Spending ten days in military service where 30% of our waking time is being used for practical training and the other 70% involves waiting in our rooms, waiting in our garages, waiting in our guns have showed me clearly that our military is one that is disciplined and well-equipped. Why so?

Spending a full six-hour wait for a certain event we thought would happen the next 30 minutes is by no means easy. Imagine yourself in a shirt you wouldn’t wear anywhere, in a place without anything to do; how would you use that 6 hours? If you’ve seen the Panasonic Toughbook advertisement, the monkey filmed was already kicking and shouting within minutes of being left alone. But of course, we are no monkeys. Being a bunch of disciplined lot, we simply took out our chinese chess sets and began a half-day competition filled with 双炮将 and 马后炮 (artillery) strategies ; no monkeying around at all.

The actual exercise which happened in the second week was a little more fulfilling albeit exhausting as well. Having to undergo three days in the field, we knew that it was going to be difficult; however, being reservists, we didn’t have any restrictions on what we can bring out there. So it was not shocking to notice inventories filled with canned lychees, chocolates, coffee cans, and even mango pudding. It’s unimaginable how much we would bring if we would really have to go to war. For me, I’ll probably chuck the whole refrigerator into my bag.

Now that I’m back to my civilian life and starting work next Tuesday, I feel exhausted yet excited at the same time. Exhausted because I averaged less than 4 hours of sleep each day for the last week and excited because I’ll experience the same but in a profiting environment.

I’m really excited about work. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing per se but I guess when the director said that the company does not perform any local projects, I wish that the regional coordination will contain a lot of teamwork, travel and networking opportunities. One thing I’m most afraid of though, is the 1st day at work. Fingers crossed, I hope they are prepared for me because I am in no way prepared for what’s ahead.

Getting back to the subject being a military personnel once again, I think that I do need to train up a little more. Even as I complete my IPPT, I want to better myself the following year and achieve a better running timing. It’s time to put an end to junk food and time for work! Gambatte!

By ANNA TEO

More than two decades after its first boom in the early 1980s, Rubik’s Cube has become a tool in consulting firm AT Kearney’s latest thinking on business strategy.

Each colour of the cube represents one of six golden rules or imperatives of what the firm calls ’scale-based competition’ - the idea that scale (or size and dominance) is the basic starting point, indeed prerequisite, for long-term success.

According to Andrej Vizjak, vice-president and managing director of AT Kearney’s Eastern European operations, scale translates to acquisition power, which today is a far more critical competitive advantage than new products, quality, productivity, service or speed.

Dr Vizjak, who is based in Munich, led AT Kearney’s research on industry concentration, mergers and acquisitions, and niche strategies that spawned its latest theory. The research gathered data from some 10,500 companies around the world, each larger than US$100 million in market capitalisation.

Dr Vizjak has written a book on the findings, Competing Against Scale, which was originally published in German in 2006, and has now been released in English.

In town recently to talk about the book, Dr Vizjak says the growth cube framework - which helps companies define strategic priorities - has particular application for East Asian firms, many of which lack scale, and hence acquisition power.

‘Our large sample of companies could not prove that the biggest companies have better returns on investment or other success indicators than the smaller ones, but we could prove, industry by industry, that it’s a question of scale, of acquisition power,’ he tells BT.

‘The rules of competition are defined by scale - either you have the larger scale, you can play this acquisition power, or you don’t have it and you have to think about where is the place for you. Either you’ll be swallowed by big companies or you find a specific profile which enables you to compete against the big ones.’

He adds: ‘If you want to play the game in the long term, you have to play the scale game, but it’s not economies of scale, it’s not the cost advantage you built. It’s just the acquisition power, so that you stay one of the top three players in the market, and you are having this critical mass to play the big players’ game. Or you grow fast enough in a specific niche which is protected by the niche.’

Small and medium-size companies in Singapore and Asia need to build unique product competencies and develop novel product niches, ‘and by acquisition, on several continents, build critical mass in sales to bring the new product or new application to global scale’, he says.

‘If they stay in the regional or South-east Asian market, it’s a time window of 10 years? And this region will not give sufficient protection.’

Citing an example, Dr Vizjak asks: ‘What is Sony’s advantage over Nintendo? It’s not the product differentiation, it’s not the brand value. It’s just that Sony is so much bigger. Even if it has a few bad years, Sony will still have the power to go on and to grow. Nintendo is 10 times smaller; it can have the better product, but it will stay in its own league. Sony can (go into the) media biz, the electronic business, video recorders game; Nintendo will stay in the product niche it developed. Both can stay long term in the same market but they have different roles.’

As for the cube, each face spells out the path to take: Starting with green - position your scale profile. Then, white - benchmark your scale profile. Yellow - review your growth direction. Blue - leverage unique growth capabilities. Red - apply the right growth paths. And orange - adapt your organisation.

According to Dr Vizjak, companies can respond to each of the six ‘rules’ using various initiatives for each step.

AT Kearney’s analysis found 4,096 potential growth cube combinations - or possible measures. That’s a mere fraction of the billions (actually, trillions) of possible permutations for a standard-size Rubik’s Cube.

- Business Times, 14th June 2008

Just got a call from the tobacco company where I participated in its assessment center and I was due to meet my line manager for the third and final round of interview. Although I was seriously contemplating on a career in tobacco when I applied for the position in March, the whole process came too late and I had already secured another job offer. Thus, I told the recruiting officer that I have to give up the opportunity and hopefully, someone better than I am would be able to take up the role and do well for the company.

Anyway, I’ll be going for my in-camp training (ICT) next week. Being an artillery specialist, the two weeks of military training will involve a few nights out beneath the stars in my Primus near the north of Singapore. Luckily for us, the weather is getting better these few days but let’s hope the mosquitoes don’t come out to play. I really don’t wish to start my 1st day of work sitting at my desk scratching at my hands, legs and face. Anyway, here’s a peek at what I’ll be getting in 4 days time.

The mountain behind is used in Lord of the Rings, so guess where are we? New Zealand, of course! It’s probably the best non-holiday trip of my life but I’m not putting too much expectations on next week’s event though.

During my job searching period where I sent out over 60 formal applications to companies which I thought would provide good careers for me, I managed to secure a few interviews; some of which include a tryout at their assessment centers.

Going through such full day assessments, draining the brain of whatever useful juices it have, definitely were not easy tasks. After experiencing it with Accenture and General Electric, coupled with several case interviews from my future employer, I initially thought that yesterday’s assessment at a tobacco company would be a breeze. I was wrong.

It was not difficult, just very different. I had never joined an assessment center where there were only four participants matched by four evaluators and one coordinator; the level of attention we received were amazing. The other different aspect of this assessment was its whole structure. Every single one of us received questions and assignments that were used globally by the company and nothing else. This mean that none of us would receive any special attention and that it would not be as favorable to the outspoken ones, hoping to achieve greater recognition.

The part that I particularly liked was the case study which the assessment center used to reveal qualities of its candidates in a group setting and individually. It was once again refreshing to work those brain cells to evaluate accurately, the costs and benefits of introducing a new product to the market and the possibilities of alternative investments.

I guess it’s always beneficial to attend as many formal events like this as possible as they continually test your communications and thinking capabilities and can potentially increase your network of contacts, and that was the primary reason why I decided to attend. However, I do kind of regret my decision as it has deprived another person at a realistic shot at employment with the company. My ’saving grace’ was when I know that some of the other applicants were in similar situations as I am.

Timing, I assume, should be of utmost importance for recruiters. The tobacco company opened its recruitment process early this year, had us go for a first-round maths and verbal test in April, informed us of the results in May and could only conduct its assessment in June. During those months, there would definitely be valuable losses in terms of potential candidates and despite the well-structured assessment, I wonder how many of the selected candidates in this year’s recruitment process would decide to embark in a career with the company.