No more poking

It’s 9 am at work; coffee mugs on desks and the office seems to be on a roll as people are typing furiously on their keyboards. You and several colleagues exchange lunch plans without anyone budging or picking up the phone. The place has been decided – that new coffee shop down the road.

I present to you the wonders of technology. Who needs the phone now that there’s MSN, Adium, Velvetpuffin, etc (you can even IM on gmail). Instead of checking work emails first thing in the office, employees are logging on to IM (instant messaging) applications, poking/hugging/groping/ throwing sheep at each other on facebook (i’m not kidding, we don’t need face-face interaction anymore), or checking out photo albums on social networking sites – all in one breath. If only such talented multi-tasking skills can be effectively applied at work..

Are you guilty of the above-mentioned work crimes?

The term ‘crime’ may be a tad too harsh, but bosses are keen to clamp down on such errant computer behaviour, misuse of technology as they might put it. Is it really affecting work productivity? Has anyone taken a survey on increased productivity with decreased IMs usage? My sentiments- IMs and gang pose a certain degree of distraction, but sometimes with the drudgery of work, they also serve the part of calming nerves down. A tiny morsel of fun never kills.

Would you be upset if your workplace slaps a ban on IMs and social networking sites?

Hidayah

Show me the dough

The last time we saw a queuing frenzy was during the McDonald’s Hello Kitty days and it started with one simple strategy. Put a line in place, and sooner (rather than later), people’s curiosity will be suitably piqued, and before you know it, voila! you’ve got scores of queues sprouting all over the island. Provided of course, the products being queued for are worth the backbreaking efforts. Never mind the wasted food, all consumers wanted were matching Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel (god awful creatures if you ask me) pairs, which I can bet, are currently collecting dust at the back of the store.

So recently, another queuing frenzy sprung up. Its grand opening saw people lining up for over three hours. All this fuss SANS any form of advertising, promotion gimmicks or any other sneaky marketing ploy. Donut Factory was a sleeper hit, runaway success, a 15-hit wonder (it has 15 flavours to tantalise foodies’ appetites.) Which begs me to wonder – how did it manage to get people to queue on its first day? The free smells? The aesthetics of the donuts? I took the liberty of having a profound discussion with Gary, our very able marketing manager, on the possible secret marketing tactics employed by Donut Factory. Guerilla marketing is the new kid on the block, and companies are beginning to see the effectiveness of this low-cost technique. As long as there are no legal implications, who’s stopping companies from getting creative in their publicity endeavours? So we concluded that perhaps the first 5 to 10 people have been ‘rewarded’ for queuing, given either monetary or gifts (boxes of donuts) incentives. Whatever it is, it’s interesting to speculate, observe and marvel. This little donut stand has set tongues wagging (every single small talk I’ve encountered will somehow find its way to discussing Donut Factory) and till today, queues still snake along the basement of Raffles City.

I wonder what will happen to it once the cult hit Krispy Kreme hits the local malls. But of course it takes one brave and dripping rich entrepreneur to kick start that – it costs at least USD 30 million to bring over a franchise of this American brand. Yes, that’s almost SGD 60 million to sell dough. At the risk of sounding like an African-American hip hop poseur – you need dough to sell dough, honey!

I need to score an interview with Gunter Rahim, the owner of Donut Factory.

Hidayah

We swear!

Swearing for benefit! Time to rally up the colleagues for a noble purpose.

A mini makeover

So the time has come for us to update the look of our media kit. Our inaugural design was one borne out of haste, hence the dire need to change it.

My dear designers are milling it out, along with the October issue’s layout. It’s a long long night for TE team!

I’ll keep you posted once the new look is up and running!

Hidayah

Need excuses to do the snooze in the office?

“They told me at the blood bank this might happen.”
“I wasn’t sleeping, I was trying to pick up contact lens without hands.”
“I wasn’t sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm!”
“Amen”
“This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the last time management course you sent me to.”
“Whew! Guess I left the top off the liquid paper”
“I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work related stress.”
“This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people!”
“Boy, that cold medicine I took last night just won’t wear off!”
“Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem.”

Competition, competition

Competition usually houses two camps of players; those who thrive, excel and revel in it, and those who eschew, escape and run away from it. Entrepreneurs, by default, belong to the first camp of individuals. How they play the game and wage the battle are interesting sagas to follow and I don’t know about you, but I am a shameless voyeur who enjoys observing the bloodthirsty marketplace.

 

Think about it – wasn’t the broadcast industry more exciting when Mediacorp was dealing with the entry of SPH’s MediaWorks in 2001? Not only did it create more products for consumers; for businesses, MediaWorks presented another advertising platform to reach the target market. Television production houses were thrilled at the prospects of creating more content for the audience. But tight competition had put both networks in the red, with millions of dollars lost. MediaWorks saw a quick death and closed within three years. I still mourn its passing.

 

Hidayah
Editor-in-chief

 

Great Eastern launches S$100m CDO fund

Great Eastern Holdings has launched a $100 million fund that will invest primarily in new collateralised debt obligation (CDO). CDOs are securities backed by assets such as bonds and loans. They are similar to collateralised mortgage obligation (CMO) or collateralised bond obligation (CBO), except that they represent different types of debt and credit risk. In the case of CDOs, these different types of debt are often referred to as ‘tranches’ or ‘slices’. Each slice has a different maturity and risk associated with it. The higher the risk, the more the CDO pays. CDOs gain exposure to the credit of a portfolio of fixed income assets and divide the credit risk among different tranches : senior tranches (rated AAA), mezzanine tranches (AA to BB), and equity tranches (unrated). More recently, CDOs have come under the spotlight following the subprime crisis, however, Great Eastern assured during the launch that the fund will not have any direct exposure to sub-prime mortgage securities. The CDOs it is investing in are expected to have AA ratings by Standard & Poor’s. The company asserts that CDOs are a sound investment instrument if properly structured to achieve the desired returns and risk profile.

The World Lost a Great Entrepreneur, Anita Roddick

When today’s corporate world has suddenly evolved into green tree-huggers, one woman was ahead of her time, peddling cosmetic products which are against animals testing back in 1976. The Body Shop was borne out of Anita Roddick’s desire to protect the environment and support good causes. But on the 10^th September, the world had to mourn the loss of a great visionary and entrepreneur with a heart.

Dame Anita Roddick died from severe brain hemorrhage at a Chichester hospital. In February, she announced having hepatitis C which she contracted after a blood transfusion in 1971 while giving birth to her daughter. This came after she was made the head of the UK charity Hepatitis Trust. She was 64.

Converse with Us!

As we step forward to introduce our inaugural corporate blog, to bring ourselves closer to our readers, do please feel free to drop us any comments as we can only improve with your views.

Do come back frequently as we would have new topics thrown up periodically and also updates on new developments of the magazine. As our reader, we give you the prerogative to bounce ideas around with us, throw us your opinions of anything and everything this blog talks about.

See you online!

Hidayah
Editor-in-chief