How not to look like a porcupine

Couldn't resist copying this from a LinkedIn account user's profile page:

Contact Settings

I am generally receptive to being contacted if we have *common interests*, especially within my areas of specialty. I will also respond quickly if you have *clearly articulated* the reason for us to connect - no boiler-plate invitations please. However, you will find me quite protective of my network. Many are private and busy individuals, not super-connectors. Thus, make sure your introduction requests are *specific* and *directly relevant* to my network contacts.I am also very conservative when it comes to endorsements: I will only leave endorsements for people that I have directly worked with and have experience of their capabilities.

How friendly. Sometimes it's better not to be too frank about your thinking. And note the little *asterisks* (roll eyes).

Barbarians at the Gate

Reads like a Tom Clancy/John Grisham thriller, with an insight into the social history of wealth in the late 1980s in America. The story of the takeover battle for RJR Nabisco between KKR and its management group (who initiated the raid but lost in the end) during a time when LBOs were the rage was pieced together by two Wall Street Journal reporters who had spent weeks tracking the events for the public. Good way to gain some knowledge on investment banking, corporate boards, innovative financial instruments and the excesses of corporate management.

Dr Seuss can be very inspiring

Oh, the places you'll go!

Congratulations!

Today is your day.

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You’re on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.

About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,

you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any

you’ll want to go down.

In that case, of course,

you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there

in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen

and frequently do

to people as brainy

and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,

don’t worry. Don’t stew.

Just go right along.

You’ll start happening too.

OH!

THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!

You’ll be seeing great sights!

You’ll join the high fliers

who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.

You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.

Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.

Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t

Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so

but, sadly, it’s true

and hang-ups

can happen to you.

You can get all hung up

in a prickle-ly perch.

And your gang will fly on.

You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch

with an unpleasant bump.

And the chances are, then,

that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump,

you’re not in for much fun.

Un-slumping yourself

is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.

Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.

A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!

Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…

or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go around back and sneak in from behind?

Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,

for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused

that you’ll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place……

for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or a No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night

or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting.

NO!

That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape

all that waiting and staying.

You’ll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,

once more you’ll ride high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!

There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.

And the magical things you can do with that ball

will make you the winning-est winner of all.

Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be,

with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t.

Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times

you’ll play lonely games too.

Games you can’t win

’cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!

Whether you like it or not,

Alone will be something

you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance

you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.

There are some, down the road between hither and yon,

that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go

though the weather be foul

On you will go

though your enemies prowl

On you will go

though the Hakken-Kraks howl

Onward up many

a frightening creek,

though your arms may get sore

and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike

and I know you’ll hike far

and face up to your problems

whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course,

as you already know.

You’ll get mixed up

with many strange birds as you go.

So be sure when you step.

Step with care and great tact

and remember that Life’s

a Great Balancing Act.

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.

And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!

(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray

or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,

you’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting.

So…get on your way!

Health talk

I am going to share a couple things related to health and wellness that I subscribe to. There is this great website Hovid.sg that is run by Hovid, a Malaysian-based company that manufactures and sells pharmanceuticals and nutraceuticals. They have an online store that delivers the next day to customers in Singapore at a flat rate of $10 (so buy more at one go). I discovered the website by accident, on a doctor's blog who said that he buys his clinic's medicine from them. I checked it out and realised that its Carotech subsidiary holds a patent for the extraction process of carotenes and tocotrienols from palm oil. Now I have been reading alot about tocotrienols, which is a type of Vitamin E that is a few hundred times more easily adsorbed by the human body, as compared to the more common form of Vitamin E available as supplement, called tocopherols. Tocotrienols are not easily available as supplements due to the high cost, mainly from the extraction process, so the Vitamin E supplements retailing are tocopherols (in Singapore, I have yet to find tocotrienols being sold in pharmacies). Tocotrienols are strong anti-oxidants, which bring a whole slew of benefits to the human body, including anti-aging, cholestrol reduction, cancer & tumour prevention, and lower blood pressure. Tocotrienols are also found to be more potent in their anti-oxidation and anti-cancer effects than tocopherols. Dr Nicholas Perricone, a well-known US dermatologist and scholar, has written extensively about the benefits of tocotrienols. Hovid sells tocotrienols at a cheaper price than those I have checked out online, because the middleman is cut out, but tocotrienols are 2-3 times more expensive than tocopherols, the common Vitamin E supplements we see on the shelves. Hovid also sells a good multivitamin formulation known as Betaton, which contains a far wider range of essential vitamins than most products I see at Guardian or Watson's, although the vits included may differ in terms of constituent amounts. Then it really depends on what you think you would need more. For example, Betaton contains many more members of the Vit B family like B5 and B8. It also contains the rare Vit H and trace amounts of Copper, Manganese and Molybdenum, in addition to all the common vitamins we know.

So town councils were suckered by Lehman too

I wonder based on who's advice do the town councils carry out the investment of their funds, of which apparently up to 35% are eligible to purchase financial instruments. Do town councils hire in-house fund managers or financial advisors? Are the funds professionally managed? What are the risk horizons and who decides them? And what happens now that it looks increasingly likely these structured products are turning into junk? How do we make up for the losses and who will be responsible?

Anyhow, I am waiting to see by how much they will raise conservancy charges next.

Yes, I know I'm kinda late joining the bandwagon...

And probably half the business world has read and given his/her take on Jack Welch's Winning. So what I am going to do is pick out some of the good bits and record them here.

His approach to the Strategy process, which I thought could be adapted for sniffing out value investments:

1. What the playing field looks like now: Competitors & market shares. Where do you stand? What are the key drivers of profitability? SWOT of each major competitor. What is the customer base and how do they buy?

2. What the competition has been up to: What has each competitor done in the past year to change the playing field? Who are the new entrants and what have been their activities for the past year?

3. What have you been up to: What have you done in the past year to change the playing field? Have you lost any competitive advantage?

4. What's around the corner: What scares you the most in the year ahead? What one or two things could a competitor do to nail you? What new products or technologies could your competitors launch that might change the game? What M&A deals could knock you off your feet? What's your winning move?

5. What can you do to change the playing field: What can you do to make your customers stick to you?

The key is to look at "How we can do better than last year" and "How we can beat competition".

His take on personal career:

...there are some things you can do to keep moving ahead. Exceed expectations, broaden your job's horizons and never give your boss a reason to have to spend political capital on you. Manage your subordinates (and I would include peers too) carefully, sign up for radar-screen assignments, collect mentors and spread your positive attitude. When setbacks come, and they will, ride them out with your head up.

Such great value, this read. One book that covers business management, corporate strategy and personal development. And twenty bloody years as CEO of the world's largest company, we should pay this guy some attention, no?

Bao Ka Leow

Saturday's Straits Times did a special report on Singapore wanting to be a Philanthrophic Hub. Mmm.. so we now want to be a hub for NPOs. In addition to being an aviation hub, a shipping hub, education hub, medical (tourism) hub, biotech hub, MICE hub, financial hub, insurance/reinsurance hub and let-me-know-if-I'd-left-it-out hub. Erm, whatever happenened to the theory of competitive advantage? If we are injecting our resources in a million different directions with the hope of diversifying our economy and risks, are we not also running the risk of spreading ourselves too thin? This mentality of placing our bets on so many different sectors, and some of them I am not even sure if we have some expertise/competitive advantage in, and then hoping eventually that at least some of them pay off in the long run just doesn't sound like a solid strategy at all. And why a Philanthrophic hub? I think I got my answer from the title and intro to Saturday's article:

Doing good PAYS
US$2 trillion: That's what non-profit organizations spent in 40 countries. 5% of GDP: Their contribution in 8 developed countries. Yes, there is money to be made from this sector and Singapore wants a piece of the pie.

What could be

It's always easier to focus on what is and what was but working towards "what could be" takes a lot more imagination, verve and energy. I guess that's because humans do not like change and the uncertainty that comes along with it. But keeping a constant focus on what could be keeps the energy level up, gives one a sense of direction and can literally keep one alive. Like the time when we came close to spending the night in the mountains in Huangshan. There came a point when I could no longer feel much in my legs and every step wobbled, and even with a torch I was missing the steps. There was no end in sight but in my head I was imagining what our hotel at the foot of the mountain would look like and how I would feel when I finally put my pack down and lie on the bed. The only way was forward and down, having of course assessed with some certainty that it's the right path. But the one thing clear to me was I will get there if I do not stop, if I just keep moving. Keeping focus on what could be is useless if one does not act towards what could be and action makes the difference.

Thoroughly enjoyable

How do I define "a thoroughly enjoyable book"? One that makes me break away from the reading frequently, to pause and reflect on the implications and how lessons can be applied in a similar or related context. One that makes me want to own it, AND reread it. One that tells me something that I do not already know but is useful to know, i.e. surprises me. Lessons from Private Equity any Company can use, a tiny booklet in the Memo to the CEO series published by Harvard Business Press is one. I am not in private equity, I do not work in a company, in the traditional sense (I work for a professional services firm) and I am certainly not a CEO. But I picked it up anyway, mainly because (now this is interesting in demonstrating where curiosity can lead you) I was reading Raffles Conversations 2007 by Business Times and there was a feature on Orit Gadiesh, Chairman of Bain & Co. She projected smartness, strength and loads of can-do in the short feature and her background as a staffer for the Israeli Army's Deputy Chief of Staff intrigued me sufficiently to google her, and found out that she had co-authored a book recently. Lessons (essentially six of them) is immensely readable and I can think of ways to apply them to work, equity investment and personal growth.

I like the first lesson very much: Defining the full potential through "strategic due dilligence" is a guide for evaluating businesses based on a few key metrics. Of course PE firms will always have more info than what the average investor can lay his hands on but knowing what you need to know helps a lot when you are partially blind.

The rest: Develop the blueprint, Accelerate performance, Harness the talent, Make equity sweat and Foster a Results-Oriented Mindset. The good PE firms are systematic in process, focused on results and aggressive in the way they create value and grow companies. I am not going to summarise the book since I have it. So go read it.

Artful Navigation

It is often said that having the right connections gets you places and networking is key to success. Sure, but I think there is more to that. I am beginning to experience how connections can be a great source of knowledge and in the process help me grow and develop as a person. Not that I didn't know it before but to experience it brings home reality. There is only how much info one can acquire through books, media etc or what I would group together as "passive sources". But moving in the right circles (what is right depends on what you want to know and achieve) or what I would say "artful navigation" among insiders can and will yield so much more. Picking up the phone and speaking directly to someone who knows the deal beats having to trawl through tons of info to locate what you want to know. In addition to speed and less frustration, an interactive approach very often leads to discovery of blind spots, as opposed to a purposeful search through passive sources. Watch how many times you say to someone, "oh, I didn't know that!". Well, now you do.

What's new

Tell a story everyday. Any story, fact or fiction, or anecdotes, as a tool for better and more effective communication. Being able to tell good stories and say them well certainly scores on people engagement.

Learning from Obama

The Welches put up a good article on Businessweek dated 4 Nov: Barack Obama's victory: 3 lessons for business. The media is probably flushed with similar articles giving their two cent's worth of take on how and why Obama won but this is worth a read. The Jack way of writing means bite-sized, digestible food for thought. His 3 lessons are on the importance of having and articulating relentlessly a clear and consistent vision, clean execution (you win if you make fewer mistakes than your competition) and having well-placed allies (or "friends in high places", notably the media because of its immense influence, more so now than ever). "To grow, you have to invent a new game and beat them at that, too."

A day in the life of a couch potato

I thought I would try and really do NOTHING for a whole day, but sit on the couch, for my do-something-new-each-day endeavor, primarily to just stop moving and take a breather. My stress level did not go down, in fact it went up. I felt grotty, restless, irritated and ended up with a headache. Yes, a headache just because I did nothing but sit all day. Ok, I was watching TV, mostly surfing cos nothing was interesting enough to hold my attention for more than a few minutes and I am never much of a TV junkie anyway. Then Discovery channel came on and I learnt something new. So it wasn't so bad after all.

Night vision takes 45 minutes to come on for the average person and with sufficient moonlight, it can be similar to daylight conditions. To preserve night vision, cover one eye if there is a change in light conditions, e.g. switching on the torchlight to check the map and bearings. For better vision in poor lighting, view objects from the corner of the eye as peripheral vision gives greater clarity.

This Hitotsubashi book

I'll be honest, I picked this up because I wanted to get some granular on this so-called "signature course" on knowledge management at Hitotsubashi's MBA program. And I'll be even more honest: It took me quite a dogged while to get through it. This "knowledge management" thing clearly draws a lot from organizational learning, communication, some aspects of psychology as well as philosophy. Much of it is based on the Japanese experience, as captured by this "ba" concept of contextual learning and knowledge management. Effective knowledge management is heavily premised on dialectic thinking and the ability to hold two opposite views at the same time and function effectively, which is quite abstract and needs to flesh out in greater detail and more meat on how to execute and to influence results. Here, I think a more case study-centric approach would help give the concept more ground.

What's new

Not a completely fresh idea, but am gonna start a "word-of-the-day" thing, to improve vocabulary and learn proper pronunication.

Yoo Hoo!

Obama made it. And the Republicans got a big fat kick in the ass. I'm not sure if Obama is really aware of the full extent of the shit that he has to clear up from now but between him and McCain, I believe he is the better choice for the world and for America. Finally they are voting with their heads.

Something different

I'm gonna try and do something different, new, everyday, something that does not have to be drastic, big or dramatic, but it must be a change and of course a positive one. The keyword here is DO, so thinking about it doesn't count. Insights gained, lessons learnt must translate into some form of action, no matter how small. Nope, just reading a new book doesn't count unless I do something about it. I don't think this is going to be easy but I want to try and see if I can stick to the "everyday" commitment. And I will blog about it and keep track of that commitment. Let's see where this leads to.


For today, I am going to search for alternative views/criticisms of books that I read, especially on theoretical issues and concepts, to obtain a more balanced view of whatever I read. I am getting too sold on some stuff.

Avenue Q - Episode II

Didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Maybe cos I was tired out after China. Maybe our seats weren't the best. Maybe it was not as funny as I thought it should be. Some parts were good, the puppeteers did an excellent job but at times I was quite bored. The puppets were well-made and so cute though. Trekkie!

1 more day to go

America, please vote with your head. I can't remember the last time I am so excited over an election. It's not my country, but whoever becomes No.44 has real impact across the globe.

China trip

Back from China: 10 days in 4 places. It's my first time in Shanghai, though not in China. First and lasting impression? Beware, Hong Kong. The big city vibe is palpable, the cosmopolitan feel is there. Give'em Chinese a decade or so, and they will surpass Hong Kong, in being the global city of Asia-ex Japan, in every sense. For now, Hong Kong probably still leads in the financial sector and probably some professional services sectors but Shanghai has clear upside, given its size and location. The younger generation, defined as mid-thirties and below, are a whole new breed different from their parents' generation. Certainly more civilised, considerate and cultured than the long-held stereotype of spitting, uncouth country bumpkins. Still plenty of these around certainly, when we went to Huangshan, Nanking and even Hangzhou but the country is becoming more civilised, even in an environment ever-increasingly fuelled by capitalism. They really have to do something about the pollution though; Nanking was a horrible experience due to the bad bad air and we just cut short the trip altogether and ran back to Shanghai. Nanking was skippable, though it was good to experience first-hand CPC's nation-building efforts with the massacre memorial museum. The whole place was a huge propanganda extravaganza, more a nation-building tool for the CPC than to really commemorate anything. The photo archives were not as "chillingly gruesome" as some people have described; I thought the photos from Iris Chang's book had a more "yikes" factor. Hangzhou was just another big Chinese city, we realised, as the throngs of people, the smell and the air hit us the moment we stepped out into the bus station. These long-distance bus stations are truly a great way to experience "real China". Until we moved to the area surrounding the West Lake. Ah, that had the fabled Jiangnan feel which Qianlong was so nuts about, if you managed to shut out the noise and crowds. The misty weather helped, and the lovely willows caressing the waters of the lake.. mmm.. Had a lovely meal as well, the best meal in fact since stepping out from Huangshan where we had to eat cup noodles. Had some Hangzhou specialties like 莼菜汤 (a kind of duckweed from the lake cooked in clear soup with a slimy gelantinous texture)， 桂鱼醋(Chinese perch steamed with Zhejiang vinegar, most excellent with the soft texture and sweet/sour sauce) ，龙井虾仁 (small shrimps stir-fried with Longjing tea leaves, most ordinary of the lot) etc. The day-trip out to a nearby canal town 乌镇 was alright, except that it was raining quite heavily AND we had to run after the bus. But with all the canal towns overrun by tourists and like all the sights we went around in China, most of the the time domestic tourists made up 90% of the people there, it was not easy to tease out a "romantic feel" which these towns are famed for. Huangshan was the loveliest and best part of the trip, thanks to clear blue skies and bright sun, although we were roundly whacked by the mountain for attempting to trek down 4.5km without stopping. "Clever" us underestimated the time needed to trek downhill and it got dark before we hit the foot of the mountain. Towards the end, my wobbly legs were "walking on clouds" but had to hurry on nonetheless or spent the night in the mountain. But because it got so late, we could really appreciate the silence sans crowds and was truly awed by the majesty of the mountain. The tourism mechanism was well-oiled and functioning, sucking away half our budget for the entire China trip, though the wonderful mountain views and sunset more than made up for the bleeding of our pockets. Can appreciate why Huangshan is so named: the Emperor's Mountain. And I will never look at pine trees in the same way again: the Huang Song (黄松) is in a class of its own, forget the xmas pines and think bonsai. Thank God for Kammy who advised us to book our hotels online through a reliable operator C-trip (携程) cos all the lodging on Huangshan were too local and not online. So here's a tip: book your domestic tour stuff through C-trip online, they are great and cover pretty much everywhere in China. And for helping buy our night sleeper train tickets Shanghai-Huangshan, which was comfortable and totally un-nightmarish, contrary to popular saying. Trains and train system are really quite ok and efficient, not too far from first world standards. But of course, in my heart, the Japanese network is and always will be King. The dinner with Kammy and the girls from the office in Shanghai was excellent, though a tad pricey: am now quite a fan of Sichuan food. Spicy yes, but the flavours are so complex, you'd probably taste something different when you have the same dish again. Mmm.. Shanghai is a great food place, way ahead of Singapore. In fact, Shanghai is in my opinion ahead of Singapore, after taking into consideration all ingredients that constitute a global/cosmopolitan city. We really got to buck up man.