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This post is titled HI 2 U! by author SoulJah.
So... what's been up? With me? Nah... Good... Stuff at school is bumming me out a bit. It's a pity that the job you have been doing so well is taken over by people when they get to see how much fun I get doing it. I just can't imagine if they can do anything better than what I'm doing. But let's move along...
What's been up eh? Yeah let's talk about mobile phone providers for a bit. It seems that DST has been trying to regain lost customers, and trying to retain old ones I might add, with their new SMS rates and Internet surfing rates to curtail whatever advantage b-mobile is trying to leverage. Usually, DST charges around... Hmm... I'm not sure how much they charged, but trying to surf my site on my Nokia 6230, with all images turned on, cost me like $2.40 then. Now? Per megabyte download, is only $0.01. 1 cent. 1. That's crazy. It's like, I may be sitting on the loo and surfing for stuff (not that I do that, I'm pretty much a klutz and anything that involves the possibility of my favourite gadget going into poo infested water makes my hair stand on end).
It seems that they're feeling the sting of b-mobile's ever omniscient presence, being backed by a royal family member and all is not something you want to go up against. It's not like the ruling head of Brunei is gonna come down to a DST roadshow or anything like that. No sirree. I still remember it as clear as day, me walking through the mall just after b-mobile launched their trials, stumbled upon an empty DST booth, once filled with eager customers wanting to get some merchandise thus making the DST seemingly filled with flocking customers. No Easi or Prima line customer is going to come up to a DST booth and ask about rates, discounts, new cool services, customer appreciation or whatever. The rates has been mind numbingly ingrained into our heads for the fact that it's frickin' ridiculous by modern day standards. Sure, 10 cents would cut it back in 1999, but this is the 'noughty five. The big '05. Malaysians customers get to have cheap SMS rates, cheap call rates. Cheap everything. And this is added with nicer service sets than what Bruneian Easi line could've hoped for.
Now, as I snicker at the thought of me sitting in class, being disturbed with a message from DST proclaiming '5 cents for SMS! Cheaper call rates after midnight! Stay with DST!', I try to fathom, why oh why not give it lower? The reasons are there. A kick ass popular service looming at your doorsteps. A handful of Easi subscribers just itching to dump their GSM phone to get a new 3G phone at the drop of their latest paycheck. Minimized employee job satisfaction. The decline of the DST brand. We have been pounding this conclusion back and forth between ourselves. The conclusion is this; "They have the infrastructure in place. Why keep charging customer the high rates to cover the cost of installation?" They can afford to lower rates. They have the means to serve people, now. b-mobile can't serve people in KB yet. DST can. Add more features to keep people wanting your service, that they feel they can't live without. I know some people who work there, and they are a pretty talented bunch of people. All you need is to pay them more, and they'll be happy to work some more.
I was planning a better segue to my next point of my nightly ramble, but I lost that opportunity two paragraphs up. I'm talking about Hua Ho, and the obscenely amount of money the organization spent on building Hua Ho Manggis. For a guy who started off a chain of department store from a humble beginning of a small shop just under the Kumbang Pasang overpass into a giant corporation pushing into construction, it's a wonder how many right choices he has made.
While many question the recent choice of building a shop so close to another branch, which is just literally down the road, straight ahead I might add, after putting a bit of thought into it, and after mistakenly took a wrong turn when I try to park my car, I can conclude a couple of stuff.
1) They are trying to push into construction, and other means of generating income. Most of their shops are housed in buildings that are owned by other companies, and that means that they take a dent in earnings just to pay the rent. I can only imagine how much their 3 to 4 storey shops would cost in rent every month, but I gather it could be up to the tune of $50,000 upwards. If they can buy the primo real estate, and backed up by the stockpiles of cash that they might (or rather should, seeing how big his house is) be collecting, there's no point not building it themselves. Then others would employ them to create other buildings, and voila, money.
2) It should be easier to locate the number of workers that need to run the whole organization into a place near a building that you have just built, i.e. build another apartment block right behind it. I kid you not, they have a new apartment building just behind the main building. Now that's job satisfaction. This is of course, to facilitate easier travel into the work place (used to be a bus picking up workers to and from the branches). It can also place workers from other branches into once concentrated place, so as to facilitate easier management of workforce and general control. How do I know this? Well this Indian guy used to make me tea at the basement department store at the Bandar branch. Recent trips to the new building says to me that he's a permanent there, not just temp-ing there until they get more workers. Why would he leave the Bandar branch, where people actually ask for him to make them their hot beverages? Simple. It's a far shorter trip for him to make, and it may be because of his seniory that the organization feels it's due time to give him a proper home.
3) He is crazily rich. My estimate, the building as is, is around $40 Million. That's my rough estimate. Not sure whether the oft rumored theater or bowling alley at the top floor (the building has a crown for a reason) might add some more value to the place.
4) Ok. The theater. There is a cordoned off area at the present top floor, which suggest there's something more upstairs. It's not a VIP place where the owner's family could relax or what not, else it'd be covered. And there's a restaurant nearby and another planned eatery next to it. And if you make a mental trip from the basement floor to the top, you can see you can make a direct trip. As Hua Ho usually closes at 10.00pm everyday, which would mean a sucky theater experience to be out by 10.00pm, the trip from basement to top is separated by the main department store by itself. So I guess the next movies I'll be watching will be there, meaning there would be no chance in hell I'd be late for a movie anymore.
There ya go. I've been thinking about all this for a while now, and it's a great relief to put it all down.
It's becoming been a trend with Hua Ho shops to open near each other: the two Gadong branches being the most obvious example, and the supposed development of a new Hua Ho complex in Sengkurong, a few minutes' drive down the road from the existing one near the Jerudong-Tutong T junction.
By
, at Monday, September 26, 2005
I believe it's the Hua Ho Mulaut, which is probably developed by themselves. Seeing the dilapitated state of Hua Ho Sengkurong, it wouldn't surprise me if they took off and focused on the new one.
By
SoulJah, at Monday, September 26, 2005
My grandfather told me that the guy who started Hua Ho started off with a mini van, selling bread.
Amazing, I think.
By Tina D, at Monday, September 26, 2005
I can't vouch for the authenticity of the claim, but it's still an amazing feat nonetheless. Just shows how much hard work and determination can achieve.
By SoulJah, at Monday, September 26, 2005
the hua ho guy used to sell sayur dulu... way b4 his success
By , at Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Pehin Lau is a well respected man even before his days running the Hua Ho conglomerate. In business, it's not about how shrewd you are or how good you manage your finance; it is how well you interact with people and leave lasting impressions. Even after their passing, people and friends will always remember them and their generosity. As with any businessmen that has survived pre-independent Brunei, these people have emerged as role models. You can't help but respect them and hope that the same kind of character can be passed down to their children and children's children.
By , at Friday, March 23, 2007
What's been up eh? Yeah let's talk about mobile phone providers for a bit. It seems that DST has been trying to regain lost customers, and trying to retain old ones I might add, with their new SMS rates and Internet surfing rates to curtail whatever advantage b-mobile is trying to leverage. Usually, DST charges around... Hmm... I'm not sure how much they charged, but trying to surf my site on my Nokia 6230, with all images turned on, cost me like $2.40 then. Now? Per megabyte download, is only $0.01. 1 cent. 1. That's crazy. It's like, I may be sitting on the loo and surfing for stuff (not that I do that, I'm pretty much a klutz and anything that involves the possibility of my favourite gadget going into poo infested water makes my hair stand on end).
It seems that they're feeling the sting of b-mobile's ever omniscient presence, being backed by a royal family member and all is not something you want to go up against. It's not like the ruling head of Brunei is gonna come down to a DST roadshow or anything like that. No sirree. I still remember it as clear as day, me walking through the mall just after b-mobile launched their trials, stumbled upon an empty DST booth, once filled with eager customers wanting to get some merchandise thus making the DST seemingly filled with flocking customers. No Easi or Prima line customer is going to come up to a DST booth and ask about rates, discounts, new cool services, customer appreciation or whatever. The rates has been mind numbingly ingrained into our heads for the fact that it's frickin' ridiculous by modern day standards. Sure, 10 cents would cut it back in 1999, but this is the 'noughty five. The big '05. Malaysians customers get to have cheap SMS rates, cheap call rates. Cheap everything. And this is added with nicer service sets than what Bruneian Easi line could've hoped for.
Now, as I snicker at the thought of me sitting in class, being disturbed with a message from DST proclaiming '5 cents for SMS! Cheaper call rates after midnight! Stay with DST!', I try to fathom, why oh why not give it lower? The reasons are there. A kick ass popular service looming at your doorsteps. A handful of Easi subscribers just itching to dump their GSM phone to get a new 3G phone at the drop of their latest paycheck. Minimized employee job satisfaction. The decline of the DST brand. We have been pounding this conclusion back and forth between ourselves. The conclusion is this; "They have the infrastructure in place. Why keep charging customer the high rates to cover the cost of installation?" They can afford to lower rates. They have the means to serve people, now. b-mobile can't serve people in KB yet. DST can. Add more features to keep people wanting your service, that they feel they can't live without. I know some people who work there, and they are a pretty talented bunch of people. All you need is to pay them more, and they'll be happy to work some more.
I was planning a better segue to my next point of my nightly ramble, but I lost that opportunity two paragraphs up. I'm talking about Hua Ho, and the obscenely amount of money the organization spent on building Hua Ho Manggis. For a guy who started off a chain of department store from a humble beginning of a small shop just under the Kumbang Pasang overpass into a giant corporation pushing into construction, it's a wonder how many right choices he has made.
While many question the recent choice of building a shop so close to another branch, which is just literally down the road, straight ahead I might add, after putting a bit of thought into it, and after mistakenly took a wrong turn when I try to park my car, I can conclude a couple of stuff.
1) They are trying to push into construction, and other means of generating income. Most of their shops are housed in buildings that are owned by other companies, and that means that they take a dent in earnings just to pay the rent. I can only imagine how much their 3 to 4 storey shops would cost in rent every month, but I gather it could be up to the tune of $50,000 upwards. If they can buy the primo real estate, and backed up by the stockpiles of cash that they might (or rather should, seeing how big his house is) be collecting, there's no point not building it themselves. Then others would employ them to create other buildings, and voila, money.
2) It should be easier to locate the number of workers that need to run the whole organization into a place near a building that you have just built, i.e. build another apartment block right behind it. I kid you not, they have a new apartment building just behind the main building. Now that's job satisfaction. This is of course, to facilitate easier travel into the work place (used to be a bus picking up workers to and from the branches). It can also place workers from other branches into once concentrated place, so as to facilitate easier management of workforce and general control. How do I know this? Well this Indian guy used to make me tea at the basement department store at the Bandar branch. Recent trips to the new building says to me that he's a permanent there, not just temp-ing there until they get more workers. Why would he leave the Bandar branch, where people actually ask for him to make them their hot beverages? Simple. It's a far shorter trip for him to make, and it may be because of his seniory that the organization feels it's due time to give him a proper home.
3) He is crazily rich. My estimate, the building as is, is around $40 Million. That's my rough estimate. Not sure whether the oft rumored theater or bowling alley at the top floor (the building has a crown for a reason) might add some more value to the place.
4) Ok. The theater. There is a cordoned off area at the present top floor, which suggest there's something more upstairs. It's not a VIP place where the owner's family could relax or what not, else it'd be covered. And there's a restaurant nearby and another planned eatery next to it. And if you make a mental trip from the basement floor to the top, you can see you can make a direct trip. As Hua Ho usually closes at 10.00pm everyday, which would mean a sucky theater experience to be out by 10.00pm, the trip from basement to top is separated by the main department store by itself. So I guess the next movies I'll be watching will be there, meaning there would be no chance in hell I'd be late for a movie anymore.
There ya go. I've been thinking about all this for a while now, and it's a great relief to put it all down.
Posted by SoulJah at 2:46:00 AM
It's becoming been a trend with Hua Ho shops to open near each other: the two Gadong branches being the most obvious example, and the supposed development of a new Hua Ho complex in Sengkurong, a few minutes' drive down the road from the existing one near the Jerudong-Tutong T junction.
By
, at Monday, September 26, 2005
I believe it's the Hua Ho Mulaut, which is probably developed by themselves. Seeing the dilapitated state of Hua Ho Sengkurong, it wouldn't surprise me if they took off and focused on the new one.
By
SoulJah, at Monday, September 26, 2005
My grandfather told me that the guy who started Hua Ho started off with a mini van, selling bread.
Amazing, I think.
By
Tina D, at Monday, September 26, 2005
I can't vouch for the authenticity of the claim, but it's still an amazing feat nonetheless. Just shows how much hard work and determination can achieve.
By
SoulJah, at Monday, September 26, 2005
the hua ho guy used to sell sayur dulu... way b4 his success
By
, at Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Pehin Lau is a well respected man even before his days running the Hua Ho conglomerate. In business, it's not about how shrewd you are or how good you manage your finance; it is how well you interact with people and leave lasting impressions. Even after their passing, people and friends will always remember them and their generosity. As with any businessmen that has survived pre-independent Brunei, these people have emerged as role models. You can't help but respect them and hope that the same kind of character can be passed down to their children and children's children.
By
, at Friday, March 23, 2007
