Weekend Ski Trip

I was starting to get burnt out with all the readings, studying and 4 - 5 hours of sleep everyday. It was really a struggle for me to leave my books behind for just one weekend.
In the end, I manage to leave the books behind and with 15 classmates, we went up to Stratton Vermont for a weekend of Ski and Snowboarding.

Skiing feels like sort of a mixture of horse riding and rollerblading, except that you're not suppose to go slow when you go down the hill! Fell quite a number of times on the first day, but skied much better on the second day. In fact, we were so good that my friend and I were confident to go and ski on all the green slopes (beginner's) all by ourselves (Joe, another friend, taught us how to ski on the first day, and accompanied us all the way).

Now I just have to deal with my achy bones and muscles (yeah, right... what muscle do I have in the first place, lazybum! :D)

Back to School with a Fresh mind.
Trip was totally worth it compare to me hibernating this weekend.

It's Snaining....

It was snaining (snowing + raining) last week.
I didn't come up with the word this time. My friend did.
:)

Lesson for the week, which will last a lifetime for me...
You judge yourself by your Intention
People Judge you by your Behaviour

I spent too much time studying in starbucks

ben & jerry's sign in Vermont.

Got this from the venti mocha cup....

The way I see it. #214
What would you do for someone you love?
Would you lie, cheat, steal?
Break the law and call it justice?
Would you say yes? Scream no?
Would you kill? Would you give up your own life?
Would you move mountains, swallow fire, keep a promise?
Would you change the world?
Would you change yourself?
What would you do for someone you love?

~Jodi Picoult
Novelist. Her most recent book is Nineteen Minutes.

... and I have 2 exams this week (finance & national strategies).wish me luck or all the best, you guys...

Operations Management, Influencing Customer's Behaviour

I read an interesting article from Harvard Business Journal "Influencing Customer Behaviour in Service Operations" today. The main idea is that there's only 2 ways for you to influence or control people's behaviour. The donkey with a carrot or stick analogy. However, there's several variations on how to implement this analogy. It'll be interesting to see this theory put into practice at work.

Instrumental Control
You control by rewarding or punishing individuals according to their behaviour
1. Nature of Managerial Influence - Explicit Rewards and Penalties
2. Focus of Managerial Influence - Individual
3. Positive Benefit - Rewards or Discounts
4. Negative Implication - Penalties or Charges
5. Economics - Expensive to Implement
6. Example at work - You get a $5 fine for coming late to the meeting.
7. Example (Companies) - Credit Card Services (late payment penalty).

Normative Control
You control by using ('manipulating') people's emotions and feelings according to their behaviour
1. Nature of Managerial Influence - Social Approval and Disapproval
2. Nature of Managerial Influence - Community
3. Positive Benefit - Pride or Sense of Belonging
4. Negative Implication - Shame or Rejection
5. Economics - Free or Low Cost to Implement
6. Example at work - You get a praise from everybody for a job well done.
7. Example (Companies) - Ebay, Amazon (allows public to see public record of buyers/sellers track records)

Normative Control works best when trust and interdependency have already been built up between the company and the customers. It also helps when customers understand that their actions do matter.

Therefore, transparency and sense of belonging are keys to success in no matter what we do?

Blood, Money & Girl Scouts? :P

Blood Donation...
I can’t donate blood in US.
I’ve been donating my blood back home regularly, on an annual basis, but I can’t donate here.
You will be deferred if you are from Malaria borne countries, Europe (mad cow) and Africa (HIV? AIDS? etc...?)

Money
US money is made of fabric. It’s not made of paper. So much for paper money



Girl Scouts
I finally tasted the girls scouts cookies! They have a few variety. They are planning to go transfat (something that we asians never bothered about until we come to the west, just think about is as what we thought of counting calories *roll eyes*) soon so less people will be concerned about gaining weight and bad calories. Even the coke & chips here have 0 transfat label on it.


Japanese Invention
Thanks Gaga! I love the toilet seat cover. Especially during winter. brrrrrrr!

and the lessons for the week are...

Positioning Yourself In Life
I know where I am and what are my current capabilities, but I'm unsure how to go about my game strategy. What are the odds of life/events playing like a rational player?
Sorry folks! That's business strategy jargon. It shows that I am paying attention in class. hahahahahha....

Claustrophobia
The bomba, police and ambulance here are really efficient. They are able to reach their destination within less then 15 mins. All of them will come as long as the alarm in the building triggers even though if it's just because someone got stuck in the elevator or the smoke in the oven hit the smoke detector.
Thinking of my claustrophobia and knowing it comes from the irrational fear that no one will either never find me or won't be able to rescue me on time, perhaps i can one day change my mindset and just think that someone WILL rescue me on time will help ease the panic attack?

Career Fair
It is not meant for you to get an interview. It is meant for you to find out more about the company and for you to go for an interview only if you are invited earlier on before the career fair started (when you have already sent your resume and cover letter to them way way before the event started).
CIA and FBI were interested though. Probably because they just realised that they made a mistake because they can only hire US citizens and yet most of us who were present are International (non-US). hahahahah