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Khamis, 28 Februari 2019

Februari 28, 2019

INSPIRING STORY: DIRECTOR AND THE MANAGER STORY


One young academically excellent person went for an interview for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview; BUT in that Company, the director did the last interview, and made the final decision.

The director discovered from the CV, that the youth's academic result was excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never was there a year he did not score. The director asked,

“Did you obtain any scholarship in school?” and the youth answered “no”.

The director asked,” Did your father pay your school fees?”. The youth answered, “my father passed away when I was one year old and it was my mother who paid my school fees”.

The director asked, ” Where did your mother work?”

The youth answered, “my mother worked as cloth cleaner.”

The director requested the youth to show his hands and the youth showed a pair of hands that was smooth and perfect to the director.

The director asked, ” Did you ever help your mother wash clothes before?”

The youth answered,” never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books, furthermore, my mother could wash clothes faster than I could”

The director said, I have a request, when you go back today, go and help to clean your mother’s hand, and then see me tomorrow morning.

The youth felt that the chance of landing the job was high and when he went back, he happily wanted to clean his mother’s hands. His mother felt strange. With happiness mixed with fear, she showed her hands to the kid.

The youth cleaned his mother’s hands slowly and his tears fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother’s hands were so wrinkled, and that there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that she shuddered when his mother’s hands were cleaned with water.

This is the first time that the youth realized and experienced that it is this pair of hands that washed the clothes every day to earn him the school fees and that the bruises in the mother’s hand were the price that the mother paid for his graduation and academic excellence and probably his future.

After finishing the cleaning of his mother’s hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother.

That night, the mother and son talked for a very long time.

Next morning, the youth went to the director’s office.

The director noticed the tear in the youth’s eye and asked:

” Can you tell me what you did and learned yesterday in your house?”

The youth answered, ” I cleaned my mother’s hands and also finished washing all the remaining clothes.’

The director asked, ”Please tell me what you felt.”

The youth said:

Number 1, I know what appreciation is now’. Without my mother, I would not be successful today.

Number 2, Now I know how to work together with my mother. Only now do I realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done.

Number 3, I know the importance and value of family relationship.”The director said, “This is what I want. I want to recruit a person that can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the suffering of others to get things done, and a person that would not put money as his only goal in life to be my manager. You are hired.”

Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates, every employee worked diligently and as a team and the company improved tremendously.

The Lessons from this anecdote:

A child who has been protected and habitually given whatever he needs, develops an“entitlement mentality” and always puts himself first. He is ignorant of his parents’ efforts. When he starts work, he assumes every person must listen to him. When he becomes a manager, he will never know the suffering of his employees and always blame others. These kinds of people, may/will achieve good results and may be successful for a while, but eventually will not feel a sense of achievement or satisfaction.

If we happen to be this kind of (protective) parent, this is the time to ask the question - whether we did/do love our children or destroy them.

* You can let your child live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn to play the piano, watch a big screen TV but when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it.
* After a meal, let them wash their plate and bowl together with their brothers and sisters.
* It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love and show them the correct way.
* You want them to understand that no matter how rich their parents are, one day they will grow old, become weak and that their hair too will turn grey.
* The most important thing is for your child to learn how to appreciate, experience and learn the effort and ability needed to work with others in order to get things done. They should also value, appreciate what the parents have done and love them for who they are!

Selasa, 26 Februari 2019

Februari 26, 2019

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO WORK FOR A CHINESE COMPANY?


I’m working in a company which is run by Chinese management. I shall stay anonymous to avoid any unpredictable events which may arise due to critical comments below.
  • Appearance of wealth is extremely important. Higher management of the company should drive high-end cars and never use public transport. Parking spaces should be reserved for members of staff who have the best vehicles. Presentation of wealth leads to more investment opportunities from other businesses.
  • There is rampant borrowing of money from other companies and even between co-workers. That’s how business and personal relationships can be mended and enhanced.
  • Management has the power to set out direction of the company in any way they want, even if front-line employees disagree.
  • There is no such thing as limits. The amount of money that company can borrow, the amount of hours that front-line employees should work and the amount of projects that company can take on are all unlimited.
  • Quality and user experience of the products and services which company produces is not taken very seriously. The most important aim is to build or launch something very quickly. If it doesn’t work, the company can always find a way to produce something else.
  • If a worker wants to rise through the ranks, it will be easier to achieve this by agreeing with superiors and doing them favors which may not be related to workplace duties.
To make the long story short, we shall use the analogy of lemons and lemonade : In the West, people are expecting lemonade. In China, people are given lemons and they have to make lemonade if they want to live. Xi Jinping has recently said in an address to nation that people deserve success and happiness only after struggle.

Article published on Quora

Isnin, 25 Februari 2019

Februari 25, 2019

WHAT IS THE SECRET OF CHINA'S LOW MANUFACTURING COSTS?


I own a factory and work with Chinese factory owners and their staff everyday. Every business owner I know, is actively involved in cost cutting.

Every factory doesn't produce every component that goes into a product e.g. a hair clip factory would buy the plastic from one company and the spring from another and assemble it together. If it were with an emblem, they would buy that from a third company and stick it on. So an assembly company = factory.

Infrastructure - In China, almost every product is produced in a region where their suppliers are all nearby. e.g. electronics in Shenzhen, tiles in Foshan, furniture in Shunde, etc. Having suppliers nearby saves time and cost.

Specialization - Since each company makes only their range of products, e.g. a spring manufacturer just makes springs, they focus on more volume for that product, which gives them leverage to bargain on raw material costs.

Volumes - The more the volume, the better prices you can negotiate. Also, your machines work more efficiently, the process of work is smoother, all these factors bring down the costs.

Quality - Good or bad, many companies are willing to drop the quality or replace components with the cheaper alternative to save on costs. If you compare prices, you should also compare quality. It’s often that samples are good and production is made a little cheaper.

Margins - In this cut throat economy, margins are small. Many companies are willing to sell at low / no margins or even at a loss to get a new customer on board or to stay alive and try to see it to the next phase by losing a little but retaining the workers and factory space etc.

Logistics - China has developed their logistics in a very efficient manner. You can get things cross country in a couple of days or across the city in a couple of hours. Less downtime, higher efficiency = lower costs.

Automation - In many industries, manual labor is being replaced with automation as salaries have risen a lot.

Flexibility - Owners are willing to relocate, change suppliers, hire / fire workers and do what it takes to reduce costs. Most are very hardworking and quite involved in their daily business.

Export rebate - Government support promotes exports and gives export companies a rebate on the value exported. Many companies rely solely on this rebate as their profit margin.

It has taken China years to set up such an infrastructure and so it is not easy to replace them by moving to other countries where labor costs are lower as that is only one component of the cost.

Article from Quora by Harry Daswani, works at Macro Plus