Middleman

Being the middle man is hard. Especially if you are in a 4 way traffic.

Imagine this, you are a traffic police directing traffic on a 4 way junction where cars on all direction doesn't want to give way. All want to go first. 

Singapore customers are all pampered. I understand. We expect top service for every penny we spent. But please be reasonable. Try to understand the limitation of those people serving you. If they can, they would not want the problem to drag on. 

As a customer, you get what you paid. Being a consumer myself, I would love good service but I never let myself expect it unless I'm paying a premium. Expect lesser and you will be happier when people exceed your expectation. Expect more and be ready to be disappointed. 

Then again, being the middle man, you make the least out of the pie, yet you bear most of the responsibilities. Unless you are just another box mover trying to whack market with price. 

And in my case, beside being the middle man, I'm kinda being the service middle man. On one end, the customer refuse to pay and expect extra from service provider. On the other end, the vendor doesn't wanna lose or pay. Then I have engineers who keep making mistakes. And lastly, I have a boss who won't want to bear the cost too. In addition, I have sales people who are too lazy to meet the customer. 

So, being the one facing the customer and without supports we need, how are we suppose to handle with what we have? Furthermore, does the margin justify what you have to offer? 

So in the end, you have to think, is it worthwhile to be a middleman with responsibility? 

I guess, from what I have experienced, leave the service to the manufacturers themselves and just be another box mover. That's the best way to move forward. Else, be prepared to lose money and take the blame. 

Although I hate boring work, the complication at times is indeed overwhelming. 

And please during this period of time, do not add on to my worries. 

Email with Love

While in the beginning I mentioned that I do not want to talk about anything bad in this blog, it's hard not to mention as things regardless good or bad happened everyday in our lives. So, i thought since this blog is about how I learn to live my life, I will put whatever came into my mind into this blog. 

I'm not sure if I had mentioned previously that the current company that i'm working in, is having some HR issues which lead to bad productivity. Well, the company is still healthy in terms of business wise, but the environment is getting harder and harder. Although I'm a manager, i am proud to say that i'm pretty much still on the ground. So i hear things and I know how people feel. People are frustrated and it's bad.

So let's focus on a particular incident which happened yesterday. A particular senior manager(50+ of age) lost her temper on a staff(20+ of age) because this staff tried but did not get the answer she want from our supplier. That senior manager immediately report it to the young boss and young boss gave the staff a lesson on all other alternative and that we can push our way through or try to beg for it. Which i think that as leaders and people who seems to know that much, why can't they lead by example? Do it and show it. Instead of just instructing?

This morning as I was walking to work, I had this idea in mind of sending out an email to everyone in my office. 

"Dear colleagues,

Lately, there seems to be some sort of communication breakdown. On my way home last evening, i came across a recruitment drive and on their ad, they wrote "Have colleagues that are like family". And I think it's true, we spent 9 hours of our typical working day together and that is longer than what you have with your real family (assuming you take 8 hours sleep every time. 24-8-9=7). So why can't we treat everyone working together with love. 

Yes, we are humans and we have emotions. But everyone want to work in a place where there are laughter, love and happiness. So before you give someone else a piece of your mind, please think of how that person will feel. How will you feel if the position is reversed? I always believe in treating people how you want to be treated. It is easier to break a trust/relationship then to build/restore one. 

In the light of that, I would like to take the first step in improving our relationship and make this office a better place to work at. I apologise for any wrong we done before and seek your forgiveness. Let bygone be bygone. 

And on a side note, I would like to share with all the senior managers and managers, that it is better to rule by love and respect instead of fear. You will get more productivity and better quality work done when people do it for you willingly. And i'm sure by doing so, you can truly rely on them as you know, regardless of what happened, they will support you. Well, I'm sure we can reduce the staff turnover rate too! 

Moving forward, I will (and i'll try to make sure that my team does the same), try my best in doing my work and providing all the support that everyone of you need. All that I'm asking is that if there is any thing that I've done that is not up to your satisfactory, let's brainstorm and explore together how it can be improved. Suggestions are always welcomed, but not criticism and nitpicking.

Thank you.

Your sinscerely,
Steph"

It does feels a little weird needing a 20+ of age to teach those 40 and above on how to behave. :/

Fear vs respect

A good leader doesn't rule through fear, but rather through example, logic, care, respect, love and responsibility. And only by doing so, you will get support and loyalty from the people who then listen and abide with you willingly. 

By using your position and installing fear is counterproductive. People will feel unhappy and perform your task reluctantly. So, even though you get what you want, you will not get the best of what it can be if done willingly and wholeheartedly. Needless to say, don't hope that that person is gonna stay.

Hating someone is tiring, so why force people to hate you where you could have gotten all the help and assistance in the world? And I'm sure that it is equally tiring having to watch your back all the time. 

Demo Unit

If you are selling hardware, demo unit and/or a good sales person is very important. If your product can speak by itself, then you can even do without the sales person and people will still wanna get your product. 

And i think trade shows are necessary! People go to trade show during the weekend to spend sometime, especially if there are multiple events going on. Ride on the crowd!  

Went to a fair over the weekend with nothing specific to buy, rather just for a walk with my family. The events going on are Electronic fair, Malaysia Travel Fair, MPH Book Fair and John Little Fair. So while hall hopping, we ended up buying lotsa things. But keeping in mind that we are going to Thailand soon, we made mental notes not to buy any bags or clothes. So, while walking, we came across the camera department, specifically dry box (for camera) and my dad say, "hey, you need one, why don't you get it". 

So, we are standing there for a good 10mins and no sales personnel came to attend to us. Finally, someone came. We ask to look at the exact model of the dry box (20L), wanna know how big it is before we can judge what size should we be getting. 

He mentioned that they do not have any demo unit and can't open up new unit. Then he suggested for us to go to another booth to look at their demo unit and judge the size from there. 

We said our thanks and head to another booth specifically to look at the size. The sales personnel there came over immediately upon seeing us and ask how can she help us. So we told her we are looking at dry box and the different sizes. And she immediately tell us why we should buy her product although it's slightly more expensive. We eventually took the 36L one at $118 (the first booth is selling their 40L at $108).

I'm happy with my purchase. :) Next up, send my camera and lenses for servicing.

Heading home!

Finally, we came to the end of the trip. With all the shopping, we are heading back with 129KG! 

Taipei Day 4 : Yi Lan

Day 4 we head out to Yi Lan. Supposed to go to Dan Shui, but our business partner decided to take us on a scenic route and have some fabulous seafood. So we head out to Yi Lan. The scenic route is really beautiful. Reminds me of Hokkaido. If you have time, rent a car and drive down this route. You will end up facing the pacific ocean.

 He brought us here for seafood. 

 We ended up spending NT16800 for this fantastic seafood.

 After the meal, we took a walk around the neighbourhood. 

 Am surprised to find lotsa puffer fish here!

 We continue on the scenic route. These rock carvings are cute! 

 And then we reach Yi Lan. 

 Their cemetery looks cute. 

 We pass by this temple which the locals believe to be good.

 This store seems rather popular. Not sure how it taste

 We came to this shop to buy souvenirs. Yi Lan is famous for the San Xin Chong and Niu Se Bing. 

 There is a hot spring park where you can soak your feet and hands. 

They have their own beer! Great taste!

 After back in Taipei, we went to try the long queue bun stall. There are actually 2 bun stalls. One behind Sogo and one beside Sogo. Not sure which taste better. I only tried the one beside (Jiang Tai Tai) and it's just so-so. The one behind (Jiang Bao Zi) looks about the same. Hmm...

 One of my colleague recommended Amo's Honey Layer Cake. So we all went to grab it. Haven't taste it yet, so I can't tell you if it's good.

 And one of my friend recommended us to try out this steamboat. So here we go. Lucky we called in to reserve. It seems like it is pretty full everynight. We only end up with the 9pm slot as the 7pm one is full. They only give you 2 hours to finish up. It taste great. If you have time, go for it. But the portions are huge! So don't order too much. 1 bottle of drink is enough for 3 to share. Their ma la soup is made out of duck blood and taufu. You must try it. It is wonderful!