Hutong at Lot 10 Shopping Mall

Day 129 -871 days to freedom

Lot 10 Hutong is a gourmet heritage village that offers 26 of the country’s best eateries or local food that have survived a few generations. Each is hand-picked and distinguished by its favourite signature dish. My favorite includes Hor Weng Kei Wanton Mee and Kum Leen Kei Fukien Mee, among others.

Regardless what is the main intention of bringing all these famous and popular local foods to Lot 10, I think it is a great idea to promote the foods and Lot 10 at the same time. Frankly, if not because of Hutong, I hardly go to Lot 10 as it is not a big shopping mall that will attract anyone to go there purposely. Normally it is the anchor tenant - Isetan, that will attract the crowd to do shopping there during sales period. With Hutong, there is another reason to be there from time to time. Thanks to Apple products especially the Ipad2, I went to the Machines which is the largest Apple Premium Re-seller in Malaysia.

Happy Events:

1. Had my favorite wanton mee at Lot 10.
2. Finally completed my Rat Race shoes arrangement and everyone is happy about the New balance running shoes.
3. Had a very good run training with the best two runners in Bursa.

Bursa Rat Race 2011

Day 128 - 872 days to go

We had the 5th meeting today. happy to know that we are just RM113,000 short of last year target. Look very positive to erase last year's record of more than RM1.7 million with another two weeks to go. In other words, each of the 20 beneficiaries will get more than RM85,000.

With a new CEO, we are instructed to make it different from previous year despite the fact that we have been improving it year after year and the fund raised has also been increase since year one. This year will add some carnival-like activities to make it a more fun event besides a more fund event.

Happy Events:

1. Did rat race training during lunch time and also after work. Felt a bit tired but fulfilled. will continue for the next two weeks until Rat Race Day on 20 September.
2. Obtained some useful information from the internet on market making for derivatives contract from overseas exchanges.
3. Reach home by 9pm....happy event??? yes...

New Balance Shoes

Day 127 - 873 days to go

I always like New balance shoes for running. It is light and good looking but the most important factor is the width. Not all brands provide 2E to 4 E width for running shoes in the market. For certain people like me, size D is just not comfortable.

However, New Balance is famous or popular only among running community. Nike, Reebok and Adidas are more well known as they spent lots of money in advertisement and publicity in major sports such as basketball, football, golf and so on that have much more participation of people. Is NB doing the wrong thing or focus? No really. Just different niche markets. Nevertheless, NB needs to at least protect it niche market from stolen away by other major brands.

Happy Events:

1. Most Rat race runners like the NB shoes provided by the company. For those who dpnt like it, they should be grateful to get free things.
2. Went for a run with the new pair of shoes and felt good.
3. Had a good birthday lunch with an ex colleague and now friend. Glad that she is in a new position to learn new function. It is a recognition to her ability and work performance. I wish her all the best.

Sushi King - A success story

Day 126 - 874 days to go

I started eating at SK more than 10 years ago and found that the restaurant or rather the company has been improving over time and as such they are getting better and better. Initially they are using cheap or low price to attract Japanese food lovers. Subsequently they added quite a number of choices to cater for a larger group of customers. They even moved their target market to a higher class customers who are willing to spend more.

Their success actually invited some other Japanese food restaurants to venture into the similar segment of the Japanese food industry despite the fact that they are targeting to higher end customers. Well, I would say Sushi King read or analyse the market well in terms of the selection of food, affordability of customers, and other business strategy.

I saw many similarity between AirAsia and Sushi King. They both started from cheaper pricing strategy in their respctive industry and slowing move up to a higher value. They studied the market well and keep on offering products that people want.

Happy Events:

1. Had a good lunch with mum and sister family at Sushi King. After the 10% discount, we still paid more than RM160 for 6 adults and 2 kids. Cheap? not quite but value for money is the key.
2. Went for second slimming session and not as painful as before that was created by the fat burning creme used.
3. Had a good chat with my friends on facebook. One of the best ways to communicate and build friendship.

Singapore Education Scholarship - Talents Recognition Strategy

Day 125 - 875 days to go

Singapore is a very successful country in a lot of areas which include talent management. The national university is recognised as good quality university based on global ranking. Not only the facilities and lecturers are of high quality, the students are also of high quality. It is a very effective and also interesting strategy to recruit the best ever students from the neibouring countries such as the ASEAN countries.

As such, Singapore has been offering ASEAN scholarship to high school students from the ASEAN countries. This is to ensure that they have continuous supply of very good quality students, in turn, PR or citizen. My high school friend who was the top student in the entire form (same level of study) studied in Singapore for university degree and settled down there after getting his degree. This year I learned that there is another high school scholarship offered by MGS Singapore.

Female students have to sit for GAT, English and Maths tests for the first round. After the first round, about 10% of the students will be selected for an interview on the following day. It was a recognition to be selected by the school to sit for the exam as only a few out of a few hundreds students will be recommended for the exam, i.e. around 1% chance.

Happy events:

1. My daughter is one of the few students selected by her school to sit of the MGS scholarship exam.
2. Finish reading Chai Lan second book this week.
3. Went for Rat Race training and knew that I still have room for improvement.
4. Finally bought my G2000 work clothes at 50% discounts after trying to buy for a few years. I always plan ahead for non critical activities and plans but will normally execute when time is right.
5. Have dinner with my uncle after so long. Will spend more time with him as I am his closest relatives after my dad passed away last year.

Business and Politics

Day 124 - 876 days to go

Went to Singapore for a meeting and realize some interesting fact about business. It is not about Singapore or Malaysia but it is about politics in general. Sometimes we wonder why certain things can be done and other cannot or certain things are done certain way but not others. If we know the background behind the development of the issue, we may realize that one of the reasons is because of politics. Things are done certain ways so that it is politically right. When we talk about politics, it may be at the country level or at a company level or even at an individual level.

Can we avoid political costs just like referring to regulatory compliance cost? Well, I would say is difficult. A country or a company is built on a group of individual and politics is about the similarity or difference between the philosophy or ideology of individuals. If there is no differences, the world will be at peace but businesses will be less vibrant as everyone will want to buy the same or similar things. Hence, there will be less innovation or creativity needed. Therefore, it is good to have differences in view and preference. However, we need to be mature when dealing with politics i.e. should not be emotional rather we should look at the big pictures and work towards a common goal or benefits. Compromise is the key and is key to success in a community.

Happy events:

1. Had a meeting with a derivatives dealer from India and learned that the development of derivatives activities have developed rapidly in many not-so-developed capital markets.
2. Foods industry is one of the most important and forever green industry in any country. Local people and foreign visitors must spend money on foods but not other things.
3. In order to be competitive, businesses and regulators in any countries must equip themselves with the latest development in other countries and the world is flat and will be more flat than we thought. We will either excel and survive or lag behind and die.

Copycat 101

Days 123 - 877 days to go

Sometimes I wonder why it is so difficult to be a copycat. It is very difficult to copy the success of others? I think it is yes and know. It ha little to do with IQ but EQ and other forms of Qs are more important.

Companies and countries can always apply the same strategies used by other companies or countries with the aim to achieve the same level of success. However, as long as the people behind the scene are not as good as the model organization, similar level of results are not expected to be produced. Hence, human resources actually determined the success or failure of an organization but not other types of resources. In fact, as long as you have a good team of personnel, a company or a country has a fairly good chance to perform even during very difficult time. In other words, it is useless or not a good excuse to blame on economy scenario, crisis, and other factors that result in the bad performance of an organization or a country.

Happy Events:

1. Had a delicious brunch with family members before they left for Kluang organic farm. heard the traffic was quite heavy.
2. Finish reading a very interesting book authored by a famous Hong Kong author - Chai Lan. He is a man with wisdom despite the fact that not many people can accept the way he provided recommendation in his books about the affair between two genders.