75 Assignments This Semester!!

Just 1 more research proposal and 1 assignment and THATS IT!! STRIVE!

What a stressful semester. I had than 75 homework assignments this semester and I did not even realize it! I am seriously not joking!

These are the breakdown:

Iowa History: 13 essays, every single week on Monday night need to write an essay (except 1 week Spring Break), and read other people's essay and make 2 intellectual comments.

Marketing Research: One only but super heavy = 1, group project which involves 12 pages of research proposal

Global Marketing: 6 (some heavy some okay, all involves heavy research) + 3 (heavy until wanted to die, just finished the last one though. The professor has high standard in terms of grading) = 10

Statistic 072: 2 every week, for around 13 weeks (excluding 4 tests and Spring Break week), but this is super easy = 2 x 13 = 26

Operational Management: 8 online homework (last 2 is quite hard), 3 or 4 "take home and send through email" assignment" = 12

Economics 105: 2 (1 practice and 1 graded) every alternate week. Practice questions close eyes also can do (because this will not be graded, right or wrong does not matter), graded ones were consider normal. 2 x 7 = 14

13 + 1 + 9 + 26 + 12 + 14 = 75!!!!!!! Holy crap, I cant believe it!

I WANT TO GO BACK TO MALAYSIA TO CHARGE MY BATTERY SO BADLY...... Attendtion to Good food in Malaysia, I am coming soon!!

Calling Back to Malaysia: $49 for 8 Minutes!

This is ridiculous! I called back to Malaysia for like around 8 minutes only because I really need to talk to the recruiter for some stuff. Do you know how much is $49 bucks is equivalent to RM? Given the current currency is RM 3.70 to $ 1, it costs me about RM 180 bucks. This is not good.

Downtown Nightwalk

Lifestyle: US vs. MY

This is the gown of one of the US retailer: Valley West Mall. Note that the colors are all in black and white; which is what I have notice in formals of the US people. They all tend to wear only black and white, nothing else. I think this is pretty boring as I came from a place where style is emphasized.

There is good and bad for this issue. US people are more professional in doing things, style and way of doing it is not important. Whereas Malaysians are more towards styles, but we hardly get things done nicely.

If we want to market stylish clothes into the US, it will not be sustainable. This is due to the term of localization, a term in Global Marketing. Simply because they will not want to adapt to it.

Hard Time: Negative Slope of Life

These few days are the hardest time to move on. Somehow my emotion took over my rational side of me. I am becoming more pessimistic rather than optimistic that I was used to be. Now I can imagine why some women being so emo at times, however, they can be much worse. I still cannot accept the fact that I was being used all the while by this worthless friend (well, I do not treat her as a friend anymore). Another thing is about the unfairness of the election and my effort towards MASA. There is a upcoming MASA Night potluck this Friday. Given that my effort was not appreciated, I should not have agreed to the president that I will be bring food. What was in my mind? I simply cannot reject. Part of me want to contribute blindly, another part of me (anger plus emo) is trying to stop me by contributing more. Ethical dilemma!!

I need time to let everything go

I need time to reset my goal

How should I set my goal? Given that all students organizations election were already over and I have only planted my seed on MASA. My non-diversified portfolio gives me a negative return. I shall be announced broke.

Drake Basketball Team

Drake Women Basketball

Drake Men Basketball

Being as an athletic in Drake, you will have a lot of benefits. Benefits not only in terms of full scholarships, but the entire Drake recognizes you. Whenever Drake is playing against its competitor, Drake will provide full support as in asking its students to go the tournament to provide moral support. Often, more than thousands of people around the neighborhood will come and support Drake for playing against their competitors, where it is from the other Iowa Universities or some others.

My Employer had Lifted My Day!

This piece of envelop means a lot to me.

I got it from my colleague the day after the miserable MASA Election. My employer had already left the company, but he asked my colleague to pass me a small gift. When my colleague presented the gift to me, I thought it was a thank you note for thanking my contribution and hard work to the company.

After colleague had presented me the gift:

Colleague: Spend wisely. =)

Me: Spend? O_o?

As I opened it, it is a gift card from Bankers Trust which contain $500 debit visa! It enlightened me instantly. But of course, for no reason I should not have accepted it.

Me: Oh my god, I could not accept this gift, it is too much.

Colleague: why not?

Me: I... I... okay...

Thus I received it.

The reason he gave me the card I think is because of my hard work and contribution to the company. In this internship, I not only get experience to market some stuff, the main thing that I will be able to get is the professional development training provided by my employer. In addition, I do not have to worry about lunch every Friday when I come into the office. They provide nice Asian food or bring me out to nice Asian restaurant! Although I do not get paid but these non-monetary payments worth more than monetary payment.

I have developed to be much a better person witnessed by my housemates. From this professional development, together with some luck, I managed to get an internship in one of the big four: Ernst & Young Malaysia! This was really not an easy process as I competed with those who are applying internships within Malaysia and out of Malaysia. My lucky part is that I managed to get an interview.

First Time in My Life

As the titled stated, This is my first 4.0.

I really do hope that I will get another chance to enter President list though.

The name above mine is my 乖孫女, Chiann!!

Well, she is always smart. I as grandpa feels proud =P

A Friend of Mine: A Huge Lesson

Mary Anne was right at first for saying that I should not be as close to one of my friend. This decision I made (that is kicking her out of my friend list) was correct. Although it was a little bit late but still, as long as I am not blind for the rest of my life. This friend always thought that she has a lot of good friends: like me and Mary Anne. Well, that is what she told me. She might speaks the same thing to other of her friends. The reason why she wants me to be her close friend because I can benefit her in a lot of matter (which I do not want to explain here); honestly, I never thought of getting anything from her yet I only wanted to treat her nicely as a close friend. To add, speaking the truth, Mary Anne has never treated her as good friend.

She really admires Mary Anne for her beauty and leadership (I guess?). Always wanted to be close to her. But sometimes when she called, Mary Anne did not answer (you know, sometimes it is harder to call girls), so she always call me instead. In the conversation, usually she wants to talk about Mary Anne and about herself. She seldom talk to me about my stuff. Well, like I have said, I will not be that stupid anymore. (this is one of the reasons why this friend is so horrible) Simply to add, I really do not like the fact that people keep laughing at me for being so close to such a person. I am stupid enough for kept helping her to defend herself. Now I realized my stupidity.

I do not mind that she reads about what I have written here because those are what she personally told me. She once said that "Well, not everyone can be my best friend; One has to have something unique that I can be able to learn from". I am just doing what she said; she has nothing for me to learn besides learning on making use of other people.

This will be my first post on talking bad on someone. Remember, I am not telling lies nor gossip. I am publishing it here to let everyone know, even she herself. I deeply regret of my stupidity of treating her so well. This is a great deal of thing I have already learned and achieved.

Speed Recovery?

I think I have achieved 90% recovery in a night time. This is incredible. I could not really express my gratitude towards Mary Anne who helped me in the process thoroughly.

After Being Here for So Long...

I have finally, once again experience the pain for not being fair in doing things. It has been awhile since before I came here. After creating this blog for such a long time, of so many posts, this will be the only one that truly reflects how I feel. And I am going to write this regardless of how people used to think. If they want to gossip, they gossip and I, for once do not care for this post. I just want to tell the truth, what I think of this particular issue.

I have a plan, since the start of this semester, that my goal is to join Delta Sigma Pi and MASA Committee. People like me, once given such option, I will kind of exclude all other options because I really want to focus on those. Well, for your knowledge I have failed to rush Delta Sigma Pi this semester. But that is not a problem because I think overall the rush was fair. I did not really presented myself well I guess.

As for MASA election, the world of unfairness and realistic had finally took place. I have anticipated there might be certain unfairness took place, however, I never knew it will stretch to this extent. I was running for the Vice President Internal and I knew who was my strongest competitor. The election was today, Thursday. I had 2 important midterm on the day before and the day itself. I had been busy studying for these 2 subjects since last week. Every time when I was studying, I keep thinking of the speech, what should I say, plans and stuff, I just could not study nicely due to that matter.

During the election, the time for each speech had been shortened as time was the major constraint. My main competitor had 2 chances to speak, in fact I guess more than 2 whereby I had only 1 chance. He ran for 2 positions, one same as mine and the other was vice president external. For his first speech as VP external, he had explained himself of why is he suitable for this position, also at the end, he mentioned that he wanted to run only for VP internal. In his second round, which is the speech of VP internal, he got to explain about his plans for MASA. Not only that, right after that for Q&A session, he had someone to ask him about his plans so that he can further explain and impress the crowd. Ridiculously, one of his plans was setting a mamak night. Everyone there knows that it is something that I always do in every semester. The Mamak Night is something that I organized in order to gather around and socialize, ultimately of course to foster relationship among me and most of the MASA members. I pay all the materials alone, cooking at GK kitchen with some help from others, without even of thinking of getting anything from the people. This of course is one of my plans which I did not get to mention.

My speech was less than one minute. I did not get the chance for Q&A because no one wanted to ask me questions. I think out of all people, I am the only one that is not being asked questions due the time constraint (I am one of the very last person). Great! My chance had just gone like that even though I do not know about the results yet, my probability of getting it is near zero. I did not get to explain my plans for MASA, I did not get to elaborate on my points (which each of the points I had put a critical thought in it). Everything just ruined like that.

I do not deny that this great person is really ambitious. He has his plans, of course, that is up to individual and I shall comment nothing. However, he has a position in ISA, yet running for one of the VP for Delta Sigma Pi, also he wanted to run for this position as VP Internal. Well, why doesn't he give a chance to other people? Isn't that unfair? My dream and future plans and goal just ruined by his attitude of wanting more. I will no longer have the chance to serve MASA as a committee since I am only running for this position.

I have my plans for MASA which will definitely be beneficial to all of its members. I have attended every single activity of MASA. I am approachable in the sense that I am mix with all juniors and seniors. I greatly emphasize on my socializing skills as I am a marketing major because that is essential to me. I am a perfectionist which I care about a lot of small issues such as punctuality; this personality of mine definitely make everything smooth for the President I served. I have professional development training every single week, my employer is the trainer of course. I have organized an inter-college basketball tournament which I am familiar with all of the paper work, in depth. From that, I learned the importance of working and collaborating among members (which is further enhanced by my working experience here in the Untied States). I am not an acturial science major so I do not have any professional papers to take; this would mean that I have more time than any of the members. I am more than hardworking than most of the people here could possibly imagine (apparently only my housemates know about it); my attitude to strive for successfulness had brought me to where I am now, and continuing to move forwards. Everything here, just could not be applicable anymore...

Another funny thing was that, I asked one of my friend to go for the election to give me some support. Before that, this friend of mine should be consider quite close with me. I have consult her in almost everything, I spent a lot of my time (seriously a lot, that is whenever she needed my help) on helping her out in her stuff. I cooked for her birthday and made it a day for her. But yet, in the election, she purposely vote for my competitor (well, I seriously don't know what she is thinking). This is the huge lesson that I learned. This election does really opened up my eyes and making me tougher.

There are so many cheaters going on in this world, yet I am not able to cope up with them. This training allowed me to be more cunning. I finally have a very good reason to kick this friend out of my list. I can tell you that, she is not a good friend but she is someone who always know how to make use of other people. If you are nothing, you will not be her close friends. She wanted to be my close friend because she knows she can learn a lot from me. (as my stupidity willingly spend time to talk to her). **This will be further explained by the next post**

In the end, thank you MASA election. I will not be as stupid anymore. Next MASA committee will be missing out a person like me. Now it does not matter anymore...

MASA Night 2009 (Rehearsal Videos)

Complain on the "Dryness" Here

The weather here is really DRY; Dry as in really really dry. Lol, self-repeating. I play basketball in the gym, running non-stop for more than 2 hours, without getting my shirt wet; not even a single spot that is wet. Usually if this happens in Malaysia, my shirt, hair, pants and even underwear will sweat like hell and you can even make juice by using my perspirations. (Yuack)

Not only that, when I wake up from a long sleep in the morning, my throat feels VERY DRY, AWFULLY dry. The first thing to do is of course to drink water to keep it out from dryness. The first mouthful of water causes throat pain as I swallow it because it is too dry in the inside. It is just horrible. This thing only happened the past 2 weeks, I wonder why the weather is like started to get dry now, I always thought that driest weather will be during winter time.

Thankfully, my housemate has a humidifier and she is not using it. I borrow it for the past couple of days, turn it on to the highest scale possible (there is only low and high lol), and I managed to get some nice sleep.

Can You Believe It?

Namibia and the Big Mac Index

Namibia GDP per capita = $5,400

US GDP per capita = $47,000

http://www.termpaperslab.com/term-papers/Mc-Donalds-Big-Mac-Index/134749.html

On the website above it is stated that Namibia Dollar is pegged to South Africa. Therefore, the price fluctuation of the Big Mac in these 2 countries is the same. To determine the price of Big Mac in Namibia, first we have to get the price of Big Mac in South Africa:

South Africa’s Big Mac price in US Dollar = $2.24

After that, we need to convert it to Namibian dollar:

1 South Africa Rand = 1.02106 Namibia Dollar (As of April 11^th 2009)

$2.24 x 1.02106 = $2.29

Therefore, a Big Mac costs about $2.29 US Dollar in Namibia with the GDP per capita of $5,400.

The price of a Big Mac in United States costs about $3.57. Its GDP per capita is $47,000.

Price adjustment on the exchange rate basis:

$47,000 = $3.57

$5,400 = $ x

$ x = (5,400/47,000) X 3.57

$ x = $ 0.41

Given those values, United States should price a Big Mac in Namibia at $ 0.41 cents each.

Something Funny

One day, a friend of mine and me were both walking somewhere near my house.

F: Hey, look! *Pointing at a piece of dog shit*

Me: Oh, so what about the piece of shit?

F: Just now when I walked passed it, I accidently stepped on it, hehe *sounded proud*

Me: *stepping away from my friend* OMG!!

Thats about it.

Toy "R" Us

To those of you who are interested in Global Marketing, you might find this interesting, like me =)

Toys “R” Us – Case Study

1. Was Japan an attractive market for Toys “R” Us? Do you think there were any cultural obstacles to product acceptance? Strong competitors?

a. The Japanese market is an attractive markets for Toys “R” Us because it is ranked one of the 3 largest and wealthiest markets in the world (besides United States and Europe) of leisure goods.
b. The establishment of McDonald in Japan had provided a joint-venture opportunity to ease the entry.
c. One of the cultural obstacles is that companies usually do not employ more than 50 employees in retail store regardless about its size.
d. Strong competitors basically are those small specialty stores and general retailers since they occupy the largest portion of sales in Japan.

2. What were the entry barriers into Japan? Any culturally based barriers. In terms of how to do business?

a. Japanese toy retail was dominated by small specialty stores and general retailers. Large toy retailers in Japan make much lesser sales than small specialty stores. Japanese culture is different in the sense that they tend to be more loyalty towards the stores that they have visited and feel reluctant to change. There are more small specialty stores and general retailers around the neighborhood; therefore it is likely that they have generated their loyalty towards the stores.
b. Japanese’s wholesalers dealt almost exclusively in Japanese-made products. They do not specifically deal on foreign products.
c. Japanese usually do not employ more than 50 people in the retail, unlike Toys “R” Us.
d. They have high purchasing power parity; they are motivated by quality instead of low prices. They have a preference for established brand name merchandise over lesser-known goods. Everyday low price strategy does not work well in Japan.
e. It is hard to get the empty space that it needed to open such a huge store.
f. There are statements which major Japanese manufacturers would not be willing to enter into direct deals with Toys “R” Us due to their traditional way of making trades.
g. Sensitive Japanese consumers make the tools of Toys “R” Us company specific advantages (everyday low price and a large selection of products) tough.
h. It has huge product line depth. However, the Japanese are not interested in going into a giant store that has everything.
i. They expected exceptional customer service. Most of the employees in Toys “R” Us United States are usually less permanent than any of the Japanese toy retail which makes them to a have higher turn-over. This will then require them to retrain new employees which have lesser knowledge on the Toys “R” Us products.
j. Japanese companies usually do not fire their employees. Indirectly, this makes them having more loyalty towards their own company and also having in-depth knowledge of the products on the shelf.
k. It is not easy to get suppliers in Japan given that they will to need to go through a lot of layers of distribution.

3. How did Toys “R” Us manage to cross the entry barriers into Japan? What alternative modes of entry could have been tried?

a. Firstly, Toys “R” Us joint-alliance with McDonald’s Japan. This joint-venture with McDonald has eased the market entry like segmentation of the market, for instance, like utilizing McDonald young families and children network.
b. Secondly, there were no permanent foreign employees at the head quarters. This full utilization of Japanese employees had directly eased the management of all departments within the company.
c. Its excellent marketing strategy and experience in cracking foreign markets together with McDonald’s depth of market knowledge and research skills and communication lines to the target groups of children and young families, it makes the entry much easier.
d. The timing that Toys “R” Us came into Japan was good because Japan was in recession. Therefore, its Everyday Low Prices do work on the Japanese consumers.
e. Another well timed incident is that Japanese government waived the law which the existing retailers could veto the entry of a large retail like Toys “R” Us into the area; this eased the entry of Toys “R” Us.
f. The category killer which offers 18,000 items in the first store creates an overwhelming advantage towards its competitors from opening opposing stores. (Competitive advantage of the store)
g. Even though the high cost of land, they still able to provide more than adequate of parking for its consumers to create convenience.
h. In terms of advertisement, they used the colorful inserts in newspapers rather than television or radio for 2 reasons. It is cheaper and it is better reaching its target audience.
i. Another alternative used in advertising was to localize the ads as there are not many stores around so television advertising will not be too valuable in this case.
j. Direct exporting all goods from Toys “R” Us Japan is not going to work well due to the high shipping cost.
k. Foreign direct investment is not going to work well due to the Japanese culture. Any foreign company is best to fully utilize Japanese employees to eliminate high cultural barrier in Japan.
l. As for franchising, most franchisees do not work well in Japan due to different wage policy and working condition. Japanese workers are accustomed to full-time and lifelong employment which they receive adequate wage. The concept of part-time of United States had puzzled the Japanese.

4. What were the problems in transferring the Toys “R” Us competitive advantages to a foreign market? What did Toys “R” Us internalize the firm-specific advantages rather than license another retailer abroad?

a. One of the Toys “R” Us competitive advantages is its lower prices than its competitors. The problem of transferring this advantage to a foreign market is its country purchasing power. A high purchasing power parity country like Japan would not respond well to it as they might relate low price to low quality. In these countries, they are more brand-conscious and they are unlikely to purchase low price products.
b. Another competitive advantage of Toys “R” Us is that they have everything that a toy fan wants in their large retail store. Its problem in transferring this to a foreign country is about its culture. Not every culture is amazed of the huge product selection from the store; certainly, it is not what Japanese are looking for.
c. Toys “R” Us internalized firm specific advantages rather than licensing abroad because the establishment of McDonald could enhance its advantages like its everyday low prices and huge product selection. With McDonald’s young family and children network, it does not need to spend extra cost in market research.
d. Also, with the use of the McDonald’s Japanese management style, Toys “R” Us does not need to invest time in training new employees and analyzing Japanese style of management.
e. If Toys “R” Us franchises abroad in Japan would drive up the cost of adapting to the market significantly. It needs to start its marketing research from scratch.
f. Another reason why it should not franchise abroad is due to cultural barrier. Apparently the Japanese do not require tell them how to do business; they would like to do it in their own way, which might not be the desired way that Toy “R” Us wants.
g. Further, they are worried that rapid Japanese change may take place. This rapid change might require constant monitoring at the store itself to prevent downfall in sales of toys.

5. Given Wal-Mart’s threat in the US Market, what should Toys “R” Us future strategy in Japan be?

a. Speaking in terms of profit, Toys “R” Us future strategy shall not exclude both US market and Japanese market. They are both well developed market and since they have already established in those market, they should be innovative to find ways to survive.
b. If Toys “R” Us were to focus on Japanese market, they should take the advantage that Wal-Mart has not been established. They should strengthen their market in Japan given the help from Mc Donald. Continue working with Mc Donald like establishing better network since both of them compliment the target market. For instance, after a long walk shopping in Toys “R” Us, they could go for nearby Mc Donald.
c. On the other hand, Toys “R” Us could also import some of the Japanese toys back and sell it in US. This advantage could not be mimicked by Wal-Mart because they could not simply sign a contract with the Japanese and get the same toys but cheaper price than Toys “R” Us. It will be too costly for Wal-Mart to do that.
d. Toys “R” Us has the first-hand items, Wal-Mart has only a portion of their products.
e. Judging from the high entry barrier to the Japanese market, Wal-Mart could not penetrate it easily. Without joint-venture, simply licensing to the Japanese local is not going to work as mentioned earlier. Further, Wal-Mart everyday low prices and its huge store will simply annoy the Japanese. As much as Wal-Mart would like to, they are going to suffer a major cost and the establishment does not guarantee that they could survive in this market.

Weird Strawberry: CJ 7

Do you guys know where is it now? It is in Mary Anne stomach. LOL

My Precious