Yea!!
Manchester United Football Club is the champion again, for the 10th time. It was a fantastic finish with 2 goals. It was not without missed heartbeat though! Could have a been a penalty against ManU when Rio "shouldered" the ball away in the penalty area, and when Paul Schole hacked down an opponent after he had already received a yellow card.
But it was fantastic to see them win. The team plays well and attacks well. Now for the double in 10 day's time!
Am still exciting and yet will have to sleep, for tomorrow is an exciting day too at work. Our new biz analyst will be joining us and we are also getting a NTU student on attachment for 10 weeks. In about 8 more days, we'll be getting one more staff and that completes our team.
It's exciting because with the low volume, we have to show results in improving efficiency and effectiveness. I have a lot of faith in the current team, from the doing part to the project part. They will support the department in its processes as well as push forward IT enhancements that will increase productivity, reduces errors and promotes more compliance.
So, it is going to be an exciting day tomorrow (or rather later on) though it will be tiring. As my director said, I will have to focus more on management and to do that, to be able to delegate, I must coach the current crop of officers into becoming effective supervisors themselves. I have set the medium and longer term Organisation chart with 1 AM and 2 supervisors as recommended by management and will now be looking towards proper coaching and guiding them so that they can rise to the expectation.
On top of that, we will implement our wiki initiative as well as using BPMN as part and parcel of normal ops life! There are important projects to be achieved and we have only 6 months left. It's going to be a blast and I feel that this team will do it. I cannot wait for the next round of performance review in 2009.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Bonus Time Soon
Yea, it's been a long time since I last blogged. I guess the novelty is wearing a little bit. And well, it's starting to dawn on me that I am writing this blog for myself, to remind myself!
Anyway, it has been an interesting monthly, yet again. I did all the performance reviews and even submitted the performance bonus allocation. Was revised by management and we have since re-submitted our final allocation, which I hoped will be accepted. Year 2007 was a good year, the best that I've seen so far in my 8 years at Phillip. Yea. That's 8 years in 2nd May 2008. While rewarding based on performance is key, years of service did have some good weighing in. I doubt it's a matter of years of service. I believe it's more of a "cut off". That's why we believe that a 2 year period is a bare minimum. 1 year for learning and 1 year to start producing, I'd say.
Anyway, 2008 does not look good. You ask me and I'll tell you that indeed we are in for a recession cycle. Maybe it'll take another 3-5 years before we see any boom of the 2007 magnitude.
Anyway. My own performance review was done over 3 hours or so, from a scheduled 30minunes. I mean, frankly speaking, I doubt that 30minutes is sufficient, especially in the early years when someone just joined a certain position. More is required. So, it went ok. There were some debates and I kind of concluded this: the bad can be seen but the good is taken for granted. Well, at least that's how I felt. And I was telling myself this is probably not something I'd like to subject my own staff.
The feedback portion was great though. I am just hoping that the discussion was more geared towards 2008 because if that's for 2007, it pretty much means that I did not meet quite a number of objectives. If you have access to my personal story, then you'd know how it was in that first year in the department. I think I did a good job, given the circumstances. But as I mentioned during the review, let's forget about 2007 and set it as a base and look forward to 2008.
Well, we'll say how much the bonus is!
Other than that, all's well. My darling is getting used to lecturing at SP, though as usual, there will always be kids who are kids and act like so! She's taking a night class and that's on a tough Monday night. Guess it's worth the effort!
I lost the family camera, a SGD600 Panasonic. I felt so bad and numb at the same time. Did not realise that I lost it for 4 days. I probably left it in a cab.
I am getting my 2 new staff and a NTU student (on attachment) and I'll be full house. I have great plans for the team and I really believe we can achieve much during this time, given the slow down too. At the simplest, my goal is to be able to leave at 6:30pm while enjoying good bonuses. At staff level, my goal is to produce managers or project specialists or operations specialist who are good at execution. I am proud of my current team. Now I'm awaiting to see who can go the next level but flying on their own in a different department.
Half of 2008 is always gone and that does not leave much time to do all things that we want to do. Nevertheless, there is progress and that is important.
Anyway, it has been an interesting monthly, yet again. I did all the performance reviews and even submitted the performance bonus allocation. Was revised by management and we have since re-submitted our final allocation, which I hoped will be accepted. Year 2007 was a good year, the best that I've seen so far in my 8 years at Phillip. Yea. That's 8 years in 2nd May 2008. While rewarding based on performance is key, years of service did have some good weighing in. I doubt it's a matter of years of service. I believe it's more of a "cut off". That's why we believe that a 2 year period is a bare minimum. 1 year for learning and 1 year to start producing, I'd say.
Anyway, 2008 does not look good. You ask me and I'll tell you that indeed we are in for a recession cycle. Maybe it'll take another 3-5 years before we see any boom of the 2007 magnitude.
Anyway. My own performance review was done over 3 hours or so, from a scheduled 30minunes. I mean, frankly speaking, I doubt that 30minutes is sufficient, especially in the early years when someone just joined a certain position. More is required. So, it went ok. There were some debates and I kind of concluded this: the bad can be seen but the good is taken for granted. Well, at least that's how I felt. And I was telling myself this is probably not something I'd like to subject my own staff.
The feedback portion was great though. I am just hoping that the discussion was more geared towards 2008 because if that's for 2007, it pretty much means that I did not meet quite a number of objectives. If you have access to my personal story, then you'd know how it was in that first year in the department. I think I did a good job, given the circumstances. But as I mentioned during the review, let's forget about 2007 and set it as a base and look forward to 2008.
Well, we'll say how much the bonus is!
Other than that, all's well. My darling is getting used to lecturing at SP, though as usual, there will always be kids who are kids and act like so! She's taking a night class and that's on a tough Monday night. Guess it's worth the effort!
I lost the family camera, a SGD600 Panasonic. I felt so bad and numb at the same time. Did not realise that I lost it for 4 days. I probably left it in a cab.
I am getting my 2 new staff and a NTU student (on attachment) and I'll be full house. I have great plans for the team and I really believe we can achieve much during this time, given the slow down too. At the simplest, my goal is to be able to leave at 6:30pm while enjoying good bonuses. At staff level, my goal is to produce managers or project specialists or operations specialist who are good at execution. I am proud of my current team. Now I'm awaiting to see who can go the next level but flying on their own in a different department.
Half of 2008 is always gone and that does not leave much time to do all things that we want to do. Nevertheless, there is progress and that is important.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
My wife's sick
My wife have come down with fever, high fever at around 39.2 degrees. She got a jab, some anti-biotics (doctor insisted) along with some pills for swollen throat and some "cough" mixture. Poor her, she was quite weak, and was trying to rest at each traffic light. Yea, I tell myself that I better call that driving instructor so that I can take the bloody exam soon! Life is short. No matter how hectic work life is, we have to acknowledge that there is more to it that working from morning till night, bringing back work (physical or mental) and sleeping with ideas that keep tormenting the mind. This has been me for the past few weeks. It usually occurs when I have something in mind, something new or radical.
I used to be in that state when I was handling my first project (called the Phillip Financial System). I remember that a certain logic/algorithm, to say compute the outstanding interest, would keep me awake the whole night. I was still too tired to wake up and write some more but not tired enough to sleep!
Indeed, the mental work can be more draining than physical work, especially the more mundane ones. Our brain neurons are hyper active when it comes to mental work. Trying to think of all possibilities, just like a compute is thinking of future moves in a chess game. There are times when nothing seem to come out of it but deep inside the conciousness, I believe that some solutions are formed.
Of late, it has been reading and researching on Business Process Management, especially the use of BPMN. Then it was on wiki and other collaborative tools. Spent many hours writing a paper on BPM and spent even more hours, days even, to build up our wiki (using Google sites, cos well, it seems easier to use and is free). Now, my brain is working on how/what to do to promote active collaboration. It would be useless to have a wiki with only one participants! But hey, start small, build content and then show by example. That's the way I've always fancied. Talk with no action leads to nowhere.
I remember that once, I was not so much of a "documentation" type. But I learnt my lesson in two ways. When taking over a new role, I realise that a lot of the learning is through the hard way, sometimes repeating the same mistakes. Then while handling over my previous portfolio, I realised that the transition can be easier with proper documentation. Worse, I realised that the person taking over is probably cursing and swearing the same way as I would when taking over the new role.
It then dawned upon me that documentation IS ESSENTIAL. Of course, the quality is important too but hey, start small. Ensure processes are documented. Then ensure that the documents are not done to please compliance or the boss... but that they are meant for the department itself. To get someone on board, use the stick and carrot. Anyway, doing good documentation is part of one's job description. Ask someone to learn something new without any help and challenge the person to think what they would have wished to have before doing the job.
Anyway... it's been pretty tiring because the mind cannot rest and since my wife started lecturing, there are some very early days, like today when she starts at 8am. Ends up spending my early morning at Starbucks putting more content into our wiki.
Very tired now. Will hug my wife and ensure that she rests well. Then, I'm going to sleep pretty soon so that I can be refreshed for another day's work... with lots of things to do, lots of projects to look at, lots of processes to improve, and lots of compliance issues to resolve, big or small.
It has been an interesting week so far. My assistant manager has been out of action for 1 week plus and she's probably taking another
I used to be in that state when I was handling my first project (called the Phillip Financial System). I remember that a certain logic/algorithm, to say compute the outstanding interest, would keep me awake the whole night. I was still too tired to wake up and write some more but not tired enough to sleep!
Indeed, the mental work can be more draining than physical work, especially the more mundane ones. Our brain neurons are hyper active when it comes to mental work. Trying to think of all possibilities, just like a compute is thinking of future moves in a chess game. There are times when nothing seem to come out of it but deep inside the conciousness, I believe that some solutions are formed.
Of late, it has been reading and researching on Business Process Management, especially the use of BPMN. Then it was on wiki and other collaborative tools. Spent many hours writing a paper on BPM and spent even more hours, days even, to build up our wiki (using Google sites, cos well, it seems easier to use and is free). Now, my brain is working on how/what to do to promote active collaboration. It would be useless to have a wiki with only one participants! But hey, start small, build content and then show by example. That's the way I've always fancied. Talk with no action leads to nowhere.
I remember that once, I was not so much of a "documentation" type. But I learnt my lesson in two ways. When taking over a new role, I realise that a lot of the learning is through the hard way, sometimes repeating the same mistakes. Then while handling over my previous portfolio, I realised that the transition can be easier with proper documentation. Worse, I realised that the person taking over is probably cursing and swearing the same way as I would when taking over the new role.
It then dawned upon me that documentation IS ESSENTIAL. Of course, the quality is important too but hey, start small. Ensure processes are documented. Then ensure that the documents are not done to please compliance or the boss... but that they are meant for the department itself. To get someone on board, use the stick and carrot. Anyway, doing good documentation is part of one's job description. Ask someone to learn something new without any help and challenge the person to think what they would have wished to have before doing the job.
Anyway... it's been pretty tiring because the mind cannot rest and since my wife started lecturing, there are some very early days, like today when she starts at 8am. Ends up spending my early morning at Starbucks putting more content into our wiki.
Very tired now. Will hug my wife and ensure that she rests well. Then, I'm going to sleep pretty soon so that I can be refreshed for another day's work... with lots of things to do, lots of projects to look at, lots of processes to improve, and lots of compliance issues to resolve, big or small.
It has been an interesting week so far. My assistant manager has been out of action for 1 week plus and she's probably taking another
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Increasing productivity
How do we increase our productivity? Gosh, big topic ya? I do not have a clue. Hahah. Actually, I am watching American Idol and well, I'm too tired to write on such a huge topic!
Americal idol. Ahhh...Who's going out. I think it's going to be Saisha (erm, dunno whether that's how the name's spelt). Mind you, it's still playing now on Channel 5 and no, I haven't peeked at all!
Seriously, it's a very interesting competition that kept its momentum now for over so many years. Well, that's it!
Americal idol. Ahhh...Who's going out. I think it's going to be Saisha (erm, dunno whether that's how the name's spelt). Mind you, it's still playing now on Channel 5 and no, I haven't peeked at all!
Seriously, it's a very interesting competition that kept its momentum now for over so many years. Well, that's it!
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The world of wiki
I'm sorry about the previous blog! I was trying out something on ZOHO and well, it worked. I was quite marvelled. I could create a database together with a form using ZOHO and I can embed the code in this blog! Amazing. So, I've used Excel, MsAccess, Ms SQL and even dabble with some good old ASP. But I am not discoverring the amazing possibilities with Free Web applications! I am no technical enough to use those tech jargons but essentially, anyone can potentially build any "system" using those free services. It's obvious that you ain't see corporations jumping on the bandwagon but hey, the powerful part of that is that anybody, absolutely ANYBODY in the organisation can do that (well, most likely the newer generation who has been brought up amidst blogs, youtube, google and other such web2 applications).
There are lots of "mini applications" that can be deployed but yet that do not meet the right cost-benefit mix to secure IT resources. I'm just thinking about having a small web applications, using a wiki? Or even Zoho directly, to allow the online dinner order. You see, my company provides dinner to whoever's staying late. Usually one of the staff will go around in the department asking who wants to order. Afterwards, the order is given to our admin department that will consolidate all the orders and then "buy" the dinners. Such a manual process. Yet, I doubt you'd get any backer if you want to spend IT resources to do such a project.
That's where Zoho and the likes are powerful. Expecting the newer generation to be brought up on such initiatives, I am sure that we can develop a simple database with a nice enough front end to allow online ordering!
Anyhow, whatever you are keeping in Excel can be done using Zoho, with a relevant interface and the ability to publish and get others to use it!
Cool I'd say....
There are lots of "mini applications" that can be deployed but yet that do not meet the right cost-benefit mix to secure IT resources. I'm just thinking about having a small web applications, using a wiki? Or even Zoho directly, to allow the online dinner order. You see, my company provides dinner to whoever's staying late. Usually one of the staff will go around in the department asking who wants to order. Afterwards, the order is given to our admin department that will consolidate all the orders and then "buy" the dinners. Such a manual process. Yet, I doubt you'd get any backer if you want to spend IT resources to do such a project.
That's where Zoho and the likes are powerful. Expecting the newer generation to be brought up on such initiatives, I am sure that we can develop a simple database with a nice enough front end to allow online ordering!
Anyhow, whatever you are keeping in Excel can be done using Zoho, with a relevant interface and the ability to publish and get others to use it!
Cool I'd say....
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
I reached work at 8am!
Yep. The title says it all. Today was the first day that my wife's lecture starts at 8:00. So, we woke at around 6:30am (she woke up earlier since I take like 5 minutes to be ready). I did a quick breakfast and we were off at around 7:05am. We thought it would be smooth traffic but we were unpleasantly surprised that there was a bit of a jam. Anyway, I was in office around 8:10am.
Since it's kind of low volume market, I was tempted to relax a bit in the morning. So, I got to Starbucks, bought a cup of tea and read the newspaper. Went back to work at 9am!! Cool.
It's a bit sluggish, thankfully at least in terms of "issues". Nonetheless, still had a few things to sort out. Was kind of checking how many emails I replied for one week and it was around 300? That's replying. I don't want to count received emails since there definitely are "forwarded" threads. Ensured that I'd get 3 temp staff for at least the next 3 months and that was about it. It is indeed the perfect time to start on some major projects and other major initiatives. Thinking of wikis and blogs. Wikis can be a good platform for knowledge sharing and even project management.
The key to all these are 'collaboration' and 'ease' of use. I've tried mediawiki and PBwiki and am now trying google wiki (well, they don't call it wiki). Mediawiki seems a bit complicated. I've started PBwiki but am now deciding to use google sites. For the simple reason that I think they'll innovate most! Also relooking at Zoho as well as BaseCamp. There are so many out there. If we don't do anything, nothing will get done. I am very tempted to take a pick and start using it (start small) though I should be prepared to move to a different platform such as Ms Sharepoint if necessary.
I realised that it might no be easy to instill in our staff the same drive to achieve and to come up with new initiative. It's not easy because their priority is to learn. We should change our University syllabus and ensures that we have some courses that cover special technical skils such as doing a good flow chart, planning projects etc. Sometimes, the problem is that staff does not have the time, which is probably true most of the time.
Since it's kind of low volume market, I was tempted to relax a bit in the morning. So, I got to Starbucks, bought a cup of tea and read the newspaper. Went back to work at 9am!! Cool.
It's a bit sluggish, thankfully at least in terms of "issues". Nonetheless, still had a few things to sort out. Was kind of checking how many emails I replied for one week and it was around 300? That's replying. I don't want to count received emails since there definitely are "forwarded" threads. Ensured that I'd get 3 temp staff for at least the next 3 months and that was about it. It is indeed the perfect time to start on some major projects and other major initiatives. Thinking of wikis and blogs. Wikis can be a good platform for knowledge sharing and even project management.
The key to all these are 'collaboration' and 'ease' of use. I've tried mediawiki and PBwiki and am now trying google wiki (well, they don't call it wiki). Mediawiki seems a bit complicated. I've started PBwiki but am now deciding to use google sites. For the simple reason that I think they'll innovate most! Also relooking at Zoho as well as BaseCamp. There are so many out there. If we don't do anything, nothing will get done. I am very tempted to take a pick and start using it (start small) though I should be prepared to move to a different platform such as Ms Sharepoint if necessary.
I realised that it might no be easy to instill in our staff the same drive to achieve and to come up with new initiative. It's not easy because their priority is to learn. We should change our University syllabus and ensures that we have some courses that cover special technical skils such as doing a good flow chart, planning projects etc. Sometimes, the problem is that staff does not have the time, which is probably true most of the time.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Recession
I ain't any Tom, Dick or Harry. Cos it seems that the Tom, Dick and Harry are all out there predicting a recession or arguing against it. I ain't in that group for the simple reason that "I DO NOT KNOW". Heck, if I knew, I'd tell you ya? Oh, I do read the papers, including the Economist mind you! But nah, I am probably too young and my neurons have not done enough connection for me to say that there's a recession. But I can tell you this... Warren Buffet thinks so. Mr. Soros thinks so too I believe. And well, my chairman thinks so! Whether I belive that or not, here's the deal: Behave as if there's a recession! How to behave? Beats me. But as a humble employee, that's sticking to what you're doing. And do it well. Keep upgrading and keep improving your processes. You must show that you are worth keeping if ever there's a very very severe depression. And you must contribute towards ensuring that the company cuts costs or sustain, if not increase, revenues. Well, you must make sure that Singapore remains competitive!
You might say that's a naive reaction/belief. Maybe so. I am no judge of myself but at least, I live by my conviction. In back office, in such low volume, it's time to upgrade everything. Upgrade the systems, upgrade the documentation, upgrade the people of course. We must believe there'll be light at the end of the tunnel and when volume/business comes back again, we'd be ready to handle them.
But it's not easy. I sometimes find it difficult. I'd rather leave at 6:30pm and spend time with my wife. But hey, if you think likewise, you might be missing something here. It's not about leaving early or late.... It's about getting things done. It's about first wanting to improve things and then having the guts to execute them. Give a student 30 minutes and he'll stay and drink his Starbucks. Give him 1 hour and he'd still be thinking his coffee. For goodness sake, if he wants to stay the whole day, he'd still be drinking that coffee at the end of the day. This is probably the biggest problem if we are not careful.... we relax by doing the same thing in a longer time! And that's human I believe. So, leave at 6:30pm for goodness sake, ensure that you 8 working hours or so are productive, to the max. Do not leave any rocks unturned. List the issue and start hacking at them. If you're good planners, do your cost-benefit analyst... else, do not stand still and just get any initiative started. Start small but think big.
And remember, if you supervise, your staff is the most important asset. If you instill in them this sense of urgency despite a sluggish market, you'd achieve far more that you could on your own, breathing down their neck with deadlines that they do not understand. But be sure you let them off at 6:30pm!
You might say that's a naive reaction/belief. Maybe so. I am no judge of myself but at least, I live by my conviction. In back office, in such low volume, it's time to upgrade everything. Upgrade the systems, upgrade the documentation, upgrade the people of course. We must believe there'll be light at the end of the tunnel and when volume/business comes back again, we'd be ready to handle them.
But it's not easy. I sometimes find it difficult. I'd rather leave at 6:30pm and spend time with my wife. But hey, if you think likewise, you might be missing something here. It's not about leaving early or late.... It's about getting things done. It's about first wanting to improve things and then having the guts to execute them. Give a student 30 minutes and he'll stay and drink his Starbucks. Give him 1 hour and he'd still be thinking his coffee. For goodness sake, if he wants to stay the whole day, he'd still be drinking that coffee at the end of the day. This is probably the biggest problem if we are not careful.... we relax by doing the same thing in a longer time! And that's human I believe. So, leave at 6:30pm for goodness sake, ensure that you 8 working hours or so are productive, to the max. Do not leave any rocks unturned. List the issue and start hacking at them. If you're good planners, do your cost-benefit analyst... else, do not stand still and just get any initiative started. Start small but think big.
And remember, if you supervise, your staff is the most important asset. If you instill in them this sense of urgency despite a sluggish market, you'd achieve far more that you could on your own, breathing down their neck with deadlines that they do not understand. But be sure you let them off at 6:30pm!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Compliance is the name of the game
You've heard of OM? How about Ops Manual? How about Operations Manual? Well, it's all the same. It's basically a collection of the steps that you need to take to perform a task, well, give and take a few more in-depth definition. Just heard that we're changing the name from OM to OCM; Operations and Compliance Manual!! Makes sense. After all, in the finance industry, and in all regulated industry, to do business you must comply with the various regulations!
But it ain't easy to instill this sense of seriousness and importance in such OCM. Nowadays, it seems that we are looking for instantaneous things. Instant noodles? Fast food? Expressways? Panadol Fast? On the go? Looks like we like to learn something instantaneously. We prefer to learn from someone and start doing straight off! I mean, a fresh graduate was recently reading notes, ready books, reading lecture notes. Learning from reading all the materials. Yet, when they join the workforce, it's "don't bother me with reading, show me and I'll do". Granted that showing how to perform a task is a must. Nonetheless, one should not belittle knowledge captured in black and white!
I partly blame the way we usually write those OCM. Boring and wordy. But it should not be this way. It can be better. It can be interactive. It can contains lots of diagrams such as business process flows. It can have screen shots.
Well, that's at least what I want to achieve. The knowledge of a department MUST be captured in those words and diagrams else we will never move forward and will stall and we will keep "re-learning" and "re-teaching" the same stuffs.
READ. READ
But it ain't easy to instill this sense of seriousness and importance in such OCM. Nowadays, it seems that we are looking for instantaneous things. Instant noodles? Fast food? Expressways? Panadol Fast? On the go? Looks like we like to learn something instantaneously. We prefer to learn from someone and start doing straight off! I mean, a fresh graduate was recently reading notes, ready books, reading lecture notes. Learning from reading all the materials. Yet, when they join the workforce, it's "don't bother me with reading, show me and I'll do". Granted that showing how to perform a task is a must. Nonetheless, one should not belittle knowledge captured in black and white!
I partly blame the way we usually write those OCM. Boring and wordy. But it should not be this way. It can be better. It can be interactive. It can contains lots of diagrams such as business process flows. It can have screen shots.
Well, that's at least what I want to achieve. The knowledge of a department MUST be captured in those words and diagrams else we will never move forward and will stall and we will keep "re-learning" and "re-teaching" the same stuffs.
READ. READ
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Got one, lost one
Well, if you read my last blog, the latest update is that the candidate did not accept our offer. It did not come as a shock. The call was cordial though I think I was slightly cold not because I was disappointed but because it seemed like I've wasted my time and did not want to waste anymore. But hey, I'd done the same thing! If I got another offer, or I evaluate that this is not what I want, I surely would have rejected the offer.
Actually, I am happy. Glad because if I did not meet up with the candidate and did not explain in more details what she will be doing, she might have taken the job and then quit in a couple of months' time!
Reminds me of all the people that I've lost! Makes you wonder what makes those who stay, stay. What motivates them? They say that people leaves because of the manager. Perhaps. Oh well, most likely! But hey, under my watch so far, only 2 have left. One to pursue a different interest in a different field and another, well, probably due to mental stress. Yea, life is operations can be stressful. Had almost completed all the performance reviews and one of the thing that cropped up was mental stress. How do you it? Well, colleagues are stressed out. They are busy and always worried they do not have enough help. However, overtime is not that much! And when you break down the work, end-to-end it might not take more than a normal work day! Handling problems, exceptions and engaging in multiple tasks are the culprit. Probably it's all about an issue on time management. When you have an issue in your head, you tend to think too much about it, and do little. Add a few more of such issues and you probably analyse until paralyse. Well, can't really generalise but that's what I kind of feel.
That's why it's probably good to have regular meeting to talk about issues. By just getting them out, one feels better. It also gives a sense that a group is looking at the issues and there is thus a sense of group-help. Of course, it's also likely that there might be some job re-allocation, something that is not very easy to do. This may backfire though as it might be construed as a way to belittle the issues and talking without any proper re-allocation of resources at the end of the day. But I have always believe that there is always a better way of doing something, and note that I did not say a faster way!
Well, it has been hectic so far. A 4 day breakaway in Phukhet with my wife and my parents seems far away, though we just came back last Sunday. Mom's back in Mauritius and I'm back to my busy self. Trying to get things done fast so that I can start coming back home earlier to spend time with my wife, and my dad. So many things to do but well, Rome was not built in one day.... think big, start small and dig deep... Good motto.
Actually, I am happy. Glad because if I did not meet up with the candidate and did not explain in more details what she will be doing, she might have taken the job and then quit in a couple of months' time!
Reminds me of all the people that I've lost! Makes you wonder what makes those who stay, stay. What motivates them? They say that people leaves because of the manager. Perhaps. Oh well, most likely! But hey, under my watch so far, only 2 have left. One to pursue a different interest in a different field and another, well, probably due to mental stress. Yea, life is operations can be stressful. Had almost completed all the performance reviews and one of the thing that cropped up was mental stress. How do you it? Well, colleagues are stressed out. They are busy and always worried they do not have enough help. However, overtime is not that much! And when you break down the work, end-to-end it might not take more than a normal work day! Handling problems, exceptions and engaging in multiple tasks are the culprit. Probably it's all about an issue on time management. When you have an issue in your head, you tend to think too much about it, and do little. Add a few more of such issues and you probably analyse until paralyse. Well, can't really generalise but that's what I kind of feel.
That's why it's probably good to have regular meeting to talk about issues. By just getting them out, one feels better. It also gives a sense that a group is looking at the issues and there is thus a sense of group-help. Of course, it's also likely that there might be some job re-allocation, something that is not very easy to do. This may backfire though as it might be construed as a way to belittle the issues and talking without any proper re-allocation of resources at the end of the day. But I have always believe that there is always a better way of doing something, and note that I did not say a faster way!
Well, it has been hectic so far. A 4 day breakaway in Phukhet with my wife and my parents seems far away, though we just came back last Sunday. Mom's back in Mauritius and I'm back to my busy self. Trying to get things done fast so that I can start coming back home earlier to spend time with my wife, and my dad. So many things to do but well, Rome was not built in one day.... think big, start small and dig deep... Good motto.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Take the job
"Take the job". That was about the last thing that I conveyed at the end of last week. Boy! Last week was hectic. With this new $20K ruling from CFP Board, lots of investors are rushing to invest. Volume was high but I must admit that we did pretty well. There are some "issues" that we faced and some still need resolution. However, it went pretty alright in these circumstances. We basically did not collapse. On top of that, I was doing the yearly performance appraisal. I planned an hour for each staff but turns out that I do need at the very least 1.5hr. Usually it was about 2 hours and for some, it was 3 or maybe more!
It was a good time to listen and to re-direct, on top of reviewing 2007. Somehow, maybe the fact of having a performance review makes such discussion different from the numerous I have along the way.
One thing that was re-inforced in me was: whatever might happen, will happen, at the worst time! And, I am even more convinced that documentation, planning and process re-engineering are perhaps some of the core activities for an operations department. Doing things effectively and efficiently is important. Low-volume period is a good time to practice or try new things and this becomes handy during high-volume period. Additionally, whatever can be done, should be done as soon as possible. Sometimes, we have are lulled into believing that we have time (in low-volume period) and when a high-volume period hits us, everything piles up!
Anyway, about the last thing at the end of the week was to have a chat with a candidate that we have offered a position. She was offered but have not yet decided. So, I had a 1 hour chat with her to let her know her specific role in the department should she join us. Also tried to allay her fears and concerns. And obviously, shared with her the various possible routes she can take within the company. I think the odds were increased but at best, it's probably 50-50.
Can't blame any candidates for telling interviewers how much they want the job, how must they want to switch fields (from say engineering to finance), how they believe that operations is a good place to start in a new field, how they will not flinch when you tell them how hard it can be, that the possible long hours can "kill", that there might be screw up and that problems exist.... and when they are offered, they kind of "think again". Can't blame them to think about positions, money, learning possibilities, title etc. It has probably always been difficult to recruit good people in operations, and keep them!
So, I'm hoping that she'll join us. If she joins us, I know she's joining us for the right reason and has the right expectation; the good and the bad and the prospect.
Oh, actually the last thing I did for the week was to finalise my own self-appraisal and emailed it.
It was a good time to listen and to re-direct, on top of reviewing 2007. Somehow, maybe the fact of having a performance review makes such discussion different from the numerous I have along the way.
One thing that was re-inforced in me was: whatever might happen, will happen, at the worst time! And, I am even more convinced that documentation, planning and process re-engineering are perhaps some of the core activities for an operations department. Doing things effectively and efficiently is important. Low-volume period is a good time to practice or try new things and this becomes handy during high-volume period. Additionally, whatever can be done, should be done as soon as possible. Sometimes, we have are lulled into believing that we have time (in low-volume period) and when a high-volume period hits us, everything piles up!
Anyway, about the last thing at the end of the week was to have a chat with a candidate that we have offered a position. She was offered but have not yet decided. So, I had a 1 hour chat with her to let her know her specific role in the department should she join us. Also tried to allay her fears and concerns. And obviously, shared with her the various possible routes she can take within the company. I think the odds were increased but at best, it's probably 50-50.
Can't blame any candidates for telling interviewers how much they want the job, how must they want to switch fields (from say engineering to finance), how they believe that operations is a good place to start in a new field, how they will not flinch when you tell them how hard it can be, that the possible long hours can "kill", that there might be screw up and that problems exist.... and when they are offered, they kind of "think again". Can't blame them to think about positions, money, learning possibilities, title etc. It has probably always been difficult to recruit good people in operations, and keep them!
So, I'm hoping that she'll join us. If she joins us, I know she's joining us for the right reason and has the right expectation; the good and the bad and the prospect.
Oh, actually the last thing I did for the week was to finalise my own self-appraisal and emailed it.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Correlation vs Causality
I ain't gonna write a thesis on that matter. There should be enough articles off the web. Check out http://stats.org/faq_vs.htm for an article on that matter or http://256.com/gray/thoughts/2004/20040511.html for another. Check out http://cr.yp.to/postpropter.html for a list of potentially wrong "causal relationship" conclusions.
Anyway, to the subject. We came back late at around 9:00pm. Well, 'late' in terms of "probability to get a parking lot on the first floor of our multi storey carpark. In general, at this time on a Sunday night, we'd probably get a free lot on the seco nd or third storey. Optimitic as I am (well, the driver might have something else to say about that, especially after driving for hours. And I am not "yet" the driver), I suggested to just drive one round on the first storey.
As we were turning on the left (tis kind of a one-way drive), we noticed a car leaving on the extreme right and we also noticed a car coming in after us. My wife suddenly turned into Alan Prost (somehow I like that guy's name) and smurf (our van!) burst forward. We were kind of musing what to do if that car behind us were to drive the other way round (kind of against traffic). To our relief, it seems the car did no such thing. In fact, the car went up on the next storey probably thinking that whatever empty lot left will be taken by us. In any case, there were more than 1 empty lots left.
Ok, where am I going with this? Well, there were interestingly 3 empty slots (2 were just vacated). We were kind of esctatic cos it's always cool to get a lot on the first storey. We kind of exagerate our esctasy but well, that's our daily game! My wife half jokingly mentioned that Manchester United would win against Liverpool by 3-0. She has the habit of make such "predictions" just prior to the match. I remember she "predicted" a 4-0 against dunno what team. You know what? No prize for the right guess. SHE WAS RIGHT.
Manchester United demolised Liverpool 3-0. Well, it could have been more. Liverpool were hard done by a sent off but the red-carded dude has only himself to blame. You don't go and talk back to the referee.
Anyway, back again.. back again... THREE-NIL. That was fantastic and obviously my wife was jokingly remonstrating me for not betting!!!!
So, here's the theory:
a. The number of empty parking lots on the first floor causes something to happen such that Manchester United would win by such a margin.
And to play scientists, we'd add that the constraints are:
a. If smurf did a burst
b. If there is a car behind
c. If the driver believes that the car will try to steal an empty slot
d. If the driver noticed that a car just left the parking lot
e. If we reach the car park at 9pm
f. If Manchester United were playing at 9:30pm
g. ceteris paribus (keep other things constant)
No wonder I ain't a scientist and I ain't an economist (would you believe I specialised in Applied economics!!)
Anyway. I'm happy Man U won. Hopefully Arsenal and Chesea draw (and it is still draw at half time). Can't sleep cos I slept a bit in the afternoon. But must still try.
Anyway, to the subject. We came back late at around 9:00pm. Well, 'late' in terms of "probability to get a parking lot on the first floor of our multi storey carpark. In general, at this time on a Sunday night, we'd probably get a free lot on the seco nd or third storey. Optimitic as I am (well, the driver might have something else to say about that, especially after driving for hours. And I am not "yet" the driver), I suggested to just drive one round on the first storey.
As we were turning on the left (tis kind of a one-way drive), we noticed a car leaving on the extreme right and we also noticed a car coming in after us. My wife suddenly turned into Alan Prost (somehow I like that guy's name) and smurf (our van!) burst forward. We were kind of musing what to do if that car behind us were to drive the other way round (kind of against traffic). To our relief, it seems the car did no such thing. In fact, the car went up on the next storey probably thinking that whatever empty lot left will be taken by us. In any case, there were more than 1 empty lots left.
Ok, where am I going with this? Well, there were interestingly 3 empty slots (2 were just vacated). We were kind of esctatic cos it's always cool to get a lot on the first storey. We kind of exagerate our esctasy but well, that's our daily game! My wife half jokingly mentioned that Manchester United would win against Liverpool by 3-0. She has the habit of make such "predictions" just prior to the match. I remember she "predicted" a 4-0 against dunno what team. You know what? No prize for the right guess. SHE WAS RIGHT.
Manchester United demolised Liverpool 3-0. Well, it could have been more. Liverpool were hard done by a sent off but the red-carded dude has only himself to blame. You don't go and talk back to the referee.
Anyway, back again.. back again... THREE-NIL. That was fantastic and obviously my wife was jokingly remonstrating me for not betting!!!!
So, here's the theory:
a. The number of empty parking lots on the first floor causes something to happen such that Manchester United would win by such a margin.
And to play scientists, we'd add that the constraints are:
a. If smurf did a burst
b. If there is a car behind
c. If the driver believes that the car will try to steal an empty slot
d. If the driver noticed that a car just left the parking lot
e. If we reach the car park at 9pm
f. If Manchester United were playing at 9:30pm
g. ceteris paribus (keep other things constant)
No wonder I ain't a scientist and I ain't an economist (would you believe I specialised in Applied economics!!)
Anyway. I'm happy Man U won. Hopefully Arsenal and Chesea draw (and it is still draw at half time). Can't sleep cos I slept a bit in the afternoon. But must still try.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Split personality
I can't be alone! You are hard driven at work, make decisions, be on the go the whole day and simply never have time to pee! At home, you just want to relax. You like to see the world goes by and let others decide. You are the easy-going dude who kind of loathe to make any decision.
Well, I kind am like that. Which sometimes drives my wife nuts. On Thursday, she got some "free" entrace to the bird park. Well, I kind of initiated the idea of bringing my parents to the bird park since well, they kind of visited almost every shopping malls and shops in Singapore. Seriously, I thought that it'd be nice even though they've been there. So, my wife got all excited and managed to book those free passes (4 in all). Turns out that I did not really put a concrete plan and by Thursday night, there's still no plan. I was like ".. take it easy.. maybe the plan will just happen". Anyway, turns out that my parents do not want to go as they've been there before. Oh well....
So, we're planning to go to the bird park and have a picnic! We've prepared our tuna mayo, with lots of freshly groud pepper and we'll be on our way tomorrow morning. The first show starts at 10:30am. We might head there by 11am, walk around and find a nice spot to eat our sarnie. Probably leave by 2 or 3. And I'd probably try to sit down at a coffee joint, sip my coffee and read the papers (it's really an activity that I truly like as I watch the world goes by). We will then go and watch a church play.
Anyhow. Today's was quite a sleepy day. We were so tired yesterday night after the night saffari. Tis was really too bad, cos we really did not visit the whole zoo. I hope that our Japanese guests do not have a bad impression cos we really did not get to vist the zoo and gawk at all the creatures there, in almost their natural habitat (they did a good job actually).
Woke up around 10am and had lunch with my parents at this erm, dunno what place in East coast. Then went to my sister's place where my parents will be bunking till around Sunday. Left there around 3pm and headed to our nice cozy Rail Mall (well, now that we don't stay at Hume, it's kind of not to near). Had kopi-o and spent 1 hour or so talking and reading the papers. That's when I thought of maybe doing a business in education?! And also concluded that I need to come up with some company-wide initiative as one of my goals for the next 1-2 years... kind of leaving a legacy and accomplish something, other than, erm, solving the daily problems. Also thinking of putting part of our savings into my company's Money Market Funds... well, at least the return, though not guaranteed, is better than the meagre interest on savings account. Maybe tis time to start buying USD too!
Borrowed a movie. Headed home and rested. Then we cooked one of our favourite dishes and one of the simplest... well, some pasta and tomatoes. Watched the movie and here we are now! I'm writing this blog and my wife is sleeping... Tis 1am. So I better go.
Well, I kind am like that. Which sometimes drives my wife nuts. On Thursday, she got some "free" entrace to the bird park. Well, I kind of initiated the idea of bringing my parents to the bird park since well, they kind of visited almost every shopping malls and shops in Singapore. Seriously, I thought that it'd be nice even though they've been there. So, my wife got all excited and managed to book those free passes (4 in all). Turns out that I did not really put a concrete plan and by Thursday night, there's still no plan. I was like ".. take it easy.. maybe the plan will just happen". Anyway, turns out that my parents do not want to go as they've been there before. Oh well....
So, we're planning to go to the bird park and have a picnic! We've prepared our tuna mayo, with lots of freshly groud pepper and we'll be on our way tomorrow morning. The first show starts at 10:30am. We might head there by 11am, walk around and find a nice spot to eat our sarnie. Probably leave by 2 or 3. And I'd probably try to sit down at a coffee joint, sip my coffee and read the papers (it's really an activity that I truly like as I watch the world goes by). We will then go and watch a church play.
Anyhow. Today's was quite a sleepy day. We were so tired yesterday night after the night saffari. Tis was really too bad, cos we really did not visit the whole zoo. I hope that our Japanese guests do not have a bad impression cos we really did not get to vist the zoo and gawk at all the creatures there, in almost their natural habitat (they did a good job actually).
Woke up around 10am and had lunch with my parents at this erm, dunno what place in East coast. Then went to my sister's place where my parents will be bunking till around Sunday. Left there around 3pm and headed to our nice cozy Rail Mall (well, now that we don't stay at Hume, it's kind of not to near). Had kopi-o and spent 1 hour or so talking and reading the papers. That's when I thought of maybe doing a business in education?! And also concluded that I need to come up with some company-wide initiative as one of my goals for the next 1-2 years... kind of leaving a legacy and accomplish something, other than, erm, solving the daily problems. Also thinking of putting part of our savings into my company's Money Market Funds... well, at least the return, though not guaranteed, is better than the meagre interest on savings account. Maybe tis time to start buying USD too!
Borrowed a movie. Headed home and rested. Then we cooked one of our favourite dishes and one of the simplest... well, some pasta and tomatoes. Watched the movie and here we are now! I'm writing this blog and my wife is sleeping... Tis 1am. So I better go.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Moshi moshi
Ok, go ahead... kill me. That's probably the only Japanese that I know how to write cos I have a colleague who always uses these words. Hold on... do they exist?
We received 3 Japanese guests on Wednesday night. We went to fetch them at the airport at around 12:00, and that's am. Well, it was past 3am when I finally slept. Three ladies (mom+2 daughters), friends of my mother-in-law friend or something like that. Friendly people thought they do not speak much of English. But hey, they speak Japanese! You know, there was a period in time, around the time I was in Uni, that the Japanese language was really in vogue. Every studends seem to be taking it as elective. I think that nowadays, it might not be so much. Maybe I'm wrong.
The last 2 nights were tiring. We just came back from the Night Safari...well, not just cos it's 1:30am now! We were probabaly all too tired because though we spent nearly 3 hours there, we barely visited half of the attractions. That's a pity. We spent around 45min waiting... waiting to watch the "show" and waiting to go on the tram etc. We spent only 15 minutes walking. Was so hungry that I opened a can of sardines, spread them over crackers and ate at least.. well, at almost a whole packet. So now, I'm kind of full and not prepared to sleep. My missus is sleeping soundly.
Work over the past 2 days was hectic. Hah, sounds like broken record. Had another complaint to handle and took some time drafting a letter. Finally let our front office to handle the client. One of the thing to be aware is that for cooperation to be effective, there must be alignment of interests, especially in a same-level work relationship.
The last few days, and the last few "issues" really re-inforce Murphy's law; that whatever "bad" you think will happen, will happen, and at the worst possible time!
There are always ways to improve and to prevent the root cause or root problem. The key is really execution. And the key to execution is people and process. You don't have the right people, you don't anything done. You have the right people, you must have the right process for them to follow and to flourish and ensure that there is accountability. Else, the whole thing is not sustainable and will crumble like a playing card palace.
We received 3 Japanese guests on Wednesday night. We went to fetch them at the airport at around 12:00, and that's am. Well, it was past 3am when I finally slept. Three ladies (mom+2 daughters), friends of my mother-in-law friend or something like that. Friendly people thought they do not speak much of English. But hey, they speak Japanese! You know, there was a period in time, around the time I was in Uni, that the Japanese language was really in vogue. Every studends seem to be taking it as elective. I think that nowadays, it might not be so much. Maybe I'm wrong.
The last 2 nights were tiring. We just came back from the Night Safari...well, not just cos it's 1:30am now! We were probabaly all too tired because though we spent nearly 3 hours there, we barely visited half of the attractions. That's a pity. We spent around 45min waiting... waiting to watch the "show" and waiting to go on the tram etc. We spent only 15 minutes walking. Was so hungry that I opened a can of sardines, spread them over crackers and ate at least.. well, at almost a whole packet. So now, I'm kind of full and not prepared to sleep. My missus is sleeping soundly.
Work over the past 2 days was hectic. Hah, sounds like broken record. Had another complaint to handle and took some time drafting a letter. Finally let our front office to handle the client. One of the thing to be aware is that for cooperation to be effective, there must be alignment of interests, especially in a same-level work relationship.
The last few days, and the last few "issues" really re-inforce Murphy's law; that whatever "bad" you think will happen, will happen, and at the worst possible time!
There are always ways to improve and to prevent the root cause or root problem. The key is really execution. And the key to execution is people and process. You don't have the right people, you don't anything done. You have the right people, you must have the right process for them to follow and to flourish and ensure that there is accountability. Else, the whole thing is not sustainable and will crumble like a playing card palace.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Americanz Idol
Alright folks, it's American's idol's time here in Singapore. Smashing start by this "jackizee"? Quite cool. As usually, Simon is such a COWell. He's actually surprised that he agreed with the other 2 folks.
We have guests today. My sis and her friend from Italy. She's getting married on Friday, my sis that is, and she's bunking with us for the next 2 nights. We got 2 single-size mattresses and got some bed sheets and covers from my in-laws.
Work was ok today. No big fires to fight. Had a 1-2hr talk with a staff, selling a vision that I hope she and the rest will buy and discussing on some projects and KPIs. It's a matter of providing the right environment for all these guys to work to their potential. Matter of finding what motivates them. Not an easy feat cos it's so easy to say "I can do it better". The fact of the matter is that one people can only do so much; think what a team can do! Think what a motivated team can do!! Like they say, the whole is better than the sum of the individuals. Anyway, still deciding on filling the 1-2 headcount we have. Have good candidates. Still deciding but probably will decide by tomorrow. And our performance review is due soon. That's another exciting but difficult exercise.
Had lunch with the IT guys from Synergy. 4 of us tucked in some "vegetarian" food. It's quite amazing that they can "re-create" the taste of chicken using some dunno what glutinous flour? Anyway, tis alright. Had a good lunch.
Was raining the whole day though. That was a bummer. A few people getting sick of late. Must be the weather. Ended at around 7:20pm as we were to give my sis a ride from the bridal shop (with all the barang barang). Turns out that the dress requires some touching up and they were running late. So we left first. Wifie ate a MacSpicy as she was hungry. I ate at home, some roast beef with mayo on toasted bread, some salads, and some dunno what gravy-type-soup-beans??
Well, now going to do my daily stuff :)
A.A
We have guests today. My sis and her friend from Italy. She's getting married on Friday, my sis that is, and she's bunking with us for the next 2 nights. We got 2 single-size mattresses and got some bed sheets and covers from my in-laws.
Work was ok today. No big fires to fight. Had a 1-2hr talk with a staff, selling a vision that I hope she and the rest will buy and discussing on some projects and KPIs. It's a matter of providing the right environment for all these guys to work to their potential. Matter of finding what motivates them. Not an easy feat cos it's so easy to say "I can do it better". The fact of the matter is that one people can only do so much; think what a team can do! Think what a motivated team can do!! Like they say, the whole is better than the sum of the individuals. Anyway, still deciding on filling the 1-2 headcount we have. Have good candidates. Still deciding but probably will decide by tomorrow. And our performance review is due soon. That's another exciting but difficult exercise.
Had lunch with the IT guys from Synergy. 4 of us tucked in some "vegetarian" food. It's quite amazing that they can "re-create" the taste of chicken using some dunno what glutinous flour? Anyway, tis alright. Had a good lunch.
Was raining the whole day though. That was a bummer. A few people getting sick of late. Must be the weather. Ended at around 7:20pm as we were to give my sis a ride from the bridal shop (with all the barang barang). Turns out that the dress requires some touching up and they were running late. So we left first. Wifie ate a MacSpicy as she was hungry. I ate at home, some roast beef with mayo on toasted bread, some salads, and some dunno what gravy-type-soup-beans??
Well, now going to do my daily stuff :)
A.A
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
A start
This is my first entry. Oh well, it's near midnight and I'm kind of waiting to watch Jaimie's Program. Just finised watching some DVDs "Oliver Twist". I kind of like to watch the little simple things that he cooks. I might even write/transcribe one of his recipe ya?
My beautiful wife is sleeping on the couch. Reminds me that I'll tuck her to bed straight away after the programme ends. Thankfully we've been sleeping earlier of late but still not early enough. Gearing ourselves to the time when she has lectures at 8am!
Today's hectic at work. Has been hectic for the past week. Oh well, has been hectic forever but at least I'm knocking off at around 7:30-8pm. Reminding myself that I should aim to get out by 7pm ya, especially since my parents are aound. Mom's staying for 1 month while dad's extending to 3 months, primarily to attend my sister's wedding (getting married this Friday).
Life in back office operations is challenging and while not requiring a degree in rocket science type, it does demand a certain degree of, erm, resilience and patience. Lots of things to improve and lots of ideas. Execution is key and is the challenge. And having good people and keeping them motivated is the challenge. Plus you have management breathing down your neck and keep pushing you, erm, setting "stretch" goals ya?
Well, had a 2-3 hr meeting to discuss on some customer complaint case. Can't blame those customers since I am one too, and I can be nasty one too. Oh well, just need to deal with them and ensure that both the customers and the 'authorities' are happy. A bummer that come 1st April, some new CPF rules kick in. Now working doubly hard to come up with new process flows and IT specifications to deal with those rules. Darn industry. Too many papers. Too many parties. Not a single 'leader' to bring about changes. Maybe the Govt has to play daddy and step in. Oh well, that's why I enjoy it. You make money where there is imperfect information. Ditto for an industry with lot of potential for process improvement.
Ciao... looks like I dun really like this episode of Jaimie's. Better have an early rest, wake up early, try to get some breakie for my wifie, and get the day started well.
My beautiful wife is sleeping on the couch. Reminds me that I'll tuck her to bed straight away after the programme ends. Thankfully we've been sleeping earlier of late but still not early enough. Gearing ourselves to the time when she has lectures at 8am!
Today's hectic at work. Has been hectic for the past week. Oh well, has been hectic forever but at least I'm knocking off at around 7:30-8pm. Reminding myself that I should aim to get out by 7pm ya, especially since my parents are aound. Mom's staying for 1 month while dad's extending to 3 months, primarily to attend my sister's wedding (getting married this Friday).
Life in back office operations is challenging and while not requiring a degree in rocket science type, it does demand a certain degree of, erm, resilience and patience. Lots of things to improve and lots of ideas. Execution is key and is the challenge. And having good people and keeping them motivated is the challenge. Plus you have management breathing down your neck and keep pushing you, erm, setting "stretch" goals ya?
Well, had a 2-3 hr meeting to discuss on some customer complaint case. Can't blame those customers since I am one too, and I can be nasty one too. Oh well, just need to deal with them and ensure that both the customers and the 'authorities' are happy. A bummer that come 1st April, some new CPF rules kick in. Now working doubly hard to come up with new process flows and IT specifications to deal with those rules. Darn industry. Too many papers. Too many parties. Not a single 'leader' to bring about changes. Maybe the Govt has to play daddy and step in. Oh well, that's why I enjoy it. You make money where there is imperfect information. Ditto for an industry with lot of potential for process improvement.
Ciao... looks like I dun really like this episode of Jaimie's. Better have an early rest, wake up early, try to get some breakie for my wifie, and get the day started well.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
