NTUC Income taking a punt on Orchard Road flood

On page A11 of Straits Times on June 17, 2010, NTUC Income took out a full page advertisement with this punch line above a picture of a few stranded vehicles trapped by flooded Orchard Road ...
"YOU CAN BE SURE OF ONE THING WITH US - SOMEONE WILL PAY FOR THIS."

Who will pay for those damages I wonder? As you read further, "That's why we've always got you covered..." would means NTUC Income will pay for the damages? A very comforting and reassuring thing indeed for the owners of S350, Lamboghini and 30 other vehicles to hear.

But if NTUC Income pay, who will be ultimately foot the bills? Just a day before the advert, my friend made this remark "Given the flood, we the motorists die la.."

I was puzzled by his remark. He duly explained, " insurance costs go up, insurance premium will go up lor"

A double edge sword played by NTUC Income. A few vehicle owners assured while thousands wonder.

Regeneration/Culling in Singtel?

June 16, Singtel announced that the chief executive of NCS, a subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications, will retire. Lim Eng, who is 54 and has worked in Singtel for 30 years, will be replaced by Chief Operating Officer NCS Chia Wee Boon.

June 10, Singtel announced that its CEO for international operations Lim Chuan Poh is also set to retire at the end of this year. He has been with Singtel for 12 years. I don't know his age but he should over 50 too.

Or is Singtel doing a a-la-Chelsea recently when Chelsea released three players (over 30s) including a current German international, Michael Ballack under the pretext of making way for youth?

What possible learning points can we get from Singtel's?
1. Don't fret. They are just 2 personnels out of thousands of people working in Singtel. It is just coincidental that they are senior personnels.

2. Anyone over 50 for corporates should look left and right as the axe is coming.

3. Loyalty has very little weightage.

4. Or having a new man with new perspective/new pair of eyes, critical to the respective business?

5. Or is it purely a corporate governance exercise of rotating OUT its key personnels?

6. Any other unmentionables?

Bali Airport at Denpasar

Dear friends,

Firstly, I wish to share with you something I have never done before in my life.

I slept on 2 chairs placed in a row at the Bali airport between 1230am and 2am. I placed on head on a bottle of water and my legs on the stained table.

What happened? Jetstar/Valuejet flight was inadvertently delayed with an unknown reason since 945pm schedule. We were efficiently notified by sms at about 5pm in the evening. My well travelled friend assured me that since Jetstar can notified us so early, he was pretty sure they should be able to fly another plane to Bali from Singapore to pick us up.

We were first promised that we can board the plane at 1230am. Imagine the cursings, swearing and sighings from tired fellow passengers after one whole of fun and laughter at the beaches when we were handed water and some finger food while being told that the flight will be delayed by another hour to 2am.

Second observation - The airport is really crowded for incoming and outgoing. Is Bali benefitting from Thailand's misfortune? See picture above. Very very little air conditioning with so many bodies from Japan, Korea and Australia. Please go to airport EARLY if you are planning your departure.

Thirdly, the immigration officer actually ask me for a "tip" openly when I arrived. It was so loud that his fellow officer was stunned by his request. When we were checking out, we saw a woman trying to pay... Sadly.. this type of thing is still going on..

Competition Commission of Singapore CCS is working hard!

First high profile case as per my memory was CCS who went after the pest control entities rigging the tender process.

Then CCS went after the long distance bus operators operating out Beach Road.

Then CCS has been reported to be dressing down a very big boy in SISTIC.

Then CCS went after a group of electricians who again rigged the tender process. The one company who came forward and "betrayed" the whole group was specifically mentioned.

To encourage more entities ie. including individuals, to come forward to "whistle blow", should CCS consider some anonymity protection for that entity?

Keep up the good work!

Congrats to ladies in table tennis

Whoever you are, wherever you are from, whatever your nationality may be and if you can beat the Chinese National Team, you deserved my applause too.

Well done indeed. This only proved the point that we are only human / everyone and everything has its day off and with a bit of luck (the sun,, moon and all the other planets are in alignment), an undefeated champion can be defeated. 100% consistency in performance is for machines at its best. As machines too are known to fail ie. my car has to be towed to Mitsubishi Centre recently for a leaking radiator. $400 later, problem solved. Pain.

The Jap PM announced its resignation recently. A political suicide/political bravado? from day one when he announced and possibly without checking the facts and the political terrain first, he promised to move a foreign military base. Goodbye to u anyway.