small and medium thoughts

Making the most of the recent Malaysian business fiascoes

2008-08-07T14:01:00.001+08:00

Rather than point fingers over the recent fiascoes of Hytex/Nike and Ego snack foods, I thought a post on how some of you might benefit from these two otherwise embarrassing incidents for malaysian businesses would be more helpful.

So for the enterprising among you, here are two ventures you might want to embark on:

1)Manufacture Lead-detecting devices

With the lax food hygiene enforcement in this country, who knows whether the next lollipop your child is sucking on is laced with heavy metal poison? After all, if the Americans hadn’t found out about the lead in Ego’s snacks, wouldn’t we have continued selling it happily at all our supermarkets and petronas kedai mesra???

Solution: Imagine the millions you’ll make with your new lead detecting device in a country where food safety is something the government looks at when something disastrous happens.

2)Foreign Worker Accommodation Inspector

Hytex recently made the news when Nike said it was investigating foreign worker abuse by this Malaysian garment maker. Better known for its World of Cartoons stores, Hytex was probably doing what many Malaysian companies take as the norm when it comes to the treatment of foreign workers.

Solution: Start up an agency and sell your services to the myriad foreign manufacturers to inspect and grade the facilities of their prospective contract manufacturing partners in Malaysia before they award their plump contracts to them. The fee you charge will be peanuts compared to the millions of dollars they could lose should a fiasco like this happen again.

Stupid Advertisement 2: Care to become a DODO?

2008-06-16T10:33:00.000+08:00

The "No. 1 petroleum company in Malaysia" that came out with this gem of an acronym for it's Dealer Operated and Dealer Owned program, ought to sack its dealer team for even suggesting its business partners be called "DODOs".

Only in this country where petrol retail businesses are politically linked and tightly controlled, could such a stupid marketing gaffe be committed and people still flock to the program.

Stupid Ad: Spend RM25k to get a RM650 bag

2008-05-16T17:03:00.000+08:00

I am usually quite impressed with HSBC offers and promos but this one has to take the cake for its stupidity.

At first glance, the offer of a free Samsonite Freeminder catches one's attention. And then you realise you have to spend RM25k before you get it. There's a penalty of RM650 for the bag if you don't spend the requisite amount.

I was thinking if anyone is rich or foolish enough to spend RM25k with this card, he or she wouldn't need or want this bag.

Now, if they had given free country club membership that would have been something more eyebrow raising....

Let's Celebrate Mediocrity II: Malaysia better than 76% of countries

2008-05-15T09:34:00.000+08:00

Remember how I blogged about Teras Teknologi (the UEM subsidiary responsible for Touch n'Go system development) celebrating their achievement of coming in 6th in last year's Enterprise 50 awards?

Well, now our dear PM has come out to trumpet the fact that we are better than 76% of countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, and by doing so, continues that grand Malaysian tradition: the Celebration of Mediocrity.

Rather than outline steps of how we can further combat corruption in this country, he chose instead to focus on the fact that we might be better off than some despotic states elsewhere in this world.

Rather than compare with the absolute best practice countries in the world like Singapore and Hong Kong, he chooses to compare Malaysia with Zimbabwe and Myanmar.

Is he saying that with an average "good and stable" score of 5 points every year for the past 5 years that we should be happy and content that greedy politicians continue to steal and siphon off the rakyat's money as long as it doesn't reach the excesses of Robert Mugabe???

Let's hope it doesn't take a 7.6 richter scale earthquake to witness the destruction corruption can wreak to a country.

Hidup Mediokriti!

Disposable Email Address anyone?

2008-04-18T16:33:00.000+08:00

Stumbled on this great little site that will give you a temporary email address for about 15 minutes.

I can imagine the number of ways people could make use of it!

Will Tune Talk take a leaf out of Blyk’s book?

2008-04-10T10:30:00.000+08:00

When it was announced that Tony Fernandez was going into the mobile business, my immediate thought was to link his latest venture to Virgin Mobile. After all the man appears to be modeling his entire career on Richard Branson and his business empire.

Talks of cronyism and links to the Rembau man aside, Fernandez might do better modeling Tune Talk against Blyk, a ground-breaking UK mobile MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) that was launched in last September and was also covered in this blog.

In essence, Blyk provides 43 free minutes and 217 free texts to its subscribers and get this, it’s only open to 16 – 24 year olds; a year younger or older and you’re kicked out. How the service remains free for them is that Blyk sends them no more than 6 SMS’ a day from advertisers and brands that the subscriber wants to hear from.

Very interesting win-win concept. The young user gets to interact with his/her favourite brands and the advertisers reach their target market in a way no other traditional media can.

Doubtless Tony Fernandez must have had some sort of content plan in mind when he appointed local celebrity DJ/musician Jason Lo as its CEO last year. If he models Tune Talk after Blyk, it could even have the potential to overturn staid incumbents like Maxis and especially Celcom from whom it buys talk time.

Enjoy this little introductory video from Blyk:

5 lessons Companies can learn from the Malaysian General Election

2008-03-18T16:33:00.002+08:00

So the ‘poor’ Malaysian Voter I referred to in my last post has finally found his voice, bringing in the dawn of a new age.

The way the BN conducted itself in these elections teaches the corporate world a few lessons, especially those that are incumbent market leaders.

1) Never assume anything.
The BN assumed the malay majority would continue supporting them while non-malays deserted them. Instead, it appears malays in Selangor, Kedah and Perak, helped the non-malay popular vote swing to the opposition.

In business, the incumbent must never assume anything. A realistic assessment of the market with its inherent risks and opportunities must always be done on a periodic basis.

2) Listen to your customers
For 50 years, the BN has expounded its own brand of divide and conquer policy and assumed that Malaysians would continue buying into the same medieval message for the sake of national stability. The reverse came true as dissastified citizens rejected their arrogant assumptions and voted instead for ideological issues like social justice and accountability.

Leading businesses always take a dipstick of their market, testing their products, listening to their consumers and keeping up with demands. If people are unhappy, find out why. Don’t assume they will always be loyal to your brand.

3) Keep up with the times
The BN pumped in millions in advertising dollars in old world media. The opposition, with a fraction of the budget, uploaded videos onto youtube, seeded bloggers and created online forums to reach younger and more internet savvy voters. It amuses me how many Malaysian businesses still think that all you need is a newspaper ad, doesn’t matter where or what size, just a print ad, and customers will start calling. It somehow is more comforting to see something on paper and say that it will attract customers rather than do some extra work, understand how your customers behave and what their motivations are before embarking on any marketing campaign. Don’t misread your consumer and spend marketing dollars unwisely. As Spencer Johnson says, know when the cheese starts to smell old.

4) Practise Integrity.
The BN campaigned under the banner of a “Promise of a Better Tomorrow” outlining progress they claim to have made in creating sustainable broad-based growth, narrowing income gaps and reducing hardcore poverty. Whether this happened or not, the very fact that many of their senior office holders, councilors and officials were caught in questionable practices reduced these achievements to shreds.

If your business promises superior services or products, make sure you can deliver. Check how your front-line staff are interacting with customers and whether your product quality meets the grade or your customers will find alternatives.

5)Don’t just promise, deliver.
Empty promises and empty rhetoric – that was what the BN brand campaign was beginning to look like to the jaded electorate. After one term of promising more integrity and better governance, the coalition had failed to deliver even when voters gave them a resounding 90% endorsement in the last elections. Much of it fell apart at the local/state office level where corrupt practises by these office holders destroyed whatever chance of success the BN’s lofty goals might have had.

Implementation excellence or the lack thereof breaks or makes a company. Ensure that your implementation plan is thought through from conception to implementation and then have a post-activity evaluation. Even a crappy product could do well at the market if its implementation is done well (ahem... most Microsoft products)

Pity the Poor Malaysian Voter

2008-02-27T21:09:00.000+08:00

Pity the poor malaysian voter – he is not exactly spoiled for choice in the latest elections. Yes, you may say the average Malaysian is disgruntled with the latest shenanigans in the BN government but is the Opposition a viable alternative? Let’s examine the field:

DAP – currently the country’s largest opposition party but it still struggles to assert its identity beyond being a party for Chinese rights. It has some bright sparks in the team but they are absolute neophytes in the political arena. Might gain some traction from unhappy non-malay voters over increasing Islamic overtones in daily life (literally from cradle to grave) and might benefit from the negative fallout generated from the recent Hindraf marches.

PAS – no non-muslim in his right mind would vote for what they see as a fundamentalist theocratic party that still expounds an Islamic state as its stated aim. Will appeal only to the rural heartland. In any case, the perception is that malays are likely to rally behind UMNO this time in response to general non-malay unhappiness. Not expected to make much headway this time.

PKR – still a one-man, one-cause party with big dreams. Anwar Ibrahim won’t be able to run this time, but his wife and daughter proxies should be a good bellewether for him. Malaysians just aren’t ready to see themselves as anything beyond their ethnicity after 50 years of segregation and racial policies. PKR has grand aims and ambitions, and dare I say a noble cause but many people are still suspicious of Anwar’s motives – a leopard can’t change its spots, they say.

So it comes down to the ruling party. With its massive budgets, gerrymandered voting system and reach, it is clear the BN will win this General Election. The question is: by how much? Pak Lah appears to have been playing it too safe during his term and the perception is that corruption has not been weeded out, or that it has just changed players. Whether it has been through more relaxed media control or that things have really gotten worse, the ordinary Malaysian is being subjected to an almost non-stop barrage of sordid news about the executive or judiciary. Will this be strong enough to force Malaysians to deliver a protest vote?

This latest article by Michael Backman in the Age points out that we need to be managed like the complex country we are, with “greater accountability and scrutiny.”

Meanwhile the IHT's Philip Bowring almost uncannily reiterates a similar theme, talking about the paucity of Malaysian politics.

Malaysian Voters, we've got our work cut out for us.

Technorati: Malaysia, elections

A full page ad for coming in 6th! Let's celebrate mediocrity!

2008-01-04T09:34:00.000+08:00

The original full page ad in today's New Straits Times.

The ad headline - celebrating utter mediocrity!
 

How apt that my first post of the year should be about mediocrity.

Teras, a subsidiary of government-linked UEM, "is the creator, developer, and leading system integrator of TouchNGo and SmarTag in multiple platform technology widely use through out Malaysia as highway, parking and public transportation payment as well as access system by over 3 million users" (their own words, not mine!)

Imagine forking out well over RM15k for a full page ad just to congratulate yourself coming in 6th out of a field of 50. One wonders what expense they would have gone to if they had come out tops!

So this is the corporate culture governing this country when government-linked firms congratulate themselves on coming in 6th and go all out to ensure people are aware of this.

It's a sad start to the new year but just reinforces the state of affairs of local corporate leaders in Malaysia.

Happy 2008 by the way!

Malaysia's Racial Policies Jeopardize Trade Deal, EU Envoy Says

2007-11-14T09:48:00.000+08:00

Once more, the EU envoy to Malaysia is setting his sights on Malaysia's racial economic policies. In his latest salvo, Thierry Rommel, who earlier this year provoked a harsh response from UMNO members with a similar statement, says in a Bloomberg interview that:

"The philosophy [behind the race-based policies] is basically one of discrimination and protectionism with selective and discretionary market opening".

and

"It has already hampered free-trade talks with the U.S. and with Australia, and it will certainly complicate free-trade talks'' with the European Union"

Couldn't have said it better.

Everybody else on earth agrees except UMNO and its slavish followers. Having been weaned on a constant diet of rent-seeking and patronage, one can understand why party members are reluctant to let go of a rice bowl that has grown and bloated in size over the years.

Expect over the next few days some more posturing and feral responses from the party faithful who are already in siege mentality from the recent 40,000 strong Bersih march.

The next elections are going to be very interesting indeed.

AFP: Malaysia's forgotten poor failed by policy to boost poor Malays

2007-11-05T16:03:00.000+08:00

This AFP report couldn't have summarised more succinctly what I just blogged about.

Is the dominant party failing the people it is supposed to champion while enriching its own members?? When these kind of statistics are mentioned, it is hard to think otherwise:

"One out of every five people in Terengganu lives below the poverty line, and many say they are disappointed at how little the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) which has ruled Malaysia for 50 years has done for them."

Is the recently announced East Coast Economic Region just hype to get votes in the next General Election?

Silly Season is back: the UMNO General Assembly

2007-11-05T11:12:00.000+08:00

Once again hordes of UMNO faithful from throughout the country will descend upon the PWTC and throng its halls with belligerent verbage.

Though not gifted with prophecy, it has become depressingly predictable what will be covered at this annual get-together of the nation's most dominant political party.

Here's my take of what will and will NOT be achieved at this year's UMNO General Assembly.

What the UMNO general assembly WILL achieve

Their youth leaders will wave threatening weapons at imagined enemies
Create unproductive traffic jams within a 10km radius of the PWTC
Expound more racist drivel on why the Never Ending Policy (NEP) should remain firmly in place
Blame Jews/other races/American and then other foreigners for the woes UMNO voters are facing
Perpetuate the myth that the Bumiputra Commerical and Industrial Community (BCIC) is still non-existent and demand that more be done in the name of race to promote this community
Promote self-serving business policies thinly disguised as affirmative action for UMNO supporters
Continue telling the malays they are an indolent race and won’t go far if they don't elect UMNO back to another term in office.
Constantly harp on the fact that its members shouldn’t practice money politics but still let it happen.

What the UMNO general assembly WON’T achieve

Provide mature and insightful nation-building solutions to achieve equitable income distribution
Address the widening intra-racial gap between urban and rural malays
Accept the fact that Malaysia is a multi-racial nation
Create genuine sustainable programs that will help the community progress and not just benefit those on top of the pecking order.

The EU joins the hunt for skilled immigrants; where does that leave Malaysia now?

2007-10-24T16:59:00.000+08:00

The European Union has now upped the ante in the global bid to attract skilled immigrants to its member countries. Under the new "blue card" system, skilled migrants such as IT professionals and hospital workers, will earn the renewable right to work and live anywhere in the bloc. Whether or not it obtains a unanimous vote for this system from its member states is another matter but it still points out the importance other countries place on brain gain and attracting talent.

Fast forward (or backward) to our beloved country and one wonders how long more the arcane equity restructuring policies can continue to hold. While other countries are busy competing to attract talent, our UMNO led government is hellbent on its NEP policies, causing investors and talent to think twice about coming here.

No doubt, the recent news of increase FDI might deceive these guys into thinking they might be justified in their race-based policies, but analysts are already saying that FDI overall has increased in 2006 and Malaysia's increase is slower than say Thailand or Singapore.

The more we continue with these blinkered equity policies, the further behind we lag.

Technorati: Malaysia, NEP, racial economics

Skali: 400 companies to manage government websites

2007-10-11T10:00:00.000+08:00

Remember the Skali story and how it has been awarded the contract to train unemployable ICT graduates to manage government websites? Well now there's been more development.

It appears now that the 8000 unemployable ICT graduates will now be invited to participate in a training program where they will be paid RM500 per month and after that should they show any aptitude, they will be recruited as apprentices where they will earn from RM1200 to RM4000 per month.

Provided they stay the course and show that they are worthy of further development, these apprentices will then undergo the entrepreneurship course where they will learn basic business and marketing skills. That could be 3 years after.

The goal?

"Aimi said that at the end of the contract period, more than 400 companies would be set up to take over the managing of the government websites. " (Star Intech, 5 Oct 2007).

So, do the math. According to Skali themselves, there are around 450 government websites.

Skali seems to think that an entire company needs to be set up to handle 1 website. Wow. Good business and entrepreneurship sense.

We all know how long a business can last with just one customer and one service don't we. And especially if that one customer is a government agency.

Technorati: Malaysia, Skali

Belgium - Or lessons a 177 year old could teach us 50 year olds

2007-09-17T17:09:00.000+08:00

Many Malaysians may not be familiar with Belgium, beyond as an origin of chocolates which are sold for a pretty penny at upscale malls.

What’s happening there now should be of great interest to us because the whole concept of Belgium as a nation is being called into question.

The 177 year old nation was created by merging a French and Flemish (Dutch) speaking peoples together to form a buffer between France and Germany.

Today, this artificial political union is breaking apart, as 100 days after national elections, the rival Dutch and French speaking politicians find themselves unable to agree on a coalition government.

Now, the more prosperous Flemish in the North are increasingly in favour of separation from what they deem the more slovenly and laid back French in the Southern region called Walloon. Historically, the French have been the ruling elite in Belgium and tended to view the Flemish as rather backward.

Sound familiar? Well, read this extract from the Guardian:

There is not a single national politician or leader (bar King Albert) or a single national political party that straddles the linguistic and cultural north-south divide between Flanders and the southern region of francophone Wallonia.

Doesn’t that ring true for our country as well? There is no single party that straddles the linguistic and cultural divide here. Instead, one political party dominates (and bullies) the nominal coalition government and that party in its own constitution stands for only one race.

And:

Defining "Belgianness" is becoming a sorry national sport with loyalists struggling to come up with unifying factors or symbols that reinforce national identity apart from the underwhelming national football team or the royal family.

Go figure. From Bahasa Malaysia to our constant struggles to define unity and symbols of Malaysianness, have we ever succeeded in defining what is Malaysian?

At a comparatively younger 50 years old, are we then suggesting then that there is no hope for a Malaysian nation? Well… the answer is still 127 years away.

Technorati: Belgium, Malaysia

HK Disneyland struggling with low attendance; Does Johor still want Mickey??

2007-09-14T10:38:00.000+08:00

With poor attendance figures and disappointing earnings results, HK Disneyland's current state of affairs must surely send out messages to our government to think 2 or 3 times about going overboard to attract mickey mouse to Johor.

Despite having a massive hinterland of over 84 million residents in Guangdong with a growing middle class, the theme park's operating income dropped in both the first and second quarters of this year.

What makes Malaysia and UEM in particular so sure that we can sustain a disney theme park in the south where although we do have the ASEAN hinterland, Johor cannot hope to match Hong Kong's superior accessibility. That's where the Singapore challenge comes in although our neighbours will have to work hard to find some decent space to host the likes of Space Mountain and Cinderella's castle.

technorati: Disneyland, Malaysia

Government asks private sector to reveal racial composition of employees. But will it lead by example?

2007-09-12T16:36:00.000+08:00

In the recent budget announcement, the PM made a call that as part of corporate social responsibility, publicly listed firms will have to start revealing the racial composition of their employee base.

This is obviously another blinkered policy aimed at cajoling the private sector to hire according to the racial composition of the country with no incentive for meritocracy.

If the UMNO government wants the private sector to do this, shouldn't they lead by example and publish government employment by racial composition? How about the GLCs like TM, Tenaga and Petronas? Shouldn't they start reserving at least 30% of their employment for non-bumiputras?

Ambank and the greedy Chinaman

2007-08-08T11:24:00.000+08:00

Seeing this Ambank ad today made me wonder what message the bank is trying to convey. Called the Mad Gold Rush 2, it portrays a chinaman in a manchu costume looking greedily at bars of gold. In the background hover a martial arts exponent and what appears to be a virtuous malay princess in a dance move.

Is this supposed to be like a scene from pirates of the carribbean? Or is Ambank trying to tell readers this promotion is meant for you greedy chinamen out there? Can someone enlighten me or is the bank just being downright racist about its stereotypes?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Discounts

2007-07-22T21:58:00.000+08:00

My, my what a book can do to the local book distribution scene.

Four local book stores have banded together to boycott the sales of JK Rowling's latest (and last?) Harry Potter instalment claiming that distributor Penguin Books indiscriminately allowed this season's arguably's hottest title to be sold by hypermarkets.

The recommended retail price was supposed to be RM109.90 but hypermarkets Tesco and Carrefour saw it as a unique opportunity to drive volume and discounted the price to just RM69.90, wiping a clean RM40 off the cover price.

So were the bookstores right in doing this? I'm not a Harry Potter fan so to me, this is a simple case of market efficiencies at work and the two hypermarkets doing what they do best - work on a cost-leadership strategy and bring products at an aggressive price to its consumers. I don't really like cartels, and thus am not really in favour of the bookstores' joint action - it stands against free market principles and just comes out looking like a lot of sour grapes.

Even the government has now come out in support of the hypermarkets. An unusual stand as hypermarkets are usually seen as the bad guys bullying small suffering local retailers. I suspect that because none of the protesting bookstores are owned by UMNO cronies, made the government stand a relatively easy one.

Who would have thought the boy wizard could have conjured up such a dizzy spell in the usually languid book retailing business.

technorati: Harry Potter, Malaysia

How many unemployed graduates does it take to update 450 websites? 4000 says the government

2007-07-14T16:34:00.000+08:00

At least that's how many the UMNO led government thinks will benefit by awarding the contract to update the said number of government websites to politically well-connected Skali.

The idea is that Skali will then train 4000 unemployed or unemployable graduates to update the Federal government's 450 websites.

That means on average, 8 graduates will be tasked to look after one website. Quite what they will do and why so many of them are needed is not explained in detail. I suspect because they need retraining from whatever unemployable education they've already received over the 3 or 4 years they've spent languishing in university, half of them will be given on-the-job training while the other half figure out how to type html code. Doesn't seem like a bad job especially if you've been lepaking around the house.

The fact that Skali Group CEO Tengku Farith Rithauddeen projects growth of revenue by RM6 million to RM31 million this year means that this project is by no means small change.

Another impressive scheme by the government to build competency and skills in the digital age? Yeah right.

Blyk: A FREE mobile service powered by advertising

2007-07-09T12:34:00.000+08:00

Now this is interesting. Blyk, a soon-to-launched mobile service in the UK, will be provided free to subscribers and be completely funded by advertising.

It's been more than a year since MITV and Timedotcom were awarded 3G licenses and to date both have nothing or at least very little to show the Malaysian public.

This interesting idea of an advertising-funded mobile service is nothing if not revolutionary. Just like free newspapers, it might take time for people to accept it but if both the founder of EasyJet and a former Nokia president think it's a viable business for them, then surely it must be worth investigating.

Technorat: Blyk

EU envoy hits out at NEP

2007-06-22T16:57:00.000+08:00

Hot on the heels of stalled FTA talks with the USA, the EU Envoy to Malaysia, Thierry Rommel, is now calling for expedited FTA talks with ASEAN stating specifically:

"The EU is looking at ASEAN, at Malaysia, as a trading nation, to get the actual negotiations started."

Of course, before ALL that, he hits out at the NEP, stating that it drives protectionist policies. He even goes so far as to say:

"In a dominant part of the domestic economy, there is no level playing field for foreign companies even when in a partnership with Bumis. "

Pleading for the Malaysian government to use the Doha Round to re-examine its policies, he has this to say:

"If we all were to continually submit to internal pressure groups and vested economic interests who indeed are often the same, we, as policy makers in a democracy, would fail our nation."

Forbes, which picked up the story, even quotes Eric Reuter, sales and marketing director of Belgian freight forwarder ABX Logistics, which has a 51 percent Bumiputra partner,

"The limitations have eroded his profit margin.We cannot be as flexible as we want to be and chances that corruption comes into play is higher."

I assume Mr Reuter won't be getting much UMNO related business for a while now that he's come out and said this.

Back to the European Envoy's remarks, and this blogger wonders whether the resident UMNO rabble rouser will be reaching for his keris again over these statements and ask for a boycott of all things European.

The international press has gone to town with this. Examples here and here.

Want to read the full text of this stirring speech? Download it here.

Technorati: malaysia, NEP

Celcom's spiderman rip off getting tiresome

2007-06-17T10:55:00.000+08:00

During last year's World Cup, Celcom pulled off a neat trick with their guerilla advertising campaign "Football Mad Nation Ruled By Celcom" and purportedly spent a fraction of the RM60 million Maxis dished out for their World Cup telecast sponsorship. With a campaign featuring a catchy song by local bands Pop Shuvit & Disagree, many Malaysians were pleasantly surprised that Celcom could have pulled off such a clever marketing stunt.

Fast forward to today and Celcom's at it again. Although unusually, now they've decided to rip off their partners Sony Ericsson with their Spiderman sponsorship.

The end result looks like a cheap imitation. Either Celcom has run out of Marketing funds or they couldn't reach an agreement with SE to bundle with their handsets.

Their OEM Black Ice & Red Ice handsets which they have labelled the "Spider Limited Edition" are poor cousins to the SE products. But I guess that's why they could give them away free.

Come on Celcom, surely you can do better.

Theedgedaily.com access barred during office hours

2007-06-12T15:27:00.000+08:00

In what must be an effort to shore up sales of its fledgling financial daily "The Edge Financial Daily", publisher Nexnews appears to have barred access to its excellent news website www.theedgedaily.com .

If you click on this link during office hours (defined as anytime the sun is still shining), you will get this rather inelegant message:

Network Error (tcp_error)

A communication error occurred: "Connection refused"

The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.

For assistance, contact your network support team.

Try surfing at night, and as if by magic the site reappears with ahem, today's news.

The Edge Financial Daily is a nice enough paper with the latest on local business developments but there's also a whole lot of regurgitated stuff from Reuters and Bloomberg. Well, at RM1.50 per copy, it's still far cheaper than say the Asian Wall Street Journal or the International Herald Tribune, so I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Bottom line is that couldn't they have adopted the Singapore Business Times' format of daytime access by paying subscribers and free access after 6pm.

London's 2012 logo makes our national day logos look like picassos

2007-06-08T10:55:00.000+08:00

Merdeka logo outshines London 2012

It appears the recently launched GBP400,000 London 2012 Olympics logo is generating a lot of negative response from the UK public, with many condemning it as being hideous. There is in fact an online petition against it which has already attracted thousands of signatories.

In comparison, our national day logos are begininning to look faintly artistic...

technorati: london 2012

Analysts: Proton burning up to RM500 million annually.

2007-05-29T10:57:00.000+08:00

Judging from how the UMNO-led government is hemming and hawing over Proton's future, an ignorant observer might be forgiven for thinking that everything is going well at the country's first auto maker.

The sad reality is that analysts claim that at the rate Proton is burning cash, it will soon finish its diminshed cash reserves of about RM500 million by 2008. The Asian Sentinel has a good story about the beleagured company here.

People who argue that Proton should be protected at all costs because it provides jobs and creates multiplier effects for automotive suppliers should consider that if Malaysia had adopted the Thai style of car manufacturing, they would have probably created even more jobs by attracting even more foreign marques to set up shop here.

At the end of the day, does the rest of the world really care if there is a Malaysian car?

Technorati: Malaysia, Proton

Bursa Malaysia to entice Vietnamese firms to list here

2007-05-21T19:48:00.000+08:00

This is interesting. Bursa Malaysia is actually inviting Vietnamese firms to list on the local stock exchange citing one of the region's lowest fees as the main attraction. In fact the first 10 firms to do so will get their listings free of charge.

I don't think they've come to the part where they'll be told 30% of their hard earned company equity would have to be surrendered to politically connected bumiputra interests.

Maybank on defensive after "bumi equity requirement for legal firm" gaffe

2007-05-07T14:55:00.000+08:00

Maybank is now on the defensive after being identified as one of the 2 banks that have introduced a regulation requiring Bumiputera legal firms’ involvement before any business may be conducted with it.

It is inevitable that after forcing smaller and in some cases better-managed local banks to merge and thereby limiting non-bumi control of local financial institutions, that this kind of NEP-type posturing will happen. Especially with institutions that are owned by governtment linked companies such as Maybank.

Of all the people in the world, I can't believe they would choose lawyers and legal firms to tackle head-on, knowing full well these are the people who will fight tooth and nail for justice.

They might have gotten away with it if they had instead chosen regular small business suppliers and service providers such as stationers and building contractors - whom the UMNO-led government regularly demands bumi equity requirement from before awarding any business.

For the life of me, I really don't know how our so-called big local banks can continue to compete with foreign banks when they continue to adopt restrictive equity rulings such as this and thereby severely limiting their access to talent. Another sad day for Corporate Malaysia.

Technorati: Malaysia, bumiputra, UMNO

Singapore owns more of Australia than Australia

2007-05-06T17:47:00.000+08:00

Interesting little analysis here about how asset hungry Temasek Holdings apparently now owns more of Australia's prized assets than even the Australian Government.

Here's the extracted basis of comparison:

Residual operating assets held by the Australian Government:

17% stake in Telstra: $9.6 billion
Australia Post: $5 billion
Medibank Private: $1 billion
Australian Submarine Corp: $200 million
Total: $15.8 billion

Australian commercial assets controlled by the Singapore Government:

Optus: $10 billion
Alinta energy assets: $4.3 billion
Victorian electricity transmission monopoly: $2 billion
Old Texas Utilities Australian portfolio: $5.5 billion
Property: $2 billion
Australand stake: $1 billion
Total: $22.8 billion

Sensitive piece of information given that one of Temasek's earlier investments have now turned quite sour.

Technorati: Singapore, Australia, Temasek

Singapore - city with the fastest walkers

2007-05-02T18:01:00.001+08:00

Forget the Malay Mail Big Walk - our neighbours down south have won the distinction of being the world's fastest walkers.

The findings led by Prof Richard Wiseman are significant as "when people move faster they become less likely to help others, and also tend to have higher rates of coronary heart disease."

It's actually a bit of a surprise as I always felt Tokyo and Hong Kong walkers were very much faster than Singaporeans and these two cities do not even appear in the Top 10 list which is as follows:

The 10 fastest city walking times:

1) Singapore (Singapore); 10.55
2) Copenhagen (Denmark); 10.82
3) Madrid (Spain); 10.89
4) Guangzhou (China): 10.94
5) Dublin (Ireland); 11.03
6) Curitiba (Brazil); 11.13
7) Berlin (Germany); 11.16
8) New York (US); 12.00
9) Utrecht (Netherlands); 12.04
10) Vienna (Austria); 12.06

Technorati: stress, city life, Singapore

Singapore - city with the fastest walkers

2007-05-02T18:01:00.000+08:00

The 10 fastest city walking times:

Technorati: stress, city life, Singapore

Top 10 Things your Boss hates about you

2007-04-09T12:50:00.000+08:00

It's a universal fact that many of us hate our bosses but this UK researcher has unearthed that our bosses have the same feelings about us.

Here are the Top 10 in summary:

1. Lateness
2. Lack of initiative
3. Too much initiative
4. Bitching and whining
5. Disloyalty
6. Lack of passion. Or interest
7. Trying to be their best friend
8. Petty lying
9. Childishness
10. Wanting their job

I have my own Top 10 for What Malaysian Bosses Hate in their Employees

1. Too much initiative.
Do as you're told. Don't be too clever.

2. Wanting their job.
Better stick to your lowlife clerical job and have no ambition. I need to cari makan (make a living) too you know!

3. Being too honest.
Didn't I tell you not to declare the entire year's income! Hide them in some other expense item lah!

4. Bitching and whining about their bitching and whining.
Create your own gossip lah! Don't gossip on my behalf!

5. Lateness.
What Jam? You were supposed to start work 5 minutes ago!

6. Going home early.
You HAVE a family?

7. Punctuality.
The radio ad speaks for itself - "You still ON THE WAY ah?"

8. Being too demanding.
You need to apply for ANOTHER day of leave???

9. Not trying hard enough to be their friend.
Didn't you know it's lonely at the top?

10. Being too clever.
Similar to the 'too much initiative' part but only applies when you give intelligent answers that make them look bad.

Technorati: Bosses, Malaysia

Police, Political Parties & Customs seen as Top 3 Most Corrupt by local businesses

2007-04-05T17:27:00.000+08:00

Much has been said about Transparency International's Corruption Index and how Malaysia appears to have started slowly sliding down the greased pole of this index from 39th spot in 2005 to no. 44 last year.

Further analysis shows that local businesses perceive the police to be most corrupt followed by Political Parties and Customs.

When oh when will Pak Lah finally let the axe fall on corruption in this country?

technorati: Corruption, Malaysia

Force local banks to merge, allow new foreign banks to set up shop

2007-04-04T11:55:00.000+08:00

Now it's getting clear. The enforced merger of healthy but smaller local banking groups since 1999 were done for a purpose that is now painfully obvious - the opening up of foreign Islamic banks in this country.

With three major foreign Islamic banks already on our shores, we can see why Bank Negara had to remove profitable and innovative local banks like PhileoAllied and Southern Bank from the scene. Otherwise, the retail landscape might not have looked appealing enough for these foreign Islamic banks.

Saudi-based Al Rajhi, Kuwait Finance House and Qatar's Asia Finance Bank, have now set up shop in this country. At this juncture, it is not clear how warmly Malaysians have taken to these banks with their halal financial packages, but with branches in Chinese-majority areas like Cheras & Puchong, it leaves little doubt that they are after a less than halal market.

Technorati: Malaysia, Islamic banks

Should Tony Fernandes host his own "The Apprentice" show?

2007-03-21T11:18:00.000+08:00

And why not, this blogger asks.

Mr Air Asia has enough celebrity status to pull off a show in Malaysia which would most likely air on 8TV.

His challenges could include:

1) Run a Tune Hotel.
2) Manage AirAsia inflight sales on one of his more profitabel routes.
3) Propose some Tune Money financing packages.
4) Propose and sell a Goholiday package.
5) Plan a creative F1 hospitality event - the most innovative wins
6) Launch a hot new band's single
7) Launch a new logo for Air Asia X
8) Catch Firefly contest (at Kampung Kuantan, where else) - the most captured wins...
...

and the list goes on.

Technorati: The Apprentice, Tony Fernandes, Air Asia, Malaysia

85% of Malaysian businesses have women in senior management

2007-03-21T10:18:00.000+08:00

Malaysia has shown some surprising results in a survey released by Grant Thornton indicating that 85% of its businesses employ women in senior management positions.

Our results eclipse those of our more progressive southern neighbours, where only 65% do so.

However, when it comes to the total percentage of women employed in senior management, we are rather more average with just a mediocre 23% score which exactly matches the NAFTA average.

Hopefully this progressive state of affairs doesn't come to a grinding halt with the threat of increasing fundamentalism.

Also, Tourism Minister Adnan Mansor should reconsider his remarks again that "out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women." Ouch.

Technorati: Malaysia, businesses, women

IKEA moves into flat-pack houses

2007-03-14T15:25:00.000+08:00

Judging by the large weekend crowds at IKEA, Malaysians appear to have eagerly embraced the Swedish furniture maker's vision of cheap and cheerful DIY home fittings.

Now, taking their 'flat-pack' vision to another level, IKEA has introduced the concept of flat-pack or pre-fabricated homes, marketed under the BoKlok brand.

According to this Independent story, "the interiors of the timber-framed homes will be classic Ikea - modern, open plan, with wooden floors, fixed units, plus Ikea furniture packages."

And apparently though these houses are not aimed at the low-end of the market, their pre-fabricated form will result in significantly lower prices for first-time buyers.

Sounds like good news for many younger people in the UK who like their Malaysian counterparts, are increasingly finding themselves priced out of the property market.

Technorati: Boklok, Malaysia, Ikea

RED campaign seeing Red

2007-03-07T15:16:00.000+08:00

Celcom has been actively promoting its MOTO[Red] campaign which is a part of rock star Bono's global drive against AIDS .

Do they know that so far it's been a total flop with only US$18 million sales off an estimated spend by sponsors such as Gap, Motorola and Apple of about US$100 million?

Though an honorable, philanthropic cause it probably means that it would have been better to tackle a charitable cause through donations rather than asking people to buy more stuff.

Technorati: Bono, Malaysia, Celcom, product(red)

Happy Lunar New Year and what's Lee Hom doing plugging Celcom?

2007-02-22T10:22:00.000+08:00

Happy Lunar New Year.

From all accounts, it looks like it's going to be a good year what with the sterling performance from the local bourse at a 14 year high.

During this festive season, advertisers are out in full force to capture marketing dollars. One particular TV ad campaign that has been running on the Chinese belts of Astro's satellite TV has been the Celcom Wang Lee Hom campaign.

It's a nice enough campaign with slick production values and of course mega star appeal. But one thing troubled me no end. Why on earth was an American-born-Chinese-made-good-in-HongKong and Taiwan picked to be the spokesperson for a very Malaysian telco? I mean the man actually says something like "Celcom gives me more control". Oh yeah like where, in Hong Kong?

If Celcom had just used the man to plug the association of star appeal it wouldn't have been so troubling. But the very fact that he actually says he uses the service causes a huge dissociative gap because the viewer cannot accept that he is a Celcom Subscriber.

I know this country has a dearth of mega star quality Chinese personalities but surely Celcom could have used someone who actually might come back here and plug in a Celcom SIM card. Or maybe not. Michelle Yeoh is probably too old and Ah Niu too soft.

The travails of celebrity endorsement.

Technorati: Malaysia, Celcom, Lee Hom

Economist: "Let's all Bash Singapore"

2007-02-12T13:18:00.000+08:00

A cute little story on how Singapore's success in this region is not being taken very well by its less well-off neighbours, Malaysia included.

I love the writer's summary line:

"But it is hard to avoid the suspicion that the little country's unforgivable offence is being richer and more successful than its neighbours, and not particularly apologetic about it."

Frankly the Singaporeans have nothing to be apologetic about as it is through their own hard work that they have been able to achieve such enviable success.

However, it might help a little if the island state became a little more inclusive in their policies and not give the impression that they are looking beyond ASEAN for their future.

And it wouldn't hurt to get the population to learn how to pronounce Genting (with a hard "G" and not a soft one as in Gentleman..) and Tioman (usually mangled to Teow-man by holiday seeking Singaporeans).

Technorati: Singapore, Malaysia

Rafidah: No budging on UMNO's bumi policy for FTA with US

2007-02-10T11:49:00.000+08:00

Did we even remotely hope that a ray of light would shine through from the whole FTA issue with the US and that perhaps the UMNO government might relent somewhat on their ethnic preference policies for government procurement?

No way.

After 5 rounds of talks, our own iron lady, International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz has said that " We will not move (on government procurement)... If that's a deal breaker, so be it, but fortunately now, it's not"."There are options open. Are we going to let the deal break or look at it in a different context? This is not cast in stone. This is something that can be negotiated," she said.

One wonders what kind of alternatives she is thinking about. While many economists debate the pros and cons of FTAs, one thing that is certain is that Malaysia will benefit from an overall increase in output and the increased level of trade the FTA will bring.

Having endowed themselves with meaning and purpose from their ethnic preference policies, UMNO is now finding it a challenge to back down or compromise on them.

Poor us.

Technorati: Malaysia, USA, Free Trade, UMNO

Floods and proposed levy won't deter singaporeans from JB

2007-02-05T15:36:00.000+08:00

Floods and the prospects of a RM20 levy for Singapore registered vehicles aside do not appear to have deterred throngs of shoppers to cross the Causeway in search of cheaper shopping and food.

Almost 240,000 do so daily according to this report.

Things will probably only look brighter for Johore retailers when Singapore raises its GST later this year.

Technorati: Malaysia, Singapore

Rich-Poor Divide Widens in Singapore

2007-01-22T13:28:00.000+08:00

In a grim paradox, many of Singapore's middle and lower classes have been unable to reap the benefits of three years of growth and that the nation's poorest 30% are in fact worse off than they were 5 years ago.

This can't be good news for a government determined to pursue its drive of attracting foreign talent to its shores if its own people can't even benefit.

And it can't be helped by the fact that the government will increase its GST to 7% sometime this year.

I bet someone's hoping those new casinos will help to boost domestic consumption somewhat and create the multiplier economic benefits they have been touted to bring.

Technorati: Singapore, GST.

BusinessWeek: Proton & GM - An Ungainly Union?

2007-01-21T10:16:00.000+08:00

It seems that even the international media are wondering what GM is doing courting Proton. According to BusinessWeek, GM has troubles of its own in its own homeland and they wonder what the heck they are doing flirting with another troubled carmarker with neglible global market share.

An analyst is quoted as saying that Volkswagen is a better bet.

One thing's for sure is that if GM does get its way, we'll see more Daewoo-rebadged-as-Chevy platforms in this dear little dumping ground we call home.

Technorati: Proton, Malaysia, business, GM

Lack of Investment & Financial Freedom drags down Malaysia's "Freest Economy" Ranking

2007-01-17T12:51:00.000+08:00

The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal's annual index of Economic Freedom has once again placed Hong Kong at the top of the list followed by Singapore.

Malaysia has shown some improvement to climb to 48th place from 68th position last year. As usual, we fared badly in terms of Investment Freedom & Financial Freedom (which should come as no surprise to us).

Restrictive Foreign Investment guidelines, bumiputera equity rulings as well as restrictions on foreign involvemment in the financial industry are cited as the main reasons for the low scores.

Our Corruption index doesn't score well either and with so little being done to police this in the corporate world, don't hold your breath for much improvements in the near future.

At least we can say we are the 8th freest economy in Asia!

Technorati: economy, Malaysia , business

GM interested in Proton: The longer we delay, the less attractive Proton becomes

2007-01-16T15:46:00.000+08:00

So now GM, the world's largest automobile company is apparently interested in Proton. And the main thing going for our beleaguered and overprotected national car is its share of the local market say analysts.

Which means the longer our government and concerned parties twiddle their thumbs and procrastinate over Proton's fate, the less valuable it will be. Perodua, with its more focused marketing and arguably better leadership, has already assumed the mantle of market leader.

For many Malaysians who have been forced to buy aging japanese and french platforms remodelled as new protons, this is poetic justice. But as we have discovered, years of protectionism have now made it extremely difficult to reduce the price of cars overnight without destroying the value of the millions of existing cars on the roads now.

Get with it Pak Lah. Sell Proton before nobody wants it.

Technorati: Proton, Malaysia, GM

The difference between local and foreign banks in Malaysia

2007-01-12T11:00:00.000+08:00

A recent attempt to send some money back for my maid by Telegraphic Transfer via a local bank, illustrates the negative effects of protecting a market too much (in this case the banks.)

Local Bank:

Ask counter officer if you can apply for T/T online
Officer answers No.
Ask for T/T application form.
Indicate you want to pay from your account.
Officer checks and says you can only do that from your Branch!
However she says you can pay by cheque or cash
Chequebook in office.
Drive back to office.
Pick up Chequebook
Drive back to bank.
Write cheque for payment for T/T
Bank officer tells you have to pay RM5 extra for cash cheque due to the extra handling
Look blankly at officer.
Quietly pay up.
Wait for officer to look up the Indon bank branch on her computer
Officer gives up after 10 minutes of looking and suggests she just posts it to the Jakarta Main branch.
Look blankly at officer and agree.
Wait for signature from bank officer
Transaction is processed
Pick up copy of receipt.
END

Foreign Bank:

Go Online
Click on Transfers
Click on T/T
Fill up online form and indicate amount of transfer
Click ok
Choose whether to pick up T/T at the branch or have it sent to you via Registered Post.
END

Of late, Bank Negara appears to be delivering on its promise of liberalising the banking sector, with banks like HSBC jostling to open new branches. All I can say is, it can't come any sooner.

If a consumer like myself struggles for a relatively simple personal transaction, I shudder to think the experiences business owners go through.

Technorati: banks, malaysia

Fernandes: Air Asia to be bigger than Singapore Airlines

2007-01-11T13:48:00.000+08:00

AirAsia head honcho Tony Fernandes has been quoted as saying that Air Asia will carry more passengers than the likes of Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific by next year and be the largest asian airline by 2013 or 2014!

The IHT hasn't yet been able to confirm the statement with Tony Fernandes but it does sound like the man would say something like that.

I would imagine if his AirAsia X takes off in the same spectacular way as the original, he would seriously not have any problems achieving that. As it is, AirAsia already trumps SIA in a recent brand survey.

Have you queued up for your free tickets yet by the way?

Technorati: AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, Malaysia

BBC: Will Mandarin change the status of English as a global language?

2007-01-11T01:29:00.000+08:00

The BBC reports that in just 5 years, the number of non-Chinese learning Mandarin has soared to 30 million and wonders aloud whether it will effect the position of English as the Global Language.

While we know this isn't likely to happen in the next year or two, it should still be good fodder for local chinese educationists to continue their lonely struggle for vernacular schools and may throw a spanner into the works of kris-waving Education Minister Hishammudin Hussein Onn in his search for a cohesive national education agenda.

It should also give some meaning to MCA's continued existence as they seek to keep themselves relevant in a country where their demographic interest shrinks by the day.

For me, a self-confessed banana (yellow on the outside but white on the inside) who is at best fluent in reading chinese menus, this sort of news does make me think ever more seriously about sending my two young sons to chinese schools when the time comes.

As the BBC report says:

"A thousand years ago, people would have said it would be absurd that Latin would not be spoken in 1,000 years' time. But we know that has happened. It can only take 100 years or so for the language balance of power to shift.

Zai Jian.

Apple enters the mobile phone market

2007-01-10T14:12:00.000+08:00

At last the rumours have come true - Apple with its iPhone is entering a savagely competitive market where many have tried and died.

By all accounts the Apple brand should be able to attract a diehard loyalist crowd but one wonders how the rest of the world will take to entering SMS's with a virtual QWERTY keyboard. Certainly not one that can be used for sms whilst driving that's for sure which is probably what Malaysians are most notorious for!

And by the time the iPhone reaches Malaysia, I'm sure the other big guys would have caught up with similar devices.

Technorati: Apple iPhone, Malaysia

The incredible burning furniture malls of Malaysia

2006-12-30T18:05:00.000+08:00

I don't have statistics on hand but it seems Malaysian furniture malls are very susceptible to being burned. This one along Jalan Ipoh is the third furniture mall that I know which has been gutted in less than 2 years. The other 2 were at Old Klang Road and opposite Desa Seri Petaling.

Are our fire safety regulations so poor that these large malls can burn down so easily? This particular one, called the Sky River Interior World Centre, lasted less than 2 years before it went up in flames in just one night. It's a miracle that nobody gets hurt.

Failed business? A quick way out of debt? Who knows. I just feel sorry for the people who have placed deposits on furniture to find their new acquisitions go up in smoke the next day.

Technorati: Malaysia, fire

Malaysian overseas listings increase; Bursa worried

2006-12-26T09:42:00.000+08:00

UMNO mouthpiece NST wonders aloud why good quality Malaysian firms are increasingly seeking to list overseas. This is not new ground. The Edge had long covered this phenomenon some months back and also in their latest end-of-year bumper print edition.

While many of us know that a key consideration for companies to list overseas is to avoid having to surrender 30% of their hard-earned equity to UMNO patrons, the NST suggests that greed could be a key motivator - or as they put it "the ability to get more money from investors".

The Edge cites regulatory hurdles from many different bodies as another reason for the flight abroad.

Even politically linked Scomi Group and Ranhill Berhad have gone to the Singapore and London bourses respectively.

Wise up Bursa & UMNO. In an increasingly flat world, local businesses that didn't have any choice before, will now pack and leave to where it makes economic sense for them.

Blessed Christmas and a Great New Year Ahead

2006-12-25T19:10:00.000+08:00

Blessed Christmas to all who come by here. Hopefully, the season is more meaningful than all the commercial busyness we see in our malls at this time of year.

Here's looking forward to a great 2007.

So what’s the big deal about entrepreneurs?

2006-12-15T17:08:00.000+08:00

Looks like entrepreneurs aren’t so special a breed after all as they have been made out to be.

According to a study quoted in this Wharton article, entrepreneurs aren’t as risk-taking as we think they are; in fact they try to manage risk. Also, instead of having a secret method of succeeding at every venture, they often fail the second time round.

Also, interestingly, the more you are an ‘outsider’, the more likely you are to be an entrepreneur. This, to those of us who are labelled kaum pendatang (immigrants) in Malaysia, should not be a surprise.

The logic apparently, is that if you are part of the establishment, you stand to GIVE UP a lot by being an entrepreneur. So, according to this gentleman, you are more likely to start your own business in the US if you are a member of any of the following groups: minorities, immigrants, gays and lesbians.

Makes perfect sense to me.

Technorati: Malaysia, entrepreneurship,

IHT: Indonesia's Chinese community emerges after years of violence and discrimination

2006-12-14T09:50:00.000+08:00

Remarkable for a country that not long ago persecuted its Chinese minority with near sadistic enthusiasm and viewed it with suspicion.

Today, Indonesian Chinese can actually say :

"The situation of the Chinese has never been as good as today," said Benny Setiono, head of the Chinese Indonesian Association, a nonprofit group that represents the community. "We feel more free, more equal."

And for some interesting contrast,

"Other laws have erased the preferential treatment for "pribumi," or indigenous groups, in bank lending and the awarding of government contracts, a policy that still exists in Malaysia, where racial tensions are creeping higher." (highlights my own)

Read on here.

Technorati: Indonesia, malaysia, overseas chinese

Is marketing to children making them more miserable?

2006-12-12T14:34:00.000+08:00

In the UK, a new report on the “Commercialisation of Childhood” warns that children are rapidly becoming the innocent targets of companies hungry for their business, to the point that where 70% of them can recognise the McDonalds logo, only half remember their own surnames.

Worse still, the evidence suggests that being bombarded with images of how they should look and what they should have, children struggle to keep up resulting in higher rates of depression. Not to mention the conflicts that arise when cash-strapped parents have to say no.

Both the Guardian & the Telegraph have their bits to say about this worrying trend.

We are beginning to see this happen in Malaysia too - for example, my three and half year old son has already started to receive direct mails from the company that makes his milk formula. He’s given fridge magnets and stickers on a regular basis, reminding him of his loyalty to the brand.

Those of us who are parents need to guard our children against the excesses of a consumerist society. Businesses who market to children need to realize that they must approach this issue in a responsible manner and that the almighty dollar must not overshadow even their morality.

technorati: malaysia, children, consumerist

Why am I such a magnet for network marketers??

2006-12-11T15:06:00.000+08:00

I wonder why I am such a magnet for network marketing recruiters.

An ex-colleague whom I bumped into at a shopping centre asked for my business card which was innocent enough. Lo and behold, a month later, an sms comes in and this exchange follows:

Ex coll: “are you and your wife free this week?”

Me: “er no – we have quite a busy schedule. Anything urgent?”

Ex coll: “well I just joined a company dealing with xxxxx Cleaner. I need to do a few demos to qualify as an agent.”

Me: “er no thanks. Not interested”

Ex coll: “don’t worry I’m not going to sell you anything. Just need to show you how this machine works and improves the air quality in your house”.

Me: “er no thanks. Seriously.”

Ex coll: “A no obligation and free demo – pls help me qualify as an agent”

Ex coll: “in fact company going to pay me RM100 just to demo. You don’t need to buy anything. Just take a look.Can you help me?”

Me: “hey really no thanks. Sorry”

End of sms trail.

All I can say is that if you are in network marketing and phenomenally successful, you have my admiration for being so freakingly persistent and thick skinned that you can do this on a daily schedule and not tire.

Technorati: network marketing, malaysia

Economist: UMNO-led Malaysia slipping down the competitive league

2006-12-07T11:15:00.000+08:00

The venerable Economist sheds some light on Malaysia's struggle to regain some economic clout as it falls down the ranks of competitiveness.

It points out something that many of us Malaysians already know - that chauvinists and rabble-rousing back-benchers in UMNO's ranks and their vociferous complaints against reforming government-linked companies (like the close-to-death Proton), are turning away both domestic and foreign direct investment in the country.

The article also calls for a *gasp* review of the social contract to stop the races from further polarisation but says that there is a lack of momentum even here.

For as long as there is some form of economic growth, Malaysia can still get away with all these sins. But once another 1998 comes, what will happen to us?

* Pix from the Economist

technorati: Malaysia, NEP

Small and Medium Thoughts is almost a year old!

2006-12-03T23:53:00.000+08:00

Well, I should have waited for the actual day but I couldn't resist. I've given the blog a new skin to celebrate its upcoming 1st birthday.

Amazing - I never thought I'd last so long. It's still fun and I imagine I'll continue to do this for as long as there are useful thoughts about the economy and SMEs in malaysia that I can share.

Thanks for reading small and medium thoughts!

Polarised nation: Malaysian SMEs forced into racial silos

2006-11-30T17:43:00.000+08:00

Many people might read this piece of news (the MCA having to step in to help non-bumi SMEs) as a positive development but I was personally quite saddened by it.

Because of our so-called social contract, our business environment has been forced into racial silos where companies (and literally where and how they can do their business) are governed by their owners' racial origins.

Declare yourself a bumi company and the gates of government largesse open up to you (click here for this Treasury letter to all local government heads indicating that only local bumi manufacturers of street lamps should be used).

If not, then be prepared to surrender at least 30% of your equity should you decide to list on the local stock exchange or bring in a foreign partner.

Also, be prepared to be actively discriminated against if you are in strategic sectors such as oil & gas or have idiots spread nasty rumours that your food products will corrupt the faithful.

Sigh.

technorati: SMEs, malaysia, race

Mengamuk - a uniquely Malaysian thing

2006-11-24T10:41:00.000+08:00

Why should any one race claim exclusive rights to ‘mengamuk’ (run amok or go into a murderous frenzy)?

If UMNO is to be believed, the Malay race can always fall back to their ability to run amok should they feel threatened.

But if one race runs amok, then does it mean the others stand by helplessly while feeling the full assault of the frenzy?

If this blanket threat holds true, the entire nation would have self-destructed by now as ordinary bumiputera systematically explode at the slightest provocation.

I looked up the definition of the word and found an amusing entry in the Merriam Webster online dictionary:

Etymology: Malay amok:
a murderous frenzy that has traditionally been regarded as occurring especially in Malaysian culture

You see, even international publishers agrees that this is a Malaysian thing and should not be monopolized by just one race.

Swallow your words UMNO, or I'll run amok.

Technorati: UMNO, Malaysia, amok

Citibank Survey: Small businesses looking to professional managers

2006-11-23T16:54:00.000+08:00

In a rather surprising finding, 40% of Singapore SME's plan to pass their business to professional managers instead of handing them down to family members.

This thinking is echoed by other Asian (namely Malaysia, Hong Kong, India and South Korea) SMEs that were sampled by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of Citibank.

In the same breath however, SMEs are aware that attracting the right talent and staff is a challenge as they cannot match up to the superior resources of larger corporations.

Dare I say, unsurprisingly, money, for the Singaporeans is the greatest draw for enterpreneurship followed by a sense of personal achievement. The Asian average is a reversal of this - i.e. personal achievement is rated higher than money.

Tags: SMEs, Malaysia, Singapore

The Age: While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry

2006-11-16T12:59:00.000+08:00

Amid the racist drivel coming out from Umno Youth and their sycophants at the current General Assembly, it is evident the rest of the world is running out of patience.

This article, provocatively titled "The Cesspit of Malay Politics" in the Asia Sentinel talks about the moral decline of the ruling party and how increasingly out of touch its leaders are with its less well off populace.

This second article in Melbourne's the Age, pours scorn on the NEP.

Read and be enlightened.

technorati: malaysia, NEP

Malaysia among Top 20 Happiest Nations in the World

2006-11-08T14:52:00.000+08:00

Racial issues and accusations of corruption in the government aside, it appears we Malaysians are a happy lot if this survey is to be believed.

Coming in at a creditable no.17 overall, we are third only to Bhutan and Brunei as the happiest Asian nation in a list dominated by wealthier European states.

The survey conducted by Adrian White of the University of Leiceser, also found that a nation's level of happiness was most closely associated with health levels, prosperity and education.

It was not mentioned where Singapore was placed.

Technorati: Happiness, Malaysia

Air Asia Trumps Singapore Airlines in Brand Survey

2006-11-02T18:18:00.000+08:00

Here's one for the little guys (yep, that's the SMEs!)

Coming in at the 71st spot, AirAsia has trumped Singapore Airlines (no. 74) - at least according to the latest Synovate Asia's Top 1,000 Brands survey .

Not a bad feat for a home-grown budget airline which with its RM666 million revenue (2005) barely comes near the titanic SIA, with its S$13,341 million revenue (or more than 40 times its size!).

The SIA brand guys must be shivering in their seats now since they outspend AirAsia by a significant quantum.

Race-based Income Tax System Unthinkable?

2006-11-02T12:44:00.000+08:00

If you’ve read this week’s edition of the Edge, you might have come across an interesting Citicorp report on the sleepy state of the Malaysian economy and the lacklustre performance of its stock exchange.

One of the recommendations by the analyst caught my attention (“Regaining Investor Confidence”, page 64): that a race-based income tax system would be an even more efficient substitute to the current market-intrusive equity ‘seizing’ nature of the NEP.

How I understand it, is that in this type of income tax regime, you would be subject to different income tax structures based on your race. So, naturally, if you are a bumiputera you will end up on another tax scale, paying less tax than your less fortunate ‘later-immigrant’ countrymen.

At first glance, it looks terrible, reeking of political incorrectness and racial discrimination on the highest levels.

However, if introducing such a system means that businesses no longer need to set aside 30% of their equity in perpetuity for bumi patrons of the ruling party, nebulous racial equity targets are dismantled and that there will only be one housing price for every Malaysian, then it may not seem that bad after all.

After all, as far as I can see in the current personal income tax system, Muslim bumiputera are already allowed to deduct their total zakat or tithe contributions off their payable tax, and not just dock it off taxable income like how the rest of us infidels have to treat our tax-free donations.

In that light, it is not entirely inconceivable why a race-based tax system should not be introduced provided all the other cumbersome requirements of the current NEP are done away with. It could also mitigate political fallout from an NEP withdrawal because it is essentially another form of preferential treatment.

Tough times call for tough and out-of-the-box measures but are Malaysians mature enough to accept them?

Technorati: Malaysia, NEP, race

HK Accountants rapping

2006-11-01T11:11:00.000+08:00

HK accountants hamming it up in this rap send up on YouTube. Hey, where are our MICPA rappers??

The Other Malaysia: Farish Noor's new site

2006-10-27T15:26:00.000+08:00

Come one, come all.

Malaysia's resident thinker Farish Noor has started off his own website aptly called "The Other Malaysia"

Have a good read. I love his articles.

Technorati: Farish Noor, Malaysia

Surely not EVERYTHING can be sold via Direct Marketing!

2006-10-25T16:40:00.000+08:00

The next time a long-lost acquaintance calls you up and says he/she wants to meet up with you, be on your guard. The one time that I did it, I ended up being propositioned to join a network marketing group to sell, of all things, massaging showers!

Massaging showers. What more invasive and taboo-inducing product could these direct marketers think of!

In fact, my so-called long-lost acquaintance had invited me over to his apartment for tea and then when I was there, suggested that I take a shower to experience the benefits of his miracle equipment!

I declined of course, being freaked out in so many ways at the thought of a) having to shower at a stranger's apartment and b) being held at ransom mid-shower and asked to sign on the dotted line.

I can't imagine him or his uplines having much success in this business, especially if you need your prospects to take a shower before they decide!

Tags: direct selling, network marketing

Happy Deepavali & Selamat Hari Raya

2006-10-25T16:35:00.000+08:00

I know I'm a little late, but it comes from the heart. Happy Deepavali & Selamat Hari Raya to my fellow Malaysians. Hope everyone has a good break and comes back recharged and refreshed.

"Malaysia’s Ethnic Reality Under Scrutiny"

2006-10-13T13:32:00.000+08:00

Read all about it here.

I love the concluding remarks. Couldn't have expressed it better!

"Many people, Malay, Chinese or Indians, who make up the third of Malaysia’s main ethnic groups, complain among themselves that the NEP resulted in a gilded superclass of bumi corporate figures who do nothing but collect their salaries and stock options and let others do the work. The rank-and-file bumis, they say, remain at the lower end of the economic spectrum, living in rural communities or ramshackle parts of the cities.
But that is a subject no official seems willing to discuss. "

The Asian Sentinel, from which this quote came from, is an independent online news platform helmed by respectable former journalists and editors. Kudos to them for wanting to keep news independent and unbiased.

Technorati: Malaysia, race, NEP

ASLI's head of Research resigns over bumi equity report: Quick download before it's taken offline!

2006-10-12T11:00:00.000+08:00

It had to happen.

Unable to agree with ASLI's President Mirzan Mahathir's statement that "there were shortcomings in assumption and calculation" in the equity report, the think tank's Head of Centre for Public Policy Studies Dr Lim Teck Ghee has done the honorable thing and resigned.

Although our resident rabble rouser and self-proclaimed race champion has decided to use the haze as his latest political platform, it is obvious that the powers-that-be have exerted some pressure on the think tank to take some sort of action for daring to speak out against that most hallowed of rice bowls, the NEP.

If I were you, I'd download the report for posterity NOW before it's taken offline.

Technorati: Malaysia, politics, NEP, race

Why Malaysia must change - the global demand for Talent

2006-10-11T12:15:00.000+08:00

Yet another reason why I think Malaysia has little or no choice but to change its economic policies, New or otherwise.

Talent is the world's most sought after commodity and if our country continues to put up artificial roadblocks to our brainiest and most talented in the name of social restructuring, then we can wave goodbye to our competitiveness forever.

Read this quote from the Economist article:

"Even governments have got the talent bug. Rich countries have progressed from simply relaxing their immigration laws to actively luring highly qualified people. Most of them are using their universities as magnets for talent. India and China are trying to entice back some of their brightest people from abroad. Singapore's Ministry of Manpower even has an international talent division."

McKinsey estimates that the number of American jobs that emphasise “tacit interactions” (complex interactions requiring a high level of judgment over the past six years has grown two and a half times as fast as the number of transactional jobs and three times as fast as employment in general.

"These jobs now make up some 40% of the American labour market and account for 70% of the jobs created since 1998. And the same sort of thing is bound to happen in developing countries as they get richer."

The sooner our governement wakes up to these realities the better.

Technorati: talent, Malaysia.

ASLI says bumis already own 45% of Corporate Equity in Malaysia

2006-10-09T11:16:00.000+08:00

When the legitimacy of your government has been established by making your majority voters believe they need you to protect their rice bowl, you will do everything you can to defend this position when it is called into question.

Worse still when it threatens the well-oiled corporate machinery of patronage and rent-seeking from which a minority have obviously benefited.

So it is with this country.

When an independent think tank comes out and advises the government that they should seriously review the way they measure wealth distribution, you will do all you can to call into question the viability of that think tank’s findings.

As part of his defence against a report by ASLI, that bumiputeras already own 45% of corporate assets in this country (and therefore have far exceeded the NEP plans) the PM declared that Malaysian Government Linked Companies (GLCs) should not be considered bumiputera companies.

Oh right, and just last year this is what he has to say about the programme to transform our GLCs:

"The programme [to transform GLCs] will promote many national development priorities including the development of a more competitive and resilient Bumiputera enterprise community to the creation of better skilled Bumiputera managers and employees, more capable Bumiputera vendors and suppliers and the like," he said.

I don’t see how a GLC can be seen to be anything other than upholding the interests of the bumiputera community when the PM himself links the community three times in one sentence with GLCs.

Do we ever hear of how a GLC will help ensure that non-bumis preserve their 40% entitlement of the economy? Nada.

As our economy falls down the rungs of world competitiveness and our universities continue to plummet in global rankings, our racial equity restructuring policies must surely be reviewed to make them relevant in this day and age.

Technorati: Malaysia, competitiveness.

Tesco versus Bill Gates

2006-10-03T21:02:00.000+08:00

UK Supermarket giant Tesco plans to challenge Bill Gates in the packaged software business.

Major Tesco stores in the UK will soon sell Tesco Software which has been developed by Cambridge-based Formjet PLC. Interestingly, Formjet has also announced a partnership with a Malaysian company, Celframe Information Technologies to market its products in the Asian Region under the Celframe brand. I would laugh my head off if it was any other company, but Tesco has been powering on with recently declared profits of £1.15 billion, and showing strong growth in non-food sales, which increased by 12.6% to £3.5bn.

Maybe our UMNO-led government was right in being worried about the ever expanding presence of hypermarkets in our country. One can imagine what damage they would do to their rent-seeking support base.
Technorati: Microsoft, Tesco, software, supermarket

Corporatespeak pet peeves

2006-10-01T23:21:00.000+08:00

Reading Jeremy Wagstaff’s blog about his most hated ‘buzzwords’, I thought I’d share my own list of cringe-inducing corporatespeak for your reading pressure.

Ecosystem
I’m always told about how we should create an ecosystem for our products, supposedly so they can thrive in a so-called ‘autopilot’ mode. Well, the only ecosystem I know is dying and we’re all going to die in floods and mudslides.
Offline
As in “let’s take this offline”, meaning let’s deal with this after the meeting. Since when have we ever gone online in meetings? Does going offline mean we’ll ever take action on it or is it going to be conveniently forgotten in the graveyard of corporate to-do’s?
Pencil in
As in please ‘pencil in these dates in your diary’. How many of us still use pencils in the office – I mean seriously. I suppose this is for those of us who can’t stand commitments and will cancel at any given opportunity.

Will Bangkok's new airport further dampen's KLIA's hub hopes?

2006-09-28T15:30:00.000+08:00

KLIA: Spot the 5-star airlines.

Bangkok's spanking new Suvarnabhummi (or Golden Land) Airport opens for service today. Though beset with delays and rumours of corruption as well as being the brainchild of its newly ousted Prime Minister Thaksin, the first day of operation seems to be have gone smoothly, with only some delays in baggage-handling.

The $4bn airport is now the largest in South East Asia, and is capable of handling 76 flights per hour and 45 million passengers per year. It will certainly boost Bangkok's already popular status as a holiday destination of choice and as the second most popular hub in the region after Singapore's Changi.

KLIA will have to settle for third place and be content in developing a niche focus on Middle-Eastern passengers and spillover hub traffic for passengers who don't manage to get their connections via the other two cities.

technorati: bangkok, singapore, kuala lumpur, airport

Sonic Teenager Deterrent finds ringtone & dancetrack success

2006-09-28T14:42:00.000+08:00

What will the brits think of next. Remember my posting on the Sonic Teeanger Deterrent or the Mosquito? Well, it's apparently now found new popularity as a dancetrack following its success as a mobile phone ringtone!

The BBC reports that the sound is being used in a dance track, Buzzin', with secret melodies only young ears can hear as a cool exclusion to older ears.

Loan Sharks slash rates to keep up with competition

2006-09-28T10:17:00.000+08:00

I was pretty amused by the Headline Story in today's Star that Loan Sharks (or as they are more popularly known, Ah longs) are beginning to slash their rates to keep up with aggressive competition from banks.

Quoting someone called "Ah Meng", the paper reports that loan sharks are driving down their interest rates to as low as 5% per month, from their usual 30% just to stay ahead of competition from banks who are offering attractive personal loans.

In fact it was once reported that many local businesses had to resort to loan sharks since banks and other financial institutions had turned them down so often.

Which only serves to confirm that banks and Ah longs serve a common purpose: supply broke folks with money and squeeze the life out of them when they fail to pay up together with the exorbitant interest.

I know full well what it's like with a massive home loan to repay. Try missing one instalment and see what happens... :)

technorati: loan sharks.

Write a letter to yourself - In the Future!

2006-09-25T13:33:00.000+08:00

Want to tell yourself to be a millionaire by the time you are aged 40? Well, write an email to yourself at this nifty little site and you'll be sent an email when you enter your 4th decade.

Futureme.org is a brainchild of Matt Sly and Jay Patrikios, when Mr Sly was a teacher in San Francisco trying to devise a project for his pupils.

So start writing those dreams down and read them 10 years in the future!

1.2 million illegal Indon Workers in Malaysia

2006-09-21T15:44:00.000+08:00

First of all, apologies for the lack of updates. Have been busy travelling. Not to Bangkok thank goodness but not been able to update the blog.

The Jakarta Post says that 1.2 of the estimated 1.7 million Indonesians working in Malaysia are there illegally.

1.2 million! That's already about half of our Malaysian Indian population and a staggering 10% of our labour force - and I'm sure it's growing quickly.

Which leaves me to ponder - everything our SMEs and our government does, will benefit at least 1 illegal Indonesian worker out of 10 workers.

Technorati tags: illegal workers, Indonesia, Malaysia

Singapore: the Best Place to do business

2006-09-06T15:48:00.000+08:00

Yet again our neighbours down south have won another feather in the business cap. The World Bank has ranked them no. 1 in the world for overall ease of doing business. Fuller details and individual country rankings here.

And where does Malaysia stand? No 25 - unchanged from last year. In the region, Thailand ranks ahead of us.

If you study the detail we have particularly appalling ratings on "Dealing with Licenses" and "Enforcing Contracts" while we do quite well in "Getting Credit" (surprise, surprise!) and "Protecting Investors".

The main indicators for "Dealing with Licenses" are:

all procedures to build a warehouse,
average time spent during each procedure,
and official cost of each procedure

Whereas the main indicators for "Enforcing Contracts" are:

number of procedures from the moment the plaintiff files a lawsuit in court until the moment of payment
time in calendar days to resolve the dispute,
and cost in court fees and attorney fees, where the use of attorneys is mandatory or common, expressed as a percentage of the debt value.

Sobering isn't it, especially when our International Trade & Industry Minister is asking foreign investors to go elsewhere.

Technorati: investors, Malaysia, business.

Recurring revenue: breakfast of champion smes

2006-09-06T12:15:00.000+08:00

“Would you like to sign up for a course?” the lady asked before giving me my haircut. “Huh? What course? I don’t need to take any lessons in hairdressing surely?” “No, no – not that kind of course lah. You sign up a course of 10 sessions and we give you a special discount rate for your haircuts lah!”
“Oh I see!”

What had started off as a budget conscious consumer (i.e. yours truly) wanting to take advantage of a RM9.99 haircut, ended up as a lesson in recurring revenue.

It appears everyone is getting into the act, including hairstylists. Recurring revenue, for the uninformed, is simply revenue from a consumer/subscriber that is certain to continue in the future. Our newspaper delivery man is most familiar with it and so are our incumbent telco operators and utility providers who bill us on a monthly basis.

Recurring revenue builds a healthy, dependable income stream into the business and allows companies to operate with a lot more certainty. It’s a direct way to instill customer loyalty, effectively tying people to your company’s services for a longer period of time.

It also impresses the socks off potential investors/lenders when they see a healthy bank of future income in your business.

So how can a business owner build some form of recurring revenue into their service offering?

If you sell products, offer a 12 month maintenance program which the consumer can opt for (e.g. If you sell aircons, offer a monthly maintenance and cleaning service).
In a cut-throat, me-too business such as groceries or stationery? Value-add by offering additional services like deliveries for regular customers or doing a fortnightly no-obligations visit to the office and offer to replenish their supplies.
If you sell services, package them so as to reward frequent visits (e.g. 1 treatment/visit for RM40 but 3 visits for RM90 total etc.)
Reward loyalty. Minimise one-off deals which only benefit deal seekers who won’t be loyal to you anyway. Invest your money in customers who will give you superior lifetime value.
Do your maths well and you could even offer your product for free as long as your customer pays a monthly service fee. Drinks dispenser manufacturers offer their units for free as long as you buy the supplies and refills from them. Once you cancel the contract, they take back the product.

Look to create long term value and not just one-off deals and you will be able to build a more profitable and secure business.

Technorati: revenue, SMEs, entrepreneurship, business

Will floods & traffic drive online shopping boom in Malaysia?

2006-09-02T18:44:00.000+08:00

Don't laugh. Britain's surging online retail market has been partly attributed to the fact that its citizens prefer to stay indoors because of their infamous weather.

I was caught in the massive jam last week on the KL-Seremban highway, sitting along with thousands of motorists for at least 3 hours trying to get home and being prevented from doing so by the flash floods at Sg Besi. All thoughts of buying groceries on the way home fell to bits when it became depressingly clear that no-one was going anywhere in a hurry.

So if weather is such a good driver for online shopping, then why hasn't it caught on in this country?

Connectivity for one. We still struggle with a low penetration of broadband usage in our households (about 8% versus say 25% for South Korea, or the massive 55% for the UK).

Secondly, there are hardly any local online shopping sites to speak of. A quick Google search unearthed this grocery site and even then, it's been suspended.

However, according to an AC Nielsen report, more than 55% of Malaysian online shoppers buy airtickets on the internet! Must be thanks in no small part to the aggressive marketing efforts of Air Asia.

Overall, however, if you see what people buy globally, it remains clear why Malaysians are generally still slow in taking to online shopping:

"Across the globe, the most popular items purchased on the Internet are books (34%), followed by videos/DVDs/games (22%), airline tickets/reservations (21%) and clothing/accessories/shoes (20%)."

Books: It's a well-known fact that Malaysians don't read. Magazines and newspapers are NOT included thank you very much.
Videos/DVD's/Games: The local Low Yat hole-in-the-wall stalls boast a better uncensored variety at a fraction of the price.
Airline tickets: Okay, since there still aren't any convincing fakes of this around, we do quite well here.
Clothing/Accessories/Shoes: Now which Malaysian woman would want to be deprived of the sensory delights of our gorgeous malls and do something as boring as shop for her clothes on the net???

Technorati: Online shopping, Malaysia

Oil Income allows for expansionary Budget

2006-09-02T18:08:00.000+08:00

Well, at least all those petrol price increases have resulted in something beneficial - at least for malaysian businesses.

For the first time in 9 years, the government has cut corporate tax by 1% from 28% to 27% in 2007. There will be another 1% cut in 2008. While there were no personal tax cuts, analysts expect that this might happen when GST is finally implemented in about 3 years time.

Though there are no additional goodies for SME's in general, those in the biotechnology field will get 10 years tax exemption.

Technorati: Budget, taxes, Malaysia

Happy 49th Malaysia

2006-09-01T11:34:00.000+08:00

A bit belated I know but technology in the form of a dead copper line at home prevented me from uploading this earlier.

Anyway, my 3 wishes on our nation's birthday:

Less government involvement in business - leave business to business people.
Less crutch-inducing policies for this country.
Less irresponsible race-based politicians who only care about their selfish ambitions.

Selamat Merdeka Malaysia.

P.s. Thanks to Chronosight for that nifty little jalur gemilang badge on the top right hand corner!

Web-based accounting: Google's next service?

2006-08-29T12:19:00.000+08:00

Google is making an aggressive drive into the software world with its slew of web-based offerings which, aside from its core search-engine & email service, now includes a word processor, spreadsheet and even 3D Mapping!

This ZDNet article asks whether Google's next sights will be set on launching a web-based financial and accounting application to counter the likes of Intuit's Quickbooks and Microsoft's newly launched Small Business Accounting.

While a free service might be a boon to SME's, the issues of privacy and personal data integrity continue to haunt Google - especially when it involves companies' financial data.

Accounting & finance software is generally hard to mass market across different countries due to differing standards. Companies like Intuit and Sage have grown big because they succeeded in dominating their home markets (US & UK respectively) and expanded globally from that strong base - and even then, that expansion was largely fuelled by acquisitions of local software vendors (e.g. Sage swallowing up UBS in Malaysia).

In the virtual world, Google has demonstrated its capability to dominate in applications which are generic in nature and do not require too many degrees of customisation to make them work. According to the same ZDNet report, their foray into the cash register business with Google Checkout is proving to be a bit of a nightmare for them.

For now, it appears local accounting software companies can still rest assured that their increasingly-arcane way of selling boxed software will probably remain secure for some time. Even more so in Malaysia where SME's are still in the early stages of using the internet for business.

Technorati tag: Google, Intuit, Microsoft, Sage, Malaysia, SMEs

Ugly Mint Hotel gets new buyer

2006-08-29T10:40:00.000+08:00

Many KL-ites would be all too familiar with this giant shed bearing the unusual name of Mint Hotel.

The Mint Hotel stands in all its crass ugliness at the southern gateway to KL, being probably the first major building motorists see from the KL-Seremban Highway toll.

For some time now, this hotel has been under receivership and I for one was eagerly hoping some white knight would step in, level this eyesore and put up a more decent design worthy of its southern gateway status.

Then comes the news that the Lotus Group of restaurants has succeeded in its bid to buy over the hotel. Now while I can vouch for the good food the Lotus Restaurant serves, I honestly can't comment much about their hotel management abilities though they do have a 2-star hotel in Jln Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

I only hope they will do something about the building - heck even a giant lotus would be better than the shapeless hulk that is currently there.

Technorati tag: architecture, hotel, Malaysia

Building strong local brands? Look at these logos!

2006-08-28T13:35:00.000+08:00

Have any of you ever stopped to look at some of our local corporate logos and building designs?

Amid recent calls by our government to take 100 local brands abroad, I think they better consult an expert in anthropomorphism before developing their logos.

Here are some classic examples:

1) Ericsson's Cyberjaya buildings and traditional chinese coffins

2) Inokom's Corporate Logo and a Middle Finger

Imagine driving your inokom in town and people see this in the rearview mirror. Someone had better do a market study on whether Inokom vehicles cause more road rage than others!

3) Kurnia Insurance logo and a shark's fin.

A terrible choice of logo especially for an insurance company. Sign up with us and be prepared to be eaten alive!

Rafidah to foreign investors: Can't accept the 30% bumi stake? Go elsewhere

2006-08-24T21:43:00.000+08:00

Malaysia's so-called Iron Lady, International Trade & Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz has advised foreign investors that if they can't accept the 30% bumiputra equity requirement, they "can go elsewhere".

Strong words indeed which may have been spurred by news that under the Second Industrial Master Plan, Malaysia had attracted total investments of RM260 billion in manufacturing activities, exceeding its target of RM250 billion.

Her new-found assertiveness could also be derived from the fact that foreign direct investment into ASEAN rose to US$38 billion - the highest level in a decade.

She would do well to remember that China, India & Indochina are all waiting in the wings, eager to become the "elsewhere"foreigners can take their money to.

Technorati: Malaysia, ASEAN.

Blackberry Addiction similar to drugs!

2006-08-23T15:12:00.000+08:00

According to this report, these ubiquitous portable email devices can be as addictive as drugs!

What started out as a convenience for business people on the go, has developed into a dangerous addiction where sufferers are able to survive only a few minutes without checking for new mail and only being able to focus on their Blackberry, ignoring those around them.

The phenomenon is still relatively new in this part of the world but with recent promotions by both Maxis & Celcom, it looks like Blackberry addiction is going to hit our business people sooner than later!

Technorati: Blackberry, hooked on email, addictions

Malaysia wants its Jimmy Choos to come home

2006-08-22T17:15:00.000+08:00

Could this latest call for Malaysia's celebrity fashion designers and creative personalities to return home, have been prompted by the news that David Gan, well-known stylist to local celebrities, is now a Singaporean?

The call might be a bit more convincing if KL possessed the same haute couture draw as say Paris, London or New York. Heck, even if we had the same draw as Shanghai, we might stand a better chance.

Jimmy Choo by his own admission was inspired by his father who "was not just making shoes... he was creating something to do with his heart and his mind, and transferring it to the human feet. He told me that it was not just about making shoes and money. It was about being an artist. There is no point if it is not art."

You can read more about him from this 2003 Telegraph interview.

Technorati: Jimmy Choo,David Gan, Malaysia.

In Malaysia, when car prices drop, so do sales

2006-08-08T22:26:00.000+08:00

What was supposed to be good news for car buyers in Malaysia, has instead turned out to be a case of bitter irony.

Sales of cars in this country have dropped ever since the government announced sizeable reductions in duties of cars assembled in ASEAN, under the new National Automotive Policy (NAP).

The latest to fall victim to this unfortunate phenomenon is Tan Chong Motors, local distributor of Nissan cars, which despite cutting the prices of their cars by as much as 15% have just reported a drop in car sales in the second quarter of 2006 to 5,496 units from 6,705 units a year ago.

And it's not just the distributors/manufacturers that are feeling the pinch. Former poster-boy-bumiputra company and automotive harness wire maker APM Industries Holdings has fallen under receivership due to the failing fortunes of its major customer Proton, as the latter chopped its list of component vendors.

One can only guess how the smaller component vendors are faring in such difficult times.

Timing could not have been worse for the introduction of the NAP. Effectively, a trifecta of issues have emerged to counteract the potential benefits of the reductions in duty: Skyrocketing fuel prices, rising interest rates (and therefore cost of vehicle ownership) and falling used car prices.

While the first two are either finicky or impossible to control, the government can still try to turn things around by introducing a car scrapping policy into this country. Removing old cars from the market should stir demand for new cars.

Our southern neighbours already have such a system in place where car owners are allowed to use their vehicles for a period of 10 years after which they must be sent for yearly inspections to qualify for an annual license. Then, to use their cars for another 10 years they will have to get a new Certificate of Entitlement (COE) at the prevailing price.

An additional plus side is that scrapping will help to remove the smoke-belching old jalopies and rusting scrap heaps from our roads.

The major down side of introducing a scrapping policy is the idea that you no longer 'own' your vehicle, but rather you lease it from the government for that particular period. (Not that many of us really own our vehicles now of course since Malaysians are well known for their loooong car loan tenures).

The government will have to think long and hard about introducing such a scheme as it may prove politically suicidal especially if it impacts the rural population (and their votes).

79% of Malaysian SMEs are Micro enterprises

2006-08-08T16:38:00.000+08:00

The results of the first comprehensive census on Malaysian SMEs are out.

An overwhelming 99% of firms surveyed are SMEs and though they obviously do contribute to the overall economy, their productivity levels are very low, recording value-added per establishment of RM0.3 million compared with RM41 million for large enterprises.

The other interesting fact is that many of these businesses are micro enterprises, hiring fewer than 5 employees. Understandably, they have greater challenges getting funding from financial institutions, which is why 84% of the SMEs relied on their own, or internally generated funds from friends and family members. In contrast, 50% of large enterprises turned to financial institutions.

The government's take-home points for the various sectors are:

Manufacturing: Upscale and transform businesses into strong knowledge intensive and value creating entities

Agro: Focus on development of "New Agriculture" including Biotechnology.

Wholesale & Retail Trade: Provide a comprehensive supporting infrastructure for businesses in this sector including provision of business premises and services. Hopefully the Ministry of Domestic Trade & Industry won't smother this vibrant industry by vigorously pursuing its agenda against those retail businesses with 15% foreign equity and forcing them to give 30% away to UMNO supporters.

Technorati tag: smes, Malaysia

Singapore muzzles FEER & other International papers

2006-08-05T17:41:00.000+08:00

The Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) has now been classified as an 'offshore paper' in Singapore which means its circulation will be capped at 10,000 copies.

The Ministry of Information, Communications & the Arts stated that "it is a privilege, and not a right, for foreign newspapers to circulate in Singapore. They do so as foreign observers of the local scene and should not interfere in the domestic politics of Singapore."

Evidently FEER had yet again pissed off Big Brother by carrying an interview with opposition party leader Chee Soon Juan and calling him Singapore's 'Martyr' (with apostrophes intact). In it Chee proposes that the ruling PAP party is so paranoid of any form of opposition to its absolute rule because of 'skeletons in the closet'. The writer also asks whether Singapore deserves its 'squeaky-clean government' reputation by rexamining the National Kidney Foundation scandal again.

Other papers affected by this reclassification include the International Herald Tribune, Financial Times, Newsweek and TIME magazines.

Our JB newsvendors should be doing a roaring trade soon with these limited circulation publications!

The Milky Way to excellent Customer Service

2006-08-04T09:31:00.000+08:00

My recent experience with Malaysia Milk deserves a mention here.

My wife had recently bought a fresh carton of HL milk from a nearby 7-11 but when we poured it out, we found out it was rancid. A call to the 1-800 customer care line was courteously and efficiently handled and by the next day, a replacement carton of milk PLUS a bonus pack of orange juice was hand delivered to our house!

Talk about service recovery!

And as if that wasn't enough, I receiveda follow-up call from another representative yesterday explaining that they had followed up on our case and that they had discovered the refrigeration system at that particular 7-11 wasn't running at the recommended temperature. Remedial action has been taken she assured.

Great job Malaysia Milk! We need more companies like you in this country who understand the value of customer delight.

technorati tag: customer satisfaction, smes, Malaysia

The grass is greener on the other side

2006-07-26T11:08:00.000+08:00

The lady at my favourite chee cheong fun stall (that's rice flour rolls for the uninitiated) told me today how lucky I was to have a 9 to 5 job and not have to 'worry about the business.' She says that she and her husband wakes up at 3am every morning to prepare their food so that they can start selling at the market by 6am - they can't do this any earlier or the food would not be fresh.

While I would dispute her claim that employed folks 'don't worry about our business' I can only say that this is the usual story of the grass being greener on the other side. How strange we humans are. Small business owners especially those that have known no other vocation, will think that working a routine 9 to 5 job would be a welcome change for them, while those who are salarymen hanker for the day they can run their own business and call their own shots.

All I can say is that we need to embrace and do our best in our chosen vocation and if we can't continue for whatever reason, then make a clean exit and move on. Challenges are everywhere even when you're selling chee cheong fun.

Technorati: self-employment; entrepreneurs; smes

Singapore: Haven for Indonesian White Collar Criminals?

2006-07-25T23:35:00.000+08:00

So says The Age newspaper.

"But why should Singapore be slow? Probably because it is a haven for Indonesian crooks on the run, and they bring their money with them. Billions of dollars in corruptly obtained funds have flowed into Singapore's property market and its banks.

It's a sensitive matter because financial services account for 22 per cent of Singapore's economy. You can imagine the situation from Jakarta's point of view. Singapore lectures Indonesia about the importance of the rule of law while giving its criminals a haven."

Ouch.. Full story here.

Retailers with 15% foreign equity: Give bumis 30% stake

2006-07-25T21:05:00.000+08:00

So it finally happened. The Ministry of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs (they might as well change its name to the Ministry of Umno Trade & Affairs) has released guidelines for firms in the distributive trades (e.g. retailers, restaurateurs etc.) with at least 15% foreign equity; they must now restructure to ensure that bumis have at least 30% ownership. Not only that, but the entire employment and directorship structure must reflect the 'official' racial composition.

smallandmedium thoughts had earlier highlighted that this might happen here and here.

Oddly enough, the usually subservient MCA has decided to make some noise about this via its Youth Economic Bureau Chief, Datuk Henry Wong.

So as was the fate of large manufacturing companies in 1975, after you have spent years and years building up a retail business with your own blood and sweat, UMNO now wants you to surrender at least 30% of it to its supporters.

Singapore ahead of HK, Malaysia in Corporate Social Responsibility

2006-07-17T23:21:00.000+08:00

And so says the CPA Australia after interviews with 351 qualified accountants and associates in the region.

In the survey, 45% of Singapore businesses are socially responsible followed by 37% of Malaysian firms and 27% of Hong Kong firms.

Sadly, as is usually the case for SME's, the report found that "only 24 percent of [Singapore] small and medium enterprises are aware of their corporate social responsibility." This confirms the usual trend that SMEs tend to follow the lead of larger organisations given their much smaller pool of resources.

Interestingly these findings come about a week after our government announced a new Silver Book standard for GLC's to adhere to in areas of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Tenaga Nasional or TNB pioneered the study on CSR as "it appears to be on the right track to achieving its CSR policy."

Well at least it has a page dedicated to philanthropy on its website.

Technorati tag: Corporate Social Responsibility, Malaysia, Singapore