Monthly Archives: September 2021

image:An African lily (Agapanthus africanus) flower is broken into component parts. According to a new classification of plant complexity, an African lily has 12 types of parts in its reproductive structure, some of which are on the seed or inside the ovary and not pictured here. In comparison, a typical fern has one type of reproductive part. (Photo credit: Andrew Leslie) view more

Credit: Andrew Leslie

A Stanford-led studyreveals that rather than evolving gradually over hundreds of millions of years, land plants underwent major diversification in two dramatic bursts, 250 million years apart. The first occurred early in plant history, giving rise to the development of seeds, and the second took place during the diversification of flowering plants.

The research uses a novel but simple metric to classify plant complexity based on the arrangement and number of basic parts in their reproductive structures.While scientists have long assumed that plants became more complex with the advent of seeds and flowers, the new findings, published Sept. 17 inScience, offer insight to the timing and magnitude of those changes.

The most surprising thing is this kind of stasis, this plateau in complexity after the initial evolution of seeds and then the total change that happened when flowering plants started diversifying, said lead study authorAndrew Leslie, an assistant professor of geological sciences at StanfordsSchool of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences(Stanford Earth). The reproductive structures look different in all these plants, but they all have about the same number of parts during that stasis.

Flowers are more diverse than every other group of plants, producing colors, smells and shapes that nourish animals and delight the senses. They are also intricate: petals, anthers and pistils interweave in precise arrangements to lure pollinators and trick them into spreading pollen from one flower to another.

This complexity makes it difficult for scientists to compare flowering plants to plants with simpler reproductivesystems, such as ferns or some conifers. As a result, botanists have long focused on characteristics within family groups and typically study evolution in non-flowering plants separately from their more intricate flowering relatives.

Leslie and his co-authors overcame these differences by designing a system that classifies the number of different kinds of parts in reproductive structures based on observation alone. Each species was scored according to how many types of parts it has and the degree to which it exhibited clustering of those parts. They categorized about 1,300 land plant species from about 420 million years ago until the present.

This tells a pretty simple story about plant reproductive evolution in terms of form and function: The more functions the plants have and the more specific they are, the more parts they have,Leslie said. It's a useful way of thinking about broad-scale changes encompassing the whole of plant history.

When land plants first diversified in the early Devonian about 420 million to 360 million years ago, Earth was a warmer world devoid of trees or terrestrial vertebrate animals. Arachnids like scorpions and mites roamed the land amongst short, patchy plants and the tallest land organism was a 20-foot fungus resembling a tree trunk. After the Devonian, huge changes occurred in the animal kingdom: Land animals evolved to have large body sizes and more varied diets, insects diversified, dinosaurs appeared but plants didnt see a major change in reproductive complexity until they developed flowers.

Insect pollination and animal seed dispersal may have appeared as early as 300 million years ago, but it's not until the last 100 million years that these really intricate interactions with pollinators are driving this super high complexity in flowering plants, Leslie said. There was such a long period of time where plants could have interacted with insects in the way that flowering plants do now, but they didn't to the same degree of intricacy.

In the Late Cretaceous, about 100 to 66 million years ago, Earth more closely resembled the planet we know today a bit like Yosemite National Park without the flowering trees and bushes. The second burst of complexity was more dramatic than the first, emphasizing the unique nature of flowering plants, according to Leslie. That period gave rise to plants like the passionflower, which can have 20 different types of parts, more than twice the number found in non-flowering plants.

The researchers classified 472 living species, part of which Leslie carried out on and around Stanfords campus by simply pulling apart local plants and counting their reproductive organs. The analysis includes vascular land plants everything except mosses and a few early plants that lack supportive tissue for conducting water and minerals.

One thing we argue in this paper is that this classification simply reflects their functional diversity, Leslie said. They basically split up their labor in order to be more efficient at doing what they needed to do.

###

Study co-authors include Carl Simpson of the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and Luke Mander of The Open University.

Reproductive innovations and pulsed rise in plant complexity

17-Sep-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Go here to see the original:

Plants evolved complexity in two bursts -- with a 250-million-year hiatus. The first occurred early - EurekAlert

That would be fine indeed, it would be fantastic if we shared a common language and vocabulary for deliberating these differences. We could explore them in our classrooms, asking students how they imagine America: past, present and future. But we are splitting into mutually hostile tribes, which makes real conversation almost impossible. What should be a teachable moment for our children has become another dividing line between their parents. Even the question of masks in schools is now a take-no-prisoners struggle, pitting different versions of America against each other.

To be sure, we have always fought over who we are. In the 1920s, most notably, the Scopes trial triggered a campaign by fundamentalist and evangelical Christians to block the teaching of evolution. Yet fierce history wars also flared during these same years, as ethnic and racial minorities joined hands with white patriotic societies to blast textbooks that allegedly undermined the Founding Fathers. By emphasizing the economic motivations for the American Revolution and the Constitution, the argument went, history books diminished the grandeur of the nation itself.

Most of all, such interpretations had the potential to demean the multiethnic heroes who contributed to the new republics creation. Polish-Americans lionized Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who came over from Europe to assist the Revolution. German-Americans praised Molly Pitcher, born Maria Ludwig (they said), who allegedly took up her husbands position behind a cannon when he fell. African Americans celebrated Boston Massacre victim Crispus Attucks, the first American to die in the Revolutionary cause. And Jews were proud of Haym Salomon, a Philadelphia merchant who helped finance it.

All of these groups wanted to burnish their role in the nations founding, so they blocked any effort to question its broader themes of freedom and progress. Making the Revolution less heroic would devalue the diverse heroes who fought in it, or so their advocates feared.

A similar pattern unfolded during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, when African Americans won the removal of racist textbook material including passages praising slavery and the inclusion of a wider array of Black luminaries. Hispanic and Asian and Native peoples followed suit, demanding that their children have a chance to see themselves, or at least their heroes, in history books.

As before, however, these new figures were mostly folded into the old story. Even as the textbooks embraced diversity, their titles remained the same: Quest for Liberty, Rise of the American Nation, and so on. That was the modus vivendi of the History Wars: each race could have its heroes sung, as the New York Times observed in 1927, so long as no group questioned the underlying melody that united them all.

Religious conflict in schools was different, because it could not be tempered in this additive, come-one-come-all fashion. Either human beings evolved from other mammals, or they did not; either Christ was the Messiah, or he wasnt. So the Religion Wars were more vehement and more enduring than the History Wars of the past.

Several states continued to ban evolution instruction until 1968, when the Supreme Court ruled that such laws violated the First Amendments separation of church and state. Anti-evolutionists switched gears after that, winning measures that required equal time for evolution and Biblical creation until the court struck them down, too. Then came efforts to teach that the scientific record demonstrated intelligent design, which a federal judge ruled unconstitutional in 2005.

Likewise, school prayer and sacramental Bible reading were struck down by the courts in the early 1960s. But schools found ways to continue both practices. Some of them introduced prayers at football games, which would bootleg worship into schools (as advocates openly quipped) even after the courts banned it; others offered courses on the history and literature of the Bible, which often served the same purpose.

Finally, sex education exposed enormous religious rifts in Americas body politic. To conservative critics, school-based instruction on the subject threatened to violate Scriptural injunctions against sex outside of marriage. They especially objected to discussions of abortion, contraception or homosexuality in schools.

But the Religion Wars started to cool in the late 1990s, shortly after Ralph Reed called upon his flock to flood into school boards. As one Florida religion reporter observed in 2008, evangelical families trying to get their children into college didnt believe that the earth was a few thousand years old. And even if they did, they were unlikely to stick their necks out for it if that might hold their kids back.

Conservatives who still cared about evolution or school prayer, or sex education increasingly exempted themselves from the public schools altogether, patronizing Christian academies or simply homeschooling their children. That meant less pressure on school boards, at least around religious questions.

By contrast, the History Wars gained steam. The 2008 election of Barack Obama the nations first African American president fueled the growth of the Tea Party, whose overwhelmingly white members feared losing the nation they love, as one leader in Virginia explained. Fox News host Glenn Beck launched Founders Friday in 2010, devoting the first show in the series to the leader of the original Tea Party: Sam Adams. Beck even outfitted his TV studio with a blackboard and old-fashioned desks, conjuring the one-room schoolhouse of yesteryear.

Out in the real schools, meanwhile, conservatives denounced ethnic studies courses as divisive and un-American. They also challenged the College Boards revised Advanced Placement course in United States history in 2014, which reduced material about the Founding Fathers while adding new information about slavery, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War Two, and other so-called negative aspects of the past.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016 completed the transition from Religion Wars back to History Wars in our schools. To satisfy evangelical voters, who supported him in extraordinary numbers, Trump did rescind an Obama-era order that schools allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice. But amid threats of corporate boycotts, states considering bills to limit transgender access quickly backed off them; business opposition has also complicated the efforts of some GOP-controlled states that targeted transgender student athletes.

Similarly, the Trump administration tried to cancel federal grants to groups providing lessons about contraception. But the courts intervened, ruling that the White House could not withdraw promised funds simply because it objected to how they were used. Some Christian conservatives sponsored opt-out campaigns, urging parents to withdraw their children from sex education classes. The very need to exempt themselves suggested that they had lost the larger struggle over the subject.

Yet the History Wars flared as never before, sparked by a president who pledged to Make America Great Again. Trumps 2016 campaign slogan was inspired by a similar phrase used by Ronald Reagan in I980, Lets Make America Great. The difference was subtle but significant: whereas Reagan pointed to a sunny national future, Trump called on the country to revive a lost past.

After neo-Nazis rallied to defend Confederate statues in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, Trump defended the statues and also vowed to retain the names of military bases named after Confederate generals. And when the New York Times released its 1619 Project, which dated Americas founding to the arrival of its first African slaves, Trump announced a 1776 Project to defend traditional accounts of America's origins and development.

Meanwhile, conservatives around the country streamed into school board meetings to denounce the 1619 Project and critical race theory, which holds that racism is baked into Americas political, legal and social institutions. As the right correctly sensed, these ideas reflected a fundamental challenge to the grand national narrative. The 1619 Project did not simply add diverse people to the old American story of freedom and liberty; instead, it questioned the story itself. Critical race theory doesnt just ask us to consider the role of racial minorities in American history; it suggests that racism is an ongoing feature of that same history.

Steve Bannon is right: The road to saving the nation runs through our schools. The real question is which parts of the nation we want to save, which we wish to discard, and why. Thats an issue that affects all of us, whether we patronize the public schools or not. And thats also why so many indignant citizens have protested at school board meetings, insisting that their version of America is the right one for everybody.

Can we agree to disagree about that? Can our schools present multiple views of the nation? At the height of the Religion Wars, combatants on both sides claimed that there was no room for compromise. The truly scary prospect is that our ideas of America are becoming quasi-religious beliefs in their own right. And we lack enough faith in public education and in ourselves to let students sort them out on their own.

See the original post:

Why the Culture Wars in Schools Are Worse Than Ever Before - POLITICO

The pandemic caused a period of unprecedented turmoil and opportunity in the world around us. Markets including banking are changing faster in the past year than at any time before. Now, traditional and alternative financial institutions have to align products and services they offer with their customers' needs and expectations. The ultimate target is embedding banking in a consumer's daily life while being invisible, but vital.

Financial institutions have to prioritize short-term and long-term business goals to face economic uncertainty, increased competition, new technological advances, and changing consumer expectations. But the question is if organizations leverage the benefits they have to make a powerful evolution thrust by using new technologies in 2021 and beyond?

Cost reduction is a short-term cure

These days, a lot of financial institutions have focused on traditional short-term strategies like cutting costs across the entire organization as a response to the period of low interest rates, slim margins, and diminished demand for credit. And many scaled back workforces, eliminated product lines, stopped serving certain segments and geographies, closed branches, and reduced investment in new technology and innovation.

One of the negative impacts of cutting costs has been the shift away from less profitable businesses and populations, including less wealthy segments and geographies. But the idea is that it's impossible to make way to prosperity through cost-cutting. The investment must be made to meet consumer expectations for enhanced digital experiences and employee expectations to become digitally ready for the future.

Consumer expectations and banking priorities: bridging the gap

With the outbreak of the pandemic, financial institutions needed to provide online access to all financial services via digital channels because of the restrictions on in-person branches. But according to the World Retail Banking Report 2021, from 40% to 50% of bank executives admitted that they don't know how to streamline and integrate mid-, back- and front-office functions effectively, and how to embrace open banking, orchestrate the ecosystem or become a truly data-driven organization. At the same time, consumers embraced digital experiences rapidly to save themselves time and money.

Legacy financial institutions have to increase investment in areas that the consumers value the most to remain competitive. It includes improvement of digital engagement speed and simplicity, usage of data and analytics for proactive real-time recommendations, creation of new ways to engage and care for customers, and exploration of value-added ways to make a consumers life easier.

Drive Post-pandemic evolution: driven by customers

Most traditional financial institutions are not structured to correspond to a new digital paradigm shift. Consumers' expectations are rising because of their awareness of the capabilities created by data, advanced analytics, new technology, and digital communication. Siloed organizational structures and outdated analysis tools can't longer process data fast enough. Legacy product alignment, repositioning the offering of services, and the commitment of resources around the customer need rethinking.

Traditional banking is to evolve into a digital-first, seamlessly integrated banking experience via a combination of digital channels and modernized branches. A focus should shift from product-centric innovation to customer-centric intelligent transformation.

Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS): platform approach

Banking-as-a-Service model centers both on facilitating value creation and value exchange between both financial and non-financial institutions making the consumer a primary beneficiary. BaaS platforms accelerate the innovation process, simplify the offering and delivery of products and services, allow for faster iterations as consumer behavior changes.

The ultimate goal of a BaaS approach is to increase customer engagement, enhance loyalty and overall customer value by moving financial institutions towards embedded finance as a part of consumers everyday life. The combination of financial services with social media, retail, transportation, hospitality, investment, and advisory services enables the increase of the potential to provide value to retail consumer segments or even on an individualized basis.

Super applications emerging: super combo in action

From giants like Apple, Google, PayPal, and Amazon to FinTech firms, retailers, telecom companies, and old school providers like Goldman Sachs, the number of organizations stirring their fingers in the banking ecosystem continues to expand. When consumers were asked what banking services they would use from non-traditional providers, the array of responses were far broader than just basic banking operations. This shows that consumer interest expands far beyond their financial relationships with the traditional banking system.

This means that even the definition of primary financial institution (PFI) should be rethought because many Millennials would not consider their PFI to be used for only checking their bank account, but for a wider variety of other options.

Cloud computing: customer experience enhancement

There were years of hesitation around the adoption of cloud computing for the reasons of security, costs, implementation timelines, and ROI rationale. And for the majority of organizations, the move to cloud computing is only the initial step towards complete cloud transformation. But moving data processing to the cloud embraces way more benefits to ignore: reduced costs, scalability, and flexibility improved productivity, faster innovation to name a few.

At times when the personalization of the customer experience is becoming a business requirement, the capability to process data and create insights in real-time requires a strong cloud architecture. The capability to collect, process, and use data insights for the consumers benefit turns imperative. The simple truth is if consumers get value from using their private information, they will share more in the future, making relationships stronger.

Conclusion

Due to becoming more ubiquitous and embedded in customers everyday lives, legacy financial institutions will be forced to be at the center of that ecosystem. More organizations will appear to occupy that position not even being traditional financial organizations. The key principle will become to use data and insights to provide value for winning trust and loyalty in return. To succeed in this concept the collaboration with players outside of traditional banking is needed to make consumers even more engaged with their banking app than they are today.

Read the original here:

Evolution of banking from now and on - Finextra

By Justin Ray, KPMG Performance Insights Contributor

An exciting new era in LPGA history is underway with the unveiling of KPMG Performance Insights, a statistical evolution that will change the way players, coaches, media and fans experience womens golf.

Tracking enhanced scorecard data began earlier this year at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, held June 10-13. During that time, the KPMG Performance Insights team has accumulated the data from more than 240,000 individual LPGA Tour shots. This newly filled ocean of statistics will help tell richer, more detailed analytical stories about the best players in the world.

Which shots prove to be most valuable in determining the outcome of a given tournament? What new, context-filled details can we learn about the elite players in the sport? And just how good of a putter is Inbee Park? For this initial look into the KPMG Performance Insights, we asked Justin Ray, KPMG Performance Insights contributor, to dive in and detail the highlights that got his attention.

NELLY NUMBERS

The traditional statistics tell us that Nelly Korda has been the best player on Tour in 2021: She leads the LPGA Tour in scoring average, rounds under par, rounds in the 60s and Rolex Player of the Year points. The advanced statistics explain just how balanced Korda is through the bag, excelling in every level of her game this season.

Korda is averaging a 3.73 strokes gained total per round since the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, when advanced data was initially tracked. That total is a whopping 0.79 strokes per round better than any other player on Tour in that span. Shes the best on tour in strokes gained off the tee (1.36) and 6th in strokes gained approach (1.50). Her putting has been excellent, too, ranking in the top-30 during that stretch of tournaments.

When it comes to approach play, Korda has been excellent from 150 to 175 yards. From that range, her average proximity is just over 31 feet, fourth best on Tour. She has also excelled from long range 225 to 250 yards where her average distance from the pin is at right about half of the LPGA Tour average.

Kordas second-round 63 at Atlanta Athletic Club not only vaulted her into the lead at the KPMG Womens PGA Championship this summer, but it was the third-best round by strokes gained total since tracking started. Korda beat the field average by a remarkable 9.75 strokes that afternoon in Georgia. Her approach play in that round was otherworldly: She gained 7.78 strokes on approach shots that day, the most by anyone in any single round since tracking started.

LEONA LETHAL ON THE GREEN

Besides Korda, the only other player to average at least 2.5 strokes gained total per round during this stretch is Leona Maguire, with 2.94. While Maguire gains strokes across the board, earning positive numbers off the tee, on approach and around the green, its putting where she really shines of late. Maguire averages 1.73 strokes gained putting per round since the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship, the second-highest clip of any player during that span.

LPGA Tour players have an average make percentage of 55% on putts from 5 to 10 feet. Maguire is making them at a clip of 73%, the seventh-best rate of any player with 10 or more measured rounds. From 20 to 25 feet, she has made 21% of her putts, more than double the Tour average from that range (9%).

THE GREAT INBEE PARK

For years, golf fans have marveled at the putting of seven-time major champion Inbee Park. Now, we can accurately quantify how remarkable she truly is on the green.

Lets take putts from 10 to 15 feet. Since KPMG Performance Insight tracking started, putts from that range have been made 28% of the time by LPGA Tour players. In the mens game, the overall percentage is comparable, hovering right around 30%. The last three season leaders in the mens game in that statistic have made from 40 to 41% of putts from 10 to 15 feet away.

Inbee Park? She is making those putts a whopping 64% of the time. Park is currently making a higher rate of putts from 10 to 15 feet than her male counterparts did last season, on average, from 5 to 10 feet.

At the KPMG Womens PGA Championship, Park drained a 100-foot putt on the 18th hole in the opening round. With that miraculous make, Park gained 1.70 strokes on the field, the most in any single putt since tracking began.

APPROACH PLAY PROWESS OF SALAS

With a strokes gained total average of 1.99 per round, Lizette Salas currently ranks a lofty 12th among all players with 10 or more measured rounds since the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship in June. Salas has earned that statistical distinction despite not having the advantage of elite driving distance at just over 245 yards off the tee, shes averaged just about a neutral strokes gained off-the-tee performance in that span (-0.01 per round).

This only puts the Americans elite approach play skills into greater perspective. Salas is averaging 1.96 strokes gained approach per round, third-most on Tour. More than 98% of Salas total strokes gained comes from her approach shots, by far the highest rate of any player who ranks in the top-15 in SG total. No matter how you slice up her proximity to the hole numbers, shes stellar: In every statistical denomination from 50 to 225 yards, Salas has recorded an average proximity better than the LPGA Tours overall mean.

LYDIA KOS SHORT GAME

The stellar touch of Lydia Ko sings in the new trove of statistical data. Among our group with at least 10 measured rounds, Ko ranks third in strokes gained around the green and ninth in strokes gained putting. Kos performance this season is an example of the traditional and non-traditional numbers being in perfect sync: Shes in the top 10 on the LPGA Tour this season in the old-school numbers of scrambling and putting average, but also in strokes gained around the green and strokes gained putting.

Ko is the only player on Tour averaging half-a-stroke gained per round with her short game and at least a full stroke gained putting. Her stroke average has improved by a full half-stroke so far in 2021 over last season.

ANATOMY OF A LIGHTS-OUT PUTTING ROUND

In the opening round of the AIG Womens Open, Madelene Sagstrom racked up 7.19 strokes putting, the most by any player in a single round since tracking started in mid-June. Following her performance, Sagstrom told the media repeatedly about how well she putted that day. So what did that performance look like from a more detailed perspective?

The numbers were astronomical: Sagstrom made a ridiculous nine putts of 10 feet or longer, and six of more than 20 feet. She was perfect putting from 8 feet and in, as well, on her way to seven birdies. Sagstrom carded a 67 that day despite hitting only 11 greens in regulation. She would go on to finish in a tie for second that week, one shot behind winner Anna Nordqvist.

See the original post here:

KPMG Performance Insights A First Look Into the Next Evolution in Women's Golf - LPGA

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBRE), the global leader in commercial real estate services and investment, today announced new brand positioning including a new vision, Realizing Potential in Every Dimension and global corporate website. The new positioning underscores the companys continued evolution into a provider of highly diversified, integrated services that meet the full range of investor and occupier requirements at all stages of the real estate lifecycle.

CBRE has evolved significantly as we have strengthened and diversified our business across four dimensions asset types, lines of business, clients and geographies. Just as our service offering has evolved, were moving the CBRE brand forward, reflecting our success in delivering differentiated outcomes for all our stakeholders, said Bob Sulentic, the companys president and chief executive officer.

The strategic pillars that support the brand positioning include:

CBRE also unveiled a reimagined and re-designed global website to better support client needs as they seek insights and resources for increasingly complex business challenges.

Benji Baer, CBREs chief marketing officer, said: From property leasing and sales, to workplace experience consultation, to enabling sustainable investments, CBRE plays a central role in helping businesses and people to thrive. Clients are being more thoughtful about their real estate needs than ever before and require more from their business partners. Our new positioning reflects the distinct value our multidimensional expertise delivers and our ability to drive superior solutions for our clients.

About CBRE Group, Inc.

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE: CBRE), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Dallas, is the worlds largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2020 revenue). The company has more than 100,000 employees serving clients in more than 100 countries. CBRE serves a diverse range of clients with an integrated suite of services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services. Please visit our website at http://www.cbre.com. We routinely post important information on our website, including corporate and investor presentations and financial information. We intend to use our website as a means of disclosing material, non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Such disclosures will be included in the Investor Relations section of our website at https://ir.cbre.com. Accordingly, investors should monitor such portion of our website, in addition to following our press releases, Securities and Exchange Commission filings and public conference calls and webcasts.

Here is the original post:

CBRE Unveils New Brand Positioning that Underscores Company's Evolution into Diversified Global Business - Business Wire

The economic reforms in the 90s led to a tectonic shift in business mindset, from customer needs to client satisfaction and delight. This shift led to an unending quest for quality and competitive advantage, and hence to the idea of hiring vendors for not so critical activities and jobs. On the other hand, the FDI & MNCs were already operating on such outsourcing models for non-critical areas.The organized FM space saw its evolution with global FM players setting up bases in India. It gave the Indian business an option to choose global players & also pushed the evolution in the homegrown FM companies space.

Starting from housekeeping contracts, the scope of the contract expanded to other non-critical aspects like water, electricity & waste management services. At this point, these contracts were only a function of manpower supply and hinged around the supply of man-hours. This was governed by various government statutes in terms of wages and related salaries components of insurance and social security. While the adherence to these statutes was a mandate, many unorganized players did not comply with it. Hence the entire IndiaFM market was split into compliant and non-compliant players, with the bulk of it falling in the latter space.

With the advent of technology and the new age of entrepreneurs, there were two paradigm movements in the FM space.

First being the alignment of vendors with the overall business outcome and second the reinforcement of mandate on compliance to the statute.Alignment of vendors with organizational goals and objectives meant that the businesses were looking for partners and not for vendors, which led to the revised commercial arrangement based on the outcome of services rather than pure manpower deployed.

This was the time when large global MNCs awarded FM contracts on SLA per square feet. This model gave rise to a whole new set of evolved FM players for whom wage compliance & site employee was non-negotiable.The SLA model impact made the FM players think for ways and means to augment its financial impacts. This enabled specialized services interventions typically on the energy management side. The FM portfolio had now moved from non-critical to the near-core side of client business making a notable contribution towards the overall clients business goals.

The overall selection process of an FM partner became more structured and critical. The request for proposal process (RFP) became cyclic and with more and more large and mid-sized organizations following this process.The outcome-based FM model focused on new avenues of intervention and it also led to the need for strong governance of the core FM activity. This meant strong supervision, governance, and flow of information seamlessly. However, this would not be feasible as long as there is a 100% manual intervention in these actions. Computer-aided FM was hence conceptualized and was driven by the large global giants. This was called CAFM, computer-aided FM.

CAFM actually was great in terms of its concept but lacked agility, customization, and user-friendliness. FM players and clients lived with CAFM for a while, next-gen app-based CAFM replaced it during the tech revolution of 2015-18, where you had apps for all that you did and needed. Global FM players had to rely on their parent organizations for approval and roll out while the home-grown firms were quick to adopt and roll it out. PSIPL app-based end-to-end FM solution is one of the proven case studies in this regard. All services were tagged using QR codes, prompting checklists, and auto reporting to the users/clients has changed the FM space forever.

App-based FM allowed players to offer near core and core outsourcing solutions seamlessly with resource optimization and better yields. Repairs, maintenance, Critical utility upkeep, and vendor management could now be weaved in a single platform with autonomous information flow between stakeholders operating within their own ecosystems. The outcome-based FM contracts are getting redefined. Clients are demanding FM solutions with App-based technology as a prerequisite. Businesses today look for FM partners who can allow them to focus fully on their core business activity while the FM partner takes care of everything else!

In times of pandemic, the focus has shifted to the site level staff and FM players are trying to establish themselves as more sensitive to client's well-being at all levels. There is a tectonic shift in the government. owned facilities as well. Many of the government organizations like sports authorities, metro projects, railways, airports, ports, medical facilities, govt housing societies, etc, are looking to upgrade the overall end-user experience which is going to drive the next level of growth in the FM market in India.

FM evolution has been remarkable from manpower supply to experience creation. This is very much in line across the industry segments. With more and more spheres of business looking for experience and hence outsourcing to subject matter experts is only going to drive the need for established, credible, compliant, and tech-driven FM players for many years to come.

See the article here:

Evolution in FM industry in last two decades - People - Construction Week Online India

Zamaswazi Zinhle Majozi. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla)

Research conducted by the Centre for Analytics and Behavioural Change (CABC) in May revealed that the Sphithiphithi Evaluator account sat at the centre of content creation for the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) forces network which provided support for a number of public figures facing corruption charges.

The RET forces network which including Sphithiphithi Evaluator had 51 affiliated accounts, produced and amplified high volumes of content in support of former president Jacob Zuma and his allies, while criticising President Cyril Ramaphosa, the media and the judiciary, among others.

Following the looting and violence which transpired during the July unrest, the CABC identified the top 12 accounts which amplified incendiary content that reached more than 19 million people that month.

Sphithiphithi Evaluators content was the most commonly retweeted by these 12 accounts.

The revamp of Sphithiphithi Evaluator

Having joined Twitter in 2013, activity within the Sphithiphithi Evaluator account with the handle @_AfricanSoil only began to peak in January 2018, a month short of Zumas resignation as the president of South Africa.

The content which the account engaged in also received a major makeover, with the focus moving away from sports, to a period of inactivity, and finally, conversation around politics which remains the theme today.

The Zondo Commission of Inquiry into State Capture became the topic of engagement in 2018, but the account has also been involved in a variety of other politics-related conversations including VBS Bank, the Bosasa liquidation in 2019 and the recent #PhoenixMassacre in July.

The CABC found that conversation around and including the Sphithiphithi Evaluator account received more than one million mentions between July last year and August this year.

During this time period, the account engaged heavily in primary topics around Zuma, the ANC, South Africa and Ramaphosa.

The account also adopted a number of techniques to amplify its messages.

Included in these techniques is spinning media content to generate support for Zuma or to attack Ramaphosa, the media itself or the judiciary.

It is within the scope of the RET forces accounts, that hashtags such as #ThumaMinaMediaGroup and #SAMediaMustFall intended to cast doubt on media articles that go against the narrative pushed by the network are used.

A network bigger than anticipated?

Since news broke of Majozis arrest, conversation around Sphithiphithi Evaluator has generated more than 40,000 mentions.

With a common theme of pledging support for Sphithiphithi Evaluator, while criticising the media, Ramaphosas faction of the ANC and the Hawks, the top 20 authors in the conversation contributed more than 3,000 tweets between 29 August and 3 September.

The consensus among these accounts rests on the notion that Sphithiphithi Evaluator, similar to Zuma, is a victim of Ramaphosas alleged dictatorship and did not incite any violence during the unrest.

Research also showed traces of RET forces accounts which had engaged with Sphithiphithi Evaluator content at high volumes between September last year and August this year.

The account has also been backed by prominent accounts which belong to Zumas faction.

Among these are the high-traction posts of Zumas daughter Dudu Zuma-Sambudlas account, which came under scrutiny for sharing incendiary content during the July unrest.

In a period of five days (29 August 3 September), conversation linked to and including Sphithiphithi Evaluator or @_AfricanSoil has had a total reach of more than 80 million people.

With a large degree of support from accounts within the online RET forces network, and a growing unique author volume, conversation around the Sphithiphithi Evaluator account is expected to grow even further as Majozis case is set to be heard on 18 October. DM

Continue reading here:

The evolution of social media influencer Sphithiphithi... - Daily Maverick

Did the pandemic rewrite the rules for the holiday shopping season? Is there even a rulebook anymore? As consumers look to engage with their favorite brands across all channels this upcoming holiday season, retailers will need to find ways to bridge the gap between in-person and online to provide seamless experiences. John Federman, CEO of JRNI, and Adam Percival, National Sales Leader at luxury menswear retailer, Harry Rosen, broke down the recent trends they believe will impact the upcoming holiday shopping season and provide tips for success for retailers.

One behavioral carry-over from last year is peoples need to engage on a personal level, Federman said. They want to celebrate the holidays, but they want to do so safely. Whats different from last year is everyone feels a little like a veteran. They feel they know the ways to comfortably and safely get accomplished what they need to get accomplished. Boiled down: people are ready to shop this holiday season, but they will do so in a safe manner. The retailers that can provide a safe environmentwill come out on top.

From Harry Rosens perspective, Percival said theyd worked hard to develop new strategies for creating a unique shopping experience during the pandemic, and this will be crucial during the holiday shopping season as well. We see the trend of online shopping continue. Consumers want to shop when and where its convenient to them. I do see the appointment business continue to be very strong. People want to shop either at home or in their office, or online. For us, its going to be about these personalized, or private, appointments for customers.

Federman stressed that the holiday shopping landscape isnt one format over another. A customers journey may start online, but it can, and often does, end in a physical store. But the time spent in a store may be different from the shopping experience of the past. People want to make the time spent in the physical as focused and as ultimately productive as it can be.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter @MarketScaleFacebook facebook.com/marketscaleLinkedIn linkedin.com/company/marketscale

View post:

The Experience Evolution: Prep the Halls2021 Holiday Shopping Trends and Tips - MarketScale

Jrgen Klopp discussed Thiago Alcantara's first year as a Liverpool player and his midfield set-up during the second part of his Crystal Palace pre-match press conference.

Saturday marks exactly 12 months since Thiago swapped Bayern Munich for the Reds, who welcome Patrick Vieira's side to Anfield in the Premier League at 3pm BST.

Read on for the rest of Klopp's media comments ahead of the meeting with the Eagles...

On assessing Thiago's first year at the club and how much more he thinks there is to come from the No.6...

Much more, because the start was not perfect. He came here, got COVID, got injured early and stuff like this. That, of course, makes things more difficult but he showed what kind of player he can be for us and will be for us. So, there's a lot more to come, of course. Maybe it's now a year but if you want it's actually only half a year because of all the things that happened around. Coming to a new club in the most difficult period of all our lives, he settled really well despite that. His family is here, loves it here. He's in the middle of the team it was very quick the case and he's a really good character and really good personality and obviously a world-class player. So, all fine.

On the tactical instructions he gives Thiago for matches...

It's different obviously with players because there are some natural skills what the boys have. In Thiago's case, all the technical stuff is kind of easy for him. But, of course, he had to and has to adapt to the way we play, the way we defend, all these kind of things. He played probably more often at Munich in the rather double-six role, maybe a slightly more offensive player, but for us it's a complex position. You have to be offensive, you have to be defensive, you have to be really in between the lines, you can drop but not always in the last line to receive the ball all these kind of things. But actually he's a natural footballer. It's not that we now give him like 50, 60 different things during a game. We want him to play his football with some little things which he has had to adapt to in the way we play. And he did that, so that's all fine.

I don't ask him now for constant runs behind the last line or stuff like this. He's a playmaker obviously that can be sometimes a little bit deeper but must be very often between the two interesting lines of the opponent as well in a more closer area. But with this passing he can change the game immediately. He has great vision and can chip balls in each area he wants to a bit like a golfer actually, a good golfer, a world-class golfer. He can do that obviously without thinking. I love the way he plays, all good. How I said, it's a complex position for us. But because we have the different skill sets, we use the different skill sets from time to time when we think this skill set makes more sense against this opponent so more dynamic, more runs in behind, more natural offensive, more natural defensive, all these kind of things. So, that's the reason for different line-ups.

On Thiago only getting the chance to start with Jordan Henderson and Fabinho on one occasion...

How I said, they can work really well together and it will happen probably in the future no doubt about that. How I said, we have so many different skill sets and I don't have a first three in midfield why should I? The boys all have to offer in training, and if they offer in training then I have to make a decision. Even when we only have three days' time between two games, we try to prepare against the opponent as seriously as possible and that means how can you make little advantages? It's not just that we push through always exactly what you want to do. Maybe there are some different opportunities in the game against the opponent, so we have to try to use that. That's what we do. It's nothing to do with Thiago or whatever. The Premier League is too intense. Imagine you would have four midfielders only, and three of them have to play all the time and one is coming in from time to time that just doesn't work. It's a very intense position with a lot of intense challenges where we have to be as fresh as possible to be just ready to face them. That's what we do.

Again, this year the start was not perfect [for Thiago]. So because of the Euros, he came slightly later, then he came here, was injured and then he could start the pre-season later with us. So that's not perfect but it's not a massive problem. Meanwhile, we are now in matchday five in the Premier League, so we are getting there. But it's a long season to come and, again, each little bit you can get fitter to be ready for that we try to use. While we do that, maybe sometimes other players have to play with a full pre-season. Autumn coming, the winter coming, spring coming and then the decisive early summer coming, and hopefully we can keep them all fit and fresh and it will be a really tough cookie to play against.

On whether there was a plan to try to 'evolve' the midfield...

We did try to develop every year, so that's how it is. Evolve every year. One thing you saw now [is] a really flexible triangle on the right side again, I would say. It was that flexible that at the end Mo Salah had to defend the right full-back position! Because Trent was in the box and Hendo was in the middle of the park or whatever. We want that but, of course, we are still in the process to really get settled that we are not that exposed in a situation like that. But apart from that, it gives you always offensively a little advantage but defensively you are slightly more open, so you have to figure out, you have to get the rhythm for that exactly right. But that's for sure different to last year. We want to do that on both wings, we need flexible triangles, we need to get supported. Usually when Bobby is playing, a lot of support from him by dropping but especially in the last game we didn't want that we did it differently.

So these are the things we talk about. It's not that we only tell them who's the next opponent, play the same stuff again. We really try to improve and we really try to develop. For that, the door is open, very open for everybody to be part of that. So far it worked out really well. With Harvey, it was just nice to see how naturally he did that. A young player like him, you don't fiddle with 500,000 informations, we just let him play and have a look, 'OK, what's natural and where does he need a little advice or whatever?' He didn't need a lot of advice. He just played the position and it was really nice to see, that's why he played. He was there in the full pre-season, had all the sessions, that's why he played. But now Hendo played the position and Naby came in on the other side and played a super game offensively it was really dominant and all that stuff. So it's nice to see that we can do that and, again, I said it's the engine room of a football team, this midfield. We have only three proper and not five or whatever. That means they have to be fit and really in charge of the game as much as we can, and that's why we decide from time to time like this.

The rest is here:

Jrgen Klopp on Thiago's first year and Liverpool's midfield 'evolution' - Liverpool FC

If youd spent the last month closely following Aidan Shaws recruitment, you could begin to see momentum turning Missouris direction.

A scheduled official visit to Arkansas fell through. Oklahoma State took a commitment from another player at his position. Meanwhile, Iowa and Maryland both of whom garnered official visits this summer never truly gained traction with the top-60 talent.

As we already noted, this race boiled down to an ancient feud between MU and its rival to the west. Ultimately, the Tigers won out, with Shaws commitment giving coach Cuonzo Martin and much-needed victory on the recruiting trail. Moreover, the on-court impact of Shaws decision is as crystal clear as the off-court optics for the program.

At the outset of this cycle, MU likely had four scholarships in play, three of which likely fell in the backcourt. But after this springs roster machinations with the transfer portal, the Tigers ultimately had just a pair vacancies: a ball-handler for depth and replacement for senior Javon Pickett.

In early July, the program activated stealth mode to land East St. Louis Christian Jones after he put together a stellar month with the Flyers at team camps. From that point on, attention shifted toward the likes of Shaw, who had been on campus for an official visit the third week of June.

Now, for all intents and purposes, MU could stand pat the rest of the fall. Exceptions exist, though. Five-star wing Mark Mitchell certainly qualifies. Last week, he announced another round official visits to his four finalists: Duke, Kansas, Missouri, and UCLA (His trip to Columbia is set for homecoming weekend). Recruitniks peg this as a two-team race between the Bruins and Blue Devils, with the program in Durham forecasted as the likely winner. For its part, MU thinks its deeper in the mix for Mitchell, who is set to make a decision in December, than most assume.

Should Mizzou prevail, taking Mitchell would mean over-signing, which Martin hasnt done since taking the job. But if MU can add Shaw and Mitchell, it wont blink.

There are also some other options on the market. Robert Jennings, a three-star prospect from the Dallas metroplex, used an official visit the first weekend of September. However, Jennings, a 6-foot-7, 220-pound forward, doesnt seem to be working on an expedited timeline. He visited SMU last weekend and spent this one at Texas Tech. On Wednesday, Mizzou offered DeShawndre Washington, a 6-foot-7, 190-pound wing at Northwest Florida State, who was the NJCAAs Division II Player of the Year last season.

Historically, though, Martins never over-signed during the fall period. So, he might content standing pat with Jones and Shaw. If any needs arise, the transfer market figures to be robust when spring arrives.

We joke that Martins trying to sign as many 6-foot-7 wings as possible, but theres a kernel of truth in that quip.

Adding Shaw only makes the line between the wing and combo spots more opaque. Even a couple of years ago, Shaw would be a straight wing prospect who only dabbled occasionally as a combo forward. Now, it might be a larger portion of his portfolio one shared with Kobe Brown, Sean Durugordon and Ronnie DeGray III.

Its now a cliche, but your position is defined by who you can guard. Shaws defensive versatility allows him to slide down and check fours, but its his switchability thats most enticing. A couple of years ago, MUs defense was more gap-sound and positional. Yet Martins talked about being more assertive on the ball and pushing the pace.

Case in point: 28 percent of MUs field-goal attempts came in transition last season and ranked 39th among Division I programs, according to Hoop Math. Where did the Tigers finish in 2019-2020? Try 292nd nationally. Juicing the throttle will likely require more turnovers, which hinges on steady ball pressure and athleticism in passing lanes. In short, it requires what Shaw can provide.

Playing for Matt McCall at UMass means DeGrays background is well-versed in that approach. As for Brown and Durugordon, there might be a little more wait and see involved. But if Shaw settles in quickly, the Tigers will have a plug-and-play defender who can slide with point guards in pick-and-rolls, close down spot-up shooters off the ball, and has the length and bounce to turn people away at the rim.

At the offensive end, a lot hinges on Browns shooting stroke coming around. Over his first two seasons, hes connected at just a 25 percent clip from behind the arc. (Granted, he made 34.4 percent of unguarded jumpers as a sophomore, per Synergy Sports data.) Assuming that happens, Brown could put a good foot forward over his next two seasons.

Yet Martins backstopped that position with Durugordon, who shot 40-plus percent from deep at the prep level. As for DeGray, he posted 0.992 points per possession, including 1.444 on spot-up jumpers, for UMass on moderate usage. So, theres potentially some insurance.

When Shaw arrives, hell come with a proven ability to be a force in transition, a timely cutter, and an active presence on the offensive backboard. Two questions will greet him. First, how reliable is shooting stroke. At Blue Valley High School, he shot almost 36 percent a junior, and almost half his field-goal attempts came behind the arc. But a role change with MoKan Elite saw him go just 1 of 7 in 12 games during Peach Jam in July. The other task: self-creation off the bounce a facet Shaws told interviewers hes working to improve.

The stylistic evolution, though, is clear.

In the near term, Martin reached into the portal for veteran guards with diverse skillsets: Amari Davis mid-range game, Jarron Colemans versatility, and DaJuan Gordons defensive tenacity and downhill attacking. Yet all three have backgrounds with some experience playing fast and spacing the floor.

Meanwhile, the youth hes added Jones, Durugordon, Shaw, Yaya Keita and Trevon Brazile have longer frames, are at ease switching defensively, and might be better suited to playing in transition. Its easy to envision a lineup where Keita yanks down a rebound and fires an outlet pass to Jones, who has his head up surveying the following scene: Brazile sprinting to the rim, Shaw out wide on the wing and Brookshire running to a spot. All the while, Keita could hang bang back looking for a trailing 3-pointer.

As for the 2023 cycle, MU will need to end replacements for three transfers Coleman, Davis, and Gordon and a senior in Kobe Brown. Positionally, the Tigers probably need a pair of ball-handlers, a wing and a four-man. So far, the staff has reportedly been in contact with 19 prospects, extending five offers and hosting seven unofficial visitors.

Right now, coaches are out on the road this month during an evaluation period seeing prospects in open gyms. Theyll also host point guard Braelon Green, who looks like a top-50 recruit, for an official visit on Oct. 16. Itll be worth monitoring whether Martin and his staff extend any new offers.

Read more:

Missouri Basketball: Aidan Shaw epitomizes the evolution of MUs roster - Rock M Nation