I’ve been reading books around me and looking at the businesses that happen in our daily lives. I think that plenty could be learnt by rethinking about the way businesses are done. Besides, businesses can improve through looking at the feedback given, and discovering what customers want.
Today I read a little passage in a book I borrowed from the library. It was talking about the plumbing industry, and how one company managed to distinguish itself from its competitors and even charge a higher price. The lesson to learn here is to know what customers want, and give it to them. It’s like a value add for customers.
Many times we have ordered contractor services and they turn up in a old polo tee with many holes and stains, and pants of the same condition. They come with dirty feet, walking about in your home and after that you have to clean and mop the places they stepped because there were stains. Hence, in this view, the plumbing company in the passage decided to focus on cleanliness.
The plumber arrives in a neat and clean attire, and does his work. After finishing his work, he cleans up the surrounding areas such that it is even cleaner than when he first arrived. As such, customers are happy with the service, and they are willing to pay a little more for such standards.
I’m wondering why that in Singapore, nobody has seemed to be bothered to do such a thing. It’s almost like an old industry having no new blood flowing in to give newer ideas to revolutionise the industry and give it a cleaner, professional image. One that commands confidence and trust in customers. I think that for every businesses, it is important to self reflect every year and see what can be improved. In what way can they bring better value to customers to distinguish themselves from others.
On a side note, my house is undergoing renovation beginning from today, and the contractor has already caused some unhappiness and irritation. This is because the planning for the renovation was screwed up. Since they have to do the flooring in my room, I have to move all furniture and belongings out before they work on it. Today is Tuesday, and now they come telling us that the flooring would be done on Friday. If they had planned earlier and make it more effective, we would have not needed to inconvenience ourselves for that many days. We could only bring out the furniture on Thursday instead of on Monday. That’s a 4 days inconvenience we do not need.
Hence it is important to know how customers feel, because if they are not satisfied with your service, they will never recommend it to anyone else, and customer’s word of mouth approval is very important. It is especially so when there are numerous contractor firms out there with no real differentiation.
I hope such lessons would help anyone that’s reading this.
I refer to the letter written about Great Eastern’s Insurance:
Great Eastern’s Life Assurance’s reply last Sunday, “Policy excludes certain procedures” to my letter, “Insured but unable to make claim” (May 10), did not address my concerns.
My point was that the fine print embedded in GE’s policies stumps ordinary applicants like me when we file a claim.”
Let’s face it. most of us who buy health insurance do not wish to exercise any claim if we can help it because it means we would have fallen seriously ill.
One files a claim only because it is unavoidable, such as when one needs financial help suddenly. After all, this is the reason that one buys health insurance.
Now, on the issue of the “fine print”. Unlike previously angioplasty today can clear blockages completely. To do so previously requied a heart bypass operation.
So any rational heart patient will choose angioplasty instead of a bypass today, if he has a choice; which is why GE’s exclusion of an angioplasty and inclusion of the bypass is puzzling. I am also surprised by GE’s reply that “critical illness plans have been improved and upgraded and generally, the newer policy covers angioplasty”.
Mr Reeve Ong, the head of GE’s claims department who signed off on the reply, suggested that I was perhaps to blame for I would have been successful if I had signed up for its newer critical care policy which “pays as soon as it is proven that two or more coronary arteries have narrowed”.
His contention is baffling. If the newer policy covered angioplasty and mine did not, why wasn’t my policy upgraded automatically to include angioplasty?
The least GE could have done was to inform me, a loyal customer of 15 years, of its availability.
Furthermore, isn’t it a fact that arteries narrow as we grow older? Why should it matter whether a policy holder opts for an angioplasty or a bypass, as long as it does the job?
Having been involved in a little Insurance training in the past holiday, I can raise a few points to clarify about this issue. It is important that everyone knows of such issues, so that they have a better understanding when purchasing insurance.
1. Insurance amongst different companies will not have much difference
The first point, as stated in bold above, is that there is not much difference in terms of insurance coverage and pricing amongst different insurers. Naturally there will be slight differences. Some may be cheaper and some may be slightly more expensive. Some may cover more things, some cover less. However it is all due to competition. After some time, to keep up with competition, the insurers will try to cover the same things so as not to lose out.
2. Buy insurance from agents that you trust
I think trust is an important concept. Buy insurance only from agents you trust to do the job well. As my mentor frequently says, when you are standing at the counter in the hospital, which agent do you think you want to call to settle your bills for you? You have to have a responsible agent who will do everything nicely for you, and even update you on newer policies.
3. Your insurance agent is the one responsible for informing you on newer policies
After a period of competition, insurance policies evolve to include more things. To know what the differences are, you have to read the fine print. Your agent should be the one to call you and fix an appointment to let you know the changes, and whether you want to change or not, is up to the insured. The reason why insurers do not upgrade your policies automatically is because the prices of the policies would have gone up, and we all know we hate it when companies upgrade our policies automatically and charge us higher prices.
4. Change your own perception of the insurance sector
I think people should change the perception of the insurance sector. There are black sheeps and professionals in this industry. Insurance has become a taboo topic amongst the older generation, and perhaps the younger generation too, if they were swayed by their older relatives.
I also think that we should correct our attitude when our insurance agent calls to fix an appointment. How many people would gladly agree to a new appointment? Most people end up thinking that the insurance agent is just out to earn your money, and so reject the appointment. I was wondering if that is the case for this letter’s author. If that is the case, we can hardly blame the agent for not informing him on recent changes, because some people are just that stubborn.
While we are on this topic, I thought I should address a similar topic. Is it wrong for friends to earn your money? I have realized that some people are very disgusted with the thought that your friend is out to earn your money. Why is that wrong? As long as the friend has given goods or services that you desire, what is wrong with rewarding them with money? Why is it that if you are a true friend, you should not earn a friend’s money?
Back to the insurance issue, I think the person you should trust most to fix your problems for you is your family or your friends. So you’ll most likely end up buying from them rather than to somebody who just cold-called you. So to me, it is perfectly fine to earn money from friends and family.
The most important thing to learn is that insurance policies do change every few years, and so it is important to have a yearly meeting with your insurance agent to find out more. The decision is really up to you, whether you want to upgrade or not. I believe good insurance agents are sincere, and even if you do not end up buying from them, they are sure to continue meeting with you to introduce you to other policies. Of course, if you have the purchasing power, you should consider upgrading. As long as it’s within your means. Medical technology and practices evolve over the years, hence policies will change to include such treatment.
Who knows, maybe one day you need the newer technology to cure your illness? I think it is better to be prepared, than to be caught unaware like the gentlemen above.
I read with amusement at today’s Sunday Times which carried a few pages on the AWARE saga, which I have been silently following. Much has been said, largely repeated by everyone on the traditional media or the new media. But I am always amused by the things people say, full of holes which could be attacked, and which really makes no sense.
Are you aware that in Singapore, we should respect our elders unconditionally? No I’m not talking about your grandparents who showered you with care and concern, sweets and chocolates, toys, what have you. But I challenge the traditional notion that we should respect our elders, for as I agree with a retort in the AWARE EGM, that “respect has to be earned”.
In this modern world we have today, are we still bounded by old fashioned ideas that our elders are always right, and we should listen to them respectfully? Of course not. If that were true, then why are we having the issues on feminism? Feminism is the proof that people have progressed. In the past, females are not allowed to vote, today they can. Why should we blindly follow the elder who’s apparently blind?
It is ironic that this elder, who self dubbed herself as the “feminist mentor”, should acclaim after yesterday’s EGM that she was shocked and wondered what is happening to the females in Singapore. It is ironic simply because she calls herself the feminist mentor, yet seemed to be out of touch with the female mentality.
Now may I raise a very important point. The females in Singapore that voted for the old guard in yesterday’s EGM are not voting for homosexuality. To them, that is not the main point. The main point would be that they do not like the methods that were used to hijack an organization, and they do not like mixing religion into a secular organization.
I am further bewildered that a former Law Dean cannot understand the meaning of being secular, and choose to push for her religion-influenced opinion on homosexuality and apply it for the rest to follow.
As for the AWARE saga, I too have a few opinions, and they are mostly about the homosexuality part.
I don’t understand how teaching that homosexuality is neutral, as opposed to negativity, would encourage me to try homosexuality. Personally I feel homosexuality a little disgusting, especially when I saw the disgusting photos of two Singapore men doing the deed in public, which was posted on the internet. But I do feel that we should not need to treat them as weird, especially when they are not doing stuff in front of us. I would also not try homosexuality because I was taught that it is a neutral word.
I don’t see how our kids would be more likely to engage in homosexuality when we say it is normal. In my opinion, making it normal is trying to teach the kids not to discriminate against those who are different from them. Why would I want to engage in homosexual acts? It makes no sense.
It also makes no sense as to why parents are horrified about pre marital sex. Have they read the news that lower secondary school students are mating like there is no tomorrow? Why are we talking as if it hasn’t happened, and must be prevented? Should we continue to pretend that everyone is as “pure” and “untainted” like (insert someone’s name here)?
So when people say they fear for their kids, it makes me laugh. Are they being in a world of their own? Shouldn’t we accept that it is already happening, and change our methods in teaching them? We shouldn’t probably subscribe to a single school of thought, but merge ideas and decide what’s best for society to continue.
I also laugh as a sentence in the papers today, saying that those who came yesterday are not representative of all women in Singapore, who are supposed to be by and large conservative. Firstly, are all women members of Aware? No. Furthermore, how does anyone actually know that we are by and large conservative? And how do we measure the amount of conservativeness? I am conservative. I don’t think homosexuals should mate in public. Yet I don’t think they should be discriminated upon. Chances are, most people probably think this way. That is why we have the results we have yesterday.
The Aware “new guard” (irony. its old now) was fighting a different battle since the beginning. It is no wonder they lost.
I read with amusement with respect to what our leaders say about why foreigners like to take up citizenship here in Singapore. Apparently, here in Singapore, you do not need “guan xi” or connections to do well. Here in Singapore we go by a system of meritocracy, something ingrained in us since we had the required brain level to process Social Studies. I agree that the idea of meritocracy is an extremely important concept, and must be carried out to ensure a fair and just society. But then again, are we really sure that we do not need connections?
I have always felt a tiny sense of disgust when people talk about meritocracy. Yes, meritocracy is important. It is important to let peasants think that meritocracy is a pillar of our society. It is damaging if one day we all felt that our society is not based on meritocracy. Yet, are we practising what we preach?
We say Singapore is a meritocratic society. If you work hard, you will get what you deserve. You’ll get promoted based on your capabilities, not on connections. Yet time and time again I have been proven wrong. Connections do get you somewhere, and meritocracy is only a front.
Why do I say that? Just take a look at the top schools of today. Can we find any white horses? We don’t even need white horses. Can we find anyone who’s in the school today that got in not because of stellar academic results, or excellence in other fields? I bet we can. Where is the meritocracy then? When you could get into a top school by connections, even when you fail to make the grade, when other Singaporeans are denied a place just because they cannot get the required aggregate or L1R5?
I read further into the article, where we say the scholarships are given to those that deserve it. Yet how many scholars do deserve it? Is it that white horses are all of excellent gene material, that by nature of them being offsprings of our leaders, that they have the natural ability to pass all scholarship interviews smoothly? I do not know, and I can’t argue. But what about those few who are in our local schools? Those scholars from overseas who come to Singapore to study, most seeing Singapore as a stepping stone to another country like the US? Those scholars who cannot even raise our academic level, and fail to even keep up to peasants like me in University?
Or like the one sitting beside me today who continued writing when the professor declared that the time is up? And even discussed with his friend and wrote down what his friend told him, just because the situation was so out of control since the professor didn’t have the brains and asked all of us to hand the script on our own to the front? There’s no need to point fingers. Yes the indian “scholar” over there. Yes, the china “scholar”. And we think they deserve it. They can’t even introduce proper competition in our academic environment without cheating.
So don’t talk about meritocracy like it is for everyone. Yes meritocracy is here in Singapore, but it’s only for peasants. Within peasants versus peasants, meritocracy prevails. For the elite, their very nature would enable them to win. Meritocracy? White horsepocricy.
After a great deal of thought, I think you should work with the Ministar for Defence and come up with a plan to abolish Project Work in JCs for guys. Specifically, guys who are going into National Service. In fact, you should add one more year of Project Work for the females and foreign males who are not going into National Service. This is because, your humble peasant feels that Project Work is equivalent to National Service in a very major way. Both have extreme wayang elements.
This humble peasant has gone through both Project Work and National Service, and has seen what a great potential for wayang both could be. This is because your success in both Project Work and National Service is not directly dependent on how hard you work, or how capable you are, but how much wayang you can cause.
1. It’s dependent on your immediate superiors
We all know how Project Work is heavily influenced by teachers, just like in National Service. During NS, some sergeants may be like this: “Eh. Stand by area. Everything clean and tidy can already. No need to be like 5 star hotel”. Other sergeants are different: “Stand by area! I want everything to be perfect. Later got ministar RSM coming to inspect. I don’t want to see any speck of dust”. You get the picture. Your immediate superiors decide on how much you need to work to gain their approval, no matter whether the RSM is indeed coming to inspect or not. Similarly, your teachers decide how hard you have worked. Whether you exceed expectations, meet expectations or fail to hit expectations. Now when I was in JC, my teacher is like the slacker sergeant. Lazy to do anything. Lazy to see how we work during normal times.
2. It’s dependent on your own wayang
I remember the time when the lazy teacher comes to sit with us for like 10 minutes or so, listening to our discussion. Seriously, it is a huge wayang. It’s exactly like NS, where the slacker rests on the bed whilst the rest of us do our area cleaning, and when it is done and we are resting, he pretends to be doing something the moment the sergeant comes into the picture. The sergeant thinks the slacker is the most hardworking soldier, but we all know what a big wayang he is. In Project Work, you should contribute as many things as possible, even when 90% of it is just a huge smoke out. When your teacher sees how much you are contributing, you are deemed to be working hard, even though you contribute nothing when the teacher is not around.
3. It’s dependent on other people
At the final, we have this presentation where teachers from other schools come and listen to our presentations and judge on our presentation skills. This is like NS Atec evaluation. I remember the time when my unit 1GDS was asked to evaluate our brother unit, 3GDS. Of course we close one eye when we do things. By nature of affiliation, we will try our best not to give problems to the unit. On the other hand, if you ask us to evaluate other units, what is to say that we don’t go and sabo the units so that they get a lousier rating? This is exactly the same for Project Work. The teacher from the rival school will try to tweak the scores slightly so that you don’t get a good score. Anyway, their own students probably get marked down too! Alternatively, if its affiliated, maybe tweak higher? There’s so much potential for abuse.
With this 3 points, it is sufficient to prove that Singaporean males do not need to do Project Work, since they are going through NS already. They would have equipped themselves with the basic smoke throwing skills, the chao keng and slack but still appear good soldier skills, and also even the how to carry the occifer balls skill. Hence there is no need to waste time on Project Work when they end up with the same skills!
The humble peasant hopes that the ministar will abolish PW for guys, and lengthen PW for the rest to 2 years so that their skills will be on par with the rest of the population!
Yours sincerely,
Only-a-peasant
Writer’s note: This is merely a way to link both PW and NS through humour. Of course, there could be impartial people, and people that are not wayang, which is also the same in NS circumstance. But anyway, I think I should have proven that PW should not be taken seriously. Which person with brains would force the universities to accept PW as one of the admission criteria?
Oh please. I keep seeing skeptics talk about what a stupid idea the Earth Hour is. Or how people keep proclaiming their views on Earth Hour on their facebook accounts. I happen to think that the Earth Hour is great, but I accept that Earth Hour has it’s flaws too, but overall it is a good step in my opinion.
Why do i think it is a good step, and that it is great? Have you realized the great hype that goes with every Earth Hour? The newspapers carry reminders, the television newscaster says it once, your friends talk to you about it. Blogs also blog about it, giving rise to people actually wondering what Earth Hour is about, and finding out more about it. In a way, you start to be more environmentally conscious. But whether you are so conscious that you actually do something about it is a different story altogether. Even people on Facebook, yes my friends, especially those with strong opinions, you actually help to broadcast the hype about Earth Hour.
Whilst it is a little stupid to only switch off your lights for an hour every year for this Earth Hour event, don’t you think it’s not about the amount saved, but the idea that transmit to every individual? Notice that governments around the world also participate, hence it is a very large scale world wide event. How many times can you organize a world wide event and not have something to criticise about?
But then, what flaws am I talking about? I am talking about the flaws in the user of Earth Hour, not the idea of the Earth hour itself. It’s us users that are plain stupid, switching off one hour of light that day and then waste electricity all year round. The GS did say that she once went back to NUS on a weekend, trying to use the PC cluster, only to find it locked, except the lights are on and the aircon is also at full blast. With no souls inside, that’s a huge waste of electricity.
Hence Earth Hour is actually not a bad idea. Earth hour is not to conserve the environment, but to raise awareness. Granted, more should be done to actually make us do something about saving the environment, but every large mission starts with baby steps. What we should do, on our part is to remember that the earth needs saving. It’s not only electricity though:
1)I do not accept plastic bags from shops unless I need them, so I do not use so many plastic bags that I do not need
2) I have entered the NUS toilet on two occasions, finding that the stupid tap is depressed too hard and the water keeps flowing as it does not go back to off state. Hence I pull the stupid button till it stops the flow, thus wasting less water. (Damn those stupid tap makers who do not know how to make good taps)
3) I sleep without aircon and without fan too. Don’t ask me how I did that. I think I got used to it. It’s an acquired feeling.
4) I print my stuff on both sides of the paper, and where possible, 2 per page instead of 1 per page.
But I think more can be done. Things like making it easier to recycle electronics, like used batteries and used printer ink cartridges. There is so much more we as citizens of the Earth can do for recycling efforts. The heat has been too darn hot recently isn’t it? I hope my children will not have to live in a desert. I rather they have more desserts.
I have finally watched the award winning movie, Slumdog millionaire yesterday night. To be frank, I do not see all the hype surrounding it. In the middle of the movie, I grew slightly bored, but it is still mildly interesting enough to continue, and hence I did manage to finish the whole movie in one sitting. One scene was super disgusting, that being the young boy jumping into the shit pool so he could get out and get the signature of his idol.
But I guess there are two important scenes that resonate with me in the show. The first scene is where I suppose is something like racial riots, except it’s more to do with religion, since I heard the word Muslims inside, and Slumdog millionaire is an Indian movie. In that scene, the two young boys watched in horror their mother getting killed right before their eyes. They saw the destruction of property and life. And this is really happening in all parts of the world. People don’t coexist peacefully with each other.
The second scene is when the elder brother was being a real bastard. He took out his revolver, pointed at his younger brother, simply because he wanted to have sex with the younger brother’s crush. His younger brother had to go away to avoid getting killed. I feel that such things are the most hated things that can happen in one’s lives, simply because you feel powerless to defend the things or people you care about. To not be able to stand up against bullies who don’t follow the path of righteousness is a very sad feeling. One that you can feel immense hatred against the perpetrators.
Which is why I smiled when my friend shared a link on facebook. It also resonates with me. Although it is the army’s commercial, I find that the meaning is appropriate. Even if you do not like conscription in Singapore, you have to agree with the meaning of the commercial. “What you can’t defend, you don’t own.” Which is why we should do our best not to get bullied. Which is why I feel we shouldn’t give anyone a chance to think that we can be bullied.
I’ll end with the YouTube of the commercial. Do just take some time to watch and see if you can feel the message as I do.
Just wanted to share this quote here which I thought is quite meaningful:
Men often become what they believe themselves to be.
If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it.
But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.
Mahatma Gandhi
True, there are plenty of things that’s just plain mental. We go about in our daily lives lamenting how good other people are. We look at the rich man driving that cool car picking up the prettiest girls and we say “bastard” in our hearts. We go green with envy over other people’s achievements, and forget that if we truly wanted what we are going green for, we will do anything to get it.
I will never forget some of the lessons learnt in life. I am who I think of myself to be. I’m the only one who can live my life. And I should always remember that life is like a play, what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how great it is.
So let’s all set some goals and achieve them. Remember, discipline and attitude are the foundations of success.
This will be a pretty anyhow mashed up post since I do not have much to write for each of the above topics. But before I begin, let me wish everyone a “Happy Chinese New Year”.
My life hasn’t changed a single bit for the past week. Life is just going to school, attending lectures and tutorial (singular because I only had 1 tutorial so far), and having lunch with friends from other departments in Engineering, and also from School of Computing. Everyday I end by lunch time (other than Thursdays) and I have time to do my own things, except that I am generally lazy and I don’t do the things I should do. Tutorials are starting from this week onwards, but since there is 2 days of holidays, the impact will probably be minimal. Next week will be when the tutorials are all up and running.
Chinese New Year is mainly a boring affair. It used to be interesting and fun, but it has been quite monotone the past few years. Primarily it is because the cousins I used to play with have all grown up, me inclusive, and hence we all have our own private lives to run. As such, we only probably see each other only once a year, during Chinese New Year, and there is nothing much to talk about. It’s a real pity, but I guess that is life. Friends around me seem to report a similar predicament. I wonder if it is because we were all busy studying.
Reunion dinner was nice. Its the annual steamboat event and there is lots to eat. I satisfied my shabu shabu craving then, and even had the annual portion of the abalone.
I only go to my aunty’s house every year, since my grandparents live there. So the entire extended family goes to visit every year. I don’t go anywhere else, because there is nowhere else to go. I think it’s better because it’s quite troublesome to go from places to places. But I guess I will never understand the feeling of commuting during CNY since I never did experience it. Probably better for me since I won’t like it much anyway.
Today is the 2nd day of the new year and I’m staying at home, trying to study and catch up with work. But it’s really boring. At least the week will be better. There’s school to keep me busy for a while, and on Friday there is the CNY celebration for Advisors Alliance in the boss’s house. I didn’t go the other time, and I guess it is good to see how large his house is. On Saturday there is a primary school clique CNY gathering at my teacher’s house. It has been a long time since I seen them, so I must take it as a good opportunity to meet them.
The past week there has been plenty of unrest in many people’s blogs with respect to the topic of the Association of Bloggers. In a way I have learnt that whenever you try to do something, you must be prepared for the backlash, and you must be prepared to ignore critics. I say ignore because some critics are just criticizing for the sake of criticizing, and their arguments are not really valid. Critics who raise valid points should always be welcomed and feedback be taken seriously.
In a way, I realize that this is remnants of the blog wars that was carried over since a few months ago. In actual fact, this shouldn’t be a blog war, but it has become one, and I feel that it is because of what the President wrote in her own blog. I feel very disgusted at what she wrote, because she could have not wrote all those insensitive things. If she had exercised restraint like any responsible representative of any association, a huge bulk of the problem would not have begun. Hence from this I learnt that when I become a representative, I have to be mindful of my words and actions because what I say and do will affect many people and cause many possible problems.
Personally I feel that most of their aims are good, and should be encouraged. Entrepreneurial actions should always be encouraged, even if they eventually fail. Their intentions are good, and there are a few people up on the team which I respect, one of them being Paddy, who is running many companies like Bak2u and Blog2u. Hence I’ll be just sitting back and watching how events unfold, and pray that they will overcome all the problems they have now and do the things they wanted to do.
There’ll always be people who disagree with your ideas, especially if they are new, but time has shown that it is with new ideas that our lives continually improve. People may think you are mad, or stupid, but persevere if you believe in something, and it will happen.
