Journal - Allianz

OPINIONS
Allianz Group Journal 2/2013
Letters
to the editor
Simplistic answer
Heidrun Naujoks of Allianz Leben
in Munich comments on the article
“Fruitful investments” in Allianz
Journal 1/2013:
In the article “Fruitful Investments” by
Michael Grimm the following question was
posed: “So why (despite growing yields)
do hundreds of millions still go hungry?”
Bryan Agbabian of Allianz Global Investors
answered: “We’re still not producing
enough.” This statement is simply accepted
as though it’s an undisputed truth.
But the answer is far too simplistic and may
in fact be wrong. For instance, according to
the United Nations, about 1.3 billion tons of
food is thrown away every year around the
world. Theoretically, the quantity of food
discarded in industrial nations alone would
be enough to feed every person on the
planet suffering from hunger. Many experts
believe that enough food is grown and produced,
but it isn’t fairly distributed around
the world.
There are many other points of view on this
subject, and it would have been good if they
could at least have been mentioned briefly
in the article, because the issue is certainly
too complex for simple answers. It is also
questionable, to say the very least, whether
global agribusiness corporations and their
investors are actually helping farming in the
world’s poor and poorest regions.
On the subject of meat consumption, I share
the view of economist Gernot Klepper and
many other experts who believe that the
rising global demand for meat is one of the
causes of food shortages due to increasing
use of arable land to grow animal feed. I’d
be interested to know whether Allianz still
invests in companies in the meat industry.
One must unfortunately assume this to
be the case if investments by the Global
Agricultural Trends Fund do in fact cover
“the entire chain of agricultural production,
processing and distribution.”
Readers’ Forum
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Deadline for submissions for the Allianz
Journal 3/2013 is August 30, 2013.
Disastrous
consequences
Sepp Sperr from Allianz Deutschland in
Munich also takes the “Fruitful Investments”
article to task:
You write: “We’re still not producing
enough”. I find that hard to accept. Have
you ever asked yourself why so much food
is thrown away? To quote from the film We
Feed the World: “Every day in Vienna the
amount of unsold bread sent back to be
disposed of is enough to supply Austria’s
second-largest city, Graz. Around 350,000
hectares of agricultural land, above all in
Latin America, are dedicated to the cultivation
of soybeans to feed Austria’s livestock,
while one quarter of the local population
starves. Every European eats ten kilograms
a year of artificially irrigated greenhouse
vegetables from southern Spain, with water
shortages being the result.” You also write,
Shutterstock
“Our fund invests in companies that help
boost productivity.” However, you don’t write
– presumably intentionally – in which regions
food production is increased by those
companies.
Nor do I share your view that biofuel production
has little impact on prices. Quite apart
from the fact that biofuel is extremely bad
for the environment (as a result of clearing
rainforests, for example), the conversion
of basic foodstuffs into fuel increases the
demand for these commodities, thus increasing
prices, which poor countries can
then no longer afford. Rich farmers who
can produce surpluses prefer to sell their
food to rich countries and make a fat profit
in the process, so there’s even less to eat in
poor countries. Poor farmers, by contrast,
are barely able to produce enough to feed
themselves and have to buy the expensive
food that they can’t afford.
I do agree that the situation can be remedied
only by taking an ecological approach
to farming, not by increasing the use of fertilizers.
Fertilizer, after all, is generally used
only where there’s already enough to eat
or where farmers export their produce (for
instance, soybeans from Brazil). And that
has disastrous consequences.
More than
financial support
Linda Murphy of Allianz Global Corporate
& Specialty in Los Angeles on the
cooperation of Allianz and MyHandicap:
Recently, a family member of mine lost their
leg and we have been going through months
of surgery, as well as months of adapting to
a new life without a leg and with wheelchairs
and prosthetics. It is wonderful to see again
how Allianz goes beyond just providing
financial protection and support for individuals
but also partners up with social initiatives
that are looking to improve quality of life.
We had not heard of MyHandicap and really
enjoy learning about all of its benefits. The
insurance products being developed will be
great for handicapped people. It is very rewarding
knowing that I work for a company
that partners social initiatives in this way.
Frustration in sales
Allianz general agent Horst Frei from
Mosbach in Baden-Württemberg on the
interview with Karsten Crede of Allianz
Global Automotive entitled “The future
is inconceivable without cars” in Allianz
Journal 1/2013:
I can understand that Allianz would like
to expand its Global Automotive business
but why this article has appeared in Allianz
Journal is a complete mystery to me. My colleagues
and I make a living selling insurance.
Now we’ve got competition from our own
company again. We’ve just sustained two
years of substantial premium adjustments.
Many clients have left us because they were
annoyed about their premiums.
At the same time, the designated CEO of the
newly founded VW Insurance (under the
aegis of Allianz!) was quoted in the press as
saying: “There’s still room to lower prices
further”. And this comes from an insurer that
is already significantly cheaper and can offer
better services than the Allianz agent around
the corner.
Surely an article of this nature will encourage
exclusivity sales enormously. I don’t expect
every article in the Allianz Journal to make
me dance for joy. However, a little more sensitivity
would be welcome to prevent even
more frustration in sales.
“Many roads lead
to Rome”
Axel Steinhoff of Allianz Beratungsund
Vertriebs-AG in Munich comments
on the interview with Dieter Wemmer
and Manuel Bauer on the subject of
corporate culture:
In his interview with Manuel Bauer and
Dieter Wemmer, Frank Stern asked how
different value systems and cultures affect
management behavior and management
culture, but in my opinion the answer he
received was just one side of the coin. To
me the answer was more a comment on
the development status of another value
system from a German point of view. It
focused on the impact of German (management)
behavior in the countries mentioned,
for instance in the sense of a different way of
communicating or exchanging information.
However, as I understand it, the question
was really about the impact of other value
systems and cultures on management behavior
in general, for example, on the behavior
of managers here in our country. From
my own experience I would say that we
should not underestimate the importance
of accepting and respecting other cultures,
values and communication systems, as well
as their application in the context of our own
system or guidelines.
In my view, the effect of such interaction
with foreign cultures lies in a more enriching
and healthy reflection of our management
behavior, helping us to become tolerant and
open-minded here to the many roads that
lead to Rome.
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