WiTricity

Have you heard of the term "WiTricity"? WiTricity refers to wireless electricity transfer. It is a technology that exploits the age old principle where objects in electromagnetic resonance can transfer energy through short distances (2 meters). It's a viable technology right now. I think this technology will bring significant changes to the world.

• No need for roadwarriors to carry around arrays of adaptors for their devices
• No need to bring converters for the different kinds of wall plugs that different countries use.
  
• Does that mean further down the road, there's no need for batteries as wireless electricity becomes ubiquitous? WiFi is already heading this direction via developments like WiMax. Everything from iPods to refrigerators will run on wireless electricity.
  
• Does that mean our iPods and NDS's will just run and run, no longer hampered by battery life?
• Does that mean our devices will be smaller? Although I realize the size of laptops are limited by heating issues that computer chips impose.
  
• How about electric vehicles that runs via wireless electricity stations mounted on lamp posts?

The lists goes on. This is a technology that promises to change lives, industries and the world.

Practical advice about the Art of Management

• I know it's easier but don't spend a majority of your time in designing an ironclad process. Invest your time instead in developing people and give them the freedom to be creative - they will design a process that will be far better than what you can imagine.
  
• This is also a show business. Your staff draws interpretation from the way you act or didn't act, in what you say and didn't say. This is round the clock, there is no break.
  
• This is not a popularity contest and yours is not an elected position. You should keep people motivated but you won't make everyone happy all the time. Whatever the matter is, your reasoning has to be firm, clear, consistent and conveyed.
  
• You might have a terrific relationship with them, but you are not one of them. Perhaps you will never be one of them. Give them space to breathe and to vent. Do not force your way into their activities and gatherings unless they want you there.
  
• Give power away. The more power you give away and the more freedom you allow to those who are capable, the more powerful your team is. Withhold power and your best people goes away.
  
• You do not make a living by withholding knowledge and thereby embedding yourself in the operation. You make a living by making sure that daily operations are in capable hands and that you can add value by looking further ahead and by generating new ideas.
  
• We tend to stick to what we know best. We are good at what we do and hence we are promoted to being managers. From then on, your job is to help them do their jobs better than you did yourself and for yourself to look at new ways to improve your business continuously. Many managers fall back into doing what they did best and was no more than a glorified rank and file worker, leaving the team unmanaged and rudderless.
  

Lock, Stock & Barrel

I took this picture today. The colorful paintings caught my eye. More than a few tourists were snapping pictures too. I remember seeing a couple taking wedding pictures at this very spot last week.

When I got home, my friend noticed that the name of the store is "Por Kee Glass & Frames". I thought : that's a funny name for a shop that sells pictures.

Then I realized that this shop probably started off selling glass and frames. However, glass and frames by themselves is a rather utilitarian product. It's a product of necessity - it doesn't incite passion. So if I am the boss and I was wondering how I can expand my client base outside of people who has pictures and photos they treasure enough to have them framed, a good answer seem to be : sell paintings.

Paintings are attractive. Paintings incite passion. Prospects who do not have paintings to frame and are otherwise not clients will stop, look and might decide to buy one. If they buy nice paintings, they will want to have them framed. So the shop ends up selling them the paintings, the glass and the frames - lock, stock and barrel. This is a good business model.

Smart people.

YOU are the camera

I always think
that the real camera is in your head.
If you are good, you can take the picture with anything.
Obviously .. the better the equipment, the easier to communicate what you see in your head ..
but .. you have to see it first.

YOU are the camera.

You are not you, you ARE the company - Customer Service Personified.

It's in times like these when the right people makes an absolute difference for an entire company. Let me tell you about this lady I met.

I was trying to get a safe deposit box in a newly renovated bank in Central. It's cheaper there, the box is bigger and the bank branch's location is a lot closer to my office than that of the other bank I was frequenting before. I was planning to get a new box there and move everything from my old box at the other bank before lunch. However, I was informed that I need to provide an address proof, which I don't have with me.

Thinking quickly, I remembered this third bank in Central that I have used as my main bank for years (they don't have safe deposit boxes at all). I went over, waited my turn, went up to the counter and ask if they can give me some sort of address proof. As I expected, the teller went into some preset procedures, started pulling out a form for me and told me that it's going to take a day. I explained to her what I planned to do and that it'd be best if it doesn't take a day.

You know what?

She thought about it for a second, flipped her name tag on the counter to "Busy", proceeded to type out a letter on her computer right there and then, grabbed the Branch Manager and got it signed. This is a huge American bank and this is one of its busiest branch in the middle of the business district in Hong kong. I couldn't believe it!!

One person, for no apparent motive other than her eagerness to help the bank's customers, decided to forgo establish procedures and went completely out of her way to help me out. I am SO glad that I use this bank as my main one all these years. What she did doesn't cost her bank anymore than the extra few minutes, but it turned me into a raving fan for the entire bank in front of my friends!

I am writing to her Branch Manager after this.

Flowing thru a Secondhand Bookstore

I have always walked past by this secondhand bookstore. Sometimes I would be going up SOHO for brunch, other times I would be coming back down to Central after dinner. I see book stacks all the way to the ceiling even through its windows. I decided to get off the escalator today, and take a look at the Flow Organic Bookstore.

This shop sells books at 45% to 60% of the list price but buys them in at 5% to 10%. So at 35% to 55% margin, what service does this store provide the world?

• These are secondhand books. Therefore by definition, you only get books that are "pre-screened", i.e. books at someone else found good enough to buy.
  
• You only get books that someone's willing to part with for 5% to 10% of what they paid for. (Hmm..)
  
• It's good for the environment. Every book recycled saves a new book from being bought and collectively, save at least a few trees. Books is a medium whose value does not depreciate greatly with the passage of time. You get the same knowledge and the same wisdom as long as the bindings hold together.
  
• It allows you to monetize your old books and free up capital for more books. Their disposal also cuts down your cost of storage.
  
• The lower cost of acquiring old books provides an easier mean for me to feed my book addiction.
  
• The lower acquisition cost also encourages me to try books that I wouldn't have otherwise read.
  
• I take a certain delight in discovering little gems in and amongst the stacks.
  

I wish there are more secondhand bookstores!