Greener Campaign

I was not a fan of the term “Going Green” when we decided to reduce the use of papers in our operation. I personally felt that we were trying to wear too big a hat but actually doing too little to preserve the environment. I also observed that too many companies loosely use the term “Going Green” as their marketing campaign without having real substance to the environment; this fact bothered me too.


Truly love green?

But when we finally decided to stop printing manuals, I didn’t stop my COO, Ms Norana from using the term. I said yes to "Going Green" with some hesitation. My submission was due to the following reasons:

Firstly, I always thought life without a larger meaning is a waste. The same goes to activities. Activities can only be lifted to the height of a campaign by some underlying values or given meanings. Larger meaning is always associated with larger responsibility, and I thought, if our staff are willing to bear a larger responsibility, I shouldn’t discourage them.

Secondly, we did not simply dump everything into a DVD without any concern of its presentation to our clients. Users would find our content in this single DVD much more comprehensive than what they can hope for in a single user manual. All in all, it took the Brand Building Department three months to complete the task.

Thirdly, once we want to upgrade an activity into a campaign level, the "Going Green" concept should also be enlarged to a wider scope, not just confined to user manuals and boxes; hence, it will slowly be extended to products and system process in the company level, in order to cultivate the lifestyle in one’s own private life. You have to lead by example; that’s the way I count it.

Going Digital

Fourthly, “Going Green” for user manual means “Going Digital”. Besides the digital format in DVDs and in websites, we should also think of extending it into an eBook format too, which can be accessible by an iPad, a Kindle reader or any tablets that are using Android (Honeycomb). That should be our next step.

But irrespective of all the above reasons, when Ms Nisha, our copywriter forwarded me the draft announcement to be printed on the inlay of the DVD cover, I needed to confess that, “Years ago, we began this discussion on "Going Green", but eventually dropped the idea for we thought that without a printed user-manual in hand, we may cause some difficulty among our users. But when eBook/digital books were reported outsold hardcover books in the year 2010, this idea of Going Green quickly rekindled.”

And the money we save from this Going Green campaign would definitely be used to enhance and speed up some of our FingerTec Practical Branding process which I’m very much looking forward to!

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

I was not a fan of the term “Going Green” when we decided to reduce the use of papers in our operation. I personally felt that we were try...

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Green is Gold

Tuesday 8 February 2011 0 Comments


It’s never too late to do something right, that I believe is true. The recent initiation by FingerTec to go green is an example of us trying to do the right thing. It’s definitely not the pat-in-the-back moment but the change must start with us no matter how small it is. First and foremost, FingerTec IS an environmentally friendly product to start with, there’s no doubt about that. The use of fingerprint definitely reduces paper usage significantly. FingerTec data is digital and printable when necessary, and the only factor left to make our brand friendlier to the Mother Earth is to reduce the use of papers in the packaging.
After exploring the pros and cons, we executed the idea with the objective to enrich and reduce simultaneously; it might sound ironic but it is doable. The solution is to put all our resources into one DVD!
Let’s explore what we have in store for you in this smiley green DVD:
On the left of the DVD, you can download TCMS software, TCMS manuals, view TCMS video and on the right side, you could obtain Quick Start Guide, Installation Guide, User Guide, Video Guide and Enrolment Form. This DVD also links you to various useful websites when you are connected to the Internet.
Remember WORLD and you’d be okay.
W stands for Warranty where you can submit your warranty registration at http://www.fingertec.com/GPW/warranty.htm to get your 24-month warranty coverage.
O stands for Online news where you could get some tips and latest info of our products at http://user.fingertec.com
R stands for Read online where you read your manuals online at htpp://user.fingertec.com
L stands for Learn to use by viewing the readily available video guides at http://user.fingertec.com/video-guide-hardware.html
D stands for Download latest software updates at http://user.fingertec.com/software-updates.html
This DVD is truly making things easy for you!
And on top of that we also repackage our product in a more compact packaging, in our effort to support the world; the boxes are smaller and printed materials lesser. With this reduction we could fit in more boxes in one shipping and the weight is reduced to the benefit of our clients.
FingerTec will keep on thinking about ways to improve ourselves for the good of everybody. Drop me an email at ana@fingertec.com should you have any ideas or feedback about FingerTec.

by Norana Johar, COO, FingerTec HQ

It’s never too late to do something right, that I believe is true. The recent initiation by FingerTec to go green is an example of us tryi...

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Immeasurable Growth

(This article is rewritten based on my speech at the FingerTec Annual Dinner, which was held on 28th January 2011)

FingerTec achieved a 30% growth rate last year. And, growth is the keyword for which I would like to share with you here.

We like to measure growth. The measurable growth is normally compressed to become a figure or a rate. For example, in measuring physical growth of children, we would measure how many cm they grew taller, or how many kilos they grew heavier each year. The growth rate of a company is always established by referring to the revenue you make in a year corresponding to the previous year, and of course in the form of money.

But this is not the growth that I want to share, instead I would like to talk about the immeasurable growth, the abstract growth or biology growth or system growth that can’t be measured by any ruler or scale or any measurement instrument. Just like we grow older every year, which can be measured by age, but do we grow wiser as well? Whether or not you become any smarter when you grow older is hard to measure.


Are we grow wiser when we grow older?

I have read a book Obliquity written by John Kay, in which he promotes a concept of why the goals are best achieved indirectly. He says, paradoxically as it may sound, many goals are more likely to be achieved when pursued indirectly: the most profitable companies are not the most aggressive in chasing profit, and the wealthiest men and women are not the most materialistic, and the happiest people do not pursue happiness. This is the concept of ‘obliquity’, if I translate it to fit into my topic, it means the measurable growth should be best pursued through the immeasurable growth.

In a company, besides the measurable growth, there are a lot more immeasurable growths people tend to overlook. And I treat these growths as more important than the measurable growth like sales revenue or net profit. Because, the money you made could easily be utilized, the immeasurable growth is the added value that’s always going to stay to create a brighter future.

Without these immeasurable growths, I don’t think a company can sustain future measurable business growth.

What are those immeasurable growths that I’m hoping for in this year for FingerTec? Or more specifically, a goal for each department to achieve.

I had a growth list with me.

For Sales & Marketing Department, growth means they should add more marketing substance in their sales approach.

For Logistics and QC Department, growth means they have to upgrade their discipline to a military level in their day-to-day operation.

For R&D Department, growth means they should accelerate the maturity process for the two new products – Webster and TimeTec.

For Brand Building Department, growth means they should be more text-sensitive on top of being image-sensitive.

For Admin and Finance Department, growth means they should achieve the integration of our account and inventory system with the FingerTec support system to improve automation.

For Technical Support Department, growth means they should build a formidable admin & monitoring system into their support system.
Visionary companies or pure profit driven companies?

Jim Collins and Jerry Porras say in their best-selling title, Built to Last, “Visionary companies pursue a cluster of objectives, of which making money is only one – and not necessarily the primary one. Yes, they seek profits, but they’re equally guided by a core ideology – core values and sense of purpose beyond just making money. Yet paradoxically, the visionary companies make more money than the purely profit driven companies.”

To me, the measurable growth of FingerTec is just another evidence of our immeasurable growths were achieved all these years. And this year, it would be no difference too.

by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ

(This article is rewritten based on my speech at the FingerTec Annual Dinner, which was held on 28 th January 2011) FingerTec achieved...

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