Phoenix Group - A UK Long-Term Savings And Retirement Essay.

Financial Performance and Sustainability at Phoenix Group

The company is one of the UK's most significant long-term savings and retirement businesses. It has been operating for over 200 years, with its aim being to help people secure a life of possibilities. The key competitors of Phoenix Holdings group include; NatWest Group, Standard Chartered, and Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust.

The company's 2021 annual report showed a profit margin and growth. There was £1184m of incremental new business generation cash earned. There was also an operating profit of around £1230 indicating a percentage increase of 3% compared to the previous year. From the report, customer satisfaction is at 92%. Asset under administration increased by 1% compared to the last word. The dividends increased by 3%, indicating that the business grew sustainably. Generally, the financial performance of the year 2021 was better compared to 2020 (Fatihudin., 2018).

The company is also looking forward to Phoenix holdings building a growing and sustainable business by leveraging key inputs through their differentiated model in line with strategic priorities to deliver a financial framework and better outcomes to their shareholders in support of helping people secure a life of possibility. The company has also been investing in sustainable projects to assist in decarbonization to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment. The company's sustainability strategy is to invest in a sustainable future and engage people in a better financial future and build a responsible business.   The company has a task force on climate-related financial disclosures where it plays a role in attaining zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company has a risk management team that identifies, assesses, controls, monitors, and manages all material risk (Vivas et al., 2019).

The company has been operating under its outlined strategy for the year. The company strategy has five priorities that help fulfil the company's objective. The business delivers high levels of predictable cash that funds our dividend over the long term and generates surplus money to reinvest into organic Open business growth and inorganic growth.  

From the data gained, all three performances positively impact the attainment of the company's goals.

"Phoenix group becomes first financial services organization to adopt social value portal measurement tool."

The company is the first company in the financial services industry to adopt the Social Value Portal. This tool will help measure and manage its business and supply chain's contribution to society. Phoenix Group's community engagement program aims to create opportunities for social mobility and address societal needs. The company's CEO, Andy Moss, said that the partnership aims to measure the effectiveness of its services through the social value portal. Guy Battle, Chief Executive of Social Value Portal, said that they look forward to working closely with the company to show how the financial services industry can make the most of their community engagement program, making good go further. The story has positively impacted the company by attracting more customers and getting information about their services to identify an improvement area.

Source: https://www.thephoenixgroup.com/news  

A reflection on my learning experiences and personal development since the start of my first year at Brookes about (1) teamwork and (2) making presentations.

Phoenix Group's Outlined Strategy

This reflection analysis uses the STARE model to explain how it happened as discussed below;

During my year at Brookes University, I realized that group projects and presentations were an essential part of our learning experience regarding personal development and gaining knowledge that would be useful in the real world once we graduated. According to our lecturer, pursuing a business course requires an open-minded individual who is willing to work with others and be ready for personal development and leadership opportunities whenever the need arises. We were assigned group projects in which we were to work in groups of five. Each team had to choose their team leader and the two people who would deliver the team's presentation in class. We formed groups, and my team was complete, so I was named team leader of our group. The task assigned to us was (Pang et al., 2019) to discuss why many recruiters claim that students and recent graduates lack this critical competency that companies require. We were the first group to present in the next class, so we had to move quickly to set up meetings. Two of my team members did not agree on the few points we had agreed on, and a disagreement developed between them. After the work was finished, I decided on the two people who would represent our group, but this caused some confusion between the two team members who had a conflict earlier. Their contest and misunderstanding were harming our group's morale and planning because the day of our presentation was approaching. We still hadn't decided on the presentation's main points and who would present us.

As a team leader, I had to take action to save the group and the time we were wasting together. We had only one day to the day of our presentation, and therefore, immediate action had to be taken.

I scheduled individual meetings with both of them to discuss the issues causing the conflicts according to (Brunstein and King., 2018). Following the discussions, it became clear that their misunderstanding arose because they both wanted the same thing, which was to be heard, but the other team members would not allow it. As a result, I invited the two of them to a meeting with me to resolve the issues causing tension between them and the group. I made sure that everyone had a chance to speak and be heard. As soon as I reached an agreement with the two of them, I decided that it was time to get in touch with the rest of the group to inform them of the changes that we were to make and see whether they were okay with them.

As a result, they both realized that their disagreement resulted from an academic misunderstanding (Ferreira et al., 2017), which they agreed to resolve amicably. I was one of the two people who were supposed to give the presentation, but I decided to step down and give that chance to one of them. I also managed to persuade another team member to pass up his case. Therefore, the two members in the conflict were allowed to represent the group. Both of their ideas were included in the presentation points, which satisfied them all, and they agreed to put the misunderstanding aside and focus on the positive side.

Phoenix Group Becomes the First Financial Services Organization to Adopt Social Value Portal Measurement Tool

From experience, I learned a few things. To begin with, (Mittelmeier et al., 2018) I discovered that being a leader necessitates sacrifice. For peace and satisfaction to reign in the group, I had to step down as one of the presenters. I also learned that being a leader necessitates understanding and empathy towards others. You put yourself in someone else's shoes and consider things from their point of view. I also learned that being a team leader entails taking responsibility for the entire group. As a result, the decision should consider the group's integrity and accountability. In the future, whenever I face a similar challenge as a group leader, I will know how to deal with it. I will have experience in solving a conflict between two people for the whole team's benefit.

To improve my teamwork and presentation competencies, I prepared an action plan to help me with that. They include;

Improving my organizational skills; can be accomplished by participating in several other activities in a school other than academics that will require me to utilize my organizational skills.

Being self-confident and courageous. The ability to believe in yourself (Moeller and Seehuus., 2019) before others is key to a team leader. Being confident, assuming that you can make a change in people and help them think positively like you.

Enhancing analytical thinking skills. This enables one to analyse the situation and weigh the outcome before the issue becomes out of hand and results in a conflict. As a good team leader, analytical thinking helps you develop alternatives that can help the case at hand.

Developing proper communication skills (RezaeiZadeh et al., 2017). This helps in communicating appropriately to the team members about their participation and why certain people will be chosen to do the presentation and not the others. Also, it helps to explain to the team members why some points will be agreed upon as presentation points and not others.

References

Brunstein, J. and King, J., 2018. Organizing reflection to address collective dilemmas: Engaging students and professors with sustainable development in higher education. Journal of Cleaner Production, 203, pp.153-163.

Fatihudin, D., 2018. How measuring financial performance. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), 9(6), pp.553-557.

Ferreira, A.D.S.M., Loiola, E. and Gondim, S.M.G., 2017. Motivations, business planning, and risk management: entrepreneurship among university students. RAI Revista de administracao e inovacao, 14(2), pp.140-150.

Mittelmeier, J., Rienties, B., Tempelaar, D. and Whitelock, D., 2018. Overcoming cross-cultural group work tensions: Mixed student perspectives on the role of social relationships. Higher Education, 75(1), pp.149-166.

Moeller, R.W. and Seehuus, M., 2019. Loneliness as a mediator for college students' social skills and experiences of depression and anxiety. Journal of adolescence, 73, pp.1-13.

Pang, E., Wong, M., Leung, C.H. and Coombes, J., 2019. Competencies for fresh graduates’ success at work: Perspectives of employers. Industry and Higher Education, 33(1), pp.55-65.

RezaeiZadeh, M., Hogan, M., O’Reilly, J., Cunningham, J. and Murphy, E., 2017. Core entrepreneurial competencies and their interdependencies: insights from a study of Irish and Iranian entrepreneurs, university students and academics. International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 13(1), pp.35-73.

Vivas, R., Sant’anna, Â., Esquerre, K. and Freires, F., 2019. Measuring sustainability performance with multi criteria model: A case study. Sustainability, 11(21), p.6113.

https://www.thephoenixgroup.com/news