The Reader

Merdeka

Izinkan saya mengucapkan Salam Merdeka kepada anda semua.Besok ialah kali ke 48 kita menyambut dan meraikan tarikh keramat Kermerdekaan Negara Tercinta.Pelbagai makna dan tafsir diberi kepada perkataan MERDEKA.Baca dan renunglah....

Kita mungkin berbeza dalam aspek kefahaman makna Merdeka,tapi marilah sama-sama kita berdua agar Allah sentiasa merestui RahmahNya kepada kita semua agar kita dapat hidup selamat dan aman bahagia-dunia dan akhirat.

Amin.

PS: There will be no posting from me tomorrow as I will be accompanying my son to a movie Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.Now, I am munching a few pieces of Ferrero Rocher which I bought in Langkawi for almost half the price in KL;-)Here is a short greeting from me:Download 20050830_201036.wav

The Tube

Whenever I am in London(which is not that often,the last one was in 2003),my favourite form of transport is The Tube-London Underground. Somehow, I got confused to use the bus.Owing to the recent event,I always read what the bloggers have written about travelling by The Tube.

Here is the link that is quite interesting what a few bloggers did a few days ago.Not only that, you can see a collection of photos here.

Oh MAS Ayu

My flight to Langkawi by MAS yesterday was delayed by about one hour.As regular traveller,I accept delays do happen sometimes due to bad weather and technical problems. But in yesterday's case,the plane is ready but there was no crew! Our schedule take off was at 11am but the crew only arrived 15 minutes later.

For the record,the flight took off at 12:16pm.

Now,it is raining in Langkawi.My planned visits to a few places of interests may have to be deferred to another time.We propose,God disposes.

Posted from Pantai Cenang via Treo650

Langkawi

The first time I visited Langkawi was in 1982 when I was working in Alor Star.At that time,I could count the number of cars by just using my fingers.But not anymore now. Millions of ringgits have been poured there for more than a decade and now it is on the world tourists' map!

Tomorrow,I will be taking my first flight from KL to Langkawi to attend a seminar for two days.Honestly, I could not remember when I last visited Langkawi, but I think it must be more than 10 years ago.I heard so much about the development and the events there,but one of the development that I look forward to visit is Langkawi Book Village and the recently completed cabled-stayed steel bridge.Here is the Download steel_design_award.pdf of the project that won the design award by Swiss Institute of Steel construction.

So Langkawi,here I come with my camera to snap a few photos.Last but not least,I look forward to have a seafood dinner by a beach some where.If you have any recommendations,please send email to me.

Asma al-Husna

Most of us have heard about Asma al-Husna, but how many of us know the meaning of each Beautiful Names of Allah? You can read about Asma al-Husna here.

It is not enough to know and to commit to memory all the Beautiful Names.As His obedient servants, we must ponder each one of Asma al-Husna so that we may  know Allah better.InsyaAllah, we could be better servants to Allah swt.

Here is a link to a short note about the Attributes of Allah.

Let us begin today to learn each of the Asma al-Husna a day at a time.

Checking emails?

A man connected to Internet via wi-fi at KL Sentral.He is more 60 years old.Very cool...

:snapped and posted  by Treo650  //adib//

CEO

Most executives aspire to be a CEO.The posts are quite limited,only a few managed to be appointed as CEO's.Some are appointed because of their good performance and some because the shareholders like them and some are self-appointed when they floated their  own companies.

From my experience of being a CEO of a public listed company,my life was very busy.Every night I came home almost dead tired.One spent more time managing company matters than living with one's family.On certain days, when I came home early my wife was asking me whether anything wrong? Sometimes,I wonder whether I am married to my wife or my company.By the way,I was lucky to get out of the corporate life when the company was doing well and the change of the major shareholder that warranted a change of the CEO.This gave me an exit to start my own small business.Being the major shareholder of my own company, I appointed myself to be the CEO;-) Honestly,I prefer to be just a shareholder and let someone manages the company.The head that wears the crown lies uneasy.

Lately, you must have read some stories in the newspapers about a few CEO's.It is avery high risk job.From my experience and observations, there are so many variables that contributed to the performance of the company.Of course,the CEO is one of them.But witout the support of the board and the major shareholders,a good CEO can't do much.

Yesterday, I read an interview of a CEO in The Edge magazine.I was very impressed by his management style.IMHO, the success was driven by the good corporate culture as well as the support he received from the parent company.

Below is what I wrote in 1998 about life at the top:

Most people aspire to be at the top,be it in politics,government or business.However,there are only a few seats available.Only the best and lucky can sit on the limited chairs.One has to be both the manager and the leader at the same time.If you are the number ONE,you can either do a lot of good or a lot of damage.However,there are a few who just sit there-so nothing happens.It is a position of high responsibilty and accountabilty.A lot of major decisions have to be made during one's tenure of office.A decision can go either way-right or wrong or some where in between.It is a very risky business.

Now,knowing the risk,do you still want to be number ONE?

Well,I used to be in number ONE position -the CEO of a public listed company.Sometimes,one can't sleep before a decision is made and worse after it was made and implemented.A lot of things can go wrong and my credibility is at stake.No wonder, a lot of CEO's have heart attacks.Business proposal/project is not like mathematic problem. There is no definite answer-the variables change with time.Most of the time,decision have to be made against inadequate facts and forecast.Intuition has to come in,plus some guts.Now,I knew why CEO has a big office (also a big salary;-),not only to accommodate a lot of people who visit me most of the time;but also to give you 'space' to do a lot of thinking!The management and the consultants can advise you,but finally it is YOU the CEO who is going to say yes or no.Most of the time you are alone to make this decision. Now only I really know the meaning of the saying:It is very lonely at the top.That is a price the number ONE has to pay.Sometimes,I love to be number two-because you can always refer to number ONE;-.

Actually,all of us are "at the top" during various times of our life as far as making decisions are concerned.To my understanding,when there is nobody else you can get to make a  decision,it is YOU who is the number ONE who has to decide. It is the situation and not the position.As an example,when my youngest son was admitted to ICU for a serious illness-he was only 43 days old.Should I go with medication or surgical method for his treatment;even doctors are not sure which one will work?As you all know,there are pros and cons to the choice. Hopefully,I am right but I may be wrong.In those situations, after making my decision,I prayed a lot to Allah for his blessings.Thank God,he is now a normal 9 year old boy.

There was another example,on the 3rd Dec.,1980 when I was asked to decide whether to let my dying father(he was in a coma at the time) to continue receiving medication or to bring home so that he will die peacefully in our house.Here is the story..
(Double deaths at my house!!)

Now put yourself in the shoes of a CEO of a big corporation.What would you do in the present economic situation?Thousand of your staff livelihood will depend on your decision.No matter what, a decision has to be made.And recently,I had to close one factory at Sungai Petani.

So what do you do when the situation make you the number ONE?One thing I can assure you:It is very lonely at the top...especially when a decision has to be made.There may be a few who have been at the top by virtue of their positions,but I believe everyone of us has a story to tell when we,at one time or other,have been 'at the top' because of our situation.I would be grateful if you could share with us to enrich our experience...

---

NB:It is not my intention to discourage anyone to aspire to be the CEO,but we must know what we in for and what it takes to be a good CEO.

Tagboard

Dear Readers,

I am taking off my tag-board due too many spams for a short period.InsyaAllah, I will put it back later.In the mean time,if you wish to contact me,just send me email.

My apologies.

Killing me softly...

Nowadays, you don't need a song to "kill" someone-just send a few MMS:-).

Last weekend,I was 'tortured' by a friend who kept sending me a few MMS about the cool views of Cameron Highland and the food especially the ice cream full of fresh strawberries! If I am a bird or a rich man, I could have flown there;-)

To peek at those photos, just click here.

Rotiboy

A few months back,I saw quite a long queu of people in front of a bread shop called Rotiboy.Out of curiousity,I went to check out what it was that a few customers were willing to line-up. Then, I discovered rotiboy.It is only RM1.50 a piece,nice to look at and it tastes good.

Lately, I observed a few innovations among local food players.I notice new  products and more conducive environment for people to eat.It may be the competition, but it is good for the industry.Even fastfood outlets are renovating their outlets to attract more customers.

Pruducts become commodities as time passes by and the profit is getting less and less.Business needs to innovate in order to be ahead of the pack.By the way,I like Apple's catch phrase: Think different. And the latest product iPod and Tiger MacOS 10.4 are the  manifestations of that business strategy.