corrupted

I'm in a service oriented business.

I've been in the business for about 9 years now.

Year in and year out, I would say, my firm has been doing ok. Not too great....not too bad either...

But I want to improve. I believe, some if not all of my staff and colleagues, would love to improve.

We don't want to stay stagnant and wait for something to happen...

However, as we go on and try to secure more business for ourselves, we've met with a lot of challenges.

One of the challenges is our inability to 'suap' the people involve in the decision-making.

Of course, it is our very own fault in failing to get 'close' to the people involve in the decision making.

I found that to do business such business of ours in Malaysia, it's all about networks and who you know.

Your degrees, MBAs, Chartered or whatever doesn't really carry a lot of weight if you wanna secure the business

It's all about getting close and give 'em what they want.

Sometimes I felt frustrated and I felt trapped in a room with no doors.

At times, they would just say, we will consider your request and have a look at your profile. Obviously, we would never see or hear from them again.

At times, when we call to make an appointment, the answer that we get was 'we will review the panelship in bla bla bla....till that moment comes, you can submit your profile and let us review....

Now, it'll be a totally different story if we have the ability to 'rub' their backs and say....hey listen, if you could give us X amount of business, we would be happy to give you some token of appreciation.....

Sometimes, I really don't know what to do...but I'll have to keep on fighting for the sake of myself, my family and my colleagues...

Shall I follow the others and do what they do....or what?...


errrrrrrrrrr....rant over....

cheeky....ungrateful

About a year ago, a guy came to us asking for a job. He was unhappy with his previous company as he stated he was underpaid. So he came to us, and since we were in need of a staff in JB, we took him in. Initially he was doing great. His compliance was good. Four months later, he started to slack a bit. Then he left without completing his task leaving lots of uncompleted files.

We were understaff and pretty desperate for someone to help us out when he decided to leave. Apparently, a few months later, he pleaded to come back and work with us as he was unhappy with the company that he was attached to. After a few discussion and promises from his part, he came back and did his task wonderfully.

In his letter of employment, it is clearly stated that if he does not achieve his monthly target, he pay is only such n such amount as the nature of his pay is based upon completed files/assignments. He has never achieve his target unfortunately. We wrote to him asking for explaination and fell into deft ears. Hence, in May 2010, we only pay the portion of his completed assignments.

He subsequently left and went straight to the labour office claiming that he was underpaid. He even went to the extent of claiming June 2010 full month salary.

And I was thinking to myself, no doubt that some of it is our fault in having such person like him in our organization. But what struck me most is the ungratefulness of a person like him after pleading to us for a job. He came to us for a job, we gave him a job and you did not complete it. Is it logically for us to pay you for not doing your job?

Now, the labour office for reason unknown to many, will always favour the employees. So who protects the right of the employers? Does the employers does not have the right to penalize employees for not completing his or her job? It was stated clearly in the letter of appointment that if he/she is unable to achieve his or her target as stipulated by the management, the management has the right to pay him in apportion of his completed task. Mind you, 80% of his work are not completed.

I'm very disappointed with such people with such attitude. These kind of people just wanna have an easy ride and take their pay and leave. No wonder why we can't progress.

Well, let's go and sort it out in the court then. It is a matter of principles. When you can't complete your task, don't expect us to be kind enough to pay you the money that you don't deserve. When others can achieve, it is illogical that you can't....

what an ungrateful little &%@*^$d!!!!

Meeting with principle

A colleague went to a meeting with a principal the other day. Apparently the principal decided to call all of their service providers to the meeting to discuss about payments. During the meeting, a guy representing the principle said something to their favorite service providers.

Principal: How is Mr F?
Service Provider C: He's doing ok. He sends his regards...

Principal: Heard you guys are shifting to a bigger place.
Service Provider C: Ya loor. Thank to you guys for giving us the business.

Principal: Why isn't mr F here? Well, if he is here we won't talk about business lah kan?

Service Provider C; Hahahahaha...you are right....

Then the principal turned his attention to my colleague with a straight face.

Principal: And you, what's your name again? Your company kan, very slow, very late, reports no quality, etc..etc..etc...How can you expect us to pay you when your service is slow, no quality. You guys better be careful. You will be strike off the panel if you do not buck up.

My Colleague: Yes Mr A. We understand and we will keep on improving.

Principal: Don't just say lah. Do it lah.

My colleague. Yes Mr A. Understood.

Principal: Learn from Service Provider C lah. You haaa.....very slow...The others also are very slow. I'm very disappointed. Etc...etc....

So he went on and on giving comments this and that to all the service providers except for one (let's call it service provider C).

When my colleague came back from the meeting, we had a chat about it. I even look at our statistic report that the principal claim we are slow. We are slow but statiscally only 1 out of 20 reports. That's not bad I think. We are not machines that are expected to be 100 correct all the time. Plus, out of 100 surveys, we are doing it according to the standards that were required by the principal. Nothing out of the extraordinary.

I then ask him, this principal seems to know Mr F (Service Provider C) very well eh? The answer was, yes lah, the principal has been taken care of handsomely by Mr F, how can he not be nice to Mr F? What about us I ask? Well, for us is only, receive the assignment, do the survey diligently and submit the report. No relationship be it personal or professional with the principal whatsoever....(perhaps that's where we are lacking)

So, I came to a conclusion, in some ways, in this business, you have to take care of your principals to get a bigger share of the pie. You can beg till the cows come home but if you are not giving him anything, don't expect to get the business. Sad but true. You can have all the MBAs, PHDs, ACCAs, ACAs, or whatever, but if you don't fill their pockets with brown envelop, you won't get a single business...I'm not saying all of them are like that....

Perhaps, we, ourselves could start giving by sending them a lorry load of durians at their office tomorrow. Hahahaha....

It's sad...but that's the reality of it nowadays....

And I'm sorry to even write this, for the principal, it must have felt very good when you have the power and authority to instruct people like us eh? You must be super proud that we, the service providers, come up to you and practically beg for business. Well, sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down....

Rant over....

Being in employment

I read a book by RObert Kyosaki a couple of years ago and I found it interesting. Especially when he wrote about money works for you instead you work for money. Of course, it's a concept that is easy to interpret but a wee bit harder than actually doing it.

So what I did was, I drew some charts based on my understand on some of the principles that he mentioned in his book. It is about being in employment, being self employed, business owner and of course, being an investor. As I have mentioned so many times in my previous postings, what I wrote here is purely based on my understanding and of course, I welcome any feedbacks from your goodselves...

Alrite then, let's take a look at being in employment.

Upon graduating (I hope everyone graduates but that is not the case in the real world), you are so upbeat about looking for a job. YOu search and search and starts submitting your CVs and so forth. After countless of interviews and some travelling, you managed to secure a JOB that you think that matches you. YOu're happy as it seems that your hard work is paying off. After the first month, you get your first pay check and you felt good. Then, it went on and on doing the same stuff till you get bored. You then search for another JOB that you think that can make you happier. So back to the same cycle. Sending CVs, Resumes and the lots. After a number of interviews, you again managed to secure a JOB at a better place and maybe perhaps a better pay.

By then, you may perhaps has purchased a car and you're living on your own renting somewhere in the city. After a few years, you get married and still being employed at the same place. You now have climbed the corporate ladder and you now sits at the managerial level. Being in the managerial level is always great but it comes with great responsibilities. You perhaps now spend lesser time at home but greater time doing work for your company. You now handles a number of employees under you and answer directly to the top management. If your downliner screws up, the top level management will scream at your head. Of course, office politics seems the norms these days and somehow and someone will certainly want your chair. (it's a dog eats dog world kan?) Receiving bonus at the end of the year is always great and for all your work that you have done, you think receiving 3 months bonus is good!!

Before you know it, you realised during your 40th birthday, you start thinking of doin something for your kids. I mean, their educations, their needs and wants, their weddings, etc...etc...Then you realised that with your current paycheck, it is just not possible to save your money. Everything that you earned, you used it to pay off your loans be it cars and houses and maybe personal loans. To make the matter worse, the company that you're working with is not doing well. One by one staff leave the company and the company seems to struggle to pay salaries. At first, the you get your paycheck once in 2 months and then it gets worse, once in 3 months and you decide you had enough. Again, at the age 40, you're back at where you started when you were younger. Sending CVs and Resumes. With all your experience, you expect to be highly paid. Corporations nowadays seems to one thing in mind. Maximum Profits with Minimum COsts. Hence, you will certainly costs them higher and things are not looking so bright. So what do you do? During this period, I'm pretty sure that majority of us has loans to pay and some mouths to be fed.

Ok, another simple scenario, upon graduating, you decided to stick with the same company or organization till the day you retires. Of course, once you retire, you will get some sort of memorablia from the organization. Perhaps a RM1000 worth of watch for all your 25-30 years of good service. Perhaps, you'll get yourself a golden handshake where the company says thank you and bye bye. What do you do after that? Again, by this time, you're already in your mid 50's. You still have to pay for your child's third level educations and what nots....

Let's take a look at the simple chart below:


Let me explain a wee bit on this simple chart.

I assume that you start working at the age 20 somethings where you first paycheck is about RM2k. Then you go to your 30s where you'll get a higher paycheck, perhaps about RM4k. Then into your 40s, another higher paycheck where I assumed to be about RM8k. Perhaps, upon reaching this age group, you'll hit a ''plateau''. Then we'll go into the golden years where you'll get a 5 figures salary (wow!!)Another couple of years then you retires.

What happens after you retires? What will be your income? Or your income suddenly becomes nil? Of course you'll have your EPF savings but will it be enough for you to continue to enjoy your lifestyles?

Anyhoos, that's the basic cycle of being in employment. Wake up, go to work, sleep. The same thing again until you retires. Life must be wonderful eh? Actually, I'm partly on those peeps that are currenty in this 'group'. I think most people are!

I'll do a write up on being self-employed later but for now, think about what I just wrote earlier. I guess, It is cool and alright to be in employment. You have more or less a secured pay and you know at the end of every month that you are gonna get paid. However, there are of course limitations that you can do with your monthly paychecks. Things like investments, educations, insurance, unit trusts, etc, etc...these things need money. And you have only so much that you can do. Think about it. How would a young graduate with a salary of RM2000 a month afford to invest in investments be it properties, unit trusts or whatever else? Taking into account his loan repayment on his car, rentals, phone bills, electricity bills, etc..etc...I guess, it's difficult eh?

Life can hit your hard sometimes and to be frank when reality kicks in, it will smack your face really, REALLY hard before you even notice it. It is sometimes difficult to put some sense in someone else's head about the reality of life but I think, what I just wrote earlier is for us to think really hard what we wanna do with our personal life. Of course, it is always great if you already knew what you want and you already have the necessary knowledge to assist you in getting there.


Of course, it would help if you have start saving when you're young. I wrote somewhere in my previous blogs, you'll need at least a saving of 30% of your monthly incomes. It may sound harsh but it is something that I believe everyone should do.

Funny

Sometimes we see and hear people talk about the glory days. They really talk with a lot of pride together with a pinch of arrogance. Stating this and that. How much they get, bla bla bla, you get the idea......... but when it matters most, they suddenly frooze like a little cat...they turned blank...as if suddenly hulk has turn from green to white....

so...lesson learnt is....always....ALWAYS be humble. Can't actually remember when Tan Sri Syed MOkhtar even said a word about how great he is in making millions in his businesses. Life is funny. Sometimes you're up...and sometimes you'll down in the drain.....

Management Issues...

Let's assume that you have a business that has turnover of about 5-6 million per year. And your total staff force will be about 30-40 people....You also have been in business for the last 15 years or so...You are thinking of improving your sales and obviously you'll need to employ more skilled employees and open up a new division (department) to ensure that you'll achieved your objective...You will then call up for an interview and someone from a competitor answered your call. He said, in order to beef up the department, he will need a team. In short, he is saying he has to bring his entire team from his current company that consists of 4 skilled workers and 1 support staff. You thought it was a good idea and decided to go ahead with the idea.

Hence, now that you've employ a few 'skilled' workers that you believe that can take the company to a higher level than what you have been used to for the last couple of years. Obviously, for the first few months, you can't expect any improvement or a surge of business from this new departments as your workers are still trying to cope and adapt to their new working environment, culture and ways.

Fast forward to 1 year. From the management reports and accounts, you don't see any significant improvements. The only business that comes from them are the businesses that you've been getting before they came in...On every meeting or review, the same questions has been has ask and obviously the same answers will be heard. Such answers like 'it will take time, it's very difficult to penetrate the market,' are the norm... You then realised that their overheads are now much more than their production. In short, you are starting to make losses month after month.

Losses after losses...you finally instructed the general manager to finalize the plan to ensure the survival of the department. The department is now not self sustaining..in other words the department needs help from the other departments to pay their salaries ..their monthly productions does not justify their high salaries and can only covers about 30-40% of their monthly overheads...you don't need to be a rocket scientist to acknowledge that the department are not doing well...meeting after meetings later,you were shocked when the GM suddenly wrote a resignation letter to you as he has failed in his promise made to you a few years ago...after thinking thoughtfully, you then approved his letter...after a few weeks, his assistant manager then wrote a resignation letter as well...you again approved it....

2-3 months later, after the 'team' left, the department has remained stale...nothing much happen but you still receive businesses for that department in a lesser extent...you thought that you had a team that can finally push your company to a greater heights but unfortunately it was all 'indah khabar dari rupa'...you thought with all their qualifications and experiences, you will at least be on par with your competiors especially in that line on business....at least now, you don't actually incur losses for that department as the production is sometimes 2 or 3 times bigger that it was as compared to some of the TEAM's monthly productions...

YOu then felt happy that you no longer incur losses from that department but you then received 2 letters from the Industrial Relation department stating that 2 of the 4 employees from the TEAM stated that you have unlawfully dismissed them...

Imagine this...they came to you for work and you gave them the work. When they can't perform you ask questions why they can't perform. When you ask them to put out a plan, they wrote in a resignation letter. You then begin to wonder on which part are they unlawfully dismissed?

You then have to go to the Industrial Relation office to offer your explanation. Not once but a few times. In short, your productive working hours are wasted as some of your time are spent answering questions in the IR office. You insisted that what you've done are all according to the country's law and you stand by your decision. They wrote a resignation letter and you accepted it. There are no elements of force what-so-ever when they sign the resignation letters....

Just imagine, these guys went to see you for work and when they work you pay them on time. When things get a little rough, they chickened out and then resigned. For some strange reasons, they decide to get free money by bringing the company to the industrial relations and to some extent, to the court...

You even heard that one of them plan to buy a luxury car with the money that he is going to get from you if he wins the case...

When face a situation like this...how do you react and what will you do?