Business and management articles | Cooler Insights

Ship Ahoy! Aboard the Legend of the Seas

November 23, 2010 • Blog • 7 comments

At the kind invitation of Omy.sg and Royal Caribbean Cruise, I had the chance to glimpse into the jetsetting – or rather seafaring – lifestyles of the rich and famous on board the “Legend of the Seas”. It was a novel and eye opening experience considering the number of things one can do on board (you can check out the virtual tour here too).

Inaugurated on 16 May, 1995, the sizable passenger liner could take a full load of 2,074 passengers. Measuring close to 300 metres and weighing in at almost 70,000 tonnes (some of those in Europe are twice as heavy), the massive cruise ship provides endless entertainment through indoor and outdoor facilities like a rock-climbing wall, outdoor pool and jacuzzi, miniature golf course, bar and lounges, glass-walled dining rooms, a mini shopping mall and a casino (of course).

How to Keep the Flame Burning

November 21, 2010 • Blog • 1 comment

Flames like this YOG one require lots of work to keep going (at Singapore Science Centre)

Perseverance and “stick-to-itiveness” are vital virtues in any personal, social or professional endeavour. Almost anybody who has accomplished anything substantial in any undertaking would share that age-old adage. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers” spelled that well with the “10,000″ hour rule. You must have also heard of how Rome wasn’t built in a day.

However, gritting your teeth and slaving to the grind isn’t the easier thing in the world. There are multiple sources of distraction, both online and offline, that may conspire to rob you of your resilience. After all, we now have multiple MMORPGs, marvellous movies, mile-long malls, and of course lots of makan places to check out.

What Do Women and Geezers Have in Common?

November 17, 2010 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

Give up? The answers, according to uber guru Tom Peters and Martha Barletta in their slim volume Trends are oodles of cash, purchasing power and huge influence.

Written in Peters’ no-holds-barred, rant-heavy and straight talking narrative, Trends provides lots of facts, figures and anecdotes to show that women and Baby Boomers are probably the two largest blindspots in the eyes of marketers everywhere. With a steely-eyed determination to tear down age-old prejudices against the “weaker sex” and “old geezers”, Peters and Barletta described how myopic views of catering largely to “White men in the 18 to 44 age group” have resulted in organisations neglecting huge markets worth “trillions of dollars”.

Outliers – The Story of Success (Book Review)

November 12, 2010 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

What is the secret to outstanding performance in any field? What makes world class musicians, athletes and scientists different from the rest of us?

In a similar vein to earlier titles like The Tipping Point and Blink, acclaimed nonfiction writer Malcolm Gladwell spins a fascinating tale on what made people remarkable in Outliers – The Story of Success.

5 Success Lessons from an Alien Species – The Javan Myna

November 7, 2010 • Business and Management • disabled comments

Singapore’s Most Common Bird – the Javan Mynah (photo by Ong Xin Rui from the Birds of NUS)

That bird above, the Javan Myna (Acridotheres javanicus), is the most common bird species in Singapore. You can see its black feathered wings with dashes of white fluttering everywhere around our island.

The Javan Myna has an amazingly liquid voice that allows it to imitate a range of calls into its repertoire, emanating through its characteristically yellow beak. It nests practically everywhere – on buildings, on trees, in padi fields, in drains, in roofs – and is abundantly successful in almost every habitat.

Head or Heart? Dilemmas in Management

November 5, 2010 • Blog • disabled comments

Source

One of the most difficult and perplexing challenge facing leaders and managers today is the trade-off between using one’s head and one’s heart. Should decisions be made purely on a bottom-line basis, or should they be done in the interests of all stakeholders?

As you would have guessed, there are no easy solutions to this, considering the dynamics of the modern organisation and its multiple demands.