to develop additional services for the company’s 200 million plus customers in nine markets. Russia is VEON’s largest, with its massive size and advanced appetite for all things digital. Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are the sweet-spot of rapid services adoption, while markets such as Bangladesh and Algeria promise strong long-term potential for early-stage investors.

“We have an extraordinary base that we need to build on,” Herrero said. “Strong companies are the ones that adapt and morph to the new reality. If you stay only in your stream and don't do anything else, chances are that somebody else will cannibalise you, or you’ll become obsolete. We have a very strong core business — when I say strong, it's good 4G quality, efficient price, good deployments — but we also feel that this is just a stepping-stone to become something else.

“It will go market-by-market. It's what I call our ‘unfair advantage’, or the right to play.”

Herrero cited three elements — VEON’s expansive presence, the unmet needs of people in various markets and the company’s capacity to fulfil those needs — as the perfect combination to foster thriving ecosystems. VEON has been fine-tuning these elements to establish its ecosystems where it can dominate in tech-centric, full-stack IP ownership. It also pursues vertical partnerships with existing players to create value. In Russia, these include a pioneering venture with leading retailer X5 to provide big data analytics that drive individualised indoor marketing, and a partnership with Alfa-Bank to leverage AI technology for customer profiling as part of Alfa’s onboarding process.

“We recognise that perhaps we are not the best-suited to build payment systems in Russia, because it's already a very mature, saturated market,” Herrero said. “But our database and our information about customers can really enhance a pure player in a way that nobody else could.

“The common denominator is emerging markets, so there's definitely an eagerness from the consumer point-of-view on having 4G devices and using those devices to access all sorts of sales and services that could enhance day-to-day life. That's what we do, what we are.

“The mindset of building products, and being product-centric, is something new for the company. It's a small shift, but I think it's an important one to move from where we are, which is a legacy industry, to something else. If we are successful in this transition, I think we will have the best of both worlds.”

Herrero is most inspired by the financial empowerment afforded by VEON’s expanding service offering. He mentions Pakistan’s JazzCash for the introduction of e-commerce tools for aspiring entrepreneurs and digital wallets for previously unbanked people. VEON has sparked a real shift in the country, helping increase female financial independence.

“We bank close to 20 percent of the adult population in Pakistan, so imagine: it's a huge group of people that previously were largely left out. We didn't stop there. We want to give tools to people to make money, and that's where the e-commerce piece comes in – as we are pursuing now in Bangladesh through our investment in ShopUp, the nation’s largest full-stack B2B commerce platform.”

Entertainment represents a key area for expansion and another opportunity to fulfil an unmet need across many geographies. Herrero knows that people engage with localised and user-generated content. In Bangladesh, VEON launched an entertainment offering, Toffee, with Urdu-language TikTok-style content, cricket sports programmes and local movies, shows and soap operas. It has really resonated, fulfilling a need in the market where global content providers have otherwise struggled.

“There's a level of stickiness and excitement about these topics,” he says, citing the 2.3 million active monthly users gained since the product’s launch last year. That excitement is palpable as Sergi Herrero and team continue their search for new digital assets with the potential to transform the customer experience of their mobile operator.


Kaan Terzioğlu, Co-CEO of VEON: The Privilege of Connecting Lives and Livelihoods

[caption id="attachment_19113" align="alignright" width="300"] VEON Co-CEO: Kaan Terzioğlu[/caption]

"We touch millions of people every day: their lives, their businesses. And, especially during the Covid era, it is clear that our industry is the backbone of society,” says Terzioğlu. “We provide connections between those who cannot travel or interact. We provide connections for business. It is satisfying to be in a business with a purpose."

Kaan Terzioğlu looks back over a long career in telecoms and technology and reflects on the progress of the past few years — in particular, the surge in digital adoption in response to the pandemic.

“I have never known a time when our business has been more critical to economies or people's security, safety, health and education. In every area, there is relevance to our daily life,” Terzioğlu shared in an exclusive CFI.co interview. “Every morning, I wake up and feel that relevance. I'm extremely satisfied with that possibility which is key for telecom companies. That's how I define my purpose.”

As a leader, Terzioğlu believes that the most advanced technologies — mobile communications or AI, robotics, virtualisation— should first and foremost serve the people who need them most.

“The best technologies should address the quality of life of traditionally underserved or disadvantaged people,” he insists.

Putting customers first is a belief forged through over two decades of service to the telecoms and technology industries that has seen him rise to the very top of two companies, Turkcell and now VEON, and to serve as a Board member of the GSMA, to which he was re-elected last November.

At VEON, Terzioğlu is dedicated to ensuring that the digital development of emerging markets leaves no one behind. The company has been working relentlessly to expand its high-speed mobile data services and now has 80 million customers using its 4G networks, 20 million of which were added in 2020 alone. This is bringing about a fundamental change in user experience as 4G enables a new generation of digital services, many of which help VEON’s emerging market customers access resources that currently lie beyond their reach.

“As an industry, we help people participate in the economy, be part of the financial market, be part of educational inclusion,” says the co-CEO of VEON, a telecom company serving close to 10 percent of the world’s population and over 200 million subscribers. “Each market has its own dynamics and opportunities, but one common denominator is that the expectations from our industry now go beyond simple connectivity. Customers requires higher quality, consistency, reliability and availability of mobile data services, which is a core element of our value proposition and also the grounds on which our company and industry ensures its own growth.” He spoke of his earlier role at Turkcell, where he was dealing with 50 million subscribers. Terzioğlu has already increased the reach of his vision more than fourfold, but as new services launch he could have an audience of over 650 million based on VEON’s population footprint.

Kaan Terzioğlu talked about the company’s responsibility to consumers and the communities in which they operate. He discussed the role of technology and telecom providers in the education of young internet users to help them acquire the critical thinking skills to discern manipulative misinformation from credible facts.

“In the physical world, it's easy to call a liar, a liar. In the digital, you don't know who you're dealing with,” he says, so kids have to develop critical learning capabilities early. “Our industry is positioned to make that happen.”

VEON has expanded beyond the limitations of a strictly telecom company and is settling into its role as “an essential enabler of digital lifestyles”. VEON’s raw data capacity provides the connectivity to become a full-service digital operator, providing relevant and trustworthy solutions that touch on all aspects of lifestyle, from music to videos and news.

All these digital services, Terzioğlu says, create raw data that can be used to enhance customer experience while fuelling the company’s growth and helping to build data-backed digital economies for emerging countries.

“And the data, of course, belongs to the countries that created it,” Terzioğlu states. “So, Pakistan’s data should stay in Pakistan, be processed by Pakistani engineers, and turned into TV, general entertainment and music services, so that the Pakistani people can enjoy them, so that employment can be created in Pakistan and taxes paid in Pakistan.

“It is our responsibility to make these things happen. If we stay at the level of connectivity and providing raw data, we do a disservice to these countries.”

Alongside co-CEO Sergi Herrero, Kaan Terzioğlu works to ensure that VEON’s crown-jewel brands — Beeline, Djezzy, Jazz, Banglalink and Kyivstar — become essential enterprises in their respective countries. The two leaders work hand in hand but with different goals. Herrero focuses on big digital opportunities in adjacent markets, while Terzioğlu is focused on migrating VEON’s growing customer base to its high-speed 4G networks and shifting the company towards a more customer-centric digital operation with an ever-increasing suite of services.

“Looking at things from these two angles gives us 360-degree coverage of opportunities, Terzioğlu continues. A management view with a limitless horizon, in other words.


Hard-Hit but Striking Back: Dubai Finds Correct Balance

[caption id="attachment_19144" align="alignright" width="300"] Dubai[/caption]

Last year, Dubai registered a sharp decline in its population. Almost eight of every 100 inhabitants left the country as the pandemic and a drop in oil prices unsettled nerves and the economy.

Key sectors such as real estate, tourism and retail suffered. Property developers are facing trying times, and have tapped their liquidity to stay afloat. Analysts expect no major failures as most Dubai real estate companies still enjoy access to funding, and have been proactively managing their cashflow and slashing overheads. But recovery is expected to take time, with only marginal improvements anticipated this year.

Expo 2020, the 35th World Expo now scheduled to go ahead between October 1 this year and March 31, 2022, will offer some much-needed solace to the hammered tourism and hospitality industries. The normalisation of diplomatic ties with Israel and Qatar also bodes well. The biggest boost by far is expected from the United Arab Emirates’ successful vaccination drive, which has already delivered jabs to 56 percent of the population. This has driven the infection rate – the dreaded R-number – down to 0.88.

Dubai's real estate professionals are reporting the arrival of the first opportunistic investors drawn by attractive discounts. According to Hussain Sajwani of Damac Properties, the slowdown of the property market started in 2018. “That soft landing became a hard one because of the corona pandemic. Prices of resale units have retreated by about 10 percent on average and are now lower than those of new developments. Now is a great time to buy.”

Though Sajwani does not foresee a further weakening of the market, he does admit that a return to the boom times of the early-2010s is not likely any time soon. “The soft market is here to stay for another year or two with very few new projects being launched,” he said. “However, Dubai will undoubtedly emerge from the pandemic stronger than before. The housing market will eventually tighten at which point new projects get underway and prices resume their rise.”

Tentative Recovery for Dubai real estate

Mo’asher, the official Dubai real estate price index, in January recorded some 3,300 sales with a transaction volume of $1.83bn – a jump of 15.5 percent in numbers and 37.7 percent in value over January 2020. The index, a joint effort of Property Finder and the Dubai Land Department, detected an upward trend in the resale market, which now represents 72 percent of all transactions. Mo’asher also detected a promising rebound of the overall property market in the fourth quarter of 2020, providing a silver lining to an otherwise disappointing year.

Last year, Dubai’s GDP contracted by 10.8 percent (UAE -6.6 percent). In its most recent country report, S&P Global Ratings predicted that the economy would return to the 2019 levels (in dollar terms) in 2023, with most sectors feeling the pressure of the pandemic fallout. The ratings agency did, however, admit that its outlook may prove pessimistic in light of the UAE’s vaccination campaign. That could provide a significant boost to business and tourism.

While most developed nations tightened restrictions as winter set in, Dubai took a calculated risk by reopening the economy early, betting that its vaccination programme would deliver early results – as it did. Business trackers recorded a fairly robust uptick in activity from December onwards, with non-oil employment levels rising and GDP expected to inch up 1.3 percent in 2021.

Early on, the Dubai government came in for considerable criticism over its decision to ease the lockdown. Cases quadrupled to almost 4,000 a day by the end of January. Daily infections have since dropped to about 3,000, with the country managing to sustain a fatality rate of 0.3 percent. Dubai also sustains the world’s highest daily testing rate at 1.5 percent of the population.

According to Amer Sharif of the Covid-19 Command and Control Centre, the balance between the safety and wellbeing of the population and economic sustainability has been right for a city state and global logistics hub. Dubai relies on cross-border traffic for more than half of its economy. Authorities have been cautious with decreeing travel bans and have only restricted direct passenger flights from the UK and South Africa due to novel virus strains.

Reforms

Dubai quickly positioned itself as the prime hub for vaccine distribution in the Middle East and beyond. The UAE has unveiled plans to locally manufacture China’s Sinopharm vaccine later this year, while also trying to secure a head start as the world’s first “vaccination tourism” destination, catering to those unwilling to wait for a jab and able to flash plastic.

National flag carrier Emirates also found a novel way to raise cash by giving its passengers the option to pay extra to block adjacent seats on its flights. Though first introduced by Air New Zealand, the Dubai-based carrier has upped the ante by allowing economy class travellers to buy up to three adjoining seats for prices ranging from $55 to $165.

In another surprise move, the UAE has launched a programme to offer Emirati citizenship to select foreign professionals. Ranked as one of the best in the world for mobility, UAE passports will be offered to investors, scientists, doctors, artists, intellectuals, and others with special talents whose bright minds contribute to the development and prosperity of the country.

UAE royals and officials may nominate deserving candidates, with the cabinet having the final say. Almost nine of every 10 UAE inhabitants are foreign nationals. The initiative is unique in the wider Gulf Region, where paths to citizenship are few and narrow.

The initiative follows a string of progressive reforms that include full ownership for foreigners of businesses outside free zones, legalisation of cohabitation and the sale of alcohol without a licence. According to a government spokesperson, the easing of restrictions seeks to encourage expatriates to invest money – and their future – in the country.

This would end the prevailing attitude amongst foreign nationals to make as much money as possible, and then leave for home. In time, the reforms are expected to add billions to the local economy, and forge a more inclusive society.


Rubicon’s Mission is Inclusive, and More Important Now than Ever

Every service that Rubicon provides, every line of code in the software that it creates, and every interaction that it has with its customers and partners, is focused on one mission: to end waste.

Through its software platform, the cities, businesses, and haulers that it partners with are able to realise savings, and focus on long-planned sustainability goals. What has long been held as a cost centre has been transformed into something that provides economic value.

Rubicon’s solutions — RUBICONSmartCity, RUBICONPro, RUBICONConnect, and RUBICONPremier — focus on helping its partners do just that, creating efficient, sustainable cities and businesses.

RUBICONPro provides commercial haulers with a number of tools and capabilities to help them efficiently manage their business. The interactive app provides navigation capabilities while allowing drivers to flag items that might affect service, such as overflowing or missing bins, and locked or blocked gates.

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Dispatch operators are able to communicate immediately with drivers, sending updates, such as adding a new service location to a driver’s route. Rubicon technology also monitors vehicle and driver behaviour, vehicle health, and service behaviour. Finally, its camera-based computer vision platform allows the gathering of information without any manual input from drivers, collecting data points as the truck drives along its route.

Data collection is the first step in making waste visible, but what Rubicon’s customers really need are actionable insights. RUBICONConnect gives them a platform to understand their waste in greater detail. It allows customers to dissect data, breaking down waste generation by location and stream, so they can see how much waste there is, where it is created, and how it is being handled. For companies with a significant operational footprint, consolidating this information into a single data stream allows for quicker identification of opportunities for waste reduction and recycling.

It can also promote greater compliance with company or regulatory environmental performance objectives. RUBICONConnect allows managers to view waste diversion performance over time, on a site-by-site and company-wide basis. The aim is to provide the firm’s customers with the resources they need to build the waste reduction programmes that work best for them. We believe the power of data is critical in helping customers understand their waste challenge, allowing them to take specific actions to control, reduce, and eventually eliminate it.

One such partnership is in Japan with Odakyu Group, a group of companies in the transport, real estate, and retail industries. We are working with the conglomerate on a program to advance circular practices within the country’s waste and recycling industry.

When Rubicon decided to build its RUBICONSmartCity technology platform, it was noted that cities are on the frontlines in the war on waste — and they needed a purpose-built tool to tackle the challenges.

By 2025, the world’s urban areas will be producing 2.2 billion tons of waste per year. By 2050, nearly 70 percent of the world’s residents will live in urban areas. Every mayor is judged on delivering basic necessities to citizens, such as safe, clean streets. Yet most cities are always a step behind, caught in an endless loop of reacting to citizen complaints instead of proactively addressing broader quality of life concerns. Rubicon’s vision of a smart city includes advanced technology to deliver city services proactively, rather than reactively.

RUBICONSmartCity has been purpose-built through the eyes of municipal drivers and supervisors to best meet the specific needs of the waste and recycling industry. It is a product built using feedback and contributions from Rubicon’s city partners via a co-innovation pilot programme. Its goal is to save taxpayer dollars, improve customer service, and transform neighbourhoods into resilient communities.

Cities need more efficient and circular practices to achieve these goals which is why Rubicon customised its commercial technology to create an operational management and data collection platform for municipal governments. RUBICONSmartCity enables city governments to run more efficient, effective, and sustainable waste and recycling operations, while simultaneously turning these city-owned fleets into roaming data collection centres.

Rubicon believes that keeping city streets clean and clear should be a top priority for any mayor. RUBICONSmartCity brings technology and sustainability together for maximum community impact by providing equity in public service delivery, and arming city leaders with data-driven insights that lead to improved customer service, better quality of life, and more sustainable, resilient, and equitable neighbourhoods.

However, the proof is in the partnerships.

The RUBICONSmartCity technology suite is in more than 2,000 municipal vehicles, including waste and recycling trucks, street sweepers, and snowploughs. It has been rolled out in more than 55 cities across the US.

The City of Kansas City, Missouri has realised over $2m in annual savings in their collection operations through their use of the RUBICONSmartCity technology suite, while citizen satisfaction with solid waste collection increased by 17 percent.

The City of Spokane, Washington, is running Rubicon technology in its fleet of 100 solid-waste trucks, servicing more than 60,000 residential and commercial customers for waste and recycling. Until recently, Spokane’s operation ran almost entirely on paper. All service information was kept in a giant Rolodex and city staff dedicated time to filling two full boxes of paper records each week.

With Rubicon’s technology, the city is able to save over $25,000 annually through digitalisation of paper routes, boosting the overall efficiency of their solid-waste operation. Spokane is also effectively using the In-Cab Interface (ICI) to note a variety of exceptions at the curb and using this data to derive an additional $2m in revenue every year.

After the City of Montgomery, Alabama installed the RUBICONSmartCity technology suite in its 80 sanitation vehicles servicing 67,500 residential and commercial customers, Rubicon uncovered potential savings of $375,000 each year — recurring savings that represent tangible taxpayer dollars. Rubicon’s data showed that just 10 trucks were responsible for 75 percent of critical fault codes. In addition, a single truck was responsible for 23 percent of all critical fault codes fleetwide.

These truck fault code insights are improving the City’s truck maintenance programme by providing diagnostic information that was previously unavailable, again leading to significant potential taxpayer savings over a longer time horizon. Through its partnership with Rubicon, Montgomery earned a coveted Smart 50 Award, a programme that annually recognises the 50 most transformative smart city projects around the world.

At Rubicon, our mission is to end waste. Through technology, measurement, data collection, and analysis, we offer our partners an edge on efficiency, sustainability, and savings in all of their forms. We offer you the opportunity to join our mission.

By Michael Allegretti


Rubicon Leadership Driven by Passion to Put an End to Waste

Rubicon is a software platform with a mission: to end waste.

It provides smart recycling solutions for businesses and governments worldwide. Rubicon helps its partners — haulers, businesses, companies, cities, and municipalities — find economic value in their waste streams and confidently execute on their sustainability goals.

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Using technology to drive environmental innovation, the company helps turn businesses into more sustainable enterprises, and neighbourhoods into greener and smarter places to live and work.

Rubicon became a certified B Corp in 2012 and successfully recertified two additional times, receiving higher impact scores each time. B Corporations are changing the way business is conducted by meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose — a perfect fit for a company with a mission to end waste. As a certified Great Place to Work for four consecutive years and as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2016 and 2020, its people and products combine to drive positive change in the workplace and the world.

Nate Morris

Rubicon founder and CEO Nate Morris has a passion to solve the environmental threats posed by global waste, an important factor in the founding of Rubicon. Morris realised quickly that the waste and recycling industry was in need of disruption. Morris began work on a better way, and  Rubicon became a catalyst for ground-breaking change.

Morris is frequently called upon to share his expertise in entrepreneurship, innovation and leadership, mission and purpose-focused businesses, and building a tech unicorn. He was named a Fulbright Specialist Scholar in late 2020. Morris’s leadership encouraged the creation of an innovation team, the RUBICONSmartCity team.

RUBICONSmartCity brings technology and sustainability together for maximum community impact by providing equity in public service delivery and arming city leaders with data-driven insights that lead to improved customer service, better quality of life, and more sustainable, resilient, and equitable neighbourhoods. It provides insights that allow cities and municipalities to do more with less, saving money for cities and taxpayers.

Michael Allegretti

One of these leaders is Michael Allegretti, Rubicon’s chief strategy officer, leading the company’s RUBICONSmartCity SaaS business. He also oversees all public policy, corporate communications and marketing operations, company-wide. He came to Rubicon after leading public policy for Uber Technologies in the company’s largest global market, New York City. He has a passion for sustainability and the environment, which made Rubicon a perfect fit.

Allegretti has been directly responsible for the growth of RUBICONSmartCity, conceiving the market opportunity and the product. He developed the ideas of transforming waste and recycling vehicles into roaming data collection assets, and of positioning Rubicon as the catalyst to help achieve the vision of proactive government. He is often asked to weigh-in on the strategic use of technology to solve pressing city issues, with a focus on sustainability and savings for cities and taxpayers.

Conor Riffle

Along with Michael Allegretti, the vice-president of Smart Cities, Conor Riffle, leads the drive to build Rubicon's technology business with city governments. His insights and expertise working with cities — always with a focus on the environment and achieving greater community equity — are notable in the technology industry. Prior to his appointment at Rubicon, he served as director of cities and data product innovation at the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an international environmental non-profit.

Under Riffle’s leadership, CDP’s cities programme achieved global recognition as the premier platform for city governments to report climate-change data. His experience has been invaluable to build, improve, and expand RUBICONSmartCity.

Allegretti, Riffle, and their team interact with governments, helping them balance budgetary constraints with the sustainability and customer service goals they hope to achieve. The RUBICONSmartCity team and technology help to create resilience in forward-thinking cities — something needed now more than ever in cities and municipalities across the world.


Rosabeth Moss Kanter: A Glowing Academic Career that Defies Attempts at Abbreviation

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The problem of profiling Rosabeth Moss Kanter, holder of the Ernest L Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, is trying to fit her accolades into the allotted space.

Kanter advises CEOs and senior executives via her consulting group, and was a senior advisor for IBM’s Global Citizenship portfolio from 1999-2012. She has served on business and non-profit boards, and has authored or co-authored 20 books — many of which have attained bestseller status.

The academic has served on commissions, including the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors and the US Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. She is in constant demand as a public speaker, sharing the podium with world leaders at events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Before joining the Harvard Business School, Kanter held tenured professorships at Yale and Brandeis universities, and was a Fellow at Harvard Law School, while simultaneously holding a Guggenheim Fellowship.

And this is the profiler’s challenge: telling Kanter’s story, however briefly, and regardless of column inches, means getting a quart into a pint pot.

And we’re not through yet.

Rosabeth Kanter co-founded the university-wide Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard, serving as founding chair and director from 2008-2018. Her strategic and practical insights on strategy, innovation and leadership for change have guided corporations, governments, and start-up ventures around the world.

Writing has been central to her career. Her latest book is entitled Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time. She is the former chief editor of Harvard Business Review, and has been named in two distinguished “50” lists: the 50 Most Powerful Women in the World (The Times), and the 50 Most Influential Business Thinkers in the World (Thinkers 50). She has also received the Thinkers 50 Lifetime Achievement Award.

One of Kanter’s earlier books, MOVE: Putting America's Infrastructure Back in the Lead, became a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Another, The Change Masters, was hailed as one of the most influential business books of the 20ᵗʰ Century by none less than The Financial Times.

The literary list doesn’t end there. Confidence: How Winning & Losing Streaks Begin & End was a New York Times and Business Week bestseller. There certainly seems no end in sight for her own winning streak. Men & Women of the Corporation won her the C Wright Mills award for the best book on social issues. It examined the individual and organisational factors in the struggle for women’s equality, and she released a related video, A Tale of ‘O’: On Being Different, which is highly regarded as a tool for diversity training.

From identifying the dilemmas and potential problem of globalisation to opening minds and avenues in the corporate world, Kanter has more than made her mark on the world.

She has received Distinguished Career Awards from the Academy of Management and the American Sociological Association, the World Teleport Association's Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year award, the Pinnacle Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and many more recognising her thought-leadership and community impact.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and describes her childhood as "benign" and herself as “ambitious”. She has no fewer than 24 honorary doctoral degrees in addition to her PhD from the University of Michigan.


Employers Need to ‘Catch Up’ with Looming Covid Mental Health Crisis

When it comes to workplace wellbeing, there has been a polarised response to the pandemic. A third of UK employees say support has improved, but others say many organisations are falling short.

Mental ill health costs employers £2.4bn each year, and despite warnings of a looming crisis many have failed to increase support for workers. Of employees canvassed in a recent study by Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), 41 percent said they had less frequent wellbeing check-ins, or none at all, during the pandemic. Slightly more – 43 percent – said their workplace mental health and wellbeing support was unchanged or worse.

MHFA says employers need to increase support, with regular wellbeing checks and activities to stay connected, while ensuring managers have the requisite training and resources.

The research reveals stark differences in the experiences of men and women, and the impact of Covid-19 on their workplace mindset. While 68 percent of women said their workplace confidence had decreased owing to the pandemic, only 31 percent of men felt the same. And 64 percent of women reported an increase in feelings of loneliness or feelings of isolation during this period; the figure was 36 percent for men.

There is a silver lining to the work-from-home model, though. As people juggle work and home life, there have been more insights into colleagues’ lives. Positively, 38 percent of employees say they find easier to bring their “whole self” to work, and be more open with colleagues. That’s double the number of those who found it difficult to do so: 19 percent.

The research coincided with My Whole Self Day in March which was part of the MHFA campaign for workplace culture-change. Backed by business directors and mental health leaders from the Samaritans, Nestle, Bupa UK, UBS and LinkedIn, the Chartered Management Institute and the Federation of Small Businesses, it calls on organisations to empower employees.

The differences in the support people receive for mental health and wellbeing is worrying, says MHFA England CEO Simon Blake. “Covid-19 has increased the need for employers to support the mental health and wellbeing of their staff,” he said. “The pandemic has laid bare pre-existing inequalities – gender, race and economic – and it has exacerbated them. This needs serious attention as we start to rebuild.

“It is encouraging to see some employers doing brilliant work, but this research reveals disparities in how organisations are approaching mental health and wellbeing support. Workplaces are key to creating a society where everyone’s mental health matters, so some employers must play catch-up.

“It is positive to see many people report they feel they can bring more of their ‘whole self’ to work … Employers must build cultures where people have the trust, flexibility, safety and freedom.”

Blake said regular wellbeing check-ins with colleagues were vital “We’re urging all employers to adopt this simple practice,” he added.

Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), said now was the time. “The pandemic showed that the need for empathetic leadership is on the rise – 72 percent of managers told us that wellbeing would be their top priority for 2021.”

There was an opportunity that should not be missed, she added. “We’re at a crucial point for our country and we want to build back better, so let’s use this once-in-a-generation opportunity to change our workplaces to achieve that.

“Flexible working, improved communication and more consultation are things that build trust and productivity, and we should carry those forward.”

Karl Simons, chief health, safety and security officer at Thames Water, said not only physical or psychological issues affected workers. “It’s the environment in which they are placed,” he said. “At Thames Water, we have created a culture of care in which our people feel empowered to speak up any time they require support, so we can be there at that time of need.”

* MHFA England has launched the My Whole Self “MOT” – a free guide to enable people to check in on their mental health. See mhfaengland.org/my-whole-self/