Malaysia in the Context of Hay Group

I just came back from a short course on Job Evaluation Methodology by Hay Group. Maybe you've heard or attended this course before, so you might understand better. One of the key messages I bring back from this course is the importance of a company to chart and, if possible, to have employees from all profiles (but still depend on the nature of the business). This range from profile P4 (can be P5 too) to A4, which covers from the research-work profile (P4) to pure sales/services-based (A4).

The instructor also mentioned that for a nation to become competitive, it needs (or need to develop) its people so that all these profiles are covered.

Now I understand even better the vision of Tun M who wants Proton to have its own 'pure' R&D capabilities (building a national car is just a small portion of pure R&D), instead of doing what 'Tan Sri S.M. who' does (purely rebadging, or a little cosmetic change and rebadge again). According to Hay Group Methodology, this rebadging work is merely P1 and can be done by people even without vocational training. Then, why bother asking students to enroll in Engineering courses in universities and colleges?! Just to assemble rebadge cars?!

Quoting the instructor again, Malaysia is not competitive because we've yet fulfilled (or have enough in) all profiles. Ask where Nokia and Ericsson originate from? From Sweden with 9-mil population, and Finland, whose population around 5-mil plus. And Malaysia, with almost 25-mil population, have what?! Emmm... M-Mobile perhaps, thanks to the popularity of Mawi, though. Even worse, we're so proud with a P1-product, produced by specialized, skilled, experienced, certified engineers (who're supposed to produce P3/P4-products), in the name of NAZA.

Ivan Lendl: Wimbledon's Exception List

It was a quiet night last night as the World Cup takes a break before quarter final matches resume this Friday and nothing interesting to watch on tv. So, I decided to watch the Wimbledon Open where Federer played countryman, Henman. As expected, it was an easy, straight-set win for the World No. 1. Eventhough Henman lost tamely on home court in the 2nd round, the crowd was very supportive to the player, no boos or jeers or name-callings... Such an attitude!

Suddenly, I wanted to know Wimbledon's roll of honor and came across familiar names who've won the prestigious title (most of them started playing before I was born). The most successful one, the Pistol Pete Sampras, 7x winner (93~95, 97~00), followed by Bjorn Borg (5x: 76~80), John McEnroe (3x: 81, 83~84), Boris Becker (3x: 85~86, 89), and the rest that I recognize who have won one title each: Jimmy Connors (82), Pat Cash (87), Stefan Edberg (90), Mike Stich (91), Andre Agassi (92), Richard Krajicek (96), Goran Ivanisevic (01), Leyton Hewitt (02). Roger Federer (3x: 03~05) may add his 4th Wimbledon title to his name. One big name missing, though... Ivan Lendl. So I did some search on Ivan Lendl.

Ivan Lendl... a tennis legend, some called him the father of modern tennis, is a two-time losing finalist in Wimbledon, in 86 and 87, both losing to lower-ranked player (he was 1st and 2nd seeded, in respective year). His lucks were not with him in Wimbledon but other parts of the world. Here's some stats on Lendl:

• 2x Australian Open winner: 89~90, 2x runner-up, 3 straight final appearances
• 3x French Open winner: 84, 86~87, 2x runner-up, 4 straight final appearances
• 3x US Open winner: 85~87, 5x runner-up, 8 straight final appearances
• 5x Masters champion: 81~82, 85~87, 8x runner-up, qualified 11 years in a row
• Davis Cup champion: 80 (10-0 personal record for the year)
• 270 weeks at number 1
• 157 consecutive weeks at number one

The statistics say it all. So, he may not be remembered when people are talking about Wimbledon but his name rests comfortably in the record book.

Fabulous French, Uninspiring Brazilians

France, surprisingly won the match against Spain. Based from their performance in preliminary round, I had wished Spain win the match last night to mount a serious challenge to Brazil in the quarter final. Well, the French, the old-lady Les Bleus, prevailed and they'll face Brazil next, a repeat of 1998 Final, and hopefully the scoreline will repeat too!

Brazil earlier, uninspiringly, defeated Ghana, the freshman in World Cup Finals. 3 goals - one from close misjudge of offside trap by the Ghanaians, one - from an offside misjudge by the linesman (poor overall match officiating), and another one - scored after Ghana was down with 10 players, results of poor officiating. Nothing was impressive from the Brazilians.

Quarter final prediction: France win

Brazilians and all over-confident Brazil fans, don't dream for your team to make it to the finals. If not France, Portugal will do the job to silence all of you!! And people will not remember World Cup 2006 as the stage for the Brazil's 3Rs who?!

The Most Boring R16 Match-ups

The most boring match-ups, so far. In the end, Italy won through a penalty during injury time and Ukraine won on penalty kicks over another boring team Switzerland. I think the Australian just need to concentrate in rugby or hockey or their "self-created and self-played" Australian football.. and forget about playing in World Cup 2010 if they want to qualify thorugh Asia.

The Quater Final match-up: Italy vs Ukraine. As simple as 1, 2, 3... the Italians will triumph, albeit 2-0 win, maximum!!

Lucky English, Portuguese Heated-Up

Portugal added 10th consecutive World Cup wins to Scolari's belt and I think they'll add somemore, another one at most! :-) England, still not showing what they're capable of (as always emphasized by the media) but at least Beckham did what he was terrified for... his freekicks!!

Portugal vs England

It's easy to predict this time. It's going to be repeat of EURO 2004 quarter-finals, where Portugal won 6-5 after penalty shoot-out (2-2 aet) . But, this time around it won't go to extra time. It will be tough for Portugal though to play without Deco and Costinha but it's not really a problem, facing a team which can only field one effective striker, Wayne who?!

Hail Germans! Argentines Hanging On!!

Argentina vs Germany

A tough one to predict but the Argentines will still advance... maybe after extra time (again) or penalty shoot-out!

Smile Thierry, Smile!

Who says The King doesn't smile?!

The King will smile even more if France win the World Cup!!

Round of 16

I must say everyone enjoyed the prelimary round matches of World Cup 2006 except for some boring matches involving boring European teams. It was a lucky birthday for Zidane and Viera as France got just what they needed to advance to R16.

Here's my verict for preliminary round:
Best team: Argentina
Best match: Argentina vs Serbia and Monetenegro
Best team performance (in a single match): Ghana (against Czech Republic)
Most under-performed team: Czech Republic and France
Teams that don't deserved to be in R16: Mexico
Teams that should be in the R16: Korea
Best player: Well, a number of them including Torres, Riquelme, etc... maybe Pimpong (of Ghana)
Player has yet to shine: Ronaldinho, Rooney and I want more from the King Henry!!!

Tonight, the start of R16. If I may revise my earlier prediction for the final, I would say it's between...

Argentina 2, Spain 1

So, where's Brazil and France (as my earlier predicted finalist)?!! They both lost in 1/4 final and R16, respectively, to Spain. Sorry Brazil fans, they just going to make it up to 1/4 final!!

Where are the Scottish?!

Ever wonder what are the Scottish doing during the World Cup? I guess they're watching afternoon matches in pubs, go home and shower (maybe not) and go back to pubs again to watch evening matches...

And am wondering whether they used this tactic during the qualifying! But look at the German's.. their tactic is the simplest yet the most effective!!

Eat, Sleep, Live Football

The fever is here. Finally, after 4-year absent, the World Cup is here again. For us in Malaysia, being 6 hours ahead of Germany, really test the preserverance to balance between football, sleep and works the next day. Daily matches start as early as 9pm and goes on and finish as late as 5am. Bosses will see red, sleepy eyes of their employees and heads gone missing behind desktops. Alternatively, there are repeats but final scores would have been published and peers would have been talking about how beautiful the goals were, etc etc. You just dont want to miss watching those matches live or you'll be left behind for a ride to lunch!! I guess many have applied for annual leave on 10th July, to watch the Final and would any boss dare not to approve?!

The favorite: as everyone is talking about Brazil, can they distancing themselves from the rest of the world by winning its 6th title or would Germany or Italy narrow the gap from Brazil or other countries like Holland or Spain or Portugal win for the first time, keeping the Cup in the continent?!

My favorite... I can't exclude Brazil from my list of World Champion-to-be but my dream final would be the repeat of WC1998: Brazil vs France. And hold your breathe for the King Henry to take center stage, something everyone has never seen happening at the previous two World Cups he played. His agony of losing the final of EUFA Champions League... well, it's pay back time and on the losing side this time around would be everyone else's favorite Ronaldinho.

Final prediction: FRANCE 2 - Brazil 2 (France win on penalty)

060606 - A Birthday to Remember

060606 - A special date surely to be remembered as we celebrated the 60th birthday of a very special person, Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff, the former CEO of PROTON Malaysia. It was indeed a more memorable night when old and not too old friends get together in Lifestyle Lounge, Holiday Villa.

The presence of the one and only Tun Dr Mahathir and his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah, made the night even more memorable and meaningful, rather than just the typical cake cutting and karaoke session :-) Tun, in his speech, jokingly reminded Tengku to start acting his age and stop follying around with all his toys, i.e. big bikes, sports cars... Santana I believe is exempted from the list! Anyway, Tun you're still the man!

To Tengku 'The Boss', Happy 60th Birthday. Thanks for all you've given to me since I first know you. You're more than just a Boss to me and to others, too. Wish you many more great achievements ahead. But, I forgot to ask you this, "Is there any specific reason why were you wearing pink shirt to your birthday party?! But I think you look better in the pink shirt than the X-Men suit!!"

Wings at Orange Club

Sunday nights are always the 'stay-at-home' and 'get-ready-for-work' nights in my life. It becomes irrelevant last Sunday, 4th June when I heard the news that Wings are performing and its two of the so many big fans, Cheng and Adeq are planning to go.

Around 2,000 fans (if not more) have already gathered outside Orange Club when we arrived. The show started at around 10.30pm with Wings performing string of fast numbers. I didn't know that they have so many fast numbers as I only knew their slow and handful of not-too-fast songs. *chuckle*

Altogether, they performed 26 songs in about 3 hours. My favorite and I believe the crowds' favorite was "Semalam Yang Hangat", originally sung by Mus. I can say Adeq was the biggest fan among three of us as he could sing almost all songs Wings performed.

Awie was great, the 21-year old band was really great, fans were ever cool and made the nights greater, Cheng and Adeq was the greatest fans for me and it's one of my greatest Sunday nights for quite some time!

My Favorite Escapade...

Pulau Perhentian... my last visit in early May was my third visit to the beautiful island.

5days 4nights - most of the time doing nothing, some snorkeling, sunbathing, floating on the sea, lots of snacks, though! Finished reading two novels (never done this before), no worries, hatred, tension, jealousy, irritation and all the heart sicknesses that most people have nowadays. Definitely... no traffic jams!

What I enjoyed the most... the sunset!

Welcome to the World...

Newborns...

Congratulations to my sister, Along for the birth of her fourth child (third daughter) on 30th May 2006. Well, Muhammad Aqil is still the blue-eyed boy!! Congrats to Mak and Bapak too! 8th grandchild, 4 boys and 4 girls... so, stop asking when am I going to get married... ;) lol.

Congrats to my buddy, Badin too.. for his 2nd child, Adelina. Born on 11th May 2006. Dua bulan dalam pantang, buat apa haa?!!!

Condolence, Takziah...

to YBhg Datuk Kisai Rahmat, Executive Director Manufacturing, PROTON Malaysia whose father passed away last Sunday, 28th May 2006.

I may not personally know the deceased but surely he was a fatherly figure as Datuk is.

Semoga Allah mencucuri rahmat ke atas roh nya dan ditempatkan di kalangan orang-orang yang beriman. Al Fatihah...

First Try..

Finally I decided to come out with my own blog...

Although no specific reason why I chose this date, I can say it's historic to me... 2-June-06. Indeed, it's historic to me although just coincidence. It was the day I first reported duty for PROTON Malaysia. It would have been my 7th year there should I didn't leave the company in September 2005.

Why Ada-Ada Saje?! We in Malaysia, most of our spare time (after work especially) sit in mamaks, having teh tarik, gossiping, debating on current issues (more knowledgeable and loudly than the authorities). Some are not too loud, sometimes got pissed with the louder ones and chose to remain silent. Let's get your fingers to talk for you in this blog.

I welcome friends, bloggers, experts, whoever and wherever you are to comment, give recommendation, post topics, or just browse.. English, Bahasa Melayu, Manglish, Singlish are acceptable here..

Adios amigos!