Social Responsibility

Don't be evil

I have to admire and give a big salute to Google for their bold decision to withdraw from China while others come in flocks to grab the huge market potential. I think the Google’s decision is the highest social responsibility one has ever shown in the history of the business world.

“What’s the big fuss if a government wants to crack into some dissidents’ Gmail accounts?” Some might ask. “Let them have what they want, we are here to make money, not enemy, to uphold of a principle doesn’t make you look more saintly in the business world compared to others,” and they might say.

There is this famous China local search engine that has been making a lot of extraordinary money to help advertisers concealing search results containing bad publicities. The manipulation of media had delayed the exposure of China Poisonous Milk Scandal in 2008, which in turn had caused more infants to suffer from kidney stone disease.

“Don’t be evil” is not just a framed motto that overhangs the wall of Google, they really believe in the motto and they put it into action. For a lot of corporate, social responsibilities are confined to those donations made to the old folk homes, orphanages, or some charity organizations, or boasted their products are environmental friendly with the objective to boost sales rather than to concern about the mother Earth. Some people even narrow the scope down to “as long that you abide by the law, have a decent job, you are no sinner and you have fulfilled your social responsibility.” Is it really that simple? How about those who work for a tobacco firm or a casino? And don't you polluting the air by driving to work everyday?

Go green to boost sales or to fulfill social responsibility?

Social responsibility is not just about paying your taxes, making some charity contributions to the needy, or claiming no emission of toxic during production, but it is also about your willingness to say no to any kind of bribery or kickbacks from any projects you handle.

With the FGW (Fire GreatWall) stands on guard, the access to Youtube, Blogspot, Facebook and Twitter is nearly impossible in China. But similar websites run by the local operators flourished due to lack of competition from the outsiders, but they have to succumb to the ‘agreement’ made between them and the authority. Removal of whatever articles or video clips deemed sensitive by the authority is a must. You could post articles online; and these pieces also could simply vanish into thin air in the next few hours.

“Even Microsoft takes no risk to enrage a government,” you might say. Of course not, from the retreat of a strong opponent, Microsoft benefitted by gaining more share for its Bing search engine in China.

No corporate would want to sacrifice their future prospective market to upset their shareholders. There is no financial analyst that would praise the move of Google’s withdrawal, that’s why I extend my respect to Google for their greater social responsibility and for their higher level of integrity.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Think Out Of The Box

Based on my many years of working experiences, I have made an interesting observation. I noticed most of the academically sound or straight-A students are struggling to think outside the box. Their superb accomplishments in school turned out to be a stumbling block in their career advancements.

I blame the exam mechanism in school, which I think have refrained the students from thinking further. If their aims are higher academically, the more they will be trapped by the retarded education system. I’m not saying that academic is not important, that you should be taking academic for granted, but ironically to a certain extent, being too academic numbs your minds.

“Don’t waste your time. You can skip these two chapters, they won’t come out in the exam,” I recalled one of my teachers advised us NOT TO LEARN. And most of the bright students purposely refuse to enter into an argument when the not-so-smart answers perfectly suited the teacher’s taste.

Good students almost always are obedient; they follow the ‘rules’ leading to the road of success. They always thinking inside the box (scope of the exam), and don’t see a point to learn more, as yet the rewards they receive are commendable. In the contrary, the ones who think outside the box will always receive punishment for not following the ‘rules’ set by the academicians and always end up with substandard performances.

Most of the good students tend to inherit the same “good” nature when pursuing their careers. They figure, if they were to follow exactly the instructions given by the boss, they could anticipate huge rewards, as received in the school days, but this time in the form of high salary, fat bonus and promotion etc.

But unfortunately, the working world does not always have the textbook or a set of rules that you can follow to gain rewards. The business worlds these days need you to think outside the box, the peek on the weird opportunities. Then, the normally outstanding students in the eyes of the teachers would turn out to perform like a mediocre in the employer’s eyes. Timid, play safe, afraid to make mistakes and taking no risks are becoming their common characteristics. Their adaptableness to the working environment is pathetic especially in the fast changing world.

The Internet age has provided the world with vast opportunities. There is no past experience or textbooks we can refer to when entering the new virtual world. You HAVE to learn from the mistake(s). No matter how conventional your business, you can revitalize it by tapping on this new technology.

I am always proud of our unconventional website approach and the 8 microsites we have for support. It helps us to grow our business across the border, and serve almost all purposes around the clock for our reseller ranging from technical tips, warranty claim, training, sales resources download and etc. All these efforts require a lot of out-of-the-box’s thinking process.

And after many years of having the training website; it is time to give it a complete overhaul. We are adopting “Flash” technology to make the website appealing graphically. Moreover, we include the online examination, for technical personnel who care for a FingerTec Qualified Technician Certificate. Sit for this exam, and we will mail you the Certificate once you have passed.

And again, a certificate doesn’t make you an excellent engineer if you don’t have the out-of-the-box-thinking mindset at work. The exam is just a basic knowledge for you to be more prepared when it comes to dealing with FingerTec products. The scope of the industry is much larger than that.

I’m proud to announce that our new training website is due to be released this month end.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

To Avoid Long Tail

The Long Tail Theory popularized by Chris Anderson saying that a powerful new economic force in the world of Internet allows almost unlimited choices. This is particular true for the new era where you’re a retailer and you offer your items over the Internet. The display of your products on the Internet is practically costless if compared to a brick and mortar retail store that involves high operating costs. At the end, the additions of small quantity sales of long-tail niche products maybe larger than the total small percentage of hottest mass selling items.

The Long Tail Curve

For slow moving products, this is a really good news. Amazon.com can offer endless list of book titles, but Barn and Noble chain stores have to make a wise selection of titles for display in their limited shop space.

The Internet has given us a lot of dreams, and proven some old theories wrong, and created some new ones. Unfortunately the Long Tail Theory sounds great for online retailers, but not for manufacturers.

We are the one who still have to abide by the conventional Pareto Principle’s 80-20 rule. We may tolerate 80% of slow moving items in our product line against the 20% of the hot items i.e. FingerTec TA100 and R2 model, but no manufacturer can afford to produce endless niche products that sell very little.

From product design, to structural design, to molding, to prototype, to sampling, to mass production, to A&P, the investment is snowballing, if the new product is not making a hit, producers have to lick their own wound.

Everyone dreams to become Apple, just one model of iPhone versus a plentiful of Nokia models and still making tones of money. We are no Apple, but what we can do is to limit our new products to a few models every year to avoid long tail, and pray for the newbie to rewrite the Pareto Principle to 70-30, 60-40, 50-50….

And come back from the Chinese New Year, we have finally unveiled the latest three models:

1. FingerTec FaceID 2

Yeah, it should be released last December, but to make you look good in color on the screen and not just you in black and white image, we had to hold it back until R&D department removes the final hurdle. It’s worth the wait. You can compare it with some of the rival’s products and notice the striking difference. The first batch of the Face ID 2 are all booked, we hope the good news would sustain in a longer period.

2. FingerTec Keylock 8800

This is another much awaited product. To lift the standard of conventional and high-tech fingerprint door lock combined, the effort and investment are three times higher than a normal fingerprint reader. We hope the market proves that it’s worth the economy of effort.

3. FingerTec TA300

It showed up in my plan a year ago. But the designs were shot down many times until I’m almost given up. But the tireless R&D team kept on trying to keep it alive, and we finally have a desktop standalone fingerprint reader. TA300 is meant for no-installation and low price easy market.

We would release 3 to 4 additional new products this year. To avoid the long wait and the grumbling resellers, this time I have to keep it confidential until it nears production.

But all in all, the more pressing matter now is, forget the Long Tail, what’s in my mind is to beat the damn Pareto principle’s 80-20 rule!

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Is Santa Claus Real?

The secret that had been safely kept for nine years was revealed last week.

Coming home from her school, my daughter, in a serious tone, asked me, “Is Santa Claus real, or Daddy is the Santa?”

“Why you suddenly bring this up?” I replied uneasily.

“My classmate told us that Santa Claus is actually daddy and the whole class agreed with her. I’m the only one who insisted that Santa Claus is real. They laughed at me and told me to ask my father.”

The family had worked hard to keep this secret. For a while I wanted to keep it that way. But if I continued the white lie, she would be a bigger laughing stock in her class later on. Since she would soon discover the truth from someone else, it’s better to come from her dad.

So, I told her the truth.

She laughed out loud at first, but later I saw tears welling up in her eyes. I threw my arms around her. 

What a cruel truth.

She told us that she feels happy and sad at the same time. Some of her long unrequited doubts are cleared now, but the anticipation for Christmas would be diminished.

I convinced her that all children would grow up to discover the truth sooner or later, but Daddy will always get Christmas presents.

“But I have to cut my wish list shorter when I know that Daddy is paying for the presents,” she replied glumly.

Santa Claus is children’s best fairy tale, most parents are willing to keep the secret as long as possible. When the real identity of Santa eventually unveiled, the love between the two generations grows stronger.

“That’s why I didn’t get my elephant (toy) last Christmas which I thought supreme Santa should know what I wanted,” she said with a bitter smile.

“I really went to the zoo and asked the keeper to sell one of the baby elephants to me, but he refused,” I joked.

The whole family broke into laughter, and hers with more tears in the eyes.

This episode happened a month after Christmas. And now Chinese in Malaysia are preparing for Chinese New Year celebration, which’s just around the corner. I would be taking a week holiday to be with my family starting from 13^th February. Despite the two days public holiday in Malaysia, all sales and supports enquiries would be replied within 24-hours. No worry, that’s our promise.

Wishing you A Happy Chinese New Year!

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

The Perils of Low Price

They invariably invaded the market vehemently, with promotion price that seemed to last forever. Low price was their only “weapon”. They swept the market and left the branded but less competitive products wept at a corner, praying for their lives.

Their success has made them stand tall for quite some times, until the next low-price predator marched in to give them a blow. There’s no loyalty, the market will embrace the predator without hesitation, turning the predecessor another vulnerable prey. Their dying cries of so-called better “quality” and “support” than the new rival has no appeal, because it never was in the consideration list and it was never offered before.

The truth of the matter is, price beats price.

There will always be some cheaper priced products out there. Big companies manufacture low price products by running production 24-hour a day, volume component purchases and low labor costs. Size does matter; that’s the economy of scale.

But small companies can sometimes do things miraculously. They offer almost the same quality products with even lower prices. They're like cockroaches when the mighty falls; they’d survive for another million years. To them, size does not matter; survivor instinct prevails.

Whether size does or does not matter, the logic is, price is easily beaten by price. Since price is their only “weapon”, the strategy of the battle has always come down to price war and instead of bringing them benefits; they gain so little even they won the battle.

I was informed that in some countries where price is being made a more sensitive issue than religion, due to the economic downturn, new competitors can easily pound on the same door using the same strategy, initiating a fiercer price war than ever.

Desmond Wong (left) and me

Desmond Wong, executive director of AMTC, a distributor, flew from Sabah (East Malaysia) to visit FingerTec last week, told me that they have been approached and offered with some products from China frequently, undoubtedly lower price than FingerTec.

“I welcome their price discount, but afraid the same discount would apply to software features, service and product quality and reliability.”

After we chatted a little longer, he finally broke into a big grin. “I can make better profit with FingerTec because the customers could feel the worth. If I sell China products, I have to succumb to market force by lowering my profit margin.”

And now it was my turn to break into a big grin thinking of the reality of the situation. Despite the economy downturn, AMTC's FingerTec sales improved by 60% last year.

FingerTec is not an alliance in the price war; in fact we choose to stay impartial. When two China products engage in a price war, we are always not included; but when the sales being awarded, we are not always excluded.

Why so? Because price is not our only strategy, we have many.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Is This A Farewell?

Ms Regielou Rolloque

FingerTec threw a farewell party for Regielou Rolloque last month, but this farewell seems a little weird to me. Yes, she left, flew back to her home country the Philippines on 2^nd January 2010; but she’s not actually leaving us; she is in fact still working full time for FingerTec.

As usual, she has to write a weekly report to the management, follow-up the sales inquiries, handling her Spanish-speaking clients through MSN, Skype and email.

I remember the first time she arrived in Malaysia two years ago during Christmas Day; she appeared timid and introverted. Was she going to survive for two years?

No problem, the friendly working environment and the helpful colleagues here would melt her heart. I told myself.

In two years, her soft-spoken Spanish tongue has melted the Latin American’s hearts too.

Whether she works from Malaysia or the Philippines, there seems to be no difference to our clients. And to us too. It’s just that, without physical presence, her colleagues need to assist her in some administration works from Malaysia.

This is the power of the Internet. And FingerTec sales and support system centers around it, tightening the screws at all ends, fine-tuning the user-experience for both resellers and end users, adding more value from time to time to the platform.

The result is apparent. The virtual has delivered more tangible results than the brick-and-mortar.

One day when Regielou came to me and told me, she missed her home, and she likes her job. Immediately I knew my answer.

You’re free to go home, and you can keep your job.

But you have to visit us once a year, because the colleagues here miss you, too.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

Consistency Paid Off

I have a few weekly columns in some local dailies. And the longest period of column I had ever written lasted three years, published every Monday, totaled 156 articles without a single lapse. Despite my busy work schedule, I still accepted an invitation from a tabloid to contribute critique once a week, and it has been a continuous eight months now.

Inconsistency has always killed any brilliant new plan halfway through. In the contrary, consistency is THE key to a successful implementation of any plans. I'm proud of our FingerTec monthly newsletter, since the first issue was published and disseminated in February 2007; we never missed a single issue over the past 3 years, despite the extra workload and rushing for deadline drew excessive pressure to our staff, when their hands were usually tight, and minds were usually prioritize with some other promises to customers.

Because of our persistence, we maintain consistency and we take care of the content’s quality at the same time. I witness many companies much larger than us, even with a team of dedicated sub-editors, normally had a fine start but slowly lost their momentum and passion as the time went by. We only have our team of sales and technical personnel contribute their writings and assist with the editing of the FingerTec monthly newsletter for the past three long years; and my gratitude to them is beyond words.

One close friend of mine once commented, “Consistency is important, but the virtue can be more valuable if you tie it with some sales strategies rather than a mere newsletter.”

“But newsletter is one of our very effective sales strategies,” I rebutted. The consistency of the newsletter is not just the only one thing we pursue. The fact that we never overlooked other areas such as the handling of sales and supports through our CRM system proves consistency. People shouldn’t be too shortsighted in business. Newsletter is a long-term commitment; an intimate relationship we build with our customers; the results might not be as straightforward but it’s beneficial in the long run.

FingerTec Newsletter, January 2010 issue

In fact, besides the regular updates of our latest developments, Newsletter helps us to win over some potential leads that are selling other biometric products. It also serves as the checkpoints for our staff to contribute technical tips and marketing information to enrich our support websites regularly. Without the monthly newsletter, I can expect very rare updates of our relevant support websites, and the excuses would never be short of supply. Our Newsletter also provides a platform for our resellers worldwide to publish their stories, to announce their successful projects and have the opportunity to share with the others their FingerTec experience at no cost at all.

We improve the contents and design of our newsletter from time to time, and we have been meeting our deadlines earlier in order to publish the volume from the middle to early of the month. Furthermore, the consistency we pursue has slowly turned the process of publishing our newsletter into a habit, and the burden also has been replaced by responsibility. And we expect reading of the newsletter would also become a habit to our resellers.

I dare say that the consistency of our newsletter has improved FingerTec® image tremendously. A distributor from Africa came to the office every half year and she brought with her printed pages of our newsletter and asking for further explanation and updates on various topics. I don’t have a statistic to prove my bold statement, but from feedbacks I received and from my gut feelings, I know that this is true. My logic is simple, I reckon many people believe that, if FingerTec is serious about something they deemed less important, what about those significant matters? Go figure.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ