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Friday, 27 January 2012

Measuring Happiness

BY Bain Insights, Forbes Contributor

Fred ReichheldFred Reichheld

Happiness has been a hot topic in business lately and I’ve been delighted to see such a serious subject get the attention it deserves in the corner office. In the Jeffersonian tradition, the “pursuit of happiness” is considered an inalienable right on par with life and liberty. Yet, until recently, managers here and elsewhere in the world made little effort to rigorously measure or manage happiness.

That was part of the reason I created the Net Promoter score (NPS) nine years ago. When I was considering various names for the new metric, I thought seriously about calling it the Net Happiness Score. We describe NPS as a measure of loyalty, but the overarching objective of the framework is to make people happy—so happy that they recommend a product or company to friends and loved ones so they can benefit from a similar experience.

Of course, I ended up calling it NPS. I decided against NHS as a name because I feared it might sound too corny or whimsical to hard-minded business execs, causing them to overlook the very real connection between how customers feel about their experience with a company and that company’s profitable, sustainable growth.

But even today we still maintain a not-so-subtle link between NPS and happiness through the emoticons we use to report the scores.  For example, we communicate a Net Promoter Score of 75 with a wall of faces like this:
Net Promoter score emoticon wall

It’s pretty hard to miss the link between NPS and the emotional energy of happy or unhappy people when looking at a picture like this. Using emoticons to represent promoters, passives and detractors requires little additional explanation. What’s more, the happy, passive and angry faces illustrate that making people happy and earning their loyalty creates emotional outcomes, not just economic ones.

“If you figure out how to make employees happy and make customers happy, then the business just kind of takes care of itself,” says Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh. “It’s just about delivering happiness.”



Well, it’s not quite that simple since the happiness must deliver profits—but companies already have well-advanced measures to focus efforts on profits. What they have lacked is a rigorous metric for happiness—until the adoption of NPS. Leading practitioners use different language to describe the underlying emotional engine of NPS: Apple talks about enriching lives. Intuit talks about delighting customers. Rackspace talks about “Fanatical Service.”  But they are all talking about the same thing: making customers happier.

As I have noted before, in our work at Bain & Company we find it nearly impossible to separate the notions of employee happiness and customer happiness—they are two sides of the same coin.  There is no way to consistently turn customers into promoters unless they are being served by employees who are equally enthusiastic about their work, and there’s no way employees can be enthusiastic about their work if the customers they deal with all day long are detractors.

Some leaders assume that simply making employees happy will result in happy customers. That is dangerous thinking. When employees come to believe that the job of their leader is to make them happy, the result is almost always entitled but uninspired employees—who help create fewer and fewer happy customers.

Leaders can and should treat their employees well, but they can’t make them happy. True happiness must be earned through meaningful service to others. When a customer scores an employee’s work a 9—or especially a 10—they are giving a standing ovation that provides a real source of sustainable happiness.

What bosses can do is make sure their people are in a position to earn lots of 10s from their customers—by structuring teams correctly, assigning good leaders, providing the right tools and training, supporting them with good policies and putting individuals in roles that play to their strengths. And, as important as any of these, they can install a system that measures the impact employees have on customers and lets employees hear that feedback in a timely manner.

Many loyalty leading companies install employee NPS feedback systems to work in parallel with their customer NPS systems, because they recognize the close and interconnected relationship between customer and employee happiness. Integrating those two systems isn’t always easy—employee feedback has long been the province of the HR department, and employee NPS drifts naturally in that direction.

But loyalty leaders such as Apple Retail and JetBlue work hard to ensure that employee engagement isn’t pursued independently of the goal of delighting customers. Instead, they ensure that they set up a virtuous circle that positions employees to earn “10s” from customers and to hear about it and are rewarded for it. Employee and customer Net Promoter feedback systems remain fully integrated at those companies, because they are part of the same pursuit—the pursuit of happiness.

Fred Reichheld is a fellow at Bain & Company and co-author, with Rob Markey, of The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven World, published in September by HBR Press.

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Obama and Bernanke: Cooking Up Another Market Bubble?


BY James Marshall Crotty, Forbes Contributor
 
"Ben, look. You have to keep interest rates low or I am toast, dude."

The two most important leaders on planet earth each delivered major public speeches in the last 24 hours. Last night U.S. President Barack Obama, in what might be the last State of the Union address of his political career, suggested that the economy is improving, unemployment is heading down, the world is safer, and America’s standing in the world vastly improved all because of his administration’s policies. In a press conference this afternoon, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (by far, the most powerful non-elected person on the planet) delivered a more cautious assessment, suggesting that improved economic conditions, including decreased unemployment and steadily low inflation, will be affected by what happens in Europe and in the broader non-U.S. global economy (hint: China). Today’s upward rise in the U.S. stock market suggests that investors believe both men might be right. That is, there will be economic headwinds, but the U.S. will manage those headwinds well.



Just to make sure, Bernanke signaled that the Fed would keep interest rates low at least through 2014. This is unhappy news to America’s savers and the rabidly anti-Fed Ron Paul (who believes Fed money printing is the root cause of our economic malaise), but music to the ears of investors, new homebuyers, and for what Obama terms those “responsible homeowers” seeking home refinancing (who will now pay a 30-year mortgage rate of just 3.88%). Who knows, maybe housing principal forgiveness is on the way too (ah, heck, throw in a toaster while’s you’re at it).

But, with such initiatives, are Obama and Bernanke just cooking up another housing and market bubble to go along with the current student loan bubble?

What are your thoughts on Obama’s State of the Union and the Fed Chairman’s news conference today? Are things slowly getting better? Will we be able to manage the turmoil in Europe and a slower growth China? Will their remedies make the U.S. economy stronger long-term?

Or are these two men missing some elephant in the living room?

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‘Trillionaire’ Emperor mocked by Netizens!

kamal2

Kamal Ashnawi's tale draws scorn and sarcasm from online community

P. ARUNA aruna@thestar.com.my The Star/Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA: The Tanjung Malim-born, who claims to be a “trillionaire” and the owner of treasure stashed away in a secret cave, has got the online community buzzing about his proclamation of royalty, too.

Most of the comments were scornful and sarcastic, with many calling Kamal Ashnawi the creator of a mighty tall tale.

In response, Kamal said he was not surprised by the negative reaction, saying the “common people” would soon see evidence of his claims.

Facebook user Khairul Nizam Anuarul Hakim said Kamal’s story was illogical and compared it to popular Japanese comic character Doraemon.



“The story of Doraemon seems more logical than this guy’s story,” he said.

Kamal, 48, a Dutch citizen, claimed, in an article published in The Star yesterday, that he was a descendant of royal families in China, India, Java and Siam.

He said 86.7% of the money in the world belonged to him as he had treasures hidden in a three-metre-high cave, with gold bars stacked up like a pagoda, US$15mil (RM46mil) in jade and US$10mil (RM31mil) in diamonds and stacks of US dollars.


kamal_namecard

Kamal, who hopes to be recognised as the Emperor of Indonesia soon, claimed that the treasures belonged to the dynasties that ruled China, and that there was more in other mountains and vaults all over the world.


He had shown documents, allegedly from a London branch of HSBC, to prove that he has five trillion euros (RM20 trillion) in an account there.

Kamal said he had come forward because there were too many false claims by others who said they were owners of the royal assets.

Both the local and London branches of HSBC bank declined to verify Kamal’s claims, citing confidentiality.

Acting Indonesian ambassador Mulya Wirana said they had heard of others making such claims but “nothing of this magnitude”.

“There have been many others who have made claims about treasure belonging to Indonesian royalty and they have all turned out to be fake,” he said yesterday.

Mulya added that his government had never heard of Kamal but said he would look into the claims.

Related post:

A 'trillionaire' descendent of the Emperor of China is the ‘Emperor of Indonesia’?

Will China's rise shape Malaysian Chinese community?



Khoo Boo Hong of the Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi clan associations in Penang, Malaysia. Khoo Boo Hong says overseas Chinese are no longer seen as the rich ones
 
In Malaysia's northern state of Penang, a distinct shift is being felt in the immigrant Chinese community, as it rides the wave of China's economic rise.

The Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi, one of the richest clan associations, used to send money back to their ancestral home in Fujian province, China.

But that is changing as places like Sin Aun, a fishing village that the clan members' families hail from, are now bustling and have no need for money sent from overseas.

"In the past, overseas Chinese were seen as more wealthy but now the Chinese from China are even richer than us," says the clan association's Khoo Boo Hong.

Indeed, Chinese money is becoming more visible in Penang. A bridge that is currently under construction is being partly financed by a cheap loan from the Chinese government. The 4.5bn Malaysian ringgit (US$1.4bn) project is set to be the longest bridge in South East Asia, stretching 24km (15 miles).

The Chinese community in Malaysia acts as a bridge for business opportunities in China. The Chinese community in Malaysia acts as a bridge for business opportunities in China.
 
In 2010, Malaysia was one of China's biggest trading partners from South East Asia. Two-way trade hit 147bn Malaysian ringgit (US$46.3bn) last year, with a push to more than double that amount by 2015.

'Special relationship'
 
Much of the trade has been established by the Chinese Malaysian community, says Oh Ei Sun, the former political secretary on Chinese affairs to Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Malaysia was the first South East Asian country to form diplomatic ties with China in 1974.



China's diaspora

  • First major emigration in 14th-16thC by traders and seafarers
  • Colonial powers used Chinese as labourers in SE Asia and the Americas
  • But also have reputation for business success
  • There are about 30m overseas Chinese in total
  • Indonesia and Thailand have the biggest numbers - 7-9m each (estimates)
  • Singapore has the highest concentration - 3m, or 75% of its population
As a result the two countries have a special relationship, and the Chinese in Malaysia have tried to exploit this kinship by developing business ties with China, says Mr Oh.

The Chinese began arriving on Malaysian shores in the early 15th Century. Today, they make up 24% of a population of 28 million, and have always been more prosperous than other ethnic communities.

According to a 2011 Forbes magazine list, eight out of the top 10 richest Malaysians are ethnic Chinese.

This wealth imbalance has fuelled long-standing resentment among the Malay majority. It erupted into deadly race riots in 1969 - violence that two years later led the government to implement an affirmative action plan called the New Economic Policy.

This gave ethnic Malays and indigenous groups privileges over the Chinese and Indians, such as cheaper housing, priority in university scholarships and civil service jobs. The policy officially ended in 1990 but it has been succeeded by similar plans.

Businessman Lim Cheah Chooi hires Malaysian or Singaporean Chinese managers for his factories in China Lim Cheah Chooi hires Malaysian or Singaporean Chinese managers for his factories in China
 
"The quota system is still in place on so many levels," says Teo Nie Ching, a lawmaker from the opposition Democratic Action Party. This limits job prospects for Malaysian Chinese in certain businesses, including listed companies, she says.

"After so many generations [the Chinese] still feel that we are second class citizens," Ms Teo says.
Analysts say this sense of alienation has made many Malaysian Chinese look for opportunities elsewhere, including China.

Speaking the language
 
As the Chinese economy opens up, Malaysian Chinese act as a bridge because many are educated in the United States or Britain but they can also understand the Chinese language and culture, says Lim Cheah Chooi.

His engineering firm, Unimech Group Berhad, has production factories in China, but he employs Malaysian or Singaporean Chinese at the middle management level.

This is something you see even among local Chinese companies who export to the West, says Mr Lim.

"How many people can say they speak Mandarin, multiple Chinese dialects, Malay and English? Most Malaysian Chinese can," he says.

This advantage is maintained because of Malaysia's multilingual education system. Ethnic Chinese and Indians can choose to study at the primary level in their mother tongue.

With the rise of China, more and more people, including non-Chinese, want to learn Mandarin, says Yong Yeow Khoon, CEO of the Chinese-language newspaper Guang Ming Daily in Penang, who is also a board member at an independent Chinese school.

The number of non-Chinese in Chinese vernacular schools is estimated to have grown to over 60,000 over the last three decades.

Even the Malay prime minister has sent his son to learn Mandarin at the Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Optimists point to this as a sign of increasing acceptance of Chinese culture by the Malay community. But some say this is wishful thinking.

Attitude change?
 
Although the government has been pushing for national unity through the 1Malaysia slogan, analysts interviewed by the BBC do not believe that there is a fundamental change in attitude towards the Malaysian Chinese.

Economist Cheong Kee Cheok, who used to work for the World Bank, says some Malays do not distinguish between the Chinese from China and the ones from Malaysia.

"Malaysia in some ways is hostage to its own politics," says Mr Cheong.

He also says that Malaysia needs to be more aggressive in accessing the Chinese market. It may have had a head start in China, but "unfortunately...never used this advantage".

He believes much more can be done to facilitate relations between the two countries. At the moment most businesses who get into China are through the individual efforts of Malaysian Chinese businessmen, he says.
He says Malaysian leaders are not serious about China's rise.

The latest visit from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao in April could lend credence to this theory.

Malaysian blogs were filled with complaints about the grammatical mistakes on the welcome banner put up for Mr Wen in Chinese, suspected to be roughly translated from Malay.

Interpretations vary but the Chinese banner read: "Official welcoming ceremony, with him together his Excellency Wen Jiabao official interview Malaysia."

Many comments on Lowyat.net forum said that was shameful, given that ethnic Chinese people form the second-largest population in this multi-racial country.

"What do you expect? No Chinese working in government," wrote automan5891.

Related post:

Chinese, and truly Malaysian?

More on This Story

Thursday, 26 January 2012

A 'trillionaire' descendent of the Emperor of China is the ‘Emperor of Indonesia’?

Enter the ‘Emperor of Indonesia

 

 By PHILIP GOLINGAI The Star/Asia News Network

A Tanjung Malim-born Dutch citizen claims he is a descendent of the Emperor of China and that his bloodline is linked to royal families in India, Java and Siam.

IT is not every day that you get to meet a trillionaire. So when I was invited to interview Kamal Ashnawi, a person I've never heard of, I said yes.

On Saturday morning, at a Kuala Lumpur hotel coffee house together with two of Kamal's aides, I waited for the so-called trillionaire.

Wearing a baseball cap, long-sleeved shirt and jeans, he sauntered over to our table. The two aides bowed, pressed their palms together to their forehead as if greeting royalty and kissed his hands.

“We call him Tuanku as he is a sultan from Indonesia,” one of the aides whispered to me.

The money trail: Kamal with a document which he claims proves that he is a trillionaire. >>

According to Kamal, he is a Dutch citizen born in Tanjung Malim, Perak, on Jan 1, 1964.

“I'm a descendent of the Emperor of China and in a history that went haywire, my family fled from China to Kedah. I traced my bloodline to the royal families of China, India, Java and Siam,” claimed the man who is also known as Raden Mas Prabhu Gusti Agung Ki Asmoro Wijoyo.

“I grew up in Tanjung Malim and my family here is very simple and ordinary. Nobody in my family talks about our royal blood and wealth. But my grandmother once told me: “You are special and, when the time comes, you will know.”

It was in Holland in the late 1980s that Kamal “found out who he really was”. A member of an Indonesian royal family, kicked out of the country by president Sukarno, told him he was of royal blood.

In London in the early 1990s, a lawyer told Kamal about his royal family's massive wealth. Unconvinced, he told the lawyer to prove his claims.

He and the lawyer flew from London to Hong Kong to meet the “keeper of the royal treasure”. From there, Kamal and the keeper travelled to Kunming in China.



They hiked up a mountain for four hours and reached a cave guarded by an old couple who, Kamal says, are immortals.

“If you tried to pass them without their blessing, you would cough blood and die,” he said.

Inside the three-metre-high cave, Kamal saw gold bars stacked like a pagoda, US$15mil (RM46mil) in jade and US$10mil (RM31mil) in diamonds and stacks of US dollars.

“I took a gold bar and knocked it on a rock. It was really gold. The treasure is the wealth of the dynasties that ruled China. Their wealth was also kept in other mountains and in vaults all over the world,” he said.

About three years ago, when Kamal watched Nicholas Cage's movie National Treasure, he laughed.

“The treasure in the movie was small compared to the wealth I saw in the mountain,” he said.

Next, Kamal told of his meeting two years ago in Kuala Lumpur with Dr Wong Eng Po, a royal physician from China.

Dr Wong placed his hand on Kamal's bald head, then immediately bowed in front of Kamal and ordered his five followers to do the same.

“He said I was the reincarnation of Emperor Nurhaci (1661-1626) of China. He felt an energy on my head which was superhuman because an emperor, unlike an ordinary human, has to think more.

“I'm the reincarnation of two emperors of China,” Kamal added.

He elaborated that a few years ago, the royal family decided he would be the sole administrator of the royal wealth kept in secret accounts in about 1,000 banks worldwide.

“This means that 86.7% of the world's money belongs to me,” he said.

Taking out several folders, Kamal said: “You're lucky, I brought documents.”

He produced an A4-sized paper with the photographs of the national treasure, the immortal couple and several “official-looking” letters allegedly from HSBC certifying he has an account of five trillion euros (RM20tril).

“That is a small amount. I have more money in other banks and institutions,” he added.

I wondered why his name has not appeared in the Forbes' list of world's richest people. And a suspicion lingered about his claims.

However, I could not authenticate his documents since the bank was closed for Chinese New Year.
Kamal has not made any withdrawal from the account as “it is not money that you can move just like that”.

“The money is under the control of Indonesia, Germany, Britain, the US and the Euro Central Bank and I've got to go smooth with them,” he said.

“I can't use the money directly but I will invest in certain projects. Like three trillion euros (RM12tril) to green a desert in China.”

Curious, I asked what was the difference between a billionaire and a trillionaire.

He replied: “A billionaire needs to show he has the money. But for me, I don't need to show that I got money. I can travel in a bus. I can wear slippers.”

Born in the year of the dragon, Kamal believes 2012 is his year. In March, he says he will negotiate with institutions such as the IMF to be recognised as the Emperor of Indonesia.

He says he's rich. But his story could just be as rich.

Let's hope he is not another Elie Youssef Najem, the so-called Lebanese billionaire who made headlines for all the wrong reasons.