Category: Business Fundamentals

Don’t assume others will understand something easily just because you do

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Human Resource, ValuesLeave a comment

They call it the “curse of knowledge”. When you are working on something, you have its context, background and familiarity. You will tend to assume that the people around you also has the same level of understanding on that matter. And you get frustrated when they don’t. Similarly, they get frustrated with your lack of patience and understanding of their predicament.

I have seen this in tech implementations, organisational changes and different communication attempts. Tech folks design user interfaces which seem simple & intuitive to them, but which users struggle to use. Check out this article that used the design of a covid-19 self-test kit to illustrate the issue. Hopefully, this will help you discern what best to do the next time you are required to communicate a required action or design a system.

Will the business model for Real Estate developers change?

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Economy, InnovationLeave a comment
The business model of real estate developers is a “project-based” business model. They constantly need to find land for development and sell what they have built to yield revenue & profit. This revenue model can be “lumpy” and it is difficult to maintain a consistent yield. As such, many real estate developers have property rental, management & maintenance businesses to provide more consistent revenue & cash flows.
Will we ever see a “printer” business model for real estate developers – where printers are sold at low prices and ink usage provides a more consistent stream of revenue & profits? Perhaps some business model innovation may be helpful here to address the ever rising costs of property in every country.

Will business travel ever return to pre-pandemic days?

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Economy, InnovationLeave a comment

Will you spend thousands of dollars if you can achieve the same outcome without having to? When businesses are trying to reduce costs, this may seem like a no-brainer. Of course, meeting face to face makes a great difference. The question is how frequent this needs to be. For as long as video calls can do the job, business travel will certainly see decline. This is confirmed by a survey amongst companies around the world.

Is a university degree a good investment?

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Career, Economy, Human ResourceLeave a comment

A study of 26,000 bachelors degree programmes found that about two-thirds of them have graduates making enough to cover their costs in 10 years or less after graduation. But the intangible benefit is the friendships you build and the experience you get through your University days. These may help you throughout your career in a manner that cannot be measured.

Robots operated remotely by people with diabilities

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Career, Economy, Human Resource, InnovationLeave a comment

This is a really good way to provide jobs for the disabled. They may not be able to move around easily, but their robots can. So this cafe in Tokyo has cleverly enabled around 50 physically disabled employees to work 800km away. They control robots who bring the drinks/food to patrons in the cafe and interact with them. In this way, it is not a “robot” that the patrons interact with, but a real person – how smart! Let’s hope more companies will embrace such concepts and provide such jobs for the physically handicapped.

Amazon.sg will be imposing 0.5% surcharge on Visa payments from 15 Sep 2021

On By LS HIn Business FundamentalsLeave a comment

The merchant discount rate for online merchants is usually higher than those who operate physical stores. The rate for small physical retail merchants usually hovers between 3-4%. Many already consider this to be a high operating expense. It leaves to see if consumers will turn away from shopping on Amazon.sg and use other platforms instead. Others are also waiting to see if the other platforms will follow suit and impose charges for credit card transactions.

Amazon eclipses Walmart as largest retailer

On By LS HIn Business FundamentalsLeave a comment

This is a significant milestone. The virtual mall (Amazon) is now bigger than the physical mall (Walmart) in revenue. it represents how people buy; it represents the effects of digitalisation. It has happened to retailing. Sooner or later, every industry will see the same effect. Hence, businesses must embrace digitalisation and plan for their own future as changes come their way.

Do you desire to work beyond 100yrs old?

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Career, Human Resource, ResilienceLeave a comment

This lady is 101 yrs old. She continues her work as a lobster catcher way beyond anyone’s retirement age. And she has been happily doing this since she was 7. It is unlikely that you can continue working in a company for as long as you like unless you own it or are related to someone who owns it. So if you are hoping to work way beyond statutory retirement age, it is best that you can turn your hobby into a business, which you can “retire” into. Then you can continue to working for as long as you like to. Do connect with us for a chat if you like to discuss this.

Insurance company adopting new business model

On By LS HIn Business Fundamentals, Economy, InnovationLeave a comment

Innovation can be inspired by new technology, new business models or both. We are beginning to see the insurance sector adopt a subscription-based business model similar to that of Netflix and other companies. And insurance company Income is launching this via an app. This is certainly good for customers. Hopefully, other insurance companies will follow soon…