A friend of mine was in Jakarta for an IT project which was for a Japanese client (different client from the one I was ‘serving’). From what he told me, the entire project was a total mess…maybe worse than the one I was involved in.

Told you common sense is very rare nowadays!

First, the client didn’t know what he wanted and kept on changing the requirements. Second, when the project has been ‘completed’, the client scolded my friend and his team for being useless because they have no common sense and kept giving him things that he didn’t want. According to him, my friend and the team should just use their ‘common sense’ in order to know what kind of business processes the system should cater for. Hmm…no information….so they have to use their common sense to get those information……..does that mean he’s asking them to GUESS what the system should have?

Now now now…don’t you think this kind of situation sounds pretty familiar? A lot of clients actually expect the consultants/programmers or anyone they’re paying their money for, to have the right common sense and to come out with whatever they want WITHOUT asking them. This is possible, if there’s someone in the team who can do mind-reading. Otherwise, it’s impossible.

This is because each company has its own unique business processes and no matter how much we try to use our common sense, it’ll be very hard to ‘predict’ or ‘guess’ which is actually the correct one. The best solution here is to suggest to them your ‘best practices’ if they don’t have one….and if they do have one, get it from them without making any wild guesses. That’s the best we can do.

Because at the end of the day, you will be surprised that some companies have really weird business processes…..processes which don’t make sense at all and processes which make your wild guesses look childish.

So now you tell me, do you still want me (or my friend, or anyone you’re paying to work on a project) to use my common sense ……..or do you want to minimize the time I spend on guessing, and tell me right away what are your business processes? Remember that your common sense might not be the same with my common sense.

Decide now, and don’t blame me if your decision makes you lose money though I’m pretty sure you will. Hahah. Because the ‘blaming’ and ‘flaming’ are part of the deal after all

I’ve been working pretty hard for the past few weeks due to a never-ending project – weekdays, weekends, day and night. A friend of mine knows about this and messaged me in Yahoo Messenger.

Friend : Hey Alvin, working so hard?

Is working hard = spoiling the market?

Alvin : Yeah. Project deadline is coming and still got tonnes to do.

Friend : But today is Saturday leh.

Alvin : Sundays also need to work, not just Saturdays.

Friend : Wah, you shouldn’t do that you know. If you do that, the bosses will think the other people are lazy since they are not working on weekends.

Alvin : Hmm, I just feel its my responsibility to deliver this project on time.

Friend : Aiyo, spoil market lah you.

A year go, when employers are trying to find people desperately, one can always tell his/her friends not to spoil the market by working too hard. But that was a year ago when the global economy was at its peak. Things are pretty different now.

To be honest, what my friend said that day kinda surprised me a little. I thought the news on job cuts have been quite wide-spread to most people. But it seems that there are still some people who realize about the situation….but are unwilling to let down their ego. To them, they are not being paid to work hard and if you want them to work hard….then please, pay them more (OT, claims, etc).

Well, the thing I want to say here is that…….time has changed. The demand for job is higher than before, but the supply is becoming lower each passing day. If you think that you are not being paid to work hard, then by all means, do as you wish. Remember that if you don’t want to do it, someone else will do your job for you HAPPILY.

Sadly but true. We, the employees, no longer have a strong bargaining power. It’s either we do it and become an asset to the company, or we don’t and become a liability.

And when economy is bad, the first thing people will remove is — liability.

Perhaps it’s time to change your mindset that working hard = survival + being responsibile, not spoiling the market.

Today I drove pass the WD building in PJ (next to LDP) and couldn’t help but noticed that the sign “Best Employer of 2001″ is still there after all these years. Back then (2003-2005), that sign was quite a big talking point since there weren’t many best employers around this area and that sign alone has made many of my friends interested in joining the company.

Hmm, i think this is an award a lot of people can win

But that was many years back. Since then, there’s no sign of new “Best employer” award for the company anymore and I do wonder…has their standards dropped? If they’re still a good company to join, they should be able to win the awards after that. Why didn’t they?

Same thing goes for those companies who love to show off their awards. It’s fine if you’re showing off your new awards – those in the last few years. But if the awards are too old……well….just take them away since they’re no longer useful and by placing them as “decorations”, it might actually backfire. Unless you are getting those awards every year……from 2001 until 2009, and not just 2001 alone.

Because in my opinion, if you are really that good, you should be able to get those awards including the latest ones. If you only have the 2001 award…..it means that you’re not really doing that well for the past 8 years.

Or maybe you’re just not interested in those awards anymore – which I doubt.

I’m a big Japanese anime fan and it all started when I was a little boy. My father’s friend owned a video shop and he lent me a lot of Dragonball videos for free. And it all started from there.

20 years later, the name Dragonball is still very popular in the world of anime and maybe that is why someone came out with an idea – “Why not make a REAL Dragonball movie?!”

Thus, the result is the movie Dragonball :Evolution.

After watching the trailers, my only response – I kept laughing as if this action movie has become a comedy. I can go on and on about why this should not be made into a Dragonball movie….but well, it’s better if you go find it out yourselves. If you’re a Dragonball fan, you’ll either feel disgusted or amused.

Son Goku and Bulma - they do look pretty funny

Anyway, what I intend to say here is that it is never easy to change something which other people have strong feelings on. This movie is one example. There are millions of Dragonball fans worldwide and all of them know what Dragonball is and all the special feelings associated with the franchise – Son Goku is a Japanese! And and Bulma is a Japanese also!! And Master Roshi is supposed to be bald! To change such feelings is never easy and most of the time will backfire.

Another example is KFC. KFC is famous for fried chicken but I recall that few years ago, they tried to be creative and came out with Fish burger. It was a total failure. Same goes for Nandos, the so-called grilled chicken specialist. I’ve tried to grilled fish and my friend tried to grilled beef before……..they sux. Actually, those things are not really THAT bad if they are being sold by other people. The thing here is that, our mindset has been set, and the feelings associated with these businesses have been set – Nandos for SPICY grilled chicken, Kenny Rogers for HEALTHY grilled chicken, Burger King for large burgers, Dragonball for spiky-haired guys that can fly around in the sky and can change hair color at will, etc.

From here, you can see that there are feelings which we associate with certain names….some ever since our childhood days. That is why it’s never easy to change the feelings associated with a famous brand name. It’s pretty risky too because if you can do it very well (like Transformers…which actually didn’t really change THAT much. They’re still robots…not human), then your product/work will be very popular but if you don’t do it well……….it’ll become a laughing stock and expect millions of hardcore fans to boycott you before your product even got launched.

If you are going to change these feelings…..you better be prepared and make sure you have a well-thought plan. 

Last year, before the recession hits the States, I met up with some friends and we started talking about small company vs large company. Most of them say that large companies will be better since they’re more stable, consistent and productive. The small ones, to them, are too risky since these companies might suffer from cashflow problem, headcount problem, etc.

The small guy will be able to outrun the big guy and make him tired

I told them, that mentality is true and applicable for 2008 but not in the future. Why? Because there will be more and more changes ahead, more so that the large companies might not be able to handle them. Most of us know that large companies are very process-oriented and they have a certain set of procedures you need to follow for every action. I used to work for a Fortune 500 company, and at 1 point, I requested to upgrade my laptop memory to 2GB. The whole process took 3 weeks since it needs the approval from some IT managers in the States. 3 weeks…for something worth RM 200-300.

Anyway, as I’ve predicted, many so-called large companies are falling and falling fast. Retrenchments are not being made by small companies only….but also big companies (some are formerly known for being the best employers in their respective industry). In fact, most of my friends from large companies are suffering job losses or pay cuts but those in smaller companies are only suffering from pay cuts (they only lose their jobs if the company get closed down ).

The thing here is that large companies tend to spend too much time handling their processes and procedures, while the small companies (the good ones) are spending their time changing and adapting to the new environment. In this ever-changing world, whoever can adapt the fastest will win. This is something important and everyone should remember…..but sadly…not many believe in it.

So if you’re still thinking that large companies are better than smaller companies…….think again. In my opinion, it’s better to keep it small or medium for now since changes will be inevitable in 2009 onwards. You wouldn’t want to be the last in the queue to make the changes.