Peculiar Lessons I learned from a 13th Grader

Posted by shaunhoon on October 29, 2011
Posted in: etc. Leave a comment

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.

Continue Reading

Wu Chun

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Cool People. Leave a comment

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.

Continue Reading

Hero

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Cool People. Leave a comment

Derek Sivers was not exactly my hero, although he is the author of one of my ALL-TIME Top 5 favorite business books:

  • Linchpin                                                               Seth Godin
  • How to Drive Your Competition Crazy   Guy Kawasaki
  • Delivering Happiness                                      Tony Hsieh
  • Anything you want                                          Derek Sivers
  • Onwards                                                               Howard Schultz

(Money back guarantee from me, if any of the above doesn’t impact you as a person, or change your business for the better.)

I had the rare privilege of meeting Derek at a conference today. Often, when you get to meet people whom you admire, one of two things happen: You either get really disappointed or really inspired.

There’s no in-between.

The good news for me was – I got REALLY inspired! Because:

  1. Listening to him made me feel smarter about myself.
  2. He looked me in the eyes the whole time we spoke, as if I was the only person that mattered.
  3. He was absolutely accommodating with my stupid questions. I knew I should have asked something more sophisticated like the recent Wall Street demonstration event or something about innovation in Silicon Valley. Instead, all I uttered out was “What’s fun about Singapore?” Duh!

Of course he didn’t need to show the graciousness he did today:

  1. He’s a millionaire (he doesn’t need my book money).
  2. He could have had a bad day (it’s tough to be on the road and speak few days in a row).
  3. He’s done his job on stage.

Notice all my ‘judgmental view’ about Derek has everything to do with how he makes me feel, and nothing about what he’s spoken on stage (Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!) or how well his thoughts were on paper.

Shallow as I might have sounded, if you’re really honest with yourself, you’d have asked the same questions in your head.

Perhaps what makes a celebrity a hero have much to do with how they make you feel, when you finally get to meet them (Ladies & Gentlemen, today I shook hand with the guy who gave away USD 22M to charity).

Did I say, he made me feel smarter about myself?

Derek Sivers. Hero. Like!

If you want to start…(a business)

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Entrepreneurship. Leave a comment

An Entrepreneur in Bangkok during the recent flood event

Actual Title: Sacrifice 

If I were to choose a word that every Entrepreneur resonates with, by that I mean, a word that they ubiquitously agree and nod without restrain, I would pick: Sacrifice.

  1. It’s about opening your door for an extra 2 hours hoping to make a few more bucks, while the rest of the world is having a good time watching the World Cup Final.
  2. It’s about saying good-bye to the weekends, because that’s when you have to double pay your staff’s wages.
  3. It’s about making Profit and Loss Statements your first love, even though Accounting is a subject that you passionately, HATE.
  4. It’s about having a bad streak for 6 days, 6 weeks or 6 months in a row, and still going back to work the next day, believing that the 7th day, 7th week, 7th month will be better.
  5. It’s about bunking in no star hotels, flying Air Asia and taking the MRT on your business trip, while the average Joe enjoys his steak and tequilas at the Hilton on the company’s expenses.
  6. It’s about seriously believing in the importance of advertising, and yet allocating the tiniest amount to the marketing budget (because it’s your own money).
  7. It’s about knowing how much your salary is this month, only after you’ve paid for your rental, your debtors and your staff.
  8.  It’s about letting how much you made today determine whether or not you’re having a good day or bad day, both personally and professionally (trust me, it does get personal!)
  9. It’s about knowing you’ve done the right things and being able to accept that there’s still no guarantee for your success.
  10. It’s about having the humility to attribute your success to luck, because the same word reigns, when business swings in the opposite direction.

Continue Reading

9 1/2 things (I think) I know about Innovation

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Cool Ideas. Leave a comment

These ideas about innovation were written in the context of business and marketing. You may disagree with the things I said, but those are genuinely what works for me. If any of the ideas unleashes your creativity, you’d make me one jolly happy fella.

1/ Innovation is a Mindset

If you need to solve a problem bad enough (i.e gun on the head scenario); you will find a hundred new ways to the solution. Often, people give up before even trying, blaming that they are not the ‘innovative’ type. There’s no polite way to put this, but to me, it’s just plain lazy.

2/ Get an iPad…

And learn how to perform Print Screen (press the circle button and the start button on the top right simultaneously). My exposure to magazines, advertisements, books and newspaper has increased a thousand fold (no exaggeration) ever since I adopted this magical device. Each day, I’d zap no less than 10 different articles, be it great advertisements, essays or pictures and share them with my colleagues, clients and friends. 50% of the design of my recent project came from this ‘innovation discipline’. TS Elliot said this well, “Immature poet imitates; Mature poet steals.” The above photo was one of the picture of Harajuku, Tokyo stolen from somewhere I can hardly remember on my iPad.

3/ Get an iPad (part 2)

Reading ignites innovation, end of debate. The question is, how do you optimise your reading materials?

I’ve inherited a new weird hobby since getting my iPad 2. I call it book hopping (like club hopping, you get to avoid the entrance fees by getting in before certain hours… and it’s perfectly legal!). All the first chapters on iBook and Kindles are available for download – FREE! Every single one of them! Some evenings, I’d go through 5 to 10 different titles, reading only their first chapters. Most good non-fictions will provide a synopsis of the entire book in the introduction alone.

Often, I would be prompted to pursue the full version. In the last 3 months, the only hard covers I purchased were: End Malaria / We are all weird – Seth Godin / Anything you want – Derek Sivers, [I have pledged my full allegiance to Seth Godin (through spit and handshake – that will happen one day when we finally meet) and I’d pay full price for all of his books. Check out this cool Domino Projects -they are worth every dollar x100,000]. There is a reason why Borders ceases to operate a year and a half after the first iPad was launched. Sometimes I feel personally responsible for it too…

4/ Look outside your industry

  • If you want to learn about Leadership – Watch the Dog Whisperer / Learn from Military Leaders.
  • If you want to know about Creativity– Compare notes with top notch Musicians (even better, pick up piano lessons) / Watch the Iron Chef / Ask a Professional Photographer to explain to you about her favorite photos.
  • If you want to learn about Customer Service – Exchange ideas with any Award Winning Nurses and Social Workers – their CS is unquestionably better than the best 5 star hotels you’d ever stay and it began from a special place called heart.
  • If you want to learn about Team Work – Study how Alex Furgeson manages MU.
  • If you want to learn about World War 2 – Spend quality time with your grand mother. Her story will be infinitely more interesting and accurate – Perhaps debatable (I believe in everything grandma tells me).

You get the drift. Do not forget that the business circle is only trivial comparing to the infinite wisdom the rest of the world has to offer. If only you open your eyes.

5/ Get an iPod… (C’mon, it is my small way of paying tribute to His Majesty, Steve Jobs)

I spend roughly 30 minutes per day in the car and another 30 minutes walking Maki (my dog), alone. I do not listen to music, I’ve over 100 talk shows on my iPod at any one time, which I listen to, during those period. Of which, a good 50% are faith related (being alone is one of those sacred moment I get to connect with God), the other half are on current affairs, self improvement and business audio books. The best of the best in the world speak directly to me for at least half an hour a day. How can I not be innovative?

6/ Travel

Much were invented before you were born. Even much more were by the people outside of your country (mine, at least). Do not reinvent the wheels, there’s no need to. Just ‘copy’ wisely. The good thing is, you can steal almost any of their great ideas by simply clicking on your Canon Ixus.

6.1 / Go to Japan

God bless Japan. Last year, I wrote about: “If you want to learn about good customer service, go to Japan”. The same can be said of Innovation. Part of the secret for their cutting edge innovation success, I believe, is their readiness to embrace weirdness. Simply walk down Harajuku, and you’d be amazed by the amount of weird people you encounter. Perhaps, like me, you’d realize before long that you yourself are in fact, the weird one, standing out from the crowd.

Continue Reading

NBT Brunei

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Cool Companies. Leave a comment

Do Well by Doing Good!

NBT Brunei, one of the biggest motor vehicle distributors in Brunei, has been the market leader in the auto industry in Brunei Darussalam for the last 29 years. According to Ninan Chacko, NBT Managing Director, NBT’s dominance of the local market is not only based on goodwill, friendship, honesty and trust alone: It is all these, plus their singleminded dedication to quality assurance and its actual delivery. SME Bulletin speaks to Ninan Chacko on the issue of the Environment, Corporate Social Responsibility and employee relation strategy.

NBT is seen to be taking a leadership role in caring for the environment. Why the environment?

There are so many reasons. The whole world is one big ecosystem, so, damaging or destroying onepart of it will have an impact on other parts. For example, the unusually heavy rains and flooding in Tutong and the Belait districts (December 2010/January 2011), can in fact, be at least partly be explained, by global climate change caused by clearing of forests to make way for farms and air pollution with carbon dioxide that causes global warming.

In ecological terms, nature is a very delicate system of balances. The extinction of a bird which eats mosquitoes could result in an increase in malaria or dengue fever. So, we will be affected as well if nature is destroyed. In addition, don’t forget that we need trees to convert the CO2 into life -sustaining oxygen. The auto industry has often been accused of being damaging to the environment, especially through excessive CO2 emissions. Therefore, NBT, as well as our principals INCHCAPE PLC and TOYOTA Motor Corporation are very anxious to take positive steps even when there is no official compulsion to do so (at least, for the moment, in Brunei Darussalam).

Finally, being a responsible 21st century business operating in the Green Heart Of Borneo, it is also our moral responsibility to be fully committed to saving the environment, so that future generations of Bruneians will have a green future to look forward to.

Continue Reading

Top 5 Non Verbal Cues of Customer Service (Part 1)

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

Customer service often gets misinterpreted by the performances of the sales reps alone. The problem with this is of course, when the staff happens to have a bad day, much will be on the line. Leaving sales reps to bear such a burden is not only unfair, it is risky, inconsistent and not strategic.

Great organisations understand that there is more to customer service than what meets the eye. It starts with being thoughtful in anticipating customer’s needs, then there’s meticulous scenario planning on every possible problem encounters; and it also factors in every design component of the shopping experience that reflects the company’s posture towards service.

What separates a good from a great operator is all the preparations that happen behind the scene, leaving nothing to chance for a bad experience. We hope you would never look at customer service the same again after reading this.

1. Greetings

Uh, did we say non-verbal cue? By this we are referring to the approaches employed towards customer greetings, as opposed to the scripts. In the mystery customer survey form for Levi’s, one of the first judging criteria is: whether or not customers are greeted within the first 30 seconds. The reason is obvious, everybody shall ever enter a Levi’s store without being acknowledged; be it a nod, a smile or a ‘how are you’, and greeted fast!

Of course, greeting extends more than just the speed of your delivery. There’s the element of the attitude in your tone, your observation of a customer’s unique tie, glasses, accent and mood, and how you use these cues to make split second decisions to connect with your customers.

In Tokyo and Seoul, it is not uncommon to see attendants bowing in the middle of the road to cars exiting the car park, welcoming and thanking customers for shopping at their department stores. In Brunei, the last time I paid for my groceries, the only ‘greetings’ I received was the cash register personnel starring at me mumbling: ‘member-card?’ So much for non-verbal gestures!

2. Displays

Your attention to visual merchandising tells a lot about your attitude towards customer service. If I need to walk through 8 aisles to find my bag of rice (so you can sell me some impulse items), I would rather forfeit your five-star supermarket for the convenience store around the corner that places the 10kg rice into my car boot, while I pay for it without having to leave my car.

If you are serious about your visual display, here are some questions you should consider: How organized are your shelves and your store layout? Does the sequence flow logically? Do you have a balanced range? How about your stock level? Can I always find what I’m looking for? Are the signs prominent enough to help me locate my dog food within seconds? Do you have a step ladder readily available, just incase I’m 4 feet tall and need to reach for the Dove shampoo on the top shelf?

And cleanliness. This should go (so) without saying.

(to be continued…)

Top 5 Non-Verbal Cues of Customer Service (Part 2)

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

3. Ambience 

Just as you thought you’ve done a good job, having taken care of your shop’s ambience with the perfect decoration, lighting, room temperature and music selection, consider this…

Today, companies are engaging perfume specialist to tap into the customer’s olfactory senses (by infusing the right mix of scent into the air condition) to arouse the desired mood for maximum relaxation, and thus, maximum sales.

4. Thoughtfulness

In developing countries: parents with babies, senior citizens, and the disabled will have no difficulty in identifying shopping centers with special facilities because they are not that common.

I had no idea about the importance of a baby changing room until we went out shopping one day, and my 6 month old dirtied her nappy. Since that incident, my wife and I would swear our full allegiance to any shopping centre that provides baby facilities. When the basics are not met, anything above and beyond on customer service is merely a gimmick.

4.2 Thoughtfulness (Part 2)

Great customer service will enchant people when they least expect. However, when competitors start to do the same, everything resets to zero.

In Hong Kong, when you enter into Chow Tai Fook, everyone will greet you with the most sincere gesture. Not only that, they also offer you a seat and pour you tea or a mineral. It was unique, until the rest of the jewellery stores followed suit. Now, when I enter into any jewellery store in Hong Kong, I expect to be served water or tea. Any less, is bad service.

5. Be Trivial

Yuka, the previous Assistant Manager at Louis Vuitton, Perth used to be obsessed with little details at work. To what extent? She would go the extra mile to ensure that there were always pens and paper in the drawer at all times and that the notes are always written in brown ink. The rationale was simple; everything should be readily available at the customers’ disposal and every piece of communication, no matter how trivial, will reflect the brand’s reputation.

Incidentally, at Louis Vuitton, staff are always well groomed, their uniforms – regularly dry cleaned and pressed (at the company’s expense), and they even accept Yen, Euro, Yuan and USD. Apparently, no detail is ever too small for one of the world’s most profitable retail operators.

They say non-verbal language accounts for over 80% of total communications. Imagine if this is also true for customer service.

The Heart of Service

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

Photo Credit - The Empire Hotel

The majority of our readers would understand what customer service is about. The moment we first learned how to spend money is the moment we begin to craft an expectation of the level of customer service we would like to receive.

Customer Service can be both a science and an art. Science, because we can put in a process to ensure that staff execute every step accordingly to please the customers. Art, because we are dealing with human interactions, even though every step in the rulebook is being ticked off, it may not guarantee customer satisfaction, if the heart is missing. Here are three ideas to ensure that your staff deliver customer service that is a notch above everyone else:

1. Create a Happy Environment!

Happy staff equal happy customers! It is amazing how most business operators often overlook this common sense principle. Work environment plays a crucial role in the employee’s performance. Yes, staff may pretend to serve well under the strict supervision of business owners. What really matters is how they treat your customers in your absence! Starbucks spent over USD 300 million on health care in the United States in 2009, an amount more than what they spend on coffee beans. Beyond that, the company also provides share options to all their employees. In an environment where every employee is well taken care of and is being treated as a partner, it is no wonder that
their staff take ownership in every single instance to provide the best service!

2. Hire Passionate People

It is easy to hire people who are passionate about your products when you are a recognized brand like Louis Vuitton, Nike and Apple. Most people who work for those companies are there mostly because they love the brand. When they have such intense pleasure for what they sell, the enthusiasm easily rubs off to the customers. The problem is, not all
SMEs carry renowned labels.

How then do you hire people who are passionate about your products? Sometimes passion transcends across just labels. Hire customers who love your Hawaiian Pizza to be your waiter, and watch the sale of your Hawaiian Pizzas escalate. Hire your lady friend who has 25 pairs of shoes in the closet and watch the sale of your shoes increase. Hire a bookworm to look after your bookstore… You get the drift!

3. Make Meaning

Show your staff how his or her contribution can make a difference in the big picture. When the university canteen dishwasher was being shown that he was part of the big eco-system in ensuring a bright future for the future doctors, ministers, engineer and business people, his attitude towards every plate he washed was never the same again. The continuous existence of any business is because they provide a unique service that the community values.

How then do you connect the dot for your staff? Customer service is a multidimensional discipline. Highlighted above are the fundamental soft skills required to lift your standard. Staffs’ level of competency and knowledge of your company and the product are just as important.

What about ensuring a thoughtful car-park facility, the cleanliness of your toilet? What about the  mindset of the boss towards servicing the customers? The list can go on indefinitely. Excelling in customer service is a never ending quest that requires first, the understanding of what a privilege it is to make a difference to your fellow countrymen, through the work you do.

The Pursuit of Excellence

Posted by shaunhoon on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Entrepreneurship. Leave a comment

Most Indian coffee shops in Brunei charge $1.00 for a plate of Roti Pratha with eggs. Noralizah & Iskandar House of Curry House in Berakas charges $2.40.

The location of the restaurant is nothing spectacular. In fact, it is 20 minutes away from the heart of Bandar Seri Begawan. Ambiance? Not one that grabs your attention as a passer by. From all business indicators, the odds of success are against it. The surprising fact is that the restaurant is almost always full; people from all over the country navigate from far just to get a taste of this extraordinarily ordinary Indian staple food.

Are there business lessons we could learn from this? In the Curry House (as it is largely knowned by most customers) a pratha is not just a pratha. It is pursued with care and excellence 100% of the time. You can expect a crispy pratha every time you order. Not only that, with a mere extra of $1.40, Curry House allows you to add on your own choice of four condiments, which include sardines, corned beef, curry potato and pickles. The generosity of the toppings they provide often out value what the customer pays. The ironic thing is, these extras are not difficult to duplicate at all, the sardine and corned beef come straight from the can, and the pickles; they are simply just pickles! Yet, they are the only one doing it!

If the difference between good and great lies in paying attention to the details, with the disproportion premium you could charge by delivering excellence, why aren’t there more restaurants offering the same? Often we try to improve our business by employing various marketing gimmicks, without realizing that all that customers value can come down to delivering the basics, consistently well. Next time when you are strategizing to boost your sales, may be the question is not about how much discount you can give, but about how you could charge more by delivering more?!