Friday, December 31, 2010

Mama and Hafyz: The Return

Last week, my parents-in-law came over and brought back home my wife and my son. It not because of we had a figth or what-so-ever. The 3 of us was not feeling well. Among all, I am the least affected by the sickness because of my anti-body was damn good. However, my wife is struggling to take care of my little son who still going hyper even on sick mode. In addition, my wife is carrying another person in her tummy.

Pity with the situation, my parents-in-law came out with a plan to kidnap them and bring over to kampung. At least there are somebody to look over them. In fact, leveraging to them is the best strategy in this kind of situation. I was kinda busy with work and other activities. As a person who are having high dedication over the work, I sometimes come back home a little bit late, which causing my wife suffer more.

After a week past by, the temperature is getting back to normal. Only caughing are still stubborn to go away up till now! It was the end of the year. Here we are, I brought them home back after the announcement of the Piala Suzuki's holiday by our prime minister. It's a wonderful time to hang around with these 2 people! Especially at the year end. Will be sending them back a week after because of the Korean students. I need to travel a lot and it is best to send them back to home. Load of love to both of you!
p/s: For those who have not yet married, you better go for it quickly. These are the joy that sent from the heaven and you wont want to delay it for too long!

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Got a new MacBook Pro

This is my first post using this new MacBook Pro.
Mac is really2 awesome, althoughI have to spend sometime to get use to it.
In my opinion, Mac has a lot of common sense technology that have not been developed by other PC manufacturer and other OS. Even some of the Windows features is not here in Mac, you can always install a Windows to your Mac if you wish to.
Thanks for this great technology.

p/s: Using the Law of Attraction to attract more positive things in my life.

Friday, November 12, 2010

The future CEO


This picture was cool. So I just post it here. :)
Here's my son, just call him Hafyz. He'll be the next CEO of multi-billion dollar company.
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Hong Kong public listed companies searching potential partners through SMS?

I received an SMS offering an opportunity to become a partner to a public listed company. By referring to the text msg, really sounds opportunity not to be missed. But after analyze to logical part of it, why the hell a public listed company approaching informally through sms?

There are 2 possibilities I can possibly think of:
1. Scam - there are everywhere in the cyberworld nowadays.
2. MLM - there are many public listed companies, and becoming downline of somebody is equivalent as partner.

If you are interested, please call the number!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

An Unfair Advantage


Robert Kiyosaki, who is famous with his Rich Dad Poor Dad, will be announcing his new book : An Unfair Advantage. In his previous book, the conspiracy of the Rich, Robert has mentioned how the monetary system has changed during President Nixon in 70's detach the US Dollar from gold and let the paper value determine by the fluctuation of the market. Since then, the rules of money have changed. Besides, he also explained how the tax system benefits the riches and the middle class will always have to be the victim. His justification is very simple, the riches make the rules and those who makes the rules will always wants something that will benefit them. (or in the other way round, we can say those who make the rules knows better where the loop-holes are). In other words, the riches will always win in any economic situation.


Robert always tried to educate people on the agenda behind all the economic crisis. The 2008 financial crisis is something that he predicted earlier and has warned people by writing a book called Prophecy published in 2002. Robert is very much passionate in researching about the riches and he openly reveal all the politics behind it. I have once attended his talk during the National Achievers Congress 2009 where he brings his 'Rich Dad's Advisor' team. To me, Robert has a very good team which each of them consist of those who are very expert in each field in which most rich people find their fortune, namely sales, real-estate, paper assets, gold and silver, and franchising. The good about all these are, they are creating passive income once you build it.

As a son of an high-educated teacher, it is Robert's passion to teach others. Robert will continue to reveal all those agenda and it is good for us to get some update from him at least we know where the traps are. The Unfair Advantage only will be officially announce on early November.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Budget 2011: What is your opinion?

Government just recently announced the budget of 2011. Those who on government side, as usual will give a damn good credit for the government and created terms like 'bajet untuk rakyat' or what-so-ever to praise the budget announced. And as predicted, the opposition will find 1000 reason why this budget is not cool and why people should think the budget is sucks.

As for me, whoever created the budget will have some pros and cons - we are all human maaa.... what matter is how you look the budget or in other words in which angle you position yourself to view the budget from. I personally thinks that I don't want to always be cynic and keep on condemn what ever had been announced, rather put myself as opportunist and gain the most out of the budget. After all, it already been announced.

I got lucky when our BDM asked me to review on the budget and see how it will benefit with the company's capacity. I personally read each lines of the speech text by YAB. You can always find it here.

Personal Opinion
1. 100 storey building
Urmm.. This create a lot of huha everywhere. The first question will be "we already have petronas twin tower. Why should be build another tower???" At first I thought it was a bad idea to spend RM5B for the building. But then, when I look back again, it was actually proposed by PNB CEO and already inside the megazine, newspaper a few years ago that the direction is to invest in property sector. It is claimed that even before the building start to build, they have managed to sold most of the space. If the demand was there, should we ignore the idea and focus on other thing? I think we should look deeper before we made a blind comment. While some people said, it is wasting "duit rakyat", these people did not read the news. PNB uses their own money (after more than 20 years operating) which is not even those unit trust (amanah saham) fund. Why don't you get a property nearby the location as the land value is expected to grow exponentially in these 5 years?


2. Handphones
This might be good for youngsters and tech savvy. Students will be the happiest people because of the most luxury gadget that they can afford to is more affordable now! Malaysian mobile penetration is actually already reached more than 100%, however, Singapore and Thailand has achieved more than 120% of penetration since 2007. Four reasons why people wants to use more than 1 handphone:
i. Privacy - people that wants to separate business and personal contact number. Most of the time, companies gives their employees a 'work' number only for business purpose.
ii. Reduce cost - either calling/SMS the same mobile operator or different plans. Perhaps some might have a prepaid and a postpaid plan. I was been using 2 phone and the other specifically for my broadband access.
iii. Network reliability (coverage sucks) - Some places only A operator got coverage, but some places only B operator covered.
iv. Technology factor - If I have access money, I would love to have all the smartphone platform and play around with all those functions. Wish I could have BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and Symbian in my hand.
You can name more reasons, but as we discussing about budget, it is more possible to suit on above reasons to buy new handphone. I personally tired with my Sony Ericsson always hang when I make a call.

3. R&D&C
R&D is good but without the C which is the commercialization part, it is useless. Commercial value of new invention is very much the main factor to make new innovation success. Just imagine motorola a huge company comes out with a superb technology of satellite phone. Under the company Iridium, they started the R&D in 1990. They have developed a 66 satellite of global telecommunication network and the technology was proven to work. However, they have failed to commercialize and the company has to declare bankrupt in 1999 as the billions of dollar spend in R&D ended up become a hi-tech crap.

MTDC will be organizing International Venture Capital Symposium for an international business matching to create more technological commercialization for high technology industry. Beside funds of RM100 million also will be given to MTDC as initial capital for commercialization.


4. Program latihan 1Malaysia. 
People saying this as wasting money. Why? They did thought RM500 million is wasted for the 1Malaysia concept. If you read the breakdown, it is non-other than a normal training budget for competency. The 1Malaysia theme is just to add spice for the budget. Being in training industry currently, I do think this is a good budget for us and it is an opportunity to tap on. All the western developed country, training is something very common. Why stop learnig after you gain your degree? In fact, you should learn more because degree graduate is almost everywhere today. And to stand outstanding, these training might help.

5. Housing loan 100% for less than RM3000 household income
This is a good news for those new graduates. They can afford to buy a new house and drag the installment as long as they could so that they pay a very minimum monthly payment without any installment. While this is good for these people, real-estate investors might not like the idea if they make money is from the rental for this target of people.

What good about this budget is, PM personally asked input from the peoples. Some opportunist will have asked for budget for whatever that will benefit them. While this is fairly open for all, a lot of people did not do so, and after the budget announce only they started to complain.
In my opinion, if you did not give any input, you should not complain. I personally feels that it is better to focus on which area can benefit me or my organization rather than condemning the negative side of the budget. As I mentioned earlier, after all, it was already been announced. You can take what ever opportunity for every new direction set and gain all the benefits immediately, or you can cast your vote only every 5 years, which will not guarantee you are in the majority group.

Monday, October 18, 2010

If you think there is a way, you'll find the way

I would like to share some of my experience about a week ago. My dad asked me to open up a HSBC savings account for some reason. As the nearest branch is at Puchong.Since the urgency to open the account is there, I skipped my lunch to open the account. Being wiser I made a phone call to HSBC to minimize all the potential problems. When I asked what do I need to bring along? she list down only 3 things:

   1. Identity Card (IC)
   2. RM20
   3. My signature (I need to bring my signature???)

On my way to Puchong, I did what I normally do, asking for the most strategic parking lot. After making 1 round of seeking for parking, I got a spot just a few steps from the main entrance of the bank (trust me, the law always worked for me to find parking, so you should do the same thing!)

The interesting story begins when I showed up my IC.
"Eh encik, alamat ni dekat Muar. Kita tak boleh proses ni. Nak kena ada utility bills untuk supporting document."
"Saya dah call center tadi, dia mintak IC dgn RM20 jek"
"Dorang kat call center tak tau.... Kena ada kalau tak saya tak boleh proceed."
As I remembered there is a takaful policy inside my car, "kalau saya bawak policy Takaful boleh."
"Aaaa... boleh..."

As I ran the fastest towards my car and showed the policy to the officer, "Alamak encik, ni dah outdated la. Kita pernah ada kes 2 bulan lepas punya utility bills pun central reject. Nak kena pakai yang latest."
"Takkan saya nak balik rumah. Rumah saya jauh. Dah la saya nak keluar dari ofis ni susah, nak kena mintak approval management untuk time-off! Can I see your manager?"

Sembang with the manager, end up the same thing. Even the branch manager could not help me on this. As I really want it soo very badly, my mind keep on searching everything around. Oh ya, I saw TM point at the other block just now. I paid my bills, asked them to print out my statement and company stamp etc. Finally, I managed to get the account open.

Upon receiving my card, when I tried to deposit my money at the machines. Luckily I remembered she never gave me my account number. How the hell am I going to asked people to bank-in money to this account if I don't know my account number. Luckily I got some vision on what will happened in the future, or else I need to make another trip to the branch just to ask for my account number.

Overall summary, I learn something today: If you think there is a way, you'll find the way!

Saturday, October 02, 2010

MMU Cnergy Open House and Toastmasters Meeting

It is still in Syawal. Yes, even thought Eid al-fitr was awarded on the 1st day of Syawal, been in Malaysia, we have extended the celebration from 1 day to 1 month. Lately, the open house has became one of our culture and it is organized everywhere in the country. MMU Cnergy also took the opportunity of the final week of Syawal to organize the Open House.

The goal of organizing such event, besides filling our half-empty stomach, is to appreciate those who work with us and to strengthen silaturrahim among us. Besides, this is a very good opportunity for networking purpose. Ketupat, lemang rendang and satay was served on that day. Ketupat and rendang naturally you can only find during Raya season, but nowadays you can find at some stall in Jusco or some selected shopping mall. If you we're there during makan-makan, feel free to drop some comment below on the food. :)

Just a coincidence, the three of us is wearing the same colour theme of the day. Blue is my favourite, and this year complete with the yellowish-blue songket makes the dress looks more awesome. Azlysham and Sherliza  were also wearing the same colour. This picture was one of the greatest picture taken during that day. Besides the colour of the costume and our good looking faces, the height also growing diagonally. (Perhaps nobody notice I'm wearing my songkok senget). :)



The picture of myself with my boss, Mr. Shamsul with the background of MMU Cnergy and the CEO's office. Yes, we are all patrioffice (patriotic to the office) After 5 months working in MMU Cnergy, so many changes happens, including line of reporting. :) Hopefully it is still not late to congratulate him for the promotion.  You can see a cheerful face of Shamsul, but nobody notice how the things inside his mind on the job load and things need to settle. Even before the Open House, he stills in a discussion to settle down a few things.


Thanks to all the committee who makes things happened. I was glad to come and eat and laugh and make some fun. Being a Malaysian, we have abundance of food to eat and variety of choices. 

Toastmasters Meeting


Complete the Open House, my activity continues with the Toastmasters meeting. I have joined the meeting a few times, but only this time I have made to for my very first maiden speech. I am very lucky that the theme of the day is to put on the "Baju Melayu". Or else I will be the only person who's putting on Baju Melayu. The Ice Breaking speech requires me to talk about myself. So, I have drafted some points and talk about my interest. I have a very unique interest (I believe eveybody does) and I believe this is the best topic to talk about myself. The first experience of talking as a Toastmasters was a very pleasant. I have used to talk to infront of people but still a lot need to be improved. My greatest weakness I noticed since I was in secondary school was to say "aaaa..." "errmmm..." and so on and so forth. With the Toastmasters system, I wish I could at least reduce if not totally eliminate those kind of words. As the picture beside, I really feels that I look like a politician giving a speech on some political campaign. Do I?

The good thing about Toastmasters is I am surrounding with the very like minded people. As the organization is a non-profit, only those who volunteer will join the club and attend the meeting. In other words, only those who really feels that they need to improve on their self will attend such kind of meeting. This makes the environment very positive. Advantage of being a club at MMU, there are some international students joining the club. The good thing is, we get to share different essence of English pronounciation and different culture sharing. The picture speaks for itself, the costume in the middle is from Nigeria.

The best part of the meeting was, I was awarded as the Best Speaker. We have 3 awards on that day including Best Evaluator - won by Arif and Best Table Topic Speaker - won by a guess from Saudi, Abdul Moeen. Since this is my first time giving the speech, I receive another ribbon for the first speech. With all that recognition, it concludes the day as one of my best day of the year! If you wish to come over as a guest, feel free to contact me or visit http://mmutmc.blogspot.com/ for more info. (Log on and see more picture of me inside). :)

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Echo Smartpen


Technology is moving rapidly. More innovative product has been introduced to market.
As Fredrik Haren's definition of new idea is to combine 2 existing thing to produce 1 new thing, this is an excellent example of new idea of innovation. 
Watch the video. It'll explain everything.

Monday, September 27, 2010

BlackBerry Torch 9800


The new Blackberry Torch 9800. Blackberry line-up includes Bold and CURVE which using QWERTY keypad and STORM which using touch screen has now been hybrid with the new introduction of TORCH. Sounds like torch-light, this phone offers more flexibility to the user to choose whether to use keypad when typing or touch-screen when browsing the net or the photo.

The new features including the new Blackberry 6 OS and better browser.
Read more at: http://na.blackberry.com/devices/blackberrytorch/

Pro:
1. All new look.
2. New OS 6 - Believe have solved some of the issues or bugs reported in previous and new enhancement on the
3. New browsing experience - The previous native browser - pre-install - is so slow. Problem solved using third party browser such as BOLT or Opera Mini.
4. Enhanced software such as integrated Social Media software. All updates in a single software.


Cons:
1. Heavier than Bold 9700. People don't want to carry bulky item inside the pocket don't you?
2. According to review, the new OS sucks more battery life. Is it true?
3. The new OS6 is a bit slower than old one. Could be higher memory usage?

Overall, so far I am quite happy with Bold 9700 and don't find any necessity to have touch screen when the trackpad is doing fine job. Maybe in future, the technology requires the touch screen as pre-requisite, I don't know. However, from some review that I read, they are more comfortable with the Bold 9700 model. However, it's a good try from the Canadian RIM for innovating the product!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Wes Montgomery - Caravan, over Ronin car chase



One of my favourite song improvised by Wes Montgomery from his album Movin' Wes (1967), Caravan. I wish I could play this kind of jazz. Anybody willing to teach me how to play jazz?

Caravan originally composed by Juan Tizol and first performed by Duke Ellington in 1937. source: wikipedia

Friday, September 17, 2010

Green shopping campaign

The initiative by the Selangor government to reduce plastic bag usage indeed helping a lot to save the mother earth. Plastic bag especially non-biodegradable can cause several problems when it did not handle properly. Worst, plastic took thousand of years to degrade if thrown or buried under the ground. And if burn out, the gases produce is harmful to our health.

As an alternative, most shopping complex or supermarket owner recommend consumer to bring their own wooven bag which they make available at their store. Beside giving encouragement, this bag also create sales to them. The problem with this is consumer always forgot to bring their own bag during shopping, as the habit of going to shop empty handed was created more than decades ago. The consumer end up paying 20c each Saturday even though they have a dozen of woven bag at their home (I am on of them, obviously), or else they have to carry all the goods purchased.

As an alternative to solve this problem Carrefour Putrajaya (I don't know if other Carrefour is doing the same) has taken a brilliant step by giving the customer an alternative way to carry their goods. By providing a counter filled with used boxes, complete with tape and cutter, the customer can conveniently store their items inside the box and pack them. Personally I see this as an effective measure to the problem faced and Carrefour have an easy solution to eliminate all the empty boxes (I don't know if they can sell this boxes with some little cash, but I believe the value is too small to them compare to the effort of sending them to the recycle area) while the consumer can bring home the box. The box is also harmless to the environment as it is purely made by the trees.

Innovation can lead to a better life. Sometimes small idea can give a huge impact to many people.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Fire-Garden - 245 Posts

fire-garden.blogspot.com or Living in an Ultra World has been around since March 2006. It was quite sometime and today as I reviewed back some of the title that I posted, it really brings out some of the memory of the past. This blog is a journal for me and up-to this point, already 245 posts was posted. Even thought I am not too sure who reads my blog, due to lack of promotions, it already hits 8K+ viewers (most of them obviously comes from me, I guess) and only 55.8% comes from Malaysia. I remembered to promote this blog to some of the Japanese ex-colleagues during my last time working in Pioneer. It was an interesting posts back then and most of them enjoyed watching their photos posted inside my blog (and of course some don't and I removed the post).



Thanks to all the readers.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Songkok & Capal

Muar, 29th Aug - my family and I spend the 5 days holiday (including the 'paksa rela' holiday) at Muar. Those who are here wish to buy some songkok, capal, sejadah, kain sarung, minyak urut, air kotak even kopi 434, do stop by at my granny's shop next to kastam office beside jambatan Muar, just before bus stand Pagoh.

Tonight, there will be a Buka Puasa Gathering among some of the ex-Pioneer (Moi, if u're coming, apologize for not noticing that u r still not yet 'ex'). Hope to see all the old faces of my ex-colleagues and get some updates on their latest 'achievements' on their career.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Maybak Roars!

Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar has always been my idol in the corporate world. When he took over TM as the CEO, the first few things he did was re-branding the corporation. He was heavily been critized when he offered VSS to the staffs when the company was not having any crisis financially. It was the trend that VSS only given by company which decides to shrink the operation. But his vision at that time was to remove those who already stayed too long and don't have the high motivation to work.

When everything smooth a few years later, TM was successfully re-brand. From a 'government look' office and customer service center, it has become the coolest place for their customers. When I first read the article about him, I was very-very-very impress with his vision on doing things on his own and does not care about what others opinions. He have the faith of himself.

When he first took over Maybank, the largest financial institution in Malaysia, he was heavily been criticized when he decided to take over the over-priced BII. I was thinking that he might have something in his mind and he knows what he's been doing. I believed that he saw something that most people never imagine of. Of course initially, the financial report does not look good, but since last quarter, it has been paid off when BII contributed a significant amount of the financial growth.

On 20th August 2010, Dato' Seri Wahid on his press statement announce that Maybank pre-tax profit of RM5.37 billion for FY10, the highest profit gained by the institution since the 'tiger' was born.

BII: Maybank buktikan pengkritiknya salah

KUALA LUMPUR 22 Ogos - Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar kini mampu ketawa besar. 

Mulut para pengkritiknya berjaya dikunci selepas hebat mengkritik Maybank kerana didakwa membuat keputusan salah membeli bank milik negara jiran pada harga yang terlalu tinggi.

Selepas hampir dua tahun, keuntungan Maybank bukan hanya meningkat lima kali ganda, malah Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) yang dikatakan akan menjejaskan bank induk berlogo kepala harimau itu, ternyata memberikan sumbangan yang tidak kurang hebatnya.

Tidak menghairankan apabila Abdul wahid, Presiden dan Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif Maybank, memberikan senyuman yang meleret ketika berjalan memasuki bilik untuk mengumumkan prestasi kewangannya bagi tahun kewangan 30 Jun 2010 Jumaat lalu.

Pengumuman itu adalah yang terbaik sejak 50 tahun bank itu ditubuhkan, sekali gus menunjukkan Maybank kembali selesa di landasannya untuk menguasai takhtanya dalam sektor perbankan negara.
Prestasi kali ini jauh berbeza dengan apa yang dicatatkan setahun lalu. Ketika itu, hasil kewangan Maybank terjejas RM1.97 bilion akibat rosot nilai pelaburan dalam BII dan MCB Bank di Pakistan.
Suara-suara sumbang kedengaran mengkritik Maybank yang dikatakan ternyata sudah silap perhitungan dalam pelaburannya di luar negara terutama di Indonesia.

Bagaimanapun, tahun ini, BII ternyata 'memulangkan paku buah kerasnya' kepada pengkritik pengurusan Maybank apabila mencatat keuntungan sebelum cukai berjumlah Rp607 bilion manakala keuntungan bersih Rp 498 bilion.

Berbanding prestasi sembilan bulan BII pada tahun lalu yang merekodkan keuntungan sebelum cukai Rp146 bilion dan keuntungan bersih Rp14 bilion. Prestasi BII memang sungguh
menakjubkan!

Abdul Wahid dan pihak pengurusan Maybank wajar diberikan ucapan tahniah kerana berjaya 'mengembalikan maruah' BII yang tercemar akibat kontroversi semasa proses pembeliannya.
Ternyata pelaburan Maybank sebanyak RM7.9 bilion untuk memiliki BII berbaloi.

Dengan prestasi cemerlang yang ditunjukkan itu, Abdul Wahid ternyata telah menunaikan janjinya pada mesyuarat agung tahunan Maybank pada tahun lalu.

''Tidak ada lagi kerugian teruk bakal dicatatkan oleh BII," kata beliau.

Malah, dengan pencapaian terbaharu, tindakan membeli BII untuk dijadikan batu loncatan Maybank muncul sebagai penyedia perkhidmatan kewangan serantau semakin hampir menjadi kenyataan.

Kejayaan yang ditunjukkan BII, bank keenam terbesar di Indonesia, pastinya membuka lembaran baru dalam pembelian koporat yang mencetuskan polemik termasuk di kalangan ahli politik sehingga isu itu diheret ke Parlimen.

Menurut Abdul Wahid, hasil transformasi, pembangunan secara agresif sehingga 2012 dan suntikan modal yang dilakukan oleh Maybank, BII akan terus menyaksikan momentum pertumbuhan seperti yang dirancangkan.

Perluasan cawangan BII kini menjadi tumpuan utama Maybank untuk memastikan rangkaian bank itu berada di kawasan-kawasan pertumbuhan ekonomi Indonesia.

Berdasarkan perkiraan Abdul Wahid, BII akan mencatatkan pertumbuhan pinjaman sebanyak 24 peratus pada tahun depan dengan meningkatkan aset, mengukuhkan asas deposit dan meluaskan cawangannya.

''Kita akan terus memperkukuhkan BII kerana kami turut mempunyai pandangan yang sama dengan potensi pasaran Indonesia.

''Saya percaya BII mampu mencatatkan prestasi seperti yang diharapkan menjelang 2012," kata beliau.

Kejayaan Maybank dan BII turut dikongsi oleh Pengerusi Maybank, Tan Sri Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd. Nor sambil turut mengingatkan bahawa BII akan terus menjadi cabaran kepada Maybank untuk menerokai pasaran ekonomi negara jiran itu.

Sungguhpun begitu, beliau tidak menolak untuk menyuntik lebih banyak modal untuk memastikan ngauman Maybank melalui bank itu terus kedengaran di setiap pelosok republik itu pada masa depan.

''BII akan terus memberi berita gembira kepada kita kerana ia bakal menjadi enjin utama kepada Maybank," tambah beliau.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Blair Singer: Sales & Leadership Mastery

I think it almost passing a month to post this blog. Anyhow, better-late-than-never....

Blair Singer, the author, corporate educator, facilitator and the Rich Dad's Advisor has been in Malaysia since 24th July for a week programme. I was given the opportunity to attend the 2 days programme, Sales and Leadership Mastery.

With Blair @ Holiday Inn, Glenmarie (credit to Juanna)

Who is Blair?
Blair wrote the Best-Selling Book - Sales Dogs where he explains some of the characteristic of Sales person and how we can take the best out of each characteristic.

Why Blair?
He is the Sales advisor for Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad team. If he advise one of the Rich educator, doesn't it makes sense to get some advise from him?

What are the impact of attending the programme?
A few lessons I've learn from him in a very short period of time:
1. How to make a championship team by having Code of Honor.
2. How to handle rejections.
3. Sellling in a competitive market and how to stay within the rules.
4. Modelling the leaders - the easy way to transform yourself (he explain something about pertubation).
5. Handling the "Little Voice" to get you to a bigger You!
And much more.


Break the arrow - Handling your Little Voice (credit to Juanna) 

I will share some of the intipati inside my other blog: johanirwan.blogspot.com the soonest.
Stay Tuned.

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Let's the British fasting during the Ramadhan.

Bernama Radio24 Seorang pemimpin politik dari parti Konservatif, Boris Johnson menyeru penduduk London berpuasa selama sehari pada bulan Ramadan bagi memahami ajaran Islam dan menghapuskan persepsi negatif mengenai masyarakat Islam. Bekas wartawan The Times dan The Daily Telegraph itu berkata demikian ketika melawat Masjid East London selepas dilantik menjadi Datuk Bandar London.

It's just a suggestion. Up to them to try fasting during the Ramadhan. 1st attempt to fasting might be their worst day of their life.
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Saturday, July 03, 2010

Marketing 101 - The Dragon Fruit

In business good marketing strategy can lead to traffic at your premises. Different business create different method of strategy. One of the strategy created by airasia is to promote lowest price for a limited seats and create huha on it. It will create traffic but most customer will not have the advertised price when they purchase.

So today, on my way back to Muar, I saw a sign of dragon fruit 3kg for RM10.
"Eh, Ju. Nak beli ke dragon fruit? Apsal dia advertise dekat sgt dgn stall? Kan dah terbabas."
"Takpe la, kita u-turn, lagipun mami hari tu nak beli dragon fruit."
Then we u-turn.

I saw the sign RM6.50/kg.

"Dik, yang mana 3kg rm10?"
"Owh.. Yang tu dah habis la bang!" Regardless whether true or not, I felt like I was been cheated by this small guy. I felt like to slept him on his face, start my car and just move!

Try to calm myself, I try to negotiate the best deal I can get. Finally comes out with rm4.50/kg. Which lead to rm1.60 average each.
A good deal compare to Jusco selling at rm3.65 each.

3 lessons learned today.

1. Marketing gimmick can generate traffic. (But please don't cheat!).
2. Handle the tamper properly, then you can make rationalize thinking. (Or else I have to buy rm3.65 each at Jusco).
3. As T. Harv Eker said "In business, you don't get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate!"
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Toastmasters and Writers' Workshop

I've been wanting to join the Toastmasters club since I was working at my previous company. I have an earlier post on this, however, yesterday only I have the opportunity to attend the Toastmasters meeting in FOE, MMU Cyberjaya campus. You can find out more at the blog: www.mmutmc.blogspot.com

My comment, it marvelous. I was coming as a guest. Not yet a member. I was one of the volunteer to give a 2 minutes random topic which I have to choose a card. There are several activities happening such as counting the emmm.... err.... aaa...., grammar comment and comment from one appointed observer. Comments given was my errr... was 5 times and a get move up and down which is annoying. (You can see I did the same thing at my youtube, while playing guitar for the song Canon Rock). Other than that, they are saying my public speaking was quite good, like I am used to it. (hurray for me!).

Even coming as a guest, I have something to improve myself. Then I decided to join, as I wanted to sharpen my skills to be able to talk like some of the senior members (although some are student which younger than me), but their ability to deliver the speech was fantastic! I would like to encourage all readers to join the club as well. You can search on the toastmasters website and find the nearest location and attend as a guest!

     Enough of Toastmasters, today I attended another workshop which called Writers' Workshop. Basically how I was in the workshop was I responded to the advertisment inside the campus asking 'WRITERS WANTED'. I did respond, and it was actually for the University's publication.

What I learn during the workshop was non-other than journalist skills. How to write a news for the publication. As the speaker is a lecturer, I feel like some part of the workshop was a bit formal kind of presentation (even he claim to have a casual style of workshop) resulting in a boring way of communication for some part of it. I don't know, maybe I've attended a lot of seminars and training provided by the professional trainers instead of lecturers. And he looks like rushing to finish all the topic as fast as Shinkansen (the bullet train). However, the content is very much useful. (If the trainer read this, no offence. It's totally just my personal opinion. I myself couldn't do better).

I have managed to get some of the idea of journalism. How to write a journal and some brief idea on how to tackle people to read your article. However, it was not easy to master everything thought in a day workshop. Might need a lot more to study. Obviously, the technique is totally different compare to writing a blog. Too many do's and don't, method of delivering the messages etc etc. The single most unlike thing was, the trainer never share the slides, which if I know earlier I have snap all the slides content using my Blackberry!

Hopefully I can be benefited from all these two events I've attended in these 2 days.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Do you proud of 5% increment?

Fomca: Prices of essential goods up at 5% per year


PETALING JAYA: Prices of essential goods are still rising at a rate of 5% annually, according to Fomca’s consumer research and resource centre.
“Generally, prices of goods fluctuate in the short term but increases annually at an average rate of 5%,” said the centre’s chief executive officer, Datuk Paul Selva Raj.
Until March, consumer prices continued its upward trend, led by increases in food prices and utility bills.
 Read more here

Above are some of the few lines on today's headline. Essential goods going to be up by 5%. Relate to the topic of this post, do you think it is good enough to have 5% increment when the inflation rate and the purchasing power of your ringgit value is still the same. In other words, you gain nothing in value, except the numbers.

Now, if companies still didn't revise their salary pattern, especially starting salary, the budget might as well become negative, and AKPK will become the most popular organization receiving phone calls.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

iPhone 4 - The next thing I need to visualize



I don't know, maybe most people already watch the clip or read about iphone 4. However, just happened that I only notice the existance (at least prototype or conceptual design) today inside one of my friend's FB page.

It's cool though, even though I think the older hardware design looks nicer (this is totally my personal opinion. However, the functionality wise or usage wise has improved (if not drastically, at least there is some). At least they have done a very good marketing gimmick so that people are started to wanting them and create a demand inside the market before the thing is ready to the market.

I just put this thing in my wishlist and I need to start visualize on this. Yup, another photo need to paste in front of my table. :p

more info: http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Masters

After realizing I'm switching from engineering works to marketing related stuff, I notice that I have lack of basic on marketing, especially theoretical terms and stuff. Therefore, I am thinking to pursue my Masters Degree in MBA. EPF would really help in assisting to fund for the tuition fees, however, the same account 2 I am planning to use it to buy house.

I have consult with one of my friend who owns 2 school (pre-school to be precise); in Subang Jaya and Damansara Utama, on the needs to having masters degree. He mentioned that if I were spending some 5 figure of money just to have the degree, compare to the increment on the salary, say RM200 per month increase, how long will it take to give the ROI? Business point of view, that's the best point that I need to consider. Anyway, looking at the other angle, my objective is not to gain salary increment. But to grow and have a different set of mindset.

Anyhow, that friend of mine instead suggest me to go on Toastmasters. It might help on building personalities. I did the research year ago and did agree on his suggestion. Furthermore, while reading 'The Magic of Thinking Big', the author did recommend Toastmasters in a part of a chapter.

Yup, I am joining for the Toastmasters club very soon. Hopefully, there will be some fruitful result by joining the activities conducted by Toastmasters Club.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Google Chrome v5.0


I've been using internet since year 1999, which means I have already 11 years experienced in this world wide web and http things. Back then, it was Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator were two most well-known players in this web browser.

Currently, I am comfortable with firefox, even I have been using a few alternatives such as Safari, Opera and Chrome by google.

Currently, Chrome has release their Chrome 5.0, which previously running on Beta version. As per claimed by them, this version is more stable and increase in speed. Chrome also offers a very simple interface for those who like to KISS.

I oftenly use Chrome only when I am using 2 username at the same time. Example, opening my Facebook account in Firefox, simultaneously opening my son's facebook account in Chrome.

By default, Chrome will show a thumbnail view of the most recent sites that you visited. This is

According to figures published by NetMarketShare in April, Chrome had a market share of around 6.73%, while rival browsers IE (59.95%), Firefox (24.59%), Safari (4.72%) and Opera (2.30%) joined Chrome in the list of top five most used browsers.


If you are wondering how fast Chrome can be, just view this video.

Ref: http://techcentral.my/

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

New Layout, New feel

I have actually done a blog which I design more on website style on my paintball. And I am very surprise with the outcome of it. By using the new draft.blogger.com, doing interface for blog is no longer an IT savvy thingy. I have left all this html coding for quite sometime, and I am already getting confused even more during these days with more complicated here and there. However, the WYSWYG type of editing, I am able to re-design my blog template by simply drag drop kind of thing.

I am not sure whether it suits your view on this, however, the colour that I choosed is actually based on the colour vibrations that match with my root number on my birthdate calculations, which I learn from one of Dr. Azizan seminars. Hope it  will look nice to your eyes as well.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

MMU Scenario Paintball Championship 2010

Paintball was born in the world since 80's. The popularity of this games has been grown widely an it is now one of the fastest growing game in the world. Paintball industries enters Malaysian market just 10 years back. Now it has almost well established with hundreds tournaments were organized all over the country.

As I join Cnergy about a month ago, I was been assigned by one of my colleague to run a paintball event as a project manager. Since then I have been putting my butt out to work on this event. As a freshies in this company, I am almost not familiar with all the rules, protocols and procedures of the company. However, I hold on to 1 principe "Redah ajee...".

I am not willing to repeat the same mistake I made, not to accept too many things when my hands already have loads of things. The consequences will be more pain than pleasure (at least for me). So I am willing to take up the challenge.

With almost zero knowledge on paintball, I started to do some internet searching on the facts of paintball. It surprised me when paintball, a game which my initial perception is only played by the outdoor fans, is also a favourite game for corporate team buildings. In fact, US corporates spend USD800 million annually to send their workers for the paintball games as corporate training (please google it if you don't believe me).

Up to this stage, we still have another month and a half to go before the event, and I am really work my ass on it. You can check more details on the website that I just complete design (the design is obviously better than my current blog design).

http://www.mmuspc.co.cc

Also, join us on facebook

Follow us on Facebook


Happy Paintballing...!!!

Friday, April 23, 2010

2000 Biggest Companies in the World 2010

Forbes has released the 2000 Biggest Companies in the World on 21st April 2010.

Below is top 20's companies.
Below is the sorting based on Malaysian companies.

Based on this year's list, banking dominates the top of the list, nationally and internationally.
This year, total of 18 companies was listed as top 2000 biggest companies from Malaysia. As Malaysian, I am very proud of it. If you are Malaysian, so should you.

Based on side-by-side comparison between JPMorgan and CIMB, Malaysia is less than 10% in all categories. Malaysian should work harder, so that we can dominate the list on the near future. Finding a new job? You should consider baking industry. I heard Bank Rakyat is giving a superb bonus last year... Anybody from Bank Rakyat?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Tony Blair at National Achievers Congress

National Achievers Congress (NAC) is an annual event hold by Success Resources, the largest training company in Asia. This event normally will call upon world greatest speaker to give some speak and insight normally targetted to achievers. Some of the known speakers including Jay Abraham, Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, John Gray, Joe Girard and many more. Knowing all these big names and their impact on success, people are willing to invest a huge sum of money to attend the 2 days course (normally 3 days with 1 day of having all these advertisement).

Last year I have attended the NAC. It was Robert Kiyosaki together with his wife and his team, which they called it Rich Dad's advisor. I paid about RM2k (since I registered late, just a few weeks before the event) to attend, because of Kiyosaki is one of my all-time-favourite author. It was good to receive some of the informations especially some of the sales knowledge, stock analysis technique (even I'm not yet involved in stock market), real estate theories, gold and silver prediction and some others knowledge mainly about making money.

Soon after the event, they have offered me RM400 for the next year event as an early bird's price. It was so cheap compared to the amount I invested earlier, but they have not confirmed the name of the guest speaker. But some of the committee have revealed, they are approaching Tony Blair at that time. Immediately I rejected the offer.

Now, after confirming Tony Blair as the main speaker, together with Robert Allan and others, I am very glad did not buy the ticket on that day. Even though RM400, but supporting the event of the biggest liar which destroy Iraq by saying they are involve in weapon of mass distruction will be the biggest guilt I will ever commit.

Lately Tun Dr. Mahathir have posted in his blog twice about this liar, followed by others including some NGOs whose wanting to lempar selipar at him at Sunway Pyramid Convention Center. Most of people who are angry with the Iraq wars will be unhappy for Blair to come to Malaysia. We just wait and see what are the fate that this idiot will received.

I just wondering why Richard Tan (CEO of Success Resources) choosed Tony Blair as the main speaker for NAC.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Scenario paintball

MMU Cnergy in collaboration with Skirmish Paintball Asia will be organizing scenario paintball event on 10 and 11th July. For any paintballers out there, please give me a buzz to know more about this event.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device via Vodafone-Celcom Mobile.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Saturday - No Plastic Bag Day

Saturday is no plastic bag day in Selangor state. Who ever shopping in Selangor will need to pay 20c in order to receive a plastic bag. This is not only limited to supermarket and hypermarket such as Jusco, Carrefour etc. But also some other outlet especially inside the participating mall.

Last week we bought a few pair of socks at sox world. They are also claiming the 20c for the plastic bag. In a way, it is good practise in order to so called save the earth. However, I think the goods itself also was wrapped with the material named plastic! Why don't they remove everything and leave it naked so that they can contribute more to the mother earth.

I don't really agree on the campaign by not providing the plastic bag and asking customer for 20c if the customer insist on it. First of all, they expect customers will bring along the wooven bag from home so that they can carry all the goods with the bag . I agree this is a good practice in order to minimize the usage of plastic bags.

However, we still need to use plastic bag at home in order to throw away the rubbish. etc. So, even we did not get the plastic bag, people will buy the so called black plastic bag in order to fill in their trash can. The supermarket still selling these plastic bags.

I actually agreed on the campaign done by Jusco earlier and followed by many others including Petronas to produce bio-degradable plastic bag, in order to save the mother earth. These plastic will automatically disolve after a period of time. The objective is still the same. Using wooven bag also a cool idea. But to implement it, they should be giving incentives to those who applying it rather than punish for those who did not.

Thank God Putrajaya did not enforce this kind of law. Today, we have decided to shop at Putrajaya and received a number of plastic bags. At least we can fill in our rubbish into it later on. As a conclusion, let's shop outside Selangor on Saturday. :)

Thursday, April 08, 2010

First day reporting

Today should be my 2nd day working in my new place. For me, it is a though decision to made and after several istikharah prayer, I finally made up my mind to quit and join this new company. So far my first day was very interesting. I believe I can do more, learn more and contribute more in this company. Considering the distance which very near compare to my previous one, I am able to go back to have lunch with my wife and play with my kids.

The good news is, time is very flexible - as you know flexible time does not only means you can only came in late, but you need to also work during lunch hour or maybe odd hours. Also, working here ends at 5.30pm and i can reach home before 6pm. (Which my 3 previous companies ends at 6.00pm). Before this I reach home earliest was around 8pm. Yesterday, I am able to trim the long grass at my home's compound and chit chat with my neighbour.

Yesterday, even during my first day, I have 5 jobs to handle including meeting over with foreign company for collaboration. I was very blur, but I believed I can catch up very fast. I really wish myself all the best on taking all these challenges!

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Din Beramboi in a state of coma

Famous comedian, actor and radio deejay, Din Beramboi is in a critical state where he's admitted to the Selayang Hospital for an ICU. He was believed to be infected by rat urine which have cause some of his internal organs has been shut down. Doctor gave him about 24 to 48 hours to respond to the medication. A disease transmitted by the urine of an infected animal is Leptospirosis. They still investigate the cause of the infection, which might be happened while shooting some TV program at zoo or consumed some food which infected by the urine.

Today, I told my wife on the news but she seems a bit hard to believe and thinking that I am making some kind of joke. Imagine I am telling Din Beramboi was admitted to hospital due to rat urine infection to the blood, anybody at first place anybody will think it is not a serious statement. But if bernama has reported the news, it should have been true.

In his facebook, Afdlin had asked those who knows Din, or his real name Mior Ahmad Fuad Mior Badri to pray for him. Hope his doing well so that we all can still enjoy his lawak merapu in the near future.

I have never thought before that rat urine will give a very serious impact to our body. Let's pray for us an our family to stay away from all these illness.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

1 Year

23rd March 2009 was my 1st day working in my current company. Almost a year here, and from the learning process I have gained a lot. After considering 1001 things, I think it is time to make a move. I will probably joining another company starting next month.

Cheerio!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Result!

I've been very busy lately. A lot of things in hand and I looked like keep on running here and there. I don't know what I am busy at but what I can see was I got no significant result lately.

From management point of view, result is the key of one's performance. It's not how hard you work, but the end result that you delivered. And each result should be measureable, and in business point of view, dollar and sense is the best way to measure.

So, work alone is not enough. You need to have result! How to get result?
Nancy Dornan once said, the difference between those who work with a goal and without a goal is -> RESULT! Then, I can conclude my 5 WHY analysis on why I don't deliver results is because I don't have goal settings!

So, I need to set goal now. And always set goals before we start to do anything!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

7 highly paid job in Malaysia

Job... Some refer to it as just over broke. But most of us still attach to this jey ow bee... Some of us are quite happy with their job, because of the job function is relatively easy to what they earned, or probably they are working with something that they are interested in.

Nevertheless, majority of people always look for a high paid job. Most of working people are comparing salary between one another. So, if this is what you are looking for, might be this list will help you to determine your path of career. If you have already been working for quite sometimes, probably difficult for you to switch job function, so you might want to give an advice for you friends or relative that still asking for the right direction on which field they should work for.

7 highly paid job in Malaysia.
1. Sales
2. Certified Network IT Engineer
3. Foreign language speaking executives or professionals
4. Oil and Gas - Exploration and Offshore operation
5. SAP
6. Telecommunications
7 Analyst Programmer with a software house.

For more reading, click here

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

2010 : So the recession is over?

2008 - 2009 we have faced the recession. A lot of us are affected by this recession. Some of us does not directly affected. It is always case-by-case. As the financial turmoil actually comes from US, it affected the whole world, especially industries dealing with this country, or country which affected by US.

As my past company's major business contribution is US and Europe, we (they actually) badly affected and everything has shrinking. A few factories need to be closed down and retrenchment is the only options they can take as last resort.

Some speculation might said that the economy is recovering. Yes, you can see some sign of recovery. But however, according to Warren Buffet, the recession might last for 8 years. What??? Why the hell it can be happening? There are a few explaination on this. But if you look at the 'changes' of Obama, you could not really see the improvement of the economy except trillion of USD is been printed out for the bailout.

If you want to read more of the explanation on some of the prediction you can refer here.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Happy New Year 2010

First of all, I would like to wish a happy prosperous new year to all readers.

The last week of 2009, as my previous post, I only work 2 days to clear all my leaves. Monday and Tuesday I was on leave, and only Wednesday I came to work. To make things worst, I didn't check my e-mail during the holidays (just not to mixed my holiday with loads of works).

When I continue to work on Wednesday, suddenly loads of things was pending. When I checked my mail, i was requested to give a training on my products. Luckily on Thursday, so I have some ample time to prepare my slides. I wish not to use the common slides we used before since people will tend to get bored. However, to many ad hoc things happened on the day which cause me until 8pm I am still unable to complete my slides.

I have to bring the job home and the next morning I woke up at 5am to furnish the slides. 9am I need to drop by to one of the supplier office for some arrangements. Later I reached office at 10.30am. I proceed with the training until 1+pm. After complete my training, 1 of the trainee comes to me and said, this time your training is better than last time.

That conclude all the hard work of 2009 and it worth to close my 2009 diary.
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