@ Kuching

1.2 ENGINE CLASSIFICATIONS

There are many different types of internal combustion engines. They can be classified by:

1. Appplication. Automobile, truck, locomotive, light aircraft, marine, portable power system, power generation.

2. Basic engine design. Reciprocating engines (in turn subdivided by arrangement of cylinders: e.g., in-line, V, radial, opposed), rotary engines (Wankel and other geometries)

3. Working cycle. Four-stroke cycle: naturally aspirated (admitting atmospheric air), supercharged (admitting precompressed fresh mixture), and turbocharged (admitting fresh mixture compressed in a compressor driven by an exhaust turbine), two-stroke cycle: crankcase scavenged, supercharged, and

turbocharged.

4. Valve or port design and location. Overhead (or I-head) valves, underhead (or L-head) valves, rotary valves, cross-scavenged porting (inlet and exhaust ports on opposite sides of cylinder at one end), loop-scavenged porting (inlet and exhaust ports on same side of cylinder at one end), through- or uniflowscavenged (inlet and exhaust ports or valves at different ends of cylinder)

5. Fuel. Gasoline (or petrol), fuel oil (or diesel fuel), natural gas, liquid petroleum gas, alcohols (methanol, ethanol), hydrogen, dual fuel.

6. Method of mixture preparation. Carburetion, fuel injection into the intake ports or intake manifold, fuel injection into the engine cylinder.

7. Method of ignition. Spark ignition (in conventional engines where the mixture is uniform and in stratified-charge engines where the mixture is non-uniform), compression ignition (in conventional diesels, as well as ignition in gas engines by pilot injection of fuel oil)

8. Combustion chamber design. Open chamber (many designs: e.g., disc, wedge, hemisphere, bowl-in-piston), divided chamber (small and large auxiliary chambers; many designs: e.g., swirl chambers, prechambers)

9. Method of load control. Throttling of fuel and air flow together so mixture composition is essentially unchanged, control of fuel flow alone, a combination of these.

10. Method of cooling. Water cooled, air cooled, uncooled (other than by natural convection and radiation)

Ref

Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals, John B. Heywood

Dilema Facebook, SMS dan Generasi X

1. Komunikasi. Dulu manusia guna pelbagai kaedah utk komunikasi atau berhubung sesama sendiri. Guna burung merpati utk hantar surat. Guna kod, telefon, guna botol, wakil atau guna tok bomoh utk sampaikan masa. Boleh juga tgk air ajaib dalam pasu utk tgk musuh.
2. Hari ini, tahun 2011, Facebook menjadi mega trend penduduk dunia. Tak terkecuali yang tua turut join yang muda untuk menjadi pengguna Facebook. Ada utk bisness, politik, sosial, cari awek, main game, serta segalanya guna FB.
3. Tokey telekomunikasi semacam membaca mega trends ini terus memudahkan penggunaan FB. Melalui sms, handset, atau email boleh log in ke FB. Yang penting, anda sanggup bayar dan habiskan duit serta masa depan hs atau pc utk menjadi hantu FB.
4. FB, sama juga internet zaman awal 1990 an. Sama seperti TV zaman 1980an. Sama juga apa - apa teknologi canggih sebelumnya. Kita tidak mampu menepis baik dan buruknya. Yang baik sama juga dengan buruknya memasuki pintu rumah, hs serta minda anak - anak kita serta generasi akan datang.
5. Terpulang pada individu untuk mengali kebaikan dan keburukan. Kita hana mampu untuk memberi panduan kepada generasi akan datang berkenaan baik dan buruknya. Selebihnya, tanyalah iman. Jika dulu orang tua bercerita tentang moral cerita yang disiarkan dalam kaca tv, hari ini mereka juga bercakap hal yang sama berkenaan FB. Sebelumnya mereka bercerita tentang internet dan bahayanya. Namun, adakah kita mampu menghalang penyebarannya? Tidak. Malah, kita akan ketinggalan jika terus tidak menggunakannya.
6. Ambillah yang baik dan buang yang buruk.
7. Dalam fenomena serta mega trend yang telah dicetuskan oleh FB, adakah sistem muamalat atau komunikasi sesama manusia bertukar sama sekali? adakah kita sudah hilang nilai dan akhlak?
8. Seorang ayah yang mempunyai anak yang ramai sebelum ini menggunkan sms untuk berkomunikasi dengan anak - anaknya. Mungkin utk memudahkan penyampaian kpd anak - anaknya secara ringkas dan jelas, diberikan dalam sms. Boleh juga buat sms blasting kpd mana-2 anak - anak yang lain jika dia mahu.
9. Hari ini, dia menggunakan FB untuk berkomunikasi dengan anak - anaknya. Dengan adannya group dalam FB yg dianggotai oleh anak - anaknya, dia bebas untuk menegur anak - anaknya. Dia juga bebas untuk menunjukkan kasih sayangnya pada sesetengah anak - anak beliau. Setiap anak - anak yang berbeza latar belakang turut membaca komen - komen yang dikeluarkan. Masing - masing berbeza tahap penilaianya. Sistem keluarga bertukar sama sekali.
10. Adakah perjumpaan keluarga tidak lagi diperlukan?
11. Adakah suara bertanya khabar tidak lagi diperlukan?
12. Adakah FB mampu mengganti tubuh badan manusia daripada melakukan aktiviti asas manusia untuk bersosial?
13. Teringat cerita Surrogate lakonan Bruce Wills. Perkara yang sama berlaku dalam mega trend FB sekarang.
14. Persoalan yang timbul, kenapa hal ini berlaku? Ia berlaku disebabkan ramai antara kita menjadi jahil di zaman penuh dengan maklumat.
15. Jahil di waktu maklumat di hujung jari, tetapi maklumat serta ilmu itu tidak sampai pun ke otak dan hati.
16. Jahil ilmu agama. Ada maklumat tetapi bukan sampai ke tahap ilmu yang boleh diamal untuk menambahkan keimanan.
17. Sepatutnya IT digunakan untuk mencari ilmu kekeluargaan utk menambahkan erat hubungan sesama keluarga.  
18. Walau bagaiman canggih sekalipun teknologi, kaedah asas bersosial lain tetap yang terbaik. Cara bercakap, adab sopan dan bahasa yang digunakan adalah terbaik dipelajari melalui kaedah pengalaman, bukan melalui FB.
19. Akhir kata, zaman berubah, tetapi cara manusia mendapatkan cinta, melakukan cinta, menambahkan cinta tidak pernah berubah.

The Steam Turbine

HOW TURBINE WORKS

How a Gas Turbine Works

Stakeholder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stakeholder may refer to:

* Stakeholder (corporate), a person, group, organization, or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions

o Consumer stakeholder, a person or group with an interest in a business or organization

o Project stakeholder, a person, group or organization with an interest in a project

o Stakeholder theory, a theory that identifies and models the groups which are stakeholders of a corporation or project

o Stakeholder analysis, the process of identifying those affected by a project or event

* Stakeholder (law), a third party who temporarily holds money or property while its owner is still being determined

4-stroke engine

Sime and Darby ; epilog

In October 1910, British businessmen William Sime and Henry Darby established Sime, Darby & Co, 

a fledgling player in the lucrative rubber industry. 

The company later diversified to cultivating palm oil and coca and met with enormous success.

William Middleton Sime

William Middleton Sime was a 37-year-old Scottish adventurer and fortune seeker. He had two failed ventures behind him – one in import-export business and the other in coffee plantations - when he left his job as a mercantile assistant in Singapore.

Henry Darby

Henry Darby was a wealthy 50-year-old English banker who owned property in Northern Malaya.

How Two-stroke Engines Work

How Turbochargers Work

Shareholders

A shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution (including a corporation) that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, and therefore, the corporation itself (Fama 1980).

Stockholders are granted special privileges depending on the class of stock. These rights may include:

* The right to sell their shares,
* The right to vote on the directors nominated by the board,
* The right to nominate directors (although this is very difficult in practice because of minority protections) and propose shareholder resolutions,
* The right to dividends if they are declared,
* The right to purchase new shares issued by the company, and
* The right to what assets remain after a liquidation.

Stockholders or shareholders are considered by some to be a subset of stakeholders, which may include anyone who has a direct or indirect interest in the business entity. For example, labor, suppliers, customers, the community, etc., are typically considered stakeholders because they contribute value and/or are impacted by the corporation.

Shareholders in the primary market who buy IPOs provide capital to corporations; however, the vast majority of shareholders are in the secondary market and provide no capital directly to the corporation.

Therefore, contrary to popular opinion, shareholders of American public corporations are NOT the owners of the corporation, the claimants of the profit, nor investors, as in the contributors of capital.

References

1. ^ Berle, Adolf. 1962. Modern Function of the Corporate System. Columbia Law Review,
2. ^ Stout, Lynn. Bad and Not-So-Bad Arguments for Shareholder Primacy, 75 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1189 (2002)

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility 

(CSR, also called corporate conscience, corporate citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business) is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms. 

The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. 

Furthermore, CSR-focused businesses would proactively promote the public interest(PI) by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public sphere, regardless of legality. CSR is the deliberate inclusion of PI into corporate decision-making, that is the core business of the company or firm, and the honouring of a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit.

The term "corporate social responsibility" came in to common use in the late 1960s and early 1970s, after many multinational corporations formed. The term stakeholder, meaning those on whom an organization's activities have an impact, was used to describe corporate owners beyond shareholders as a result of an influential book by R. Edward Freeman, Strategic management: a stakeholder approach in 1984. Proponents argue that corporations make more long term profits by operating with a perspective, while critics argue that CSR distracts from the economic role of businesses. Others argue CSR is merely window-dressing, or an attempt to pre-empt the role of governments as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations.

CSR is titled to aid an organization's mission as well as a guide to what the company stands for and will uphold to its consumers. Development business ethics is one of the forms of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business environment. ISO 26000 is the recognized international standard for CSR (currently a Draft International Standard). Public sector organizations (the United Nations for example) adhere to the triple bottom line (TBL). It is widely accepted that CSR adheres to similar principles but with no formal act of legislation. The UN has developed the Principles for Responsible Investment as guidelines for investing entities. 

Ref

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_Social_Responsibility

Principles of corporate governance

Corporate Governance > Principles

Contemporary discussions of corporate governance tend to refer to principles raised in three documents released since 1990: The Cadbury Report (UK, 1992), the Principals of Corporate Governance (OECD, 1998 and 2004), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (US, 2002). The Cadbury and OECD reports present general principals around which businesses are expected to operate to assure proper governance. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, informally referred to as Sarbox or Sox, is an attempt by the federal government in the United States to legislate several of the principals recommended in the Cadbury and OECD reports.

* Rights and equitable treatment of shareholders:

Organizations should respect the rights of shareholders and help shareholders to exercise those rights. They can help shareholders exercise their rights by openly and effectively communicating information and by encouraging shareholders to participate in general meetings.

Ref

* Interests of other stakeholders: 

Organizations should recognize that they have legal, contractual, social, and market driven obligations to non-shareholder stakeholders, including employees, investors, creditors, suppliers, local communities, customers, and policy makers.

* Role and responsibilities of the board:

The board needs sufficient relevant skills and understanding to review and challenge management performance. It also needs adequate size and appropriate levels of independence and commitment to fulfill its responsibilities and duties.

* Integrity and ethical behavior:

Integrity should be a fundamental requirement in choosing corporate officers and board members. Organizations should develop a code of conduct for their directors and executives that promotes ethical and responsible decision making.

* Disclosure and transparency:

Organizations should clarify and make publicly known the roles and responsibilities of board and management to provide stakeholders with a level of accountability. They should also implement procedures to independently verify and safeguard the integrity of the company's financial reporting. Disclosure of material matters concerning the organization should be timely and balanced to ensure that all investors have access to clear, factual information

Ref

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_governance

Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions affecting the way a corporation (or company) is directed, administered or controlled. An important theme of corporate governance is the nature and extent of accountability of particular individuals in the organization, and mechanisms that try to reduce or eliminate the principal-agent problem.

Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many stakeholders involved and the goals for which the corporation is governed. In contemporary business corporations, the main external stakeholder groups are shareholders, debtholders, trade creditors, suppliers, customers and communities affected by the corporation's activities. Internal stakeholders are the board of directors, executives, and other employees.

A related but separate thread of discussions focuses on the impact of a corporate governance system on economic efficiency, with a strong emphasis on shareholders' welfare; this aspect is particularly present in contemporary public debates and developments in regulatory policy (see regulation and policy regulation).

There has been renewed interest in the corporate governance practices of modern corporations since 2001, particularly due to the high-profile collapses of a number of large corporations, most of which involved accounting fraud. Corporate scandals of various forms have maintained public and political interest in the regulation of corporate governance. In the U.S., these include Enron Corporation and MCI Inc. (formerly WorldCom). Their demise is associated with the U.S. federal government passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, intending to restore public confidence in corporate governance. Comparable failures in Australia (HIH, One.Tel) are associated with the eventual passage of the CLERP 9 reforms. Similar corporate failures in other countries stimulated increased regulatory interest (e.g., Parmalat in Italy).

Mass Balance for FFB

For 100 mt FFB, products as below :-

1. CPO ; 20-25%
2. PK ; 4-6%
3. Evaporation ; 10%

4. Fruits ; 67%

4.1 Pressed cake ; 24%
4.1.1 Pericarp ; 13%
4.1.1 a Dry fibre fuel 11%     4.1.1b Water evaporation 2%

4.1.2 Nut ; 11%
      4.1.2a Kernel 5%    4.1.2b Moisture ; 1%    4.1.2c Shell ; 6%

4.2 Crude oil 43% + 21% water  - Hot water and dilution
4.2.1 CPO ; 21%
4.2.2 Solid sludge ; 5%
4.2.3 NOS ; 17% + 21%

5. EFB ; 23%
5.1 Bunch ash ; 0.5%

Surah Yaasin

Ref (Surah Yaasin; Ayat 1-9)

1] Yaa, Siin.
[2] Demi Al-Quran yang mengandungi hikmat-hikmat dan kebenaran yang tetap kukuh,
[3] Sesungguhnya engkau (wahai Muhammad adalah seorang Rasul) dari Rasul-rasul yang telah diutus,
[4] Yang tetap di atas jalan yang lurus (ugama Islam).
[5] Al-Quran itu, diturunkan oleh Allah Yang Maha Kuasa, lagi Maha Mengasihani,
[6] Supaya engkau memberi peringatan dan amaran kepada kaum yang datuk neneknya telah lama tidak diberikan peringatan dan amaran; sebab itulah mereka lalai.
[7] Demi sesungguhnya, telah tetap hukuman seksa atas kebanyakan mereka, kerana mereka tidak mahu beriman.
[8] Sesungguhnya Kami jadikan (kesombongan dan keengganan mereka tunduk kepada kebenaran sebagai) belenggu yang memberkas kedua tangan mereka ke batang leher mereka; (lebarnya belenggu itu) sampai (menongkatkan) dagu mereka lalu menjadilah mereka terdongak.
[9] Dan Kami jadikan (sifat tamak dan gila mereka kepada harta benda dan pangkat itu sebagai) sekatan (yang menghalang mereka daripada memandang kepada keburukan dan kesingkatan masa dunia yang ada) di hadapan mereka, dan sekatan (yang menghalang mereka daripada memikirkan azab yang ada) di belakang mereka (pada hari kiamat). lalu Kami tutup pandangan mereka; maka dengan itu, mereka tidak dapat melihat (jalan yang benar).

Ad - Dhuha

Ref (Surah Ad-Dhuha)

[1] Demi waktu dhuha,
[2] Dan malam apabila ia sunyi-sepi -
[3] (Bahawa) Tuhanmu (wahai Muhammad) tidak meninggalkanmu, dan Ia tidak benci (kepadamu, sebagaimana yang dituduh oleh kaum musyrik).
[4] Dan sesungguhnya kesudahan keaadaanmu adalah lebih baik bagimu daripada permulaannya.
[5] Dan sesungguhnya Tuhanmu akan memberikanmu (kejayaan dan kebahagiaan di dunia dan di akhirat) sehingga engkau reda – berpuas hati.
[6] Bukankah dia mendapati engkau yatim piatu, lalu la memberikan perlindungan?
[7] Dan didapatiNya engkau mencari-cari (jalan yang benar), lalu Ia memberikan hidayah petunjuk (dengan wahyu – Al-Quran)?
[8] Dan didapatiNya engkau miskin, lalu Ia memberikan kekayaan?
[9] Oleh itu, adapun anak yatim maka janganlah engkau berlaku kasar terhadapnya,
[10] Adapun orang yang meminta (bantuan pimpinan) maka janganlah engkau tengking herdik;
[11] Adapun nikmat Tuhanmu, maka hendaklah engkau sebut-sebutkan (dan zahirkan) sebagai bersyukur kepadaNya.

Ayat Kursi (255)

[254]
Wahai orang-orang yang beriman! Sebarkanlah sebahagian dari apa yang telah Kami berikan kepada kamu, sebelum tibanya hari (kiamat) yang tidak ada jual-beli padanya, dan tidak ada kawan teman (yang memberi manfaat), serta tidak ada pula pertolongan syafaat. Dan orang-orang kafir, mereka itulah orang-orang yang zalim.
[255] – Ayatul Kursi (The Throne Verse)
Allah, tiada Tuhan (yang berhak disembah) melainkan Dia, Yang Tetap hidup, Yang Kekal selama-lamanya mentadbirkan (sekalian makhlukNya). Yang tidak mengantuk usahkan tidur. Yang memiliki segala yang ada di langit dan yang ada di bumi. Tiada sesiapa yang dapat memberi syafaat (pertolongan) di sisiNya melainkan dengan izinNya. yang mengetahui apa yang ada di hadapan mereka dan apa yang ada di belakang mereka, sedang mereka tidak mengetahui sesuatu pun dari (kandungan) ilmu Allah melainkan apa yang Allah kehendaki (memberitahu kepadanya). Luasnya Kursi Allah (ilmuNya dan kekuasaanNya) meliputi langit dan bumi; dan tiadalah menjadi keberatan kepada Allah menjaga serta memelihara keduanya. Dan Dia lah Yang Maha Tinggi (darjat kemuliaanNya), lagi Maha Besar (kekuasaanNya)
[256]
Tidak ada paksaan dalam ugama (Islam), kerana sesungguhnya telah nyata kebenaran (Islam) dari kesesatan (kufur). Oleh itu, sesiapa yang tidak percayakan Taghut, dan ia pula beriman kepada Allah, maka sesungguhnya ia telah berpegang kepada simpulan (tali ugama) yang teguh yang tidak akan putus. Dan (ingatlah), Allah Maha Mendengar, lagi Maha Mengetahui.

AL-MUAWWIZAT (PELINDUNG-PELINDUNG)

ref (Surah Al Ikhlas)

DENGAN NAMA ALLAH YANG MAHA PEMURAH LAGI MAHA MENGASIHANI

[1] Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad): “(Tuhanku) ialah Allah Yang Maha Esa;
[2] “Allah Yang menjadi tumpuan sekalian makhluk untuk memohon sebarang hajat;
[3]“Ia tiada beranak, dan Ia pula tidak diperanakkan;
[4]“Dan tidak ada sesiapapun yang serupa denganNya”.

ref (Surah Al-Falaq)

[1] Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad); “Aku berlindung kepada (Allah) Tuhan yang menciptakan sekalian makhluk,
[2]“Dari bencana makhluk-makhluk yang Ia ciptakan;
[3]“Dan dari bahaya gelap apabila ia masuk;
[4]“Dan dari kejahatan makhluk-makhluk yang menghembus-hembus pada simpulan-simpulan (dan ikatan-ikatan);
[5]“Dan dari kejahatan orang yang dengki apabila ia melakukan dengkinya”.

ref (Surah An-Nas)

[1] Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad): “Aku berlindung kepada (Allah) Pemulihara sekalian manusia.
[2] “Yang Menguasai sekalian manusia,
[3] “Tuhan yang berhak disembah oleh sekalian manusia,
[4] “Dari kejahatan pembisik penghasut yang timbul tenggelam, -
[5] “Yang melemparkan bisikan dan hasutannya ke dalam hati manusia, -
[6] “(Iaitu pembisik dan penghasut) dari kalangan jin dan manusia”.

Apa erti KEMERDEKAAN pada aku (PART II)

sambungan dari part 1

PART II

1. Apa yang aku faham tentang merdeka? aku pun tak faham. Dulu ada orang politik buat lawak, merdeka, merdeka, mau duit ka?
2. Merdeka itu bebas dari kawalan politik penjajah. Merdeka itu bertukarnya tukar perintah dari orang asing pada orang tempatan dengan gaya yang sama kot. Orang jer tukar, sistem lebih kurang jer.
3. Merdeka itu maksudnya, jika dulu kita lawan penjajah, sekarang kita lawan orang tempatan sendiri yang perintah. Sama kan?
4. Merdeka itu maksudnya, dulu kita kena ikut budaya depa, politik mereka, cara makan minum mereka, cara berhibur mereka. Sekarang? sama jugak aku nampak. Jika dulu mat saleh yang dok ramaikan nite club, skrg penuh ngam mat melayu.
5. Ada jgk orang kata, nak merdeka itu senang. Turun naik kapal terbang, mengadap org british, demo sana sini, terus merdeka kita.
6. Tapi, sambungnya lagi, nak mengisi kemerdekaan itu yang paling susah. Jadi, sekarang bagaimana aku isi kemerdekaan ini? Anda bagaimana?
7. Aku rasa aku isi kemerdekaan ini dengan cukup baik. Aku tak jadi penagih dadah. Aku jadi budak baik. Belajar dgn bersungguh-2. Malah aku banyak berkhidmat bukan untuk diri aku sendiri sahaja, tapi untuk orang lain.
8. Aku terlibat dengan perkara - perkara baik dan bukan terlibat dengan perkara yg boleh menjahanamkan negara.
9. Aku nyanyi lagi "inilah barisan kita, yang ikhlas berjuang.." masa dalam PALAPES. Bukankah itu cara terbaik aku isi kemerdekaan ini?
10. Aku letak bendera 2 kat depan rumah aku tahun ni. Kat kilang aku letak 3 jak. Budget cukup-2. Kalu ikut aku, aku nak bagi semua kat pekerja aku kat dalam kilang. Suruh mereka letak kat rumah, kat motor, kat dalam rumah, buat baju, buat bantal, buat selimut. Semangat katakan.
11. Tak lupa, jabatan kerajaan kesayangan aku, LHDN. Aku bayar PCB. Rasanya hampir 10% dari gaji bersih aku. Semangat!

....

Kita masuk politik pulak

1. Apa bezanya parti itu dan parti ini. Memang ler aku ni dah register satu parti tu. Tapi apa bezanya untuk aku?
   
2. Tiada beza pun. Katakan, bertukarlah sepuluh kerajaan, setiap kali pilih. Adakah aku tak perlu berkerja? Adakah kita semua tak perlu kerja keras? Adakah semua harga barang akan turun secara mendadak?
3. Adakah internet akan free belaka? adakah semua akan free, semua tak perlu bayar apa - apa?
4. Adakah nasi lemak yg harganya skrg RM4 sepinggan boleh turun ke RM0.50 masa aku sekolah rendah dulu?
5. Rasanya, tiada beza. Kita semua masih kena kerja. Masih kena cari makan. Masih kena hadapi segala cabaran.
   
6. Moral yang aku nak cuba bagitau, biarlah orang yang sibuk nak memekak siang malam tu buat kerja. Buat hal politik. Aku tengok politik dari Mac 2008 hingga skrg tak pernah habis. Macam tgk wayang. Lepas satu, satu dengan aksi pelakon yang sama, tukar watak, tukar ayat, tapi bendanya sama. Aku bagus, ko tak bagus. Keja tak buat, sibuk dok main politik. Aku cukup meluat. Cukup menyampah.
7. Biarlah mereka org politik buat kerja tu. Kalu kita engineer, binalah kerjaya kita dgn cemerlang. Kalau kita cikgu, jadilah guru cemerlang didik anak bangsa. Kalu kita polis, tangkaplah segala mat mat jenayah tu, supaya kita semua selamat. Kalu kita ni tukang sapu, sapulah lantai serta taman kita dgn bersih, supaya jap lagi boleh mereka buat maksiat. Kalu kita ni orang muslim, pegilah larang mereka yang buat maksiat tuh.
8. Simpulnya, semua orang ada bahagian masing-2 masing. Kalu semua nak jadi ahli politik, siapa nak buat susu utk anak cucu kita? sape nak jual teh tarik? sapa nak ajar anak kita mengaji?

akhirnya.. PART I dan PART II,

apa ertinya kemerdekaan pada aku?

aku gembira, sebab tak de sesapa nak halang aku buat baik. Aku boleh hidup bahagia dengan anak beranak aku. Aku gembira bersama kengkawan.

Ya, memang ada perkara yang tak juga aku suka. dan itulah sebabnya Tuhan jadikan kita. Untuk ubah perkara itu selagi kita bernyawa. Kalu semua dah ok, tu maksudnya kita dah dok dalam syurga. Tak de masalah.

..

Apa erti KEMERDEKAAN?

apa ertinya kemerdekaan pada aku?

1. Aku berasal dari Kelantan. Berkahwin dengan org Sabah. Tiga anak aku semua lahir di Sabah, bersurat beranak Sabah. Mak dan ayah aku orang jati Pengkalan Chepa. Aku mula belajar di sana, menyambung pelajaran di Terengganu seusia 16 tahun, ke Penang, ke Perak dan balik semula ke Penang.
   
2. Mula bekerja di Penang, balik ke Kota Bharu, ke Selangor, Sabah dan sekarang Sarawak. Kebanyakan kawan-2 karib aku berasal dari luar Kelantan. Mana-mana tempat aku pegi pun, ada kengkawan rapat. Masing - masing ada keunikan tersendiri.
3. Aku lahir setelah hampir 30 tahun merdeka. Aku tak jumpa Portugis, British, Belanda, Jepun, Komunis dan juga tak pernah pun kenal Tok Janggut walaupun katanya dia tu asal Kelantan.
4. Masa aku membesar sekitar 80-an, aku masih ingat kampung aku mendapat tandas percuma. Selang beberapa bulan, penduduk kampung pindah termasuk aku kerana faktor pembangunan.
5. Aku sekolah rendah, aku masuk MRSM, aku dapat biasiswa sejak tingkatan satu. Masuk sek berasrama penuh, makan sudah tentu lebih baik dari kat rumah. Sedap pun, tak lawan makanan mak aku.
6. Aku masuk matrik dan kemudian masuk kursus mekanikal. Selepas matrik, aku tak dapat biasiswa. Mula dgn PTPTN. Berhutang. Dapat duit awal semester, aku bukan ingat nak simpan, beli entah apa-2. Tahun lepas baru habis bayar.
7. Masa dok U, aku join PALAPES. Masa tu, ada Kapten ajar pasal patriotik. Dengan bangganya dia cite kisah dia baru balik Bosnia. Makan maggi kat dalam hotel. Masa tu jugak ada kes Al Maunah, kes tentera amik alih negara Pakistan. Tak dapat aku nafikan, pengalaman dalam PALAPES ajar aku tentang patriotik. Namun aku tetap tidak setuju dgn patuh membabi buta. Katanya, kita menyokong kerajaan yang memerintah, tak kisah siapa. Kalu firuan? tak mau aku. Tu pasal aku tak pernah masuk tentera lepas abih belajar dan juga tak pernah teringin nak kerja kerajaan. Aku masuk swasta.
8. Hari ni, aku manager aka engineer. aka kuli. makan gaji. dgn syarikat swasta kepunyaan tentera. tak leh lari jugak kari tertera. Seawal muda aku dah jadi manager. Aku jaga beberapa puluh pekerja termasuk seorang penolong. Dok proses kelapa sawit jadi minyak sawit, pas tu jual kat dalam dan luar negara. Dalam dok siang malam kerja, aku terjumpa orang yang sebaya dengan aku. Ada yang masih mencari kerja, ada juga yg tak de kerja. Dok lepak kat kampung. Entah buat apa. Aku syukur, sekurang - kurangnya aku tak jadi beban negara dalam menambahkan % orang tanam anggur.
9. Bukan setakat itu, aku turut menyumbang juta- juta pada kerajaan negeri bayar royalti minyak. Aku latih penduduk tempatan dan pastikan mereka bekerja dan dapat cari makan. Jaga kebajikan mereka walaupun kekadang aku kena marah dengan bos. Aku dok kat pendalaman semata - mata nak bangunkan negara. Aku juga sanggup merana kerana melalui jalan gravel yang teruk disebabkan nak pegi tempat keja aku.
   

...bersambung, part II.

Darwin ; Change

Saya bukan orang yg meminati Darwin, tapi saya tertarik dengan kata - katanya ;-

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change."

Types of flanking strategies

Strategic Management>Flanking strategies can be either offensive or defensive:

* Flanking Attack (offensive) -
This is designed to pressure the flank of the enemy line so the flank turns inward. You make gains while the enemy line is in chaos. In doing so, you avoid a head-on confrontation with the main force. The disadvantage with a flanking attack is that it can draw resources away from your center defense, making you vulnerable to a head-on attack. In business terms, a flanking attack involves competing in a market segment that the target does not consider mission critical. The target competitor will not be as concerned about your activities if they occur in market niches that it considers peripheral. It usually involves subtle advertising campaigns and other discrete promotional measures, like personal selling and public relations. It often entails customizing a product for that particular niche. Rather than finding uncontested market niches, the attacker could also look for uncontested geographical areas. The strategy is suitable when:
o the market is segmented
o there are some segments that are not well served by the existing competitors
o the target competitor has relatively strong resources and is well able to withstand a head-on attack
o the attacker has moderately strong resources, enough to successfully defend several niches

* Flanking Position (defensive) -

This involves the re-deployment of your resources to deter a flanking attack. You strengthen your flank if you think it is vulnerable. The disadvantage of this defense is that it can distract you from your primary objective and siphon resources away from where they are needed most. In business terms, this involves the introduction of new products, product lines, or brands, the defensive re-positioning of existing products, or additional promotional activity in a market niche. It requires market segmentation and/or product differentiation. You protect against potential loss of market share in a segment by strengthening your competitive position there.

Flanking Marketing Warfare

The fundamental principles involved are:

1. Avoid areas of likely confrontation. A flanking move always occurs in an uncontested area.
2. Make your move quickly and stealthfully. The element of surprise is worth more than a thousand tanks.
3. Make moves that the target will not find threatening enough to respond decisively to.

Types of defensive strategies

Strategic Management>Types of defensive strategies

The main types of defensive marketing warfare strategies are:

* Position defense
- This involves the defense of a fortified position. This tends to be a weak defense because you become a “sitting duck”. It can lead to a siege situation in which time is on the side of the attacker, that is, as time goes by the defender gets weaker, while the attacker gets stronger. In a business context, this involves setting up fortifications such as barriers to market entry around a product, brand, product line, market, or market segment. This could include increasing brand equity, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, or repeat purchase rate. It could also include exclusive distribution contracts, patent protection, market monopoly, or government protected monopoly status. It is best used in homogeneous markets where the defender has dominant market position and potential attackers have very limited resources.

* Mobile defense
- This involves constantly shifting resources and developing new strategies and tactics. A mobile defense is intended to create a moving target that is hard to successfully attack, while simultaneously, equipping the defender with a flexible response mechanism should an attack occur. In business this would entail introducing new products, introducing replacement products, modifying existing products, changing market segments, changing target markets, repositioning products, or changing promotional focus. This defense requires a very flexible organization with strong marketing, entrepreneurial, product development, and marketing research skills.
* Flank position
- This involves the re-deployment of your resources to deter a flanking attack. You protect against potential loss of market share in a segment, by strengthening your competitive position in this segment with new products and other tactics. (see flanking marketing warfare strategies)
* Counter offensive
- This involves countering an attack with an offense of your own. If you are attacked, retaliate with an attack on the aggressor’s weakest point.

Defensive Marketing Warfare

Fundamental principles

There are five fundamental principles involved:

1. Always counter an attack with equal or greater force.
2. Defend every important market.
3. Be forever vigilant in scanning for potential attackers. Assess the strength of the competitor. Consider the amount of support that the attacker might muster from allies.
4. The best defense is to attack yourself. Attack your weak spots and rebuild yourself anew.
5. Defensive strategies should be the exclusive domain of the market leader.

Types of offensive strategies

Offensive marketing warfare>Types of offensive strategies

The main types of offensive marketing warfare strategies are:

* Frontal Attack -
This is a direct head-on assault. It usually involves marshaling all your resources including a substantial financial commitment. All parts of your company must be geared up for the assault from marketing to production. It usually involves intensive advertising assaults and often entails developing a new product that is able to attack the target competitors’ line where it is strong. It often involves an attempt to “liberate” a sizable portion of the target’s customer base. In actuality, frontal attacks are rare. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, they are expensive. Many valuable resources will be used and lost in the assault.

Secondly, frontal attacks are often unsuccessful. If defenders are able to re-deploy their resources in time, the attacker’s strategic advantage is lost. You will be confronting strength rather than weakness. Also, there are many examples (in both business and warfare) of a dedicated defender being able to hold-off a larger attacker.

The strategy is suitable when
o the market is relatively homogeneous
o brand equity is low
o customer loyalty is low
o products are poorly differentiated
o the target competitor has relatively limited resources
o the attacker has relatively strong resources

* Envelopment Strategy (also called encirclement strategy)

- This is a much broader but subtle offensive strategy. It involves encircling the target competitor. This can be done in two ways. You could introduce a range of products that are similar to the target product. Each product will liberate some market share from the target competitor’s product, leaving it weakened, demoralized, and in a state of siege. If it is done stealthily, a full scale confrontation can be avoided. Alternatively, the encirclement can be based on market niches rather than products. The attacker expands the market niches that surround and encroach on the target competitor’s market. This encroachment liberates market share from the target.

The envelopment strategy is suitable when:
o the market is loosely segmented
o some segments are relatively free of well endowed competitors
o the attacker has strong product development resources
o the attacker has enough resources to operate in multiple segments simultaneously
o the attacker has a decentralized organizational structure

* Leapfrog strategy
-This strategy involves bypassing the enemy’s forces altogether. In the business arena, this involves either developing new technologies, or creating new business models. This is a revolutionary strategy that re-writes the rules of the game. The introduction of compact disc technology bypassed the established magnetic tape based defenders. The attackers won the war without a single costly battle. This strategy is very effective when it can be realized.

* Flanking attack
- This strategy is designed to pressure the flank of the enemy line so the flank turns inward. You make gains while the enemy line is in chaos. In doing so, you avoid a head-on confrontation with the main force. (see flanking marketing warfare strategies )

Offensive Marketing Warfare Strategy

Fundamental Principles

There are four fundamental principles involved:

1. Assess the strength of the target competitor. Consider the amount of support that the target might muster from allies. Choose only one target at a time.
2. Find a weakness in the target’s position. Attack at this point. Consider how long it will take for the target to realign their resources so as to reinforce this weak spot.
3. Launch the attack on as narrow a front as possible. Whereas a defender must defend all their borders, an attacker has the advantage of being able to concentrate their forces at one place.
4. Launch the attack quickly. The element of surprise is worth more than a thousand tanks.

Marketing Warfare Strategy

Philip Kotler was a well-known proponent of marketing warfare strategy.

There were generally thought to be four types of business warfare theories. They are:

Offensive marketing warfare strategies
Defensive marketing warfare strategies
Flanking marketing warfare strategies
Guerrilla marketing warfare strategies

Mode of action

Strategic Management>Mode of action

Measuring the effectiveness of the organizational strategy, it's extremely important to conduct a SWOT analysis to figure out the internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats of the entity in business. This may require taking certain precautionary measures or even changing the entire strategy.
In corporate strategy, Johnson, Scholes and Whittington present a model in which strategic options are evaluated against three key success criteria:[3]

Suitability (would it work?)
Feasibility (can it be made to work?)
Acceptability (will they work it?)

Strategi Management

Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments.

It entails specifying the organization's mission, vision and objectives, developing policies and plans, often in terms of projects and programs, which are designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the policies and plans, projects and programs. A balanced scorecard is often used to evaluate the overall performance of the business and its progress towards objectives. Recent studies and leading management theorists have advocated that strategy needs to start with stakeholders expectations and use a modified balanced scorecard which includes all stakeholders.

Strategic management is a level of managerial activity under setting goals and over Tactics. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and is closely related to the field of Organization Studies. In the field of business administration it is useful to talk about "strategic alignment" between the organization and its environment or "strategic consistency."

According to Arieu (2007), "there is strategic consistency when the actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in turn are with the market and the context." Strategic management includes not only the management team but can also include the Board of Directors and other stakeholders of the organization. It depends on the organizational structure.

“Strategic management is an ongoing process that evaluates and controls the business and the industries in which the company is involved; assesses its competitors and sets goals and strategies to meet all existing and potential competitors; and then reassesses each strategy annually or quarterly [i.e. regularly] to determine how it has been implemented and whether it has succeeded or needs replacement by a new strategy to meet changed circumstances, new technology, new competitors, a new economic environment., or a new social, financial, or political environment.”

Strategic Management_Sept'2010

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

By the end of 1992 Goodyear Tire and Rubber, the largest tire manufacturer in the United States, posted a profit of more than US $340 million on record sales of more than $11 billion. This was a far cry from the situation in 1991, when the company had a record loss. For a while it looked as if Goodyear, languishing under a debt of more than $3.7 billion, might go bankrupt.

What altered its fortunes was a combination of a new CEO, who restored the company’s competitive advantage, and a change in the nature of competition within the industry. Throughout the 1980s Goodyear’s sales had fallen as the company lost market share to its two main competitors, Michelin of France and Bridgestone of Japan. These companies had expanded rapidly into the United States, launching an aggressive strategy to build market share and penetrate the market. Their entry started a price war in the U.S. tire market, which especially hurt Goodyear because of the company’s high costs. Goodyear also had a poor record in product innovation and had been slow to bring out new products that would attract its customers back. After the company’s huge losses in 1991, its board of directors forced out the CEO, Tom Barrett, and replaced him with Stanley Gault, who had been the CEO of Rubbermaid.

Gault immediately began to change the way Goodyear operated to restore its competitive advantage. First, he embarked on a strategy of massively reducing operating costs. Gault’s predecessor, Barrett, had started this process by investing more than $4 billion in the 1980s in new, more efficient plant and equipment and by decreasing the size of the workforce by more than 20 percent. By 1991 output per worker had climbed 51 percent. However, Gault took this process much further and began to slash costs everywhere. By example, he showed managers how to reduce costs. He began by eliminating limousines for top executives and replacing them with family sedans. He sold off three of the corporate jets and eliminated the Goodyear airship, based in Houston, Texas. He even removed most of the light bulbs from his office to demonstrate his commitment to lower costs. The other Goodyear managers followed his lead and systematically began their cost-cutting efforts, with the spectacular results previously noted.

To increase market share, Gault also worked to increase innovation, quality, and the speed at which the company introduced new products. Goodyear had many tires in development for years, including one named the Aquatread, a tire that performed very well on wet road surfaces. However, it had been slow to bring them to the market. In 1991 Gaultdecided on a bold strategy: Goodyear would introduce four new tires at once, including the

Aquatread. Each tire was directed at a different market segment. For Example, the Aquatread was aimed at the safety-conscious consumers, whereas another tire was constructed to lower petrol consumption. These moves were very successful. Goodyear’s new tires, which had higher profit margins than its older tires, restored customers’ perceptions that the firm was a premium tire manufacturer, and sales of the new tires, particularly the Aquatread, surged. Indeed, Goodyear sold more than 1 million Aquatreads in one year, 20 percent more than its

forecast. Gault’s combined strategy of reducing costs and raising the differentiated appeal of the company’s products paid off in the form of a huge increase in profits. By 1991, the same year Goodyear recorded its record loss, U.S. tire manufacturers had grown weary of the rounds of price cutting and price wars that had plagued the industry and diminished their profits. Tire manufacturers started to support each other’s attempts to keep prices up and avoid price cutting. They also began searching for new ways to compete that did not reduce the industry’s profitability. One strategy they adopted was to develop new kinds of tires and aggressively market them to customers. Gault’s strategy of developing innovative products coincided with this change in the industry from price to non-price competition and helped promote Goodyear’s turnaround and increased sales. Goodyear and its competitors have all benefited from their new strategy of non-price competition, which has been maintained throughout the 1990s. In 1996 Goodyear introduced a new tire that has a lifetime warranty, and its profits continue to increase as it pioneers ever better kinds of tires.

Source: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, closing Case, Pg 242, Chapter 7 Competitive Strategy

and the Industry Environment, Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach, 4th Ed. By Charles

W.L.Hill (University of Washington) and Gareth R. Jones (Texas AGM University), Houghton Mifflin

Company, Boston, New York. 1998.

Question 1

How did the nature of competition in the tire industry cause problems for Goodyear in the 1980s?

[10 marks]

Question 2

What strategies did Gault develop to turn the company around? Discuss.

[10 marks]

Question 3

Based on the four key components of competitive advantage: efficiency, quality, customer responsiveness, and innovation, to what extent has Gault successfully regained Goodyear’s competitive advantage? Explain.

[10 marks]

Question 4

In what ways was the U.S. tire industry in the 1990s different from that in 1980s? Discuss.

[10 marks]

[TOTAL: 40 MARKS]

Question 1

a. With the use of a diagram, critically examine Porter’s THREE (3) generic competitive strategies.

[10 marks]

b. In times of economic downturn, which type of strategic business decisions should companies make so as to survive and sustain their competitive advantage? Discuss.

[10 marks]

[TOTAL: 20 MARKS]

Question 2

a. What is strategic planning process? Critically examine its role in strategic management.

[10 marks]

b. Why has strategic management become so important to corporations today? Why have many corporations that implement strategic management ultimately failed?

[10 marks]

[TOTAL: 20 MARKS]

Question 3

a. To what extent organisational culture affects strategy formulating, implementing and evaluating?

[10 marks]

b. How is benchmarking used to evaluate corporate performance? Examine ONE (1) limitation of benchmarking in strategy evaluation.

[10 marks]

[TOTAL: 20 MARKS]

Question 4

a. What is the relationship between corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR)?

[10 marks]

b. What is the role of board of directors in strategic management? What recommendations would you make to improve the effectiveness of board of directors today?

[10 marks]

[TOTAL: 20 MARKS]

Question 5

a. According to Porter, what determines the level of competitive intensity in an industry?

[10 marks]

b. Using Porter’s Five-Force Model, assess the intensity of competition within any local or

international industrial sector that you have known of.

Record-keeping and Report-writing

by MAHBOB ABDULLAH

No 59, Jalan setiaraya, Bukit Demansara, 50490 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

In the daily work of a planter or engineer it is part of his job to record the progress of his work, and there is nothing better than to start by taking notes.

Yet in my visits to the field I find that there are planters who are reluctant to take notes. I have found that writing notes will help to keep the points stay longer in my mind. I can also refer to them weeks later and use these notes for making my decisions. It is nothing to be shy about in writing down points. One famous example was the founder of Wal-Mart in America, Sam Walton, who opened up supermarkets and managed to compete extremely well across America. Stories about him told on how he used a yellow legal pad and wrote notes when he visited rival supermarkets and when he talked to customers. His supermarket became even more profitable and at one time he was the richest man in the world.

From these notes the points can be used to write the points about the visit that will require a follow up which will raise the standard of performance of the unit. Similarly at meetings, the notes are taken which will be used to write the minutes in which decisions are put on record.

Records should be written neatly so that they allow for a quick reference. In the plantations the records are kept for the assets of the estate, the operations and their costs, including production and processing, the purchases, sales and transport, manpower, salaries and so on, including items out of our control such as rainfall.

These records are today kept in their final copy in a computer which has been programmed by specialists. The calculation is done instantly. It was once my job long ago, before the arrival of computers, to calculate manually with a Facit machine and I would have to work through several nights to get the checkroll ready. Yet there would be mistakes which could take a lot of effort to trace.

However, there is a danger of having computerisation in the way that sometimes the files are accessible only to some clerks in the office. Therefore the planters can become ignorant about the records and performance of their units. In this case I would recommend that each planter should be given training on computers and to ensure that they have the skill to open the files. These files are there mainly for their benefit which they can study.

In the case of figures, they can trace the month by month trend and see if their performance is

improving. If the trend shows that the performance of some blocks is declining, or below expectation, they will then be able to take immediate action.

From the records the figures are used in the report. In the plantation there are formats to follow. When preparing to write the report it is worth to bear in mind that the reader wants to know about production, quality, extraction rates, costs of production, performance against estimates, and the projections for future months.

Therefore it is important to bear this in mind and that the report will show these figures in

full.

Equally important is that the explanation is given clearly on why the crop is low or the costs are high. It is not good enough to give weak reasons and blame the rainfall or the drought. It is better to look for reasons among factors which are within the control of management. For example the reason for low crop is because the plantation is short of labour' the attendance is low, or fertiliser programme was not completed. Stick to the real reasons and keep it brief. The reader does not like to waste his time reading a lot of words which do not say anything.

For example some reports may say this: "The crop was 4 000 tonnes against an estimate of 8000 tonnes which is a shortfall of 50 per cent..." That is not an explanation and apart from wasting the time of the reader, he will also know that you do not know the real reason for the shortfall. As a result you are not going to go up in his esteem.

Yet you can send a message that you know the real reasons, and to do this you will of course need to know what is actually going on in the field or factory. By walking and checking on problems in the field or on the factory floor, you can find the real problems, and explain what you can do to make improvements. Explain how the shortfall can be made up, and show the potential for the next three months. Knowing the situation will help in making plans which will have a good chance in being achieved. The figures are of course supported with words.

In writing the explanations, it is recommended that words are selected which are short, and easy to understand. Big words may not add to what you want to say. Keep the explanation brief and to the point. Spelling and grammar must be checked. Today the computer can help in a big way, so there is little excuse for any mistakes. An important point to note is that the spelling of names must be right, and wrong spelling can be regarded as lack of respect.

When figures are being shown, they must add up, including the decimals, and if they do not, then against it shows that the writer is not checking the details. The reports today can be sent by hard copy or by email, which is part of the benefit of having modern science to help us. In addition digital cameras can take photos to illustrate what you mean, and the picture is ready instantly. Now of course even hand-phones can be used to take reasonably clear photographs'

On the forecast for the crop, again there is much thought required. If you can gather most of the facts, and consult your team, it will certainly help. When your forecasts are fairly accurate then the reader is comfortable with your judgement. Being consistently right will build your reputation as a reliable person. Your figures will rarely be questioned.

A planter would sometimes need to write visit reports, or special reports on the conditions in an area. It is wise to start a habit of writing the report on the same day, as our minds are fresh on what we saw. Delays are not of any help. One last comment is that the report must arrive to the reader on time, or before the deadline. You are providing a service, and punctuality is valued by the reader.