This post is not about motivational topic, it’s about a dream I’ve had few days ago.

I had this dream of 2 Singapore celebrities, who were trying to ask me out. (ok ok, I know this will never ever happen in real life). Let’s call them A and B. However, I’m more interested in A because B is just too “manja” for me.

So B tried to ask me out for a number of times but I rejected. She then turned to my parents and tried to make them like her.

A on the other hand, made a move as well. She asked me to go her house and have dinner with her family. I agreed.

When I reached her house, I was asked the wait at the living room with her. She then asked “Alvin, do you notice any difference in my living room?”

I looked around – from the window, to the TV set, to the aquarium, and then the altar. And I stopped. On the altar, there were statues of several deities but there was something else. A and her family were praying something else with joss sticks.

It was a …..a can of luncheon meat. =_=

And yeah, I woke up 30 minutes before my alarm clock rang and said “What the heck was that?!”

Guess I must be feeling too excited for my new job next week.

p/s…. my blog was attacked by WordPress’ famous white screen of death due to a plugin upgrade. I’ve fixed it for now…and hopefully it won’t come back to haunt me.

I’ve only been to the airport a couple of times (I’m a homey person…and quite a poor one too). I’ve noticed that the airport security has been very tight ever since the 911 incident, but it was still tolerable.

But last week (or was it 2 weeks ago), I was in the airport again for my business trip to Bangkok. I found that the airport security has become too tight…….more than necessary. The metal detector went off 95% of the time, even if you do not have any metal stuff on your body. I do have a necklace made of stainless steel…and that’s it. The detector went off, and I was forced to be searched by 1 of the officers. And I wasn’t alone. All the passengers after me suffered the same experience.

Mmm...why 2 postmen in the same neighborhood?

If that’s the case, why do you want to have the detector in the first place? You might as well search every single passenger there. That’s what the officers were doing at that time anyway.

This to me is a complete waste of resources and money. If you are planning to be sooooooooooo sensitive and strict, then just remove the machine. If you are relying on the machine, then don’t place so many officers there and thus cutting down the manpower cost. There’s no point doing redundant and similar tasks.

This kind of situation happens in a lot of places. For example, in shopping complexes where they have to tie up your plastic bags with some plastic bands……and you will still have to go pass those ‘detector’ thing at the entrance. If you already have those hypersensitive detector, then don’t waste your money on those plastic bands.

Another example is PLUS highway. I recently noticed that there are some “donation box” for some charity thingy, placed at the payment counter aka checkpoint of major highways. Funny thing is, they’ve put those boxes in Smart Tag and Touch N Go lanes. That’s a complete waste of resources again since…well….I seriously doubt anyone will donate there.

Or….getting 5 people to do 1 person’s job such as cleaning the hallway. 1 people doing the job, 4 people looking at it.

I can go on and on and on about such things because there are just too many examples in our country where resources are being wasted due to poor planning. Maybe these businesses/companies/organizations should take a look at all their operation side of things and cut down on the unnecessary ones.

So, start looking at the mirror, tidy up your hair and face, and remove all those unnecessary accessories. Maybe after doing all that, your maintenance cost will go down and you will look better.

Oh, and if you are not willing to do that, then don’t go around complaining that you’re losing money and make that as an excuse to raise your asking price (or toll rates) .

p/s…. i suffered the similar situation at the security checkpoint in Bangkok airport and was searched by a female officer (i was shocked =_=)

p/s….. I boarded Thai Airways and they served food with metal fork, spoon and knife. Hmmm, so the security check was pointless.

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. 

I will be starting on a series of “What customers want?” articles from now onwards. These articles are actually written based on my personal observations and opinions (and rants). Hopefully it’ll help people understand more about what customers really want.

Or more like, what does Alvin Lim really want? LOL

Anyway, the topic here is Security. Everyone wants security especially during economy crisis like this. People want cheap and lasting stuff so that they won’t have to spend money to buy a replacement. In other words, they want to get something which is gives good value for money, or good return of “investment”. Why? Simply because buying a replacement can be very expensive. Imagine buying a new 32 inch LCD TV to replace the 2-year-old 32-inch LCD TV. With the combined price (which is very expensive), you can easily get a 42-inch Full HD LCD TV (I think…but well, it’s just an estimation).

I wonder if there's any company giving this kind of warranty coverage?

I know that few years ago, when people are still spending a lot, some of the cheaper stuff do not come with warranty period because it’s just too expensive for the businesses to offer that. Still, people will buy because if it doesn’t work, they can just buy another one. But now, situation has changed. More and more people are starting to feel the heat from the economy downturn and they are not willing to risk their hard-earned money on something which is not “secured” or without a warranty……unless it’s dirt cheap…like 80% off the original price.

Funny thing is, most businesses do not realize this and they still think customers are willing to risk their money to get something which can break down anytime.

This happened to me today (start of rant). I went to IKEA to look for an office chair and I found a RM 350 chair which is the type that I’m looking for. But it was over my budget. So I went to the furniture shop near LDP (Kelana area) and found an office chair which is pretty similar but RM 290. After some “discussion” with the sales guy (kudos to my mum who is very ruthless when bargaining for cheaper price), I managed to get the price of RM 260. Here’s our conversation after the “discussion”:

Alvin : So if I want this chair, do you think my car can fit in the box?

Sales guy : What box? This is cash & carry. This is the unit you’ll get.

Alvin : Oh.. display unit eh? Then is there any warranty period?

Sales guy : Aiyah, won’t break down one. It’s brand new.

Alvin : How would I know? Maybe you’ve put here for many months. So, is there a warranty period?

Sales guy : Nope. We don’t give warranty period for something this small.

Alvin : Ok, then I’ll get from IKEA.

Seriously, I rather fork out the extra RM 100 to get something brand new and also to buy the “security”. I don’t think I want to spend another few hundred buying yet another chair if the RM 260 breaks. It’s just too risky and certainly not a good investment.

That’s why if you’re trying to sell something to your customers, you must remember that most customers want security or some kind of assurance that the item will not break. If it does, at least, they want to know that they can replace the item with zero fee. Either that, or give them an extremely cheap price which will allow them to buy another new item if the existing one breaks.

As for me, I will still prefer to pay that extra money to get that “security” or warranty. No security, no deal. No assurance, no deal.

P/S….not sure if it is Assurance, or Insurance, or.. ? Ah well, I know “if” statement more than English now.

Let’s take a break from the regular serious discussions of this blog. This time round, I’ll share with you a real life story about a small boy and a horse.

Source: http://www.gaffeaminute.com/

My sister’s colleague went for a family vacation to Desaru. The colleague brought her 2-year-old boy for a walk along the beach and came across a horse riding instructor, a horse and a rider (who is learning how to ride). The boy was curious and pulled his mother to go to the horse riding area where the instructor was teaching the rider how to ride the horse properly.

Instructor : This horse is a very obedient horse and it’s very easy to tell her what to do. Just tap the horse with your legs and said “walk” and the horse will start walking slowly.

Rider : What if I want the horse to move slightly faster?

Instructor : Oh, you can say “trot” and the horse will move faster.

Boy : Trot!

And the horse suddenly started to move faster and faster, away from them. The instructor spent the next 10 minutes chasing after the horse and trying to order the horse to stop.

10 minutes later, the instructor walked back to the horse riding area (breathing heavily) with the horse and the pale-faced rider.

Instructor : Ma’am, please bring your son away from this place.

End of story.

When my sister told me this story, I was like O_O

That boy is smart !! Hahahaha.

Hope you like this joke

NOTE: Apparently, most people don’t get this joke. Maybe I should explain it further.Try to imagine if you bring your 2-year-old son to watch horse riding, where an instructor is teaching another kid how to ride a horse. The instructor said “Say walk, tap on the horse with your legs if you want the horse to walk. Say trot if you want the horse to walk faster” and your son said “trot”. The horse ran off, the instructor chased after the horse, and the kid who was the rider started to panic. When the instructor came back with the horse…he was completely exhausted, and the rider’s face was pale. And no, nobody taught your son what is “trot”.

P/S …. I’ve yet to have the time to sit down and write out my plan & forecasts for the year 2009. I will try to come out with some Top 10 lists next week. Sorry for the delay. Really been pretty busy lately.