Well, here I come, Frankfurt!
Will be off the Frankfurt for a business trip beginning this weekend...for more than 10 days. I love to travel, it beats sitting in the office. My shopping list is growing. The to eat list grows too. I've been to Frankfurt once only, but it was on transit. Yes, this time, I will actually spend some time walking around the place, playing a bit of tourist.
And don't I miss the beers (Radke and Berlinerwisser, I think that's how it is spelt). Can't drink a lot. And the Black Forrest cake, pork knuckles and the top of the list - sausages with sweet mustard. Oh, terrible I could not be in Munich again. The food there was just excellent.
I am suppose to be back on a Wednesday, but the good PA wanted to make sure we travelled with the cheapest airline. They found MAS, which is RM 400 cheaper. But only seats are available on Thursday. Ha - that's good. I get to stay for another day. I am sure the accommodation will cost more than RM 400 (equivalent to about EUR 80). So, the more those nincompoop try to save, the worse of Nible2 is. But I ain't complaining. It is a good flight and I get to walk around more. Eat more - Nible2 will be footing the bills. Shop more.
Oh yeah, did I mention it was a business trip? Hahaha.
Showing posts with label company. Show all posts
Showing posts with label company. Show all posts
Monday, 25 February 2008
Monday, 28 January 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, 26 January 2008
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.
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.
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