A chinaman-company called Nible2

Yes, the title would have been a dead give away. And now, as a first step towards healing, my admission " I work for a chinaman company".

Nible2 should have been a fantastic company to work for, and to invest it. Nible2 is pretty much involved in electronics, and special kind of electronics. The business is really recession resistant, and will bloom with the good times. It has a few core products, so, from a business point of view, a damn good place to invest and work.

Unfortunately, the fairly tale stops there. The company has pretty much moved from ICU to CCU due to extremely poor management. How bad, I hear you rush. Let me put it this way, if it was fiction, it would make Dilbert look like a Fortune 500 company. The place is full of Pointy Haired Boss (PHBs), the micro managing kind; a HR directors that's missing a tail - else, Catbert; plenty of Asoks, the innocent interns but fortunately, not many good Wallys.

Ah, and this is when my QQQ training comes into play. During my Asok years, I had the privilege to work in another company called QQQ. Fortunately, 3Q had plenty of good workers and there was a chief weasel, let's call her Miss K. And yes, I owe her most of my survivor skills.

Anyway, back to Nible2. My colleagues there are usually the innocent kind, some of them kind of incompetent, but really, no real Wallys. Some would forever be carrying a coffee mug around the office. Needless to say, you won't find me educating them. For the uninitiated, a little trick here - at work, always look busy. Never ever be seen carrying a coffee mug. That's advertising to everyone that you are free... you are not doing your work... and you need more work. Bad idea. Instead, carry a laptop or a thick logbook. The contents of the said laptop or logbook is not important.

But the real problem is the PHBs. There is no operations at all. There isn't any systematic way of doing stuff. Always the cart before the horse. Believe it or not, the entire company does not run on a budget. If one needed to purchase something, just fill up a purchase request. If there is money in the bank, well, it will be approved. Otherwise, KIV. No big wonder we ran out of cash 4 times in the last 5 years. Of course, the PHBs have the grand idea of scrutinizing only PRs for a large sum of purchase. Ah...but Wally has a way. Just break the purchase to a few requests - all of it under RM 5000 (about USD 1800), each, and no questions will be asked.

How about is the company? Let me put it this way, no one in the company, yours truly included is able to answer any of the following questions accurately:

1. Who are the top 10 customers, in the correct order?
2. What's the best selling product, in terms of sales volume?
3. What's the product with the best margin?
4. What are the top 3 things customers like about Nible2.
5. What are the top 3 things customers hate about Nible2.
6. Which department is losing / making money?

In short, Nible2 has no clue what is happening. It is a culture to do the urgent, never the important. PHBs hire more managers to row the boat.

Oh well, all I can say is, I already have half a foot out of this plane. Looking for the right spot to bail out. It is flying on fumes, the pilots are busy entertaining the business class passengers and a beautiful air hostess playing pilot. What more can I say... for today, at least.

Restaurant Review: Kum Lun Tai

It was indeed a good way to end the week - a dinner with fellow QQQ alumni members. To say the least, it was a gathering for a group of weasels, minus its Chairperson in UK. Attendance was abysmal, only 6 members and one honorary member showed up. In any case, oh yes, we did enjoy dinner very much.

The said dinner was held in Kum Lun Tai Restaurant (non-halal) at Sri Petaling. Closely located to a Shell gas station, parking was easy. Business was very quiet for a Friday evening - only 3 tables all in all and one group in a function room. Service was reasonable. We ordered about 5 dishes and one soup.

As dictated by tradition, we started the night with a salmon Yu Sang - which is essentially salad with slices raw salmon. Taste - it was pretty ordinary, not the best, not the worst.

Soup ordered by a fellow member, a soup made of taufu. The taste resembled shark fins soup, but this was certainly more environmentally friendly. No sharks were harmed. Neither were our wallets. I would say it is a very good substitute for sharks fin soup - tasted about the same, somewhat starchy, with strips of taufu, some prawns, some crab meat and it was not oily.

The dishes were sliced fish with spring onions, a lemon chicken, vegetarian dish and sweet and sour prawns. All the dishes were very tasty, fresh, not extremely oily and would pretty much be that of a typical Chinese restaurant in Malaysia minus the lard.

To sum it up, yes, we finished all the food. Hmmm. Come to think about it, there were only two guys. These gals sure have an appetite. The bill - about RM 300 which was reasonable given the ambiance (not by the roadside with a wok next to you) and the quantity and quality of the food.
So yes, the alumni would surely return to Kum Lun Tai for another meeting in the near future.

No no...

Despite having a day of public holiday on Wednesday, it has been a very long week at work. A little background - about 2 moons back, I was asked to take charge of marketing in Nible2. Yes, it was a promotion without any pay increase. I am OK with that but the mess left behind by the previous managers were unbelievable. Many projects were more than two quarters late, mostly were dying and many dead.

So, it's clean up for the last 60 days or so. Started by considering new vendors - which brings the story to this week. We asked a couple of PR companies and advertising companies to make their presentation to us. We needed a consultant to give Nible2 a new image. All in all, the response was good - we had about 6 vendors.

Unfortunately, that was about when the nightmare started. One chap showed up alone, without a laptop, no presentations, nothing. He showed up empty handed and by the looks of it, he was suffering a bad hang-over. Mind you, the bloody meeting was at 4pm.

Most of the others were better prepared for their presentation. I was impress with one or two companies. However, I would say that of the remaining 5 vendors, about 4 of them had one problem. When they presented their corporate CD, I went....OMG, should I really hire you?


Yes, this is how one company provided their corporate CD. They are a PR and advertising agency. Hmmm... would you hire someone who cannot present their own image well? The plastic sleeve reminds me of a RM 5 pirate VCDs from SS2. Then again, even pirated CDs would have monochrome or colour printed CD titles. This one has bad handwriting on it. Not even the printed sticky labels.

This boggles my mind. They are a PR / Advertising company. Surely, they must know better. Blank CD labels and the applicator would be less than RM 50. So, what could cause this oversight? Attitude? Lack of attention to details? Or perhaps it is just unimportant to them? But it is important to me - how can I justify this vendor to my executive directors for a RM 100,000 purchase request?

While there is no clear cut to say that a poorly projected image shall cause the potential vendor to be excluded, I do feel that the vendors should not disadvantage themselves.

Something I've learnt from a footballer - the difference between extra-ordinary and ordinary is just the little bit extra.

House Wanted

A public holiday for Kuala Lumpur today, courtesy of the Prime Minister. That's a joy of working in Malaysia.

Will be spending most of the day looking for a house. I intend to buy a house soon, especially when the stock market appears to be on a free fall. As a buyer, I can only hope the prices of real estate will follow suit.

On the subject of houses, it pains me very much to see that my grandpa is not able to stay in his house. He has to stay in pretty much a nursing home. Reason - he had a fall early last year and suffered brain hemorrhage. After an operation, he has recovered substantially but needs either a walking frame or a wheel chair to move around. Now, this becomes the tricky part.

• The washroom is rather small - the wheel chair / walker cannot fit in. We have tried - it just fits and there is no space at all to move around. Hence, he is not able to use his own washroom.
• There are just way too many steps. Even a small step of about 2 inches between the living hall and the kitchen becomes a hazard for a frail person.
• Car porches in Malaysian homes, in generally, are very badly designed. Most of the time, after parking under the covered portion of the porch, one is not able to put the wheelchair next to the car - not enough space. I have no idea why car porches / garages must be in front of the house in Malaysia. The cars take up so much space and we really do not need it obstructing our entrances.

Oh well, this little lesson has prompted my parents to seriously think of a house suitable for the elderly. We have not even discussed about double-storey houses! It is very sad to see one not able to life in his/her own home.

Some has suggested staying in a condo. I have little contact with condos. I am curious to know, how many condos are equiped with lifts suitable to paramedics? Can the stretcher fit in?

Oh, by the way, I am looking for a house near USJ and / or Subang Jaya. I really should not turn my blog into a "Classified". Not a good idea.

New Kid On the Blog

Well well, what could I say. Here I am, new on the blog. Still trying my very best to figure out some settings. As an engineer, this is one of the few occasions I feel technically inadequate.

Ah...found the spell check. That would be very handy.

Anyway, a little about myself. My nickname has too be Wally. I was an engineer till about two years ago when I succumbbed to the dark side and joined marketing. Still very much an engineer at heart.

Purpose of blog is really to share my thoughts on many subjects. I suppose it is really a place to shout - whether or not anyone listens. At least it makes me feel good. So much to today. More tomorrow, perhaps?