What's your Market Value-Time Ratio?

Do you want MORE? More out of everything- More out of your life, your career and even your bank account? ( I'm sure most of you would be nodding your head, agreeing with the last one. I wouldn't mind having MORE in my bank account though ;P ) Ironically, the more you realise something significantly and subtly 'more' is required of those who are succeed notably in life!
" Time is Money"- the famous dictum and that's what most successful corporate person would tell/ brainwash you. However, this is an observation during the 18th century by Benjamin Franklin, one of the most influential American founding fathers.

The issue of time management just struck me as I've been EXTREMELY busy, fully occupied with overflowing workload and several questions posted in an article by Rajen Devadason on pragmatic time management had me thinking for a bit. Did I mismanaged my time? Somehow, if you learn how to manage your time better than everyone else around you, the chances are you'll be on your way to your personal advancement. Your superiors will recognise the exceptional catch that you are and increase your pay. On the other hand, competitors will hear through professional grapevine that you are something preeminent and make an attractive bid for your services. It's a win-win situation either way.

Have you ever thought what are you worth in the job market? The recent CNBC article by CNBC executive producer Alex Crippen, entitled Warren Buffett's performance/Pay Ratio Gets Even Bigger pointed out that the world's most famous investor was astoundingly underpaid as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. Can you believe this? Berkshire has the highest share price amongst all listed companies around the world! A share of Berkshire is more than US$130,000. I repeat, one share = US$ 130,000! ( gosh, not even in RM ). If he's underpaid, I guess I'm under, under below underpaid? ( Let's just hope my bosses don't read this) :P

According to Rajen, if we are paid money for the work we do and if time is indeed equivalent to money, then it makes sense for us to focus on enhancing our personal productivity. He believes that each of us should ratchet up our personal market value to time expended ratio. The market value-time ratio signifies how effective we have been in accumulating to create value.

His article got me thinking about the effectiveness if each of us raises our personal value, market value-time ratio in our job to what we're paid. Anyway, the focus should also be on raising personal capacity to make improvement toward your financial goals. This could be done by steadily raising your ability to get more done in less time! Frankly, I'm personally struggling with that.

If you're with me, here are two steps according to Brian Tracy on achieving the end.

1. Start immediately on Priority number ONE.
Stop indulging in procrastinating low value activities. This also contributes to the way you behave when you begin work. Prioritize and start doing! ( My bosses never seize to remind us to prioritize and dive straight into things so we can help them make most money over the long haul )

2. Create set time periods
Reserving your highest energy time slot for the high value activities such as calling clients.


I'm going to try to elevate my market value-time ratio ( RM, per unit time ( usually per hour) ) to increase effectiveness, to set stage to manage my cash flows patterns and saving habits. So, what about you?




( Acknowledgment: "What's your Market Value Time-Ratio" by Rajen Devadason )

Girls & Football

Ballack [sexy!]

GOAL! Germany- a 3-2 victory over Portugal! Way to go, Ballack. The heat of EURO 2008 has gotten many excited, adrenalines pumping, dominating brains, heavy eye bags and sleepless nights.
Its the season for the funny old game. Makan, tidur dan minum bola! In conjunction of that, I've decided to write a post to spice up the season. :p

Football, world's most popular sport. Frankly, I don't know much about football but I'm definitely a fan of Manchester United! Man Utd -my all time champion. (No offense. Liverpool fans. boy, I'm getting myself into trouble ;P ) Yes, I know I'm not even talking about EURO but who cares, its still football, right? haha. I would prefer EPL anytime. Ah, not forgetting Ronaldo, my boy (:

Nonetheless, football is definitely an interesting game to watch!
Watching a football match is like risking yourself to a higher chance of getting a Myocardial infarction. Your heart beats so fast, probably 10 times faster than usual especially when your team gets a penalty kick.

Girls and football? Sounds like the ultimate interest of ALL guys. If not, MOST guys.
What's a football anyway? Is football all about scoring and stopping goals? What's an offside? Foul play? Does all these even make sense to you, girls? It doesn't.At least for me. :P The football formula for girls = hot stuff! (: [ Note: This does not apply to ALL girls so thou shall not generalize]
Well, having said that, have you ever wonder what girls think about football?
I'm sure you are dying to know huh? Thus, I did a little research on my own.

So, here are some "she says" :
What do you think about football?

Girl 1: Sexy players? Well, I don't give a damn about football!

Girl 2 : Hot sweaty guys? Check out those biceps and triceps! :P

Girl 3: * Blank stares* huh? Foot what?

Girl 4 : 11 stupid guys chasing a ball? or is it 10? oh, who cares!

Girl 5 : It's the best game on earth!

Girl 6 : I like footballers. They are so handsome.


This is rather interesting, I must admit.
Credit should be given to a friend whom I was chatting with a few days back. He puts that captivating thought in my head when he randomly asked me what girls think about football and that got me thinking for a bit.

Cristiano Ronaldo [hot stuff! (: ]

Lampard [double hotness!]

Even Homer loves football!

For all of you men out there who don't think women know football, think again. We may not know as much but we do appreciate football!

So, who wants to give me a football lesson? :)

Cover girls

What catches your eyes when you first pick up a magazine? The colour? The boldness of the word? The catchy taglines? and what usually stays in your mind after flipping through the magazine? You tell me.

Well, I guess 80% of us will remember the cover right? see. what makes one stands out is the girl on the cover(: . Trust me. Time has change for the publishing company. This theory also applies to the educational publishing sector as well. Through my observation, guys DON'T read educational magazines. No offense. We have to put some gorgeous girl who looks like an Asian Jessica Alba to attract them to read what's inside!

( Guys, I'm just stating the fact.You would agree with me, won't you?:P )






I'm excited about this new project that I was called to do. It's another opportunity of a lifetime! I will not reveal for now but I will share with you the experiences once it's all good to go. So, stay suspense people and welcome the new cover girl!

What every good marketer knows

People, how would you define a good marketer? Someone who's good? Someone who can make you buy things that you don't even need in the first place?

Whatever your definitions are, let's see if I'm one! ;P

According to Seth Godin (one of my favourite author) , every good marketer knows:

1. Anticipated, personal and relevant advertising always does better than unsolicited junk. ( I'm totally with you, Seth. It's all about the personal touch. )
2. Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand. ( Yup, I know this one! That's why I'm doing it now. I promise them a whole lot of career information and they are getting it by reading GRADAsia! sorry, self brand promo )
3. Your best customers are worth far more than your average customers. ( Well, it's not easy to get your best customers. If you ever get them, keep them! )
   
4. Marketing begins before the product is created. (Hmm...tricky)
5. People are selfish, lazy and uninformed and impatient. Start with that and you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you find. (oh yeah. Definitely.)
6. People don't buy what they need. They buy what they want! (I don't need to know this cause I fall into this category!=( )
   
7. Good marketers tell a story. (I love stories! Yes, I do share stories all the time till people have to shut me up sometimes)
8. A product for everyone rarely reaches much of anyone. (That's why I'm championing a product which is very much niche that reaches to everyone)
9. You can't fool all the people, not even most of time. And people, once unfooled,talk about experience. (We can't fool all but we can fool some right? ;P)
10. Living and breathing an authentic story is the best way to survive in a conversation-rich world. (uh huh)
11. Advertising is just a symptom, a tactic. Marketing is far more than that. (Noted. Advertising is part of marketing huh.)
    
12. Marketing is not an emergency. It's planned, thoughtful exercise that started a long time ago and doesn't end until you're done. (oh, no 911?)
13. You market when you hire and when you fire. You market when you call tech support and you market every time you send a memo. ( cool.)
    
14. Most marketers create good enough and then quits. Greatest beats good enough every time.
    
15. Blogging makes you a better marketer because it teaches you humility in you writing. ( That's why I started a blog! ;P )

Well, I guess I'm a good marketer now since I know all of the above. (:

Mattel : World of Barbies

I remembered having this conversation with a friend two days ago. It all started when he told me that he's changing his job. The conversation goes like this :

A: I'm moving to PJ area soon.
me : Ooh really? cool. You finally see the light huh? ;P
A: Yeah guess so. I'm changing my job soon.
me : to?
A: Mattel!
me: cool! Barbie dolls!
A: Yeah, I know but I'm not up for it. I'm giving you Hotwheels instead.
me: WHY? I want Barbies!
A: NONO. I'm giving all my girlfriends Hotwheels and all my guy friends Barbies! Oh yeah, tell all your girlfriends that I've got all the barbies! Ask them to give me a call if they want one.
me: Urgh. Not Fair! Give me Ken then.
A : Huh?
me: Ooh, I mean Ken, Barbie's Ken per se. Not you! ;P
A : Hey! why not me? ;P

( Well, to cut the long story short, my friend : A apparently has the same name as Ken's )

After talking about Barbie dolls, it somehow brought back great reminiscence of my childhood days. I used to own 5 Barbie dolls! yes, I was a spoilt brat. Back then, my bestie, Francine and I had to share one Ken. Imagine, 8 barbies fighting for a KEN! It was horrendous. We used to take him for alternate days and one fine day, we fought over a Ken. Guess what? His head fell off! We had to glue him back. It was truly humorous but back then we were pretty sad about it. That's just a little recap of my childhood story that I'll remember for life.

Anyway, this barbie dolls thingie make me wonder. Barbie came about, taking the world by storm in 1959. Barbie symbolizes the innocence of youth with her charm, charisma and good looks.She was inspired by Mattel's co-founder, Ruth Handler. It has been 4 decades now and Barbie remains one of the hottest selling toys in the world!

I'm amazed with how Mattel grows and create such dreams or needs for little boys and girls. It taught girls how to dream big, dream pretty and wait for our Ken-s. Everything seem so perfect in that perfected world. It became not only a girl's dream but also a woman's dream to be like one.In reality, neither barbie nor Ken is perfect. Non- of us are. However, credit given I must say, for a great vision created back then by the founder.

Mattel, being the world's premier toy brands for today and tomorrow, probably back then as well. I'm astonished with how they've created this strong brand among million of kids! Mind you, kids remember things pretty well. I can testify to that. According to Fortune, Mattel is one of the 100 best companies to work for ( 2008). So Ken, be rest assured that you've made the right choice. Yes, I still want my barbie dolls! (:


By the way, Barbie dumped Ken. Haven't you heard already? haha!

Every little girls dream

The plastic Barbie & Ken
Vs

The real Barbie & Ken?

( Acknowledgment : sources from mattel.com )

I'm blogging?

Finally. My very first attempt of having my own blog!

Why now? Well, I guess I don't need to list down all the 100 reasons of blogging right?

Yes, I finally succumb to the much cajouling for years from parties involved. So, you guys happy now? I'm still very much pro towards my conservative ways of expressing myself. Give me a pen and a book anytime. Yeah, sue me.

Anyways, no turning back. I'm going to make full use of this to share with you my journey, my thoughts and the breaking news! So, this is all where it begins.......