Sector 4

It was a fantastic business trip altogether. I truly Thank GOD for giving me this golden opportunity for being able to travel with Juan Carlos to Bangkok. It really opens up my eyes and my mind. We met up with 4 very big & fantastic suppliers in Thailand; we have meetings with them, we share business ideas & experiences with them, we exchange our economic, political & social views with them, we negotiate contracts terms with them, we visited their showrooms & factories, we get detailed inside informations on what our Malaysian competitors are currently up to :) we even went to do market survey together with them at Tesco Lotus Extra, Big C and HomePro.

Tesco Lotus Extra has just got a make-over recently and it looks fabulous. For the first time, I see a hypermarket where the non-food section takes up 75% of the floor space and the remaining 25% of the selling floor goes to the food section. See, how it already differs from the Malaysian market business model. Their fashion label F & F is such a huge brand name over there. It was like a shop-in-a-shop concept. In the non-food sections, every category has their own different display assets and standees which makes all of the products look very outstanding. When it comes to the Furniture Department, Thai customers profile is so much different from Malaysian customers. They pay more attention to quality, hence the Thai market promotes more on solid wood items and their knock-down furnitures are at least 2 inches in thickness. While here in Malaysia, in order to sell at a particular price point - I have to cut down the thickness to half an inch. Very embarass isn't it? In the Stationary Department, there is a section dedicated just for office supplies only. In the VCD/DVD sections – they have a good selections on blu-ray disc titles, documentaries, Korean pop culture, cartoons etc. The Children section was even more beautiful, they have these cartoon brand name pop-ups to indicate that this element is for Mickey Mouse toys, this element is for Barbie toys, this element is for Ben 10 toys etc. I really like this new look. I am sure that the English in Malaysia will implement this new concept very soon. Meanwhile, Big C was more like the French here before they start the revamping session and created the new Bazaar seasonal Alley. I like that they too are selling mattresses and they even have special assets for it to display & also the big furnitures. I guess as people evolve, with more spending power, with a higher standard of living expectations, people are always going to want newness in everything, just like they want new pop stars & fashions every day.

There is so much of walking around, meeting with people, looking at retail shops, taking photos, taking down notes etc. I have learned and gained so much, in terms of business, cultural, consumer behavior etc :) I even underestimated my competitors here. They are no longer doing regional sourcing - the latest trend is that they deal directly with the manaufacturers, bypassing the local trading companies, hence they are getting very sharp pricing for their items. Well, everyone seems to be travelling somewhere for work these days, and I never get to go. This is one opportunity where I’d be able to rub shoulders with others and see what they’re up to (people in my industry). I’d like that very much. But I also count myself very lucky because Stewart could not make it for this long trip due to family commitments and Celtic is no longer around. I wish I had more of these chances when I was younger, when I was building up my career. When you're young - 25 or 27 - you have the energy and drive. That's the time to work as hard as you can. I think I am very rusty now :)