But all this is not the reason why I’m writing this post. What I want to say is that at Ban Hin Lee Bank, we worked up one of the best business-to-customer relationships ever seen in the banking industry. All the customers of the bank were truly appreciative of the staff’s efforts to serve them. Visibly, there were the counter staff. Invisibly, the backroom staff were trying their best to meet customers’ expectations for the bank as a whole.

Sadly though, this simple but essential business strategy is lost on modern-day companies. We don’t have many companies who value the goodwill that they can build up with their customers. But maybe they do, but the top management’s efforts are being stymied by their employees who work for them.

As an example, I’d want to say that I haven’t had a 100 percent satisfaction dealing with Mastery Academy in Kuala Lumpur. Mastery Academy is owned by Joey Yap who is perhaps the most renowned fengshui consultant in this part of the world. I have outstanding with them two more Bazi consultations that I want to conclude as soon as possible. I’m sure that they would also want to close their books as quickly too. However, getting in touch with the right persons have been problematic. Telephone calls not getting replied, messages left on their website not getting the attention. So in desperation – one last act if I may call it – I emailed the top guy himself. To his credit, he does read his emails often enough and I had the company call me back within 50 minutes of giving my feedback! Here’s the email I sent him:

Dear Joey,

Although out of politeness I will wish you a Happy Chinese New Year at this time of the year, this is not exactly a standard CNY email to you. This is actually a feedback which I want you to read.

When the Fengshui For Life programme was held in Penang last year, I had signed up for four Bazi consultations for my family. Two have already been completed while the remaining two are still outstanding. I am not very mobile outside my base of Penang and have always been waiting for the opportunities when the team from Mastery Academy come up to the island. I do realise that it will be far easier to visit your office and get them done in Kuala Lumpur but my travels to KL are very, very infrequent.

Now, knowing that you are coming to Penang this Feb 12 with your team, I had contacted the Bazi people at Mastery Academy as long ago as mid-December to arrange for the other two consultations. I was told by Kevin that they would look into it and get back to me. BTW, I had also spoken with Jenna on this matter several times earlier.

My beef is this: until today I haven’t received any reply from Mastery Academy, verbally or by text. How tight a ship is being run by this company? Just this Monday, I tried sending a note through the webpage, hoping for someone to pick up the message and relay it to the relevant person. All I got back was an automated message which you can read below. Getting in touch with me very shortly? I had hoped so. But as it turned out, I was mistaken.

Then this morning I telephoned Mastery Academy and asked to speak to Jenna. Was told that she was on the line. So I left a message requesting for her to call me back. She must still be very busy on the telephone because sadly, four hours after calling the office, my mobile hasn’t rang.

I am a retiree. I retired from a service industry more than two years ago. We didn’t need to be told by our top management that, one, all customer inquiries must be attended to as quickly as possible and, two, the customer is always right. We didn’t need to be told; we knew it by instinct. Accordingly, we built up one of the best business relationships with our customers. Unfortunately companies today have lost sight of this business strategy.

I am sorry if this is not the flattering email that you would wish to read from your fans but it is important that you should know exactly what is happening to sabotage all the good work you have done. Again, Happy Chinese New Year…

Regards

SS Quah

Penang, Malaysia

I’ve a similar story to tell about the workplace. Many employers are unaware of the lengths that some of their staff go through just to earn a living. There was one chap who worked as a driver to a managing director in a big company in Shah Alam. However, he lived a long distance away and had to commute by public transport. Well, you know the inconveniences of public transport. What is supposed to be an eight-hour working day can stretch to 10 hours or more by the time he returned home.

So one day, this managing director decided to visit Kampung Kuantan after dark to watch their famous fireflies. All of a sudden, he came across his driver who was passing by on his motorcycle.

Only then did the executive realise the distance that his driver had to travel daily from his home to Shah Alam and back, in all sorts of weather conditions, just to drive him to work. He could not change his driver’s circumstances but from that day on, he learnt to appreciate the driver’s services more.

The moral of this story is that it is important that we should be sensitive to the people around us and see things with our heart and not only with our eyes.

These days, there are many interest groups and non-governmental organisations that seems to pop out of nowhere to comment on current issues. Often, their views are skewed and highly predictable. Public debate becomes a cacophony of noise and nothing meaningful emerges to help solve the problems.

We will never see the full picture if we have a blinkered view of life and look at things from our own perspective. We need to step back in order to move forward. That is why I feel it is important to look beyond ourselves and imagine what it is like to be in another person’s shoes. Only them can we progress with our lives and nation.

With an acronym like YKK, you’d think that this story has everything to do with the ubiquitous zippers that you can find on almost every piece of clothing. But no, I’m not writing about zippers. YKK in this instance refers to the initials of an international speaker, trainer and innovation consultant who is not averse to calling himself a Chief Mind Unzipper. But more about this person later.

First, I’ve to ask whether you have heard about the term Copycat Innovation? This is about adapting a proven solution to come out with an innovation. By so doing, risks are minimised and success will be optimised. In short, Copycat Innovation is about taking what works best and then improving on it.

Copycat Innovation is not about a full-scale imitation. It should not even be confused with copyright or patent infringement. Rather, it takes advantage of the research and development already carried out earlier and involves the borrowing and developing of existing products and technologies to carve a competitive niche in the marketplace.

If any organisation is serious about growing its competitiveness and positioning itself strategically in the marketplace, Copycat Innovation offers one of the best approaches to your organisation. Why? Because:

• It  has a low risk. You are adapting or refining a proven solution;
• It is low-cost. The research and development work has already been done for you;
• It  requires minimal resources. You do not need massive efforts and resources; and
• It is a short-route to commercialisation.

Still want to know more about this Copycat Innovation thingy? Then you should be interested to know that there will be a once-in-a-lifetime Copycat Innovation Workshop at the Eastin Hotel in Penang on 17 and 18 October 2011. This hotel is near the Queensbay Mall on the island.

The facilitator of this workshop is Dr Yew Kam Keong, a Malaysian who now stays in Australia. For your information, he prefers to be known as Dr YKK and he unabashedly terms himself as the Chief Mind Unzipper. YKK. Zipper. Unzipper. Get it? Now, if that isn’t using a copycat idea to great innovative advantage, I don’t know what is.

Dr YKK will lead the participants through his Copycat Innovation process in a fun, participative and stimulating way, and will help you to bring out viable and practical innovation for your organisation. A word of warning though – you may never think the same way again after attending his workshop!

Dr YKK is acknowledged as a Distinguished Talent on Creativity & Innovation by the Australian Government. He is a best-selling author and masterful storyteller, and an international speaker, trainer, and innovation consultant to governments, multinational corporations and SMEs. His best-selling book, You Are Creative, has been reprinted 12 times and published in five languages. He was the only person from among the British Commonwealth countries selected to serve on the pioneer panel of eight international creativity expert advisers in Lego’s global project, The Next Generation Forum.

But actually, who should be the ones attending this workshop? According to the Penang Branch of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) which is bringing this programme to this part of the country, apart from company chief executive officers, managing directors and general managers, the workshop will be most relevant to managers who are in charge or involved with innovation, business development, new product development, marketing and branding.

The fees for the two-day workshop are RM750 per participant from an FMM-member company and RM900 per participant from non-FMM member companies. The fees are inclusive of programme materials, and lunch and tea breaks at the Eastin. Moreover, the workshop is 100% HRDF claimable under the SBL Scheme.

Are you still keen to find out more about the Copycat Innovation workshop? Then please drop an email to Kadaneswari, Owe Yean Roei or Lee Saw See at the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, Penang Branch. The closing date for registration is 30 Sep 2011.

To download the Registration Form, please click here.

As this BBC article explains, correct spelling is also very important for webpages. Shoppers can get turned off by spelling mistakes on websites. Maybe I should also add one other thing: it doesn’t apply to only webpages in the English language. No matter what language is used for a website, it is imperative that the spelling and grammar are correct.

That is why companies should always think seriously about employing someone who can check on their communication material before it is released to the world. Better be safe than to be embarrassed or worse, to lose the potential business.

So here is the BBC article. Happy reading!

Mr Duncombe, who runs travel, mobile phones and clothing websites, says that poor spelling is a serious problem for the online economy.

“Often these cutting-edge companies depend upon old-fashioned skills,” says Mr Duncombe.

And he says that the struggle to recruit enough staff who can spell means that this sector of the economy is not as efficient as it might be.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics published last month showed internet sales in the UK running at £527m per week.

“I know that industry bemoaning the education system is nothing new but it is becoming more and more of a problem with more companies going online.

“This is because when you sell or communicate on the internet 99% of the time it is done by the written word.”

Mr Duncombe says that it is possible to identify the specific impact of a spelling mistake on sales.

He says he measured the revenue per visitor to the tightsplease.co.uk website and found that the revenue was twice as high after an error was corrected.

“If you project this across the whole of internet retail then millions of pounds worth of business is probably being lost each week due to simple spelling mistakes,” says Mr Duncombe, director of the Just Say Please group.

Spelling is important to the credibility of a website, he says. When there are underlying concerns about fraud and safety, then getting the basics right is essential.

“You get about six seconds to capture the attention on a website.”

When recruiting school and university leavers, Mr Duncombe says too many applications have contained spelling mistakes or poor grammar.

“Some people even used text speak in their cover letter,” he says.

Even among those who appeared to be able to spell, he says that a written test, without access to a computer spellchecker, revealed further problems with spelling.

William Dutton, director of the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, says that in some informal parts of the internet, such as Facebook, there is greater tolerance towards spelling and grammar.

“However, there are other aspects, such as a home page or commercial offering that are not among friends and which raise concerns over trust and credibility,” said Professor Dutton.

“In these instances, when a consumer might be wary of spam or phishing efforts, a misspelt word could be a killer issue.”

James Fothergill, the CBI’s head of education and skills, said: “Our recent research shows that 42% of employers are not satisfied with the basic reading and writing skills of school and college leavers and almost half have had to invest in remedial training to get their staff’s skills up-to-scratch.

“This situation is a real concern and the government must make the improvement of basic literacy and numeracy skills of all school and college leavers a top priority.”

Before you leave home

• Make sure your windscreen wipers are in good condition and are removing water efficiently.
• Check your tyres – make sure the tread is 1.55mm (a match head) deep, and they are pumped up to the correct pressure.
• Give your front and back lights a clean – they’ll be working overtime night and day.
• Lift up the bonnet and have a peek at your battery – make sure the connections are clean.

Drive safely

• Keep the distance between you and the car in front – at least three car lengths (repeat after me: one elephant, two elephant … )
• Slow down in downpours – on the motorway police suggest you drive at 80km/h instead of 100km/h; on city or country roads, pull over if you’re not confident.
• A quick way to demist your front window is blast it with hot air, but wind down your driver-side window about 10cm.
• If you start to skid or aquaplane, steer the vehicle gently in the direction you want to go – a simple way is look at where you want to go, not where you think you are heading. Don’t touch your brakes.
• Keep plenty of fuel in the tank – at least half full – as you never know when you will be stuck in traffic or have to make a detour to reach your destination.

Snow business

• As the ski season is about to start here are some tips before you don a beanie and make a snowman.
• If you’re heading to the ski slopes for the first time, practise putting on your snow chains before you leave home.
• Consider having your vehicle serviced before you head to Whakapapa.
• Check the weather forecast before you leave, and be prepared to change your travel plans.
• In snowy conditions, a good rule of thumb is to reduce speed by 50 per cent.

Pack an emergency kit

• Torch with spare batteries, ice scraper/brush for clearing your windshield, jumper cables, a spare jacket, blanket and work gloves.
• If it is snowing when you park your car, raise your wipers off the windshield so the blades won’t freeze to it.

The report quoted the Deputy Finance Minister, Dr Awang Adek Hussein, as saying that the owners and inheritors of the monies might not be aware of the existence of the funds.

He suggested that they could make enquiries at the nearest Bank Negara branch in order to submit a claim.

“If the monies are not claimed within the stipulated period, the government may borrow it for development purposes for the benefit of the people,” he said.

I should also add that if you have a dormant bank account that hasn’t been used for quite a while, it is prudent to go ask the bank about its status. The odd RM10 or RM20 may not be of much value today but it is still your money.

Any old savings passbook should immediately alert you to this account. It may be lying underneath a stack of documents in a seldom opened drawer, or anywhere else in the house. Or maybe even in a safe deposit box at a bank. Wherever you find it, if there is indeed such an account, the bank should assist you to reclaim it from the Treasury.

But just be warned that it may be several months before you can get back your money.

• Good visual appeal, an easy-to-read layout and high quality reproduction
• A highlight of your strengths and linking them to the employer’s needs; minimizing or excluding irrelevant experience
• Presents your most important information first
• Entirely free from any error: spelling, typographical, punctuation or grammatica
• Succinct and organized; does not exceed two pages.

Journalist Quentin Lim said the first job was not a time for fresh graduates to demand for high salaries and benefits. He adds: “At this point, they have no experience and so salary should not be the most important factor. What is most valuable is the experience you can gain. Fresh graduates also cannot afford to be lazy. We have to work even harder to stand out from the rest, as there are so many graduates these days. During my parent’s time, being a graduate was enough to guarantee a job but today, that’s not enough. You need to pick up skills which are good enough for the employers.”