Interview with the team from Supplement Tracker

Here's an interview with Bryan and Dal, the team behind a new Singapore web startup, SupplementTracker.com

Like most active sports and fitness enthusiasts, they have found that they face the problems of finding the right supplements to take as well as the right places to buy reasonably priced supplements. Unlike the rest though, they decided to band together to create a one stop website to help ease this problem for like minded folks and create a community that is able to help itself out and share fitness and supplement related tips and tricks.

-----

W: To start off, tell me a little about your team and this website?

ST: We started this website initially to allow consumers like both you and I be able to find cheap supplements in Singapore easily. Now, Supplement Tracker is aimed at becoming a one stop supplement resource. We have a small team of dedicated individuals who are really committed. Without them, this website would not have been possible to kick off. We are expanding our team, but like every other website, we need the right people


W: What drove you both to set up such a website?

ST:We were actually sitting down and chatting over lunch when we suddenly started discussing about expensive supplements. We were complaining about how much extra money we had wasted because we didn’t know where to find cheaper supplements. It then came to our mind that we could start a website that will index all the prices of supplements in Singapore and let users find the cheapest. Supplement Tracker was thus born.


W: So, what is the value add that you feel you are providing through the website?

ST: Supplements have always been expensive, especially in Singapore. Yet, it is essential for the athlete, whether he is competing or not, because the body is in high demand of nutrients and proper supplementation satisfies this demand. What we have done is to provide an easy way of sourcing for cheaper supplements for these people. Many of our members used to get their supplements from retail stores, and through us, they got to know a whole new world of online retailers, where prices can be 40-50% cheaper than retail stores due to the reduced overheads online retailing brings! Our members are also now consolidating orders together and ordering their sports supplements from overseas online retailers, further cutting down costs, enjoying the economies of scale bulk ordering brings.


W: How do you plan to sustain this website?

ST: We plan to sustain this website through revenue earned from advertising. We hope to keep things free for our users, and we believe this is something that many other webmasters are doing these days.


W: Do you guys feel that this is going to become a full-time job for you both?

ST: Yes! We see a huge potential in the online scene in Singapore. It has not really kicked in yet, but we believe that it is slowly gaining momentum. Supplement Tracker is something Bryan and I started, it is our flesh and blood. Nothing beats working for something that belongs to you


W: How do you envision the development of the website in say, 5 years' time?

ST: Both of us have one goal in mind, which is see Supplement Tracker turn into a community of individuals, who are there to contribute and learn from each other. We also want Supplement Tracker to be an international name.


W: Any lessons you may want to share with entrepreneurs who are also looking to start up something online?

ST: Know your target audience and make sure you know what they need and want!


W: Any final words you may like to share ?

ST: I wish all budding entrepreneurs the best. Never give up!


W: Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate the team for following their ideals in coming up with SupplementTracker and wish them all the best for the future!

The Marine Corps Way - Using Maneuver Warfare to Lead a Winning Organization

Just managed to get my hands on this book and it sure is a good read whether your run an organisation or are just a part of a organisation. this book covers lessons that apply to both leaders as well as frontline staff in all types of organisations.

I didn't even know that there was a book linking maneuver warfare and business when I did this previous post of mine. But this book is great in that it offers case studies that substaintiate the seven guiding principles of maneuver warfare, which are :

1. Boldness - The daring to move majority or resources behind a caculated opportunity to achieve maximum results.
   
   
2. Surprise - To make use of ambiguity and/or stealth to strike where the opponent least expects and hence, is least ready to counteract.
   
   
3. Focus - In line with the first principle of boldness, there needs to be a focal point where all efforts are targetted at to avoid spreading out forces too thinly, resulting in a short-lived breakthrough which the opponent can react to and catch up given time.
   
   
4. Decentralized Decision Making - To build up initiative and leadership from the lowest ranks who are empowered to make split-second decisions that can affect the organisation as a whole. The key here is to applaude well-meaning attempts that failed honesty while punishing opportunities lost to indecision and inactivity.
   
   
5. Tempo - Keeping up the momentum of efforts to force the opposition into a reactionary position constantly. This allows for you to manage and choose the scenario of confrontation to your advantage. Push the opponent up against the wall to succeed.
   
   
6. Combined Arms - The tight integration of complementary assets and resources to increase synergies as well as to create a lose-lose scenario for the opponent. This calls for the different departments of an organisation to work closely with one another to capitalise on combined strength while mitigating individual weaknesses
   
   
7. Reconnaissance Pull - Making decisions based on information from the frontlines and not from upper management who may not havea glimpse of the actual situation. This is takeaway from the military where recon scouts are used to gather battlefield intelligence and spot the enemy's weak points then communicate with the followup forces to "pull' them forward through the most advantageous routes.
   

[Official Book Site : The Marine Corps Way ]

Guy Kawasaki's Interview with Steve Wozniak

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

French Parliment says "Oui" to Open Source

The French Parliment just announced it decision to drop Windows in favor of the Linux Open Source system. According to this CNET report, PCs in the French deputes' offices will move over to running the Open Source Productivity Software on the Linux OS as this move will bring about increased savings and customisability.

This trend towards open source is not new and a number of other government organisations (eg: Indian State Schools, the French Gendarmerie) and even countries themselves (like Brazil, South Korea) have jumped onto the Open Source bandwagon.

Read the full story here.

[via: Digg]

Creative Conservation Ads

Splendid creativity in advertising from Électricité de France (EDF), a power company providing electricity to France and UK to drum up awareness about how the little things can help conserve the environment ...

See the full collection of ads here : http://files.webhost.ru/stuff/edf_ad.html

[via : Treehugger ]

Research Paper Claims Piracy Drives Fashion Industry

Whenever piracy is mentioned these days, people often tend to place it in a context of occuring either in the Music, Film or Software industries. This is the uncontrovertible extent of which these industries have championed their cause for a more comprehensive Intellectual Property Protections which they claim helps to substain the incentive for further creativity in their industry.

But strangely, as this paper entitled "The Piracy Paradox: Innovation and Intellectual Property in Fashion Design" by two law professors from UCLA and University of Virginia, it seems that the lack of IP management in the fashion industry doesn't seem to adversely affect it and even go so far as to posit that " because of this lack [of intellectual property rights] ... the industry remains vibrant and profitable ".

So in essence, they claim that it is piracy or actually copying which happens between fashion houses which creates the idea of trends and drive the industry into being more creative and keeps the trend cycles short. This pushes the creative talent in this industry to be on their toes all the time and keep on releasing interesting clothing designs.

Read the paper at Social Science Research Network

[via : Ars Technica]

Pageflakes Review

This is the first time I've been asked to help do a quick review on a web startup so here goes :

Pageflakes is essentially an Ajax-based startpage that allows you to customize which flakes (what they call widgets) you want to see when you open your browser. Essentially, this here below is what can be created to act as your startpage. I've managed to just drag and drop a couple of interesting ones like flakes for RSS Feeds, Flickr and a ToDo List, which can be useful to have as the first things you want to see when you start up your browser


And the ease of plunking down the pieces you want is smooth and intuitive. Really nice out of the box experience without having to tackle too steep a learning curve on that.

And another great thing is that there are many different flakes which you can add to the startpage or even have 2 startpages if there is a need for different types of content or if you just plain ran out of page real-estate on the first one. Development of these flakes also seem to be crowdsourced so if there's a need for it and the API exists, someone (or even you!) can just develop something and add it to the big flake library seen here.


On the flip side, there is a tradeoff here is that you won't be able to stuff a lot of information on one page and you'll probably be spoilt for choice due to the loads of flakes you could choose from but its a nice thought for them to have added in the ability to have multiple pages.

All in all, its a pretty neat site so go check it out : PageFlakes


[Props to Chi Howe for the introduction]

More Videos on How Things are Made!

Well, just found this site where there are more videos on how cool stuff are made from the National Association of Manufacturers blog.

Amongst the videos they have are:

How Silly Putty is Made
How Trumpets are Made
How the USS George H. W. Bush was Made
How Ice Cream is Made
How the Honda Cog Commercial was Made
How Baseball Bats are Made

Go check out the rest of the videos at: ShopFloor.org: The Manufacturers Blog!

The 6 Strategies of Festive Toy Marketing

So, the Christmas shopping season is upon us again, a time for all good folk out there to go shopping for their loved ones. toy shopping in particular.

So much so that toy companies have been perfecting the art of marketing their wares agressively and here, USA Today lists the 6 strategies marketers use to get kids to want stuff bad :

Wish Lists


Repetitive TV Ads

Big Screen Hype

Books as Toys

Faux toy shortages (Very true and mentioned in Influence)

Bus Radios (Possibly an American thing)

Read more here : USA Today

Web Giants taking on Traditional Advertising?

After the dotcom crash, there have been only few great powerhouses of online ad distributors left. In the ring are the big boys, Google, Yahoo and eBay, all whom have well established themselves in the online media / advertising market and boy are they eyeing the traditional media market now.

Google is casting its net to offer print ads to its advertisers, Yahoo announced a major deal with 176 newspapers for content and advertising and eBay develops an online system for buying and selling of media.

And there are concerns that these entrants with they well entrenched online customers and systems could easily edge out the traditional advertising sellers who are already stuck pretty much in the corner, what with ad spending dropping over the years.

This is going to be an interesting one because of what both sides could essentially do to better their positions. Traditional Media firms should be thinking of ways to re-engage their primary crowd with more innovative campaigns and delivery methods. Also, they have an avenue to push for ad sales in the online environment if they have strong enough brand names.

As for the online media giants, they would need to understand that the traditional media is going to be a whole new ballgame, one with overheads which are perhaps not found in the online space and thus, new strategies are needed to enter this already highly competitive space.

I, for one, won’t even put off the idea of bigger M&As which can marry online and traditional media companies together in the pursuit of greater synergy and exposure. Possibly there also may be casualties along the way too, who knows?

It’s going to be a rather interesting path ahead for the ad media and publishing industry.

[related : Battle lines forming in battle for traditional media's Web advertising ]

China’s Web 2.0 and the Future?

Just happened upon a list complied by the China Internet Industry Survey Report listing the “Web 2.0 100 of China Internet Industry”.

Though not closely familiar with all the names on the list at first sight, I had run through some of the sites and seem to feel that there are 3 broad areas of growth which most of these top 100 sites mainly fall into:

Information Source / Search – These are the pack led by Baidu and Sohu which allow for Chinese to search for content in their own language, something that was difficult only a few years back when English was still the de facto language of the internet, forming a barrier to entry of sorts to the China. Auctions and Directory services (e.g : Alibaba and Naalee) have also been setup to bring more consumers to search and spend online.

Forums / Social Media – Relationships has always been an important cornerstone in Chinese culture and it is only nature to see the extension of this in the online world. Forums (or Bulletin Boards) have become a means for the new generation of Internet savvy youths to air views and make new friends (albeit virtual). Even the social media concept of Digg has been picked up and applied in TuDou.

Self Expression – As China liberalizes, the is more scope and willingness in self expression and blogging (BlogCN) are beginning to pick up steam. From the list of 100, easily 5 or 6 are catering for this new group of bloggers who wish for more self expression online.

Its is also notable that some foreign investors have been rather supportive of the growth of this market while others have scorned it development, likening it to be merely cloning successful web models from abroad.

But in any case, the development of the online arena in China (where only 8% of the people are online) is definitely still in the early stages and its likely that this industry will start to develop its own innovative models and concepts to further growth.


[source: China Internet Industry Survey Report]

[related : ReadWriteWeb - Top Web Apps in China ]

Yahoo's SVP Issues Wakeup Call

Has Yahoo gotten a tad too big and bueracratic for its own good? Yahoo SVP Brad Garlinghouse seems to think so and in a recent internal memo sent out to senior staff, spells out the dangers he thinks the company faced as it becomes more fragmented and disparate. All the more so with the slew of accquisitions the company pulled off, including the likes of Flickr, del.icio.us and other social networking sites, have they bitten more than they could chew?

Here's a portion of email he sent out :

We lack clarity of ownership and accountability. The most painful manifestation of this is the massive redundancy that exists throughout the organization. We now operate in an organizational structure — admittedly created with the best of intentions — that has become overly bureaucratic. For far too many employees, there is another person with dramatically similar and overlapping responsibilities. This slows us down and burdens the company with unnecessary costs.

We end up with competing (or redundant) initiatives and synergistic opportunities living in the different silos of our company.• YME vs. Musicmatch

• Flickr vs. Photos
• YMG video vs. Search video
• Deli.cio.us vs. myweb
• Messenger and plug-ins vs. Sidebar and widgets
• Social media vs. 360 and Groups
• Front page vs. YMG
• Global strategy from BU’vs. Global strategy from Int’l

Wow ... talk about a wake up call. Now it should be interesting to see if this rallying cry will bond all who "bleed purple and yellow" into driving the Internet Giant to even greater heights.

[Full text over at : TechCrunch ]

[In other news : Ars Technica - Yahoo goes on a Social Networking Spending Spree]

Videos on How Things are Made!

Well, if you're one of those curious nuts (like me) who likes to see how stuff are made, you're in for a treat cos here's a whole list of videos on exactly that:

How Bubblegum is Made
How Steel Safes are Made
How Toothpicks are Made
How Mail Processing is Done
How Kayaks are Made
How Jeans are Made
How Holograms are Made
How Helicopters are Made

and many more over at DailyMotion

[props to Greedy123 for the video uploads!]

Amazing Customer Service Stories II (from Singapore!)

This is kind of a follow up from the post of the same subject some time back but the cool part is that all these hail from Singapore. And seeing that good service deserves good mention, here they are:

Case #1
Esprit shop calls customer an hour later to let her know where to find an item which was sold out at the shop.

Case#2
Guy receives handwritten note and guitar picks after an email to company on where to find them

Case #3
Waitress goes the extra mile (overused, I know) for customer's birthday celebrations.



I'm sure these businesses will continue to do well and that others will also follow in their footsteps to provide service that knock the customers' socks off!

Interactive Holographic Display!

EON Technology seems to have prefected a new-fangled holographic display which can users can interact with. With this new techonology, 3D images can be called up in the air which can then be controlled by the user's hands.

It's not a totally new thing (augmented reality has been used in the military for some time now) but once it hits the end market, there are endless possibilities in areas from medical to education to entertainment.

Check out a teaser :


[ via : ocRegister - Article + Video]

Guerrilla Negotiating

Guerrilla Negotiating has to be one of the most interesting books on Negotiation which I've read in quite a while. It kicks off with the premise that in life no matter what you do, negotiations are unavoidable and such negotiation skills are a necessary skillset to have. However, throughout the book, a strong emphasis is placed on using the tricks and techniques outlined ethically because these can all slide into the unethical grey areas if not applied correctly.

And then, the rest of the book jumps into the wide array of strategies which lead you from the opening maneuvers to controlling the negotiation to the followup work of keeping the deal together. Interestingly, there has also been mention of Cialdini's 6 Principles of Influence which I thought melded in nicely with the understanding the art of influencing your counterpart.

One of the most interesting chapters in the book was one exploring the effects of price on a deal. These days, too many people deal with too great an emphasis on pricing without consideration of other factors and if you meet people like this, one way to deal with them may go something like this :

"I don't care about anything but price. Give me your best price or get out." You might be tempted. Instead, call their bluff.
"Okay, here's the deal. Find the best price you can find. I'll beat it by 10 percent, guaranteed! But I get to choose when I deliver."
"I don't think so." they'll retort.
"All right, I'll beat the best price you can find. But i get to select the quality to ship."
"Uh ... no!"
"Hmm. so I guess price isn't more important than on-time delivery or quality after all?" You've made your point

Highly recommended whether you're in the sales profession or just want to improve your general negotiating skills!

Creative Namecard Design that Sprouts Seedlings!

This is a really cool design for postcards -- One that actually sprouts seedling! What better way to say "I'm a landscape architect"? And there's also no way its gonna get thrown in some stack and forgotten once it blooms, but just wonder how long it can last before it has to be dumped though ...

Creative blooming idea from Tur & Partner


[via : TreeHugger ]

FOX Plans to Undercut DVD Pirates in China?

Just read this article on Ars Technica about how FOX plans to sell low-cost DVDs in China to combat piracy. According to the report, this move follows in the footsteps of Time Warner's attempt to undercut pirates by plunging the price of their original DVDs to 10 yuan (about S$2). This is close to the street price of bootleg DVDs out there. The rationale being that it would still be better to sell a couple hundred DVDs at low prices compared to none at all.

Without going into the feasibility of this strategy, a couple of interesting notions came to my mind:

1) Increased Downloads of Movies - Due to the increasing popularity of portable players that can now also play videos, the increasing trend seems to be a shift towards downloading of illegal movies rather buying physical CDs/DVDs. Other factors such as the increasingly fast network speeds, proliferation of downloading software and strong Chinese online communities also aid this trend (Could write a whole post on it, but some other time perhaps).

2) Retail Margins - Typically, consumer goods need to go through several levels from distribution from the manufacturer to distributor to retailer before it hits the consumer. Accordingly, each level does take a cut from the end price, which explains how consumer products are normally priced a tad higher with these considerations in mind. Now, I'm assuming that the street peddler of illegal movies in China either produces his own copies or is a mere 1 level away from the manufacturer, making the $2 street price feasible. But in FOX's case, it’s going to be hard to convince the stakeholders in their distribution chain they can still make good on margins from a $2 product. Perhaps FOX intends to sell direct?

2) Illegal Export - Now, I'm pretty sure that if discs do eventually get sold for $2 in China, there are going to be a lot of illegal exporting of these discs to countries in the region like Singapore where it could easily fetch higher prices. I believe that we are already seeing this happen with parallel imported music CDs in Singapore and naturally if the market here demands it, I don't think DVDs will be much of a difference. Indirectly, FOX would be cannibalizing sales in their other regional markets.

In any case, if they do go ahead with this, I'll be hopping on a plane there to grab some... Its cheaper than bootlegs back here!

[via : Ars Technica]

Northeastern University releases paper on Corporate Blogging

Wow ... even universities are seeing the importance of corporate blogging by studying the effects and sucess factors involved in corporate blogging. In this study by Northeastern University and Backbone Media, 20 corporate bloggers were interviewed to find out what exact makes corporate blogging tick. (Go read, its great stuff!)

Blogging is fast becoming an accepted means of communications and now the big firms want in on it. Given the speed of the online medium, corporate blogging may give companies a channel to release information quickly as well as to gather customer feedback. That is if, of course, they get their act right and are able to engage the community and not make it look like a whole big act.

Guess everyone still remembers the Dell Blogging Fiasco.

[via : MicroPersuasion ]

[Related post: Corporate Blogging for Fun and Profit]

Boy Genius - Waaaay Faster Than Your Regular Media

To say the news travels fast these day is fast becoming an understatment. Given the advent of online technologies and such, it seems that almost everyone with an Internet connection is able to post up content of their own, double-quick, these days. So much so that its threatening the regular mainstream media?

Enter Boy Genius, one of the more famous characters from the Engadget reporting team, well known and well loved by the online technology community for his breaking reports on the latest tech gadgets and gizmos. Having sources within the industry, he has proven to be way quicker in releasing such latest information as compared to his regular media counterparts, much to their chagrin.

I wonder if the regular media is beginning to feel threatened yet?

Offical Website at www.BoyGeniusReport.com

[via : MicroPersuasion ]

President Bush's Speech at NUS

At the NUS University Cultural Evening this evening, President Bush delievered his speech about the Asia Pacific region, and began by lauding Singapore for its hardworking people and enterprising spirit, about how we transformed the nation into "from a small trading outpost to a confident and prosperous leader"

Then he spoke about challenges facing Asia like trade liberalization, economic development and later on to how disease and diasters can affect our region. Along the way, President Bush constantly stressed the vested interest which America has in Asia and how greater co-operation is necessary for our continued growth.

Lastly, the talk turned to the ever-present topic of terrorism and democracy, two ideals deeply imbued in the Bush Administration and how partners in the region need to be committed to support democracy as a means to fight terrorism.

Read the full transcript here

Art of the Start Conference Video - "Funding your Dream"

Just watched the "Funding your Dream" Video recorded at the Art of the Start Conference hosted by Garage Ventures.

It's a very interesting panel discussion filled with US venture capitalists and investors speaking about how they work out their deal flows and their approach on entrepreneurs approaching them for funding. For a lot of entrepreneurs out there who have not had the chance to meet and talk with VCs or people in this field, this video is a great introduction to what to expect when your startup reaches the point of time when you need to seek funding.

The Panelists are :

• Daniel Ahn, Managing Director - Woodside Fund
  
• Susan Mason, General Partner - Onset Ventures
  
• Chris Moran, General Manager - Applied Ventures
  
• Warren Packard, Managing Director - Draper Fisher Jurvetson
  
• Ian Sobieski, Founder and Managing Director - Band of Angels Fund

Cheers to Guy for sharing this one!

Watch the video here

[via : Guy Kawasaki's Blog]

Microsoft releases MS Firefox 2007 Professional Edition!

In an unexpected twist in the broswer wars, Microsoft has adopted the adage of "If you can't beat them, take their source code and release your own version! Behold - Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional Edition - NOT!

Pretty cool fake website with good design, fooled me the first time I hit it :P

Goes to show you can't believe everything you see online anymore these days ...

"Official" Website : http://www.msfirefox.com/
[via : Digg ]

Bank of America loses $50 Million due to Wrongful Arrest!

I believe the importance of treating your customers right for a business's survival can't be stressed enough. Simply put, bad business decisions even at the seemingly low level of any firm can be financial suicide.

This very thing happened to Bank of America when they apparently mistreated one of their account holders, putting him into a lot of needless trouble with the police. Obviously, this guy didn't turn out very happy to have been treated like a criminal, spent thousands of dollars getting out of the mess and not getting at least a pipsqueak of an apology from the Bank.

Result? -- He spreads the word, causes a wave of anger in Bank of America customers who then promptly marched up to the bank and closed a cool US$50m million worth of accounts!

Shinnick was hauled to jail, stripped of his clothing and put into an orange jumpsuit. His father posted $4,500 bond to spring him. Shinnick ended up spending $14,000 to get out of the mess Bank of America caused.

Bank of America refused to reimburse Shinnick, and so Shinnick took his story to a consumer advocate radio show host, Clark Howard. Lots of Bank of America customers were disgusted by BofA's callousness and have closed their accounts with the bank. Howard says they've pulled $50 million from B of A.

More on this story over at : BoingBoing

Leo Burnett's Streaking Billboard Ad

Cool advertising from Leo Burnett in the form of a billboard ad for comestics that streak when it rains. Probably the stuff of horrors for all ladies so I'm guessing it should strike a chord well.

Just wondering what the technology behing this one is?

Water reactive paint that turns black when wet or did they just use poor quality paint and send clean up crews after each drizzle. The mind boogles.

In any case, a pat on the back for Leo Burnett for its a superbly creative idea which just sent this ad all over the blogosphere, just right to reach all you netizens out there who forgot about the concept of 'outdoors.

[via : Engadget]

President Bush is coming to NUS!

Just heard from a realiable source that good ol' President of the United States, George Bush is dropping by NUS during this time over in Singapore and will be having an important function at NUS University Cultural Centre.

Think this latest email from NUS OED just confirmed it:

An important event will be held at University Cultural Centre on
Thursday, 16 November 2006. In view of this event, the Singapore Police
Force will carry out the following:

1. Traffic
a. Kent Ridge Crescent, from Car Park 5 to the traffic junction at> Kent Ridge Crescent/Clementi Road at Entrance A, will be closed to traffic from 2. 30 pm to 7.30 pm (see enclosed map: http://www.nus.edu.sg/oed/forms/PDFS/security/RoadDiversion.pdf).
Motorists will be allowed to access and park in Car Park 4 (Raffles> Hall)
and 5 (Sports and Recreation Centre).

b. Only approved vehicles will be allowed to proceed beyond Car Park 5 from 2.30 pm towards Car Park 3 (YSTCM, OED)

....

According to the media, President Bush is stopping over in Singapore enroute to APEC Leaders Meeting in Vietnam.

Official Singapore Government News Release : here

State of the Internet Report

Just a quick pointer to the "State of the Internet" presentation by Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley Research at the Web 2.0 Conference today. (Nice of this to come by so quickly after Dave Sifry's State of the Blogosphere post.)

Titled "The World's Information is Getting Organized + Monetized", it touches on the trends like Internet Growth, Online Video Pickup and Online Ad Revenue. Not in depth (can't be anyway) but paints a good big picture of where the online world is moving towards.

Link : Morgan Stanley's website / pdf of presentation

[ via : Redeye VC ]

Speed of the Social Media

A great post from The Mu Life on why and how socially generated media is able to beat even .. Google? --- Why Socially Driven News is Better. Reminds me of the last post I did on how the youTube aquistion news spread.

According to the post, the story of Rumsfield's resignation hit various sociall driven content sites like Digg and Reddit in about 3-5 minutes.

I don't think it's going to get any faster than this!

[via : The Mu Life]

10 Ways to Find Suppliers

And so in the age where more folks want to be their own bosses, there has been a lot of people who are starting off in the retail sector, be it from online stores to retail chains. But no matter the scale of the business, one of the first questions which need to be answered would be "Where am I to look for suppliers / distributors?"

It may not be an easy question to answer but here are some tips you can use to find the distributors and suppliers for a particular range of products in your industry :

1. Official Manufacturer Webpages - First stop made should be to the official website of the company whose product lines you aer trying to stock. They typically have a list of local/regional distributors whom can supply you.
   
   
2. Online Trade Directories - Next thing which can be done without even leaving the house would be to check out online trade directories like Alibaba.com or Exporters.sg. It may be a little messy
   
   
3. Online Forums - Joining an online forum which caters to a base of users of your product has multiple benefits. First, you may get to find out where the source of the goods are coming from and which retailers are doing well in the industry. Next, you get a feel the type of products consumers need and want to buy. Also, if you play you cards right, you may just be given the chance to sell to this group of key target consumers.
   
   
4. Trade Shows - These should be deemed as the prilgrimmages needed if you are serious about being in the know and being the first to stock latest products. Typically, the only problem is that major trade shows are held only in the States or Europe so an overseas trip is inevitable (which can also be a great break if you take it that way).
   
   
5. Trade Journals/Magazines - Second best approach if you cannot make it abroad to trade shows would then be to subscribe to a good trade journal where manufacturers tend to advertise their latest offerings. Don't try to save by getting a second-rate subcription as you may just be shortchanging yourself on valuable information.
   
   
6. Phone Directory - Looking under the type of products you require would probably net you the contact details of a couple of importers and general traders who bring in the line of stuff you want. Simple.
   
   
7. Distributor's Labels - For smaller items (especially for foodstuff), the distributor may place their stickers on each individual box. A part of me think it may be for regulation purposes and another part thinks it may be a bid to get in touch with more retailers. In any case, such details are a good way to link in with the local distributor so keep an eye out for these!
   
   
8. Packaging Cartons - Typically, goods come in packed in SKU of cartons and these may get strewn around in the shops. Taking a peek at the print on these boxes may yield some clue as to where they originated or passed through.
   
   
9. Gift Floral Arrangements - This one is a particularly Singapore (I feel) angle on things but when a competitor (especially a large one) opens a new outlet, their main suppliers may make gifts of floral arrangements to congratule them. Though, these may not exactly give you more information over what you can find out using the preceeding methods, it does serve as a guage to the level of relatonship betwen the retailer and the supplier.
   
   
10. Word on the Street - The last method, but some feel is the most important, is to know the word on the street. This means that you have to be talking to the suppliers you currenly have, the other retailers in the industry and to your own customers. These days, even customers may have read or heard about things in the industry you have not know about yet so keep your ears open!
    

So there you have it. It may sound simple but its only a start to the followup work that you have to do once contact is established. Most of the time, lack of volume / credit-worthiness / physical presence may be issues but not are not things that cannot be solved by some good ol' negotiation.

Have fun!

(PS: Just realised that for once, the google ads on this post's page may be pulling up pretty relevant stuff due to this content... :) )

Educating kids out of their creativity

"All kids have tremendous talent [and creativity] and we are squandering it pretty ruthlessly ... creativity is as important in education as literacy and we shoud treat it with the same status"

- Sir Ken Robinson, TEDTalk 2006






[Watch other TEDTalk Videos here : http://www.ted.com/tedtalks ]

How to make posters stand out!

Here's a cool poster showing how designers of print can look at creative way to made them medium 3-d, interact with the surroundings and stand out!

Brillant!

[via : http://www.autoblog.com/2006/10/12/madds-new-dwi-awareness-posters-are-a-smash/#comments ]

Google acquires youTube -- It's Official!

Ok, its official -- Google has announced its acquistion of youTube for $1.65Billion in stock.

From the official Press Release on the Google Site :

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that it has agreed to acquire YouTube, the consumer media company for people to watch and share original videos through a Web experience, for $1.65 billion in a stock-for-stock transaction. Following the acquisition, YouTube will operate independently to preserve its successful brand and passionate community.

The acquisition combines one of the largest and fastest growing online video entertainment communities with Google's expertise in organizing information and creating new models for advertising on the Internet. The combined companies will focus on providing a better, more comprehensive experience for users interested in
uploading, watching and sharing videos, and will offer new opportunities for professional content owners to distribute their work to reach a vast new audience.

[via : Wired ]

Autopsy of how the youTube news Spread

By now, its pretty old news to any one who reads the news or keeps a lookout about all things tech-related to be aware of Google's US$1.6 Billion offer for youTube.

But that's not what I'm interested in looking at today, but how the ability to provide credible and timely information has shifted dramatically from the traditional media to what I would call (for lack of a better term) the new media, which generally encompasses a wide range of online technologies and platforms such as blogs, forums, news aggregators and RSS feeds.

This I think is the rough chronological order (timings are guesstimate at best) by which the word about this possible buyout spread:

1. On the night of 6th Oct, Michael Arrington posted on TechCrunch (one of the most read blogs regarding Silicon Valley startups) about an unsubstantiated rumor that Google was offering $1.6 Bn for youTube. At this point, 113 thousand subscribers of the TechCrunch RSS Feed could have instantly had a copy of this news zapped to them when they opened their RSS readers.
   
   
2. Quickly after the first post on Techcrunch, bloggers worldwide (including yours truely) scrambled to add their commentaries on the situation. New trackbacks appeared almost every 10-20 minutes. I would guess that since the news contains only 2 big names and a big dollar figure, it wasn't distorted too much. But interestingly, according to the trackbacks, it got translated into many other languages like German, Korean and Italian.
   
   
3. Possibly still on the same night of the 6th or early on 7th Oct, word spread quickly through the blogosphere, further aided by the fact that it was got posted up on Digg, quickly attracting the attention of Digg users who then pushed it up in rank, commented on it and essentially spread the word. Easily a few more thousand online users (including Digg's RSS Feed Readers) got wind of the news.
   
   
4. Another round of blogging on the subject by online denizens worlds. Blogosphere literally explodes with the news. According to Technorati, it seems like around 1000 more blogs posted with the keyword youTube.
   
   
5. Finally, some time later, it was noted that Wall Street Journal reported on this news citing information from "a person familiar with the matter". Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good fix on when this happened. I couldn't get my hands on the article itself as it was subscribers only area so unless you could get your hands on a copy of the paper or subscribed to the online version, you wouldn't have heard zip from it.
   
   
6. Hitwise jumps in the fun to provide some stats between youTube VS Google Video.
   
   
7. Very much later, if you are from Singapore like me, you catch some word of it quoted in the Strait Times 3 days after Time-0, in a easily missed column snuggled inside the Financial Pages.
   

If you ask me, what just happened displayed a great shift in the way media production and consumption works today. Newspapers and other print media are now considered slow in comparison to what online alternatives can offer. the 4 channels of blogs, forums, news aggregators and RSS Feeds work in synergy and semi-automation explode news which are deemed (1) of general interest and (2) of some standard of credibility.

What happened here is a study of influence. To be able to generate and spread news that in a tsunami fashion in a matter of mere hours is something unfathomable before and frankly, a very serious threat that traditional media should be (and I think they are) aware of. Production of conventional media alone may take hours already, not to mention the collation, editing, verification and (after production), distribution of the media.

On the flipside, it is important to know that credibilty of traditional media is still something of a forte for them though the online generation is fast learning to accept lower levels of validation in exchange of a much more rapid speed of news transmission. Also, unlike print media, online information can be correctly much more rapidly also, making for more tolerance for errors, given that they are rectified promptly.

I don't profess to be an authority on how the new media may develop but from what I just saw from the youTube case, these are going to be interesting times indeed.


(PS: Phew, that was much longer than originally expected. Will try something shorter next time round)

Upgraded to Beta Blogger

Wooboy, just upgraded to Blogger Beta and I must say that its pretty much better now.

For one, as my posts increased past the 50-post level, I was actually considering of switching to some other blogging engine which had labelling options. The drawback of that however, would be that my old content would either be stuck back here or I would most probably have had to manually shift them over.

Good thing Blogger now has labelling and a better way to go through old posts.

Also, template changes are way easier now and no longer require digging into the template code just to update links and stuff. Neato for a non-coder like me.

Way to go, Google!

Google looking to buy YouTube for $1.6B ?

Techcruch, the Web 2.0 info mill is starting to spread a rumor on the possible deal by Google to acquire YouTube for $1.6bn.

At last count, that amount figures out to about 10% of Google's warchest and you know what they say about giant gorillas -- they do pretty much what they want, how they want it. However, given the volume of traffic YouTube generates each day (some sources put their bandwidth burnrate at about $2 million per month) , the potential synergies that Google can derive from such an alliance is incredible.

But once again, copyright issues may throw a wrench in the deal as traditional media players are still pretty uptight about how their copyrighted content is being used and distributed. To some extent, bulk of YouTube's early popularity stemmed from exactly from the fact that it was easy to find and watch such copyrighted content on their site.

Also, given Google's knack in tweak good applications into great applications to gather more webshare to monetize, I think that this is going to be an interesting development as it plays out.

Once again, this is a completely unsubstantiated rumor but sure does make the mind boogle when it concerns Google.

[via : TechCrunch ]

5 reasons to read Prospectuses

For a tech company, or for any other industry for that matter, heading down the golden road of an IPO, a lot of technicalities come into play and it generally becomes a time of housekeeping in preparation to launching (and hopefully skyrocketing) on the public exchange. Part of the “necessary evils” of the legal paperwork for companies hoping to list in the States is to file their prospectus with the SEC to give their potential investors more details of the business and its future direction.It’s a chore of sorts for companies but an absolute gem for entrepreneurs and here are 5 reasons why I think you should read them:

1. Learn exactly what the company does -- Often, before a company goes public, there would be quite a buzz on what they plan to do and commentaries following their progress. These are mostly made by industry watchers and may or may not be all that accurate. The prospectus of a firm headed for IPO would typically splash out its mission statement / strategy / strengths in the first couple of pages. Generally I would say that these documents are excellent reads for entrepreneurs are in early stage / business plan writing stage also.
   
   
2. Get an good summary of what the industry looks like -- Firms which hit the IPO stage must have been doing something right to land where they are. Having deep industry understanding and insight would be one of those things that the founders/management possessed and reading about how they write about it gives you a quick headsup on how the industry and market as a whole is faring.
   
   
3. Get a feel of possible pitfalls along the way -- With the good also comes the bad: the firm is also legally obligated to disclose the possible risks that they face in their expansion plans. Similar to their long-honed industry insights, these pitfalls they raise may be important ones that you should be aware of if you have a startup and plan to move into this same field. Chances are the firm planning to IPO may have hit and learnt some of these lessons the hard way and/or spend a good amount of money and resources to identify their potential blind spots when moving forward. Reading their brief points gives you that almost instantly and for free.
   
   
4. Learn more about the important financial and legal concepts -- Have to admit that this is my weak spot so being able to thumb through the financial reporting section helps give an idea of the margins / volume the firm in question has. Bulk of it may be legalese and finance-ese but going through and learning how to understand these are important not only to entrepreneurs but also investors.
   
   
5. Understand corporate structure and other important details a growing company faces -- A tad obscure and may not be spelt out in plain but for some interesting cases (eg: Baidu's IPO) you can learn more about how the firm is structured to cope with regulatory / tax issues. Similarly, some companies like to have the founders expound a little on their growth story so it makes for a good inspirational and informational read on the trials and tribulations a firm faces in its journey from startup to IPO.
   

Just for information, some of the ones I'm trying to go through now are: Google, Baidu and Shutterfly.

Can definitely find more interesting ones on the SEC Filings and Forms website.

Have fun!


(This post was inspired by golden advice from Coen who is right when he says we don't read up enough these days and recommended Google's Prospectus as a first reading.)

8th Start-Up@Singapore Grand Launch and Roadshow (26th October)

Mark your calendars for the 26th October as 8th Start-Up@Singapore National Business Plan Competition launches with 2 back-to-back events!

===============

8th Start-Up@Singapore Grand Launch
10:30am - 1:00pm, 26 Oct
Hon Sui Sen Auditorium,
National University of Singapore

Gurst-of-Honour :
Mr. Lee Yi Shyan
Minister of Parliament
Minister of State for Trade and Industry
ACE Chairman

===============

CEO Unplugged Roadshow
6pm - 8pm, 26 Oct
SMU Auditorium

Featured CEOs:
Dato Ng Kong Yean, CEO - SA Tours
Mr. Michael Ma, CEO - Indochine Group
Ms. Theresa Chew, CEO - Expressions Group

===============

Visit www.startup.org.sg for more details.

The beauty of working in tough times

I love tough times.

That is because these are the moments when you actually spot the best teams and to some extent, the best leaders. The truth of the matter is that during the blissfully good periods, everyone (and I do mean everyone) can be made to look like a superb leader or team player. This is the same principle that states that it is far easier to look good steering a ocean liner on calm seas then it is keeping a rickety sailboat afloat in stormy seas.

And a large proportion of it boils down to team during these dark periods. Bad times filter out these superfical folk. Not more fairweather friends hanging around and all the once-good team players seem to do disappearing acts.

No doubt, tough times test passion. These are times where you keep going on as a team. And the best people to work with are those who argue with you for the sake of the cause. Embrace these people because they keep your from getting too one-sided. I know that all too well because I have been fortunate to work with two of the most intelligent and fiercely passionate team members, and much more importantly friends, in the past year who backed me up in my blindspots of finance and relations. I deem their advice is priceless and their friendship even more so.

I'm thankful to have had the chance to work with a wonderful team of great people. It's never easy when the going gets rough and there are times you can't help but question the value of what you do. But what keeps you going is to be able to look around yoursefl and find the folks who are fighting alongside because they believe too believe in the common vision.

That is indeed the beauty.

World Development Report 2007 and Singapore's Youths

The topic for this year's World Development Report is "Development and the next Generation" and it focuses on how policies affecting youth development can affect the economic growth and povety reduction efforts for countries worldwide.

This focus stems from the fact that there are 1.3 billion youths (defined as aged 12-24) in the world today, forming a significant sector of the world's population.

In terms of developing this growing number of citizens, there will be significant problems faced both in terms of finding the means to provide quality education and also giving them sufficient employment opportunities. Conversely, this "youth bludge" also provides opportunities to create more effificient and productive workers with less dependencies.

A couple of interesting points were raised during the report and it made me relfect on the general situation amongst local youths in Singapore. And given that context, there are 3 thoughts I have based roughly on it:

1. Firstly, that while local youths have been well able to grasp and deploy factual knowledge, they may well fall short of the other importance criteria which demanding employers are looking out for these days. These include skills such as ability to communicate well, think and analyse facts quickly, solve problems and work well in teams. Many youths are short-changing their educational journey but tackling the grades rather than lessons, seemingly trading off a chance to pick up long term skills for the more immediate benefits.
   
   
2. Secondly, there are more supply of well-educated youths entering the market than job creation may be able to cope with. This in part explains the government's greater emphasis on the need for entreprenerial business creation as this is one of the methods that can create greater employment for the nation in the long run. While this drive has been successful in the short run, it would take more than risk-taking youths without the entrepeneurial propensity to keep the momentum and culture of entrepeurship going for the long term.
   
   
3. Thirdly, there is an important need to ensure that the lesser educated youths or youths who made previous mistakes (ex-offenders, for example) are not needlessly marginalized while that rest of the economy drives on. In this respect, we need to ensure that there is an equal emphasis placed on the development of substainable social entreprises which can self-reliantly provide support and assistance to the needy sector of our population. The fact that there has been recent focus on the goverance issues of charity organisations should not be a reason to shun the fact that we still have a pressing need to ensure that our society progresses as a whole, not leaving certain segments behind and unable to fend for themselves.

These are the 3 ideas that youths today can and should ponder about. Reason being that these affect not only themselves but the society as a whole.

I believe that if enough youths can develop along these notions and really think hard about how one can bring a difference to the nation, perhaps we can achieve much more, more quickly than what would otherwise be achieved merely by depending on national policy.


[ Official WDR 2007 Website]
[ Watch the Press Release Webcast here ]

More updated links!

More links to click ! :

All these are the nice folks I've managed to meet at E27's great event, Startup Republic, a couple of nights back (shouts back to the organising team for a great job !!) :

Coen Ching : Very insightful and brillant chap with great ideas. Terrible pity he doesn't blog very often though (*hint hint*)

Garry Huang : Yet another of E27's wacky crew. If you haven't met him before, try to visualise a skydiving web 2.0 dude who loves his mac.

Nay Min Thu : Interesting dude who has already stepped into the tech world with his own IT Solutions firm, ZillionTech.

Why get a job?

I kind of had this interesting exchange with a friend lately because she was still looking for a job after having graduated for a couple of months. She told me she needed a job soon but then I thought, is it that 1) you really need a job or 2) you really need the pay that comes with a job ?

I would think that for most, having a job is more like a means to an end. Why? Because it pays the bills and feeds the kids. True. But that doesn't help you like what you do any more, does it? And chances are, the further one trudges along this path, the more entrenched your need for the job (actually the pay) becomes and even if one is less than satisfied with it, there is little one can do but slog on.

Let me set another scenario which I see quite a bit too -- students flocking to high paying jobs (Most recently what I've seen is a near universal yearning to be Investment Bankers.)

Ok, the true of the matter is that yes, Bankers do make quite a nice bit but that's only because of plain ol' economics. They need to have 1) the ability to take stress and 2) willingness to work extrememly long hours. So my questions to folks looking to be Investment Bankers (or actually any other high-paying but demanding field for that matter) -- Are you into this for the money or for the thrills?

If you tell me "its for the money" then I would think that there are other ways to go about doing that which may be more fulfilling for you in the long run. If you tell me "its for the thrills" then let me ask you "so, you would still want to do it if you just got paid enough to survive?"

===

I do strongly believe in having passion in what you do and the belief that what you do is making a difference. Some tell me passion is over-rated, others say it does not feed you.

Well, if slogging through life in a less than satisfying job that pays well is the other option, then I guess I'll take my chances.

Top 10 Business Friendly Countries Compared (Part 2)

Here's the second part of the comparisons I've decided to do based on the World Bank's list of top 10 business friendly countries.

This time the 2 datasets in comparison are Internet Pentration levels (again!) and Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity which is a measure of the entrepreneurial capacity of a nation.



Once again, have fun trying to determine if there are any cause-effect relation between the 3 factors.

(N.B : Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity figures not available for Hong Kong, hence the break in the line)


Sources :
Business Friendliness -- World Bank's Doing Business Rankings
Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activity -- Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2005
Internet Penetration -- Internet World Stats

E27 3.0: Startup Republic

Some promotion for E27, run by the best bunch of tech blokes I know :



When: September 13th (Wed) @ 7pm - 11pm

Where: SMU School of Information Systems, Level 2, Student Lounge.

Cost: Free


Register here : http://entrepreneur27singapore.wikispaces.com/

More info here : http://www.entrepreneur27.org/sg

See you there!

Top 10 Business Friendly Countries Compared (Part 1)

Since the World Bank has released its survey findings on the top 10 Business Friendly Countries, I've decided to do a quick and dirty comparison of those rankings against each of those countries GDP per Capita as well as Level of Internet Penetration :



Have fun figuring out if there are any relation between the three sets.


Sources :
Business Friendliness -- World Bank's Doing Business Rankings
GDP per Capita -- CIA World Factbook
Internet Penetration -- Internet World Stats

Updated Links!

Phew, been a tad on the busy side lately so I've updated my links so all you folks who come back looking for updates can check out those other blogs :

Gwen, Bjorn, Justin : 3 very colourful personalities I've had the pleasure of knowing.

No More Cubes : A resource for those who want to leave their cube- business ideas, tips and tools to help you work on your own terms.

Jack Yan, the persuader blog : Good Stuff on Branding in a real world context and how it can change the world.

Will add on more soon ... :)

5 Key Shifts of the Information Paradigm

I guess no one can deny that information equates to power. But its no longer about just possessing it that gives one an edge anymore. It is important to note what has shifted and how to cope with this new information age when thought and ideas literally travel at the speed of light. Here are 5 ways in which the way we interact with information has changed (from the perspective of a layperson like me) :

1. Having versus Finding information - In the good ol' days before the Internet was born, information was mostly written down in black and white. So, the amount of information one had access was only roughly the summation of one's memory and perhaps the amount of reading material one had access too. Simply put, the genius staying near a library was king then. Now, internet has opened the doors to the masses with its seemingly infinite collection of literature and data. Nearly everyone with an internet connection has equal access to this massive pool of collective knowledge. The shift then becomes that it will be the folks who benefit the most will be those who know how to find what they need, and fast. This is not to say that the ability to find information was not important in the past; it was, but it has become crucial now. And given the diversity of accumulated knowledge out there, knowing how to find information will beat having information any day.
   
   
2. Too little versus Too much information - And with the massive flood of digital information we are now subjected to, the problem we face with information quantity wise is no longer having too little of it, but too much of it. Same information can be presented in different formats these days - text, audio or video. It has taken on more mediums and similarly, begins to confuse us even more. Whereas previously, what every precious bits of information was absorbed and thought about, we have been so swarmed with data these days that we barely give a cursory glance when we reproduce it somewhere else for one reason or another. Most of the time, this adds up to more confusion which negates the benefits we reap from being able to gather data faster.
   
   
3. Relevant versus Irrelevant information - Major bane of academics, statisticians and the ike where the ruling thought is "more is better" Sadly, more is typically less. It confuses, it misleads and it causes us to miss important facts and patterns. This I believe is nurtured in education where plunking down a 10 pages paper seem to net more than a succinct 2 pager. Chances are that it was because it just have confused the heck out of the grader. May work in school but this habit is deadly in business, where getting muddled in useless information is like sinking in quicksand. Messy and deadly in both cases. This is why the skill to present not only relevant data but also the relevant trends is important. The art making tons of complex data into meaninful trends is known as data visualisation which I think is only going to become an increasingly important skill to have.
   
   
4. Accurate versus Inaccurate information - And given the large swarms of data out there, the flipside is naturally that some of it is just, well, incorrect. With the dawn of the internet age, there has never been a better time to be more curious and skeptical. Like when I said I have a list of 5 when there's only going to be 4 points? How many folks would have just read my blurb and assumed there would be 5? And with the way information can be easily duplicated in the digital form, it would be just as easy for wrong data to appear in different places, making it seem credible. Stay critical and observant to avoid this issue.
   

And so, that's how I see the way information works has changed.

So if you want to be a "knowledge worker", better understand these trends well then!


(PS: Finally I get to use the words "shift" and "paradigm" together in a post title. Boy, do I feel like a Management Consultant with a MBA.)

Avoid Worldwide Cameras Centre at Peninsula Plaza for its Unethical Service!

For those who have been following my blog for some time, you would probably know how highly I regard service as a competitive edge to any business, especially the frontline type which face the consumers. Hence, when I got caught in a terrible, unethical act by Worldwide Cameras Centre at Peninsula Plaza over the weekend, I thought it was only right to do what I can to warn other netizens to prevent them from falling prey. I believe that the democratized power the Internet can help to bring them to justice so this is just a little bit on my part :

(Just take this as a Public Service Announcement, stay tuned for more regular posting coming up soon!)

========
The Story:

Basically, I was trying to buy 4 boxes of Polaroid film from the shop on Sunday afternoon. I managed to see the box of film I needed and so pointed it out to the shopkeeper to enquire about the pricing and he told me that it was $35 per box. I was fine with that pricing as its more or less the average I've seen around so I said I'll take 4 boxes. But he had no stock in the shop so he got his colleague to run back to their nearby stock room to pick it up.

During this time, since we were waiting, I paid up (foolishly) for the 4 boxes I wanted as I needed to go somewhere else after that.

Then, when the colleague came back, he passed me 2 boxes instead, claiming then he understood that I wanted 4 packs and not 4 boxes! (Polaroid 600 series film normally comes in 1 box of 2 packs/cartridges) and would not budge on giving me a refund.

No matter how I spoke to the staff, who were ever so friendly a moment ago, they just gave a cold shoulder and even ignored me to serve the other customers.Later, I even called the manager of the shop (a certain Mr. Ling) saying that I wanted to either get a refund or lodge a complaint and all he did was to tell me mockingly to "go ahead and complain if I want to".

Luckily, the difference in amount wasn't too much but I'm definitely taking this as a lesson. But, I thought it was appropriate to bring this up to caution people a little as I believe in the power of word of mouth.Caveat Emptor!

========
Worldwide Cameras Centre
111 North Bridge Road, #01-38,
Penisula Plaza, Singapore 179098

(Along the main road facing Funan)
========


And to Mr. Ling and your merry men, let me say “Nemo me impune lacessit!”

(Also on : http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=218801 )

========

30th August Update : Boo yeah, It seems that I have been tomorrow-ed! Would just like to add on that this one goes out to all the other unfortunate consumers also who have been suffering in silence after getting mistreated by unethical retailers. So join me to spread the bad word about such bad service!

Startup Success 2006 Video

Found this video of Churchill Club’s August 17, 2006 event -- “Startup Success 2006” from Guy's blog. In it, the 5 panelists discuss at what it takes to build a successful startup as well as the critical success factors involved in doing so.

Moderator: Guy Kawasaki, Managing Director, Garage Technology Ventures

Speakers:

• Lauren Elliott, Founder, Personal News Network

• Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder and CEO, LinkedIn

• Joe Kraus, Co-Founder and CEO, JotSpot

• Daniel Mattes, Co-Founder and CTO, Jajah

• Alex Welch, Co-Founder and CEO, Photobucket
  

A good discussion but just that it focuses more on tech startups, but hey, its from SV after all!

[from : Guy Kawasaki's Blog ]

Singapore's Wealthiest People - How rich are they?

Forbes recently released a list of the wealthiest Singaporeans this year. Sadly, I don't believe seeing any article that came with graphical representation of the data so I cracked up a quick chart to see how the folks at the top compare with one another (in US$) :

But for most probably a billion bucks (or five) would be so far out that we can't really get a fix on the magnitude of the sum.

So here's pretty much a gradual scale of what that amount feels like :

• Living in Royal Suite in Burj Al Arab in Dubai for 10 years -- US$ 25 M
• Treating everyone in Singapore to the movies (on weekend) -- US$ 31.5M
  
• Buying a the most expensive yatch, Utopia -- US$ 103M
• Producing Star Wars Episode I, II and II -- US$ 350 M
  
• Changing a Vertu Phone everyday for 10 years -- US$ 730 M
• Total Worth of Manchester United -- US$ 1,186 M
  
• Total Sponsorship of Olympics from 2001-2004 -- US$ 1,450 M
  
• Giving a Segway to every single SAF Soldier -- US$ 1,800 M
• Buying a Learjet 31A business jet -- US$ 2,409 M
• Sierra Leone's 2005 GDP (PPP) -- US$ 4,921 M
  

(Based on figures from Forbes / Wikipedia)

Perhaps I'll look at visualising the data later ... Pretty keen on working on something like that but gave up on that in order to post this earlier....

[Source : Today Article, 24 Aug : Meet Singapore's Richest]

Singapore's Service Levels

Here come an interesting set of figures from the local papers today. Basically, it was a survey to find out how well our Singapore sales staff are doing on these 7 factors -- Appearance, Ambience, Attitude, Acquisition, Assistance, After Sales and Approach.

And if you're like me, you'll probbly be wondering why they had to force all the factors to begin with 'A' , making their meaning not quite so obvious. National habit I presume. Anyway, here's the list of factors again with what they're supposed to chart (as per the papers with my comments in brackets) :

1. Appearance - Physical Grooming of the Salesperson
2. Ambience - Store Environment
3. Attitude - Warmth Enthusiasm, Rapport and responsiveness to the consumer
4. Acquisition - Method of returning customers their change or saying "Thank you" (See why I say this is 'forced' ? The last time I checked in the dictionary, acquisition meant to get and not to give. Just doesn't make sense!)
5. Assistance - How well the sales person understood the needs and preference of the customer
6. After Sales - How the sales person ended the visit (No wonder we have problems when ending the visit is as far as we are getting in terms of after sales!)
7. Approach - The reception the customer gets the moment he/she walks in.
   

And here's the data (click for larger image) :


Interestingly, we scored high for both appearance and ambience while not so well for the rest. And it seems to me like that translate into the fact that we essentially have pretty good 'hardware' (uniforms, store settings, etc ... basically things you can buy and plunk in place) but fare poorly in terms of the personal soft skills.

So, assuming that a certain firm really has this national average statistics for its stores and that it has a budget for improving service, shouldn't it be logical that its spending for improvement look something like this orange line below? :


To thicken the plot, lets further assume that life's simple and you can just sum up the improvements (which actually do add up to a 100%) onto the existing service level and voila!, there's a good chance that you can bring all factors up to over 70% (black line). Pretty decent 'A' grade for service if you ask me.

"But, you can't just add up figures like that!" you may say. Yeah, but that not the point I'm trying to bring across here. What I'm really trying to put across in this (over-simplistic) thought-experiment is this route of reasoning:

1. We have good facilities and hardware, but it seems like software's not doing too well.
2. Stop plunking more cash into asset investment and look at service and training instead.
3. Salespersons' response / behavior before, during and after customer interaction looks bad! Shouldn't this be something that can tackled with targetted training for salespeople?
   
4. Best part is, if service training is done right, it should cost less than hardware upgrades.
5. In the long run, motivation and experience play big parts so getting more experienced sales personel to mentor new hires may be a valuable way to maintain good service levels.
   

In any case, the way I see it, the statistics been done as a public good for retailers to use as a yardstick. Let's just see how many really do see this and make good of this knowledge.

As for the rest? They shouldn't even be in business.



[from : Today Newspaper Article 'Not lacking in will, just skill' - August 23, 2006]