A Thief Broked into your Home

A burglar broke into your home, stole some of you possessions and in the process of the burglary left some of his tools in your home, the next day the robber calls you and requested  that you return the tools and he thinks it is right for him to call you to return them. You refused to return the equipment used in the burglary and you reported the incident to the police, the police did nothing against the thief!  Cannot happen in real life right? Wrong!

The Americans sent a drone on a spying mission in Iran, it crashed in Iran. The Iranians captured the drone and the Americans are asking for it back. And just as my story goes, the “police” – the United Nations are not taking the Americans to task for the spying mission. Here are some excerpts from a news article:

The Obama administration has sent a formal diplomatic request asking Iran to return the radar-evading drone aircraft that crashed on a CIA spying mission this month, but U.S. officials say they don’t expect Iran will comply. ( will you comply with a robber’s request?)

“We have asked for it back,” Obama said Monday at a news conference in Washington with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki. “We’ll see how the Iranians respond.” (how does the robber have the audacity of asking for his tools back!)

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta called the U.S. request for return of the drone “appropriate” (Really how is asking back the equipment used to commit a crime appropriate)

He  acknowledged that Iran’s government, which last week lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations about the U.S. spy plane violating its airspace, was unlikely to send it back. (Has the U.N. taken sanctions against the U.S. for this offence, no!)

It is time we see the Americans for what they are – essentially devoid of morals and ethics and expecting the world to comply with whatever they do without regards to the legality of their actions. It is time also for the average Americans to see that their leaders’ actions is making them one of the most disliked people in the eyes of people around the world. I have spoken to many people, from Europe, Asia, Middle East and even British (U.S. strongest ally) and unfortunately there is a clear disdain for the Americans. So to my American friends, time for you to do something about it – treat your next Presidential Election seriously, don’t make it into another “American Idol” contest which is what it had evolved into in the recent past elections.

Innovation Award

My award for the most innovative company goes to Dyson. The company takes the ordinary household product and makes it desirable and innovative and as a result able to sell its product at a premium, tripling the price of it’s competitors run of the mill offerings. Dyson first claim to fame was it’s vacuum cleaners, they designed the product so much like “star wars” weaponry, that I am sure many men took up vacuum cleaning at home just so they can “play” with the product.

Their most innovate product must be their bladeless fans, that is a real innovation. You can put you hands right through the fan without injury to hands! Further, without the blades it makes cleaning the fan a breeze! Nevertheless it is just a fan, but their innovation resulted in their fans’ prices tripling that of the average electric fan. I am quite sure the cost of production is not significantly different  in both cases but the novelty of the product gives them the price premium which translates to improved profitability for the business.

The most innovative product that I stumble upon recently is a robot guitar by Gibson, it is essentially just a guitar that can tune by itself. Tuning a guitar manually is not a big deal given the current availability of digital tuners however the novelty of a guitar being able to tune itself makes it coveted by the guitar enthusiasts. To make it even more appealing, the company limits the number of guitars to 50. It then subsequently release again in limited numbers other robot guitars with some enhanced features. The guitar has been around for a long time, but was there any innovation? None, until this robot guitar came along. Of course, I made a beeline to the guitar shop and bought myself one.

That’s the way business should be done, the creation and delivering of values in products,  unfortunately these days companies seem to be incapable of doing this. The highly paid marketing and business executives seems only capable of doing perpetual price discounting and product promotions. Sometimes, the promotions are so attractive that it seems that consumers are buying the promotion gift and getting the company products free. One of my business heads told his marketing folks: “If the only way you can sell our product is through price discounting and expensive promotions, why do I need a marketing department”, yes why indeed?

Grown up Babies

So it seems people these days have evolve into a bunch of babies in capable of taking any criticisms, insults or slight verbal abuse! The photo is that of a footballer in England, shedding tears – why, his team just lost an important match or vice versa? It is actually even more embarassing if you seen the video footage!

No, apparently he CRIED  because one of the the fans watching the game called him “A F***ing Black B*****d!” Let me be clear, I am not for racial abuse but there is hardly any reason to cry just because someone made insult at you. What’s worse this has become a police matter, don’t the police have anything more serious to handle that investigating an insult?

In the old days, there were no such a thing as political correctness. We get called all kinds of names in our past. The word “B*****d” is one of the most common abuse being hurled around. Most of the time we just walk away and ignore the comment. If the insults keep coming we stand up as a man and fight for our integrity. In those days, only softies cry and even then there will be some friends who will stand up for him and thump the valiant.

People these days seem to have very “thin skinned” and the slightest comment will offend them. I think this has something to do with the way people are brought up these days when parents are always singing praises to their children for the smallest thing the child does. Parents these days “are afraid” to criticize their children for fear that the child will not love them. Given this kind of upbringing it is inevitable we end up with adults that cannot take the slight provocation!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and very best wishes for all in the New Year.

Very often I make resolutions for the New Year, and very often I fail to fulfil them. Nevertheless I will set a resolution for myself this year and try to achieve it. I will do something which corporate life has prepared me for all these years – cost cutting!

A few months ago, I was looking at my expenses and was taken aback by the amount of money I spent on food related expenditures. My annual expense here is more than lots of people earn a year! It is to me not a question of affordability, I questioned myself is there a need to have this kind of expenditure on dining and the resounding rational answer is no. So for this year, I will take a goal of cutting down my food bill by 15%.

I think spending on food is something that people don’t think about. I am sure most people will be surprised by their extravagance on their meals and related expenditure if they check it out.

I also believe that people eat too much these days. Buffets is a big thing these days and any buffet offering in any major hotels will be extremely well patronised. I wonder if there is a necessity for people to indulge in buffets which results in their overeating to get their money’s worth. Also I wonder how much wastage is there in buffet; there is wastage in the food left over on the diners’ plates and then there is also wastage of the excess food prepared by the restaurant. Given the resurgence of discussion that food supply may not be able to meet demand, perhaps buffet should be banned to eliminate wastages, thereby freeing up the food supply.

Then there are the special meals served up by restaurants during festive seasons, are they really worth it? I don’t think so, but nevertheless in the spirit of the festivities again such attractions draws strong patronage. I am not a supporter, and have rarely paid for one of these.

For wine drinkers, that is another big drain on the pocket. I don’t drink. I recently had a chat with my friend on our spending on food and the discussion then gravitated to wine consumption. Through the conversation, I learnt that people who enjoys wine – a couple can easily consume a bottle each day.  In addition to the wine consumed at restaurants when dining, wine lovers can spend as much as S$15,000 to S$20,000 per year easily. Alot of money and if one spends for 10 to 20 years, it does work out to a princely sum, a sum that many people in this world do not save in a lifetime!!!

So just like a corporation, we need to review our financials yearly and cut down on our excessive spending.