Little Things Mean a Lot?

I was slightly off my normal "take-off" time to go to the office. As the thought floated in while I was driving, that I could be late (a minute or two) to punch-in at the office door, I realised that "little things mean a lot".

At a training seminar in June 2008, the trainer informed that the doors would close at 10.45 a.m. I was in the long queue to get a cup of coffee, and it was already 10.40 a.m. The long walk to the seminar room with the hot coffee cup ensured I missed the 10.45 a.m. window. Some ladies missed the 10.45 window because of the long queue in the toilet (any lady has had the experience?).

All had to wait for the next window of opportunity. There were murmurings of complaint of the lack of sufficient toilet facilities. These were ignored. I didn't dare murmur about the coffee queue. It was 15 minutes later, that the doors were opened.

Will you feel good to go in, with all eyes on you? Don't you regret missing some of the information that was imparted during the 15 minutes you were "locked out"? Especially if the speaker was a multi-millionaire?

This particular trainer was similarly raving and ranting at another seminar that I attended. Those who attended his seminar for the first time would be wondering, "Why does he rant and rave, as if possessed by naughty spirits, over a little one or two minutes or 5 minutes delay in entering the seminar room, by 5% of the participants?"

Why do you think that he insisted that you are on time? And everytime?

I attended a Quality Management training seminar organised by Japan's Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS) in Yokohama, Japan in July 1992 (yes ... in the last century). We were given a revised travel itinerary sheet, one day after the original was given. I scrutinised the sheet to see what the revision was all about.

It was that the time for the arrival of the Shinkansen (bullet train) had been revised from 1042 to 1041. A difference of 1 fricking minute! Do you think it is that important to revise the sheet?

If you arrived at the station platform exactly at 1042, would it be important for you to have received the revised itinerary copy?

The Japanese are known for their attention to detail. Sticklers for punctuality. Worship the God of Quality.

Are you surprised that the Japanese economy developed super fast from the ashes of World War II? That Toyota has overtaken General Motors (GM)? That Toyota has big cash reserves, while GM will go bankrupt soon (if there is no government cash bail-out)?

Have you attended meetings where the Meeting Chairman is late? What do you think of the Chairman? Thank your lucky stars because you too were delayed (hehehe ... not you of course, but your friends)?

I once worked for one of the biggest (if it was not the biggest) multinational oil corporation in the world. Meetings were always on time. The Meeting Chairman always started the meeting on time, and it generally ended on time. Do you have respect for whoever chaired the meeting? Do you think the organisation is a fricking good one, or a mediocre one? Would you be a better employee, or manager, if you worked in this corporation?

You are aware that "Procrastination is a thief of time". Yet, how many people (no, ... not you, of course) procrastinate? You may miss the Shinkansen train. You may miss the golden business opportunity.

You may miss the marriage wagon ... so, go tell him (or her) that he (or she) is the answer to your lonely prayer ... an angel from above ... NOW! PRONTO!

The moral of the story? Little things mean a lot, because what you do for the little things, reflects what you do for the big things. If you do not know how to manage your present income of $10,000 a year, you will not know how to manage an income of $1,000,000.

If you mismanage your $10,000 income now, you will mismanage the future $1,000,000 dowry that you receive from your future beautiful wife. Even the future beautiful bungalow that is part of the marriage dowry you will receive. You got it? ... I mean ... not the money and the bungalow ... hehehe!

I wish you Success in your undertakings, and Good Health and Wealth to you and your family. Take care!

Why Must You Have Continuous Improvement?

"Kaizen" is the Japanese word for 'improvement'. It pertains to continuous improvement, whether in personal life, home life, social life or working life. Kaizen has even been credited as the key to Japan's competitive success.

How important is continuous improvement to you in your personal life? Should you aim to be a better person, day by day, at the rate of 1% a day? Or just on one special day in a year, you increase your ability by 100%?

Which do you think is easier - 1% a day improvement for 365 days? Or 365% on 31st December (so that you can relax and 'enjoy' life the rest of the previous 364 days?).

When you improve yourself by 1% everyday, don't you think you will be awesome after a year? When you make 'improvement' a habit, will it become more difficult or easier for you, as time goes on?

I attended a 4-day business seminar (conducted by a multi-millionaire), in Singapore in June 2008 at the Singapore Exposition Centre. About 2,000 participants from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Taiwan, Australia, India and Maldives attended.

At the seminar, I met two millionaires - one from Maldives and the other from Singapore. I asked them why they were attending a business seminar, when they are already successful in their businesses. Both replied that they were looking for new ideas that could improve their business results. If millionaires are willing to attend training programs to improve their knowledge (to improve their results), shouldn't you also?

In organisations with enlightened Human Resource Management departments, continuous training is critical to their organisations' continuous drive for excellence. Formalised (out of the office) training, usually at least 5 days in a year, is planned for all staff. Informal (on the job) training is provided by constant job rotation (i.e. on average, two years in one job, before being assigned another job). An accountant could be trasferred to the Information Technology department for two years on a project. An engineer could be assigned to the Human Resource department for two years, to be in-charge of training (of engineers).

On an individual or personal level, you must continuously give more value to your organisation that you are working for. How? By becoming more efficient, perhaps by doing things faster. By becoming more effective, perhaps by getting new ideas from books, or using what you learned in formal training.

On an organisational level, the products or services that you deliver must have "use-value" which is more than "cash-value". This could be done by continuouosly improving product quality. Research and Development (R&D) is therefore critical in regard to this product quality aspect.

The moral of the story? As the saying goes, "If you are not growing, then you are dying". Wallace D Wattles aptly wrote, " Every living thing is under this necessity for continuous advancement; where increase of life ceases, dissolution and death set in at once." Abraham Lincoln said, "I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday."

Are You ready to take action to become a Better You? An "Improved You" Model?

I wish you Success in your undertakings, and Good Health and Wealth to you and your family. Take care!

Quality Makes Money?

What is the most important critical success factor (CSF) for a food joint/restaurant/cafe?

Is it the ambience? Location? High human traffic? Pretty waitresses and handsome waiters? Half-dressed and on roller-skates waitresses? Wi-fi availability for your PC?

I believe all the above factors may have their contribution to the success of an eatery. But the most critical would be the Quality of the food!

How do you define the "food quality"? If the customers like (or enjoy) the taste, then it is quality food (according to them ... well, the Customer is King, right?)

I had a sea-food tom yam noodle soup at an eatery a week ago. Although the price was twice that of the normal that I pay at a small stall, it was very tasty and had more prawns and squid.

So what did I do next? I gave the eatery free advertising. Word-of-mouth advertising or marketing. Sent an sms to a good friend about the nice soup. Told the missus to try the delicious soup.

The missus tried the soup last week. She thought it was the best tasting tom yam soup she had ever tasted. She was thinking of asking the chef for the recipe. She was even contemplating being an apprentice to the chef! She was raving about the soup all week.

This week she said she had a craving for the best tasting tom yam soup in the world. The eatery was closed on Saturday, so she postponed her craving to this Sunday.

We drove, some 25 km away, to satisfy her craving. At the first spoonful, she knew something was not right. It did not taste like last week. There was no sweet and sour taste. It tasted bland, and slightly bitter. But because she was very hungry, she still ate some of it. Because it was not tasty, her generosity genes made her give the soup to our son, who loved the soup as well ... last week. One spoonful of the soup, and he immediately rejected it, saying that "it was not tasty". Completely different from last week when he was enjoying every drop of the soup. I tasted the soup. One taste was good enough ... to stop! Last week, the soup bowl was completely empty - the missus had slurped every drop of it. This week it was half full.

Do you think that this particular eatery will have a bright future if such variation in the taste of its food continues? Why does McDonald or Kentucky Fried Chicken prosper? Is it because of their nutritious menu? No (many people consider them as junk food)! But the food (well, there are divided opinions as to whether this term is correct, but be a good-sport ... just play along with me, ok?) taste is great, and it tastes the same - whether this Sunday or next Sunday, whether in Kuala Lumpur or Stockholm.

I remember that in my younger days, I would would also drive 25 km to a sea-food restaurant so that I would eat its speciality - baked crab. So, distance or location is "no object".

Similarly, my friends and I would always stop at a particular roadside eatery (a small stall in the small town of Chukai or Kemaman) every week-end for some rice and hot chicken piece. The chicken was always hot from the wok. The floor was the dusty earth. Seating was a "long chair" made of a piece of plank. There were always customers at any time of the day. Was it because the price of the rice and chicken was cheap? I don't think my friends and I would have stopped every week-end if it was merely because of the price (well, we were not that well-off working for an oil company, but we were not that poor-off either). Was it because of its ambiance? I don't think so. It was because its chicken was tasty - and we wanted to eat! Simple?

The moral of the story? If you are in the food business, ensure that the quality of your food is there. Not once, but consistently! How? Have a proper quality control system in place. It could be as simple as ensuring that all the ingredients (condiments etc) for the soup are available or sufficient every day (not just one Sunday, or only six days a week). Or perhaps the chef himself could taste a small spoonful of the soup, before it leaves the kitchen (known as self-inspection in Quality Management).

Could Food Quality be the critical success factor for an eatery? The difference between losing money ... or making money?

I wish you Success in your undertakings, and Good Health and Wealth to you and your family. Take care!

P.S. To be fair, the tom yam soup eatery did provide excellent value-for-money for two other dishes that were ordered. But still, would you patronise an eatery when one dish out of three disappoints you? That would be a 33% defect rate, in Quality Management terms.

P.P.S. Three weeks after the first taste, the missus ordered tomyam soup noodles again to determine whether the second one was an inadvertent mistake. If the first time the taste was given 10 points (world class), the second time was 2, and this time it is 3 (not to be recommended to her best friend ... to an enemy, maybe). But the good news? I learnt that if your customer does not finish the meal he/she ordered, the amount left is inversely proportional to the food quality (i.e. the more food left-over, the more 'poor quality' is the food!).