Konvokesyen ke 80 UiTM, saya berjaya!

Assalamualaikum...
This was on Sunday. Indahnya perasaan bila dah grad. Rasa macam a big rock was lifted from my shoulder. Pelbagai perjalanan yang penuh liku untuk sampai ke garisan penamat adalah pahit manis kenangan sepanjang hayat. I missed one semester for Anugerah Fakulti (ada blog pasal ni dulu di sini cerita sem 2), kalau tidak dapatlah mengukir nama sebagai salah seorang yang mendapat Anugerah Sarjana Cemerlang / Excellence Master Award. I was disappointed with myself somehow, tapi come to think of it.....I got to learn to let go. Allah's plans are better then my dreams.

Seawal 7.30 pagi kami perlu berada di sana. Sudahnya sejurus selepas subuh dalam pukul 6.20pagi kami bertolak. Mujurlah Subang Jaya ke Shah Alam tidak lah jauh mana. Gelap buta lagi masa kami keluar rumah. MrKingOfMyHeart, Mak and me...just three of us. Nasib baik ada adik bongsu dan adik ipar yang baik hati sanggup baby sit dua orang budak tu dekat rumah. We did the right choice not to bring them all tunggu di luar dewan. Kalau tak mesti chaos!

Sempat berhenti breakfast dulu dekat Restoran Khulafa berdekatan Unisel tu. I had stomachache. Tak berani nak makan. Minum milo tarik pun tak berasa. Sempat jugak kecek toast bread orang sebelah. Lapar sebenarnya...but kecut perut nanti nak amik scroll. Boleh takkkk? Hahahahha..sama kan dengan Adam when he chicken out to do sports..dia pun sakit perut. So, he took after me rupanya! Ouch...

Dah sampai UiTM, tempat parking agak jauh dari DATC. Kesian mak kena jalan jauh. Merentas trek kemudian naik tangga curam lagi. Yang dalam gambar tu belum cukup curam ye.

Dah sampai DATC, pecah peluh uols. Abis makeup cair! Adoiii...Ramainya manusia...maklumlah 917 orang graduan semuanya. Campur famili..sesak meriah. Tengah-tengah tu lah baru nak put on robe, nak pakai hoodie dan mortar board. Kalau nak konvo, please make sure you iron your robe elok-elok. Lepas tu bawak la extra safety pin atau jarum peniti tu. Nak lekat kan hoodie tu bagi duduk proper atas bahu. I seriously tak reti nak pakai. Senget sana sini..tertarik ke belakang lah...Nasib baik mak dan MrKingOfMyHeart ada sama untuk keep me calm dan betul-betulkan apa yang patut.

Dah puas tunggu (sapa suruh sampai awal), berpeluh meleleh, kaki pun dah lenguh berdiri...it's the time to queue nak masuk dewan. I selalu rasa..kalau I grad sekali dengan classmates especially Kak Ina...mesti meriah, seronok & happening. Tapi tak pe lah. Rezeki tak sama. Cheer up. Ada lah few yang kenal tapi tak lah serapat mana, nak jadi cerita terpisah jugak sebab tempat queue pun tak sama dan seating dalam dewan pun jauh. Frust!

Ok A184, ready to go in! This was almost perfect punya gambar entering the hall. Side profile (hehehe, at least he didn't chop my head or worst terus missed snap the photo).

Boleh pulak tak selfie dalam dewan. Nak kata menyesal, adalah sikit. But the truth is ada pegawai jaga...tak benarkan ambil gambar. Dan pulak, my seat was on the aisle. Last row pulak tu. Terang-terangan kalau ada cubaan untuk raise hand a bit to snap photo. Let alone selfie. Therefore kena sit still buat-buat baca buku atau tengok skrin dekat depan. Sekali sekala curi tengok tempat tetamu (walaupun nampak samar-samar je)

The best attempt to capture me on stage receiving the scroll. Can't see much. But you can tell it's me kan. That's all important. I remembered I smiled, tried not to walk too fast, bowed a bit and said thank you. I did all I supposed (orang tak pergi rehearsal macam ni lah..padan muka). Satu hal paling ingat...if only boleh record...the Tan Sri said my name! Terus I tak neves uols. Ke mimpi? :p

Tak boleh balik terus lepas amik scroll, you got to wait till the last 917th naik stage. Lepas tu ada ucapan lagi, nyanyi-nyanyi lagi. Baru HABIS for real.

Lepas habis je, terus pergi hantar Jubah dan amik transcript dan skrol original. Tadi tu kosong je. Selesai semua terus balik. Tak sempat nak bergambar segala. I dah lapar yang teramat, MrKingOfMyHeart dah peluh sakan dan mak pulak dah keras tengkuk penat (memang she had stiff neck since few days pun).

Itulah cerita Konvokesyen untuk Masters buat kali ni. Till the next 3 years for PhD kalau ada rezeki dan panjang umur Insya Allah. :-)

Mother's Day plan

Assalamualaikum...

Mother's Day is around the corner. Kalau ada yang selalu confuse tu, in Malaysia it's celebrated on 2nd Sunday of May. So, this coming Sunday 11th May is the Mother's Day. In our family, we don't really celebrate it like a big occasion. At least send wishes and sometimes eat out to spend time together.

Well, we should celebrate mother every day by right (ayat cover kah itew?) No. Seriously. Ibu, Ibu, Ibu lepas tu baru bapa. Ingat ye anak-anak. Afterall, she (ehem me including) is the only person who works 24-7 for FREE. Yes, FREE with clause ;p (minus the 1-2 pasar malam tudungs every month, facial treatment, massage with Makcik Odah, upper lips threading at salon, western dinner sebab craving, kopi mahal, share dengan adik ipar beli skirt and yes the list goes on and on)

This year, Mother's Day coincides with Convocation Day. Double celebration yo! So, mak is coming over. She will be my honorable guest along with MrKingOfMyHeart. Kalau abah ada lagi...mesti abah pun datang. Al-fatihah.

The plan? Takde plan pun. Convocation pepagi buta sidang ke-2 sesi pukul 7.30 pagi. We are targeting lepas subuh terus kena gerak. Nanti jam dekat main gate UiTM. Probably by noon baru abis. Lepas tu nak ke mana kita? Haven't figure out. Makan di mana? Ada good suggestion boleh tinggalkan diruang komen.

Speaking about Convocation Day...special day...NAK PAKAI APA? Masalah orang perempuan kan. Se almari baju yang sudah dipakai, dikatanya tak ada baju nak pakai. Kalau ada baju baru...baru ada baju! I beg to differ, excuse me. I will be wearing baju kurung raya yang lepas. For real! I berjaya this time. Semangat yang kuat ilham dari Allah..berjaya jugak tak swipe credit card, tekan ATM machine atau make online payment for #OOTD di hari Konvokesyen nanti.

Tadaaaaa....

Master thesis accepted for exposition (IIDEX 2014-UiTM)

Assalamualaikum..

Cerita hot ni. Hari ni hari kejadian. Semalam setup booth, hari ni judging session. Masya Allah, I feel 'alive' selepas lama dormant since berhenti kerja lepas raya tahun lepas. 'Alive' in the sense entertaining guests, presenting to honorable judges and best part bila dapat good remarks... It was sooooo much fun and new experience.

It was not all breezy tau. Flashback, after discussing with supervisor semalam, last minute decision that we had to package it into a product. Sebab nya my research has no tangible product. Initially it was a study to investigate factors contributing to internet abuse in the workplace. Think Think Think. Daripada that study, converted the whole thing into awareness module yang siap buat assessment and customized presentation to potential customer. Kiranya, I'm selling training services lah lebih kurang focusing on awareness to educate employees pasal internet abuse dekat tempat kerja. Itu jam jugak buat Business Model based on Lean Canvas (again). Ada konsep semua - nama catchy dah depa kata... I-R@W for Internet Right at Work. Pitching aids ready!

Sekali nak print..printing shop tutup since Sunday kan. It was about 9ish dah. Nak pergi sampai Shah Alam nun tak worth it la kot. Dah la seharian since balik setup booth tak mandi and refresh. Makan pun tak tentu hala sebab too occupied siapkan business model and all. Semalam there was a drama lah. Tak payah cerita panjang, I have to say thank you MrKingOfMyHeart for being super patient dan memahami. Kalau my goodself start meroyan and he also mengamuk then how. So, Alhamdulillah lah happy ending.

Gambar di sekitar tempat kejadian. Look at me perasan confident tengah present to the judges. Jual jangan tak jual! Pre-Sales Consultant back in action gitu.

One step further..to embark new journey nak join research group nak sambung PhD you alls. Insya Allah...Semoga dipermudahkan.

Majlis Pra-Graduasi Pelajar Siswazah CS770 (MPG) 2014

Assalamualaikum..

I finally graduated! Alhamdulillah syukur kepada Allah. Jerit perih for the past 2 years not only me but my loved ones and people who close to me akhirnya selesai jua. Dari masa abah sakit dulu masa 2nd sem then abah passed away during final sem. Semuanya bitter sweet for this little success. I ada blog pun about my experience in the last post boleh baca dekat sini.

Yes I'm happy, tapi lagi best kalau dapat grad with group of good friends kan? Many of my friends termasuklah Kak Ina (gu kawe kecek kelate walau buke ore kelate) extend for another semester, therefore tak dapat convocation sama-sama. Nak nangis rasa...tak meriah kalau terkontang kanting macam ni!

On 6th April, they invited us who will be graduating coming May for a pre-graduation dinner held in Intekma Resort. I went. Alone. Nak ajak MrKingofMyHeart, the kids who were going to jaga - dah tak ada helper sekarang ni.

Luckily ada Shida and Liza. 3 of us satu table! Punya lah tak ramai orang...These two young lady younger than me by 8-10 years tau. I respect them for knowing what they want to do in life at young age.

The first photo from left was me with En Azhar my supervisor. He's the man with enthusiasm and passion in research. He told me I have flare in writing and it would be a waste if I did'nt continue. I'm flattered with his compliment and yes, thank you for the A+ for my thesis.

We had gift exchange at the end of the dinner. I gave to Shida. It was a book by Prof Muhaya. I hope she liked it.

I received a gift from a girl which I forgot her name. She gave me glitter pink color shawl with brooches. Nicely wrapped. I guess she must be from full time student because I don't really know her.

What's with this photo? I like the makeup which I did myself. I always wanted to do smokey eyes, this is the best that I can do. Tak pandai makeup sangat pun. But I though the eyes came out alright.

That's all for now.

Cerita 4 semester pengajian Masters

Alhamdulillah. Syukur kehadrat Allah. Dengan ini....... I dah habis belajar! Harap result semester akhir ni memberangsangkan. Sepanjang 2 tahun belajar di UiTM Shah Alam, I got to learn more than just Masters in Information Technology. Mana mungkin dapat diulang atau dibeli pengalaman sebegini. Ada yang pahit..banyak yang manis :-)

Dikelilingi classmates yang jauh lebih muda yang rata 5-8 tahun lebih muda. Ada few sahaja yang kategori 30an dan lebih. Masa mula mendaftar dulu, rasa tercabar jugak. At the same time rasa bangga bila tengok ramai anak muda bangsa kita sanggup sambung belajar separuh masa untuk memajukan diri.

Semester 1
I don't have friends or stay in a group masa awal semester. Dari kecik..sampai la sekarang ni, I don't really good in making first contact and getting new friends. Cuak juga awal2 dulu. Especially part group work. Seriau dapat group mate yang half past six sebab I ni konon perfectionist. Alhamdulillah it went alright. For the first time dalam sejarah hidup I scored 4.0 Rasa berbaloi belajar teruk-teruk till late nights, berhempas pulas buat assignments and all. Bersyukur sangat dapat support from husband, kids and the family. Berkat doa semua jugak agaknya. I feel good walau busy gila tapi sempat juggle all plus working life.

Semester 2
Abah dah mula sakit masa ni. I had the very bad news by then - brain tumor critical stage. Soon abah started to go for treatment. I was still working as pre-sales consultant, started to like the hectic life as Masters student. For 3 subjects I enrolled, the group work semua I was elected as the Project Manager. Yes, they trusted me. At least that was I thought. Day time busy with field work as pre-sales consultant (which I really love - even till now), night time sometimes coaching the kids with homework while doing my own homework and attending online meetings. When abah started his treatment, I had to commute to HUKM paid him a visit too. Memang terkejar sana sini.

I thought I have given my best, in fact that was the semester when I went all out for my studies despite sedih dengan keadaan abah - kata Project Manager. I had the biggest shock of my life and feel betrayed when I got the result. Luluh. Drama la sangat masa tu. The person (also agreed by other group mate) yang back riding, didn't turn up for meeting with various domestic reasons got an A. I was just merely B+. The coordinator wasn't helpful at all. Siap threaten I would be degraded kalau report and asked for remarks. The climax was when I went to meet the lecturer - she said nothing's wrong with my carry marks. She said something interpreted like this "Kalau you dapat semua yang you nak, maybe you akan less bersyukur, ingat pada allah". "Kenapa you tamak, sanggup jadi PM for all subjects?" dan macam2 lagi sentimen yang dikaitkan dengan agama/spiritual. That she gave me marks pun because she already doa upon Allah, and that's what she supposed to give to me. bla bla bla. Ya Allah, dugaan kan. I tak pergi mengadu awal2 someone is back riding in the group. And yet I was being punished. Hati ini masih terkesan walaupun I want to let go the feeling and forgive. Lesson learned, when working in a group, if repeatedly someone is not working together - tell upfront including your lecturer. Don't cover up. Don't give face lah konon. Sebab you don't know that it will bite you!! On happy note, I knew who I can call friend and who is totally not a friend.

Semester 3
Still felt the stinging from bad result and being betrayed from last semester. Now, I got to accept the fact I could no longer grad pakai special robe, sebab dah tak dean's list lagi last semester. It really crashes one of my dreams. Somehow I kena bangun dari rasa kelam itu! Abah makin parah. Had to take him home and surround him with happiness. Not much hope that we have as told by the doctor. From time to time, kami balik kampung tengok abah. Sedih he makin susut, kurus dan tak kenal orang. I knew he would be proud if I continue what I love and good at. Habiskan study ni, focus!

I didn't stress myself poyo nak jadi project manager anymore though request to masih ada. I learned to let go certain things, for not wanting mendapat sakit hati kemudian hari. I minimized group work if possible and involve with friends whom I know them personally and know for sure we get along to do work together. Tapi ada jugak dapat group mate yang pelik. Though it's not really hard thing sebab I dah belajar untuk lebih terbuka.

Allah menguji hamba nya yang di sayang. Ye kan? Kali ni dapat group mate yang rasa dia above everyone else. Sebab dia pegawai kelas tinggi kerajaan. Back at work, dia Puan Besar yang disegani dan berkuasa. She corrected a lot of things of other people. So bossy she was. Even unnecessary things she stood to correct and wanted us to do her way. Yang mana boleh ikut, I ikut. But I made it to the point and before end of the final class inform the lecturer about the domestic issues in our group. Not to finger pointing, but conveyed the right message that we too contributed to the group.

Anyway, I got 4.0 for the second time. Syukur alhamdulillah. Getting good grades really made me feel, at least for awhile.

Work life, really stressing. With more field work and outstations. Boss no tolerating, and the people around not supporting. I was at the junction.

Semester 4
"kau pergi jua". Abah left us coming to half of the semester. Sangat sedih. Belajar pulak, the two subjects plus thesis that I took, sangat mengujakan. Subject Entrepreneurship jadi favourite immediately. Assignment yang mengajar untuk memahami business models dan business model canvas, seminar dan sebagainya sangat berguna (walaupun tak tahu bila nak apply). Thesis, I fell in love writing it and immerse into the topic of IT ethics. Walaupun lots of reading and interviews and questionnaires and meetings with supervisor need to be fulfilled... Tapi hasilnya , great!

I quit my job that I love right after Aidilfitri. My then helper ran away. The thing that I was most afraid of. Tapi itu juga yang ditentukan Allah. Sekali lagi I was tested. Got a replacement who stayed for a month. Then, the agent too ran away. We lost thousands. Malas nak cerita bab amik helper ni. Naik phobia.

I coped without helper. Manage kids, house and study (and husband too - ahaks). At times rasa really tired and almost gave up, tapi boleh ke a wife or mommy resign? Lol. Got to move on. Jalan terus kan?

Thesis pun ada challenges when the first round of questionnaire was a scrap. Not measurable according to statistician. The statistician (referred by husband's friend) then backed out! Alhamdulillah another friend ada contact to professional stats. So upah lah dia for RM300 to do the magic stuffs. Read and read and read of berpuluh journals sampai rasa mual dan tepu. Baru ada bayangan nak speed up. Masa tu got to draft the questionnaire for 2nd time and launched it. Praise to Allah I was blessed with helpful friends around and ya my cousin infact my husband too, to help in getting respondents.

Groupwork? Mesti ada cerita. This time around with Gen Y. Yes, they do work, think, take responsibility, talk, personality and every other things are slightly differs from us Gen X. Kalau tak percaya sila lah google. Not to say bad thing about them. But the quality is different. They might be intelligent than us in certain ways but..... to me it has to be in overall pandai. You need to have adab and respect other people too. And that includes other people time and etc. Sebagai pesanan penaja, when you work with Gen Y you kena firm. Don't let them over powering you. They need to learn to respect and be more responsible. Kita yang ada anak and husband pun boleh bagi commitment, why can't them yang single? It's not an excuse if they used to work last minute or they are busy with "things".

Now, it's all done. I'm so happy tak terkata. Thanks to everyone. Here goes my acknowledgement :-)

Praise only to Allah for giving me strength, perseverance and good health to complete this research within the stipulated time frame. Though this thesis is an individual work, I could never have reached the heights or explored the depths without the help, support, guidance and efforts from a lot of people around me.

Thanks are best when concrete therefore I would like to specifically describe the thanks for. Firstly, I would like to thank none other than my supervisor Encik Azhar Abd Aziz who helped me since day one when I felt and looked like one who was groping in the dark. So dark it was that he had to patiently guide me on all sorts of questions, lent me five thick books and hooked me with the statistics expert. Secondly the key people whom I cannot specify their individual names here, thank you for allowing me to reach to the ‘resources’ in your organizations (twice). I could not thank them enough. A very special thank you to my friend Zarina for the support she lent me through the years and the thought that ‘demo mesti boleh’.

My heartfelt thank you to my other half, Izznan AJ and the two prince (Adam and Idrees) who through thick and thin patiently waited that one day I could finish this study and we can together take a break somewhere having real good time. Not forgotten thank you to my mother for all the prayers and my late father whom will be so proud that his only daughter about to graduate.
Finally, to everyone else whom directly or indirectly has helped me in this research project, sincerely thanks.

Business model canvas - lean canvas

Last assignment for the semester was to present this business proposal. That was last week actually. :-)
My group which was led by myself chose to propose a startup promoting homestay where we become the broker between guests and hosts. The idea came after reading through 15 business models to copy. I was interested with AirBnB's business model and we took off from there with some tuning.

After few rounds of brainstorming and discussions, we put up the introduction, background, problems & motivation, objectives, scope, mission & vision, the lean canvas and process flow. Our brand is "CatchAhome2stay" and the tagline is "In here...there is always a place to call home". We also created the logo. It's really like we were setting up a business here. For this assignment too, we have to have deliverable in the form of website or mobile application. For that purpose, luckily we have a team member who knows how to develop a web page. To support the website, we also have FB page and Instagram. I was so lucky that one night while doing the discussion, came across the list of cool spots for staycation around Kuala Lumpur. So we took some of the photos from there (hypothetically those were recruited hosts under our brand :p)

During presentation, we were asked why we chose to use Lean Canvas instead of Business Model Canvas. Well my answer, it perfectly suited with want we wanted to do. Further more, from our research Lean Canvas is optimized for startup business. On top of that, Lean Canvas is much easier since it starts with the Problem. If you need to read more about lean canvas, do read in here.

Book Review: The world is flat

Hellooooo... it's been a long time since my last update. Bersawang la sangat kat sini. hehehehhe. Busy teramat menyiapkan thesis dan tugasan yang lain. Hanya Allah yang tahu macam mana kelam kabut nye I masa seminggu dua yang lepas...dan foreseeing seminggu dua yang akan datang jugak! Insya Allah, lepas abis semester ni boleh take a break dengan aman. Dah nak grad!!!! yahuuuuuu

Okay banyak benar sebenarnya nak update. But let me start with this one first. Esok ada presentation for our book review assignment. Me and Kak Ina as usual sparing partner sejati. Hahahhaha, patutnya rasa macam tak sempat nak buat this week nak mintak slot for next week. Tapi Kak Ina suggested to just do this week whatever yang sempat since next week ada lagi satu Project DSS presentation. Weeeee, and I'm here is struggling with thesis writing jugak. Rasa nak nangis, tapi tak pe la...mana boleh ikut kita cuba ikut. By the way, Kak Ina siap hadiahkan buku tu lagi (dah beli but belum dapat, she will give this Saturday)...we all dah ada ebook sebab this Saturday dah nak present maka I was referring to the ebook je lah while doing this assignment. 674 pages flipped through pakai note 2 or laptop jek. Tabah!

Obviously within 2-3 days, it is not possible for me to read word by word the 674 pages. Maka, we have to have a better strategy supaya assignment siap and in the end tak kantoi dengan prof masa sesi soal jawab nanti as if we read the entire book. Just before I go to how I did it, let us understand apa itu book review. I got this one (may not be the best but suffice to describe the meaning) from Los Angeles Valley College, which you can read full in here, a book review is not retelling nor a summary. "A book review is a description, critical analysis, and an evaluation on the quality, meaning, and significance of a book. It should focus on the book's purpose, content, and authority"

So how I did it?
1. Get copy of previous students presentation or book review summary (kalau ada)
2. Search on the Internet for couple of book reviews for that particular book - confirm ada punya!
3. Look at the table of content, chapters assignment and etc. I wrote it down somewhere in piece of paper
4. Read the first 100 pages word by word , jot down key points whichever deem important on that same peace of paper used in #3
5. Take the chapters you will be focusing, read the first two paragraphs and the last paragraph. If you have time scheme through the middle. Don't forget to jot down key points in that same sheet of paper. You will see lots of writing and cloud of words by now.
6. Do up the slide deck. Take a look of mine in the below. I used icons to help me jog the memory on certain stories in the content. I found it useful.
7. It's done!

This book entitled 'The world is flat' by author Thomas L. Friedman. Now it is already version 3.0, a well received book by many people all over the whole who eager to know about globalization. It's a worth book to buy and read. I like the way the author wrote the book by quoting other people he met on the field while working as journalist. I was at first thought he's a little judgmental about Islam being terrorist..but further reading made me understood that he actually had different view. That vast majority of Islam don;t share the violent agenda.

A day as an emcee for a seminar

Ingat tak hari tu cerita pasal ada event dekat UiTM kelas kita orang kena organize? Ada blog dekat sini. I jadi emcee. Ni second time jadi emcee untuk event kelas. Pengalaman jadi emcee ni seronok sebab kita control the majlis pastu semua orang tunggu kita nak umum...next agenda.. jemput makan! ... selesailah sudah! Walaupun I ni agak pendiam orang nya, tapi jadi emcee ni rasanya manageable. I had fun doing it.

Bila jadi emcee macam hari tu, I kena kenal VIP yang hadir dan guest speakers. Bukan kenal sahaja but their full names must be announced correctly. Tu penting tu, sebab I don't like ppl wrongly sebut nama I. Sebagai emcee juga we have to be well verse of the agenda, beritahu audience dekat mana toilet pun I kira penting juga :p Emcee kena prepare script sebab nanti ada details yang terlupa.. Emcee jugak kena tahu nak operate cordless mic dan kalau mic abis bateri kena standby mic lain untuk speakers di depan.

Kalau I jadi emcee, I always try to relate or recap in brief apa yang speaker terdahulu cakap. Contoh nya, speaker yang pertama beritahu 6 tips nak jadi entrepreneur, di mana tip #1 bermula dengan "let's do more than just the assignment given by lecturers". Haaaa, I'd remind the audience of the first tip while thanking the first speaker then introducing the second speaker! Macam ada continuity di situ! Technically it has to be that way...baru macam ada 'life' to what the emcee said kan?

Jom tengok gambar sekitar hari seminar di adakan. :-)

Have you heard about Board of Innovation?

Yay! it is the final blog post for my SYS 752 class - IT Entrepreneurship & Innovation. I have yet to review the 15 business models, but sooner or later I have to go through it. Still looking for possible project title ...padahal nak kena present the business proposal dah next Saturday. Homaigod!

By the way, the event went well just now. Kalau ingat lagi I had a blog post on the event sometime ago in here. I was the emcee though I had pretty nasty cough towards the end that my classmate had to take a over to close the event. Will post up some photos very soon! :-)

Jom cari idea nak bukak bisnes apa. Which business model to adopt? How can we make money?

They are an international office specialized in business model innovation. They help corporate clients like eBay, P&G, J&J, and Volkswagen to innovate like startups, and to develop sustainable new revenue streams.

They claims they are next gen entrepreneurs that think like designers but speak business! In their latest slide deck they have visualized 15 business model examples from innovative companies. Let's review those and what have you got to say?

15 companies you should copy: business models visualised by @boardofinno from Board of Innovation .com

Visit the website here to know more.

My business-owner-neighbor says on creativity, innovative and entrepreneurship

This will be my 9th post for the class.

While having casual chat with my pretty neighbor who is a business owner of a training consultancy the other day, I had the idea to ask her few questions related to creativity, innovative and entrepreneurship. Let us see the transcript from conversational interview done with her (some edits and insertion of interpretation deem necessary to make it complete):

Me: How do you interpret creativity, innovative and entrepreneurship in the context of your business?

Neighbor: I'm a business owner, image consultant, business development and I do a lot of things being a small enterprise. That requires me to be creative. Take for example me as an Image consultant. I need to have common sense and be alert of suitable approach to reach to customers. I used to handle crowd from different background - single parent, politician, corporate, students. If I were to say a joke during my session I would need to be sensitive of the people, situation as not to hurt the participants. I have to be creative in handling situations.

I need to be innovative with the syllabus offered in my training session. Following trend and keep abreast with the latest happening will allow me to have a fresh content that is able to meet customer requirement. I'm seeing it as giving me an upper-hand against the competitors.

As for entrepreneurship, people's problem is my opportunity. It's not that I'm praying for them to have problems that I'll be glad to solve, but how do I bring the branding of my consultancy to the potential customers. The unique values that I want them to recognize my company. I chose to take care of welfare in my business. I don't only target for corporate where the big bucks mostly from, I also do for welfare agencies like JKSM and Jabatan Insolvensi. Even just for 'tea fees'. I believe if we do good, Insya allah there will be better rezeki for us in future. I am very committed when it comes to customers satisfaction. I want them to get the best so they will come back to me someday. And one more thing, we got to believe our product and never be shame about it. Even though you have to knock on every door!

Me: What was your story behind the startup of this consultancy company?
Neighbor: It was for my late mom. She prioritized 'kemahiran hidup' (life skills) as a woman. She was a tailor, busy took care 10 of us and still looked good and happy most of the time that I remembered her for. Because of her positive aura, when she was around she made me feel good about myself. She was my idol. And because of that, I wanted to make other people beautiful and feel good about themselves too. People nowadays are too stress for lots of factors like work, relationship and financial. I feel like I need to help them.

Me: From an idea, what did you do to make it happen?
Neighbor: I befriended with people of the same minded. I found entrepreneur friend who can share knowledge, experience, and leverage on contacts. It is not easy, but I just have to keep going.

That is all for the so called conversational interview. I realized one common thing, when there is a problem there is an opportunity! Good Luck neighbor. You sure can do it!

Akhlak siswa terhadap pensyarah

Salam uols. Title macam nak bagi ceramah. Actually post kali ni is very much for myself.. I want to record somewhere what I did and how I felt as a student yang tengah bertungkus lumus nak bagi abis semester ni. Insya allah boleh grad by January! As much as it is for myself, I need to show and tell my kids to how we have to respect the teachers.

Very interesting content I found dekat blog dari seberang kepunyaan saudara Hafidzyah. Boleh baca selanjutnya di sini.

"Seorang siswa wajib berbuat baik kepada guru dalam erti menghormati, memuliakan dengan ucapan dan perbuatan, sebagai balas jasa atas kebaikan yang diberikannya. Siswa berbuat baik dan berakhlak mulia atau bertingkah laku kepada guru dengan dasar pemikiran sebagai berikut":

1. Memuliakan dan menghormati guru termasuk satu perintah agama
2. Guru adalah orang yang sangat mulia

Kes balas jasa la ni, hari Jumaat lepas setelah lebih setengah semester Mr. Supervisor dok tolong I yang diibaratkan "groping in the dark"...I bawak Big Apple Donut sebagai buah tangan. Selama nih, tangan kosong jek! Bertuah punya student. Mintak tolong macam2, dah tolong macam2...tak reti-reti ke...Ehehhehehe...

Okay lah..hasil perjumpaan hari Jumaat tu membuahkan hasil yang lumayan sampai dia mintak documents and kena drop by kat office dia some other day. Oh yes, he also wanted to lend me some books on "Qualitative Research" so memang nak tak nak have to come again lah nampak gayanya!

Saturday on Deepavali, before ke rumah Prof Mardziah sempat singgah office Mr. Supervisor and slipped the document under the door. Dalam hati, ada chance I can skip datang amik buku from him on Monday (later je lah pinjam buku tuh).
Tapi........... lepas meeting with statistician, ada important points need to be discussed.... Kena jugak ulang pergi faculty (malasnyaaaaaaa..plus need to arrange Adam and Idrees to be sent to day care sebab tak de orang kat rumah. Dilemma! Dilemma!)

That was me after meeting with Mr. Supervisor petang tadi. Lepas abis je, rushinggggggggg.... terus fetch the kids and balik rumah.

Tadaaaaa...books to read and digest. Selamat membaca to me!

Till then :-)

Happy Deepavali

Orang lain cuti hari ni, berehat kat rumah, tengok movie Thor, jalan2 ke Penang....tapi Iols pergi buat presentation dekat Rumah Prof. Ingat tak hari tu yang sibuk buat Zalora Business Model tu (tak ingat boleh baca sini)... ha pergi present bende tu lah. Alhamdulillah dah settled. Happy ... rasa kepala pun ringan sikit dah...

Sebelum presentation sempat lagi amik group photo. ehhehe..Prof jamu we all lunch. Sedap husband dia masak! I present right after lunch break, orang yang ke-3. Lepas abis present terus cabut balik, pecut la konon nak sampai awal. Sekali kena tinggal, hubby and kids dah keluar outing ke Summit. Uwaaaaaa...mencik aaa cam nih!

Duduk sorang2 layan la Dil To Pagal Hai dekat Channel 108, kata hari ni Deepavali!


Uols buat apa hari ni?

Review of Zalora Business Model - class assignment

I'm occupied these few days because of the assignment. Hari Sabtu ni have to present it in front of the class while makan-makan dekat rumah Prof. Prof I tu caterer too. Boleh jumpa kat sini. No wonder lah dia mengajar IT Entrepreneurship & Innovation. She is Professor cum business owner. Kau ada? Haaaaaa..senyap dan terus baca nih...

There are over 20 powerful brands/companies being selected untuk dikupas mengenai business model setiap entiti tersebut. I picked Zalora. Mind you this entry is not to review Zalora services ke apa, this is mainly nak share the gist of what I have studied and going to put together dalam slide preso.

Tak semua slide content I have prepared will be featured in here. Biarlah rahsia! Nanti salah fakta mampos aku. Perlu diingatkan segala rujukan adalah melalui Internet dan juga ada contoh dari budak sem lepas yang buat Zalora jugak (but I thought the other girl buat macam tak cukup ramuan so I go dig more myself). Credit to infographic menarik pasal Zalora yang ada di Internet lagi senang faham some of the details. :-) I memang suka infographic.

To be honest, I have never shopped at Zalora before despite people going gaga after the big noise made on TV and radio commercials sometime last year masa baru launched dulu. Ada yang positive and negative feedback I heard from friends pasal service Zalora ni. Before this, I thought Zalora is a local company made big in the e-commerce industry. Ceh, sekali company omputih uols! I sokong fashionvalet.net (tetiba patriotik pulak, mesti lah kan!)

#1 Core business

Zalora core business is Internet fashion retailer. They have over 600+ local and international brands, 30,000+ products across womenswear, menswear, kidswear, sportswear, traditional wear, beauty and lifestyle products and more.

#2 Value Proposition

Further convenience is what Zalora online shopping presents as a value proposition. The convenience comes from purchases of desired item within a click away and supported with elements such as wide range of offerings for everyone, multiple options for payment methods, on-call customer service and return policy.

#3 Revenue model

Zalora earns money through Sales and Affiliates. Sales are those coming from e and m commerce. It is said mobile commerce represents 25% of the revenue.

#4 Competitive Advantage

Their competitive advantages are in the form of free shipping (spend over RM75), thirty-day return policy, and payment upon receiving the item (Cash on Delivery).

#5 Lesson Learned

The three pointers are my humble opinion. What can be learned from their successful business:
(1) Different country will have it's own localization. That can be seen in the website appearance, offerings like Malaysia will have Muslimah wear, on board local designers like Malaysia will have Rizalman and Jovian
(2) Advertising & marketing power - leverage on technology/social media, go big and make noise
(3) Be bold on the key differentiator

Okay tak? Wish me luck this coming Saturday. Till then!