Interesting @ Important??

We have learned about creativity and innovation with Dr Siri Roland. Different from Mr. Barjoyai, he stressed more about creativity and innovation in scope of business. Creativity is coming up with idea, while innovation is bringing idea to life. In business creativity leads to innovation in order to fulfill the needs of customer and market. Innovation can arrive from unexpected occurrence, incongruities, process needs, market changes and knowledge based concept.  

       During Dr Roland class, he assigns us to think about a business that we want to do and tell the class whether the business is important or interesting. Important business is such as the grocery, petrol station, public transport, pharmacy, and restaurant. Intresting business is such as the magazine company, handphone business, fast food restaurant, boutique, and jewelry shop. The important business will easily maintain their business because the product that they offer is important and necessary in everyday life. On the other hand, the interesting businesses have to make strategies on how to keep their business on going and able to compete with the important business.  For example the handphone businesses have to always come out with different style, function and trend in order to attract customer to buy their product.

       When we were given such question, I would like to build a boutique for women. I want the boutique located at my hometown, at Sabah. At Sabah, tailor shop is very popular and busy especially during Eid season. Different from other tailor shop, my boutique will have more design for traditional wear, office attire and also wedding dress. Other than that, my boutique will have ready made cloth, tailoring services, shoes, hand bag, accessory for women and also offer fashion guidance. My shop will also have own brand for our product which I called “sapina”. I would like to be more focus on woman as I think it is more profitable because women are more concern on their attire. In addition I want my shop to be special by more focus in women attire.

       Actually boutique is classified as interesting business where human can still live without using beautiful dress. But nowadays when most people are more care about their attire, the boutique business are become more significant. In addition wearing suitable suit is important when going to interview, work, at meeting, conference and for wedding. So, I think my shop is an interesting business, but yet important and profitable.

       For me, the topic "important @ interesting" is an important topic rather than an interesting subject. I think that we must really think of this issue before running a business. If we want to run an important business make it interesting to attract more customer, while if we want to run an interesting business makes sure it is still important that at least you have customers to maintain your business.

Industrial Visit

On 5^th January 2011, we have an industrial visit to Stellagen SDN BHD. Stellagen is a biotechnology  company with the primary objective of identifying, developing and commercializing technologies related to animal health, consumer health, microbiology and biochemical industries. The company was established at 2003 and the founder is Tan Sri Dr. Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim which is now holds the position as Chairman of the Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia and Chairman of the UPM Board of Directors. From the year of it establishment at 2003 Stellagen have corporate with University Putra Malaysia (UPM) in doing research of the production of probiotic for poultry. Started with research and development at lab scale, finally at 2008, they build their own factory for the production of probiotic for chicken in large scale.

            Recently the European Union (EU) and World Health Organization (WHO) are more cautious on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in animal feeds. This is because of growing concern that AGP may leave antibiotic residue in animal products, promote the development of harmful antibiotic-resistance bacteria and may cause human disease become resistance to bacteria. Because of this problem, Stellagen raise an idea on the use of probiotic as alternative for antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in chicken. Probiotic is refer to friendly bacteria that can improve a chicken’s intestinal bacteria balance by restore the presence of beneficial bacteria and thus help the digestion system of chicken.

            Now, Stellagen has comeout with their own product which is called StellarLac ^TM which is a probiotic product for chicken. It contains multi-strain probiotic bacteria which are Brevis, Salivarius, Reuteri, and Gallinarum that isolated from intestine of healthy chicken. The benefit of using probiotic over AGP for broilers are it increase growth performance, improves feed efficiency and immune system, reduce body fat and cholesterol, reduce pathogenic bacteria in intestine and also lowering mortality rate. While benefit for layers is it increase egg production, produce heavier egg weight, improves egg size, reduce cholesterol in egg yolk, improves feed efficiency and improves immune system. In short, StellarLac ^TM serves as an effective natural substitute for AGPs and leading to the development of safe, healthier and premium-value chickens.

            Another company visited by the other best participant is InnBio Venture. Compare to Stellagen SDN BHD that produce product for animals, InnoBio venture is a company that provides biopharmaceutical manufacturing services, and thus they were provided with clean room. InnoBio venture has a capacity to produce 1000 liters of drugs and built to confirm to US FDA, EMEA and PIC/S regulations. Other than that, InnoBio has do research and services on cell line development, yield improvement, cell banking, scaling-up, antibody development and also analytics. Compared to Stellagen that is in its early phase of developing their company and product, InnoBio venture are more established and well known Biotechnology Company in Malaysia. However, Stellagen have comeout with their own business product while InnoBio is more focus on the services on production of pharmaceutical.

            Now Stellagen is the only supplier of probiotic for poultry in Malaysia, in my opinion with their experience and technology, in the future Stellagen will be a successful leading company that supplies probiotic in Malaysia and internationally.  Stellagen will have wide market demands as poultry business is a worldwide and continuing business. Nowadays, the EU, WHO, United States, Japan and some developed country already started to ban the use of AGP in poultry. In addition, people today are more alert and educate about the impact of AGP and the benefit of using probiotic in poultry, thus they might be the soon-to-be customer in the future. At this moment, Stellagen already made joint venture and promote their product to foreign company form India, Iran and China, so in the future they would be able to penetrate the international market.

            From this industrial visit, I feel proud that a Malaysian company likes Stellagen SDN BHD able to produce an innovative idea and comeout with their own product of StellarLac^TM. StellarLac ^TM is really significant invention to help and improve the poultry industry as well as very important for human health. Starting with only five members of company, they already receive four award and recognition which are gold award at Biotechnology Asia 2005 exhibition; gold medal and best biotechnology award at 14^th International Invention, Innovation, Industrial Design and Technology Exhibition 2003; and also gold medal from Universiti Putra Malaysia Invention and Research Exhibition 2003. At the beginning, there are many obstacles in their business and currently they have only 2% of market share. However for a new starting company, it is a good enough and Insha’Allah with their passion, hard work and experience they will become a successful and well established biotechnology company in Malaysia.GOOD LUCK STELLA!=)

Creative and Innovative

        We have learned about creative thinking from Prof. Barjoyai. He has brought a Doraemon bag that contains many weird and amazing stuff. Among the amazing things are the 3in1spectacle that can be used as MP3 and camera, also the stainless steel soap that can remove all odor, a magnetic flexible screw driver, and a distance measuring probe.

        Creativity is the ability to discover new relationship, to look at the subject from new perspective and to form new combination from two or more concept.  From what we learn, we can force to generate creative thinking. It is by maximizing the use of right and left brain. The right brain is use to think creatively such as music, image, emotion, tune of song, dimension, pattern and also when we day dreaming. While the left brain is use to think logically such as math, lyric, analysis, symbol, language, linearity and words of song. Other than that, unconscious mind and intuition are also important elements in creative thinking.

        Creativity can lead to the idea of innovation. Innovation is improvements to something that already exist. Among the method to creating culture of innovation is “the five disciplines of innovation. It contains five important aspects which are the important customer and market needed, value creation, innovation champion, innovation team and organizational alignment.

        We also learn about the balance thinking approach which is the seven hats thinking. It is a seven different color of hat which is the white, red, black, green, blue, yellow and the grey hat. The white hat is thinking about data and information, the red hat reflects about emotion, the black hat considering about the negative conscious while the yellow hat is the about positive thinking,  the green hat solve problem creatively, the blue hat that ask for summary and conclusion and lastly the grey hat is about spiritual side. By using the hat theory, we can solve problem using our critical thinking and considering all the good and negative aspect in order to obtain the best solution. It also allows us to get right away from argument in order to get more productive discussion.

        As a conclusion, creativity is important in our life because it bring many improvement, technologies, machine and makes our life easier. Many scientist and business man is creative person, where they can imagine machines that never exist before.

Presentation

Today all of us have done a presentation on our project. There are nine groups with nine creative and innovative ideas. My group which is xx power presents our Eco-PALF project. Alhamdulillah, with the knowledge from the communication skill, we are more confident to do the presentation. I am so happy today that I think I have improved my presentation skill.  Actually, like always, I am very nervous today as this is our final presentation and it is a big day for us. During the early of my presentation, I am shaky and I don’t dare to do the eye contact to audience. But at the middle of my presentation, there is someone that said “yup, ok….” and then I look at her and I can see that someone is really interested in our presentation, and she really listen to me. I really appreciate that and thus I make an aye contact to her and I felt more confident and I end my presentation smoothly. Alhamdulillah and thanks, Miss Sita!!

Today presentation is quite fun, we have seen many creative idea from the BEST participant. Some of them making plastic from feather and food waste, there is group that proposed to make detergent from vegetable waste, artificial petroleum, and there are group that concern to make halal product of gelatin and fatty acid. What an innovative idea from the future scientist and entrepreneurs! It must be so great if every project and proposal come true, this is because all the project were about the concern and for the benefit of human, animals, as well the environment. This is what I understand form the project each group:

XX Power: The production of Eco-PALF.

It is the use of pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) as substitute of synthetic fiber. The unique properties of Eco-PALF are it is biodegradable, high adsorption properties, it derives from natural product, and it is cheap alternative of synthetic fiber. As the raw material which is the PALF is from agricultural waste, so the project will eventually help to recycle waste, reduce cost of managing waste, reduce the pollution and also it can help to increase income of the farmers. 

E-Cool: The Production of Phytomix Yogurt

It is the production of yogurt from the whole fruits with addition of herbs and many other creative flavors. The yogurt is different from other yogurt as it contains probiotic substance which can help the diabetic people.

Super Synergy: The Production of Biodegradable Plastic from Food Waste

The project really concern to the environment where they try to reduce the use of nondegradable plastic bag and also try to make use the food waste. From the presentation, they said that they will use special collected food waste that not contain the non halal food, so the biodegradable plastic will safe and be a good preference for the Muslim consumers.

Prodigy: The Production of Pectin from Koko

As gelatin is the main component in most products, include the cosmetic, food and paper industry so it is needed in high demand nowadays. The problem is, the source of gelatin is only from animal and most company produce gelatin from pig skin and bone as it is easy to get. However, it becomes problem to Muslim consumer as pig is non-halal food and some of the animals were not slaughtered properly in Islamic ways. It is also a concern to the vegetarian people and animal activist. To overcome this problem, the prodigy group comes out the idea of production of pectin from koko as alternative for gelatin.

Chimera: The Production of Fatty Acid from Microorganism.

Like prodigy, Chimera group also concern on halal product for Muslim. With their motto of “halal punya” they try to produce halal fatty acid from microorganism in substitute of fatty acid from animal especially pig.

Mc-bio: The Production of Multipurpose Cleaning Solution From Fruit Waste.

This group tries to produce multipurpose cleaning solution by fermenting the fruit waste. Different from the normal cleaning solution, their product were more environmentally friendly, biodegradable and cheap as it is produced from food waste. Other than the cleaning solution, Mc- Bio also wants to produce perfume and fertilizer from the fermented food waste.

Futura: The Making of Micro Combo Sprayer

The Futura group wants to create micro combo sprayer which is a kit that can be used as a composing waste machine. The kit is mainly to be used at home where domestic waste were put in the machine and composed is to become fertilizer. By doing this, it can help to reduce the domestic waste from every household besides to educate people on managing waste and recycling.

Bioself: Feastic

The feastic word is derived from the word feather and plastic. Their project is about the production of bioplastic from chicken feather. Like the Super Synergy group, the Bioself group also concern on the use of synthetic plastic and thus trying to produce biodegradable plastic. However, differ from the Super Synergy group, they made the bioplastic from the feather of the chicken. As chicken is at everywhere in Malaysia, they will easily obtain their raw material and by doing this project, it can really help in recycling the chicken feather.

Pecah mental: the production of artificial petroleum.

This group tries to produce artificial petroleum from the agricultural waste. Petroleum is an essential fuel but nonrenewable source and the amount is continuously decreasing from day to day. So this group trying to solve this problem by making the artificial petroleum from the agricultural waste, which is as compatible to the real petroleum, more cheaper and eco friendly. In addition this project also can help to recycle the agricultural waste.

 What I can see today is, everyone seems doing their best in presentation, improved in presentation and communication skill, and also everyone dress smart and professionally. Thanks to the communication and grooming module that we really learn lot of things and using the knowledge, we improved ourself. Alhamdulillah..

NLP

We have learned about the Neuro linguistic programming (NLP) from Mr. Faizal Kamal. The words NLP derive from three distinct words which are neuro, linguistic and programming. Neuro refers to the brain and neural network that feeds into the brain. Linguistics refers to the content, both verbal and non-verbal, that moves across and through this pathway, while programming is the way the content or signal is manipulated to convert it into useful information. It is a field of study that attempts to build a set of transferable skills by programming the unconscious mind. In other terms it is the use of science and art to maximize an individual achievement. In the program, we learn lot about unconscious mind to break the limit of logic. We have learned about how to forget the bitter memory from the past, how to increase individual strength and confidence and also how to overcome phobia.

One of the activities is to determined whether we are auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner. The test was done like this:

1. The person (let say, miss A) that want to test their sensitivity have to sit on the chair, close her eyes,   and put their mind in alpha mind (calm and concentrate).
2. While miss A closed her eyes, the two other persons have to give different signal of touch and sound to make the miss A can identify and differentiate between them. At this stage, while giving the signal and hint, they can tell their name and miss A have to remember and differentiate the signals.
3. After that, the two persons will once again give their specific signal without telling their name, and miss A have to guess the identity of the person. The process will occur repeatedly and the numbers that miss A guess correctly will be counted.
4. The type of person of miss A will be known by the number of correct guess.

From the activity, we can know whether we are auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner. By doing this, it can help you to understand your own learning style, as well as others with whom you come into contact. In general there, the learning style and its description are:

An auditory person usually has strong administrative skills. They listen to people speaking to them and don’t forget what they have been told. They listen for sounds, directions and cues. When addressing an auditory person, it is important that the voice sounds interesting. Changes in pitch and volume will be noticed and they more interested and easily digest information from sound. Some auditory listener does not look in the eye of other when speaking, but do not be offended because they are listening to the sound of your voice and what you have to say.

The second type of person is the visual learners. they need to “see” in order to understand. True visuals may have poor or non-existent auditory skills. They tend to not remember or identify things just by listening to it unless they see it visually. When speaking to them, it is better to show some body language or doing eye contact with them and when assigning tasks, ask them to write it down.

The final learner is the kinesthetic, or one who learns by touch. They gain knowledge by sight and touch. Kinesthetics are uncomfortable with constant eye contact so glance down to the right or left once in a while when in conversation to maintain a level of comfort.   Kinesthetics will touch others and their surroundings in order to understand what it is they may be seeing or hearing. When speaking with a kinesthetic, use feeling words and ask “how does that feel”, “does that make you feel warm or cold”, or “how does that grab you” to help to “get the feeling across”.

So, from the activity, find out what types of learner you and your friend and try to use the knowladge to improve yourself as well as how to communicate with your friend.

Negotiation skill

In these two days, we have learned about negotiation skill with Mr. Hisham. Actually everyday we practice and learn negotiation skill from one another without releasing it. We often negotiate with our friends, family, teacher, and also with the shopkeeper. The more formal negotiation is such as while negotiation among the workers, while in the company meeting, and negotiation for business. A good negotiation should end with win-win situation, where both party is satisfy and can get advantage from the decision.  In order to get the win-win situation, both party must tolerate and respect each other. This is among the important things while negotiation:

·         The goals of both party

·         The trades and opportunity of both party

·         Alternatives if of the decision if no agreement is achieve

·         History of relationships between parties

·         Expected outcomes

·         The consequences

·         The power of both party

·         Possible solutions

In negotiation, sometimes action speak louder than words

Some people using a harsh way to negotiate, which is unethical

The negotiation topic is another topic teaches by Mr hisham after the public speaking topic. The class with him was very fun, there are lot of fun activities and laughter. From the very beginning where he can rightly guess our secret, we start our class with doa and he give religious speech, the fun acting activity, until the class end there a lot of advice and knowledge that we can learn from him, thanks Mr. Hisham. That day we end our class by the song, “words” from Nazreen.