What I Noticed When My Colleagues Resigned...

Five CEOs in a decade, a high employee turnover of 30%, Coca-Cola India was in a chaos as constant churn at the top took its toll. “Every time a new CEO took over, he drew out a new strategy and a fresh gameplan to win the market,” recalls a Delhi-based ex-employee. Lack of confidence and patience from the headquarters only made matters worse. “The short-term approach to show quick results was taking its toll,” recalls a Bangalore-based ex-employee who was involved in operations. " (The Economic Time, Indiatimes ; 27 Jun, 2007)

I can't help but relate with confidence, the scenario Coca Cola India had. Every words of the above statement reflect what I am living, in my daily work. As a result, I have lost dozens of colleagues, and I will be losing another in a couple of weeks.

The posting is not meant to comment on my management's strategy, merely its to draw to attention what are the fundamentals of keeping an employee loyal to an organization. I will take a different twist in approaching this. Thanks to a source , called Andy, company's HR or Line Managers should take note of "The Signs that Your Employee Is Losing Interest in Work"

1. Your employee cannot remember the last time s/he got a promotion, above average raise or a special achievement award, and s/he has stopped caring that s/he hasn't got one of these in a while.

2. All s/he care about is her/his paycheck and not about professional growth, future projects or where the company is headed.

3. S/he can't be bothered participating in any after work related social or sporting activities. These are some of the best networking opportunities and committed employees make the time to go to these.

4.S/he only does enough work to get by and to avoid detection of her/his lack of interest.

5. S/he tunes out in a majority of meetings s/he attend and can't remember the last meeting where made a constructive contribution.

Note : I am running a survey. Please post a comment as annonymous and tell me how many items out of the 5, that you are currently facing. Thanks

Marketing Gimmick

Coca Cola Marketing Gimmick

With dwindling Cola sales in America, largely due to the increase of health conscious consumers, Coca Cola launched Diet Coke Plus. It has begun advertising for Diet Coke Plus in the US with the slogan “Great Taste Has Its Benefits.” The company wants the emphasis that this Diet Coke product has several essential vitamins and minerals while giving people the familiar taste of Diet Coke they have grown accustomed to. If consumer were to think that there is a healthy cola, well this goes down as a great Marketing Gimmick.

Hell’s Marketing Gimmick

Satan, acting on the recent statistics of low entry of people to HELL, launched a marketing drive by sending a group of people down to Earth. Their job is to do all it takes for people to hate, criticise and condemn them. Those who do that, will most likely go to Hell. So beware of this Marketing Gimmick to avoid Hell (if you must hate, criticise and condemn, pray for forgiveness more often)


Pro-Gay Community Marketing Gimmick

The community sent a ‘sweet’ looking young man into the working team of the leading opposition party’s adviser of my country and months later, lodge a police report alleging sodomy. Being a conservative country and where sex is a taboo topic (more so homosexuality) the Pro-Gay Community needs to take drastic measures to raise awareness. What better way then to use the most popular platform, Politics.



Proton Malaysia Marketing Gimmick

Due to the recent down trend of car sales, Proton has ‘bought’ weeks of front page ‘free advertising’ with the recent debacle of “Expensive Proton Perdana’s Maintenance’ in an East Coast state. The amount of coverage, plus a mentioned by Prime Minister, surely goes down as a great Marketing Gimmick. Who needs great PR agency, just elect some corrupt politician.

Say No to Racism...

My company organised a movie treat tonight. We watched “Remember the Titans”. A Denzel Washington movie known for its forceful coaxing and team building, which led to two racially-motivated, black and white teams, coming together in unity and achieving success.

Today we lived in racially stained society. Everyday our words, actions, writing and thoughts are infected one way or another with racial discrimination. Such action leads to hatred, lost of friendship and money through legal lawsuit. Most recently it caused at teacher in Klang her job due to racial slur.

In November 2000, the Coca-Cola Company, one of the most global company, settled largest settlement ever in a corporate racial discrimination case, the Coca-Cola Company agreed to pay more than US$156 million to resolve a federal lawsuit brought by black employees.

But racism does have ‘positive’ notes. We all laughed at the occasional racist joke. Racism has also pushed revolution such as the Apartheid. In the movie “Remember the Titans, racism led to unity and success. What is more important is our interpretation of racism. To me, being an anti-racism believer, racism is an instrument of thoughts, in which the thoughts will lead to actionable answers, either for good or for bad.

On a separate but related note, I love Malaysia because of our multi-racial composition and artificial “racialfication” . My college friends said that I am a Tamilan in a Chinese body. My close Malay friend is as Chinese as what Chinese eats. My colleague is as Indian as its skin, but claimed half Chineseness.

I love Coca Cola, I love Malaysia. Happy Merdeka Malaysia!!!

Cost Cutting $$$$$$

From large corporation to individuals, everyone is facing challenges in ensuring survival in the struggling global economy. Let’s see some examples and my comments.

Coca-Cola Company
Newly minted Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent said that as the company undergoes an aggressive review of spending, marketing will be a primary area of focus. Coca-Cola looks to save between USD 400 million to USD 500 million yearly till 2011. As an example, Mr. Kent said Coca-Cola recently completed a global marketing research agreement that will replace a number of local agreements.

My Country’s Government
The government recently disallow usages of Mercedes Benz by state government, but allow them to keep it for foreign dignitaries. Only Proton Perdana’s are allowed. (Ed : I don’t see the logic of allowing even both the cars. Pakatan Rakyat MP drives a Perodua!!)

My Country’s Information Ministry
The ministry announced a 10 pc cut of its budget. However the cut will not affect RTM's (Radio dan Televisyen Malaysia) operations. Its minister Dato' Ahmad Shabery Cheek gave the assurance that RTM, the pulse of the ministry, would continue to move forward without compromising the quality of its programmes. (Ed : I think they should just shut down RTM , buy over ASTRO. Two birds kill with one stone. RTM’s near ‘no-watchable’ programs and ASTRO’s shitty Customer Services.)

My Country’s Government Again
On 9th of July, the PM announced a 10 % cut of entertainment for all minister. (Ed : I am shocked. I don’t know why they still need the 90 %. Rakyat can’t even have 10 % of basic entertainment! Besides, how can RM 1800 per month supposed to ease Malaysian's cost of living??)

“I Have A Coke…” Editor
He has recently stopped giving so much to the ‘usual’ beggars cause he can't feed himself (Ed : Your action will make life tougher for the beggars). Mr Editor also recently downgraded from Four Seasons for holidays to Hyatt, as per his MD’s request, due to higher cost of living. (Ed : Stop taking holidays!!!!!)