Hyundai Assurance - A Certainty in Uncertain Times

You must be aware that two of biggest auto makers in US were brought to the brink of bankruptcy last year, as auto sales collapsed amid a credit crunch and widening recession.
A recent forecast says that total auto sales will be between 10 million and 11 million units this year, which would be the industry's worst performance since World War II after adjusting for population growth.
GM was offered a loan package worth 13.4 billion dollars in December, but is expected to ask for billions more in aid in order to stave off bankruptcy.
Last week GM said it would cut 10,000 white-collar jobs worldwide this year, reducing its headcount to about 63,000. There were even reports that it would lay off 47,000 workers all over the world (excludes India thou' )and even shut down a number of factories at various places.
Chrysler was presented a loan package of four billion dollars, but it has said it hopes to secure an additional three billion in loans.
Now while everyone is looking upto President Barack Obama and his task force to steer restructuring of the economic condition and bailout the auto industry, here is an interesting commercial from Hyundai Motors.

"In times like these, buying a new car is a big commitment for most people..
So what about the company selling it to you? How committed are they?

Introducing the Hyundai Assurance.
Now finance or lease a new Hyundai; if you lose you income next year, return it to us with no impact on your credit..

A car company that stands behinds its customers
May be commitment is not so scary after all."

Overview:
Hyundai is the first automaker in the US to offer a vehicle return program that allows you to walk away from your loan or lease without having to worry about the negative equity. It lets you return your vehicle in case of certain live-altering circumstances. That's the Hyundai Assurance.

Program details:
Availability on all new Hyundai vehicles.
Availability to everyone regardless of age, health, or employment history
12 months complimentary on every new Hyundai vehicle financed or leased.
Covers up to $7,500 in negative equity

Coverage in case of:
Involuntary unemployment
Physical disability
Loss of drivers' license due to medical impairment
International employment transfer
Self-employed personal bankruptcy
Accidental death

We've got your back - isn't that a nice change?

THAI

In mid April, the MBA students of National Insurance Academy headed to Bangkok for an education tour. The technical learning was focused on the differences in practises in the India and other matured insurance markets. Thailand a country with a population of 650 million has over 75 gerenal insurance and 25 life insurance companies. Though a series of lecturers from representatives from noted insurance companies, brokers and re-insurers we got a glimpse of operations and spread of Thai insurance market.
But alongside all these we learnt a little about Thai culture as well. The hallmark for us, of course, has been the Thai tradition of water throwing as a part of their New Year "Song kran" celebration and no one could stop comparing it with our Holi celebrations. Thai new year celebrations last for three days and the entire population either visits their native homes in the countryside or hit the streets with buckets, mugs, or plastic water shotguns and what not. Few areas are popular sites for water fight, hundreds of people gather out and celebrate this festival is true spirit. Some people carry drums filled with ice cold water and go all round the city.
The only thing missing were the colour, wish I could have explained it to them and added another dimension to gala celebrations.

Defining SUCCESS

Today was my first working day at National Insurance Academy, Pune. So we had an inaugural session this morning with the CEO of AON Global Insurance Services Pvt Ltd as the Chief Guest. The proceedings started with a very interesting presentation by our director, Dr. K.C. Mishra. He spoke and presented a video of top CEO speaking on success.
Well I remember discussing the topic quite a number of times with my friends and we found it tough to coin a definition for the word “success”.
So, this video was courtesy Wharton, where the same question was toasted in front of few CEO for their views.
Many CEO came in with their definitions and each tried to justify their point.
Most of them tried to relate it to the economic status and monetary gains that one makes in his lifetime. Some called it achieving something desired, planned, or attempted. Some said it is meeting all the goals that you set for yourself or fulfilment of all your dreams and desires. But all had one thing in common to say, success is a relative quality.
But then the best definition among all the 10 corporates who answered was from the youngest one. He said success is directly comparable to happiness in life, if a person is happy it implies he is successful. Now it upto the person; what sort of happiness he looks forward to! For example if he is able to satisfy his wife and children at home, it implies he is a successful family man.
Isn’t it well said?? It is for a person to realise whether he is happy with what he has done, no matter how much effort he has put in to achieve it compared to others, he is successful.
While I was about to conclude it as the definition of the day, our director put forward his! He simply said, Success is not a goal, it’s a journey.
It just sums it all.. All other definitions were case sensitive (so, they even contradict the word definition) but the one liner from our director tends to be the complete definition.
If you are happy or achieved success, it just pushes you to crave for more success. The journey is just endless. People need to realise this and climb the ladder of their life. For a 3 year old though learning all the alphabets will be a tough ask, but then he learns things and greater things, so he just keeps raising the bar for himself(though more often by force) and progresses on the path of academic success. And then so in all other fields.. till the end of his life.
This definition is so universal that it can even be used in the case of companies and organisations. Many companies are called (and more often call themselves) successful, but there again it’s a dynamic process. If you are the current leader in a particular industry, you have to ensure that you continue to remain to same. There is always has a potential threat from of other players in the same industry or the new payers coming in. The growth of the company should always be going up, adding on more products and more consumers.
And even the term relativity is explained better here. There isn’t anything like absolute successful with which one has to compare himself. It’s just relative to your past successes, the circumstances and some other factors. Now, it is for a person to make the best out of a situation; his decision makes him the man he would be in future. So, once he is successful in achieving it, he looks for greater task and pushes for more success.
So, people every one on this planet is successful and should be happy for it, and keep looking for opportunities for taking up bigger tasks and doing them successfully.