Watch out for get-rich-quick schemes

 Good profitability comes from making the right-buying decision

HAVE you bought any gold in the last five years? If you had bought, either you are laughing all the way to the bank or you are worried sick that you might never see your life savings back in your bank account.

If you had bought physical gold because you believe the price of gold will go up, then you have made a great investment decision. If you had bought because there is a high income return in the form of interest or share of profits, then you have let greed cloud your buying decision. You are buying for all the wrong reasons.

Other than buying shares in the stock market based upon reliable insider information, I know of no other buying opportunities that guarantees you high returns in a short period of time. You might argue that corruption is a guaranteed clean profit scheme but then it is not a buying decision where personal financial risk is involved. It is always other people's money.

The only common denominator in any get rich scheme is greed. Lots of human greed preyed upon by conmen who will continue to thrive because of gullible people buying for the wrong reasons. Their belief that “there is a greedy sucker born every minute” is justified.

In business, you are hailed a marketing wizard when you sell well. If you had bought well, it will be reflected in your gross margins, cash flow and bottom line. So who should be rewarded more, seller or buyer?

Most businesses are obsessed with selling decisions and place less emphasis on buying decisions. You will find these businesses having higher cost of goods, higher obsolescence, poor cash flow and weaker profits.

In this era of commoditisation where final prices for similar products in the market tend to level out, the buying decision becomes even more important and crucial if you intend to eke out any ounce of strategic advantage over your competition. Buying accurately products that sells, negotiating for the lowest prices, buying the right quantity to prevent inventory overstocking, improving cash flow and in this process creating operational efficiency that will help you survive the battle and eventually win the war.

Even the biggest organisations make poor buying decisions. One great example is Tenaga Nasional Bhd's (TNB) buying deal with the original independent power producers. Granted that the buying decision was right in view of the energy crisis at that time, the one-sided negotiated deal to buy at high prices and all the power produced, caused massive amount of losses to TNB. Just to show how one major buying decision can change the fortunes of a company.

In contrast, AirAsia's early decision to buy massive numbers of new aircraft of one type and from one supplier has defined their success path that you are seeing today. New planes versus old leased planes reduces maintenance costs and are more fuel efficient. Reduced training required for flying and cabin crew. Familiarity breeds efficiency.

Planes can be rerouted anywhere and replacement easily available as there are same numbered seats in all the planes. Expensive spare parts are kept to a minimum and maintenance procedures easily standardised. AirAsia, being the single largest customer of Airbus Industries, will definitely pay the lowest price for an A320 aircraft with the best financing terms from European banks.

These buying decisions are driven by the low cost business model plan. The only buying decision beyond its control is the supposedly high charges of operating out of the new LCC airport. Protracted negotiation between the only authorised airport operator and its biggest customer who will win?

To make money when you sell at a lower price than your competitors, you must have a comparable lower operating cost and lower cost of goods. Selling price is now determined by your buying cost.

So if you want to go into a price war, just make sure you can continuously buy cheaper than your competitors and your operating cost kept even lower. The best example is Walmart, the biggest retailer in the world. Using its massive buying power to have the lowest cost of goods, it has out-priced its competitors by a margin across all categories. To ensure it has the lowest operating cost, it has deliberately built its low-cost warehouse buildings on low-cost land in the outskirts where labour is easily available and cheap.

Buy cheap, sell cheap. Forever cheap. Proven successful formula when products and services become commoditised. Just make sure your buying strategy is sustainable.

I have been trading for 27 years and I have lost count on how many wrong buying decisions that I had made. Some were really inexcusable silly mistakes, some were downright poor judgement calls and some out of pure greed. In all these cases, I was not focused enough and was buying for all the wrong reasons and it had caused me considerable amount of discomfort and agonising moments in my business life.

I have a successful brand because I developed a great buying strategy that is able to meet my customers' needs on a sustainable basis. I have a profitable company because I bought well and because I am personally involved in all the major buying negotiations.

If you are on your own, be fully involved in the buying process. What you buy determines what you sell and how you sell. How you buy determines your profitability.

Just remember not to buy pieces of paper that promises you immediate high returns. For your children's sake... Wise up!

ON YOUR OWN
By TAN THIAM HOCK

To access earlier articles of On Your Own, log on to www.thiamhock.com. Honest comments welcomed and approved.

Open sex couple: pay back scholarship, marry or get thrown out of family?

After a week’s euphoria of being in the limelight, the sex blog couple is now facing the hard reality. Alvin Tan has been summoned by National University of Singapore to a disciplinary hearing on Oct 31 and may have to pay back his scholarship while Vivian Lee has been given an ultimatum – marry Alvin or get thrown out of the family house.



PETALING JAYA: They have become outrageously famous in a week but the consequences of having a scandalous sex blog are starting to set in for Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee.

Lee, 23, may be kicked out of her family home after “Sumptuous Erotica”, the blog she shared with Tan, 24, made the headlines in several newspapers here and in Singapore.

“My mother gave me an ultimatum marry him or move out within a month,” she said, adding that she was “a little scared” about the prospect.

She had just graduated with a marketing degree from Multimedia University and is living in Johor Baru with her mother and elder brother.

Tan has been spending leave of absence from the National University of Singapore (NUS) by being with his parents here and his rented apartment in Kuala Lumpur. This leave is unrelated to the sex blog.

Lee said with the slim probability of marrying Tan, as both considered themselves young and not committed to each other monogamously, she might just end up moving in with him.

“I think she can depend on me. I think I can provide financially,” said Tan during a lengthy interview with The Star Media Group here yesterday.

Both said that Lee's distraught and widowed mother had been trying to contact Tan to rebuke him but he did not answer her calls.

“My mother also scolded me and pleaded with me to not give any more press interviews,” said Lee. “But I guess I'm going against that, too.”

As for Tan, an Asean scholar reading law, he faces possible expulsion from NUS besides having his expensive scholarship revoked after his and Lee's nude pictures and sex videos hogged the headlines in the republic.

But he said he did not see it as a “big thing” if the university sacked him and instead, appears to have set his sights on gaining more infamy.

Both Tan and Lee want to break into show business and did not rule out the possibility of becoming actors.

They also revealed that sharing the intimate photos and videos on the Internet were “a mutual idea”. It was Lee who coaxed Tan into capturing the nude clips of each other.

“We started taking the nude shots the second time we met up,” said Tan. “We were fooling around in a hotel in Penang while on holiday and she was totally naked.

“She asked me if I wanted to take her picture and I was game for it,” said Tan, who said he had not gone as far in sexual experimentation with his past girlfriends.

“Most are cowards. OK, I take that back. They are unadventurous,” he said, adding that calling oneself “adventurous” was self-serving.

“Doing things like bungee-jumping or skydiving is pretty standard stuff,” he said. “I want to hang out with people who have done things that are unprecedented.”

Catch the pre-recorded interview with the couple on Red FM (104.9) and Capital FM (88.9) at 2pm today.
Listeners in the Klang Valley can also tune in to Chinese station 988 FM (98.8) at 7.30am on Tuesday.

The Star media group's radio stations Red FM, Capital FM and 988 FM grilled sex bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee. Some of the topics include:


- How they met and his obsession with women named “Vivian”.
“Alvin has a fetish for the name Vivian. We met through a mutual friend on Facebook, and Alvin just added me.” - Vivian
-
- On recording sex videos.

“It is actually a lot more rehearsed. The more passionate sex that we have is not recorded. It is actually like work.” - Alvin

- What if it were their kids putting up sex videos?

“I wouldn't encourage them directly, but I will encourage them to develop whatever that they are talented or interested in.” - Alvin

- Does he regret any of this?

“We will only regret the things that we don't do. Twenty years from now, I will look back to my 20s and think that I was so awesome.” - Alvin

By REGINA LEE The Star/Asia News Network

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Sex blog duo speak out
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Parents: They are stupid, disgraceful and selfish
It's a cry for attention, says psychiatrist
Rais: We'll let Singapore handle the matter

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Japan ministers visit Tokyo war shrine amid anger from China, S Korea

Japan's transport minister Yuichiro Hata (centre) and other lawmakers visit the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Thursday. Photo: AFP



67 Japanese lawmakers, including two cabinet ministers, have visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo.

The two cabinet members were Japanese Transport Minister, Yuichiro Hata, and Postal Minister, Mikio Shimoji. Their visit came a day after opposition leader Shinzo Abe’s visit to the shrine. The Yasukuni Shrine honours 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including 14 leading World War Two war criminals.

The shrine is seen as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism by its Asian neighbours including China and South Korea, who have condemned the Japanese politicians’ visit. China’s Foreign Ministry called on Japan to face up to the international community.

Hong Lei, Spokesman of Chinese Foreign Ministry, said, "China’s position on this issue has been clear-cut and consistent: we urge the Japanese side to reflect upon history and strictly abide by its solemn statements and pledges regarding historical issues, and face the international community in a responsible manner."

Two Japanese ministers were part of a cross-party group of lawmakers who visited a controversial Tokyo war shrine on Thursday, the day after opposition leader Shinzo Abe angered China and South Korea by paying homage there.

Dozens of parliamentarians were at Yasukuni Shrine as part of celebrations for Japan’s autumn festival.

Among the lawmakers were transport minister Yuichiro Hata of the ruling Democratic Party (DPJ) and postal reform minister Mikio Shimoji of DPJ’s junior coalition partner, People’s New Party, local media said.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has stayed away from the shrine and previously told his cabinet to do the same.

Opposition leader Shinzo Abe, a man well-placed to become Japan’s next prime minister, was at the Shinto shrine Wednesday, prompting criticism from China and South Korea.

China’s state media there said Abe’s visit would “further poison bilateral ties”.

“At such a delicate moment, Abe’s visit... has added insult to injury and dealt another blow to the already fragile Sino-Japanese relations,” the Xinhua news agency said.

“Provocative and short-sighted actions would harm the interests of Japan and its people,” it said, noting that already the “strained political ties have produced serious economic fallout for both sides”.

A South Korean foreign ministry spokesman expressed “deep regret and concern” that such a senior political leader and former prime minister saw fit to visit “a symbol of the Japanese war of aggression and militarism”.

Japan has spent the last few months at loggerheads with China over a group of islands in the East China Sea, and it is engaged in a propaganda war with South Korea over a long-standing territorial dispute involving a set of isolated islands.

Japan’s colonial rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945 is still a source of bitter resentment among older generations and Abe, who was elected president of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party last month, is already an unpopular figure here.

As prime minister in 2007, he enraged South Koreans by denying the Japanese military’s direct involvement in forcing women, many from the Korean peninsula, into sexual slavery during World War II.

The Shinto shrine in central Tokyo honours 2.5 million war dead, including 14 convicted Class A war criminals from World War II.

Visits to the shrine by government ministers and high-profile figures spark outrage in China and on the Korean peninsula, where many feel Japan has failed to atone for its brutal aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

Yasukuni Shrine

Yasukuni Shrine, located in Tokyo, Japan, is dedicted to over 2,466,000 Japanese soldiers and servicemen who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan in the last 150 years. It also houses one of the few Japanese war museums dedicated to World War II.The shrine is at the center of an international  controversy by honoring war criminals convicted by a post World War II court including 14 'Class A' war criminals. Japanese politicans, including prime ministers and cabinet members have paid visits to Yasukuni Shrine in recent years which caused criticism and protests from China, Korea, and Taiwan.

On August 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in the second world war, two ministers – Hata and Jin Matsubara, the minister in charge of the issue of Japanese kidnapped by North Korea – visited Yasukuni.

By Agence France-Presse in Tokyo