Yes. I do not have a time to update my blog. This is the most busy month for my past two years.
My department just got a restructure and a lot of planning and re-alignment need to be done for each product & services.
As you may know from the previous post that I'm now hired by CIMB Bank. My department is dealing with remittance. Like most of you, I do not know a single thing about remittance at first before I joint. Then I slowly pickup and understand each of their services. It is so complicated on how a bank deals with remittance. Too many different kinds of services around... You've got Cash2Cash, Bank2Bank, Normal TT, Bank Draft system, Bank proprietary system. But all their function is actually the same. To send money over to another part (either local or oversea).
TT is one of the simplest form of sending money because almost all the bank is using the same service called swift. But the disadvantage is also of the fee that involve is very high making sending money to oversea very expensive. To overcome this, banks do their customized arrangement with banks that have great relationship with them in different countries to send money straight to these banks and avoid going through swift where it is costly.
But making these kinds of arrangement is not easy. Different countries there are different banks and each banks' system might not be the same and so the cost to develop such system to handle multiple countries and different banks is very very high and so looking at the business perception, we should first think of how we can create business before even we put in too much money on it. But business view is always in the assumption before you really run it. Numbers are still numbers at the end without a very good implementation. Well, my job stuck here when we're thinking on the chicken and egg theory of which one should comes first. Invest first or business first? But without investing you might not have the business or maybe after you invest there isn't that much business to cover the expenses.....???
1. Robert Kuok
Still in the number 1 position as the richest man in Malaysia.
$5.6 billion
83. Married. 8 children.
Got start in 1949 trading rice, sugar and wheat flour. Today heads multinational Kuok Group. His Pacific Carriers Ltd. is a leading dry-bulk shipper in the Pacific basin; his Transmile Group, which transports freight by air, has landing rights in China and India. Also owns 10 Coca-Cola (nyse: KO - news - people ) bottling plants in China (guess this is the part that make him rich huh??).
2 . Ananda Krishnan
Second place in Malaysia - popular man who known as Boss behind Maxis and Astro.
$4.6 billion
68. Divorced. 3 children.
Former oil trader's holdings include Maxis Communications, Malaysia's largest cell phone service provider; now entering Indian cell phone market with acquisition of 74% stake in Aircel Ltd. for $1.1 billion. His Tanjong Plc.'s subsidiary, Powertek Berhad, paid $300 million for three Egyptian subsidiaries of energy giant EDF in March. Also controls racetrack betting and lottery systems in Malaysia.
3. Teh Hong Piow
Public bank are always the second largest bank, when will he gets into number 1?
$2.1 billion
76. Married. 4 children.
Former bank clerk used profits from real estate deal to open small bank 1966. Today Public Bank second-largest lender in Malaysia, with 12,800 employees and 251 branches. Public Bank's Islamic banking products and services gaining popularity among Malaysia's Muslims. Loves photography; avid reader.
4. Lee Shin Cheng
Now everyone should know the boss of IOI Group. Used to be Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong on the fourth place in richest list of Malaysia.
$2.05 billion
67. Married. 6 children.
Started out as field supervisor in plantation industry. Now heads IOI, with interests in palm oil, property development and hotels. Set up largest palm oil refinery in Europe, which recently started production. Company's stock up 70% in past year, driven by hype surrounding biofuel (gasoline or diesel mixed with palm oil to cut oil costs and pollution).
5. Quek Leng Chan
$2 billion
65. Married. 3 children.
Heads Hong Leong Group Malaysia, a conglomerate of 14 listed companies traded on various stock exchanges. Includes Asian financial services giant Guoco Group. His Hong Leong Bank has bid an estimated $460 million to buy Hong Kong's Asia Commercial Bank (other-otc: CBDP.PK - news - people ); one of two finalists. His Hong Leong Group is also in talks to sell its OYL Industries Bhd., which makes air conditioners.
6. Lim Goh Tong
Still remain in the list (Not sure if they noticed that he had passed away)
$1.5 billion
88. Married. 6 children.
Former public works contractor turned his idea for hilltop resort on outskirts of Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur, into one of world's most successful casino resorts; his First World Hotel now has 5,675 rooms. Retired in late 2003, handed reins to son Lim Kok Thay (ranked number 10). Wrote autobiography titled My Story.
7. Yeoh Tiong Lay
$1.1 billion
76. Married. 7 children.
Patriarch (otcbb: PRRH.OB - news - people ) of Yeoh family heads YTL Corp., one of Malaysia's largest conglomerates, with interests in construction, utilities, hotels, property development and technology. Son Francis YTL's managing director. Company hopes to benefit from $54 billion development plan recently unveiled by the government. Related Starhill REIT listed in December.
8. Tiong Hiew King
$1.05 billion
70. Married. 3 children.
His Rimbunan Hijau Group got its start in 1975 as a timber contractor. Operations now span Malaysia, New Zealand and Africa. Maintains that his logging operations benefit local communities. In recent years his publishing house, Ming Pao Enterprises, has introduced local editions of Chinese-language daily Ming Pao in cities like San Francisco, New York, Vancouver and Toronto.
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9. Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary
$1 billion
54. Married. 5 children.
Started out in "bowl of Malaysia" as rice trader. Today controls Malaysia Mining Corporation (MMC), which just announced plans to up stake in power producer Malakoff in proposed $2.6 billion deal. Also controls container port Tanjung Pelepas and nearby Senai Airport and has stakes in an automaker and book retailer. Contributes to Islamic schools, mosques and arts.
10. Lim Kok Thay
$440 million
54. Married.
Became chairman of Genting Group when his father, Lim Goh Tong (number 6), retired in late 2003. Has been key driver of its Star Cruises, world's third-largest cruise line (which he also runs), as well as its casino projects outside Malaysia. Now trying to enter Macau and Singapore gaming markets; reportedly partnering with Universal in Singapore bid to gain edge over U.S. rivals. Listed Genting Group's international arm in Singapore in December.
11. Azman Hashim
$405 million
66. Married. 5 children.
Forty-six-year veteran of banking industry. Bought own bank in 1982 and eventually built it into diversified AM Group. Bank's original name, Arab-Malaysian, was dropped in 2002 in favor of more modern acronym. Chairs Malaysian Investment Banking Association and Malaysia-Japan Economic Association. Reportedly enjoys golf and water sports.
12. Vincent Tan
$355 million
54. Married.
Acquired Berjaya (which means success in Malay) in 1984, built it into conglomerate with interests in financial services, hotels, theme parks, lotteries, education, real estate and manufacturing (makes heating pumps and bicycles). Known in the company as TSVT (for "Tan Sri Vincent Tan," "Tan Sri" being an honorific title, like "Sir," in Malaysia).
13. Kua Sian Kooi
$285 million
54.
Majority owner and head of Kurnia Asia, one of Malaysia's biggest insurance companies. Started out as insurance salesman 1974, eventually becoming underwriter. Bought ailing insurance firm in 1991 and turned it around, making Kurnia among most profitable insurance outfits in the country in less than a decade. Took company public last year.
14. Lim Wee Chai
$210 million
48. Married. 2 children.
Son of rubber plantation owners and traders, he and wife started trading latex gloves in 1991 and opened first factory the next year. Today his Top Glove is one of world's largest producers of rubber gloves. Plays golf two days a week as well as badminton.
15. Anthony Fernandes
$205 million
42. Married.
Spent 14 years as music industry executive, lastly running all of Warner Music's operations in Southeast Asia before quitting to launch what is now Asia's biggest discount airline, AirAsia. With slogan "Now everyone can fly," AirAsia went public 2004; sports $1 billion market cap. To save money, half of all bookings made through the Internet. Also developed service to book tickets by mobile phone and SMS. Starting to offer cheap car rentals and a referral service to hostels.
Can you convince others when you don't believe in it?
Posted by eightdots™ Labels: business, gadget, information, personal, technology
I think a lot these days on how I can convince the customers to purchase a newly develop products. The ideas of the product is so brilliant. In one single box, you can actually used for multipurpose.
Put in a 3G sim card where you can get HSDPA network (up to 3.6Mbps from Celcom, Maxis or U-Mobile). The product will becomes a internet gateway + router where you can share your broadband connection out through the build in WiFi. This will be the first features - Share your wireless broadband. Unlike other USB HSDPA modem where you can only use for a single PC/ Laptop. This is more useful.
Other than that, it can become your office phone. Not only one phone but with multiple extension (like intercom within your small office). Isn't that great? You can do free intercom and these extension can do outgoing call through GSM call. You can also have auto attendant to help pick up the call and transfer let the person to leave down message, dial an extension. The second features of the product - IP-PBX
SMS. SMS has becoming one of the powerful tools for business and many of the business does not know how to adopt this powerful features. You can't just save all your business partners in the phone and use your mobile phone to send out SMS all the time? That just don't feel right. Ok. This product can share the application out. When you connect to this product using the WiFi, you can actually use it's built-in web based application to send SMS, delayed SMS, group SMS. Save your appointments, meetings, phone books, to-do list and other useful features in the box. It will remind you by sending you SMS or email on your appointment. Isn't that great?
Not only that, you can even plug a USB printer and it will auto configure itself to be used by all the client who connects to it. Becoming a print server.
When you heard of something like this, you'll feel that it is really a powerful product but I just don't feels like I'm having confident to the product. I can't force myself to just sell the item because I know the problem behind it.
The 3.6Mbps speed sounds fascinating but it has a quota set by the Telco limited to each line on 3GB / month. Not only that, the speed is on a best basis which means it is not going to reach 3.6Mbps somehow. For me, I'd never tried on more than 500Kbps. Even streamyx will have a slightly stable and a guarantee of 75% of the speed, but not on the 3G broadband. 500Kbps some more you'll have to share with your office colleagues and with a quota limitation. How can you expect the performance to be at a reasonable standard?
Second thing. Yes, it can have multiple extension but there is only 1 incoming call and 1 outgoing call at a time which is a very limitation compared to the current PBX where it can support multiple lines. If such expensive item can support up to 15 - 20 users where all are only sharing for 1 line then it is a bit of unacceptable. But if you said the item support only 5 users then there is no need to use such expensive item. Either way, our product is in a Grey area of both the usage.
Third thing. Yes the most important thing is the stability. The product still not stable and our development teams can't manage to know what problems is it. It hangs sometimes and it works find sometimes. But sometime it hangs quite often (every 20 - 30 minutes). REMEMBER!!! if the product hangs that means you're no longer having internet connection, you can't make calls and receive calls, you can't print or send SMS or even access the box. You'll have to restart the whole box and wait for 1 minute at least for it to recover. But if it happens to often, you won't be able to finish even your email download.
Last thing, the print server. I don't think it works anyway. You can plug in a printer but you'll never be able to use the printer. That is a big issue.
I just can't convince myself knowing all these problems but remain to convince customers to buy and say that it is super stable and reliable. I am so confuse now!!! If I leave the company, I am just another jerk who doesn't have patient to hold long and if I stay, I'll have to sell this piece of product......What will you do???
Who is the richest man in the world? Do you still think is Bill Gates?
According to the latest research shown that the Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the richest person on the planet, the Mexican financial website Sentido Comun reported.
How did he manage to climb up so fast??
"Thanks to a 26.5-percent rise in the shares of America Movil during the second quarter, Slim, who controls a 33-percent interest in Latin America's largest mobile phone company, is substantially richer than Gates," Sentido Comun said.
Most of his fortune came from the percent of shares he holds in the share market.
On olden days when we wish to buy cameras we always go to photo shop. But now, there are so many different ways to get your favorite camera. IT store are starting to boost up their camera knowledge and sell even better than the photo retail.
Even mobile phone store are selling some low end camera models just to cope up in the game.
Coming with this First Eye Trading. The store seems to be a Canon's fans. It sells full range of Canon camera with very attractive prices. If you're looking for one, you might want to consider buying a camera without going out of your room.
How to improve your company? How you improve your product???
Posted by eightdots™ Labels: business, informationFirst step in this exercise: Be sure what you write down is SMART--that is, Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-bound. Start by answering some fundamental questions, such as:
--What unique products or services do you/should you offer?
--What do customers expect from you?
--What is happening in the industry that might force you to change?
--How does the community perceive your operation?
--What are the most important performance metrics in your business?
--How big do you want to be?
--How long will it take to get there?
Next step (and this is the hard one), get others to read it--including customers and employees. The more people the better. I am constantly reminding small business owners that the most important thing they can do is to ask customers what they want. While you're at it, why not ask them for feedback on your vision for the future and how it might affect them? Your customers might give you some useful guidance; they might even feel a sense of ownership (translation: loyalty) in your business.
Third step, be sure you have buy-in from key people. A few years ago one of my good friends left the cushy academic life for a small company that provides call center support. While the firm had a growth plan, "there was never a sincere commitment to the resources we needed to grow," he says. "Buy-in includes risk and patience." When push came to shove, the board balked at a request for more resources. Now the company's plan includes layoffs.
Finally, ask yourself if you would like to work at the company described on that paper. Given the sacrifices ahead (yours and those of your talented employees), the answer better be a resounding "Yes!".
"Where would you rather work?" asks Weinzweig. "Someplace where you can 'lay stone' all day, day after day after day, or somewhere you can be part of building something unique and beautiful?” It might be a stretch to think of your accounting firm, ice cream parlor or pest control business as something "unique and beautiful." But it's the "being part of" something on the road to greatness that will resonate with the best employees.
I can't deny that myriad small business owners make a living by flying by the seats of their pants. But the difference between making a living and growing to the sky--or even just a few feet taller--is planning.
