Foreign Workers Buffer

With reference to today’s article on unemployment on the Straits Time Saturday, 12 September, 2009, it seems that the employers are ambivalent towards the employment of locals. They want to help the locals out but the locals are saying that their jobs have no prospects. And at the same time, they find that it is costly to employ the locals as their demands are way too high.


Key issues identified by Ivan Png and Goh Chin Lian have intrigued me. I will further elaborate my views on their thoughts here.

As mentioned by Ivan Png, “Last year, a total of 2.858 million were employed in Singapore. Of those, slightly more than one-third – to be precise, 35 percent – were foreigners.” “4.6% was attributed to resident unemployment while 3.3% was the results for the total employment.”

To put it across mathetically,

Essentially, for the buffer to work, the rate of employment among the foreigners should be lower than that of the locals. And from the mathematics shown above, it is working perfectly fine.
 
Apparently, right now the employers are having an arduous situation. In an effort to promote more job opportunities for the locals, the employers are only allowed to employ 1 China worker for every 9 workers employed and these 9 workers must consist of at least 5 locals and the rest from traditional sources, example Malaysia. In the past, 1 China worker can be employed for every 5 locals employed.


Doesn’t the above sounds puzzling? The government wants to promote more opportunities for the locals but from what I see, there’s no difference. It seems more like the government is promoting job opportunities for foreigners excluding China citizens? Look, in the past you can hire one China citizen for every 5 locals and now the number of locals did not change a single bit, doesn’t that seems a little senseless?

The few reasons highlighted by employers as to why they want to hire foreigners:

-Levy charges on every foreign workers ranges from $150-$470 which is affordable

-Locals are too demanding. Even Yellow Ribbons are complaining that these menial jobs have no prospects. But wait, I thought that they said that no one wants to employ them because of their background? In the first place, why are they complaining when there are willing employers hiring them whereas everyone else is rejecting them? Puzzling indeed.

-Labour-intensive and onerous tasks deter locals and they hate to work weekends and night shifts which are parts and parcel of a service-line job. Locals are pampered into the thinking that they can be only available from 9-5 and no more than that. If they don’t change this perception anytime soon, not just the service-line, they won’t fit in elsewhere as well since Singapore is entering this competitive dimension already. Without sacrifices, they will just be left out and disregarded.
So what is the government doing to promote the use of locals by these employers?

They will continue to reduce the number of foreigners that the employers can hire for every few locals. This will force the employers to hire more of the locals in order to use foreigners. Indirectly, they will have to raise the salary in order to entice and attract locals. Well, this is definitely one compelling reason for the employers to employ locals. But in the long run, companies might just move out of Singapore to use foreigners directly in their own countries. As more brain-drain occurs, what will happen to the future of Singapore?

Then again, shouldn’t the government loosen the rules regulated upon the labour-intensive industries such as apparel, textiles, manufacturing and service where lots of labour is required? Because I think that the locals here are complaining of losing jobs to foreigners in the financial and business sector rather than in the textile industries. So perhaps, the government will have to review their policies and identify clearly where the employees, who are complaining of the loss of opportunities to foreigners, are from.

Apparently, in order to be sustainable after the economy recovers, we have to raise the workforce quality and allow other businesses to grow simultaneously and in turn channel labour to high-value added industries. In a way, this might be true to a certain extent because if employers are stuck with foreigners, they will not progress because their employees are mainly uneducated and not really skilled. There are no goad for them to further improve themselves because their employees are actually burden to them at the end of the day. If they want to change as a whole, they will have to change the entire batch of their employees.

Kraft

Stop all the infatuation with Michelle Obama. Irene Rosenfeld is the woman to watch out for.

She is the one heading Kraft and is currently doing a great job where she started to make a major move in 2007. That is to restructure Kraft.

Kraft is in the final stages of a master plan that calls for the closing 36 plants and cutting 19,000 jobs to save $1.3 billion in annual costs. She has also jettisoned some of the brands which have lower margins. Even though they might still be profitable, she is taking the radical approach in order to maintain her hedgehog concept, which is to throw all the savings into key brands and supporting them with all she got. In addition to that, she has cut off 50% of her suppliers and focussed on getting supplies from the remaining 50% suppliers.

Right now, she has gotten her foundation strong and standing on a pedestal that enables her to have a clear view of the bright future ahead. But one obstacle remains, that is the acquisition of Cadbury.

The recent hoo-hah of the attempt to acquire Cadbury with 16.4 billion is top on the news right now. Cadbury's shareholders believe that they should at least wait for an offer as high as 20 billion before they start to contemplate.

One important point to note is that if Irene gets too obsessed with the bid for Cadbury, and satisfying their requirements of such a high bid, she could waste all her effort that she made for the past few years to bring Kraft back on track. It could have many unforseen ramifications if this last move is not dealt with carefully.

Every single precise details on this deal is the determinating factor.

But if Cadbury is successfully acquired, Kraft can further expand its market shares by a mile in Asia, which contains some of the richest consumers in the world. I am pretty sure the consumption of chocolates is going to rise tremendously in the near future, particularly in countries like India and China. With these two super-powerhouse supporting the demand for chocolates, Kraft will definitely be one of the top brands ever in history.

Photo credits -planetwoot, -coloroot

Mystic Water

Piercing Bullet

Water"fall"

Mystic Blue

Credit to -ronniebruce, -nomadculture, -redbubble

Wells Fargo

A short summary of Wells Fargo magnificent history:

Wells Fargo is known for running a bank like a real business. It began its 15 year stint of spectacular performance in 1983, but the foundation for the shift dates back to as early as the 1970s when then-CEO Dick Cooley began building one of the most talented management teams in the industry(as asserted by Warren Buffett himself).

Wells Fargo approach can be summed up by this one statement : You get the best people, you build them into the best managers in the industry and you accept the fact that they will be CEOs of other companies.

Today, in this financial crisis, Wells Fargo still retains its impeccable management team and enjoys one of the most impressive revenue growth despite all the hoo-hah in the banking industry. To be able to sustain itself is already a feat, to survive through it and continue to prosper is definitely commendable. Probably, that explains why Warren Buffett acquired 304 million shares in early 2008. Because Warren believed in Wells Fargo's potential

Currently, Wells Fargo is still wrestling with the loans it inherited from Wachovia (4th largest bank in the US providing financial services such as asset and wealth management, corporate and investment banking services).

One of the biggest trouble spots of the Wachovia purchase were its option ARM portfolio of loans made under the Pick-a-Pay brand, a group of loans that allowed customers to pay less than the full interest payment on new mortgages.

Apparently the option ARM is being criticised badly in the market, especially among the consumers. It is said that this loan seem to be enticing because of its low initial payments, the ultimate bait. But soon, the payments start to double and becomes bloated over time. As a result, many borrowers were buried because they then realised that they actually had no clue what the loan was all about. Even for those people who could pay the payments, they are essentially paying the minimum amount and this causes the loan balance to increase.

These loans provide monthly payment options for the houses of the public in the United States. However, looking at the sluggish housing market right now, people are naturally opting to pay the minimum amount, hoping that this nightmare will be over soon. But, experts predict that the earliest that will actually happen is in early 2010. Most of the borrowers are not able to sustain themselves till then and thus many are forced to sell their houses at a lower prices before foreclosures set in.

Overall, option ARM is a failure!

But some analysts question why Wells would forgo raising money publicly at a time when peers experienced little deterioration in their stock price -- if any -- after issuing new stock.

As reported, banks like American Express and JPMorgan Chase have already initiated events to raise money to bail themselves out. However, Wells refuses to raise funds despite looking at the success achieved by his peers.

One possible reason could be because it wants to be more independent. I infer that from the fact that they reluctantly accepted the 25 billion fund to aid them during the financial crisis. If not out of desperation, I believe that Wells Fargo will prefer to get out of this mess by themselves, with the help of its management team which is well known for producing syngeristic solutions to any problems they face.

Credits to seeker401, marketwatch, cartoonstock

Buttons

Wow, what an impressive way to advertise. Taking the literal meaning of the words and translating it to pictures. Subway can actually have a Eat Fresh competition monthly, to see who eats the most from their shop in a day.

Why don't those textile shops start putting their stuff neatly? Small buttons are especially hard to find, so why must they create more trouble for others by making everything so messy? Neat and tidy is the way to go. Just check out Giant supermarket, it is the epitome of neat.

The best way to advertise a DSLR, simply show the public what it can take. Just stop those flamboyant action films already. We are not going to take videos, we want photos !

-photo credits -lisachaves, -melissann, -officiallyamum

Consequences of Diversity

dws-consultants

Better customer service will be provided in a diversified society. Usually marketing managers tend to lias with local organisations to aid them in the understanding of the behaviour of the locals to better cater to their ever-changing needs. Research is just words on paper, it is actions that count, and this is only attained via people’s observations. Each race in each country has their own preferences, bias and needs. We need to tailor our products accordingly to each market segment to ensure a steady and consistent flow of sales.


Variety of Innovations

This ensures that new products are constantly churned out, appreciated by the groups made up of people from various backgrounds. They need to make sure that the products cater to everyone, not just a particular group of people, they are targeting a macro level consumer group after all. Of course, as needs change, they have to cater to them by modifying the benefits of their products to better suit their tastes.

Then again, there is a problem as well because it is too late to change when everyone realised that the needs or requirements change. Therefore, it is important to establish a relationship with the group of people who are the pioneers of change or fans of fads. This ensures that they can receive any traces of slight rustling among the majority as soon as possible.

Even though there will be a lot of problems encountered along the way; IBM has always held its mission upright, “Respect for individuals”. It provides a synergistic solution to all problems by valuing the differences of all the individuals by respecting their opinions.

From the past to present

Why didn't even anyone think of exploiting the enourmous shipping industries? This is one fine way to advertise your products man! Rather than staring at the sea, the ships puffing out black smoke or the luxurious cruise sailing away, don't you think people will be even more mezmerised by all these enticing advertisements ? Why don't they use the aircrafts too?

Why don't Far East Organisation take up this concept of advertising since the houses are getting smaller and smaller? Anyway, people are alreadying capitulating to the fact that small houses are exquisite.

From the past to present, that's all I can say.

Photo credits -frederiksamuel, -sweethomestyle, -picapixels

Workforce Diversity

Google employ people from almost every country, at their California Headquarters. It is important to maintain workforce diversity in every company in order to promote cohesion. This supports the old adage,"Action speaks louder than works." This allows everyone to exchange the relevant skills and cultures between people coming from everywhere.

These are observable differences between people of different diversity. It enables employers to clearly differentiate them and to hire appropriately if they are to ensure equality in terms of gender and ethnicity. It will then form a small egalitarian society within the company per se. 

Deep level diversity represents differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, belief, values and attitudes.

-encefalus

All of these are only seen after a period of observance via their decisions, statements and actions made.

A country's politics and culture script one's psychological characteristics. There are always times when views conflict, not based on rational reasoning, rather it could be based upon conservative values. All these discussions are always built upon thin strings and any controversial issues like race, morality, and ethics are always very dangerous.