Turning chicken salad into chicken shit

I first heard this expression from an Irish friend sometime around mid 2006. It is an expression meaning to turn/convert something good into something bad. Here is a story (based on true events) that is a good example of turning chicken salad into chicken shit.

Sometime around the late 1990s, an American MNC operating a factory in Asia noticed that they are not able to retain their junior operators. They don't seem to have such a problem with their older more experienced operators. Puzzled why that is they hired a consultant to look into the problem. The consultant, having being hired by almost all the companies around that area for very similar reasons, knows the package each are offering and informed this company that their package for their senior operators is above market whilst the package for their junior operators is not competitive. As you would expect, it is recommended that the package for the junior operators be adjusted. The GM of that factory at the time agreed. However, to avoid the senior operator feeling left out in that exercise, this GM also made a small adjustment for the senior operators.

When the new pay package was announced, some senior operators wanted to know why the adjustment to their pay is a lot less than those for junior operators. It felt unfair and that senior operators are not valued. Some senior operators got together and asked the HR director. It is purported that the response these senior operators got from the HR director was "you are old trees and have no more juice." It is also purported that this HR director told these senior operators that "the door is always open if you are not happy!" Unhappy with the response, these senior operators got together and walked off the job! For a couple of weeks, the operators were just wondering around the factory refusing to work and it took the effort of the GM and his direct reports a couple of weeks to get this under control. The good intention of the GM (the chicken salad) was literally turned into chicken shit by the HR director!

It is very easy to turn chicken salad to chicken shit. It takes skills to turn chicken shit into chicken salad!

Once you reduced your premium, you can never get it back

Sometime around the late 1990s, someone told me that "once you reduced your premium you can never get it back." What he was trying to tell me was this. When you released a new product into the market, you can charge a premium for it. He was trying to tell me that if you do not take advantage of that and do not markup your price to include a premium, you will not be able to do it later.

Late last year, I was advising a few friends starting up a business. They were negotiating their very first contract and there was a huge difference between the quotation and what the customer was willing to pay. I told them that it may be better to do it at a lost then not having any income. In other words, going backward at half the pace is still better than going backward at full speed. Not having any other option, they took up the project. After the system was deployed at the customer's place, they then wanted to add a few more new features. Sounds like a good thing right? That initial discount is now leading to more business. Guess what, the customer expect the same lower pricing as before and will not pay for something additional where its costs is disproportional to the overall system costs. There is no ROI in such a customer and will not be profitable and so my friends had to drop this.

In their subsequent projects, my friends still give discount to first time customers. Confident that these customers will be satisfied and happy with their work that they will come back next time. However, the discount will not be as "silly" as their first deal and is stated in their quotation as a discount.

The same would go for pricing oneself. Will post stories related to this soon.

One eyed man in a blind men's world

This phrase, "be a one eyed man in a blind men's world," is yet another I learned from Kee Meng.

Imagine a world where everyone is blind. A person with vision in just one eye in such a world would have such an advantage even if it is not a perfect 20/20 vision. This person will also be highly valued by those blind around him or her.

Try before you buy

A few years ago, OSIM released their iSqueez foot massager and was promoting them heavily at major shopping centers in Malaysia. They were offering no obligation free try and even have units all around the shopping center unattended for all to use. My wife tried it a few times while shopping and was so impressed she couldn't resist not getting one and did after contemplating for sometime. Interestingly, the unit we bought did not seem to be that fantastic. My wife complaints that it is not as nice nor as relaxing as those at the shopping center! Worst of all, Harvey Norman were selling them for less and OSIM were reducing the price so quickly it makes you feel you as though you have just spent a fair bit of money on a piece of invisible cloth! I don't think We have settle the credit card payment when my wife stops using it!

After thinking about the whole experience for sometime my wife one day asked if I know why the unit at the shopping center felt so much better. And this is what she said. After all the walking at the shopping center you feet would be so tired that they will feels so good with the massager. Your feet would normally not be so tired to experience the same when you are at home. Unless, I suppose, if you had just done some walking around!

It seems that you can still get a burnt finger even after you have try before you buy. Review or recommendation by other users may be more valuable. Condition of display item may review more about the product as well. When reading recommendation from the web, do take note that some of these comments may be given by friends.