Compiler: ziyiZ

Source: InstitutionalInvestor

Source: GPLP Rhino Finance (ID: gplpcn)

Among the companies that pension funds will allocate funds to private equity companies in 2020, Thoma Bravo, which focuses on software and technology, is the most popular. According to new data, in terms of private equity investment, pension funds will invest the most in Thoma Bravo in 2020 , Followed by CVC Capital.

According to a report commissioned by Vidrio Financial, an alternative investment technology provider, in 2019, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Florida State Board of Administration and the Massachusetts PRIM The 13 public pension funds in China have allocated a total of US$2.9 billion to the three Thoma Bravo funds.

As of March 31, 2021, Thoma Bravo manages $78 billion in assets.

In this regard, Vidrio founder and CEO Mazen Jabban said: “2020 brings new challenges, and allocators are looking for new options to cope with continued market volatility, cost pressures and diversification of alternative asset investments.”

The report stated that in 2019, investors allocated $103 billion in alternative investments among 600 different commissions. Most of the funding came from the second half of the year, after the worst economic slowdown.

CVC Capital Partners’ private equity fund ranked second in the survey, receiving $2.6 billion in funding from eight pension funds.

Among them, Oaktree Capital Management (Oaktree Capital Management) ranked third, invested 1.8 billion US dollars in three funds; Clearlake Capital ranked fourth, invested 1.3 billion US dollars in eight funds.

Vista Equity Partners received $1.1 billion from investors, and these funds flowed into six funds.

Overall, the surveyed pension funds invested US$46 billion in private equity investments in 2020. Among the funds included in the data set, CalSTRS had the highest allocation of private equity investments last year, reaching $31 billion.

Asset allocation reflects changes in the fortunes of companies under the lockdown

The investment of distributors reflects the impact of the big trend on the economy and emerging industries. People work from home, avoid travel and go to entertainment venues.

Vidrio found that “the role of the big trend in strategic choices cannot be ignored, because as consumers have delivered basic goods such as groceries to their homes, real estate managers have seen the attractiveness of unique logistics funds. It turns out that real estate investment trusts (Reit) Grocery store investment is as popular as laboratory real estate, as is investment in streaming entertainment service studio space.”

Vidrio also assessed the real estate, private business, and hedge fund companies with the highest commitments in 2020. The results show that pension funds allocated a total of 28 billion US dollars in physical assets in 2020, of which Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners received a maximum of 1.5 billion in five pension funds. The configuration of the dollar. PGIM received $1.2 billion from two pension funds-Massa Reserve PRIM and New York State Common Retirement Fund.

Private debt-20 billion U.S. dollars in capital inflow in 2020 is one of the areas that has boomed in recent years.

The report said: “Credit investment in private institutions is not suitable for those who cannot afford some lack of liquidity.” “People must be willing to bet and allow it to change within 5 to 10 years.”

In 2020, Ares Management received the highest private credit grant of $1.3 billion from the Alaska Permanent Fund, the Texas County and Territory Retirement System, and the Virginia Retirement System.

According to the report, although hedge funds have gone through a difficult few years, they have “made a comeback” with newly authorized investments of US$9 billion. The ever-popular Bridgewater Associates received the highest grant this year.

$900 million from the Oregon Investment Council. The fund is the highest allocator of hedge funds in 2020, injecting a total of US$1.4 billion into Bridgewater, quantitative fund management companies FORT and GMO.

Jabban said that Vidrio “saw many hedge fund managers entering the private investment field. On the contrary, there are also precedents for listing after investing in private fund managers.” He expects this trend to continue to move forward.

He said: “The convergence of public and private investment will pose challenges for operational due diligence and risk management, and changes need to be made so that organizations can control new opportunities and avoid falling into endless data and technical challenges.”

The most popular private equity company based on pension fund data

(The top five investment managers based on the amount of increase in 2020)

Employees spied on for years Million fine for Ikea in France

Status: 15.06.2021 1:44 p.m.

For years, Ikea had spied out unpleasant employees in France and created customer profiles. Two former managers have now been found guilty – and the furniture store has to pay a fine of more than one million euros. In the process of spying on staff and customers, Ikea was fined one million euros in France. The judges at the court in Versailles found that the French Ikea subsidiary had carried out espionage between 2009 and 2012 to investigate unpleasant employees and create profiles of disgruntled customers. Unions accused Ikea France of fraudulently collecting personal data, particularly through illegally obtained police files, and of divulging personal information without permission. Company lawyers denied that the company had any “general espionage” strategy.

“It’s a symbol”

Abel Amara, a former Ikea employee who helped expose the crackdown, called the ruling a major step in citizens’ defense. “I am glad that there is justice in France,” he said. A trade union lawyer, Solène Debarre, expressed hope that the verdict “will shake some companies”. “A million isn’t much for Ikea, but it’s a symbol,” said Debarre.

December 18, 2017

Private security company took care of the data

The disclosure sheet “Canard enchaîné” reported in 2012 about a systematic spying. The security department of the French Ikea subsidiary commissioned a private security company in 2003 to provide the company with some confidential data on staff and applicants – such as information on possible criminal records or bank statements. Similar information is said to have been requested from customers who were involved in a legal dispute with Ikea. The FO union then filed a complaint against unknown persons about the illegal use of personal data.

Probation and fine

The manager, who was responsible for risk management at the time, admitted in court that 530,000 to 630,000 euros had been allocated annually for such investigations. The instructions to his department had come from the former CEO of Ikea France, Jean-Louis Baillot. This denied the allegations, but was sentenced to a fine of 50,000 euros and two years in prison. Another former responsible received 18 months probation and a fine of 10,000 euros. Of the other 13 defendants, some were acquitted, while others were also given parole. The Swedish group distanced itself from the alleged practices. After the investigation began in 2012, Ikea fired four managers and changed its internal policies. Several civil suits by unions and 74 employees are pending. After the judgment, the company said it had taken note of the decision. You now allow us to look ahead.

Ex-manager in the diesel scandal 288 million euros in damages for VW

As of: 06/09/2021 4:07 p.m.

The diesel scandal is getting expensive for former VW managers: ex-boss Winterkorn and other former top people have to pay 288 million euros in compensation to Volkswagen – and still expect lawsuits. Former CEO Martin Winterkorn and three other ex-top managers are paying record compensation to Volkswagen because of the diesel scandal. In the final agreement, an amount of just under 288 million euros had been agreed, the company said. However, the majority of the sum is covered by specialized liability insurance.

270 million euros from insurance companies

The former CEO Winterkorn personally pays 11.2 million euros. Ex-Audi boss and VW board member Rupert Stadler is to transfer 4.1 million euros himself. With him and Winterkorn it is about the violation of stock corporation law due diligence. The former Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz also contributes 1.5 million euros, the former Audi manager Stefan Knirsch 1 million euros. The managers’ insurers generate 270 million euros. In addition to the lawyers of the former managers, more than 30 insurers were involved in the negotiations.

No agreement with Hackenberg

Both the personal payments and the insured coverage would result in “by far the highest sum that such a consortium has ever put on the table in Germany,” said negotiators. VW had also demanded compensation from ex-head of development Ulrich Hackenberg. However, he was not ready to reach an agreement, which is why legal steps should now be prepared against him.

General assembly has to decide

Volkswagen decided in March to hold Winterkorn, Stadler and other former executives in the group financially responsible for breaches of stock corporation law during the diesel scandal. The payments, which have now been agreed with the ex-managers, could put a provisional end in the years of processing individual responsibilities in the emissions affair. VW announced that the supervisory board had already approved the agreement on Saturday. The final decision still has to be made by the general meeting, which will be convened for July 22nd.

Charge of false testimony

However, the VW group and the ex-managers have agreed on the compensation outside of the civil or criminal litigation. However, further questions have to be clarified before the courts themselves in ongoing or upcoming proceedings. For example, the Berlin public prosecutor’s office brought charges against Winterkorn for making a false statement in the Bundestag’s investigative committee into the emissions affair. The authority announced that he should have “deliberately given false information” to the question at which point in time he was informed about the use of software to manipulate the emission values. Winterkorn also has to answer before the Regional Court of Braunschweig – because of the diesel scandal itself. There it is a charge of commercial and gang fraud. Winterkorn has already rejected the allegation.

So far, the scandal has cost VW 32 billion euros

The diesel scandal caught up with Volkswagen and other German car manufacturers in autumn 2015. VW admitted relatively early on that it had installed software in certain diesel engines that only reduced nitrogen oxide emissions on the test bench, but not in road traffic. There have been several trials around the world. Consumer advocates also dealt with the origin of the scandal. As a result, VW had to pay compensation and court costs of around 32 billion euros.

Editor’s guide: The difference between the C-side and B-side products determines the different responsibilities of the product manager in the life cycle. From the perspective of design thinking, the author of this article will talk to us about the differences between B-side and C-side product managers.

In the post-epidemic era, demand for B-end products such as online office and online and offline integration has erupted, and the recruitment of B-end product managers has also grown rapidly.

I have been engaged in the design and operation of B-side and C-side products in the communications industry for many years. Recently, I switched to responsible for large-scale B-side products. The first two days of the project had to recruit a new product. I was quite impressed by one of the applicants with 5 years of work experience. , The other party said, “There is not much difference between the B-end and the C-end, no matter which industry is the B-end or the C-end,” he took this opportunity to analyze the difference between the B-end and C-end products.

What is a B-end product? There can be many types of product classification, which are defined by different user groups. Products can be divided into B-end products and C-end products. Typical B-end products include CRM, ERP, OA, Zhongtai, etc.; C-end products are WeChat, Douyin, Jingdong Taobao, etc.

This article will focus on the five points of user-oriented, design starting point, design focus, MVP thinking, and target value, and analyze the difference between the design thinking of B-end and C-end product managers.

1. Different for users

B-side customers are enterprise-level users, and the user group is stable and unified.

The customers of the B-end products are employees in the enterprise, and such users have common characteristics at the enterprise level to form a collective personality. The user needs of B-end products are enterprise-level, and personalized needs are usually ignored. However, users of B-end products may usually have multiple roles.

Taking the data center as an example, users may include business personnel, data mining experts, operation and maintenance personnel, managers, etc., usually multiple people, multiple posts, multiple posts, multiple posts per post, and multiple people in one post. Demands in different scenarios.

The users of C-end products are individual and diversified.

Of course, the C-end product manager can form user portraits by analyzing the user’s behavior characteristics, and classify users into groups. These characteristics may include user age, gender, location, hobbies, etc. But each user is personalized, and each user can put forward requirements and product iteration opinions, but the product manager needs to conduct unified screening based on the current product positioning and development stage to remove the false and keep the truth.

Two, the target value is different

The B-end products focus on corporate office and improve production management efficiency.

The starting point of demand for B-end products is to improve the internal management or production efficiency of the enterprise, and the theme around it is the production practice of the enterprise. It is often seen how much efficiency can be improved, what processes have been optimized, and how much costs have been reduced after the product is launched. However, it is relatively complicated to measure the value of B-end products. Because there are many influencing factors in actual production, it is difficult to measure directly through data.

C-end products take care of food, clothing, housing and transportation, eating, drinking and having fun, and shoulder the important task of traffic acquisition and commercial realization.

The function of the product concerned is whether it can meet the needs of users and whether it can solve the pain points encountered at present. For example, are you hungry? Meituan is to solve the problem of users who don’t have time to eat, but want to eat better (so the crossover defeats the instant noodles), WeChat solves the user’s instant messaging problem for free (therefore directly The short message service of the operator).

Three, the design starting point is different

If the product design from 0 to 1 is divided into three stages: demand analysis, product design, and product landing, by analyzing and comparing the key tasks of each stage, it is obvious that the product design of the C-end and the B-end is different, and the product manager design of the B-end The starting point is business status diagnosis (requirements survey).

As mentioned in the previous article, the B-end product is for the employees of the enterprise, and its purpose is to improve the management and production efficiency of the existing enterprise. Therefore, it is first necessary to understand the business content and development strategy and tactics of the enterprise through business research; secondly, it is necessary to diagnose the enterprise For the current model problems, process problems or management problems that exist in the current development, the corresponding solutions are finally proposed.

The starting point of C-end product design is market research. Common C-end product design thinking usually starts from market research and competitive product analysis. This is also determined by the C-end product’s goal of “maximizing the pursuit of commercial value.”

Through market analysis, we can get a business canvas and understand the market space and future prospects to determine whether it is necessary to make the product. Simply put, whether it can make money. Through the analysis of competitive products, we can understand the situation and core capabilities of competitors, so that we can make better products, so as to realize that everyone has no one, everyone has one, and everyone has one. Simply put, it is to learn the advantages of the opponent, and to use their own strengths to build barriers to competition.

Four, the design focus is different

The focus of B-end product design is abstract modeling and business processes.

The business complexity behind the B-end products is high. People, division of labor, collaboration, processes, and rules may be adjusted at any time. Product managers need to conduct in-depth analysis of the business, abstract the seemingly disorganized business, and abstract the commonality from the business process and business appearance. Summarize and abstract the core business essence.

There are many abstract modeling methods for business processes, such as: ER, UML, etc., through business modeling work is the basis of B-end product design, excellent business modeling will help better carry out product role and process design, Authority and management design, interface and report design.

C-end product design emphasizes interactive experience. The number of users of C-end products is usually 10,000 or even 100 million, which is much higher than that of B-end products. In addition, C-end users require very low learning costs and operating costs. A bit of uncomfortable experience may cause users to abandon the product, and user experience will directly determine user retention.

Therefore, the position, color and size of each button of the C-end product, the design and color of each picture, the number of words in each sentence, and the language must be fully thought, demonstrated, and tested to provide the ultimate interactive experience.

Five, MVP thinking is different

The B-side MVP is the smallest closed loop that supports a certain business scenario.

The MVP of the B-side product is usually not an MVP. Why do you say that? It is because the B-side product is designed to solve corporate problems. Such problems cannot usually be solved independently by one or two product function points, and a complete product closed loop is required. Delivery, which also requires the B-side product manager to conduct systematic thinking in the design phase.

C-side mvp can grasp a certain core pain point of the user. C-end products are more based on the business profit model. An MVP version is a preliminary verification of a product Idea. For example, many early MVPs of e-commerce websites were in the form of merchants posting posts on BSS forums and users following posts.

However, even now, there is still no shortage of e-commerce platforms that use the WeChat ecological solitaire to sell products at the lowest development cost.

references:

• http://www.woshipm.com/pd/929269.html
• http://www.woshipm.com/pd/4385432.html
• http://www.woshipm.com/pd/2570312.html
• http://www.woshipm.com/it/1058389.html
• http://www.woshipm.com/pmd/3607901.html

The title picture comes from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol