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Maintain worklife balance

Companies can establish a culture of flexibility to help employees better manage work and personal responsibilities

IF YOU are always working late, stop and ask yourself why. Is it because you have too much work? Do you manage your time poorly? Are your company's processes inefficient or lacking in good management practices? Or is making your presence felt the key to getting a promotion?

Working late occasionally during audit periods or a new business drive can be necessary. However, when a work-late culture is practised unnecessarily, it can be detrimental to productivity, personal health and society at large.

Ms Debbie Phillips, vice-president of United States-based WFD Consulting, which offers work-life solutions to many leading Fortune 500 companies, says: "Working late constantly can have a detrimental impact on society as it impacts negatively on family relationships.


"In some societies and locations, women in particular are choosing not to or finding it difficult to, develop a relationship, marry and have children because the work environment and a work-late culture do not support women who want to have a career and a family."

Make a difference
What can companies do to better manage the impact of working late or break unhealthy cultural habits?

Ms Phillips believes that companies need to create a "culture of flexibility" that allows employees to manage the demands of their work and personal lives.

Even companies for industries that provide round-the-clock client services can still implement flexibility and create process improvements that help alleviate issues related to health, family relationships and productivity.

"Work-life balance is indeed a real challenge in a dynamic and fast-paced industry like ours," says Ms Teo Lay Sie, chief operating officer of UBS Singapore. "UBS is well aware of the pitfalls, and we have designed our management practices and benefits package to cater to various aspects of work-life harmony.

Our culture is about performance by objectives as opposed to time in the office and that is the premise that our flexible work-life philosophy is based on."

UBS's flexible work-life initiatives include variable working hours, part-time, telecommuting, plus options for permanent home work, occasional home work and hybrid (for staff who split their time between office and home work).

Best practices
Workload management is important too. Professional services firm KPMG LLP believes it is vital to understand employees, and proactively manages staff portfolios to monitor workloads and resource planning.

Explains Mr Philip Lee, KPMG LLP's head of People, Performance and Culture: "We strongly believe that high performance and productivity are sustainable only if people have a healthy work-life balance and are happy. We invest significantly in training to improve productivity and actively encourage our people to develop healthy work habits."

Law firm WongPartnership LLP believes that an Employer of Choice is one that can juggle both the demands of clients and the expectations of employees. "There will be times when late nights are inevitable � we help by providing our lawyers with a dinner service, snacks and fresh fruit every evening. We even provide a laundry service and concierge service to them," says Mr Raymond Tong, a partner with WongPartnership LLP.

The key to successfully managing a work-late culture or eradicating one based on "face-time" is how a company evaluates its staff for remuneration and promotion. UBS, KPMG, WongPartnership and other Employers of Choice evaluate their staff by performance and not merely presence.

Mr Tong explains: "We adopt outcome-oriented performance management criteria in our appraisals which focus on measurable deliverables in terms of work performance and not on factors such as the number of hours spent in the office. This assures our lawyers that they are appraised based on how well they do their work, rather than how much time they spend on it."

For corporations to thrive in today's globally competitive economy, they need to attract the best employees and get the best out of them. Corporations that value "face-time" over performance, or who as a result of careless management and poor practices require their staff to work many hours overtime, will achieve neither.

WFD's Ms Phillips says: "Leadership needs to make a clear decision to break the work-late habit and then demonstrate the seriousness of the decision through action. I think employers can effect organisational change and share best practices which may eventually impact societal change."

The new wave
Technological advances and a generation of workers comfortable with them are already accelerating that change. WFD's study, Generations And Gender In The Workplace, debunks the myth that Generation Y workers put a lower value on work than they do on personal time, as compared to their parents. The study found that young employees in the US worked more hours than employees their age did 25 years ago.

Ms Phillip explains: "The difference is that Gen Y employees are very skilled at using technology and want to work smart. It's too soon to tell if Gen Y employees will be successful at forcing employers and industries to change, but the early indication is their behaviour is changing the way employers think about how, when and where work needs to be done."

Nokia's history of success

Do you know that Nokia started out as a a wood-pulp mill ? Nokia was started in 1865 by an engineer named Fredrik Idestam as a paper manufacturing plant in southern Finland near the banks of a river. Those were the days when there was a strong demand for paper in the industry, the company's sales acheived its high-stakes and Nokia grew faster and faster. The Nokia exported paper to Russia first and then to the United Kingdom and France. The Nokia factory employed a fairly large workforce and a small community grew around it. In southern Finland a community called Nokia still exists on the riverbank of Emäkoski. Finnish Rubber Works, a manufacturer a Rubber goods, impressed with the hydro-electrcity produced by the Nokia wood-pulp (from river Emäkoski), merged up and started selling goods under the brand name on Nokia.

After World War II, it acquired a major part of the Finnish Cable Works shares. The Finnish Cable Works had grown quickly due to the increasing need for power transmission and telegraph and telephone networks in the World War II. Gradually the ownership of the Rubber Works and the Cable Works companies consolidated. In 1967, all the 3 companies merged-up to form the Nokia Group. The Electronics Department generated 3 % of the Group's net sales and provided work for 460 people in 1967, when the Nokia Group was formed. In the beginning of 1970, the telephone exchanges consisted of electro-mechanical analog switches. Soon Nokia successfully developed the digital switch (Nokia DX 200) thereby replacing the prior electro mechanical analog switch. The Nokia DX 200 was embedded with high-level computer language as well as Intel microprocessors which in turn allowed computer-controlled telephone exchanges to be on the top and which is till date the basis for Nokia's network infrastructure.

Introduction of mobile network began enabling the Nokia production to invent the Nordic Mobile Telephony(NMT), the world's very first multinational cellular network in 1981. The NMT was later on introduced in other countries. Very soon Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), a digital mobile telephony, was launched and Nokia started the development of GSM phones. Beginning of the 1990 brought about an economic recession in Finland. (Rumour has it that Nokia was offered to the Swedish telecom company Ericsson during this time which was refused) Due to this Nokia increased its sale of GSM phones that was enormous. This was the main reason for Nokia to not only be one of the largest but also the most important companies in Finland. As per the sources, in August 1997, Nokia supplied GSM systems to 59 operators in 31 countries. Slowly and steadily, Nokia became a large television manufacturer and also the largest information technology company in the Nordic countries.

During the economic recession the Nokia was committed to telecommunications The 2100 series of the production was so successful that inspite of its goal to sell 500,000 units, it marvellously sold 20 million. Presently, Nokia is the number 1 production in digital technologies, it invests 8.5% of net sales in research and development. Also has its annual Nokia Game.Attention: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom there are addressed..If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender, You may not disseminate, distribute or copy the contents in this email.

Gas Thief Gets Burned -- Literally

Thursday, October 02, 2008
Quoted from http://www.foxnews.com/

Police in Wisconsin said a man was arrested after he used a cigarette lighter while trying to siphon gasoline from a van. The man, who was visiting friends, went to drive home early Saturday but realized that he didn't have enough gas in his SUV.

Police said the man tried to siphon the gas with help from another woman, but he couldn't see how much gas was in the container, so he used the lighter to check.

A blast of fire burned his hands and caused nearby residents to call police.
Police said he and the woman were located later in a store parking lot. He was arrested for theft and negligent use of burning materials.

The woman was referred to authorities for being party to theft. Formal charges haven't been filed. (AP)

CD burner XP

CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free. It does not include adware or similar malicious components.

• Key Features
• burn all kinds of discs
• audio-CDs with or without gaps between tracks
• burn and create ISO files
• data verification after burning process
• create bootable discs
• multi-language interface
• bin/nrg → ISO converter, simple cover printing and much more!
• Operating Systems: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Download

On The Lighter Side....

Forget about management..
Forget about everything thats spells study
Lets take a trip down onto the other side of life and see what "sane" people have come up with in their free time..

Yummy almost edible USB Drive

Now that USB Thumbdrive has revolutionized our way of "storing" documents or your porn movies(YAMATE!).. Why not make it look delicious? Now.. I'm really hungry..







---------------------------------------------------







Soon Li Jia Wei Might Need To Dress Like This *SHUDDSS*

For your info.. This hot Ping Pong player is Naomi Yotsumoto.. The most-talked about ping pong player in Japan right now, and it's not just because of her paddle-swatting skills. She is well known for dress provocatively during matches like that rainbow outift or slutty hot pink suit which screams "Cheerleader". Now thats one athlete.. Sadly she's hot.. But JW's not!

So people.. I will try to update more with interesting stuff..




Posted by: Kathleen.. Always on the crazier side.. =)

Essentials of business environment

No man is an island. Likewise, businesses operate in a complex environment. It is essential that you study the business environment that you operate in as it affects the outcome of your decisions. They include the political, economic, social, technological, legal and ecological environments. Studying these enable a businessman to get a comprehensive picture of the business environment he operates in.


Political Environment


Businesses are affected by the political structure of the country within which they operate. It is the political regime that enacts laws, decides priorities and sets regulations. Singapore’s parliamentary democracy system has resulted in a stable and orderly government. The government’s emphasis on efficiency and excellence in the public service ensures that businessman can efficiently conduct business without red tape and bureaucratic delays.The government has created a pro-business environment by enacting favourable tax laws and offering funding for business ventures. Singapore has been consistently ranked as one of the most competitive nations and best places for business in the world. In addition, Singapore has several initiatives supportive of business start-ups. SME 21 is a 10-year strategic plan to build up Small and Medium-sized Enterprises’ (SME’s) capabilities, with the goal of enhancing their contributions to Singapore’s competitiveness and economic growth. Other initiatives include Technopreneurship 21 and Franchise 21.


Economic Environment


Businesses are directly influenced by the economies that they operate in. Studying economic trends can assist entrepreneurs in forecasting possible future movement of the economies. Economic indicators relevant to businesses are:

• potential supplier’s pricing
• potential customer’s spending power
• interest rate
• consumer price index
• retail sales index
• wholesale and manufacturing indices
• inflation rate
• exchange rate

Other economic indicators such as national income, labour market, productivity, industrial production index, investment commitment and external trade are available at Statistics Singapore website. The Summary Findings from the Economic Surveys Series for various industries are highlighted in the side bar. More Summary Findings can be accessed here under statistics and data.

Social Environment

Business enterprises operate within social communities. Factors such as the education level of people, working patterns, leisure activities, and the role of women in the workforce affect the viability of a business entity. For example, how people react to a product or service will depend on their lifestyles. Singapore’s national past time has been described as eating and shopping. Hence, people are apt to welcome new restaurants and retail outlets. A fast food culture has ensured that fast food restaurants are always in demand. Parents anxious about good grades for their school-going children often send them for tuition, resulting in a demand for tuition centres, while a high percentage of working mothers in Singapore has led to a demand for childcare centres. Generally, the high spending power of Singaporeans translates into a demand for certain types of goods and services. Various statistics on Singapore’s social environment is available from the Department of Statistics.

Technological Environment

Technological advances have led to the invention of new products and influenced the manner in which business is conducted. For example, cell phone technology has resulted in a high demand for cell phones and accessories. Similarly, the advent of the Internet has led to home shopping and e-commerce. Technology also means that goods are delivered fast and more conveniently. Online stores have transformed the way retailers operate. Credit cards and emails ensure quick transaction and easy service. Marketing techniques using new technology ensure a better product reach. Innovations in production technology have led to the creation of new products at competitive prices. Singapore, described as a plug and play nation, is ranked as the third most wired nation in the world, and the most wired in Asia. Within Singapore, a broadband network reaches 99 percent of the population. The World Economic Forum has ranked Singapore among the top 10 in the world for network readiness in 2002. The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) oversees the IT infrastructure in Singapore. For example, One-North, which is at the heart of scientific enquiry in Singapore, has research institutes and high-tech companies located next to each other. Such an environment can assist entrepreneurs to tap on the technological infrastructure in starting up their businesses.

Legal Environment

Businesses have to take into consideration government statutes pertaining to commerce, manpower and other business-related areas as these will have an impact on their companies. They have to abide by government laws on working hours, minimum wages, industrial production and taxation. These include the Employment Act, Taxation Act and the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Act. The various taxes paid by businesses such as sole proprietorship, companies and GST have a direct impact on firms, while the law on childcare leave affects women in the workforce.

Ecological Environment

Ecological concerns have begun to generate much public feeling. People’s views on issues such as pollution, radiation and depletion of the environment affect the business entity. Are target customers environment-friendly? Are they aware of environmental issues such as recycling and pollution? If there is a recycling culture in the community, businessmen can explore ways to use packaging that can be recycled. This will put the business in favourable light before target customers. For more on ecological concerns in Singapore, you can consult the National Environment Agency (NEA), which is the primary governmental body responsible for implementing environmental policies in Singapore.

Canon's corporate Philosophy of "kyosei "

The corporate philosophy of Canon is kyosei. A concise definition of this word would be "Living and working together for the common good," but our definition is broader: "All people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future."Unfortunately, the presence of imbalances in our world in such areas as trade, income levels and the environment hinders the achievement of kyosei.Addressing these imbalances is an ongoing mission, and Canon is doing its part by actively pursuing kyosei.


Truly global companies must foster good relations, not only with their customers and the communities in which they operate, but also with nations and the environment. They must also bear the responsibility for the impact of their activities on society.


For this reason, Canon's goal is to contribute to global prosperity and the well-being of mankind, which will lead to continuing growth and bring the world closer to achieving kyosei.

Maslow's Hierachy of 5 needs

Abraham Maslow between 1943-1954 developed his 'Hierarchy of needs' motivation theory. It is probably the most popular and most read motivation theory. His theory suggests that within each person their is a hierarchy of needs and the individual must satisfy each level before they move onto the next. There are five hierarchical levels. These are:

1. Physiological needs: Food, shelter, sexual satisfaction i.e those needs needed for basic survival.


2. Safety needs: The need to feel safe within your environment. Also refers to emotional and physical safety.


3. Social Needs: The need for love, friendship and belongingness


4. Esteem needs: The need for self respect, status and recognition from others.


5. Self actualisation: The point of reaching ones full potential. Are you capable at excelling yourself?
   

So an individual will need to satisfy their most basic need before they can move onto the next. Only when that individual knows that they have met their physiological needs will they move onto their safety needs. Maslow suggests that if you wanted to motivate an individual you will need to know where within the hierarchy they are placed. So how would an organisation use Maslows theory?

There are however problems with Maslows theory. Firstly it is difficult to tell at what level a person is at within their hierarchy and when that level has been satisfied. Also there is little statistical evidence to prove that this theory actually works. Neverless, it is popular and does have some weight behind it.

Application of Maslow's theory within the workplace.

Taking A Step... forward

We have all asked ourselves questions like that.

Recently an article by the Wall Street Journal “How Airbus revived a trouble jet” (17 October 2007) featured the difficult journey Airbus took to deliver the jumbo airplane that our national carrier Singapore Airlines just had delivered. This article provides some valuable insights which we may use in our professional lives. Airbus faced a wide range of challenges - from the boardroom to manufacturing floor, from the blueprints to the hard-wiring. In trying to combine technologies, philosophies and methodologies from their French and German teams, Airbus created a situation which actually pitted one team against the other, instead of synergizing them. The fallout? Two chief executives left within three months. In September 2007, the third chief executive suddenly quit, too.

Challenges that Airbus faced can be summarized as follows:
1) Diversity of views – Every individual brings along expertise to the table. If not managed properly, teams become polarized and refuse to accept each other. In the case of the Airbus, senior management could hardly contain the diversity, and choosing to work separately rather than integrate the processes. In the short term, it may appear to work. But we all know what happens in the long-term.

2) Unbridled ego - If personal pride is not controlled, an employee’s efforts are focused on self-promotion. If anything goes wrong, blame allocation is the name of the game and not fixing the problem. During the early days of the A380 construction, no single manager was driving integration or spotting problems. We can imagine what kind of chaos was taking place at Airbus!

3) Lack of people support – For 30 years, Airbus operated as a consortium of independent aviation companies in Britain, Spain, France and Germany. Operations in various countries generally functioned as stand-alone entities with little communication between them. As reported in the article, successful new ways of working often failed to spread around the company.

The good news is that Airbus managed to turn things around and delivered the first A380 to Singapore Airlines with great fanfare. The amazing fact was that the issues and challenges were not solved in the boardroom by top executives, but rather middle managers taking a bold step in integrating the consortium into a single company and by focusing on deliver their promise to their customers.


What can we learn from Airbus’ long and painful journey?

Taking ownership - Only when the French and German engineers put aside their cultural differences, and focused on the job at hand, was any progress on the Airbus 380 made. Do we take ownership for our teams, our company’s success? Or do we coast along and wait for someone else to direct us?

1) Problem Solving as a Team – In an unprecedented move within Airbus, the German designers and engineers asked their counterparts in France for help. We all know that at work, no problem can be fixed by an individual’s effort alone. In addition, the willingness to learn from each other is extremely important in problem solving. Are we ready to set aside our baggage and work with our colleagues to tackle challenges?

2) Building Resilience – Although co-operating may have been difficult initially for the French and German teams, I believe this led to an increase in their resilience as they met and successfully resolved all challenges. Only by such a trial by fire are high-performing teams born.


3) Challenges at work will always exist. Airbus will continue to face internal challenges and stiff competition from rival Boeing. Ultimately the success of our organization begins with us – even though it may not seem that way. Are you ready to take ownership, tackle problems as a team and help build resilience personally and in your team? Would you take a step… forward?

GMail Drive shell extension 1.0.12

GMail Drive shell extension descriptionA Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail accountGMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google GMail account, allowing you to use GMail as a storage medium. GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google GMail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your GMail account directly from inside Windows Explorer.


GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to.GMail Drive shell extension is a tool that creates a virtual filesystem. Ever since Google started to offer users a GMail e-mail account, which includes storage space of a 1000 megabytes, you have had
plenty of storage space but not a lot to fill it up with. With GMail Drive you can easily copy files to your GMail account and retrieve them again.


When you create a new file using GMail Drive, it generates an e-mail and posts it to your account. The e-mail appears in your normal Inbox folder, and the file is attached as an e-mail attachment. GMail Drive periodically checks your mail account (using the GMail search function) to see if new files have arrived and to rebuild the directory structures. But basically GMail Drive acts as any other hard-drive installed on your computer. You can copy files to and from the GMail Drive folder simply by using drag'n'drop like you're used to with the normal Explorer folders.


Because the GMail files will clutter up your Inbox folder, you may wish to create a filter in GMail to automatically move the files (prefixed with the GMAILFS letters) to your archived mail folder. Please note that GMail Drive is still an experimental tool. There's still a number of limitations of the file-system (such as total filename size must be less than 40 characters), and it doesn't make full use of the secure internet protocols available. You can try Xmail alternative for portability.Requirements:· Internet Explorer 5 or better

Why You Make the Same Mistake Twice

We sure do learn from our mistakes, but what we learn is how to make more mistakes, new research shows.

This seemingly counterintuitive idea comes from a study of a phenomenon called tip of the tongue (TOT), detailed in the most recent issue of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

A tip-of-the-tongue state occurs when your brain has accessed the correct word, but for some reason can't retrieve the sound information for it. While the word-glitch can happen regardless of your vocabulary aptitude, researchers have found TOT happens more for bilinguals (they have more words to sift through), older people and individuals with brain damage.

"This can be incredibly frustrating — you know you know the word, but you just can't quite get it," said researcher Karin Humphreys of McMaster University in Ontario. "And once you have it, it is such a relief that you can't imagine ever forgetting it again. But then you do."

The reason, she suggests, is that the time spent not remembering causes our brains to reinforce that "mistake pathway."

"We know this is how the brain works — it reinforces whatever it does. So [the study results] completely make sense," Humphreys told LiveScience. "But at the same time, it's so counterintuitive to how we feel we should learn from all our mistakes."

It's on the tip of my tongue ...

With funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Humphreys and McMaster University colleague Amy Beth Warriner tested word-retrieval in 30 undergraduate students.

The students were offered a series of definitions and had to indicate whether they knew the answer, didn't know it, or if the answer was at the tip of his or her tongue. If a student answered TOT, he or she spent either 10 seconds or 30 seconds trying to come up with the word before getting the answer. Two days later, students completed the same word-retrieval test with the same definitions.

Students tended to report TOT for the same words that twisted their tongues in the first test. Those who were given 30-second stints to retrieve the words in past tests were even more likely to get stuck again.

Mistake begets mistake

The period in which people continue to rack their brains for the answer could be referred to as "error learning," Humphreys said. "You'll keep on digging yourself the wrong pathway, you either have 10 seconds worth of that extra bad learning or you have 30 seconds worth of that extra bad learning."

In a follow-up study, the researchers found the best way to tackle mistake-learning is to repeat the word (out loud or in your head) once you find the correct answer. And instead of trying to recall the elusive word, stop and ask a colleague or look it up on the Web.

The findings should apply to other situations, including music and sports. "Music teachers know this principle; they tell you to practice slowly," Humphreys said. "If you practice fast, you'll just practice your mistakes."

Wall Street pulls back as Fed chief warns of recession

NEW YORK : Wall Street stocks ended lower on Wednesday after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke suggested the world's largest economy may have begun to slide into recession in the first half of this year.

Testifying before Congress, America's top central banker told lawmakers that the US economy would show scant expansion "and could even contract slightly" during the first six months of 2008.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished down 48.53 points (0.38 percent) at 12,605.83 after moving in and out of positive territory. The blue chip stock barometer had rallied by almost 400 points just a day earlier.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index retreated a slight 1.35 points (0.06 percent) to 2,361.40 while the Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 2.65 points (0.19 percent) to close at 1,367.53.

Stocks eventually lost ground after the central bank chairman acknowledged that economic growth had cooled amid a deep housing market slump and a widespread credit squeeze, but Bernanke suggested any potential recession would be mild.

"It now appears likely that real gross domestic product (GDP) will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008," Bernanke told the Joint Economic Committee of Congress.

A recession is typically marked by two straight quarters of negative economic activity.

The US economy is being jolted by a persistent housing slump and a related credit squeeze as well as rising job losses and high oil prices. A growing number of private economists say the economy has already fallen into a recession.

Organisational change and the role of the management

Management's responsibility (and that of administration in case of political changes) is to detect trends in the macroenvironment as well as in the microenvironment so as to be able to identify changes and initiate programs. It is also important to estimate what impact a change will likely have on employee behaviour patterns, work processes, technological requirements, and motivation. Management must assess what employee reactions will be and craft a change program that will provide support as workers go through the process of accepting change. The program must then be implemented, disseminated throughout the organization, monitored for effectiveness, and adjusted where necessary. Organisations exist within a dynamic environment that is subject to change due to the impact of various change "triggers", such as evolving technologies. To continue to operate effectively within this environmental turbulence, organisations must be able to change themselves in response to internally and externally initiated change. However, change will also impact upon the individuals within the organisation. Effective change management requires an understanding of the possible effects of change upon people, and how to manage potential sources of resistance to that change. Change can be said to occur where there is an imbalance between the current state and the environment.

DO'S AND DON'TS WHEN STARTING A BUSINESS

THE TOP TEN DO'S WHEN STARTING A BUSINESS

1. Live frugally and begin saving up money for starting your business.
2. Learn your intended business by working for someone else in the same business first.
3. Consider the benefits of starting a moonlight business.
4. Consider the advantages of operating a family business.
5. Objectively measure your skills and training against potential competition.
6. Consider subcontracting to low cost suppliers if you're manufacturing a product.
7. Test market your product or service before starting or expanding.
8. Make "for" and "against" list describing the specific business you are considering.
9. Talk to lots of people in your intended business for advice.
10. Make a comparative analysis of all opportunities you are considering.

THE TOP TEN DON'TS WHEN STARTING A BUSINESS

1. Think about leaving your job before you have completed start-up plans.
2. Consider starting a business in a field you do not enjoy.
3. Risk all the family assets. Limit your liabilities to a predetermined amount.
4. Compete with your employer in a moonlight business.
5. Hurry to select a business. There is no penalty for missed opportunities.
6. Select a business that is too high a risk or hurdle. Go for the two-foot hurdle.
7. Select a business in which you must have the lowest price to succeed.
8. Ignore the negative aspects of an intended business.
9. Permit self-confidence to outweigh careful diligence.
10. Allow the promise of a conceptual high reward deter reality testing first.

Happy Lunar New Year!!!

Retail case studies: Reinventing Retail Venues

High-end retailer VENUE creates Singapore’s first mobile retail container store with hard-nosed persistence and out-of-the-box thinking. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and it could not have been more true for VENUE Asia, a local retailer of high-end apparel designed by iconic masters such as Alexander McQueen and Philippe Starck.

When the company was looking for a suitable location to open its second lifestyle-retail store, the scene was desert dry. “We looked into different malls. They were all pretty much the same. We short listed some locations but they had existing tenancies which meant we’d have to wait 2 years before opening our second store,” explains Jacqueline Tan, Marketing Manager of VENUE. Just when it seemed impossible for the company to expand its retail presence, the team had an ingenious epiphany – to transform a shipping container into a mobile retail store. “The idea gripped us and soon we were talking about how we could move the container from one place to another if it was successful,” says Jacqueline. Out of necessity, VBOX, Singapore’s first luxury retail container store was born. The container was imported from Vietnam and outfitted with windows, storage, wide-screen plasma TVs and custom-made interiors. To create a 360 visual experience befitting of a lifestyle store, the container was also equipped with sleek gadgets such as the Apple iMac and Microsoft Xbox.

Pioneering Challenges

“It was quite difficult to get the store set up. There was no one to turn to for help because it’s just something that has never been done before,” recalls Jacqueline. The team had to find a way to import, transport and outfit a 40ft container weighing some 3700kgs. They also needed to get approvals from authorities to set up the container at high traffic areas like Clark Quay and Orchard Road. Fortunately, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) bought the idea and agreed to support a test run of VBOX under the Uniquely Singapore brand. That helped smooth the way for VENUE to clear the other regulatory hurdles - a process that took around 3 months.
“We had to figure out everything ourselves,” says Jacqueline. “It took us quite some time to understand all the criteria and regulations. Because we were pioneering a new concept, we didn’t fit the criteria for grants and other assistance schemes.”Similar challenges awaited VENUE in the private sector. Landlords had no idea how to go about renting to container stores for a couple of weeks. Some were not keen on the idea because they thought the container would compete with nearby retail tenants.VENUE persisted and in June 2006, VBOX snuck up on shoppers at the Millenia Walk. The test run was a resounding success which led to VBOX popping up at CHJIMES, Clark Quay, Orchard Road and, recently, at the Starhill Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Rewards and Accolades

In recognition of VENUE’s pioneering and innovative achievements, the Managing Director of VENUE, Alexander Hascher was awarded the “Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year” at the Singapore Tourism Awards (2006). The greatest reward for VENUE, perhaps, is the idea that VBOX now occupies in the minds of customers. As the container darted from location to location, it gave the impression that VENUE was everywhere. “Some customers thought we had 10 containers at the same time,” Jacqueline smiles. Beyond The Box

Now that VENUE has “got the regulations” pegged, other companies, keen on having their own VBOXes, are hot on their heels. “We’ve had all sorts of requests to make custom VBOXes for cosmetics, watches, cars and even tourism centres,” says Jacqueline. “If you have an original concept which is suitable for your brand, stick with your gut and pursue it. But do a super job or don’t do it at all,” Ms Tan heeds those entering blue oceans or pioneering new concepts. The opportunity to build custom VBOXes would never have cropped up if VENUE had caved into challenges and given up on its idea.

How VENUE Pioneered a New Retail Concept

1. Thought “out-of-the-box” when everything seemed impossible.


2. Canvassed for support from Government agencies.


3. Proposed, planned and implemented a “test run” of the concept.


4. Persisted in spite of challenges faced in the private and public sphere.

Practical Tips for Retailers

1. Have an original concept – copying others will not lead to the same success.


2. Ensure your retail concept suits the essence of your brand.


3. After you’ve assessed the costs, use your resources wisely to create a stunning, head turning project.


4. Think through your ideas, present them well, and you will be able to drum up corporate support at an early stage - which is also proof that you have an exceptional concept on your hands.

Quoted from Enterpriseone

Funny Signs

Now you know why business communications is an important subject? the objective is to prevent funny signs like this...

We go to the extreme to create : " customer satisfaction. " hmmm...

10% of toilet users don't wash their hands

By Jessica Lim and Shuli Sudderuddin & Kua Zhen Yang

STUDENT Judia Ngo, 21, walks out of the toilet cubicle, looks into the mirror and fixes her hair.
She then leaves the loo - without doing what mothers have always reminded their children to do: Wash your hands!

Her reasoning: Her hands did not come into contact with faecal matter and are clean.

Miss Ngo is not the only one who thinks this way.

The Sunday Times staked out 18 public toilets - in shopping centres, foodcourts and hawker centres - to flush out the truth about hand-washing.

A dirty secret was uncovered: One in 10 toilet-goers did not wash his hands.

Some just wiped their hands on handkerchiefs while others said they washed only after 'big business' and 'never thought of washing after urinating'.

In all, 75 out of 792 people were spotted not washing up.

But dirty hands carrying just a few germs could still cause big problems.

Since Nov 23, at least 153 people have come down with food poisoning after eating PrimaDeli bakery's chocolate cakes.

At least eight of them have since tested positive for salmonella enteritidis which causes fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

Salmonella can be spread by food handlers with dirty hands. Eight of PrimaDeli's workers have tested positive for the strain.

This episode prompted letters to The Straits Times Forum about the shocking number of tertiary students who merely 'wetted their hands under the tap and did not use soap'.