Body in numbers

1. Our heart beats around 100,000 times every day. 

2. Our blood is on a 60,000-mile journey. 

3. Our eyes can distinguish up to one million color surfaces and take in more information than the largest telescope known to man. 

4. Our lungs inhale over two million liters of air every day, without even thinking. They are large enough to cover a tennis court. 

5. Our hearing is so sensitive it can distinguish between hundreds of thousands of different sounds. 

6. Our sense of touch is more refined than any device ever created. 

7. Our brain is more complex than the most powerful computer and has over 100 billion nerve cells. 

8. We give birth to 100 billion red cells every day. 

9. When we touch something, we send a message to our brain at 124 mph. 

10. We have over 600 muscles. 

11. We exercise at least 30 muscles when we smile. 

12. We are about 70 percent water. 

13. We make one liter of saliva a day. 

14. Our nose is our personal air-conditioning system: it warms cold air, cools hot air and filters impurities. 

15. In one square inch of our hand we have nine feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9000 nerve endings, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors.

Funny avatars

Bộ sưu tập những avatar vui nhộn.

Ảnh vui nhộn

Tặng mọi người mấy tấm ảnh vui nhộn này để xả stress vào dịp cuối năm. Đảm bảo không cười không ăn tiền. ^^

Nhớ comment nhiều nhiều nha bà con!

圣诞节短信祝福 (2)

1. 没有雪花即使不浪漫也可过圣诞，有了祝福即使是寒冬也感到温暖，平安夜我在许愿:愿幸福和您终生相伴!愿您的礼物堆积如山

2. 圣诞临近百花香，一香送你摇钱树，二香送你贵人扶，三香送你心情好，四香送你没烦恼.五香送你钱满箱.六香送你永健康!

3. 圣诞节尴尬之最：夹起火鸡想到禽流感；收到礼物恐怕有炸弹；肩扛口袋好象捡破烂；贴上胡子被当作恐怖罪犯——拉侗出现

4.圣诞祝福送四方.东方送你摇钱树，西方送你永安康，南方送你成功路，北方送你钱满仓.四面八方全送到金银财宝当头照圣诞快乐

5. 一个坏消息和一个好消息.坏消息:圣诞老人的礼物袋丢了;而好消息是:我送你的礼物他还有，因为那是暖暖的一句:圣诞节快乐!

6. 圣诞节五条禁令:禁止假装工作忙不理我，禁止发财忘了我，禁止有难不帮我，禁止吃巧克力不叫我!禁止闲时不想我!望认真贯彻!

7. 在24日的晚上煮两个鸡蛋，我吃了一个，送给你的就是一个“圣诞”。

8. 这些天来一直有个问题困惑着我：你明明不是母鸡，为什么人人都要祝你“生蛋”快乐？

9. 有个消息要紧急提醒你，你最近要特别小心！有三个人正打听你的住址，要上门找你；不过我帮你查到了他们是谁，他们是幸福、财富和快乐。

10. 圣诞节将至，为了地球环境与资源，请自觉减少购买传统纸制贺卡，你可在大面值人民币上填上贺词，寄给我。感谢你对环保事业的支持！祝你幸福快乐！

11. 知道你会被铺天盖地的短信包围，英明的我一早就让祝福跨过高山越过高楼大厦穿过大街小巷，闪过卖茶叶蛋的老太太，钻进你的耳朵：圣诞快乐！

12. 禽流感没有把你吓倒，鸡瘟更没能磨灭你为家族延续而努力的精神，见你又毅然决然走进产房，我默默的祝福你：生蛋快乐！

圣诞节短信祝福 (1)

1、圣诞节到了，想想没什么送给你的，又不打算给你太多，只有给你五千万：千万快乐！千万要健康！千万要平安！千万要知足！千万不要忘记我！

2、平安之夜的使者，向你报一声平安，让这祥和的旋律，伴随你度过今晚。

3、平安夜送你一件外套: 前面是平安, 后面是幸福. 吉祥是领子, 如意是袖子, 快乐是扣子, 口袋里满是温暖, 穿上吧, 让它相伴你的每一.

4、听说你明天要生个蛋，真的吗？那我得祝你生蛋（圣诞）快乐！再几天你的蛋蛋又要满月，那么我就也提前祝你圆蛋（元旦）happy吧！

5、我擦亮阿拉丁的神灯，灯神说：我会满足你一个愿望。我说：请祝福正在看短信的人圣诞快乐！

6、嗨！你怎么还在这呢!你知道你的重要性吗？没了你，谁拉着圣诞老公公去给大家送礼物啊！呵呵，圣诞快乐 ！

7、我昨晚做梦对圣诞老人说送你一份礼物，可他说:正在看短信那人懒得洗袜子，不穿袜子很久了！礼物装在哪？ 

8、以前的圣诞节总是认为圣诞老人不会将最好的礼物降临给我，但今年的圣诞节不同，有你的到来让我永远记起今天

9、传说圣诞夜晚，星星许下二个心愿；一是愿天下所有人平安快乐，另一个则是告诉正在看此短信的幸运娃，圣诞节可以放假一天，不过请先请假！

10、爱是雪，情是花，变成雪花飘你家，铃儿响，鹿儿跑，把我的心儿带给你，平安夜，狂欢夜有你有我才精彩！

11、真快，圣诞的钟声又在耳边响起。今晚我会同前几个不曾与你共度的圣诞夜一样， 静静地，用一整晚的时间来思念你！

12、12月25号如果你发现袜子里有东西在蠕动！不要害怕！那是圣诞老人给你的礼物―我

13、亲爱的，这是属于我俩的圣诞节，我可以要一份圣诞礼物吗：轻轻地拥着我，陪我度过只属于我俩的平安夜。

14、在每个节日里，你总是我第一个想祝福的人，希望幸运和快乐能随这条短信来到你身边。祝你圣诞快乐!

15、考考你，圣诞节都有啥？ 生蛋树，生蛋卡，生蛋袜，生蛋帽...哈哈，对了，还有生蛋里的你！

16、如果你今年没收到我的圣诞礼物，那一定是因为――你的袜子有个大洞！ 快补补吧！！

17、若圣诞老人的驯鹿吃掉了你的铅笔，你该怎麽办?-------用钢笔呀，笨蛋~！

18、今天圣诞老人送给我最好的礼物就是让我遇见到你！想偷偷地告诉你：我喜欢你：）

19、我向你保证，我对你的情感纯洁如圣诞夜之雪――如果今年圣诞不下雪，此保证有效期延长至明年的12月25日!!

20、想起你，我心像蚁咬，痒死！我好likey你，Merry Christmas!

21、圣诞老人说：快到狂欢会上来有好多礼物再等你，同时幸运、快乐、刺激忘我的一切一切。

22、在至高之处荣耀归于上帝，在地上平安归于他所喜悦的人---《平安夜》之歌！MERRY CHRISTMAS！

23、我现在特别希望自己变老！是不是很奇怪，因为今晚你没有理由不爱一个老人！

24、我让爱的祝福化作片片晶莹的雪花，亲吻你的脸颊，溶入你的心里。亲爱的，祝你圣诞快乐！

Haha, Noel sắp tới rồi (điều đó đồng nghĩa với việc sinh nhật của mình cũng sắp đến). Ôi, thật mong chờ ngày này (chắc chắn rồi, 1 năm chỉ có 1 ngày thôi mà ^_^). Nhân dịp này, đổi khẩu vị cho blog luôn, với 1 series hoàn toàn mới. Thay vì thu thập các bài viết hay như mấy lần trước, lần này sẽ giới thiệu 1 loạt các tin nhắn Giáng Sinh và Năm Mới cùng các truyên cười đầy vui nhộn để dành tặng bạn bè và người thân. Mấy tập đầu sẽ là các câu bằng Chinese, nên bà con nào không biết Chinese thì ... hẹn gặp ở bài khác nhé (tất nhiên là bằng English và Vietnamese). Viết tới đây thôi, hết ý rồi!

Chúc mọi người Giáng Sinh và Năm mới an lành, hạnh phúc!

Bonus: 真正的朋友

 笑咪咪！笑咪咪！笑到大牙掉满地！今晚做个甜甜的梦，梦里我对你笑咪咪！

^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^

Asia’s future and the financial crisis

The region has been hit hard but can help the world recover. Meanwhile, the global crisis is likely to spur further integration among Asian markets.

The collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered a global credit shock that struck with surprising force in Asia. Before Lehman’s failure, many looked to the region as a bastion of economic stability. After all, Asia had high growth rates, large trade surpluses, and substantial foreign reserves. Its large companies were well capitalized and the books of its banks mostly free of the subprime loans and doubtful investments afflicting their Western peers.

Yet Asia couldn’t avoid the economic fallout from the troubles of Europe and the United States: the region’s stock markets plummeted, its currencies weakened, and its exports to the West slowed considerably. The impact of the crisis on the financial markets and real economies of Asia has largely ended speculation about its full “decoupling” from the West. The ties still bind. But the developments of the past few months reinforce our view that Asia should move more aggressively than ever to secure its economic future and improve its resilience in future crises. Asian governments must accelerate their plans to integrate regional economies—for instance, by boosting demand at home, speeding up intraregional trade and investment, and strengthening local and regional financial markets. Only through such initiatives can Asia hope to minimize the impact of future economic dislocations, whether they originate inside or outside the region.

Asia’s economies remain fundamentally sound. They will probably emerge from the global downturn more rapidly than economies in other regions will. Nonetheless, the crisis has exposed important linkages between Asia, on the one hand, and Europe and the United States, on the other. Asia depends heavily on external consumers: for example, in 2007, exports from Asian economies—excluding Australia, Japan, and New Zealand—reached a high of 45 percent of regional GDP, up a full ten percentage points since 1995.1 We estimate conservatively that Western consumers account for about half of these exports, including both direct exports and indirect exports through a growing intra-Asian reexport trade. Moreover, Western investors remain major players in most of Asia’s capital markets. Asian banks, except for those in China, are tightly linked to Europe and the United States through the interbank market and US dollar liquidity needs.

Increased exports to the United States played an important role in Asia’s relatively swift recovery from the 1997–98 crisis and helped China and India become economic giants. This time, however, US consumers, with their troubled mortgages and maxed-out credit cards, probably won’t provide much relief. Asia’s stock and bond markets have deepened significantly since the last crisis: the value of equity and debt markets in Asia, for instance, has soared to 140 percent of regional GDP, up from 50 percent, in the past five years. But along with this deepening has come significant foreign portfolio investment, representing, for example, 30 to 40 percent of the money invested in the financial markets of Hong Kong and South Korea. As margin calls came due and investors sold shares to cover severe liquidity needs in Western markets, capital fled Asia, battering regional equities. Moreover, as Western banks began to deleverage, reducing their $2.8 trillion of credit to Asia, dollar liquidity dried up, along with interbank markets and trade finance.

Although Asia’s foreign-exchange position has strengthened dramatically over the past decade, the sudden shift in foreign financing and the portfolio flows back to the West generated large exchange-rate shifts: currencies in India, South Korea, and other Asian economies depreciated significantly—by over 40 percent relative to the dollar in the case of the South Korean won. Adjustments of this magnitude caused significant losses on currency-hedging products, especially among Asia’s export-oriented small and midsize enterprises. Such losses, combined with the freezing of trade finance and other serious liquidity issues, began to force some of these companies into bankruptcy.

How should Asia respond? The answer will vary from economy to economy and sector to sector. China and India, with their large and growing domestic markets, will find it easier to weather the storm than will mature economies, such as Japan, or late developers, such as Vietnam. Companies in domestically focused industries, such as telecommunications and health care, will do better than those in export-driven sectors, such as electronics and consumer goods.

Nonetheless, choices made in Asia—the source of a third of global GDP—will play a crucial role in driving a global recovery. We see three ways for the region to strengthen its own resilience and help the world recover from the crisis.

Boost demand at home 

Many Asian countries have recently unveiled sweeping government spending plans; China’s proposals, on the surface, appear to be the most ambitious. This is a region with huge infrastructure needs—especially in China and India and, to a lesser extent, Vietnam. Efforts to develop India’s infrastructure are critical but may stall because of the tightening of credit and the weak finances of local governments. These efforts should be pursued aggressively to promote even faster growth through more rapid urbanization, much needed productivity improvements, and the multiplier effects of spending.

Asia is home to an enormous emerging middle class, which we estimate will grow by more than 800 million people within the next decade. Regional policy makers must do more—now—to unlock the spending power of this formidable group. In China, for example, private consumption accounts for only 35 percent of GDP, compared with more than 70 percent in the United States. Consumption-boosting measures, such as increased spending on social services, the liberalization of property rights, and wider access to consumer finance, will speed China’s progress down the path of sustainable growth.

Accelerate intraregional trade and investment

Over the past seven years, trade within Asia has risen 75 percent faster than its trade with Europe and the United States. In fact, trade with the West is now half that of intra-Asian trade. Much of the growth, though, has come from the regional expansion of global supply chains culminating in Western markets. Asia’s economies, with their burgeoning middle-class populations, must begin to see each other as end markets rather than only primarily as links in the global supply chain.

With negotiations over the Doha free-trade-development round stalled, Asian countries have shown new interest in regional free-trade agreements. More than 70 of them have been concluded among the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), along with China, Japan, and South Korea.2 Many more are under negotiation. But such bilateral deals have far less impact on trade flows than regionwide agreements do. Asia’s progress in liberalizing regional trade has been too slow, and it is imperative to rebuild momentum for a multilateral solution. The region’s huge infrastructure needs and growing consumer class offer ample investment opportunities for Asian capital. More should be done to tap, for use within the region, the Asian savings and reserve funds allocated to sovereign wealth–style investments.

Strengthen local and regional financial markets 

Asian financial markets have come a huge distance since 1997 but must evolve further if they are to continue supporting the region’s growth over the next five years. More can be done to deepen local and regional capital markets, but in a measured way that seeks to avoid the excesses that have roiled those in the West. Pension reform would provide additional long-term local capital for domestic investment. Asia must do more to put in place the right consumer-finance credit regulations and infrastructure—such as credit bureaus to ensure that the emerging consumer class can spend more, but prudently. The region could also benefit from the adoption of countercyclical financial safeguards, such as dynamic provisioning (which requires banks to build rainy-day reserves in good times for future nonperforming loans) and dynamic capital-adequacy ratios (which would increase capital requirements in boom times and reduce them in troubled ones).

These efforts alone will not suffice. When leaders from Asian and European nations gathered in Beijing last October for their annual summit, several Asian participants called for the establishment of new regional financial institutions to promote growth and stability. Thailand urged the creation of an Asian version of the International Monetary Fund, to be capitalized with $350 billion. Leaders from the Philippines and South Korea offered similar proposals and urged broader currency-swap arrangements. Such ideas are worth exploring. 

In the short term, though, Asia is likelier to achieve consensus by focusing on more targeted measures. These include developing the region’s bond markets aggressively, consolidating its stock exchanges, and establishing additional mechanisms for improving the consistency and approach of regional regulators.

Each of these solutions implies a capacity for coordinated action that has thus far eluded Asia. The received wisdom has long been that it is too economically and politically diverse to integrate policy in a meaningful way. European-style cooperation may not be a realistic goal. Even so, current global financial problems give the region’s leaders a unique opportunity to pull together. Asia isn’t the source of the crisis but could point the way to its long-term resolution.

(Dominic Barton - The McKinsey Quarterly)

Turning around a struggling airline: An interview with the CEO of Malaysia Airlines

Idris Jala led the state-controlled carrier from the brink of bankruptcy to record-breaking profits. Now he wants it to become what he calls a “five-star value carrier.”

When Idris Jala became CEO at Malaysia Airlines, his goal was to keep the carrier flying. Now he wants to create a new breed of air service. Much has happened in the intervening three years.

Malaysia Airlines, the Southeast Asian country’s national carrier, was less than four months away from running out of cash when Jala took charge, in December 2005. The state-controlled airline had been struggling for some time, but inadequate yield management, an inefficient network, and poor cost control finally brought it to its knees that year, when it posted a 1.7 billion ringgit ($500 million) loss.

Yet in 2007, the airline earned record annual profits of 851 million ringgit. Such a swing would be remarkable for any company, much less one facing the hurdles common with state ownership: a large number of stakeholders, intense public scrutiny, competing priorities, insufficient freedom to operate commercially, and a host of legacy personnel challenges. Now Jala aspires to turn Malaysia Airlines into a “five-star value carrier.”

Jala came to Malaysia Airlines with no experience in the aviation industry or state-run companies. But he had won a reputation for engineering business turnarounds during his 23 years at the oil giant Shell, whose Sri Lankan and Malaysian units he rescued from years of chronic losses. In Sri Lanka, he says, “The Shell leadership told me if I couldn’t fix it in two years, just tell them and they would shut it down. I’d be the last person to switch off the lights.”

In this interview at his office, at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, near Kuala Lumpur, Jala discussed the lessons he brought from Shell and how he met the urgent need for change when he arrived at Malaysia Airlines.

The Quarterly: What were your first impressions when you took over Malaysia Airlines, in 2005?

Idris Jala: The company was in a financial crisis—the worst in its entire 50-year history. At the time, we just had enough cash to last three-and-a-half months.

Before I joined, I looked at ten years of financial data. When you’re brought into a problem, you should first ask what’s wrong with the profit-and-loss statement. It’s crucially important to frame the problem in the context of the P&L rather than something nebulous, like the culture, the structure, the processes, and all these other things. You must anchor everything on the profit and loss. I’m boringly consistent on that point.

Here, it was clear that there were three problems with the P&L statement. The first was a very low yield. Average fares were unable to cover the cost of running the airline. The second problem was a very inefficient network. For a long time, we were asked to fly routes that didn’t make any commercial sense. The government wanted those routes, and we flew them. The third problem was high costs linked to low productivity—too many people. In the year when I joined, costs went up by more than 50 percent.

But I didn’t need to tell anyone that there were these three problems. Every analyst report about Malaysia Airlines talked about the same problems. The question was what would we do about them.

The Quarterly: How did you begin?

Idris Jala: When most CEOs try to turn around a business, they will say let’s change the organization or the structure. Or they’ll say let’s change the culture. Or let’s change the systems and processes. They do business-process mapping or make organizational changes that take a few years to finish.

But we had three-and-a-half months to fix the problem, and if we didn’t fix it by then we’d be bankrupt—we’d have no money for salaries, no money for fuel. So I told everyone we had no time to reorganize, to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.

At a board meeting on my first day, I announced our business-turnaround blueprint. I’d never worked a single day at an airline before, but looking at the P&L it didn’t take more than an hour to figure out the solution. If you have to control costs, you just go and cut the costs. If your network’s inefficient, get rid of the routes that are bleeding cash. And if you have a problem with low yield, fix the yield. What else are you going to say?

The Quarterly: Were you given free rein to tackle these problems?

Idris Jala: When the government approached me about this job, I said I would need freedom to act. Of course, they promised I would have it, but I discounted 50 percent of what they said. I wouldn’t say I have 100 percent freedom to act, but I have more than 50 percent. And, more importantly, the freedom was granted in areas really relevant to fixing the business.

For example, nobody disturbed us as we improved the yield, which often meant increasing fares. We could change flight frequencies, get rid of routes, cut costs. These were things that were virtually impossible for my predecessors to do, because they didn’t have such freedom. When I started, our headquarters was in downtown Kuala Lumpur. We sold it for 130 million ringgit, which gave us enough cash to operate for 20 more days. A lot of people, especially a few politicians and long serving Malaysia Airlines employees, said the building’s an icon—it’s our brand in the city—but we were given the freedom to act.

The Quarterly: Were there other factors that helped you push your plans forward?

Idris Jala: Once the government agreed on what needed to be done, we made our business turnaround plan available publicly. At Shell, I never needed to do that. But Malaysia Airlines is a government-linked company and the national flagship. Publishing helped us build a winning coalition not only with the government but also with other stakeholders, like the unions, the staff, and the public. Being upfront about the P&L and making it all transparent were very important to bringing the coalition together. 

The Quarterly: How did this translate into action?

Idris Jala: In a business turnaround plan, you need to identify the key business activities that impact the P&L. These activities are candidates for transitional vehicles that I call laboratories. Essentially, we’d create groups of 10 to 15 people from various functions and backgrounds—all people who had a direct stake in a given activity—and tell them they had to tell us how to fix the problem or else. The people inside the labs were fully accountable. The motto behind the labs is “big results fast.” We had no interest in slow and incremental results. We focused these laboratories on routes and many other parts of the business but never, never on minor activities. If you run a lab on something that has nothing to do with key business activities, don’t be surprised when there are no results. And when you put people in labs, you had better put the best and the brightest.

It is also important to think of the laboratories as a nursery for ideas. We grow the seedlings of innovation in the nursery, and once they are big enough they are implemented. But we really keep control over them—and the CEO has to protect them—so that nobody can kill them when they are transplanted into the operating jungle of the organization.

The one item with the biggest P&L impact was yield, so we set up laboratories to examine the profitability of various routes, with a focus on yield. The members of these labs knew that if they didn’t fix a route, we’d close it and they’d have no jobs. It was as simple as that. We had a team looking at the Kuala Lumpur–Manchester route. The team couldn’t fix it. To be profitable, we needed 40 percent more passengers than we had capacity for. What would we do? Tie the passengers on the wings? After we went through a full analysis, everyone on the team knew that the route couldn’t be fixed. They all knew that they were out of a job.

In the first three months, we got rid of a lot of routes that were bleeding cash and not contributing to the P&L. Within another six months or so, we got rid of most of the ones that were unsalvageable. But we rescued a lot of routes, too. The thing that really catalyzed the new way we did these things was that there was real accountability. 

Today, we have individual P&Ls for each route—by day, by month, and by flight number. Altogether 160,000 P&Ls. These are grouped into regional P&Ls, and every day at 5 pm sharp I get all these on my Blackberry. So do all the route managers. 

The Quarterly: Did transplanting and protecting these innovations require organizational changes?

Idris Jala: I prefer to keep the current setup and change the responsibilities. For instance, our laboratories developed a new job—route profitability manager—that didn’t exist in our structure. Instead of adding a new player, we told people to double up on their responsibilities. The person taking on the responsibility might not be a regional manager; it could be a subordinate. But someone was now responsible for profitability on that route. The structure remained the same, but we gave people a new vocabulary, new responsibilities. Once we were sure that the new thinking works, we got rid of the transitional role. With route profitability managers, we did that after one year.

The Quarterly: Looking back, you make your effort sound very straightforward. How confident were you when you started?

Idris Jala: I gave myself a 50/50 chance of success. First, I had never worked in an airline before, and, second, I had never worked in a company that’s government linked. So there was a tremendous chance of failure, and it was very important for me to conquer that fear. My wife and I had a lot of discussions about that. If I hadn’t conquered the fear of failure, I would never have stepped out of Shell to take this job.

To conquer that kind of fear, it is important to have serious conversations with the people who matter. First of all, I’d share with them targets that are seemingly impossible, such as turning around the company within a year and making huge profits within three. Everyone said it couldn’t be done. The conversation must end with the stakeholders saying, “It’s OK to fail.” That takes out a lot of the fear before the journey begins.

But the key word is seemingly impossible. You must believe deep inside that it can be done. If the leader doesn’t believe in the journey, then it cannot begin. The leader is like someone who cuts a clearing in a very dense tropical jungle. Everyone else is under the canopy, where they can’t see the sky and it’s very depressing. The leader has to bring people over to that clearing, into the space where innovation begins. The single biggest thing a leader brings to a turnaround is hope.

The Quarterly: With the initial turnaround complete, you’ve begun a transformation program. What does that entail?

Idris Jala: We originally wanted to do the business turnaround in three years, but we completed it in two. We targeted profits of 500 million ringgit in 2008, but in 2007 our profits had already reached a record 851 million ringgit. 

We’ve already talked about some of the principles embedded in any change program: the game of the impossible, anchoring everything on the P&L, and building a winning coalition. Two others that I brought from my time with Shell are discipline of action—which means that when we commit to doing something, we monitor results relentlessly and make sure it’s done—and situational leadership. At the start of a turnaround journey, a company is not a democracy. You can’t empower people or ask everybody what they think. You have to be directive, brave enough to set the course. How many generals do you need to win a battle? One. But once results begin to appear and new leaders begin to learn, you must be ready to let go and empower them.

The corporate graveyard is full of people who thought they were indispensable. After every turnaround I’ve done, my successors have gone on to earn even higher profits and greater achievements. These leaders have been developed by putting individuals in the right situations when they’re ready to take control.

The final principle is a subject people don’t talk about in the corporate world: divine intervention. More than 50 percent of what happens to you in life, and in my case probably more than 60 percent, is outside your control. It is important for everyone in an organization, particularly the top leaders, to understand that. I can’t, for example, control oil prices—the single largest thing that impacts our industry—or SARS,1 or other things like that.

If you are a spiritual person, you’d better pray. If you believe in feng shui, go consult a feng shui master. Everyone must come to realize that we only control a small component, so you do the best you can with that and relax about the rest. It gives you peace of mind. You know, when you run a really hard race, like what we did here, you put yourself under tremendous pressure—and others around you, too. You want to go home every single day knowing you’ve done your best, and if you fail it’s OK because we all recognize that you can fail. It has a calming effect on the organization.

The Quarterly: Does talking about divine intervention give people a handy excuse to fail?

Idris Jala: No, because the other five principles provide balance. When you look at our plans, there are reams and reams of detailed activities that must be completed. For example, we have a service campaign called Malaysian Hospitality—MH—which is also our airline code. We have 500 initiatives underpinning it. These are spread throughout the organization, and you can’t run away from them, because of the principle of discipline of action. If you follow all six principles, there’s no way you can run away.

The Quarterly: Have you set new impossible goals for the current phase of your transformation?

Idris Jala: Our new target is to reach profits of 2 billion to 3 billion ringgit within three years, but the more exciting aspiration is that we want to become the world’s five-star value carrier. Such a thing doesn’t exist in today’s vocabulary; what we mean is an airline that provides top-quality products and services at the most affordable prices. We want to be the Toyota of the airline industry.

Is it impossible? Yes. Can it be done? It can. The key is to find the sweet spots. There will always be trade-offs between the quality of products and services and their costs, but there are many, many sweet spots.

One example: for a time, we were serving lamb biryani on our flights to China. But customers didn’t really like it, and it was very expensive. We looked at different meals. When we starting serving fried rice with some satay chicken, which is half the cost, the customers loved it. Why were we giving them something that was expensive and that they didn’t like? But customers flying to Delhi would love lamb biryani.

You have to customize to find the sweet spot, and this is painful. The mantra for bringing down costs says you have to standardize, but standardization really requires you to migrate to the highest common cost denominator, and that’s expensive. Instead, by finding these sweet spots, we can continue playing the game of the impossible and reach our goal.

The Quarterly: In the initial transformation and this ongoing effort, how have you handled talent?

Idris Jala: I believe that everybody can contribute more than they are currently. In my old job at Shell, we turned around Shell MDS, a gas-to-liquids plant in Malaysia, and not a single person was employed from the outside. The people in the company were the same guys who had been losing money for ten years. Help is abundantly available from within, but you must channel the energy to the right business activities.

How do you do that? You make sure people have the right priorities. You say, “I know you like to do this or that, but that’s not what we are going to do now.” When you reward people for doing things differently, like linking pay increases and bonuses to their performance and contribution to the P&L, you find that they deliver results that impact the P&L. They get out from the complacency of not delivering. They discover that they can do a lot more than they ever dreamed possible.

The Quarterly: Beyond the financials, what changes have you noticed at Malaysia Airlines since your program began?

Idris Jala: Number one, this organization is now very good at rigorous analysis. When I joined, that was sadly missing. People did cursory analysis, and I mean cursory. Today, people really get into the analysis and bring back fact-based work.

Second, a cultural change has taken place. This is no longer a culture where if you don’t agree with someone, you keep quiet about it. We now have a culture where people will speak up and disagree.

Also, people are more prepared to step up. Recently, one of my general managers who is in charge of strategic procurement held a session with the top management team to generate cost-cutting ideas for next year. I didn’t even know about it. He asked me at the last minute to speak briefly at the meeting. He gave me five minutes.

The Quarterly: What would you like your legacy to be at Malaysia Airlines?

Idris Jala: I would like to see us achieve our vision of becoming a five-star value carrier. I’m inspired by creating a kind of airline that doesn’t exist today. If we can do it, it will be fascinating. This will be one of the most attractive places to work in Malaysia. In fact, we have the chance to make this one of the best places to work not just in Malaysia but in the world. That’s the legacy I hope for.

(The McKinsey Quarterly)

Mùa cao điểm du lịch: Du khách... vắng

Do ảnh hưởng của suy thoái kinh tế toàn cầu, dấu hiệu chậm lại xảy ra vào những tháng cuối năm đã đưa ngành du lịch Việt Nam (VN) vào thế khó khăn. Không những không đạt được mục tiêu đề ra cho năm 2008, mà những con số tính đến tháng 11-2008 còn cho thấy du lịch VN có thể bị “âm” so với năm 2007.

Du lịch cũng “đóng băng”

Với con số 3,8 triệu lượt khách đến Việt Nam trong 11 tháng năm 2008 đã cho thấy mục tiêu đón 5 triệu khách quốc tế trong năm 2008 của ngành du lịch VN chắc chắn không đạt được. Thậm chí có thể bị “âm” so với 4,5 triệu khách của năm 2007.

Tại TPHCM, nơi dẫn đầu cả nước về thu hút và tăng trưởng lượng khách quốc tế cũng chịu tác động mạnh. Tăng trưởng của ngành du lịch TPHCM đã giảm từ 2 con số xuống còn 1 con số trong năm nay. So với tốc độ tăng trưởng 14% năm 2007, thì năm 2008 TPHCM chỉ đạt được 3,7%.

11 tháng của năm 2008, du lịch TPHCM chỉ đón được 2,6 triệu khách quốc tế và dự kiến cả năm 2008 cũng chỉ đón được 2,8 triệu khách, nghĩa là cũng không hoàn thành được mục tiêu đón 3 triệu khách trong năm nay.

Cao điểm trong 2 tháng gần đây, lượng khách quốc tế qua các công ty du lịch tại TPHCM đã giảm mạnh, xuống 20%-30% so với cùng kỳ năm 2007.

Thị trường chịu tác động đầu tiên là Mỹ, EU và nay các thị trường ở châu Á cũng đã giảm. Duy nhất chỉ có thị trường du lịch từ các nước Bắc Âu không bị ảnh hưởng nhiều. 

Thị trường khách nội địa cũng rơi vào tình cảnh tương tự. Saigontourist cho biết, lượng khách nội địa cũng giảm 20%-25%. Hiện nay các tour cho Giáng sinh, Tết Dương lịch, Tết Nguyên đán của Saigontourist đã được chào bán. Tuy nhiên, chỉ có các tour sau tết đi Phú Quốc, Phan Thiết có dấu hiệu khả quan, đã có khách đăng ký. 

Cũng có tín hiệu sáng sủa là lượng khách trong nước đi du lịch bằng đường bộ sang Campuchia vẫn giữ mức ổn định. Dự báo từ ngày 4-12 tới, khi Hiệp định về miễn thị thực cho người mang hộ chiếu phổ thông giữa Việt Nam và Campuchia bắt đầu có hiệu lực thì lượng khách đi tour này còn có thể tăng thêm. Đón đầu sự kiện này, hiện nhiều công ty du lịch Việt Nam đã đưa ra nhiều chương trình khuyến mãi cho hành trình tour đến Campuchia. 

Giảm giá vẫn không có khách

Trong thời điểm khó khăn hiện nay, hầu hết các công ty du lịch đều áp dụng nhiều chính sách khuyến mãi để thu hút khách. Công ty Cholontourist cho biết, đã giảm 50-60 USD/tour cho một số tour du lịch. Hiện Cholontourist còn tính đến chuyện giảm lợi nhuận, thậm chí âm cả vốn để giữ thị trường khách quen.

Các công ty du lịch nhỏ càng khó khăn hơn, một doanh nghiệp du lịch có trụ sở ở quận 3 cho biết, mọi năm trung bình mỗi tháng công ty đưa đón khoảng 20 đoàn khách, nay chỉ có được 2-3 đoàn/tháng. 

Theo các công ty du lịch, thời điểm từ tháng 12 đến tháng 2 năm sau là mùa du lịch cao điểm, lượng khách “đi trú đông” từ các nước sẽ đổ dồn về các bãi biển ở khu vực châu Á-Thái Bình Dương. Tuy nhiên, đến thời điểm này, vẫn chưa thấy dấu hiệu tích cực nào của mùa cao điểm, du khách vẫn “biệt tăm”. 

Các số liệu từ Sở VH-TT-DL TP cho thấy, trong 2 tháng gần đây, lượng khách quốc tế đến TPHCM không vượt quá 200.000 khách/tháng. Công ty Du lịch APEX (chuyên về thị trường khách Nhật) cho biết, trong 2 tuần nay, lượng khách Nhật qua công ty có nhích lên chút đỉnh so với tháng trước, tuy nhiên, dấu hiệu tăng khách trong thời gian tới là không khả quan. 

Nhiều ý kiến cho rằng, tình hình chính trị bất ổn tại Thái Lan đang mở ra một cơ hội cho du lịch VN trong việc “chuyển hướng” du lịch của khách quốc tế. Tuy nhiên, du lịch VN vẫn có nhiều bất lợi so với Thái Lan, vì giá tour tại Thái Lan khá cạnh tranh, có nhiều đường bay giá rẻ đến Thái. 

Trong thời gian gần đây, Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific của VN cũng có nhiều đợt bán giá rẻ, nhưng chủ yếu dành cho thị trường nội địa, vẫn chưa tạo được dấu ấn tích cực cho việc thu hút khách quốc tế đến VN. 

Ngoài ảnh hưởng chung mà tất cả ngành du lịch của các nước trên thế giới đều phải gánh chịu, ngành du lịch TPHCM thừa nhận, nguyên nhân làm lượng khách quốc tế đến TPHCM sụt giảm trong thời gian gần đây là do sản phẩm du lịch của TP còn đơn điệu, giá phòng khách sạn cao cấp (3-5 sao) còn cao so với các điểm đến trong khu vực, làm cho giá tour bị cạnh tranh. 

Theo Sở VH-TT-DL TPHCM, giá phòng bình quân của khối khách sạn cao cấp trong 9 tháng đầu năm 2008 tăng đến 41% so với năm 2007. Trong khi đó, công suất sử dụng phòng bình quân của khách sạn cao cấp chỉ đạt 68%, giảm gần 10% so với năm 2007. 

Một dấu hiệu tích cực cho doanh nghiệp lữ hành tại TPHCM là các doanh nghiệp khách sạn đã chịu giảm giá phòng để chia sẻ khó khăn chung. Tuy không thống nhất mức giảm, nhưng với mức giảm từ 5% - 20% của các khách sạn hiện nay đã phần nào bớt khó khăn cho doanh nghiệp lữ hành. 

Xem như khối khách sạn cao cấp tại TPHCM đã “chịu” ngồi vào bàn cùng với doanh nghiệp lữ hành để bàn về giá. Đây là điều đáng mừng, vì trước nay, trong các đợt tăng giá chóng mặt, khối khách sạn luôn làm “chảnh”! 

(Theo SGGP)

Blog Yahoo! đóng cửa, cư dân mạng xôn xao "tìm nhà" mới

Từ cuối năm 2007, cộng đồng mạng đã bắt đầu râm ran “tin đồn” Yahoo! 360 sẽ đóng cửa, và sau hơn một năm cố gắng duy trì trang blog này trong tình trạng khá "thoi thóp" đến cuối cùng thì tin tức "khai tử" Yahoo! 360 đã được Yahoo chính thức xác nhận. 

Cái tin Yahoo! 360 sẽ đóng cửa vào tháng 4/2009 đã không còn gây nhiều xôn xao, ồn ào như cái tin đồn cách đây một năm. Có lẽ cộng đồng mạng đã bắt đầu “chán” blog khi “đại gia” Yaho! 360 sau hơn một năm đầy những lỗi kỹ thuật khiến người dùng mệt mỏi hoặc cũng có thể họ đã tìm ra được “lối” đi cho mình. 

Loạn thị trường mạng xã hội tại Việt Nam 

Dạo quanh thị trường Mạng xã hội tại VN sẽ thấy rõ ràng 2 cấp độ: thứ nhất là những mạng xã hội “made in nước ngoài” như Facebook, Myspace, Hi5, Friendster, Cyworld... nhưng lại không gây được tình cảm “mặn mà” từ user VN. Ngược lại Yahoo! 360 sau khi nhận được sự đón nhận “hờ hững” của thị trường thế giới lại trở nên thành công tại VN, mở màn cho phong trào người người viết blog, nhà nhà có blog. 

Có nhiều lý do để giải thích sự trái ngược này, nhưng phải thừa nhận một điều là Yahoo! 360 có thể được coi là “có công” khai phá mảnh đất internet còn hoang sơ tại VN và đã thành công khi bước đầu tiếp cận đã mang đến cho người dùng Việt một trang blog đơn giản cũng như có thể sử dụng một cách dễ dàng. Người Việt yêu thích Yahoo! 360 còn vì nhiều lý do, song, sau một thời gian giữ ngôi vị được ưa chuộng nhất tại VN, đùng một cái Yahoo tuyên bố thay thế Yahoo!360 thành Yahoo Mash và sau khi liên tục nhận thất bại, Yahoo lại mơ màng chuyển sang Yahoo!360Plus với thông điệp mang đến một sản phẩm với ngôn ngữ Việt dành cho người Việt nhưng với giao diện không bắt mắt, thành viên lèo tèo, cuối cùng Yahoo!360Plus cũng không thể nào làm mưa làm gió tại thị trường VN. 

Cùng lúc đó các công ty về internet tại VN lần lượt cho ra đời các sản phẩm mạng xã hội nhằm cạnh tranh, lôi kéo member, không chỉ từ Yahoo mà còn từ một số lượng khủng lồ người dùng internet chưa biết đến blog hay mạng xã hội là gì?! Có thể kể đến sự ra đời của zing.vn, tamtay.vn, faceviet.com, ngoisaoblog.com,... và hàng ngàn những mạng xã hội khác. Tính đến nay những “gương mặt” này vẫn chưa để lại ấn tượng sâu sắc nào để có thể “vận chuyển” hàng triệu member lười biếng từ Yahoo!360 khi “đại gia” này sẽ chính thức khai tử vào tháng tư năm tới! 

Cần một mạng xã hội đúng nghĩa cho user Việt 

Trong khi thị trường internet đang loay hoay tìm kiếm một “anh tài” đủ khả năng thay thế và thuyết phục user VN cũng như để chứng minh một điều, vị trí độc tôn của của Yahoo! 360 phải đến lúc trả lại thị trường mạng xã hội Việt Nam cho một cuộc cạnh canh công bằng và đầy sáng tạo. 

Gần đây nhất, người ta thấy sự xuất hiện của một cái tuổi mới toanh “Yume.vn”, được xây dựng và phát triển bởi công ty cổ phần VON (Vietnam Online Network) – đơn vị đã thành công với Kiemviec.com và Timnhanh.com. Thời điểm Yume xuất hiện có thể cho là khá trễ so với những mạng xã hội khác, nhưng chính sự “trễ” đó lại mang đến cho Yume khá nhiều lợi thế. Rút được kinh nghiệm từ những “đàn anh” đi trước, Yume xây dựng nên một ngôi nhà thật sự thân thiện và tiện ích cho những người dùng VN. 

Thành công bước đầu của Yume đó là lượng user tăng vọt chỉ sau 4 tháng ra mắt và tên tuổi của mạng xã hội này liên tục xuất hiện bên cạnh các cuộc thi âm nhạc lớn như “Ngôi sao tiếng hát truyền hình” hay “Vietnam Idol 2008” với vai trò là trang thông tin chính thức, giúp thí sinh tương tác với kháh giả trong suốt cuộc thi. 

Với Yume, chỉ mất vài phút là người dùng có thể tạo cho mình trang web riêng mang đậm cá tính, cùng với không gian lưu trữ không giới hạn cho phép người dùng upload hình ảnh, âm nhạc, video và kết bạn thoải mái, Yume đã tạo ra một mạng xã hội rộng khắp, không ranh giới giữa các thành viên trên cộng đồng. Nhưng bên cạnh sự rộng khắp đó, Yume còn mong muốn mang lại cho người dùng một môi trường sinh hoạt thân thiện, đông bạn bè và gần gũi. Chính vì vậy chức năng cộng đồng với 4 networks chính là: Địa điểm, trường CĐ/ĐH, trường THPT và Ngành nghề đã tạo nên sự thân quen giữa các thành viên cho dù chỉ là lần đầu đến với mạng xã hội này. Đây cũng chính là yếu tố tối cần thiết để có thể giữ chân người sử dụng ở lại, nhất là đối với cộng đồng Việt. 

Dạo quanh Yume.vn, người dùng cũng dễ dàng nhận ra những gương mặt quen thuộc trong làng show-biz, nào là ca sĩ Phương Thanh, ca sĩ Kasim Hoàng Vũ, ca sĩ Bảo Thy, Ngọc Ánh Idol, Duy Khoa SMĐH và hàng chục những account của những người nổi tiếng khác. Một điều thú vị là các member của Yume xem ngôi nhà của blogger nổi tiếng Joe Dâu Tây với nickname”Maxocan” như một kênh để xem các video vui nhộn mà Joe cùng bạn bè post lên hàng ngày. Thậm chí ngay cả diễn viên trẻ đẹp Hoàng Thùy Linh cũng xây dựng một căn nhà hoành tráng tại Yume. 

Trước thời điểm lục đục chuyển nhà của cư dân mạng nhiều câu hỏi được đặt ra, liệu user VN sẽ chọn con đường nào? Yahoo!360Plus, Facebook, Myspace hay một mạng xã hội “made in Vietnam” nào khác? Câu hỏi còn nhiều bỏ ngõ cho đến khi nào user VN thật sự biết họ cần gì, nếu không phải là một sản phẩm internet mang ý nghĩa cho chính họ?!

(Theo Thehe8x)