Balikpapan

Balikpapan? where on earth? what's there? that's what i thought when i was about to make my first trip in early 2005. 30 minutes upon arrival i was amazed by how clean, organised Balikpapan would be, who would have thought that this was the Indonesian side of Borneo island...(some may even think they live on trees). Economy, oil and gas, off shore exploration production and mining are key economic drivers, banks lined up the main road on both sides, and western restaurant lined up the beach. Most of the expat here are Australian and met some French on the flight. Almost zero unemployment making it the safest city to live in Indonesia. Oh yes, i did find the best teh tarik of Indonesia here...

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Was in Balikpapan again (10 days ago) after 1.5 years and they have Novotel hotel being the latest addition. I decided to take any opportunity for an indonesian traditional massage. Novotel's spa is run by Martha Tilaar a successful local grown skincare and cosmetic brand and my masseuse is a 21 years old girl by the name of Mega P. Mega is sweet, small size and has very strong fingers. Talking to her i learned that she went to Bali for 6 months to learn this art, there are no tuition fees, food and boarding are included but she is bonded to Maartha Tilaar for 5 years. Not bad for human resourse strategy, and helps the young girls to have a decent career as well. I did wish Mega the best and encoraged her to pursue her strengths. She is a wise girl for a 21 years old, i suppose one has too.

The Shangri-La

It's been a while since I stayed in the Shangri-La, in fact i can't remember if i ever did (in this one anyway), i am suprised that they have all my particulars and even asked me if the address is correct. The room is fabulous, first thing to do is I did is to step up on the weighing scale...hmmm...and wonders if it is correctly calibrated ..:))...nope its not going up, its going down. Then, there was a questionaire card that asks to choose among these pillows...bolster, buckwheat pillow, contour pillow, firm feather pillow, soft feather pillow, foam pillow, hebree pillow or polyster pillow. To be absolutely honest, i have no idea what half of them are..and hei wait, there are some description...neat..what a difficult choice...so I decided to pursue this pillow business and called the reception and ask the kind lady for more info, and 10 minutes later they send in 2 hebrees (the ones with aromatic herbs and essential oils). Its a very small one flat one but does its function.

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Above all, i think the best gesture is still the welcoming pot of warm Jasmine tea, served in extremely traditional red coloured porcelain tea pot and a card comes with it. The card with the word "Tea" explains the tea serving custom, the art of drinking tea, and the right way to hold a teacup. That's cultural education and experience and the tea tastes good too...ok ok, this is the normal room not the Suite.

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Ring ring, the kind lady of reception called and ask how was the pillow that was sent...OH WOW...great customer service touch.

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Now...i am off to play with the Ipod, oh well no XP points tonight, but then, one can't have everything :)

Catch Up

A few years ago, the few of us worked in a remote town called PD, (we city folks migrated there and even rented the same house) well, as i remembered, there is not much to do than work, work, and more work...I remember the mornings that we go to eat the best Roti Canai in the country, serves with sambal (chili paste) and hot steaming teh tarik and some of the nights spent playing pool and mahjong at the sports club...there should be more life than this (haha)...well we could have learned golf...hmm we did try to do tennis...but no one is ever serious. It is the good old fun days and Mic and YB were always at each other throats on any topic every day and i just grinned from my cubicle.

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Today, 3 of us meet up, one is going through a divorce, one has a wife whose cancer is at stage 4 (breast and back bone cancer) and one other who's at a crossroad. Perhaps the good news is we had good pasta and I have official Beijing Olympic's cute panda souvenirs...:))

A Bitter Sweet Love Story...1

There she was dressed up in a flowery flair skirt with a newly done hair of the latest style in town from the corner shop hair saloon. It had costs her the dollar which she had been saving up for some time. This is the reason she is here, a new hair style, she smiles, happy with her look. It is a very hot day today, she thought, feeling the heat on her fair skin. She's 18 in a few more days and is standing in the busiest place in town, the bus station, waiting for the green bus to go home. There are not many people around as she watches everyone goes about their daily life. Occasionaly an old white Ford passes by. She suddenly remembered that her dad will be home soon and she must get home before he does. A green bus stops, ohh, that's not my bus, feeling a bit dissapointed, she continues to looks towards the end of the street for her bus.

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Suddenly, she realised someone is calling her...and its the sound of a honk, a man inside a car in front of her waving at her. He peered and ask, "Miss, would you like a ride?" She shook her head left right indicating no. "It'll costs you 20 cents, where are you going, Miss?". She looks at him, he is well dressed and well trimmed, clad in a red long sleeve shirt and black long pants, he's smilling at her, he is a few years older than she is, she thought. She said nothing but manages a smiles. He smiles back, waves and drives away. I should have taken that taxi, she thought, now i am so late before daddy comes back.

Chocolate Indulgence 4

Tonight we went out for dinner at a Spanish Mediterannean restaurant and celebrated the birthdays of 4 members of my customer service team which falls in quarter 1 2008. I bought a yummy cake called "Chocolate Indulgence" and its really yummy...bitter sweet black choc with yummy interlaced cream..."yummm"...i'll not lure you with it further..hahaha...

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I very much appreciate this team of highly dedicated hardworking young inviduals making their ways, may you all be well and happy.

Interviews

Interviews are a good tool to stop and reflect on tactics, thinking process, ways of managing etc etc

Me : How do you manage staff development?
Can 1 : I see 5 person a time but individually where I talk to them, ask them about this and that, follow up on things and I write notes in my special book after they leave the room...they don't know about this book :) I arrange them by sections in my department.
Can 1 : My boss always say how can you remember? I show him the book
Me : How frequent do you do this?
Can 1 : A few days in a month

Me : How do you manage business performance in your current role?
Can2 : I track and monitor my KPIs
Me : What kind of KPIs do you monitors?
Can2 : Cost, Safety, Deliveries on time, etc...(opens his folders and showed me the printed graphs of his various KPIs for the last year by month)
Me : (I was thinking, wow, you come prepared and is the first ever person to show photos of his workplace, photos of his achievements)

HR : The following section is on a scenario, please take 10 minutes to read it and we will call start again
Can3: Takes the paper, looks a bit unhappy, pupils dilated and and his body language showed uneasiness
Me : (observes...interesting response)
Can3: (leaves the room)
---interview continues---
Can3: (candidate enters and sits down)
Me : (observes that candidate's paper, is blank - unscribbled)
---and the last question was---
HR : What's the strategic implication of this to your company? (Candidate in the scenario is a CEO)
Can3: (candidate answers a whole bunch of stuff relates to the immediate issue...)
---interview ended---
Me : So what do you think of our candidate?
HR : I was a bit dissapointed when candidate dismissed the scenario section as trivial
Me : And after considering all points, candidate couldn't show evidence that he can manage strategically and cross functional