Jo-Jo

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Cool People, Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

Jo-Jo, the customer service master-shifu (right)

Spaghetti with Extra Sauce!

Sometimes we are able to identify a customer service champion the minute we meet them. We call that gut feeling. Others take slightly longer; often it only happens when you get to discover their thoughtfulness and their character over time. I am contradicting myself here; customer service has everything to do with discovering what the customers want, not about you as a service provider. But I have a point to make.

Jo Jo, the veteran manager of Fratini Restaurant understands all these things, which is why he has a huge rolodex of customers in his list. Chances are, over the years JoJo would have seen three of the girlfriends that you brought to Fratini before marrying your wife. Jo Jo’s job is not just turning over tables and smiling and asking customers to come again in the future. Jo Jo makes it a point to get to know you and your family, to remember that you like your spaghetti with extra sauce, and that you cannot take nuts.

He also knows when to pretend never to have met you when you bring your wife instead of your mistress. Jo Jo is in the people business that happens to be delivering fantastic food. It had been more than a decade since I last saw Jo Jo but when I came in and ordered my bowl of chips, he intuitively brought along the Thousand Island, and asked if I still preferred Thousand Island mixed with the Maggi Chili Sauce!

What Women Want?

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Cool Ideas. Leave a comment

In the movie, What Women Want? Gong Li’ character, who played the role of a newly appointed Creative Director in a top advertising firm, challenged her male subordinates to tap into their ‘anima’ in order to understand how to market to women.

For those who have yet to watch the movie, anima, is a term according to Carl Jung’s School of Psychology, that describes the unconscious level of the male’s mind that expresses a feminine inner personality.

Gong Li then went on to the torturous act of forcing Andy Lau into wearing lipsticks, high-heels, skirts and the whole nine yards. The two of adversaries eventually fell in love and lived happily ever after.

Beyond entertainment value, the movie does serve as a reminder on the tremendous market that women represent, which were largely overlooked by most businesses. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you see a marketing plan including tactical strategy on how to appeal to the lady customers?

This article examines the critical points on marketing to women by first asking the obvious question; What Women Want? Male and female species are wired differently. If your business is still adapting a one size fit all strategy, you may miss out on a lot of opportunities for your products and services to appeal to women.

According to Sharifah, Senior Sales Manager of NBT, “Most of the buying decision when purchasing the family car comes down to women, even though men are apparently more astute about cars. It is the woman who holds the final say because they are responsible for the household finance.” In Marina Mahathir’s keynote address at last year’s Women’s Forum, Nissan’s sales accelerated simply because they made a strategic decision to hire more female sales assistant.

Trendy cafes are sprouting up all over Brunei, patronized mainly by women, simply because the old fashion male dominated ‘kopitiam’ are unable to provide an environment conducive for women and make them feel safe and comfortable.

Universiti of Brunei Darussalam in the past 3 years produced more female graduates than male. Women all over the world are gaining power both politically and in business; as a result, the power of the purse has also increased significantly. If you want to know more about how women think, the following principles can be the beginning of your quest:

Continue Reading

Yumi

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Cool People, Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

Everybody is a VIP

Yumi Kamio loves Brunei. She explained that her favorite part of her job was taking Japanese tourists on the boat to see the proboscis monkeys tucked right behind the mangrove forest 30 minutes away from Kampong Ayer. She would plan the trip with precise timing so that when they returned back to civilization, it would be at sunset, when Brunei’s skylight turns yellow, just as the flocks of birds in their thousands travel back from Kuala Belait, with the Royal Palace on the left and the endless settlements on Kampong Ayer on the right, perfected with the sunset as a backdrop. At the end of her description in the Japanese-Brunei-English accent (one that is unique only to Yumi), I wanted to go to Brunei!

If you take a walk with Yumi to the wet market, you will feel rather ashamed that a foreigner commands much more popularity amongst the local storekeepers than you do. Everybody knows Yumi! Yumi’s work is unique. She is the only person who does what she does. Of course, there are a few Japanese tour guides that she trains, but no one even comes close to her understanding of the tropical nature and mastery of the local culture.

Sometimes, she entertains the elite Japanese visitors who fly into the country in private jets and sometimes she entertains ordinary Japanese retirees who want to catch a glimpse of this magical kingdom. Yumi treats all her clients the same, with utmost dedication and professionalism.

A rule that Yumi refuses to break is, she has never enquired what the client does for a living. To Yumi, it doesn’t really matter at all. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. If you treat all your clients as VIPs, their background and status should never matter to you.

Bobby!

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Cool People, Entrepreneurship. Leave a comment

The Man Behind the Mask…

(of the Brunei’s SME website)

Google SME Brunei, and you will find on the top of your list a personal blog of Bobby aka. Mohamad Fadhilullah, Livewire Counsellor, with scores of business activities, advice and updates about SMEs in Brunei. The website is neither endorsed by any private nor government organisation, however the passion and attention falls nothing short of professional. The blogger has been quietly servicing the business community in Brunei without giving credit to his name on the website.

We attempted to find out more about Bobby in this interview; Walk us through how and why you started SME Brunei Blog?

I wrote my first business plan in 2003 for the LiveWIRE Business Awards, on creating a technology magazine. I did not follow through as I later found out about the expensive license requirement for a magazine publication in Brunei. The Head of EDC, Effandi later approached me with the idea of writing about the SMEs in July 2009. I was interested to do it, but the timing was not right too. The idea stuck with me ever since. I always believe that it would be great to have a publication with information about start-up and running a business centred on Brunei. It was when BEDB opened up a tender on a “Buy Brunei” Portal that I had the idea of getting the domain name http://www.smebrunei.com, just in case some one would be interested to buy from me. But as soon as I bought it, everything came back to me. Even though I was already well educated in IT and active in social networking, I did not realize until that time that I could easily create an online magazine, so I did!

What can one expect when they visit your website?

Simple information related to SME and Businesses in Brunei. In terms of Events, Business Strategies, Issues in creating a business and so on. I would accept any invitation to cover any business related functions if I were available on that day. Or to cover any business topics that readers are curious about.

How do you determine what to, and what not to include in your blog?

Generally, I post whatever I think would be interesting in terms of starting and succeeding in Business. For any exclusive events that not everyone can attend, I try to summarize the content so that others may benefit.

What business opportunities do you see in Brunei?

There a lot of opportunities in Brunei, to me it doesn’t really matter what type of business it is. A good business idea, and therefore a good business is one that can help a lot of people, and make money at the same time. A good business should have at least 3 things; The passion of a musician, The skill of a technician, and The nose for profit of a entrepreneur.

How do you get http://www.smebrunei.com to the top of Google search?

Lucky I guess. But the domain name of the website is http://www.smebrunei. com, the title is SME Brunei. so if anyone was to search the terms SME and Brunei, the website will come up. Additionally, I did research on how Google does searches, and found that Google basically will put a website higher in the list, if it is referenced by other websites or blogs. Google also searches on key words used in blogs called metatags. I am working on getting on top of the search terms Business and Brunei.

Tourism Opportunities… (in Brunei)

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Entrepreneurship. 2 Comments

 

The Brunei Tourism Board predicts another 220,000 tourists coming into the country in 2011. With an average stay of 3 ½ days per visit, the figure amounts to 2,000 tourists on any given day, romping the streets of Brunei Darussalam.

What the number means depends largely on how you frame your business. If you are in retail or food and beverage industry, the extra 2,000 people circulating the street spell great opportunity for growth. The question  is how do you secure a share of their spending.

The top five visitors come from the following countries: Malaysia, China, United Kingdom, Singapore and Australia.

The Malaysian tourists visit Brunei for the obvious reasons; its proximity and as a crossing point between Sabah and Sarawak.

The Opportunities? According to the Marketing Director of Brunei Tourism, Mr. Chris Robles, we need to look beyond the usual tourism destinations to earn money from this sector. Chances are, these group of tourists would have been in Brunei for multiple occasions.

With our low taxes on imported products comparing to our neighboring country, Brunei retailers shall capitalize on selling high-end consumer goods to our Malaysian partner. Robles cited the growing trend of Malaysian shopping in Supa Save for Australian product as a perfect example of more things we can come up with to cross sell to them.

Another example would be destination point shopping like the recently opened Toolbox in Jalan Muara that sells home improvement products, a concept store that is no where to be found in Sabah & Sarawak. Robles draws parallel of Toolbox to the like of Ikea in the western country, that brings in millions of people from neighboring states to visit.

An important point to note from the inbound statistics is that the second largest tourist group that comes to Brunei are from mainland China. Which means, it is no longer acceptable if you are in the traveling industry or even the retail sector and are not be able to converse meaningfully with your guests in Chinese. The mindset of Brunei people needs to change; tourism is every citizen’s responsibility. SMEs need to think about the spill over effect of the tourism industry. “In a larger context, when a group of tourists come to Brunei, it affects the entire ‘eco’ system.Where there is demand in tour buses, there will be an increase in demand in bus maintenance and the replacement of tires. We are, in one way or in another in the tourism business.”

Louis Vuitton

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Cool Companies. Leave a comment

If you have been to any Louis Vuitton store, you would have noticed that there is no price tag anywhere to be found on the display of the bags. You can tell instantly an experienced attendant from a new one by their ability to provide information about the bags such as the price, the history, the designers, and so on.

Most Louis Vuitton staff would have no problem in sharing with you intimate details about each product because the chances are that if you were working for the company, you would already be a huge fan of the Louis Vuitton brand. I was exposed to many inside stories of Louis Vuitton because my wife, Deon, used to work there as a part time Sales Associate in its Perth store for three years.

The income for retail associates is the lowest amongst all the professions regardless where they are in the world, and what company they work for. How, then, does this iconic brand expect its low-income staff to carry out the excellent Louis Vuitton service the company expects?

The answers lie in the caliber of the people working there! If you looked into the background of the people in the front line at a typical Louis Vuitton store, you would be astonished by the capability and diversity of their strength! Take Deon’s store, for example; there was Onkei, the reputable local fashion designer who forfeited her business to work there; Sarah, a previous supervisor from Four Season Hotel in Paris; Linda, a practicing medical doctor; Annabelle, an actress from Beijing; Yuka, the culinary expert cum the most detailed orientated leader; Deon, the professional musician. There was even a candidate who migrated from Perth to Sydney, just for the position of a front line opening in the Australian head quarters!

The common denominator between these people is that they all had an obsession for Louis Vuitton. Imagine when you have people on the front line with such enthusiasm for your products; memorizing product information becomes easy for them, never mind the level of energy that the staff radiates when they talk about your products!

Mr Baker

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Cool People. Leave a comment

Mr. Baker is an important company to look out for, for its approach towards creating healthy food for the community. We talk to Mr. Eric Pui on the risks he undertook and rewards he reaps on his endeavour.

Why the decision for the healthy-food market?

I have always wanted to share the food experience I gained from overseas and introduce it to the people here in Brunei. Personally, I find the bread in South East Asia in general, is quite different compare to that of Western Countries, not only in terms of the taste and varieties wise but I notice the Westerners have more choice of healthy stuffs.

Before we decide to open Mr.Baker’s Bakeshop we were well aware that it won’t be a smooth journey as we all know the bakery business is quite competitive in this part of the world. However, we are also aware that people are becoming more health conscious hence, Mr.Baker’s Bakeshop has been set up for 2 main objectives (i) to offer as far as possible a wide selection of healthy bread and pastries to the community and (ii) to create a niche market so that we are able to distinguish ourselves from the rest.

Your bakery does not use dough improver on breads and no stabiliser / emulsifier on cakes. This is contrary to the common practice of most bakeries. For one, your product would have a much shorter expiration date comparing to your competitors. How has this strategy worked out so far?

Frankly, business was tough in the beginning as many consumers are not used to the short expiration date maximum of 3 days only. Besides that, the textures of our bread/cakes are also different, which taste more like homemade. With constant promotion through expo and other media means, our consumers became more knowledgeable about our products and by word of mouth to their relatives and friends, business has picked up recently.

I personally think this strategy has worked out quite successfully. If you notice, our location is not the most strategic, in fact, it’s quite out of the way because there is no nearby shopping mall or crowded area. The customers who patronize with us are those who make special trip to our shop. So there must be reasons why they are making such a special trip and
I believe our healthy concept is what they are looking for.

Heart disease and diabetes are two of the major killers in the country. Clearly, more businesses especially in the food and beverage industry need to step up to take on a more socially responsible role in promoting healthy eating.What can we do as a business community together in catalysing change in the nation’s eating habit?

It sounds challenging but not impossible. We must have the correct mind-set and aligned visionin order to make it work. There are already campaigns or other activities promoting healthy eating which is good, as such activities give us ideas or make us aware and understand the importance of staying healthy through regular exercise and careful diet.

As we have been constantly told to eat healthy food, the question is where can we find the so-called healthy food or are they readily available in the first place? It is essential to make people aware of the importance of healthy eating but it is equally important to encourage food eateries to create more healthy dishes for customers to choose from.

‘Mr. Baker’ was amongst the early adopters of Blog and Facebook as a social media tool to promote its cakes and pastries. How effective has it been? What can other businesses learn from your experience?

Very effective indeed. Customers can make their enquiry online and we try to response to all enquiries as soon as possible. In this way, a strong customer relationship is established. About 30% of our customers are from Facebook and most of our wedding cakes ordered are online as well. If you are to use Facebook as a tool to promote your product, you need to be persistent in updating the status regularly such as any promotions, new products, sharing of useful information etc.

Even if there isn’t much positive result in the beginning, do not give up. However, you have got to make sure the information given online about your product is accurate and make sure customers get what they have paid for.

If it is the first time our reader visits your bakery, what would you recommend for them to try?

You should go for our sovital roll (no sugar/no egg), croissant pastries, California cheese, fresh fruit vanilla cake, chocolate cakes, creamy cheesecake and chicken pie.

iCentre

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Entrepreneurship. Leave a comment

We spoke to Hui Kwok Leong, Director of the iCentre, an entrepreneurial incubation centre, setup by the BEDB to facilitate greater knowledge based ventures among the SMEs and the provision of research grants and seed capital in the ICT Cluster.

What kind of support is available for SMEs in Brunei at the iCentre?

iCentre is the first ICT focused incubator in Brunei and we identify, nurture and develop promising ICT based startups in Brunei. What that means is that if a startup uses ICT as an important enabler in their business, we will look at incubating them. Hence, it doesn’t need to be an IT company before coming to the iCentre. We have a series of programs like workshops, mentorship with mentors from the region and the USA, business development assistances, linkages with the government, private sector and also investors from local and overseas. Hence, we help a technopreneur (vs just a entrepreneur) to bring their promising ideas to become potentially a great technology company that is Brunei originated.

What can we expect from the iCentre in 2011?

One the can expect more ICT companies from the iCentre to be expanding overseas beyond the shores of Brunei. It will be an exciting new year as the Brunei Government has launched a few supporting schemes through AITI and BEDB that will help in defraying a lot of startups risks of promising companies. This will help to encourage more to look into starting their own technology based companies. Therefore, we are also hoping to see more promising technopreneurs to join us. In addition,we hope to be able to work closely with MIPR to address the needs of entrepreneurs in general. In 2011, iCentre aims to be more collaborative with the various other agencies and Institutions of Higher Learning in developing promising technology SMEs.

What can we learn from this year’s winners of the Think Big Business Plan Award?

This year’s quality has marked improvements in the business plan proposals and also in presentation style. We are happy that ITB, UBD and Maktab Seins are all winners and have demonstrated that many good biz ideas abound in the younger generation. We hope to see further improvement in quality and quantity of the submissions in the next ThinkBig Business Plan competition to be launched in July this year.

Love

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

A tribute to Pete

Back in Perth, whenever I walked Maki (our dog) past Pete’s store, she would rush right in looking for Pete with anticipation and excitement. Then Maki would sit patiently, on her best behavior waiting for Pete to reach into his tin full of dog treats and get her reward.

Pete knows the names of all the dogs in the neighborhood and where most of the dogs live because he delivers dog food to some of the dog owners who are too old or do not have their own transport to carry the 10kg bag home. Sometimes Pete may forget the name of the owner, but all was forgiven for two reasons.

One, we dog owners couldn’t ask for a better compliment when our dog’s name is remembered. Two, Pete knows the real customer he is supposed to please. We love going to Pete’s because he knows everything there is to know about dogs. The free advice on dog care, training and the latest pet related happenings are priceless comparing to the tiny purchases for Maki along the way.

Every four weeks, Maki would have her grooming session, to which Pete would always add the final touch of a snazzy stylist; a different color of ribbon on each occasion. Pete’s business closed early this year, as the property owner decided to increase rental to a ridiculous amount. Here was a party thrown by dog owners surrounding Beaufort Street to farewell Pete. They say the mark of a great business is whether or not the community will miss you when your company disappears. It leaves a hole in the heart of Maki, Pepper, Louis, Muffin, Pippen, Lucky (the list goes on and on) and all their human companions, each time we go pass Pete’s, which has now been turned into a trendy real estate company.

Nice

Posted by shaunhoon on October 26, 2011
Posted in: Delivering Happiness. Leave a comment

I had the pleasure of working in the purchasing side of things for two years in my previous job at Cash & Carry, the biggest wholesale food distributor in Australia. As a marketing person, I spend my whole life trying to sell and convince people of my ideas and products. Being on the other end of the spectrum was a refreshing change. I moved from no one wanting to answer my phone call to everyone wanting to get back to me. I would take the purchasing job over marketing anytime.

In purchasing, I was in a position to evaluate suppliers’ offers and their service level. I have seen my share of savvy sales people pitching their products with shrewdness and excellence. I have come across some of the most masterful presentations that did not make the cut, and I have seen some not so sleek communicators that closed big deals, simply because of their good track records and in depth understanding of our needs. Amidst all that was Nick Manning.

Nick does not have any killer pitch. One thing that stands out about Nick is that he is always in a good mood. In the fast paced stressful environment we were in, we did not need a reminder that the day could get any worse when we dealt with our suppliers. Which is why I loved hearing from Nick. Without trying too hard, he often managed to put a smile on the face of everyone who did business with him.
He is always polite, pleasant, with an upbeat attitude. Did I mention, he is also funny? Sometimes we put in way too much energy on perfecting the pitch or the value propositions and neglect the fundamental reason that people decide to deal with us is because they like us. That often has to do with simply being nice to people. Whenever there is an opportunity for partnership or a request for new lines, guess who would be the first on my list to call?