SME Conference.

A great opportunity was provided for us to attend the SME Conference 2014. I was looking forward to this day because I know this day would be life changing. 

The main speakers of the day:  

• Johan Gorecki, CEO, Global Forum & Co-founder, Skype 

• Dr Soraya Rahim Ismail, Managing Director, Boost Juice

• TT Teoh, Founder, Global Top Technologies

The theme of the congress is EVOLUTION. The place was filled with businessman, women and also students who participated in the event. The event started of with Mr. Johan Gorecki. He is a man with many ideas and yet humorous. I have learnt several things from him which are: 

• You need to explore the world. 
• Experience is the key to business. 
• Markets need to be mature before you enter the market.
• LISTEN. 
• You must have visions and dreams.
• Always start small.
• Do it step by step.
• Surround yourself with people who you are competent in what you're not good at. 
• Be generous in sharing ideas.
• Pick team players for your company.
• Learn from your failures.
• Understand your weaknesses. 
• You need balance and harmony.
• You need to create a dynamic environment that consists of people with different backgrounds.
• Your personal brand is important.
• Be confident in yourself.
• It is important to know when is the right time to market.
• Protect your IP and technology.
• Find people who have common experience.
• Conduct physical meeting with people. 

During the next session with Dr. Suraya, I have learnt :

• Learn how to change and improve yourself.
• Follow your instincts!
• Be willing to take risks. 
• Hard work and commitment. 

In the third session with Mr. T.T.Teoh, he did not have sufficient time but managed to share with us his life story and it really inspire and motivated me. He is a very independent person and he never gives up. He always picks himself up again and again no matter how hard the situation is. His ideas were marketed at the right time which brought him to where he is today. Not only that, he kept reminding us to love our parents for they will do everything for you and loving them is what motivates you. He had a very good sense of humor and I enjoyed his session the most. 

Without this opportunity, I would never get the experience to see things from various people's perspective and how they became successful by believing in themselves. 

Malaysia SME Congress 2014. 

Quote of the day:

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again intelligently".

-Henry Ford-

 

The Challenge.

The Challenge.
The challenge this month is the Business assignment. We are required to write an academic essay and also analyze Loreal's annual report. This two assignments have been very tough but it is the first step in changing your mindset in approaching the assignment.

The question of the academic essay is regarding how managers in this current generation is able to adapt to the rapid and dynamic changes in the business environment. It is really an eye opener for me to complete this assignment with the guide of Dr. Tan in every step of the process. We were taught to write in a more critical way which we are not used to. This is a very good and efficient way to learn how to write in a whole new level.

Besides, the second assignment is to analyze the statistical values in the Loreal annual report and discuss what is Loreal capable of doing in the coming years and what are the actions they have made that contradicts with their vision and mission. This assignment has taught me how to analyze values and think even more critically to discuss regarding their actions and how does it affect the company itself.

Both these assignments are tough but tough is what we need to go through sooner or later on in life. These two assignments have really taught me a lot and taught me to not give up no matter how hard the assignment is. I used this as my foundation to become someone who is able to achieve great things.

Quote of the day:

"Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try".

Moving On.

Moving On.
The 3D Live Apps class have come to an end. The knowledge that I acquired from this is far beyond enough. We were taught on how to do proper presentations, dress codes and so on. They managed to equip us with sufficient knowledge for future and current use. I believe the 3D Live Apps is very useful for future use.

As the class have ended, Dr. Tan was able to have time to check our assignments and continue regarding the lecture. The next factor was regarding technology. Technology have been evolving in a very fast manner that we humans cannot catch up too many of the new products created. With the fast pace of accelerating improvement of technology, there will be one point whereby the improvement will stop and will thus wait for a creative destruction. According to Joseph Schumpeter, every life cycle has a creative destruction. This creative destruction is something that is very sudden and unexpected. The negative side of this theory is that not all things have a creative destruction. For instance, a table does not face a creative destruction because it cannot be changed into something else with a different purpose of the table.

Moreover, the natural environment is also another factor that affects out businesses. Consumers are now very sensitive towards the materials used in production of items. Consumers are concerned and have the perception that companies should be responsible towards the nature and not destroy it. As an example, Loreal's products were considered non halal and was banned in a few countries because Loreal uses animal testing for their products. To change people's perception regarding Loreal, Loreal bought over Body Shop, an organic skincare product, to learn how not to use animal testing. Due to this critical action, Loreal's sales boosted and people's perception have changed.

To conclude, businesses must take the PESTEL analysis seriously as one wrong move can cause the business to shut down. Organizations must learn how to adapt to such dynamic and rapid environment in order to survive in such a competitive business market.

Quote of the day:

"Your future is created by what you do today and not tomorrow" 

Courage.

Last Monday was the day we had to prepare for a 3 minutes presentation on the topic "Who Am I?" in the 3D Live Apps class. We've got the opportunity to present in front of the CEO and the project director of 3D Live Apps. Everyone went up the stage and presented with courage and I was busy shivering and anticipating for my turn as the auditorium was too cold! When it was my turn to present, I spoke about my plans in the future and also how I wanted to help my parents in their businesses and at the same time pay for my two younger sisters' school/college fees. I was complimented by the CEO and was proud as I felt that i have achieved something small which will be my stepping stone to be someone greater.

Next, during the lecture, I have learnt about how the social environment can also affect businesses. The social environment includes population demographics, income distribution, culture, lifestyle changes, purchasing behavior and social mobility. Different countries have different culture and lifestyle. Therefore, before entering a foreign market, a manager must analyze the culture, language and lifestyle there. With that, the goods or service will be able to enter the new market smoothly. There are a few examples that shows how important this factor is. Firstly, Durex, a condom manufacturing company did not succeed in penetrating the market in India as the people there do not believe in population control. This has caused losses for Durex. Secondly, Disneyland in France was not capable to attract many customers as the lifestyle there is more to enjoying life and doing things in a slow manner. The rides in Disneyland such as roller coasters do not attract many people. To overcome this problem, Disneyland has changed its roller coasters into roller coasters that are very slow. After the change, Disneyland sales increased and realized their mistake in entering the market in France.

To sum things up, a manager must know issues as such to prevent the company from facing such problems that will cause losses to the company. Knowing customer lifestyle and behavior also can allow you to increase sales and reputation of the company.

Quote of the day: 

"If the plan doesn't work, change the plan but never the goal".

Don't Tell God How Big Your Problem Is, Tell Your Problem How Big Your God Is.

It has been a tough month as most of the assignments are needed to be handed up for the past few weeks. Many things have happened that cause me to be very shaken but we must still go on with life because God's plan for you is what that is most important.

As for what that has been discussed in the previous post, lectures continued and again more knowledge was gained. In the past few lectures, we have learnt regarding the levels of politics.There are three levels of politics which consist of the national level, the subnational level and the supranational level. This then brought us to the globalization issue. Dr. Tan defined globalization as forcing the local government to allow foreign forces to lower tax and subsidies. Right now, organizations are trying to merge so that it will be able to overcome the superiority and competition of foreign organizations. For example, many foreign institutions are investing in Malaysia which will then cause the amount of students who chooses local institutions will decrease. This will create an immediate affect to the education market. Therefore, politics play a significant role in the business environment.

Above is a video that shows how politics in Kenya affects the business environment there. This clearly shows that politics of a country have the capability and authority to affect your business in various ways. 

Through this lesson, I can view issues with a different perspective and to try to think critically and applying it to my assignments. 

Quote of the day:

"The reward for work well done is opportunity to do more"

Work Hard. Have Fun. Make a Difference.

Two months have gone by by a blink of an eye. It has been fun for the past two months but challenging at the same time. Assignments are piling up and tests have been such a huge obstacle for me to go through. Thankfully, my tests were fine and is trying to organize my assignments so that I can begin to do my assignments.

Besides, I have been attending a class called the 3D Live Apps which replaced my Business class on Mondays. In this particular class, we learn essential things for our future use such as what should you wear for an interview, non-verbal communication and we also play games which help us to bond as a class. Yes, I do find this as a good effort from INTI to provide us such a service for us as semester one students but sometimes it is just really time consuming. Classes always start late as there are always latecomers which affects the rest of us when Mr. Andrew had already started the class. There is always distractions and it could be boring sometimes. Other than that, classes are very useful for our future when we step into the working world.

Despite the lack of time for our business lectures, I have always managed to gain new knowledge. I have learnt the PESTEL and Michael Porter's Five Forces in more detail. Now, I know that businesses must have a balanced ecosystem in order for a business to operate smoothly. Not only that, the macro environment of business is not beyond the control of organizations because the organizations are still capable in influencing the macro environment. Therefore, companies must have the capacity to adapt internally before influencing the external environment. Organizations should also learn how to make friends with their competitor instead of merely trying to outdo them. By doing so, organizations are more capable in overcoming different factors that can affect the status of the company.

I have really learnt a lot for the past two months and will continue achieve greater things.

Quote of the day:

"The only way to do great things is to love what you do."

-Steve Jobs-

The sun comes up, it's a new day dawning.

After a month of this new journey, many things have inspire and motivated me to change myself and my perspective in looking at certain issues or matters. I have always looked forward to this new path that I will be going through. During this period of time, I am studying things that I have learnt before during my foundation year but this is even more challenging than before. Despite the fact that it is more challenging, I find that things become easier to comprehend as I learn all these again such as Economics, English, and also Marketing.

When the semester started, I have assumed that my Business subject would be another boring theoretical subject whereby memorizing facts would be my next best friend. I was wrong. My Business class is something so different that I find it hard to adapt to that situation. It was a different way of learning and it amazes me how that the business world can be viewed in such a manner. I have been exposed to things I have never heard or even learnt before.

For the past one month, I have learned about different people and how actually their theories were wrong. For example, Henry Minzberg and Richard Rumelt defines management as an action that is purposeful, intentionally, planned and directional. Unfortunately, this statement or definition has been proved to be wrong as they did not take the external environment of business into account. External environment or the macro environment consists of 6 factors (PESTEL) which is political factor, economic factor, social factor, technological factor, environmental factor and also the legal factor. Without considering the macro environment, businesses will fail as they lack information regarding things such as consumer behavior and how politics can actually affect your business.

Besides, I have also learnt how managing a business is related to the internal ad external environment of the business.

The diagram above shows clearly the relations between the internal and external environment of the business. A business needs a sufficient amount of labor, capital and raw materials in order to start the business. With that, the CEO of the company has the obligation to lead, control, plan and organize the internal environment of the company in order to produce good quality of goods and services. Then feedback will be given concerning the goods and services and so the company is able improve its goods and services. The output of the company is also affected by the external environment of the business markets. 

The above statements has been taught clearly in class and it changes the way I approach towards the Business subject. I am beginning to expand my knowledge which is necessary for me to improve myself. 

 Quote of the day: 

"The struggle you're in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow. "