All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident - Arthur Schopenhauer

My resolution next year is to look at my resolution before next year ends :)

New Year coming, so New Goals and New Resolution!! No time to look back, lets move forward together...

Christmas countdown, everybody....

People say that Christmas is a time you make your wish and it will come true. I made my wish and waiting for it to become reality :)

Recession or not, financial crisis or not, Merry Christmas :)

Is Christmas too commercialized that it has lost its meaning? Santa, what do you think?

I probably wouldn't have the bandwidth to wish everyone a Merry Christmas... so, Have a wonderful and memorable Christmas 2008!!

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook

Bought a present? Made a wish? Thought of someone? Go give/wish/tell them your best wishes.

2009

Strategic plan for 2009 and beyond

The year 2008 is coming to a close already and there have been many turmoil and turbulence along the way over the entire year. 2009 is not going to be better if we do not re-strategise now and change the business direction if necessary.

If the demand for the existing products and services are going to be lower the year ahead, something needs to be done now in order to mitigate the anticipated downturn.

Intel’s corporate strategy of building the US$33 Atom CPU to complement the matured US$100 Core-2 or Duo Core CPU, months ahead of the expected cyclic slowdown in demand for PC’s and electronics products, is able to sustain the growth in a trying economy. Now we can see a lot of ATOM based mini notebook or netbook from all sorts of brands.

Toyota’s corporate strategy of providing affordable mid-range saloon, Camry, is definitely creating a nice niche market. Its small car market is doing very well too. Its high end Lexus is also doing well competing with other up-market cars.

Core competence and NPI

I have the opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with some of the multi-national corporations (MNC’s) and local enterprises on supply chain management for global as well as local operations. The good news is that some of the MNC’s are still forecast a less than average growth for 2009 in spite of the imminent global recession in the horizon. Almost all of them ride on their core competence and outsource the rest, as well as having new product introduction (NPI) as a strategy to maintain or surpass the current organic growth

Dell’s corporate strategy to sell the production facilities in order to outsource production is a testimony of the adoption of the emerging virtual corporation, in order to focus on the brand power. Dell is very much in line with HP, Apple, Sony, and other computer manufacturers. Foxconn and Hon Hai are the major beneficiaries for the PC, notebook and mobile phone contract manufacturing in China and Taiwan having an annual sales of US$80 billion or so.

Toyota has perfected the Toyota Production System that is being adopted as the fundamentals for Lean Manufacturing. While the big three automakers in the USA are waiting for the US$25 billion government bailout, Toyota continues to be profitable with the subtle philosophy of simplification and standardization. Toyota has a very effective mass customization strategy that leverage with powerful customer and supplier relationships to deliver high quality cars at affordable prices.

Changing corporate and supply chain strategies for competitiveness and survival

Some of the movers and shakers of global supply chain management are redefining the conceptual framework, corporate and supply chain strategies, as well as operations management. All of them are customer focus and demand driven in order to provide perfect on time and complete delivery performance to ensure total customer satisfaction.

Foxconn has emerged as a global leader in contract manufacturing by supporting the clients’ supply chain strategies of low cost, high quality and delivery reliability. Its ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) strategy is years ahead of the competitors. It has aligned the corporate and supply chain strategies effectively.

IT-enabled Supply Chain Management

Many of the corporate IT projects have gone awry and failed to be effective because of the fundamental flaws of not addressing the business process and people first prior to IT implementation. This cart before the horse approach has been proven to be the root cause to implementation failure throughout the world.

Education and training can save the corporation millions of dollars that can go into consulting, implementation and customization without any real benefits and results.

Once the management and staff are properly educated and trained to develop and refine business processes and practices. The processes can then be clearly mapped with simplification in mind, making the configuration of an ERP/SCM system will be much easier and less time consuming and costs.

Human capital development

In a turbulent economy and marketplace, it is strategic to develop the human capital so that the best employees can be retained to ensure continuity during the recovery and upturn. It is also the best time to improve on the current processes, fine tune the effectiveness, and perfecting the on-time and complete (OTC) performance.

The way ahead

It is time for the enterprise to sharpen the supply chain thinking and invest in the human capital to become more innovative and competitive to cope with the turbulent economy and marketplace.

Source: Cicie Chin

You can control the situation, but you cannot control how I choose to act

Newton got his idea when an apple dropped on his head.. you might consider dropping something bigger for a start :)

For every action, there is an equal and opposite re-action

Had a great weekend, attending a garden wedding & spending a great day @ Hotel Imperial. Outstanding and wonderful atmosphere, blog it soon!

Congratulations.... Abi & Brian, on your wedding day!!

If you think of the story of chicken and egg, which comes first,then, most probably, you are very free. No I am not thinking about it.

A morning can never be as fulfilling without a cup of hot coffee

What is the one thing you want to change given the opportunity?

Feeling rather good with the progress made today

Testing out the latest gadget that I am trying out... ping.fm

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

I got a book, a small book for a run-down price during the MPH sales near my house. I think I have got more than what I have bargained for. For a few reasons, reason no. 1 is that it is small enough for me to finish reading within the appropriate time frame. I found that this days, I do not have the endurance to finish a book. It happened when I try to read the last thick book, that is, one of the Lord of the Ring book. Even when I tried to read the Harry Porter book, I couldn't finish one. So having bought and completed Randy's book is one of my personal achievement, that yes, I am still able to find the concentration to finish a book.

OK, moving forward, like to share with you what I have learned from the book, I figured that there will be a couple of people who is like me, who will always try to look for synopsis of the book rather than going through the whole book. The story begin frankly with our Professor Randy Pausch who has been diagnosed with cancer. The story goes on to tell us how he thinks life is all about, how he navigated it through and how he summarizes it for the benefit of his students and also his family in his last lecture in Carnegie Mellon University.

A few of the things that strikes out in the book or lesson learned are

1. Life meaning is about fulfilling your childhood dream (well, yes, that is what Randy has achieved)

2. He throws in a couple of adventure and the lessons that he had learned throughout life. I remember especially the one on head-fake.

3. It is also one of his happiness to be able to enable other people's dream, which is what a lecturer's life is all about. Training the students for the coming future in his field of expertise, that is the virtual reality.

4. His second last section is on how to life your life, that is, to Randy how he had live his life or his life lesson thus far. He is telling us his way that he thinks best of living it. No argument there with our professor.

5. His final remark is a bit touching. It is mainly for his wife and his kids, which he may not be able to see very much of in the time of his writing of this book. Nevertheless, he has given much thought and communication with his wife. The think about him is that he views communication, jovial and his choosing not to succumb in sadness or depression really sticks out strongly for him.

The book contains some photos which shows that the professor in his 40s still look very boyish and handsome and has been able to exude a strong sense of friendliness and influence in the place he works and people around him. The way his think and a piece of his thought throughout the book gives us a fresh insight of a dying man with a strong and firm battling spirit for the betterment of his family is really an inspiration to me. Not only that I am not facing such issues, but I am living my life so much less 'treasured' compared to him. Well if one thing Randy did in this book is to tell me to live my life to the fullest and in every moment of it. Live my life to the very minute of it, with the people that I treasure most.

Go get the book, the author is already dead now, that is, somewhere July/August 2008 this year. However he will always be remembered, at least by me. Go 'google' this famous name out or get a hand on his book. Have a nice day :)

Quality in delivery...

I was about to comment that quality exist everywhere, and even the quality of the administration of the country is sometimes being judged by its people.
I guess once the administration is in power for too long, they tend to forget that who the 'customer' is. For so long, the customer has been brainwashed and also being 'advertised' with a lot of wrong information, instilled fear into them and also being purposefully misinformed. The customer after so many years become scared and fearful.
Fortunately the tide of change has happened. Customer realized their rights and exercised it. The evil supplier/distributor/service provider instantly become the subject of boycott. Good to see something changed. Whether the new service provider is up to mark or not, it is more then meets the eye...