Giving...

Giving is difficult...

Giving without regrets is even more difficult...

How can I give without expecting anything in return...
I am and still have yet been able to see pass this...

I think I need to do more self reflection...

Let's observe a minute of silence...

May the Lord bless the souls of those who are unfortunately sacrificed in this terror incident; and even more so, may the Lord give strength to those who are affected to stay strong and live a more fulfilled life in place of those who had suffered.

Singaporean killed during Mumbai hostage incident: official

She was identified by her husband, who was accompanied by Singapore's high commissioner. -AFP

Fri, Nov 28, 2008
AFP

SINGAPORE - A Singaporean taken hostage during coordinated attacks across India's commercial capital of Mumbai has been killed, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Lo Hoei Yen, 28, was identified by her husband, who was accompanied by Singapore's high commissioner, Jai Sohan, consular director of the foreign ministry, told reporters at a late-night news conference.

"We were only told, confirmed, at 21:35 hours (1335 GMT) this evening that she had suffered a tragic death," Sohan said.

Her body was found on the 19th floor of the Oberoi/Trident hotel, he said.

At least 93 people, most of them foreigners, were released Friday from the Oberoi/Trident hotel more than 36 hours after armed militants seized the building, police said.

Mumbai's police chief said 24 bodies were found at the hotel after rescue operations concluded.

Article of the day

Saw an interesting article which I wish to share cause it really got me thinking.

Extracted from the ST INTERVIEW, Straits Times, Nov 26, 2008

Now's the time to spend more

Companies able to invest in a recession will gain market share and come out stronger
By Susan Long

THE public backlash that DBS Bank suffered when it slashed 900 jobs was a classic case of 'first mover disadvantage'.

When times are tough, the first to wield the axe gets all the bad press, says Dr Stewart Black, executive director of the Insead business school's Centre for Human Resources in Asia.

Of course, the bombshell announcement, coupled by the fact that DBS is a national icon and still profitable - it declared a third-quarter net profit of $379 million, albeit 38 per cent less than last year - did not help.

But the 49-year-old says: 'It's almost impossible for outsiders to judge whether a company needed to make such a big cut. They likely considered the negative reception of going first but took the decision anyway.

'Often companies struggle with how much to reveal. The more you open the books, the more you satisfy workers. But it can make customers nervous and can give competitors an advantage.

'So did they reveal too much or too little? And was their response proportionate? Often, you can't tell until way after the fact.'

He says it is not always the case that companies should hang on to all their employees. Of late, there have been calls here to revert to the Eastern or Japanese way of viewing the company as an extended family, and sticking together through thick and thin.

But Dr Black, who spent five years working and living in Japan as a consultant and professor and has visited it extensively since 1978, says: 'Family loyalty served Japan well in the roaring 80s but they were very slow to restructure and get rid of uncompetitive assets and excessive employees after the bubble burst in 1991. It cost 17 years of stagnation.

'You have to ask if the cost of a more dramatic response would have been less costly than the response they took which spread the pain out over 17 years. Would a Western response have inflicted less pain?'

The right response, he says, is probably somewhere in between the American way of slash and burn and the familial orientation of Japan, which protects workers as long as possible.

Before companies reach for the axe, he says they should first do a cost-benefit analysis of how much it will cost to recruit, train, develop and get a replacement worker up to speed.

For a blue-collar worker, studies show that it costs roughly about 30 per cent of his annual salary to achieve this. For a white-collar worker, it costs between 50 to 70 per cent of his annual salary.

'Quite often, companies underestimate this when they reflexively cut people. They are penny-wise, pound-foolish, saving money at the moment only to spend more money in the future.'

Another common mistake firms make is failing to differentiate between high and low performers, and firing en masse. 'Research shows that top performers contribute 40 to 70 per cent more than average performers. It's important to put pressure on low performers but keep your top performers during a recession.'

One way to do that in lean times is through awards and recognition. 'It may be that sales are not as high in a downturn but the company is still doing better than others. In that case, are we celebrating, rewarding, recognising top performers?"

An inexpensive method, he suggests, is an Employee Of The Month competition. The winner gets dinner vouchers, and his picture in the newsletter.

Another way is to offer more flexibility in work hours. 'If you gave employees a choice of working flexible hours or slightly fewer hours, some may take it. They may have childcare or parent-care needs or other things they would be happy to trade 10 hours a week at work for on a temporary basis.

'They won't be able to sustain that in the long term, in terms of income, but it could be welcome flexibility for a while. This will save money, versus forcing everybody to take shorter hours or laying people off.'

Beefing up development opportunities also helps. This can be done through setting up a task force and offering 'temporary assignments', to look at, for example, process improvement, cycle time or customer service. 'This helps employees' development so that when the recovery comes, they have added capabilities and greater opportunities to advance.

'Sometimes taking a step back helps you leap forward. If we take on a new skill, there is a learning curve. A good time to put in that investment is during a recession, so that you're up that learning curve and can gain all the benefits at a time when the economy is recovering. That way, you get acceleration during the recovery, versus a company that waits till the recovery to put in that investment.'

In his past 20 years of researching 50 different companies worldwide, he says over 85 per cent enjoyed a positive return on their investments in marketing, operations and human resources made during recessions.

Now is not the time to cut back but spend more, he urges. 'If companies have strong balance sheets and the liquidity to make investments, there is no better time to gain market share, retool and emerge stronger.

'So far we haven't had a recession last forever. Every recession has been followed by a recovery. If you prepare well for the recovery, you can catch the front of the wave and surf out in front of your competitors.'

Unfortunately, most companies look only at how dire the here-and-now is, and forget that things will get better. So, a bad economy is the best time to hire good talent.

'You can get the best of both worlds by keeping your best people and going out to grab your competitors' best people. Now coming out of the recovery, you're in fantastic shape. You've kept your best people, you've got rid of your worst and you've hired your competitor's best.

'You've made investments so that your learning curve will match the recovery curve. With that, you're firing on all 12 cylinders.'

suelong@sph.com.sg

Additional reporting by Cassandra Chew

About Dr Stewart

DR STEWART Black, 49, is the executive director of the Insead business school's Centre for Human Resources in Asia, which conducts research and serves as a learning hub for senior HR executives from about 30 large multinationals.

The American is the co-author of a bestseller on leading change, It Starts With One, and a leading textbook, Management: Meeting New Challenges, along with 10 other books on leadership, globalisation and strategy.

He was based in Singapore from 2005 till recently as Affiliate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Insead. He now lives in Colorado, in the United States, where he is in charge of the business school's executive development activities for the Americas region.

Prior to joining Insead in 2005, he was Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan. He is married with five children aged six to 24.

Background Stories

Bosses, if you must make cuts, here's what to do
1 AVOID DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS

It is better to do your calculations thoroughly and then retrench in one fell swoop, than make multiple cuts as things worsen, says Dr Stewart Black, executive director of the Insead business school's Centre for Human Resources in Asia.

'By the second cut, remaining employees will wonder if they will survive the third or fourth round. The impact is counter-intuitive. Instead of working harder to keep their jobs, they get anxious and lose concentration.'

Because misery loves company, they will spend all their time commiserating in the hallways. Productivity, he warns, will plunge further.

2 BEWARE THE SURVIVOR EFFECT

'Employees are human beings first, economic animals second. If you didn't get cut, but your friend does, it's your friendship heart that kicks in first,' he says.

According to research done on car companies where many were let go in the 1980s, for companies where job cuts were perceived to be fair, productivity did not go down or up. At best, there was a neutral effect.

But where people felt their dearly departed were unfairly targeted or treated, they slowed down their work to 'exact revenge'. He says: 'Even though it was not in their own economic interest to do that, people's hearts obviously won over their heads.'

As such, the 'why' and 'how' of retrenchment becomes paramount. 'Was it because the person was of lower seniority or belonged to a poor performing unit? Was there prior consultation or did they just come in one morning and get escorted out by security?'

If a company is seen to be reasonable, even if not generous, productivity goes back to neutral. 'Quite frankly, neutral is good. In a slowdown, the last thing you can afford is any further drop in productivity.'

3 RALLY THE REMAINING TROOPS

'Like a sports team, you need to inspire the survivors to fight on. When you are losing, many players feel like mentally and emotionally giving up. Once they do, the game is over,' he says.

'However, the rally cry must be based on reality. If you are down by 50 points in basketball with one minute to play, promising the players they can win the game if they try just doesn't ring true.'

In some business cases, the goals need to be more realistic.

'For example, General Motors recently announced that for it, winning would be surviving the next two years. For many companies, winning could be just surviving. In other cases, you can help employees see that the actions being taken now can help the company emerge from the recession even stronger.'

---

ON THE WORST THING COMPANIES CAN DO
'If you've never invested in employees in past downturns, don't pretend to start now. Do it only if you are serious. A while ago, companies seized on participative management. They went around asking employees for opinions but ignored it. They raised expectations, then dashed them. They would have been better off never asking for input rather than asking for it and then ignoring it.'

ON DEFENSIVE MEASURES
'In both good times and bad, companies with strong cultures, like Disney, Shell and BASF, have low staff turnovers. One of the things to think about is how do I enhance my working environment such that even if my employees have portable skills, the benefit of moving to a new employer isn't worth the cost of losing the company-specific culture. Studies show that a 10 to 20 per cent pay differential can be offset with a good company culture. Now, lots of people will leave for a 50 per cent pay raise. But companies are not losing most of their people to 50 per cent more, they're losing them to 10 to 20 per cent salary increases.'

MANY savvy companies have harnessed recessions to their benefit and taken to heart American civil war general William T. Sherman's famous saying 'March when the enemy is sleeping'.

Insead's Dr Stewart Black's favourite examples are:

INTEL: During the 1991 recession, California-based semiconductor company Intel launched its 'Intel Inside' marketing and branding campaign, and emerged a household name.

'Before that, it was an anonymous microprocessor supplier. Now, we think of Intel as a brand and we want an Intel chip inside our computer. Since then, they rarely, if ever, retrench, and consistently make investments during recessions.'

WAL-MART: During the 2000 recession, American discount retailer Wal-Mart pushed its 'Everyday low prices' slogan. This year, it has launched 'Save money, live better'. 'Wal-Mart, known for its low prices, doesn't mind recessions because some people who shop at the higher end tend to come down a little bit, but in the last two recessions, they have taken advantage to position themselves strategically.'

TOYOTA: When the big car companies were busy laying off workers from 2000 to 2003, Toyota expanded operations, and emerged with a higher market share.

During that time, it shut down a plant in Turkey for 10 months but kept all its workers, and trained them. When it restarted again, it went on to have some of the highest productivity and quality ratings at any Toyota plant globally.

This year, Toyota in the US is not going to lay off any of its around 4,500 employees. They have shut down plants for three months and are training workers in new techniques and new models. 'They are also keeping them in shape with exercise, so that when the factories start up again, the workers will be ready to start.'

Thoughs on Discipline and Passion

Just some thoughts that I had and wanted to note them down.

Q. What is discipline?
A. Discipline is doing things without regards to feelings. Whether you like it or not.

Q. Is discipline essential to success?
A. Yes and no. It depends on what your definition is. You can reach the goal if you are discipline but it is not the only way. And without regarding your personal feelings sometimes make the success a hollow one.

Q. So what is more critical?
A. Acting on passion and hope.

Q. Why do I say so?
A. A person with passion will put his mind / heart / soul into what he do, hence has a greater chance of succeeding. Also with passion and hope, one will have true satisfaction on what he has achieve because he achieves what he wants not what other people wants.

Q. How can I benefit from this information?
A. Think of ways that you can align your passion and hope with what you do. Ask yourself what spurs you in your job. Ask yourself what elements in your job gives you the most satisfaction.

It's been a while

Slightly more than a month that I last updated my blog. Mainly because I think I've been spending more time on FaceBook. Haha~ Still, I think there need to be a place to consolidate all my thoughts so that 10 years down the road, I will have something to refer back to.

The past 1 month+ has been filled with lots of activities.
- AIESEC in Singapore had the Alumni Dinner in Blooies.
- Watching the F1 in Balaclava, then rushing out to hear the excitement of the cars rushing by.
- KJ dropped by in Singapore and we managed to catch up with her over dinner
- My NTU class gathering which has not happened in quite a while
- Jeffery's wedding which was celebrated with a bang
- Alvin's birthday which was so filled with TouchLight activities as well as catching up with friends
- The annual CHS Alumni Dinner which happens every Oct 13th, not many people from my batch attended but I kindda enjoyed my time chatting with friends and Mdm Teng who had attended.
- Then there was the Makan Trail @ Cumi Bali Indonesian Restaurant, a great place to dine at reasonable rates
- Kelvin and Vida finally started their new phase in life with a Christian / Chinese style wedding.
- Sandy Lam performed in Singapore and I managed to catch the great performance which I really enjoyed.
- Farewell for Fida who returned to Indonesia to help her Dad.
- Rest of the time had been filled with Gym and studies for the CCDA, which I postpone as I fared badly for the mock. =/
And of coz, getting my job done at work; I think more has to be done to get my work process structurized so that I could get them done more efficiently and effectively.

Quite a bit of activities for the end Sept / Oct period. Will be looking to focus more of my time in Nov to study for my Cisco exams, what needs to be done needs to be done...