Corporate Vision January 2015

Women and Wealth

l

Bridging the credit gap: Why SMEs need more support

l

Aim for the Stars

l

Culture is Key

l

Risky Business

Culture

Club

Countless business people sing its praises and Jim Collins even named it as a fundamental feature of all visionary organisations.

So what’s the craic with company culture and how should companies go about getting one?

An Inspired Escape The Ritz-Carlton, Bali embodies the brand’s dedication to iconic service, whilst combining the warmth and spirituality of true Indo-Balinese hospitality.

January 2015

www.corp-vis.com

Editor’s Note Welcome again to Corporate Vision – your eye on the business world.

It’s the start of a new year, and we’ve got high hopes for what the next 12 months will bring for the corporate world, with renewed confidence in the global economy suggesting a healthy outlook for dealmaking in 2015.

To help you capitalise on this, we’ve got three features that’ll help you kick off the new year in suitable fashion – and get a head start on the competition.

More and more victims of corporate crime, big and small, are turning to private investigation companies.

Jonathan Robinson, Director at Optimal Intelligence, tells us why, today, there’s much more to this growing industry than “cops and robbers” (p.16).

David Allmond, Co-Founder of marketing strategists, Peppered Moth Marketing, is on hand with the questions all directors should ask their marketing teams (p.18).

And workaholics beware: all those extra hours in the office may actually be hindering your company’s growth, says executive coach, Kieran Hearty (p.20).

Elsewhere in the issue, we take a look at why corporate social responsibility – a familiar term when talking about the biggest companies – also matters for high-growth SMEs (p.28).

And in our Lifestyle section we head to the pristine beaches of Indonesia, and the brand-new Ritz-Carlton, Bali (p.32).

We hope you enjoy this issue. See you next month.

Ollie John, Editor

Contents 6 News

11 Industry Insight Culture Club

15 Strategy Minding Your Business The Questions All Directors Should Ask Their Marketing Teams All Work and No Play?

23 Money An Expat’s Guide to Growing Wealth

27 SME Doing Good, While Doing Well

31 Lifestyle An Inspired Escape: The Ritz-Carlton, Bali

News

How to Save Lives at the Office New report explores an approach that encourages movement and healthy choices at work.

American employers’ wellness programs must reach beyond the office gym – and into the office itself, according to a new study.

“Employers across the nation have invested millions in office gyms as part of their wellness initiatives, but those facilities are largely going unused,” said Jonathan Webb, Vice President for Business Markets at KI Furniture, which manufactures innovative furniture and movable wall system solutions for education, healthcare, government and corporate markets, and which commissioned the study.

“It’s not that workers are lazy – rather, most feel that the facilities aren’t meant for them, Webb said. “In order to nudge workers toward healthier lifestyles, companies must reinvent their workspaces to encourage physical activity throughout the workday.”

The new report explores Active Design – an approach that encourages movement and healthy choices at work. Height-adjustable sit/stand desks and open floor plans get people up and walking. In the office cafeteria, employers can implement Active Design principles by making healthy foods the default.

Employers are interested in Active Design because it improves not just employee health but the company

bottom line. A majority of Americans are overweight or obese (an issue deemed to be partly due to their desk jobs) and miss 450 million workdays per year – at a cost of US$153bn.

Office gyms were supposed to fight this trend, but 63% of workers say they do not feel that they can actually work out at the office.

The key, said Webb, is to make them exercise without even knowing it: standing for two hours a day, for instance, burns 30% more calories than sitting.

“Active Design can help companies create a healthy workforce that’s more productive and engaged,” he said. “And that’s good not just for employers but employees, too.”

percentage of workers that say they do not feel that they can actually work out at the office...

63%

6 Corporate Vision January 2015

News

Appointments deVere’s Workplace Solutions announces management team.

deVere United Kingdom’s Workplace Solutions division has named Simon Chrystal as its Managing Director and Paul Butler as its Operations Director.

Chrystal and Butler will oversee the development of the brand that was launched earlier this year by deVere United Kingdom, part of deVere Group, one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations.

Simon Chrystal was formerly Head of Oval Pensions Solutions. He also plays a key role on the Incentive Exercise Monitoring Board, which includes representation from the Pensions Regulator (tPR), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the TUC and CBI, having been a member of the original Working Group that produced the Code of Good Practice for Incentive Exercises.

International Relocation No Obstacle to Taking Dream Job New survey by Monster, the international job site, shows nearly a third of respondents would travel to the other side of the world if the right opportunity came up.

An international poll reveals that more than half of workers (55%) are willing to relocate to a new country to pursue their dream job, 32% would go so far as to move to the other side of the world.

Monster, the global online jobs portal, asked visitors to their site the question, “How far would you be willing to relocate for your dream job?” and received over 5,400 responses. International findings included: • • • •

23% answered “I wouldn’t be willing to relocate” 23% answered “I would move to another city” 23% answered “I would move to another country” 32% answered “I would move to the other side of the world”

Breaking down the results by region, workers from France and Canada are the most enthusiastic about relocating to pursue a dream job: 50% of French respondents would move to the other side of the world, and 23% would move to another country. 45% of Canadian respondents said they would move to the other side of the world. Respondents from the Gulf region are also eager to move, with 49% answering that they would leave their current country for their dream job.

48% of American respondents would leave the US to pursue their dream job, 31% of which would move across the world for it. German and Dutch respondents are the most loyal to their homes, with 58% and

42% answering that they are completely unwilling to move, respectively.

“Dream jobs come in all shapes and sizes, but sometimes we aren’t looking in the right place for them,” said Mary Ellen Slayter, Career Advice Expert for Monster. “Whether you are actively seeking out a new job, or have come across a dream opportunity unexpectedly, it’s important to think about what life changes you’d be willing to make to pursue your ideal job. If a big move wouldn’t bother you, conduct your job search accordingly. Fortunately, technology has made applying for a job across the world as easy as applying a job in your own town. Every stage of the process, from finding open positions to interviewing with potential future managers, can often be done online.”

percentage willing to relocate to the other side of the world...

32%

January 2015 Corporate Vision 7

Paul Butler joins Workplace Solutions from NGIA Limited, where he was a Director. He previously held a series of senior management roles at Oval Financial Services.

The appointments of Simon Chrystal and Paul Butler were facilitated by deVere United Kingdom’s acquisition of NGIA Limited.

Mike Coady, on behalf of deVere Group, said: “We’re delighted both Simon Chrystal and Paul Butler, two experienced, talented, senior industry professionals, have chosen to join and drive forward our Workplace Solutions proposition.

“This division, which provides highly specialist advice to corporations’ current and former employees to help them meet their long-term financial objectives, has already secured a number of contracts, with leading multinational firms. I am confident that with Simon and Paul at the helm, Workplace Solutions will grow to truly define and lead this rapidly evolving sector.”

Ally Financial Appoints New CEO.

Ally Financial Inc., the Detroit-based auto lender and bank holding company, has announced that Jeffrey J. Brown has been named CEO, effective immediately.

Brown, who most recently served as president and CEO of Ally’s Dealer Financial Services business, has also joined Ally’s Board of Directors. Brown succeeds Michael A. Carpenter, who is retiring as chief executive and from the Board. Ally Chairman Franklin “Fritz” Hobbs will work closely with Brown on all areas of the business.

“Jeff Brown is an extraordinarily talented executive with deep financial and operational experience and a strong vision of how to take Ally forward into the future,” said Hobbs. “Jeff joined the company in 2009 as corporate treasurer. In 2011, he became executive vice president of finance and corporate planning, where he oversaw the company’s finance, treasury and corporate strategy activities. And, in March 2014, he was named CEO of Ally’s Dealer Financial Services business. The breadth of experience Jeff has gained during these transformational years at Ally has prepared him fully to take on leadership of the company as it enters its next chapter.”

News

Business Leaders Show Strong Confidence in Sustainable Growth

8 Corporate Vision January 2015

News

Private sectors are now a critical driver of sustainable development, with emerging economies in the front seat, according to new Global Opportunity Report.

Business leaders globally have strong confidence in their own ability to turn sustainability challenges such as water scarcity and lock-in to fossil fuels into new business opportunities, particularly in the manufacturing and finance sectors in emerging economies. This is one of the key findings of the Global Opportunity Report by DNV GL, UN Global Compact and Monday Morning Global Institute. The new report is based on a survey and consultations with more than 6,000 public and private sector leaders in over 21 countries.

“Businesses across the planet are not shying away from global risks such as climate change, and increasingly recognise the positive benefits of seizing the related opportunities. The report confirms that there has been a turning point, where private sectors are now a critical driver of sustainable development with emerging economies in the front seat,” said Georg Kell, Executive Director of UN Global Compact.

In addition to the 6,000 leaders surveyed, 200 experts from eight countries have shared insights and contributed to creating the Global Opportunity Report. The report identifies and ranks 15 sustainability opportunities according to public and private sector interest and potential impact on societies and business. With the new report, the partners aim to demonstrate how global sustainability challenges and risks can be seen as opportunities. The work provides an open innovation platform where stakeholders worldwide can explore and capture sustainability opportunities and solutions across risk domains and regions. Additionally, the report identifies more than 120 readily available solutions.

to change consumer behavior to increased uptake of renewable energy in households or a growing selection of consumer products made with the use of renewables.

Private Sector More Optimistic than Public Sector The public sector is expected to play an important role in realising many of the opportunities described in the report, especially those that are regulation-oriented.

Nevertheless, public sector respondents were consistently less optimistic than the private sector about how the opportunities can positively affect society and their capacity to pursue these opportunities.

“The report findings are encouraging and concerning at the same time,” says Erik Rasmussen, Founder of Monday Morning Global Institute. “The strong interest in pursuing sustainable business opportunities in the private sector is very positive. Yet, the governmental sector seems to be more reluctant and not seeing the same opportunities. This is a pity. Governments can play an important role by issuing regulations that support both sustainability and business ventures.

Business and governments must share visions and initiatives.”

However, the Global Opportunity Report indicates that this scenario is likely to change.

For leaders below 30 years of age, female leaders and leaders in emerging economies in Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America, regulated energy transition and smart water regulation are the top-ranking sustainability opportunities.

Water Innovation Leading Opportunity Asked about future prospects, business leaders see untapped and profitable opportunities especially in handling and providing solutions to address water scarcity and to promote green consumer choices.

Overall, developments in water-efficient agriculture is the opportunity that inspires most confidence among the leaders. 37% find this opportunity to have great benefits for society and consider their country to have great capacity to seize this opportunity.

“I believe that one of the most interesting findings in the report is how young leaders under 30 years of age, people in emerging economies and also women embrace regulation as a strong tool for sustainable change. It is very likely that the decision makers of tomorrow will be found in these groups, and it gives us hope that we can see a stronger collaboration between the private and the public sector in the future,” said Henrik O. Madsen, Group CEO and President of DNV GL.

“I believe one of the most clear signals in the survey is the confidence we see in our ability to address water scarcity. It is a grave problem that affects hundreds of millions of people globally and the competition for water is seen as a major obstacle to health, growth and prosperity. This finding also makes me optimistic that we’ll meet a global development goal to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all,” said Henrik O. Madsen, Group CEO and President of DNV GL, one of the partners of the network and report.

Manufacturing and Finance Sector Most Confident Emerging economies are especially ready to pursue market opportunities associated with sustainability challenges. The report shows that the manufacturing sector – especially in China – is most confident in their ability to address sustainability barriers and deliver profits and prosperity in return.

Green Consumer Choices Highly Favoured Opportunities related to lock-in to fossil fuels also is assessed positively. The most favored opportunity here is green consumer choices. This includes innovations

China First, Europe Last Regionally, China is the most optimistic in the survey with 48 percent showing great confidence in sustainability opportunities, followed by India with 44 percent and South America 37 percent. Europe is the least optimistic with only 23 percent, making it the most cautious region when it comes to belief in development associated with sustainability.

January 2015 Corporate Vision 9

Appointments Former Swedish Minister of Finance Joins Citi.

Citi has announced the appointment of Anders Borg, the former Swedish Minister of Finance, as an advisor to its EMEA business with a particular focus on the Public Sector as well as the Nordic region, as a member of the Nordic Advisory Board.

“We’re delighted that Anders will join Citi. He is uniquely positioned in the global political and financial arena to advise our clients on the key issues they face as they do business around the world. With this appointment, Citi’s underscores its commitment to the Nordic region,” said Eirik Winter, Chairman Nordic region and Head of Nordic Investment Banking at Citi.

Borg, who served as Minister for Finance in Sweden from 2006 to 2014, was named European Finance Minister of the year by the Financial Times in 2011, recognised for his outstanding political ability, economic performance and market credibility. In 2014 he was commissioned by the Finnish Government to evaluate Finland’s economic landscape. He has also been tasked with leading a program within the World Economic Forum to facilitate cooperation towards a new framework for the future global financial system, and recently he was named deputy chairman of Kinnevik and as a member of the board of Millicom.

“I’m really honoured and excited to be appointed as an advisor for the world’s most global bank,” said Borg. “With operations in over 100 countries, in both emerging and developed markets, Citi has an unmatched and impressive global footprint. They know what global challenges are all about and I am very much looking forward to sharing my experiences and contributing to Citi’s continued success.”

Peder Sortland Appointed CEO of Global Maritime Group.

Global Maritime Group has appointed Peder Sortland as its first CEO. This appointment means that the group, created by merging four companies belonging to HitecVision, has put another important piece in place for realising its substantial growth ambitions over coming years.

Global Maritime Group is a worldwide enterprise with its head office in Stavanger, almost 650 employees in 26 countries and an overall annual turnover of about NOK1.4bn. Its business areas comprise Consultancy & Engineering, an independent consultancy for the offshore and maritime industries, Marine Contracting, a contracting company for load-out, transport and installation of offshore structures, Vryhof Anchors, a global supplier of powerful anchors and associated mooring products and services, and Deep Sea Mooring, which delivers mooring solutions for exploration and production companies and for rig contractors.

Sortland, 51, comes from the post of CEO at Apply ASA, and knows part of the group well from holding the position as chair of Global Maritime AS since April 2014. “Sortland has demonstrated that he has the right qualities to realise a strategy as ambitious as the one established for Global Maritime Group,” said Jan Vatsvåg, chair of Global Maritime Group. “His professional qualifications are strong, and he has substantial understanding of the oil service sector and the customer side of the business after spending almost two decades with an oil company. He is also a unifying leader with the ability to generate enthusiasm and to get employees to pull in the same direction.”

Industry Insight 12 Culture Club Countless business people sing its praises and Jim Collins even named it as a fundamental feature of all visionary organisations.

So what’s the craic with company culture and how should companies go about getting one?

Industry Insight: Culture Club

Culture Club Countless business people sing its praises and Jim Collins even named it as a fundamental feature of all visionary organisations. So what’s the craic with company culture and how should companies go about getting one?

There are so many buzzwords in the world of business; sometimes it’s hard to see the wood from the trees. For a startup, it’s easy to cherry pick best practices from existing organisations. When it comes to company culture, however, there’s a bit more to the process than plucking an idea from one place and dropping it into another.

First and foremost, what do we mean when we refer to company culture? Whilst I’m sure different business people would give different definitions, the general understanding is that it relates to the behaviours and beliefs of people within a business. What values does the company have and how does it put them into practice? What is its purpose; does it exist to make people happy, like Disney? Are there any habits that people within the business tend to share?

All of these things contribute to an overall company culture, and it is vitally important that they come from the heart. In order to have a framework upon which they can build, business founders must answer these questions honestly. At the heart of company culture are its values; they dictate the way the business runs.

For Richard Branson and Virgin, an ethos of fun and rejecting ‘business as usual’ permeates the business and contributes massively to its success.

In a blog post written in January this year, Branson tells a fellow entrepreneur: “Culture is one of the most underappreciated essentials in business: no matter how visionary, brilliant and far-reaching a leader’s strategy might be, it can all come undone if it is not fully supported by a strong and spirited corporate cul-

ture. Anyone who has followed the Virgin story knows that our company culture has driven our success.

you dilute your culture and risk disrupting work flow and balance.”

“Our team inadvertently created Virgin while we were lolling around on beanbags at our first record shop in London. We were having such a great time that we kept going, mostly because we just liked hanging out together. Since we were happy, we treated our Virgin Records customers like they were part of the family.

And since our customers loved their experience, they kept coming back for more.”

So, how do companies like UKFast identify the people who truly share their values and, if they’re not looking for qualifications or matching skillsets, what are they looking for? In UKFast’s case, recruitment days involve methods such as psychometric testing and group activities as well as interviews. However, there’s also another layer to the process and it’s one that definitely deviates from the norm. “We take groups of new recruits to our training centre, Castell Cidwm, a hotel in Wales to take part in team-building exercises and climb Mount Snowdon,” Jones explains.

Branson goes on to explain how this “serious fun” approach became a driving force for Virgin. “We are often asked how we have maintained this culture across the more than 300 companies that Virgin has started up,” he writes. “The answer: we make sure that every new company that joins the Virgin family fits within the brand’s ethos and personality.”

It’s an approach that fellow entrepreneur Lawrence Jones MBE, founder and CEO of Manchester technology firm UKFast, clearly shares. The £30m turnover company has won a number of great workplace awards over the years, something Jones puts down to fostering a strong family culture and shifting the focus from profits to people.

“Culture is a dynamic that most businesses miss whilst trying desperately to fill the skills gap,” he explains. “We were lucky to have got our culture right in the early days, quite by accident, by looking for like-minded people, people who shared our values of being passionate, supportive, innovative and dynamic.

We have recruited on these principles ever since.

Every time we deviate away from them, to accommodate someone who has extraordinary skills for example, we fail and the person doesn’t fit in. Every time you hire someone who’s not aligned with your values,

12 Corporate Vision January 2015

“Some people don’t see the benefit of this, but it was something we did in the early days, although back then we’d stay in other people’s hotels and take backpacks full of sandwiches up the mountain. When we realised how good it was for lifting energy and boosting creativity, we decided to offset the cost of hotel rooms by buying our own!

“Not only is it great for getting people out of the office and into the fresh air, it’s also been very useful as a recruitment tool. When people are out there in the wind, climbing a mountain – which they might never have done before – it’s very hard to keep up a façade. You can easily identify the people who will make fantastic future managers – the people who are supporting and motivating everyone else – and the people (if any) who shouldn’t be on the bus with you.

“It might sound costly at first, but think about this logically, for every employee you got wrong from the beginning, add their collective salaries and I am sure it will outweigh the cost of running these events. Furthermore, this investment into the new teammates develops strong bonds and loyalty that are difficult to emulate in any other way.”

Industry Insight: Culture Club

It’s clear that ‘getting the right people on the bus’, as Jim Collins, author of ‘Good to Great’ puts it, is a key part of strengthening company culture. However, it doesn’t end there. The business itself must align action and values. “The founders of great, enduring organisations like Hewlett-Packard, 3M, and Johnson & Johnson often did not have a vision statement when they started out,” Collins explains in an essay published in June 2000.

“They usually began with a set of strong personal core values and a relentless drive for progress and had - most important - a remarkable ability to translate these into concrete mechanisms… For example, 3M allows scientists to spend 15% of their time working on whatever interests them.”

Again, this is something that both Virgin and UKFast share. As part of its commitment to empowering employees, Virgin recently rolled out unlimited leave and flexible working, with Branson explaining: “It’s easier to attract top talent when you are open and flexible.

Screw business as usual. If you trust your people to make their own decisions, they will reward you.”

For UKFast, innovation is one of the key cornerstones of the business, and the company achieves this, in part, by empowering its employees to take ownership over a part of the business. The firm encourages its RnD and DevOpps teams to spend 20% of their time working on their own ideas - much like Google, which fosters that sense of innovation in people, often referred to as “intrapreneurs”. On top of this, the company has also created an environment that reflects its culture, with a department dedicated to training and developing people professionally, and an onsite gym and steam room to help people reach their personal goals, whether that’s getting fitter or taking more time to relax.

“The people who make up the team at UKFast really are passionate and dynamic,” Jones explains. “You have to put things in place that nurture those traits.

We expect our team to be supportive in the way they help our customers, for example, so in turn, we provide training and education to support their personal and professional growth. For us, our culture is about living our values and making sure they are woven into the very fabric of the business.”

Coming back to the initial question, then, it seems that company culture is something that has to come naturally from the heart of each business; something that works around a framework of shared values, and is something that can either be strengthened or diluted by the people you bring on board. Its benefits include contributing to the longevity and continued growth of a business, and have an impact on employee retention and wellbeing. In short, it’s a key driver of business success.

Emma McClelland is a features writer at internet hosting firm UKFast.

turnover of technology firm UKFast...

£30m January 2015 Corporate Vision 13

Strategy 16 Minding Your Business Today, more and more victims of corporate crime, from small start-ups to some of the world’s biggest firms, are turning to private investigation companies.

18 The Questions All Directors Should Ask Their Marketing Teams David Allmond, Co-Founder of marketing strategists, Peppered Moth Marketing, tells us how to ensure that our marketing strategy is properly developed, and budget is fully justified

20 All Work and No Play?

Your misplaced work ethic could be damaging your team and your career‌

Strategy: Minding Your Business

Minding Your Business Today, more and more victims of corporate crime, from small start-ups to some of the world’s biggest firms, are turning to private investigation companies. Optimal Intelligence, based in Silicon Valley, is one such company. We caught up with its director, Jonathan Robinson, to find out more about its high-tech approach.

“We were then asked to manage our clients’ needs to look at activity of bad guys online. What we were successful at doing was getting contracts with clients to investigate fraud from subjects online. To that end, we developed our own proprietary technology, released in 2013. It’s called SN Track, which stands for Social Network Tracking.

Optimal Intelligence, formed over a decade ago, is a technology-led private investigations firm.

For many years, the firm, which is based in Palo Alto, California, near Stanford University, used traditional methods when investigating cases. “But, being located in Silicon Valley, we have had access to a lot of new technology,” says Jonathan Robinson, Director.

“My background is also in the tech sector, during the whole dotcom timeframe.”

Around the time Robinson became a Partner in Optimal Intelligence, the company acquired JA & Associates, another California-based investigations firm. It was a deal that allowed Optimal Intelligence to vastly expand its digital capabilities. “JA & Associates covered a larger area in California and around that time, about five years ago, we developed a CRM product (OI Track, named after the firm) that would allow our clients to manage their cases online. This is an SSL secure site, it’s encrypted and allows our clients to access pertinent information on their cases from anywhere in the world in real time.

“It also allows our field investigators to keep in contact with clients, allows our management team to manage our investigators throughout the country. We are in the same region as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter; this is really the epicentre of technology.

“Since we released OI Track and SN Track, we have been able to secure exclusive contracts with a number of high hi tech companies and large insurance companies throughout California.”

OI Track gives the firm s clients the ability to monitor their cases in real time. They can look at digital evidence online in a secure site, our developers, based here and overseas developed a very secure site where clients can log in, look at the digital evidence and get real-time updates from the field, Robinson explains.

“For example, if an investigator is following somebody, the client wants to know what’s happening in real time. We use GPS technology to track our investigators.

“We utilise a smartphone app, which communicates with OI Track, and our investigators can provide data from the field, again in real time. The client can see what’s happening on the case and be able to aggregate the necessary information. After the investigation, there is also an invoicing component. Everything our client needs is available to them. The info is also archived so they can access it later.

Prior to OI Track and SN Track, Optimal Intelligence was doing things the old-fashioned way – a somewhat inappropriate approach in the digital age. “Before this system, we were going back to cops and robbers,” Robinson says. “Agents would be using paper

16 Corporate Vision January 2015

Strategy: Minding Your Business

and pen, recording devices, cameras and so on to document activity. This would be sent via snail mail, meaning it was not secure. Now we work with the new paperless digital format, meaning that different parts of a client s company can access it, as can legal firms.

“The SN Track part of our system allows us to track, in real time, a subject s activity in a public domain. If we are tracking somebody that stole a car, for example, we could track them and their activity in real time. We could look for certain keywords, in real time on the world wide web.”

Over the past 12 months, Optimal Intelligence has redeveloped and will be releasing a new smartphone application for its clients and investigators, the firm has another suite of technology that is in beta form.

“We are working with a number of new clients that are wanting to sign contracts with us to provide our technology and services,” Robinson says. We’re considering releasing our OI Track technology to other companies. Those are areas that we’re looking at in 2015 and beyond. We are also providing training to other firms and our clients in terms of fraud proceedings and how to use technology.”

2014 was Optimal Intelligence’s best year so far.

“It was our highest grossing year and we continued to grow our business with new employees and new acquisitions of technology,” Robinson says.

And, with more and more companies falling victim to cybercrime, Optimal Intelligence’s technology-led approach will continue to reap results, he says. “We are finding that, industry wide, traditional crimes and means of investigation have remained quite stagnant but online fraud has increased. We’re finding a lot more breaches of corporation servers. The important thing to understand is that Federal government or law enforcement don’t have a large budget with regards to corporate crime. Obviously if a government is hacked, then the FBI will jump in, but if you’re a small company that has been embezzled out of quarter of a million dollars, they typically would work with a firm like ours. They also don’t want that information in the public domain. They want it to be confidential so that it doesn’t impact their business.

“Over the next year, companies like ours that are making technology available to other firms will remain relevant and be able to compete,” he says. “We see the next decade as being very robust for growth in our industry, particularly if we continue to implement and use technology. There are many other companies in our space but we would be an excellent asset to any client that wants to use us in their investigation. Our track record of proving cases and accessing data to be able to win cases for our clients is very strong, and can be seen as a benchmark for other firms to follow.”

“

Before this system, we were going back to cops and robbers.

”

January 2015 Corporate Vision 17

Strategy: The Questions All Directors Should Ask Their Marketing Teams

The Questions All Directors Should Ask Their Marketing Teams David Allmond, Co-Founder of marketing strategists, Peppered Moth Marketing, tells us how to ensure that our marketing strategy is properly developed, and budget is fully justified.

The marketing team should be constantly finding ways to improve their market insight to stay ahead of the competition.

2. How have we segmented the market?

In the hope of raising profile and revenue, companies, all too often, deploy marketing tactics in a haphazard way, throwing money at pay per click advertising, websites, social media, trade shows, and traditional advertising without a proper strategy.

It’s not easy to make investment decisions on departments where the expertise is far removed from your own. But just as your marketers should be asking questions of their customer, here are the seven questions you, as a director, can ask of your marketing department to ensure that your marketing strategy is properly developed, and budget is fully justified.

1. Is our strategy based on robust market insight?

Effective marketing strategies are founded on true market insight, which is dependent on quality data.

As they say, garbage in equals garbage out. Market insight is not about data or knowledge about the market though. It is about finding the rare gems of information about the market that other haven’t seen. These insights are unique and deliver value for the company.

Market insight can be obtained from primary market research, secondary research such as market reports, competitor monitoring and formally-collected data from within the company, e.g. through interviews with directors and customer-facing employees.

Great marketing is reliant upon properly segmenting the market – and a failure to do so is very common.

Strong marketing strategies target needs-based customer segments, while weaker strategies simply look at broad descriptor groups such as age, sex and geography.

The reality is - within these broad groups are many subgroups, some of which are likely to buy what you offer. Pareto’s 80/20 Rule applied to business suggests that 80% of sales will come from 20% of customers. That 20% needs to be isolated and defined by what they have in common e.g. what needs and motivations they have and what lifestyle factors they share.

That’s not to say that the remaining 80% should be ignored, as there may be other viable need-based segments to target within this heterogeneous group.

The point to remember is to spend time properly segmenting the market, honing in on groups defined by their specific needs, rather than just their gender or age.

3. How do our customer offerings differ for each customer group we target?

Once you’ve defined customer groups, the next stage is making them an offer, which is properly tailored to

18 Corporate Vision January 2015

their needs. In marketing speak, this is often called the proposition. Weaker marketing strategies tend to tweak standardised offerings for each customer group.

However, winning propositions are defined by three characteristics: 1. They are consistent with the needs, wants and motivations of the target segment 2. The actual product offering, the price charged, the places you sell through and promotions used are viewed as inter-related 3. They are coherent without any contradictions between product, price, place and promotion.

Contradictions confuse the customer and inhibit maximum profitable income.

4. What are the strategic options for growth and how do we prioritise them?

A brilliant marketing strategy will prioritise opportunities for growth, understand and leverage the company’ strengths in the external market, while negating its weaknesses.

A SWOT analysis evaluates strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Ask to see this and properly examine the level of detail and how it has been constructed and used to define strategy. All too often this is just a long list of good and bad points about the market with a few broad internally-perceived strengths and weaknesses. This happens because managers – in the thick of running the business and with passion for what they do – find it hard to be truly objective when defining their company’s strengths and weaknesses relative to their customers’ needs and relative

Strategy: The Questions All Directors Should Ask Their Marketing Teams

to their competition. They also struggle to correctly capture external opportunities for the business such as unmet customer needs and potential threats to the business or issues to manage. The most common sin of all in this regard is an inability or unwillingness to prioritise.

5. Does the marketing strategy anticipate future changes in the market?

Weak marketing strategies will focus only on the here and now and either ignore relevant, future market changes. Any market strategy should be designed to anticipate and adapt to broad changes in the external environment. This includes changes government policy, any social and technological changes, as well as views on changes in customer needs or the competition.

Your marketing team should have informed opinions on likely changes in the market, amongst your customers, about your competitors’ plans and within the channels you choose to sell and market through. For example, it would appear video rental chain Blockbuster could have done a better job at anticipating competition from the likes of Love Film and NetFlix and adapted their strategy accordingly. If they had, perhaps they would still be with us today.

6. How would you compare our product or service to our competitors’?

Pay attention to what your competition are doing, or rather, what it is that they’re not doing.

Weaker strategies will look at their competitors and offer the same things to the same people. They will copy an often-larger competitor, instead of being unique, in the hope there is enough market for everyone. Great marketing strategies, however, target different customers and make them tailored offerings in accordance with what their competitors are offering.

The need for marketing and selling expenditure is actually inversely proportional to how unique, desirable and essential your product or service is.

Marketing strategy uniqueness stems from how well your product or service meets customer needs compared to competitor offerings. In the absence of offering something different, huge and disproportionate amounts of money are spent trying to advertise more effectively than the competition or employing more sales representatives. In reality, this money and effort is better spent working out how to stand out from the crowd.

sales impact of it? You can’t always measure clear ROI, but you should at least be able to measure relevant business indicators. Remember that your marketing mix works in concert and the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

A way of doing this is monitoring both financial targets and non-financial performance indicators such as customer satisfaction, repeat orders and new enquiries. These provide invaluable insight into customer satisfaction, and the success of the brand, alongside the hard measures.

Pressure testing a strategy is essentially about asking whether the big marketing decisions have been made first, and are the assumptions behind them as robust as possible? For anyone in a director’s role, asking these questions will help to ensure that the allocated marketing budget is being spent most effectively, ultimately enabling the growth of the business.

7. What will our return on investment (ROI) be?

Effective marketing strategies always underpin the forecast for growth and show, or attempt to measure, clear returns on investment.

This is easier said than done though. Whilst the returns on some marketing tactics are relatively easy to measure, this isn’t the case with others. What if a national newspaper writes a great feature about your business? How are you going to measure the direct

January 2015 Corporate Vision 19

percentage of sales from 20% of customers...

80%

Strategy: All Work and No Play?

All Work and No Play?

Your misplaced work ethic could be damaging your team and your career…

As you follow your upward career trajectory, are you too willing to make personal sacrifices and out-work your competitors? It’s a common, but misplaced virtue, resulting in the accurate perception that many leaders are too task focused and not strategic enough.

A recent Gallup survey concluded that 82% of managers are “wrongly appointed”. And, says Kieran Hearty, executive coach, consultant and leadership speaker and author of How to Eat the Elephant in the Room, this misguided “work ethic” could be why.

“If effort and hard graft are the only tools in your management toolbox, then overwhelm, stress and burnout become ingrained in the culture you have created.

It’s unhealthy for you, your people, and damaging for results,” he says.

“Such an intense work focus often comes with an acute inability to see the wood for the trees and articulate clear goals that provide a specific measurable summary of the purpose of the work. The decision to prioritise work that is more important to you than for the good of the business is a recurring theme that lies at the heart of many workplace problems.”

If you think this applies to you, Hearty recommends you make three different decisions:

1. Focus on results. Delegate the tasks: Research shows that the value to the business of managers who do not assume proper responsibility for their new role falls dramatically. The manager who fails to do this is being lazy, because they prefer to continue with their old tasks rather than assume their new responsibility.

Required Decisions: Make the transition to manager and take full responsibility for the role. Get help in becoming skilful at writing great goals and how to express results in team performance plans. Make the decision to ‘let go’ of day to day work tasks, and ask your team to help you with this.

2. Focus on capability. Coach and develop team members: Recognise that the capability and motivation of individual team members may differ. Your success as a manager is a result of the quality and quantity of their output.

Investing your time in helping each team member become as brilliant at the job as you were is common sense.

Required decisions: Fill your calendar with regular coaching and development conversations with each team member. Develop your capability as a coach and results will follow.

3. Improve productivity overnight. Reduce meetings and email by 50%: Research has shown that most of us waste 20% of our time in unnecessary, poorly managed meetings, and another 20% dealing with large volumes of valueless emails.

20 Corporate Vision January 2015

Required Decisions: Learn about email etiquette, then rigorously apply it. Commit as a team to reduce the emails you send by 50%, and only read emails two or three times per a day, otherwise it becomes addictive.

Learn how to run effective well-structured meetings.

Get up and walk to a colleague’s desk for a quick chat rather than send an email or arrange a meeting.

Prioritise meetings with team members.

In the pursuit of sustainable excellence, great results, and healthier workplaces, Hearty believes that less becomes more. “Most of us already have strong commitment; let’s not get carried away by continuously striving to prove it. It’s simple common sense that’s good for business, and good for you.” //About the author// Kieran Hearty is an Executive Coach, Consultant and Leadership Speaker, with more than 30 years’ experience across international technology and financial services companies. He has designed many successful programmes, making a huge difference for the thousands of managers and leaders that he has coached and developed across the world. His book, How to Eat the Elephant in the Room, is out now.

percentage of managers “wrongly appointed”...

82%

Strategy: All Work and No Play?

January 2015 Corporate Vision 21

Money

24 An Expat’s Guide to Growing Wealth In his new book, The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing: From Millionaire Teacher to Millionaire Expat, Andrew Hallam offers some pointers on how those of us who have set up home abroad can still continue to grow our wealth for retirement.

In this extract, Andrew tells us why, for expats, index funds are an attractive investment – even if your financial advisor may tell you otherwise.

Money: Women and Wealth

An Expat’s Guide to Growing Wealth In his new book, The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing: From Millionaire Teacher to Millionaire Expat, Andrew Hallam offers some pointers on how those of us who have set up home abroad can still continue to grow our wealth for retirement. In this extract, Andrew tells us why, for expats, index funds are an attractive investment – even if your financial advisor may tell you otherwise. investors in the index fund would perfectly match the return of the Australian stock market before fees. Stated another way, investors in a total Australian stock market index would earn roughly the same return as the average Australian stock.

Global Investors Bleed by the Same Sword

An out‐of‐town visitor was being shown the wonders of the New York financial district. When the party arrived at the Battery, one of his guides indicated some handsome ships riding at anchor. He said, “Look, those are the bankers’ and brokers’ yachts.” “Where are the customers’ yachts?” asked the naïve visitor. — Fred Schwed, Where Are the Customers’ Yachts?

If you’ve never read an investment book before, chances are you’ve never heard of index funds. No, your financial advisor won’t likely discuss them. Index funds are flies in caviar dishes for most financial advisors. From their perspective, selling them to clients makes little sense. If they sell index funds, they make less money for themselves. If they sell actively managed mutual funds, advisors make more. It really is that simple. Most expats, however, should be interested in funding their own retirement, not somebody else’s.

The term index refers to a collection of something.

Think of a collection of key words at the back of a book, representing the book’s content. An index fund is much the same: a collection of stocks representing the content in a given market.

For example, a total Australian stock market index is a collection of stocks compiled to represent the entire Australian market. If a single index fund consisted of every Australian stock, for example, and nobody traded those index fund shares back and forth (thus avoiding transaction costs), then the profits for

Now toss a professional fund manager into the mix— somebody trained to choose the very best stocks for the given fund. Unfortunately, the fund’s performance will likely lag the stock market index. Most active funds do. Regardless of the country you choose, actively managed mutual funds sing the same sad song.

Professionally managed money represents nearly all of the money invested in a given market. Consequently, the average money manager’s return will equal the return of the market—before fees. Add costs, and we’re trying to run up that downward‐heading escalator.

Consider the UK market. According to a study published by the Oxford University Press, “Mutual Fund Fees around the World,” the average actively managed fund in Great Britain costs 2.28 percent each year, including sales costs. Regardless of the market, the average

“

I don’t sell my mutual funds on an annual basis, so I wouldn’t incur such costs when my funds make money.

”

24 Corporate Vision January 2015

Professionally-managed fund will underperform the market’s index in equal proportion to the fees charged.

Ron Sandler, former chief executive for Lloyds of London, reported a study for The Economist, suggesting that the average actively managed unit trust in Great Britain underperformed the British market index by 2.5 percent each year. It’s no coincidence that the average UK unit trust (mutual fund) cost British investors nearly 2.5 percent per year.

In Canada, Standard & Poor’s reported that 97.5 percent of actively managed Canadian stock market funds underperformed the Canadian stock market index from 2005 to 2010, thanks largely to the funds’ high management expenses. In South Africa, nearly 90 percent of actively managed unit trusts underperformed the South African stock index, as measured by the Satrix 40 exchange‐traded fund (ETF) during the five years ending 2010.

In Australia, according to the Standard & Poor’s Indices versus Active (SPIVA) funds scorecard, 72 percent of actively managed funds underperformed their indexed benchmarks over the three‐year period ending 2012. As for American expatriates, beating a portfolio of index funds with actively managed funds (especially after taxes) is about as likely as growing a third eye.

American Expatriates Run Naked Unlike most global expats, Americans can’t legally shelter their money in a country that doesn’t charge capital gains taxes. And actively managed mutual funds attract high levels of tax. There are two forms of American capital gains taxes. One is called short‐term ; the other, long‐term.

Short‐term capital gains are taxed at the investor’s ordinary income tax rate. Such taxes are triggered when

Money: Women and Wealth

a profitable investment in a non‐taxdeferred account is sold within one year.

I can hear what you’re thinking: “I don’t sell my mutual funds on an annual basis, so I wouldn’t incur such costs when my funds make money.” Unfortunately, if you’re an American expat invested in actively managed mutual funds, you sell without realizing it. Fund managers do it for you by constantly trading stocks within their respective funds. In a non‐tax‐sheltered account, it’s a heavy tax to pay.

Stanford University economists Joel Dickson and John Shoven examined a sample of 62 actively managed mutual funds with long‐term track records. Before taxes, $1,000 invested in those funds between 1962 and 1992 would have grown to $21,890. After capital gains and dividend taxes, however, that same $1,000 would have grown to just $9,870 in a high‐income earner’s taxable account. American expats must invest the majority of their money in taxable accounts.

Because index fund holdings don’t get actively traded, they trigger minimal capital gains taxes until investors are ready to sell. And even then, they’re taxed at the far more lenient long‐term capital gains tax rate.

About the author: In a 2009 New York Times article, “The Index Funds Win Again,” Mark Hulbert reported that Mark Kritzman, president and chief executive of Windham Capital Management of Boston, had conducted a 20‐year study on after‐tax performances of index funds and actively managed funds. He found that, before fees and taxes, an actively managed fund would have to beat an index fund by 4.3 percent a year just to match the performance of the index fund. Flying parrots will serve you breakfast before a portfolio of actively managed funds beats a portfolio of index funds (before fees) by 4.3 percent over an investment lifetime.

Researchers Richard A. Ferri and Alex C. Benke reported in their 2013 research paper, “A Case for Index Fund Portfolios,” that the slim number of portfolios that beat index funds before taxes between 2003 and 2012 did so with an annual advantage ranging between only 0.29 percent and 0.54 percent per year.

And that’s before taxes.

This is an edited extract taken from The Global Expatriate’s Guide to Investing: From Millionaire Teacher to Millionaire Expat.

January 2015 Corporate Vision 25

ANDREW HALLAM built a million-dollar investment portfolio on a high school teacher’s salary. He is the author of the best-selling book, Millionaire Teacher, which has sold more than 40,000 units to date. He is currently writing a regular investing column for Canada’s national paper, The Globe and Mail. He also writes frequently for Canadian Business Magazine, and for the U.S.-based financial service company, Assetbuilder.

Andrew is a regular on TV and radio and his website www.andrewhallam.com has become a beacon for expatriate investors from around the world.

percent per year the average UK unit trust (mutual fund) cost British investors...

2.5%

Parke Lawyers is an Australian legal practice committed to the highest standards of ethics and integrity and to providing quality, cost-effective legal services.

Parke Lawyers have developed a well-deserved reputation as a firm that gets results.

We provide a friendly, professional and confidential approach that offers commonsense and practical solutions. We achieve this by taking the initiative to identify potential problems and give advice designed to provide timely effective solutions.

We show our commitment to our clients through our global accreditation for security and legal best practice.

Be well advised

law@pl.com.au

www.pl.com.au

We speak: English, German, Greek & Italian

Melbourne

|

Sydney

|

Brisbane

|

Adelaide

SME

28 Doing Good, While Doing Well Clare Jones, from UK-based corporate finance firm, ClearlySo, looks at why social impact matters for high-growth SMEs.

SME: Doing Good, While Doing Well

ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com

Doing Good, While Doing Well Clare Jones, from UK-based corporate finance firm, ClearlySo, looks at why social impact matters for high-growth SMEs

Today’s startups and SMEs are looking to grow in a unique environment, where governments are putting money behind impact and sustainability is increasingly on the corporate agenda. Giants like Unilever are putting their stake in the ground with their 2020 Sustainable Living Plan, which focuses on how their business can improve global health and wellbeing, enhance livelihoods and reduce environmental impact.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a familiar term, with many big companies churning out reports each year to demonstrate their professed commitment to environmental or social causes while making big profits.

For many entrepreneurs, this world of CSR can seem removed from the reality of running their business as they look to scale. Some consider sustainability only because it might support efficiency or cost-savings. With a focus on fast growth in a competitive environment, social and environmental impact may not seem a priority for an entrepreneur growing a business. Increasingly, however, the businesses of the future are looking beyond purely for-profit models and considering the impacts their businesses can have on entrenched social problems. They also have the ability to set up a nimble, flexible business that is focused on impact from the beginning; a global retail company that wants to ensure fair labour policies or environmental protection throughout its supply chain faces a huge challenge – where a small fast-growing business like fashion company Rapanui in the UK has its commitment to sustainability embedded in the core mission of the organisation.

Across the world, these high-impact businesses take many forms. Some are B-Corps, a form constituted in the US, which boasts mission-focused ice cream

company Ben and Jerry’s among its number. In the UK, there is the Community Interest Company, which includes an asset lock to ensure its profits are reinvested into the community. Others might be companies limited by guarantee or by shares, like Tiny Diner, which sells healthy baby food and uses its profits to support survivors of violence, or Aduna, which sells superfood products that create sustainable livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. It can even include charities like London’s 100-year old LEYF, which recently raised £1.25m investment to grow its innovative business model that uses profits from nurseries in high-income areas to subsidise those in areas of deprivation.

Research by SEUK has also suggested that those start-ups that are focused on tackling social challenges may in fact be in a better position in times of economic hardship than those who do not – in their 2013 report, they discovered that 38% of “social enterprises” saw an increase in turnover, compared to just 29% of SMEs on average. As businesses try to plan for the future, those that are tackling the biggest challenges of the next decade – from climate change to water shortages or social inequality – are forming an essential part of the business landscape.

This also matters for SMEs because investors are turning their attention to social impact too. From a movement towards Socially Responsible Investing (screening a portfolio, for example, for negative environmental or social impacts), the past five years has seen a surge in the more active “impact investment”. This means investors seeking to invest in businesses that are creating positive impacts – not only avoiding those creating significantly negative ones. These impact investors are a growing minority, and include individuals – often investing through angel networks like Clearly Social Angels in the UK and Investors’ Circle in the US – institutions and impact funds. Philanthropic foundations are also backing impact investment – giving entrepreneurs access to new sources of capital if they are focused on creating change. With new financial products emerging, including Social Impact Bonds and Development Impact Bonds, investors are finding they

28 Corporate Vision January 2015

SME: Doing Good, While Doing Well

percentage of young people who said they wanted to work for businesses with ethical practices...

50%

have increasing choice in how to deploy their capital so that it creates social as well as financial return.

Incentives for high-net-worth individual investors are being rolled out in the UK, where the 2014 Autumn Statement revealed plans to expand the government’s Social Investment Tax Relief scheme, which allows investors to claim income tax relief on impact investments into certain legally-defined “social enterprises”.

This follows on from the setting up of Big Society Capital, the world’s first social investment bank, which is using its £600m of equity capital to stimulate the UK impact investment market.

Bill Gates has even started impact investing. He recently invested into Unitus Seed Fund, to close this US-Indian impact fund’s $20m capital raising round.

Unitus made fourteen investments in its first year, usually of $100,000- $250,000. Businesses they have invested in include Mumbai dental clinics for low-income patients and a company that connects traditional Indian artisans with customers to support the continuation of craft-based livelihoods across the country. Bill Gates, when commenting on his investment, explained, “Impact investing is a powerful model with the potential to build markets and drive change for the people who need it most”.

SMEs that care about impact, who can report on it, and who are accountable for how they shape the communities around them as they grow, are therefore increasingly appealing to investors. Some may even be willing to take a higher level of risk or accept lower returns if they can see the strong potential for social impact. The high emphasis of values-alignment between investors and entrepreneurs in impact investing is also significant for SMEs looking to grow; by raising capital clearly demarcated as impact investment, they ensure that the investors who will own part of the business and influence its growth are also driven by a mission for change.

Even aside from raising capital from the right investors, SMEs cannot afford to ignore impact; Deloitte’s 20145 Millenial Survey found that 50% of young people said they wanted to work for businesses with ethical practices. Business schools around the world are increasingly focusing on social innovation and impact, and Oxford University’s internationally-acclaimed Saïd Business school offers three ‘social entrepreneurship’ courses as part of its MBA. If the workforce of the future cares about social and environmental impact, the businesses that want to recruit the brightest and best cannot afford to ignore it.

Entrepreneurs, then, cannot leave the sustainability question to large corporations like Unilever. Without awareness of the impact their own businesses are having and accountability for that impact, they will lose their competitive advantage to other companies who are willing to actively create positive change in their communities. Whether a company reinvests all its profits in the local community, designs innovative ways to tackle climate change, or employs disadvantaged people to create sustainable jobs, if it can prove it is offering a real solution to a social or environmental problem, it has a real chance to meet a market need and do good – while doing well.

Clare Jones works at ClearlySo, a UK-based corporate finance firm specialising in impact investment.

January 2015 Corporate Vision 29

Lifestyle

32 A Perfect Hideaway Set in lush tropical gardens and bordering a secluded white sandy beach, the Sarojin, in idyllic Khao Lak, Thailand, is a supremely peaceful and refined resort.

An Inspired Escape

Ritz-Carlton The Ritz-Carlton, Bali embodies the brand’s dedication to iconic service, whilst combining the warmth and spirituality of true Indo-Balinese hospitality.

An Inspired Escape: The Ritz-Carlton, Bali

Located on the southern tip of Nusa Dua, Bali – a tropical paradise where the sea is calm, the sand is pristine white and the luxury of serenity prevails – The Ritz-Carlton, Bali blends into the lush landscape, gently enlivening the senses.

The resort is set on 12.7 hectares of expansive and beautifully manicured beach-front and cliff-top land.

With 313 hotel rooms, including 34 cliff-top and ocean view villas, the luxury resort offers a dramatic location along the sweeping coastline of Nusa Dua’s southern tip. Of its many memorable features, the 180-degree unobstructed views of the Indian Ocean are undeniably a highlight, with a 70 metre high glass elevator providing guests with access to the beach, ensuring views of the lush landscape and exquisite scenery are strikingly omnipresent.

The Ritz-Carlton, Bali embodies the brand’s dedication to iconic service, whilst combining the warmth and spirituality of true Indo-Balinese hospitality, set to attract global affluent travellers from couples, bridal parties and honeymooners, to group, meetings and conference guests.

The luxury resort reinforces The Ritz-Carlton’s commitment to inspiring life’s most meaningful journeys, with authentic and harmonious experiences and indigenous design elements. Embracing local symbolism, a central theme to the property is the Tree of Life, known to locals as ‘Kalpataru’, which represents strength, wisdom, and beauty, and is prevalent throughout the resort and grounds, providing the fullest appreciation for the beauty of life. Decor is “Anyaman” style, coupled with design influences from local craftsmen and the surrounding landscape, creating an exceptional environment that is as elegant as it is rustic.

Led by a highly skilled culinary team, The Ritz-Carlton, Bali features six restaurants and lounges, offering an authentic gastronomic journey, combining the finest local ingredients with international influences. Bejana, the property’s soon-to-open Indonesian restaurant, will offer the Culinary Cave – a unique epicurean learning experience with programs personally tailored to suit groups and individuals. The Beach Grill, set along the shore, offers seafood and grill specialties alongside stunning views of the Indian Ocean. The innovative food and beverage portfolio is completed by Raku, a Japanese Lounge & Bar, The Ritz-Carlton Lounge &

Bar, which serves the finest selections of premium tea, Senses, an all-day dining restaurant, and Breezes Tapas Lounge which serves light snacks and Tapas by the pool.

For an unforgettable family vacation in Bali, Ritz Kids is housed in a dedicated building, delightfully created with young explorers in mind, with play and study spaces as well as a private pool. The Ritz-Carlton Club Level includes a private pool and sun deck exclusively for club guests, whilst The Ritz-Carlton Spa, opening soon, will offer a distinctive wellness experience that is truly Balinese in nature. Surrounded by lush foliage, the spa will consist of 14 serene treatment rooms seamlessly incorporating indoor and outdoor spaces.

A stunning oceanfront wedding chapel makes the property the venue of choice for island weddings, while meeting facilities for up to 200 guests provide for an endless variety of corporate and private events.

The Ritz-Carlton, Bali is located 30 minutes from Ngurah Rai International Airport and is just minutes away from the Jimbaran Bay, Pecatu and Uluwatu area, as well as cultural sites including Jatiluwih and Ubud.

Ritz Carlton Web: www.ritzcarlton.com/bali

34 Corporate Vision November 2014

January 2015 Corporate Vision 35