Monday, June 13, 2016

Battle of the PTDs

Administrative and Diplomatic Service corps or famously known as PTD attracts very aggressive, high quality, high performing individuals.

Sometimes you have got to have that oomph that only PTDs can bring.

"I know that if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." joked anonymous.

*the above paragraphs are the quotes from AFP news report on 'Battle of the New Yorkers' that refers to the fight between two New Yorkers' Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for the 45th president of the United States of America.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

I Want To Built A Clock That Last

Over time I climbed up from junior 41 to senior 52 building my leadership skills. I now realise that those thing was a dedication as if I were to built a time telling about my self. Yes, it's true people will talk about me as what the Malay proverb says 'manusia mati meninggalkan nama'. I supposedly be proud of my self.
 
Emmm, so what? People will just say good things, praise me, story telling about me to people surrounding them, and may be sing a song about me. That's all. Nothing more than that.
 
I vow, I want to change. While utilising, exploiting and maintaining the good things and skills I have developed, I want to be an architect or the clock builder as what the duo Jerry Porrass and Jim Collins called.
 
I want to shift my concentration towards building something that survives the test of time. A family, a unit, section, department, division, organisation or even a community that works in a conducive environment which promotes innovations.
 
Something which their existence is to fulfill the needs of others. Something that will be beneficial to the people. Something that evolves around from good to better irregardless of what happen to the world. It will stay strong and live even beyond the time of its maker.
 
Its the clock that tells the time not the time that tells the telling.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

A Man of Respect: Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar

I have a high respect on him. Though I have never met him, but based on what my friends speak about him, articles written about him and the way the market regards him, I'm truly inspired to know more about him, meet him, learn from him. I wish there will be a bibliography book of him. As a show of my admiration, I reproduce the Star newspapers' article, 7 June 2016 about Tan Sri Abdul Wahab Omar on my blog.

By: The Starbiz, Tuesday, 7 June 2016. The Original article can be found on The Star Online here.

Title: Wahid: I had action-packed experience for three years 


Petaling Jaya: Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar describes his three years stint as a Cabinet minister as an "action-packed" experience.

In a note to the media, the former minister in the Prime Minister's Department shared some of his experience in the Cabinet, Economic Council and Parliament.

"I still remember being nervous attending my first Cabinet meeting on June 12, 2013," Wahid said.

"Thankfully I was accepted by the other Cabinet members cordially," he added.

As minister, Wahid oversees the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and Unit Kerjasama Awam Swasta (UKAS).

"I hope that I had added value in the discussion by giving the perspective of the private sector in from various issues before the government's decisions," he said.

The former president and chief executive officer of Malayan Banking Berhad was one of the ministers in charge of the economy.

"Without the fiscal consolidation efforts including the subsidies rationalisation and good and service tax implementation, the government would need to reduce its development expenditure significantly, which would impact countries' economic growth," he said.


In addressing the uncertainty in the global economy, the government has formed the Special Economic Committee chaired by Wahid from August 2015.


"Several proactive measures were announced by Prime Minister on September 14, 2015 to stabilise the financial market, improve the wellbeing of the people, support business activities and increase the integrity of the institutions."


"The financial market has stabilised and that our economy is expected to continue to grow between 4% and 4.5% this year, faster than world's economic growth of 3%,"


Wahid said he also had the opportunity to assist the International Trade and Industry Minister (MITI), Dato' Seri Mustapa Mohamed in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations, including several briefing sessions to the US trade representative, Michael Froman, in relation to the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda and the role of government-linked companies.


"I believe the Malaysia and MITI team has done the best in the negotiations in resulting getting beneficial terms. This includes the recognition of the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Agenda as an inclusive policy in the TPPA," he said.


Wahid shared his most unique experience during his stint in Parliament when he had to answer questions from Gombak MP in Parliament on July 1, 2013, on the unemployment rate.


"After answered the supplementary question from Gombak and Ayer Hitam MPs, I felt challenged when the opposition leader, Permatang Pauh MP himself stood up and voiced out a supplementary question."


"Although I felt like a rookie, I believe I was able to answer the question well even though I was intimidated by the opposition leader."


He said his experience on that first day had helped him in subsequent Parliament sessions.


"I had the opportunity to table three bills on Malaysian Airline System Bhd (Administration) 2014, Aviation Commission 2015 and Gas Supply (Amendment) 2016.


"Three bills in three years of service represent a very valuable experience for me." -- end.


Why I respect and admire Tan Sri Wahid? In my eyes, he is a humble person. He accepted the minister post offered by Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib only for one term. The reasons were that he wanted to give the private sector's perspectives in governing the country and to encourage the government doing the right things. He said when interviewed by The Star's Mazuin Nik Anis.

Unlike other people, he is not a power hungry man who is determined not trying lobbying thePrime Minister to extend his tenure as government's minister. It is actually a great challenge in letting go all the power and privileges he was enjoying. However, he demonstrated the highest sincerity when he admitted that he joined the government because he wanted to give back to the country which had allowed him the opportunity to study in a boarding school and pursue his tertiary education on a scholarship. Ohhh what a noble man of Wahid!

I wish you all the best Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar. Where ever you go, you will be accepted and appreciated. The country thanking you for your service. Please continue your contribution to the Agama, Bangsa and Negara. -- saupee






Sunday, June 5, 2016

Future Predictions

5 June 2016

By: Robert M. Goldman MD, PhD, DO, FAASP

In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide.  Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt. What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years - and most people don't see it coming. Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later you would never take pictures on paper film again? Yet digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first ones only had 10,000 pixels, but followed Moore's law. So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a long time, before it became way superior and got mainstream in only a few short years. It will now happen with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs. Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution. Welcome to the Exponential Age.

Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.
Uber is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world. Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties.

Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world. This year, a computer beat the best Go player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected. In the US, young lawyers already don't get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. So if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% fewer lawyers in the future, only specialists will remain. Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, 4 time more accurate than human nurses. Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. By 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Autonomous Cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars will appear for the public. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don't want to own a car anymore. You will call a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You will not need to park it, you only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our kids will never get a driver's license and will never own a car. It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% fewer cars for that. We can transform former parking space into parks. 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 100,000 km, with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 10 million km. That will save a million lives each year.

Most car companies may become bankrupt. Traditional car companies try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels. I spoke to a lot of engineers from Volkswagen and Audi; they are completely terrified of Tesla. 

Insurance Companies will have massive trouble because without accidents, the insurance will become 100x cheaper. Their car insurance business model will disappear.

Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move further away to live in a more beautiful neighborhood.

Electric cars won’t become mainstream until 2020. Cities will be less noisy because all cars will run on electric. Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can only now see the impact. Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil. The price for solar will drop so much that all coal companies will be out of business by 2025.

With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water. Desalination now only needs 2kWh per cubic meter. We don't have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water. Imagine what will be possible if anyone can have as much clean water as he wants, for nearly no cost.

Health:  There will be companies that will build a medical device (called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample and you breathe into it. It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease. It will be cheap, so in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medicine, nearly for free.

3D printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. In the same time, it became 100 times faster. All major shoe companies started 3D printing shoes. Spare airplane parts are already 3D printed in remote airports. The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large number of spare parts they used to have in the past.

At the end of this year, new smart phones will have 3D scanning possibilities. You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect shoe at home. In China, they already 3D printed a complete 6-storey office building. By 2027, 10% of everything that's being produced will be 3D printed. 

Business Opportunities: If you think of a niche you want to go in, ask yourself: "in the future, do you think we will have that?" and if the answer is yes, how can you make that happen sooner? If it doesn't work with your phone, forget the idea. And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed in to failure in the 21st century.

Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a small time.

Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future. Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their field instead of working all days on their fields. Agroponics will need much less water. The first Petri dish produced veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow-produced veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces is used for cows. Imagine if we don't need that space anymore. There are several startups that will bring insect protein to the market shortly. It contains more protein than meat. It will be labeled as "alternative protein source" (because most people still reject the idea of eating insects).

There is an app called "moodies" which can already tell in which mood you are. Until 2020 there will be apps that can tell by your facial expressions if you are lying. Imagine a political debate where it's being displayed when they are telling the truth and when not.

Bitcoin will become mainstream this year and might even become the default reserve currency. 

Longevity: Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year. Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it's 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more than one year increase per year. So we all might live for a long long time, probably way more than 100.

Education: The cheapest smart phones are already at $10 in Africa and Asia. Until 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smart phone. That means, everyone has the same access to world class education.

Robert M. Goldman MD, PhD, DO, FAASP
www.DrBobGoldman.com
World Chairman-International Medical Commission
Co-Founder & Chairman of the Board-A4M
Founder & Chairman-International Sports Hall of Fame
Co-Founder & Chairman-World Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine
President Emeritus-National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM)
Chairman-U.S. Sports Academy’s Board of Visitors

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