Untung Baca Kontan

Kontan sendiri berawal dari format tabloid cetak. Yang unik, tabloid Kontan ada tiga versi, yaitu harian, mingguan, dan bulanan. Ketiga versi ini menyajikan ulasan bisnis dan investasi dengan kedalaman yang berbeda.Versi harian untuk terus mengupdate pembaca. Versi mingguan biasanya menyoroti lebih dalam sebuah topik yang lagi hangat. Dan versi bulananlah yang memberikan kupas tuntas tentang sebuah topik tertentu, seperti reksa dana dan segala seluk beluknya. Jadi, kalau investor short term perlu baca versi harian. Kalau investor mid term dan long term perlu baca versi mingguan. Sedangkan, versi bulanan mengupas tuntas banyak topik wajib buat semua tipe investor.

Namun, pertama kali saya bertemu Kontan adalah di internet lewat webnya, http://www.kontan.co.id. Waktu itu menu dan fiturnya belum sebanyak sekarang dan saya paling suka membaca versi e-paper http://epaper.kontan.co.id/, yaitu versi elektronik tabloid cetaknya. Kontan memang selalu mengikuti teknologi, setelah tampil di internet muncul juga versi mobile lewat http://mobile.kontan.co.id, dan bahkan kini tersedia Kontan versi iPad http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kontan/id420094482. Web Kontan juga sempat didesain ulang dan muncul fitur-fitur baru. Saya suka dengan EXPERTS GO BLOGGING http://blog.kontan.co.id/, yang memang artikel up-to-date dari para ahli investasi. Pas banget.

Inovasi yang terus-menerus ini membuktikan komitmen Kontan untuk terus maju dan menjadi yang terdepan di antara pesaingnya. Dan hebatnya semua fitur elektronik bisa dinikmati pembaca dengan gratis! Namun, belakangan saya malah merasa tidak nyaman lagi membaca kontan.co.id karena layout webnya menjadi sangat ramai dan membingungkan. Mungkin Kontan bisa menata ulang layoutnya agar pembaca bisa dengan cepat menemukan informasi yang dicarinya. Lebih baik lagi jika bisa menawarkan informasi secara personal dan kontekstual sesuai kebutuhan masing-masing pengunjung. Mirip dengan yang dilakukan facebook ketika menyarankan link profil seseorang yang mungkin kita kenal.

Selamat ulang tahun yang kelima belas, Kontan!
Memang benar kalau mau untung, harus baca Kontan.

~Posting diikutsertakan dalam Kontan Blog Review

Related posts

1. Be A Rock Star in The New Wave Marketing Era
2. Hey, SartikaKurniali.com Got a Blog Award

The Evolution of The Web

This is a must see link for all web and internet enthusiast, users, and people who are enrolled in internet related studies, like in computer science, information system, new media, digital journalism, and even graphic design.

The Evolution of The Web is depicting how the web was born in 1990 with the exist of HTTP and all that awe technology that comes after that until now. From HTML, CSS, JavaScript to XML, AJAX to Geolocation, Web Workers, Offline Web Apps:Appcache, and WebGL. I even don’t know the latter existed. Luckily you can click more to find more information about each technology.

So, does every browser that enabled us to explore the web. The creator even displayed how each browser has changed since version one until now if you click any one of them. And how some of them has “died”, like Mosaic and Netscape.

As you can see that between 2000 to 2003 there is some kind of vacuum in the journey. I think this is related to the burst of the dot-com bubble era. The web then regained its strength and evolved even more in the coming years thanks to the popularity of the internet because of facebook, twitter, and the whole social media army.

It’s quite comprehensive and very interactive. I wish we could also see how real popular web looked in every era as an example how those technology combined in the web. I think that would give a more vivid insight, especially to those who are fortunate to know the web and internet from the day they were born.

Actually I already knew about this event for a long time ago, but didn’t get the chance to attend it before. My regrets if all the CEO speaks was this good. Hoping to attend the next one

So, this time it’s Carrefour’s turn to get into the spot light with their new CEO, Shafie Shamsuddin. At first, I thought he was Indonesian, but he said he was Singaporean Malayan at the beginning of the session. Previously Mr. Shamsuddin had worked at Carrefour in Malaysia and Singapore too. He told us, that before, Carrefour top management was always filled with fellow French and it was impossible for Asian like him to enter the ring, until now. A recap on his background taken from Businessweek:

Shafie Shamsuddin serves as Managing Director at Carrefour Indonesia. Mr. Shamsuddin served as Managing Director of Carrefour Singapore and Carrefour Malaysia. He has been serving Carrefour for over 10 years and was appointed Regional Director for Carrefour Singapore in February 2005. He began his career as a management trainee in 1996 and was then promoted to assistant department head in July 1997 and department head in October 1997, where he was responsible for overseeing merchandising in and operations of the bazaar department. In April 2000, Shafie was promoted to division manager for the bazaar department and was accountable for the overall performance of six major sub-units in the bazaar department. In June 2002, Shafie was transferred to Carrefour Indonesia where he was in charge of bazaar merchandising at the national level.

I’m a frequent customer at Carrefour, but all I know about Carrefour as a company that it was originally from France, a market leader in Indonesia hypermarket, and is going through quite a lot of legal cases with it’s customers (dispute and all), competitors (you know who), and even the government (hence the monopoly issue). Still, I find it nice to shop there, even though I think the “earlier carrefour” offers more  than it is today. It must be quite a challenge to be the CEO.

Given the current circumstances, it will be interesting to know how he dealt with the situation. He told us that his first moves can be summarized to these:

1. Learn and listen
   As a newcomer, he was trying to adapt and understand the real condition by listening internally and externally, from his subordinates, staffs, suppliers, customers, and other shareholders. To really get a grip of what was happening.
2. Accept yourself
   Then, he was reflecting on the all those bad news and rumors about Carrefour to see if it was true and what caused it.
3. Making it right
   After that, he came up with ways on how to make things right again. Like the issue about how Carrefour’s buyers accused of treating its suppliers arbitrarily by keeping prices down and collecting various burdensome fees. He then installed CCTV cameras on all the meeting rooms to make sure a thing like that will never happen.

More from the CEO

CEO Speaks, Carrefour on Growth

1. You should form the team before making the strategy, not the other way around. Strategy will only works if it’s executed correctly. So, you must have the right people to do it.
2. Retail is about sell, buy, then sell. You have to think what and how to sell (customer’s trend), buy it (at lowest price and good quality), and sell it (at lowest price, but high volume, I guess? Since it’s hypermarket we are talking about). Usually, people think it is about buy and sell.
3. Treat the change agents as role models and give them certain KPIs.
4. In the QA session, a former employee asked if the culture at Carrefour still remains the same. That employees didn’t get much chance to develop themselves. He said things had changed now.
   Carrefour currently identifying their change agents (prospective employees) and treat them as role models by giving them certain KPIs. As an example even if you are a cashier, if you are the best, you might end up traveling overseas to share your skills to others. He then joked by asking the former employee to come back and work at Carrefour again.
5. Touch your closest ones then enlarge it.
   You really don’t have to do something very spectacular to begin with. You can start by your closest and make it big. Pretty much like like the butterfly effect concept.
6. It’s challenge that makes us progressed and know who we are. That way you will grow and know yourself.
   This one speaks for itself. We all have experienced it a lot. It’s just like going through exams in order to graduate.

A leak was also accidentally slipped. You can expect to see Carrefour change its tag line in near future. The tag line, Ke Carrefour aja Ah…!  will be replaced by something that depict how Carrefour give you an added value to your life. Just like he stated that a tag line should describe a bigger purpose of the company and of course the current tag line not much of a help on doing it.

Updates on Carrefour

After a surprising action of bringing one of Indonesia’s taipan, Chairul Tanjung owner of Trans Corp as one of their biggest stock holders, Carrefour is still on the move. Recently they announced that they were going to stop operating at three countries in Asia, which are Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Guess, they only interested in market where they can be the market leader, like in China and Indonesia. Meaning despite all that has happened, we still got to see Carrefour in Indonesia for many years to come.

Meet The BPM Dummies

What is business process management (BPM)? It’s a dicipline to design, control, analyze, and improve operational business processes allowing process improvement methodology and enabling technology to be affectively combined, automating execution and coordinating human participation.

We already heard about previous process-centric management approach like six sigma, and lean in the past. So, what makes it different? You could say that BPM is helping them by embraces them and enables them with new tools and capabilities.

Business Process Management (BPM) is useful, powerful and potentially very accessible. But, with so many analysts, consultants, publications and vendors weighing in with their own perspective and opinions, it can be very confusing. The talk about BPM is also frequently tied to SOA (service oriented architecture) because they complement each other. Hence that SOA is also quite hype around big enterprises.

So now, are you interested to know more about BPM? You might want to check out this website, The BPM Dummies. It’s not a all in one website about BPM. This is a website of a book, called BPM Basics for Dummies.

Wait a minute, there’s a catch on the website. Because it’s not telling you to buy the book but to download the e-book for free (legally).You are also being introduced to Ed N. Sand, the new COO of Globalcorp and a BPM dummies. Ed is your typical C level “people person” who thinks BPM will turn him to the dark side. Meet Ed in these 2 animation episodes. It’s quite hilarious.

BPM for Dummies Book

What about the book? I never like for dummies book series. Usually they only cover simple stuff and make it hard to understand with long paragraph and such a thick book about everything. I just don’t get it. If I were a dummy, I don’t want to read such an exhausting book.

So when I heard that the book is only around 65 pages on the Chief Operating Ostrich Part 2, I kind of want to see it. The book itself is quite good because it covers the basics in a jiffy.

Whether you are a business manager or an Information Technology practitioner, the book will provide valuable information about what BPM can do for you—and how to apply it.

This includes:

• Core concepts and practical ideas.
• A primer for getting started with BPM.
• A step-by-step guide for implementing BPM successfully.
• A compilation of resources that you can go to for additional help or continued education.

If you’re wondering why they are giving away the book, here is why. As you can see the book is a Software AG special edition. The writers are also Software AG people. If you’re guessing Software AG is one of the player in BPM, then you’re right.

You could say that this is a great way to do a propaganda. While other players, like IBM or tibco just posting videos on youtube, they came up with an animated videos and a free e-book. And the website is also a good example for marketing a book, with the character, animation, and quiz. It’s entertaining.

Soa Adoption for Dummies

Anyway if you’re done with BPM or more interested with SOA, they are also giving away e-book about it.

Related posts

1. Role of Social Media Applications on The Internet in Knowledge Management Process

Nokia melakukannya dengan Communicator yang pengembangannya mendapat masukan dari komunitas konsumen. Berbagai komponen dan fitur ponselnya juga bisa berasal dari multi-sumber, bukan dari satu produsen. Desainnya bisa dari Eropa, komponen-komponennya dari Cina, sementara aplikasinya buatan Amerika.

Bahkan belakangan ini Nokia melibatkan konsumen dengan komunitas developer dari seluruh dunia lewat Forum Nokia. Di sini Nokia membuka dirinya dan membekali apa yang diperlukan komunitas untuk dapat mengembangkan dan menyempurnakan teknologi dan fitur-fitur yang dikembangkan. Seperti mengoutsourcekan komunitas ini untuk menjadi bagian unit R&D. Di forum ini anggota komunitas bisa berdiskusi, berbagi pengetahuan dan pengalaman, dan menunjukkan kemampuan membuat aplikasi untuk Nokia lewat papan diskusi, wiki, blog, klinik, dan juga newsletter bulanan. Interaksi juga dilanjutkan dengan adanya event yang eksperiensial, konferensi, dan kompetisi.

Namun, keberhasilan Nokia merangkul konsumennya tidak terbukti pada kinerjanya secara keseluruhan. Berbagai berita buruk datang dari Nokia tahun ini. Mulai dari terpangkasnya keuntungan dan pangsa pasar, perampingan karyawan, harga saham yang jatuh, dan ulasan jelek tentang produk yang baru diluncurkannya. Nokia menangkisnya dengan alasan badai krisis global dan persaingan baru di kelas ponsel high-end dengan iPhone dari Apple dan Blackberry dari RIM yang tampaknya telah merebut hati banyak konsumen.

Berita-berita yang mengejutkan dari produsen ponsel nomor satu di dunia selama lebih dari satu dekade. Nokia kini bagaikan seorang pemain yang bermain defensif. Karena hanya merespon apa yang pemain lain lakukan. Ironis karena sebelumnya Nokia selalu menjadi yang memiliki visi besar, ide hebat, dan dana besar untuk membiayai inovasinya. Nokia bagai kehilangan DNA nya.

Padahal di era New Wave Marketing, yang menjadi nyawa perusahaan adalah codification dari DNA-nya. Kode DNA inilah yang dicari konsumen. Kredibilitas produk, merek, dan perusahaan. Bukan sekedar diferensiasi dan keunikan, tetapi kode DNA yang asli dan tidak bisa ditiru oleh para pesaing. Yang membuat komunitas menghargai Anda. Tentunya jika konsumen menganggap apa yang ditawarkan sebagai tiruan atau palsu akibatnya adalah kehilangan kredibilitas, konsumen, dan pada akhirnya penjualan pun akan turun. Ini sebabnya mempertahankan DNA dan membangun orisinalitas penting dilakukan.

Sedangkan pesaing baru bisa bermunculan kapan saja dengan meniru keunggulan-keunggulan yang telah dimiliki. Penyerangan tidak hanya datang dari pesaing, tetapi juga konsumen, dan para change agents. Pendapat mereka di media jejaring sosial bisa dengan mudah mempengaruhi konsumen lain untuk mendapatkan persepsi yang salah tentang Anda.

Mungkin belum terlambat bagi Nokia walau sempat menjadi kacang yang lupa akan kulitnya. Nokia bisa mengambil langkah strategik untuk menjaga kredibilitas perusahaannya lewat komunitas. Karena dengan bergabung dan menghorisontalkan diri dengan komunitas konsumen, Nokia tidak lagi bekerja sendiri dan mendapatkan dukungan untuk menjaga dan melindungi kredibilitasnya di pasar.

Singkat kata contoh ini membuktikan untuk menjadi seorang rock star di era New Wave Marketing memang tidak boleh mengabaikan semua elemen yang ada di “The 12 Cs of New Wave Marketing”. Kedua belas C ini adalah Communitization, Confirming, Clarifying, Coding, Crowd-Combo (Co-Creation, Currency, Communal Activation, Conversation), Commercialization, Character, Caring, dan Collaboration.

Posting ini merupakan keikutsertaan sebagai salah satu Bloggers @ MarkPlus Conference 2010. Berupa tanggapan atas artikel “Ketika Konsumen Menjadi Inovator” dan “Menjaga Keutuhan DNA Perusahaan” di Surfing The New Wave Marketing di Kompas.com

Related posts

1. My First Book, Tip-Trik Pilihan Blogger
2. Kalau Mau Untung, Harus Baca Kontan
3. Hey, SartikaKurniali.com Got a Blog Award

Web Comparison

This is a group presentation we did on class. Here we did a comparison for 3 international consumer product. In this case they were Nokia, Samsung Mobile, Sony Ericsson. You might find it interesting.  Before jumping into the comparison in detail, I want to highlight some points, such as how cell phones (They are the big 3 in cell phones industry) has evolved and why web is important for these companies?

• Most cellphone user internet literature and familiar with e-commerce.
• User diversity
• User need detail info of the product (specification, dimention,etc)
• Upgrade/download system or other application  (even can drive more profit)
• Vendors need third party development to improve their platform

You also can find some unique characteristics in these webs, such as:

• Region based websites
• Cool flash usages
• Aps store
• Microsite for certain products (mostly flash based)
• Mobile site
• Different sites for different kinds of users incl. developers
• Social media integrated (campaign, etc)

Find out more about it on this presentation and tell me which one is the best web according to you

So now, Microsoft wants to have a piece of the action. Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda gives Jimmy Fallon a demonstration of the new body-controlled video game system, Project Natal, for the Xbox 360 video game platform. Project Natal enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, in a natural user interface using gestures, spoken command or presented objects and images. Simply put to say Microsoft is transforming your body into a Wii remote controller, but they want it on a Xbox platform. It’s pretty cool.  See how they demonstrated it in this video.

I like the idea, but I’m not gonna play it with a silly orange mechanic body suit like that. They better think how to make me wear the sensors in something cool.

It’s still too early to tell who will win the bigger slice of the pie since the project is expected to be released in late 2010 and Microsoft has not officially announced any price or release date projections. Project Natal was first announced on 1 June at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Microsoft said that over 1000 development kits began shipping to game developers that same day.

Related posts

1. Hey, SartikaKurniali.com Got a Blog Award

To get the these effects just choose which one suits your taste and upload your photo. Youcan get different amazing effects in less then one minute. No need to be a photoshop expert at all. Here are some of my own experiments. Pretty cool, huh?

picjoke wall-e

picjoke billboard

picjoke poster

picjoke show

picjoke ads

picjoke loreal

picjoke iPhone

picjoke art

picjoke banner

picjoke newspaper headline

A word of advice though. You might want to pick picture of you with good resolution, with almost the same position like the sample picture, and a bit glamorous. Otherwise, you might end up with missing mouth like mine here.

picjoke cubicle gone wrong

picjoke gone wrong

Since the picture is generated by program, so who know what the outcome will be. Be patient and do some experiments if you don’t get the star impression.

As for the technical stuffs, this is some serious image manipulation using PHP. I’m pretty impressed and curious about the codes, but I bet it still use the GD graphic library.

Related posts

1. Be A Rock Star in The New Wave Marketing Era