Save the Environment. Pee in the Shower!

Xixi no banho - Pee in the bath!

I’ve got to agree, and I’m sure you might as well – that too many environmental campaigns border on the annoying – constantly recycling (heh heh) on the tiresome “You SHOULD NOT do this” and “You CANNOT do that” messages.

The unique Brazilian campaign “Xixi no Banho” is a refreshing change – it encourages people to do something (almost) effortless, which saves tons of clean water as well – pee in the shower!

No one admits to it – but we’ve all done it at some point in our lives – be it at home, in the gym, or the hotel shower. Now, the experts are saying that it’s a good thing for the environment, and it’s totally safe and hygienic!

Via Peter Gan

The Two Burmas

Young Burmese children at the tourist site of Bagan. Image via TIME.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is the largest country in mainland South East Asia (commonly known as Indochina). It is also one of Asia’s poorest countries, and one of the most militarized states in the world.

TIME takes a look at the class divide between the elites of the ruling military junta and the majority of its citizens in a country that Transparency International ranks as the third most corrupt nation, outdone only by Afghanistan and Somalia.

See also the Photo Gallery, where the country trains its next generation of military and business elites, while the people continue to live in poverty.

The Chin Fabric Trail

Historically, many great travelers have made their way through trade routes made famous by important commodities being traded at that time. There was the Silk Road across the Asian continent, and the ancient Incense Route linking the Eastern world to the Mediterranean.

Today, trade routes have become a relic of the past as countries are more connected to each other than ever. The ease of transportation mean products from all over the world can be  flown around to fill up shopping malls – available for purchase every day from dawn till dusk through every season.

Competing against the variety and availability of mass-produced products, one might not give a second glance at handmade crafts, such as those made by Mang Tha, an organization to empower Chin refugee women from Burma, based in Kuala Lumpur.

A closer look at the craft however reveals tales of bravery, history, heritage, pride, love and suffering – found in the traditional Chin fabrics of Burma.

From Burma to Malaysia

© Goiyoo

The Chin fabrics routinely make its way from Burma to Malaysia, though at an economic scale much more microscopic compared to the other historical trade routes, but no less significant to its market.

My first introduction to the Chin fabric was Mang Tha’s red sling bag – almost passing as a generic souvenir commonly found in any South East Asian country.

“This is our traditional fabric used in all our Chin costume,” Ma Engi explained, who escaped the oppressive and violent Burmese military rule in 2008.

There are several versions of the origins of the fabric’s pattern, described by the women in Mang Tha.

© Benny Manser

One is a story of a man who once fell in love with a beautiful mermaid. The mermaid told him never to tell anyone of their relationship or a tragedy would happen. One day, the man could no longer keep his love for the mermaid to himself anymore, told someone about their love and of how she is the most beautiful creature he has ever seen.

He died right after telling the story. The grieving mermaid came out of the water to see her dead lover that night. Only one person saw the mermaid, it was an old lady. The old lady saw the beautiful mermaid dressed in red fabric which she later weaved a copy of. That fabric is what we now recognize as the traditional Chin fabric.

Another story of the fabric’s origins is that it was inspired by the rainbow.

© Benny Manser

Amongst the red fabric, many other colors and fabric patterns enough to put a fabric collector in seventh heaven – are made into phone pouches, pencil cases and other functional products.

“Every one of the 17 ethnic groups of the Chin people have their specific costume and thus (different) fabric (for each costume)” explained Susan, coordinator of Mang Tha.

© Mang Tha (left) © Khing Su Li (right)

Browsing through the wide selection of scarves, table runners and bags, I was advised to buy whatever I like – because there is no guarantee that the same fabric will be available next time.

UNCHR registration card offers limited protection in Malaysia (© Benny Manser)

This erratic supply of fabric is explained through the travelling that each roll of fabric had to make before reaching the capital city of Malaysia, called the “second country” by the Chin refugees as they await to be resettled through the help of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to their “third country” where most of them hope to make their home.

“Malaysia does not recognise refugees. Our legislation, namely the Immigration Act 1959/1963, does not differentiate between an undocumented migrant and refugees. Hence, refugees here are usually treated as undocumented migrants by the authorities. The government on various occasions expressed that they are reluctant to recognise refugees at it would bring an influx of refugees to the country,” explains Temme Lee, refugee coordinator for Suaram, a human rights organization in Malaysia.

The fabrics are brought to Malaysia by Burmese workers coming to Malaysia to work as labourers in construction sites and restaurants, which are then sold to a middle man. The middle man resells the fabric in Kuala Lumpur at the range of USD 20-100, depending on the complexity and rarity of the pattern.

Chin refugee working in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (© Benny Manser)

“One set (2m) fabric that is hand-woven takes 3 days and more than 5 days if woven with traditional looms” Susan explained.

The value of these fabrics is not only in the hand-crafted element nor the ’shipping’ surcharge – these fabric represents the Chin people’s heritage and culture.

“We can only bring what we wear and one more set of clothes,” Susan explains.

On the move (© Benny Manser)

Their journey by car and boat to get here is difficult, with sometimes up to 30 people cramped into a van. On top of that, they also face the danger of being caught and detained by the Thai authorities.

According to Ngun Thluai who has been a refugee in Malaysia for almost 3 years, many people don’t survive the hazardous journey.

“Refugees continue to come to Malaysia not by choice. In Burma, certain communities are highly oppressed and often are subjected to forced labour. If they do not obey the military, they are subject to persecution. Refugees leave their homes out of fear that their lives might be threatened or even taken,” Temme adds.

Those who managed to make it to Malaysia, struggle to make ends meet as opportunistic employeers take advantage of their vunerable situation by paying them low wages.

“All our income is spent on food for our family and rent. We can’t afford much else,” Ma Engi shared.

Prisoners sentenced to hard labor constructing a road in Chin state (© 2007 Vanlalvura)

Ma Engi is one of the lucky ones to own a piece of traditional Chin fabric, given as a gift from a friend. She uses it as a baby carrier to carry her daughter.

Ma Engi in her rented flat with her children (© Puah Sze Ning)

Mang Tha, making sweet dreams come true

At Mang Tha, which means ’sweet dreams’ in Chin – the women tailor these traditional fabrics into functional products such as handphone pouches, purses and bags, to be sold to generate income for their livelihood.

“Often, these women are too scared to go out of their apartments, and some can spend most of their time between four walls for several years waiting to be resettled. Mang Tha allows them to have an activity while staying in Malaysia, to earn some income and improve the living conditions of their family, to acquire a sense of purpose, self worth and dignity, as well as skills they can continue using when they move to their third country,” said Ariel, a Mang Tha volunteer.

Ciang Thian Wung (left) and Wung Suan Mang knitting at Mang Tha (© Puah Sze Ning)

Apart from helping the Chin refugees in Malaysia, Mang Tha also reaches out to other Chin refugees in other countries such as India, by buying fabric from All Burma Democratic Lushai Women Organisation (ABDLWO) based in Mizoram.

“India is not a signatory country of the Geneva Convention 1951 and the UNHCR has no operations in Mizoram. Chin in Mizoram face security abuses, severe discrimination, religious repression, (they) lack job opportunities, housing and affordable education. They live largely at the mercy of the local population in Mizoram,” explained Elodie Voisin, a volunteer for Mang Tha since 2008.

Mang Tha gets the fabric from refugees in Mizoram coming to Malaysia in hopes of getting recognition by UNCHR. By buying fabric from ABDLWO, the working conditions for the refugees there can be improved.

Looking at a simple purse made by Mang Tha, it feels as if the purse is whispering heroic tales of a weaver braving oppression in her Chin homeland, or a Chin refugee in Mizoram hoping to weave a better future for her children. Or maybe, of a refugee in Mizoram taking the fabric on his or her way to Malaysia where hope resides.

With the iconic twin towers almost at the backyard of over 27,000 Chin refugees residing in and around Kuala Lumpur, I wonder if every one of them managed to get a hold on a piece of fabric unique to their ethnic group. Something to remind them of their heritage, which tells the tale of someone’s brave escape to a safer place, something to hold on to through rough times in a strange land and something which would travel with them in hopes of a brighter future for their next generation.

Notes:

• Mang Tha’s products are available here
• Keep in touch with Mang Tha through Facebook here
• Names of some interviewees are not their real names at their request to protect their identity.

This is my voice there are many like it, but this one is mine

While backpacking, I started to ask why are people poor? I don’t mean 1 person, but whole countries, villages or communities have no idea where their next meal will come from or if they will still have a roof over their heads.

In chats with Tanda, I started to understand that poverty exists for many because of vulnerability and for the lack of opportunity. These two combined have devastating consequences.

I asked Tanda to write a little about herself, and below is the unedited story.

My name is Tanda Htun. I was born in Mawkanin village, Ye Township, Mon State, Myanmr.

I arrive in Malaysia on January 6, 2006.

The reason I left from Myanmar is I was tortured by Military Juntas; detained in army camp in my village, kick my back, slapped my face because they accused me that I had relationship with Mon rebel group.

In fact, after I finished my university, I went back to my village and volunteer at Mon Literature Association. One day, I went to our farm and in the evening, two Mon soldiers came and give me some advice how to manage our culture and literature.

Next day morning, the Burmese know about that and came and arrested me. I was locked up about one week. Then I was released by promising I would gave them information where two Mon soldiers hide. They only give me two days chance but they warned me that if I couldn’t any information, they must arrest me again. As soon as I arrived home I told my parents about that it is impossible to get information within two days, so my mother arranged me to leave from the village by broker from my village to Thailand and then to Malaysia.

Sometimes, I had to walk across the jungle. When I arrived in Malaysia, it was hard to get job for survive because I couldn’t speak Malay and didn’t have any legal status. I was recognized by UNHCR as a refugee in October, 2007. Before that I was arrested by Malaysia authorities in Charas, in April, 2007 and 4 month in Kajang jail. My life is suffering from many ways.

I have founded Mon Women Refugee Organization since December 6, 2009. The goal is to promote and empower all Mon Women in creating income opportunities and information workshops.

Mon women with volunteers about to make soap

World refugee day falls on June 20th, and the Mon women will be at Kl Sentral Station from June 19th to 20th (11am to 4pm) to sell handmade organic soap (I buy and use it myself!). Do visit them.

Click here to read more.

References:
Title “This is my voice” taken from Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long

Rethinking Consumerism

You want something and you want it RIGHT NOW.  Say today, you are craving for a little piece of good chocolate but you just finished your last bar two days ago. So, you drive to a shopping mall and march straight to the mart.  You have only one ULTIMATE aim and that is to BUY a good bar of chocolate RIGHT AWAY.  You search the shelves for your favourite brand.  After scanning for a few minutes, you don’t find it anywhere.  You ask the sales promoter if there’s any stock left.  The answer unfortunately is no.

So you march out and head for the next mart that you think might stock the chocolate you are deeply craving for.  Lucky for you, a new stock of your favourite brand arrived but wait a minute, it is way more expensive than before.  You debate with your inner conscience for a while before you decide that you might not buy it after all.

As you walk out of the mart dejected, some customers are berating the poor sales promoter why that brand is more expensive than it usually is.

In the end, you might fewer people who are willing to buy that chocolate.  They have opted for a cheaper brand.   The stack of expensive chocolates sits on the shelves and collects dust.  When the chocolates get sent back to its supplier, the supplier is at a dilemma.  To continue producing it but at a smaller number or to bring down the price at the cost of worker wages, benefits and cost of resources.

If the unscrupulous supplier is going to stay in the competition and maintain his profit margin, the price has got to be brought down and everything else slashed.

This one step has a downward spiralling effect.  Because the supplier then switches to a cheaper alternative resources be it cheaper materials, cheaper source of labour, or ignoring the cost of the externalities (cost of processing, cost of environmental pollution, cost of worker’s health and safety, etc).

Now that his workers are paid even lower, their purchasing power is reduced.  They are forced to work day and night, put in more overtimes and neglect their health just to earn that extra dollar to put food on the table.  Some families are also 1) forced to make their children work to help contribute to the family’s income, or 2) tricked by employment agents into giving up their children for better work in the city but the reality is that the children get thrown into slums and are forced to work in unhygienic, low paying manual work. Because their income is so little, they cannot break out from the cycle of poverty/

To find out more about the bitter truth about chocolates, read http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_8583000/8583499.stm

But what happens if we stop this cycle and decide to be more learned about what goes into manufacturing, to plan our purchases properly and pay a fair price for a particular product?

In this scenario, when we we walk into a shopping mall and pick up a bar chocolate, we know exactly who makes it, how the cocoa is sourced, and whether the companies that make the product are socially and environmentally responsible.

We make a stand and choose not to support manufacturers who have dodgy procurement practices and slowly, these manufacturers would be forced to join in the bandwagon of sustainable or fair trade companies to gain consumers’ confidence and trust in their line of products.  Consequently, the demand and supply of the sustainable / fair trade products will balance out and it will be as affordable as before.

And finally, if we pay the fair price, workers ultimately receive better wages and experience more fulfilling life, while helping to lift themselves out of the path of poverty.

The principles of Fair Trade

Fair Trade chocolates that are already in the market

Refugees, Migrants and Development

From the start, the vision of Elevyn has been clear – alleviation of poverty through trade, by connecting buyers directly to artisans from developing countries. While we are still a fledgling company, our work with the communities and artisans over the past 2 years have been an eye-opening experience on many levels.

Last year, we were introduced to the Alliance of Chin Refugees, a Kuala Lumpur-based organization working with Burmese refugees. It was our first exposure to the plights of people fleeing their own countries in search of a better life.

Refugees and their living conditions. Photo from UNHCR.org.my

Stereotypes

A lot of us, due to our own lack of exposure, are woefully ignorant to the case of refugees. In fact, many cannot see the difference between refugees, migrants and foreign workers; conveniently lumping them into a negative stereotype of cheap labour, trouble-makers, thieves and generally, unwelcomed foreigners.

But the distinctions cannot be more different. And this article, hopefully, can do a little bit into changing that perception.

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Migrants

Migrants tend to leave their countries voluntary for purely economic reasons – such as higher wages and better job opportunities. Think of Malaysians who go off in search of greener pastures in Australia, Canada and UK. Same too, with the Indonesian maid who is taking care of your house, and the Bangladeshi waiter who took your orders at the restaurant this morning.

Should difficulties arise, migrants are still protected by their home countries through their respective embassies.

Refugee children. Photo from UNHCR.org.my

Refugees

Refugees, on the other hand, are forced to leave their countries due to life-threatening circumstances. In other words, escape or die.

Think war, famine, persecution and human rights issues. Many would love nothing more than to return to their home countries, but to do so would be a risk to them and their families’ lives. Until peace settles, refugees have no choice but to seek refuge in the countries they end up in.

In our relatively peaceful region, Myanmar has often been accused of political oppression, religious persecution and various “crimes against humanity”. Thus, the influx of refugees seeking asylum in neighbouring Thailand and Malaysia.

Unfortunately, some countries do not have provisions within the law that formally recognizes refugees (Malaysia is non-signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol).

As a result, both migrants and refugees are being treated as one and the same by the authorities. Women and children in particular, become marginalized groups as they are unable to apply for jobs or go to schools. Most refugees live in poorly-maintained homes and temporary shelters both in and outside of the city.

–

Refugee Assistance Groups

The refugee situation continues to be a grey area in Malaysia, but parties such as UNHCR and various NGOs and volunteers exist to provide assistance to the refugees. They include the issuance of UNHCR refugee cards, setting up of schools, and provision of healthcare services.

There’s a lot of work to be done, and much help is needed in many areas.

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Parting Thoughts

As the country and government continues its march towards being a developed, high-income country, we think that progress is not all about the GDPs and GNPs. A country should also be measured on its “soft skills” – what are we offering to the world? How do we treat people, animals and the environment – with respect? Or contempt?

Does it mean anything when we donate money to charities, and then turning a blind eye to sick refugee children? Do we volunteer at the SPCA only to bark at the poor foreign waiter who got our drinks mixed up?

Sorry, but “doing good” doesn’t work that way.

So where do we go from here?

A stepping stone, and one that can go a long way, is the awareness and understanding on the situation. You and me, to begin with.

In the case of understanding refugees, this photo essay from the UNHCR Malaysia website makes a good start.

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For further reading:

• UNHCR Malaysia
• Refugees in Malaysia, Facts & Figures
• Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugee

Interesting E-commerce Auction Models

Over the course of developing Elevyn as a viable business model to connect buyers to artisans, we constantly keep our eyes peeled for interesting and creative e-commerce ideas.

This had led us to learning more about the various forms of trades in existence – bidding, for example. We’re all familiar with the eBay bidding model – you bid for an item you want, and the highest bidder wins.

While at UnConference Singapore, we encountered CountSpin, an online variation of the Dutch bidding where prices keep dropping every second until somebody buys. (Watch this short video for a Dutch auction in action.)

And then there’s Swoopo. Here’s how it works.

Items listed on the site are priced at zero dollars. It’ll actually cost you $0.75 to bid – which will raise the price by $0.15. And then someone else bids, the price goes up another $0.15, and so on. At the end of the day, the company makes a lot more money from the bid charges than selling the actual item itself!

Programming blogger Jeff Atwood calls it “about as close to pure, distilled evil in a business plan as I’ve ever seen.”

Fair enough. Brilliant money-making idea aside, Swoopo preys on our natural human behaviour. You put in $0.75 for a bid, wanting that iPhone for a whopping $2.50. Then somebody else bids, pushing the price up to $2.65 – at the same time rendering your investment absolutely worthless!

So you bid again, hoping to get back on track, and the cycle repeats. Sounds like a form of gambling? It is; even Wikipedia has a page on it, in what economists refer to as “Escalation of commitment”.

It describes the case where people justify further spending on a case, based on their previous investments into it, in spite the fact that things are probably going wrong!

Interestingly enough, not only money may be involved, but also human lives, as witnessed during America’s involvement in the Vietnam war and more recently, Iraq.

In the case of Swoopo, and to a larger extend gambling and lottery – there will always be some winners and a whole lot of losers!

5 Interesting Facebook Stats That Entrepreneurs & Developers Should Know About

On May 26, Facebook accepted a $200 million injection from a Russian investment group, in exchange for a humble 1.96% stake in the company – valuating the site at a whopping $10 billion.

Now “billion” isn’t usually a word that we roll out everyday, especially when talking about money. My crummy calculator don’t even have digits to count that much!

Inspired by the mind-boggling numbers, I decided to pop by Facebook’s corporate site, and dug out some interesting figures. They should make an interesting read for the aspiring entrepreneurs and developers keen on building the next “big” thing.

1. Founded in 2004 with $500,000 startup fund.
That’s barely 5 years ago, from $500k to $10b. Quite a phenomenal leap!

2. Over 200 million active users.
It’s one of the most trafficked sites in the world (powered by PHP – yay!) and one of the largest MySQL installations, with thousands of databases.

3. Fastest growing demographic are those 35 years and older.
Who says social networking is for the young? More than 2/3 of Facebook users are outside of college.

4. Average user has 120 Facebook friends.
Note: quantity may not mean quality.

5. Over 3.5 BILLION minutes are spent on Facebook each day.
There’s that word again. If you’re reading this, I can bet my future billion that you have your Facebook account open in another tab, ready for instant updates! Right? Hmm? Right?

Duck Duck Helicopter Bomb Bomb

Sze Ning shares her thoughts on poverty, ducks, helicopters and bombs, on a trip to Cambodia to get organizations up online on Elevyn.com. This article also appears on Wild Asia. Photos © Puah Sze Ning.

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“Duck…duck……helicopter….. zero?” I read out. Looks like our indigenous people here in Cambodia are quite modern, I thought to myself as I waded through an array of scarves with traditional motifs, ducks and helicopters.

These villagers had no electricity, no television and are pretty much surrounded by thick forests – why would they weave helicopters? Guessing it was a novelty from a picture or something – I asked to affirm it.

“In memory of the Vietnam war, we were affected by it as our village is so close to the border,” explained Saphork from the Kreung village where these scarves were made.

“Those are bombs dropped from the plane,” he added pointing to the patterns that looked like ‘O’.

I must have looked quite silly looking at him with round eyes going “Wow….”

Spellbound by these hand-loomed textiles, I longed to own every single piece I got my eyes on. They came in all kinds of textures and colours; from rough to soft, from ones coloured with natural dye and those coloured by market dye.

But I was not too sure about those with duck patterns though. I love animals and I made a personal pact not to eat farmed animals simply because of my love for them. But I’m not exactly a fan of ducks.

“What’s with the ducks?” I asked – guessing it must be for children.

“Oh, during the war we had to keep moving. So we couldn’t take our ducks with us and we had to leave them in the forest,” Saphork explained.

After a short pause he added, “We really regret it…”

I decided then that I loved ducks.

Note: Translation from Khmer and Kreung to English by CANDO team members

A two hour plane ride took me from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia to Cambodia. I left a city of skyscrapers to land literally in a cloud of dust.

“This is Cambodia,” as all the expats here like to say whenever the topic of dust, bribery, corruption and poverty arises.

Poverty is something that really isn’t tucked away in Cambodia. It’s in the streets where kids are begging and rummaging through the trash. In fact, poverty is what brought me here – to get organizations with good quality products and causes to set up a shop on Elevyn.com.

Unbelievable Poverty

I was first introduced to the issues of poverty four years ago, in an exposure trip to an indigenous minority village in my homeland, Malaysia. During that trip, my mentor brought out bags of donated secondhand toys as a group of children happily took a toy each.

Noticing my discomfort – he asked, “Have you ever been poor?” He must have thought he had a real dimwit with him as I struggled with a reply.

No, was the answer. But I was dumbfounded because no one had ever asked me that before – and it never occurred to me that I would ever be. So I swallowed my answer and just shook my head as I watched faded Mickey Mouses and armless Barbie dolls get emptied out of the black bag by tiny hands.

I used to feel poor not being able to afford Starbucks everyday, and all these stories on the news of people living under USD1 a day goes over the head like any other story.

Here in Cambodia, the headlines in the newspapers read of 40% of garment factories closing down, prostitutes being gang-raped and child prostitution on the rise. What shocking news and what a story to go home to tell my friends. The Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s that instigated a genocide killing an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians, leaving a scar still strongly felt throughout the country – what truly a shocking tale to tell as well.

The truth is that, it is just unbelievable. Unfortunately, I find myself in the middle of this chaos reminding me of the on-going headlines stating that in this time of economic crisis, the poorest of the poor would be the worst hit. This reality I saw with my very own eyes.

Cambodia’s Social Enterprises

Under high pressure and temperature, the highly prized diamond is formed. And I believe that I’ve met social enterprises here that truly embody that analogy.

I can’t say that I am anywhere closer to understanding what poverty really means and how to end it, but I can say that it is truly an honor being able to work with these people – and in some ways, hope to make a difference in these communities.

These organizations below recently got on Elevyn.com. They have been working with marginalized and vulnerable groups in Cambodia to give them work opportunities within an economy that has sidelined these groups.

CAN-DO manages the Cando Crafts Center (CCC), a social enterprise that adopts socially and environmentally responsible, as well as fair trade principles. They work closely with the indigenous Kreung’s community-based Craft Enterprise to develop and market their unique crafts.

Daughters of Cambodia is a Non Government organization reaching out to victims of sex trafficking in Cambodia. Daughters’ aim is to restore dignity and self-worth, and to help girls find viable alternatives for their lives. One method is to offer them a livelihood through the production and sale of beautiful bags and accessories using 100% cotton and vegetable dyed textiles.

Cambodian Handicraft Association for Landmine and Polio Disabled (CHA) is a local organization, set up since 2000 to assist disabled people. CHA does this by providing disabled people access to training, education, employment opportunities, health care and tailoring and weaving or other services.

Artisans d’Angkor is an Cambodian organization which provides vocational handicraft training and work for young Cambodian people – and at the same time works on the revival of Khmers Arts and Crafts. Silk painting is one of the skill training offered specially to young deaf and mute women.

Impact Point Meetings for Productive Companies

As usual, I was listening to BFM during my drives, and up came this programme about “productive meetings”. Hookay, I thought, expecting the same old drivel we’ve heard countless times on the subject… “Keep it relevant, prepare early, take notes, etc.”

I listened anyway, hoping to learn something new on an age-old subject. It ended up being the most valuable thing I’d heard on radio for a long, long time!

The guest, a business coach, shared a few important points on holding productive meetings. We’ll definitely implement them at Elevyn. Here’s what I learned:

1. Business owners always try to do too many things at any one time. True true!

2. Instead – what they should focus on are 7-12 things that have a direct impact on the company’s bottomline. Sales & marketing, for example. Or smoothening out operations. Lower manufacturing costs.

3. The key is consistency. It’s not doing 5,000 different things at one time, but doing those 7-12 things 5,000 times!

4. Here’s where meetings can be productive. Each meeting should only focus on ONE of the 7-12 things. They’re called “Impact Point Meetings” (IPM).

5. Each IPM must last no longer than 1 hour. This is crucial because our concentration wanes off after about 45-60 minutes, and the limit forces people to raise only important issues.

6. Now you end up with only 7-12 meetings, which can be held weekly, bi-weekly or monthly with different members of your company, depending on your business.

7. Always end meetings with “who does what by when”.

8. It takes time to get used to, especially in keeping to only relevant topics within the one hour. But it’ll get better with time.

9. Last advice from the coach – “If your competitors are doing this week-in week-out, and you’re not… they are going to eat you alive!”