STOP BITCHING AND MOVE ON !

Question to think about when you read this blog : 

Startup and SME is not everybody (it's tiring, no real job desc, etc) , and the big companies are not hiring just everybody -> so what's your worth ?

This is an old story that repeat itself a zillion time and I’m sure you all have heard 1001 version of it, It is the story of an employee that feels unappreciated, with the environment is not supportive enough and the list goes on, the bottom line is a BITCHING EMPLOYEE

Make no mistake I’m now an employee and yes there were time when I BITCHED a lot , when the world is not as ideal as I expected I BITCHED and I BITCHED a lot.

Now I no longer do that, I guess time has made me a bit wiser.

This is my personal view and advice to the employee that BITCHES all day long, about how un-perfect the company they work with and how un-supportive their boss or their co-worker is :

DUDE ! STOP BITCHING AND MOVE ON !

You have lots of option and if you are as good as all the excuses, arguments and all that judgment that comes out of your mouth you should be able to leave the company that you so despise and go create your own business or move to a bigger stable company !

If it’s not happening yet, shut up, stop bitching and move on.

Moving on means : you either can suck it up, stay, do your job or you can quit your job, nobody is holding you for ransom at your work, so just quit your job, life is too short for you to bitch all day long.

Go travel, go reach for the stars, go make things happen, I know for sure that you are worth it and you can do big things! So why do you stay in the same crappy company that you bitch all day long!

If you are that good, people will look for you!, headhunter will wait in line for you ! (trust me, I’ve been there)  move on ! if you fail ? So what? Start over! – Afraid to fail? Then STOP BITCHING!

One thing for sure, as ugly or stupid your Boss can be, he/she is your Boss, he/she still pays you every month and you still take her/his money, so where does that puts you ? Not as noble as your argument,I should say.

None of your Bitching can change that reality, so move on, change things! Just quit your job and seek your ideal job !

This is my suggestion to you, I have 2 suggestion :

A.      If you decided to stay in your crappy company ! -> I don’t know why you want to stay if you bitch a lot !

1.       Start making things happens, show result , there’s a reason why your Boss doesn’t treat you as good as you want it to be, because your Boss don’t see the full potential that you can deliver, why your Boss doesn’t see that because you are not making things happen, you don’t show result

2.       No Excuses¸ dude! How old are you? Excuses are for 5 year old, no excuses! The world is not fair and it’s sure not damn Perfect!, things don’t happen easily, either you make it or you brake it.

You don’t change the wind, you adjust the sail

3.       Record your achievement, and show it to your Boss, see how your Boss response. Good response you stay, No response or Bad response, ditch your boss, he/she aint worth it !

4.       Create your sphere of influence, no one can work alone, you’ll need help from your coworker to make things happen, so get socialize, be friend, discuss work, get to know co worker, do favor, scratch their back so they’ll scratch yours.

5.       Build your bargaining power, remember employment is a business deal ! no different from you buying a burger at a fast food restaurant, you don’t like the deal don’t make the deal, move on.

The reason why you Bitch a lot because your losing the battle, you lose the battle because you don’t have enough bargaining power to bargain with your boss.

You don’t have enough bargaining power because you don’t show any result!

If you show result and your boss doesn’t appreciate you, then leave!! There are others out there who will appreciate what you do

My favorite quote is from the US President Teddy Roosevelt : talk softly and carry a big stick !  -> meaning don’t BITCH ! stay calm and show result, show what’s your worth !  

B.   

    If you decided to leave the company and start your own business -> Good for you

1.        You will fail !, You failed already when you were with your lousy boss who keep paying your monthly salary, what makes you think you will succeed in the real world by yourself? You will fail and you must accept that condition. What you have to do is to prepare yourself to fail and bounce back as soon as you can

2.       Be smart with your finance, dude you are on your own, be prudent with your finance, be prepare for the up coming winter, store some food (money) in your bank account for that long winter

3.       Build Network, No one can achieve big things alone, you’ll need friends and mentor to guide you. Build a network filled with people from various expertise to give you advice.

4.       I bet you’re as lousy as your former boss, maybe worst, so you start your own business, with limited capital and limited client base, how do you think you will response to that situation? with limited money you need to hire your employee and pay their monthly salary with no guarantee of result, while in the same time you’ll need to save some money for un-wanted event, and in the same time you’ll expect only the best from your employee, you want to squeeze every inch of productivity that your employee has, what kind of boss do you think you’ll become ? Will you be able to focus your attention and strength to all condition in the office ? or will you focus only on sales because of your limited capital ? Will you listen to all of your employee feedbacks ? or will you trust your instinct – it’s your company it’s your money so you should do what you believe.

The world is not perfect and it’s not fair we all know that, so stop wasting your energy by BITCHING and start using your energy for something that truly matters !

Good luck and I hope you'll find what ever dream your looking for, so you can STOP BITCHING AND MOVE ON.:D

Indonesian Mobile subscriber,mobile internet 2012 Data

Hi All, i'm just updating my research on Indonesian Mobile Internet Behavior Data.

This data is acquired by internet research so if you have other data or some data are mistaken  please feel free to comment

My takeaway:

1. Although it seems like everyone in Indonesia (or maybe more precisely in the 8 Major cities) in Indonesia uses Blackberry, even the 11 y.o is seen using Blackberry based on the data I found, there's only 5 mio Blackberry User in Indonesia -> compare that to 45-55million Mobile internet user.

2. Android rises to be one of the most popular OS in Indonesia (no need to tell you this) ;p

3. Indonesian ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is around 2-3 USD/month, i believe last year was around 3-4 USD/month

Conclusion

1. comparing the smartphone and feature phone data. Smartphone = 13,5 mio Feature Phone : 41,5 mio, Indonesia is still a feature phone market

2. Android is on the rise, so if you want to transition your product from feature phone to smartphone, choose Android as your OS for your apps

3. ARPU is around 2-3 USD/month, so be wise with your pricing, if you aim micro-price aim at 0.1 - 0.5 USD - the pshycology of user willing to spend for digital product in the lower end market is around 10-20% of the ARPU

Indonesian Population : 241 million (2011) 

Mobile phone user :

CIA Data : 236.8 million (2011)

ITU Data : 236 Million (2011)

Mobile Monday Data : 220 Million (2012)

Mobile Internet User

ITU data : 45million

Mobile Monday data : 55 Million

Smartphone user

ITU Data : 5 million RIM user (May2012)

Based on combination of ITU Data and Businessweek data

5 million RIM user = 37%

iOS 2,5% = 337.000

android 56% = 7.560.000

Overall smartphone user : 13.5 million

Business Week Data : 6 Dec 2012

Mobile Monday Data June 2012

Source :

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/mobile-phone-and-internet-usage.html

http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2012/indonesia

http://www.mobilemonday.net/reports/SEA_Report_2012.pdf

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-06/indonesians-still-love-their-blackberrys

What I've learn from Mars Curiosity Rover and Marketing Plan

It’s the most exciting time in a product life cycle and also the most frustrating and tiring time, it’s the time when you decided to launch your product, before we discuss even deeper allow me to tell you a story that fascinated me.

The Mars Curiosity Landing

Sometime around 3 or 4 months ago NASA landed a 6 wheeler Robot unto Mars, what fascinate me is that: it takes 40 minutes for radio wave to from Mars to reach earth and it takes another 40 minutes from Mars to Earth and the whole landing from Mars atmosphere to the Mars surface is 8 minutes, so you can imagine NASA won’t know if the landing is successful or not. This means, NASA has to rely on the PLANS they made on earth before launching, NASA cannot interfere with the Landing process once it begun. Once the rover has landed NASA has to make sure that all the scientific gadget that curiosity has is adequate to conduct all the scientific research that is needed on Mars.

NASA gambles their million dollar of tax payer money on their PLAN and of course on the Curiosity ability to make autonomous decision to land – which is part of the PLAN also –

I can see by this time you already know where am I heading?

The Confession

I launched several mediocre product to the market before and my Launch PLAN was simple and naïf, it only took me 30 minutes to assemble a launch plan and I took me a split second to decide when to launch it, and then I rely heavily on market inputs to adjust my plans, which takes another split second to decide which way the product should go in the market, which usually it goes 180 degree turn over night, in summary I have pseudo-plans (my fancy words for crappy plans) , I adjust to the market and I called myself a true solid marketer !

Does this short confession of mine ring a bell? Have you did the same thing as I did? Sure you did, somewhere around the corner of your mind, if you are a marketer you did the same thing as I did at least once in your life time

The revealing Truth

I’m now a changed man! I know think of my Launch Plan even before the product exist! it’s true ! when you create a well thought product even before the product finish the development phase you already have this hunch, this mental picture of how the market will react, how the market will accept your product, by visualizing this product success, you already have a small peak to the launch plan, all you need to do is to make more complete launch plan,

And I do need to remain you, Marketing is not just launching a product or maintaining a product in the market, Marketing is a combination of the magical 4P – Product, Price, Place and Promotion!

You need to see your product the way NASA see Mars Curiosity Rover, think of Plan that is autonomous, that can adjust itself to the market – sure you’ll do the adjustment- but it will only takes small adjustment not a big one.

Yes this blog is asking you and myself whenever we create a Marketing Plan (it means the whole 4P) try to make a PLAN like NASA made, the PLAN has to be autonomous, when you launch it there is no coming back and put it in your mind you cannot or don’t want to make major adjustment ! The Plan need to be accepted by the market when you launched it, therefore you’ll need only minor adjustment

The Plan has to start from the day your product is still an idea!

You have to commit to your plan and distance yourself from making major changes to the plans once it’s executed!

Note: I tried to list down some pointers and after listing down so many points, all the points are exactly the same as a common Marketing Plan, what makes it different is your mindset, on how you imagine the execution will be.

Image source : Nasa

Customer Loyalty is not equal with prizes or gifts

The clock is ticking as I prepare for a product launch, thousands task pop up in my head, and one of those task is customer loyalty mechanism for the product-to be.

I look to my own personal experience to find the best loyalty mechanism, and I didn’t find something that is Ultra Amazing, what I found is something very basic yet we often forget. Allow me to explain it with a story

I recently was given an upgrade on my Credit Card, before I was just a common customer in the eyes of my bank, until that one fine day I received a package, a thick envelope, when I open that package I realized that my Credit Card has been upgraded, and I notice the phone number to activate my new card is different from the number I used to call, so I call that new number to activate my card, and I was shocked to find that, there’s no IVR, no machine answer me, a real life person answered the call, and how the customer service handled my request was amazingly fast and humane. 

Another experience comes from the banking sector, I have several thousand dollar of idle money that I want to deposit in Bank “X”, bank “X” have a branch nearby my house but instead of making the deposit at that Bank, I make the deposit  on the same Bank “X” but on a different branch, a branch that is 1,5 hours away from my house, why I make such silly decision !, it’s only because,  The bank customer service and teller, calls me by name, from the time I walk in to their doors, if they’re not busy, they’ll stand up and greet me “Good Day Pak Sander, anything we can do for you ? “ I’m not a Priority Banking customer and they greet me like I’m somebody important, that simple service touches me, I felt like a human being not just some random customer, that simple greeting won my heart and my money.

I learn 3 simple points for my product loyalty scheme

1.       If you use prizes for your loyalty scheme, you’ll catch bounty hunters that moves between products – you’ll catch bunny-hoping customer not loyal customer.

2.       Make the customer buying experience pleasant !, it’s doesn’t need to be luxurious.  e.g :  a simple digital queuing number that you can take from your home before going to the doctor will make doctor queuing much more pleasant

3.       Small stuff matters wins customer heart !, a smile, call me by my name, stand up when I approach you, give me  a glass of water, show customer that you really want to connect !

Show your customer that you "put a lot of effort" in maintaining your relationship with your customer, "buying" stuff for your customer is not "putting an effort" to maintain your customer relationship, it's bribing ! ,Bribes will work in the short run, but in the long run you'll find them moving to the next guy that offers more cooler prizes 

So what kind of loyalty scheme that I’ll be implementing to the product, the answer is absolutely “not prizes” but something that’s more personalize to each customer, can’t say what it is at the moment, but I do can tell you, it’s something that we “put an effort” not what we “buy” and I’m sure our customer can see that it comes from our heart.

 

Working fast and hard could be your downfall

We are accustom with working hard and working fast, some say we need to work smart, well I’m not going to the work smart topic, way too many articles talks about that smart working stuff.

We seldom thinks we need to work as fast as we can to be ahead of our competition and we also thinks we need to work harder take long working hour to become more efficient or to produce more, all in the name of “Staying ahead of the competitor”

Nothing is wrong with “Staying ahead of the competitor” what wrong is we almost never put the “burnout” factor into account.

What customer want is a product or service quality that comes from the heart, not from mindless robots !, and people who do their work from the heart is people who has positive emotion, while burnout people has negative or 0 emotion a.k.a mindless robots !

So how do you “stay ahead of the competition” without “burning out”? These are points that I think is applicable

1.       Know your customer and you shall find your niche!

There are no such thing as one singular market, even basic things such as rice or corns have niche markets, if you are doing exactly the same thing as what other companies are doing, then I should say you don’t know your market, if you know your market you’ll be able to pick a point of view that’s unique to your own business that no other business could imitate. That unique point of view will differentiate your self from the others and that means you are already ahead of your competition

2.       Target one (just one) unique proposition and Position yourself out loud!

You must be able to stick to just one position to the market, because the market simply cant except a product that has too many benefit, many products has tried the all mighty product approach and fails, it’s just how the mind works, and after you’ve decided one position in the market, you Market that market OUTLOUD ! Make yourself heard so you’ll create the “first in the market” protection to your product.

3.       Strategize for the long run, keep adjusting your tactics

You have to set a long term strategy what do you want to achieve in the next 5 years, and then create 1 year / 6 month goals and than set monthly objective. You adjust the objective and goals, this is how you make your strategy adapt to the market, what most fail companies do is they adjust the strategy then the goals and objective, by changing your strategy you confuse the whole organization, what you should do is keep the strategy statement and adjust the goals and objective not the other way around.

4.       Be true to yourself, be unique and grow with your uniqueness

Business is just like humans, we all in general have the same body parts, 1 head, 2 arms, 2 legs, 1 nose, 2 eyes, etc what differ from one human to another is the experience that we had when we make contact with a human being, the same thing applies to business, a business may sell the same product, do the same thing, have the same price, but the experience when interacting from one business with another is the key. Be True to yourself, be a business that delivers unique experience to your customer and grow with that uniqueness. Be a business that’s true to you of what you really care.

5.       80% Productive 20% contemplate

You know it as I do, we don’t have our “AHA” moment when we are hectic, we all got our great ideas when we are most relax, we get our ideas when we are driving home from work, or taking a shower, spending time with friends, or when we are reading a book. Try to set a time for that “AHA” moment, my rule of thumb is 80% hectic time and set aside 20% as a contemplate time, your contemplate time is a time when you can think deeply and let your imagination roam free, use articles, book, or pictures as a catalyst for your ideas, just roam free with you mind, and when you find a “creative seed” take that “creative seed” write it down in a piece of paper and think a way to execute it. Your contemplation time is your safety valve from getting “burnout” from you hectic day.

6.       Execute

Talking about strategy all day long don’t get the company moving, execution is key !, a good execution is not like flying a plane and turning on the auto pilot, no execution is on autopilot. You have to put your execution in sight daily, because market changes every day, if you are late to respond while the market is changing is like driving straight in a curve road, keep your eye on the road or you’ll crashed.

Staying ahead of the competition is not about running fast and hard ahead of your competitor, is about taking a unique route that no one else is taking, in short! Be unique, you may do the same thing and sell the same thing, but the experience is different.

Being unique doesn’t come from working hard and fast, it comes from a contemplation and self awareness, it’s about being true to yourself (business) of what you (business) really care about.

We Chat - Tencent Aggressive Penetration to Indonesian Market

If you guys haven’t heard, a new chatting application is entering Indonesian Market in its full speed, it’s called WeChat, it’s a Tencent product - the Chinese giant internet company-

If you go to their website :  www.wechatapp.com you can see it’s just like any other chat apps, but what I find interesting is how they are trying to penetrate the Indonesian market

I was enjoying my self in a mall in Jakarta, when I saw this big crowd in a small booth, my mind start to wander, what is this ? and guess what ? it’s a WeChat booth, but there’s something special with this booth besides they use pretty girls, They got Huawei handset and mediapad on their showcase , so WeChat collaborate with Huawei to sell handset and pre-injected Chatting applications – that is so brilliant !

If we Chat open a booth and sells apps only, they’ll be dead in the water, no one will take interest, but when the booth shows affordable Huawei smartphone and mediapad with pretty girls, people will certainly flock, not to mention the main feature that they are selling is the “shake” to make friend, yes you can “shake” your phone to meet new friends using WeChat, so can you imagine pretty girls with smartphone in their hands and shaking to passerby , it is truly a smart marketing move

I won’t go details with the apps feature - you can go to their website for a more details features specification- , from the brochure I took, some of WeChat features are :

1.       Voice message à if they crafted a timeline look it will surely becames voice tweet

2.       Location based à you can meet people near you

3.       Shake à to add friends

4.       Facebook connect

5.       Emoticon library

6.       Inbox message in the from of message in a bottle

7.       Foto sharing

8.       It support  windows phone, iphones ,symbian phone , and RIM will follow shortly

Btw from the info I heard in the “Digital Street” WeChat is now making a TV Ad to support its plan pushing WeChat to penetrate Indonesian Market, talk about limitless budget and aggressive marketing campaign, Tencent is aiming Indonesia with WeChat current as their first campaign.

Urgently Needed: Product Storyteller - Making your product successful

A co-worker which happens to be a dear friend of mine, ask the same questions over and over again: “Why can’t we built good product? And when we launched the product, it sucks! why ? “

After taking some time to digest that particular question, my mind wander to the very same statement that I used to make “We don’t have a product owner!” let me rephrase that “We don’t have a product owner that work by heart!” now the last statement is a bit harsh and a bit too high to achieve (or maybe not), so I’ll tone down abit.. Now my statement is “We need a Product Story teller! “

In Developing a product especially an IT Product, a product development involves several parties, Product manager, Project manager, Executor (Developers, Operators), and Business Person (marketing guy)

The Product Manager is usually the one who makes all the decision, a product manager will assess the product opportunities and manage how to build it.

The Project Manager will manage the timeline, coordinate with all other parties and make sure they meet the deadline and no problem is unsolved

The Executor, do all the dirty works

And The Business Person does all the budgeting and marketing activities, include promotion, etc

So if asked who in the organization represent the customer needs and benefits usually we all point our finger to Product Manager or to Business person, it comes to one of them.

Now, this is the problem

Who hold the product storyteller function ?, everyone in the team should be able to tell what a story what the product is all about, but a single person who act as the “All knowing about the product” is still very needed in the team. The product storyteller function is not about analysis is about combining all elements internal and external to one story, he/she speak in big picture rather than detail, he/she ensure all product features are working solely for the customer benefits in the language that is understood by the customer, thus creating a valuable customer experience.

So let’s put this product storyteller function at the Product manager, it seems like a good idea, but on the operational level, product manager daily routine bogged down its big picture vision, product manager is consumed in details, problem solving, product manager has no time nor the resource to think big picture and speak on fully on behalf the customer. Constant bombardment from technical and operation side will alter product manager orientation from customer benefits to “just get it done on time”. Product Manager has no time for curiosity, discovery and play that will lead to superb customer experience

What if we put this product storyteller function in the Business guy, business guy interact with the market therefore it must have near perfect knowledge of what the market need and what the customer expect, but business guy is always pre-occupied with financial numbers and projection, and sometimes it is very painful and confusing to talk to technical person. To understand the product you need to understand how it works, to understand how it works you need to understand how it made, if the business guy is not logical enough or the technical guy is not savvy enough in communicating its idea/process, it could be very tiring process just to understand the product.

This is the reason why technical person often fight business person, it’s lack of understanding and communication, Each side tells a different story and there is no one combining those stories, no one is persistently safe guarding 1 story, this is the role of Product Storyteller, Product Storyteller should be positioned in the company to break down walls, facilitate talks, discussion, coordination and collaboration, creating 1 story that gives superb experience to customer.

The Product Storytellers function, must have that “embedded will in its DNA” to relentlessly tell the story of the product to all areas in the company or maybe even outside the company, the Product Storytellers is the product evangelist, this is important because this practice will create a unison story in the organization which will put everyone on the same understanding page. The product Storyteller Passion will catch on to others, the passion will get challenged, and the Product Storytellers will fight and iterate on the product idea, creating a cycle of curiosity, discovery and play.

The Products Storytellers has to have a “T” shaped working characteristic, it has deep knowledge of a specific item and has broad interest and knowledge to other items, the "T" shaped working characteristic will enable the Product Storyteller to push collaboration between organization functions, he/she need to be able to communicate fluently with others and most important it must have endless passion to the product.

So does this mean we need a specific position for the product storyteller? I didn’t say that, we do know that we desperately need the function, where you want to put it depends on your organization structure.

Have Fun searching that one passionate, resourceful, creative, good storyteller guy as your product storyteller; p