Don't Be Evil

In the course of work (how funny) I came across Google's Investor Relations page, which honestly (while taking much from Warren Buffett's lead) makes for a very interesting read. Google's founders have an easy to read, approachable, casual writing-style which is very refreshing coming from a corporate, business document. It's BS-free, easy to interpret, and generally fun to understand.

Quoted in their original IPO letter, "Although we may discuss long term trends in our business, we do not plan to give earnings guidance in the traditional sense. We are not able to predict our business within a narrow range for each quarter. We recognize that our duty is to advance our shareholders' interests, and we believe that artificially creating short term target numbers serves our shareholders poorly. We would prefer not to be asked to make such predictions, and if asked we will respectfully decline. A management team distracted by a series of short term targets is as pointless as a dieter stepping on a scale every half hour."

How funny. How true.

Although I can't help but think that this is possible for a company the size of Google, only because of a few very Google-specific factors that may not be sustainable in the long run. viz.

1. Founder Involvement. Google's founders and masterminds behind the original game plan are still very much involved in running the company, and direct the communications and long term strategies of the firm.
2. No Complicated Irrelevant Businesses. Google has a key strength in a very specific (I wouldn't necessarily say small) sub-segment of the tech industry, although it is leveraging on that strength to leverage into other related new businesses. Two elements - a) they are related businesses and b) they are Google driven developments. No acquisitions, no third-party involvement apparently.
3. Small in Size. Google has small teams, less than 10,000 employees worldwide across 50 or so countries. Small cohesive teams who are function driven are less likely to come up with schizophrenic decision-making processes. Couple this with an astute hiring process that summarizes effectively the kind of skills required in each position, rather than attempt to define what the job does (everyone knows that's a disclaimer anyway...) makes it easier to identify who you need where, and the kind of skills and experience you're paying to buy in a person.

Different, but not different enough.

It's amazing how when (if) one does a comparison of code of conducts/company core values across several large competing IT firms... one comes up with pretty much exactly the same thing.

Google believes in...

• Honesty and Integrity - clean books and no hanky-panky business relationships
• Customer Focus - serve the end user and putting the end user focus first
• Respectful Internal Culture - ranging from detailed employee benefits (free washing machines and lunches) to no illegal substance abuse to having a documented dog policy (quite impressive actually)
• Passion for Technology - believing that technology can change, if not save, the world
• Hiring talented, intelligent people who want to make a difference

Microsoft believes in...

• Openness - transparent business practices that are available to shareholders
• Honesty and Integrity - clean books and no hanky-panky business relationships
• Passion for Customer - put the customer first and enable customer success "Your success. Our passion."
• Respectful - employees treat each other and the company fairly and respectfully (provides well stocked employee benefits and suchlike above industry standards in most countries)
• Passion for Technology - believing that technology can change, or save, the world (and do both by breakfast tomorrow)
• Hiring diverse, smart people who have a passion for change

Apple believes in...

• Diversity and equal opportunities
• Caring for the environment
• Having good governance on business operations and relationships
• Not just "checking the box"

So much weight on brain process, so little brain to go around. The idea is... if core values are so similar throughout the industry, what truly sets any company apart? Do their products? Their mission statement? Their pricing? When we buy a stock in an IT company like one of the big three above, are we really kidding ourselves when we say we're buying into their growth options as a company?

It feels like the ethos of a company is really the ethos of the industry in itself as a vibrant and tangile whole. It feels like when we invest in Google, or Microsoft, or Apple, we're buying into the feel for the whole industry, into our beliefs in agreement with theirs, that technology can truly change the world, that smart people is really all we need. And either one of these, when the price is right, may suffice.

Inconsequential Thought of the Day #1

Red apple chewing gum tastes nice (courtesy of Lotte brand) – Green apple chewing gum (courtesy of Wrigley’s) does not.  Although… I like green apples to red apples.

Yanqing's Secret Recipes ( 私房菜 )

Over the Mother's Day weekend, we've discovered yet another restaurant along the Corduroy and Finch stretch (my personal favourite line of shops, being one of the self-confessed "Bukit Timah crowd"...)

Inheriting the space where a Japanese restaurant used to be, Yanqing's Shanghai kitchen retains a peaceful black/white Zen interior, decorated with old photographs of Shanghai. The place is set up by a Shanghainese expatriate couple, Wang Yanqing and her husband, Wang Li, together with restaurant manager, Jenny Zou. When there, we've had the opportunity to meet Jenny and her friendly serving team who impressed us on several levels.

1. When looking at the architecture of finely sliced Japanese cucumber and cubic tofu, we were wondering how these were so delicately sliced to be equivalent to the chef standard in Shanghai (you don't normally find this in Singapore without paying more than $60 per head) - I had casually suggested that to do this at home in quicktime you could use a metal slicer. The waiter who happened to be standing next to me, proud of the work his restaurant produces, proudly acclaimed that the chef hand-sliced each and every one of his creation. I was so impressed by the level of knowledge the waiter had of the kitchen, and of the pride that he took in the food they served.
2. The 小龙包 there (always my standard measure of quality) tasted home-made and melted in your mouth with more than the usual amount of soup in each 包.
3. They had mistakenly delivered a dish to our table that we didn't order. When we pointed out the mistake after we realised what it was (and we had picked a bit off the plate), the waiter apologized and allowed us to keep the dish FOC. To me that's good, generous service that a fine dining restaurant would offer.
4. Best thing is, this fine cuisine standard is available for under $30 per person, which is a steal considering some dishes they served were close to Li Bai standard in preparation.
5. I like the fact that Jenny could explain the translation of certain dishes from Chinese to English, including how some dishes just didn't have a proper English translation.
6. Both the dishes and the people here reek of authenticity. This is one Shanghainese restaurant that is truly Shanghainese, not comprising of non-Shanghainese cuisine copycats. As a result, many of the menu's specialties are home-style, modern inventions not to be found anywhere else.
7. They also do take-aways if you call to pre-order.

Stuff To Order

The menu changes seasonally, however, some mainstays in the 私房菜 section are worth considering:-

• 小龙包 - although standard fare in Shanghainese, but well worth the trouble
• Crab Roe Tofu (served in a terracotta dish shaped like a crab)
• 黄鱼汤 (very family-style and serves plenty!) Note that this dish is better only ordered when you have at least 6 people sharing the soup as it is served in a humungous portion. There were six of us and we had about 2.5 bowls each. Several fishes must have gone in there...
• Dong Bo stewed belly pork (served in a smaller portion than most other places but more than enough flavour for everyone...) This Shanghainese specialty comes with steamed buns to go with the stewed belly pork.
• Fried fish with Long Jing tea - this one's a special, and the fish is crisp to the teeth on the outside, melts in your mouth on the inside.

Head chef Jin Hao is from Ye Shanghai in Xingtiandi - and well worth his weight in salt.

Yanqing's Shanghai Kitchen
791 Bukit Timah Road,
#01-01
Tel: 6463 2989

Budget Brain Out

So much for the sophistication of Finance advice. Today I said the silliest thing (half a joke) to a guy responsible for negotiating vendor prices that I paid to companies who work for me. I said, "Vendor prices should be like the rain - it should only come down and not go up."

My budgeting brain has gone on vacation. There was a self-imposed lock down to modifying budget numbers ad nauseum, and my brain has taking that nice little excuse to take a vacation away from budget monster mode. Read: this is supposed to be a good thing.

I'm leaving work early, getting enough sleep, in a cheery mood, helpful around the house... and generally being a much nicer person to live with during this time. The suggestion was for me next year to take a room in a hotel for the entire budget season. That way, at least i) nobody has to put up with my crap that isn't already paid to do so, and ii) I don't have to help out around the house nor feel guilty for not doing so. Besides, iii) I'll get a nice comfy bed for those few hours of rest that I can squeeze in and manage to weasle some luxury (a good bath and a good bed) out of it. At a price... perhaps this should come into the amount of business related claims I'll take next year. Hmmm....

So welcome back, you. And goodbye budget monster... until next year, hasta la vista.

My one and only niece turns one!

There's nothing quite like having kids (or watching them grow up rather...) to make you realise your age. The first born of my god-brother is now in Secondary One (I had a mild seizure and a heart attack at that news) with his younger sister in Primary Six, and the youngest brother in Primary Two. The other two daughters of the younger god-brother are both in primary school. But secondary school takes the cake. I still have vague memories of secondary school, and here it is this boy - I still remember when he was a baby and I carried him in my arms - in secondary school.

My niece (the one and only) - daughter of my brother - turned one on May 12th. We had a birthday celebration for her (one of those you are sure she would not remember when she gets older) to mark the event - and it was a coming of age not only for her, but for the whole family. I cannot remember a time when there was more focus on kinship, kids (my family ain't kid-friendly in general) and the home for my family.

Thessaly (my niece - so named after my nick in secondary school/a witch in Gaiman's Sandman novels/art capital of Greece) played pretty much the entire day and promptly sought my shoulder and fell asleep, not to be woken again until she got home.

It was this time last year that I was having budget reviews with the corporate VP at the time and praising her for good timing for being born right after my review (so I could have a good break) and this time this year, the same cycle repeats itself.

I can't believe we've all survived a year with a baby. It's an amazing time to be an aunt and I've been just the kind of aunt I'd thought I'd be... the kind that spends too much money and too little time on the kid. *sheepish grin* I've come to the realization that it's good fortune I'm not having kids of my own, because I'm crap at taking care of them long-term. That, and my own independent nature gets in the way. Still, she's been pretty good fun, and I'm looking forward to more years of her - especially when she starts talking, walking, playing...

Desperate to be a Housewife

Brutal though that may sound, email just flew in today that confirmed what I thought. This place runs an idea of Finance like a scientist trying to do brain surgery with a chain saw.

This (and an extra busy time of the year) is making me incredibly envious of my dog and her what-seems-like-wonderful stay-home life. A couple of stunning new developments in the space of what (the Company) should do and should not do to change shareholder impressions of the Company, attempt to save a flailing share price which dipped soon after we announced a well performing Q3 - and I realized that there is simply a level of sophistication in Finance that we do not have. There's more economics in my home economics class than the level of finance sense senior executives here seem to have.

Call me Fifi and turn me into a dog. Please. At this rate, a monkey would be too smart to do my job.