Author: Michael Yung

Michael possessed over 30 years of experience in Information Technology with focuses on complex application development, database technologies and IT strategy. He also spent the last 20 years in Internet technology, eCommerce development / operations, web usability, computer security and Public Key Infrastructure technologies.

#52

Couple of years ago, in the first MBA class I ever attended. The first complete sentence from the cool-looking professor was “Create Value !!”. It puzzled everybody in the class but then he raised a question …. Let’s say If every month we have HK$ 3000 spare, will we:

  • buy something we like ?
  • save it in the bank to earn 2% interest a year (no risk) ?
  • buy some stocks to earn ? % of interest (at a risk, but high risk high return) ?
  • loan it to a friend to earn ? % of interest (at a risk, you know, it depends on your definition of “friend”) ?
  • hire someone (say a student) to make money for us, with an aim to have more than 2% of profit (at a risk, and how we can make money for sure ?) ?

I think most of us will pick the first three methods. However, our shareholders picked the last method. Reason ? Because they believed we can create value a lot more than saving the money in the bank or even loan it to other organizations …

So … are we creating value for ourselves, our customers and our shareholders ? Think thru it … if your answer is YES, good and keep up the good works – and create more value. If your answer is NO or “I’m not sure”, then we have to discuss …

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Recently there is a lot of news about the so-called Web 2.0 – i.e. the Gmail, Google map, Flickr, Del.icio.us, Technorati, Wikipedia etc. etc.. They all use technology like wiki, blog, tagging, AJAX, RIA, SOA etc. etc. and I’ve introduced them to you all for months. Anyhow …

Did you come across any cool sites / internet-services that you think that will change the world (at least your own) ? If yes, let us know … we welcome any new ideas (whether they can be implemented or not).

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Liverpool is our boss’ favorite soccer team and it did many many wonders in the past. One thing that you may or may not know is the “Liverpool Club Song” was written 60 years ago and sung by many many singers and classes (it is the standard song for graduation classes in USA). The name is “You’ll never walk alone” and here is the lyric …

http://family.maltanet.net/hawk/html/Songs

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone…

What Have They Done Right ?

After years’ of planning, construction and testing, the theme park in the city is finally opened today. You know, there are so many bad presses about this theme park in the past few weeks that I think people are getting a bit over-reacted …

I mean, what have they done to deserve this ?

Somehow people in the city has developed a very strange habit – i.e. keep complaining … and keep yelling “What have you done wrong …”.

My point is, instead of focusing what have someone done wrong, why not spend time in finding out “what have they done right?” and learn ? The theme park company did a great job for 50 years, you know. They have so many other parks in other countries / cities that they know what they can do to fix problems, and to give best services to their customers.

Learn from them first, then complain ….

Lesson Learnt: If someone can do something you cannot do with all your effort; then learn from them first …

I-Need-To-Buy-A-New-Camera Syndrome

Whenever there is a new camera announced by one vendor, the owners of the older cameras from this vendor or other vendors all suffer from one disease – and I call this “I-Need-To-Buy-A-New-Camera”.

For example, Canon just released the new DSLR 5D, then many Canon 10D and 20D owners all believe they need to dump the current camera and buy the new one.

Same to other camera owners, Nikon and Olympus camera forums all packed with comments like “Wow, I need to get one !!”, “Geez, my camera is now obsoleted!!” …

Come on, your current camera can still take good photos, why change ? Will you buy a new car because GM, Ford, Toyota released new cars last week ? Will you buy a new house because there is a new one next block ?

Lesson Learnt: People shoot good photos, not camera.