Archive for December, 2007
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
…that was back in 1973. She got started after attending a seminar about traditional healthcare and the use of “jamu.”
Of course she was, and obviously still is, passionate about these 2 things.
She started the business in her garage, producing and distributing products with a capital of USD25 and 2 workers.
Many of her family members were not supportive, but her husband (a civil servant) was.
A few years later, she already had 50 workers and needed to move out of the garage.
But she couldn’t get a bank loan. So she soldiered on, saving up money. With the money saved after many years, she set up her own manufacturing plant.
She said:
- you need to knowledgeable and keep up with demands of modern consumers in a rapidly changing local as well as global market.
- all problems can be overcome through hard work, perseverance and continuous improvement.
Mustika Ratu is now a public listed company with 3,000 employees. It gets its raw materials from its own plantation.
Later she expanded to other areas of traditional healthcare, including beauty & spa business, franchising her spa, both locally & overseas.
She obtained her PhD in Economics at the age of 79. Truly, age is never a barrier.
Dr Bra Mooryati was born in January 1928. She is also a senator.
Source
Daily Express, 14th November 2007, Page 5 (local section)
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Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
Permodalan Bumiputera Sabah Bhd (PBSB) is (or was?) the investment arm of Yayasan Bumiputra Sabah (YBS).
On 10th November 2007, Daily Express reported the following:
- former GMD Mohd Shukur Abd Mumin was hired by PBSB on 1st July 2001 on a 37-month contract. It was supposed to end 31st July 2004.
Basic salary: RM11,025/mth
Housing allowance: RM1,500/mth
Entertainment: RM1,000/mth
Annual contractual bonus: RM11,025/yr
Annual gratuity: RM11,025/yr
Transport allowance: RM8,800/yr
Housing loan interest subsidy: RM7,933/yr
That would work out to be about RM16,700 per month.
- However, his contract was terminated only 5 months later.
On 7th March 2003, the executive chairman of YBS, Datuk Amirkahar Tun Datu Hj Mustapha was quoted by Daily Express to have said that PBSB was presently insolvent and its closure was imminent. Its liabilities then have exceeded its assets by RM30 million.
Source
Daily Express, 10th November 2007, Page 4 (Local section)
Daily Express, 7th March 2003
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Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Not just he will get an increase, but other senior officials, by up to 21%.
This follows the adjustment in April 2007.
This could make Lee Hsien Loong, 55 the best-paid Prime Minister in the world. Where previously he was paid S$3.1 million per year, he now stands to make S$600,000 more.
This is in line with Singapore’s policy of aligning the salary of the top job with salaries in the private sector.
Of course the President gets a little bit more, at S$3.8 million.
In comparison, the salary of cabinet ministers / Senior Permanent Secretaries is S$1.94 million per year (almost S$60,000 per month), where previously they’re getting S$1.6 million.
Further down the ladder, the salaries of “Entry Superscale Grade” and MPs are between S$13,000 and S$18,000 per month.
Source
jeffooi.com
psd.gov.sg
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Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Forbes compiled a list of the world’s 20 richest superstars under 25 years of age, checking earnings from June 2006 to June 2007. The earnings are total but before taxes or management fees, including salaries, winnings, endorsement deals and royalties.
The top 4 are all athletes:
1 LeBron James, 22, NBA forward, USD27 million. He’s now constructing his 35,000 sq ft house which has a bowling alley, casino and barber shop.
2 Reggie Bush, 22, NFL running back, USD24 million.
3 Maria Sharapova, 20, tennis, USD23 million, of which only USD3.8 million is from winnings, the rest from endorsements with Pepsi, Nike, Canon, Colgate-Palmolive and Motorola.
4 Michelle Wie, 18, golf, USD19 million. USD16 million of that is from endorsements.
5 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, 20, child twin stars-turned-fashion icons, USD17 million EACH.
6 Daniel Radcliffe, 18, “Harry Potter” actor, USD15 million. 6 years ago, in the first Potter film, he was reportedly offered USD145K. Then, in the latest Potter film, he was reported to have been paid USD14 million. Amazingly, he made more than A-list Hollywood actresses Jennifer Aniston (USD14 million) & Sandra Bullock (USD10 million).
7 Hillary Duff, 20, pop star-actress-’tween merchandise mogul, USD12 million.
8 Avril Lavigne, 23, singer, USD12 million
9 Carmelo Anthony, 23, NBA, USD10 million
10. Keira Knightley, 22, actress, USD9 million
The top 20 also include:
Dakota Fanning, 13, actress, USD4 million. She commands as much as USD3 million for major films.
Miley Cyrus, 15, “Hannah Montana” ctress, USD3.5 million.
Emma Watson, “Harry Potter” actress, USD4 million.
Rupert Grint, “Harry Potter” actor, USD4 million.
Carrie Underwood, singer, USD7 million
Lindsay Lohan, actress, USD3.5 million
Source
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Friday, December 7th, 2007
Jalan Ramayah, Penampang, by the roadside:
aluminium cans: RM5.30 per kg
Next to KK-Tuaran highway and UiTM intersection traffic light:
used car batteries: almost RM2 per kg.
If you have any more tips, pls put in the comments. Thanks!
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Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
It seems everybody’s throwing money at Facebook nowadays.
In October they got a USD240 million investment from Microsoft, which resulted in a USD15 billion valuation.
Not bad for a 3-year old company founded and headed by a 23-year old, another Harvard dropout who has been dubbed “the new Bill Gates.”
They are now perhaps the world’s social networking site with the highest valuation.
Now even 79-year old Li Ka-shing, the richest man in Asia and the 9th richest in the world, has thrown his support. He invested USD60 million recently, and has the right to invest another UDS60 million if he wants to.
Li was introduced to Facebook by an existing investor who contacted Solina Chau, director of the Li Ka-shing Foundation.
Facebook is now apparently the world’s 2nd most popular social networking site, with more than 73 million members. MySpace is still the runaway leader with 289 million members. In contrast, Friendster, arguably the most popular site among Malaysians, is at 13th place with 26 million.
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Monday, December 3rd, 2007
According to John Chow, he first started monetizing his blog on 17th September 2006 via Google Adsense alone. By the end of that month i.e. 13 days later, he already made more than USD350, i.e. about USD27 per day. He relied mostly on digg.com and google search traffic in the early days.
2 months later (for the month of November 2006), he’s already pulling in more than RM7,000, mostly from Adsense and Vibrant IntelliTXT. That is off 217,876 unique visitors. In fact, for the month before (October 2006) he got even more unique visitors: 229,144.
A year later (November 2007), he’s on almost RM90,000. I think that’s more than what 99.999% of what Malaysians are earning!
And he’s not using Adsense at all.
Most of his income comes from Private Ad Sales (almost USD13,000), affiliate commissions (about USD6,500) and ReviewMe (paid posting) at USD4,400.
What’s most surprising perhaps is the fact that he had LESS unique visitors in November 2007 than in November 2006. In November 2007, he *only* had 185,386 unique visitors.
That means traffic went down, even when his blog is now more established / well known, yet income went up more than 12 times. In other words, he has a very high eCPM: USD84.19: his blog makes over USD80 every time 1,000 pages are viewed.
How did he do this? In his own words:
The high eCPM rate was achieved by maximizing as many revenue opportunities as possible while still preserving the user experience.This blog started with only Google AdSense. Since then, I have experimented with dozens of monetization methods. Some have worked really well while others were a complete flop. The key is to always be tweaking and not stand still. If you haven’t touch up your revenue mix in the past six months, it’s time to get your hands dirty.
His expenses for the month were very little: USD566.52 for Google Adwords advertising, and USD25 for a private ad. His hosting is sponsored.
Source
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