Greetings

The annual corporate battle

The end is near. The end of the year I mean, and to say that this year is an eventful one is certainly an understatement. As the year comes to an end, it also marks the beginning of an annual affair in the corporate world. No, I am not referring to the annual year-end reporting period… I am referring to a battle… a domestic one… one that is going to be even more intense this year…

I am referring to the battle for bonus allocation…

31 Dec is a very common year-end period for a lot of companies. But unknown to many, that while the accountants slave it out to report the numbers, there are those in the corporate world who will commence their battle to justify their “performance”.

In a big corporation, it is common to have more than 1 unit or department that generates revenue. For example, a big corporation like General Electrics have manufacturing business, aircraft servicing, capital, etc. Sometimes, a single company can have multiple revenue centre too. Take a bank for example, it has the corporate banking unit, consumer banking unit, debt capital market, treasury, etc.

Sometimes, when a business deal is struck, it can be difficult to ascertain which revenue centre is to be recognised for the credit. It may be easier if the company is a product-based company, though still possible. But it becomes messy when a company is service-based. Mind you, being recognised is crucial as it converts to increment and bonus at the end of the year…. $$$$$!

A very real example, which I think many are aware is this thing about how that little mp3 device called iPod… is dying a slow death. And do you know who or what is killing iPod? It’s none other than the… iPhone.

I heard (which means it could be untrue) that the iPod unit in Apple is blaming the iPhone unit of killing their own kind. It may not be the case in Malaysia but people around the world prefer to buy an iPhone instead of an iPod, which makes perfect sense really. And due to this, iPod is not doing as well as it used to be. Come payment of bonus, guess who in Apple will be pocketing a fat pay cheque?

Trust me, the “battle” to get oneself recognised for the credit can be a bloody affair. You have absolutely no idea how one is willing to go just to make sure one’s bonus is secured, even at the expense of others. And due to the current economic turmoil, the bonus pool is much smaller, which in turn will intensify the battle.

In the place where I work, I have already witness small battle happening since months ago. As the accountants need to separate the bonus provision between departments, this is going to be a bloody war.

Blessed Christmas

For unto us a Child is born...

Unto us a Son is given...

Emmanuel...

God is with us...

We were the reason He gave His life...

He is the reason for this season...

Blessed Christmas to all...

The current hypocritical trend

There is a current phenomenon that is sweeping through town. And when I said town, it’s really about people in the Kland valley. You hear people making this particular remark rather often, particular in the last 2 months or so.

When someone is stuck in a traffic jam…
When someone fails in getting a car-park slot in the mall…
When someone sees a whole load of people at the mall…
When someone has to queue to pay after shopping…
When someone had to queue to get a table at a restaurant…

These people tend to now just make a very quick judgement…

“Who say got recession ah? Where got recession? Tell me… where got recession?

Most of the time, such remark is made because one is frustrated. One believes that the rest of the world are supposed to stay at home and eat maggi mee during these tough times while that someone can enjoy the mall and road for oneself.

But one must not forget, the fact that you are also out on the road queuing at the counter or waiting in line for a table or jamming the car park means you are also one who in the crowd of people who is making this recession doesn’t look like a recession. That person standing right behind you on a queue can also say the same thing.

We are all contributing to this phenomena… myself included.

The reality of reality shows

I recently had the privilege to have a conversation with someone who participated in a local reality show. Consider that we don’t really have that many reality shows here, I am sure some of you would have managed to guess which one. Yes, it’s our very own version of apprentice. I think it’s called The Firm or something.

Anyway, this person (let’s call him Jack), quit after 1 episode as the show was taking too much of his time. It takes 4 days of filming for just 1 episode. So if you don’t have an extremely understanding boss, no way you can make it.

Naturally, I asked him about all those drama and how real is the reality show. I am sure you know what I mean, all those bitching and crying and internal fighting, how real are all those stuff. How real are these reality shows?

Jack response was… “It’s reality as in, there is no proper script. That’s basically it”

So, it’s just a show with no proper script? How do they generate all the drama and bitching and crying stuff?

“A combination of casting and editing”, Jack answered.

Apparently, during casting, the production team doesn’t really rope in the best people for the show. But rather, they cast in people based on their personality, personalities that will create the “drama” needed. I reckon it’s simple. Just cast in a jerk, a bitch, a dumb-dumb, a blur punk, an ambitious soul (both male + female), a joker and put them all in a group, you will have the reality you want. Don’t you think so?

Well, taking all the drama aside, I think reality shows somehow illustrate a disturbing element. I think it shows that we are no longer interested in “acting”, or at least we are heading that way. Tears and laughter in an acted scene no longer interests us, we want to see the real thing. We want to see real tears, we want to see real arguments. When there is a struggle, we are intrigued by real suffering.

It makes me wonder, whether we humans will one day move towards real killing. And you know what? It’s all in the name of entertainment…

Impossible? Too drastic? Well, what things are we not capable of?

An analogy of an organism

There is this organism. Just like any living thing, it needs to grow. And with the proper nutrients, it will certainly grow. As it lives in a very competitive environment, it will need to take it the best food in order to absorb the best nutrients for its body. It may be a struggle at first but soon, with the right approach and being wise in selecting the food it needs, the body can have the proper nutrient.

As this organism grew with the proper nutrients, it began to develop strong muscles. At one point, this organism kept putting its muscles into training in order for it to be one step ahead of its competitors. Sure enough, with the right training and more good nutrients, this organism with its strong muscles and a smart mind managed to defeat some of its competitors.

But just like any living being, as time goes by; this living organism became complacent. Lapse in concentration while selecting the right food, top up with a tendency to take things easy having achieved good strength, fats began to form around its body.

Fats can be essential, as fats support the muscles by providing muscle with energy. But no matter what, fats are always bad; it can cause diseases in the long run. But since everything looks fine, the competitors are not showing any sign of improvement and the unhealthy food tastes so good, the organism just have to bear the fats.

But then, there is a sudden change of environment…

Some other organisms in the community died due to disease that they had without knowing. So this organism begins to go for check up to see if it has any disease and found out that it is in the pinkest of health. But then, the wise mind of this organism thought that this would be the best time to get rid of the fat; using the outbreak of diseases as the reason.

You must realise that over time, the muscles have gotten lazy and the fats, though have not caused any disease, is certainly causing inefficiencies in the body. On top of that, it’s making the organism looks bad!

And so the organism puts its body through tough diet regime. No more lavish food and relaxing approach to things. The muscles need to exercise and the fats have to be trimmed away. The body is fine, no disease and in fact, the body is at its pinkest of health but still, due to the change in environment, this is the best time to get rid of the fats and get the muscles to work efficiently again.

This organism is called… unscrupulous opportunist corporations…

So do you think you are the muscles? Or are you the fats?

A theory of 2 companies

Imagine there are 2 companies, Company A and Company B. Both companies are in the same business in town, and their business is rather specialised. This means the workers in this business can only work in Company A or B in this town.

Both companies are actually doing quite well despite the current economic condition. But one day, the big boss of Company A decided to downsize the company. Certainly, with the bad economic state, it’s not that difficult to obtain regulatory approval.

And so Company A retrench say… 30% of its personnel. Of course, they don’t really call it retrenchment. Packaging is important so it’s usually called voluntary separation scheme, flexible separation scheme, this scheme and that scheme. No matter what the call it, people will lose their job. The 70% remaining people in Company A will then become fearful thus will not dare to demand for increment or bonus.

With this, then Company B suddenly went on a recruitment drive and recruited the 30% workers in the market that only Company B can employ, due to their specialised skills. Of course, these 30% workers will employed by Company B at a much lower salary than before. Well, they have been retrenched, not much choice right?

Interestingly, Company B then retrench 30% of its original staff strength. These 30% being retrenched are not the newly employed ex-Company A workers, they are the existing ones. Made sense right? You employ all the ex-Company A workers cheaply, you can then get rid of those in current payroll who are getting much higher pay. Naturally, this also sends a chill to existing Company B workers thus they too do not dare to demand for increment and bonus.

More interestingly, Company A too went on a recruitment drive and employ the 30% retrenched ex-Company B workers. Of course, they are employed at a much lower salary compared to their previous employment in Company B.

In conclusion, 30% of staff changed working place between Company A and Company B resulting in massive reduction in staff cost. The non-retrenched staff paranoid about losing their job thus will not ask for increment and bonus resulting in an even more massive reduction in cost. Since both companies are actually doing well despite the economic crisis, there is a sudden increase in profit.

The big bosses of the 2 companies claim credit for the profit increase and pocket a fat bonus…

It’s just a theory… anyone got a morale of the theory?