Archive for July, 2005
Just borrowed this book from the library yesterday - when I requested the book, I was about the 128th person, so it took a while for me to wait my turn. 
When I picked up the book yesterday, I almost fainted, seeing how fat the book was.
Didn’t really know what to expect of the book since I requested for the sole reason that it has been #1 on the BusinessWeek Best-Seller List for the past 2 months. All I know is that the book is about globalization.
Started reading the book last night, and found this book to be as fascinating as the name of the book itself! Based on the author - Tom Friedman’s extensive travel into the East (India, China), he made the ultimate discovery that the world is flat! Why flat? Because the global playing field is being leveled. With today’s technology such as undersea fiber optics cables, countries such as India and China can now have an equal part in the global economy. The brings up the common question of whether outsourcing is good for US or not? Friedman’s conclusion is that AS A WHOLE, it is. Because as more work is outsourced to India, India’s overall income levels whould rise and what will they buy with their increased disposable income? American products.
Although there is no denying that certain groups of people will lose their jobs in this globalization process, Friedman brings up a very good point that the main reason those who are anti-outsourcing is wrong is that it is based on the assumption that everything that is going to be invented has been invented. The fact is it hasn’t. “As lower-end service and manufacturing jobs move out of developed countries into India, China and the former Soviet Empire, the global pie only grows larger - because more people have more income to spend - it also grows more complex, as more new jobs, and new specialties, are created.” This means that some ofthe knowledge workers in US may have to move horizontally into new knowledge jobs, but ultimately, everyone will be better off in this bigger market because “there is no limit to the number of idea-generated jobs in the world”.
I really like this quote from Marc Andreessen, the Netscape cofounder, said, “If you believe human wants and needs are infinite, then there are infinite industries to be created, infinite businesses to be started, and infinite jobs to be done, and the only limiting factor is human imagination. The world is flattening and rising at the same time.”
July 31st, 2005
Boo (Sherwood) and I watched “The Island” yesterday and we both thought it was pretty good! I give it a 8; Boo gave it a 7.5 (he’s a harder grader ;P ). It was action-packed, with car chases, things blowing up left and right!!!
Hidden in the action is a deeper side of the movie, which raises the morality of cloning. Being a Christian, I am against it as I strongly believe in the uniqueness of each individual since each of us is created by God’s own hands. In the movie, the cloning is for the purpose of replacing malfunctioning/failing body parts, but since the scientists could not clone the individual parts alone and without the clones actually being in a conscious state, the clones are, in essense, real human beings in every way (they have feelings, emotions, and thoughts). They had a scene where they cut up a clone to take out his liver for his “master”; it was incredibly inhumane!
I don’ t know about others, but if my life can only be prolonged by exchanging someone else’s life for mine, then I would choose rather not live. This movie came at an opportune time, with all the current debate on stem cells - hope this movie will make people think more in the shoes of the person/life that is sacrificing and less of what we can gain at other people/lives’ expense.
July 30th, 2005
What relationship is in between this two? normally you will say they are parallel, like “Marketing and Sales”. Many people will also say “I don’t like sales, and I hate salesman”, yes, indeed most of us will just want to be the CEO and hire salesman.
The true relationship of Marketing and Sales is like this:
Sales
Marketing
What that means is Sales over Marketing. When a company has done a good job of marketing, the sales will fly. Once a person knows how to sale, he must learn how to market. A truely successful entrepranauer must be good at both marketing and sales.
This is the thought from the book “Guide to Investing” section about how to start a business, from Rich Dad series.
July 29th, 2005
Many people think starting a new business idea is hard, so do we. Since we like to eventually have our own business, we start discuss things that can be implmented for a small business. Interestingly, we just got a new issue of Business 2.0, it has some general ideas that we think is quite useful to generate new ideas.
1. Scour the planet for the best ideas and adapt them to your local market.
2. Ease the hassles of offshoring by “nearsourcing” to latin america
3. Apply the idea behind ebay to other business
4. Target local markets with culture-specific goods
5. Use edgy technology to cut through clutter
6. Launch a startup with government funding
7. Tweak a commodity product to target a unique niche
8. Invest in regions, not countries, since borders are losing meanings
9. Bone up on biology to master the science of selling
10. Differentiate - at all costs
11. Look out the window for inspiration
12. Use a small grants to make big impacts in the 3rd world
13. Invent a completely new use of your product.
13. Create growth by launching spinoffs, not just products.
14. Find the customers who need you most- and give them what they want
15. Get people to spend more by making them think they are spending less
16. Hire globally, but manage locally
17. Tap the developing world’s mobile communications boom
18. Sell services to remote offices of global corprations
20. Get a job with a multinational to spot start up opportunties.
21. Cash in American cachet by making yourself a celebrity
July 28th, 2005
In this world of everything get cheaper and faster, how else would you make money? The answer is innovation in design.
Guess who are the top 10 creative companies? No matter what is your answer, Apple must be one of it. The fact is it is No.1 Innovative company based on a 940 senior exec survey conducted in 2005 by BCG (IBM is No 
. Just ask yourself, what is the difference between enter an Apple store and enter a bestbuy or walmart? In fact, Apple’s stuff delivered very good customer experience with outstanding design.
Take a look at IDEA 2005 award gallery, it is amazing to see now the product design are more closer to the consumer.
July 22nd, 2005
As it happened before, once we got new season of TV series 24, we couldn’t stop after we start watching it. We finished 24 episodes within 3 days, we were so addicted that I start to developing acne due to lack of good sleep!
In this new season, the story started with Jack Bauer working at DOD at Washington DC, came to LA accompanying his new girl-friend Audrey and her father, Secretary of Defence Heller (i.e. Jack’s new boss). Then Jack has to return to CTU to fight the new wave of terrorist attack organized by Harbib Marwan. We liked this season better than the previous three seasons, why? simple: because this one has less crap and more actions. It’s more like a movie rather than a TV.
Story-wise, season 4 is not perfect and there are some obvious holes in the plot, e.g. no indication of the fate of some main characters at the end of the thread
July 9th, 2005
This is by no means a new business book, I’m glad I finished this book as my boss recommneded.
The author of this book also wrote another popular book “Built to last”. It may not be hard to start a business and make it shine, many successful internet startup just showed that. Yet there are very few companies that can sustain that success story into an extended period of time. What the book “From good to great” talk about is to find out what are the common traits behind 14 companies that transfered from good to great and generated substantial improvements overtime, those companies include Fannie Mae, Wallmart, Walgreens etc. Contrary to many conventional wisdom, making the transition from good to great doesn’t require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a culture that rigrously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. For those who want to start up their own business and produce endured results, they should read this book.
Here are the top level abstract of the book..
1. LEVEL FIVE LEADERSHIP - They had leaders who were a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.
2. FIRST WHO…THEN WHAT - People are not the most important asset. The right people are.
3. CONFRONT THE BRUTAL FACTS - They maintained unwavering faith that they would prevail in the end, and at the same time the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of the current reality.
4. THE HEDGEHOG CONCEPT - Their core business was that at which they believed they could be the best in the world.
5. THE CULTURE OF DISCIPLINE - When a company employs disciplined people hierarchy, bureaucracy, and excessive controls are not necessary.
6. TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATORS - Technology by itself is never a primary, root cause of either greatness or decline.
7. THE FLYWHEEL AND THE DOOM LOOP - Good-to-great transformation never happened in one fell swoop but as a relentless push to breakthrough and beyond.
July 9th, 2005