Christmas Decorations at Bangsar Shopping Centre

Many shopping centres in the Klang Valley already setting up the Christmas decoration. As usual, there are Christmas tree, presents and candies being used as props. This year, Bangsar Shopping Centre uses the theme called "Reindeer Reign This Christmas".

At first, the decorations look astonishing but when you start to walk around and observe in details, you will find that it is kind of weird to have the stars and balls on the curve-golden standee (or tree). Perhaps these will be re-use for used for the coming Chinese New Year decorations in January 2017, which is about a month time after the Christmas celebration.

A good approach to save time and cost for the next setup for Chinese New Year. The shopping centre management must be very happy for this one stone kill two bird idea but what do you think about the design?

It looks weird to me, what say you?

Asia's Most Expensive Water

Asia's most expensive water - SGD1,260 per bottle, want to give it a try?

Watch this to discover why this bottle of water cost SGD 1,260

To explore more: http://www.lienaid.org/

The Legend of the Blue Sea starring Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Min-ho

The Legend of the Blue Sea starring Jun Ji-hyun and Lee Min-ho is going to be another big hit for Korean drama fan. Same goes to the destinations and products seen in this series will go a long way after this. Enjoy the series and immerse in the subliminal perception of marketing!

The official trailer:

Global Warming Midst

When many part of the world experiencing record breaking heat, researchers from the British Antarctic Survey reported that the Antarctic Peninsula is getting colder by an average of 0.5℃ in the past 20 years (Bloomberg, July 2016).

What does this means to you? Are we really facing global warming from the industrialisation or is there a larger context of the environment, or perhaps the galaxy that is causing the reversal phenomenal of global warming in some part of the planet and falling of temperature at other parts?

This world that we are living is becoming more confusing; not causes by the physics phenomenon but from the human, ourselves.

What say you?

The new iPhone 7: Top 4 Features

Everybody is talking about the new iPhone 7 but this time, it is not something that everyone is excited about. Perhaps only the hardcore fans of Apple will feel excited because some of the new features offered in the new iPhone 7 is really new (for Apple) but it is common in the world of Android users.

Firstly, the emphasis is on 'Black, jet black finishes'. 
Well, the origin of the mobile phone is in black anyway. I remember my first Nokia 8110 which was featured in the movie "Matrix" was an all black phone which was built with the "human technology" in mind. So, Apple is taking a bold move to go back to the classic and premium feel of black, a color that never fail. Excited? I don't think so.

Screenshot from Apple's Official Website. Source: http://www.apple.com/iphone-7/

Second, it is the "Splash and Water Resistance". 
Hmmm, anything new? Not really if you are already an Android user, especially Samsung or Sony. More phones are promoting active outdoor usage with a tougher built for users with out-going lifestyles. Even for some users who are not into extreme outdoor activities, having a water resistance smartphone can be useful when it is needed (maybe when a phone drop into the toilet?) Hence, water resistance is becoming a good-to-have feature for higher-end smartphones. I think Apple fans will be very excited about this but for an existing Android user, will this make them to switch to iPhone 7? (I don't think so).

Screenshot from Apple's Official Website. Source: http://www.apple.com/iphone-7/

Third, Two cameras that shoot as one (only available on iPhone 7 Plus).
Two is better than one? I am not a professional photographer so I cannot comment much about the quality of the dual camera with telephoto lens. We will have to wait for some reviews or comparison tests from the specialist like Techradar, CNET or Android Authority. We have also seen the use of dual-camera on some Android-based smartphones, with the latest model in the market that collaborated with Leica too. Perhaps this is the trend and will become more common in the near future.
Anyhow, the question is are you excited for a two cameras and it is only available if you purchase the iPhone 7 Plus, which will cost much more? To me, I am not so sure if it worth the money.

Screenshot from Apple's Official Website. Source: http://www.apple.com/iphone-7/

Lastly, The EarPods and AirPods
Okay, the new EarPods uses Lightning connector. Which means that you will not be able to use your EarPods while charging or vice versa. It is good that iPhone 7 still comes with the 3.5mm headphone jack adapter (wait, adapter? Then what is the point...). I personally feels that the Airpods design looks weird, especially looking at the picture shown on Apple's official website. Also, I think a careless person like me might lost the AirPods easily, unless it has a sensor or something that tells me I am away from the Pods if I have dropped it/misplace it somewhere. Well, maybe that's just me.

There are still a list of features that Apple is shouting about the new iPhone 7 and 7 Plus but I think the most significant features are these four. The overall design looks the same like iPhone 6 so it is not worth mentioning. After going through the Tech Specs on the website, I personally don't see the 'Wow-factor' and I am looking forward for the iPhone 8 perhaps.

What say you?

Top 5 Weaknesses in Students' Answers

As an examiner, I would like to point out some of the most common weaknesses in students' answers that can be avoided. These are the top 10 weaknesses in students' answers:

1. Fail to plan and prepare for the answer
The reason of showing the marks allocation on each of the exam question is to allow the student to plan for their answer. A question with 10 marks will need more points or depth of discussion as compare to question with 2 marks which requires brief explanation. The length of the answer may varies according to the marks allocated. This will reflect on time management too (this is why many students always complain that they do not have enough time to complete their answers in the final exam).

2. Do not pay attention to the question verbs
All examiner who set exam questions need to comply with the Bloom's taxonomy according to the level of the paper. Various verbs can be used to assess different level of intellectual which requires different answers. Failing to provide what the question verbs require will result in poor answer. For example, lower level verb like 'define' is just to give meaning of a term whereas 'discuss' is to examine in detail by using arguments for and against.

3. Writing down all you know
Some student do not bother with the scope of the question asked but rather look at a few keywords in the questions. With that, they will provide the answers based on what they know about these few keywords and give long lists or writing down all they know about a the subject area,  without caring whether it is relevant or not. Hence, the student may thought that they have answered all the questions completely and did a good job in the exam but will not get the marks as they are forcing irrelevancies into answers. (Hey! examiners do read your answers before awarding marks. We don't just look at quantity but 'QUALITY' of your answer).

4. Repeating and duplicating the same answer
Please note that when examiners set the question paper, they will have to map out the question according to course learning outcomes. Which mean that each question in an exam paper will be assessing on a specific topic. Each question will not overlap with another or repeat the same topic or area. Therefore, if a student is repeating the same answer/material in different parts of answers, it shows that there are limited knowledge and understanding of the course; mainly focusing too narrowly on one area.

5. Only theories and concepts
In social science, students are taught to be practical and able to apply what they learn at real working environment. Although the fundamentals and principles which covers theories and concepts are important, most of the exam questions would assess on the application or practicality of the learned theories and concepts. This make more sense to have essay or case study questions in the exam. As stated in Weaknesses No.2, many exam questions with more marks allocated requires student to not just to state the theories or concepts by to apply them with illustration or examples.

There you go, the five most common weaknesses that I think can be improved. With this feedback, I look forward to see better exam answers from my own students.

To all learners, all the best!

Gen-Y Mindset: What a 'Waste'

Teaching the Gen-Y allows me to observe their behavior and understand how they think. I personally find that it is important to study their attitude towards assignments or work. This could explain why many companies have been questioning about the quality of work from Gen-Y.

I gave an assignment to my students this semester where they have to form a group of 5 and identify a company of their choice for examining the marketing strategies. After a week, they came back to me with a company they have chosen.

Everything looks fine but not until I asked them how many companies they have selected as alternatives before they make their decision to choose one of it. The answer given by almost all the groups.... one. Basically, they don't have any alternatives but decided on a company that they know and thought it is the only company that is the best for the assignment.

So, what is the reason and why don't they look for more alternatives before making a choice? I want to know why. The answer I got from them are:

"We thought this company we "know" is the best.
No time.
We want to focus on one company"

From their feedback, I learned that they do not like choices when it comes to a task or assignments. They find that it is a waste of their time and effort if the companies that they investigated were not chosen. Meaning to say that if given a choice, the students do not see it as an advantage but more work is needed to identify the alternatives. They are lack inquiry skills and do not see the benefits of the exploratory approach in the learning process.

In life, we need to make a lot of decisions to solve our everyday problems; and we always have many choices/alternatives to solve a problem. While we explore alternatives, we learn and improve our skills in making a decision. Nothing is a waste if we keep exploring the alternatives/choices; even if it is not the best choice for solving the current problem it can be used for the future.

Learning is a process. If one only focuses on the goals and ignores the process of achieving the goals, then it is really "WASTED"!

Brexit Referendum Results Analysis

These are the results of the Brexit Referendum on the 23rd June 2016. The results were so close that we can see United Kingdom is evenly divided into two groups. Looking at the results by the UK map and the top 17 areas that voted for remain or leave the European Union (EU), I personally think that the division of vote decision are related to the distribution of income in the country. Most of the urban areas voted for remain and the outskirts chosen to leave. Maybe most of elite group in the urban areas see the benefits of remaining in the EU but not the rest. Perhaps, this group have more knowledge about EU and how it function or the other way round.

Another interesting fact about this referendum results are the choices made by Scotland and Northern Ireland. I'm surprised that high majority choose to remain in EU

If we have more demographic data of all these areas, we could then tell more about the results. For now, I strongly belief that UK will remain as a Great Britain in the world.

What say you?

*Results screenshot from Financial Times mobile website: https://ig.ft.com/sites/elections/2016/uk/eu-referendum/index.html

Want to know more about BREXIT?

On June 23rd, 2016, there will be a referendum for the British to vote for either to leave the European Union (EU) or to stay. To know more are the BREXIT, you may want to watch this documentary film:

So, what say you?

Latest Sales Promotion Strategy by Private Universities in Malaysia

It is normal for the marketers in service-based organisation to develop strategies that can reduce the challenges from the nature of service i.e. intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability. This is to ensure that the resources are being utilised and quality are maintained. Hence, capacity management is often used by service organisation to reduce the losses when sales are low. Hotels and airlines are famous in using sales promotion to stimulate their occupancy and bookings during low season.

Recently, I found that a private education institution in Malaysia also adopting similar sales promotion like other hospitality businesses, "50% discount on fees for intakes between July to November 2016". Of course, any sales promotion will have its own terms and conditions, same goes to this institution promotion. So don't get so excited first.

Updated (10/6/2016): Another institution is giving out 'Buka Puasa Buffet Dinner voucher" if you register with their programme. Interesting! I just got the email :)

Ultimately, sales promotion is a marketing communication strategy to stimulate sales in a given period of time. It seems like education industry is also becoming a good example for marketing studies.

What say you?

Descendants of the sun 2016

To understand why this drama is so popular now, it is best to explore it myself. This is called the 'Immersion Methodology', a very useful method to in effective learning and research:

By the way, there must be some reasons why it is so popular right? So these are some of my findings on the variables:

1. Good looking actor (Song Joong-Ki) and pretty actress (Song Hye-Kyo)


2. A good story line that triggers love and hatred emotion (this always sells!)

3. Action elements (fighting and shooting scenes)
4. Humour - there must be some jokers who are not needed actually but play some important roles in the drama
5. Beautiful scenery - people like to see unique places and fall in love with it (might end up turning the location into a tourist destination - famous in Korean drama)

6. Lastly, a spectacular theme song at every emotional moments in the drama (yes, that 'you are my everything' is the OST, lovely!)

Enjoy this beautiful song by Gummy, Park Ji Yeon.

Predatory Publisher - Check Before You Publish

Many people talks about 'publish or perish' in the higher education industry now. Meaning, if an academician want to build his or her career in this field, one must conduct research and publish the paper in journals. Publication is also one of the criteria for promotion for academia.

I have to agree that it is important to publish a research work if it served the purpose of sharing the intellectual knowledge of new findings/conclusions that contribute to shape our society. This is why www.businessdictionary.com defined research as:

"Systematic investigative process employed to increase or revise current knowledge by discovering new facts. It is divided into two general categories: (1) Basic research is inquiry aimed at increasing scientific knowledge, and (2) Applied research is effort aimed at using basic research for solving problems or developing new processes, products, or techniques."

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/research.html#ixzz49jswWhCD

However, I am so surprised to learn that there are so many blacklisted publishers and journals out there. Some of these journals have so many papers published by academicians from various institutions. These blacklisted publishers not recognized due to potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers, misleading metrics and hijacked journals.

The Beall's list of predatory open access publishers 2016 provides a summary of the number of predatory publishers and journals.
https://scholarlyoa.com/2016/01/05/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2016/

For the list of predatory publishers and journals, you can access to these:
https://scholarlyoa.com/individual-journals/
https://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/
and
http://blog.scopus.com/posts/titles-indexed-in-scopus-check-before-you-publish

Even our Malaysia Ministry of Education (MOE) has a list of blacklisted journals compiled in May 2015 which you can download with this link: http://epsas.upm.edu.my/psasrip/images/pdf2015/publishers.pdf
Don't publish for the sake of publication or for promotion. There is no easy way to publish but to go through good publishers and high ranking journals like from Scopus or Web of Science . So, check on the publisher and journal credibility before you cite or submit for publication.

Are you happy with the Customer Service?

What is Customer Service?

I was downtown last week, walking around Bukit Bintang and doing some shopping in Pavilion KL and KLCC. I was shocked to experience our own very own customer service in some of the shops. Not a very pleasant experience but there are also some good ones.

The customer service in some of the retail shops was very poor. The promoters hardly welcome any customers. Sometimes they do greet the customers but were very mechanical. If you are lucky, they will notice you walking in or seeking help. Some, choose to ignore the customers.

So what are they doing in the shop?

The smartphone is their best companion at work now. They choose to concentrate on whatever they are doing with their phone rather than serving the customers. They don't even look happy when I asked them about their products, showing me the look as I have interrupted them. I just wonder who is the customer?!

Another incident I had when I approach a promoter at one of the China-based smartphone brands in KLCC. He advised me to go to their website to find out more about the specification of the model I inquire for. I think this is one of the reasons why many prefer to buy online as they don't have to feel disappointed with the services at the retail shop.

If employers are serious about their business and are customer-oriented, it is time to re-examine your customer service, especially at the storefront. Something simple can change the entire service culture of the business. Watch this: What Steve Jobs Learned From The Ritz-Carlton by Forbes

Be Happy with our JOB

A major part of our life is about work, it doesn't matter if you are at the top of the organisation hierarchy or right at the bottom, we spend most of our time at work; not forgetting the housewives at home who are working round the clock. Doing something that we like at work is very important. Just imagine if you are unhappy with what you are doing and it takes up most of your time in a day; a week, a month or years...
Do we have a choice? Well, the answer is yes and no. Everyone go through a different life where some can decide what they like to do and others don't. You may not agree with me and that's fine. What is more important for us is to embrace the work we are doing now. This job you have now may not be the only job that you are doing for your entire life and as long as you are holding that position now, you got to do your job!
So, happy or not with what we are doing now? - It is all depend on us; how we see ourselves and the job responsibilities, the interaction of our job with the surroundings and the impact of our contribution. Let us all do a "Good" job from now and admire it!
Have faith in what you are doing :)

Health is Priority

We have always been chasing our dream, working hard for a better career and growing our wealth. At some point of time, we may have forgotten the most important element of success - health!

Are You Being Yourself?

Nobody will be able to accept who you are except yourself; if anyone would accept who you are, they are your parents. If you have been trying to get others to accept you, why not try harder to be who you are?

Or perhaps, start to accept others as who they are, hoping that they will accept you as who you are too.

Life is short, why not just learn to be yourself. We need to take care and love the people we love but to what extend that we need to become someone that they want us to be? How much we can sacrifice to let others to start accepting us? Or is it necessary to sacrifice in order to exchange for acceptance? Can't we just accept the fact that we cannot satisfy everyone, not everybody will like us and we cannot do anything about it. It is just a matter of attitude.

If we need to change ourself to get acceptance, are we being sincere to others? Do you expect people around you change for you? Would it be more scary if everyone is not being themselves?

Well, many may think I am being selfish, but who is not?! If being ourself is called selfish, then who is not selfish then?!