You accepted Christ in 2003. Can you share with us what triggered your final surrender to Christ?

Yes, I was an atheist but also a scholar. As a scholar, I respect the truth. I went to Boston in 2002 to study the American economy and I saw many churches there. My suspicions about Christianity led me to study the Bible, and as I read it, I was convicted by what was written in it.

How do you reconcile the God of the Bible with the field of economics?

I realized that God is the best economist. An economist can only perform a forecast of the economy up to five years but with God, the forecast stretches for generations. Just look at Abraham: God prophesized about his descendants—from his children to Jesus and all the way to us. Knowledge is not always rational but just look at the example of the U.S. In the bible, the Jews are God’s blessed people and during the persecution of the Jews in Europe, the U.S. became a shelter for the Jew as it accepted the large-scale Jewish migration. Today, the U.S. economy is the world’s largest economy. China has also been a shelter for the Jews, so I believe God has blessed China too.

What is the motivation behind your passion in advocating Christ into the economy?

The economy of China has grown but there is a hole in the transformation and the value system of China. I believe Jesus can mend that hole. If the hole is not closed, problems will arise in China’s trade in future. This is why integrity must be instilled. But man is not trustworthy; only God is. Anyway, what is the point of earning so much money but you end up losing your soul? What is your motive? But when we have Christ, we will do business for His glory and we will understand that we are God’s stewards tasked to manage His money on earth. And when China receives its blessings, we will be able to bring so much more blessings to the world.

How do you encourage those in the marketplace to make an impact for Christ?

For working people, the best place to serve God is definitely at their workplace. They must understand that whatever they do, they work as unto the Lord. Of course, entrepreneurs have certain qualities such as management abilities and creativity which are highly transferable when they serve in the church. However, they must know that their enterprise is the Kingdom’s enterprise and is an extension of the church.

And in what practical ways can Christian entrepreneurs help spread the gospel in the marketplace?

Entrepreneurs can help to “open up” the Church into the world—for instance, my church usually holds two meetings annually and locally, and has been doing so for the past years. But this year we are going international, first to Taipei and the next to Dubai; we are also planning for our future meetings to be held overseas.

Article provided by City News: http://www.citynews.sg
URL to article: http://www.citynews.sg/2011/04/5-questions-with-zhao-xiao/

On this particular Wednesday morning, 17 business owners were gathered in a conference room, and it seemed all talk was centered on business. However, it soon became clear that this meeting was different than other business meetings: focus went beyond profit maximization to emphasize the need for God-centeredness in businesses.

This was The Marketplace’s monthly office devotion, which takes place every month at a different business office.

On April 20, the group was gathered at Spectacle Hut’s new headquarters on Henderson Road. The Marketplace’s chairman, Goh Yock Kiang, told City News the rationale of rotating venues was to allow the attendees to see how different businesses operate. Although this was not the first time office devotions had been held, the target was different: in many cases, business owners would conduct devotions for their staff, but this series of office devotions is specially created for business owners.

Goh explained that bosses are responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of their staff. What The Marketplace office devotion does is to strengthen the bosses so that they can do business righteously and learn to take care of their workers.

BUSINESS LESSONS FROM THE BIBLE

Following a short time of worship, Goh shared a message from Genesis 41 and 42, focusing on Joseph, son of Jacob, who, being a prisoner, was promoted to the role of prime minister of Egypt, having successfully interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. God speaks to His people in dreams, Goh expounded, before asking his audience, “What is God speaking to you?”

He shared the amazing story of George Washington Carver (1864-1943), an African-American “Renaissance man” who was an educator, thinker, scientist and botanist. Carver heard from God to grow sweet potatoes and peanuts at a time when there was no existing market—there was a dominance of cotton crops in 20th century America. Going against conventional wisdom, Carver obeyed God, who then gave him ideas for 300 marketable products from sweet potatoes and peanuts. To this day, Carver is most famous for his research into and promotion of alternatives to cotton; some of his many inventions and projects include cosmetics, dyes, paints, plastics, gasoline, and nitroglycerin made from peanuts.

Goh followed up with contemporary examples of businesses which have prospered through God-given ideas and strategies. He stresses how these business owners have obeyed God in maintaining honest dealings such as avoiding bribery and paying all their taxes and debts.

The message was simple: apart from areas of life that people always pray for, God also cares about the way that His people conduct business. Being a marketplace believer is not about getting rich quick, but about hearing and obeying the voice and purpose of God which covers every aspect of life. Goh declared that there is no separation between what is spiritual and what is work, and concluded his message by leading the group to recommit their lives and businesses into God’s hands.

More than just networking, the office devotion also provides a source of mutual support—business owners can come together as Christians, sharing and praying for each other’s business needs.

WITNESSING FOR GOD IN THE BUSINESS WORLD

At this particular devotion, Ee Boon Kiat of Kianson Private Limited gave testimony that as a Christian businessman, he continues to serve God while prospering in the marketplace. He shared how he had graduated from the School of Theology in 2008 and serves actively as a cell group leader in church—all the while running his growing business in composite timber.

Hosts Gary and Sara Khoo of Spectacle Hut shared their business experience and answered questions from the group, which ranged from how to break into the burgeoning China market, to staff training practices, and even biblical advice on conflict management between husband and wife who are partners in business.

The Marketplace office devotion is more than a cell group meeting at a workplace venue, being both business- centric and also God-centric in its orientation. First-time attendee Andrea Koo of MuRho Private Limited said she benefited from the sharing and interaction as it reinforced her belief of applying biblical principles, including that of putting God first in all her activities.

Another first-timer Thomas Wang of iWorld Services said he was most impacted by Ee’s testimony; it inspired him to believe that both serving in church while prospering in business was something achievable.

Members of the Marketplace can look forward to more such enriching office devotions in the months to come.

The Marketplace office devotion happens monthly. The next devotion will be held on Friday, May 13, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Bok Seng Group, 5 Tuas Avenue 3, BS Logistics Hub. All are welcome. For more information, visit http://themarketplace.com.sg.

Article from City News: http://www.citynews.sg
URL to article: http://www.citynews.sg/2011/05/anointed-for-business/

1. What kinds of preparation work would you advise anyone before they venture intooverseas market?

Sara: One ought to be diligent to do some market research. Then ask if you could find a need there where you can meet better than the local? Know your strength and weakness. Talk and meet people in the arena. Often, it is also critical to find the right place and the right people especially in the less structured overseas market. Know their taxation and rules which can wipe out the profit or take away your edge. Would it still be feasible?

2. Having your wife as a partner in work and marriage, how do you maintain the quality and effectiveness of your relationship in either field?

Gary: I met my wife when studying in the university. We started Spectacle Hut together in 1997 registered as a partnership. We married 2 years later. We both started at the frontline as optometrists with no staffs and no off day for nearly a year. As the company grew, she now takes on operational , marketing, human resource roles. I manage the finances, set the direction for the company and work on our expanding wholesale businesses overseas.

So effectively, my wife has always been a business partner despite us having 4 children along the way. We are very different in character and style. Hence you can imagine that there are endless opportunities for fights. However, as we worked out our differences in the past 19years together, a set of unspoken rules emerged between Sara and I which made us a dream team.

a. Complement, not Compete.

We must remember that we are a team. We complement each other, not compete against each other. The true enemy is outside and if your customers, suppliers, employee tries to pull you apart, you must come back to this basic commitment. With this sacred commitment, each spousal partner must also not abuse this relationship by expecting special treatment as business is a battlefield indeed and at war, only the best will survive. If you constantly expect to over-ride each other instead of going for the best decision, the business may suffer.

b. No finger-pointing.

To become the largest optical chain in Singapore, we made many decisions. Most were good ones but many were also wrong where we suffered. While we may talk and questioned each other’s logic, we immediately close the matter and accept the lost. We never blame each other thereafter so we would not shrink from fear of failure.

3. How do you deal with offences from people whom you meet in the business field?

Gary: Offence is part of life. The bible prophesied this so never be surprised. We have been cheated and betrayed. Of course we were upset, after all, we are human. My true answer is really to just let go. Do some reflection and then channel all the energy derived from the “anger” to better yourself and your company.

This is the best strategy. Cut loss and let the offender go. Instead, get back by getting better instead. On many occasions, we looked back on our little successes and realised that if the upset did not occur, we would not have moved out into new frontier. In my case, I would not have found my overseas wholesale business when years ago, the local chain stores grouped together to force the local suppliers to boycott us as they saw us as a new threat when we still small but expanded with force.

4. As your business expands in staff size, how do you make sure that your staff maintain a high quality of work and service?

Sara: We believe in training. In the first decade, we trained staffs personally. There must be training that aligns the vision and culture so that staffs think like us. Then to invest in training with knowledge and skills so they have the know-how to deliver to customers. Now we out-source the know-how. Every morning, a handful of our staffs attend polytechnic to upgrade their optical knowledge.

With attendees from various backgrounds – I.T., Trading, Public Relations, Food and Beverage and Social Media etc, we chat excitedly before Pastor Goh kick-starts the session with worship, playing the guitar himself. The messages shared highlight building a business that honors God, and hearing from God. We want to establish connectedness with God to help us to be discerning and wise, and we know that we serve a faithful God. After the inspiring message, we break out into smaller groups for group sharing and prayers.

The sharing from Boon Kiat, Director of Kianson, further illustrated how his personal journey in business is chronicled by this exact message – from his prayers to God yearning for his own business, the message given by God to him while he is serving on the church choir one day, to constant listening and connectedness with God, and ultimately, years later, a thriving USD6million and growing business.

Gary and Sara then shared the journey of Spectacle Hut, from a store in Clementi to over 40 outlets in Singapore and overseas growth in Malaysia (KL) and China (Beijing). They were candid about the challenges faced as a business, anti-competitive pressures, and also work-marriage management. As a retail business, they shared insights into staffing and human resources management, how God guided them throughout.

As the call for questions came, the floor becomes alive with questions seeking advice for overseas expansion, staffing management and even managing a business with a spouse. Many found answers to their personal business challenges. With lunch on the horizon, we ended the meeting at about 1pm. Rewarded by the message and personal sharing, we will look forward to more office devotions.

Boardroom business leaders are continuously under extreme pressure to deliver improved quarter by quarter results. Business leaders are purely measured by their ability to drive bottom-line growth. What hits the bottom-line reducing middle-line through cost efficiency or reduced spending or increasing top-line by finding new customers or up-selling or cross-selling to existing customers?

Organization that has their eyes on building sustainable enterprise understands one of the keys to bottom-line improvement must be top-line growth. Globally organizations are turning to Marketing to have a significant role if not be the driver of increasing top-line. Marketing has their skin in the game with demand generation! DEMAND GENERATION today is not just a marketing buzzword but also a common boardroom discussion. If an organization fully understands the role and techniques of demand generation, its impact goes beyond bottom-line improvement.

CHANGE IN BUYING BEHAVIOR

Gone are the days where prospects will visit large tradeshows and salesman lies in wait as hunters, to zoom onto the prey as soon as one is sighted.

Increasingly we find ourselves in an environment of intensifying competitive landscape, increasingly complex and longer sales cycle, the proliferation of internet/digital culture changes the dynamics of buyer research behavior. Demand Generation today is more a science than just the art of glossy brochures, immersive events and engaging web portal, much liken to the farming approach.

5-STEP FARMING APPROACH TO DEMAND GENERATION

1. SELECTING THE GROUND

Organization often finds itselves in circumstances where you are presented with different opportunities contesting for limited resources. To ensure optimal utilization of limited resources it is important that marketing analytics and research tools are employed right at the beginning of a demand generation program.

• The Market – Secondary Research
  This is a critical first step that organizations need to undertake to have a big picture of market potential through wealth of secondary research available.
• The Addressable Market – Primary Research
  A process by which management, sales, marketing and delivery jointly assess against various conditions (eg: competitive framework or organizations’ proprietary competitive advantage (product/technology/expertise or brand)) the market that its’ organization can pursue.
• The Target Market – Prioritization
  It is not enough to know where your addressable market is; for effective demand generation to commence, it is important that an organization clearly identify its target market. Based on the resources available, an organization should clearly prioritize its pursuit target and its associated timeline.

2. CULTIVATING THE GROUND

A Basket of Tools – There is no one golden egg of marketing; it takes a broad mix of different campaigns, vehicles and messages to cultivate the ground. Farming as an analogy, it means cultivating the ground requires more than just the plough; you need a basket of tools.

1. Tools to create reach/communications channels and cultivate relationship with prospective buyers – more commonly known as integrated marketing programs.
2. Tools to manage the dissemination of information and track the changing prospect profile – to enable more intelligent interaction.
3. Tools to track and measure campaign effectiveness and return on investments – Campaign management marketing automation.

Investment in Marketing Automation

Demand Generation is also about personalization, capturing information and reacting to their behavior as the prospects moves through the prospect nurturing stages. To be highly effective, efficient and sophisticated, one will need to employ intimately a marketing automation platform/system. Your marketing automation platform should enable automated – database mining, contact management and touch-point tracking, campaign management, profile intelligence, data for marketing analytics and performance tracking etc….

3. SOWING THE SEEDS

This is where one has to consciously design a portfolio of vehicles to reach the objectives – commonly termed as “integrated marketing”. Timing is key with an integrated marketing programs – the careful planning and construct of an integrated marketing program would mean a portfolio of different vehicles are deployed carefully at optimal timing to reinforce upon each other – where the sum of the parts is greater than its’ whole.

4. NURTURING THE GROWTH

Most organization does not establish a formal prospects nurturing process and too often do not devote equitable resources on this very important stage of a prospective buyers’ sales cycle. Companies that have a formal prospect nurturing process will have a considerably higher return on their marketing investment.

Marketing plays an active role of staying in touch while listening, profiling, reacting and adjusting accordingly through the prospect conversion process. We live in an information overload world, the key in the prospect nurturing phase is to provide targeted information – when, where and how prospects wants to consume it.

5. HARVESTING THE FRUIT

Once a qualified sales leads are entered into an organization sales pipeline tool, sales comes into the driving seat and marketing takes a back seat. Typically leads in sales pipeline are under management radar, thus ensuring proper tracking, ownership and support to develop the lead into an order.

Seeds drop into the ground and grow new plant or fruit. It is recommended that organization extends a closed loop process and marketing continues to play a role in customer care program. Marketing needs to continue to nurture customer for new opportunity (cross-sell or up-sell) or develop customer into a seed that will grow, such as being a reference (customer success story) to help generate new opportunities.

CONCLUSION

Using farming as an analogy, Demand Generation goes through the stages liken to that of farming; finding the ground, cultivating the ground, sowing the seed, nurturing the growth and harvesting the fruit. It is a very intentional and pro-active approach. Demand Generation is a growing business imperative in today’s boardroom. Organizations focused in building a sustainable, profitable and growing enterprise does not sees marketing as a variable operational expenditure but as a critical investment to continuously create and funnel demand, driving sustainable top-line growth.

About the author. Sherie has assumed regional management and leadership roles with various technology MNCs including SingTel, Lucent Technologies, Invensys and is presently the Vice President, Marketing, NICE Systems Asia Pacific. Sherie is passionate about strategy, culture and brands. Strategy gives direction; culture is the anchor to foster talents and brands communicates an organization’s values. Sherie firmly believes they are all interlinked and pivotal to any high-performing organizations. She effectively leverages on her consulting, marketing and leadership expertise in pursuance of her passion by practicing as an “Executive Coach”, “Media Trainer”, “Focus Marketing Expert Panel” and “Management Consultant with The Marketplace”.

Lewis painstakingly traces the story of how 3 different fund managers in 3 different corners of America, poorly-attuned to the opacity of the fixed-income markets and who up until the crisis were unknown to most, stumble upon the bet of a lifetime involving shorting securities backed by sub-prime mortgages which they could see would end in tears, making hundreds of millions in the process. Without getting bogged down in the details of the different complex instruments at work such as Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), Lewis artfully brings out the emotional struggle of the 3 fund managers who got it so right but struggled against the currents of prevailing opinion because sophisticated institutions stood on the other side of their trades making huge bets in favor of the sub-prime mortgage market.

I enjoyed reading “The Big Short” tremendously as it is written in Lewis’ clear style; it crystallizes all the important lessons from this very special period in world history that individual investors and leaders of institutions will do well to remember because as the book clearly shows – history often repeats itself with a vengeance (a subprime crisis in the early 1990s and at the turn of the century was a precursor to the implosion we saw in 2008). Read about how risk managers in large institutions like AIG and Bear Stearns, in their complacency, allowed their institutions to assume risks that led to their demise and how a trader that started on the correct side of the bet against sub-
prime ended up blowing more than USD 9 billion instead which saw the end of his trading career. One clear lesson hit home as I read how the smartest and brightest in the industry who were often called “Masters of the Universe” in their heyday could all be fooled at the same time into thinking that the process of securitization which basically turned lead (subprime mortgages made to people who would never be able to repay) into gold (highest-rated securities which were sold at extremely expensive prices) was sustainable.

Lewis states that he will never embark on a writing project if he did not learn something new about the subject. As you read this book, you will not only learn about Wall Street at its worst but also about yourself. And as he states in his foreword, it will force you to think whether you should be taking to the ocean if you are truly passionate about oceanography rather than starting your career on Wall Street just because it is the popular thing to do.

Contributed by Analyst with an Investment Company

Indeed technological innovation has dramatically changed the way brands, organizations, individuals and communities communicate in recent years and the advent of the digital era has yet again shifted the paradigm.

According to MediaCT BE: Asia 2010’s study, 45% of business elites visit social networking sites, over half read a blog online and 45% access digital content on their mobile. It is vital that companies keep up with the digital development to drive digital brand building and business growth with no geographical boundaries.

Let’s look at the 5 innovations & techniques marketers must know in the world of Digital Marketing in this series and some hot applications and success stories in the next series:-

1. Search Engine Marketing

A highly effective way to drive relevant targets to your websites and generate quality leads. It is a search engine marketing model in which web site owners engage the services a digital marketing firm to design its web development and make its site search engine optimized to improve its targeted digital reach. There are millions of searches performed on the internet daily, in fact it has become the number one research engine for products, services, solutions, organizations, people and information. SEO campaign will enable a company’s online digital estate to be right in front of the potential buyer at the right time to the right audience.

Marketers can either work on their web design and content to optimize organic search or engage an agency to assist with search engine optimization as well as smart contextual advertising campaigns that generates measurable return on marketing investment fairly rapidly.

2. Digital Gadgets playing an important part of online marketing implications.

Digital gadgets such as mobile phones, laptop computer, game console and recent additions E-readers and tablet computers is a big part of people’s life as we are living in an age when users want everything, anytime, anywhere, any access via the internet world. The recent survey by Straits Times reveals mobile gadgets as the number 1 they cannot leave home without.

Look how easy access to internet via multiple smart devices has increased value of digital assets and the important brand engagement through these mediums:-
Facebook replaced Google as the most visited website with 600 million users. Google demonstrated internet commercial success with market capitalization crossed US$500 million with billions of search per day.

Apple continue to push boundaries of innovation with 15 million iPad and 73.5 million iPhone sold.

Apple demonstrated success principles built on openness and partnership with more than 300 000 applications on iPhone.

Twitter has 190 million users, generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day.

Marketers must respond to the new mobile online environment with mobile and other smart device strategies to stay relevant and use it to complement your social media and offline strategies.

3. Mobile marketing using the most personal communications channel and the most adopted medium in the world to develop mobile strategies to market products, service and information.

Mobile marketing integrates mobile tools, approaches and innovations to attract, engage and build relationships with prospects, and customers in a most intimate way through the most person device. Some advantages of mobile marketing includes:

• Portable web access
• Ability to deliver content/ promotions to on-the-go consumers
• Convenience for immediate consumer support/sales support/ loyalty

Some of the highest adoption interactive mobile platforms are mobile websites, mobile apps, mobile messaging/sms, mobile display ads and mobile search.

4. Marketing Automation (Analytics) enable Marketers to deliver measurable results.

In the world of advance analytics technologies, Marketing has gone techie. Gone are the days where marketers are challenged to justify marketing investments and provide tangible results due to lack of reliable data. With an extensive choice of marketing automation engine, marketers can easily perform complex marketing programs across different marketing mix, time-frame and languages and still effective track how each interaction drives lead generation and revenue growth. Analytics also help the marketers gain a stronger voice in planning and decision making; it helps them determine, where to invest resources to gain the best return. Using quantifiable metrics to track and improve performance can boost confidence not just in Marketing but also in Sales and Finance, which have stakes in the successful brand building and business growth.

5. Web 3.0 enabling a whole new marketing paradigm, data marketing.

Web 3.0 is based on “intelligent” web applications to allow customization of online searching request specifically to users’ preferences and needs. With Web 3.0 you are able to publish structured data and link it to other sets of related data and anywhere on the web. Instead of just data stalking Web 3.0 allows you to do data talking. You are able to customized data that you want to share with your prospects, customers and partners to strengthen your relationships and win more business. Create data branding with Web 3.0 allows you to position your company through the data you create and publish in a linked data world, determine how you want to relate the data to others. Disseminate data in a linked world allow you to:

• Grow your market
• Position your company as a leading authority in your field
• Define your market through data vocabularies

The contributor is Rick Quek, is Management Consultant with Marketplace Ministry and Managing Director, Corporate i.

Corporate i, an integrated marketing agency, focused on delivering the ultimate brand experience. Corporate I with its 6 practices iDigital, iGift, iDesign, iBrand, iEvent, iCreate is in the business of building brands and growing businesses. Some of its key clients are DBS, HP, Emerson, JustCom, IDA, ITT, Siemens, SonyPictures, SingTel, Starhub and etc.