“SCBT sees conservative philosophy as key to success over 75 years - TMCnet” plus 4 more |
- SCBT sees conservative philosophy as key to success over 75 years - TMCnet
- Luxist Giveaway: Philosophy Beauty Box - Luxist
- A thoughtless approach to research funding - Daily Telegraph
- Sam Litzinger - CBS News
- SYSPRO Value Proposition Translates into High ERP Customer Retention - Consumer Electronics Net
| SCBT sees conservative philosophy as key to success over 75 years - TMCnet Posted: 15 Dec 2009 11:15 AM PST
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Dec 14, 2009 (The Times and Democrat - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- As the number of national bank failures this year reached the 100 mark in October, South Carolina Bank and Trust continued to buck the trend by holding to the conservative philosophy it has had for 75 years.
"A lot of that does go back to when the bank was founded on the heels of the Depression," SCBT Financial Corp. Chief Executive Officer Robert Hill Jr. said, reflecting on the bank's successful 75-year run. "Even though we have grown and a lot has changed since 1934, the fundamental values of soundness, profitability and growth... have kept this bank relatively healthy for the past 75 years." The celebration of the bank's 75-year anniversary brought an occasion for past and present bank executives to reflect on its growth, success and changes over seven decades. "There are a lot of new branches and new markets we have invested in over the years," Hill said. "What has not changed, which is just as relevant, is our core values such as basic ethics about being honest, doing the right thing for our customers and doing the right thing for our employees." Hill said the bank's philosophy since its founding has been in long-term management, which has in many ways helped it absorb the financial meltdown experienced among banks nationally. "We don't manage our company for just the next 90 days or the next six months," Hill said. "We manage it for the next three, five and 10 years. The company has always been managed long-term. We have seen some of our customers struggling and we see more people falling on hard times, but they have managed their finances conservatively and that is a reflection on how we run our business, which is very conservatively through the years." During his 15-year tenure with the bank, Hill said assets have spiked from $100 million to $2.7 billion. Employees have grown from 100 to about 750. John Pollok, SCBT financial chief operating officer and chief financial officer, has been with SCBT for the past 13 years. He says among the most significant changes experienced over the years are the technological additions. "We see it as a real advantage for us as the technology costs have come down so much it has helped us compete against the larger banks," Pollok said, noting that one of the most significant technological changes has been Web banking. "Everything has gotten very paperless." Pollok said there was a time when mail couriers had to pick up bank-related documents from the branches and bring the items to Orangeburg. The electronic transport system has in many ways revolutionized the banking sector. "It has allowed us to serve more places outside of Orangeburg," Pollok said. "Myrtle Beach is a long way from Orangeburg. We now have all-day banking. We can do all in our system and process that in Orangeburg." Pollok said he credits the success of SCBT over the years to the employees and management. "It is the people we have been able to hire and the core values created in Orangeburg are the things we really rely on," he said, echoing the bank's focus on soundness, profitability and growth. "We have had two capital raises over the past year and a half," Pollok said, referring to the $25 million in capital equity raised in the second quarter of 2008 and then another $28 million in October 2009. "Few banks have been able to do that." Robert Jennings III, First National Corp. chairman emeritus and whose father served on the bank's board during its initial two decades, says the SCBT's success has been credited to founders setting a firm foundation. He said bank successors have followed the "good, sound, strong" banking rules. "The bank does not rely on volume as much as relying on quality," Jennings said, noting that when it came to the real estate market, the bank played it cautiously by using the bank's property appraisal assessments rather than the borrower's appraisal. "People that succeeded him as chief executive officer used those same rules and it has worked out pretty well," Jennings said. "The bank is a great Orangeburg institution." And while many banks have struggled to stay afloat, SCBT has invested in itself. It has purchased several desktop scanners and sorters to replace the bank's previous two larger units in Orangeburg. The previous units cost $2 million each while the smaller units cost about $1,000 apiece. They capture about 1,100 items in a minute. The vacant space left by the two large sorters, which were located on the fourth floor, will be used in the event of an expansion. Over the last few years, the bank has also installed newer, smaller network servers. "The mainframe is up in 30 minutes," Pollok said, noting the speed of the computer can update about 350,000 accounts approximately 16 hours ahead of the bank's processing capabilities years back. The bank has also installed within the last couple of months an all-new security system throughout the Orangeburg building, to the tune of about $50,000. The installation includes new key entry cards and locks. The bank's success hearkens back to its founding. During The Great Depression in the early 1930s while many financial institutions closed their doors, a group of seven men formed First National Bank in Orangeburg. Bank founding fathers pledged a minimum stock purchase of $1,000 and together raised $62,500 through the sale of stock. They borrowed a matching amount from the federal government's Reconstruction Finance Corp. From its start of six employees, the bank had deposits of $1,133,099 and profits of $1,395 during its first year. By its 40th anniversary in 1974, SCBT had 120 employees and deposits of $56,310,162. Headquartered in Orangeburg for about 67 years, First National moved its headquarters to Columbia's Gervais Street in January 2002. In May 2002, the bank changed its name from First National to SCBT. Despite its corporate headquarters moving from Orangeburg to Columbia, Pollok says Orangeburg remains a key to the bank's future business strategy. "The core of SCBT is here," he said, noting the bank's call center and many of the bank's support services are still in Orangeburg. Today, the bank has roughly 750 employees, operates 49 financial centers in 16 South Carolina counties and Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. The bank has assets of approximately $2.8 billion and its stock is traded under the symbol SCBT in the NASDAQ Global Select Market.
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| Luxist Giveaway: Philosophy Beauty Box - Luxist Posted: 15 Dec 2009 07:05 AM PST  Philosophy has teamed up with The Knot to create an ultimate bridal beauty box set called tying the Knot (above). The box, worth $100, is a lovely gift for a bride to be -- but we can't think of a woman who wouldn't love to receive this any day. The set includes:
To enter to win the tying the Knot bag, leave a comment on this post sharing why you'd like it. The giveaway ends on Monday, December 21, 5 p.m. EST. See additional rules below. * To enter, leave a confirmed comment below. fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| A thoughtless approach to research funding - Daily Telegraph Posted: 15 Dec 2009 11:08 AM PST What is the point of a university? Is it to challenge its students and push back the frontiers of knowledge? Or is it to turn out productive, profitable, commercial research? This age-old debate has flared up again recently, after a government quango came up with new proposals for funding. Under the Research Excellence Framework, a quarter of university research funding will be tied to "economic, social, public policy, cultural and quality of life impacts". Research that has "demonstrable benefits to the wider economy and society" will be rewarded and encouraged; research that lacks such demonstrable "impact" will not. The consultation period over the planned reforms ends on Wednesday, and many academics have voiced their concerns: the pressure group Educators for Reform points out that the abstract research coming under attack has given us the X-Ray, the Google search algorithm and much else besides. But perhaps nowhere has the worry been as great as in my own field, philosophy, because the narrow conception of "impact" used by the Higher Education Funding Council for England seems to exclude most of the ways in which philosophy could possibly help society. One of the main benefits of academic research is its impact on teaching. The best lecturers are almost always scholars engaged in their own research. They will be educating future teachers, journalists, lawyers, civil servants, and politicians – many of whom will take degree courses involving philosophy. However, the council's proposals state that the effect of academics' research on their teaching is not the kind of "impact" they particularly wish to encourage. They are looking for research that leads to "creating new businesses", "commercialising new products" or improving "patient care or health outcomes". Nor will philosophy's impact on other disciplines be considered. Mathematicians such as Alan Turing were able to develop the computer partly because of the efforts of Bertrand Russell and others to formulate rigorous definitions of the concept of mathematical proof. Einstein claimed that one of the precursors of his general theory of relativity was the Austrian philosopher of science Ernst Mach. However, this is again not the sort of "impact" that the council is looking for: it is more concerned with work that benefits "research users", such as businesses, hospitals and government departments. True, some branches of philosophy have occasionally had a direct impact on political events. John Locke's political thought helped to inspire the American revolution; J S Mill's essay The Subjection of Women was a crucial part of the lobbying that led to the Married Women's Property Act of 1870; while the Oxford philosopher of law Herbert Hart's writings on "the enforcement of morals" strengthened the case for the decriminalisation of homosexuality. But while the council does suggest that one relevant indicator of "impact" would be "changes in legislation or public policy", academics will only be rewarded for research that influences politicians who succeed in changing the law – not for those who try, but fail. Since the former will typically be in government rather than opposition, this creates a dangerous incentive to produce research that will find favour with the ruling party. What else can philosophy do to have an "impact"? Perhaps, under the "cultural" provision, we will be able to count research that is popularised on television or radio – so philosophy departments will focus on issues that might appeal to the media, doing serious damage to the quality of philosophical research, which needs to draw on fields that do not make such good TV, such as metaphysics and logic. Our philosophy departments are admired at universities all over the world; they have long been magnets for students and scholars from overseas. We must not let the council wreck such a precious asset in this clumsy and ill-judged way. Ralph Wedgwood is a professor of philosophy at Merton College, Oxford fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| Posted: 15 Dec 2009 12:13 PM PST fivefilters.org featured article: Normalising the crime of the century by John Pilger. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| SYSPRO Value Proposition Translates into High ERP Customer Retention - Consumer Electronics Net Posted: 15 Dec 2009 02:00 PM PST December 15, 2009 -- COSTA MESA, Calif., BUSINESS WIRE --SYSPRO, the leading provider of visionary pragmatic ERP software, said today that SYSPRO USA President Joey Benadretti has reiterated the company's top three principles for providing a high-value enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for mid-market manufacturers and distributors which also continue to advance the company's success against its largest ERP competitors. Benadretti noted that the company focuses on value-based pricing, in-depth mid-market expertise in industry verticals and a corporate dedication to relationships and the success of its customers. Benadretti has been investigating with SYSPRO U.S. Value Added Partners and key U.S. customers to gain insight into their needs and discuss ways they can leverage available technology to gain a competitive edge and increase market share.  'SYSPRO has repeatedly set itself apart in the ERP landscape by putting the needs of our customers first, and that is what has led to one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry,' Benadretti said. 'Our success is based on the success of our customers. We focus on the continuous improvement of their businesses, helping them migrate to higher levels via the innovative use of technology. Our high customer retention success is not underpinned by new customers going 'live' with SYSPRO. It is based on the continual building of relationships with existing and new customers, providing customers with solutions that help them achieve greater insight into and tighter controls of their operations, such as adherence to FDA and other regulatory compliance.' 'Investments in technology are rarely about short term needs,' continued Benadretti. 'SYSPRO technology allows manufacturers to personalize and tailor their systems to an untold number of unique business specific requirements without having the need to touch the underlying source code or undermining the business logic. This clearly positions SYSPRO ahead of the competition and represents one of the most important attributes in terms of ensuring ROI, mitigating risk, sustainability and selecting a future-oriented business application.' In keeping with the SYSPRO philosophy SYSPRO customer, Engineered Products Company (EPCO), a Minnetonka, Minn.-based supplier of electrical products, notes that the SYSPRO corporate philosophy was a primary reason why the company selected SYSPRO software over eight competitors. 'The SYSPRO team spent their time making certain the functionality of the software fit our business processes and business philosophy,' noted Jack Schuster, EPCO President. In 2009 SYSPRO was named 'Software Company of the Year' by the Technology Council and 'Outstanding Private Technology Company' by TechAmerica; however, Benadretti is looking ahead. 'I refuse to rest on our laurels. We hold past awards as standards against which we can measure our future achievements,' he says. The SYSPRO customer focus is embodied in SYSPRO PragmaVision' -- a visionary, yet proven ERP roadmap for mid-market manufacturers and distributors who demand a unique combination of robust, scalable and current technologies. They desire a proven track record, require strong references, a long-term relationship and seek evolution not revolution. SYSPRO provides ERP software and services to 'simplify your success.' About SYSPRO Since its inception in 1978, SYSPRO has been delivering state-of-the-art business solutions to some of the world's leading companies. As a global leader in the production of world-class ERP software, the company now caters to the specialized needs of 14,000 licensed companies in more than 60 countries worldwide. SYSPRO is marketed globally through regional territory distribution centers and a global reseller network in the US, Canada, Africa, Asia Pacific, Australia and the UK. SYSPRO is a fully integrated business software solution that provides complete control over the planning and management of all facets of business including accounting, manufacturing and distribution operations in a variety of industries. For additional information on SYSPRO, call Stanley Goodrich at 714/437-1000 or go to www.syspro.com. All company names and products mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
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