mergers, acquisitions and raw emotions

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)... i'm sitting in one (merger).
The company which I left a year ago, also is experiencing one (acquisition).
With globalisation, the dynamics of communication is changing, competition is driving businesses to reposition, acquire, merge or go bust.

Businesses exist for two reasons, emotional and profits.
Emotional - the need to add value/contribute to something
Profits - for the business to sustain and grow (the main cause of M&As)

Okay, i'm not going to share my thoughts on why businesses need to change their business models and so forth.... but more about how the change would affect the people

Imagine this,

You may be in the phase of your career where there is going to be an uptake after building a few years of solid foundation, you may have just gotten married too, paying off some debts for the wedding and honeymoon, servicing your mortgage of your newly-wed home.....
At the office, you have your career development plan all mapped out for you, frequent dialogues with your boss, set your SMART objectives......

You arrive at the office as usual, after lunch, everyone receives an e-mail, "we are proud to announce that the Board of Directors have agreed to handover XXX to her new parent, ZZZ...."
The phones start ringing, people start scrambling, all sorts of chit-chats along corridors/breakout areas, the topic of this "new company" will be the topic for lunch for months to come.....

A few weeks go by, your boss either gets replaced in the new business model, or is assigned to another department, you are told to report to him and to do business as usual, but your boss cannot commit to you any longer about your next step..... basically, nobody can promise you anything. Loyalty, years of service... no leveraging here.

You start to imagine the worst or not, people around you start to imagine the worst or not, more speculation, more negative energy, some positive energy, some excitement, some fear.... this is what uncertainty invokes in us, human beings. Your debts, your career, your family, your house, your holiday, basically all the plans you have... are more or less hanging now, just like the development plan you have discussed about at the beginning of the year.

How are you going to deal with this very real scenario?

growing collection

since my last post at the end of may 06' my mini bar has grown a little...

so has the empty bottle collection... *hic*

wish #1: sin taxes in m'sia should be much lower, so that we all can afford more socials and thus spur the economy

I miss my coffee talk

I cannot say it any better; I have to resort to plagiarism....

An extract from The Zahir, Paulo Coelho:-
"The most important thing in all human relationships is conversation, but people don't talk anymore, they don't sit down to talk and listen. They go to the theatre, the cinema, watch television, listen to the radio, read books, but they almost never talk. If we want to change the world, we have to go back to a time when warriors would gather round a fire and tell stories."

peoply buy from people

on the 31st, intentionally, i left my badge behind.. no longer can i "beep" through these glass doors, and greet Selvi, our receptionist with a great big "good morning"...

will be missing the usual chit chats (or brainstorming sessions as how i would like to call it), my desk and certainly the complete set of stationaries..

I should share with you the main piece of advice that my boss gave me during my departure meeting with him, that is, "remember cheo, people buy from people".

Thank You to all that I have worked with during my tenure with Organon. May our paths cross again one day.

Alcohol is a sedative hypnotic... wee

my mini bar

the full bottles

the empty ones...

so, i enjoy drinking, and i feel that it's an important element to have at the dinner table.
All my close mates drink, so that we can laugh at each other at the pretext of laughing with each other.
Okay, okay, I do have close mates who don't too and i'll say to them that they're boring but it does not mean that they are any less important. We need them, to be our dedicated drivers. And they need us, to put excitement into their lives.

a quick google on "effects of alcohol" gives you the following, the physical state you'll be in, in the order from drink more -> drank too much
1. Happy, talkative, boastful
2. Staggering gait, slurred speech, nausea, vomitting
3. Hypothermia, hyperthermia, anesthesia
4. Comatose
5. Dead

thus far, i've only reached stage 2. Prost!, to a good party & good talk!

The 5 Questions before you think of the bling bling

As usual, the topic of "love" is a never ending discussion, even at the office; my colleague told me about an email she received.
The email is about the 5 essential questions that you should ask yourself before you consider purchasing/wearing that piece of rock.
Anyhow, i found them (the questions) thought provoking and incredibly honest... thought i'd share them with you. *drum roll*

1. Do you both share the same goal in life?
2. Do you feel "safe" to share all your thoughts with him/her?
3. Is he/she a respectable person (in your eyes)?
4. How does he/she treat other people?
5. Do you intend to change this person after marriage?

No, i don't know if these questions are enough to validate that this guy/girl is marriage material. Good Luck.

meet the mills

i've been searching high and low for a good salt and pepper mill.
Good = one that grinds well for a long long time, which comes with a lifetime warranty on the grinder mechanism. (although if something does happen to it, i wonder if it would be easier to just a get a new one)
Also, one with a knob which I can twist with great ease, specifically the "water tap" design.
Voila! here they are now, the Mill couple who now resides next to Mr. Salad Spinner, the bachelour.


mr.pepper mill & mrs. salt mill

Brings out the flavour in your meals, grind them over your curry at the dinner table and your mateys will think you know what you are doing and subconsciously the curry you made seem to taste better than their mother's - it's all about perception, really, you get to ask your mates when they're over for a dinner partee "would you like some pepper?" just like that mr.oh-i'm-so-cool-waiter, friends will enjoy playing with it, make your buddies sneeze, grind salt over that bad snail and watch it bubble...

what are you waiting for?

Some tips on caring for your mills
(http://fantes.com/pepper_salt_mills.htm)

1. For freshness, use pepper a lot and it won't go stale. If you don't use a lot, only keep a small amount in your pepper mill, check it and replace it frequently. Store fresh peppercorns in an airtight container, away from direct sunlight.
2. Clean the mechanism with a small brush, and wipe the body of the mill with rubbing alcohol or window cleaner. Unless the instructions specifically allow it, never place your pepper mill in water.
3. Adjust the grind to make it coarser by turning the model's appropriate screw or mechanism. To make it finer, it works best when you remove peppercorns from the mechanism.
4. Never put salt in a pepper mill, unless the manufacturer's instructions state otherwise. Salt is highly corrosive, and it can easily corrode steel mechanisms.
5. Never put moist salts in salt mills, or they will clog.
   And never grind pink or green peppercorns without adding black or white peppercorns, to prevent clogging of the mechanism.

the salad spinner

i was given one of the greatest invention ever i'm telling you.
THE SALAD SPINNER
wash your greens, chuck it in, and spin it dry!
no more soggy salads, it's absolutely gorgeous! a simple mechanism really.
Other applications include spinning your socks dry for the just-in-time date, your pet hamster after his/her bath (bonus: watch hammie walk in circles after), just spinning it is fun too.
so, go get one.

note: no hamsters were harm in the production of this post

keeping a matchbox in the loo

everytime you take a crap, light a match! twice if you had beans

kills all embarassing odours... phooh! works like a charm.

had an account a year ago...

i now attempt to blog....... for the xth time.

i will need to take more pictures and say something about them.