branding works

We have many heroes. It is only a matter of recognising them and blowing up their achievements, add in a little drama, a little exaggerations and sensations, and we can have the best fairy tales or world shattering stories. Just write on the good and beautiful side and ignore the bad stuff. Look at all the celebrities and ask yourselves how many are just simply punks and outrageous bums that you would not want to be seen around them? But they are idolised as long as the dark side is not exposed. But to be serious, we have great names and marketable names. The Americans have their Roosevelts, Eisenhowers, the Brits have their Chamberlains and Wilsons. And now the more marketable names are the celebrities in arts, entertainments and sports. Tiger Woods, the Levis Strauss, Michael Jordan, etc. Let's cook up some great brands among our greats. Remy Ong, Ang Peng Siong, Mardan Mamat or Dick Lee and churn them into world class brands. SIN is not bad when FCUK is nice. Shall we have brands like the Ongs, the Angs or Siongs, or Mamat or the Lees? The Lees somehow sounds better, more familiar and more universal and recognisable. Lets launch the Lees brand for a start and see how far it goes. Dick will love it. he is so famous. Branding works.

sunday morning again

I like Sundays. On Sundays, I let my mind wanders to uncharted territories, toy with wild ideas and things that are unmentionable. Last Sunday I expressed how envious I was about young professionals making 3/4 of a million or more. Geez, was I envious? I have to harp on that theme after some sad experiences that happened to some earlier batches of high earners. The housing agents, insurance agents, stockbroking agents, the conveyancing agents or they also called them lawyers. They were the high flyers of a short era. It happened so fast and gone just as fast. I happened to meet up with a conveyancing agent, or lawyer, the other day. And he said he was just waiting to close shop. Huh, conveyancing agents or lawyers, closing shop? What happened to the good time? And what happened to the million dollar housing agents, the million dollar insurance agents, the million dollar stockbroking agents? They are all marking time. Some quit, some earning pittance, worst than a clerk. Some waiting to call it a day. The moral of the story is that when one is earning big bucks, shut up. You would not know what is coming next. Things may change so rapidly, by the act of god, that good time will be over in a matter of days. Maybe there is some hope today. Now the perception is different. If one can earn more, I can make sure that I can earn even more. So the bigger is the income of others, the better justification for me to earn more. I deserve to earn more than anyone. And I will find a way to do so. So please go and earn as much as you can. But just don't get carried away.

how wrong ntuc leaders were?

While the NTUC leaders were mulling over the increase in CPF contribution of employers, they are conscious of how any increase will affect our competitiveness and the concerns of employers. John De Payva commented that 'Employers have said the increase in CPF contibution may result in them lowering the annual wage increase...' Its a case of LPPL. You pay here you cut there. So more CPF, less increments. 'On the other hand Lim Swee Say noted that some employers did not want the rate to be raised.' How wrong can the two be. Consult the views of our foreign talents and they will get a surprisingly different picture. This is what Faruq Shadhili(foreign talent) said, 'Foreign companies are eager to raise the CPF contributions for employees.' Or maybe Fauq is referring only to foreign employers while the NTUC leaders were referring to local employers. And foreign employers like Singapore so much that they are willing to pay more to Singaporeans and will not relocate to China or India. The NTUC must engage some of these foreign talents to get a better feel of the real situation on the ground. And they are relatively cheaper to hire. Good value for money.

well done gerard ee

Gerard Ee and his team has done a good job at NKF. The cost of dialysis is coming down, the subsidies going up, the patients paying less. Imagine how much injustice to the poor patients if things were allowed to go on as before and the whole country being deceived that everything was done best for the benefits of the patients? And how many of them and their families will continue to suffer financial hardship while others are enjoying and having a great time at their expenses? And enjoying the glory of being idolised as the new age saviours of the sick, and honoured and feasted by the peers of supertalents. Well done Gerrard. But more can still be done.

myth 105

'The Foreign Myth' Lately the foreign talent debate has taken a higher profile with foreign talents openly calling local talents silly and shallow. If we may take a step back and ask ourselves, what we have today, are they the contribution of these new foreign talents? Technically we were all foreign talents once as we were all migrants. But these migrants have settled and sunk roots here, indigenised and formed our first and second generations of local talents. These are the talents that built what Singapore is today. And we have them to thank for, not these new upstart foreign talents who came here yesterday and trying to claim all the credits. If these foreign talents are that talented, they should have elevated the poverty in their home countries. But they are quitters of their own countries and coming here bragging how good they are. Just show us what they have achieved for their countries before they tell us we are silly and shallow. But sad to say, they are right in this last comment. We are indeed silly and shallow to bring them in to insult us. If this foreign talent madness is not straightened out, one of these days these foreign talents are going to line up the local talents and screw them nicely one by one, including those who idolised foreign talents.