Tag: advice

SALES: Solve Your Client’s Problems, Not Sell Your Customer Products

14 July 2016
We Don’t Have to be Strangers (Even If We Don’t Work Together)

“If we don’t end up working together, we can still be friends” is a refrain that is so obvious but something I’ve felt compelled to include in conversations lately.

Maybe it’s the new age thinking of feeling that one needs to either accept or reject something, swipe left or right to say no or yes, click like or disregard as you scroll past, that compels folks today to be so binary in the way they view relationships.

In fact, we can be adversarial and still cordial.

Look at Messi and Ronaldo, they’re not scything each other down on the pitch or at awards galas.

Hillary Clinton ended up working for Obama and is now on the presidential ticket.

Life is not black or white, and I would much rather not have these awkward countenances that people have become so comfortable with these days.

22 June 2016
Founding A Startup is like Being Shipwrecked from Day One

This analogy helps if you’ve watched or read the Life of Pi.

Founding a startup is like being SHIPWRECKED from day one.

The minute you start you’re trying to survive, alongside a starving tiger no less.

The hyena & orang utan are perhaps the co-founders that bravely started that crazy journey with you.

The zebra, your trusting 1st investor, surely gets eaten at some point.

Getting funded, which gets all the sexy press, is like hitting a jackpot of flying fish — it just delays what could be the inevitability of a lonely death in the high seas.

But boy, it is indeed as exciting as seeing a luminescent pool of fish at night.

Being “successful” though, is finally discovering a bountiful island to get off your boat.

16 April 2016
How the Crackdown on Corruption in China Helped My Business

Once upon a time, not too long ago, China had an unfettered boom in luxury spending, not only on the mainland but beyond its shores as its citizens poured overseas and clearing out stocks in boutiques at an unprecedented scale.

And that was how in 2013, the one-handbag-purchase-per-passport restriction came about in many stores worldwide, in an effort to throttle the voracious appetite of the Chinese tourists.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, as business soared. It didn’t matter what you sold, you could emblazon your handbag with logos, make incredulous markups with emu or python skin-editions, the consumers would buy it all up.

Watch brands could probably have sold anniversary editions even for any of odd-numbered years! (Here’s our 13 year anniversary edition! I kid).

The hard luxury business with diamonds and jewels and timepieces-abling moved fast. “Boutique”, “celebrity”, event-partnerships, anything that you could think of, there was a special edition watch pegged to it. And these were hugely popular purchases because they were smallish, easy to move, easy to “gift”.

The smaller and more valuable the item, the easier it was… to “hand it to someone” discreetly.

And thus with the Chinese Premier Xi Jinping’s crackdown on corruption, this wave of luxury spending abruptly plummeted. The effect was two-fold: If you were bribed with cash, you’d have more to spend indiscriminately. Or you could bribe with products. So on two fronts, luxury brands were hit with lower sales.

Many European and American labels had to close boutiques after an early aggressive expansion. Marc Jacobs was one such big name casualty, losing his job as Louis Vuitton’s womenswear artistic director for failing to read the “changing trend” as consumers eschewed logos. Right, logos was what did it.

So how did this have anything to do with my digital business?

When business was thriving in Asia because of Chinese spending, it didn’t matter how brand managers were spending their advertising dollars. They could have bought ads in a pets magazine and no one would have asked any questions.

Business via China was still going to come.

Ad dollars poured into traditional channels here in Singapore, from dailies to glossies in the print business. New titles cropped up, needing little excuse to publish offshoots, with editions for menswear (Blah Blah “Homme”), horlogerie (Blah Blah “Time”), travel (you get the idea), etc.

Now, with luxury sales dramatically down and commensurately, marketing budgets, managers had to be accountable for where they were spending their monies. Each dollar had to have a measurable ROI.

Now, you had to be accountable.

Now, you couldn’t just buy ad pages from a print magazine, tack on an ancillary buy for digital banners on the same magazine’s website that was visited only by the interns. (Actually, they still do. But this is easier to “justify”)

That’s when the tide changed for us.

This newfound prudence meant many print titles couldn’t just ride on sales relationships anymore, and many have since gone under in Singapore, and around the region.

Now, managers had to take a close look at which sites performed, had actual traffic, spoke to the right audience (ex-China, or China, but probably less of China and more home-market) they wanted to market to, in order to justify their spending.

Under such scrutiny over the past 2 years, we did well, and continue to do so.

[highlight]Thanks Comrade Xi.[/highlight]

19 November 2015
The Toruk Never Looks Up; Neither Does Your Biggest Competitor

So many of us are working on our own startup and fledging businesses, cognizant of who the biggest players are in our market.

For quite a number of you, the approach has been to take small steps to establish a foothold and expand carefully and meaningfully without stirring the attention of the big giant on the block, lest it comes knocking on your door and squeezing you out of the business, whether it’s through predatory pricing or offering the same promotions.

In the movie “Avatar”, if you recall, Jake Sulley (played by Aussie actor Sam Worthington) decides to capture the Toruk with cunning simplicity. Acknowledging that the Toruk — the big red bird of prey feared by all the Na’Vi (natives) of the planet Pandora — which sits at the top of the “fear chain”, so to speak, Jake Sulley attacks it from above, knowing that the Toruk would never expect anyone else to threaten it from that direction.

I recommend this bold strategy for all those who have been initially conservative.

Go after your competitor from where he expects it least.

It is the only way for you to succeed, and perhaps your best chance of survival too.

[highlight]The author of this note realizes not all have watched the movie Avatar and advises friends not to literally jump on your competitor’s back at the next conference.[/highlight]

8 January 2014
Artisanship — A Pursuit of Excellence — Should Become the Goal for Singaporeans

Following the grand plan that the Prime Minister laid out in the 2013th edition of the National Day Rally, from the new Changi Airport “Jewel” project, to new housing and industry initiatives, one thing that Singaporeans are most concerned about is how they will play a part in this progress.

The Pursuit of Excellence is the Key to Our Relevance and Survival

My vision for how Singapore can march into the next few decades can be summarized into 1 word, “Artisanship“, which denotes a dedication to becoming the best and most skilled in something.

1. To have the best skills – from chefs, programmers, seamstresses, mixologists, scientists, architects, engineers, builders, performance artists, animators, illustrators, photographers, singers, writers, dancers. doctors, armed forces…
2. To have the highest service standards and pride in service (Read Post)
3. To develop social grace

The government, its agencies, and our booming tourist economy can only provide the infrastructure. We have the schools, we have the global companies setting up their Asian headquarters here. We have an unprecedented influx of tourists visiting our country.

But if we as a people do not guide our young to be the best in what they do, we will end up needing to import resources, becoming a population that can only consume but not produce.

Right now, we have a whole generation of Singaporeans angry at feeling “left behind”, but the biggest worry is that the generation-to-follow is one that believes in “working smart, not hard” without being particularly very skilled in a chosen field. There is also no substitute for diligence, for “blood and sweat”, to achieve what we want, to become a viable work force, to partake in the success of the nation.

So many of our young want to be a founder of a tech startup without being a good programmer or having ample business experience. So many want to be a restauranteur without being a good chef. So many want to be a designer without knowing how to sew. So many want to be a boss before they know how to be a good employee.

That shortfall of excellence is the crux of our problem.

We cannot pursue the goal of being a global hub but not have our own citizenry participate in, and enjoin in that progress. That gap in skillset and the inability to meet expectation with reality is the cause of disenfranchisement in this country.

We cannot wait for leadership to guide us along. We alone must teach and mentor our young to first achieve excellence in what they do. Or we can sit and be paralyzed, pour our grievances online about injustices while the world moves along without us.

To become Artisans, the people alone must work hard to achieve the skills.

[highlight]My next post is on Authenticity. Watch out for it. [/highlight]

24 August 2013
What Singapore Inc. Can Learn from Manchester United

In May 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson announced his retirement after almost 27 years in charge at Manchester United, with the most successful tenure for a football manager in modern football, winning 49 trophies and amongst them 13 Premier League titles.

The most highly decorated manager of 71 years of age is likely to be succeeded by fellow Scotsman David Moyes, 50, who had managed Everton Football Club on meagre resources by English Premier League standards and his appointment comes as a shock compared to the big money moves of recent times.

Pundits had predicted Jose Mourinho, Jürgen Klopp, Jupp Heynckes as probable big name signings but they were proven wrong by the British club’s decision to go for a homegrown talent in the form of Moyes.

From a business perspective, what’s more important is the larger lesson we can gleam from Manchester United’s impending managerial announcement

What Would Singapore Have Done?

For a small country looking to continue to reap growth and success, the default strategy by entities in Singapore (both government and private, which I shall collectively group as “Singapore Inc.”) has been to import talent, especially at the highest management levels.

In 2009, when Temasek CEO Ho Ching was (apparently, albeit briefly) stepping down, the then-successor was Chip Goodyear, former CEO of BHP Billiton Ltd. Another example would be Magnus Bocker heading up the SGX. A look around the largest Singapore companies will reveal various foreign CEOs in charge.

I’m not saying hiring foreign talent is not good. In fact, Manchester United does it themselves in the form of player signings. Not to dig Liverpool Football Club in the same post, but they went “local” with multiple British signings when Kenny Dalglish took over and look where that took them. Getting the correct mix is still important.

Manchester United is one of the richest clubs in the world, and it has much to lose by making a wrong appointment as well but what it has done in this situation, is recognize the tenacious management record of a homegrown talent, and to give him a bigger stage to bloom.

Trust Our Own Talent

Singapore has the talent, and executives with the experience and track records to take on leadership roles at the highest levels. In some cases, these talents might not have shone as brightly given their limited context and resources, a la Moyes at Everton.

But that didn’t stop Manchester United.

Singapore should look to do more of the same. Obviously, it’s easier and safer to go for the big name hires, even better if its verified by a big name consulting company and headhunter, but the braver, more long-term strategy is to try and improve upon the quality of our own human resources by giving our own talent an opportunity to shine.

Give Singaporean A Chance

[highlight]Another route would be to aggressively pour resources into developing local talent, just like the German teams in Bundesliga, with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund success stories from the national effort to revitalize their talent pool[/highlight]

9 May 2013
Take Pride In What You Do & Maintain High Standards

I was at the press conference of the World Gourmet Summit today and the key stakeholders were talking about the difficulty in hiring service staff in Singapore and also the inability to meet (high) service standards.

Reasons given included the low unemployment rate amongst Singaporeans, resulting in us not willing to do service level jobs, another was the perception that a service job in F&B business was just not prestigious.

Of course, Singaporeans defending themselves will immediately say the jobs in themselves don’t pay well enough otherwise we would all want to be restaurant managers. This seems to be the de-facto no-brainer response to this kind of topic these days.

I surmise somebody out there is going to say they pay restaurant managers $10,000/month in some Scandinavian country. Good for them.

So it shouldn’t be surprising that…

Nobody Wants To Be A Waiter

… And then we came to the punchline of the discussion, that the F&B industry does need foreign labour (waiters, cooks, managers) and foreign talent (Michelin-star quality chefs) to fill this void that Singaporeans cannot fulfil.

Low cost for lower skilled but integral labour. High cost to buy prestige factor and expertise.

Now I don’t have a solution for labour shortage, nor do I know how to deal with foreign labour restrictions and I definitely don’t have any idea how you can make your restaurant business viable.

I also don’t know how you can make a waitering job more attractive. Perhaps restaurant owners can actually split the service charge they impose on customers.

Screw The Service, The Food Is Awful!

But what I want to say is, in spite of this need (from whom I don’t know) to boost the F&B industry in Singapore, with new eateries sprouting up everywhere, that the quality of food is actually dropping regardless of the service standards, which I didn’t expect to be high in the first place.

Those pictures of food on Instagram hashtagged #foodporn in Singapore might look good, but in general, the food is crap. French, American, Moroccan, Indian, Chinese, local hawker fare, you name it.

American Diner-inspired cafes offer up cute-looking pancakes costing $30 that taste nothing like iHop. Laksa served in food courts looks like noodles swimming in orange/red water. Steak-frites is not really just a piece of beef and french fries, you know? Mushroom soup shouldn’t taste worse than if I just microwaved a can of Campbell’s. You really don’t have any business starting a sushi joint if you didn’t know Salmon Don came with vinegared rice. And don’t get me started on the coconut rice plus everything that you call “nasi lemak”.

What the F&B industry faces is really a larger problem across Singapore society: A dilution of quality.

What’s funny is the foreign talent coming to Singapore end up assimilating our worst trait — Complaining.

Complain about government. Complain about people. Complain about staff. Complain about customers. Complain about suppliers.

You think a French or English chef is sexy with his accent? Hear him complain and he’ll sound just like a Singaporean. Singapore has become a melting pot afterall.

Honestly, we should have a national campaign to have PRIDE in what we do, whatever job we do.

Don’t do it well for someone else, do it well for your own goodness sake.

STANDARDS. There you have it.

[highlight]Have you ever eaten in Chinatown in New York City? Boy, those waiters are grouchy. But nobody cares because the food is cheap and good. [/highlight]

7 March 2013
When Liking A Facebook Page Means More Than Just That

I’ll admit it, to me, the act of “liking” a Facebook page is never just what it is at face-value — it is neither trivial nor flippant, especially given FB wants pages to advertise to get fans.

In fact, FB no longer allows fans to “invite” their friends to like a page — they can only “share” a link — and only administrators are left with the friend invitation tool. By doing so, FB has killed/crippled the innate “virality” of FB pages, thus driving page admins to pay into the system to grow their fanbase.

Like Or Not Like?

Believe it or not, I’ve received requests from folks asking me to share their page to our fans — to help them grow — only to realize that these goodwill requestors did not even like our page in the first place. In my humble opinion, such behaviour lacks good faith and doesn’t exactly inspire reciprocality.

Of course, there are those (myself included) who deliberately do not like a page or choose to un-fan ourselves out of objection, disinterest, competition, protest or a myriad of other motivations.

To me, liking an FB page that you’ve been invited to by a friend or associate shows whether you support what that person is doing, and whether that person supports what you are doing.

Have Your Missed An Invitation?

When a friend invites you to like a page he/she has set up, you receive a notification and the way FB has set it up, it is all too easy to miss them.

To that end, I realized I hadn’t been able to previously track invitations to become a fan until I stumbled upon this URL where you can find a listing of previous requests from friends: https://m.facebook.com/pages?source=mobile_page_suggestions_on_liking&__user=[your_username OR user_id_number] OR on the right hand column on https://www.facebook.com/pages

If it seemed like I previously didn’t support your project, I apologize. Now I am able to finally do so at that link.

[highlight]Then again, we shouldn’t take things too seriously. Well, at least I shouldn’t. Look at the friends who send you Candy Crush requests, their feelings don’t get hurt easily. They die only to live again. [/highlight]

6 March 2013
Pivot Your Impending Failure Into “Accidental Genius”

There’s a little known fact outside the medical world: Viagra, Pfizer’s game-changing solution to erectile dysfunction, was originally conceived as sildenafil, aimed at treating chest pain caused by heart disease.

Administered 3 times a day during a trial, the drug had a side effect, causing erections in the male subjects.

With that and in not so many words, Viagra was born.

How This Applies to the Entrepreneur

Are you working on something that hasn’t seen the success you’d like it to have? Are you focused on the platform while missing the potential of one of your features?

Oftentimes, as founders of startups, we are so fixated on the vision of what we want to achieve, as we should, that we fail to realize when we have accidentally stumbled upon “genius”.

There are many of such “accidental genius” creations in human history, ranging from the mechanical clock, which was initially intended to regulate monastic prayers to the phonograph, originally meant to be record phone conversations.

How It Happened to Me

When I initially rolled out SENATUS.NET, my vision was to create a gated online community, with authenticated login required to access private information.

I launched it here in Singapore during 2008/2009, just when the popularity of Facebook finally hit the populace. The comparisons between SENATUS and Facebook were inevitable, even though the business models and the intended use cases were starkly different.

[box]In fact, Facebook was itself also launched as a private network at first, with invitations given only to students of Harvard, then Ivy League schools, and colleges nationwide, before being open to public users. The rest is history[/box]

Some of the members who registered on my network were expecting the experience to be the same on Facebook, the number of users to be in the millions, the interactivity including the presence of third party apps (games) to provide similar R&R time.

The reality is that the average user is not going to take the time to understand why your product is different — user behavior is primitive and instinctive — Just look at the number of times people pick something up and start using it without looking at the instruction manual. Or simply just watch an iPhone user try out an Android smartphone.

Not everybody gets a chance to demonstrate their innovation at CES (the famed consumer electronics tradeshow in Las Vegas), nor has the budget to do a press junket for media and tech bloggers (and for them to subsequently explain to readers what you do).

During that particularly “dark” year in 2009, I literally role-played the restaurant owner sitting in my empty eatery, waiting for customers to come through the door, i.e. waiting for members to register on my network. Few did, and on hindsight I knew why: They couldn’t see inside the website (which was the point) and their curiosity wasn’t piqued enough for them to make the effort to register.

From Wilderness to Openness

SENATUS was built on Python/Django, an incredibly powerful content management system, and I had used it to not only add social networking features but also a rather simplistic magazine at the time.

And in that wilderness, I had what I call my ‘Hansel & Gretel’ moment.

The breadcrumbs of content I had left public were in fact what readers were responding to. It was as though through it, they finally understood the premium positioning that I wanted my network to have.

With that moment of Eureka, I poured my resources into fleshing out the magazine component of our website. Our luxury and lifestyle magazine went ‘live’ in 2010, and we quickly went on to win Gold Award in Best Online Magazine at the Asian Digital Media Award, emerging best against entries from media conglomerates from Asia Pacific to the Middle East. In 2012, after a further upgrading effort, we won the Silver Award.

The networking components of my website continue to exist, deployed for registered members but also intelligently used to make our editorial content “come alive”, allowing interactions with our team of editors, writers and photographers, facilitating discussions that can incorporate multi-media visual resources from across the Internet to create an all-encompassing experience.

[box]That is what I consider the Future of Magazines. You are welcome to take a look here: http://senatus.net/community and request an account if you’d like access. Yahoo, through Melissa Mayer, becomes only the second portal after us, to adopt an in-house newsfeed for its content.[/box]

I still believe in my core product — the network — but I have evolved my platform in order to continue doing what I do.

[highlight]Are you sitting on an “Accidental Genius”? Perhaps it’s time to take stock of the treasures you’ve already unearthed.[/highlight]

22 February 2013