Fazz – Page 31 – TheFazz.com

15 July 200710 December 2016

Malaysian management. Road to wealth?

Where are our heroes today? Or more importantly, WHO are our heroes today?

I am asking you – the ordinary Malaysian wannabe success story. Sorry? Did you say Steve Jobs? Was that Bill Gates? Ooopss I am getting geeky… but in reality I heard nothing of that sort. I heard some whispers of some people wanting to be some well connected politician.

And why not? Hey, if you want to be rich quick in this country… let’s go into politics. Let’s play some golf, rub shoulders with some well oiled and well connected people and voila! bob’s your uncle!

In fact I am seriously thinking of getting into politics. Why? I’ll tell you why… I’ve worked my butt off for years – those late working hours, those expresso nights, those hard work trying to convince people to innovate, to driver operational excellence and to deliver value for the paying customer…. and where am I today? Well, slightly better off from where I started no doubt. But no where near that slick dude (let’s call him Kamal Johari, to protect the innocent) who started the same time I did and is now a business owner, government contractor, a huge loan borrower… but more importantly driving a flash new Merc S-class.

At least he doesn’t have everything… what dork would want to be seen alive (or dead, for that matter) in a Merc? LOL.

Although money doesn’t buy you good taste… it does help people who have good tastes to buy the right things. And I want my BMW M5.

So that does it. My hero from today onwards is that politician / or politically well connected slick dude called Kamal Johari. I am fed up of slogging. I want to get rich quick. I am gonna sell my soul to the devil for this.

Forget about innovating – it’s not important for your employees to think of good ideas – they just have to be great (government) liaisons. Forget about doing some REAL business. Forget about spending years of perfecting a single process and achieving the nirvana of operational efficiency. Forget about everything else.

But always remember the grease: never leave home without it.

So I shall now grease my way to richness. But somehow the Malaysian football team’s second humiliation in the Asian Cup is giving me some hesitation. No, not because I am a great fan of the national team… I have long given up on them. Not because my hero is a footballer (as I said, my new hero is Kamal Johari).

For your information, Malaysia has conceded 5 goals in each of the two matches it has played since the 2007 Asian Cup started. For those who play basketball and don’t understand the fuss on double digit scores let me put this into perspective: Malaysia conceded a total of 10 goals in two matchs, but only scored 1 goal. For the mathematical genius amongst us, this is certainly a bit of a bad news.

But I digress. The reason I am giving second thoughts to my grand plan of selling my soul for quick richness is this:

We no longer have REAL heroes. I used to admire the football players of old (no, i won’t mention the 70s and inadvertently reveal my age). I grew up wanting to play football. Then I grew up wanting to be a racing driver. Then I grew up wanting to be like Steve Jobs.

That is the problem. We have as a nation lost what is the true path to greatness. We have started to take shortcuts. We ditch real ingenuity, hard-work and good leadership, in favour of a path filled with shady deals, favours and…. grease.

And grease is a slippery thing. It is so easy to misuse and then starts the slippery slope downwards. The predicament FAM is in today is just that… we’ve missed out on the basic fundamentals of what makes a great footballing environment.

And today we are in danger of missing out on what makes a great economic environment. We need a few heroes to step up. Let’s hope that these people inspire others to do more good.

17 June 200724 April 2017

Still the best supercar ever made

I recently read a good article about the McLaren F1. This article got me all excited about the car all over again. You see, it has been 14 years. And the car is still a classic supercar.

The car was produced in 1992. Powered by the legendary BMW 6.1litre V12 pushing 627bhp… the F1 could hit 240mph. Designed as a no compromise supercar, the McLaren F1 had all the dynamics of the best drivers supercar ever built. It was something that could be driven hard on the track (in fact, it won the 24 hours Le Mans on its debut), and (incredibly) it could be driven in town on a daily basis.

“Small, slim, light, and powerful” were words designer and project head Gordon Murray called it. It had a unique central driving position, with a passenger seat on either side (two girlfriends?). Other clever tricks were specially designed luggage compartments which maintained the car’s balance yet provided some handy stowage space.

17 June 200725 January 2016

The future of computing interfaces? Microsoft announces Surface computing

One of the most exciting technology announcements recently is Microsoft’s Surface computing. Check out microsoft’s site.

In a nutshell this technology is similar to that detail searching / analysis technology shown in the Philip K Dick sci-fi film “The Minority Report” starring Tom Cruise.

For those who are not familiar with Minority Report, essentially Surface Computing allows direct human “touch based” controls of computing processes…. err… or you use your fingers (actually more than one fingers at a time) on a screen to control computer commands.

Watch the clips to find out how it works.

What is amazing about this technology is the flexibility that the user will have with regards to manipulating computer generated objects using the device most people find user friendly – the human hand and fingers. no more mouse, no more stylus etc. You can use your hands to zoom in and out. Use your fingers to rotate, flip and move images.

In addition to the interface, the screen can be displayed anywhere – such as the surface of a table, a wall etc. This provides enormous possible applications. You can do a business presentation and manipulate the objects on the presentation screen using your hands. Your client too can use their hands to manipulate the object to give them a full appreciate of your designs etc.

You can shift through multiple objects quickly using two hands or four or whatever.

Immediately, this technology will make its way to the commercial and US government sector (defense and security seems to be very strong candidates). Hopefully consumers will get the chance of the same at an affordable price.

30 May 200724 April 2017

BMW to buy Volvo from Ford?

A particularly interesting piece of news circulating the automotive business world at the moment is the stories that BMW is eying an acquisition of the Volvo brand from Ford.

My thoughts is more of a cautious one. BMW failed in its turnaround of the “english patient” Rover when BMW bought the Rover Car Group in the 90s. With the failure went two of its top leaders. Rover was an expensive lesson for BMW in a sense that sometimes some brands and corporate culture do not gel well with the BMW brand & culture.

Rover had a bad brand perception even in England. After all, Rover is a name for a dog. The culture at Rover was also at odds with the BMW culture of efficiency and performance. Rover was a product of an age when labour unions ruled business decisions.

Still, BMW has had some success with its non-BMW brands such as the MINI and Rolls Royce. Both these brands fit nicely within the overall BMW brand strategy. The RR brand slotted nicely in the upmarket (read: royal) segment beyond any luxury brand that BMW, Merc or Jaguar produces today. The MINI was positioned as a fun driving vehicle. An engineering skill that BMW knows very well. After all, BMW is renown as the Ultimate Driving Machine.

But what about Volvo? BMW is keen on driving further growth in its business. Expanding the BMW brand further with more an more variations could risk diluting its brand essense. Many industry observers believe that the BMW brand should remain focussed on its true identity of sporting luxury vehicles. The introduction of MPVs, SUVs and others could tarnish this identity, I believe.

But would the introduction of a brand below this help? BMW thought they could do that with Rover. Volvo in theory could serve as a mass and more family orientated brand… but could BMW pull it off?

1 May 20072 September 2011

The YouTube generation cannot be ignored

i have long advocated that local organisations explore the use of internet to drive the development of content in the country (that’s because i am a tech geek and an entertainment junkie *grin*).

malaysia is a country that has limited opportunities from a traditional media point of view. this is possibly due to regulations, but more so due to the fact that economically there is simply not enough room for many traditional media organisations / platform for a country of 26million people, and very few in the necessary income bracket. furthermore, advertising revenue from local organisations and brands are rather limited due to relatively low establishment of local brands (though, i’d probably stand corrected for this).

but i do believe that there is quite a supply of local content, although one might argue that the quality of local content is not worthy of being in the supply chain. nevertheless, the recent video promotions by bmw shorties and nokia’s you make it reel shows that there are some very good local talent in the country. the sad thing is that these people lack the platform to show their talent and creativity. in short, there is no money for these guys… hence, the oft repeated complaint of artists “suffering for their art”.

so it is a question of supply exceeding demand… resulting in low economic value to the content owners… and sadly the very low chance of one of these content gems to be discovered by the general malaysian public.

with the internet, there are new ways that content can be delivered to the public without having to go through traditional platforms. to me this is a completely democratic process as the really good ones will truly shine.

consider the success of the likes of YouTube, and the likes. An article on The Star describes it well.

to me the internet has created a more inclusive and democratic process towards the content supply chain. what was previously the domain of a very few well connected and perhaps very commercial productions, is today open to everybody in the community.

web 2.0 is driving a revolution in the way content is being produced, supplied, shared and marketed. more and more community produced content will be available. large local organisations need to see this opportunity and be involved in the process of bringing these content to the houses and offices.

we will have to be daring, and take some risks. sure some will not work out well, but we need to recognise whether the venture has promise or is a dead horse. make the decision quickly, exit and move on.

this is the age of the internet.