Thursday, October 28, 2010

用人之道

在管理学上,往往教人最为頭痛的莫過于“控制”二字。

为上者,有時為了下属常常自作主张而忧心,唯恐那日会因不受控制而闯出個大禍来。
若下属是属能干者型,那就叫人更為忧心了。那怕他有日会自起炉灶,当起对手來。

为下者,卻常因为老板处处拑制,而無所有用武之地而感到灰心。若不信我,又何用我之?
另有例者,老板對下属過于放纵,过多的自由导致懶散,然后開始迷迷糊糊过日子,迷失方向。

曹操有言道,疑人不用,用人不疑。對我而言,這是用人之上策,也是用人之道的第一招。

首先,若對自己的将领有疑,而不能尽信,那則肯定兵敗無疑当然,为上者,必须拥有阅人的眼光。若你能像伯乐般能分辨好马与孬马,那当然是最好,但起码,我觉得,你也必须拥有刘备之阅人之能力,从而能人用之。

常言道,将在外,君命不受。相信自己的眼光,该放手时,就放手让他好好地干吧。

在三国里,英雄与好领袖如云。但我觉得,若要谈用人之道,则非谈曹操与刘备不可。

众人皆知,曹操是奸雄。那一句“宁我负天下人,莫叫天下人负我”已充分地表现出其性格。但,野心满满的奸雄曹操却是手下将领如云,也没多少人背叛曹操另奔他营。这是为何?

曹操做事果断,也来的残忍。徐州城一事就是最好的例子。但这也是其成功的地方。我觉得,许多人肯为他出生入死除了是他魅力过人及有着一统天下的能力与野心,也因为他非常爱才。人说曹操惜才如命是没错。你可说是识英雄,重英雄,但你也可说是曹操知道,若要成大业,明主得须很多英才辅助才能成事。

曹操的成功告诉我们,为上者,若要成功,你得必须拥有成大业之决心。然后,你得将之付诸于行动,随之人们才会肯追随你。
其二,你得有阅人之能力及相信自己的眼光。若你觅得人才,但却对之有所顾虑或怀疑,那么,他们是不会在你手下干的长久,也不会对你忠心耿耿。

你得先相信别人,别人才会对你回于信任。

说到忠心,就会想到刘关张三兄弟深厚的感情。关羽及张飞对刘备的信任及忠诚,简直是深厚的连曹操也妒忌及羡慕。那,刘备到底有何过人之处能让如此厉害的强人在他旗下做事呢?

无可否认,魅力及其为人之原则是刘备最大的本钱。他贯彻性地对汉室忠诚,使得他就算是掠人城池,取人性命也来得振振有词。除此,我觉得,在刘备旗下做事,感觉上会比在曹操营中轻松。因为,相比之下,刘备似乎比较容易相处。但,若你问我,要成大事的话,我宁可放手一搏,追随曹操。为何?

在刘备旗下,你知道纵使你再强,刘备最亲的,仍是关羽及张飞。所幸的是,关张二人乃属能人,要不然刘军早就散了。但在曹营,只要你是有能力者,天下就是你的。这是很重要的分别。

现实中,你得让你的下属知道,只要他肯努力及好好表现,那他就能爬的多高,走的多远。你得让他知道在你未来的宏图计划中有他的存在,然后也得与其分享取得天下之后,他会有什么样的回报。

更重要的是,你得让他知道到底何时会得到回报。为何?在这日新月异的年代,没人会肯为你痴痴地等,痴痴地干。为上者,也总喜欢能拖得一时就拖吧,那可省下点工钱,也别让年轻人得意的太早。

你我皆非草木。我们每天都需要去打拼的原动力。为上者或为下者皆一样,免不了都会被钱利所动。

用人之道之要诀,往往都是一个“信”字。但也别忘了“利”也甚重要。

Friday, October 15, 2010

Marketing Strategy: Presence and Reason

one thing i learn from marketing is, the success of a brand building campaign does not solely depend on how loud you shout, but on the way you shout.

imagine, when you walk into a shop, and you see a big-ass display of product in front of you, under normal circumstances, people will either be attracted to it ("wah! new product, let's check it out!'), or merely just acknowledging its existence. ("oh, new product huh. ok...but the display is ugly lah, let's go grab my chips instead")

you can have bright yellow or pink or green backdrop or funky packaging, coupled with a big banner on top saying "Buy 1 free 10" or something. These might catch the attention from some people, especially those that are on limited budget, but it might not work for some. This is because to inform the shopper about something is easier than to convince them to buy one. Why?

When you talk about soda drinks, there's always a brand that will pop up in your mind immediately. Coke? Pepsi? Dr. Pepper?

ok, let's think of diapers. Which brand pops up?

how about, beer, which brand is it?

how about instant noodle, which brand pops up first?

the funny thing about human mind is, image normally comes up first, then your brain will send the signals to the other parts of your body, then, for some reasons, you can almost certainly taste or smell the product you want to buy (not diaper of course, but you might be able to recall how soft/hard/expensive it is).

i.e. we normally store images & experiences in our creative-part of the brain, whereas the rational & logical side of brain will store info like "is it healthy? how expensive is it comparing to the others? will my friend think that i'm a loser if i drink this soda instead of the others?" etc.

so it's like a left brain vs right brain war. And normally the war is quite intense when you go shopping.

how about convenience store? think about it, what drives you to go to a convenience store? to buy a cigarettes? grab a drink? buy newspaper? ATM? grab a pain killer?

The subconscious motive of going to a hypermarket vs convenience store is inherently very different for shoppers. When you plan for your trip to hypermarket with family, you know you want to do grocery shopping, maybe will buy some food...but not sure what yet. In fact, most of the time, we are hoping that the hypermarket can surprise us with good deals or value buys.

However, before you step into a convenience store, most often than not, you already know that one item or two that you want to buy.

it's essential to understand the motives of shoppers before you can plan for anything in the world of FMCG marketing. You can bang table, shout all you can about how great is your brand, but, if this is not what the shoppers want, their reaction will just be merely "acknowledging" your presence, and will not convert into sales.

It's not wrong to have a marketing campaign just to create "Presence". Especially for new brands, you need to have presence then only people know there's a new kid on the block.

But, there are times, you need a marketing campaign to tell the consumers "the Reason" to buy. If this is successful, you will see sales growing healthily across time.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that Reason is more important than Presence, nor the other way around. It's just merely using different strategy for different phase of the product marketing cycle. But i must say that creating a "Reason" marketing strategy is harder than a "Presence" one.

if you have enough marketing budget, then you just need to buy some block displays at high traffic outlets, do some TV ads, competition, or maybe celebrity endorsement then consumers will know about your product. Knowing is one thing, but to make it the first brand that pops up in your mind when you think of that category is another.

Sometimes to create a deeper impression, the product will have a very funny or funky TV ads. You had a good laugh, and you share it on Facebook, but, can you recall the brand after 2-3 months? You might, maybe, but will you rush to the shop right away to buy the product? Or will you purposely look for the product when you are in shop the next time?

Reason-type of marketing will be different. It could be the power of association (i.e. when people see me with this product, then they will think that i am cool) or words of mouth (if you want to drink soda, buy coke), or it could be influenced by the product positioning strategy (if you're thirsty, think of coke or drink coke with hot pot, shiok ah!)

so next time around when you're thirsty or eating hot pot, you will be like "hey, i feel like having a bottle of coke". Isn't it fattening? But you do have a reason to have coke at that moment.

"Because, [i was told that] coke is the perfect match for hot weather!"

there you go. Reason-type marketing is largely based on the Product Positioning marketing strategy. Once you position your product to be of certain price or quality range, then you will need to crack your head to think of the reason for consumer to choose you. Some says it's actually differentiation strategy. I say no. Differentiation is just being different from the others, but it does not convert consumer from A to B.

So if you have this concept at the back of your mind, then you can easily identify which campaign does not fit your marketing strategy. If i want you to buy my potato chips, i will tell you that our product is healthier, tastier, cheaper blah blah blah, and all i need to do is to feed you with info and make sure that you will be convinced. Sometime, being different is just not good enough.

If you have a good "Give me a Reason to Buy" marketing strategy, then, it is almost like having a top insurance agent selling to the consumers on a 24/7 basis.

some food for thoughts.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Edison is Back!

I have always been a big fans of Edison Chen, of his talents and entrepreneurial spirits. Check out his label / company here. CLOT Inc. That's the name.

Here's his latest song, "Mr. Sandman"


Personally i think this lyric is quite cool. check it out

"他不想当宅男, 要当就当豪宅男"

Lyrics :
歌词

他每天上班 下班 加班

吃不下饭

穿衬衫 打领带

黑皮鞋 黑眼袋

黑棉猜

太阳好大 好碍眼

晒得他好邋遢

他看着101

幻想着有天他也会发达

就算是一辈子

也买不起栋房子

就算买了也会累死

他到底干嘛要这样子

他不想当宅男

要当就当豪宅男

这种梦比登天还难

他到底应该要怎么办

mr sandman

Bring me a dream

make it the cutest that i've ever seen

give him the tips

like roses in clover

then tell hom that his lone some nights are over

mr sandman

i'm so alone

don't have nobody to call my own

please turn on

your magic beams

mr sandman bring me a dream

她是個Young lady 會被老闆吃吃豆腐

牵牵手

摸摸屁股

点头论足她穿的衣服 oh

他討厭他的BOSS

有苦难言

她很O

虚伪的面具到处都有

乾脆辞职说了就GO

她是要去哪咧 她到底搞清楚了没

她觉得未来的路是黑 为何她不顾是非

需要点勇气

需要多点lucky

或许爱她的Honey

或许多一点money

他自己也搞不清

Oh mr

sandman

请给他一个梦想

Oh mr sandman

请给我一个梦想

Oh mr sandman

mr

sandman

我叫做陈冠希

和你一样

我有痛苦和压力

也想过要放弃

没私人飞机

过海关也会被哔哔

我假装笑嘻嘻

假装日子一样

bling bling

我的生活

像是一场马戏团的show

跳来跳去下一关

我想试试Super Mario

oh

no

我的父母告诉我

这世界属于我

当时我怀疑

这到底是对还是错

醉生梦死

多少次

对着镜子问着

why me

mr sandman please

请你帮我把梦快递

和你一样

其实我和你一样

mr sandman

请你带给我们一个希望

mr sandman

bring me a dream

make it the cutest that i've ever seen

give hm the tips like roses in clover

then tell him that

his lone some nights are over

mr sandman

i am so alone

don't have nobody

to call my own

please turn on your magic beams

mr sandman bring me a dream

Friday, October 08, 2010

Eulogy by Mr. Lee Kuan Yew to his beloved wife

Mrs. Lee Kuan Yew, Mdm Kwa Geok Choo passed away recently.

At the funeral service at Mandai Crematorium, Singapore Minister Mentor Mr. Lee delivered his eulogy entitled "The Last Farewell to My Wife", as below:

Source: Channel News Asia

Ancient peoples developed and ritualised mourning practices to express the shared grief of family and friends, and together show not fear or distaste for death, but respect for the dead one; and to give comfort to the living who will miss the deceased.

I recall the ritual mourning when my maternal grandmother died some 75 years ago. For five nights the family would gather to sing her praises and wail and mourn at her departure, led by a practiced professional mourner.

Such rituals are no longer observed. My family’s sorrow is to be expressed in personal tributes to the matriarch of our family.

In October 2003 when she had her first stroke, we had a strong intimation of our mortality.

My wife and I have been together since 1947 for more than three quarters of our lives. My grief at her passing cannot be expressed in words. But today, when recounting our lives together, I would like to celebrate her life.

In our quiet moments, we would revisit our lives and times together. We had been most fortunate. At critical turning points in our lives, fortune favoured us.

As a young man with an interrupted education at Raffles College, and no steady job or profession, her parents did not look upon me as a desirable son-in-law. But she had faith in me.

We had committed ourselves to each other. I decided to leave for England in September 1946 to read law, leaving her to return to Raffles College to try to win one of the two Queen’s Scholarships awarded yearly. We knew that only one Singaporean would be awarded. I had the resources, and sailed for England, and hoped that she would join me after winning the Queen’s Scholarship.

If she did not win it, she would have to wait for me for three years.

In June the next year, 1947, she did win it. But the British colonial office could not get her a place in Cambridge.

Through Chief Clerk of Fitzwilliam, I discovered that my Censor at Fitzwilliam, W S Thatcher, was a good friend of the Mistress of Girton, Miss Butler.

He gave me a letter of introduction to the Mistress. She received me and I assured her that Choo would most likely take a “First”, because she was the better student when we both were at Raffles College.

I had come up late by one

term to Cambridge, yet passed my first year qualifying examination with a class 1. She studied Choo’s academic record and decided to admit her in October that same year, 1947.

We have kept each other company ever since. We married privately in December 1947 at Stratford-upon-Avon. At Cambridge, we both put in our best efforts. She took a first in two years in Law Tripos II. I took a double first, and a starred first for the finals, but in three years.

We did not disappoint our tutors. Our Cambridge Firsts gave us a good start in life. Returning to Singapore, we both were taken on as legal assistants in Laycock & Ong, a

thriving law firm in Malacca Street. Then we married officially a second time that September 1950 to please our parents and friends. She practised conveyancing and draftsmanship, I did litigation.

In February 1952, our first son Hsien Loong was born. She took maternity leave for a year.

That February, I was asked by John Laycock, the Senior Partner, to take up the case of the Postal and Telecommunications Uniformed Staff Union, the postmen’s union.

They were negotiating with the government for better terms and conditions of service. Negotiations were deadlocked and they decided to go on strike. It was a battle for public support. I was able to put across the reasonableness of their case through the press and radio. After a fortnight, they won concessions from the government. Choo, who was at home on maternity leave, pencilled through my draft statements, making them simple and clear.

Over the years, she influenced my writing style. Now I write in short sentences, in the active voice. We gradually influenced each other’s ways and habits as we adjusted and accommodated each other.

We knew that we could not stay starry-eyed lovers all our lives; that life was an on-going challenge with new problems to resolve and manage.

We had two more children, Wei Ling in 1955 and Hsien Yang in 1957. She brought them up to be well-behaved, polite, considerate and never to throw their weight as the prime minister’s children.

As a lawyer, she earned enough, to free me from worries about the future of our children.

She saw the price I paid for not having mastered Mandarin when I was young. We decided to send all three children to Chinese kindergarten and schools.

She made sure they learned English and Malay well at home. Her nurturing has equipped them for life in a multi-lingual region.

We never argued over the upbringing of our children, nor over financial matters. Our earnings and assets were jointly held. We were each other’s confidant.

She had simple pleasures. We would walk around the Istana gardens in the evening, and I hit golf balls to relax.

Later, when we had grandchildren, she would take them to feed the fish and the swans in the Istana ponds. Then we would swim. She was interested in her surroundings, for instance, that many bird varieties were pushed out by mynahs and crows eating

up the insects and vegetation.

She discovered the curator of the gardens had cleared wild grasses and swing fogged for mosquitoes, killing off insects they fed on. She stopped this and the bird varieties returned. She surrounded the swimming pool with free flowering scented flowers and derived great pleasure smelling them as she swam.

She knew each flower by its popular and botanical names. She had an enormous capacity for words.

She had majored in English literature at Raffles College and was a voracious reader, from Jane Austen to JRR Tolkien, from Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian Wars to Virgil’s Aeneid, to The Oxford Companion to Food, and Seafood of Southeast Asia, to Roadside Trees of Malaya, and Birds of Singapore.

She helped me draft the Constitution of the PAP. For the inaugural meeting at Victoria Memorial Hall on 4 November 1954, she gathered the wives of the founder members to sew rosettes for those who were going on stage.

In my first election for Tanjong Pagar, our home in Oxley Road, became the HQ to assign cars provided by my supporters to ferry voters to the polling booth.

She warned me that I could not trust my new found associates, the leftwing trade unionists led by Lim Chin Siong. She was furious that he never sent their high school student helpers to canvass for me in Tanjong Pagar, yet demanded the use of cars provided by my supporters to ferry my Tanjong Pagar voters.

She had an uncanny ability to read the character of a person. She would sometimes warn me to be careful of certain persons; often, she turned out to be right.

When we were about to join Malaysia, she told me that we would not succeed because the UMNO Malay leaders had such different lifestyles and because their politics were communally-based, on race and religion.

I replied that we had to make it work as there was no better choice. But she was right.

We were asked to leave Malaysia before two years.

When separation was imminent, Eddie Barker, as Law Minister, drew up the draft legislation for the separation. But he did not include an undertaking by the Federation Government to guarantee the observance of the two water agreements between the PUB and the Johor state government. I asked Choo to include this. She drafted the undertaking as part of the constitutional amendment of the Federation of Malaysia Constitution itself.

She was precise and meticulous in her choice of words. The amendment statute was annexed to the Separation Agreement, which we then registered with the United Nations.

The then Commonwealth Secretary Arthur Bottomley said that if other federations were to separate, he hoped they would do it as professionally as Singapore and Malaysia.

It was a compliment to Eddie’s and Choo’s professional skills. Each time Malaysian Malay leaders threatened to cut off our water supply, I was reassured that this clear and solemn international undertaking by the Malaysian government in its Constitution will get us a ruling by the UNSC (United Nations Security Council).

After her first stroke, she lost her left field of vision. This slowed down her reading. She learned to cope, reading with the help of a ruler. She swam every evening and kept fit. She continued to travel with me, and stayed active despite the stroke. She stayed in touch with her family and old friends.

She listened to her collection of CDs, mostly classical, plus some golden oldies. She jocularly divided her life into “before stroke” and “after stroke”, like BC and AD.

She was friendly and considerate to all associated with her. She would banter with her WSOs (woman security officers) and correct their English grammar and pronunciation in a friendly and cheerful way. Her former WSOs visited her when she was at NNI. I thank them all.

Her second stroke on 12 May 2008 was more disabling. I encouraged and cheered her on, helped by a magnificent team of doctors, surgeons, therapists and nurses.

Her nurses, WSOs and maids all grew fond of her because she was warm and considerate. When she coughed, she would take her small pillow to cover her mouth because she worried for them and did not want to infect them.

Her mind remained clear but her voice became weaker. When I kissed her on her cheek, she told me not to come too close to her in case I caught her pneumonia.

I assured her that the doctors did not think that was likely because I was active.

When given some peaches in hospital, she asked the maid to take one home for my lunch. I was at the centre of her life.

On 24 June 2008, a CT scan revealed another bleed again on the right side of her brain. There was not much more that medicine or surgery could do except to keep her comfortable.

I brought her home on 3 July 2008. The doctors expected her to last a few weeks. She lived till 2nd October, 2 years and 3 months.

She remained lucid. They gave time for me and my children to come to terms with the inevitable. In the final few months, her faculties declined. She could not speak but her cognition remained.

She looked forward to have me talk to her every evening.

Her last wish she shared with me was to enjoin our children to have our ashes placed together, as we were in life.

The last two years of her life were the most difficult. She was bedridden after small successive strokes; she could not speak but she was still cognisant.

Every night she would wait for me to sit by her to tell her of my day’s activities and to read her favourite poems. Then she would sleep.

I have precious memories of our 63 years together. Without her, I would be a different man, with a different life. She devoted herself to me and our children.

She was always there when I needed her. She has lived a life full of warmth and meaning.

I should find solace at her 89 years of her life well lived. But at this moment of the final parting, my heart is heavy with sorrow and grief.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Mixed Rice, or some called it Economical Rice

Not long ago, Mixed Rice, or more commonly referred to as Chap Fan in Malaysia was my staple meal for lunch. Especially during those college days where budget is always a constraint. (Note the usage of "is" in the previous sentence, as budget constraint remains a problem till nowadays :( )

Then as you grew older, and people starting to learn how to enjoy life, we will switch to lunch at air-conditioned venues with better quality food. In turns, your cost-for-lunch increases tremendously with the increasing level of comfort.

Gotta blame it on inflation that food prices are more expensive these days. Well, will not go into that topic any further as it will involve at least 2,000,000+ blog entries in arguing which economic policy works best for the country. Chap Fan, used to cost about RM2.00 - 3.00 (with fried chicken drumsticks somemore) to a minimum of RM3.50 in today's economy. Guess the high selling price forced the Chap Fan sellers to re-named their business from "economical rice" to "mixed rice", simply because, it's not economical anymore.

Nonetheless, it is still one of the few most affordable lunch options available. If you want to go cheaper than Chap Fan, guess you either have to starve or to rely / hope for free lunch.

Anyway, this is like KL Tower-style blog entry. Super fat layer on the intro, and broom stick skinny content to follow. Sometimes we like to take things for granted, and if it's not "the time of the month" again (p.s. not PMS if you're thinking down that route. No!), i.e. the days between "Pay Day" and "I have used up my savings and i have sheeeet-loads of credit card debt day", we wouldn't have thought of our beloved Chap Fan, as opposed to air-conditioned overpriced outlets like PapaRich, Oldtown, KFC, McD etc etc...

Though it's not as comfortable vs. the abovementioned outlets, but when you get to eat a cheap yet nice meal for lunch, you just feel so good about yourself. One dollar saved is one dollar earned after all.

Maybe, in order to feel rich going forward, perhaps, we need to eat chap fan for lunch on a daily basis from now on... Maybe.


Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Autobiography

I was tossing the idea of drafting an autobiography of myself and my family. well, of course i do agree that i'm a nobody (at least for now, ha!), but i think recording what's happening right now, my plan for the future and my growing stories would be interesting for my descendants. (i hope...)

The idea first sprung up when i was asking my dad about my family tree. My dad was telling me interesting stories like this but nothing really concrete about the whole family thingy. I mean, he said "i think one of your ancestor was a government official during Ching Dynasty day" but no name was mentioned. Good thing is we still have record of our ancestors' home in Guangdong province, China. But, that is. nothing more, nothing less.

i went on google about my ancestors, my surname, the location of our ancestors' home in Guangdong but nothing really meaningful came up. Thus, i think, the Foo family deserves to know more about the legacy of Foo family members.

There's an episode in "The Simpson" season 21 where poor Lisa Simpson was looking up and down for her proud ancestor story (of course is for her aim to get a good grade in school project). interestingly (of course, it's a cartoon for crying out loud), the record of the Simpsons are widely available (a diary in their house's attic, public library, untold story from Grandpa...). She was told that one of her ancestor, Eliza Simpson once freed a black slave, and she's super proud of it, of course, The Simpson ain't a simple cartoon and you have to watch the episode to find out the turn of events.

My point is, History, though labeled as boring for some, but it's nonetheless an very important element in our life. There are lessons to be learnt, and there are moments to be proud of. It isn't the case where we can only learn from successful stories (like the autobiographies sold out there), but there are times where we can learn from small stories in our daily life.

Start collecting stories around you and who knows, one day, our story could be as famous as this bloke's.

Time to start drafting!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Interesting Article on Mamee-Double Decker

Read this piece on Mamee-Double Decker from a Nanyang article. Interesting ;) He's definitely a huge fan of Mamee Monster!

道股论金: 资产表健康·现金流充沛 妈咪大宝达蓄势待发
2010/09/13 3:34:16 PM
●南洋商报李佳讯

如果笔者说零食已经成为大部分年轻人的喜爱,而快熟面也成为现代人生活的一部分,我相信大家应该不会反对。但是,你身为股市投资者,是否能从这些现代人的习惯中看到投资机会?

着名基金经理彼得林奇(Peter Lynch)在“One Up On Wall Street”写过,“零售和批发商、制造商、销售人员、清洁工,或者分析员都会碰到无数选择股票的好机会”,很奇怪的是,现实市场上,许多投资者都不知道要投资什么股票?”

今天,笔者要讨论一家大部分人都接触过,但可能不知道是一家上市公司的公司,那就是妈咪大宝达(Mamee,5282,主板消费产品股)。

妈咪大宝达过去是一家非常低调的公司,不过,妈咪大宝达管理层今年开始注重和投资者的关系,同时也委任了一家投资者关系公司,四月时第一次业绩汇报。

我们可以从表1看到,过去5年来,妈咪大宝达营业额平均成长了8%,净盈利则成长了31%,管理层也定下5年内营业额超越10亿的目标。

假设营业额未来5年真能到达10亿(假设基本面没变)、净盈利10%,这里我保守以8%计算,等于8000万的净盈利,相等于每股盈利52.98仙,如果是这样,根据8-9-2010的收市价,本益比是6.3倍。

如果,根据目前的进度,从2009年算起,假设妈咪大宝达能够每年成长8%,那么5年后营业额仅约6亿令吉,如果管理层要实现10亿目标,除了要开发新产品,也需要更积极在零售门市争取更多销售管道。

妈咪大宝达的竞争对手众多,以薯片市场为例,Mister Potato暂时领先Pringles和Jacker这两个品牌。

结束中国业务

快熟面和杯面市场,主要竞争来自Maggie(Nestle 4707)、Cintan(YHS 4642)和Super(新加玻上市)等;如果你想知道谁的品牌比较受欢迎,去霸级市场购物时不妨留意一下,顾客购买快熟面时选择什么品牌。

至于饮料和冷冻奶制品,Cheers都无法和Coca Cola(F&N,3689),Pepsi (CI HLDG,2828)强大的品牌对抗,而冷冻奶制品nutrigen也面对来自Dutch Lady和Nestle的竞争,所以,这两方面盈利贡献并不很大。

因此,妈咪大宝达主要还是注重在零食和快熟面市场,原本拥有的糖果生产线,因为无法获利,今年4月结束。

然后,管理层也结束在中国的业务,把资源集中在本地和东南亚市场(6亿人口)也是良策之一。

RM3.30可买进

从技术分析来看,自7月22日创下新高3.78令吉后,妈咪大宝达就往下调整,形成了两个底部,3.40令吉和3.26令吉,如果要保持涨势,那么,就必须突破3.70令吉这个顶。

从基本分析来看,在3.70令吉的价位,根据年化每股盈利本益比是11.98倍,按照公司50%的股息派发政策,相等于4.2%的周息率。

从周线图来看支持点是2.80令吉,如果跌破,我们可能会看见更低的成交价。

单单从基本面来看,如果真的下跌到2.80令吉,假设基本面没改变本益比是9.06倍,周息率是5.5%。

妈咪大宝达拥有健康资产表和强劲的现金流,笔者看法是,可以在低于3.30令吉价位买进做长期投资。

进·军·印·尼·种·植

目前,妈咪大宝达上半年推出2个新产品,“米片”Rice Chip,之前Mister Potato使用马铃薯,从投资简报资料显示,马铃薯的开销比去年增加了40%,如果使用米来制造“米片”,基于成本更低,而其它品牌并没有“米片”,这是Mister Potato的优势。

另外一个产品是Mie Goreng快熟面(印尼劳工市场),Mie Goreng根据印尼人口味设计。妈咪大宝达下半年准备2500万做为新产品的广告和销售开支。

妈咪大宝达也拨出2000万的资本开销,进军种植油棕的业务,地点是加里曼丹,首期发展2000公顷(今年开始),这是一项联营计划,而妈咪大宝达占60%权益,剩下的权益是印尼一家有经验的种植公司。

1万公顷柚棕园

这项计划分成三个阶段进行,整个计划是种植1万公顷油棕。

新的产品需要更多的销售开支,这是无法避免的,至于种植棕油计划,种植新棕油树一般上必须至少3年才能收割(如果一切顺利),目前,这项计划2010开始,预计2013-2014 才有收获,剩下8000公顷将会等到首期的棕油成熟之后才陆续种植。

妈咪大宝达是否有能支撑2014之后的资本开销?

根据去年的现金流,妈咪大宝达拥有4100万净现金,虽然管理层承诺50%股息政策(假设15仙股息派发需约2265万),扣除股息派发,公司依然拥有足够的现金支撑未来资本开销。

最重要的是,目前妈咪大宝达并没任何负债;2年前,已完成工厂资本开销,同时也还清2007年的债务。

冯氏家族主要股东

妈咪大宝达主要股东是冯氏家族,他们大约持有70%股权,而值得一提的是,目前为止(6-4-2010年报)显示,只有约3%外资机构和3%本地基金持股,这说明了什么?股票流动量约22%。

彼得林奇曾经说过,“如果你找到一只几乎不曾被机构投资者问津的股票,你可能已找到一家可能赚钱的股票 ”。

也许你会疑惑为什么我这样说?如果你有发现,最近国库控股不断脱售手中持股,而被脱售的股票股价不断上涨,你就会明白为什么我这样说!

道理很简单,如果你买进一家稀少基金问津的公司,假设有一天基金经理突然发现这家公司而进场买进,自然的就会推高股价,而你就可能因此得利。



公司背景

妈咪大宝达是一家食品制造公司,1971年成立,主要业务是零食(Mister Potato、Double Decker、Mamee)、快熟面和杯面(Mamee)、饮料(Cheers)、冷冻奶制品(Nutrigen),产品种类达50多种。

公司在马来西亚和缅甸有5间工厂,其中四间在马来西亚,分布在马六甲,雪兰莪和彭亨,缅甸的工厂则负责制造快熟面和只供缅甸内消。

妈咪大宝达拥有运输队伍,可以直接供应各大零售门市需求,同时也委任了150间合格批发商帮助增扩大售管道。年报资料显示,目前,妈咪大宝达营业额70%来自本地,其余来自国外。

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Travelling Madness Continues...

Don't get me wrong here. I love my job. After years of working i can finally say this loud and proud.

The hostage incident in Manila was a madness. The bus was literally not more than 50 steps away from my hotel... nonetheless, the delicious pork and mangoes in Philippines totally compensated us for the traumatic events.

Then i thought perhaps it's time to chill for a bit after Manila. Nope, Bangkok i went. It was a very good trip though, compact and impactful i would say. Then boss told me this

"Dude, we're going to Beijing next week."

What? Cool! but i will be going to Singapore that weekend itself!

So it's a whole week of travelling? i think by then i wouldn't have recognised the route back to my office anymore!

I'm always very excited about going to Beijing. Been there once for holiday and totally in love with the city (not the air, not the traffic though). Especially after 2008 olympics, the city is now much cleaner and neater i would say.

Then, something unexpected popped up.

Totally unexpected. I fell sick. High fever.

What's the odd! oh well, gotta forego the beijing trip. That's the downside. Upside is? Got a bit of time to rest before travelling madness resumes, and found abit of time, to write this blog entry.

Thank you for reading another gibberish blog entry of mine.

cheers

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

That was close ... Part 2!

Just came back from Manila. It was a very pleasant, yet eventful trip.

Remember i blogged about how close it was to the bombing incident in Bangkok a while ago? This time, it got closer!

The infamous hostage incident on August 23th happened, right in front of my hotel! Will blog more later.

It was a very sad incident though. Aiks... rest in peace, for those who lost their lives in that rainy day...

Friday, August 20, 2010

My Testimony for a Training

Dear Sir,

The idea of Wheel of Life has a profound impact on me after my 5 weeks training. This is the first training course which I have attended that emphasizes on the need to work on every aspect in life, instead of just money or relationships alone.

I did Finance in both my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Just like most of the young finance graduates, I have always wanted to be an investment banker. I was so fascinated by the sophistication of the job, the glamorous lifestyles and, of course, the handsome monetary compensation too.

To me back then, the definition of Success was the number of zeros you have in your bank account, the title of your job and the bank you are working at.

Lucky enough, I had the chance to work in a Swiss investment bank in Hong Kong a couple years later. I was literally working 7 days a week, an average of 90 hours a week. It was a very rewarding experience nonetheless and till today, I am still benefiting from the hours of hard work which I have put in. However, despite the increasing level of wealth, I realized that I do not feel happy at all.

Despite having a great career and being financially healthy, I realized that I do not have the balance in life – I did not exercise as much as I should be; nor did I spend enough time with my wife or my friends; worst of all, being miles apart from my parents, I did not spend enough time with them too.

Due to the fact that we are so busy with work, we often take the most important things in life for granted.

I was very grateful that I was presented with a wonderful opportunity to return to Malaysia, doing a job which gives me great sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, it enables me to live a more balance life now. I must admit that it was not an easy decision to be made, but with a clear vision of what I want in mind, I made the choice.

All these while, I always have the concept of “balance in life” but it was not very clear to me. I was very lazy when it comes to “sit down and write down your goals” because I thought, I know what I want in life, and they can be easily pulled out from my mind whenever I want to.

However, after attending the course, I was told to list down my 7-day goals, my master dream list, goal planning sheets and others, I suddenly realize, and appreciate the power of writing them down.

What I want in life and how I would like to achieve them are much clearer to me now.

“Personal leadership is the self-confident ability to crystallize your thinking and establish an exact direction for your own life, to commit yourself to moving in that direction, and then to take determined action to acquire, accomplish, or become whatever you identify as the ultimate goal for your life”

Writing what I want to achieve in life down on a paper enables me to crystallize my thinking, and guides me to the right direction. I believe, as long as I persevere, and determined enough, I will be Successful in life too.

Today, I can proudly say that, finally, I understand the true meaning of SuccessIt is the progressive realization of worthwhile predetermined personal goals, and they are my goals to make me a more complete and balanced human being.

Thank you

Yours Sincerely,

Friday, August 13, 2010

Some Brilliant Quotes

  1. If an egg breaks from outside, a life ends; if an egg breaks from within, life begins: Great things always begin from within
  2. If I fall and I fail to get up, then I will never get up - Nick Vujicic
  3. You are allowed to make mistake, but not the same mistake twice
  4. If you want something you have never had, you must do something you never have done" First you build the people, then the people build the Organization " - Brian Tracy

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Thoughts: Money and Life

Read an interesting blog entry by famous blogger fourfeetnine.

It's an interesting entry about Wants, Needs and Money. In today's society, especially in Malaysia, it is quite a common scene to see everyone (nearly) drives to work. But yet, there are still a lot of "Car-Less" people out there.

It's nothing unusual to not own a car of your own in other parts of the world, but in our country, a place with poor public transportation system, it is quite a pain in the a$$ to rely on it on a daily basis.

Fresh grads these days could hardly earn enough to save or to live, let alone to finance their own vehicles. To make things worse, cars in Malaysia are rather expensive. Low pay, overpriced cars, overpriced property and high cost of living will only lead to one result. Instability.

We have imbalance here. Unfortunately, we don't live in a Perfect World as generally assumed by Economists. This imbalance does not revert to norm at all. When you have low income but high expenditure, you will see huge outflow of talents (well-known case for Malaysia), and for those who stay behind, you hear dissatisfaction day-in day-out.

Either way, it will do the country no good. So, as you can see, the problem of budget deficit or one government could be better than the other does not really solve the problem, if the root issues are not being addressed properly.

When I first graduated from Uni, I called for a family meeting. I told my dad that despite with my qualification, i will be doing a donkey job and earning peanut pay for the 1st few years. What that means is, though your son has great potential to achieve great things, he won't be able to bring back much money to support the family and buy his own property or car in the initial years of working life.

So i suggested to my old folks. You helped me with a car and a property to begin with, that, will help me to focus on making money and saving them up.

as you can see, though i am not from a well to do family, it's simple maths. With their years of savings, naturally the car they can afford would be better than what my peanut pay can afford. Similarly, they can afford to buy a nicer property with huge potential for appreciation, versus what i can do with my peanuts.

Think about it in long term: They have buffer now but i don't. Without the need to divert my savings into houses and cars, I can roll my savings into investments or businesses which can help my wealth accumulation. 10 years later, i should be able to build up my buffer, whilst they will be more or less use up theirs. So then, with a house and a car in hand (financed by Family Fund), i can use the money saved to take good care of them. So in the end, the whole family benefits.

But what if i do what most Gen Y do? At the start, parents' funds will most likely sitting in Fixed Deposits generating peanut interest. I as a freshie, making peanuts and have to save about 5 years before i can put down the down payment for my car or house (with a 30 year loan somemore). Then after another 5 year later, my cash flow remains super tight, as i don't have investment (all spent on financing the cars and house), nor i have much flexibility (because salary does not rise in tandem with inflation), whilst parents are using up their savings bits by bits (it will escalate to "chunks by chunks" if they don't have insurance plan and there's health issues). After 10 years, in scenario 2, the whole family will suffer.

With the way the economy is going, we know one thing for sure. Young people is going to suffer. And with them going down, i don't think the older generation can last any longer too.

Wants. Needs. Money. It's hard to juggle at times... but before you can talk about Wants and Needs, you will need to sort out the financial blueprint for your family first.

Friday, August 06, 2010

Investment 101 - Benchmark

Let’s talk about investment.

Rule #1 of investing, you must know your own benchmark.

i.e. when you get your
return on investment (ROI), you must be able to see, whether has it been a profitable investment, or otherwise.

For instance, in Malaysia,
- The
inflation rate is about 3% a year, whereas
- 12-months fixed deposits (FD) give you about
3.70% per annum.
-
Unit trust A, with 100% equities exposure gives you 8% return a year.
- Direct investment in stock B listed on KLCI 15% p.a. (tell me if you can find one!)
- 1 banana is selling for RM1. (c’mon, tell me you do have some sense of humour!)

Ok, so what does all these numbers and facts mean?

Let’s start with a simple scenario. You’re 25 years old. Work your arse off for 2 years and manage to save up RM 5,000. What an achievement.
But you know for sure RM5k savings won’t bring you anywhere. So you have decided to take a bold move and ready for some investment.

Naturally, and traditionally, most of our “investments” are in Banks’ FD. Correct?
If, and only if, you keep your savings underneath your pillow, so what have you actually “lose”?

CASE 1:
Beginning of the year you have RM5k, in terms of purchasing power, you can afford to buy 5,000 bananas. Wow. Ok, then you decide to put 5k underneath your pillow.

After 1 year, you dig out your RM5k notes, go to Giant or Tesco and want to reward yourself with 5k bananas, only to find out that due to inflation, 1 banana now costs you RM 1.03.

So in terms of purchasing power, your RM 5k no longer can buy you 5k bananas, but only RM 5k / RM 1.03 = 4,854 bananas, 146 bananas less than one year before!

So in the end, you still have your money in hand, but, it has lost its value. Thanks to the erosion caused by Inflation!

CASE 2:
Same scenario as before, but you use the RM5k at the beginning of the year to buy RM5k worth of bananas, i.e. you have 5,000 bananas in store. Assume that you can store it in superb condition for a year (ignoring storage costs……); at the end of the year, you sell all the bananas at market price of RM 1.03. At the end of the year, you have RM 5,000 * RM 1.03 = RM 5,150.
Oh wait, have I made 150 bucks for trading bananas? Not bad eh! But wait a minute, something is not right here.

Actual return on investment = RM 150 / RM 5000 = 3% = inflation rate p.a.!

So you thought you made some, but in the end, you only manage to
hedge your savings!

CASE 3:
So instead of buying bananas, you put your money into FD. Smart move.
After one year, you have RM 5,000 plus 3.70% interests = RM 5,185. Not bad.
You withdraw all the money from the bank and go get yourself some banana.

At the end of year banana price of RM 1.03, you can buy RM 5,185 / RM 1.03 = 5,034 bananas! Crikey! 180 more than
case 1, 34 more than case 2!

That’s investment!

You want more bananas?

CASE 4 & 5:
Just lump the two investments together, basically they will tell the same story.

Instead of putting in the FD, you have decided to buy Unit Trust A or direct investment into stock B.

Maybe it’s pure luck or maybe you’re inspired by
financial geeks, you get 8% return back from investment A and / or 15% back from investment B. Bravo!

So how much have I made? You asked yourself. Let’s get back to the real finance and stop playing so much with bananas.

You should know by now that inflation will eat into the amount of bananas that you can buy at the end of year. Good.

So now you have made 8% (15% for B). But which
benchmark do you compare against?

Both the investments have beaten inflation rate of 3% like how Bruce Lee smashes
financial_cicak. If you lose me here, it means that you can buy yourself a lot more bananas.

But is that your real
benchmark? You should be smart enough to put your savings in FD.

Instead of putting your money with the bank which gives you 3.70%, now you’re investing in unit trusts or share.

So by not investing in FD has become an
opportunity cost for you! Is it really worth it?

Absolutely. Investment A gives you an extra 5% return while investing in stock market gives you a handsome 12% return!

Thus your actual
benchmark is … your next best investment opportunity! In this case, FD.

But hey, are we missing out something here? I am afraid so.

Rule #2 of investing – Risks vs Return

The above example has one major flaw. It has totally ignored one of the most important elements in terms of investing. RISK!

Basically the illustration here assume that all the investments, either in bananas, hide underneath pillow, FD, A or B have similar risks. Is this the case?

No no… so how do we measure risks? That's another story altogether that deserves a whole chapter to itself...

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

This is a story about ...

I was reading blogs online and i found this interesting entry by Paul. (well, not as entertaining as Joe's one since he's suffering in Pakistan right now...). Anyway, back to Paul's.

Written in Chinese, Paul mentioned about how his ancestor had to evacuate China and come all the way to Malaysia in the early days. Interestingly, apparently, his ancestor is a kung fu master. He was oppressed by some rich government officials and he accidentally hurt them. So he has to flee to save his life.

This story reminded me of the story my dad used to tell me. I think it would interesting for me to share this little history of my family on my blog here.

Once, i asked my dad, "Dad, can you tell me more about our ancestor? Any great war time hero story?"

Dad said,"well, let's see. During Ching dynasty, there were a few of our ancestors working as government official in Fujian province. We're not very rich, but decently well-known family there."

"Apparently one day, one of our ancestor had a quarrel with somebody. Then they fought. In the end he won, but he thought he accidentally killed him (he did not actually)"

"So the whole family fled Fujian, and traveled west to Guang Dong province."

"They walked for days, carrying all their luggages on their shoulders by bamboo sticks. They have no idea where to go, just hoped that they could travel far enough not to be caught by the police"

"One fine day, when they were still on the road, out of a sudden, one of the bamboo stick snapped and broken into half."

"So they stopped, and they looked around and found that, hey, this place ain't too shabby"

"Let's settle down here."

and the place is called Yellow Bamboo Yang, Mei Xian, Guang Dong (黄竹洋,广东梅县)

Looking at google map, think they had traveled over 500 kilometres before the bamboo stick snapped. Wonder how long did they take actually...

Though he does not sound like a kung fu master, but then, at least my ancestor was not on the losing end of a fight :)

and this is a small unrecorded history of my ancestors.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

That was close...

Bangkok hasn't been the safest place on earth in recent years. With the Red Shirt's protests and the clamp down of it this year, coupled with the burning of few good buildings (like Big C and CentralWorld in the heart of Bangkok city for instance), we haven't been able to pay our trade visit to Thailand for a long while.

Then when the dusts finally settle down, we seized the opportunity to visit Bangkok last week. Well, we used to stay at Pathumwan Princess Hotel, which is great as it's a very nice hotel with beautiful breakfast, and what makes it more lovely is the fact it is connected to MBK mall! Genius.

But, of course, there's always a 'but' - the fare is actually, not quite within our budget.

So we found this new lovely hotel called the Pullman KingPower Hotel. Well, the name is kinda funny and unusual, but it's new and, to be frank, very elegant and beautiful. Right next to the hotel is a nice huge Duty Free Shopping Mall called the KingPower Duty Free Shops, where tourists from overseas can shop for duty free items and collect them at the airport before you depart the country.

Furthermore, the hotel provides free 'tuk tuk' service to fetch its customers to its nearest BTS station, which is the Victory Monument Station. Well, it only takes about 5 mins walk to reach the BTS station, but, the hotel decides to pamper you with alternatives if you're just too lazy to walk.

So here we stay, did our work and enjoy our stay there. There's this road called Rang Nam road, right outside of the hotel, is where my colleague and I loitered the most for the short 3 days visit. We were walking up and down, looking for massage parlours and some nice dinner places, only to find ourselves eating at one of the many 7-Eleven along that road and a superly overpriced massage place which was highly recommended by the concierge... Despite all that, we still think that perhaps, we can make this hotel as our first choice going forward.

Then, the following week, this news startled us


"The grenade blast in the heart of Bangkok early Friday morning was clearly an attempt to discredit the government... the grenade, which was put in a plastic rubbish bag and dropped on a pile of garbage in front of a house in Rang Nam Road opposite the King Power duty-free shopping centre, went off about 1.30am..."

That was close...

Guess it's time for us to find ourselves new hotels to stay in, if, we are going there anytime soon that is...

Friday, July 30, 2010

Some Old Blogs - 一个字

一个字

好久都没用中文写布落格了.
无他, 只因一个字

懒.

懒归懒, 但别人一问我, "你最近在干嘛?"
我总会答

忙.

忙与盲之间,总能挤出一点时间来八一八天下大事
结果看到的是一个字

乱.

乱的,不止是疯狂的金融市场,还有戏剧性比溏心风暴更戏剧性的政治闹剧
偶尔的闹剧还好,但一旦看多了就会

腻.

腻的感觉,以前好像只会在吃太多后才出现的
但最近感觉总比较容易腻,可能是我已

老.

老朋友们都陆续结婚了.看着照片时,心情总有点复杂,充斥着开心,兴奋与失落
失落的是因为我都因工作而没能出席,但开心的是看到朋友们都能聚在一块.

来.

来得快,去的也快. 我说的是珍贵的周末时光.
星期五总会为周末编排节目,但周末一到,却只想当宅男. 只因我

懒.

懒是因为我太忙了.我忙因为这世间太乱了.
乱是因为某人腻了现状,腻却是因为东西老了.
老是因为时间来的太快,去的也快...原来,我的时间被懒掉了..

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Imagine...

Imagine, if there is a regulation in the country requires every single offspring of a politician to be educated in our country only. I.e., the children of all politicians in the country are required, by law, to go to a Malaysian school for their primary till tertiary education, I think, that will solve a lot of the problem that we are facing right now.

First of all, the quality of our public education will have to improve. I mean, I don't think they will want their children to be less competitive right?

Secondly, there will be less likely for them to park their money overseas as there's no "incentive" to buy fancy houses and cars in London nor Australia anymore.

That, in turn, will help to reduce corruption (if there's any that is), and will induce and encourage them to spend within the country. I mean, of course, undoubtedly corruption is bad, but even worst is if they corrupt and the wealth of the nation got channeled out of the country. That's sad.

So, better local education system and standard will raise the Malaysian's quality of life, lesser corruption and better economy as more money being spent domestically, wouldn't it be great for all?

Maybe should employ someone to do the inception on them... Hm...