Industry Profitable Rankings

I am always quite fascinated by how profitable different industries can be. Fortune 500 publishes a list of the most profitable indsutries in the US every year. Profitability I am refering to is the industry's profits as % of their revenue.

Here is a comparison of the 2009 and 2008 lists.

What fascinates me is the huge increase in profitability in Internet Services and Retailing from 7% in 2007 to 19.4% in 2008. Logically this shouldn't be right since one can imagine competition within this industry has increased substantially. One more thing this list shows is the decrease in overall profitability (start of credit crunch and thus recession?).

What else can you spot from the list?

Why is the rum gone?

Was happily studying for my next paper until anonymous message me. For the sake of women, I'll need to extort a pirates ticket from nuffnang. Sorry yea boss, anonymous wanna kau more girls...... i sweat...... Nevermind la, I sending this anonymous as my rep ok yea?

Why is the rum gone?
Coz Bacardi just went bankrupt.........

Who am I kidding?

Bacardi is the world's largest privately held, family-owned spirits company; a producer of rums, including Bacardi Superior and Bacardi 151.

And from what I know, family-owned businesses don't go bankrupt so easily. The only reason they go bankrupt is when the head of the family kong and all their cucu-cicit want a piece of the gold. You know how the old story goes....... one stick is easier to break compared to a bunch.

So lesson of the day:

Same story goes everytime. If you're one of the heir to a family fortune, don't go fighting over a small piece of cake la. Please, go bake a bigger cake, then you can still get a bigger portion than originally.

Agree???

In the meantime, if you haven't watch the alternative version of pirates yet, please...... go to your nearest and legal BitTorrent site(is there one?) and download the infamous "Pirates" alternative version. You might feel disappointed with the action(ya I disappointed) but look at the bright side, their use of CGI is amazing for an ahem.... video.


Adam & Eve, may god love you long time. Long enough to produce "Pirates 2", but with more action please.

Wonder why Proton is in trouble?

Here's a fairly good reason why it hasn't been receiving a lot of good reviews. Take Top Gear's opinion on this, and I have to say this is very objective, unlike the infamous "Jeremy Clarkson bash Kelissa" video.





Now probably somebody would like to inform the Proton R&D department to take some tips from this video. That extra security feature could actually improve Proton's rating in other countries. We are talking about people's lives here and Malaysia is notorious to having one of the highest accident rates in the region.

Also, I have an opinion that Proton needs a major rebranding. It has to rethink its strategies not only in how it wants to build cars, it has to think of the how to convince the buyers they are getting value for their money. From what I've been seeing, it's no longer producing cars for the commoner in Malaysia, as that title should go to Perodua. What they should instead be doing is building a better car, in terms of design, functions, efficiency, and most importantly safety.

They should just snap out of talking bullshit in the media and get down to action. It is the unspoken rule of business(or in fact anything except entertainment biz) that action speaks louder than word. With this, Proton might in fact be saved once again. Make or break, it's getting critical the situation they're in.

Still wondering why are there so many fatal accidents in Malaysia?

En route to First World?

Are we really en route to becoming a first world country?

I came across this small little poll on the FT website:
Dei Tan Sri Lim Ah Lek, Chairman of KTM Berhad:

Even the English think that their railway system run worse than those in Europe. By my observations, it's already quite sophisticated already, I can't get to anywhere I want on rail.

Best of all, it's all double-tracked. For the single-tracked part of Malaysia, we still have long way to go man. How can we even play catch up when the first world is progressing at a faster pace than us?

Human Capital is key

When I was in Form 5 preparing for my SPM examinations, I couldn't distinguish between a degree and a diploma. I'll be frank, I had no idea what I was going to do after secondary school and it came as a shock to me that I am about to step into an unknown world. Forgive me, I am from a little "city" called Alor Star(a city that is not a city) and I was not alone in realising the existence of an unknown world.

Don't get me wrong, the school did a lot to tell us about the options we had at that time. There were many educational fairs organised, whether by the school or some private organisations. I remember that I was at this careers talk when the speaker pop the question to me(I was sitting in the front) asking what do I aspire to become. My answer at that time was

CEO of a multinational corporation

I swear that he looked half shocked half amused. What an answer by a student, and to be honest I wasn't even thinking straight. I had just learnt the word CEO less than a day before the fair and there I was talking like I already have big ambitions. I want to be a successful businessman like my dad and my uncles, talk about influence on my youth, sheesh.



If you ask me the same question now, my answer would be no different that that time. The only difference is that I have a clear mindset of what I want to do. Why CEO? Power of course, who doesn't love power, and me being a control freak. Why multinational? Secretly I told myself that my ambition is to take a small local company and transform it into a multinational corporation, that is a show of success. Too much of a fairytale? It is possible and I adhere to this believe.

To realise this ambition, I have to equip myself with all the relevant knowledge. A degree is a key, a qualification as an actuary is a tool, a determined mindset and an acute business sense are requirements. Throughout the years, I've met a lot of different people and I certainly would love to meet more, much much more. I love to listen to what these people have to say, how they go about analysing a particular situation, how they handle the challenges and how they view life. Along with all these, I've also accumulated a few views that I think that I would adhere to one day as a businessman.

One of this views is on human capital.

I came across this article on Bernama. I quote Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop as saying:

has called on the private sector to give attention to the development of its human capital, describing it as a critical component in the country's development. [Source: Bernama]

I do in fact agree with him that human capital is vital to thedevelopment of the country. This is even more so for industries where human capital is the asset of the company such as consultancies, banks, creative industries, advertising etc compared to say manufacturing. Everybody knows this and so this is not a vital issue that we have to note.

An addendum to the above is a very crucial point I would like to stress --- human capital management. A business's success depends on how well the leader managers his employees, whether he can extract the full potential of his employees and how much loyalty he can garner from those who had shown full potential. It is also important that the employees get rewarded appropriately and given enough benefits. This is a move that doesn't only increase productivity, it also helps in bridging the poverty gap said to be widening in our country.

Another form of rewarding employee is to send them for re-education. Of course there are worries that these employees might be poached by competitors, I see this as failure of the company to build loyalty and less of the employees' fault. Why? Figure that out yourself.

Another important thing missing out from the business sector in Malaysia is the providence of pensions to the employees. I know in Malaysia, pensions provision is secured by the existence of EPF, but have you actually thought of whether an employee in your company could secure a good enough pension to lead a comfortable life after retirement? Probably an additional private scheme where feasible would satisfy your employees right? I think that this is even more true if your company is a multinational one.

Lastly, I would like to stress the appropriateness of pyin your employees right. And by paying I mean their monthly salary. There should be more studies on the appropriate pay employees should be gettind instead of just offering the market level. After all,

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys

If you're still reading here, I would love to hear your comments on this.

Please please leave a comment ok?




References:

1. Critical for Malaysia to invest in human capital, Bernama, 13 April 2007.
   

Candidate for networking?

Earlier yesterday I was talking to my cousin on msn. Some really juicy topics came up from our little chat, most of which I'm not going to disclose, fearing that it might be confidential. Anyway, my cousin alerted me on the latest happenings in the Malaysian business world. Forgive me for being a katak bawah tempurung but when it comes to business dealings, somehow or another I don't have my source. (Poor networking I would say)

Introducing Malaysia business's upcoming star, Carmen Chua. I'm not sure if you are aware but she's on the front page of Bizweek last weekend, talk about high profile. They say wit and charm comes in a package, I couldn't agree more.


Currently she's the MD of the OneKL project, if I'm not mistaken. Tagline is "94 apartments, 95 swimming pools". She's also on the board of several of Datuk Chua Ma Yu's company, understandably she's Datuk Chua's eldest daughter.

But looking at the article on The Star, it's not like she doesn't deserve it. Doing several stints at firms like Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and UBS, mind you these are investment banks and I do know how hard it is to earn an internship with them. It is a phenomenon in the UK that almost all of the graduates want to work with an investment bank and she had worked for 3 of them? That's astounding. I can't even manage to get into a firm which is less competitive, talk about comparison.

Now don't give me all those shit about she's here because of her father. I've known of people who I call the luckiest bastards in the world and all they do is go out, have fun and draw from their parents' deep pockets. If she can be at this position, I would say it's all because of her hardwork and brilliant networking.

There's always an ongoing debate whether it's easier for children from rich families can maintain the wealth of the family or for children from poor families to make it big. Afterall, there's a chinese saying that goes by "Fortune in the family can't last for more than 3 generations". I don't have an answer for those, it really does depend on the individual. My only comment on this is that children from the rich has the connections and a headstart, while children from the poor has the drive and determination.

So what happens to people clamped in between like you and me? Well, I'd like to draw from an old joke the phrase "sometimes matador wins, sometimes bull wins". That's my perception of how the business world will be like.

I was telling my girlfriend about what I've read about Carmen when she popped the question:

Do you think you are a candidate suitable for networking?

My first answer was.........

I haven't really try but..........

That's when she interrupted me

A person good at networking doesn't need to try, take Timothy as an example.

Oh my god, she's right, at least she makes sense. I've known Tiam for almost 6 years now and there's always this aura around him that makes people feel close with him. And that is the single biggest factor that would push Nuffnang further. It did for Carmen and OneKL, where she played a significant role in the government's move to abolish the real property gains tax(RPGT).

It suddenly daw tned on me that I'm really a loser when it comes to networking. Save for the fact that I'm stuck in this small town/village/university, I just haven't been able to manage my network correctly. Suddenly I feel all so sad, how am I going to improve?

So I'm not a candidate for networking, all books and no play makes Boss Lepton a sad sad person. Is this graveyard before I've even started my career? If there's one thing that I have it's not giving up. So here I'm asking for your opinions, any pointers on how to improve my networking skills?
.
.
.
.
.
.
Oh and anybody close to Carmen, could you pass her a message?

Please start a website for OneKL, learn from Guinness's mistake on the Adam King campaign the last time.

Reference:

1. Finding her place, Anita Gabriel and Hari Raj, The Star Bizweek, 7 April 2007.
   

Told you so

Race to the bottom it is!

Remember the last time when I blogged about Fu-Yoh!, which is Digi's new plan. Here comes TM's response in the form of Celcom. I tell you don't play play with TM, they have all the artilleries to fire back at you.

FU-YOH!!

My next bet is for someone to offer unlimited sms for a set price, not very profitable, but in this market it's all about market share not profitability. Let's RACE TO THE BOTTOM!!!

Biofuel efficient?

Again the question pops up when I read this article on The Star. I know all the hoo-ha about biofuel being a feasible replacement for petroleum, the question is really how feasible is it. By today's standard I would imagine that petroleum is still far cheaper than biofuel, it is a fact, and Petronas knows it.

clipped from thestar.com.my Saturday April 7, 2007 Biofuel project firm given five years to produce results THE state government has given the company picked to set up the country’s first major biofuel refinery plant five years to produce results. Ramly also told Nga Kor Ming (DAP – Pantai Remis) that previous studies had confirmed that the project was cost-effective.

Datuk Ramly Zahari: When you mention that previous studies had confirmed that the project was cost-effective, did you question the studies' on whether they included the environmental cost of the project? I know that oil palm contributes a lot to our economy, it is probably time we find a feasible solution to counter the environmental impact it has.

Again questions:

• Did the studies include the social cost(environmental cost) of producing biofuel.
• Would this have any effect on the cooking oil market? (Most vegetable oil are, to my knowledge, derived from oil palm)
• Five years to produce what type of results? Profits? Social impact? Job creation?
• Five years enough? We are talking about an alternative to petroleum, which is by far cheaper.
• Is biofuel really efficient?
  

Nuffnang vs Advertlets

First of all, I have to claim that I support nuffnang and not advertlets because timothy (a.k.a. Boss Stewie) has been a close friend of mine since god knows when(A levels actually). This is even more so because I believe that I'm the first person my boss(Boss Stewie) told that he has this idea of doing a blog advertising network. And if you don't already know, we did Leng Mou some time ago, although he's the main person updating, I feel shameful.......

Anyway since all these "Nuffnang vs Advertlets" thing started, I've always thought what's the point of having a war? My thought on business is

One slice of a pie not enough?
Bake a bigger pie!

The market is not yet saturated, having puny fights like that isn't gonna do any of you any good. The one laughing would be those mainstream advertisers.

True enough, in every article I've seen about reviews of nuffnang and advertlets, 3 names are sure to pop up in their comments: Timothy, Ming and Josh Lim. Fair enough I say, it is these kind of quick response that would give you the edge in business.

I'm actually quite impressed with how Timothy and Ming have been handling criticisms, if there's any. My uncle once told me that if you want to earn money, do it the right way, don't gamble. While any Investment Banker or Hedge Fund manager would laugh at this comment, it is not untrue that this applies to conventional businesses.

I'm quite tempted to say that nuffnang really gives the juice, providing that type of quality and delivering the promises that they've made. This really is what I call professional. Advertlets on the other hand, might be a bit late, I still wish them all the best for delivering the goods. After all, the ultimate beneficiary in both cases are the bloggers.

I remembered reading James Yeang's interview with both, the first of its type, on comparing both nuffnang and advertlets. I have to say that at that time, it's too early to review both of them, it's quite an eye catcher the topic nonetheless.

One of the things I really dislike about the war of words going on is that advertlets claim that somebody did a DDOS attack on them. While they weren't pointing any fingers at anybody, it's pretty sure that they were indicating that nuffnang is the culprit. From all my years of knowing Timothy, I would never believe that this is the case. Timothy is a guy with integrity and I'm not the only person who thinks so.

On that topic, I hereby declare that if you want to convince me on that, show me the proof, REALLY.

So Advertlets, wondering why nuffnang has so many diehard fans? It's not because that their technology is superior(I do agree with you that using Web 2.0 is superior techonology-wise), it's because that they can trust the people behind nuffnang, namely Tim and Ming. They believe that Tim and Ming are working their asses off just because they can earn some money. They also trust Tim and Ming in having the honesty and integrity to do something professionally.

I once wrote a comment on a blog(forgot which one) that older and being in the business longer doesn't mean more professional. Professionalism is a skill that is acquired, you could dispute this with all the HR managers I've spoken to. By the way, Age discrimination is gaining ground just right behind race discrimination so it's better to use words wisely.

I was particularly curious with a video I saw on TenthofMarch. I believe that Kelvin is impartial when it comes to nuffnang vs advertlets. If any of you wants respect, you have to earn it, not brag about it. To get what I mean, just watch the video.




Enough is said from the video. I'm not going into details nor do I really understand the realy situation.

Once again, I declare that I'm not writing this to bash advertlets and nuffnang. When it comes to business, I'm impartial to both. I merely support nuffnang because it's my friend's company, not to mention that he's one of my closest friend, and we all know that when it comes to friend's company, have to support no matter what.

Again, heed my advice, your competitors should be the mainstream media.

One slice of a pie not enough?
Bake a bigger pie!

On Global Warming and Oil Palm

Upon reading Kean-Jin's blog, I came accross his article on Global warming and tropical countries.

Allow me to quote the same Reuters report here again:

Global warming could bring hunger, melt Himalayas
OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming could cause more hunger in Africa and melt most Himalayan glaciers by the 2030s, according to a draft U.N. report due on Friday which also warns that the poorest nations are likely to suffer most. [Source: Reuters]

Well guess what? Have I got a surprise for you, TADA:

Only a few years ago, oil from palm trees was viewed as an ideal biofuel: a
cheap, renewable alternative to petroleum that would fight global warming.
Energy companies began converting generators and production soared.

............................

The four-year study found that 600 million tons of carbon dioxide seep into
the air each year from the drained swamps. Another 1.4 billion tons go up in
smoke from fires lit to clear rain forest for plantations — smoke that often
shrouds Singapore and Malaysia in an impenetrable haze for weeks at a
time.

Together, those 2 billion tons of CO2 account for 8 percent of the
world's fossil fuel emissions, the report said. [Source: AP]

Majulah negara dengan kelapa sawit, potong semua pokok getah, tak guna mia. Oh yea, and I saw an article in the business section of The Star a few days back here. No wonder IOI's stock hit historic high, so much for corporate social responsibility.

p.s. IOI is "world's biggest oil palm planter".

Reference:

1. Global warming could bring hunger, melt Himalayas, Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters, 2 April 2007.
2. Palm Oil Failing as Biofuel, Arthur Max, Associated Press, 2 April 2007.
3. IOI plans to return RM1.37bil, The Star, 31 March 2007.
   

Race to the bottom?

I came across this news in the business section of The Star concerning a new plan for the Digi Prepaid market.
This reminded me about an article on kennysia.com about prepaid wars. It didn't take long for me to google up the article which forwarded me to another website, called The truth about prepaid. Now, any idiot would instantly recognize from the colour of the website(yellow), and the repeated praises for Digi to recognise that the website is actually Digi's. More eveidence on kennysia's website.The truth is there are just so many plans out there and I really wonder if there's a need for such complications. It seems that the website hasn't been updated recently so I did a bit of research myself.

According to Celcom's website here, nothing much has changed but if the rates are definitely better if you are a Max Plan user.
As for Hotlink, the link here shows the current rate for both Easy Plan and Total Plan. It seems that nothing much has changed since the update on The Truth About Everything. Digi really has a better deal here in terms of rates. Now, bear in mind that with different prepaid companies, you could get different benefits, I heard that with Hotlink you could get good deals on concerts etc so there's more to this than meets the eye.
For some reason, I couldn't access Digi's website, due to it keep telling me to update to Adove Flash Player 8. I'm using Firefox 2 with Adobe Flash 9.0.31, so Digi, please fi the glitch. Or maybe you're just biased towards Windows users?

So where does this new "Fu-Yoh!" plan from Digi land us?

Segments and marketing head Loong Tuck Weng said under the new plan, SMS and MMS rates were reduced by 50% to seven sen and 25 sen respectively for calls across all networks. [Source: The Star]

Also,

From 12am to 12pm on Sundays, “Fu-Yoh!” prepaid subscribers only need to pay for the first three minutes and enjoy unlimited talk-time with other DiGi users. [Source: The Star]

I like the 2nd move more than the first one, reason being that most plans offer free SMS. Surely being "free" is more attractive than being "cheap" right? I however have a question about the discrimination policy by Digi, why only on Sundays? I know Sunday is the weekend but haven't anybody thought about states like Kedah or Kelantan where Friday is still the official weekend?

It seems that this prepaid war has become stagnant for quite sometime now. I personally don't think this is a good move to woo the youths, especially when you already have a huge youth subscriber base. It's just like reducing your income, isn't it?

A final catch,

Under the plan, subscribers pay a monthly fee of RM3, which is currently waived for two months from today. [Source: The Star]

Do you think RM3 is worth it for the discounts?

Back to our topic, do you think this is a race to the bottom for the prepaid wars? Do you think we have already hit rock bottom? I personally think so. We've absolutely hit rock bottom in terms of rate and the only thing one can do to increase market share is by introducing more benefits. So my conclusion is that this move by Digi is not a good move, and could be easily countered by rival companies. So Hotlink and Celcom(Telekom), please, the choice is yours.

On to a different story, this reminded me of a particular lecture I've seen in the past on Princeton's Public Lecture Series website. Here's the link to the video, Windows Media Player needed to view, 56K or 300K.

Robert W. Lucky, Telecordia: "Broadbanding America: What, Why, and How"

Take note of how he uses "Race to the Bottom" in the lecture.

Reference:

1. The Truth About The Truth About Prepaid, kennysia, 21 December 2006.
2. Digi unveils new prepaid plan for youth market, The Star, 27 March 2007.
   

Lotus? What will happen to you?

As many Malaysians would aready know, our #1 national car company Proton Holdings owns a majortiy stake in Lotus Group International Limited. Lotus Group International Limited is the holding company of Lotus Group. Still with me?

Here's the latest news:

Group Lotus, the Norfolk-based sports car maker and engineering consultancy, is to be given "a completely fresh start" by its Malaysian owner after running up £40m in debts. [Source: FT.com]

Ok, fresh start, that is good.

It then goes on to explain how they are trying to avoid making more losses after having their third consecutive year of losses. Michael Kimberley, its latest chief executive, has come up with some "radical" plans to restructure Lotus. This includes more product range, more penetration into the China market and forging links with strategic partners. Also, car lovers, be prepared for the arrival of the Eagle, a new model from Lotus, at the end of next year. This is pretty good stuff.

The article however ends with this

Even if the restructuring goes according to plan, however, Proton's board has been warned that Lotus has no prospect of returning to profitability before the 2008-09 financial year. [Source: FT.com]

Dei, macha, thinking what I'm thinking? That means another few more years without profits from Lotus to Proton. I smell some panic in the Proton board already to push for the new partner, which is likely going to be Volkswagen. According to FT, it is "very close" to striking a deal with Proton.

How would this affect Lotus? Honestly, I don't know. But one thing is for sure, Volkswagen sure knows how to manage car companies better than Proton does. Don't deny this fact. Look at the miracle turnaround they did for Skoda Auto, and don't forget that they own Bentley, Bugatti and Lamborghini. I say this would be a strategic partnership, given Volkswagen's track record of managing the above sportscar makers.

Lotus definitely needs some injection of expertise in business 101 from Volkswagen. As for Proton, you really need to rethink of your position as a car maker. From the current viewpoint, Proton is surely lagging behind many international car makers, badly!

So, fellow Malaysians, still proud that we own Lotus? What say you?

References:

1. Lotus to blossom as owners given fresh start, John Griffiths, March 23 2007, FT.com.
   
2. Volkswagen nears Proton deal, Assif Shameen, March 19 2007, FT.com
   

Finally........ progress

This is more I like it. Remember what I talked about when I wrote the article about Firefly, Penang's very own low cost carrier? You got it right, we need some progress on our national railway, after 2 years of stalled work. I won't go on to elaborate what happened then as I'm not familiar with what happened then.

Here's today's news:
Double tracking project on again, that's right. According to the article,

The Cabinet Committee on Public Transport has decided to revive the shelved Ipoh-Padang Besar double tracking project. [Source: The Star]

Contractor for this project:

.............Gamuda Bhd and MMC Corp Bhd............ [Source: The Star]

Time horizon to completion:

...........about two years........... [Source: The Star]

Question?

..........the Seremban-Johor Baru stretch would be awarded to an Indian company.......... [Source: The Star]

More questions?

• Why award the contract to an Indian company? Local companies can't do it?
• 2 years, that's awfully optimistic isn't it, we do know that Malaysian timing a bit different from rest of the world. Does 2 years mean 4 years?
• Boy, my fellow kedahan Uncle al-Bukhary is getting all the business he wants isn't it? But I'm not complaining, at least he is one of the better businessman around.

Yet more questions?

• Another SMART project? Gamuda's share must be worthed a lot now.
  
• Will rail travel replace air travel as the dominant sector like the way it is here in the UK?
  

References:

1. Double tracking project on again, Mazwin Nik Anis, March 17 2007, The Star.
2. Gamuda up on rail project news, Izwan Idris, March 17 2007, The Star.
   

Sushi King beware

Latest news I got from FT.com. Very very reliable.
Because it's the latest news, you have to wait a few days as latest news are only available for subscribers. Sorry ar.

It says.....

Yo! Sushi, the conveyor-belt restaurant chain, is taking the Japanese food to them.

The company, which opened its first restaurant in Soho 10 years ago, has signed a franchise deal under which outlets will open in Russia this year, as well as in Ireland and Malaysia. [Source: FT.com]

Somebody go tell Tan Sri Fumihiko Konishi about this. Somebody want com to snatch business, and it's a British. Sigh.........

See what I mean when I say, Malaysians must stay united and face the world. No point for petty quarelling among ourselves in the country.

Eh we bloggers also value national unity ok?

Sushi King: Beware...... Yo!Sushi put their competitors out of business before. But don't worry, you got Boss Lepton's support. Now who's with me?

References:

1. Observer: Take-away Sushi, March 14, 2007. FT.com

p.s. if you're from FT.com, do I need your permission for quoting something from your article? Reply me at bosslepton@yahoo.com.

The real IKEA success

Upon stumbling across this article on The Star, I just simply can't pass off the chance to highlight how successful IKEA is, both as a furniture retailer and as a business. Or rather I can't help but highlight how brilliant Ingvar Kamprad is as a businessman and entrepreneur.


I'm pretty sure most of you are aware who Ingvar Kamprad is. If you don't, please familiarize yourself with Forbes Billionaires. Ingvar Kamprad(all $33 billion of him, as valued by Forbes.com) is the man that brought you the low cost, high quality furnitures, all across the globe. Be awed by its presence, for the nearest competitior is no where IKEA's size.Hail the furniture giant all the way from Sweden. Wait, is it really from Sweden?

Let's look at the facts, with some help from Wikipedia.

The corporate stucture of IKEA is much like a huge spiderweb. Let's take a look at this.

The parent for all IKEA companies—the operator of 207 of the 235 worldwide IKEA stores—is Ingka Holding, a private Dutch-registered company. Ingka Holding, in turn, belongs entirely to Stichting Ingka Foundation. This is a Dutch-registered, tax-exempt, non-profit-making legal entity, which was given the shares of Mr Kamprad in 1982. Stichtingen, or foundations, are the most common form of not-for-profit organisation in the Netherlands; tens of thousands of them are registered.......... [Source: The Economist]

I really don't have to go into details about how big Stichting Ingka Foundation is, or how much are they valued. But take note of this.

If Stichting Ingka Foundation has net worth of at least $36 billion it would be the world's wealthiest charity. Its value easily exceeds the $26.9 billion shown in the latest published accounts of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is commonly awarded that accolade. [Source: The Economist]

That's not all the story though.......

IKEA's complex corporate structure appears primarily designed to allow its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, to avoid taxation while still maintaining tight control over IKEA's operations. [Source: Wikipedia]

Now I know that wikipedia articles can't be quoted as references. But it really summarizes the article in a clear way. An interested reader could go forward to the related article in The Economist for the full article.

More?

But IKEA has reported that in 2004-2005, the Ingka Foundation's donations were concentrated on the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden, and the Lund Institute reported the receipt of $1.7 million grants from the foundation during both of those years. By way of comparison, the Gates Foundation made gifts of more than $1.5 billion in 2005. [Source: Wikipedia]

Well, that sums it all. The REAL IKEA success, tax avoiding at the VERY BEST, got to give them credit for that. And please, just give a bit more to charity will ya?

I for one, don't really like IKEA's products, it makes the world too homogeneous. Don't you think so?

Thanks again to The Star for reminding me of what my girlfriend told me a while ago. Yes, she found out about this first.

References:

1. Ikea, Wikipedia.
2. Ikea, Flat-pack accounting, The Economist.
3. Ingvar Kamprad, Wikipedia.
4. The World's Billionaires, Forbes.com
5. Chance to learn about Ikea's success, March 15 2007, The Star.
   

Another Low Cost Airline

Finally it was unvealed. Introducing Firefly.

Firefly, a fully owned subsidiary of MAS to fly six routes

So here it is, operating from none other than our lovely Penang Island.

The routes are from Penang to Langkawi, Kota Baru, Kuala Terengganu and Kuantan for the domestic destinations and from Penang to Koh Samui and Phuket for the regional destinations. [Source: The Star]

It truly is a good move for VMY 2007. I however have my reservation on whether it is really a move needed by Malaysians. Note also:

With Firefly joining the stable, the country will now have six airlines. The others are Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, Berjaya Air, Transmile and Fly Asian Xpress. [Source: The Star]

All from the same article. We seriously don't need that many airlines do we? Maybe it's a move just to piss Air Asia off, but I don't think Air Asia would be too concerned about that since they have a juicier market to cater to. I would think this is a "too many cooks spoil the broth" situation.

What about rail travel? What happened to all the double tracking out railway plan? We really need to rethink our railway.

In the meantime, enjoy Firefly. Let's just hope it doesn't glow when flying.

References:

1. Firefly, a fully owned subsidiary of MAS to fly six routes, SIM LEOI LEOI, March 15 2007.
2. Firefly, Wikipedia.
   

European woes, Air Asia X delays

Malaysia's long-haul budget carrier says it may delay launch

Datuk Tony Fernandes:

I see that all your efforts of getting Air Asia X up this year has been greeted with more challenges. No matter, we still look forward to Air Asia X, particularly on how this business would fair in the global market.

So that's a big blow to VMY2007, we might not get as many Europeans as we'd love to this year. How about charting all the other direct routes from Europe to Malaysia? Don't get what I mean?

Cheaper air tickets from Helsinki to Thailand was also another reason for travellers to chose Thailand, said Jaana Nystrom, director of sales and production from a company, Helin Matkat here. [Sources: The Star]

Somehow I feel that that's not the only reason why people prefer Thailand than Malaysia but hey, that's a start if somebody wonders why Thailand gets more European visitors.

As a comparison,

The European market has long been a major bedrock of Thai tourism. Of the 11,650,703 visitor arrivals in 2004, a total of 2,616,347 arrivals were from Europe, a market share of 22.46% and an increase of 15.96% over 2003. [Source: Traveldailynews.com]

The 673,000 or 3.8% of the 17.5 million tourist arrivals to Malaysia last year were from Europe. [Source: The Star]

Ok la, maybe different years but hey, that's when Tsunami struck wasn't it? Get your FACTs right, I certainly think I got mine right this time.

Good times? Bad times?

Goods:

Happiness, joyous, bring on the THOMAS CUP man!!!

Even Petronas bring good news man........

The new seven sisters: oil and gas giants that dwarf the west's top producers

Look who's in here.



Another reason to celebrate woo hoo!!!

Mind my cropping, still learning how to use the GIMP, which I think is a fantastic piece of open source software.

According to the report on FT,

...........Overwhelmingly state-owned, they control almost one-third of the world's oil and gas production and more than one-third of its total oil and gas reserves...........

...........In contrast, the old seven sisters - which shrank to four in the industry consolidation of the 1990s - produce about 10 per cent of the world's oil and gas and hold just 3 per cent of reserves................

That is what I call an ass-whooping.

However, let's look at the BAD:

At the very end of the article it says

Petronas

Malaysia's national oil company has been described as the role model others would like to follow. Though a top-three exporter of LNG, Petronas risks falling behind the gas groups of Qatar, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Good times ending soon eh? According to another report on the FT:

..........Analysts at PwC predict that by 2015 it will have been overtaken by two international gas companies, Royal Dutch Shell and ExxonMobil, by the national oilmpanies of the two leading growth areas, Qatar and Nigeria, and even by Pertamina of Indonesia..........

Maybe we shall prepare for a country which is not dominated by Petronas's oil money eh? Tun Mahathir, got alerted? At least leave your cucu-cicit a better country la........

By the way, who's the latest STAR in Malaysian business today ar? Datuk Fernandes? Any younger ones ar?

Piggy piggy bank

Many Malaysians do not have any financial planning

The insurance industry in the country has a lot of potential to grow as the market penetration was only 38.7% in 2005, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen........

Well Datuk, that's probably because people isn't even aware of the options they have. Who do we have to blame? I have one suggestion. Sure you can argue that the market is not mature enough and we do not have that much expertise in private pensions.

Anybody care to brief me or show me to articles on the Malaysian State Pension system? Really like to know what the guys up in EPF are doing, other than buying into equities.

Tune Hotels

Forty Tune Hotels target in S-E Asia

Fuyoh, talking about the no-frills business, when somebody leads the way and shows us how to turn it into a profitable business, seems like everyone else is taking the cue and going into this niche market.

Undoubtably, when customers look at the attractive price(from RM9.99) what can they expect to get in return. I don't know about you, but to me there are 2 types of travellers, namely tourists and business travellers.

It remains to see who are they targeting. Catch here is business travellers always bill their employers, so they don't have to worry about the cost. Tourists normally buy packages so their choice of hotel is determined by travel agencies.

To be honest, I think only 2 types of people would be their regular customers:

• Couples(Of coz the ones who usually rent by-the-hour)
• Small business owners

What do you think?

＊UPDATE: I should have done my background research 1st, that Datuk Tony Fernandes holds 40% of Tune Ventures which owns more than 70% of Tune Hotels. And a certain somebody is involved as well, the one suing Uncle Jeff and Rocky. Anyway refer to Howsy's post about it here.