Archive for May, 2008

May 14 2008

Deadly Sins of Service Provider

Published by Ricky under Service

Philip Kotler has his book called Ten Deadly Marketing Sins. Well, I venture to come up with at least six deadly sins as a service provider.

Indifferent - If I don’t care what customers say or need and go my own way.

Unresponsive - If I don’t respond to customers, or take my own sweet time to respond.

Outdated - If I am still offering something that is as good as those in the 90’s!

Self-centered - If I still possess that production-oriented mindset that I don’t think from customer’s viewpoint but my own.

Never learn - If I simply never learn from mistakes and make them again and again.

Never involve customers - If I never consult or at least inform customers early on important changes that could impact on them.

Customers can be very good teachers.  A customer complaint, if handled well, can turn out to be an opportunity. When a customer cares enough to complain (instead of just quietly walks away), he or she is giving us a chance to rectify the situation to serve him or her even better.

Customers have taught me this in a number of tough cases. Thankfully some complaining customers turned out to be very loyal customers until now!

Let’s serve our customers well and not to sin on any of these :-)

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May 13 2008

Learning About Self-Discipline

Published by Ricky under Character

Brian Tracy quotes Elbert Hubbard’s definition of self-discipline as, “The ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.” He said self-discipline, self-mastery and self-control are the basic building blocks of character and high performance.

Successful people are disciplined people. They are in control of themselves, in particular:

Successful people master their moods - They do things they should do even when they don’t feel like doing it.

Successful people watch their words - They control their tongue so as not to say anything wrong.

Successful people restrain their reactions - They are proactive in choosing their response to situations.

Successful people stick to their schedule - They control their time or their time will be controlled by others!

Successful people manage their money - They spend what they should and live below their means.

Successful people maintain their health - What’s the point to win all the world only to lose our body?

I confess there are many areas for me to improve. Let’s strive together for success!

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May 12 2008

Blue Ocean Strategy For Personal Finance

Published by Ricky under Personal, Strategy

The blue ocean strategy is more than just a fad. It’s influencing how businesses made their strategic planning for years to come. Its various strategic tools and models, such as the four actions framework, are extremely useful to create blue ocean strategy business.

The blue ocean strategy is not only applicable to businesses, but in other contexts as well, though we can’t apply everything directly in those settings. In particular, the four actions framework is useful in planning our own personal life.

Whether we like it or not, everyone of us is a Me Inc., and we are the CEO of our own life. We do have a mission to complete on this earth in this life. And to achieve this, we have been bestowed with resources such as time and money.

The four actions framework can be used to differentiate ourselves (or our business) from others yet at a lower cost. It asks four main questions - what to Eliminate, what to Reduce, what to Raise and what to Create (ERRC)? Let’s take an example how I might want to plan my expenses:

Eliminate - In recent years, I have developed a habit of eating out in expensive restaurants with others, that now I patronize these places even when eating alone! I don’t have to spend so much when eating by myself. I need to cut this expense completely!

Reduce - I need to reduce buying seemingly useful but actually unnecessary items such as books and magazines. I don’t have so much time to read all of them!

Raise - I should spend more on high-leverage expenses which give good returns in long term. For example, taking classes to educate myself in business, finance and technology can go a long way toward success in life.

Create - I may want to consider some investment instruments such as shares, which as a risk-averse person I never tried. Of course, getting educated first in these is essential to avoid losses.

I find it helpful to that many things in business and life can be applied through this ERRC model. Is there anything you want to get ERRC’d too? :-)