“A boss fixes blame, a manager fixes mistakes.”

There is an old Chinese saying that goes something like this: ‘Tell me and I will remember for an hour; show me and I will remember for a day; but let let me do it and I will remember for ever.’ Fair enough.

And if you are going to let people do it then they are going to do it badly at first. They are going to make mistakes. And you are going to let them.

If you are a parent you know the agonizing thing you go thought with a two-year-old who insists they can pour their own drink and then proceeds to spill most of it on the table. You sand by with a cloth behind your back because you know that:

- they are going to spill it
- it is you who going to have to mop it up
- the spilling process is important and you have to let them do it and they will progress to not spilling but only once they have got the spilling our of the way first.

As a parent you do that wonderful hovering things, ready to grab the juice if it is going to spill too much, or grab the sup it is going over, or even grab the child if it is going to fall off the chair due to such intense concentration.

I am not saying members of your team are like small children. Well, I am actually but do not tell them – but it is imperative you learn to let them do the spilling if they are to progress, Make sure you have your cloth behind your back ready to mop up after them.

And after each spilling you do not tell them off. Instead, you offer praise – ‘Well done, brilliant job, incredible progress’. Try not to let them see the cloth or the mopping up.

This is the way I grow my children and my team members – let them learn from the mistake.

I have worked on various e-commerce projects that accepts online payment. However, most of the medium-to-large size organization in Malaysia do not incorporate PayPal into their payment method options. Majority of them is because their finance unit is restricted with payment policies, legal and audit issues. This is beyond the website strategies and lies on the business operations.

I do use PayPal for online payment, and would prefer that online merchants has this option

I call PayPal as e-wallet. It allows me to withdraw (purchasing) and deposit (through selling) money. I usually do not withdraw funds from PayPal as I prefer to use it to buy something online instead of using my credit card, as some small online stores only accept PayPal, WorldPay or Moneybookers; another reason which I feel uncomfortable or insecure in using my credit card when purchasing from small website, even though it is VeriSign secured.

I believe in Internet transaction security and understand the payment system process flow, but what we don’t know is whether they (merchants) capture our sensitive data or not. This is the most worrying part of Internet transaction- privacy. Their system may be very good and secure, but are their staff trustable and reliable?

I trust the online payment system security but not the people

I used to work in an organization 11 years ago where they do not process online transactions in real-time, their secured web pages (https- SSL) captures customers data into a database and forward the request to respective personnel to process the purchase with a merchant machine. This is not the right way in processing online transactions and customers data should not be viewed by any parties. Think about the consequences, what if the respective personnel discloses customers data?

I used to work in an international bank, practices very good security where staffs are not allowed to print, email, copy and even carry handphones or any computer devices during work, customers data is only accessible by higher level staff. Furthermore, the computer is well secured with customized OS, website access limitation and all external ports are disabled. Unless you’re an expert, or else stealing data from bank is not easy, this is how the bank build its trust and reputation.

What consumers want and how can you solve their problem?

As an online consumer, I want a secured, trustable payment service and options.

As a merchant, I would want to provide as many payment method as possible. This will be my website’s value, which is solving the people’s problem- allow PayPal users to utilize their e-wallet money to spend on something that they don’t need to use credit card.

Bottom line

The growth of the online consumers and PayPal users are rapidly increasing by the days. According to the survey conducted by third party, there are more than 15% of online consumers in Malaysia using PayPal for online payment. If you want a bigger piece of cake then please consider the 15% of online consumers’ preference on the online payment options.

PayPal Malaysian launch party on Friday, December 11th, 2009 from 7pm until late. Location at Neo restaurant (opposite equitorial hotel, KL).

This party is by invitation only. Closing date on December 8th and seat is limited.

Condition:
(1) You are PayPal User (PayPal account email address is required for verification) or
(2) You are the guest that invited by PayPal User.

If you are PayPal User, please send an email to sea_marketing@paypal.com include your full name, PayPal email addresss, eBay ID (if applicable), country of residence, total number of guest (max 2 – you + one guest) for registration.

Below is the invitation… see you there.

PayPal Malaysia Launch Party Invitation

Number of Broadband Subscriptions by Technology - MCMC 3rd Quarter 2009 Statistics

According to MCMC source above:

Fixed line broadband subscriptions: 1,483,100 (1.48 million)
Wireless broadband subscriptions: 871,900 (0.87 million)
Total broadband subscriptions: 2,355,000 (2.35 million)

Malaysia population is 28.31 million as of today. If we assume each family has 5 persons then there are 5,662,000 (5.66 million) families in Malaysia, means 58% ~ 3,307,000 (3.3 million) families have not yet subscribe to broadband service.

So who is going to earn these people money by providing them broadband service?

Technically, WiMAX speed is much faster then 3G. Unfortunately, there’s no WiMAX-enabled computer available in the Malaysia market, so don’t even mention WiMAX-enabled Smartphone.

But things will be changing next year. YTLe has entered into an contract with SAMSUNG to implement a nationwide WiMAX network, SAMSUNG will not only provide a network solution but more importantly, will be supplying the World’s 1st WiMAX-enabled Smartphone. This Smartphone will allow subscribers to have access to a high-quality, converged voice and high-speed broadband network all over the country. The YTLe’s WiMAX implementation is expected to be completed in July 2010.

Resulting, YTLe’s WiMAX to increase its broadband penetration and a benchmark in Malaysia wireless broadband market. According to sources, YTLe will be offering data download speeds of 8 Mbps and 2 Mbps for uplinks, where user can download a 10MB YouTube movie clip in just one second! This will change the Malaysian experience and allow us to have an experience like never before.

If you are planning to buy a wireless enabled handheld device that able you the best speed of service and a wider area coverage, then a 3G-enabled, WiMAX-enabled Smartphone may be a right choice for you. I have been waiting for the WiMAX-enabled Smartphone for 2 years. Although there are various well-known 3G technology handheld devices such as BlackBerry, Apple iPhone 3GS and Nokia N95/N96/N97 available in the market, but none of them able to beat the speed of WiMAX and cover the area of nationwide.

SAMSUNG SWD-M100 Mondi was announced in Feb 2009 as the first handheld WiMAX device in the World. The device features a touch screen, QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, WiFi and OS by Windows Mobile 6.1 Classic.However, I believe the Malaysia version of SAMSUNG WiMAX-enabled Smartphone will be different from above pictures.

More pictures for SAMSUNG SWD-M100 Mondi from jkkmobile.blogspot.com:

If you are the Internet strategiser for a big brand, please consider securing your organisation’s domain name with the ‘…sucks’ word such as companysucks.com before others register it.

I have found out the following domain names are not available:

StreamyxSucks.com
AirAsiaSucks.com
MalaysiaAirlinesSucks.com
AASucks.com (American Airline)
MalaysiaSucks.com
BNsucks.com (Barnes and Noble)
GodaddySucks.com
GoogleSucks.com
YahooSucks.com
FacebookSucks.com
AmazonSucks.com
NokiaSucks.com
SonySucks.com
SamsungSucks.com
DellSucks.com
BMWSucks.com
MercedesSucks.com
ToyotaSucks.com
HondaSucks.com
FordSucks.com
HSBCsucks.com
CitibankSucks.com / CitiSucks.com
SCsucks.com (Standard Chartered)
MicrosoftSucks.com
WhiteHouseSucks.com

Domain name with ’sucks’ / ’suck’ word may not be necessary to your organisation and there’s no ROI, but if you found out how your brand name is being damaged, like StreamyxSucks.com then you’ll feel 10 bucks is worth every penny.

Business News: Sucks.com owner wins domain-name case (Bloomberg loses “sucks” domain name case)

Want to check your domain name availability? Please visit http://www.psychicwhois.com/

It is debatable! I have conducted an online survey for working professional (mostly IT techies) and result shown 55% of them agreed that bachelor’s degree is a must for the managerial position.

Survey Statistic

Let’s see what they said:

1. Agree

• If he/she had a very strong skills which everyone recognize, there will not be needed, but at least he/she must have to go part time MBA or some related course. else, wouldn’t it be a waste for those who taken so much time to complete the course? but mostly promoted… are those bachelor in TALKING & TAIJI skills..
• Bachelor’s degree should be a requirement for managerial position. How would he/she be respected by his subordinates, who have finished college or have even taken masters degree, if he/she is a college dropout or if he/she didn’t even bother to finish college?
• Even though it just a paper but you need it.It not just about skills n experiences but good brain too.
• It should… I think not only for managerial positions, but for any position that is of office-function type.
• back in my country, some companies would even require you to have a master degree for you to get to a managerial position. but experience is always better than a degree. if you have experience, then its better than any degree out there
• A manager must always come from a non-manager/technical/executive position, if a non-manager/technical/executive guy doesn’t have a degree, how did he/she get hire at the first place? (Analyst Programmer needed: minimum requirement: SPM/STPM, Can do Java, C#…?). That’s just a question from the people that want a manager salary but too lazy to get a degree.
• Looking at the current market standard, I think its a must for a bachelor’s degree to acquire managerial position
• A lot of ppl have similar experience and skills and therefore in this competitive world, yes it’s a MUST unless he is Lim Goh Tong.
• Yeah babeh
• In an IT enterprise company, one needs credibility for all managerial decisions. Skills is learned yes but when bad thing happens, a lack of credentials can be the cause of management mishaps. One can finish a degree while reaching for managerial position – be pragmatic.

2. Disagree

• Experience is more priority.
• Bachelor’s degree is just a paper. If just a theory is good than practical of the person, he/she would not be a “Good Manager”
• why not you tell me why. is debatable
• The most important is attitude and management skill.
• Now we can obtain certificate with any education institution if you have the correct amount of money. Educational back ground is important but not as a measurement for a manager position. In my experience, manager can’t be created overnight or within a year but must be grom up to the level. You cant be a manager if you don’t know how to manage your time then how are you going to manage other people and their time at work.
• Degree holder doesn’t guarantee a great manager.
• pls consider the number of years in related work experience and the merit of the person should take the upper basis
• Managerial position require brains not certified toilet papers.
• Managerial skills are more on observation and attitude related and not on how many certifications that person have..
• I think it is not a must, because this position related to communication skills, performance and working attitude. Bachelor’s degree can’t evaluate all these factor if without experiences..
• experience, management skills, personality are more important
• Neither Agree nor Disagree. I believe it’s nothing to do with education attainment its something to do with the work performance and have a potential skills/talent of a manager, people skills per se.
• caliber is more important
• degree is a plus but not a must
• You can see those kedai runcit/SME/partnership fella has the capability to hold the position as CEO and director written in their name card. it can happen.
• A degree says nothing on a person’s ability in management. Is PhD a must for CEO position? : )
• Some Managers even have a Masters but can’t do the job better than a diploma holder.

My personal comment

It is true that most manager jobs required candidates with recognize degree or master/MBA preferable.

From my perspective, a manager is expected to be a lot of things. A tower of strength, a leader and innovator, a kindly uncle/aunt, a shoulder to cry on, a dynamic motivator, a stern but fair judge, a diplomat, a politician, a protector, a saviour and a top person responsible for a whole gang of people (that he/she may not like?). These soft-skill neither learn from school nor case study project but gain from years of experience in management. – “A good fighter may not be a good master, a good master may not be a good fighter.”

Once you've build a good team it gets in the habit of having you as the 'Manager'

Chargebacks

A chargeback occurs when an individual credit card holder contacts the credit card issuing bank to deny and claims that he or she did not authorise a transaction made and request to dispute the charges. The credit card issuing bank will then take the money back from the acquiring bank (merchant bank). Chargebacks are typically reported on a weekly or bi-weekly basis by the acquirer to the merchant, costs to the merchant when this happens include:

• Loss of merchandise
• Loss of revenue
• Per-chargeback administration fees (such as RM45)
• Fines for chargebacks (depends on the number of disputed transaction incidents)
• Risk of losing merchant account due to high chargeback rates, and associated loss of ability to accept credit cards payment online.

The above diagram is a typical Internet credit card transactions process flow model

Approaches to managing fraud

When you are setting up or selecting a billing system on your e-commerce website, ensure the following approaches are implemented:

• Address Verification Service (AVS)
  Request for the billing address (statement address) to be submitted for credit card issuing bank’s verification. It can help reduce fraud when the perpetrator does not have a billing address.
• Details As Per Statement
  Request for the credit card holder’s statement name instead of name on card to be submitted for credit card issuing bank’s verification.
• Card Verification Code/Value (CVC/CVV/CVV2)
  Request for the CVV (3-4 additional digits which is printed on the back of the credit card) to be submitted for credit card issuing bank’s verification. These digits do not appear on credit card statements, it indicates the purchaser has the physical card or its details.
• Image Verification Service (IVS) / CAPTCHA
  Request purchaser to enter the random image for authentication. Because IVS requires a humans to type the random words that appear, it can prevent the Internet auto-submission-bot attack.
• Rules-Based Systems / Manual Review of Orders
  Create your own rules-based system for automating the review of orders before submiting for credit card issuing bank’s verification. If the transactions amount (such as large orders or expensive items) has exceeded your rules set, the purchaser information will need to be verified (such verifications like- is this a new customers? is this shipping address same as billing address? does this order required manual review? etc).
• SecureCode Verification by Credit Card Issuing Bank
  Many local credit card issuing bank have already implemented the SecureCode verification as the 2nd layer authentication on Internet credit card transactions. To obtain this SecureCode, the credit card holder is required to submit other P&C information for process (such as mother name, mobile number, home branch and etc).

One of the local cinemas' e-ticketing system, which perpetrator needs only a few of credit card details- card number, name on card, expiry date and CVC. This type of simple authentication form which can make fraud easier.

Bottom line

Although each of above approaches can help, but remember that the Internet transaction is considered a “Card-Not-Present” transaction by the credit card issuing bank. The merchant is still wholly responsible for the fraudulent transaction, even if the merchant has proof of signature during the delivery.

In any Internet fraudulent transaction incident, the merchant is always on the losing side. So selecting a good e-commerce plan and a reliable payment gateway service provider is pretty important.

When you received credit card statement and there’s an unathorised Internet transaction billed to your credit card…

Don’t panic when this happens to you. This is not your responsibility to bare the transaction billed amount*, follow the procedure below and you will get it adjusted:

1. Identify the transaction billed- merchant name, transaction date, amount and statement.
2. Confirmed the transaction billed was not made by anyone like family members, boy/girl friend or colleague that you authorised to use your credit card details.
3. Call your credit card issuing bank and speak to the customer representative to report Internet fraudulent transaction on your credit card. Request them to fax / email / post you the “Disputed Transaction Form“.
4. Consult the customer representative on whether there is a re-issue of a new credit card is required. (charges may apply to some bank)
5. Fill out the form then fax / post it back to them. Call your credit card issuing bank again to ensure they have received your form.
6. The administration and investigation process will usually take about a month to complete, the transaction billed amount shall be credited into your account and stated in your next month statement.*
7. No finance charge and/or investigation charge shall be levied.*

* In the event that the investigation reveals that you- the credit card holder is not liable for any of the disputed transactions.

Do you know?

When merchants (online store) accept credit cards over the Internet, the transaction is considered a “Card-Not-Present” transaction by the issuing bank (your credit card bank), because the merchant doesn’t see the physical card or signature.

In “Card-Present” transactions, the issuing bank usually covers the cost of the transaction, sometimes after charging the credit card holder a minimum fee (such as RM20). With “Card-Not-Present” transactions, the merchant is wholly responsible for the fraudulent transaction, even if the merchant has proof of signature during the delivery.

So, credit card fraud is a significant challenge for Internet merchants. Fraud can end up being very costly especially to merchants that are selling tangible products and can even result in loss of a merchant account.

I like reading books and am a book collector, especially books that are relevant to my profession. I used to spent a lot of time in MPH, Borders, Popular and Kinokuniya book stores looking for good books but always caught in the situation where I don’t know which book is best and worth to buy- “this book is useful but that book is more practical, and the 3rd book is from a well known publisher and author.”

Amazon’s information are useful, even though we do not purchase from them.

Until 7 years ago, I started to use a method in finding the best selling and good review (provided by customers) books. Honestly so far I’ve never felt regret after buying the books I found, this method saved me a lot of precious time, where I don’t need to stand at the book store for half-a-day reading through all the interested books’ cover, back page, content page and comparison. This is how:

1. Understand what topic of books you are looking for. (for example “Online Marketing”)
2. Logon Amazon and search “Online Marketing” in books department.
3. Sort books by “Bestselling” or “Average Customer Review” and read through customers review/comment for the book(s) that you are interested.
4. Books that given 4.5 to 5 stars is consider a good book, the more review the book gets, the more you should purchase the book. (I usually only buy books that are rated above 4 stars and also books  reviewed by more than hundreds customer.)
5. When you are happy and have decided on the book(s) you want buy, write down the ISBN-13, Book Title, Publisher and Author information.
6. Contact the book store you prefer – MPH / Borders / Popular / Kinokuniya (for me it’s MPH) and provide them the book(s) information for order placement. Or you can made online payment through the website if you want (I usually made online payment for bulk order and the books will be sent to my house within a few days)
7. Let’s go collect and pay for the book(s) when it is ready.

Malasyia Book Stores Website:

MPH Contact: http://www.mphonline.com/
Borders: http://www.berjaya.com/berjayabooks.htm
Popular: http://www.popular.com.my/
Kinokuniya: http://www.kinokuniya.co.jp/english/contents/network04.html / www.kinokuniya.com.sg (find Malaysia branches)

If you have any suggestion, share your tips and ideas. Let’s us, book lovers benefit from it.

I just bought a whole stack of books last month. Btw, I will eat bread everyday this month...