Economy 101 Malaysia: Common Sense

The head of one of the think tanks in Malaysia recently said that Malaysian financial journalists should not be faulted for failing to warn against the global financial tsunami.

What utter rubbish! Fine, they may be forgiven for burying their heads in the sand in 2007. But, they did not even get it right in the first quarter of 2008. In the last quarter of 2008, they were still singing praises about the Malaysian economy and that 2009 would register a robust growth.

Maybe the head of this think tank was making excuses for himself and deflecting any criticisms to that of financial journalists. How pathetic can one get?

And now, the Governor of Bank Negara has lately conceded that she underestimated the severity of the impact of the global financial tsunami on Malaysia.

Put it bluntly, such journalists are employed to sell good news so as to lure greedy and stupid investors to gamble in the stock market after the big boys and insiders have made their moves and are waiting to cash out.

Gamblers are driven by herd instincts. They care not about fundamentals. That is why I never hesitated to call them suckers. And they are suckers through and through.Every country has been following the FED in stimulating the economy and pumping vast amounts of monies into the economy. These experts called it “quantitative easing” instead of the simple term, creating money out of thin air – printing money electronically.

For a technical explanation, I reproduce here an extract from Wikipedia:

The term quantitative easing describes an extreme form of monetary policy used to stimulate an economy where interest rates are either at, or close to, zero. Normally, a central bank stimulates the economy indirectly by lowering interest rates but when it cannot lower them any further it can attempt to seed the financial system with new money through quantitative easing.

In practical terms, the central bank purchases financial assets, including treasuries and corporate bonds, from financial institutions (such as banks) using money it has created ex nihilo (out of nothing). This process is called open market operations. The creation of this new money is supposed to seed the increase in the overall money supply through deposit multiplication by encouraging lending by these institutions and reducing the cost of borrowing, thereby stimulating the economy. However, there is a risk that banks will still refuse to lend despite the increase in their deposits, and in a worst case scenario, possibly lead to hyperinflation.

Quantitative easing is sometimes described as 'printing money', although the central bank actually creates it electronically by increasing the credit in its own bank account.

Examples of economies where this policy has been used include Japan during the early 2000s, and the US and UK during the global financial crisis of 2008–2009.

But seriously, how many Joe Six-packs reading the above extract can fully appreciate the implications and consequences of such policies of central banks the world over?

In my previous articles and in my book, The Shadow Money-Lenders I have given detail explanations, but I still receive e-mails requesting for further explanations.

In this article, I am adopting a different approach. I want you to think about certain issues and problems and see whether applying common sense will assist you in arriving at the logical conclusions.

Here we go:

Economic Stimulus
1. Right now, at this moment in time, is your government stimulating for growth or merely stimulating for consumption?

2. If it is the latter, does it make sense? The so-called experts say that “credit is the lifeblood of the economy”.

3. “Credit” to the banker means “loans” to you. “Loans” to the borrowers means “debts”. So why do you want to be in debt, just so as to consume?

4. You have a fixed income. Most people do. You are already committed to several debts – car loans, housing loans, financing for your children’s education. You have also your usual household expenses. So why do you want to borrow to consume on things or products that you do not really need or are necessary in your present state of finances?

5. Who gains by this excessive consumption?

6. Which is more critical, production or consumption?

7. Which, in the final analysis, ensures stability in the economy, employment and efficient allocation of resources and investments?

8. When exports are down and the economy has contracted, what are the implications?

Should we tighten our belts or consume and consume?

9. When exports are down, national revenue is down. Likewise, when your income is down, what do you normally do?

10. Which sectors of the economy will be stimulated and has the most benefit to the economy when we continue consuming, spending and borrowing?

Check out from the retail outlets, hypermarkets etc. and ascertain where are the majority of products produced? If they are mainly imported items, who benefits?

Too Big To Fail or Too Big To Sustain

11. When a bank through mismanagement fails, why should we use tax-payers monies to bail them out? Why are banks being treated differently?

12. If deposits are guaranteed by the government, why can’t the bank be liquidated, the old management sacked so that new investors and management can come in and revive the bank? After all, bank licenses are in great demand and few are granted. The new investors will re-capitalise the bank and revive it. Why the need for tax-payers’ monies to re-capitalise the bank?

13. When was the last time you heard a banker sent to jail for CBT? Corrupt bankers plunder in the billions and destroy economies. They get away time after time. Snatch thief is sent to prison and even whipped for stealing a few hundred ringgit.

14. Government linked companies use tax-payers monies to operate as opposed to private companies. In the case of the latter, when they fail, the investors bear the loss. Should we have tighter regulations and laws governing the management of government-linked companies over and above the laws governing private companies?

15. CEOs and board members are invariably political appointments. Should we allow this practice to continue?

Should the government inflate the stock market?

16. You have a bubble when you inflate, as in a balloon. When an asset is inflated, the price is artificially high. Thus, if a share price is inflated to RM10 when its actual value is RM1, why would anyone take the risk of buying such a share when sooner or later it will collapse?

17. Does it make sense for a government to use tax-payers’ monies to prop up the stock market when its values are artificially inflated?

18. Is this not misallocation of scarce resources?

19. Markets go up, markets go down and gamblers indulge in such activities with their eyes wide-open. So why should any government use tax-payers’ monies to sustain a market so as to prevent gamblers from suffering losses?

20. When a bubble has burst, what is the use of trying to reflate a burst bubble? In any event, physically can anyone reflate a burst balloon? When an asset’s actual value is RM1, does it make sense to maintain post-crisis, the artificial value of RM10 prior to the bursting of the bubble?

I want you to evaluate the RM67 billion stimulus in the light of the above questions. Then ask yourself whether the policies make sense.

Finally, ask the RM67 billion question.
How did we fund this stimulus?
Where is the source for these funds?

Something Inspiring

Here is an extraordinary example of 2 mans who chooses to view their “problems” as gifts, and a resource to show the world that there are no limitations to what we can do.

Economy advice from Adrian Salbuchi

Get What You Want by Helping Others Get What All They Wanted, Final

The second law is the Law of Over Compensation. The law says that, anyone can be reasonably successful by putting in and then getting out. But this is not enough for you. You want to enjoy extraordinary levels of success and this requires over compensation. This requires that you put in far, far more than the average person puts in. This requires that you always do more than you are paid for.

The Law of Over Compensation says that your job is to always look for ways to “go the extra mile.”

Remember, there are never any traffic jams on the extra mile. The retiring president of the American Chamber of Commerce once said, “Your success in life will be in direct proportion to what you do after you’ve done what you’re expected to do.”
If all you ever do is what you are expected to do, what you are currently paid to do, then all you will ever get is what you are getting today. But, if you want to put yourself on the side of the angels, you throw your whole heart into doing far more than anyone expects. And as a result, you will reap rewards far faster and greater than any of the people around you.

And no one can stop you from doing more than you are paid for. No one can stop you from coming in a little earlier, working a little harder and staying a little later.
With regard to influencing others to help you, no one can stop you from doing nice things for other people to predispose them to doing nice things for you. No one can stop you from going the extra mile in your relationships, from taking the time to be sensitive, thoughtful and caring with other people. No one can stop you from planting seeds of kindness and generosity wherever you go so that you eventually become surrounded with people who will want to reciprocate and help you to achieve your goals when the time comes.

The underlying factor of great success in business and personal life is the “friendship factor.” This factor is based on the three keys of time, caring and respect.
All relationships are a function of time. You can increase the value of a relationship in proportion to the amount of time that you invest in it. All excellent bosses and influential people are those who invest a lot of time in human relationships, asking questions and listening attentively to the answers. They make a habit of dominating the listening while they let other people dominate the talking.

And the more the other person feels free to talk and express himself or herself, the more open they are to being positively influenced by the person doing the listening.


Caring is the catalyst that makes all relationships in life function at their very highest. The more a person feels that you care about him or her, the more open they are to be influenced by you. On the other hand, of course, if a person feels that you do not care about them, they will shut down and be closed off to your attempts to influence.
Taking the time to ask people about their lives, to listen carefully to their answers and to find ways to help them aside and apart from the actual business are all demonstrations of “caring.” The more you genuinely care for other people by the Law of Reciprocity, the more they will genuinely care for you and be open to your inputs.

The third principle, respect, is one of the most important of all psychological needs as a human being. They say that “babies cry for it and grown men die for it.”
It is said that everything we do in adult life is either to earn the respect of others or not to lose the respect of the people we respect.

When you genuinely respect another persons ideas, opinions and accomplishments, they genuinely like and respect you and become far more open to your influence than they would be under any other condition.

Your ability to influence other people to help you and cooperate with you, to lend you their money, their efforts, their ideas, their imagination and their support is the key to your accomplishing extraordinary things with your life. The more people that you can attract into your life that will help you and work with you, the more successful you will be and the far faster you will accomplish the goals that you set for yourself.

The wonderful thing is that the most successful people in America today almost invariably began alone, or with one or two other people, with an idea for a product or service that would benefit others. And so can you. No matter where you are or what you are doing, no matter what your situation in life or what has happened to you in the past, there are really no limits on what you can accomplish in the future if you decide to become a person of influence. When you begin to practice the principles that we have discussed in this session, you will find yourself becoming a far more effective and influential person with everyone you meet, and everywhere you go.

Your future will become unlimited.

Get What You Want by Helping Others Get All They Wanted, Part 3 of 4

One of the most effective ways for you to get other people’s money and other people’s effort is for you to have an idea that can help them to achieve their goals faster than ever before. All great fortunes in America are started by an individual with an idea that he or she executes in such a way that others want to get involved and take advantage of.

J. Van Andel and Rich DeVoss started off as two young men selling vitamins for a multi-level marketing company back in the 50’s. Then they came up with an idea. What if they could manufacture biodegradable, highly concentrated, all purpose soap that could be used in dozens of different ways in the average household? What if this soap were so unique that they could manufacture it at a low price and then set up a multi-level marketing structure so that other people could sell it and make a profit while, at the same time, recruiting others to sell it at a profit.

They went to work with a chemist and came up with a substance called “Liquid Organic Cleanser,” or “L.O.C.” Amway Corporation of Ada, Michigan was born. Today, Amway Corporation has thousands of the finest personal, business and household products available in the world. They have millions of distributors throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and the South Pacific. And today both J. Van Andel and Rich DeVoss are billionaires and are among the richest men in the world.

In this day of expanding opportunities, there are more ideas buzzing around that you can use to be more successful in your life and career than have ever existed before. Bill Gates dropped out of college with an idea to develop an operating system for the earliest computers. He committed to developing an operating system for the BASIC computer before he even knew how to do it. Later, he bought a little company in Seattle called Microsoft and the basic “Disc Operating System” that they had developed. After several refinements, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created the MS-DOS Operating system which they then sold to IBM as the operating platform for the new personal computer. The rest is history.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen, on the strength of that original idea, are now two of the richest men in the world.

Tom Monahan was an unemployed ex-student with a used car when he came up with the idea that, when people phoned to order a pizza, they were hungry. If this was the case, he concluded, then speed was more important than quality. He rented a bankrupt pizza parlor, hired young people with cars and began offering 30 minute delivery on pizzas sold anywhere within a five mile radius. By standardizing and premaking the pizzas, he turned his little business into a thriving enterprise. As you know, Tom Monahan is the founder of Domino’s Pizza, one of the most successful fast-food restaurant operations in history. Tom Monahan is also a billionaire, one of the richest men in the world, because of his simple idea that, when people ordered pizzas, they valued speed over quality. He gave them the speed and transformed the world of fast-food delivery.

The incredible thing is that, right within your mind, you probably have several ideas, any one of which could make you rich, and famous. The great mistake that you make is that you ignore your own idea because it was you who thought of it. You think that other people who come up with ideas are somehow smarter or more insightful than you. And this is not true!

Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, “E = MC2.” This theory of relativity totally changed our attitude toward physics and the structure of the universe. But Einstein was not a great mathematician. It was left to other people to work out the implications and applications of the formula, which they are still doing today. Einstein did not have to be a great mathematician. He simply needed to have the key insight or idea and then attract the efforts, money and ideas of others to leverage his insight into the revolution in our understanding of the physical universe that it became.

To leverage yourself, you also need other people’s intelligence and other people’s cooperation. You need to be able to attract into your life and work the help, assistance, influence and active involvement of lots of other people in achieving your goals. And you can do this if you can remember the two simple laws that I will now explain.

Learn all of The Universal Laws of Success and Achievement

The first is the Law of Compensation. The Law of Compensation says that whatever you put in, you get out. It is, in a way, a way of rephrasing the “Law of Reciprocity.”

The Law of Compensation says that whatever you do to help or improve the lives of other people, will come back to you. You will be compensated in full measure for everything that you contribute or put in. This willingness on your part to contribute to helping others is a virtual guarantee that others will look for ways to contribute to helping you.

The Law of Compensation also says that you cannot get out if you do not put in. Like the Law of Sowing and Reaping, it is not the Law of “Reaping and Sowing.” The law requires that first you put in, sometimes for a long, long time, but then, by a Law of the Universe, you will be compensated, you will reap the harvest in your own life.

With regards to earning the influence and assistance of other people you must always be looking for other ways to help them to get the things they want so they will be predisposed to helping you to get the things that you want.

One of the reasons that America is the most prosperous and powerful country economically and militarily in the world is because of our free enterprise system. The free enterprise system says that, “The more enterprising you are, the freer you are.”

With our free market system, you can accomplish anything you want in life by simply finding ways to help other people to accomplish the things that they want. And the more creative you are in leveraging and multiplying your talents and abilities times the talents and abilities of others, the higher you can rise and the faster you can move forward in your life.

Get What You Want by Helping Others Get All They Wanted, Part 2 of 4

A critical part of power and influence in your life and work revolves around the subject of "ownership."?

When you have something that you want to get done, you “own” the job or task. If you simply tell someone else to do all or part of the job, they may comply because they are required to, but they will not accept ownership. As far as they are concerned, if the job is done well or poorly, it is still your job.

Highly effective people however, are those who have developed the ability to transfer the concept of ownership into the mind and heart of the other person. This is done by bringing the subject up in a casual way, discussing thoroughly with the other person, asking for his or her ideas and input, as well as suggestions on how best to do the job, and then giving the other person both the authority and encouragement to do the job within a certain time and to a certain standard.

“Leverage” is the key to great success. You need to be able to take your talents and abilities and multiple them times the talents and abilities of many other people if you are determined to accomplish great things and realize your full potential in life.
There are five keys to wealth and great success in our highly competitive society today. The first, which you have heard of for years is called “OPM,” or “Other People’s Money.” You will only be successful to the degree to which you can tap into, borrow and deploy the funds of other people. This is why it is so important that you accumulate your own funds and that you keep a meticulous credit rating throughout your life.

All success in life, in relationships and in business is based on the foundation of trust. As Benjamin Franklin has said, “Cash is money and credit is money, and the person who can call upon the credit of others has no limit to the funds at his disposal.”

All great fortunes and great success in life is built on the ability to attract and leverage the funds of other people. Every loan that you ever take out, from a simple credit card all the way up to the financing of a home or business, is based on the use of other people’s money. This is a key leverage factor that many people have used to go from rags to riches.

Another form of leverage is called “OPE,” which refers to “Other People’s Effort.” Your ability to attract people who will willingly work hard to help you to be more successful while they are helping themselves is a key to your success. If you want to accomplish great things in life, you must have the help and support of lots of other people. If you are going to work by yourself running a shoeshine stand or working a farm, you can get by with the limited efforts and support of others. But if you are going to achieve all that you are capable of achieving, you must structure your life so that you can tap into the energy and efforts of lots and lots of people, at all levels.

You will find that, at every turning point in your life, there is a person standing with advice, support, direction and resources. In fact, the more people you know, and who know you in a positive way, the more successful you will be.

You have heard it said that “success leaves tracks.” This means that you should find out what other successful people do and then do more of it yourself and you will eventually get the same results.

Well, when you look around you, you will find that the most successful people in your society are the ones who know, and who are known by, the greatest number of other successful people.

Of course, it is absolutely essential that you become the kind of person who both attracts and deserves the respect of others. The very best way for you to become a major player, an influence in your business and your society, is for you to become very, very good at what you do. This, more than anything else, will attract into your life the kind of people who can be extraordinarily helpful in advancing your life and your career.

The third form of leverage that you can develop is called “OPI” which stands for “Other People’s Ideas.” One good idea is all you need to start a fortune. Every change in your life comes about when your mind collides with a new idea of some kind. A very small change in your thinking, or in your mental paradigms, as the result of your bumping into a new idea that enables you to see things in a different way can change the whole future direction of your life.

Successful people are those who are always organizing their life so that they are in the mainstream of ideas, rather than sitting on the shore watching the ideas flow past. They continually bombard themselves with books, magazines, articles, newsletters, audio programs as well as regular attendance at seminars and conventions.

The most successful people have learned that a single idea can save them weeks, months, even years of hard work and that the Law of Probabilities applies to the entire world of ideas. The more ideas you expose yourself to in a given period of time, the more likely it is that you will expose yourself to the right idea at the right time for you. If you bombard your mind with hundreds of ideas during the course of a year, you are much more likely to be successful than the person who reads little, listens to the radio and goes home and watches television at night. The odds are very much in your favor.

Next time, I will explain more secrets of getting what you want by helping others get what they want.

How to Land a New Job in a Tough Economy

If you or someone you know is looking for a job, I would like to share a couple thoughts to help you find new work. One of the things I often tell people is that you can’t do a job-search the way you used to. Most people rely on a job application form and a resume. That doesn’t work anymore, although, those are useful things. In today’s world you have to adopt a new mindset for finding and securing a job—and not just a job but work that you would find meaningful.

The new mindset is: be a solution, not a problem to a prospective employer. When you call or submit your resume, it likely goes into a pile with perhaps hundreds of other resumes or applications. This is a problem for the employer; you are one more person they have to deal with.

However, what if you took the time to really research the company you want to work? Read up about what’s going right now in the company. Find someone you might know to talk to about what they’re dealing with and what they’re trying to accomplish. If you don’t know someone, make a call to find someone willing to spend a few minutes with you. Network with their suppliers or one of their clients to get a better understanding of the company, department or person you want to work for.

Between the Internet and networking, you can piece together a picture of what would be of specific value to them. From there you can see if your experience, talent, skills, and passion match up to what they need. Now you can creatively position yourself as a solution and differentiate yourself. Get a conversation started in the company by presenting yourself as a solution to their problems not as a person looking for a job.

The tougher things get the more creative and solution-oriented you have to become. Be a solution, not a problem—and you’ll significantly increase your ability to land a new job.

Get What You Want by Helping Others Get All They Wanted, Part 1 of 4

Your goal in life is to be a big success, to accomplish wonderful things as you grow stronger and better with each passing day and week, and ultimately to fulfill your full potential as a person in everything you do.

The good news is that there has never been a better time in all of human history for you to accomplish your goals and achieve great success than today, here, right now, wherever you live and whatever you are doing.

We are entering into what many economists are calling the “Golden Age” of human history, a period of peace and prosperity that has been dreamed of through all the ages of man. And you are in the forefront. You are perfectly positioned to maximize your potential and get everything that it is possible to get out of the unlimited opportunities that are now opening up all around you.

The key to great success is, and always has been, contained in the principle of “leverage.” It is your ability to leverage your talents and skills like a multiplication sign through other people that enables you to accomplish extraordinary things in a short period of time.

Men and women who accomplish a lot have learned how to leverage themselves in a variety of different ways and in a variety of different directions. And there is no place where leverage is more important than your ability to influence others in such a way that they help you to get the things they want while at the same time they are helping themselves to get the things they want.

One of the great laws of life is the “Law of Reciprocity.” This law says that people always try to pay you back for anything that you do, either to or for them. In a positive sense, it means that whenever you do something nice for another person, you create within that other person a sense of obligation. Since no one likes to be under an obligation to another, the people will do everything possible to free themselves from this sense of obligation by paying you back, usually by giving you far more than you contributed originally.

For example, I bought a new car about five years ago. At the end of the transaction, the sales manager instructed one of his staff to take me and the car to a nearby gas station and fill the tank. In all my years of purchasing cars, new and used, I have never had a person fill the gas tank for me at the end of the transaction.

Two years later, I went back to that same dealership and the same sales manager and bought another brand new car for my wife. I wanted to reciprocate. A $20 tank of gas led to a $45,000 purchase.

And this is the one of the great discoveries with regard to the Law of Reciprocation. The repayment when you do something nice for another person can be out of all proportion to the size of the effort or expense that you put in.


One of the great success principles, practiced by all highly influential men and women, is this: “The more you give of yourself without expectation of return, the more you will get back from the most unexpected sources.”

Throughout all the ages of man, this has been referred to as the Law of Sowing and Reaping, the Law of Cause and Effect, or even the Law of Action and Reaction. It says that whatever you put in, you will get out. It also says that you can put in a little seed and you will often get back an entire crop. The most intelligent men and women in our society are always looking for opportunities to contribute to others, knowing that they are sowing the seeds that they will reap in the form of power, influence and a desire on the part of others to cooperate and assist them at a later time.

On the other hand, the people who seem to go nowhere in their lives and their careers are always those who are trying to get something out before they put something in. As the song goes, “They put in a nickel and they want a dollar song.”

But this is not for you. Your job is to maximize yourself and your potential throughout your life, and this requires the intelligent, deliberate cultivation of people at all levels, doing things for them so that they will be predisposed to reciprocate, to do things for you when you need and want their help.

Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Leadership is the ability to get people to do the tasks that you want them to do, and think of it as their own idea.”

The very best leaders are those who gently nudge people in the direction of doing what needs to be done. Since Americans especially do not want to be taught, told or talked down to, the very best leaders today are those who become experts at the gentle art of persuasion. Even though they could give orders and tell people what to do, they know that it is far more effective to approach the subject in such a way that the person feels that it is his or her idea.

Watch out for next time when I will explain a critical part of power and influence, and much more!

Warren Buffet on Business School Talk

“The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.”

Here’s a good video of Buffett presenting to a group of MBA students… an hour and a half worth spending.

6 Key Areas for Business Survival and Success

Gong Xi Fa Cai- Welcome the Year of Ox

In another few days more from now, the year of Ox is going to replace the Year of Rat. Feeling excited and worried as well. The year of 2009 indeed a challenging year ahead. From the Global economy crisis, people will be out of job, recession is approching, political struggling, continuous unwanted war, poverty, unknown diseases appearing and many more.

You can either choose look at it negatively and non-motivated way or otherwise. I have started posting some positive and motivating article like "Getting any job you wanted" by Stephen Covey and more to come. I am also preparing some audio downloadable and tools for your personal development. It will be in my next posting. These tools are vital to prepare yourself to face the challenging year ahead. No matter what circumstances, there would be always an opportunity. As President Obama said, we have chosen hope instead of fear. It is sure an inspiration one.

I would like keep this post as short as possible and taking this opportunity to wish everyone have a great year of Ox, Gong Xi Fa Cai, may all means prosperous and happiness be there always.

Yes We Can! - President Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address

Getting Any Job You Want- Too Good To be True?

In our presence global economy turmoil situation, not many people would even think getting any job they want. Infact, most people will think holding one current job considered a bless. Some think as long I still have a job. In the below article I quoted it all from Stephen R. Covey in his thought we can still get any job we want. It is an eye opener and there is an absolute key essential behind of this inspiration article I would like to share.

We seemed to ask ourselves such as Do I like it? Am I good at it? Does the world need it? Does my conscience direct me to get involved in it? If you can answer a good solid “Yes” to all four questions then you’ve got a great job—one worth going after or keeping. You may have to analyze deeper to know whether you can even answer these four questions. The exploration of these questions is a journey of uncovering what you really want to give your work life to. Taking the time to develop a clear vision on what’s truly important to you will give you the context and the positive energy to make all career and job decisions.Now what if you do not yet have this “dream” job? Well, the world has profoundly changed over the past 10 years. The shift from the Industrial Age to the Information and Knowledge Worker Age is sweeping the country and totally changing the way business operates. The marketplace has become intensely customer-oriented, but this customer-focus has not yet affected most of those who are out looking for jobs.

The key to getting the job you want is to be oriented to the needs and wants of your customer, which is your prospective employer. Get out of your head and into theirs.The traditional approach of sending out resumes, seeking employment interviews and filling out applications is illustrative of the old world approach to getting a job. It’s what I refer to as the “shotgun” approach, where your exposure to the market is very broad. The problem is that to the organizations that receive your resume, you are one of many hundreds or even thousands trying to get a job. Personnel offices are absolutely inundated with letters, resumes and phone calls from people who want work. As good or experienced as you may be, to most of them you are a “problem,” a “hassle,” one of a stack of letters or calls they have to answer today.I do not mean to sound harsh, but this is the reality in most organizations in today’s rapidly changing and globally competitive environment. They are dealing with the pain of extensive downsizing and outsourcing. But there are jobs everywhere disguised as problems, even the problem of downsizing. The old saying is apt that “Problems are opportunities dressed in overalls.”

Bottom line, the shotgun approach of just sending out resumes and giving follow-up calls will, for the most part, rarely yield results better than you are getting. Why? Because those who look for work in this way are behaving as if they are the customer. Customers approach companies with a need and a problem that they want solved—in this case, the need is work—a job. Businesses already have more real customer needs and problems than they can handle. Can you see who and what you are competing with when you approach a company in this way? What you must be is a solution to the needs and problems which that organization and their customers face, not another problem.If you are going to position yourself as a solution to some significant need or opportunity that an organization faces, you are going to have to take a rifle approach—one that focuses and penetrates deeply. You are going to have to be enormously resourceful and creative in learning about the organization you want to work for.

Creativity is a unique human endowment, and is a powerful capacity that lies largely dormant in most people. Unfreeze yourself from the panic and nervousness you may feel about not having a job, and start immersing yourself in the realities of the company you want to work for. Creatively find ways of talking with and learning from the company’s employees and managers—talk to their suppliers, their customers, and even their competitors. Reach the point that you can describe their challenges and needs as well as or better than they could themselves. Then you can position yourself—your unique background, skills, education, experience and talents (some of which you may need to further develop first)—in the context of their needs. Your resourcefulness and insight will deeply impress them.Finally, in your creative research it is vital to learn about the culture and norms of the organization. Every organization is different. This awareness should govern how you should approach the organization for an interview or meeting with their managers or executives. Be creative. It will be different in every case—for proactivity without empathy and awareness will also bring failure. Combine them, and you will have the wisdom that will bring tremendous results.

I acknowledge there will likely be few people who will take this advice and pay a sufficient price to really get the job and career they seek. Consequently, they will still be coming up with excuses as to why they’re not getting employment: blaming the economy, blaming the company, blaming prejudiced people, or blaming themselves. Work to get out of the reactive attitude of waiting for things to happen. Einstein put it this way, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” We must get with the spirit of the age, and gear ourselves to the needs of “our customer.”

Japan Is About to Devalue Its Currency

I read about Steve Sjuggerud's Daily Wealth Financial Investor Research page recently. One of the main topic was highlighting about Japan's currency and Toyota as a sample. I'm not sure how true was the statement but I believed the data was well-researched which I thought interesting for us to know about.

As you opened up newspaper every single day you could see the focus was on how U.S economy is going to be revived. Lot's of bad news about it. More worst news on it's way.

I now attached the article by Tom Dyson for our reference;

Toyota sells cars all over the world. When the yen rises against other currencies, Toyota's cars are more expensive to foreigners. They don't buy so many. They choose American, European, or Korean cars instead. Toyota loses money.

According to the Wall Street Journal, every point the yen rises against the dollar costs Toyota $433 million in annual operating profit. In other words, over the last five months, Toyota saw $8.6 billion in annual profits disappear... That's about a quarter of its annual operating profit.

Japan's entire economy is a large version of Toyota. Japan is an export economy. Its strategy for prosperity is producing goods and selling them to foreigners. Every point the yen rises costs Japan billions of dollars in profits for its companies, billions of dollars in tax revenues for the government, and thousands of jobs in the economy.

In the past, when the yen rose too high, Japanese authorities intervened in the markets to make the yen fall. One tool they use is cutting interest rates. Low interest rates discourage people from storing their money in yen and encourage them to save their money in other currencies with higher interest rates.

Right now, the Japanese yen has the world's second-lowest official interest rate, after the U.S. The official central bank rate in Japan is 0.3%.

The second tool Japanese officials use to devalue their currency is direct intervention in the foreign exchange markets. The Bank of Japan prints money and then exchanges the yen for dollars in the foreign exchange market, pushing down its price.

The last time the Japanese got worried about the yen being too high was in 2003 and 2004. The yen was around 105 at the time. They spent $2.5 billion pushing their currency down about 20% against the dollar.

The Japanese yen is now around 15% higher than it was in 2003-04. And Japan's economy is much sicker than it was back then. The stock market is close to 20-year lows and GDP is shrinking. There's no room to keep cutting interest rates. I'm certain the Japanese authorities are going to start intervention again soon. It may be happening already. Last week, the head of Japan's central bank told the press he was looking at ways to devalue the yen.

The Next Big Bubble to Burst....

The Best Speculation in the World Right Now ................

Japan's currency pays no interest. Japan's economy is in tatters. But debt is the big reason I expect the yen to fall. Japan's government is the most indebted in the world... with a government debt-to-GDP ratio expected to hit 150% next year. (It averages between 70% and 75% for the six largest economies in the world.)

To devalue its currency, Japan's going to have to print money using the same "quantitative easing" techniques Bernanke is using right now. These techniques are highly inflationary... and guarantee the yen will fall against other currencies.

You won't hear any other writer in the world predicting inflation and currency devaluation in Japan right now. That's why it's such a good bet. Plus, as you can see from the chart above, we've got the trend in our favor.

FXY is the symbol of the Japanese Yen Trust. When the yen falls against the dollar, this fund falls. The easiest way to bet on a fall in yen is to short this fund or buy put options on it.

Seemed like a good indication for us to invest in Yen later on.

The Leader in Me

I recently picked up a book considered as an inspirational one to me. Particularly because I have a daughter on my own. It is called The Leader In Me written by famous Dr. Stephen R. Covey. In his new book, I first thought another breakthrough book about leadership. Little that I know that it is more related to how 7 Habits being considered at early age of 5 years old.

I was amazed with the contents with informative case studies from the school such as A.B Combs. The stories about A.B Combs have taken up at least 3~4 chapters of Stephen Covey effort. I believed he personally witnessed from his own eyes, his famous 7 Habits principle became the "mantra" or foundation for children in the nursery, kindergarden and elementary schools.

The book very much involves today’s young people. It involves our future. Whether you are a concerned parent, a professional educator, or a foresighted business leader, I am confident you will find it to be an invigorating breath of fresh air, a reason to celebrate and an inspiring call for action. For what you are about to read unveils a budding trend that is gaining momentum in a growing number of schools across the United States and in various parts of the world. It is an exciting trend—one that is producing tangible, sustainable results.

In 1999, the A.B. Combs Elementary School in Raleigh, North Carolina, was struggling to find new ways to engage and educate its students. The teachers and administrators began learning practical, principle-based leadership skills and teaching them to their students — even kindergartners —; with remarkable results. In a short time, the number of students passing end-of-grade tests vaulted from 84 to 97 percent. Simultaneously, the school began reporting significant increases in students' self-confidence, dramatic drops in discipline problems, and impressive increases in teacher and administrator job satisfaction. Parents, meanwhile, reported equivalent improvements in their children's attitudes and behaviors at home.

The Principal of A.B Combs, Muriel Summers did an excellent jobs in creating such cultures to our younger generations. Their motto is to "develop leaders, one child at a time" inspired me as a parent itself. I mean in today's education systems we knew very well, children are not taught the necessity skills in order to survive and thrive in this 21st century. Many still implement and teach the same old model which the fellow educators comfortable and proven with times but not for future needs.

Today Business leaders are not finding people whose skills and character match the demands of today's global economy, including strong communication, teamwork, analytical, technology, and organizational skills — young people who are self-motivated, creative, and who have a strong work ethic.

The book explanations based on the case studies did the best way to prepare the next generation for the future is by emphasizing the value of communication, cooperation, initiative, and unique, individual talent — for nothing undermines confidence more than comparison. Whether in the classroom or at home, it is never too early to start applying leadership skills to everyday life.

In a nutshell, I believed this book would be the answer for to many of the challenges facing today's young people, businesses, parents, and educators — one that is perfectly matched to the global demands of the 21st Century.

Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year 2009

As the economy turning worst next year and the greater demand for competetive skills in the job market, we have little control over this situation. As Stephen R. Covey said, thats not our circle of influence, work on your circle of influence, something we can control and take initiatve for ourselves.

There are more needs in terms of re-evaluate our skills and experiences for challenging year of 2009. Perhaps learn new techniques, new exposure, new methodology and go-back to school would be the choice for next year.

Nevertheless, remember we are able to take control of ourselves, we can do so. Do not wait and worry about things too much. There are more things we can do to overcome the challenge ahead. I will post some great contents beginning of year 2009 for our great benefits.

Taking the opportunities here, I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and have a great holiday.

When times are bad, prepare for good times

I came across this piece of article talk about what to do during bad times and good times. It is an article speaks the truth from a personal experience from an entrepreneur in his industry. There's a lot of learning from this article as it is happening in Singapore our neighboring country.

He has vowed to shave costs rather than jobs. And the man twice voted CEO of the year is putting his money where his mouth is.

Starting next month, Liew Mun Leong will take the deepest pay cut of 20 per cent as president and chief executive officer of property and hospitality giant CapitaLand Group. Last year, he earned S$6.49 million, mostly in bonuses.

The company-wide salary reduction exercise of 3 to 20 per cent will affect mainly management and executives. Non-executives, typically earning below S$2,000, will be spared.
This is the same thing which happened at CapitaLand during the past two recessions in 1997 and 2001, when Liew also implemented a salary freeze and led management in taking a “significant pay cut”. No one was laid off then.

The 62-year-old CEO notes recent retrenchments here and decries them as “morally wrong”. He feels “very sorry” for those asked to go.

“When someone is retrenched, they lose their livelihood, their ability to support family, send children to school, pay their mortgages. There's lots of suffering,” he says. It rekindles memories of how his late father Liew Luen Pong was laid off when the British began pulling out of Singapore in 1963.

The young Mun Leong was then 17 and doing his O levels at Queenstown Technical Secondary. He and his three siblings, his housewife mother and grandmother depended completely on his father, who earned S$100 a month as a lathe machinist for a contracting firm working on the British bases.

Home was a rented room in a terrace house in Serangoon, where seven of them crammed into a single bedroom. After his father got fired, he remembers how worried they all were. “No work, no money,” he sums up grimly.

“I feel it more because I went through this myself. Maybe that's the difference between a CEO who has suffered through this and someone who hasn't. I'm from the proletariat,” he says, not without pride.

For him, salary cuts for the majority are preferable to letting a minority go. “I believe in the theory of common happiness and common misery. In good times, give bonuses. In bad times, take a salary cut. If the cost savings of retrenching 100 out of 1,000 employees can be obtained by a wage cut, you achieve the same objective. It's a better way of maintaining viability, even at the expense of more people. It saves some jobs.”Besides, he believes retrenchments carry an insidious cost — in loyalty dividends. They also erode management's moral standing.

“From our perspective, loyalty between company and staff is a two-way street,” he says. “Unless the company is loyal to its staff, they cannot be loyal to the company. “You cannot treat people as dispensable items — in good times, we want you; in bad times, we don't want you. Our staff are an asset on our balance sheet and we must treat them as such.”

But many are asking: Does all this wage-trimming and cost-shearing apply to still-profitable companies? After all, CapitaLand recently posted a Q3 net profit of S$419.4 million, although that was 25.6 per cent lower than last year. To that, Liew says: “Even if a company is profitable, cost management is important to set discipline. Not just to save money but to drive awareness that we need such discipline.”

The key, he says, is consistency in managing people, with the same rigour that companies manage their balance sheet. That means constantly pruning poor performers and foraging for fresh talent to plant. “During bad times and good times, I still hire and fire. During bad times, I will still hire those who are good. During good times, if you're not doing well, I will still fire you,” he says.

“We manage our people the same way that we manage our balance sheet. If your balance sheet management is weak, in bad times, there's no way to save it. It's bo kiu (a goner in Hokkien).
“The same goes for human resource management. Talent management is about being rigorous but not ruthless. You cannot manage with one style during good times and a different style during bad times. If you are consistent, good and bad times, people will stay with you.”He says he learnt the importance of “disciplined aggression” from the past two financial crises in 1997 and 2001.

When the former civil servant who was trained as a civil engineer took over Pidemco Land in 1996, it was a euphoric time. The Government was urging overseas investment. Other property players were bingeing on land in Thailand, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Indonesia. Tender prices shot sky-high. “We were invited to invest in glamorous projects which everyone was jumping into but we did not commit to any,” he says. He did his sums, ignored taunts of timidity, sat it out and let the fever overtake others.

Then the Asian Financial Crisis came, prices tumbled and he charged in. In 1998, he picked up freehold Furama Hotel in Hong Kong's Central, then a toxic asset nobody wanted to touch, for HK$1.8 billion (S$355 million), half what the owners had paid. In 2001, he took over the derelict Raffles City Shanghai project, “a big hole in the ground” abandoned by DBS Land. Today, the swanky mall is worth twice its investment cost of S$300 million and commands one of the city's stiffest rentals.

Crises, he learnt, are the best time to “build up your relative combat power”, provided you do not get swept away yourself. He arrived at this operating principle: “In good times, prepare for bad times. In bad times, prepare for good times.”He observes: “The property sector is full of powerful personalities with large egos. They are super-charged when they see a good piece of land. They buy the land and hope the bank will lend them money.

“I go the other way. I ask: 'Can we afford it?' People are often surprised at our growth rate. They think we're very aggressive but we're very disciplined with investment criteria, risk assessment, budget allocation.” He still personally scrutinises investment papers, blueprints and design details of housing projects, down to the type of taps used. To conserve liquidity, his standard injunction to employees is: “If you invest S$1, get me S$2. If you want to invest S$1 million, make sure you bring back S$2 million.”

That has been realised. Over the past two years, the group has monetised more than S$9 billion of assets, double the S$4.4 billion it invested over the same period. “This S$2-to-S$1 formula actually worked,” he says, sounding amazed.

In those better times, he was flayed for needlessly selling the family jewels, including Temasek Tower, Hitachi Tower, Chevron House and, before that, the Raffles Hotel. But it pared down CapitaLand's debt-to-equity ratio, making it one of the lowest-geared property companies here just as the credit crunch hit.

Today, some think his nick-of-time divestment was wildly intuitive. But he confides: “In all honesty, I had no premonition the crisis could happen. I just thought it was a good time to raise some cheap money. It was a contrarian thing to do, which needed guts.” As a result, CapitaLand is now sitting relatively pretty with a healthy balance sheet and cash hoard of almost S$4 billion. He fears that many other companies, less disciplined in managing debt in good times, will soon be imperilled.

“I read this article on how you're damned when you're due. When you're due for refinancing, the bank will likely not extend your loan of S$100 million and ask you to find your own money. If you can't get it, you're staring at foreclosure,” he says. “It's become a liquidity game. If you want to borrow money from a bank today, you must have more money than you want to borrow. “A lot of companies have not realised this yet. You need to look at surviving not just 2009 but the next three years — 2009, 2010, 2011 — unless the banking system recovers before that.

During the Great Depression, the banking system was down for 10 years.” The only upside, he says, is that since the global financial system collapsed so fast, it may revive just as quickly. “In the modern world, with the support of information technology, more sophisticated monitoring tools, better trained central bankers making a coordinated effort, things will recover hopefully faster.”

Meanwhile, quoting US economist Paul Romer, he says: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” He does not know when the meltdown will end, but he sure knows what to do with it.

Views in Shanghai from 23rd-28th November 2008

Regal International East-Asia Hotel

Heng Shan Road another view

Heng Shan Road

Another angle from The Bund

Pudong District View from The Bund

The Bund view towards Financial Square

Nanjing Street shops..

Famous Nanjing Street

Another angle of Nanjing Street

Shanghai Trip 23rd November

I was in Shanghai again!! Seemed albeit awkward feeling after many years back since 2002. Yes it was 6 years back. The last time I visited Shanghai was further internship spending few weeks in Shanghai. I was attached to Microsoft then. The excitement was there those days.

However this time I travel with few other colleagues with mixed feelings. The only difference would be I'm a visitor this time. Nevertheless, it does not matter much. Several staffs I met here in Microsoft GTSC Shanghai was still around. Many others left for seeking greener pasture in other organizations.

I touched down Pudong Airport and it was just like similar size and shape of KLIA. The last time it was in HongQiao airport and similarly compared to our Subang Airport. The overall experience travel from Pudong Airport to Hotel was a bit shocking. We took a van which I believed was privately run and although the cost was reasonable one. The driver was driving recklessly and he almost go against the right path including taking in the bicycle and motorcycle track.

Fortunately we arrived safely and sound at our Hotel, Regal International. Our hotel was located 15 minutes walk to Microsoft office location which at Metro Tower,XuJiaHui District. At the hotel, I was kind of exhausted but perhaps of my nose block since before I depart the day before. Most likely I was having throat infection that resulting my nose uneasiness. The hotel policy required us to block about RMB2500.00 for my 5 night of stay as deposit but refundable. It was strange but since it was meant for other minibar and others spending relevance, I gave in.

The night did not went well as raining started since 4p.m. We originally plan to take a walk for dinner. Unfortunately, we ended having dinner in the hotel. The hotel charges for dinner was quite costly about RMB250.00 per person. In addition, the hotel charge us for internet access at RMB 2.00 per minute. After few minor dissapointing, I think we enjoyed our dinner after all.

I reminded them to sleep early and get up early tomorrow to avoid traffic congestion and others.

To be continue....

The New White House Chief- Barack Obama