Who Moved My Cheese? - days after petrol price hike

I remember 10 years ago, Dr. Spencer Johnson wrote an interesting best selling book about change management which has earned a great global attention and sold millions of copies.

This renown parable is "Who Moved My Cheese?", a story of 4 characters (2 mices and 2 humans) living in a Maze who face unexpected change when they discover their Cheese has disappeared.

In fact, this book has spawned many variations of related topics written by the same author as well as other authors.

In the parable, Sniff and Scurry are a pair of mices, and Hem and Haw are 2 little people. The 4 of them live in the Maze and look for cheese, and each of them have different mindset, especially between Hem and Haw. If you haven't read the story yet, I strongly encourage you to read the book and find out what happened to them.

For those who have finished reading the story, it is wise to remember those “Handwriting on the Wall” , which is the essence of the parable after all:


Change Happens
They Keep Moving The Cheese.

Anticipate Change
Get Ready For The Cheese To Move.

Monitor Change
Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old.

Adapt To Change Quickly
The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese.

Change
Move With The Cheese.

Enjoy Change!
Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again & Again
They Keep Moving The Cheese.

Therefore, we should never counted on the "cheese supply" to be constant. We all know that the worldwide petroleum supplies is limited but the usage is incrementing. We also aware that within the next couple of years, Malaysia will soon become a petroleum importer from the current exporter status. And now we have already feel the hike in petrol price and realise that the good old day of cheap petrol price might not come back again.

If you are still crying, protesting, annoying at the petrol price hike like Hem, you should also realise that doing so doesn't help much. Move on, try your very best to optimize your earning power, especially in the area to make your money work hard for you by growing itself through wise investment. Life has never been easy nowadays, remember the threat of formation of M-Shape Society has been accelerating, and it is only "when you move beyond your fear, you feel free".

Gambatte! to you and me. Gambatte! to all of us.

Result of ZDNet Asia IT Salary Benchmark Survey 2008

ZDNet Asia had conducted an online survey between late-2007 and early-2008 to gain insights into Asia's IT workforce and salary trends. The survey drew 21,635 respondents from sectors such as government, healthcare, IT, services, telecommunications, legal and finance, and across seven Asian economies: Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Based on the survey findings, the average annual IT salary in Malaysia was RM72,144 (US$22,379), with those in IT management commanding a high of RM113,489 (US$35,204). Project managers on average drew an annual pay of RM73,912 (US$22,928), while systems developers earned RM56,393 (US$17,493).

Tech professionals in the legal and finance sector had the most attractive annual salary (US$25,188) followed by those in IT, Web and telecom (US$22,939). The annual salary for IT workers in the media, marketing and sales (US$17,444), as well as the government, education and health sector (US$20,037), were significantly below the industry average.

Compared with the rest of the region, Malaysia's average annual IT salary lagged behind that of Hong Kong (US$57,303), Singapore (US$44,858) and Thailand (US$24,108). The country, however, is significantly higher when compared to India (US$13,864), the Philippines (US$12,425) and Indonesia (US$7,709).

In Singapore, IT professionals with PhDs pulled in the highest average annual salary of S$96,805 (US$70,958), followed by respondents with a Master's degree who earned an average yearly pay of S$79,635 (US$58,373). The survey also confirmed common beliefs that bigger companies have the capacity to offer better paychecks, compared to smaller organizations.

The overall average annual salary for Hong Kong was HK$445,817 (US$57,109). Those working in legal and finance had the highest average annual salary at HK$492,917 (US$63,143), while ICT employees in the government, education and health sector have the lowest average annual salary of HK$395,619 (US$50,679).

Click here to go to ZDNet's article that will lead you to the detailed country-specific salary analysis (with statistical graphs) as well as download of the analysis reports (in PDF files).

You might probably also interested to read on:

• Result of Robert Walters Global Salary Survey 2008
• Malaysia Salary Guide 2008/09 from Kelly Services
• JobsDB Compensation and Benefit Survey Report 2009

New electricity tariff from 1 July 2008

As part of the restructuring exercise of fuel subsidy scheme in Malaysia, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) has announced the new electricity tariff rate.

TNB has also setup a Bill Calculator webpage on their website for you to calculate the new electricity bill amount and the difference to the old tariff rate (the additional amount you need to fork out).

For domestic electricity, here are the differences:

Consumption (KWh)	Old Bill (RM)	New Bill (RM)	Difference
200	43.60	43.60	0.00
250	58.05	60.85	2.80
300	72.50	78.10	5.60
350	86.95	95.35	8.40
400	101.40	112.60	11.20
450	115.85	135.00	19.15
500	130.30	150.00	19.70
550	144.75	169.50	24.75
600	159.20	189.00	29.80
650	173.65	209.00	35.35
700	188.10	229.00	40.90
750	202.55	249.50	46.95
800	217.00	270.00	53.00

Therefore, if your average monthly electricity consumption is above 300 KWh, it is wise for you to plug in a Power Saver to an electric socket in your house, which can effectively help you to save on electricity bill as well as stabilize the voltage in your house.

Click here to download the TNB's booklet on new tariff for all categories - domestic, commercial, industrial, agricultural, mining, etc.