The Economic Naturalist

Just finished the book The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas by Robert H. Frank.






Essentially, this book is nice collection of little curiosities of life which seem to make no apparent sense but clear when we apply simple economic principles (mostly cost/benefit) to them. What's even more interesting is that all the examples and questions featured in the book come from term paper questions which the author had received after setting his students loose to go use economic reasoning to answer seemingly absurd daily occurences.

Some of the crackers include:

+ Why do drive through ATMS have braille keys on them?

+ Why do colour photos sell for less than black-and-white ones?

+ Why milk cartons are rectangular but soda cans are cylindrical?

and (for something closer to home)
+ Why do new luxury cars account for a higher proportion of automobiles sold in Singapore than in the United States?

This book should have been recommended reading for any introductory economics class as the examples are brilliant ones which first engage the curiosity and then answer it based on economic ideas. Definitely a must-read if you enjoyed Freakanomics also!

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.

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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 ]

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]

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!

Singapore's Retail Incubator!

Looking to staring your own shop but unsure if you should plunk down too much cash for a shop or even pushcart?

Here's a new concept that just hit Singapore - renting small little retail cubicles to house your wares! Called InQbox, it essentially works like a mini incubator for aspiring designers or closet hobbyists to peddle some of their wares.

Very innovative indeed.

[via : Springwise.com ]