Ryan Ho's Entrepreneurship Blog

Just like the leadership picture above, “The leader always sets the trail for others to follow”

In the recent ongoing Thailand flooding news, Yingluck Shinawatra the new Prime Minister of Thailand is immediately being placed in a position to be tested for her leadership and ability to take Thailand and move forward.

Being faced with the sudden flooding over increase rainfall and poor water dam management system, lack of governor support from Bangkok, she shares the same fate of any politician across the globe and suffered a recent drop in satisfaction in the country survey with her as the Prime Minister.

Looking back at how she became elected, most critics would clearly comment that it was her brother Thaksin Shinawatra who has elevated her status over close ties due to family bonding. Just as Yingluck was elected into the office, she had a minister office meeting with Thaksin on the video conference to advise the cabinet ministers on the exact steps and instructions on how to run the country prior to the flooding, so as to enforce a pillar of support drilling down into the cabinet ministers who are all guys to listen to Yingluck, as she can’t shake away the gossips of her being the puppet of her brother.

As to why Yingluck won, it’s clear to anybody who’s got concerned and knows the importance of network, connections to those individuals who has both power and ability to run a country where some ministers still trust Thaksin and not Yingluck.

Abhisit Vejjajiva the former Prime Minister on the other hand got to power by primarily having merchants and investors support on his side to climb up to that position, but it isn’t long before the truth is revealed as he also has got news reports of bribing or favoring investors more over country’s political laws at the expense of the poor.

Abhist got kicked out from the cabinet due to the almost similar method that he used on Thaksin, which is to favor the rich investors for support, but what he failed to do is to win the support of the poor too, a move that Thaksin did extremely well, at least when it comes to the Red Shirts.

If you were to follow closely to how Thailand’s change of leadership over the last few years where news surface and reasons contributing to their downfall. There’s a couple of reasons to why strong leadership is critical towards a success of a nation.

Strong leadership is important for the following reasons:

1. To lead and improve the living conditions of the masses (majority)

This is evident during Thaskin era when he was still the Prime Minister, having the support of both the Red and Yellow shirt party.

Red shirt support comes in the form of the poverty majority, whereas Yellow shirt comes in the form of silent support from the Thailand King who maintain a neutral position when Abhist was trying to topple Thaksin down, thus the Yellow shirt didn’t make much noise when he was at the top following the loyalty to the King.

2. To go against the views of the ill-informed (poor mindset individuals) who are making the wrong decisions to push forward against the tide to make reforms for the better future.

As much as Yellow shirt dislike Thaksin, could be due to wrong information, disagreements in how the country is being run, thus the strong opposition, but time has proven Thaksin to be clean and still holds influential support in terms of bilateral ties. Yingluck appointed a former Thaksin entrusted minister to fixed the strain ties between Cambodia and Thailand over the historical temple parked directly on the border of both countries and got the matter fixed.

Unlike before when Abhist was still in office, Thailand and Cambodia was like kids fighting each other just to win for the pride of their own ego just to prove their point in not backing down despite repeated agreements to cease-fire to return peace to the civilians living near the temple.

That said, connections is extremely important, as Countries and Businesses alike, they only work with people they like. Period.

3. Win the support of the majority to have a large bargaining chip to  to reach a mutually beneficial agreement on both sides internally within a country.

Thaksin has won over the hearts of many people, at least within the red shirts, the poor, middle class and even the high social status individuals including the ministers over proven track record of delivering results and profits for the benefit of the country.

The only thing he didn’t do is to cut all ties from his personal business when he is in office as a Prime Minister, thus causing the backlash and giving his political competitors an opportunity to use it against him placing himself on the chopping board.

4. To win the support of external players (foreign countries support for aid in times of need)

When Thaksin flew global and went into self-exile, many countries were willing to lend him a helping hand, it is solely because of his knowledge and experience in running a country and producing consistent profits and most importantly (proven results), strong support from home country despite his lack of physical absence, his popularity is still consistent and didn’t drop, but rise on the other hand. Something that other countries’ Ministers cannot achieve.

5. To balance and neutralize the poisonous intoxicated thinking of the poor over time in proving that the leadership roles taken by the Prime Minister is correct and ultimately win the support of the very people who are initially against him/her.

The most difficult part of leadership is also at times having to force down a bitter pill down the throat of the supporters for their own good even if they don’t see it that way. While Yingluck has just assume office in the cabinet, she has got more obstacles standing in her way than the other earlier prime ministers.

Only time will tell if she is up to the role as prime minister.

In terms of business, running a company is also like running a country, just that the roles and responsibility is somewhat smaller due to financial asset and the impact it has on the country.

But like any leader, the person running the company must have strong leadership skills and many different resources, network and flexible enough to solve problems when they do surface and making sure the problems do not repeat itself again in future.

Singapore did a good job in this aspect avoiding the most financial woes of US, and Europe as she learn her lessons not to be overdependent on foreign nations.But as much as Singapore is trying to avoid the effects of foreign woes, it will still be affected due to long term positive working relations that will affect the economy.

United States of Amercia (USA) on the other hand is still suffering the losses in financial market since the downfall of Lehman Brothers and without a huge bank occupying the leadership role, the side effects of a no leader situation is clear, where unemployment is high, made worse following most recently rogue trader with a $2.3 billion of trade loss adding to the unemployment woes.

In terms of Europe, it is primarily due to uncooperative to nation as Geek lets the people decide their own fate to accept foreign financial aid or not on condition they tighten their budget and make changes beneficial to foreign countries that will be painful to Geek civilians at least in the immediately short term.

It is clear that being at the top isn’t a simple task and is constantly under pressure to delivery, thus strong leadership skills is crucial if success at the top is what each and everyone of us are looking for.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Unity is to be undivided or unbroken completeness. It is the state of being completed as a whole, combining parts into one with the absence of diversity without and having a common goal or focus.

Together as a whole, in quantity, it translates to quality in terms of strength and a force not to be reckon with. Following the updates of Thailand demonstration that has lasted for the past month, it has come to the attention that even military is helpless against the united group of demonstrators.

While the politicians wanted to capture the red shirt leaders, the red shirt demonstrators successful defended their leaders and even assisted in their escape.

Military going up against the civilians might sounds a strange because one side is fully armed for combat while the other party isn’t, but with time and news reports, it have proved that without weapons, and sheer numbers, military can be push over when people come in numbers as reported in news.

It is the cooperation of all individual demonstrators of the red shirts which made the demonstration successful and cause the military helpless plus tourism in Thailand suffered millions losses in terms of revenue. That is a classic example of unity, and power that represents the people, civilians are the boss of the politicians.

Looking at the model of the boss or employment, while it’s true that we work for money, and our boss are paying us income in return for service, the biggest boss which refers to the politicians and governments of every nation still have to listen to their bigger boss who are paying them their income in the form of taxes, which is ordinary civilians.

Upset the real boss, and politicians will have a tough time clearing up the mess. The real power lies in the people, not the politicians, as they are still serving the people.

Politics and government is a people business, the rich politicians have to listen to their real boss the civilians and their requests else they will be forced to leave their post, especially when votes and elections are being made.

Communication and listening to what our clients wants and needs are important if we want to be rich and successful and at the same time earning the respect of our real boss.

Ironic but true.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Provocateurs are people who are employed by an entity to act as a undercover and to entice, provoke another person, group or business to commit wrong and rash actions.

It is a strategic and intelligent move by taking advantage of the weakest link.

It is a silent killer in politics everywhere, from home, schools to office politics and even businesses, such people are always around, and how often are you able to spot and identify such people?

They are under-cover agents or spies wanting to frame an individual or a group to achieve their personal gains and benefit from a chaotic situation. An example is the most talked about demonstration in Thailand.

Live ammunition were used in the demonstration, with many eye witnesses saying that soldiers using it while others remarks saying there were people who were from neither the demonstrators or the military force who were using live rounds, instead it was from people who were firing at innocent people form rooftops.

Remarks came from a former cabinet minister Suranand Vejjajiva now a respected political commentator as reported in Straits Time Newspapers.

Unknown gunmen were taking advantage of the hostility between the red shirt demonstrators and the opposition military force compromising of police and army.

From my humble opinion, instead of focusing on the violence, lost of lives, both parties, the red shirt demonstrators and the military police and army should join hands and come to a mutual agreement to save lives.

By having a agreement which is to weed out, capture those gunmen and soldiers caught using live ammunition and bring such provocateurs to justice who are trying to make matters worse by taking advantage of the situation.

While there’s chaos, agreement should be focus on peaceful demonstration and reducing the numbers of lives lost due to such gunmen.  To learn how to handle such issues, just stay tuned to get yourself updated on the news from Channel News Asia.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Power is the ability, capacity or authority to carry out an order, action or command to have any task completed either done legally or illegally.

It is the strength, force to influence to accomplish tasks via being in a authoritative position to order subordinates to complete their assignments/tasks on time.

It is a force not to be reckoned with, especially with nature especially with the forces of natural disasters, the power and impact is damaging.

It is what many people would dream of having, the power to control almost anything and everything by being in an authoritative position. Power struggle is usually the result of not having reached an agreement and both either sides are happy with the terms and conditions being proposed.

In the most recent example, Thailand, the red shirts peaceful riot that changed into partial violence. While it looks like the military has got the weapons, and are in the authority position to defend them but without the command from their leader, they cannot carry out anything.

The people participating in the riot on the other hand has the advantage, whatever steps the military and government do, they still win because they are taking away their rights, restricting their movements and forcing them into a corner by force.

By using force, such as bullets, water guns against the protestors who started with ladies and even children, military has no reasons to fire bullets against them, but they still did, thus they are in the wrong. For pushing them backwards, they are bullying the weak, thus the protestors return what they receive from the military.

One of which was throwing back a smoke grenade back to the military, thus they cannot say that it is the protestors who started the violence with they throwing grenade into the government protected places as reported in Channel News Asia.

There are lots of political Dos and Not Dos which we can learn by watching the news. If you want to succeed and win in the war of business or politics, you will like to switch your channel and get the latest insights to their progress.

Who is right or wrong, it is all based on personal perception and views. To win, we not only need to know business but also politics.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Identity is the sense of self, providing sameness and or likeness. It is the individuality, personality, distinctness, uniqueness of oneself which makes everyone of us different.

Within a country, there should be a unique country identity, but thanks to globalizing, this identity of a country has being infused with other countries identity and is no longer unique to own country with the exception of some countries.

China, Korea, Russia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, United States of America, European countries each have their own unique identity as a country and it is shared by all of the citizens.

They embrace and honor their respective nation identity, culture, values and beliefs in the form of religion and have faith in what their nation belief in.

Singapore on the other hand, is on the verge of losing our own unique Singapore identity. Gone are the days of the kampong spirit, friendliness. The present us, are all confine and closed up thanks to the lack of privacy in home designs thus neighbours close doors and contribute largely to what we have today, employees who do and not talk thus it is more like a mundane life as compared to the past.

Being a garden city in the past, with such large investments from overseas companies, are we losing our identity? Where is the garden city? It is becoming more and more like a city of another developed nation with nothing more than commercial buildings, earning profits etc.
Not much focus has to thrown on religion, culture, which is our strength but all this is under valued in terms of commercial profits. We are losing our multi-racial identity which to globalization and losing it to just commercial purpose.

What does Singapore has to offer to tourist? There’s nothing unique of Singapore if it doesn’t focus on your multi religion identity and the ability to work, trust each other regardless of race, language, religion or culture. We allow cooperation and helping one another, but obviously this is what is lacking.

Tourist are paying money just to see what they can find in other countries, Formula One race track, casinos, buildings, all these are just solely for commercial and tax benefits only with no unique identity for Singaporeans. Are we duplicating other countries success at the expense of losing our own unique Singaporean identity which cannot be duplicated in any other countries for obvious reasons?

It is an expensive identity that we are losing and it is heavily neglected and thus giving tourist more reasons to by-pass Singapore if we were to continue with whatever the decisions the tourism industry is thinking.

Even cultural identity is losing, why the local religion and culture are losing to religions thanks colonization during war times. The focus should be local religion and there we have so many locally born Singaporeans embracing religion from overseas. It should be the Singapore Experience and not something which can be seen, duplicated in any part of the world. Fatal mistake!!

Investments should be pumped into showcasing Singapore’s rich
bio-diversity of various religions and cultures staying to our roots.

It is the relationship which we are bonded to by birth which we should stick to and not to embrace other countries identity like what majority of people are converting to other religions from our own roots.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Festival is an event staged by local community centers on the unique aspect of the community.

There are many types of festivals across the globe, from religious to arts, food, entertainment and seasonal festivals. The most talked about regardless of nationality will be the various religious festivals of respective countries.

Time and time again, religious festivals have being board cast on television shows numerous times and showing different types of religious cultures and festivals. Christianity and Buddhism are the most commonly featured on the media due to the yearly festival across the world.

Media telecast of religious festivals is to neither a good nor bad thing, it’s just another piece of news and allow people to get updates for people to follow up with.

Buddhism has quite a number of religious festivals that has being shown on television and in other media channels. With its deep roots and influence from all around South-East Asia, all the way from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Iran, Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and in Singapore. With different religious practice and worshiping of different gods, generally we are all from the same roots, Buddhism just that our way of celebrating festivals might deter from among ourselves.

The scale and magnitude of how a country practice their own religious goes to show how united they are actually. I’m not trying to promote any religion here, but just that I was watching a Chinese show this afternoon and it help me understand the importance of culture, generations, unity,

Celebrating festivals is good way to build bonding, unity and getting to know one another of the same belief. Example like what I watched in the show, the dragon boat festival also known as the 端午節(Duan Wu Jie) is a good way to let people among the community interact with one another.

Dragon boat festival is especially successful in this aspect. Due to the involvement of lots of people, competition among respective dragon boat teams (different communities pit against each other) thus getting to know and understand respective cultures thus encouraging mutual understanding.

With a common celebration, it is not limited to a small group but it is done a big scale. Making of the dumplings in the kitchen increase the family bonding when the cook, and the assistance on a small scale.

Within a community, the village will work towards preparation for the dragon boat festival, all the festive practice; beliefs will be passed down to the next generations with participation and involvements thus strengthening the bonding among them.

Beyond community level, they cheer each of their own community to spur each other community to fight for the dragon boat championship thus increasing the tolerance for other communities with a common goal united as one.

Organizing a festival is hard-work but the rewards far exceed the cost of the festival strengthening themselves with their own country’s identity, culture and unity.

That is something which we all can learn from, to understand each other’s religion and practice instead of condemning and trying to stir up conflicts which results in only more signs of trouble etc.

Tolerance and mutual understanding is the way which we all should work towards together as a whole. Like wise in business, instead of trying to cut each other’s throat with reducing profits, getting into a price war competition, why not work together, spilt profits, and have win-win situation?

At times, when I read and watch news and getting to know businesses trying to fight for a bigger slice, it just amuse me to know how much they lack in terms of mutual respect and cooperation.

Most businesses outside are just dumb in my personal perspective, why can’t they learn a simple thing like cooperation like the politicians, government, helping one another? Although it’s true that businesses are making much more money than politicians, but they are killing each other instead of helping one another.

Businessmen should instead learn from entrepreneurs who are successful than businessmen themselves.

Festival is the way to go, respect, tolerance, and understanding is needed to build a relationship and a mutual beneficial business for profits and not losses seeing red figures.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tension is a strained relationship between both parties between individuals, groups or nations. It is the disagreements which both parties fail to come up with a mutually beneficial terms causing the relationship to be stretched and the bonding goes from thick to thin with each escalating issues surfacing.

It creates emotional strain, intense anxiety among everyone among those affected by the disagreements.

Tensions are everywhere, from average person walking on the streets to businesses, and even nations. All the way from the smallest average people like you and I to the biggest most powerful nations, all of us are living in a tensed up society these days with lots hidden unhappiness stored inside each nation waiting for eruption like a volcano. Each new failed or sour business relationship between two countries is like the sill of the volcano, the unhappiness among both countries is like the large magma chamber.

When a failed sour business caused relationships to take a slight turn for the worse, causing job losses in businesses affecting large scale especially among different countries, a parasitic cone is formed with lava flowing out from the parasitic cone slowly increasing the damage as it waits for the magma chamber to erupt with time.

There are so many examples to look at among different nations.

First up most frequently appeared in news media is China US bilateral ties issue which goes a long way, and is made worse with white house support Google from getting bullied by Baidu who is protecting the China identity at home and online.

Next up is US versus Iran, the quest to sweep the root of the terrorist clean and flush them out but it still has a long way to go. USA once missed the chance to plug out Osama Bin Laden as reported in one of the news reports last time, wanting to silence the ring leader, father of the terrorist who was personally trained by the US themselves.

Up next will be Thailand politics chaos situation, with the red shirt versus the yellow shirt. Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who made billions upon using his politics influence to increase his wealth, avoided paying tax and accused by current prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva who is constantly digging for new evidence to upset and reduce his influence in Thailand wanting to silence the opposition the red shirt but has yet to see any improvement, in fact he made the Thailand economy worse following the recent demonstration just in front of the Thailand airport causing it to be closed for a day, out of business suffering huge losses.

Up next closely is Korea, North and South Korea always appear in the news yearly due to tensions between cross-border with communist and democratic country respectively with the display of their military might and protection from strong nations from Russia and US respectively as backing.

The rest that follows are just minor national tensions purely for profits and tourism competition that not as important as those above.

Tensions arise for many reasons, without early antidote, it will escalate bigger and bigger over time like a volcano, once erupted, serious damage will be felt and casualties and business losses of people who live around the volcano area suffers.

Tensions are just identical to our health. A cold may be a minor issue which can heal and thus often overlooked, but it is leaves any after-effects, it will lead to serious complications, as cold, flu and cough are the minor symptoms.

Health is the core problem for individuals. Business tensions is the core problems for countries while politics and military related concerns affects the whole world if not at least the surrounding countries when there’s a surge in military might with purchase of weapons.

The next time you get into any disagreement, solve it instantly if not as soon as possible, else it will escalate into another business war whereby companies lose, profits reduced and only the consumers benefit from business battle. If it’s individual, sooner or later there will be more stares, arguments before turning to catfights or business sabotage depending on the genders.

So handle any arguments addressing right to the root of the problem, look at what caused the problem, don’t solve it only from the surface which will not help.

If you need examples: Look at hospitals around the whole world, the patients get sicker and more illness especially terminal and expensive illness find their way onto the patients increasing their burden. Have you ever heard of patients suffering from TCM, not even once at all since history?

Look at the difference, which medical practice should you seek help from, answer is obvious, if you want to save more money, choose TCM, but start early, and it will save you mountains of money bit by bit starting from young as TCM is all about healing all weakness of the body that cause a illness to surface, while western drugs only help heal the illness which has surface and not the root of the problem.

Understand the cause and effect, and entrepreneurship will be a breeze for those who understand it, building a strong mind with the right foundation as basics.

Good habits start from young.

Popularity: 1% [?]