新加坡艾聆特与中国上知联盟仪式致词

以下是我在2009年4月18日如上仪式的致词

我今天很开心；艾聆特和上知终于成为兄弟公司了。

我们一路走来不易，连过了三关，从07年的经销关系到08年4月的战略合作，以至现在的连盟。间中，我们建立了互信，也在四个方面加强了彼此的运作。这四个方面是 (1) 组织结构规划、(2) 产品发展、(3) 市场营销和 (4) 中西思维方式的认识。

让我简单概况这四块。

1、组织结构规划方面，我们认为任何业务的结合必须是能借力借势、协合增效的。之前，我们为扩大市场和迎合市场需求，各自设立了内部业务单位，并按单位与主体的业绩的好坏，很灵活地加强、削弱或中止它们的运营。我们从中吸取了宝贵的经验，并在这基础上谨慎考虑了我俩公司联盟的利弊，成立了ASG——我们的新主体。

2、产品发展方面，我们将创出综合性服务，互相借力借势，推出一系列系统化的一条龙营销服务，整合我们的五大块业务，即 (1) 营销外包与咨询、(2) 营销培训与辅导、(3) 品牌策划与设计、(4) 活动管理和 (5) 市场情报。

3、市场营销方面，我们从实践中找到了焦点。在集团层面，我们将专攻亲亚太区的中型企业，即20到80人、在中国做业务的外企和有意向到其他亚太地区发展的中国公司。同时，在至少第一年的发展中，我们将加深不加宽，即专攻某些产业和再加深现有服务素质。我们不会设立新业务单位，以免有限资源被分得太薄。

4、在认识中西方思维方面，我们已学会如何取其精华，弃其糟粕。我们多年的认识、合作，甚至疑意，都加深了我们对中西方接受层度的认识。我们曾有多次的中西合作机会，在管理彼此的意愿方面，都处理得很妥当。因此，我相信这一块不成问题。

我对此联盟十分看好，并相信通过这次新加坡与中国公司的结合，我们前往目标的方向更清晰了。

最后，让我再次祝贺ASG的成立，让我们携手创出新高！谢谢。

士兵突击——网站运营者如何突围资金困局

Below is a draft script I prepared for a brainstorming session in Shanghai on 17 Nov 2007 (Sat) for a 100-strong audience of Shanghai IT webmasters.

头脑风暴概述

第一部：自我介绍
你们好！我是巫辉远，新加坡人，主籍广东梅县，客家人，朋友们都叫我Bach。我曾五度成功地为朋友、雇主和自己的公司索得投资，总额 189万新币，即人民币945万；投资方包括四名朋友、两名天使、新加坡政府和银行。

我目前不属于任何网站，但在之前的两年，曾负责某上海外资农业资讯网站的公司管理、业务拓展和销售，因此，对网站的营运懂得点儿。

我今天的出发点不是网站的营运细节，而是，说白了，怎么找钱。

第二部：寻找投资的经验
我认为找资金主要涉及三块——找谁、业务计划和思维的适应。

——找谁

先谈“找谁”。潜在的投资方仅有几种——朋友、家人、傻瓜、天使投资、VC、银行、政府。他们可被分为三类；其分别是说服他们掏腰包的难度。他们是：一、3F（朋友、家人、傻瓜），二、天使投资 和 三、VC、银行、政府

起步的公司，我建议他们从3F开始，若收获不佳，可尝试找天使。第三类的VC、银行、政府就难多了，成功率低。市场上能有几个百度、阿里巴巴、Skype？又有多少新公司能符合银行或政府的支助前提条件？

还是实在点儿，谈3F和天使吧。3F这类潜在投资者会因关系好而掏腰包，很好谈。即便他们要知道你怎么进行业务，也好说。他们一般上要求低，甚至没要求，大半以“扶你一把”的心态投钱。天使方面，因为他们不受机构规程的约束，也相对地好谈。只要能够了解他们的思维模式，尤其是他们对业务模式的偏爱，就大可从中获利。你们可用西方的“悟达环”，即OODA Loop，Orientate, Observe, Decide, Action去探测。

亲身例子：
一、3F：现任公司的三名朋友、2002年的保密业务
二、天使：现任公司股东的弟弟、2005年为某新加坡保健产品公司的投资者
三、银行、政府：前任网站公司的政府与银行资金

——业务计划

识别了潜在的投资对相后，你知道他们会想了解你的业务计划的，请即刻认真地想想，而且，别单单以口述方式沟通，最好写份业务计划书。一来，他们能看得仔细，二来，你撰写的当儿也能整理好思路。现在，问题来了——计划书重点在哪乜？

计划书的格式不是死的，但有几块内容必须有的，即，一、公司需要多少钱及为什么，二、业务模式，三、 产品的卖点（包括市场分析），四、销售与业务拓展计划 和 五、投资者的报酬、权力与退出机制。

亲身例子：
——公司需要多少钱及为什么。公司需要多少钱，我曾采用一个简单的等式，即 最低累积现金流的数额 + 储备金。“为什么”则需表格呈现。简单的说，这个数额是公司在 预算现金流最低的情况的总开支总额 加 下来三个月的开支过后，根据预算，公司将开始每月增加净收入至盈亏拉平点。

——业务模式。考虑这些问题：
一、三到五年后有想法卖掉吗？
二、要当整合者吗？
三、生产、销售资源需要全属自己的吗？
四、目标市场是哪些？现实吗？做了分析了吗？

——产品的卖点。要找特别的。别说因为你有某组合的人员，因此，你的产品或服务素质比别人高。老掉牙的一套，人人都听过了。除非你真的有一般竞争者没有的资源，否则，别说。让我举几个还行的例子，如“因你是整合者，价格可更低”、“因你的组员曾属于某个产业的，所以，比一般IT服务业者更晓得某某产业”、“提供360度反馈服务”等等。除此，你也许要从市场分析的角度突出这些卖点。

——销售与业务拓展计划
一、销售。直接说，没窍门，就是采用惯例的营销方式，如电话、传真、email、电子传单之类的，加上你们的在线营销心得，如SEO、博客、podcast、在线客服、维客和其他互动性载体。若要加入昂贵的营销方式，如参展、国外考察之类的，除非是必要的，不然，请计划达到某个业绩层次后才采用。
二、业务拓展。谈您如何开拓所谓的“销售增倍器”，sales multipliers，比如通过经销商、代理、战略伙伴等扩大业务的实质计划。也考虑如何扩大营业点。

——投资者的报酬、权利与退出机制。这可能是潜在投资者最感兴趣的。
一、报酬。让投资者知道你是否要他参与管理。若要，他的待遇是怎样的，可以是有月资、年度总监费、达标提成 与/或 超标奖金等等。若不要，让他知道你们的意向待遇怎么算，以及他若以后想参与管理，可以吗？什么时候最合适？什么时候谈他的待遇配套。
二、权利。若潜在投资者不想参与管理，那就容易谈。基本上，他就是投一次钱，后翘脚、等着拿钱罢了。若他要参与管理，请划分好他的职权，先小人后君子，说得妥妥当当的，凤毛麟角的事都谈一遍。我也建议你们撰写一份内部协议书，把一切都列出来，尽量不留任何导火点。
三、退出机制。最终，股东想退出的原因无法预知，但你依然可在成立伙伴关系时谈好一点，比如 若某股东要退出，他得首先把股份卖给现有股东；若没股东买，才可卖给第三方；若还没人买，得死守着。股份价格不一定得依原先的价卖出的，可多可少的，只要大家认可就可以了。

——思维的适应

找钱的人处于劣势，要有耐心和毅力，要忍。黄飞鸿说的，“拳脚小功夫，容忍大功夫”。要有EQ，别因创业得罪人，尤其是朋友、家人。忍到什么程度呢？这就因人而异了。

业务开始后，又得重新调整心态。其中，你可能需要考虑是否要采用bootstrapping的做法。Bootstrapping，简单的说，就是拖延付钱给你的提供方，把赚来的钱用在营运上，使得公司的现金流不断扩大。它是个能让你“小刀砍大树”的经营做法，但前提是你的公司得有些特征。它们是：
一、创业所需的资金很低
二、产品能很快卖出
三、客户能很快付钱
四、产品回购率高
五、只需要简单的营销途径，如博客、口碑

最后，若坚持了一阵子后，依然没有人投资，怎么办？我建议你们继续坚持或改型。除非生存即将被威胁（马斯洛需要层次理论），不然，别放弃。说回来，就算真的因种种原因放弃了，也没事。人嘛，这次创业不成，打工去，累积了更多经验后再来！

Investing in China's Animal Production & Feed Industry

An article I wrote for my co. magazine

The development of China’s animal production and feed (APF) industry since the 1980s has been rapid and unprecedented. Major changes in the industry, coupled with urbanisation and increases in personal income have manifested a likely good investment model and industry choice, i.e. an integrated value-chain operations in China’s hog industry.

Below is how these major changes have influenced the industry.

Major changes in the industry (1983 to now)

From “eating enough” to “eating well”

China APF industry transited from a period of “eating enough” to another of “eating well” over two decades, from 1983 to now, of rapid growth.
“Eating enough” covers two sub-periods, from having barely enough meat products to eat (pre-1983) to having an abundant supply of them (1983-1999)[1]. This transition happened in the early-80s, when foreign animal production technology, skills and knowledge were introduced into China. The influx of these overseas expertises increased productivity, introduced western-style farm management systems, increased profitability and cost-effectiveness. They greatly influenced the local producers and kicked started an era of rapid growth for China’s previously backward APF industry.
In 2000, this growth took a new form as China entered a period of “eating well”, i.e. a demand for safer, more nutritious and taste-appealing animal products. The main factors were the growing concerns by the people on animal diseases and banned drug[2] use, benefits of increased protein intake and alternatives from traditional meat products respectively. This change has sustained until today, and it is very likely to last as long as the country develops and as the Chinese food culture becomes increasingly metropolitan.

Changes to consumption patterns

Animal product consumption has been on an uptrend since 1983, and pork remains the Chinese’s favourite despite a drop in consumption from 86 percent in 1983 to 66 percent in 2003. Pork has been the country’s most popular meat since ancient China (2500 BC to 256 BC), and the recent 22 years of tough competition did not topple its leadership. Coupled with the lack of a strong alternative (poultry which is second is lagging far behind[3]), it is very likely that pork would remain China’s top-choice meat for a very long time.
Structurally, traditional pork products (e.g. room-temperature meat, frozen meat, traditional Chinese sausages) are starting to lose their domestic market share to western-influenced processed pork products[4] and refrigerated meat. The main reasons would likely be the people’s concerns over food safety and tastes.
Methodically, the Chinese are buying more of their meat products from super- and hypermarkets, and they have been eating out more often. With clean, modern and comfortable supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Carrefour, Hymall etc) and restaurants (Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s etc), and other recently-introduced delicacies (strewn mutton, beef and mutton Korean steamboat), who would not?
These structural and methodical changes are likely to continue, culminating in better-developed infrastructure as the Chinese yearn for safer and taste-appealing animal products.

Changes to export situation: market domestication

China’s animal production industry has to succumb to external barriers of trade (BOTs) and grow largely from within the domestic market.
The initial years from 1980 to 1993, exports of most China’s animal products were on an uptrend. However, as a result of external BOTs, China lost its major export markets in Europe, Japan and parts of Asia between 1996 and 2000. Subsequent attempts were met with more setbacks, for example, in 2002, 90 percent of China’s animal production industry was affected by these BOTs and the industry suffered USD9 billion losses.
Internally, China is not structured for exports. It lacks food-safety regulations, product-quality control, standardised production procedures, branding, innovative meat processing technology, disease-prevention enforcement, and comprehensive veterinary laws. Without these, exports would be extremely difficult as potential buyer countries are stepping up their import controls for agricultural products. To develop these, it would take a while and China had only recently started to move towards these structural reforms.

Urbanisation and increase in personal income

There had been a steady urbanisation trend for the past five years. As China develops, more and more rural people can be expected to move to the cities for better job prospects and to improve lifestyle. Hence, it is likely that urbanisation would continue to increase by accumulative head count at least until 2020.
The income gap between urban dwellers and rural people had been widening from 1985 to 2003. It is deduced that the income situation in rural areas would not increase at a faster rate than that in urban cities. Hence, the income gaps would likely continue to widen, and correspondingly, attract more urbanisation.
Statistically, more people would move into the cities and earn more money. Coupled with a discernable past trend (see below) of per capita meat consumption increases, it is therefore very likely that meat consumption would increase at least until 2020.

Why integrated value-chain operations?

Integrated value-chain operations encompass greater control of upstream production and supply, and it could develop a technological edge in its midstream. In addition to effective branding and sales control at the downstream, this operation model tightens the all-round control, ensures a steady supply of raw materials, safeguards its clientele and sales platform, reduces risks and thus has a higher chance of reaping integrated profits from the industry value-chain.

From the all the analyses above, integrated value-chain operations would cost-effectively fulfil China APF industry’s current and projected trends, and pork is the natural choice. Hence, integrated value-chain operations in China’s hog industry would very likely be a good investment model and industry choice.

[1] Including an over-supply of meat from 1993 to 1997
[2] A banned growth-promoting drug, clenbuterol, was found in Chinese hogs in the late-1990s and early-2000s.
[3] In 2004, China’s pork consumption was 47.75 million tonnes, while that of poultry meat was only 13.51 million tonnes. The other meats are even lesser.
[4] Both western-style processed pork products and high-temperature Chinese sausages

When Team Members Don't Pull Their Weight

This is a magazine article I wrote

A leaders’ role in supervision and ensuring that objectives are met is greatly constrained by members who do not pull their weight. Instead of leaving the team’s progress to nature, identification of this lacklustre in team contribution and managing possible lack of contribution are the keys to team success. Team members, especially sub-leaders, may not share similar leadership and project management experiences with the leader and with fellow sub-leaders. The thorns in the flesh are pseudo-leaders who do not pull their weight. These are usually people in leadership positions—based on meritocracy and/or seniority—with questionable leadership skills, and limited helicopter views. Let us examine this lack of contribution at work and how a leader could overcome such problems.

What is a lack of contribution?

A lack in contribution could be viewed from two perspectives.

• From a macro-perspective, judgment is based solely on the end-result of any project. In practical sense, a bad outcome almost always represents a lacklustre in contribution by team members and the leaders, while a favourable outcome says the opposite. Bearing group dynamics in a project team as a whole, when team members do not contribute, the leaders are at fault.
• From a micro-perspective, the team members, including the leaders, dispraise the black sheep. The nuances are usually pegged onto the leaders’ mental models on middle-management. While different leaders deem good middle-management differently, the chief concerns usually revolve around the team members’ ability to effect changes by decentralising work, managing expectations and logically presenting the work done. Unfortunately, in ineffective teams, pseudo-leaders often hide their inabilities long enough to tarnish the collective result.

We shall only discuss the group dynamics within a team, i.e. micro-perspective, here. The nuances of a lack of contribution within a team could manifest themselves in these broad categories.

• No follow-through on plans. Having a plan does not necessarily mean there would be an end-result if team members lack the perseverance or discipline to follow through with it. Many plans had been overtaken by events, digressed in central ideas or are not fully materialised with early set-backs. All tasks have to end justifiably (“justifiably” because in some cases, the interim set-backs forbid a continuation) by a faithful adherence to the discussed plans and solving problems along the way. An example of a non-follow-through would be a manager who suggested a translation review, and after two months, there was no further mention and the review ended inconclusively.
• No enforcement. Not everyone is apt in group dynamics and managing teams. Some sub-leaders lack this experience and fall weak when their sub-team members disagree to a coordinated approach. This weakness forbids the pseudo-leaders to take charge and be in control of their sub-teams’ functions, thus, hampering the entire team’s mission. For example, a business development manager who implemented a Knowledge Management (KM) package for the whole company, but he failed to conduct checks and to remind his colleagues on KM good practices.
• Emotion vs. professionalism. In their purest forms, emotion is for friends and kins, while professionalism reigns at work. Involving too much emotions at work, and hence, causes a work detraction is unprofessional. However, not everyone would agree with this, and a varying degree of emotion would be shown by different team members. For example, if a licensed debt collector chooses not to frequently call on a debtor who is very old and sickly, is he pulling his weight?
• Idea vs. rationale. Some team members love to spew ideas without rationalising them. An idea would only go as far as a plan could be formulated to achieve its stated goal. While a capable leader may achieve the goal, it would not be optimal for him to concentrate on one if his sub-leaders could not feed the mission objectives individually. An example would be an editor, who suggests an industry magazine column, which requires great information-gathering effort by sales personnel, for the director to follow-up.

What should leaders do?

When team members do not pull their weight, the remedy sometimes lies with the leader. Instead of commencing work with just a workplan, leaders should pay similar attention to define members or sub-teams’ jobscope, and consciously address areas where jobscope overlaps. A team could only function smoothly when there are a clear work plan, a conscious designation of responsibilities, and a proper address of conflict areas. The physical means to do these are:

• Conduct a briefing to address the aims, the goals and how to do certain tasks in general. These goals must be quantifiable. Leave the details and the actual execution to the sub-teams or the members
• Address each individual or sub-teams’ jobscope and gel them with the bigger objectives
• Constantly mitigate jobscope overlaps
• Should there be a need to re-align the process amid the project, ensure that everyone within the team knows what would be changed
• Encourage a sharing culture, which obliges everyone to share key tasks and objectives with others

Having done the above, a leader would have clearly communicated obligations to his members. This would also mentally shape the members to fulfill their stated responsibilities – most people do not want to be branded as black sheep.

However, the above would falter if a leader does not follow through and enforce his plans. A leader would have to constantly remind members of the greater objectives while managing problems on group dynamics (read: emotion) or professional matters that may surface from time to time. He would need to be hard at times when certain members show signs of ill-performance, and to manage the progress with quantifiable interim results.

Importantly, a leader should exercise emotional intelligence (EQ) when dealing with individual members. This is more effective when the team is small. A leader should be tactful in approaches and let members feel that the he is helping, not fault-finding. As far as EQ is concerned, bear in mind that dumb is sometimes smart, and being articulate and knowledgeable should be packaged with emotions that allow members to think one is sharing his experiences, and not a mere payment of lip-service.

Office Politics

This is a magazine article I wrote

What is office politics?
Office politics is the combined result of an artificial segregation among groups of people and the gratification one sub-group gets from dehumanising another. In other words, it is a human-initiated delineation of “us versus them”, usually within a generally homogeneous cohort of people, and the self-correctness hence derived from undermining the actions or inactions of “others”.
Gossip as a medium
Gossip is the medium where office politics flourishes. Small minds talk people, and from these people talks, minor or pseudo-differences are enlarged. Coupled with cliquing, people take sides and polarities are formed.
Common causes
While most displeasure starts with a cause, office politics does not necessarily need a strong and proven cause to get started. The weakest of causes could set ablaze the whole grapevine. Below are some common causes:
(1) Personality clashes. This is a common sight in the office, especially among two or more executives similar in pay grades. The unspoken competition for one party to be taken seriously in company decisions may land two or more parties in personality clashes, especially when their perspectives towards similar objectives are different. Others may take sides and battles are waged from within.
(2) I-work-harder-than-you mentality. Everyone works hard, but not everyone knows the job scope of another and how hard the other person works. However, when one reaches his work-stress tolerance limit, he would think that he is doing more than others, and he may derive a pessimistic and cynical perception of his colleagues.
(3) One-upmanship. Some individuals enjoy showing off their achievements to fulfill their superior complex. They are haughty and pompous and risk annoying others. Nobody likes boastful colleagues. As a result, ostracism happens.
(4) Idea pilferage. Developing on someone else’s ideas and not giving credit to that person is a trigger for future animosity. While the deprived subject may not be vocal in confrontation, he is likely to badmouth the “thief” behind his back.
(5) Bootlicking. This is a common and commonly mistaken phenomenon in any office. Sucking up to bosses and being an obedient subordinate are only a fine line apart; not many others can tell when is which. When this “others” cannot tell, they may start whisper campaigns to degrade the subject.
(6) Good-talker-poor-worker phenomenon. While all top executives are good communicators, not all good communicators are good executives. Those outspoken fellows who do not produce results or whose results are not widely known risk being relegated in trust levels among colleagues. In the process, they would likely suffer further disparage.
(7) Jealousy. As one of the seven mortal sins, people become jealous of others for a cause, for a perceived cause, or even, for no cause. Some people, especially those with inferior complex, who have high desires simply become jealous over anything that they do not already have. It is not difficult to think that these small minds spin unfounded tales about others and form their allies of the equally puny-minded to manifest more untruths.
(8) Power shifts. This is one of the governing reasons why many top executives who had been posted elsewhere sometimes become nasty to their colleagues. They fail to realise that working in a new environment requires adjustments. These top executives’ discomfort in getting an understated preferential treatment derives by-actions like their nasty behaviour, their lack of reasons when they reprimand their subordinates, short temper etc. Combined, they make him Office Enemy No. 1, and this opens a new chapter in office politics.
Common types of domain
Causes alone cannot fuel the office politics fire. To grow from strength to strength, it needs perpetrators in the form of cliques. Some of the common clique types are:
(1) Common habits. Colleagues who share common habits usually clique well. They form sub-groups that may downplay others who are not in. For example, smokers bond themselves with one another and may be involved in small talks that discredit certain personalities in the same office.
(2) Proximity and identity. Colleagues who work near or together with one another would derive a sense of identity and may deprecate others who are further away. For example, sales team members located in the same section may not see eye to eye with another team located elsewhere within the same company. Their proximity with one another had enforced their sense of common identity as a team, and when results and reputation are at stake, they become susceptible in condemning the other teams.
(3) Innate similarities. A typical example for this cause would be the man-versus-woman phenomenon, especially when many men are working under a woman-dominant management. The gender division would be widened beyond just the anatomical and emotional differences to include artificially constructed beliefs like, “Ms A has been sleeping with the CEO to stay in her position”, “I think her husband does not satisfy her at night” and ilks.
How to control office politics?
Office politics cannot be eliminated, but it can be kept well under control. It cannot be eliminated because cliquing as a factor cannot be prevented. The only other way would be to minimise the severity from potential causes. To keep these causes at low levels, the management would have to define job scopes in detail and to personalise its management style amid two higher-order prerequisites.
Defining jobscope in details prevents personality clashes, I-work-harder-than-you mentality, good-talker-poor-worker phenomenon, and to a certain extent, it mitigates jealousy and adjustments to power shifts. With job clarity, everyone knows everyone’s roles in details and when grey areas surface, they can be addressed immediately to avoid undue friction.
Combined with a personalised management style that opens hearts and encourages colleagues to speak their minds, the nuances of human relations (one-upmanship, idea pilferage, bootlicking) can be prevented from worsening pronto.
However, the difficulties the management has to face are how to consciously ensure everyone is clear and happy with what other colleagues are doing, and how personalised must it get to open hearts so as to hear inner voices. These would require two higher-order prerequisites that cannot be exemplified by mere text. They are emotional intelligence and understanding of group dynamics.

Love Makes Men Stupid

A man, even the strongest, would fall weak in front of the love of his life. Why? You asked. Because what she says matters. It matters more than the same things said by friends. Ms Love says things that bear upon a man, and that presses the man's panic button that subconsciously reads 'do this for her', 'I didn't provide well, that's why she thinks this way', 'hmm? I don't have much experience handling this, but I remember doing this when I was a kid. I shall do this now' etc. The self-blame and the fallback on pre-adult memory make men guilty and childish respectively. Together, the mental stress and activities (alcohol, late nights, smokes etc) that are associated with male self-reprimand + the immaturity of pulling kiddy tricks (late night calls, childish excuses, stealing movie lines etc) make men look STUPID.

There are so many classic examples. The Kallang dissection is a good example. No man would chop his male friend for similar reasons, but he may butcher a woman. Love had made him stupid. Other examples revolve around us from time to time. One must have heard stories of Mr A doing stupid things when Ms B left him ... stupid things like crying, graffiti on walls, harassment by phone, being drunk on hard liquor etc. Silly as it seems. Though man is the stronger sex, woman dictates his actions when he loves her enough.

The Bureaucratic Man

A non-organisation man working within a bureaucracy would often miss the fine balance between staff relations and work, and risks compromising the latter for the former. A manager with little experiences in people-oriented leadership positions is likely to face difficulties in moving people, and henceforth, in driving the business forward. The main reason is that he would be less apt in behaving in the right modes to manage the expectations and nuances of human relations, so as to fine tune work coordination and to upgrade the business to higher strata.

Moving people requires a solid grounding in understanding group dynamics. In a simple form, group dynamics is highest with lesser decision-makers. A person makes his own decision and reacts fastest to it; a pair takes a bit of discussion; group warrants more communications, and an organisation would take a longer time for consensus. Group dynamics is about making relevant decisions within a mass of people FAST and putting these decisions into actions FAST. Various measures (e.g. rank and file, compartmentalisation, job decentralisation etc) had been implemented to improve group dynamics in big organisations. The army is a good example.

In the perspective of a small office environment, a key to improving the business lies in the management of staff and of business decisions. This implies that a manager should know how to behave at times of normal operations and of crisis.

• During normal operations, one could be friendly to all so as to smoothen staff-channel workflow, so as to do away with the "by right" hindrance. For e.g., a research analyst who tries to get raw data from a data collector in another department. The data collector could either pass the data to the analyst right away or hinder by consulting the Head of Data Collection for approval.

• At critical times, for e.g., when the ouput volume remains low despite long hours of work, a manager would have to stick his thumb in and address the situation affirmatively. In the same e.g., while the manager may seek opinions, too many are no good. Democracy has to be limited to swiftly put a plausible solution on trial. An authoritative figure is needed.

A non-organisation man would have little difficulties for para 1 with a little guidance and OJT, but for para. 2, he risks not being firm enough to tell others to just do it. He tends to straddle on a solution half-strung between the colleagues' and his. He is stereotypically fickle-minded, runs a high risks of losing focus on the solution and digresses it to human relations. Now ... when things screw up again, what was not optimal? Who is now accountable to the new screw-up? Did giving in to his colleagues' views distort his original views on crisis resolution? Ultimately, despite all nitty-gritty reasons, the blatant fact is - the manager did not come out with a solution good enough to resolve the company's crisis.

In brief, at peace time, one can afford to be friendly; at critical times, lead with a strong rationale, hear limited & selected views, devise a good solution, be firm in the implementation even if it brings frowns to some people's faces.

In a related issue, ever wonder

• why as one climbs higher, one's social circle shrinks?
• why some top leaders are difficult to deal with?
• why the logic behind some top prerogatives differs so much from those of the lower echelons?

I think as managers and leaders are groomed, they become increasingly devoid of human emotions and become more and more result-oriented. These top leaders think operationally & strategically, while the lower echelons think tactically. The differences in the mental models (i.e. logic, result orientation, perception of staff relations vs work etc) between leaders and the lower echelons would generate questions as above. It takes someone with an understanding of this blog entry's content to accept these differences as a common phenomenon in bureaucracies.

PS: When tactical problems have grown to a big magnitude that is not easily detectable by the top, the lower echelons would need an eloquent middle-manager to logically bring the matter up.

How To Write A Business Plan?

This is a magazine article I wrote

A business plan is a document that summarises an entrepreneur’s thoughts and experiences - on his current business, and its prospects for potential investors, clients, suppliers and employees - into a formal scheme.

Why write a business plan? A business plan serves as a communication tool for an entrepreneur and his potential investors. It is a platform for an entrepreneur to manifest his business expansion ideas to potential investors, and it also serves as a visual guide to help the entrepreneur to better understand where he is, where he wants to be and how he plans to get there.

Business plan format. There is no fixed format; there are only recommended ones. Business plans require different formats to succinctly communicate different objectives to different end-readers. In today’s theme, selling an idea to investors, one would need to use a format that most effectively communicates (a) the company’s current status amid a bigger industry and market, (b) the product, marketing and sales strategies, and (c) a realistically projected revenue. Below is a recommended format.

1. Executive summary. Although every business plan starts with an executive summary, it is to be written last. It is a summary that captures the gist of the entire plan. It aims (a) to convince the reader that the investment-seeker has a good understanding of his business, (b) to convey the most important points because this could be the only section that some investors read, and (c) to succinctly highlight the company’s current and projected products, markets, financial performance, recent industry trends, management team, financial projections, and on how one plans to pay back the investors. It is a synopsis comprising the following major components.

• Vision and mission statements
• Company overview
• Product strategy
• Market analysis
• Marketing plan
• Financial plan

2. Vision and mission statements. Vision is nothing without a map; otherwise, it would be called a dream. The vision statement sells an achievable end-state, and the mission statement shows the investors how. In a business plan, the vision and mission statements are combined into a single statement. The vision shows where one’s business is heading. It puts one or two paragraphs on how the business will be like and how big it will be with a realistic long-tem projection over a period of usually five years. The mission describes the strategy, the steps to take and the business philosophy for making the vision happen. A mission statement would answer the below questions.

• How would the business survive, grow and start reaping profits during the expansion period?
• What are the business strengths, vulnerabilities and competitive advantages?
• What is the business’s sense of public image and community standing?
• What is the entrepreneur’s attitude towards its management, investors, strategic alliances (affiliated establishments) and employees?

Definition

• Objective - Specific plan to reach a goal
• Goal - The success target
• Mission - Steps to be taken to achieve a vision
• Vision - The ultimate realistic view of the business

3. Company overview. The company overview is probably the easiest to write in any business plan. It comprises the official company name, its legal form of business (proprietorship, partnership, corporation etc), its location, its facilities, its ownership, the management team (including the board of directors, if any) and the staffing (include special personnel plans and staff enlargement projection). The depth and length of each component (one paragraph per component) would depend on the applicability of the respective contents to the potential investors.

4. Product strategy. This section highlights the current product, the research and development of the current and future products, and the production and delivery methods. The special features of the current product must be emphasised because many other companies also have good products, but good products alone would not churn out opportunities to become businesses. The investors would be attracted to the product developer’s insight, for examples, the factors that would keep the product in the market longer than others, and the unique technology that only the entrepreneur and the investors would own. Below are the highlights.

• Competitive comparison (product life cycle, uniqueness of the product, production technology, delivery methods, research and development etc)
• Sales literature (corporate and product profiles, advertisement and promotion materials, sales kits etc)
• Product fulfillment (how the company handles or intends to handle after-sales services to maintain customer loyalty)

5. Market analysis. The market analysis defines the market, profiles the customers, analyses the competitors and assesses the market risks. Below are some of the issues to think through

• Which market is the product competing in? For example, an anti-ageing sheep placenta extract should be measured up with other anti-ageing health supplements in the market instead of the health-supplement market in general.
• Who are the customers? For example, up-market products meant for the high-income group would require a proper office environment, a professional corporate image to carry out the business.
• Who are the competitors? For example, knowing the aggressiveness and the scale of operations of the closest competitor would create an awareness on the magnitude of effort and of capital to be injected into the business to be competitive.
• What are the fundamental rules? For example, for the sheep placenta extracts to compete in the anti-ageing health supplement market, it must let potential customers know its anti-ageing effects in order to compete in the stated market.

6. Marketing plan. A marketing plan is a combination of a number of procedures to make one’s product known to potential customers. These procedures involve sales, distribution, advertisement, promotion and public relations. Below are the main points.

• Marketing strategy to communicate the combination of procedures, and why the entrepreneur thinks that this is a good mix.
• Sales strategy to lay out who are the intended customers, the sales targets and forecast, price strategy, promotion, sales from strategic alliances etc.
• Distribution method, for examples, direct or indirect distribution, exclusive distribution, network marketing (including multi-lateral marketing), selective distribution etc.
• Advertisement and promotion (commonly known as ‘A & P’)
• Public relations, for examples, endorsement by local authorities, community projects, sponsorship, participation in the Polytechnic internship programme etc.

7. Financial plan. The financial plan discusses sensitive money issues, which are likely to be the top concerns of most investors. These issues include the company’s current financial status, the size of the investment, how would the investments be used, when would be the break-even point, when would ROI (Return On Investment) be positive and the investors’ exit option. The usual components are

• The company’s current financial reports (start-up summary, balance sheets, profit and loss statements for the previous years to now)
• A summary on how and when would the additional capital be injected.
• Based on a sales forecast, when would break-even and positive ROI happen? Use projected profit and loss statements and projected balance sheet.
• What are the investors’ pull-out options?

Producing and presenting the business plan. Now that the business plan had been drafted, the final chore is to produce and present the hard work. During production, ensure that the draft is proofread, typeset and edited before sending for print and binding. The plan should have a cover letter and a content page. Presentation is a must. It has to be a well-rehearsed face-to-face presentation with the written plan or with presentation slides.

Don't Risk Losing Friends. Read This.

Guys usually fall out for women, money and face value, while gals usually fall out for men & gossip. In my experiences, I'd seen these happening countless times.

While we are still sexually active, issues regarding the opposite gender have major bearings in our lives. The loss of [opportunities to] which due to male competition could spell disasters for some. This is especially so for men. Male mammals alike fight for the females. Man being an animal scientifically would engage in the same brawls too. If not for morality, which his intelligence obliges him to understand, he'd have killed more brothers along the way. It's just the animal instinct acting on him ... c'est la vie! However, the sensitivity of woman issues has only a limited effect on him. In a classic example, as a man grows older, he starts to be more interested in the beer than the sexy waitresses. That's when he really ages with a near-defunct libido ... it makes little sense to fight over something less interesting now.

Money as a subject of fall-out is obvious. It won't be discussed here.

Face value is an artificial construct of manliness. The societies put it that the man with the highest face value is the superior male, i.e. the equivalent of the alpha-males in mammal herds. For reasons related to larger access to women and for men's innate thirst for power, we would fight for face.

Gossip is also a relations killer, but it pertains more to women. Some women develop a stronger sense of existence by belittling others. As most women have small groups of friends, the subjects of their gossips usually revolve around acquaintances. If the other parties hear about these gossips (which is usually the case cuz' the women's grapevines are larger despite their smaller social circles), the damages are done. C'est tout!

If one wants to maintain a good friendship, one should try to refrain from getting involved with the above issues. However, there's an exception, i.e. for the enlightened folks who'd been through the mills. In other words, for men/women who had seen it all, who understand the nuances of the above-described, they would have a broader bandwidth to accept reality and not compromise existing friendship.

Why Ah Bengs Are Preferred In Pubs?

Ever wonder why a lot of Ah Bengs* like to go to pubs? The pub owners want them there cuz' they are the big spenders who would spend beyond their means sometimes. They are likely to be regular customers if the pub could retain them in, mainly, two ways - chatty waitresses and accasional perks (free jugs, table reservations, invitations to special functions etc). These Ah Bengs are preferred to the typical crowd in Zouk cuz' the latter wouldn't spend as much as the former for face value. The Zouk crowd just wanna get tipsy and be seen dancing frenziedly. Mr Beng here loves bai tao, and enjoys having waitresses swarming to him to squabble the substance-less (or talk cock). Knowing this behavioral mode makes it relatively easy for pub owners to attract Bengs alike. A chatty & above-average looking waitress, an eloquent manageress, simple follow-ups with calls or SMSes will get these easy targets down.

However, there's a fallback. Our Mr Beng and his own species may not click sometimes, and fights happen. With many fights, the pub's reputation tarnishes in the eyes of pub-goers and the police. Soon, like a bubble gum business, it goes 'biak!'. However, fear not ... a new pub under a different management, perhaps a different name, would re-enact the nightly hoo-hah in the same premise. For some well-known names, they could survive and expand chiefly cuz' they bother to rotate their PR waitresses often; frequent enough to introduce new blood to pump up the Bengs' curiosity.

So, blame not the pub that has Filipino, Vietnamese, Chinese gals or chatty Ah Lians, and is Hokkien spewing. It did it for realistic reasons.

(* Disclaimer: Lians & Bengs are subjective. Here, I refer to people who are louder in expressions, prouder than necessary & rowdier than our average men on the streets.)

True Happiness

I think true happiness can be found in the normal things we do. Our actions, especially those that we had put our hearts in doing, are the building blocks of true happiness. These actions are repeated so often that time, as a fading agent, might have eroded the exhilaration. However, one day, when we look back and consolidate these simple routined applications of our sincerity, we derive true happiness. For example, a man who has taken good care of his elderly father for years would be glad that one day, years ahead, that his ol' pop holds his hands and tells him, "you've been a good son ... ". The inner bliss is beyond words. It's the kind of happiness one gets deep in, without the need to be with anyone or to do anything more.

When In Doubts, Don't Get Married

A colleague once told me, "when in doubts, don't get married". Then, I passed it off as a general comment without feeling its weight. Now, after hearing tonnes of real-life accounts of problematic marriages, I can suddenly feel the bearing of the captioned phrase. No two individuals perceive everything in quite the same way. For lovers, differences in opinions have to be managed lest they could be played up in quarrels when both marry and live (not stay) together. These quarrels may lead to something worse, like an adultery and/or a divorce. Understanding the innate reasons and possible development behind/following these arguments would help couples prevent or mitigate conflicts while both live under the same roof. Below are some of these innate reasons and their potential flashpoints.

(1) Different values. For many years, usually since birth, the man and the woman had been inculcated with different sets of values comprising table manners, views on the balance between work, family & play, adherence to traditions etc. The couple may quarrel over issues like whether one should be quiet while eating, what makes a good spouse, what is an optimal work-family-play parity, what traditions should be maintained & what not etc. In an example inferred from a primary school textbook, if an Eskimo man were to marry a traditional English woman, he would be considered very rude to have belched after dinners. The couple may end in ultimatums over this dining etiquette.

(2) Different family practices. This could be a subset of para (1), or it could be a stand-alone. Practices as previously non-chalant as the way you fit the toilet roll (buck slip below or on top?), how to squeeze a tube of toothpaste (bottom, middle, random?), which cabinet to store what crockery (scientific management?) etc could spark arguments. The potential of developing varying degrees of displeasure over the partner's practices would depend on how strongly the previous families had scorned other practices. For e.g., a woman from an aesthetic family who differentiates crockery in design and colours in the cabinets would be disgruntled by her hubby's straight-face scientific storage of the same paraphernalias, in order, from the most frequently used to the least, in proximity to the wash basin, and vice versa.

(3) Different power relations at home. Power relations revolve around the person(s) with the commanding say in the family. In most families, they'd be the fathers. In others, they'd be the mothers, the elder brothers/sisters who're the sole breadwinners, the richer siblings who're the main income earners, the grandparents who're still kicking and domineering etc. The exposure to domination by different personalities are different. For e.g., a man who comes from a very grandpa-dominant family would be less receptive with a woman's persistence that her alpha-sister should sit with her grandparents-in-law, instead of her other siblings-in-law, in a family-heritage function.

The key to preventing or salvaging the above situations is for the couple to understand that when a man and a woman form a family of their own (for nucleus families only), they're forming another that is different from their previous. The new family would be one that embodies a different mixture of values, different consensual practices and a different power configuration. Receptivity to changes should be heightened. Obstination is a relationship killer in most marriages. Good couples give & take and harmonise on these differences. Rougher couples would take a longer time with a little commotion, but they still work things out. Incompatible couples grow from love to animosity and risk adultery and divorces.

The Different Shades Of Pride

Confucius said, "The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions". Just how modest should a person be? And what is the spectrum of pride?

On modesty, while I think a person should largely be modest, there are situations when he should introduce himself to opportunities by stating or showing his abilities upfront. There is a Chinese idiom, 毛遂自荐, that exemplifies this. The skills lie in knowing when to be modest and when not. However, when so, there would still be others with different or conflicting perceptions, who would render one pompous or haughty. There is probably no out-right solution to this. Furthermore, modesty could be complicated by our Asian "save face" culture in front of our elders, the higher-ranking, the longer-employed etc.

However, on pride, I believe in four broad categories. First being the innately modest. These are people who are very humble and would not exhibit their achievements, or simply, they don't think what they had attained is anything worth publicising at all. Second being the self-respected. They had achieved something and they wanted others to know it for the purpose(s) of sharing their joys and/or to indirectly tell others that they can achieve what he had too. Third being the pompous or haughty. They are boastful, like to show-off and are exhibitionists. They enjoy letting others know their achievements to fill their superior complex. The last category is the worst; they are the ones who pretend to be modest, but want others to know their engineered modesty behind certain deeds. Anyway, Confucius was the one who mooted this fourth category. While one behaves in different pride modes at different time to different people, there is a dominant category in everyone. Which is yours?

An Eagle-Sparrow

If you were to read my earlier blog entry on "Which Bird Are You?" dtd 24 May 05, you'd understand the different personality traits of an Eagle & a Sparrow. However, there is a hybrid, Eagle-Sparrow, with two sub-species - the undiscovered and the disgruntled.

The undiscovered refers to people who are innately self-driven for success but have been largely tamed by societal values and peer pressure. They conform to what most other people in the society and/or what most of their friends think. These undiscovered Eagle-Sparrows are likened to pure-carbon compounds; given proper polishing, they would shine like diamonds. In real life, these birds could be potential entrepreneurs in unchallenging salaried employment. All they need is one eloquent motivator to direct them to the entrance of self-discovery, a been-there, done-that mentor to guide them along a path of self-actualisation, and a biz opportunity for them to grow. The likelihood of success is high given their determination to solve problems, their fortitude in facing challenges and their high adaptability.

The disgruntled refers to people who had been wrestled by cirumstantial reasons to forgo their visions temporarily or permanently. These birds have long disbelieved that their income should be pegged by meritocracy or market values. They affirm payouts that commensurate with their effort. However, they'd been victimised by circumstances, for examples, a need to solve immediate financial hardship, lack of opportunity, lack of funds, overwhelming pressure by Sparrows etc, to suspend or stop quenching their thirst for success and behave like the smaller birds. They are likened to semi-polished diamonds; a diamond in the making but stopped short of a glistening shine cuz' its brillianteers backed out. The luckier lot of the disgruntled Eagle-Sparrows gets to continue its fervour after a temporary halt; the rest stops forever and risks getting mid-life crises. In real life, they could be ex-businessmen who had suffered bad losses or are already bankrupts, the constantly unguided employees who wanted to start businesses, budding entrepreneurs who had taken up salaried jobs to make immediate ends meet etc. All they need is ample breathing space, one that is big enough to unfetter them from their strifling circumstances, and soon they would be soaring again. The chances of success for these people are high, higher than that of the undiscovered, cuz' they (the disgruntled) were already moving along the path of self-actualisation before they hobbled earlier.

How Bad Is Bad?

The adjective "bad" is a relative term. Your "bad" may not be my "bad". Basically, it is an adjective to describe the relative state of a following noun. In brief, "bad" for a person with high tolerance would probably mean "extremely bad", "fatal", "suicidal" etc for another with a lower capacity. This leads to my next point - in a serious conversation, especially with pals in trouble, ask them to describe their bad situations to know just how terrible they've been. If the listeners were to impose their definitions of "bad" to what the speakers had said, the former may miss vital points in the dialogues.

Let me give an example. X has been missing his bank dues for many months, such that the bank had sent him a legal letter to demand for full payment, or else, he risks paying additional hundreds for the legal & late-payment fees. X also owes a friend a few hundreds and his friend has been urging very fervently for X to repay. If X pays his friend instead of the bank (assuming the amounts are the same), X would incur additional hundreds in debts (to the bank) as per legal-letter demand. If X pays the banks, he clears an outstanding liability and lowers his overall debt. However, his friend would be angry and might think he's an ingrate. So X approached his friend to tell him his predicament, but his friend misinterpreted the "bad" situation as a case of priority payment (i.e. paying something of the same amount to another creditor of a higher priority), and became sore about it.

What would you have done if you were X's friend? For me, I'd first want to know how bad is "bad" for him, and judge after hearing. For the above example, I'd be glad that X came and told me, and I'd let him make the more prudent payment, i.e. the bank, at least for this time round.

L'Amour Est ...

By "love", I mean friendship, man-woman relationships & fillial piety. Below are three of my life's lessons on such human relations.

(1) Best friends become the worst of enemies when they fall out. The more you trusted and/or loved each other, the more hatred there is when both get angry & split ways.

(Note: When you want to give more, think about the magnitude of the hatred if both were to split later. Commit only when you have a good confidence that a relationship or a friendship would last.)

(2) Many meetings with lesser outward expressions of fillial piety beat occasional visits with fuller expressions. For e.g., visiting one's parents weekly w/o doing much is better than visiting them once in two months & treating them to grand dinners and great outings.

(Note: Doing things in smaller denominations with a higher frequency is better than rarely doing them in bigger portions, even if the smaller denominations added up are lesser than the bigger portions. You get remembered in the former.)

(3) Maintaining friends is a social need. If lower needs (jobs, shelter, food & water etc) are threathened, spend lesser time on friends. Spending lesser time with friends could be a test too. Good friends will understand the virtues of letting another go for the latter's betterment (and it's temporary anyway). The less-than-deserved would fade away while the tested ones would be felt strongly. By the way, most of us wouldn't have a lot of good friends. Sometimes, just one would do; many others have none.

(Note: The closest of human relations does not oblige the parties to see one another very frequently. For e.g., we may not see our siblings so often, but we get the pains and would be damn worried when we know they're in trouble.)

There Will Not Be A Singapore Style

We've heard of people who dressed like Japanese & Korean, or are followers of BCBG (Bon Chic Bon Genre), le Roc, le Punk, le Bohemia, Hip Hop & many other genres, but we've never heard of a "Singaporean style" per se.

There are two main reasons why we'll not have a Singapore style, namely, our population is small and we don't belong to one single race or culture. With a relatively small no. of people, we can't assume an influential position large enough to affect world fashion. With a demographic make-up comprising four major races, the lack of homogeneity in culture makes it difficult, otherwise, impossible to fuse our fashion styles into one. Combined, Singapore's case becomes one with not enough people to push thru' a difficult-to-merge style. In other words, with no critical mass and a major difficulty to amalgamate the cultural fashion styles, we will not have a national fashion genre.

Let's look at how other countries could do it with sheer sizes. In Japan & Korea, they could develop their national genres cuz' their populations are large, and they are near-100% racially homogeneous. In France and the US, although they are less racially homogeneous than Japan or Korea, the no. of people in each race, ethnic and genre groups are large enough to have the critical masses to make world fashion statements.

Still, crossing races & cultures remains difficult, if not, impossible. Despite France's and the US's success stories, we still don't hear of a French or American genre that's cross-racial, do we? This is especially so in the US. The ideals of the Melting Pot (the term came about in 1908) had been mooted since the 19th Century, yet the races remain largely multi-cultural and are independent in fashion styles. They didn't mix, and it just won't happen. That's reality! And thank God it didn't mix, we get genres like the White-influenced BCBG in France and the Afro-American's Hip Hop in the States.

Karma & The Power Of Religion

Most Buddhists believe in retribution or karma. I believe there's a greater being up there who renders short-term karma to people who had misgiven or accumulated merits. This cannot be science; it can't be proven. This is what I call the Human Equation. For some incomprehensible reasons, the combination of certain actions and inactions, coupled with the person's merits, would result in certain happenings. For e.g. a man who had squandered his money, beaten up an old nanny, did not lend a help hand to a drowning kid, eventually became a bankrupt and contracted syphilis. Well, my example wouldn't make sense; karma can't be explained logically anyway.

To me, following what my heart tells me to do, and to do the right things all the time would probably prevent these bad short-term karma from happening. In the midst, I might have executed the right combination to have invoked good karma.

I'd like to emphasise a power that any religion could bestow onto its believers, i.e. the power of temperance. Think about how our nerdy, staunch & pious friends never/seldom run into problems like a run-away debtor, getting romantically involved with foreign imports, evading the law etc. They don't cuz' their strong religious beliefs had moulded them to be nice people who wouldn't step near danger zones. With this refrainment, they wouldn't get into funny troubles. So, while many pray hard for miracles, have they thought that, perhaps, there'd never be miracles; the greater deities' magic is in making its followers not do certain things at the first place?

Have You Been Lucky So Far?

There is a popular equation that goes Luck = 1% Pure Luck + 99% Hardwork or similar. I beg to differ. My personal experiences tell me Luck = 10% Pure Luck + 90% (Preparation + Opportunities).

Firstly, I give Pure Luck a higher percentage cuz' many good things in life happen sans raison. For examples, being born rich, striking lottery, picking up a briefcase stashed with cash etc. A handful of my acquaintances are simply blessed with Pure Luck without much explanable reasons. A mere 1% under-estimates the commonness of incidents of Pure Luck; I give it a 10.

Secondly, 99% Hardwork may be an over-estimation. A lot of Hardwork and a little Pure Luck probably can't work wonders. Imagine a person who had prepared himself extremely well with investment skills, and here comes an investor who dumped in only $10k. How much could he reap? Not much I'd say.

I choose to believe a good 90% could be attributed to preparing oneself well enough to grab opportunities when they come. Some examples on Preparation are - picking up salesmanship skills, breaking free from a common man's inhibitions (on approaching friends, kins & strangers for sales talks), learning to manage and raise sales teams, acquiring knowledge on the payout structure of network marketing etc. In the above examples, having been trained in sales and sales management skills would allow one to hit the gong when Opportunities like dealership of a good product, third-party investments come. Moreover, as 90% of Luck is NOT attributed to Pure Luck, even if a person were never to strike lottery in his lifetime, he'd still be blessed. In other words, he'd still be considered lucky to have been only able to grab hold of opportunities when they come. In a related issue, some opportunities are not obvious. One needs trained acumen to recognise them. Having a trained acumen also means afore training, and that's also Preparation in play.

While one wouldn't know if Pure Luck and Opportunities would ever come, he could best prepare himself well and wait. This beats the mentality of some coffeeshop seat-warmers; they just wait for good things to happen. If they were to strike lottery, lucky for them; hope they have the money-management skills to stretch their dollars. If they were to be offered Opportunities, too bad; they're unlikely to have the skill sets to hold on to these Opportunities for long, and would soon lose them and return to Square One, or even be worse off than before. Let me give you an example. A lazy Ah Beng was given a sum of money to run a loanshark biz. He lent it to almost anybody he knows, gambled with some of the funds and spent others on merriments. In the end, some debtors ran away, he lost on gambling and he had squandered parts of the funds. He's left with little or no funds to roll his biz, and he's no choice but to end it. He now loses a biz and probably has the investor hot on his tail to get back the interests for supporting him. This story is a classic case of a person who had an Opportunity without prior Preparation. He could have well-ahead prepared himself in money-management, personal discipline, and/or to develop a trained acumen to recognise people with good credibility. If he'd done so, the situation would have been different.

Hmm? Think about it. Have you been lucky so far?

Lost Without An Income? Read This.

Most men are lost when they hit walls and see no light at the ends of tunnels. It'd happened to a few of my friends and me. At trying times, for e.g., when a man loses a long-standing, good-paying job and has been fruitless in seeking another income avenue, he's bound to be lost. The best gift for such a person would be mentorship, i.e. a guidance on life, on the routes to take, the lanes to explore and the activities one could engage in.

I bumped onto an ol' friend and he's a similar problem as above. I acted as his mentor and advised him on three broad categories of activities. However, prior to any good advice, step zero would always be active listening. The techniques are to listen to the person with neither interruption nor judgement. If you need to punctuate him, it'd be either for clarification or to paraphrase what he'd said. Do not be judgemental, i.e. don't say things like "I think you should ...", "Why didn't you ...", "You're wrong! It should be ..." etc. Comment on obvious sentiments and get the person to tell you more (may not be the truth). The combo of of non-interruption, sans judgement, paraphrasing and the reinforcement of the subject's sentiments would get the person to open up and to tell you the truth. One needs to know the truth as background info, so as to be oriented into the subject's psyche, to advise well.

I actively listened to my friend, assessed his situation and gave him three main advices. The first advice was for him to total his monthly financial obligations so as to derive at a figure. This figure would serve as the initial objective for later activities. The second advice was to find money and it comprises three parts, namely, (1) to be increasingly more fervent in his job search (I mooted making 100 enquiries in a month with the aid of the Internet, newspapers, friends & kins), (2) to learn a new trade or skills (if one's current skill level and trade cannot break one from the vicious cycle of endless work, learn one that can), and in his case, I suggested sales & marketing, and (3) to face the brunt of the new trade and to stay determined for successes i.e. to do sales and close them. The third & last advice was time management. I drilled into him that he now needs to do many things within the same period, and this can only be achieved with an efficient usage of time, down to every waking minute. At a crunch, if rest has to be compromised, be it. He needn't be restricted to the 24-hr day as a benchmark to compartmentalise work & rest. I advised him to do purposeful things until he's really sleepy, sleep lesser hours and continue the fight relentlessly upon wakening. In other words, a normal person's three days could be his two. In addition, I cautioned him on one OB marker, i.e. entertaining friends. I used Maslow's Theory of Needs to briefly explain that while one lacks security needs, one shouldn't commit unnecessary time for the attainment of higher-stratum needs (in his case, friends as social needs).

I was glad my ol' pal felt very much relieved after hearing from me. While I may not be rich enough to bail him out of his predicament, I think I had led him well to self-help.

Oxygen Is A Happy Gas

Ever felt tired & sleepy after a heated quarrel? This phenomenon and many others could be easily explained with the depletion of blood cells. Our blood cells die in great numbers when we are stressed. Naturally, when we quarrel and feel heated, our blood cells die, and since blood cells carry oxygen, lesser blood cells mean lesser oxygen, and lesser oxygen would retard brain activities and make us sleepy.

Oxygen is a happy gas. Ever wonder why oxygen makes up only 20% of natural air, but docs give pure-oxygen masks to patients? Cuz' oxygen rejuvenates the body. Not convinced? Here's another example. Remember the occasional mornings you strolled in the park? The smell of the air, filled with the early-morning oxygen emission from the greenies exhilarated you, didn't it?

In a related issue, sleepiness after meals comes from the drawing of blood away from your head to your stomach for digestion. With a rush of oxygen-carrying blood cells elsewhere, our think tanks get groggy naturally. Feeling sleepy after sex for some men could be explained in similar ways too. Think along this line and you'd be able to explain why we feel sleepy shortly after some other activities ...

Did You Plan To Fail?

I get to hear a lot of ideas and plans in my marketing & business-writing work. An idea is just a thought, whilst a plan is an idea put into actions. The usual mental note when I hear an idea or a plan is, "did he plan to fail?". Let me give you an illustration - a debtor planned to repay his creditor $1k over 5 weeks, $200 each. His idea was to split the payment into smaller, manageable portions. His plan was to negotiate with the creditor and to get him to agree. It worked. When the payment dates come, he couldn't pay one of the $200-instalments. What went wrong here? The debtor didn't plan on how he was going to get the weekly $200. His plan failed. Similar scenarios are visible in plans many make daily. Detailed planning, looking into 2nd-, 3rd-layer or even deeper layers of the sub-plans are the keys to make plans work. So, next time someone tells you he has a plan, ask if he'd already thought through it. Otherwise, Murphy will strike unnoticeably. By the way, many people have plans that are not. They could be referring to just ideas or lightly-processed ideas (which don't yet qualify as plans). Ask them, "did you plan to fail?" A simple follow-through in his "plans", asking questions expertly with the 5Ws & 1H would get you some answers.

Life & Money

Life is about living and being happy. While some happiness cannot be bought by money, most can. If it can be bought, that makes money a mean to happiness. To get money, there are only a few means, and sadly, work is one of them. Hence, that makes work a mean to another mean to an end. So, don't get persnickety about work ... stay positive always.

From another perspective, the poor have their problems, so do the rich. Given a choice, would you want a poor man's problems or a rich man's? I'd choose the latter; at least, my problems would not revolve around survival issues.

Yet, a 3rd perspective. Man is born with nothing. With the money he earns and the life he lives, he incurs debts, which very plainly, is merely an ingenious human creation on money. Money is a creation too. That makes debts a 2nd-generation creation, at least. Heard of people who had jumped to their deaths cuz' of debts? These men created something, which spurs the creation of another, and they died from it. Man is better off creating nothing sometimes. Fuzzy human logic you think. It's probably better being a rabbit or a Java Sea cockle; one needs only bother about mating or spitting into the seawater ...

(Great) Britain? UK?

Ever thought of the differences between Britain, Great Britain, England, United Kingdom (UK)? Britain is the name of the island, which England, Wales & Scotland are located. Great Britain is this big island and its outlying islets. England is just a country. UK refers to NEWS, i.e. Northern Ireland, England, Wales & Scotland. It is a confederation. However, the term "British" had been so inaccurately used that it had come to mean "of England".

How To Decentralise Work?

Decentralisation is the mother. It means one of delegation, deconcentration or devolution. To delegate is to pass down a chore to another person while you supervise. You remain nonetheless responsible for it. E.g. a Platoon Commander getting his runner to transmit a message over the field radio. To deconcentrate is similar, but usually a group of related functions is undertaken by another person/sub-unit while you maintain an oversight. You're still responsible for its successes, but you now have lesser control over the daily running. E.g. a company director getting his HR Dept to handle all personnel matters. To devolve is to pass the buck to someone else while you relinquish the responsibility. E.g. a condo owner paying his dues for the security services (guards, alarms, patrols etc). The differences are in the varying degrees of control over the subject function from supervisory control in delegation to no control in devolution. So, the next time somebody tells you to decentralise your work, ask him/her what exactly does he/she wants you to do.

Which Bird Are You?

There are many personality-profile tests in the market. DISC is commonly used. It singles out four distinct character types named after birds - Eagle, Peacock, Sparrow and Dove. It is quintessential that the right type is matched to the right profession for a good job fit. By the way, character is one's true self, while personality is its outward display. Heard of people who behave in ways different from what they think sometimes? This is a classic case of a character-personality mismatch. Ok, briefly on these feathered vertebrates ...
Eagles are people who like to cheong. They think quick, love to solve problems, enjoy challenges, and are goal-oriented. They make excellent entrepreneurs, motivators, field commanders. Most, if not all CEOs are Eagles. They would do less well for jobs like nurse, counsellor or simply most salaried jobs with little increment to fill their hunger for success.

Peacocks are people who love titles. Good names to them are way more important than most other factors. They are egoistic, usually a person in the limelight, but they too enjoy feeling important by doing what important people do. Academics, some top clergymen, some authors (especially those who engage ghostwriters) are good examples. They would do less well in jobs that denounce recognition like administrative clerks, primary school teachers etc.

Sparrows are what most Singaporeans are. Sparrows would subscribe fervently to the you-know-who's propaganda on job (not career) fulfilment. Most women are sparrows. These are peace lovers who enjoy their status quo and would not take big steps out of their comfort zones. They enjoy stability and are usually contented with perks like a once-a-year tour, an income package with less changes than a rock on Everest. However, these non-fighters are survivors! Good examples are some fully salaried executives, shop assistants, counter salesman in watch shops etc. They would prefer a straight 2k/month income to one that pays 1.5k basic + commission even if there's a very good chance of hitting more than 500 in commission. Sadly, many Sparrows are Eagles or Peacocks in disguise, but they don't know that yet. Not surprising that some bigger systems knead people to become Sparrows unknowingly.
Doves are people whose self-esteem greatly depends on how others perceive it to be. They are people-oriented, kind-loving angels who care and listen to the needed. They make excellent nurses, kindergarten teachers, marriage counsellors, staffs in old folks' home etc. However, if they were to be thrown in a position that obliges them to make fast decisions or to be accountable for company profits, they would tumble & fall. Doves make bad entrepreneurs. They'd be so well-guarded by fears that others might perceive them with bad motives, and not approach people. This bird is a bad choice for a sales job.
However, everyone displays different bird traits in different situations at different time. Nevertheless, there is a dominant bird in everyone. Which is yours?

Time & Money

Most of us trade in our time & effort for money, working 8 or 9 hrs a day to bring the bread home. Subscribing to this notion would never make us rich, that's why we remain as the poorer 80% to 90% of the local population. So, you wonder ... how did the remaining 10% to 20% do it?
Well, they worked in lines which allow them to generate passive income, and eventually, attain financial freedom. Briefly, passive income is achieved when one works hard for a period and generates recurrent income for the years to come. However, one would need to thrive hard again to create more bundles of these passive income when the recurrence ends. When one gets smarter, he recruits & trains his downlines to acquire the same passive income, while he gets this payout called "over-riders". This goes on, and more downlines are recruited. Some of these proteges would set up agencies. As time passes, more agencies mushroom, the over-riders increase and c'est tout! Financial freedom is achieved. Others are earning money for you; you'd only need to maintain oversight. Good examples are Financial Advisors, Sales Directors (with network marketing), MLM Operators etc.
At this stage, one could oversee a few establishments at the same time. That's why some big wigs could be chairmen to organisations, non-executive CEOs to others, consultants to several businesses etc. Only oversight is needed. To buy time, one pays money to hire third parties to take over certain functions, for examples, a chauffeur to drive his BMW X5, some maids to clean his mansion, a housekeeper to keep his chateau in order, a gardener to tend to his rose garden ...
Now you get it? For the less well-off, us alike, we exchange time for money, whilst the rich buys time with it.