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All posts for the year 2011
A friend of mine from Hong Kong recently consulted my advice on what he should know, if he ever considers migrating to Brunei.
As a person who’s lived here and a few other places in my lifetime, it was easy for me to point out some plus and minuses right away!
Below are some of my notes for my friend. My underlying message is, please come! We warmly welcome you and your family here!
| What I love about Brunei? | What frustrates me about Brunei? | |
| 1 | Seriously Good Fry Kwea Teow / Kolo Mee / Roti Pratha | $19.99 for a large pizza in Brunei, seriously?!!! (It’s $5.99 in the US – see above) |
| 2 | 60 Cents Kopi | No Starbucks?!!! |
| 3 | Cheap & tasty Pasar-Malam Food | Lacks: Money-Can-Buy top notch cuisines |
| 4 | It’s who you know | It’s what you drive |
| 5 | 10 – 15 minutes drive to / from anywhere (5 minutes if you live in where I live – Menglait) | Dude, where’s the cycling tracks, taxis and MRT? |
| 6 | No Speed Cameras | Crazy Drivers |
| 7 | Good sense of community | A little too good at times… |
| 8 | People are polite | For goodness sake, tell me what you really think! |
| 9 | Cheap DVDs | Lousy Internet Connection |
| 10 | Blessed, wealthy little country | (We think) We own the universe! |
| 11 | Cheap foreign labours | (We think) We own them too! |
| 12 | Lack of competition (business opportunities) | Seriously bad service. (See…) |
| 13 | Teaches you patience | Tests your patience |
| 14 | Not illegal for Maki* to poop anywhere! | Illegal for Maki to go anywhere: No Park, No Café, No Public areas… |
| 15 | 53 cents per litre of Premium Unleaded, and you don’t even need to get out of your car to refill! | $9.20 / bottle of fresh milk (2ltr) [appx 9x price of our oil] / Amazon.com delivery takes 6 weeks! / No PayPal (@anthony_er) |
| 16 | Lack of decent shopping | Ditto: lack of decent shopping! |
| 17 | You have time to smell the flowers | Dude, where’s the flowers?! |
| 18 | Highly educated generation | It’s who (not what) you know |
| 19 | Central location to anywhere in Asia… | RBA, oh RBA… |
| 20 | Lizards (beautiful creature) | Mosquitoes! |
Maki in Australia (the new immigrant to Brunei)
Dato Timothy Ong (right) at the recent ASEAN 100 Forum
Dato Timothy Ong pointed out, at the recent Asia Inc Forum, an important note about Customer Service: that the real test to a Great Customer Service culture is how the company handles the customer when a problem arises.
The limited time allocated for the presentation prohibited me from addressing his remark on stage. (Truth was, it was such a deep and thoughtful statement that it took me a few days to process. Hence, this blog.)
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Dear Dato Timothy Ong,
My short response to you on this issue will be: If a company has a steadfast commitment to Customer Service excellence, it is unlikely it would face too many ‘crisis situations’ of customer complaints.
That said, it seems that the only things constant today are the unpredictable. Hence, my long response below:
I was quoted by Borneo Bulletin today (4th November,2011) here:
“Customer Service has nothing to do with how good your English is, or any language for that matter. If you are not professional, that’s fine. You just have to have the heart, passion and action to deliver it.” Shaun said.
I wish to clarify that the reporter has taken my words out of context.
My response to this is below:
I was making a point that moving from Good to Great customer service, one needs to look beyond just being Professional. Companies need to transform from doing the Check-List-Robotic (‘Professional’) approach to a more holistic and humanistic of being thoughtful and proactive about solving customer’s problem.
My standing on the topic of Professionalism is that: Being professional is of paramount importance in any service sector. I do not condone to any unprofessional practice with servicing customer.
I gave two illustrations to support my point. They are direct excerpt from the opening of my book, The Heart of Service.
For full context of my examples: see below
Please scroll to the very bottom to observe disclaimers before proceed…
Observation #1
We are a spoiled society…
Many Bruneians are raised with one or more maids in their households. We are ‘trained’ to be very good managers since young. Starting at 4 years old, we have no problem in giving orders and direction to our helpers. But when it comes to service, this may be why we are lacking so much as a society. The service attitude begins at home, sadly we’ve taken it out of the equation for our children, in exchange for more money, more work and more convenience.
We’d be putting up this recruitment ad on the newspaper in the next few days.
Quite frankly, we do not know what result to expect, as QR code is still relative new in this part of the world.
We bet this would be the shortest 4 words recruitment advertisement ever published on newspaper.
Here’s a promise of BND 100.00 back, if you are the first to find any shorter Job Vacancy ads than this, anywhere! (Entry closes 14th November 2011) Send to shaun@catalyst.com.bn
No, we did not do this for the sake of being cool (That’s only part of the reasons! ;)).
We are serious about hiring the 1% who’d think differently.
We (would like to) view our office as Brunei’s Marketing Department. We need elite thinkers for out-of-the-box ideas for our clients consistently.
Only the best need to apply.
As my Blog reader, you straightaway bypass this Stage 1 screening because you’re already the 1%.
Click www.catalyst.com.bn/hiring for more information. And feel free to pass this on to your friends!
In the real world, creative people beat the systems – ALL THE TIME.
Come, join the party!
p/s: Coincidentally, I received an email from Seth Godin on his blog about How to get a job with a small company. The timing couldn’t be better – follow his advice, and get any job, any where, not just with small companies!
Cornelia, the 18 year old who created this cool website. Kudos!
What do you do, when you were handed a Grade 13 intern to help you out at work for a week?
Like everyone else, you could get them to do your dirty work, fill out forms, photocopy and run errands. After all, you’re doing them a favour by showing them a taste of the real world, right? One that is boring, mundane and worth escaping.
Or
You could ask yourself some serious questions, like: How can I capitalize on her strength? What is it the kid knows, that I don’t know (more than I care to admit)? What can we do to derive a win-win situation, to create something that wows and experiences that actually lasts?
The answer was obvious. I put Cornelia to work right away on the very first day she joined us. Mission: to create a cooler, more efficient and functional Blog-site and to brainstorm strategies which includes the use of Facebook and Twitter to promote it.
Smooth sailing so far, as Cornelia was only too eager to get into tiny little details of all the self-taught instructions on different social media sites that I would normally drag to confront.
Business by Remote Control
Wu Chun is a name that requires no introduction in the entertainment industry, he is the Brunei heartthrob who has reached international stardom through his singing and acting careers in Taiwan. His endorsements includes the likes of Coca-Cola, Canon, Osim, Gatsby and a list of fashion and cosmetic items. You can learn all you need to know about him from his website: http://www.chunzone.com. Besides oil and gas, Wu is arguably one of Brunei’s most prominent exports.
Beneath Wu’s reserved demeanor on the television screen, lies a confident gentleman with a sound business acumen and more than a few lessons to share from his hard knock experience in a cut-throat industry, where stars rise as quickly as they fall. Before becoming a star, Wu was a national basketball player, a gym enthusiast and an entrepreneur who ran a chain of multimillion-dollar fitness centres and a hotel in Brunei. The main difference today is his inability to go anywhere in Asia without being recognized.
A commendable note about Wu is his commitment in giving back to the society of Brunei. Wu’s organisation, Fitness Zone recently donated BND 50,000 through the Japanese Embassy in Brunei for the Tsunami Relief fund. He has been spotted in helping to raise money in the Brunei’s HSBC charity run in May, and is a generous donor to charities and schools locally. We talked to Wu, whose management practice is not exactly by remote control from overseas, as most people would imagine. On the contrary, he is every bit in-tune with his business operations as any other business owner.
How do you manage a business of such magnitude, while you are busy pursuing your own very successful music and acting career overseas?
The acting career in Taiwan demands long hours. However, there is also a lot of waiting time in between when the other members of the cast are performing their acts. I use that free time to correspond with my staff in Brunei through my laptop whenever I am not doing anything.
So, while you were in Taiwan, your mind was constantly in Brunei?
Yes, indeed. I am constantly thinking of work, ideas and ways to improve my business.
I am a believer in delegation and empowerment. There is a system of incentive in place in Fitness Zone, where staff are rewarded for their performance. We have sent staff to the US, Australia, Taiwan and Malaysia in the past, when they achieve their targets. I always encourage my staff to learn more about health related issues, nutrition and diet so they can engage in deeper conversation with our clients and inspire them to live a better lifestyle. I come back to Brunei rather frequently when I can, and when I am back I will dedicate a lot of time to catching up on the business. Some of our staff have been with us since day one, and have developed some solid fundamentals about the business.
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