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Find out more about BizPartner

I remembered joining the MBA course for 4 purposes: to learn, to develop, to network, and to enjoy.  I have always kept reminding myself on these throughout the MBA journey.

• Learn - I have learned much about business, its various areas and everything in a whole.  The last case study submitted was a consultative paper in which I learned to apply many things in the course to provide solution to a real-world problem.
• Develop - I should have become a better thinking person, thanks to certain good lecturers in the course.  But I’ve not been able to improve my communication skills including presentation and public speaking.
• Network - I might be one of the most connected person in my business school.  The last count on friends known through the course on Facebook stood at 318.  Unfortunately, most are shallow relationships and I hardly have more than a few buddies to speak of.
• Enjoy - After absence from school for years, I indeed have enjoyed the campus life.  In fact, I enjoyed every process including the stressful schedules to submit assignments, prepare for presentations and sit for exams.

• Financial goal – Increase my net worth for a certain amount.
• MiC (Masters in Communication) – I need to become a master in communication, the very thing that I missed out developing in the MBA course.

I guess I’m quite clear of what I need to achieve this year. How about you?

You want to know how to best use your domain name for your business. Be it to improve your operations, speed up communication, or just another marketing channel to promote your products.

You want the best technical support available to you when you need it to help attain what you need, and the way you need it. Nowadays, it’s normal to expect 24×7 technical support by phone and email from hosting providers.

But some customers want more personalized service. They want a technician or consultant who understands their business and their needs, one who knows their specific purposes for their domain name and hosting service.

We are not faceless people.  Why hide behind phone and email? We come to serve you at your place, office or home. These are what we provide for you:

• Setting up email service at your computers.
• Setting up email service at your mobile phones.
• Migrating, uploading and configuring your web site.
• Software installation on server.
• Basic training on email service.
• Basic training on cPanel.
• Other related training and services.

It’s personalized service, and for a start, it’s only RM280 for 6 months for unlimited number of service at your place!

And we don’t just do the work for you, but we train your users how to perform it yourself too. Talk about teaching them how to fish. Just in case, you need to DIY and have more control in future.

Perhaps most important to many business people, you’ll get to know your hosting provider more personally and intimately. It’s networking that matters.

Find out more about personalized support service here

New emails are usually marked in bold. Those that have already been replied to or read become ‘un-bold,’ which means they require no further action. To most of us, emails in bold are those which require action. What happens if messages are marked as Read before an action has been taken?

This is exactly what happens in most email clients. It marks messages ‘Read’ immediately after you have opened an email. This overly smart feature has to be turned off.

To do it in Outlook, go to ‘Option/Mail/Reading Pane/Mark item…’. In Mac’s Mail, you need to install a plugin called TruePreview in order to disable this feature.

Mac’s Mail using TruePreview plugin

Postbox with ‘Mark message read’ disabled

After you have disabled the feature, you need to learn a new practice – to mark messages as read manually. The keyboard shortcut for Outlook is CTRL-Q. In Postbox, it is ‘m’. In Mac’s Mail, it is Command-Shirt-U (we prefer to replace it with just two buttons: ^A)

Assigning new keyboard shortcut in Mac’s Mail

Don’t just hit “Reply,” but hit “Reply all”.

Very often, the sender who sent you an email would also include other email addresses in the Cc. If you hit Reply, only the sender will get the reply. In other words, those people in the Cc’d list won’t receive your email. In order to overcome this problem, please hit “Reply all” instead of “Reply”. Make this a habit!

'Reply all' helps keep everyone informed

View “Unread” messages only.

None of us has the time to go through each email to decide which requires a response. Chances are, we are most likely to just pick those ‘Unread’ message and start working on it.

In Outlook or Outlook Express, this can be done by choosing ‘Hide Read Message only’ in the View menu.

Newer email clients such as Mac’s Mail or Postbox has a feature called Smart Folder. You can define rules in a Smart Folder in order to find only unread messages.

Mac’s Mail with a Smart Folder called ‘Unread’

Rules are defined in the Smart Folder

Sorting emails using folders is old fashioned.

Many email users create lists of folders to group their messages. Senders are sorted by company names. It is a hassle to drag each message into the correct folder.

Messages sorted by folders in company name

Newer email clients are equipped with advanced search options which eliminate the need to sort messages in folders. In other words, you can just search to find an email instead of sorting them by company names.

Searching an email with the build-in search feature

Emails sent using your phone should also appear in your Outlook.

Working on multiple devices and still keeping your emails synced is now possible. All thanks to faster Internet connections and the advancement of IMAP protocol.

IMAP allows you to view your messages directly from the server. By configuring all your devices such as notebook, smartphones or tablet to use IMAP, you can have everything in one device to be synced automatically to your other devices.

Previously, email users chose POP over IMAP. In POP, one downloads the message and works locally. Today, with improved Internet connection speeds, IMAP is an affordable option.

Configure Mac’s Mail to use IMAP

Configure iPhone to use IMAP

Signatures, Disclaimers and Email Receipts are dead.

Email isn’t dead yet, but it will die, eventually. Don’t believe us? Well, look at the fax machine. Let’s face it. Facebook email, Apple’s iMessage, Tweets and many other means of communication is pushing email out.

Soon, email features like subject, signature, disclaimers and email receipts will become a thing of the past.

Keep emails short. Ask one question at a time.

View full story

The best email client? Mac’s Mail!

I have tried Outlook Express, Outlook, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, Mulberry, Netscape Mail, Eudora and Postbox but none of them come close to Mac’s Mail. Mac’s Mail comes with Mac OS X as the default email client. What makes the difference? It has one of the greatest user interface with good IMAP support. It has accurate and fast email search features and handles plain text and HTML email better.

Email addresses are better in small letters.

Never write your email address in capital. Well, it still gets delivered but it’s just not right to write it that way. Just remember this: USE SMALL LETTERS FOR EMAIL ADDRESSES.

Example of bad email address

3 ways to send “really huge” files over the Internet.

Emails are not designed to deliver huge files (over 5MB) via the Internet, but there are a dozen other ways to do it.

Use Sendspace.com to attach files up to 300MB

Install CloudApps in Mac to deliver files up to 25MB.

Shared folder using Dropbox

This article is written by Pin. If you have any questions, please email pin@1.com.my

Pin’s company does just one thing – email hosting. In Pin’s own words, it is “the email experience” that virtually no other email provider in Malaysia cares as much about.

First Semester

• Positive Mindset
• Personal Branding
• Conversation
• Socializing

Second Semester

• Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP)
• Non-verbal Communication
• Presentation
• Practical #1 – Toastmasters Club

Third Semester

• Humor
• Public Speaking
• Leading
• Practical #2 – Assertiveness

Fourth Semester

• Persuasion
• Selling
• Negotiation
• Arguments

I designed this “curriculum” out of fun and quest for self-improvement.  I can use it as a self-imposed self-development course to improve my communication skills.

Imagine each semester takes 2 months to complete. Then I can focus on two courses in a month.  For example, in the first month I can improve on Positive Mindset and Personal Branding.  Then in the second month I can work on Conversation and Socializing.  The course will finish in eight months or within a year.

Is there any exam?  Of course, no.  But to make it work and make myself accountable, I’ll need to read, learn and put into practice in daily life.  Then I can use journaling to record and reflect on my progress.

How would you improve this course?  Would you like to design your own course too?

December 26, 2011 (Monday) - 4 areas to be tested on Wednesday: 1. Training needs analysis. 2. Transfer of training. 3. Training evaluation. 4. Development methods. Now reading up on 3rd area and evaluating Santa Claus’ performance this year.

December 27, 2011 (Tuesday) - Final exam starts tonight until next week. My only exam is tomorrow night. One thing I learned from friends here is D.N.U.T. (Doa, Niat, Usaha, Tawakal). So let’s do our best and have PEACE..

December 28, 2011 (Wednesday) - The last ever exam is now over! I’m always lucky for taking less number of subjects and so finishing earlier than others. For my friends still having other papers until next week, best of luck and you too will be independent very soon like me now.

January 6, 2012 (Friday) - Supervisor wants me to publish in case competition and wants me to do PhD. Well but let me earn some money first, then I’ll think about it again

January 7, 2012 (Saturday) - This morning I got waken up by phone call from a professor in marketing encouraging me to pursue PhD. She has not taught me in any class before, but she was in fact the first lecturer I got to know personally in GSM. She must have remembered the guy who presented to her in lab on social media in July 2009

December 19, 2011 (Monday) - Transferring marketing ideas from mind map to words in report is taking more time than expected. Will finish in one or two days so that I can turn it in to Turnitin, or else I’ll have to turn myself in to GSM for late submission.

December 20, 2011 (Tuesday) - Submitted the first incomplete draft to Turnitin for “testing”. Result unknown. Still writing up on marketing strategies. Learning more when crystalizing ideas in words. Took one hour to draw up perceptual map alone. Work to be continued tomorrow. Good night.

December 21, 2011 (Wednesday) - Met client in their office, conducted training on email server. Now sitting in cafe in KL City Walk, drinking Vietnamese milk coffee, writing up on marketing mix. Typical work + study life in past 2 years.

December 22, 2011 (Thursday) - Finished writing on marketing strategies, having taken 3 days and many pages. Case report writing is now 90% done. Should be finishing up the final part soon

December 23, 2011 (Friday) - Case study report COMPLETED. Submitted to supervisor and Turnitit for checking. Hopefully not much change required. Now I can sleep. Good night

December 23, 2011 (Friday) - Someone told me I’m a “controversial” person in GSM. Well, it’s good to be controversial, not good to be ordinary. Stand up and speak for what we believe in. That’s how Namewee created a niche for himself too.

December 24, 2011 (Saturday) - Spent hours to settle company accounts and works delayed while focusing on case in past 2 weeks. Will start to revise for the last ever exam on Wednesday.

December 24, 2011 (Saturday) - Reading up on training needs analysis (TNA), one of the four areas to be tested on Wednesday. Studying is over soon, but lifelong learning continues (thanks to MCA). I already identified my own learning needs (or rather, developmental needs) in 2012. You?

December 25, 2011 (Sunday) - Christmas time + Study time for Training & Development = Task analysis on Santa Claus.

December 12, 2011 (Monday) - Completed SWOT and SPACE for Case Study on one client company. More reading, thinking, strategizing and writing ahead. Developing skills as con-sultant, but not interested to be one. Why earn cheapskate money for giving ideas to others, when we can use them to build up our own business and earn better ourselves?

December 13, 2011 (Tuesday) - Sat in International Marketing class of Dr Kenny Teoh, one of the most popular lecturer around. Listened to friends’ presentation on selling Tongkat Ali coffee. Stealing information for own case study as usual.

December 14, 2011 (Wednesday) - Intensive planning, intensive writing, intensive reading, intensive stealing.

December 14, 2011 (Wednesday) - Surprise farewell party for Tuan Haji Yaakob, my two-time lecturer in Case Writing, and Training & Development Management.

December 15, 2011 (Thursday) - The last class of the whole MBA is over. Worked on case study in Old Town while friends discussed issues. Learning much on opportunity analysis. As entrepreneurs we often come across various opportunities, and the seven domains model is one good method to systematically analyze and decide to pursue them or not.

December 16, 2011 (Friday) - Developing a “co-opetitive” business model for client company in case study. Let’s not be me-too but start to think out of the box. Learning how to think is one major skill we can gain in this course.

December 17, 2011 (Saturday) - Morning do case, afternoon do case, night do case, eat thinking of case, drive reflecting on case, sleep also dreaming of case, might as well marry someone called Casey.

December 17, 2011 (Saturday) - SWOT done, SPACE finished, opportunity analyzed, business model evaluated, competitive strategies proposed, now QSPM-ing. Case is 70% completed. Not a crime thinking about life after MBA. Bitter first, sweet later!

December 18, 2011 (Sunday) - Let’s imagine the joy of having fought a good fight and having run a good race. Then we will be most motivated towards the goal at the end. Case is 75% done and one day ahead of schedule. Next up, ready for submission by Christmas on Sunday!

December 18, 2011 (Sunday) - Working on Appendix C: Financial Statement Analysis. Who ask you to take General Management? Must do everything from strategy, marketing, operations, IT, now accounting and finance some more.

December 18, 2011 (Sunday) - Financial analysis completed. Now working on strategic action plan, strategy alignment and McKinsey 7S Framework. Whatever goal we have in life or business, we must make sure everything we do is helping us towards the goal rather than away from it.

December 8, 2011 (Thursday) – Assignments come and go yet never ending. But Case/Project should be on top of mind and done every now and then.

December 8, 2011 (Thursday) – Reading up on “perceptual distortion” for the very last presentation (conduct training) on Sunday.

December 8, 2011 (Thursday) – Books are gold mine to those who know how to find. Theories are practical to those who know how to apply.

December 9, 2011 (Friday) – Had the last group meeting with members of my last group for the last presentation in MBA. We are to give a half-hour training on Perceptual Distortion. We will try to, no, we will do our best to give one impressive “performance”.

December 9, 2011 (Friday) – Finished preparing slides for weekend training. Going to depend less on slides but focus more on trainees. Borrowed textbook of Marketing Strategy class. Going to scan through for possible materials to use in Case Study.

December 9, 2011 (Friday) – Reading marketing strategy textbook and extracting possible models and theories to be used in Case Study. Pretending to be CONsultant for a client and learning to apply theories in real-world situation is great learning experience.

December 10, 2011 (Saturday) - Now left the last presentation (training) tomorrow, final exam on 28/12, and case submission by 30/12 (or 3/1?). Coming week is critical in order to submit before Christmas. Must have good lifestyle support and time management!

December 10, 2011 (Saturday) – Last-minute effort to rehearse for training tomorrow. It’s always a challenge to present a dry topic in a funny way and engage all audience from start to finish. The last time I managed to do so was on Digg in MIS class but many months ago. Hopefully the last presentation tomorrow will be good enough for lifelong remembrance.

December 11, 2011 (Sunday) – Mock training started in GSM. 6 groups to present half-hour each, 4 indoor and 2 outdoor. God bless my team’s indoor training later.

December 11, 2011 (Sunday) – Final presentation is done! My own performance is not satisfactory. But thanks to teammates Shannon Tam and Carrie Goh Yi Yi, we did fairly ok. All the best in your project and studies. I’m leaving GSM soon.

December 11, 2011 (Sunday) – One customer asked me on writing a lot about MBA lately. It’s because now is my last month in MBA and I want to journal these last moments of my course. So writing till end of year only. No, I’m still working..

It’s my first time to come up with a more formal model on real life problems. It is not meant to be complete or entirely accurate.  A model is just a representation of the real world.  It is meant to help us make decision on real life problems. It has weaknesses and we shall not depend on a model entirely.

I came up with this model on personal branding as I’m preparing for a talk on the topic.  The model doesn’t try to cover everything about personal branding. Nor does it explain why we should do brand our self, or how to go about doing it. But it’s more on the elements of personal branding and the kind of questions we should ask our self when developing and evaluating our own personal brand.

I hope to elaborate more on the model soon. But for now, I’ll let the mind map do the talking. Click on the map to get the full picture. If you can roughly get the ideas I want to convey simply by looking at the mind map, then I know my mind mapping skill has improved

Your comments and criticisms are much welcome.

FB post #2 - Have you been working diligently but other people just don’t see your hard work? Perhaps your performance is not yet good enough to attract their attention? Perhaps you need some “selling skills” to make them notice you? Or perhaps you are not exposed enough that they don’t even know your existence?

FB post #3 - Sometimes what we want to do conflicts with what other important people in our life expect us to do. Maybe we haven’t learned enough of their needs. Maybe we don’t know enough of our own ability. Or maybe we haven’t communicated enough with them on what we can do for them.

How do you respond to these posts and questions? I’m in brainstorming stage to prepare for an upcoming talk on personal branding. Your comments are welcome.

Continued from previous…

It was 7pm as Anita was making a presentation in her case writing and analysis class. She had written a business case based on a scenario faced by a real company. The company wanted to develop a new industrial product and market it throughout the world. But questions remained in the management. Would the new product be profitable or not? If so, what were the best business and marketing strategies to compete in the global market? How should they differentiate from their competitors?

Anita had earlier approached the company and gained access to the required data to be used in her case study. She interviewed the managers to find out about the product and issues involved. She reviewed the company’s history, its management and staffs, the current businesses, sales and financial performance. The company treated her like their free consultant. For one, they would like to hear recommendations on their problems from an MBA student. Also, it was a valuable opportunity for the company to be mentioned and studied in an MBA course!

In the class, Anita acted as a consultant of the company and presented the problems and solutions to the case. She applied strategic planning tools learned in her strategic management class to analyze the business environment and the new proposed business. These tools included SWOT analysis, SPACE matrix and BCG matrix. She presented her findings and recommended the client to proceed on the plan. She also drew upon knowledge learned in marketing management class and proposed a marketing plan for the client.

After presentation by Anita, her classmate Faeek came up on stage. He had been assigned as the critique of Anita’s case. Acting as a devil’s advocate, he criticized Anita’s case and pointed out problem areas that needed improvement. Then, the whole class started to comment and debate on case. The lecturer acted as a facilitator encouraging participation from everyone, besides providing his final comments on the case and also the quality of critique and class discussion.

This was yet another experiential learning built into its curriculum by one business school. In doing so, a student faced real life problems in the business world instead of just doing textbook exercises. Anita had learned to approach issues objectively, and developed her people skills interacting with people in the organization, creativity and problem solving skills as consultants, presentation skills in presenting her findings and analysis, and also persuasion in defending her solutions and fielding questions from others. Are these skills not what we expect from an MBA graduate?

In my previous article in this column, I mentioned the respect towards our MBA graduates is declining because they are unable to fulfill the needs of companies employing them. Now, in order to close this gap, MBA can be more experiential by exposing students to the real world situations, rather than just keep them sleepy in the class reading the books and listening to lecture. What use is it to feed students with all business theories and knowledge in the world, yet they are unable to tackle a situation in the real world?

The war game, the on-the-job training, and the case writing class mentioned above are just some examples of experiential learning. Universities, colleges and training institutions, you can be even more creative. Give what the market needs in an MBA graduate, and you will enjoy good reputation and profitable returns for churning out graduates companies in marketplace speak well of.

So b-schools, why do you let HSBC to hold business plan competition every year to dig out the business talents among our youths, when you can host the Malaysian version of Apprentice to draw out the potentials among your students? Or you think MBA should be academic only and it is the real world’s job to teach students about real world? Congratulations, for you will be dinosaurs in education field in no time.

About The Author

Ricky Soo is a biased advocate for using case method in management education in Malaysia as used widely in the US. If you feel strongly too in this matter, come and argue with him on http://www.rickysoo.com. Or if you want your organization to be mentioned in an MBA course, feel free to spam here.

Continued from previous…

It was 9am in the office when Dennis received the letter of appointment as the Head of Department of the sales department. He had been rotated in his company from one department to another. In purchasing department, he learned to negotiate and push for the lowest prices and best terms from suppliers. In finance department, he learned to manage cash flow to make sure the company had enough to pay for its bills and not cause a disruption in operations. Now in the sales department, he would learn to lead a team of energetic sales force to achieve sales target of the company.

One month later, Dennis became an entreprenuer and started his own company selling environmentally-friendly shipping boxes. He drew up a business plan with five team members and presented it to investors and bankers for financing. They got the funds and started to trade. As the CEO, he managed his team members, who each had a part to play in his or her own functions in the company including sales and marketing, purchasing and operations, accounting and finance, human resources and administration.

Business did not turn out as good as envisioned. Competition was stiff, suppliers were suspicious of the new company, and customers complained of high prices. The prospects did not respond favoriably to their cold calls and staff morale was as low as sales. But the new company needed to survive and pay back RM100,000 loan from the bank plus interest. Dennis managed to motivate the team and they worked together to execute a turnaround plan. They started to collect boxes from their customers, recycle them and sell the reconditioned boxes at discount price. Sales finally picked up and the company achieved a handsome profit after one quarter. The financials were pretty and the investors complimented them for their performance.

Dennis and his team were actually full time students in one business school. They had been sent to a training company where they worked in a simulated business environment. They first worked in an established virtual company to learn different functions in the business. Then they learned to form their own virtual companies and trade with virtual suppliers and customers. The money and products were not real, but the business operations was very real.

Being exposed to such working environment was impactful to students who had no or little working experience. The training was counted in their résumé as valid working experience. They not only learned to appreciate the various business processes in a company and work harmoniously with one another, they also discovered their seed of entrepreneurship in selling products in their own enterprises. They would graduate from their MBA course having a competitive edge over their peers. The training was useful even for trainees who had prior working experience, as many of them had been working in their own field and did not get to see the helicopter view of a business and the interdependence of various departments in it.

Read on here…

It was 5pm as Amin and his soldiers marched into the jungle. The weather was warm and their heart was worried. They were sent into the forest to fight against the guerrila force who had stole a prized treasure. Guided by a compass, they nevertheless boldly trekked the jungle towards the coordinates given. There they expected to encounter the enemy to complete the mission.

But they were not the only squad going after the treasure. There were also other millitants vying for the prize. Amin needed to compete with these forces to reach the destination, and even engage them in fight if necessary. The reward was bountiful, for they would earn money for each rival soldier killed. But for each own soldier downed by their foe, Amin had to pay ransom to redeem the life of a dead member. Keeping enough cash was important to keep the enterprise afloat and pay for expenses as they arose.

Staying alert against any attack on the way, Amin and team each held a bomb in one hand, while carrying a bag of weapons and food supplies in the other. But the terrain was just too challenging, and not all team members were fit enough to hike up and down for hours. By 8pm everyone was hungry and worn out. So they stopped and started campfire to cook dinner with rice and water bought.

Unfortunately, as they relaxed their guard, bombs started to fly across the trees. They had been ambushed! Three members got killed in the dark. They smelt badly as stinky water spread around their bodies. Fortunately they managed to bomb a few opponents too. Money exchanged hands and the mission went on. Unless the treasure was recovered by any team, the jungle fight would go on and on. Nobody would be allowed to walk out of the jungle, even if it meant continuing until the next morning.

Well, the weapons were as fake as water bombs, and the killings did not really happen. But the enthusiasm was real and team spirit was high. This was a corporate strategy simulation camp informally called “war game” by one business school for its MBA students. The participants were grouped into “companies” in the war game and required to earn money by winning games and competitions, the jungle war being only one of the many activities. The company with the most cash at the end would emerge as the winner.

Though Amin’s company did not win, they learned a lot in the process. They undertook many tasks over four days and three nights. These could be as simple as building bridge across the River Kway, designing the most efficient process to pass balls around, and performing role-play on stage. But some activities could be as challenging as building a raft, rowing it in the open sea towards a goal post. They even overcame their water phobia by swimming 300 metres in the waters back to the beach, and of course, brought out their fighting spirit bombing enemies at midnight in the jungle.

Critical success factors facing these challenges included strategy, leadership, creativitiy, confidence, communication, teamwork, delegation, trust, crisis management, motivation, and even behaviour correction. But on top of these common lessons in team building activities, participants also got to experience and apply on the battlefield many theories they learned in their MBA class including competitive and cooperative strategies, theory of constraints, entrepreneurship, business process reengineering, financial management and even blue ocean strategy.

Read on here…

Actually such spams are not uncommon.  The spammers use a trick called email spoofing to forge emails as if they are sent from known friends and even your good self! It’s actually not hard to forge such emails. Any skilled web programmer, include myself, is able to do it without knowing your email password.

You might wonder whether your mail server security has been compromised that it is used to send out spams to yourself. Not necessarily and not likely. I can use any server to send out such spams if I wish to.

Why do spammers want to use your or your friend’s email address to send to yourself? One reason is for them to hide their true identity. Another one is that the email recipients are more likely to open such emails, seeing that familiar names have sent the emails to them.

So is there any solution to such problem? The honest answer is no, unless you can spend huge amount of money to invest in high-tech server and firewall solution. If you are using a shared server, most likely you just need to complain to your hosting provider and they will do their best to help you.

What hosting providers can do is to institute certain preventive measures such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys and others. Please get them to turn on these security features for you. Most probably you will need to provide email header of the spam to them. Email header is the unseen part of an email that provides some diagnostic information for checking. Find out how to do it here.

Without going into much technical details, basically upon receiving an email, a method such as these checks with the server of the alleged sender’s domain name to see whether the email indeed comes from that server. If yes, the email will go through to the email recipient. If not, it will be blocked and will not reach you.

But there are actually other ways a spammer can use to send out spams as well, not to mention there are loopholes in these preventive methods too. For one, what if either your server or the alleged sender’s server does not support such method? Then the method will not work.

Nobody likes to receive spams.  Spams also present a big problem for hosting providers for using up a lot of server resources that otherwise would have been available for other good use.

But please work together with your hosting provider and together such incidents can be minimized. So please send the email header of such spam to them and get them to turn on preventive measures above. Find out more about email spoofing here.

Without much thinking I replied, “Don’t be a magazine.” Before that, I had been habitually telling people to operate a successful bookstore, don’t be a bookstore; to be a successful nasi lemak store, don’t sell nasi lemak. That is, be bold to come out of your product category, create your own market space and be perceived as offering something different or more than what you sell.

As a matter of fact, I know of one magazine which is not really in magazine business.  The company behind is actually in branding business. They charge clients fees to certify their brand, give them brand awards, and promote them in a number of ways, magazine being one main channel. No wonder I can’t find advertisements in the magazine.

I guess the lecturer asked me about magazine because he knew I used to write a column for a magazine called MBA Edge Quarterly. Again, if I had resources and owned a magazine like this, I would do it in different way, rather than a traditional one going around soliciting for advertisers and presents only good things about MBA. Create an MBA 2.0 magazine!

I’ve been asked to write a testimonial for MyPEC training, a simulated on-the-job training I went through with a group of MBA students. I think I might as well post it here so that my friends and other coursemates know what I’d been through missing in action in the period from November 2010 to January 2011

In November 2010, at the start of my fifth semester in MBA, I was among 30 students selected to join MyPEC training. We were sent to work full-time in a virtual company two days a week for three months. The company sells office stationery to “customers” (other virtual companies in Malaysia and throughout the world).

First I became the head of department in purchasing where I learned to negotiate with “suppliers” (yet other virtual companies) in order to buy office supplies at the best price and quality. Being new to purchasing and quite an accommodating person, initially I found it hard to be tough and assertive negotiating for best terms. Anyway I learned a few tricks and my team managed to pass the test to minimize the costs and bring in more profit to the company.

Few weeks later, I got rotated to the production and planning control department where I assisted my team leader to come up with new and creative products for the company. Designing and working on physical products was not my cup of tea, and I found myself quite reluctant in the new department. But I managed to come out of my comfort zone to do a job I was not familiar with.

Another few weeks later, all trainees formed groups and we broke into 5 new virtual companies. I helped form a company selling shipping boxes. Together with other founding members in the company, we completed the registration process to register a Sdn Bhd company, produced a business plan, pitched our business idea to investors and bankers, got funds in and started selling our products.

As COO of the new company, I was in charge of operations aspects including purchasing and inventory control. Again I was involved in negotiating and purchasing. But this time I was not so lucky as the suppliers stood firm and kept raising their prices. I offended quite some people and made a few mistakes. One of the most important lessons learned was to manage my emotions and stay cool and positive even under stress.

The company went well and we presented quite a handsome profit to our investors at the end of training. Thanks to the job rotation in former company and helping to oversee the operations of the second company, I had learned to appreciate the overall business process of a trading company. Needless to say, I learned the importance of teamwork and soft skills like negotiation and communication too.

The training had opened my eyes as it’s my first time experiencing such realistic and practical training. Although the suppliers, customers, products and money were all virtual, we all worked hard as if they were all real. The training provider was very successful in creating the simulated environment.

I recommend the training to all students without working experience to feel how it is like to apply what we study in business course to real life situations.  I also recommend it even to those with working experience because it enhances our understanding of the overall business flow of a company and helps us to see all departments and appreciate all inside and outside stakeholders with a helicopter view.

I thank MyPEC Sdn Bhd for providing such a novel kind of training in Malaysia, and the coaches who taught, advised, encouraged, challenged and even scolded us in performing our job. Some people were not nice to deal with. But it was meant to simulate the real life anyway.

I also thank my business school, Graduate School of Management (GSM) in UPM, for allowing me into the training, though it was initially meant for my junior batch. The training should be continued in the university, and in fact should be introduced to many other business schools as well.

Think of the cheque deposit machine at the bank, it replaces a bank teller at the counter. Since the machine can’t talk to people, it has a computer screen that you interact with. The screen serves as the bridge between you and the machine. It displays a set of instructions that tell you how the deposit can be made.

Although the system works, these machines aren’t intuitive and user-friendly. For example, some machines use only English; some are difficult for first time users to figure out; and some can only accept one cheque at a time, which causes long queues. The overall experience translates into – poor interface design. The person to blame – the interface designer.

Poor interface design can affect us in other aspects of our lives too, not just at the bank. My mum once burnt her cake because the oven only had instructions in English, and I don’t know how many times I’ve found it hard to find the expiry date on food packaging. In the latter, it seems the interface designer thought it’d be clever to hide the date, print it in some faded colour or use a ‘code’ like 030411 instead of 3 April 2011. And, who needs a remote control that comes with 20 button on the panel? Why does Microsoft insist on asking you to configure the sensitivity of your mouse? (Apple products would never ask you to adjust the sensitivity of your touch screen).

It’s obvious that these interface designers have failed to understand consumer needs. So who’s the best interface designer? Well, maybe my mum would make a good oven designer, I could be a good cheque deposit machine designer, and my dad could be the best handphone designer… We all know what we want in a design, the so-called experts just need to tap into that.

Agreed?

About The Author

Are you a web or apps developer? You are invited to join http://groups.google.com/group/friends-1-com-my

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my

How many times have you lost your email, and when you turn to your email provider, you realise that their promise to serve you 24×7 is an empty marketing ploy?

How many of you know how to monitor the uptime of your email or website? To show your providers that their servers are down and make your claim according to SLA, you’ll need proof.

Need someone to stand up for you? Just ask Pin.

About The Author

Are you a web or apps developer? You are invited to joinhttp://groups.google.com/group/friends-1-com-my

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my

As a result, most web developers fail to grasp their customer’s true requirements, and most times, they rush to ‘close a sale’ and fight to stay afloat in the ever-competitive web industry.

Clearly, this situation and the disputes that usually follow, aren’t ideal for business owners or web developers. The seemingly endless design corrections and frustrating arguments that go back and forth will make the business owner think that the web developer is incompetent, and the web developer will start to label the customer ‘fussy.’ When the web developer doesn’t deliver on time, or the customer holds the payment, it becomes yet another project failure that could have been avoided in the first place.

In the world of business, they say the customer is always right, which is true in many ways. For many web developers, a project can sometimes appear like a line of HTML code, but that’s not usually the case, not everything is as it seems. A project is complex, and comprises of a good mix of management and development. Here’s what we think are the five pillars of a successful project:

1. The negotiator

The negotiator’s job is to meet customers and understand their requirements and expectations. He or she can also help customers decide on a budget, inform them about what a website can do, and understand a web developer’s job. When both sides agree on a preliminary budget, the negotiator’s role ends.

2. The proposal writer

A good proposal is one that can be understood by everyone. It shouldn’t be technical, but it should put the customer’s expectations down in written form. It will define the job scope and note what items are to be delivered.

3. Administration

The administration side of the operation follows standard procedures to get the paperwork done. They issue official quotations, receive purchase orders, send invoices, receive payments etc.

4. The project manager

This person forms a bridge between the customer and the web talent. He or she assigns tasks to the team and makes sure that deadlines are followed. It is also the project manager’s duty to inform the customer about the progress of the project and to ensure that everything is going to schedule.

5. Specialised team members

A web project has to be broken down to smaller tasks. This is one of the hardest parts of the project, as someone must search for talents and identify their area of expertise. Specialisation eliminates errors, is the key to keeping costs down, and improves the value of each team member.

A team member who works on a specific aspect of the project will eventually become skilled and excel. If you have a team of specialised talents, the possibility of the project going smoothly, and as planned, would be much higher than that of a ‘one man show’. Each talent must be given an introduction to their job scope and recognised for their professionalism. Ultimately, your database of skilled talents can help you seal the deal with your customers.

(Pin will write more on individual roles and how to turn expectations of web owners and web developers to writing)

About The Author

Are you a web or apps developer? You are invited to join http://groups.google.com/group/friends-1-com-my

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my

Continued from previous…

Understanding these diverse backgrounds of students, together with the values and behaviors that they bring to an MBA course could help us to understand and work with one other more harmoniously in our MBA study. Not appreciating these differences might bring to culture shock and even conflicts for certain students.  Imagine Rocky attends an executive MBA class consisting of senior managers and business people. He can get bored and lost following their discussion on obviously topics unrelated to exam. Now imagine Dato’ Muni joins a class of fresh graduates. He can easily get disillusioned by the lack of culture for learning and sharing.

Talking about learning, a learning-oriented student should have no problem identifying and appreciating the practical value of what is being learned in the course, especially if he or she has had some working experience. Take the theory of constraints in operations management. Dato’ Muni should be able to apply immediately in his business to identify the bottlenecks limiting the sales of his company, and so do something about it.

Also, consider the Big Five personality trait theory, career-minded Lisa can immediately use it to assess her own personality in terms of openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism to discover her strengths and weaknesses, and the kind of work most suitable for her, in order to chart a career strategy for herself.

As for Rocky, studying the marketing concept can immediately unravel the secret of finding his love.  Consider what Peter Drucker says about marketing,

“There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available.”

Consider applying this in Rocky’s situation,

“There will always, one can assume, be need for some courting. But the aim of marketing is to make courting superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the guy/girl so well that you fit the target and sell yourself. Ideally, marketing should result in a target who is ready to accept your proposal. All that should be needed then is to make you available!”

Trust me, in MBA, there is just SOo much to learn!

Ricky Soo consists of both a business person and a working person inside. He thinks that no matter what our aim for MBA is, by no means go for it in full force. There will be heavy workloads and peer pressure to sway us away from our desire. But let’s not be transformed by the pattern of the crowd, but keep reminding and motivating our self to strain forward towards our goal post. Ricky can be followed at http://www.rickysoo.com

Continued from previous…

The personal stories of Dato’ Muni, Lisa and Rocky tell us why people choose to embark on an MBA journey. The reasons people buy this brand called MBA appear to be very diverse, depending on whether they are business people, working people, or fresh graduates. Even within these same category of students, one may not assume all others take MBA having the same reason he or she has. We all have different motives in doing the same thing.

For business people like Dato’ Muni, they do not need MBA for the purpose of getting a job. Having been in business, they know a paper qualification does not speak of the whole person, if it speaks anything about the person at all. They want to excel in their study in MBA but are not too obsessed with getting A for all subjects. To them, they know the difference between grade A and grade B is not significant. What they value most are the practical knowledge learned, useful insights gained, ideas inspired, skills acquired, character developed, teamwork and leadership training undergone, and friends made during their MBA study. But they can become disinterested when the subject matter gets too academic and theoretical that they do not see practical value in learning it.

For working people like Lisa, MBA offers a solution to their career advancement. Many of them face dilemma whether to invest money in MBA education, or buying a house or a new car. Many of them need to choose between devoting quality time to their spouse and family, or spending endless hours everyday going through reading materials, doing assignments, attending group discussion, and preparing for presentation. But for those who decide to forgo valuable time and money for an MBA are likely to have strong utilitarian view of the course and expect high payoffs in future. To quote a few business jargons, they must have, though unknowingly, gone through benefit-cost analysis, calculated the returns on investment (ROI), checked the net present value (NPV), and justified spending one or two years going through taxing schedules with high enough consumer utility in taking the course.

For fresh graduates like Rocky, an MBA is likely another course of study same as those they have gone through in the past 15 years or so. For some of them, for the first time in life they have a real choice to study a course they are really interested in. For others, they study MBA because they have heard it is a good qualification for job market, or their close friends are doing it. To be frank, not all of them know why they are in the course. They may not really know what they might get out of the course, and what to expect after they graduate from MBA.

Because of the different reasons and motives people choose to study MBA course, the values they regard highly also differ from one another. It follows that their expectations and behaviours are also quite different. A business person values most in learning, knowledge, practicality, self-development, training, experience, sharing, discussion, brainstorming, networking, recognition and even the self-actualization they may get out of the course.

I personally know of customers who were already successful in business but studied MBA for the sake of challenging their potentials. Sometimes their behaviours can be quite strange to the rest of us. For example, it is OK for them to take longer than normal duration to finish the course in order to learn as much as they can from each subject. They may self-study a subject more than what is covered for the sake of learning. They may purposely choose to take up assignments and research areas according to their interest, no matter how tough and challenging they may be. They may write up an assignment much more than what is expected by lecturer. They may be the most outspoken ones in class asking questions and sharing ideas, though some areas are not directly related to what will come out in exam.

Whereas, a working person values most in utility, payoffs, speed, effectiveness and efficiency. Most of them have to juggle life between work, family and studies. For them, the years spent in MBA could be the most hectic years they will ever have in life. As such, they cannot afford to study a subject as extensively and leisurely as do the business people. They need to finish the whole course in the fastest time at the lowest costs in terms of time and effort. They can do very well and pass the course with flying colors. But they are not likely to spend too much effort in any one thing that they work on.

For the fresh graduates, doing an one-year MBA course is like doing one extra year in university after their final year as undergraduates. They are likely to use the same study methods they been trained in to tackle an MBA course. Due to the very exam-oriented culture in our education system, these students are very exam-oriented too in MBA study. They value tips for exam questions more than learning a new thing in business. They value studying more than learning, memorizing points more than appreciating business concepts.

Due to lack of working experience, they might know what is being taught without really understanding it, or they might understand it without really appreciating it or knowing how to apply it for practical use. Anyway, these do not matter. What matters most is that they get good grade in examination, something they have been trained well as professional students. For them, examination is a time they cram everything into their head for the big test. But after examination, it is a time of unlearning and releasing all that in the head, so that they may have space to put in another subject or other more entertaining things in life. Some of them may not be really interested in what they study. To them, MBA is just one final stage they need to finish up before being freed from study life into working life, thinking it is a better world out there working than studying. As such, some of them can consider MBA quite a waste of time.

Of course, we cannot stereotype all business people, working people and fresh graduates as having all the same characteristics respectively as above. There are many exceptions. For example, in my own MBA course, the best presenter I have seen so far happens to be a fresh graduate. However, examining more closely, this classmate actually has some working experience as a part-time DJ, whose job has trained him to do well in presentations . Therefore, not all fresh graduates are totally fresh as we may think.

Read on here…

Dato’ Muni is finally back to school. Having spent over 20 years working and building his business, an education courseware provider for homeschooling kids, first of its kind in Malaysia. He just enrolled himself in an executive MBA program. Already in his late 40s, does he really need the qualification? Of course no. So why waste time studying for MBA when he has achieved so much success already?

But Dato’ Muni has his own reason. He wants to expand his business regionally and bring it to the next level. He also plans to list the company in Bursa Malaysia later. He believes an MBA can help him gain new knowledge and insights to attain another new height in business. He enjoys discussion and brainstorming with classmates so that he may be inspired with new ideas. He loves to learn from the experience of others and he likes to share his too. He may even find future business partners in the class. But honestly, it is not so nice telling people in IPO that you as a company director have only a bachelor of arts in accounting. To him, a master degree in business will just fit the bill nicely.

Lisa is a bank officer. Since joining as a management trainee five years ago with a bachelor degree in economics, she has gone through job rotation in various departments to get familiarized with the bank operations. Her pleasant personality and ability to work with people of every temperament earn her the reputation of being able to get work done well. In terms of ability, she is well poised for promotion as a manager. But she has one problem. She does not have a postgraduate qualification. It is difficult for the bank to justify promoting her when there are others who possess master degree.

Lisa has reached a plateau in her career. She lacks the necessary qualification to climb up the corporate ladder to earn higher salary. Something must be done. That is why she has chosen to do an MBA for a breakthrough in her career. As her boss keeps telling her, she also wants to learn to look at problems more holistically and solve them from a managerial perspective. She believes MBA will teach her the right problem solving skills she needs, and trains her to see things from a vantage point she never experiences. Furthermore, an MBA qualification will give her some insurance in job prospect. As her supportive husband advises, even if one day she is downsized by the bank, armed with an MBA, she still could have a good headstart in another company, or even a different career.

Rocky is a young aspirant. He is ambitious, independent, outspoken, entrepreneurial, Internet-savvy and wants to make a difference in the world. He maybe just a fresh graduate in bachelor of business administration (BBA) having very little working experience. But he already has high ambition to chart a career in corporate world. He even speaks of making it big in business one day when opportunity strikes like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, though he does not know yet exactly how.

Rocky too has chosen to take the MBA course. He does not know how useful it might turn out for him. But an MBA seems to be a natural progression path for a BBA holder like him. After all, the economy is not doing so well and many seniors do not get the job they want. His parent’s advice makes sense to him to stay in the university for another year to acquire a master degree so that he may have a competitive advantage over others next time in the job market. To him personally, he also hopes to find a girl friend in the course. This is evident from his status update on Twitter the week before his MBA starts. His tweet reads, “I hope can meet some leng lui lah!”

Read on here…

As such, I often refer them to other IT service providers.  However, the experience has not been very positive.  To be fair, some partner companies do their job very well.  But some really provide a lousy service.

To a company whom I have stopped referring businesses to you a few months ago, please stop telling others excuses why you no longer get projects from me.  You are new and need to learn more on servicing customers.

Integrity - You didn’t deliver what you agree to customers.  You didn’t keep your promises.  You appeared very kind in front of customers but talked bad about them behind.  Your words and actions were not one.

Service - Your product standard and customer service was not consistent enough.  No doubt sometimes you did very good job. But at other times you were nowhere to be found.  I would rather like you to have average quality than inconsistent one.

Accountability - You were not accountable for you were requested to do.  I gave you a lead to call but the customer never heard from you.  People called you or sent SMS message to you but you didn’t reply until much later. Worse, you didn’t even tell me when you found a prospect was not right for you.

Do you know that returning calls and SMSes is basic good manner, especially in business? I really can’t risk people’s trust on me by referring businesses like you to them any more.

我会发着呆
然后忘记你
接着紧紧闭上眼
想着那一天会有人代替
让我不再想念你

1. Are you a student of tertiary education (university or college)?
2. Did you choose the course you are studying now (your dad did’t point a gun on your head telling you to take the course)?
3. Are you truly interested in the area of study you chose?
4. Have you got the passion to learn everything you could in your area of study?
5. Is you learning (note I don’t use the word “studying”) in good progress?
6. Would you like to know how well you are doing in your learning?
7. Do you consider exam a way to feedback to you how well you have learned what you like to learn?

These series of questions might help us to “reframe” how we view this thing called exam.  Reframing is a technique in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to relook at a matter from a different perspective.  In this case, hopefully we can view exam in more positive light.

I don’t deny exam can be boring, stressful and hated.  But if we could fill the thoughts in our mind and the words coming out of our mouth with more positive vocabularies, we are more likely to do well in it.  If you believe in the law of attraction, positive thoughts attract positive energy, which in turn attracts positive results.

If we need to face exam anyway, we might as well choose to use more empowering words to describe it.  May the positive force be with you

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And just when we thought that the “1″ fever was losing steam, “Cloud” becomes one of the most hyped terms today. Of course, the Cloud we’re talking about here isn’t the “visible mass of water droplets or frozen ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body.” We’re talking Cloud computing.

You could say that Cloud reached a climax when iCloud was finally revealed at Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference 2011. Then, all of a sudden, books, music, files and photos are all on Cloud. Fortunately, Malaysia isn’t far behind when it comes to technology. After all, we have the tallest building in the Clouds and we can even have roti canai above the Clouds.

So, what is Cloud?

Steve Jobs says don’t even need to know what Cloud is, because you never interact with it – your apps do.

End users shouldn’t worry, however, because the moment you upload a picture on Facebook, navigate KL using Google Maps or play Angry Bird on Google Chrome, you are in fact, in a transition to Cloud. To you, it is a matter of experience which makes sharing faster. It also makes life easier and fun! So don’t crack your head trying to understand Cloud, it exists in the background. Think of it this way, you don’t need to know how a car works in order to drive a car, and remember Web 2.0? Who gives a hoot about it now?

It’s wise for businesses to make the change, however. You can be a mover and shaker by helping your customers make the transition to Cloud. Ask yourself these questions – Is your website hosted on Cloud? Does your product require an additional hardware to run? Think again and check out Cloud Computing, as well as this article.

About The Author

Pin is the founder of 1.com.my. He hosts email and websites for his customers on Cloud. He has written two books on Online Business and Linux, and he also founded a Web Developer Group that has over 100 friends. To learn more, please visit his website at http://www.1.com.my/, or join his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pin.my.

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It was a few months ago when I joined a camp where the participants were thrown into the open sea and had to swim 350 meters back to the beach.  Everyone was clothed in life jacket and asked to move in a group.

There were three categories of us. The first category were those who didn’t know how to swim.  Blessed were them because they didn’t have to swim.  They had helpers to help them drift forward.

The second category were those who knew how to swim.  They not only needed to swim for themselves, but also gave a helping hand to non-swimmers to pull them towards the destination.

But the third category were those who didn’t really know how to swim well, but claimed they could swim.  They not only had to struggle their own way to the beach, they were supposed to help others too!

Guess which category I belonged to?  Perhaps I was one of its kind in this category

So I felt extremely tired, but it was still a long way in front. I couldn’t stop swimming to rest because we were supposed to swim together.  I looked at those swimming in front of me and knew how it felt to be left behind.  I looked at the beach far in front and realized I was the most desperate person in the worlds.

But I had no choice but kept telling myself, “Don’t give up. Keep on swimming. You can do it.”

I did it.  I swam to the shore and we completed the mission.  I felt thankful I had not given up.  I did the right thing to keep on swimming!