Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Family outdoor activity at Janda Baik, Pahang

My family with some 20 families altogether, have brought our kids who live in urban city to a small village called Janda Baik (coordinates: 3°19'42.94"N, 101°51'43.29"E) in Pahang for a 2-days-1-night parenting activity organized by the Family Learning Centre (亲子学苑) of the United Chinese School Teachers' Association Of Malaysia (教总).

This is a wonderful experience, as most of the organized camping activities only involve the kids, but this camping invites both the parents and children to experience the nature together.

The journey started by visiting to a waterfall. At first, we entered into the jungle following a smooth lane.


What a nice jungle walk where we can see and try to identify the different kinds of leaves, flowers, plants, insects and small animals. We are also able to see some of the buildings of Genting Highlands from far.


Soon, the journey became more and more challenging as we entered the untreated lane.


We needed to climb through relatively steep sloves, walking through slippery mud and crossing through waterlogging, before we finally reached the waterfall.


When I reached the waterfall, I found a bloody leech on my leg. Ouch!

We spent most of our time in a platform of New Era Organic Farm, located quite some distance away from the waterfall. This wooden pyramid-shape platform is the place where we eat, play and sleep.


There is a small river near the New Era Organic Farm. Its water is clean, fresh and chilling cool. The children like it very much.


Entering the organic farm all bare footedly, the children also learned to do farming in the farm.


We had camp fire and BBQ at night. No animal was harmed. We only grilled sweet corns in the BBQ.

The trip ended next day with horse feeding in a nearby small horse farm.


This is a nice outdoor activity for our children to get close to nature, and for us to relax ourselves, break away temporary from busy urban living.

Friday, October 28, 2011

The top 10 in Interbrand Best Global Brands 2011

Interbrand, a leading brand consultancy, has just released their 12th annual Best Global Brands Report.

This annual valuation report has been voted as one of the most influential benchmark studies by business leaders. It provides insights into the yearly performances of the world's Top 100 brands.


Interbrand ranks the brands by Brand Value, which is calculated based on the formula below.


Due to the volatile markets and uncertain business climate that characterized 2011, brands are in the midst of adapting to a new reality.

"Uncertainty is the new status quo, so today’s brands need to be quick and nimble," remarked Jez Frampton, Interbrand’s Global Chief Executive Officer. "Consistency, relevance and commitment are imperative if a brand is to keep pace in our rapidly changing world."

The top 10 brands in 2011 are:
  • Coca-cola
  • IBM
  • Microsoft
  • Google
  • GE
  • McDonald's
  • Intel
  • Apple
  • Disney
  • Hewlett-Packard
The chart below shows the change in Brand Value of these top 10 over the years. Google and Apple are both progressing fast.


Click here to download the full Best Global Brands 2011 Report for free. There is also an iPad version of the report available in iTunes Store.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

5 main reasons why prospects will not buy from you

According to Zig Ziglar, there are 5 main reasons why your prospects will not buy from you:

  • No need - They don't feel they need what you are selling
  • No money - They don't have any (or enough) money
  • No hurry - They are just not in a hurry to buy
  • No desire - They don't really want what you are selling
  • No trust - They don't trust you
If you apply the correct tactics, you can still close the deal.

In most cases, people are going to buy what they really want, not necessarily what they need. It is your opportunity and responsibility to sell the legitimate benefits of your goods and services in a legitimate manner so that your prospect will want to buy from you, again and again.

Perhaps you can learn from the late Steve Jobs on how he could get you to buy his range of Apple products.

Hint: Click on the "Older Posts" link to continue reading, or click here for a listing of all my past 3 months articles.