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Atal Pension Yojana has emerged as the most popular social security scheme under the <keyword id="475509" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Pension-System" source="Orion">National Pension System</keyword> with over 2.8 crore subscribers, mainly from the non-metro centres. Out of 4.2 crore National Pension System (NPS) subscribers, over 66 percent or 2.8 crore opted for the APY at the end of 2020-21, says the annual report of the <keyword id="1643438" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="National-Pension-Systems-Trust" source="Orion">National Pension Systems Trust</keyword> (<keyword id="573064" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="NPS-Trust" source="Orion">NPS Trust</keyword>). The <keyword id="51011" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="state-government" source="Orion">State Government</keyword> Scheme ranks second with 11 per cent share, while the central autonomous bodies (CAB) continued to account for the least number of subscribers of NPS with a share of 1 per cent, followed by state autonomous bodies (SAB) with a share of 2 per cent. "APY is the most subscribed plan among non-metro subscribers. This also reflects the demographic pattern in the country, where more unorganized population segments reside in the non metros, thus accessing the NPS self-initiated plan," the report said. Total assets under management (AUM) for the National Pension System schemes saw a year-on-year growth of over 38 per cent, and stood at Rs 5.78 lakh crore at the end of the year, the report said, adding as of fiscal 2021, NPS had 4.2 crore registered users or popularly known as subscribers. The National Pension System is a defined contribution retirement savings scheme administered and regulated by <keyword id="137211" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pension-fund-regulatory-and-development-authority" source="Orion">Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority</keyword> (PFRDA). APY also dominated in terms of growth rate of the subscriber base, with a gain of 33 per cent on-year in fiscal year ending March 2021, followed by the all-citizen model (32 per cent). The Atal Pension Yojana was launched by the Government of India in May 2015. This scheme is open to all citizens who are in the age group of 18-40 years. Under the scheme, a subscriber would receive a guaranteed pension of Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 per month after attaining the age of 60 years, depending upon his contributions. After the death of the subscribers, same pension amount would be paid to his or her spouse. On the demise of both subscriber and spouse, the accumulated pension wealth of the subscriber would be returned to the nominee. Non-metros hade 3.77 crore subscribers or about 89 per cent of the total 4.24 crore NPS subscribers. "Non-metros subscribers have grown by 72.34 lakh in fiscal 2021 (growth of 24 per cent over one-year) compared with metros subscribers which have grown by 4.87 lakh to 35.78 lakh in fiscal 2021 (growth of 16 per cent over one-year)," it said. The report said that age-wise analysis of NPS subscribers show that about 85 per cent were in the 18-40-year age bracket, a jump of 200 basis points (bps) from their share in fiscal 2019-20. Within this young subscriber base, the 18-25-age group represented the largest share at 30 per cent. There were 2.47 crore male subscribers as of end-fiscal 2021, up from 2.02 crore and 1.61 crore, respectively, in fiscals 2020 and 2019. Female subscribers totaled 1.77 crore in fiscal 2021 up from 1.43 crore and 1.12 crore, respectively in fiscals 2020 and 2019. Though the male subscriber continues to dominate the overall subscriber base, female subscriber grew at faster pace at 24 per cent in 2020-21 and 28 per cent in 2019-20 compared to 22 per cent and 25 per cent for males in the respective periods. National Pension System Trust was established by PFRDA as per the provisions of the Indian Trusts Act of 1882 for taking care of the assets and funds under the NPS in the best interest of the subscribers. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/icici-lombard-gets-final-approval-to-acquire-bharti-axa/articleshow/85923283.cms">ICICI Lombard gets final approval to acquire Bharti AXA</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/secret-funeral-plans-for-britains-queen-elizabeth-ii-leaked/articleshow/85919081.cms">Secret funeral plans for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II leaked</a>

Atal Pension Yojana dominates social security scheme with 66% NPS subscriber base

New Delhi, Feb () Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed to make amendments for separation of government pension trust from the PFRDA to strengthen the pension fund regulatory body.
"Necessary amendments would be carried out in the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Act. It will also facilitate separation of NPS Trust for government employees from PFRDA," Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 in Parliament on Saturday.
She also said that the government will help ease in mobility while in jobs.
"We wish to infuse into the universal pension coverage with auto enrolment facility. Also, we wish to place such mechanism which will enable inter-operability and provide safeguards to the accumulated (pension) deposits," she said. KPM MKJ

Govt mulls changes in PFRDA Act; to separate it from NPS Trust for govt staff

New Delhi, Feb 1 () With an aim to strengthen the pension fund regulatory body's regulating role, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday proposed amendments in the PFRDA Act and forming of pension trusts by employees other than government.
Presenting the Union Budget 2020-21, the minister also proposed separating the role of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) from that of trust for government employees.
"Regulating role of PFRDAI requires strengthening. Necessary amendments would be carried out in Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority of India Act that will also facilitate separation of NPS trust for government employees from PFRDAI," Sitharaman said in her Budget speech in Parliament.
The Pension Fund Regulatory &amp; Development Authority Act was passed in September, 2013 and came to effect from February, 2014.
This would also enable establishment of a pension trust by the employees other than government, the minister said. 
"I am confident that this will motivate citizens to plan for their old age," she added.
Further, to help easy mobility while in jobs, she said the government wishes to infuse into the universal pension coverage with auto enrolment.
"Also, we wish to place such mechanisms which can enable inter-operability and provide safeguards for the accumulated corpus," she said.
The PFRDA regulates the National Pension System (NPS), subscribed by employees of central and state governments as well as by employees of private sector organizations those in unorganised sectors.
It also administers Atal Pension Yojana (APY), which mainly caters to the unorganised sector and low income groups.
As of November 9, 2019, the overall number of NPS and APY subscribers in the country crossed 3.12 crore with Asset under Management (AUM) of over Rs 3.85 lakh crore, as per the PFRDA data. KPM MKJ

Govt mulls separating PFRDA from govt staff trust, setting up pvt sector pension trusts

<keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> has ranked number one as India’s most trusted e-commerce brand, in a nationwide consumer study titled the ‘The Indian E-tailing Leadership Index’, conducted by research firm Red Seer Consulting. 
 
Flipkart, for the fourth time in a row, is ranked overall number one in the study, scoring the highest among all e-commerce platforms in India in areas like product selection, customer support, ease of return, refund and reverse pick up speed. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/this-is-how-flipkart-is-ensuring-safety-of-their-delivery-boys/articleshow/56650124.cms">ALSO READ: This is how Flipkart is ensuring safety of their delivery boys</a> 
 
Riding on the strength of its supply chain unit – Ekart, Flipkart clocked the shortest average delivery time, not just in the metros, but also across Tier 1 &amp; 2 cities. 
 
The E-tailing Leadership Index (ELI) conducts a comprehensive assessment into how consumers in India view and interact with e-tailing brands. The study findings were based on 7500 consumer interviews across 30 Indian cities on several parameters including brand recall and trust, value, product variety and availability, ease of return, web and app experience, price competitiveness, delivery, overall NPS etc. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/budget-2017-china-is-still-far-ahead-of-india-when-it-comes-to-startups/articleshow/56628904.cms">ALSO READ: China is still far ahead of India when it comes to Startups</a> 
 
How has Flipkart fared in 2016 
 • About 50% of sales were transacted through no cost <keyword id="6357050" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="EMI">EMI</keyword> and Product Exchange • Since the <keyword id="4081892" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="bbd-sale">BBD Sale</keyword>, about 65% first-time customers have been purchasing ‘Flipkart Assured’ products 
• Flipkart Lite, an innovative product which enables customers to shop online even on low-storage phones and in areas with poor mobile data connectivity 
• Expanded share of fashion with Jabong acquisition, which is at 75% of the online fashion market. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-swiggy-helping-small-restaurants-to-get-upto-50-of-their-orders/articleshow/56645399.cms">ALSO READ: Exclusive: Swiggy helping small restaurants, to get </a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-swiggy-helping-small-restaurants-to-get-upto-50-of-their-orders/articleshow/56645399.cms">upto</a><a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-swiggy-helping-small-restaurants-to-get-upto-50-of-their-orders/articleshow/56645399.cms"> 50% of their orders</a> 
 All of this still, when <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> is quickly catching up to the e-commerce giant with heavy funding and larger revenues.

Flipkart is Number 1 amongst India’s
Most Trusted E-Tailing Brands

10 best tax-saving investments

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Marketing has long struggled to establish a standard measurement for brand value.</li><li>Quantifying emotional impact in consumers, using AI, could be the next major marketing trend.</li></ul>The number one thing on the minds of CMOs in 2024 is proving measurable brand value.There have been many ways of assessing brand value in the past including revenue, the value of future net earnings, and net promoter scores. But nothing has ever been precise enough to become a singular industry standard.Net promoter score has come close, but having been invented over two decades ago, new times warrant additional methods of determining brand valuation.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-05-27-gartner-predicts-more-than-75--of-organizations-will-"> Gartner</a> validated this shift in 2021 by predicting that NPS will be obsolete within 75% of organizations by 2025.Recommending a brand is not a complex enough metric on its own to determine a brand's overall worth. Quantifiable brand trust and loyalty have been kicked around as more modernized ways to assess a brand's valuation, particularly as loyalty dissipated during the COVID-19 pandemic, usurped by convenience. Meanwhile as the cost of acquisition continues to rise, retention is a new mandate.Developing the means to quantify a brand's true value is the most important part of a marketing organization that needs to evolve.Some new disruptive thinking on brand value deserves consideration — the power of emotion. While we all know a lot about how customers behave or act, we know little about how they feel.<h2>The power of emotion — the Equinox example</h2>Emotion is the new currency driving quantifiable brand growth. So, what is emotion exactly? It's often defined as instinctive or intuitive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge. Conventional wisdom holds that thought precedes emotion but in fact, science has consistently proven that emotion precedes thought.Imagine if you could take this thinking even further to precisely score how trusting of and loyal your customers are to your brand to get to a precise total valuation, that is inarguable, no different than the accuracy of a stock's price. One can debate if a stock should trade higher or lower, but what it trades at on a given day based on how the markets are performing is an uncontested benchmark.A great example of a company that reinvented largely around having a deeper emotional understanding of customer needs and loyalty is Equinox.Equinox is built upon getting a consumer to subscribe to them holistically — to derive joy from the brand in some way every day versus just purchasing a membership. The brand has used a mix of innovation and unparalleled customer understanding to do so. As a result, it has become not just a stand-out in the luxury space, but among the most highly regarded brands related to emotional understanding, trust, and loyalty in the world."Equinox pioneered a membership model that is set up to drive loyalty and engagement," Julia Klim, Equinox's VP of strategic partnerships told me."This is done in two ways. A top-down approach enticing emotion via wholly aspirational campaigns."Equinox's "Want It All" campaign exemplifies its emotional approach. "It sold the theme of desire as the engine that drives us all," Klim said."There was also a complementary bottom-down approach, via sophisticated customer segmentation, that allowed us to create a personalized and entirely intuitive customer experience once you join," Klim said. "Another great example of how this played out was using deeper emotional intelligence of customers to help reimagine our personal training offer earlier this year."<h2>AI enables new tools, new ways to measure</h2>AI-enabled tools can deliver actual quantifiable scores around brand trust and loyalty, if they are used in combination with data science and direct human input. This can be done by enriching datasets or creating emotional lookalikes that highlight the "why" that is missing from existing segmentation and most first-party data.At Brandthro, we have created a Net Emotion Score tool using a proprietary AI and data science model to gauge how much brand love customers are feeling at any moment. This calculation is based off of emotional scores that tabulate brand trust and loyalty.Look for emotion to emerge as one of the most vital currencies that can solve the most common CMO pain points: de-risking investment, doing more with less, elevating loyalty, lowering the cost of customer acquisition and generating quantifiable brand value.Billee Howard is CEO of Brandthro.

Emotion could be a better way to measure brand value 

Convenience has emerged as a top priority for Indian consumers, driving a surge in the use of <keyword id="383963" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mobile-applications" source="Orion">mobile applications</keyword>, according to the report by CyberMedia Research (CMR). "Consumers demand a trifecta: credibility, reliability, and convenience in every purchase," said Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group at CMR. The 'Alpha Brands' have arrived on the basis of their performance across major components, including brand's users, key decision makers, Net promoter score (NPS) score, level of satisfaction and the overall brand trust quotient. "Convenience coupled with trust is not just a winning formula; it's the lifeline of modern businesses," said Sugandha Srivastava, Senior Manager-Industry Consulting Group at CMR. "Mobile app-based brands have rewritten the narrative, reshaping how consumers perceive and interact with products and services," Srivastava added. Among the OTT players, Amazon Prime Video is the clear leader, followed by Disney Hotstar at a distant second position. In terms of advocacy, Amazon Prime Video (65 per cent) consumers are ahead in advocating for the brand than Disney Hotstar (37 per cent), the report mentioned. Amazon Fresh is leading the charge in terms of both satisfaction (36 per cent) and advocacy (60 per cent) among consumers followed by Blinkit in terms of satisfaction (19 per cent) and advocacy (53 per cent), it added.

Food & grocery delivery, digital payments top Indians' priorities on smartphones

When Prakash and his wife entered their mid-thirties last year, they decided to turn their focus towards <keyword id="159074" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="retirement-planning" source="Orion">retirement planning</keyword>, concerned by the consistent rise in inflation and the cost of effective healthcare. Additionally, they had specific life goals in mind, such as travelling the world and creating a trust fund for their future grandchildren. Retirement planning is a critical aspect of <keyword id="25456" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="financial-planning" source="Orion">financial planning</keyword>, especially in India, where inflation and healthcare costs are rising rapidly. With longer life expectancies and soaring medical expenses, retirement planning has become a more complex process, requiring decisive and early action for maximum benefits. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Understanding the Challenges" comment="subhead" text="Understanding the Challenges">Understanding the Challenges</cmsannotation> One of the biggest challenges faced by retirees in India is the rising inflation rate, which currently stands at around 6%. Despite the Reserve Bank of India’s efforts to control inflation, the cost of living continues to rise, and retirees need to plan for higher expenses in the future. Add to it the challenge being posed by the spiralling cost of healthcare and the sticky rise in medical inflation. According to <a href="https://www.motilaloswal.com/site/rreports/637873378950429040.pdf">reports</a>, medical inflation in India stood at around 14% as of 2021, with an anticipated additional increase of 10% this year. Therefore, retirees need to factor in the high costs of medical treatment in their retirement planning as they are more prone to medical issues and require more healthcare than the general population. Retirement planning is not solely focussed on managing inflation and healthcare costs. As seen in the instance of Prakash and his wife, retirees must also consider their life goals and ensure that they have enough savings to meet these goals. Whether it's buying a house, funding your children's education, or taking vacations, you need to plan for these expenses in advance. Additionally, retirees need to have a stable financial plan that provides for their day-to-day expenses and any unexpected emergencies. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Strategies for Retirement Planning" comment="subhead" text="Strategies for Retirement Planning">Strategies for Retirement Planning</cmsannotation> Start Early: The first and most crucial strategy for retirement planning is to start early. The earlier you start saving, the more time your money has to grow, and the less you need to save each year. By starting early, you can also take advantage of the power of compound interest, which can help your savings grow faster. This is one of the biggest reasons behind Prakash’s decision to begin planning in his mid-thirties, as this enables him and his wife to leverage the remaining 25 years of their career efficiently. Diversify: Another critical strategy for retirement planning is to diversify your investments. Investing in a mix of asset classes like stocks, bonds, and real estate can help spread your risk and maximise your returns. It's also important to invest in a mix of short-term and long-term investments to balance your portfolio. You can also pick from the variety of retirement plans available in India, including the National Pension Scheme (NPS), Public Provident Fund, retirement-focused mutual funds, etc. Health Insurance: Given the high cost of healthcare in India, it's crucial to have adequate health insurance coverage. Retirees should consider investing in a comprehensive health insurance plan that covers both basic and critical illnesses. It's also important to check the terms and conditions of the plan, including the premium, deductible, and co-payments. Seek Professional Advice: It is always a good idea to seek professional advice when it comes to retirement planning. A financial advisor can help you create a customised retirement plan that takes into account your unique financial situation and goals. They can also guide you through the various investment options available and help you make informed decisions. Retirement planning can become complex and stressful if not approached carefully. However,much of this can be avoided by starting early, diversifying your investments, investing in retirement plans, focusing on health insurance, planning for life goals, and seeking professional advice. By following these strategies, retirees like Prakash and his wife can build a secure financial future. With the right strategy and careful planning, retirees can enjoy a comfortable retirement while pursuing their life goals. Disclaimer: The article is authored by Ushaben Thakkar, Mutual Fund Distributor. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India. Do your own research (DYOR) before deciding to invest in any financial asset class.

Secure your future: The importance of retirement planning in India

<ul><li>We bring to you a series of columns from industry experts, looking back at the last 10 years. </li><li>The columns will explore how the media, marketing and <keyword id="34612" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="advertising-industry">advertising industry</keyword> has transformed in the last decade. </li><li>N. Chandramouli, CEO, <keyword id="3152513" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="TRA-Research">TRA Research</keyword> lists down the disruptions that have attempted to improve communication, its strategy and its implementation in industry.</li></ul>The world’s commerce and therefore, mankind’s development, is crucially dependent on marketing communication - the type of communication that helps promote brand ideas. Though the potential of these trillion dollar ideas to grow and build the future is high, their ability to contaminate and destroy opportunities is equally astonishing. Innovative and useful products fail, organizations are unable to align vision, investors are quickly disheartened and seek exit – and all this and more, not because what organizations did was wrong. Most times it is because organizations could not effectively communicate their service, vision, product benefits correctly, or because they totally misunderstood their audiences. When communication fails, it destroys human potential, and in the progressive destruction of each such opportunity, the collective future of mankind is adversely impacted. Using communication sustainably is most essential because opportunities of an eternity are embedded in the seed of every communication. Communication gone wrong has disastrous consequences. So here I will list down disruptions that have attempted to improve communication, its strategy and its implementation. 1. Brand metrics have changed: Old, antiquated brand metrics like Brand Health, Incremental sales, Brand equity, Net Promoter Scores (NPS), Customer satisfaction, Market Share, Wallet share, Lifetime value, among many other such Brand-centric models have become passé. The only reasons these models continue to be used is due to the dual conundrum of inertia and paradigm blindness. What’s the disruption? In the last couple of years, there are hundreds of brands which have adopted a consumer-centric brand model, called the Buying Propensity Brand Model to measure and evolve their brand. The customer centricity brings in greater awareness, better relationships and better confidence to the brand to evolve customer-centric strategies. 2. The age of selling is dead: Most of the brands still try and sell to the customer, a model which is no longer relevant in the new-age world. This is an age where all arbitrages have been obliterated – there are no differences of access, price, knowledge or availability. This 150-year-old model, often abbreviated as AIDA, is well on its way to its grave. What’s the disruption? In a world when the customer has a plethora of choices and the means, the only way a brand can engage is by helping the consumer buy. The Buying Model is in. It requires a brand to invest deeply behind understanding why consumers trust and desire a brand. Trust is the transactional element while desire is the deep psycho-socio-cultural aspects that lend to buying a brand. 3. Brand loyalty where a customer is loyal, is no longer a truism: Brand loyalty implied that a customer would be loyal to a brand. This concept may have worked in an environment when there were only a few choices, for who does not remember the 5-year waiting lines for a scooter. What’s the disruption? Today, it is a buyers’ market, where the choices for the customer are plentiful and more. As the relationship quotient of the new-age millennial customer is oriented towards fulfilment and not longevity, the term Brand Loyalty implies that the brand has to be loyal to the customer. 4. Old departments are getting dismantled: The sales department struggles to understand why a customer is not buying. Almost every brand custodian is astounded by the happenings with their brand. They do the same things as they were doing a decade ago, and yet things are not working. What’s the disruption? The new department being set up in organizations is the Trust Department. Evolved organizations understand that their value is in the trust that the customer holds in their brand. The future of this is that you will see Brand Trust experts on the Board soon. 5. Media is dying, but it is alive: For those who will know, nearly a dozen media houses have shut down in the last 6 months. What happened in the US over 2 years, compressed itself to just 6 months, accentuated by the slowdown of the industry, and therefore also advertising What’s the disruption? New, independent, subscribed media with exclusive information is getting more traction than that which gives generic information. It shows the need to have information that is exclusive, for news no longer implies knowing what others already know. 6. Noise versus voice: The current techniques of communication are similar to dynamite fishing - blasting of fish with loud, high impact explosives, stunning fish into stupor (and even killing many in the process). Imagine the fish to be the customers, and the dynamite to be the decibels of advertising. We live in a world of stunned customers. What’s the disruption? Giving a voice to your brand has replaced the noise that made sense some years back. The narrative of the brand has to be as exciting and engaging as that of a good friend. This transformation is changing the way some brands think about their customers and themselves. To survive and grow, brands need to shake up the dust from their coattails, be willing to take risks of changing their brand models and build relationships with the customers. These alone will create and maintain the keenness-to-buy among their customers. - By N. Chandramouli, CEO, TRA Research

Six disruptions that will change the future of brands

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://twitter.com/publiclandlvr">Public Land Lover/Twitter</a>Visitors were still collecting full bags of trash at at Lassen National Forest on January 15.</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>In the midst of a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/government-shutdown-2019">government shutdown</a>, the conditions at national parks could threaten visitor and wildlife safety.</li><li>While some parks have managed to stay clean with the help of local volunteers, others have seen vandalism, unauthorized drones, overflowing bathrooms, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-national-parks-trash-government-shutdown-2019-1">piles of garbage</a>.</li><li> The National Parks Conservation Association estimates that parks have lost more than $6 million in fee revenue by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-fda-irs-air-safety-workers-furlough-2019-1">staying open during the shutdown</a>.</li><li>Some rangers and conservationists say the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-fda-irs-air-safety-workers-furlough-2019-1">nightmare scenario</a> that would require parks to close has already arrived.</li></ul>In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed an act calling for national parks to remain "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."More than a century later, environmentalists are accusing the Trump administration of violating that act by allowing parks to remain open during the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/government-shutdown-2019">government shutdown</a>. With the shutdown already <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-news-secret-service-struggles-gdp-could-slip-2019-1">shattering records</a> as the longest in US history, national parks have felt the absence of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/government-shutdown-january-2019/h_1d65927447b72faeb51fdd52a884c3ce">around 21,000 furloughed employees</a>. An estimated 3,3000 park workers have stayed on to provide essential services such as law enforcement and emergency medical attention.This understaffing has incited chaos in a number of parks across the country. Though some public land remains in pristine condition thanks to respectful visitors and local volunteers, other areas face long-term environmental damage and threats to visitor safety as the shutdown wears on. In some cases, the damage could last for years.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/national-park-rangers-government-shutdown-2019-1">Park rangers share fears of unemployment as national parks overflow with garbage during the government shutdown</a>Almost immediately after the shutdown went into effect on December 22, park visitors began to uncover piles of haphazardly discarded trash, including soiled diapers, alcohol bottles, and discarded shotgun shells. Restrooms began <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-national-parks-trash-government-shutdown-2019-1">overflowing with human waste</a>, and garbage was found scattered along major highways. At Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, visitors took to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/01/11/travesty-this-nation-people-are-destroying-joshua-trees-joshua-tree-national-park/?utm_term=.6c6b0e57a38b">defacing rocks with graffiti</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trees-cut-joshua-tree-national-park-government-shutdown-2019-1?r=UK">cutting down trees</a> that have been around for centuries. Some even <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/joshua-tree-national-park-to-shut-vandalism-sanitation-problems-government-shutdown-2019-1">skirted entrance fees</a>, which are supposed to go toward visitor services.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">John TillisonYosemite National Park on week three of the shutdown.</div></div></div>A few parks, like Yosemite, were able to handle the situation relatively quickly. "The first week was like the wild west and people did whatever they wanted," said John Tillison, a retired park ranger. Two weeks later, he found portable outhouses and members of the Yosemite Climbing Association handing out litter grabbers, gloves, and garbage bags. The group asked visitors to return the garbage they had collected and offered to dispose of it for free.Tillison said he collected only half a trash bag worth of garbage, since the park "looked pretty good."That's not the case everywhere. In the midst of the shutdown, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has compiled a list of parks with the most egregious conditions, including the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site - the former home of Theodore Roosevelt - which recently saw a fire in its visitor center. The situation is "becoming a crisis," said John Garder, the senior director of budget and appropriations at the NPCA. "There is, at this point, a threat of long-term damage that could last years, if not decades." In some cases, he said, the damage can be irreparable. According to Garder, the nightmare scenario that would require national parks to close has already arrived in certain areas.<h2>There's a financial toll to keeping parks open</h2>During prior government shutdowns, administrations have suspended all operations at parks, including visitor access. In an unorthodox move, the Trump administration has opted to leave gates open to the public.The NPCA <a href="https://www.npca.org/articles/2094-groups-claim-keeping-parks-open-without-adequate-staff-during-shutdown-is">called the decision</a> "reckless" and "illegal," arguing that it violates at least four separate provisions of federal law.The NPS has responded to concerns by <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/national-parks-using-entrance-fees-for-maintenance-amid-shutdown-2019-1">diverting visitor fees</a> toward park maintenance, allowing additional staffers to clean restrooms, patrol the parks, and pick up trash.While the decision may help to keep parks cleaner, it could also be causing them to <a href="https://www.thisisinsider.com/government-shutdown-wedding-national-park-move-2018-12">lose money</a>.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://twitter.com/publiclandlvr/status/1079554457048735745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1079554457048735745&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FUS%2Foverflowing-trash-toilets-safety-concerns-national-parks-face%2Fstory%3Fid%3D60105575">Twitter/Public Land Lover</a>Visitors discovered piles of trash spilling out of a public bathroom at Lassen National Forest.</div></div></div>According to the NPCA, national parks collect around $400,000 in fee revenue on an average day. Since the start of the shutdown, the group estimates, the NPS has lost more than $6 million in fee revenue. That's on top of a $11.6 billion backlog on much-needed repairs."In robbing those accounts, they are undermining projects that superintendents and partner groups have been counting on - sometimes for years," said Garder. "It essentially pulls the rug out from under them."Though keeping the parks open could ensure that visitors and tourists continue to pump money into the local economy, Garder said the long-term effects could be far more destructive. "In cases where parks are partially open, it is an invitation for visitors to be at greater risk...and for resources to be damaged," he said.<h2>Understaffing could pose a safety threat</h2>In the first sixteen days of the shutdown, at least seven deaths were reported in national parks - but the link between the deaths and understaffing is tenuous.A spokesperson for the NPS <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2019/01/04/three-dead-national-parks-shutdown-wears/?utm_term=.9ea5076e93bf">told The Washington Post</a> that an average of six people die in national parks each week due to "accidents like drownings, falls, and motor vehicle crashes and medical related incidents such as heart attacks."With so many park rangers off-duty, it's possible that more accidents could occur. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Mario Tama/Getty ImagesA volunteer collects trash at Joshua Tree National Park.</div></div></div>On Christmas Day, a man at Yosemite <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-have-died-in-national-parks-since-government-shutdown-began-report-2019-1">died of a head injury</a> after what was likely a short fall. A witness told The Post that the emergency personnel who arrived on the scene didn't have a stretcher. The man also had a dog with him, which violates federal regulations. A senior NPS official told The Post that rangers frequently intervene when they see someone walking a dog. At the time, the paper reported that only six rangers were available to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2019/01/04/three-dead-national-parks-shutdown-wears/?utm_term=.17da2370e659">monitor conditions at Yosemite</a>, whose land is roughly the size of Rhode Island.There's also the danger of crumbling infrastructure whose maintenance has been put on hold."There are visitor centers in disrepair, roads that are falling apart, trails that need stabilization, [and] water systems that are at risk of breaking down," said Garder. Without the funds to address these issues, he said, "it will eventually create some threats to visitors' [safety]."<h2>Visitors are endangering trees and wildlife</h2>Visitors aren't the only concern. The absence of park rangers makes it difficult to police human activity that endangers wildlife.At the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, at least three black bears have been poached since the start of the shutdown. Littering also poses a severe hazard. When humans leave their food lying around or pile it into overflowing trash cans, bears can grow accustomed to eating it. This causes them to <a href="https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/1/16/18179038/government-shutdown-national-park-yosemite">lose their fear of humans</a> and potentially attack.Some visitors have also sent out drones that can harm local birds. On January 2, Pinnacles National Park in Central California learned of a visitor who was using an unauthorized drone to harass a California condor, according to a report given to Business Insider by the NPCA.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">National Park ServiceA Joshua tree was cut down by visitors.</div></div></div>Of particular concern, said Garder, is the damage done to Joshua trees. The towering species is more than a namesake for a national park. It's also a key part of the Southern California ecosystem, providing vital support to birds, bats, and insects, among other forms of wildlife. "When a mature [Joshua] tree is cut down, an ancient organism has been killed, and it could be centuries before another takes its place," a director at the Mojave Desert Land Trust <a href="https://www.desertsun.com/story/desert-magazine/2019/01/16/heres-why-you-shouldnt-damage-joshua-trees-if-isnt-obvious/2572310002/">told the Desert Sun</a>. During the shutdown, there have been at least three reported cases of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trees-cut-joshua-tree-national-park-government-shutdown-2019-1?r=UK">trees being cut down</a> at Joshua Tree National Park as visitors tried to off-road in restricted zones. These actions propelled the park to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/jotr/learn/news/joshua-tree-national-park-to-temporarily-close-for-cleanup-and-repair.htm">announce a closure</a> on January 8, but it later rescinded the plan, saying it would use park revenue to stay open. <h2>Rangers and conservationists agree: parks should close</h2>While the sum of this damage already constitutes an emergency, it's difficult to predict what could happen next."The parks service won't have a full sense of the damage until they're able to get back on duty," said Garder. "We expect they'll find more vandalism and other significant damage to sensitive ecosystems."That's assuming park rangers will resume their positions after the shutdown - a possibility that, for some, has faded further from view. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Mark Makela/Getty ImagesPark ranger David Fitzpatrick holds an American flag after a protest rally with furloughed federal workers in Philadelphia.</div></div></div>By week three of the shutdown, some rangers had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/national-park-rangers-government-shutdown-2019-1">already secured second jobs</a> while others were considering <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-federal-employees-workers-unemployment-claims-2019-1">filing for unemployment</a>. President Trump has suggested that the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-schumer-trump-length-months-years-2019-1">shutdown could last</a> "months or even years.""I really love my job and I would do everything I could to come back to it...but I've got to eat," said a National Park Service employee at a park in the Southwest, who wished to remain anonymous so she could speak frankly."Everybody's really tired of riding the roller coaster," said Tillison. "There's a lot of frustration, and rightfully so."While most parks have managed to avoid shutting down entirely, many have closed their campgrounds due to health and safety concerns. Both the NPCA and park rangers agree that the solution would be to close the parks for the remainder of the shutdown. "It's gotten to the point where businesses and people and communities surrounding parks are now urging that parks be closed," Garner said. "They understand that our parks are not just for short-term gain. They are for long-term preservation and the enjoyment of the American people." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-north-south-poles-flip-magnetic-field-2018-4">What will happen when Earth's north and south poles flip</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

National parks have already reached a nightmare scenario of trash piles and destroyed trees during the government shutdown

<ul><li><keyword id="3873233" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Medlife">Medlife</keyword> is currently witnessing an 8% month-on-month growth and hopes to achieve 100% year-on-year growth over last year.</li><li>It will continue to focus on digital marketing, and come up with hyper-local personalized content to target consumers.</li><li>Medlife is looking at almost doubling its consumer base from last year’s 1.5 million to 2.5 million this year.</li></ul> It’s been about three months since <keyword id="6397414" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ananth-Narayanan">Ananth Narayanan</keyword>, former CEO of Myntra and Jabong came on board as the Co-founder and CEO of Bengaluru-based health-tech company Medlife. Since then, Narayanan has focused on coming up with strategies to scale up the business, always keeping the consumer at the core. Founded in 2014 by Tushar Kumar and Prashant Singh, Medlife, which started out being an online medicine delivery platform has today diversified its offering to <keyword id="164597" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="diagnostics">diagnostics</keyword> and online consultations. The company is currently witnessing an 8% month-on-month growth and hopes to achieve 100% year-on-year growth over last year. It is also looking at expanding its diagnostics presence across 50 cities within the next 24 months. In a recent conversation, Narayanan told us that Medlife’s marketing strategy would revolve around coming up with hyper-local digital content to target different areas in the cities they launch and will back that up with BTL as well as Radio. “However, our aim would be to do a 360 degree surround for our consumers. When they think of healthcare, Medlife should be the first port of call for them,” says Narayanan. Edited excerpts: Q) From growing Myntra in the fashion e-commerce space to now growing Medlife in the online healthcare space, how has the journey been so far? I am a consumer-backed person and look for large markets to play in. Both Myntra and Medlife are a $100 billion market, however in India, access, consumer journey and having standardized processes and procedures to make healthcare simple is a problem. So it felt like a very large problem to solve. Medlife started four years ago and is in the process of solving at least two or three of these problems. I met the founders Tushar and Prashant at that time, and it felt like we're very complementary. While Tushar played more of a strategy role, Prashant and I went on to run the business. It seemed like a good idea to come together and see if we could scale it. My vision for Medlife is to build it into a trusted brand partner and serve all the healthcare needs of the 100 million plus Indians, by keeping technology at the core. Since you joined Medlife, what have your areas of focus been? There have been three to four focus key focus areas for me. The first is to improve consumer experience. We’ve launched a new react native app and have reduced the lead time for delivery. We're scaling Express which is our two-hour delivery service in eight cities. So consumers have been a big focus. Secondly, we need to make the business sustainable. In the next six to eight months, we want to reach unit economics breakeven, which means at the unit level, we don't lose money anymore. Once we achieve that, we can scale as much or as little as we want. Thirdly, there’s a continued focus on ramping up the team. We already have a terrific team of 400 people but are working on strengthening it further. We want to strengthen the tech, product and the operation side of the team. Also, we're a very small part of a very large business and our aim is to sustain a healthy growth. What kind of growth has Medlife been witnessing? Today, the online penetration of health is less than 2%. We want to grow 8% month-on-month. By the end of this year, we'll have a 100% year-on-year growth over last year. It looks like we will be ahead of our original plan for the year. Have you set a target for yourself, in terms of Medlife’s growth? In the next five years, I want to be 10X of what I am today. And if we continue to see 100% growth year-on-year, we will easily reach there. Also, I want to be able to serve multi-million customers. By when do you expect Medlife to become a profit-making entity? The key milestone is unit economics. Hopefully, as I said, six to eight months from now, we'll get there. And after that, it's really a matter of choice as to when you want to become profitable. How big is your consumer base right now and what kind of growth are you seeing in that regard? Last year, we served 1.5 million customers, and we continue to grow. This year, we will serve 2.5 million customers. Since you have diversified to diagnostics and consultation, which segments are performing the best for you? We started out being a medicine delivery platform and that's still 85-87% of the business and still growing rapidly. But that gives us a large customer base to do diagnostics with. Diagnostic is a newer business which we started about a year ago and is growing very fast for us, the unit economics are already profitable. On the <keyword id="387573" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="online-consultation">online consultation</keyword> front, we have about 1,500 doctors on board and again, that number is growing rapidly too. In terms of growth, medicine delivery is growing at 6-7% and the other two are growing in double digits month-on-month. How have you built the consumer’s trust on your platform? In the businesses we operate in, the way to build trust is by sticking to your promise. We measure a lot on NPS and consumer experience. We work hard to ensure that we deliver whatever we commit to the customer. We are also very careful about quality, whether it's our medicines, diagnostic test results or the consultations. We do a lot of checks, tech-driven and otherwise, that allow us to make sure that the quality of our offering is great. Your vision is to turn Medlife into an e-health provider. Can you expand on that? Our aim is to own the consumer journey and provide them with everything they need. Today, we may be into medicine delivery, diagnostics and consultation but there are many other things that the customer actually wants. They want home healthcare, primary and secondary care and health insurance. We don't intend to do all of this but we’re trying to partner with the ecosystem to provide customers all of these offerings. What are your strategies to grow your market share and expand reach? Like I said, the current penetration is 2% and we have 10x growth ahead of us. We’ve built a good supply chain network. We have over 40 fulfillment centers all over. Extending the supply chain is one way of penetrating the market. The second is continuing to reach people through digital marketing. And the third is by starting to expose them to the multiple services that we actually offer. There are roughly 62 million online transacting customers in India today and we only serve 2 million, so there’s a huge opportunity. Are your consumers primarily from the metro cities? The age range of our customers is between 26 and 86, so it's a much broader range than e-commerce. Secondly, about 60% of our consumers are from the top 30 cities and 40% come from beyond. Medlife has made some strategic acquisitions with <keyword id="8296503" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="medlabz">MedLabz</keyword> and <keyword id="304370" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Myra">Myra</keyword>. Are more acquisitions on the cards? We will continue to do strategic acquisitions. We acquired MedLabz when we realized diagnostic is important for us. Express delivery was an important capability. The market today has chronic needs and acute needs. Acute needs account for roughly half the market, but you need to be able to supply within one to two hours. That's why we acquired Myra. So we will keep looking for capabilities to buy. How will be your broad marketing strategy going ahead? The healthcare space works micro-market by micro-market. So we look at 10 parts of Mumbai as 10 different markets. We think of personalizing the digital marketing in each of these areas very differently. We will also do Radio and BTL to get to our consumers. But the key is to start doing a 360 degree marketing around the customer so that Medlife becomes a part of their lives. Medlife needs to be the first port of call for them, whenever they think of health needs and that’s what we're trying to establish. Our brand proposition is, ‘Health comes home’. Where do you want to see Medlife in the next few years? There's still a lot of scale left to be had in the medicine delivery side of business. We want to expand our Express rapidly. We are offering diagnostics in 20 cities currently, we'd love to be in 40-50 cities. So we'll scale it up in the next 24 months. Thirdly, we will also work on creating personal online consultation into a paid consultation service, not just a complimentary one. Where do you anticipate the next phase of growth for Medlife will come from? We will grow with deeper penetration in the current cities that we’re in. I believe that in all the big cities that we're in for pharma, labs will start to become big. Medicine delivery will expand beyond the top 30 cities and we're starting to think about supply chain infrastructure beyond the top 30 cities.

Medlife hopes to achieve 100% growth by the end of this financial year, will take its diagnostics offering to 50 cities within the next 24 months

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Uber-Safety/30c4f431a6b94cad9b2d0379f1f2ee53/62/0">Richard Drew/AP</a>Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>During an all-hands meeting at <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/uber">Uber </a>on Tuesday, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and the head of the self-driving car unit, Eric Meyhofer, were questioned by employees over the culture at the self-driving unit.</li><li>They asked about allegations of infighting and dysfunction in the unit prior to a tragic accident that killed a pedestrian, based on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sources-describe-questionable-decisions-and-dysfunction-inside-ubers-self-driving-unit-before-one-of-its-cars-killed-a-pedestrian-2018-10">Business Insider's newly published investigation</a>.</li><li>What followed was a strange couple of minutes in which the executives told odd stories and quoted wrong statistics leading up to Khosrowshahi admitting, several times, "we have screwed up."</li></ul>On Tuesday, Uber's CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and the head of its self-driving car unit Eric Meyhofer stood up at an all-hands meeting to a smattering of polite applause.What followed was a strange couple of minutes.Behind them on a large screen was a list of questions submitted and voted on by employees, indicating the burning questions employees wanted their leaders to address.At the top, with over 130 votes, was a question about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sources-describe-questionable-decisions-and-dysfunction-inside-ubers-self-driving-unit-before-one-of-its-cars-killed-a-pedestrian-2018-10">the investigation published by Business Insider last week</a> into Uber's self-driving car unit known as the Advanced Technologies Group (ATG). An anonymous employee asked: "Business Insider called ATG's culture 'toxic' and referred to 'missed warning signs,' vast dysfunction' and 'rampant infighting.' Any truth in this?"Business Insider had reported on the goings-on inside the unit in the months before its self-driving car <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-arizona-woman-dies-after-behing-hit-self-driving-car-report-2018-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killed Elaine Herzberg,</a> when engineers deliberately turned off the car's ability to stop itself quickly.Read more:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sources-describe-questionable-decisions-and-dysfunction-inside-ubers-self-driving-unit-before-one-of-its-cars-killed-a-pedestrian-2018-10"> Uber insiders describe infighting and questionable decisions before its self-driving car killed a pedestrian</a>Both Meyhofer and Khosrowshahi spent several minutes addressing the question. They didn't punt or evade.But they did downplay the story, tried to discredit the media, and implied it wasn't factual. Meyhofer even indicated the story was the result of Business Insider contacting former employees and others who didn't work at the company looking for "sensational bits."That wasn't true. Business Insider talked to a half a dozen people who were all employees of the company on March 18, 2018, when the incident occurred and did so after several people reached out to us and asked us to investigate. We corroborated employee accounts with emails, internal documents, police reports, and other documents. Business Insider also shared all of what we learned with the company prior to publication and included the company's feedback and statements in the story.But the weird part happened next.Meyhofer defended the culture by quoting scores from an internal employee survey telling everyone that the survey scored "83% for trust. 83% for teamwork and collaboration."It turns out that these stats are not accurate, according to a source familiar with the matter.The 83% score is in reference to how employees feel about the company's commitment to safety. The results of the survey have not been released to employees, but they will also include a score for "trust and transparency" not "trust and collaboration." Meyhofer then launched into a story about his kids. He told Uber employees that he knew culture was great under his leadership because his teenage kids wanted to visit the Uber campus while everyone was away over Thanksgiving break."They wanted to be here," he said of his teenagers. "And I think that speaks really loudly to what we've built. They just wanted to be here."After hearing Meyhofer's defense, a handful of employees discussed him on the anonymous chat app Blind, a favorite haunt of frustrated Uber employees.A Blind post said: "Eric Meyhofer: Based on his response at all hands on ATG culture, discuss his tenure as Head of ATG!" Twenty-nine people voted to "replace him" and four voted to "keep him." There are 1,100 employees working for him so of course, that poll is not statistically significant. But it does indicate that at least some employee are gossiping about Meyhofer's future at Uber.After the "my kids like it here" story, Khosrowshahi spoke.Khosrowshahi showed his support of his senior leader by saying some negative things about Business Insider. And then he said, "we did screw up" and that "we are radically changing how we develop, how we test, etcetera. So we've gone through changes. We have screwed up."Sources tell Business Insider that Khosrowshahi had not been paying much attention to the self-driving car unit in his first year because he was so busy fighting fires with Uber's main business, but that this is changing now. On Tuesday, Khosrowshahi indicated as much saying, "A year forward from all the controversy that we saw last year, we are better, stronger. And I think ATG is going through that same journey," he said.Here's the full transcript of Meyhofer's and Khosrowshahi's answers to this question from the all-hands meeting.Dara Khosrowshahi: All right. From anonymous: "Business Insider called ATG's culture 'toxic' and referred to 'missed warning signs, vast dysfunction and rampant fighting.' Any truth to this?"We will have Eric address the issue first.Eric Meyhofer: Another anonymous question. I think it's pretty important to think about how these articles are written and a little bit of the history on ATG. So in the past 3 1/2 years we have gone through some pretty sensational stuff here at ATG. We have seen really challenging acquisitions, big lawsuits, hyper-growth, significant leadership changes, all kinds of things that can take people to a very emotional place.And a lot of folks - there are 1,100 here now - imagine how many have gone through this journey. A lot of folks who are no longer with us even that are contacted by these media outlets and they're looking for sensational bits. And they'll ask folks that don't work here questions and take them out of context and put together an article similar to this.I think what is more indicative of what the culture is like here is, of course, one, being here and seeing it firsthand.But if you also look at things like our latest round of NPS scores [aka scores from the internal "Pulse Survey"], they have trust here at 83%. 83% for trust. 83% for teamwork and collaboration I think those are a lot more indicative of what is really going on here.And then I want to kind of take a couple more minutes and share a personal story that I think says a lot about what it's like here. And that is, so this weekend was Thanksgiving weekend and I was off this weekend, which was quite nice.And so I'm spending time with my family, specifically with my children and my son is 14, my daughter is 15. And it's Sunday. And I say, hey, you know, it's the last day of break. What do you want to do today? And they wanted to come to Uber. They wanted to come to work.They wanted to be here. And I think that speaks really loudly to what we've built. They just wanted to be here.And I don't know, what we've gone through, how we've come together as a team, what we've put through on '18 what our results are and what we have yet to show on '18, which I can't wait.I'm super proud of what we have done and who we are. And so I don't know how to justify what that article says with the truth and reality. But it's sensational and it gets people drawn into their media channel and that's what they're going for. But we need to take these kinds of things with a grain of salt and stay focused on what the truth really is.Dara Khosrowshahi: Thanks, Eric.Just taking this on from my perspective, first of all, I'd encourage anyone to, if you scan the "Business Insider" headlines, it's a sensational periodical. Not a place you go to for the facts.That said, I do think that article does reflect the fact that we have been through a ton of change at ATG. And any time you go through a ton of change, right, there's a leadership change that Eric talked about. There was a tragic accident that happened this year. Those changes have resulted and are significantly changing how we do things and also changing a bunch of folks at the company as well.And that is going to result in some folks who do not agree with the new direction we've taken of the company and some folks who can look back and say, you know what? We screwed up in X, Y and Z.And by the way, we did screw up in X, Y and Z because we are radically changing how we develop, how we test, etcetera. So we've gone through changes. We have screwed up. I don't think that that article is a true reflection of what has gone on through ATG. But it does reflect what is true, which is we have gone through a lot. And I think our test now is: Can the team come together and build something better? My bet is yes. And we now have to prove it behind that bet, and I think the ATG team is going to come out of this better, tighter, stronger.But what we do have to acknowledge, which is absolutely true, is it's been tough.And our job is to come through this better, stronger as a company. I think Uber has and will. We are kind of going through that journey of coming through and I think this, a year forward from all the controversy that we saw last year, we are better, stronger.And I think ATG is going through that same journey and I think it will wind up at that same place of "better."<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sources-describe-questionable-decisions-and-dysfunction-inside-ubers-self-driving-unit-before-one-of-its-cars-killed-a-pedestrian-2018-10">Uber insiders describe infighting and questionable decisions before its self-driving car killed a pedestrian</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-autonomous-driving-unit-used-strange-term-for-people-and-animals-2018-11">Uber employees say the company's autonomous driving unit used this strange term to describe people and animals</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-removed-second-driver-from-self-driving-cars-before-deadly-crash-2018-11">Uber removed the second backup driver from its self-driving cars ahead of the crash that killed an Arizona pedestrian</a></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trees-are-wreaking-havoc-on-uber-self-driving-car-software-2018-11">Why trees have wreaked havoc on Uber's self-driving program</a></li></ul> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cooked-entire-thanksgiving-dinner-using-google-home-hub-2018-11">I tried cooking an entire Thanksgiving dinner using Google Home Hub and found there are two major flaws with it</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

'We have screwed up': Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi admits in an all-hands meeting that the company deserves some fault after its self-driving car killed a pedestrian

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Consumer products have long been shunned by the venture community due to high capital&#xa0;requirements, low multiples and margin pressure from online retailers.As such, Dollar Shave Club's recent $1 billion acquisition by Unilever came as a surprise to many. In a sense, the acquisition not only disrupted the razor market, it arguably disrupted the entire venture paradigm by making <keyword id="6354851" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Retail">retail</keyword> goods en vogue again.Unfortunately, most of the startups intent on following Dollar Shave Club's lead are doomed to fail, as a&#xa0;"perfect storm" of unique factors must be present for a fledgling consumer products company to&#xa0;challenge entrenched and well-capitalized incumbents.Nevertheless, we believe we have identified (and in some cases, invested in) a handful of companies&#xa0;that may have the impetus to flourish and become "the next Dollar Shave Club".To understand why, we first need to look at what made the company so successful.<h2>The three drivers of Dollar Shave Club's success</h2>Although Dollar Shave Club undoubtedly makes a fine razor, we believe that the product was incidental&#xa0;to the company's success.DSC flourished because it exploited three key structural weaknesses in the razor market, namely the fact&#xa0;that: a) costs were bloated due to an entrenched monopoly, b) consumers were hesitant to purchase&#xa0;razors online and c) incumbents were using outdated marketing strategies.Success Driver #1: Inefficient Market Dominated by a MonopolyFor years, Gillette used their dominance of the $3 billion US razor market to mark-up their products by&#xa0;over 167%. Coupled with additional charges inserted by retailers, this made shaving tools unnecessarily&#xa0;expensive. Even today, four Gillette Fusion cartridges can sell for over $20.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Dollar Shave Club was able to exploit this inefficiency by disintermediating the supply chain and offering&#xa0;lower prices. The company peddled a basic razor with 5 cartridges at $1 per month, and a top-of- the-line model with 4 cartridges for $9 per month - both significant discounts to incumbent products.Success Driver #2: Consumer Reluctance to Purchase Eyeglasses OnlineThe company was also able to move an obstinate product online by building strong customer&#xa0;relationships.If razors were easy to sell on the internet, Gillette would have likely done so years ago. But that wasn't&#xa0;the case, as fewer than 8% of consumers purchased razor blades online in 2013.To bridge this gap and gain buyer trust, Dollar Shave Club made building strong customer relationships&#xa0;its top priority. For example, the company:<ul><li>Offered an unconditional money-back guarantee with no need to return used razors or&#xa0;cartridges, which made trying the product riskless.</li><li>Successfully translated its brand voice into a potent unboxing experience, with their&#xa0;trademark confident and sardonic sense of humor reflected in the "Welcome to the&#xa0;Club" card that every new customer received.</li><li>Employed unscripted customer service, an approach that is "high cost, [and] difficult to&#xa0;execute"&#xa0;but "worth it" according to The LA Times.</li></ul>These tactics solidified the brand and help spur the growth of the online razor market, which has more&#xa0;than tripled since 2013.Success Driver #3: Incumbents Employed Antiquated Marketing TacticsFinally, Dollar Shave Club leveraged the viral opportunities inherent in online distribution to achieve&#xa0;over $200 million in revenue in less than five years.&#xa0;By utilizing founder Michael Dubin's improv background, Dollar Shave Club was able to create the iconic&#xa0;"our blades are f**king great" video, which cost only $4,500 to produce and reaped over 20M views on&#xa0;YouTube.<div></div>&#xa0;And that's just the beginning, the company has continued to create strong content and couple it with a&#xa0;highly streamlined, tested and optimized sales funnel that ends with a built-in referral loop.Combining this marketing engine with top-notch customer service and superior prices has been a boon&#xa0;for Dollar Shave Club, one that - according to Fortune - has catapulted it to an 8% share of the $3 billion&#xa0;US market for razors and blades in only three years.In short, Dollar Shave Club succeeded because its opponent was a dinosaur, so who's next?<h2>The Original Consumer Products Disruptor</h2>As discussed above, candidates for the "next Dollar Shave Club" will: 1) disrupt an entrenched&#xa0;monopoly or oligopoly, 2) successfully move a stubborn product online by building customer&#xa0;relationships and 3) create a viral growth engine.One company that fits this bill nicely is Warby Parker - who in many ways represents the vanguard of&#xa0;the shifting paradigm in retail goods, achieving a $1.2 billion valuation over a year ago.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Warby is able to offer a significantly lower price point by undercutting Luxottica, the vertically-integrated behemoth that controls 80% of the eyewear market.As Warby Parker co-CEO Neil Blumenthal explains in Forbes, the original idea for the company "was&#xa0;really about bypassing retailers, bypassing the middlemen that would mark up lenses 3-5x what they&#xa0;cost, so we could just transfer all of that cost directly to consumers and save them money."Like Dollar Shave Club, the company has also transitioned its product online by building strong customer&#xa0;relationships - prior to Warby, fewer than 1% of consumers had purchased glasses online.But simplifying the buying process with riskless home try-ons, easy returns, and personalized sales reps&#xa0;allowed Warby to create a world-class brand based on a foundation of trust.&#xa0;<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>This helped the company catalyze a 50% growth in the online eyeglass market in fewer than three years,&#xa0;and created a viable alternative to traditional distribution channels.Finally, Warby Parker took the lead in the direct-to- consumer marketing revolution and utilized digital&#xa0;channels to achieve 50% of its growth from word of mouth and quickly capture market share.Popular tactics employed by the firm include:<ul><li>PR: Launched in 2010 with feature stories in Vogue and GQ.</li><li>Guerilla influencer marketing: Invited 40+ fashion editors to a "secret" event at the New York&#xa0;public library in 2011.</li><li>UGC: Leveraged the fact that over 51% of millennials trust user-generated content most in a&#xa0;purchasing decision, and inundated their social media feeds with customer submissions.</li><li>Cross-platform social media marketing: According to the National Retail Federation, "in 2011,&#xa0;[Warby Parker] had an average of 33 photos per day posted on their Facebook wall from&#xa0;customers; 56 mentions on Twitter every hour; and saw nearly 700 tagged photos with the&#xa0;hashtag #warbyparker posted in four months on Instagram."</li></ul>These strategies stood in stark opposition to the antiquated paid media tactics of Luxottica, and&#xa0;provided Warby with a powerful recipe for low cost hyper-growth.<h2>Winc is Poised to Disrupt an Inefficient Wine Market</h2>Another potential candidate for the Dollar Shave Club crown is Winc (formerly Club W) -a subscription-based, direct-to- consumer winery and one of Tiller's investments.Like the eyeglass and razor markets, the wine industry is archaic and inefficient. Not only is it&#xa0;dominated by an oligopoly where the top 4 players control over 60% of the market, it's plagued by a&#xa0;prohibition-era law that mandates a three-tier distribution system.In other words, the middlemen are entrenched, and that leads to a significant markup.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Fortunately, Winc is leveraging laws that allow direct-to- consumer shipping in 44 states to craft massive&#xa0;savings for the consumer.To be clear, this isn't the first time someone has tried this - Wine.com, Amazon and Lot18 have all&#xa0;thrown their hat in the ring - but none have been able to break the existing paradigm. In fact, The Wall&#xa0;Street Journal estimates that only 2% to 4% of wine is sold online.Much of this is due to the fact that the aforementioned companies have done little to challenge the&#xa0;status quo. Wine.com acts primarily as a retailer and Amazon and Lot18 operate on a marketplace&#xa0;model. That means that all these firms are subject to the same bloated supply chain, and therefore&#xa0;offer little additional value to the consumer.Winc changes that dynamic through its direct-to- consumer model, and uses the savings it generates&#xa0;from vertical integration to lower prices and entice customers to buy online.The company also employs several industry best practices to retain and nurture client relationships.&#xa0;The first is its focus on the customer experience. Like Warby and Dollar Shave Club, Winc offers money-back guarantees, easy returns and top notch customer service.But what really sets the company apart in this area is its understanding of the massive shift in consumer&#xa0;preferences.A highly publicized study by Eventbrite showed us that 78% of millennials would chose to spend money&#xa0;on "experiences" rather than "things", and wine is no exception. In an article in The Wall Street Journal,&#xa0;author Lettie Teague shares an insight from a sommelier that "millennials are interested more in the&#xa0;narrative of the wine rather than the wine [itself]."Winc understand this - it doesn't sell wine as much as it stages an oenophilic experience, complete with&#xa0;a personalized palate recommendation for each member and a short video for every wine that features&#xa0;tasting notes and other background information (e.g. the producer's story, an explanation of the&#xa0;growing region and / or a primer on the varietal).<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>This fun and non-pedantic approach to wine education has successfully grown the market, as over 90%&#xa0;of Winc's customers have never purchased online before.The second is adherence to a simple and disciplined formula for growth. Winc CEO Xander Oxman&#xa0;believes that the secret to virality "comes from having a strong NPS [Net Promoter Score] and referral&#xa0;engine".Called "the one number you need to grow" by The Harvard Business Review, Net Promoter Score is a&#xa0;highly effective management tool used by companies such as P&amp;G, Anheuser-Busch, American Express,&#xa0;Delta Airlines, Best Buy, GE and Apple to gain a competitive advantage. Regarding its efficacy, Bain&#xa0;reports that "NPS leaders tend to grow at more than twice the rate of their competitors".Winc's dedication to this framework has garnered scores comparable to some of the most iconic retail&#xa0;brands, and combined with an intuitive yet massively effective referral system, driven the company into&#xa0;the into the top 1% of wine producers in only a few years.But as impressive as that might sound, becoming a top producer is not the company's ultimate goal, as&#xa0;management believes that competing for market share is pointless when there's an enormous&#xa0;opportunity to grow the market. Instead, Winc intends to use its robust viral engine in a textbook "blue&#xa0;ocean" strategy, accessing a vast untapped consumer base that has historically seen wine as either too&#xa0;expensive or too intimidating.<h2>The Future of the Digitally Native Vertical Brand</h2>There's no doubt that consumer products are fashionable again - Bonobo's Founder and CEO Andy&#xa0;Dunn recently coined the term Digitally Native Vertical Brand (DNVB) in an attempt to classify the&#xa0;phenomenon of brands such as Warby Parker, Bonobos and Casper.In this article, we've discussed two potential heirs to the Dollar Shave Club throne, but our research has&#xa0;also identified several other industries that might contend - such as mattresses and caskets- and&#xa0;several that likely won't, including clothing, bicycles, furniture, cosmetics and many medical devices.Would love to get your opinion though, if you can think of additional consumer product verticals that&#xa0;are ripe for disruption, please leave a note in the comments section!Tory Green is a principal at Tiller Partners,&#xa0;a Los Angeles-based VC (<a href="http://www.tillerpartnersllc.com/" target="_blank">www.tillerpartnersllc.com</a>).&#xa0;Special thanks to Csaba Konkoly for advice and input and Tim Karunaratne for in-depth research and&#xa0;analysis.Disclaimer: Tiller Partners is an investor in Winc. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/black-swan-superyacht-billionaire-gorgeous-boat-2016-7">This all-black superyacht is the dream of billionaires around the world</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="EwcGZvNDE6wIzeIaP92QH9sEeCOhEgNW" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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