Business and Money Tips

Everyone knows the Art of War 孙子兵法 by military strategist 2,500 years ago Sun Tzu. Not many know that Sun Tzu's grandson, Sun Bin 孙膑, was one of the creators of another military classic, called Secret Art of War 秘密兵法, now known as The 36 Stratagems or 三十六计. The 36 Stratagems details the exact tactic to use in 6 different situations. The first step is to assess your current situation and next is to select one of the 6 stratagems in your situation and apply them accordingly. Many Chinese believe that The 36 Stratagems provides answers to all the world’s problems . In fact our company Asia Coaching Training has since 2013, offers free 30-minute consultancy to our selected clients. The 36 Stratagems book is so secretive that until today, no one knows the author of this book. The form that we see today was only officially published in 1941. In short, although it is an ancient book, it is also a modern book. In the business world, the most common tactic used by many is stratagem no

Like most people in the corporate and business world, I used to behave in a competitive and driven way. People that know me know that I am one that go all the way to fight to win. Whether it is in business, people management, social or family, I am always goal driven and will go to great lengths to get what I want. Although I am not the extreme 'winner takes it all' and ultra aggressive guy, I am always ready for battles and believe that to win, I must fight hard until I win. But I fail. This method of fight hard to win is not working. Feedback from my working partners reveals that they find it tiring to work with me. My friends confide in me that I am too short-term oriented. Although I may achieve what I want, the achievements often come at the expense of relationships and friendships.  I have few duplication of success and each project is getting more and more difficult. Most importantly, I am not happy inside.  I fail. In 2010, after learning about the Art of War by a

I have not been to China since 2005, and in particular, have not been to Guangxi province since 1986. Needless to say my recent trips to China have been real eye openers and the following are the 5 shocking facts that I find interesting about China: 1. Despite China having severe labour shortage problem, things get done Everywhere I go, be it banks, restaurants, office, factories or hotels, there are not enough people working. Service is slow but we can get things done. Often there will be just 2 people working in a small eatery that sits 30 people. The bank branch that I visited to open my bank account has only 3 people working: a security guard that doubles up as the internet banking advisor, a bank manager working behind the counter, and a counter girl who helps customers in all banking matters. Despite having staff shortage, things do get done, provided one has no language barrier issues. Service standards become not important, as what can you expect from staff that multi-

From Bloomberg news dated 23 November 2016 (abridged version) Two years ago, Oppo and Vivo couldn’t crack the top five in China’s smartphone market. Now they outrank everyone after elbowing Apple aside, thanks to people like Cheng Xiaoning. Cheng runs a thriving electronics store in the rural town of Miaoxia, tapping into her WeChat social media account to promote the brands that pay the biggest commission, and in her case that’s Oppo and Vivo. While such payments start at about 40 yuan (US$6), they escalate for more expensive handsets and reach almost 200 yuan for Oppo’s high-end smartphones. “That’s why I like to introduce the Oppo R9 Plus to potential customers,” she said. “Business has been perfect, actually never been better.” Cheng and tens of thousands of like-minded boosters form the vanguard of the pair’s  charge  against Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Working with the local stores that dominate sales in China’s far-flung provinces, Oppo and Vivo came out

The world’s oldest printed book is not the Bible but The Diamond Sutra or translated as Diamond Cutter. In chapter 1 of The Diamond Cutter, it talks about the concept of Emptiness. Emptiness is not empty but full of meaning. Understand that everything that is happening in your team and organization, including the things that you like or dislike, is empty. They are not pleasant or unpleasant things, they are just empty. This is because what is success to one is considered failure to another, that's why things are empty by themselves. It is the meaning that we give to things that has meaning. For example, you see your team fighting among each other as bad. But to the your team member, the fighting is for him to succeed in his promotion, not his colleague. Whatever we want our team to do as a leader, we cannot succeed by telling them what to do. We can succeed only by planting the right seeds. The seeds that we plant in our mind are called karmic seeds. The seeds lay deep inside our

SALES AND CUSTOMER SERVICE POWER COMBINE EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE WITH SALES STRATEGIES AND ACHIEVE UNBELIEVABLE SALES   Date: 20 Dec 2016 Tue  9 am to 5 pm   Venue : The Plaza 02-346 7500A Beach Rd      Fee: $298 each, $199 each for 2 and above, $149 each for 5 and above (with PIC 40% grant)   Your team has been working very hard and your company products and services are quite well accepted in the market. Your company has also invested heavily in marketing and systems. Yet you find it a challenge to keep up with the ever rising customer expectations and sales targets.   Make no mistake: all sales activities must have power or you will lose business to your competitors. Whether you are new or experienced in sales, if you too want to make this year the best of your career, come for this high impact 1-day course...Sales Power...   Power-packed Contents Include: Problem with Most Salespeople: Lack of Service Problem with most customer service and techn

Due to labour shortage, most companies are like beggars when it comes to hiring people. Because there is so much work to do, and because you have a limited budget, you are quite happy to take anyone who is willing to work with you. The hope is that let’s just go ahead and get him on the team, and we’ll teach him on the job. However, having the wrong person in that role can be far more expensive! You may not even realise he is a misfit, because your employee will always have a ready excuse for why he has failed to deliver as promised. He will blame the limited budget or the competition, but when you finally do figure out that he is the wrong person for the job, you are reluctant to fire him, because terminating someone is very hard to do. No one likes unpleasantness and therefore you try to put it off. You hope that with training and guidance he will improve, but when this doesn’t happen, you are in a quandary. Your first response is to try to push him into an alternative role – one w

Many people never achieve their goals because they set bad goals.  EXAMPLE #1: GET FIT BAD GOAL: “I want to get fit" or  “I want to lose 10lbs.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to eat 3 healthy meals per week and go to the gym 2 times a week for 15 minutes each.” Notice how we’re focusing on the   process   at first, and starting off conservative: Anyone can eat just   3 healthy meals in a week . And anyone can go to the gym for 15 minutes. Set yourself up to win. EXAMPLE #2: MONEY BAD GOAL: “I want to save $1,000 this year.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to have $200 per paycheck automatically transferred to my vacation savings fund for 1 year.” EXAMPLE #3: SOCIAL SKILLS BAD GOAL: “I want to work on my storytelling so I’m not so awkward at parties.” GOOD GOAL: “I want to complete the Udemy online course it in the next 4 weeks.” We need to create a SMART Objective. SMART Objectives are: Specific Measurable Attainable Re levant and Time-oriented Checklist for writi

If you want to be successful in your business and career (and who doesn't?), it's important to know whether you're driven at work on a day-to-day basis .  The following are the 8 signs that you are bored at work and need more drive: You spend more time searching for where to find the cheapest parking for your event after work You look out at the window and admire the scenery every day, even when it is raining. "This is called living in the moment" as what you would say if being asked what are you staring at. The problem you find hardest to solve is where and what to have for lunch You're the first to respond to every group chat. Let's be frank: you are the one that started all but one of the group chats.   It takes you an hour to read through a short document or excel file You begin to wonder why the pantry lady is not here today as you seem to visit the pantry every hour You join your colleagues for smoking breaks, and you don't even smok

Yes, leading a sales team is not the same as managing the operations team. Salespeople that got promoted into sales managers may not know how to manage salespeople effectively. This is because salespeople are not normal employees . They cannot be controlled, coerced or managed like anyone. There are 5 things to know to manage sales people: 1.  It is NOT all about Hitting Targets Many people think that if we hit targets, we are doing well.  Unknown to many, hitting targets is easy.   It is  how  they hit the targets that makes the difference.  Do they hit targets in ways that enhance future business, or do they hit targets in ways that create bad debts?   Do they hit targets with good teamwork, or are they just lone wolves?     2. Is Your High Performer Earning More than the Boss? When you have a high performing salesperson earning more than his boss, you know your company will go far. The opposite is true 3. Are Low Performers given coaching, inspirat

(This article appeared in the Straits Times page C30 on 21 Oct 2016, watch our 1-min Better Manager video at  here )  1. Suppliers First, Customers Second We know that customers are important, but if you don't have the right goods and services from your suppliers, you have no business. That's why suppliers are more important. There are 3 things that every supplier yearn for: fast payment and advance order information. Give your suppliers the respect they need, for they are actually not suppliers but human beings 2. Employees Can Do More Without Being Told Unknown to many bosses, employees can do much more without being told. They just need to be appreciated for whatever little extra things that they do.   3. How They Feel = Morale Employee morale is about how people feel towards the bosses. If your people have low morale, examine yourself. In our course How to Be a Great Boss, we said that if you have low morale employees, either you change or you change your peo

(This article has been submitted to The Straits Times on 20 October 2016. Watch our 'Disruption' video at here ) As we know, nowadays our teams comprise of groups in our WhatsApp and WeChat groupchats.  Whether you are working in a business or self-employed, homemaker or student, retired or just born, you will belong to at least 3 groups: your family, your friends and the people you work with.  That's why in our Build Winning Virtual Teams seminar, we teach people how they can keep their chatgroups alive. There are 5 keys, know them or lose them: Key 1: Show Me the Money People join chatgroups initially to keep themselves updated, and for some people, to get motivated. But after a while, such motivations and information will become mundane, and people will be immune to such messages.  To keep people from coming back, you need to have show people the money.  Money includes monetary value and non-monetary value. People must see that there are benefits to their live

As I learnt from Marc Chernoff, these 20 questions have no right or wrong answer, but asking them will make your mind freer, so ask them more often today! Which is worse, failing or never failing? When it's all said and done, will you have said more than you've done? Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing? Are you more concerned about doing things right, or doing the right things? If you could give a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be? What's something you know you do differently than most people? What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What's holding you back? Why are you, you? Which is worse, when a good friend passes away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives very near you? At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive? If not now, then when? If not you, who else? If you haven't achieved it yet, what do you have to lose? Would you

With a disruptive mindset, you don't make a projection or reasonable prediction. For example, if I charge my Samsung Galaxy Note 7 to 60%, it will not explode. Instead you make an unreasonable provocation: what if Note 7 will explode even without the battery being charged?   The difference between prediction and provocation is the difference between seeing things as they are and asking, 'Why?', or imaging things as they never were and ask, ' What if?' In business, we will ask the question: how can we disrupt the competitive landscape of our industry by delivering an unexpected solution ?  For example, in our sales training, I often ask bosses not what type of training they need but how to NOT TRAIN your people and get them to double their sales without you dropping a single cent of your price? As Steve Jobs said before, we don't merely want to look at the competition and see how we can be better. We look at the competition and ask how can we do different

If you are like most managers, you'll probably find that you are lacking in certain skills.  This lack is causing you delay in your career growth. Worst of all, your boss expects you to know all and your subordinates are watching you.  The truth is that most managers and supervisors are promoted based on their technical skills, and yet it is the managerial and leadership skills that will make them more successful. This management development program is for managers, bosses, directors, managers, supervisors and executives who want to implement tomorrow what they learn today. This is hands-on learning, conducted over 4 weeks, to give you the impetus and momentum needed. Best of all, you will get coaching from a seasoned Coach.  Now you might be saying - Yeah, I have heard it all before - and maybe you have. But if you are serious about actually doing and implementing something that will improve your career, then invest some time and get the help you need.  Our 71th batch is star