Actually I already knew about this event for a long time ago, but didn’t get the chance to attend it before. My regrets if all the CEO speaks was this good. Hoping to attend the next one

So, this time it’s Carrefour’s turn to get into the spot light with their new CEO, Shafie Shamsuddin. At first, I thought he was Indonesian, but he said he was Singaporean Malayan at the beginning of the session. Previously Mr. Shamsuddin had worked at Carrefour in Malaysia and Singapore too. He told us, that before, Carrefour top management was always filled with fellow French and it was impossible for Asian like him to enter the ring, until now. A recap on his background taken from Businessweek:

Shafie Shamsuddin serves as Managing Director at Carrefour Indonesia. Mr. Shamsuddin served as Managing Director of Carrefour Singapore and Carrefour Malaysia. He has been serving Carrefour for over 10 years and was appointed Regional Director for Carrefour Singapore in February 2005. He began his career as a management trainee in 1996 and was then promoted to assistant department head in July 1997 and department head in October 1997, where he was responsible for overseeing merchandising in and operations of the bazaar department. In April 2000, Shafie was promoted to division manager for the bazaar department and was accountable for the overall performance of six major sub-units in the bazaar department. In June 2002, Shafie was transferred to Carrefour Indonesia where he was in charge of bazaar merchandising at the national level.

I’m a frequent customer at Carrefour, but all I know about Carrefour as a company that it was originally from France, a market leader in Indonesia hypermarket, and is going through quite a lot of legal cases with it’s customers (dispute and all), competitors (you know who), and even the government (hence the monopoly issue). Still, I find it nice to shop there, even though I think the “earlier carrefour” offers more  than it is today. It must be quite a challenge to be the CEO.

Given the current circumstances, it will be interesting to know how he dealt with the situation. He told us that his first moves can be summarized to these:

1. Learn and listen
   As a newcomer, he was trying to adapt and understand the real condition by listening internally and externally, from his subordinates, staffs, suppliers, customers, and other shareholders. To really get a grip of what was happening.
2. Accept yourself
   Then, he was reflecting on the all those bad news and rumors about Carrefour to see if it was true and what caused it.
3. Making it right
   After that, he came up with ways on how to make things right again. Like the issue about how Carrefour’s buyers accused of treating its suppliers arbitrarily by keeping prices down and collecting various burdensome fees. He then installed CCTV cameras on all the meeting rooms to make sure a thing like that will never happen.

More from the CEO

CEO Speaks, Carrefour on Growth

1. You should form the team before making the strategy, not the other way around. Strategy will only works if it’s executed correctly. So, you must have the right people to do it.
2. Retail is about sell, buy, then sell. You have to think what and how to sell (customer’s trend), buy it (at lowest price and good quality), and sell it (at lowest price, but high volume, I guess? Since it’s hypermarket we are talking about). Usually, people think it is about buy and sell.
3. Treat the change agents as role models and give them certain KPIs.
4. In the QA session, a former employee asked if the culture at Carrefour still remains the same. That employees didn’t get much chance to develop themselves. He said things had changed now.
   Carrefour currently identifying their change agents (prospective employees) and treat them as role models by giving them certain KPIs. As an example even if you are a cashier, if you are the best, you might end up traveling overseas to share your skills to others. He then joked by asking the former employee to come back and work at Carrefour again.
5. Touch your closest ones then enlarge it.
   You really don’t have to do something very spectacular to begin with. You can start by your closest and make it big. Pretty much like like the butterfly effect concept.
6. It’s challenge that makes us progressed and know who we are. That way you will grow and know yourself.
   This one speaks for itself. We all have experienced it a lot. It’s just like going through exams in order to graduate.

A leak was also accidentally slipped. You can expect to see Carrefour change its tag line in near future. The tag line, Ke Carrefour aja Ah…!  will be replaced by something that depict how Carrefour give you an added value to your life. Just like he stated that a tag line should describe a bigger purpose of the company and of course the current tag line not much of a help on doing it.

Updates on Carrefour

After a surprising action of bringing one of Indonesia’s taipan, Chairul Tanjung owner of Trans Corp as one of their biggest stock holders, Carrefour is still on the move. Recently they announced that they were going to stop operating at three countries in Asia, which are Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Guess, they only interested in market where they can be the market leader, like in China and Indonesia. Meaning despite all that has happened, we still got to see Carrefour in Indonesia for many years to come.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in
/home/pinkgar1/public_html/wp-includes/default-filters.php
on line 229

It’ s one of those situation that drives you nuts. Seeing your blog totally messed up and don’t know what to do. Because this error made your blog totally inaccessible.

I got to know that this error was quite common. Since if you google it, there are a lot of links that are shown. Unfortunately, there isn’t a single one that point out the solution. The best reference I can found is this blog post, A look at WordPress filters. Disable wpautop() on post formatting.

Now, it make sense why this error can totally messed up your blog.

First of all, what is a filter? WordPress filter is a type of hook (another type is action hook, which we briefly look at while writing first WordPress plugin). Filters allow data modification on-the-fly. Which means you can change something after it was read and compiled from the database, but before it is shown to your visitor. Or, you can modify something a visitor sent to your database, before it is actually written there.

….

A good way to start playing with filters is checking out what defaults are and how they work. Default filters are listed in wp-includes/default-filters.php file. From this list, you can learn the names of some filters, the names of functions which are called, and the order in which they are called.

So, every blog has it’s own default-filters.php. I compared mine with other’s and I got this error because I uploaded the wrong file. I just mixed things up >.< But uploading the right default-filters.php doesn’t make it go away. Luckily, I ‘ve noticed that all the javascript files were also changed at the same time. And I mean all, including your plugin’s javascript.  It means that default-filters.php have something to do with the way these javascript files generated. So, you need to restore these javascript too.

So, what is the solution? Just replace all your wp-content and wp-includes files with yesterday backup. If you don’t have it, just ask to your hosting support to restore it. It will be just too painful to restore one by one these javascript files because they are all over the place. I did this and as you can see my blog was brought back from the dead. Hope, this will help you my fellow bloggers

Related posts

1. Blue Folder or Drive Names

Blue Folder

Do you ever see  your folders or even drive name in blue instead of black? No need to panic, because I also came across this the other day there is a logical explanation about it.

Blue means that your files are encrypted (not very likely) or compressed files. It’s a feature of the NTFS file system used by XP. But I have found that people using other type of Windows are also experiencing the same thing. Even the new Windows 7. Blue files can also appear if you run disk cleanup and choose to “compress old files”.

There’s no problem having your files compressed, you can still access them but it’ll cost you a little more time since Windows will have to decompress them when you’ll need those files (you won’t see much difference on accessing one single file though). But if there’s a program you haven’t used for 50 days (default value used by disk cleanup to say a file is “old”) you may find it takes a bit longer to load when you’ll eventually re-use it after running disk cleanup.

Drive Properties

It’s yours to decide whether you want more free space or applications that load quicker. If you’re running a personal computer, I don’t see the advantage of using it. Not to mention with the drives are going cheaper and cheaper. So, if you’re like me and want it back to normal or just want it to be black, just right-click the drive  or  folder and go to properties. Unchecked the “compress the drive to save disk space” box. And voila….

Meet The BPM Dummies

What is business process management (BPM)? It’s a dicipline to design, control, analyze, and improve operational business processes allowing process improvement methodology and enabling technology to be affectively combined, automating execution and coordinating human participation.

We already heard about previous process-centric management approach like six sigma, and lean in the past. So, what makes it different? You could say that BPM is helping them by embraces them and enables them with new tools and capabilities.

Business Process Management (BPM) is useful, powerful and potentially very accessible. But, with so many analysts, consultants, publications and vendors weighing in with their own perspective and opinions, it can be very confusing. The talk about BPM is also frequently tied to SOA (service oriented architecture) because they complement each other. Hence that SOA is also quite hype around big enterprises.

So now, are you interested to know more about BPM? You might want to check out this website, The BPM Dummies. It’s not a all in one website about BPM. This is a website of a book, called BPM Basics for Dummies.

Wait a minute, there’s a catch on the website. Because it’s not telling you to buy the book but to download the e-book for free (legally).You are also being introduced to Ed N. Sand, the new COO of Globalcorp and a BPM dummies. Ed is your typical C level “people person” who thinks BPM will turn him to the dark side. Meet Ed in these 2 animation episodes. It’s quite hilarious.

BPM for Dummies Book

What about the book? I never like for dummies book series. Usually they only cover simple stuff and make it hard to understand with long paragraph and such a thick book about everything. I just don’t get it. If I were a dummy, I don’t want to read such an exhausting book.

So when I heard that the book is only around 65 pages on the Chief Operating Ostrich Part 2, I kind of want to see it. The book itself is quite good because it covers the basics in a jiffy.

Whether you are a business manager or an Information Technology practitioner, the book will provide valuable information about what BPM can do for you—and how to apply it.

This includes:

• Core concepts and practical ideas.
• A primer for getting started with BPM.
• A step-by-step guide for implementing BPM successfully.
• A compilation of resources that you can go to for additional help or continued education.

If you’re wondering why they are giving away the book, here is why. As you can see the book is a Software AG special edition. The writers are also Software AG people. If you’re guessing Software AG is one of the player in BPM, then you’re right.

You could say that this is a great way to do a propaganda. While other players, like IBM or tibco just posting videos on youtube, they came up with an animated videos and a free e-book. And the website is also a good example for marketing a book, with the character, animation, and quiz. It’s entertaining.

Soa Adoption for Dummies

Anyway if you’re done with BPM or more interested with SOA, they are also giving away e-book about it.

Related posts

1. Role of Social Media Applications on The Internet in Knowledge Management Process

paypal wishlist

Remember the Paypal WishList application on facebook that I’ve posted before? I got the present the other day. Still in the christmas spirit, better late then never….

This is the email confirmation. Right now, I’m waiting the gift’s arrival on my bank account :p

And I don’t think Paypal filter the referrals because I got the same number just like the facebook application stated. I thought the credit only  for referral who sign up Paypal account. I don’t get the maximum number of 100$, but I got $28. Enough to brighten my day. So for those of you who tag along, how much do you get?

Related posts

1. Up to 100$ Christmas Present for Paypal dan Facebook Users

Paypal WishList

Is today still not December 31^st 2009? Check.

18 years old or older and Living in India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore or Vietnam? Check.

Congrats then, you are going to get the chrismas present just by doing this steps:

1. Go get a facebook account. Yeah, like you don’t already own one?
2. Successfully complete registration for a new PayPal account before December 31^st 2009 if you don’t have one.
3. Ready to try? Just add the apps
4. Submit the email address to which your PayPal account is linked to PayPal via the PayPal WishList before December 31^st 2009
5. Make a wishlist. Now you get your first 1$
6. To get the other $99 just refer it to your friends. 1$ for a friend. Pretty neat bargain, eh? You can use the invite friends menu or just promote your referral link that you can find after you make a wishlist. Check the Create your WishList link on your wall.
7. Now all you have to do is make sure you and your referral have a PayPal account in Good Standing, with current contact information throughout the Promotion Period. In order for an account to be deemed in Good Standing as that term is used herein, the account must not have a hold status and/or be suspended or past due as of December 31st, 2009.

Sounds to good to be true? That’s the same thought I had before. But if you’re already using Paypal you can check that this program is official. Just logon to your Paypal account and you’ll see the banner about Paypal WishList. I reckon that only users reside in India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore or Vietnam who can see this.

Official Paypal WishList

So, you see Paypal is just trying to get new users and expand their market share on your countries using your facebook networks. And they are paying 1$ a friend. Now, are you ready to try? Just add the apps.

You will be notified by PayPal no later than February 28th, 2010, via email or any other method as PayPal may from time to time determine, of how much you have earned.

Paypal WishList

Related posts

1. A Christmas Gift from Paypal
2. Getting The Vibe from Facebook Application
3. Step by Step Facebook is Hot on Facebook

Nokia melakukannya dengan Communicator yang pengembangannya mendapat masukan dari komunitas konsumen. Berbagai komponen dan fitur ponselnya juga bisa berasal dari multi-sumber, bukan dari satu produsen. Desainnya bisa dari Eropa, komponen-komponennya dari Cina, sementara aplikasinya buatan Amerika.

Bahkan belakangan ini Nokia melibatkan konsumen dengan komunitas developer dari seluruh dunia lewat Forum Nokia. Di sini Nokia membuka dirinya dan membekali apa yang diperlukan komunitas untuk dapat mengembangkan dan menyempurnakan teknologi dan fitur-fitur yang dikembangkan. Seperti mengoutsourcekan komunitas ini untuk menjadi bagian unit R&D. Di forum ini anggota komunitas bisa berdiskusi, berbagi pengetahuan dan pengalaman, dan menunjukkan kemampuan membuat aplikasi untuk Nokia lewat papan diskusi, wiki, blog, klinik, dan juga newsletter bulanan. Interaksi juga dilanjutkan dengan adanya event yang eksperiensial, konferensi, dan kompetisi.

Namun, keberhasilan Nokia merangkul konsumennya tidak terbukti pada kinerjanya secara keseluruhan. Berbagai berita buruk datang dari Nokia tahun ini. Mulai dari terpangkasnya keuntungan dan pangsa pasar, perampingan karyawan, harga saham yang jatuh, dan ulasan jelek tentang produk yang baru diluncurkannya. Nokia menangkisnya dengan alasan badai krisis global dan persaingan baru di kelas ponsel high-end dengan iPhone dari Apple dan Blackberry dari RIM yang tampaknya telah merebut hati banyak konsumen.

Berita-berita yang mengejutkan dari produsen ponsel nomor satu di dunia selama lebih dari satu dekade. Nokia kini bagaikan seorang pemain yang bermain defensif. Karena hanya merespon apa yang pemain lain lakukan. Ironis karena sebelumnya Nokia selalu menjadi yang memiliki visi besar, ide hebat, dan dana besar untuk membiayai inovasinya. Nokia bagai kehilangan DNA nya.

Padahal di era New Wave Marketing, yang menjadi nyawa perusahaan adalah codification dari DNA-nya. Kode DNA inilah yang dicari konsumen. Kredibilitas produk, merek, dan perusahaan. Bukan sekedar diferensiasi dan keunikan, tetapi kode DNA yang asli dan tidak bisa ditiru oleh para pesaing. Yang membuat komunitas menghargai Anda. Tentunya jika konsumen menganggap apa yang ditawarkan sebagai tiruan atau palsu akibatnya adalah kehilangan kredibilitas, konsumen, dan pada akhirnya penjualan pun akan turun. Ini sebabnya mempertahankan DNA dan membangun orisinalitas penting dilakukan.

Sedangkan pesaing baru bisa bermunculan kapan saja dengan meniru keunggulan-keunggulan yang telah dimiliki. Penyerangan tidak hanya datang dari pesaing, tetapi juga konsumen, dan para change agents. Pendapat mereka di media jejaring sosial bisa dengan mudah mempengaruhi konsumen lain untuk mendapatkan persepsi yang salah tentang Anda.

Mungkin belum terlambat bagi Nokia walau sempat menjadi kacang yang lupa akan kulitnya. Nokia bisa mengambil langkah strategik untuk menjaga kredibilitas perusahaannya lewat komunitas. Karena dengan bergabung dan menghorisontalkan diri dengan komunitas konsumen, Nokia tidak lagi bekerja sendiri dan mendapatkan dukungan untuk menjaga dan melindungi kredibilitasnya di pasar.

Singkat kata contoh ini membuktikan untuk menjadi seorang rock star di era New Wave Marketing memang tidak boleh mengabaikan semua elemen yang ada di “The 12 Cs of New Wave Marketing”. Kedua belas C ini adalah Communitization, Confirming, Clarifying, Coding, Crowd-Combo (Co-Creation, Currency, Communal Activation, Conversation), Commercialization, Character, Caring, dan Collaboration.

Posting ini merupakan keikutsertaan sebagai salah satu Bloggers @ MarkPlus Conference 2010. Berupa tanggapan atas artikel “Ketika Konsumen Menjadi Inovator” dan “Menjaga Keutuhan DNA Perusahaan” di Surfing The New Wave Marketing di Kompas.com

Related posts

1. My First Book, Tip-Trik Pilihan Blogger
2. Hey, SartikaKurniali.com Got a Blog Award

heroes

I have been watching the heroes, TV series since season one and quite fond of it. This series gave away some new perspectives about the word “heroes” itself. It is really something compare to seeing marvel’s super heroes parade (note superman, batman, spidey, etc).

Usually in this kind of story, we all idolize the good guy and mock on the bad guy. This is the story where everything is as clear as black and white. Unfortunately, real life doesn’t always have that luxury. Something that the heroes series is closer to. Suddenly you might find life is grey. And while you get older you find more greyness, like your hair for instance

And I’m thinking it is only sane that we take advise from good guys, but it is also not that insane to take advise from the bad guys. As I watched Heroes season 3, Chapter Three — Building 26 I find this scene particularly interesting because of these lines by Sylar. Yes, Sylar is the dreadful brain man who eats brain belongs to other people with abilities to have their powers. Being a successful villain from season 1 to 4 while others get killed less than 1 season he must have something.

In this scene he was trying to teach something to a young rascal with abilities. This was what he spill out:

Sylar is Giving Away Keynotes

427
00:22:30,840 –> 00:22:34,670
Always have an objective.

428
00:22:34,740 –> 00:22:38,670
Know your end game before you lift a hand.

429
00:22:38,740 –> 00:22:40,700
What else?

430
00:22:40,770 –> 00:22:41,700
Keep a clear head.

431
00:22:41,770 –> 00:22:43,970
Emotions make you sloppy.

432
00:22:44,040 –> 00:22:46,440
The most important thing

433
00:22:46,500 –> 00:22:48,540
Is that you understand your motivation.

434
00:22:48,600 –> 00:22:50,800
Always know what it is that you want.

I find this is a very nice advice to get a direction on what ever that you’re doing. Though I think “negative emotions make you sloppy” is more appropriate. We all need and crave for positive emotions, like happiness and love. I also think “always know what it is that you want” part is a difficult thing to do since we usually got ourselves lost somewhere in the middle of the journey.

Related posts

1. Courage is Not The Absence of Fear

Too bad I can’t access facebook on the class, so no demo there. It’s hard to explain these kind of stuff with out watching it on action I’ve included some links on the case studies if you want to try the application or for further reading.

The presentation started by explaining the current condition of facebook application. This is the agenda:

• The Stat of facebook application
• The Apps
• Basic Interactions
• How to Make The Apps
• Case Studies
• Some Key Notes

From my perspective there are 4 ways to make a facebook application. It doesn’t always have to be from the tough way of start from scratch like what Burger King did with the Whopper Sacrifice.

1. Use existing apps
2. Connect existing services Connect existing services
3. Start from scratch
   – Just apps
   – Custom apps Custom apps
4. Collaborate with existing apps Collaborate with existing apps

Note that sometimes the facebook application doesn’t stand alone. A facebook page or a web links maybe required depends on what the application objectives.

You can check the whole presentation below.

Download the presentation here or through slideshare (only registered user).

Since there is still time I also presented the Facebook Marketing 101 for Business.

Related posts

1. Step by Step Facebook, The Presentation
2. Facebook Marketing 101 for Business
3. Step by Step Facebook, The Talk Show

Abstract

Application of knowledge management on the Internet is increasing. This is because the Internet offers new opportunities to use the knowledge assets, defining new types of knowledge assets, and spread even outside the organization. On the Internet itself now appears social media as a system of Internet-based knowledge sharing. Social media itself is nothing new, but now has changed into enabling more interactions in a more interactive ways and the number of the users has increased more then ever. The results showed knowledge management and social media have almost the same components. This allows the role of social media on the application of knowledge management, such as a collaboration tool with a clear business objective.

So, here it is and tell me what do you think about it.

Role of Social Media Applications On the Internet In Knowledge Management Process

Related posts

1. Fundamental Concepts and Theories in Knowledge Management
2. The Tide of Social Media Books
3. The Strategic Potential of The Internet, Strategy and the Internet