Podcasts about zurich insurance

Allen Kirsh, head of claims, judicial and legislative affairs, Zurich Insurance, discusses the growing impact of social inflation and legal-system abuse on insurance, and how his team is working with policymakers and industry leaders to champion meaningful tort reform.

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.   Justin and his guest, Jeff Strege, Senior Director for Risk Management at Academy Sports + Outdoors, explore what led Jeff to risk management, and the path that led to Academy Sports + Outdoors within the sporting goods and outdoor retail space. Jeff comments on his work building out the ERM framework at Academy to improve claims management, employee safety, and liability prevention. Jeff shares his approach to workers' compensation and Academy Sports + Outdoors's goal to help the workers recover and return to work. In addition to career insights, they discuss Jeff's upcoming panel participation in HUB's webinar on April 17th, “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach,” covering topics such as third-party litigation funding and its impact on the industry.   Listen to Jeff's wisdom, born from experience, on managing your risk career. Key Takeaways: [:01] About RIMS and RIMScast. [:14] Registration is open for RISKWORLD 2025. Engage Today and Embrace Tomorrow with RIMS, from May 4th through May 7th in Chicago, Illinois. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD. [:25] After you register, visit your App Store, search for RIMS Events, and download the RIMS Events App. Select RISKWORLD 2025, load the show onto your phone, and start building your RISKWORLD itinerary! [:41] About this episode of RIMScast. Our guest is former RIMS Houston Chapter President, Jeff Strege. We will talk about his career and how ERM continues to play a pivotal role today. [1:08] RIMS-CRMP Workshops! As part of RIMS's continuing strategic partnership with Purima, we have a two-day course coming up on April 22nd and 23rd. Links to these courses can be found through the Certification page of RIMS.org and this episode's show notes. [1:28] Virtual Workshops! On June 12th, Pat Saporito will host “Managing Data for ERM” and will return on June 26th to present the very popular new course, “Generative AI for Risk Management”. [1:45] A link to the full schedule of virtual workshops can be found on the RIMS.org/education and RIMS.org/education/online-learning pages. A link is also in this episode's show notes. [1:56] RISKWORLD registration is open. Engage Today and Embrace Tomorrow, from May 4th through 7th in Chicago. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD. Also, remember that there will be lots of pre-conference workshops being held in Chicago just ahead of RISKWORLD. [2:14] These courses include “Applying and Integrating ERM,” “Captives as an Alternate Risk Financing Technique,” “Contractual Risk Transfer,” “Fundamentals of Insurance,” “Fundamentals of Risk Management,” RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep, and more! The links are in the show notes. [2:33] The Spencer Educational Foundation is having a Flash Sale for sponsorships at RISKWORLD! Sponsorship pricing has been reduced for the Spencer-CNA Pickleball Social on Saturday, May 3rd, and the Spencer-Gallagher Golf Tournament on Sunday, May 4th. [2:51] Sponsorships are still available for the Spencer-Sedgwick 5K Fun Run on Tuesday, May 6th. Visit Spencered.org/riskworld2025 to learn about these opportunities and more. Also, reach out to Spencer's Executive Director Megan Miller at MMiller@Spencered.org. [3:13] Our guest today is Jeff Strege. He is the Senior Director for Risk Management at Academy Sports + Outdoors. Academy is one of the U.S.'s largest sporting goods and outdoor stores with 301 locations across 21 states, as of March 2025. [3:33] Jeff is also a long-time RIMS member. He's the former president of the RIMS Houston Chapter and is a RIMS-CRMP holder. [3:41] In addition to his outstanding resume, Jeff will be lending his insight to the RIMS Webinar on April 17th, presented by HUB in their Ready for Tomorrow series. It's called “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach.” A link is in the notes. [4:01] In today's RIMScast interview, we will discuss how ERM has played a role in his career and how he manages risk in so many locations at the Academy. We will get a preview of his upcoming appearance on the Hub webinar and his thoughts on third-party litigation funding and its impact. [4:27] Interview! Jeff Strege, welcome to RIMScast! [4:45] As a Houstonian, Jeff grew up with Academy Sports + Outdoors. He's a long-term customer. In September 2020, Jeff promoted himself from customer to team member, although he still is an avid customer of Academy. [5:07] As the Academy brand is so well-known and beloved in Texas, Jeff has had the Risk Director role on his radar for many years. He had told his wife many times that if that role ever opened up at Academy, he would want to talk to them. In mid-2020, it did, and here he is! [5:29] Academy has 301 stores across 21 states as of March 7, 2025, and is headquartered in Katy, Texas, a Western suburb of Houston. Jeff graduated from Katy High School. [6:23] Academy Sports + Outdoors sells fun. They say “Have fun out there.” The items Academy sells are intended to help people be outdoors and active. Academy does a lot of work around product safety with manufacturers and suppliers, making sure they're sourcing safe products. [6:45] Academy Sports + Outdoors sells firearms and ammunition. Its goal is to be the most responsible retailer of those items in the country. [7:13] Academy Sports is responsible for following the laws of 21 states. Jeff has worked for national, multi-national, and global organizations, so he has worked with similar requirements. [7:48] Jeff worked for Sysco twice, first in the 90s and then in 2016 in a risk role similar to his current role at Academy Sports. Sysco went on a growth initiative while Jeff was there the second time and it was fun to be part of that but he couldn't pass up the opening at Academy. [8:23] Academy Sports + Outdoors has a risk department of 10 who report to Jeff. Jeff oversees the Enterprise Risk Management framework, the Insurance and Data Analytic functions, the Safety functions, and the Claim Management functions. [8:50] Jeff has three direct reports and they have functional contributors who are assigned to and report to them. Jeff's management style is to find the best possible people he can find. He's not a micro-manager. All of his staff are solid professionals who are good at what they do. [9:14] That allows Jeff to focus on strategy and executing strategic objectives while the staff keeps things working from day to day. Jeff reports to the General Counsel. In other companies, Jeff has reported to the General Counsel, HR, Treasury, or Finance. [9:42] Risk can logically report up a variety of chains to the leadership of an organization, as it touches so many aspects of the business. [10:22] Relative to firearms sales, Academy Sports has a compliance team to manage the process. They do an outstanding job. [10:39] When Jeff arrived at Academy Sports, one of his charges was to mature the ERM framework across the various organizational functions. Having the opportunity to work on that made Jeff a student of the business, which is one of the Academy's values. [11:09] Coming into the business, Jeff was fortunate to receive a safety culture already well-entrenched in the distribution centers. That team has been retooled over the years and continues to evolve as it trains and supports the operators in safe practices in their work. [11:45] Academy workers' compensation goal is to help team members recover so they can come back to work. They take a deliberate approach to working with them so they get the treatment they need, their benefits are paid timely, and their questions are answered. [12:11] Academy made a TPA change a couple of years ago that's given them more proactive tools. Both safety and claims are processes that Academy Sports continues to fine-tune. [12:25] The foundational strategy is “safety first.” If you're talking about managing claims but not about safety, there's a miss there, in terms of managing risk. [13:01] Plug Time! During this interview, we discuss the RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2025, held from August 4th through the 6th in San Antonio, Texas, at the Henry  B. Gonzalez Convention Center. That's where we held RISKWORLD 2018. [13:22] The day of this episode's release, April 15th, is the day registration opens for the RIMS Texas Regional Conference. You can get the Advance Rate from now through May 16th, 2025. A link is in this episode's show notes. You can also visit the events page of RIMS.org to register. [13:43] If you will be in the Dallas/Fort Worth area on April 17th, be sure to stop by Lonestar Park for DFW RIMS's 7th Annual Night at the Races. It will be a blast! Guest, Member, and Student tickets are available. Visit DFWRIMS.org and the link in this episode's show notes. [14:12] Let's Return to My Interview with Former RIMS Houston Chapter President Jeff Strege! [14:32] Jeff arrived at Academy Sports on Monday, September 28, 2020, and the company executed its Initial Public Offering on Friday, October 2nd, 2020. In preparing for the IPO, the company had built an ERM framework that helped inform the prospectus for investors. [14:59] When Jeff joined, he was charged with taking the framework foundation and building upon it to round out how Academy Sports views risk, scopes it, and manages it across the organization. It was a fascinating process. [15:21] He's gotten to know many good, smart people who are driving aspects of the business. [15:28] Every year, Academy Sports looks at ways to enhance the framework, to make sure it's as meaningful and informative to the leadership team and board as it can be. [15:54] The framework looks at ISO standards but most of it is inward-focused within the business of Academy Sports. What's going on in the world? How do we prevent or prepare for it? Should something occur, what strategies do we have to respond, react to, and recover from it? [16:39] Before the recent tariffs were passed, the risk team had discussed tariffs generically. Tariffs appear as subsidiary risks in a few places within the framework. Nobody in an organization can control what government leaders do. [17:22] In a way, sporting goods is a seasonal industry. Academy Sports + Outdoors sells a variety of different things and operates in a variety of climates. There's a holiday season and there are gift-giving holidays. The seasons for outdoor activities differ depending on location. [17:54] In Texas, Jeff grills and fishes year-round. It's different in a Northern climate with four distinct seasons. Hunting seasons are specifically defined. The things Academy Sports sells peak at different times of the year and the peaks sort of offset themselves. [18:25] The Academy Sports merchandising teams are diligent and deliberate in how they plan for cycling products for the seasons. [18:44] Holiday is the big season. In that, Academy Sports is like other retailers. Back-to-school time is also important. [18:57] The backyard grilling is Jeff's favorite section of the store. When he goes into the store with his wife he has to look at some grills. Jeff also works out and runs so there are several aspects of the store that he shops. [19:16] Academy sells location-specific licensed apparel. In Academy Sports + Outdoors in Houston, there is gear for the Astros, Texans, and Rockets. [19:49] From the standpoint of team member safety, Jeff refers to OSHA. Also, some states have more stringent safety requirements. Jeff's safety team drives consistency of practices and training across the footprint of the 21 states where Academy Sports + Outdoors operates. [20:36] Most of Jeff's work is done in Houston but his team gets out in the field periodically on a schedule. Jeff likes to go into the stores and distribution centers. That's where the business occurs. The work at Corporate supports the people who serve and interact with customers. [21:10] RIMS Webinars! Following the success of their recent webinar, HUB International returns for the next installment of their Ready for Tomorrow Series, “From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach”. That session will be on April 17th. [21:29] Today's guest, Jeff Strege, is a panelist in that session! He's going to talk about it a little bit right after the break. [21:38] On April 24th, RiskConnect returns to deliver “Better Together: The Marriage of Insurable Risk and Business Continuity”. [21:45] Zurich's webinar, “Understanding Third Party Litigation Funding” was rescheduled to May 1st at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. If you were already registered for the original date, you are now registered for the May 1st session with Zurich. [22:09] On May 22nd, GRC, a TÜV SÜD Company, presents their newest session, “Asset Valuations in 2025: Managing Tariffs, Inflation, and Rising Insurance Scrutiny”. [22:22] More webinars will be announced soon and added to the RIMS.org/webinars page. Go there to register. Registration is complimentary for RIMS members. [22:33] Let's Return to my Interview with Jeff Strege! [22:46] Jeff will be joining RIMS on the HUB webinar about third-party litigation funding (TPLF) on April 17th, two days after the airing of this episode. Third-party litigation funding is a major issue for RIMS and the profession. [23:08] Academy Sports + Outdoors sees TPLF from time to time in litigated matters, but not often. The HUB webinar is largely focused on rising litigation costs and the rising value of litigated matters. Third-party funding is a driving force of that rise. [23:35] When there's a funding mechanism behind the damages claim by a plaintiff, there are interest obligations with that mechanism, which can be stiff. It does inflate the value of some matters. [24:13] Once Academy Sports + Outdoors learns third-party funding is present in a litigated matter, that's in the front of mind as they evaluate and proceed with trying to conclude the case. [24:32] In the HUB webinar on April 17th, Jeff will be discussing the client's experience, not only with TPFL but also around social engineering. There is a good panel put together for this discussion with varied perspectives that will offer a well-rounded conversation. [24:55] Panelist Bob Tyson of Tyson & Mendes, a defense lawyer in California, has creative approaches to managing and negotiating litigated cases. Panelist John Ferguson, Head of Excess Casualty at Zurich Insurance, brings an insurer's perspective to the webinar. [25:29] Panelist Carol Murphy of HUB is one of the best brokers Jeff has worked with. Jeff is looking forward to sharing the stage with this group, talking about managing claims litigation, prevention, and pre-litigation management. Safety is critical. Jeff will bring that up. [26:02] The link to the webinar is in the show notes. Register today! Registration is complimentary for RIMS members! You'll hear this webinar live with Jeff Strege of Academy Sports, Fred Ferguson of Zurich, Bob Tyson of Tyson & Mendes, and Carol Murphy of HUB. [26:34] Jeff has been involved with RIMS since the mid-1990s when he was with Sysco Foods for the first time and was elevated to the risk management role there. Starting with Houston, Jeff has been involved in various chapters in various capacities. [27:07] RIMS has been an important part of Jeff's career. He's gained solid relationships through RIMS that have yielded business relationships and relationships where he's been able to help others and be helped by them. RIMS will be very important to him as long as he works in risk. [27:51] Jeff was President of RIMS Houston for two years, until January of 2024. He serves on the board as Past President. [28:12] Having moved around the country and having held different roles, Jeff has met risk professionals from many areas. He says RIMS has high-quality chapters all over the country. The four Texas RIMS chapters have a lot of positive energy. [28:47] The chapters are working together with Justin's team in New York to host the first-ever Texas RIMS Regional Conference this August. Jeff is on the planning committee and he's excited about it. [29:04] The RIMS Texas Regional Conference will be held from August 4th through the 6th at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, on the River Walk, the site of RISKWORLD 2018. San Antonio is Jeff's favorite city in Texas. It's a wonderful host city. [29:30] There is a link in the show notes to the RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2025. Registration will open the week of the airing of this episode! [29:49] Jeff is a RIMS-CRMP holder. He earned that certification in November of 2019. He was excited to see RIMS introduce the certification. What he likes about CRMP is its governance focus. [30:23] Jeff had been doing risk management for a long time. The CRMP website has good sample test questions on it. He decided to work through the test questions several times. Then went and took the exam and scored pretty well, largely based on his experience. [30:48] Jeff says his ERM work over the years was helpful. The RIMS-CRMP is a good designation. Jeff appreciates that RIMS gives CRMP holders opportunities to network. He will continue to carry the designation as long as he is working. [31:09] Mos recertification points are CE-related. Jeff relies heavily on the Houston chapter's offerings and the sessions and seminars at RIMS functions. He appreciates the flexibility in terms of what qualifies, such as participation in broker-sponsored industry education. [31:50] Developing and delivering educational content is a favorite of Jeff's. He has served as Risk Manager in Residence (now Risk Manager on Campus). Jeff tells every risk manager it's amazing and they need to do it at least once. Jeff enjoys education and is always learning. [32:24] Jeff shares his advice for risk professionals. As Boomers in the industry start to retire, it's important to help the industry recruit, train, and young talent. It's a passion of Jeff's. [32:52] There are a few things Jeff would tell young professionals. One is you are the CEO of your career. Your career is your responsibility. Don't wait for a leader to bring opportunities or promotions to you. Be a student of your craft and trade. Set goals with plans to achieve them. [33:20] Jeff has managed his career that way by making strategic moves when it made sense for him to do so. He has no regrets. You're the CEO of your career, all in. Don't wait for others to act on your behalf. Whatever it is, be a student of your craft and seek opportunities to learn. [33:45] Grow your knowledge base, your experience, and your network. Jeff has benefited from RIMS in having a network of people who lean on each other and learn from each other. It's a wonderful thing! [33:58] Be a student of your business, wherever it is. Make connections within it. Seek out mentorships to learn on a broad basis what the business does and what its objectives are. You position yourself more visibly to add more value and to grow. [34:29] Jeff Strege, you have been such an inspiration today. I appreciate you so much for joining us here on RIMScast and being so giving with your time and wisdom! I look forward to seeing you at the first-ever Texas Regional 2025, August 4th through 6th in San Antonio! [34:48] Special thanks again to Jeff Strege for joining us here today on RIMScast! I look forward to seeing him at many RIMS events, including the first-ever RIMS Texas Regional Conference 2025, which will be held from August 4th through the 6th in San Antonio, Texas. [35:05] Register today through the link in this episode's show notes. [35:12] Plug Time! You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in the show notes. [35:37] RIMScast has a global audience of risk and insurance professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let's collaborate and help you reach them! Contact pd@rims.org for more information. [35:56] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information. [36:13] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today's risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more. [36:29] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com. It is written and published by the best minds in risk management. [36:43] Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org. [36:50] Thank you all for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!   Links: RISKWORLD 2025 — May 4‒7 | Register today! Download the RIMS Events app! Spencer's RISKWORLD Events — Register or Sponsor! RIMS Texas Regional 2025 – August 3‒5 | Advance registration rates are now open. DFW RIMS - 7th Annual Night at the Races / Lone Star Park – April 17, 2025 RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Risk Management magazine RIMS Now The Strategic and Enterprise Risk Center Spencer Educational Foundation — General Grants 2026 — Application Dates Announcement: RIMS and The Institute for Internal Auditors' Strategic Alliance on Education Nominations for the Donald M. Stuart Award [Canada] RIMS Webinars: RIMS.org/Webinars “Ready for Tomorrow? From Defense to Prevention: Strengthening Your Liability Risk Management Approach” | Sponsored by Hub International | April 17, 2025 “Better Together: The Marriage of Insurable Risk and Business Continuity” | Sponsored by Riskonnect | April 24, 2025 “Understanding Third Party Litigation Funding” | Sponsored by Zurich | May 1, 2025 “Asset Valuations in 2025: Managing Tariffs, Inflation, and Rising Insurance Scrutiny” | Sponsored by GRC, a TÜV SÜD Company | May 22, 2025   Upcoming RIMS-CRMP Prep Virtual Workshops: RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep with PARIMA | April 22‒23 Full RIMS-CRMP Prep Course Schedule   Upcoming Virtual Workshops: “Managing Data for ERM” | June 12 | Instructor: Pat Saporito  “Generative AI for Risk Management” | June 26 | Instructor: Pat Saporito See the full calendar of RIMS Virtual Workshops RIMS-CRMP Prep Workshops   Related RIMScast Episodes: “Maintaining an Award-Winning ERM Program with Michael Zuraw” “Scenario Planning with the RIMS SERMC” “ERMotivation with Carrie Frandsen, RIMS-CRMP” “Risk Quantification Through Value-Based Frameworks” “Applying ERM Theory with Elise Farnham” “On Risk Appetite and Tolerance”   Sponsored RIMScast Episodes: “Understanding Third-Party Litigation Funding” | Sponsored by Zurich (New!) “What Risk Managers Can Learn From School Shootings” | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog (New!) “Simplifying the Challenges of OSHA Recordkeeping” | Sponsored by Medcor “Risk Management in a Changing World: A Deep Dive into AXA's 2024 Future Risks Report” | Sponsored by AXA XL “How Insurance Builds Resilience Against An Active Assailant Attack” | Sponsored by Merrill Herzog “Third-Party and Cyber Risk Management Tips” | Sponsored by Alliant “RMIS Innovation with Archer” | Sponsored by Archer “Navigating Commercial Property Risks with Captives” | Sponsored by Zurich “Breaking Down Silos: AXA XL's New Approach to Casualty Insurance” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Weathering Today's Property Claims Management Challenges” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Storm Prep 2024: The Growing Impact of Convective Storms and Hail” | Sponsored by Global Risk Consultants, a TÜV SÜD Company “Partnering Against Cyberrisk” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Harnessing the Power of Data and Analytics for Effective Risk Management” | Sponsored by Marsh “Accident Prevention — The Winning Formula For Construction and Insurance” | Sponsored by Otoos “Platinum Protection: Underwriting and Risk Engineering's Role in Protecting Commercial Properties” | Sponsored by AXA XL “Elevating RMIS — The Archer Way” | Sponsored by Archer   RIMS Publications, Content, and Links: RIMS Membership — Whether you are a new member or need to transition, be a part of the global risk management community! RIMS Virtual Workshops On-Demand Webinars RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP) RISK PAC | RIMS Advocacy RIMS Strategic & Enterprise Risk Center RIMS-CRMP Stories — Featuring RIMS President Kristen Peed!   RIMS Events, Education, and Services: RIMS Risk Maturity Model®   Sponsor RIMScast: Contact sales@rims.org or pd@rims.org for more information.   Want to Learn More? Keep up with the podcast on RIMS.org, and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.   Have a question or suggestion? Email: Content@rims.org.   Join the Conversation! Follow @RIMSorg on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.   About our guest: Jeff Strege, MBA, ARM, RIMS-CRMP, Sr. Director, Risk Management, Academy Sports + Outdoors   Production and engineering provided by Podfly.  

Paul Giliberto, head of management liability, private non-profit, Zurich Insurance, discusses the evolving private directors and officers insurance market, highlighting increased competition, the impact of M&A slowdowns and emerging risks such as rising bankruptcies and interest rate pressures. Giliberto spoke with AM Best TV at the PLUS D&O Symposium in New York City.

This week, Pat speaks with Andrew Prior, Digital Solutions Manager at Zurich Insurance. They discuss the challenges faced by advisers, and how Zurich is leveraging technology to streamline processes and enhance client experiences. Andrew also touches on the future of technology in risk advice and the importance of integration with adviser workflows. Andrew Prior LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-prior-112560a0/ The Adviser Portal: https://advisers.zurich.com.au/resources/adviser-portal Zurich Website: https://www.zurich.com.au/ A world of client engagement awaits you at Netwealth: https://ensombl.com/go/20250321 Join the Ensombl platform: App Store: http://www.ensombl.com/apple Google Play: http://www.ensombl.com/google Desktop: https://www.ensombl.com/ General Disclaimer – https://www.ensombl.com/disclaimer/

Die Allianz-Aktie hat eine starke Rallye hinter sich. Doch ist die Entwicklung nachhaltig, oder droht eine längere Konsolidierungsphase? Historische Kursverläufe zeigen, dass auf dynamische Anstiege häufig Seitwärtsbewegungen oder Korrekturen folgten. In dieser Analyse geht es um die entscheidende Frage: Geht die Aufwärtsbewegung weiter, oder sind die besten Zeiten vorerst vorbei? Ein zentraler Faktor bleibt die fundamentale Entwicklung der Allianz. Wie solide ist das Geschäftsmodell im aktuellen Marktumfeld? Welche Rolle spielen Dividende und Gesamtrendite im Vergleich zur Konkurrenz? Neben der Allianz stehen weitere Versicherungswerte wie AXA, Münchener Rück und Zurich Insurance im Fokus. Welche Aktie bietet das attraktivste Chance-Risiko-Profil – insbesondere für langfristig orientierte Anleger? Inhalt der Analyse:– Kursentwicklung: Ist weiteres Wachstum realistisch?– Fundamentale Kennzahlen: Wie hat sich das Geschäft entwickelt?– Dividende 2025: Stabilität und Attraktivität im Marktvergleich– Konkurrenzvergleich: Welche Versicherungsaktie eignet sich für welche Anlagestrategie?– Chancen und Risiken: Ist die Allianz-Aktie aktuell kaufenswert? Inhaltsverzeichnis00:00 Intro01:18 Langfristiger Chart: Allianz vs. Video aus 202302:43 Allianz inkl. Dividende04:52 Allianz vs. DAX05:22 Allianz vs. Muenchner Rueck vs. Zurich Insurance vs. AXA05:58 Kinsale Kapital07:18 Allianz: Quartalszahlen08:55 Schaden-Kosten-Quote (Combined Ratio)09:38 Top 10 Versicherer Weltweit10:33 Versicherungs Markt im Überblick11:03 Burggraben: Allianz13:14 Inhaberschaft & CEO13:59 Umsatz- & Margen-Entwicklung vs. Video aus 202314:54 Umsatz nach Segment & Region16:01 Gewinn, Cashflow & Dividenden-Entwicklung vs. Video aus 202317:12 Bilanz-Überblick & Aktienrückkäufe18:54 Kennzahlen-Überblick (KGV)19:41 Dividenden20:49 Unternehmensbewertung: Allianz vs. Video aus 202321:56 Chartanalyse: Allianz vs. Video aus 202322:48 Ist die Allianz Aktie ein Kauf?25:45 Disclaimer26:31 Danke fürs Einschalten! Zusammenarbeit anfragenhttps://www.maximilian-gamperling.de/termin/ Social Media- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maximilian_gamperling/- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gamperling/- Newsletter: https://www.maximilian-gamperling.de/newsletter- Podcast: https://akademie.maximilian-gamperling.de/podcasts/anker-aktien-podcast Meine Tools- Charts*: https://de.tradingview.com/?aff_id=117182- Aktienfinder: https://aktienfinder.net- Finchat.io*: https://finchat.io/?via=maximilian- TransparentShare: https://bit.ly/3laA6tK- SeekingAlpha*: https://www.sahg6dtr.com/QHJ7RM/R74QP/- Captrader*: https://www.financeads.net/tc.php?t=41972C46922130T DisclaimerAlle Informationen beruhen auf Quellen, die wir für glaubwürdig halten. Trotz sorgfältiger Bearbeitung können wir für die Richtigkeit der Angaben und Kurse keine Gewähr übernehmen. Alle enthaltenen Meinungen und Informationen dienen ausschließlich der Information und begründen kein Haftungsobligo. Regressinanspruchnahme, sowohl direkt, wie auch indirekt und Gewährleistung wird daher ausgeschlossen. Alle enthaltenen Meinungen und Informationen sollen nicht als Aufforderung verstanden werden, ein Geschäft oder eine Transaktion einzugehen. Auch stellen die vorgestellten Strategien keinesfalls einen Aufruf zur Nachbildung, auch nicht stillschweigend, dar. Vor jedem Geschäft bzw. vor jeder Transaktion sollte geprüft werden, ob sie im Hinblick auf die persönlichen und wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse geeignet ist. Wir weisen ausdrücklich noch einmal darauf hin, dass der Handel mit Aktien, ETFs, Fonds, Optionen, Futures etc. mit grundsätzlichen Risiken verbunden ist und der Totalverlust des eingesetzten Kapitals nicht ausgeschlossen werden kann.Aussagen über zu erwartende Entwicklungen an Finanzmärkten, insbesondere Wertpapiermärkten und Warenterminbörsen, stellen NIEMALS EINE AUFFORDERUNG ZUM KAUF ODER VERKAUF VON FINANZINSTRUMENTEN dar, sondern dienen lediglich der allgemeinen Information. Dies ist selbst dann der Fall, wenn Beiträge bei wörtlicher Auslegung als Aufforderung zur Durchführung von Transaktionen im o.g. Sinne verstanden werden könnten. Jegliche Regressinanspruchnahme wird insoweit ausgeschlossen. *Affiliate-Link #Allianz #Aktie #Börse

US President Trump remarked that a new trade deal with China is possible; EU's Sefcovic says they are prepared to talk about reducing the 10% US auto tariff FOMC Minutes showed various participants believed it might be appropriate to pause/slow balance sheet runoff given debt ceiling dynamics, supporting USTs.Fed's Jefferson said they can take their time weighing the next move and Goolsbee said inflation is too high, once it comes down rates can followFOMC Minutes weighed on the USD, while EUR & GBP were largely rangebound & USD/JPY hit a fresh YTD lowCommodities await clarity on tariffs and Ukraine; Trump continued critical language on Zelensky though rhetoric from US advisors was more constructiveAPAC traded mostly softer aside from China picking up on Trump's trade remarks, European bourses point to a slightly firmer openLooking ahead, highlights include US Initial Jobless Claims, Philly Fed Index, EU Consumer Confidence, NZ Trade, Australian PMI, Japanese CPI, Speakers including ECB's Makhlouf, Fed's Goolsbee, Musalem, Jefferson & Barr, Supply from Spain, France & US.Earnings from Alibaba, Walmart, Unity, Wayfair, Baxter, Rivian, Zealand Pharma, Airbus, Renault, Zurich Insurance, BE Semiconductor, Schneider Electric, Lloyds, Anglo American, Hargreaves Lansdown & Mercedes Benz.Click for the Newsquawk Week Ahead.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

Negative feedback is a gift; it provides the “gems that make sure you improve what you're doing and take it to the next level”, says Zurich Insurance's Conny Kalcher. The chief customer officer of the more than 150-year-old company should know, having spent the last few years focusing on driving customer-centric business transformation at Zurich and, before that, at Lego, where she was instrumental in helping the brand to redefine its purpose, transforming it from a toy factory into a company that ‘tells stories'. “It's important to embrace what customers are telling us, not try to explain it away or rationalise it, but really look it in the eye,” she says.Customer expectations of the insurance industry have changed dramatically in recent years, partly because of the disruptive impact of insurtechs but also because of the impact of digital-first companies more generally. “We could lean back and think we're different, we're insurance, but that's a false truism because today it's companies like Amazon and Netflix that set the standards,” says Kalcher. After all, if Amazon can deliver a parcel overnight why should you, as a customer of a legacy business, struggle to get your address changed or to get through to a human being on the phone?For Kalcher, the solution to increasing customer expectations has been to help move Zurich away from being a transactional company to one that connects with customers on both a functional and emotional level. This isn't an easy ask for an insurance firm, which aren't usually associated by consumers with being warm and fuzzy, but that's part of the point for Kalcher, who claims that in this way the company is able to “surprise and delight, which is really the space we want to be in”.And it's a strategy that seems to be paying dividends. The company is growing faster than the market, product density is up (in other words people buy more products), and, perhaps most importantly, says Kalcher, customers are happier.Credits:Presenter: Claire WarrenProducer: Inga MarsdenArtwork: David Robinson Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the final episode of Season 6, Scott Brown is joined by Katja Roth Pellanda, Group General Counsel at Zurich Insurance. Katja shares her journey from a corporate law associate to managing a global legal function of 500+ lawyers.Her story is a masterclass in career growth, highlighting how being visible, strategic, and vocal can elevate your career.Key Lessons from Katja:Visibility Matters:Early in her career, Katja focused solely on delivering exceptional legal work, believing it would be enough for recognition. However, she realised that visibility and storytelling were equally important for career advancement.Learn to Market Yourself:Katja speaks about shifting her mindset to actively communicate her value—not just in the quality of her legal advice, but in demonstrating leadership, innovation, and strategic thinking.Transforming Leadership:Katja's focus on visibility, paired with her curiosity and willingness to tackle challenges, has propelled her into a leadership role, managing a global legal function that spans continents and cultures.Standout Moments:How Katja balances being a strategic leader while fostering a collaborative team culture.The innovative initiatives her legal team is implementing, from secondments with UBS to internal leadership programmes.Her advice for legal professionals: Be more than a “working bee”—showcase your strategic value.Katja's Recommendations:Book: Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire by Rebecca Henderson – Insights into integrating sustainability with profitability.Podcast: Rethinking by Adam Grant – Thought-provoking conversations on leadership and innovation.About Heriot Brown:At Heriot Brown, we help lawyers find fulfilment in their careers. Beyond recruitment, we foster a thriving community of in-house legal professionals who share insights, experiences, and growth opportunities.

Customer Love is Data Love

Today's interview is with Sam Wilson, the CEO of 8x8, a provider of a unified cloud platform for contact center, business phone, video, chat, and APIs that helps companies of any size deliver differentiated customer experiences. I've spoken to Sam a couple of times, and every time, we have great conversations where we rummage around some of the big issues that organizations are facing when it comes to delivering against customer expectations. This one is no different and touches on everything from why brands are not keeping up with customers' expectations to what they should be doing to build loyalty and create lifetime customers. It was great fun so definitely check it out. This interview follows on from my recent interview – Building customer loyalty and a human connection in an increasingly competitive landscape – Interview with Conny Kalcher of Zurich Insurance – and is number 517 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Send me a Text Message hereFULL SHOW NOTES https://podcast.nz365guy.com/598  Ever wondered how to unlock the full potential of low-code platforms in a global organization? Join us for an engaging conversation with  Valentin Mazhar, an MVP awardee and M365 Solution Architect at Zurich Insurance, as he reveals his fascinating professional journey from Paris to Barcelona. Valentin's story is a tapestry of passions—from early love for math to a thriving career in digitalization, all the way to his current role in the Power Platform Center for Enablement. Alongside insights into his career, Valentin brings personal stories to life, sharing moments from his life like his transition from squash and mountain biking to becoming an avid runner on Barcelona's beaches, and his exciting personal milestones including marriage and expecting twins.In this episode, we dig deep into the critical debate around Power Platform governance and licensing. Valentin shares his expert perspective on the challenges and benefits of managed environments, the cost implications, and when it makes sense to invest in premium capabilities. We tackle the tricky balance between custom tools and out-of-the-box features, and the total cost of ownership (TCO) considerations for organizations. Whether you're a tech enthusiast eager to learn more about the Power Platform or simply someone who enjoys a mix of professional insights and personal narratives, this episode offers a rich blend of both.OTHER RESOURCES: Microsoft MVP YouTube Series - How to Become a Microsoft MVP Support the showIf you want to get in touch with me, you can message me here on Linkedin.Thanks for listening

Today's interview is with Conny Kalcher, Group Chief Customer Officer at Zurich Insurance. Conny joins me today to talk about her ambitions for Zurich to become the “Apple of Insurance”, her guiding philosophy around customer retention and revenue, how they are building customer loyalty and a human connection in an increasingly competitive landscape and some of the big trends and technologies that will drive and shape the future of customer experience. This interview follows on from my recent interview – If it matters for your customer, it's important – Interview with Tara DeZao, Simon Thorpe and James Dodkins of Pega – and is number 516 in the series of interviews with authors and business leaders who are doing great things, providing valuable insights, helping businesses innovate and delivering great service and experience to both their customers and their employees.

Timestamps: 2:00 - The insurance market so far 5:58 - The rise of AI tools 8:15 - Signing the first 4 commercial agreements 8:47 - Finding AI engineering talent 14:11 - Fundraising through the Swisspreneur Syndicate About Thomas Crawford & Daniel Delouya: Thomas Crawford is the co-founder and CEO of Bind, a startup providing AI-powered insurance targeting. He holds a BA in Geography and Economics from Durham University and previously worked for Zurich Insurance before joining Bind as a late co-founder in 2024. Daniel Delouya is the co-founder and COO of Bind. He previously co-founded two companies, the social discovery app Blume and the smart home automation platform G13, before starting Bind in 2022.  Bind makes it easy for businesses to better understand and target customers with relevant insurance products at scale. Their proprietary AI technology is wrapped in a simple-to-use API that businesses can implement with ease. They strategically leverage Switzerland's central location to facilitate seamless access to global markets. Bind is currently raising CHF 1.5M, part of which is being done through the Swisspreneur Syndicate. Check out our dealflow page to learn more about the deal. Don't forget to give us a follow on⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠and⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there's no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners.

Today I'm visiting Beech, in the county of Hampshire in south-east England to connect with our guest Mr David Roy-lance. David challenges all of us to think about how many of us feel we are really being paid the level of our worth, or value? And how many of us feel like the world's best kept secret? He then offers a little reality check by adding that we are all paid to the level of value that other's perceive in us. So who is David Roy-lance? Well he's an Amazon best selling author, award winning coach and the CEO of 2 businesses and provides business support to several others. He is Europe's No 1 smasher of the glass ceiling. His client base is typically women in senior roles in large corporates who find that the strategies they used to get the role they have now are not helping them get further up the management chain. What they get from David are the secrets of how your voice and body resonates so you can show up and shine. In December 2020 David was recognized as one of the top 40 influencers in the world by the Women in Banking and Finance Group for his assistance in helping women get promoted into the board room. His career began working as a professional actor and theatre director working alongside notables such as 007, Obi Wan Kenobi and the character Sergent Nicholas Brody of Homeland. While at drama college he met his first real mentor, Patsy Rodenburg, the world's no 1 voice coach, who helped him understand the power of the voice. Since that time David has accrued over 20 years of experience working with FTSE 250 companies, SMEs, entrepreneurs and charities. Aside from fast tracking woman onto Boards such as the RBS, his teaching skills have allowed executives to double their income within a week of intervention. He has also worked with Board room executives from Barclays, Standard Life and Coutts. He has delivered courses for staff at HSBC, Macquarie Bank, Zurich Insurance, American Express, Orange, Aviva and Turner Entertainment. David identifies 3 pillars as central to creating impact… “Posture, Voice and Energy” TEAM ET you may not be ready for it, but I even try my hand at a little piece of Shakespearean theatre. This is a fun conversation that explores how the world of drama entwines with the world of business So please join David and me as we discuss executive development techniques and David's book - “Be Seen, Be Heard, Get Paid What You Are Worth: From Invisible to Superstar”  Visit our website to access the full transcript, episode notes, and guest links - Coaching 4 Companies

My guest today is Rob Wolcott, Co-Founder & Chairman of TWIN Global. Rob is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Booth, and an Adjunct Professor in Executive Education at the Kellogg School of Management. He serves on the advisory board for the Open Innovation Lab of Norway; H-Farm, the leading digital innovation ecosystem in Italy. Wolcott is also a managing partner with Clareo, an innovation strategy consultancy serving senior executives at global corporations such as Exelon, BHP, Griffith Foods, Zurich Insurance, Owens Corning and others. The topic is his co-authored book Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Entrepreneurship vs traditional jobs Optionality and portfolio careers Digital technologies and proximity concept Innovation in supply chains Technological advancements Concentration of power in large platforms Role of dystopias and human behavior Preventive healthcare and technology Cultured meat and sustainability Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

My guest today is Rob Wolcott, Co-Founder & Chairman of TWIN Global. Rob is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Booth, and an Adjunct Professor in Executive Education at the Kellogg School of Management. He serves on the advisory board for the Open Innovation Lab of Norway; H-Farm, the leading digital innovation ecosystem in Italy. Wolcott is also a managing partner with Clareo, an innovation strategy consultancy serving senior executives at global corporations such as Exelon, BHP, Griffith Foods, Zurich Insurance, Owens Corning and others. The topic is his co-authored book Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life. In this episode of Trend Following Radio we discuss: Entrepreneurship vs traditional jobs Optionality and portfolio careers Digital technologies and proximity concept Innovation in supply chains Technological advancements Concentration of power in large platforms Role of dystopias and human behavior Preventive healthcare and technology Cultured meat and sustainability Jump in! --- I'm MICHAEL COVEL, the host of TREND FOLLOWING RADIO, and I'm proud to have delivered 10+ million podcast listens since 2012. Investments, economics, psychology, politics, decision-making, human behavior, entrepreneurship and trend following are all passionately explored and debated on my show. To start? I'd like to give you a great piece of advice you can use in your life and trading journey… cut your losses! You will find much more about that philosophy here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/trend/ You can watch a free video here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/video/ Can't get enough of this episode? You can choose from my thousand plus episodes here: https://www.trendfollowing.com/podcast My social media platforms: Twitter: @covel Facebook: @trendfollowing LinkedIn: @covel Instagram: @mikecovel Hope you enjoy my never-ending podcast conversation!

American Zurich Insurance Comp v. Sun Holdings, Inc.

Ever wondered how the high-speed evolution of digital communication is reshaping the way organizations convey their messages? Liz Sheets, a master of strategic communications and our Chief Growth Officer, brings her razor-sharp insights to this very topic. Join us for a riveting exploration of the complexities and challenges that come with keeping pace in a world where platforms like TikTok hold sway over advertising and public perception. We're peeling back the layers on targeting precision, the legal and societal impacts of social media, and how technological advancements are interwoven with our everyday experiences. Diving headfirst into the deep end of artificial intelligence, we confront the anxiety surrounding AI in the insurance industry and beyond. Could these advances spell the end for certain job roles, or are they simply catalysts for a new era of human-machine symbiosis? ChatGPT makes a guest appearance in our discourse as we examine how AI can spark creativity and lend a helping hand, all while debating the irreplaceable value of human oversight and ingenuity. It's a conversation that balances the scales between the risks and rewards of a future brimming with AI potential. Our wine selection for this episode is the Dubourdieu Liaison Sauvignon Blanc, a tantalizing blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc from the esteemed Bordeaux region in France. This wine emanates a captivating fusion of kiwi and white-fruit flavors, underscored by a tantalizing aroma reminiscent of honeysuckle, honey, and citrus. Its balanced acidity and dryness make for a memorable tasting experience, with subtle notes of pear, grapefruit, and grass dancing on the palate. Cheers to the artistry of Bordeaux winemaking! Finally, we navigate the shifting sands of workplace dynamics, examining how remote work has morphed our ideas of productivity, culture, and generational preferences. From the unexpected eagerness of millennials to return to the office to the demands of managing family life alongside a career, this episode paints a vivid picture of the ever-changing corporate landscape. It's a heartfelt, eye-opening discussion, perfect for anyone with a stake in the future of work, culture, and connection in this brave new digital epoch. Timestamps 1:19 Introducing Liz Sheets and what Tunheim does 4:27 Assessing the social media space and communications today with AI 10:38 Should we age gate social media? 15:07 How is AI disrupting jobs in communication and insurance 22:03 Did the hybrid work model win after Covid? 27:31 Generational differences regarding work models and how companies should approach it 36:57 Are clients dealing with more new and unanticipated risks today? 40:27 Ascend Ad 41:59 Today's wine: Dubourdieu Liaison Sauvignon Blanc 46:50 Update on Trump's bond case 47:24 Zurich Insurance stops underwriting new fossil fuel projects 48:16 Recall of the week: Black and Decker steamer Connect with RiskCellar: Website: https://www.riskcellar.com/ Brandon Schuh: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552710523314 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-stephen-schuh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/schuhpapa/ Nick Hartmann: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjhartmann/

Ron Gidron is the co-founder and CEO of xtype.io, a technology company that accelerates software development for large companies like Zurich Insurance, Heineken, HP, Abbot Laboratories, and IBM. Xtype has also recorded over 75,000 customer deployments using its product in the past year and has raised $10.8 million to date.If you like our podcast, please don't forget to subscribe and support us on your favorite podcast players. We also would appreciate your feedback and rating to reach more people.We recently launched our new newsletter, Principles Friday, where I share one principle that can help you in your life or business, one thought-provoking question, and one call to action toward that principle. Please subscribe Here.It is Free and Short (2min).

APAC stocks were mostly positive amid tailwinds from the tech uplift in US futures following NVIDIA earnings.NVIDIA surged by over 9% after-hours after beating on top and bottom lines and offering strong sales guidance.FOMC minutes proved to be a non-event and echoed the broader tone of Fed speak seen in the wake of the January meeting.European equity futures indicate a higher open with Euro Stoxx 50 future +0.8% after the cash market closed up 0.3% on Wednesday.DXY is back below the 104 level, NZD continues to climb and USD/JPY holds onto 150 status.Looking ahead, highlights include EZ, UK & US PMIs, EZ CPI (Final), US IJC, ECB Minutes, CBRT Policy Announcement, Speeches from Fed's Jefferson, Bowman, Harker, Kashkari & Cook, Supply from US.Earnings from Lloyds, Anglo American, WPP, Hays, Hikma, Rolls Royce, Axa, Engie, Heidelberg Materials, Mercedes Benz, Hochtief, Nestle, Zurich Insurance, BE Semiconductor, Telefonica, Iberdrola, Repsol, Pioneer Natural Resources, Moderna, Intuit & Booking.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

Jim Harris, one of North America's foremost thinkers on disruption and innovation, is back on the podcast sharing his experiences and insights from CES, the world's biggest technology conference, and the World Economic Forum in Davos. Jim has been attending these important events for decades and takes us inside with his informed perspective for retailers. Note that we had some technical glitches towards the end of the interview. I didn't get to thank Jim on the mic for being my guest. It's much appreciated, Jim!!About JimJim Harris is a one of North America's foremost thinkers on disruption and innovation. He is one of the world's leading keynote speakers presenting internationally at more than 70 virtual and in-person conferences a year. Association magazine rankedhim as one of North America's top ten speakers. Jim also leads strategic planning sessions with executiveteams. His clients include American Express, Barclays Bank, Canon, GM, IBM, SAP, Munich Re, the Top 200 CIOs of India, the UK Cabinet Office, Swiss Re, Walmart and Zurich Insurance. Jim's last book, Blindsided!, is published in 80 countries worldwide and is a #1 international bestseller. Soundview Executive Summaries selected Blindsided! as one of the best business books of the year sending a summary to 80,000executives globally. The Miami Herald calls Blindsided! “Brilliant stuff!” About MichaelMichael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery. Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Retail Experts list for 2024 for the third year in a row.Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world. Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers. Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.

In Episode 12, of Season 4, of Driven by Data: The Podcast, Kyle Winterbottom is joined by Alexandra Sidgreaves, Chief Data Officer at Zurich Insurance, where they discuss the practicality of building an award-winning diverse and inclusive, Data & Analytics team, which includes;Being in an organisation for 19 years Transforming from a traditional MI function to an end-to-end Data & Analytics function Moving everything back in-house Spending a lot of time externally to learn from others Having the job description of “deliver value through data”Why they've launched their 3rd data strategy Having internally focused and externally focused strategies 25% tech, 25% value and 50% people Putting a pound amount value to what they deliver Why the business doesn't want to talk about risk or technology, they want to talk about value The link between D&A success and diversity Building an award-winning D&A team Why you need to destroy groupthink and promote positive challenge Doing 175 interviews and realising they were getting a lot of the same type of applicants What they changed to attract more diverse individuals and getting 170% more applicants Why this isn't about ticking boxes How a diverse team is simply a by-product of doing the right things Why organisations mistake Representation and Diversity The power of apprenticeships and the two ways they've used them The benefits of growing your own talent Tackling skills shortagesChallenging yourself when identifying the essential versus desirable skills The misconception that technical data people aren't able to communicate Why you don't need a data translator The link between diversity and inclusion, and Data and AI ethics The AI ethics framework and ethical committee they've implemented The key trends predicted from being a governing body member for DataIQ and EvantaThanks to our sponsor, Cambridge Spark;Cambridge Spark is an education technology company that educates the workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.They offer a range of flexible learning solutions to meet business needs, from fast deployment of new skills with bespoke programmes through to longer-term investment in the workforce with apprenticeships.Their unique patented online learning platform EDUKATE.AI simulates real-world industry scenarios, providing learners with instantaneous feedback on their code. This hands-on, practical approach ensures that students are learning how to apply new skills to real datasets, which accelerates the business impact they can make.Get in touch to learn more - Cambridge Spark

On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Antony Elliott, Global Lead for Digital R&D at Zurich Insurance, who is pivotal in driving the exploration, exploitation, analysis, & early-stage adoption of disruptive technologies, shaping Zurich's digital transformation journey. In this episode they talk about his role at Zurich, the company's strategic themes for 2024, the future of InsurTech, the challenges of adopting disruptive technolgies, & his advice for young ventures looking to collaborate with Zurich or break into the InsurTech space. KEY TAKEAWAYS I fell into the insurance industry in 1999 & I didn't know what I wanted to do. I saw a stat that around 80% of British CEOs were cratered accountants, so I thought that seemed like a good qualification to have and applied to the Big 5 & ended up getting a job a PwC thinking I was going to be rich. But, when I got there they told me I'd be working in insurance. I realised that there were lots of things in insurance that needed fixing & could be better, which is why I ended up staying in it & what I'm still trying to do. We're using computer vision to monitor and assess some of the 5 million commercial buildings we insure around the world to reduce our carbon footprint. We also use it in physiotherapy to make sure people are doing it & doing it correctly to help people to be physically well either with posture & core strength, or to recover from injury quickly. We start by identifying either the problem or the opportunity & we involve a lot of stakeholders, from the most senior down so we can see a consolidated view across the group that this will solve challenges that they care about. We then use our network to find the best startups in those spaces & that they know about out Innovation Championship to apply for it. We choose the top 10-12 and put them into a validation phase to get them to prove how it can create business value for Zurich & the startup.  I see huge potential in the Internet of Things in insurance, we haven't quite got to the tipping point with it's value yet. I'd like to see startups working in that space, whether it's in commercial insurance or more personalised insurance. Taking sensor data to understand the thing we're insuring & offer risk insights to the customer & to us as underwriters to prevent the claim happening or know about it happening soon is an area with huge potential. BEST MOMENTS ‘I like insurance because I think it plays a really important role in society.'‘I focus on innovation, how new technologies & ideas can create value for Zurich.'‘I expect we'll see generative AI native startups coming through this year which will create amazing value.'‘Be very clear& concise on what your value proposition is and that it's a major part of your elevator pitch. You can have the best technology in the world, but if you can't articulate it in a short period of time it's very difficult for people to understand that.' ABOUT THE GUEST Antony Elliott, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the insurance industry, currently serves as the Global Head for Digital R&D at Zurich Insurance. His role is pivotal in driving the exploration, analysis, & early-stage adoption of disruptive technologies, with a focus on their desirability, feasibility, & viability.  LinkedIn  ZIC 2024 ABOUT THE HOST Sabine is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur. She is the CEO and Managing Partner of Alchemy Crew, a venture lab that accelerates the curation, validation, & commercialization of new tech business models. Sabine is renowned within the insurance sector for building some of the most renowned tech startup accelerators around the world working with over 30 corporate insurers & accelerating over 100 startup ventures. Sabine is the co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, a top 50 Women in Tech, a FinTech and InsurTech Influencer, an investor & multi-award winner.  Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Facebook  TikTok Email Website

As leading figures from government, business, academia and civil society head to Davos for the Annual Meeting 2024, what are the big global challenges they will be discussing? The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report sets out the biggest issues over the short and medium terms, based on a survey of more than 1,400 global risks experts, policy-makers and industry leaders. This year, the impact of artificial intelligence is felt throughout the report, with rising concern about disinformation and cyberinsecurity. Gayle Markovitz hears from two of the people who put the report together, Carolina Klint, Managing Director at Marsh McLennan, and Peter Giger, Group Chief Risk Officer at Zurich Insurance. Links: Read the Global Risks Report 2024: Follow all the action from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos at and across social media using the hashtag #WEF24. Forum Agenda blogs: Previous episodes on the Global Risks Report: Related episodes: Check out all our podcasts on : - - - - Join the Join the Photo by on Unsplash.

As leading figures from government, business, academia and civil society head to Davos for the Annual Meeting 2024, what are the big global challenges they will be discussing? The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report sets out the biggest issues over the short and medium terms, based on a survey of more than 1,400 global risks experts, policy-makers and industry leaders. This year, the impact of artificial intelligence is felt throughout the report, with rising concern about disinformation and cyberinsecurity. Gayle Markovitz hears from two of the people who put the report together, Carolina Klint, Managing Director at Marsh McLennan, and Peter Giger, Group Chief Risk Officer at Zurich Insurance. Links: Read the Global Risks Report 2024: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2024/ Follow all the action from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2024 in Davos at wef.ch/wef24 and across social media using the hashtag #WEF24. Forum Agenda blogs: Global Risk Report 2024: The risks are growing — but so is our capacity to respond How to build business resilience in an era of risk turbulence Previous episodes on the Global Risks Report: Welcome to the age of the polycrisis: the Global Risks Report 2023 Instability, inflation and the 'polycrisis' - the Global Risks Report half a year on Related episodes: 2023 was the year we all got to know AI - so where will it take us in 2024? What are semiconductors, and why are they vital to the global economy? Disease X - how the world can stop the next pandemic Check out all our podcasts on wef.ch/podcasts: Radio Davos - subscribe Meet the Leader - subscribe World Economic Forum Book Club Podcast - subscribe Agenda Dialogues - subscribe Join the World Economic Forum Podcast Club Join the World Economic Forum Book Club Photo by Cristofer Maximilian on Unsplash.

Successful leaders find themselves creating alignment during change. Michael Judd shares one of his initial turnaround gigs where he learned this skill directly and then took it with him for the rest of his career. Learn from his experience and self awareness: Do you know your business' safety net and risk tolerance? Do you know how to create clarity when there's confusion? Do you know how to align the expectations of your manager with your peers and your teams? Do you know if you're an innovator, builder, or maintainer? Listen in to this wisdom-packed episode on logical steps to take for any hot mess. Find the full blog post at https://stefaniekrievins.com/the-secret-to-creating-alignment-during-change-with-michael-judd/ About Michael Judd Michael Judd is a technology and strategy expert that has over 20 years of experience working with Fortune 500 executives from a variety of industries. His past clients include American Express, Aon, HCSC, Providian, Raytheon, Washington Mutual, and Zurich Insurance. He is known for bringing strong strategic, financial, and operational skills to develop disruptive technology strategies that make sense for his clients. He is a CPA with a strong reputation for collaboration and global experience, he tackles the largest challenges, transforming how people and their processes engage with technology to drive business value.

From reshaping the playful culture of the LEGO Group to cracking the customer-centricity code in the financial services behemoth Zurich Insurance, how did Conny Kalcher manage the leap? Conny Kalcher, the group chief customer officer at Zurich Insurance, is no stranger to pioneering customer-centric transformations. After retiring from a highly successful career at the LEGO Group, where she spearheaded a customer-centric transformation, Conny brought a wave of fresh perspectives and techniques to the traditionally conservative landscape of Zurich Insurance. Her global influence extends beyond corporate corridors, marked by her active membership in Bain's NPS Loyalty Forum where she contributes to the ongoing Net Promoter System revolution. As context to today's discussion, you may want to revisit the LEGO story she shared with host Rob Markey several years ago in podcast episode 55, Brick by Brick: Rebuilding the LEGO Group by Rediscovering Customer Centricity. In this episode, Rob sits down with Conny Kalcher—a trailblazer in customer-centric transformations—to explore her extraordinary transition from the whimsical world of LEGO to the structured realm of Zurich Insurance. Conny's approach to customer engagement transcends industry boundaries. She brings lessons developed in the playful, informal culture of the LEGO Group into a global insurance behemoth, drawing parallels and contrasts between her experiences. Conny's anecdotes reveal that the principles of understanding and catering to customer needs are universal, whether you're dealing with brick toys or insurance policies written in complex legalese. As Conny reminisces about her time in the toy industry, she sheds light on how the lessons learned during her tenure at the LEGO Group acted as a catalyst for nurturing a customer-first culture at Zurich Insurance. It illustrates how a keen understanding of customer sentiments can be a game-changer in any industry. Topics covered: Transition from the LEGO Group to Zurich Insurance [02:20] Customer-centric transformation [04:00] Corporate strategy and vision [06:50] Metric implementation (NPS) [07:07] Decentralized vs. centralized organizational structures [11:00] Earning customer loyalty [24:30] Quotable quotes: "Anybody who needs to change something I would definitely advise to also think about, 'How can we do processes, structures, ways of working to make people naturally change,' because people want to do the right thing, basically." [01:45] "We've defined our strategy for this strategic cycle to become the preferred insurer of our customers. So, it's all about earning the loyalty of those customers." [27:15] "My proudest moment in the Zurich [Insurance] journey is when I go to the local offices and I talk to the people there and I see the fire in their eyes, and I see the new brand on the walls, and they talk in a new kind of language that they didn't use to talk in." [32:37] Additional resources: Zurich Insurance's long-term strategy and near-term targets Episode 55 of Customer Confidential Podcast: Brick by Brick: Rebuilding the LEGO Group by Rediscovering Customer Centricity Net Promoter System overview Insurance industry reports by Bain & Company Bios: Conny Kalcher, group chief customer officer at Zurich Insurance Rob Markey

Extreme weather is forcing communities to leave their homes and it's becoming a bigger and bigger issue. What can we do about it? In this edition of BBC Inside Science, Gaia Vince and her guests discuss what climate displacement means for people all over the world. We hear from Diwigdi Valiente, a member of the Guna Yala people of the San Blas Islands in Panama, where whole communities have already begun to evacuate. Closer to home the experts consider the impact of rising sea levels on British coastal communities. Guests are: Richard Betts, head of climate impacts at the UK Met Office and a professor at the University of Exeter; Lucy Easthope, professor in practice of risk and hazard at the University of Durham and a leading adviser on emergency planning and disaster recovery; Professor Guillermo Rein, an expert in fire science at Imperial College London; and Michael Szoenyi, head of flood resilience at Zurich Insurance. He explains why climate change has become such an important factor for business and individuals planning for the future – and why it's essential we don't leave big decisions about where we should live to the last minute. Presenter: Gaia Vince Producer: Clem Hitchcock Content Producer: Alice Lipscombe-Southwell Editor: Richard Collings

Welcome to the latest episode of The F Word at Work to mark World Childless Week 2023 and in this conversation you'll be hearing firstly from our expert speaker, Katy Schnitzler founder of MIST Workshops about the research she's been doing around the childless community and the conversations we've been facilitating together. Our first guest is anonymous as she is sharing an extremely personal account of how she wasn't able to have a child - which was part of a session Fertility Matters at Work hosted for Zurich Insurance, we then spoke with Dr Robin Hadley an experienced early-career researcher renowned for his expertise in the intersection of male childlessness and the aging process. What we discussed: Dealing with expectations of how life would be - Marriage, expectations, and pressures to have children.Emotional strain, arguments, and discussions about starting a family.Feeling pressure due to colleagues' pregnancy announcements.Enduring years of abusive behavior due to her desire to have a child.Escaping an abusive marriage at the age of 40.Finding a new partner and experiencing pregnancy loss.Repeated miscarriages, emergency surgeries, and medical searches for answers.Experiencing physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.Coping with colleagues' questions and well-intentioned but insensitive advice.Challenges of sharing personal struggles at the workplace.Recognizing the need for a voice for those involuntarily childless.Encountering a lack of understanding and insensitive comments.Advocating for sensitivity and understanding towards those who are childless.Acknowledging the need for proactive support within organizations.Highlighting the impact of infertility and childlessness on individuals' lives.Encouraging organizations to embrace inclusivity and support for diverse life circumstancesDr. Robin Hadley shared his expertise in social gerontology, male childlessness, and aging.The rarity of having an in-person podcast recording compared to virtual conversations.The significance of World Childlessness Week and the importance of discussing male perspectives on childlessness and aging.Statistics about childlessness: One in four men and one in five women are childless, projected rise in childlessness among the over-65 population.The concept of "non-category" childlessness and the lack of recognition in academia and policy.Factors contributing to childlessness: partner choice, partner changing, timing of relationships, events, and economics.Differentiating between "child-free" and "involuntary childlessness."The impact of societal norms on men's emotional expression and vulnerability.Men's fear of humiliation and societal conditioning around masculinity.Disenfranchised grief related to involuntary childlessness and the lack of recognition of this type of grief.The emotional challenges and lack of narrative for men experiencing childlessness.The association of parenthood and how it's often focused on women, leaving men with limited narratives.The impact of childlessness on the workplace, including assumptions, responsibilities, and biases.Potential issues for childless men in the workplace: filling in for others with children, lack of recognition, and increased workload.Lack of recognition of men's fertility challenges, even in their 30s and 40s.Workplace considerations for childless men: acknowledging their experiences, offering support, and addressing

US stocks finished lower in a choppy session with catalysts extremely light; APAC stocks were mixed with the regional bourses mostly rangebound amid a slew of earnings releases and with the mood tentative.European equity futures are indicative of a firmer open with the Euro Stoxx 50 +0.6% after the cash market closed up by 0.7% yesterday.DXY traded flat around the 102.50 level as participants lacked conviction heading into the US CPI data; 10yr UST futures were marginally lower, Bund futures remained subdued, and 10yr JGB futures declined.Looking ahead, highlights include Norwegian CPI, Italian CPI (Final), US CPI, IJC, Chinese M2 Money Supply, New Zealand Manufacturing PMI, Banxico Policy Announcement, ECB Economic Bulletin, Speeches from Fed's Harker & Bostic, Supply from US.Earnings from Allianz, Deutsche Telekom, Munich Re., Novo Nordisk, Rheinmetall, Siemens, Antofagasta, Entain, Zurich Insurance & Ralph Lauren.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

On this episode of The Corelink Solution we're going to delve into the world of apprenticeships. I recently had the pleasure of hosting a podcast with Phyllis Higgins from Zurich Insurance, North America.  Also joining us are Aaron Henry, Tatiana Jackson, and Lydia Authors, all of whom are part of Zurich's apprenticeship program. We discussed the importance of apprenticeships, the challenges, and the growth experienced by the apprentices. In our AARP Career Clinic, we are discussing the benefits of the RACI methodology in your career development. Thank you for listening. Please leave a comment and let me know what you thought of the show. Until next time be empowered, be inspired and be accountable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nous entrons, sans le savoir, dans un monde où il sera de plus en plus difficile de s'assurer. C'est vrai aussi bien pour le particulier que pour l'entreprise ou une administration publique. Ce danger d'entrer dans un monde inassurable, c'est le directeur général de Zurich Insurance qui l'a indiqué au Financial Times. Pour lui, c'est très clair, les cyberattaques vont devenir inassurable, encore plus que les catastrophes naturelles qui font pourtant les gros titres des médias. C'est évidemment une mauvaise nouvelle pour les hôpitaux, les entreprises, mais aussi les infrastructures de transport ou d'énergie. Face à la multiplication de ces attaques, les assureurs deviennent de plus en plus frileux. Ils ont d'abord augmenté leurs primes, mais aujourd'hui, certains d'entre eux ne veulent plus absorber, endosser les pertes et la plupart d'entre eux excluent déjà les cyberattaques déclenchées par des États. Alors les assureurs estiment qu'ils n'ont pas à prendre en charge les conséquences de ces attaques qu'ils estiment comme des risques systémiques. Mais le résultat, c'est qu'il y a déjà des procès, comme on l'a vu récemment encore aux Etats-Unis. Alors justement, parlons des Etats-Unis. Pas pour le plaisir, mais parce qu'en général, ce qui s'y passe finit par arriver chez nous quelques mois ou quelques années plus tard. Et aujourd'hui, par exemple, le changement climatique fait fuir les assureurs. State Farm, un assureur très connu aux Etats-Unis, a décidé de ne plus prendre de nouveaux clients en Californie. Car face à la multiplication des feux de forêt, des tornades, des usines et des inondations, le business model de cet assureur est en danger. Et d'ailleurs, d'autres assureurs l'ont imité. Si d'autres assureurs, et notamment en Europe, devaient tour à tour se retirer de leur métier qui consiste pourtant à nous protéger contre l'incertitude, après tout, on ne s'en rend pas compte. La faute à qui alors? Mais au risque. Le métier d'un assureur, comme vous le savez, c'est justement de calculer au plus juste ce risque et de lui donner un prix sous forme d'une prime à payer. Mais que peut faire l'assureur quand le risque échappe au calcul des probabilités ? Et on a vu ce phénomène lors de la crise sanitaire avec un virus dont aucun scientifique ne comprenait vraiment les mutations. On le voit avec la géopolitique et les cyberguerres, et on le voit avec les mutations rapides du climat. Donc, oui, les assureurs, lentement mais sûrement, refusent d'assurer l'inassurable, laissant sans doute à nouveau l'Etat seul face à ses responsabilités. Or, l'Etat, vous le savez tous, est déjà hyper endetté et n'a pas vocation à être l'assureur en dernier ressort. Il faudra donc que l'assurance se réinvente et c'est donc aujourd'hui seulement qu'on se rend compte que sans assurance, c'est simple, il n'y a pas de développement économique possible. --- La chronique économique d'Amid Faljaoui, tous les jours à 8h30 et à 17h30 sur Classic 21, la radio Rock'n'Pop.

Today's guest is Gero Gunkel, Chief Operating Officer and Data Science Leader for Zurich Insurance. Gero returns to the program to explain to Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello how much successful AI adoptions rely on planning that has nothing to do with coding, data, or algorithms. In listing considerations from design to keeping subject matter experts engaged, Gero cites specific insurance-related examples where non-technical decisions can make or break an early in-house AI initiative. Download our PDF brief “AI in Insurance: Executive Cheat Sheet” at emerj.com/ins1.  

Gus & Gawny Merch is on its way. We're launching a limited-edition Gus & Gawny Friend of the Podcast crewneck jumper thanks to Zurich Insurance with all proceeds heading to FightMND. https://shop.melbournefc.com.au/melbourne-demons-gus-gawny-podcast-crew/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

El dividendo vuelve a estar de moda. Tras un 2023 no exento de sobresalto y con escenarios con altas dosis de incertidumbre, la remuneración al accionista es un tesoro muy apreciado por el inversor. “Son una buena alternativa a la renta fija”, señala Alfonso de Gregorio, codirector de inversiones de Finaccess Value, quien sitúa la rentabilidad media por dividendo en Europa en el 3,1% frente al 3,5% de los bonos inverstment grade(a 1 año). Si bien la renta fija es más atractiva si sabemos ponernos en manos del gestor adecuado podemos encontrar compañías pujantes pero estables y que ofrecen atractivos dividendos para los inversores. Compañías punteras de la automoción como Stellantis, Volkswagen o Mercedes o aseguradoras como Munich Re, Zurich Insurance o Mapfre vienen a unirse a las clásicas energéticas y operadoras de telecomunicaciones. Como paradigma de todo esto tenemos el Finacces Estrategia Dividendo Mixto es un fondo que combina activos de renta fija y renta variable. “La renta fija ofrece una TIER de casi el 5% mientras que la de renta variable es un 4,5%”, incide Alfonso de Gregorio.

The insurance industry is playing catch-up on the digitalization front while at the same time looking to maintain and replenish the expertise of its aging workforce. Can an internal talent marketplace help Zurich Insurance secure the necessary skills? Sally Henderson, Head of Talent and Learning, joins Bill Kerr.

Today's guest is Gero Gunkel, Chief Operating Officer and Data Science Leader for Zurich Insurance. In conversation with Emerj Senior Editor Matthew DeMello, Gero expounds on the increasing impact of large language models on the insurance space driven by the growing size of these models, allowing them to tackle more complex problems for more complex sectors. Later, they touch on the impact of ChatGPT and best practices for insurance firms just starting to use large language models. To access Emerj's frameworks for AI readiness, ROI, and strategy, visit Emerj Plus at emerj.com/p1.

Waldemar Hummer, Co-Founder & CTO of LocalStack, joins Corey on Screaming in the Cloud to discuss how LocalStack changed Corey's mind on the futility of mocking clouds locally. Waldemar reveals why LocalStack appeals to both enterprise companies and digital nomads, and explains how both see improvements in their cost predictability as a result. Waldemar also discusses how LocalStack is an open-source company first and foremost, and how they're working with their community to evolve their licensing model. Corey and Waldemar chat about the rising demand for esoteric services, and Waldemar explains how accommodating that has led to an increase of adoption from the big data space. About WaldemarWaldemar is Co-Founder and CTO of LocalStack, where he and his team are building the world-leading platform for local cloud development, based on the hugely popular open source framework with 45k+ stars on Github. Prior to founding LocalStack, Waldemar has held several engineering and management roles at startups as well as large international companies, including Atlassian (Sydney), IBM (New York), and Zurich Insurance. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from TU Vienna.Links Referenced: LocalStack website: https://localstack.cloud/ LocalStack Slack channel: https://slack.localstack.cloud LocalStack Discourse forum: https://discuss.localstack.cloud LocalStack GitHub repository: https://github.com/localstack/localstack TranscriptAnnouncer: Hello, and welcome to Screaming in the Cloud with your host, Chief Cloud Economist at The Duckbill Group, Corey Quinn. This weekly show features conversations with people doing interesting work in the world of cloud, thoughtful commentary on the state of the technical world, and ridiculous titles for which Corey refuses to apologize. This is Screaming in the Cloud.Corey: Welcome to Screaming in the Cloud. I'm Corey Quinn. Until a bit over a year ago or so, I had a loud and some would say fairly obnoxious opinion around the futility of mocking cloud services locally. This is not to be confused with mocking cloud services on the internet, which is what I do in lieu of having a real personality. And then one day I stopped espousing that opinion, or frankly, any opinion at all. And I'm glad to be able to talk at long last about why that is. My guest today is Waldemar Hummer, CTO and co-founder at LocalStack. Waldemar, it is great to talk to you.Waldemar: Hey, Corey. It's so great to be on the show. Thank you so much for having me. We're big fans of what you do at The Duckbill Group and Last Week in AWS. So really, you know, glad to be here with you today and have this conversation.Corey: It is not uncommon for me to have strong opinions that I espouse—politely to be clear; I'll make fun of companies and not people as a general rule—but sometimes I find that I've not seen the full picture and I no longer stand by an opinion I once held. And you're one of my favorite examples of this because, over the course of a 45-minute call with you and one of your business partners, I went from, “What you're doing is a hilarious misstep and will never work,” to, “Okay, and do you have room for another investor?” And in the interest of full disclosure, the answer to that was yes, and I became one of your angel investors. It's not exactly common for me to do that kind of a hard pivot. And I kind of suspect I'm not the only person who currently holds the opinion that I used to hold, so let's talk a little bit about that. At the very beginning, what is LocalStack and what does it you would say that you folks do?Waldemar: So LocalStack, in a nutshell, is a cloud emulator that runs on your local machine. It's basically like a sandbox environment where you can develop your applications locally. We have currently a range of around 60, 70 services that we provide, things like Lambda Functions, DynamoDB, SQS, like, all the major AWS services. And to your point, it is indeed a pretty large undertaking to actually implement the cloud and run it locally, but with the right approach, it actually turns out that it is feasible and possible, and we've demonstrated this with LocalStack. And I'm glad that we've convinced you to think of it that way as well.Corey: A couple of points that you made during that early conversation really stuck with me. The first is, “Yeah, AWS has two, no three no four-hundred different service offerings. But look at your customer base. How many of those services are customers using in any real depth? And of those services, yeah, the APIs are vast, and very much a sprawling pile of nonsense, but how many of those esoteric features are those folks actually using?” That was half of the argument that won me over.The other half was, “Imagine that you're an enormous company that's an insurance company or a bank. And this year, you're hiring 5000 brand new developers, fresh out of school. Two to 3000 of those developers will still be working here in about a year as they wind up either progressing in other directions, not winding up completing internships, or going back to school after internships, or for a variety of reasons. So, you have that many people that you need to teach how to use cloud in the context that we use cloud, combined with the question of how do you make sure that one of them doesn't make a fun mistake that winds up bankrupting the entire company with a surprise AWS bill?” And those two things combined turned me from, “What you're doing is ridiculous,” to, “Oh, my God. You're absolutely right.”And since then, I've encountered you in a number of my client environments. You were absolutely right. This is something that resonates deeply and profoundly with larger enterprise customers in particular, but also folks who just don't want to wind up being beholden to every time they do a deploy to anything to test something out, yay, I get to spend more money on AWS services.Waldemar: Yeah, totally. That's spot on. So, to your first point, so definitely we have a core set of services that most people are using. So, things like Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS, like, the core serverless, kind of, APIs. And then there's kind of a long tail of more exotic services that we support these days, things like, even like QLDB, the quantum ledger database, or, you know, managed streaming for Kafka.But like, certainly, like, the core 15, 20 services are the ones that are really most used by the majority of people. And then we also, you know, pro offering have some very, sort of, advanced services for different use cases. So, that's to your first point.And second point is, yeah, totally spot on. So LocalStack, like, really enables you to experiment in the sandbox. So, we both see it as an experimentation, also development environment, where you don't need to think about cloud costs. And this, I guess, will be very close to your heart in the work that you're doing, the costs are becoming really predictable as well, right? Because in the cloud, you know, work to different companies before doing LocalStack where we were using AWS resources, and you can end up in a situation where overnight, you accumulate, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars of AWS bill because you've turned on a certain feature, or some, you know, connectivity into some VPC or networking configuration that just turns out to be costly.Also, one more thing that is worth mentioning, like, we want to encourage, like, frequent testing, and a lot of the cloud's billing and cost structure is focused around, for example, hourly billing of resources, right? And if you have a test that just spins up resources that run for a couple of minutes, you still end up paying the entire hour. And we LocalStack, really, that brings down the cloud builds significantly because you can really test frequently, the cycles become much faster, and it's also again, more efficient, more cost-effective.Corey: There's something useful to be said for, “Well, how do I make sure that I turn off resources when I'm done?” In cloud, it's a bit of a game of guess-and-check. And you turn off things you think are there and you wait a few days and you check the bill again, and you go and turn more things off, and the cycle repeats. Or alternately, wait for the end of the month and wonder in perpetuity why you're being billed 48 cents a month, and not be clear on why. Restarting the laptop is a lot more straightforward.I also want to call out some of my own bias on this where I used to be a big believer in being able to build and deploy and iterate on things locally because well, what happens when I'm in a plane with terrible WiFi? Well, in the before times, I flew an awful lot and was writing a fair bit of, well, cloudy nonsense and I still never found that to be a particular blocker on most of what I was doing. So, it always felt a little bit precious to me when people were talking about, well, what if I can't access the internet to wind up building and deploying these things? It's now 2023. How often does that really happen? But is that a use case that you see a lot of?Waldemar: It's definitely a fair point. And probably, like, 95% of cloud development these days is done in a high internet bandwidth environment, maybe some corporate network where you have really fast internet access. But that's only a subset, I guess, of the world out there, right? So, there might be situations where, you know, you may have bad connectivity. Also, maybe you live in a region—or maybe you're traveling even, right? So, there's a lot more and more people who are just, “Digital nomads,” quote-unquote, right, who just like to work in remote places.Corey: You're absolutely right. My bias is that I live in San Francisco. I have symmetric gigabit internet at home. There's not a lot of scenarios in my day-to-day life—except when I'm, you know, on the train or the bus traveling through the city—because thank you, Verizon—where I have impeded connectivity.Waldemar: Right. Yeah, totally. And I think the other aspect of this is kind of the developers just like to have things locally, right, because it gives them the feeling of you know, better control over the code, like, being able to integrate into their IDEs, setting breakpoints, having these quick cycles of iterations. And again, this is something that there's more and more tooling coming up in the cloud ecosystem, but it's still inherently a remote execution that just, you know, takes the round trip of uploading your code, deploying, and so on, and that's just basically the pain point that we're addressing with LocalStack.Corey: One thing that did surprise me as well was discovering that there was a lot more appetite for this sort of thing in enterprise-scale environments. I mean, some of the reference customers that you have on your website include divisions of the UK Government and 3M—you know, the Post-It note people—as well as a number of other very large environments. And at first, that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but then it suddenly made an awful lot of sense because it seems—and please correct me if I'm wrong—that in order to use something like this at scale and use it in a way that isn't, more or less getting it into a point where the administration of it is more trouble than it's worth, you need to progress past a certain point of scale. An individual developer on their side project is likely just going to iterate against AWS itself, whereas a team of thousands of developers might not want to be doing that because they almost certainly have their own workflows that make that process high friction.Waldemar: Yeah, totally. So, what we see a lot is, especially in larger enterprises, dedicated teams, like, developer experience teams, whose main job is to really set up a workflow and environment where developers can be productive, most productive, and this can be, you know, on one side, like, setting up automated pipelines, provisioning maybe AWS sandbox and test accounts. And like some of these teams, when we introduce LocalStack, it's really a game-changer because it becomes much more decoupled and like, you know, distributed. You can basically configure your CI pipeline, just, you know, spin up the container, run your tests, tear down again afterwards. So, you know, it's less dependencies.And also, one aspect to consider is the aspect of cloud approvals. A lot of companies that we work with have, you know, very stringent processes around, even getting access to the clouds. Some SRE team needs to enable their IAM permissions and so on. With LocalStack, you can just get started from day one and just get productive and start testing from the local machine. So, I think those are patterns that we see a lot, in especially larger enterprise environments as well, where, you know, there might be some regulatory barriers and just, you know, process-wise steps as well.Corey: When I started playing with LocalStack myself, one of the things that I found disturbingly irritating is, there's a lot that AWS gets largely right with its AWS command-line utility. You can stuff a whole bunch of different options into the config for different profiles, and all the other tools that I use mostly wind up respecting that config. The few that extend it add custom lines to it, but everything else is mostly well-behaved and ignores the things it doesn't understand. But there is no facility that lets you say, “For this particular profile, use this endpoint for AWS service calls instead of the normal ones in public regions.” In fact, to do that, you effectively have to pass specific endpoint URLs to arguments, and I believe the syntax on that is not globally consistent between different services.It just feels like a living nightmare. At first, I was annoyed that you folks wound up having to ship your own command-line utility to wind up interfacing with this. Like, why don't you just add a profile? And then I tried it myself and, oh, I'm not the only person who knows how this stuff works that has ever looked at this and had that idea. No, it's because AWS is just unfortunate in that respect.Waldemar: That is a very good point. And you're touching upon one of the major pain points that we have, frankly, with the ecosystem. So, there are some pull requests against the AWS open-source repositories for the SDKs and various other tools, where folks—not only LocalStack, but other folks in the community have asked for introducing, for example, an AWS endpoint URL environment variable. These [protocols 00:12:32], unfortunately, were never merged. So, it would definitely make our lives a whole lot easier, but so far, we basically have to maintain these, you know, these wrapper scripts, basically, AWS local, CDK local, which basically just, you know, points the client to local endpoints. It's a good workaround for now, but I would assume and hope that the world's going to change in the upcoming years.Corey: I really hope so because everything else I can think of is just bad. The idea of building a custom wrapper around the AWS command-line utility that winds up checking the profile section, and oh, if this profile is that one, call out to this tool, otherwise it just becomes a pass-through. That has security implications that aren't necessarily terrific, you know, in large enterprise companies that care a lot about security. Yeah, pretend to be a binary you're not is usually the kind of thing that makes people sad when security politely kicks their door in.Waldemar: Yeah, we actually have pretty, like, big hopes for the v3 wave of the SDKs, AWS, because there is some restructuring happening with the endpoint resolution. And also, you can, in your profile, by now have, you know, special resolvers for endpoints. But still the case of just pointing all the SDKs and CLI to a custom endpoint is just not yet resolved. And this is, frankly, quite disappointing, actually.Corey: While we're complaining about the CLI, I'll throw one of my recurring issues with it in. I would love for it to adopt the Linux slash Unix paradigm of having a config.d directory that you can reference from within the primary config file, and then any file within that directory in the proper syntax winds up getting adopted into what becomes a giant composable config file, generated dynamically. The reason being is, I can have entire lists of profiles in separate files that I could then wind up dropping in and out on a client-by-client basis. So, I don't inadvertently expose who some of my clients are, in the event that winds up being part of the way that they have named their AWS accounts.That is one of those things I would love but it feels like it's not a common enough use case for there to be a whole lot of traction around it. And I guess some people would make a fair point if they were to say that the AWS CLI is the most widely deployed AWS open-source project, even though all it does is give money to AWS more efficiently.Waldemar: Yeah. Great point. Yeah, I think, like, how and some way to customize and, like, mingle or mangle your configurations in a more easy fashion would be super useful. I guess it might be a slippery slope to getting, you know, into something like I don't know, Helm for EKS and, like, really, you know, having to maintain a whole templating language for these configs. But certainly agree with you, to just you know, at least having [plug 00:15:18] points for being able to customize the behavior of the SDKs and CLIs would be extremely helpful and valuable.Corey: This is not—unfortunately—my first outing with the idea of trying to have AWS APIs done locally. In fact, almost a decade ago now, I did a build-out at a very large company of a… well, I would say that the build-out was not itself very large—it was about 300 nodes—that were all running Eucalyptus, which before it died on the vine, was imagined as a way of just emulating AWS APIs locally—done in Java, as I recall—and exposing local resources in ways that comported with how AWS did things. So, the idea being that you could write configuration to deploy any infrastructure you wanted in AWS, but also treat your local data center the same way. That idea unfortunately did not survive in the marketplace, which is kind of a shame, on some level. What was it that inspired you folks to wind up building this with an eye towards local development rather than run this as a private cloud in your data center instead?Waldemar: Yeah, very interesting. And I do also have some experience [unintelligible 00:16:29] from my past university days with Eucalyptus and OpenStack also, you know, running some workloads in an on-prem cluster. I think the main difference, first of all, these systems were extremely hard, notoriously hard to set up and maintain, right? So, lots of moving parts: you had your image server, your compute system, and then your messaging subsystems. Lots of moving parts, and wanting to have everything basically much more monolithic and in a single container.And Docker really sort of provides a great platform for us, which is create everything in a single container, spin up locally, make it very lightweight and easy to use. But I think really the first days of LocalStack, the idea was really, was actually with the use case of somebody from our team. Back then, I was working at Atlassian in the data engineering team and we had folks in the team were commuting to work on the train. And it was literally this use case that you mentioned before about being able to work basically offline on your commute. And this is kind of were the first lines of code were written and then kind of the idea evolves from there.We put it into the open-source, and then, kind of, it was growing over the years. But it really started as not having it as an on-prem, like, heavyweight server, but really as a lightweight system that you can easily—that is easily portable across different systems as well.Corey: That is a good question. Very often, when I'm using various tools that are aimed at development use cases, it is very clear that one particular operating system is invariably going to be the first-class citizen and everything else is a best effort. Ehh, it might work; it might not. Does LocalStack feel that way? And if so, what's the operating system that you want to be on?Waldemar: I would say we definitely work best on Mac OS and Linux. It also works really well on Windows, but I think given that some of our tooling in the ecosystem also pretty much geared towards Unix systems, I think those are the platforms it will work well with. Again, on the other hand, Docker is really a platform that helps us a lot being compatible across operating systems and also CPU architectures. We have a multi-arch build now for AMD and ARM64. So, I think in that sense, we're pretty broad in terms of the compatibility spectrum.Corey: I do not have any insight into how the experience goes on Windows, given that I don't use that operating system in anger for, wow, 15 years now, but I will say that it's been top-flight on Mac OS, which is what I spend most of my time. Depressed that I'm using, but for desktop experiences, it seems to work out fairly well. That said, having a focus on Windows seems like it would absolutely be a hard requirement, given that so many developer workstations in very large enterprises tend to skew very Windows-heavy. My hat is off to people who work with Linux and Linux-like systems in environments like that where even line endings becomes psychotically challenging. I don't envy them their problems. And I have nothing but respect for people who can power through it. I never had the patience.Waldemar: Yeah. Same here and definitely, I think everybody has their favorite operating system. For me, it's also been mostly Linux and Mac in the last couple of years. But certainly, we definitely want to be broad in terms of the adoption, and working with large enterprises often you have—you know, we want to fit into the existing landscape and environment that people work in. And we solve this by platform abstractions like Docker, for example, as I mentioned, and also, for example, Python, which is some more toolings within Python is also pretty nicely supported across platforms. But I do feel the same way as you, like, having been working with Windows for quite some time, especially for development purposes.Corey: What have you noticed that your customer usage patterns slash requests has been saying about AWS service adoption? I have to imagine that everyone cares whether you can mock S3 effectively. EC2, DynamoDB, probably. SQS, of course. But beyond the very small baseline level of offering, what have you seen surprising demand for, as I guess, customer implementation of more esoteric services continues to climb?Waldemar: Mm-hm. Yeah, so these days it's actually pretty [laugh] pretty insane the level of coverage we already have for different services, including some very exotic ones, like QLDB as I mentioned, Kafka. We even have Managed Airflow, for example. I mean, a lot of these services are essentially mostly, like, wrappers around the API. This is essentially also what AWS is doing, right? So, they're providing an API that basically provisions some underlying resources, some infrastructure.Some of the more interesting parts, I guess, we've seen is the data or big data ecosystem. So, things like Athena, Glue, we've invested quite a lot of time in, you know, making that available also in LocalStack so you can have your maybe CSV files or JSON files in an S3 bucket and you can query them from Athena with a SQL language, basically, right? And that makes it very—especially these big data-heavy jobs that are very heavyweight on AWS, you can iterate very quickly in LocalStack. So, this is where we're seeing a lot of adoption recently. And then also, obviously, things like, you know, Lambda and ECS, like, all the serverless and containerized applications, but I guess those are the more mainstream ones.Corey: I imagine you probably get your fair share of requests for things like CloudFormation or CloudFront, where, this is great, but can you go ahead and add a very lengthy sleep right here, just because it returns way too fast and we don't want people to get their hopes up when they use the real thing. On some level, it feels like exact replication of the AWS customer experience isn't quite in line with what makes sense from a developer productivity point of view.Waldemar: Yeah, that's a great point. And I'm sure that, like, a lot of code out there is probably littered with sleep statements that is just tailored to the specific timing in AWS. In fact, we recently opened an issue in the AWS Terraform provider repository to add a configuration option to configure the timings that Terraform is using for the resource deployment. So, just as an example, an S3 bucket creation takes 60 seconds, like, more than a minute against [unintelligible 00:22:37] AWS. I guess LocalStack, it's a second basically, right?And AWS Terraform provider has these, like, relatively slow cycles of checking whether the packet has already been created. And we want to get that configurable to actually reduce the time it takes for local development, right? So, we have an open, sort of, feature request, and we're probably going to contribute to a Terraform repository. But definitely, I share the sentiment that a lot of the tooling ecosystem is built and tailored and optimized towards the experience against the cloud, which often is just slow and, you know, that's what it is, right?Corey: One thing that I didn't expect, though, in hindsight, is blindingly obvious, is your support for a variety of different frameworks and deployment methodologies. I've found that it's relatively straightforward to get up and running with the CDK deploying to LocalStack, for instance. And in hindsight, of course; that's obvious. When you start out down that path, though it's well, you tend to think—at least I don't tend to think in that particular way. It's, “Well, yeah, it's just going to be a console-like experience, or I wind up doing CloudFormation or Terraform.” But yeah, that the world is advancing relatively quickly and it's nice to see that you are very comfortably keeping pace with that advancement.Waldemar: Yeah, true. And I guess for us, it's really, like, the level of abstraction is sort of increasing, so you know, once you have a solid foundation, with, you know, CloudFormation implementation, you can leverage a lot of tools that are sitting on top of it, CDK, serverless frameworks. So, CloudFormation is almost becoming, like, the assembly language of the AWS cloud, right, and if you have very solid support for that, a lot of, sort of, tools in the ecosystem will natively be supported on LocalStack. And then, you know, you have things like Terraform, and in the Terraform CDK, you know, some of these derived versions of Terraform which also are very straightforward because you just need to point, you know, the target endpoint to localhost and then the rest of the deployment loop just works out of the box, essentially.So, I guess for us, it's really mostly being able to focus on, like, the core emulation, making sure that we have very high parity with the real services. We spend a lot of time and effort into what we call parity testing and snapshot testing. We make sure that our API responses are identical and really the same as they are in AWS. And this really gives us, you know, a very strong confidence that a lot of tools in the ecosystem are working out-of-the-box against LocalStack as well.Corey: I would also like to point out that I'm also a proud LocalStack contributor at this point because at the start of this year, I noticed, ah, in one of the pages, the copyright year was still saying 2022 and not 2023. So, a single-character pull request? Oh, yes, I am on the board now because that is how you ingratiate yourself with an open-source project.Waldemar: Yeah. Eternal fame to you and kudos for your contribution. But, [laugh] you know, in all seriousness, we do have a quite an active community of contributors. We are an open-source first project; like, we were born in the open-source. We actually—maybe just touching upon this for a second, we use GitHub for our repository, we use a lot of automation around, you know, doing pull requests, and you know, service owners.We also participate in things like the Hacktoberfest, which we participated in last year to really encourage contributions from the community, and also host regular meetups with folks in the community to really make sure that there's an active ecosystem where people can contribute and make contributions like the one that you did with documentation and all that, but also, like, actual features, testing and you know, contributions of different levels. So really, kudos and shout out to the entire community out there.Corey: Do you feel that there's an inherent tension between being an open-source product as well as being a commercial product that is available for sale? I find that a lot of companies feel vaguely uncomfortable with the various trade-offs that they make going down that particular path, but I haven't seen anyone in the community upset with you folks, and it certainly hasn't seemed to act as a brake on your enterprise adoption, either.Waldemar: That is a very good point. So, we certainly are—so we're following an open-source-first model that we—you know, the core of the codebase is available in the community version. And then we have pro extensions, which are commercial and you basically, you know, setup—you sign up for a license. We are certainly having a lot of discussions on how to evolve this licensing model going forward, you know, which part to feed back into the community version of LocalStack. And it's certainly an ongoing evolving model as well, but certainly, so far, the support from the community has been great.And we definitely focus to, kind of, get a lot of the innovation that we're doing back into our open-source repo and make sure that it's, like, really not only open-source but also open contribution for folks to contribute their contributions. We also integrate with other third-party libraries. We're built on the shoulders of giants, if I may say so, other open-source projects that are doing great work with emulators. To name just a few, it's like, [unintelligible 00:27:33] which is a great project that we sort of use and depend upon. We have certain mocks and emulations, for Kinesis, for example, Kinesis mock and a bunch of other tools that we've been leveraging over the years, which are really great community efforts out there. And it's great to see such an active community that's really making this vision possible have a truly local emulated clouds that gives the best experience to developers out there.Corey: So, as of, well, now, when people are listening to this and the episode gets released, v2 of LocalStack is coming out. What are the big differences between LocalStack and now LocalStack 2: Electric Boogaloo, or whatever it is you're calling the release?Waldemar: Right. So, we're super excited to release our v2 version of LocalStack. Planned release date is end of March 2023, so hopefully, we will make that timeline. We did release our first version of OpenStack in July 2022, so it's been roughly seven months since then and we try to have a cadence of roughly six to nine months for the major releases. And what you can expect is we've invested a lot of time and effort in last couple of months and in last year to really make it a very rock-solid experience with enhancements in the current services, a lot of performance optimizations, we've invested a lot in parity testing.So, as I mentioned before, parity is really important for us to make sure that we have a high coverage of the different services and how they behave the same way as AWS. And we're also putting out an enhanced version and a completely polished version of our Cloud Pods experience. So, Cloud Pods is a state management mechanism in LocalStack. So, by default, the state in LocalStack is ephemeral, so when you restart the instance, you basically have a fresh state. But with Cloud Pods, we enable our users to take persistent snapshot of the states, save it to disk or to a server and easily share it with team members.And we have very polished experience with Community Cloud Pods that makes it very easy to share the state among team members and with the community. So, those are just some of the highlights of things that we're going to be putting out in the tool. And we're super excited to have it done by, you know, end of March. So, stay tuned for the v2 release.Corey: I am looking forward to seeing how the experience shifts and evolves. I really want to thank you for taking time out of your day to wind up basically humoring me and effectively re-covering ground that you and I covered about a year and a half ago now. If people want to learn more, where should they go?Waldemar: Yeah. So definitely, our Slack channel is a great way to get in touch with the community, also with the LocalStack team, if you have any technical questions. So, you can find it on our website, I think it's slack.localstack.cloud.We also host a Discourse forum. It's discuss.localstack.cloud, where you can just, you know, make feature requests and participate in the general conversation.And we do host monthly community meetups. Those are also available on our website. If you sign up, for example, for a newsletter, you will be notified where we have, you know, these webinars. Take about an hour or so where we often have guest speakers from different companies, people who are using, you know, cloud development, local cloud development, and just sharing the experiences of how the space is evolving. And we're always super happy to accept contributions from the community in these meetups as well. And last but not least, our GitHub repository is a great way to file any issues you may have, feature requests, and just getting involved with the project itself.Corey: And we will, of course, put links to that in the [show notes 00:31:09]. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. I appreciate it.Waldemar: Thank you so much, Corey. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me.Corey: Waldemar Hummer, CTO and co-founder at LocalStack. I'm Cloud Economist Corey Quinn and this is Screaming in the Cloud. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice, whereas if you've hated this podcast, please leave a five-star review on your podcast platform of choice along with an angry comment, presumably because your compensation structure requires people to spend ever-increasing amounts of money on AWS services.Corey: If your AWS bill keeps rising and your blood pressure is doing the same, then you need The Duckbill Group. We help companies fix their AWS bill by making it smaller and less horrifying. The Duckbill Group works for you, not AWS. We tailor recommendations to your business and we get to the point. Visit duckbillgroup.com to get started.

Join us as we talk to Aakrit Vaish, the Co-Founder & CEO of Haptik about their story. Aakrit Vaish holds a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which he completed in 2008. Following his graduation, he gained valuable experience by working with renowned companies such as Motorola and Deloitte in the Bay Area. In 2011, Aakrit joined Flurry Inc., where he served as the Director of Global Business Operations and India, playing a pivotal role in the company's success. In the years that followed, Aakrit went on to co-found several companies, including Flato.to and Interakt. He also served as a managing partner for Peercheque and as an advisory board member for H2 (h2.co), where he shared his expertise and insights with fellow entrepreneurs. In July 2013, Aakrit co-founded Haptik, a groundbreaking conversational AI platform that has revolutionized the way businesses engage with their customers. As the company's CEO, Aakrit has been instrumental in driving its growth and success by building a team of talented professionals and leading the development of cutting-edge technology. About Haptik: Haptik is a prominent conversational AI platform that helps brands create engaging and personalized experiences for users across 20 channels and 100+ languages. By using cutting-edge AI technology, Haptik enables brands to design delightful experiences that improve conversion rates throughout every stage of the customer journey. With a vision to create the most compelling conversational commerce platform of the 21st century, Haptik has established itself as a leader in the industry. The company has a global presence with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Singapore and boasts an impressive client roster that includes KFC, Whirlpool, Starhub, HP, Reliance Jio, CEAT, Disney Hotstar, OLA, and Zurich Insurance, among others. Haptik's Conversational Commerce platform has received widespread recognition and acclaim from leading industry experts, including Gartner, G2, Opus Research, and many others, who have hailed the company as a category leader in the space. Through its innovative technology and commitment to excellence, Haptik is poised to continue driving growth and success for its clients well into the future.

What does it take to thrive as a female CEO? This week we're discussing how to thrive as a woman CEO in a male-dominated world. Although women have made significant progress in breaking through the glass ceiling, there is still a significant gender gap in leadership positions, especially at the CEO level. In this episode, Deborah Snow Walsh leads us through exploring some of the challenges that women face when trying to climb the corporate ladder and offers practical tips for women who aspire to become CEOs.One of the main challenges is the lack of access to coaching and information. According to a study, only 15% of women receive detailed information compared to 50% of men. Listen in to hear us delve into why this disparity exists and how it can be overcome.Lastly, we'll discuss the importance of networking, building a personal brand, and developing a leadership style that is authentic and effective. Deborah Snow Walsh also explore strategies for negotiating salaries and promotions, as well as ways to overcome imposter syndrome and other limiting beliefs.Women can be successful CEOs, and with the right mindset, skills, and strategies, we can break through the glass ceiling and achieve our dreams.THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOW77% of women feel that they lack the information they need to advance their career. What do you think about that? [03:56] How do you navigate when someone asks why you're wanting a job when you run your own business? [17:32]How do we decide where to look for fresh talent?[21:43]KEEP UP WITH DEBORAH SNOW WALSHhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-snow-a0823b37EPISODE RESOURCESJoin the Remarkable Leadership Lessons Community NowVisit the Remarkable Leadership Lessons SiteGot questions? Send them hereInterested in being a guest? Schedule an introduction call!Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts, and leave us a rating or reviewGUEST BIODebbie is a builder of organizations and a talent executive, focused on DEI in thought and view. Those are her passions. She has a unique background in sales, having successfully started her career selling large benefits packages to the Fortune 200, working for AXA Equitable. She knew nothing about benefits, or the Fortune 200. She was recruited to Lee Hecht Harrison, where she excelled in selling outplacement and coaching services to large, multi national organizations. When she was recruited again into the search business, she was already focused on female and minority talent and made the decision to become an entrepreneur and open her own firm. Ultimately, her organization included ten professionals and served companies including IBM, JPMorgan Chase, the GAP, Pfizer, AXA Equitable, and Prudential among others. In 2011 she was recruited to Zurich Insurance to run Talent...

Episode 202 of the #MVPbuzzChat interview series. Conversation between Microsoft Regional Director and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet), and Data Platform MVP, Kay Sauter (@KaySauter), a Business Intelligence Expert and Data Engineer with Zurich Insurance, based in Zurich, Switzerland. You can also find this episode on the CollabTalk blog at https://www.buckleyplanet.com/2023/02/mvpbuzzchat-with-kay-sauter.html

How can Gen-Z and Millenial workers grow their careers? With pensions and 30-year work tenures being a thing of the past, our approach to work has changed. This is especially true for younger workers, who have experienced a uniquely tricky entrance into the world. In this week's episode, Deborah Snow Walsh discusses the impact of the current generation, Gen-Z, in the workplace. This generation has grown up with different values and perspectives on work compared to previous generations especially around workplace cultures, compensation, work-life balance, and value-driven work. If you are a leader looking to better understand the tough challenges that employers may face in managing and connecting with this generation in the workplace. this is the episode for you. If you are a Gen-Z or Millenial worker looking to negotiate a stronger salary and connect with your manager in a meaningful way, you're in the right spot. When we understand each other's values without demonizing our differences, we build workplaces where everyone can show up to the table and contribute. THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOWWhat do are the expectations of young professionals coming into the workplace versus other generations that might have come in earlier? [02:45]From an employer's point of view, what does it mean if Gen-Z feels less loyalty to the organizations they work for? [04:45]Many younger workers don't know how to negotiate salary, we haven't taught them how. What are the first steps they should take? [15:30]What role does one's reaction to failure play in the workplace? [22:40]KEEP UP WITH DEBORAH SNOW WALSHhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-walsh-875b932EPISODE RESOURCESJoin the Remarkable Leadership Lessons Community NowVisit the Remarkable Leadership Lessons SiteGot questions? Send them hereInterested in being a guest? Schedule an introduction call!Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts, and leave us a rating or reviewDEBORAH SNOW WALSH'S BIODebbie is a builder of organizations and a talent executive, focused on DEI in thought and view. Those are her passions. She has a unique background in sales, having successfully started her career selling large benefits packages to the Fortune 200, working for AXA Equitable. She knew nothing about benefits, or the Fortune 200. She was recruited to Lee Hecht Harrison, where she excelled in selling outplacement and coaching services to large, multi national organizations. When she was recruited again into the search business, she was already focused on female and minority talent and made the decision to become an entrepreneur and open her own firm. Ultimately, her organization included ten professionals and served companies including IBM, JPMorgan Chase, the GAP, Pfizer, AXA Equitable, and Prudential among others. In 2011 she was recruited to Zurich Insurance to run Talent Acquisition, University...

In this week's episode, the cybersecurity experts Bryan Hornung, Reginald Andre, Randy Bryan, and Ryan O'Hara discuss a wide range of cybersecurity topics currently impacting millions of people. In the show, the guys break down how and why the Password Manager provider Lastpass breach will impact millions in the coming months. Toronto Children's Hospital provides more information about their recent ransomware event, coinciding with a joint warning from the FBI & CISA to U.S. hospitals. We discuss what that is all about. As always, we enjoy updating our audience on past attacks, and Suffolk County has provided no shortage of lessons learned for cyber experts to dissect. The crew then discusses the big deal with Okta Source Code discovered on Github. And finally, the Electric Utility contractor data breach raises concerns over the security of the U.S. power grid.

You know how to prioritize hiring, but do you know how to build a successful talent strategy? How do we want to hire? Who do we want to hire? Who will work successfully? What areas of the organization need the biggest impact in order to grow the company? This week, we Deborah Snow-Walsh will be answering these questions and more. Snow-Walsh's expertise includes consulting for corporations regarding their internal policies, executive search processes, and coaching for leaders. She has been involved with HRPS, and was co-chair of its annual conference and various planning committees. This week's episode is part of a 12-month long series, where Deborah Snow-Walsh will be a repeat guest on the show. Have a question you want her to answer? Drop us a line at denise.cooper@rllessons.com and we'll be sure to answer it later this year. If you're wondering how to positively impact the talent strategy at your organization, this is the episode for you. THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOWWhat is a talent strategy (04:29) How do you interview for people who have the same or similar level of bias or thinking and judgment about you?  (11:52) How do you measure how quickly someone is moving up the proficiency ladder? (19:01) KEEP UP WITH GUESThttps://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-walsh-875b932/ EPISODE RESOURCEShttps://remarkable-leadership-lessons.mn.co/plans/221111?bundle_token=4b95ffe2499218bea24341d2cab48999&utm_source=manual (Join the Remarkable Leadership Lessons Community Now) https://rllessons.com/ (Visit the Remarkable Leadership Lessons Site) Got questions? Send them here Interested in being a guest? https://calendly.com/denisecooperspeaks/podcast-overview-referral (Schedule an introduction call)! Subscribe on https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1453921255?ign-itscg=30200&ign-itsct=lt_p (Apple Podcasts), https://open.spotify.com/show/52hAJHuGUXlyhKuOyuon3U (Spotify), or https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vY2xvc2luZy10aGUtZ2FwLw (Google Podcasts), and leave us a rating or review GUEST BIODebbie is a builder of organizations and a talent executive, focused on DEI in thought and view. Those are her passions. She has a unique background in sales, having successfully started her career selling large benefits packages to the Fortune 200, working for AXA Equitable. She knew nothing about benefits, or the Fortune 200. She was recruited to Lee Hecht Harrison, where she excelled in selling outplacement and coaching services to large, multi national organizations. When she was recruited again into the search business, she was already focused on female and minority talent and made the decision to become an entrepreneur and open her own firm. Ultimately, her organization included ten professionals and served companies including IBM, JPMorgan Chase, the GAP, Pfizer, AXA Equitable, and Prudential among others. In 2011 she was recruited to Zurich Insurance to run Talent Acquisition, University Relations and Diversity. She enjoyed the opportunity to see talent in action and build an organization. She returned to outside search and ultimately her own firm. Her clients include those from her previous firm as well as CDW, Icahn Enterprises, Citizens Bank, Pet Supplies Plus, Bloomberg and AIG. She focuses on everything Talent: acquisition, development, management, assimilation, experience and retention. Debbie's expertise is in consulting with corporations on their internal policies and practices to make them efficient, executive search and executive coaching. She has been involved with HRPS, was co-chair of its annual conference and various planning committees. She is part of the original CHREATE team, understanding and addressing the HR leadership of 2025. She is frequent and popular speaker before business groups.

What does a strong talent strategy look like in 2022 and 2023? It's easy to check skills boxes - it's harder to tell how well someone will adapt, collaborate, and evolve. Will they be able to play well with others in the sandbox of your organization? Some people are great with complex matrix organizations, while others thrive in small businesses. How do you know what your organization needs in terms of game-changing talent? When looking to source new talent, we can start by looking at senior leaders and what they anticipate will be upcoming in terms of people leaving the organization, aging out of the organization, or wanting to grow in the organization. In any business, there are areas of "evergreen" talent. These refer to any areas of the business where we are always looking for talent to drive business and move the needle in a meaningful way. We are always hiring for the next impact player, aka someone who will bring change to the organization. This can mean Heads of Sales, Marketing Leaders, Production Managers, etc. If you're wondering how to positively drive talent strategy in your organization, this is the episode for you. This week, we interview Deborah Snow-Walsh for her expert take on the future of talent development. This week's episode is part of a 12-month long series, where Deborah Snow-Walsh will be a repeat guest on the show. Have a question you want her to answer? Drop us a line at denise.cooper@rllessons.com and we'll be sure to answer it later this year. THE FINER DETAILS OF THIS SHOWWhat does a good talent strategy look like? (4:14) How does a business hire talent for 2-3 years out, when we can only see about. one year out? (7:20) What is the risk of hiring for “culture match”? How is this affecting organization's productivity and ability to adapt to changing world? (11:49) We're finding some managers are still resistant to remote work, what would you say to them? (14:00) How do we measure people's proficiency after being onboarded? (18:49) KEEP UP WITH DEBORAH SNOW WALSHhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-walsh-875b932 (Follow her on Linkedin) EPISODE RESOURCEShttps://remarkable-leadership-lessons.mn.co/plans/221111?bundle_token=4b95ffe2499218bea24341d2cab48999&utm_source=manual (Join the Remarkable Leadership Lessons Community Now) https://rllessons.com/ (Visit the Remarkable Leadership Lessons Site) Got questions? Send them here Interested in being a guest? https://calendly.com/denisecooperspeaks/podcast-overview-referral (Schedule an introduction call)! Subscribe on https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1453921255?ign-itscg=30200&ign-itsct=lt_p (Apple Podcasts), https://open.spotify.com/show/52hAJHuGUXlyhKuOyuon3U (Spotify), or https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5jYXB0aXZhdGUuZm0vY2xvc2luZy10aGUtZ2FwLw (Google Podcasts), and leave us a rating or review GUEST BIODebbie is a builder of organizations and a talent executive, focused on DEI in thought and view.  Those are her passions.  She has a unique background in sales, having successfully started her career selling large benefits packages to the Fortune 200, working for AXA Equitable.  She knew nothing about benefits, or the Fortune 200.   She was recruited to Lee Hecht Harrison, where she excelled in selling outplacement and coaching services to large, multi national organizations.  When she was recruited again into the search business, she was already focused on female and minority talent and made the decision to become an entrepreneur and open her own firm.  Ultimately, her organization included ten professionals and served companies including IBM, JPMorgan Chase, the GAP, Pfizer, AXA Equitable, and Prudential among others.  In 2011 she was recruited to Zurich Insurance to run Talent Acquisition, University Relations and Diversity.  She enjoyed the opportunity to see talent in action and build an organization.  She returned to outside search and ultimately...

In this GCP Short, produced in collaboration with Zurich Insurance, Richard is joined by four experts to discuss the current disruptions to supply chains, why ESG and sustainability is increasingly entering this discussion, and the current state of the supply chain insurance market. We also go on to address the role captives have to play in this area. Our guests are: Andreas Ruof, Head of Proposition Development & Senior Captive Services Specialist at Zurich Otto Kocsis, Principal for Business Interruption & Resilience, also at Zurich Udo Kappes, Head of Property, Casualty & Employee Insurances & Reinsurances at Airbus And Constantine Limberakis, Senior Director of Product & Solutions Marketing at riskmethods. For more information on Zurich's Captive Services, visit: https://www.globalcaptivepodcast.com/zurich

Today's guest in our second episode of the AI is Here series is Gero Gunkel, COO for Zurich Customer Active Management at Zurich Insurance. He was formerly the company's Global Head of AI. In this episode, Gero provides his perspective on the accessibility of NLP applications in insurance and where it's making a difference today. Gero also gives a good idea of why that is, what use-cases he's seeing make a dent today, and connects those thoughts to what the future of insurance looks like. This special AI is Here episode is brought to you by SambaNova Systems, the sponsor of this series. SambaNova believes that AI is Here, and we've partnered with them to bring these episodes to you. Find out more about sponsored content and how to engage with the Emerj audience at emerj.com/ad1.

This week's guest on our ongoing AI Success Factors series is Gero Gunkel of Zurich Insurance. Until recently, he was the Global Head of Artificial Intelligence for Zurich Insurance, and he is now the COO of Zurich's Customer Active Management or ZCAM. In today's episode, Gero discusses one particular use-case in helping to handle the extreme volumes of customer support inquiries that Zurich receives during certain seasons. There are two main takeaways: first, where to find the low-hanging fruit for customer experience applications for AI, and second, how to “think big and start small” from an actionable steps level in a way that achieves a measurable ROI. If you are in the financial services industry or interested in more related use-cases, be sure to subscribe to our other program called “The AI in Financial Services Podcast” on your preferred podcast platform to gain industry insights from enterprise leaders.

Benjamin Ensor joined by a fantastic panel of guest to discuss the most recent and exciting news in the world of insurtech. Joining us today: * Louise Birritteri, CEO and Founder of Pikl * James Harrison, UKI Head of Insurance at Dun & Bradstreet * Karn Saroya, CEO and Co-founder of Cover We cover the following stories: * Cowbell raises $100m to build out its AI-based cyber insurance platform for SMBs 1:54 * Lloyd's of London fines insurer Atrium over initiation games 13:23 * Water leak insurtech Ondo completes £8m London SPAC IPO 24:05 * Zurich Insurance removes Z symbol after letter used to show support for Ukraine war 33:23 * The most bizarre pet insurance claims in the UK revealed 38:52 All that and much more on this week's episode of Insurtech Insider! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, leave a review on iTunes and every other podcast app. Spread the insurtech love by sharing or tweeting this podcast. Follow us on Twitter: @instechinsiders where you can ask the hosts questions, or email podcasts@11fs.com! Special Guests: James Harrison, Karn Saroya, and Louise Birritteri.

Successful Apprenticeship Catapults Young Career in Automation . Intelligent Automation has brought fought a number of new career opportunities to young and old. On this podcast, Xina Seaton talks with Taylor McTaggart, Continuous Improvement Consultant with Zurich Insurance about jumping directly from high school to a large corporate environment where she was 5 to 10 years younger than her counterparts. She speaks about how she leveraged this generational gap and used it in her favor to allow help her show her strengths and demonstrate the value her youthful perspective brought to the team. . Here's what we talked with Taylor about: * Why she chose to leave school at 17 for an apprenticeship in technology * How she has seen multi-generational teams grow and gain from that inclusion * Insights for both her own and the older generations when it comes to getting comfortable with different age groups . To ensure that you never miss an episode of Transform NOW, be sure to subscribe!