Watching game 1 and 2 of Raptors' playoff, something really striked me: aside from CB4, we really don't have a second go-to guy. CB4 really didn't play that well in both game 1 and 2 either, decent in game 2, but not great.
And I have officially joined the I-hate-TJ-Ford group. Watching him play at times reminded me of Kobe, only that he is missing all the skills that Kobe has. Not sure if we can trade him in the off season though, he is injury prone and all-about-me.
Can't wait to see what kind of magic Colangelo can pull together in the off season, we really don't have lots of trading chips. And not sure if trading Calderon and keeping Ford is something anyone should contemplate, it is a dumb idea, Jerry.
2008年4月23日 星期三
2008年4月10日 星期四
The title game
So a friend of mine works for UBS, and a lunch conversation has came up on the titles UBS employees get. And it works something like this:
For entry level positions, you get the title of "non-officer", yeah, what the heck does that mean right? The best is yet to come: after non-officer, you are promoted to Associate Director, yes, you heard me right, Associate Director. After that, it is Director, then Executive Director, and finally Managing Director.
And you think, it is probably very hard to get out of the 'non-officer' rank, since the next rank is an Associate Director. Actually, not really. 60% of UBS employees have a Associate Director rank or better. For example, if you work for UBS's IT team, you could start as an entry level programmer, hence the rank of a "non-officer", then once you become lead programmer, you are an Associate Director, and so on.
So wouldn't you want to work for UBS (hopefully not at the non-officer rank) and pass out your business cards to friends and families? I mean, telling people you are an Associate Director for one of the world's most prestigious iBank is on par to telling your girlfriend you are a famous actor from a popular Hollywood movie. Well, almost on par.
Man, I wonder how such use of titles came to life? One thing for sure is it does inject some pride into the employees and hence lower HR turnovers for the company.
So if one day I start a company, I will start off everyone as a CEO, then Senior CEO, then Chairman and finally Big Daddy Chairman!
For entry level positions, you get the title of "non-officer", yeah, what the heck does that mean right? The best is yet to come: after non-officer, you are promoted to Associate Director, yes, you heard me right, Associate Director. After that, it is Director, then Executive Director, and finally Managing Director.
And you think, it is probably very hard to get out of the 'non-officer' rank, since the next rank is an Associate Director. Actually, not really. 60% of UBS employees have a Associate Director rank or better. For example, if you work for UBS's IT team, you could start as an entry level programmer, hence the rank of a "non-officer", then once you become lead programmer, you are an Associate Director, and so on.
So wouldn't you want to work for UBS (hopefully not at the non-officer rank) and pass out your business cards to friends and families? I mean, telling people you are an Associate Director for one of the world's most prestigious iBank is on par to telling your girlfriend you are a famous actor from a popular Hollywood movie. Well, almost on par.
Man, I wonder how such use of titles came to life? One thing for sure is it does inject some pride into the employees and hence lower HR turnovers for the company.
So if one day I start a company, I will start off everyone as a CEO, then Senior CEO, then Chairman and finally Big Daddy Chairman!
2008年4月5日 星期六
Fast Food Restaurant Menu
So it just occured to me there is gotta be some science in restaurant menus.
Woke up this morning around 8 - thanks to my jetlag, decided to do some good old Cafe De Coral for lunch. By the way, Cafe De Coral is my favourite fast food restaurant in HK, and I would rank Maxim second. I have always like Coral, not that because I use it too much since I live alone, but that it is well run, well managed.
As I approach towards the menu board, I started screening for something a bit more healthy and easy for an early stomach. The menu board is sitted next to the cashier counter, it is about 8 feets tall and 6 feets wide. It is separated into 4 columns.
It took me about 20 seconds to find something I want - fish with rice in corn sauce. It is somewhere in the 3rd column from the left, and in the bottom end of the menu board.
As I recall, the first few items under the 1st column are most oily dishes, and it sort of gets lighter as you move from 1st towards the 3rd one (the 4th column is for drinks). Now, suppose most customers screen for dishes in the same manner that I do - from left to right and top to bottom, that means I am not picking a very popular dish, otherwise they would have put it before the 3rd column.
Hm...so much for a healthy diet for Hongkongers. I wonder when the aktin's diet will start its root in HK, but it will be easy to tell when it does, we only need to look as far as the dish order on a Cafe De Coral menu.
Woke up this morning around 8 - thanks to my jetlag, decided to do some good old Cafe De Coral for lunch. By the way, Cafe De Coral is my favourite fast food restaurant in HK, and I would rank Maxim second. I have always like Coral, not that because I use it too much since I live alone, but that it is well run, well managed.
As I approach towards the menu board, I started screening for something a bit more healthy and easy for an early stomach. The menu board is sitted next to the cashier counter, it is about 8 feets tall and 6 feets wide. It is separated into 4 columns.
It took me about 20 seconds to find something I want - fish with rice in corn sauce. It is somewhere in the 3rd column from the left, and in the bottom end of the menu board.
As I recall, the first few items under the 1st column are most oily dishes, and it sort of gets lighter as you move from 1st towards the 3rd one (the 4th column is for drinks). Now, suppose most customers screen for dishes in the same manner that I do - from left to right and top to bottom, that means I am not picking a very popular dish, otherwise they would have put it before the 3rd column.
Hm...so much for a healthy diet for Hongkongers. I wonder when the aktin's diet will start its root in HK, but it will be easy to tell when it does, we only need to look as far as the dish order on a Cafe De Coral menu.
2008年3月13日 星期四
Timing matters!
So there is another whole-day meeting scheduled for tomorrow, and my manager instructs her secretary to buy lunch for everyone attending the meeting.
"I will have 2 pork burgers and 1 egg sandwich please" I said. (those pork burgers are actually snack size, therefore a sandwich to buffer my mighty stomach......hm......ok fine, I eat a lot).
"hm...", the secretary paused for a couple seconds and said "when are you going to eat that sandwich?"
Weird that she asked, I thought, "dunno, maybe after I finish the burgers, maybe a bit later in the afternoon if I get hungry..."
"ok, then you pay later, ok?" She responded.
erh....so what exactly was she saying? I wonder. Why would I have to pay? Meeting lunches are always expensed by the company. She was joking right?
So the meeting took place and I got my two burgers and a sandwich, just as I ordered. However, the day after, the secretary came into my office and showed me a bill of $18 for the sandwich.
Damn! She was serious! Since I told her I may not eat the sandwich at the same time with the burgers, then technically, the sandwich is not part of lunch, so it should be expensed out of my own pocket.
Wow, I mean, god, I am speechless!
"I will have 2 pork burgers and 1 egg sandwich please" I said. (those pork burgers are actually snack size, therefore a sandwich to buffer my mighty stomach......hm......ok fine, I eat a lot).
"hm...", the secretary paused for a couple seconds and said "when are you going to eat that sandwich?"
Weird that she asked, I thought, "dunno, maybe after I finish the burgers, maybe a bit later in the afternoon if I get hungry..."
"ok, then you pay later, ok?" She responded.
erh....so what exactly was she saying? I wonder. Why would I have to pay? Meeting lunches are always expensed by the company. She was joking right?
So the meeting took place and I got my two burgers and a sandwich, just as I ordered. However, the day after, the secretary came into my office and showed me a bill of $18 for the sandwich.
Damn! She was serious! Since I told her I may not eat the sandwich at the same time with the burgers, then technically, the sandwich is not part of lunch, so it should be expensed out of my own pocket.
Wow, I mean, god, I am speechless!
Dilbert
Now I can appreciate those Dilbert comics more:
So Dilbert's boss comes in and says to Dilbert: "I just had a senior management meeting, and the CEO wants us to push forward and get our projects completed!"
Dilbert responses: "Not a problem Sir, I will schedule a lot of meeting for next week!"
I actually came up with this one from experience. It is sad that some of the business today still operates at such capacity.
So Dilbert's boss comes in and says to Dilbert: "I just had a senior management meeting, and the CEO wants us to push forward and get our projects completed!"
Dilbert responses: "Not a problem Sir, I will schedule a lot of meeting for next week!"
I actually came up with this one from experience. It is sad that some of the business today still operates at such capacity.
2008年3月7日 星期五
Standard Chartered Credit Card - Call Center
So how can I not be impressed?
I called the Standard Chartered hotline to check on the status of my credit card application this morning, I spoke to the agent over the phone and she had problem locating my application file. So she asked me if it is a Manhanttan card that I applied for. "not sure" I said, but I got the number from Standard Chartered's website. She promised to go and check once more and kindly asked me to wait on the phone. But suddenly I realized I may have applied for the stand-alone Standard Chartered credit card, and not the Standard Chartered credit card in affiliation with Manhanttan card (Man, isn't banking product complex these days?). So instead of waiting for her to come back, I simply hang up.
Finally, I called the right number and got on the phone with the right people. As I was being serviced, my cell phone rang, and it was the lady I talked to from Manhanttan card services. She wanted to let me know she tried and still could not find my file. I cut her off (how rude) and told her it is ok coz I got the wrong number.
But, in restrospective, this is really caring service. A call center agent actually follows up on a service call even after a client drops the line, even that client called the wrong number.
Now, my imaginary girlfriend voice is saying: but that is what they are trained to do. Especially, if such call can potentially lead to a new client. So they are just doing their job.
True, I bet if I run a call center, this is one rule I would write into the agent's handbook - to follow up with the client if the line drops. But I would also write 50 other rules in their handbook, all equally important. There are just so many other protocals for call center agnets to follow.
But why have I never got such quality service back home in Canada? Did someone forget to write this rule? At times, a service call could even end up in some ugly exchange of words - yes, North American agents will piss back if they don't like you.
So what is the difference between running a service center in North American compare to one in Hong Kong? Cultural differences will probably top the list, but I think there is more than just that.
I called the Standard Chartered hotline to check on the status of my credit card application this morning, I spoke to the agent over the phone and she had problem locating my application file. So she asked me if it is a Manhanttan card that I applied for. "not sure" I said, but I got the number from Standard Chartered's website. She promised to go and check once more and kindly asked me to wait on the phone. But suddenly I realized I may have applied for the stand-alone Standard Chartered credit card, and not the Standard Chartered credit card in affiliation with Manhanttan card (Man, isn't banking product complex these days?). So instead of waiting for her to come back, I simply hang up.
Finally, I called the right number and got on the phone with the right people. As I was being serviced, my cell phone rang, and it was the lady I talked to from Manhanttan card services. She wanted to let me know she tried and still could not find my file. I cut her off (how rude) and told her it is ok coz I got the wrong number.
But, in restrospective, this is really caring service. A call center agent actually follows up on a service call even after a client drops the line, even that client called the wrong number.
Now, my imaginary girlfriend voice is saying: but that is what they are trained to do. Especially, if such call can potentially lead to a new client. So they are just doing their job.
True, I bet if I run a call center, this is one rule I would write into the agent's handbook - to follow up with the client if the line drops. But I would also write 50 other rules in their handbook, all equally important. There are just so many other protocals for call center agnets to follow.
But why have I never got such quality service back home in Canada? Did someone forget to write this rule? At times, a service call could even end up in some ugly exchange of words - yes, North American agents will piss back if they don't like you.
So what is the difference between running a service center in North American compare to one in Hong Kong? Cultural differences will probably top the list, but I think there is more than just that.
2008年3月4日 星期二
lunch at 1pm!
Well, the fun never ends!
After a super busy morning trying to get some report done for senior management, I stoped by my manager's office just to let her know that if everything is ok, I would head for my lunch, but she can reach me on my cell shall there be an emergency. I thought this is totally in a sign of good faith, and I actually want to make sure she can go to the management meeting looking good (yeah, I actually meant it).
Well, what I get in response was: the corporate rule is that the lunch is to be taken between 1pm and 2pm, it was 12:24pm when I told her I would go for my lunch. So I shall not break the golden rule!
Hm, ok, let me see. I also remember on my employment contract, it says my office hour is 10am to 6pm. Although, from various time I work in the office long pass that 6pm exit rule. So I guess the corporate rule, at least in this part of the world, only works in one direction.
After a super busy morning trying to get some report done for senior management, I stoped by my manager's office just to let her know that if everything is ok, I would head for my lunch, but she can reach me on my cell shall there be an emergency. I thought this is totally in a sign of good faith, and I actually want to make sure she can go to the management meeting looking good (yeah, I actually meant it).
Well, what I get in response was: the corporate rule is that the lunch is to be taken between 1pm and 2pm, it was 12:24pm when I told her I would go for my lunch. So I shall not break the golden rule!
Hm, ok, let me see. I also remember on my employment contract, it says my office hour is 10am to 6pm. Although, from various time I work in the office long pass that 6pm exit rule. So I guess the corporate rule, at least in this part of the world, only works in one direction.
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