Showing posts with label exhibition show. Show all posts
A Brighter Sky
When we started to market FingerTec products in Hong Kong some years back, we were heavily surrounded by low-priced China products. Our associate company felt edgy, because Hong Kong is just a tiny dot with a huge Mainland China overhead on the map, the inflow of these products was fast and easy. Their low price strategy gave an impression that they could swallow Hong Kong market at anytime. And we also observed the silhouettes of low-priced Biometrics products scattered in the classified section of the newspapers in Hong Kong.
Today, when China is still suppressing any commemorative events for Tiananmen Square Massacre, the yearly candlelight vigil in Hong Kong has becoming the conscience of China to call for democracy, after the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from United Kingdom to People’s Republic of China as Special Administrative Region in 1997.
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
A few years past, this time when we returned to SecuriTex Show in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, an exhibition that aimed for domestic market, I didn’t see any low-end Biometrics products from China around. Their ads from the local newspapers disappeared as well.
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| FingerTec booth at SecuriTex, Hong Kong |
Founder Globaltech Ltd, our associate company later confirmed to me that these products are almost vanished from the Hong Kong market. “The sky is getting brighter, and our growth rate for FingerTec is 30% each year for the past two years,” Eric See, CEO of Founder GlobalTech happily pronounced.
To survive and prosper in Hong Kong, product quality and service are the two main essences, according to Eric. Besides, FingerTec has made its reputation with some large and successful installations such as NTT data center and Fine Asia Watch Chain Stores in Hong Kong.
SecuriTex Show is organized every two years for end customers to source for the best and suitable security products and also for the industry players to establish its network and exchange market information and experience. The security industry is relatively small in Hong Kong, you know everybody; everybody knows you.
The opening date of SecuriTex Show just coincided with the candlelight vigil of 4th June this year. The event commemorates the 23rdanniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre that happened in Beijing, and had drawn a record high of 180,000 people to the Victoria Park, not too far from our Exhibition Hall in Wan Chai.
After the show, I walked slowly down to the park, reached there just before 7, and saw the crowd started to flow in from different directions but mainly from the Metro station. I was delighted to see so many young people, obviously born after the historical event, joined the commemorative rally too.
When the Chinese government cracked down the Tiananmen Square demonstration by killing hundreds of university students 23 years ago in Beijing, I was just graduated from college and involved myself with a few NGOs in expressing our condemnation of the massacre to the China Embassy in Malaysia.
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| Candlelight vigil to commemorate Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 |
With more people and younger generations taking part this year, the candlelight had brightened the night sky.
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Build Your Internal Strengths
During Secutech Taipei Show, in April 2010, a company’s sales director approached me and he invited me to visit their HQ in Beijing to explore the collaboration opportunity on face recognition technology. When I finally paid my visit and stepped out of their HQ in June the same year, my instinct told me that they were not the right company we should be working with, even though they had just been listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange early that year, and their initial share price skyrocketed.
Their flamboyant marketing approach didn’t make me feel they are a company with strength. I was less impressed when I later read in a magazine about how their CEO put up a frivolous show before the media by smashing an ice-sculptured apple to assert their confidence and smashed an iPad with their tablet products.
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Unfortunately, their sales slumped last year. And in reverse their tablets were 'smashed' by Apple and to add salt to injury, their eBook reader sales dropped sharply due to the lack of ebook contents to support users like Amazon has. To make matter worse, their biometrics division was never really took off.
I have always believed that companies without internal strengths would have a short life-span. A lot of companies just bet on sales and sales strategies to grow their business, the rests to them are just costs, so the lesser the better. Many short-sighted businessmen are hoping to maximize profit, hence they cut down budget on trainings, administration and technical supports, not to mention the investment for the future i.e R&D.
Once, I met this typical businesswoman who said that every square foot of an office space counts when she visited our office, shaking her head in disagreement. For her, maintaining a cozy working environment should never be a consideration.
When Amazon.com hemorrhaged in its first ten years, why were the investors not losing their faith, and continued to support the company? Simple, because everybody knew that it was just a matter of time for the company to make a turnaround.
And when Amazon starts to make profit, everybody believes it would continue to make profit forever (or at least it seems so). My perception is, other tech giants may one day be losing their momentum, but not Amazon, because they had built an internal strength that could almost last them forever.
You can't talk about Apple without talking about the iPad, iPhone and iPod, however for Amazon, it's a different case. Even without its Kindle or Kindle Fire, Amazon will continue to expand mammoth-like, swallowing any merchandise that may come their way. Their internal B2C platform encompasses with layers after layers of service system that they built over the years, has become a fortress for them to stand for any challenges, and selling anything that they want, from a toilet roll to an airplane.
After in-depth analysis and a long list of comparisons, we have decided to choose Amazon as our cloud computing platform partner to jumpstart our SaaS for TimeTec Cloud. In general, we are confident to select Amazon as a partner, that is famous for their customer service. Go figure!
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Butterfly Effect On Secutech, Taipei
Butterfly Effect: change one thing, change everything
I used to think that the “butterfly effect” based on Chaos Theory was exaggerated. How could one possibly imagine a butterfly flapping its wings in Southern Hemisphere, may eventually cause a tornado in Northern Hemisphere?
But a more plausible version of this theory is proven true when the far away Icelandic volcanic ash emission gave great impact to the Taipei’s SecuTech Show.
Icelandic volcanic ash eruption
Volcanic ash forced cancellation of thousands of flight around the Europe countries. The effect was obviously seen with the thinning of the crowds at the exhibition hall this year. Mickael from Denmark emailed Tamy a day before the Show to cancel a training we supposed to arrange for him in Taipei; name cards we received from Europe leads are almost none. The sales reps from the organizer, Messe Frankfurt were busied tendering their apologies to exhibitors.
Robert Z. Heymann, a visitor from Paris, when asked about how he managed to be in Taipei, told us that he flew to Taiwan before the Volcano eruption, stranded here for almost two weeks. Another visitor from Europe told me he was forced to extend his vacation from Thailand to Taipei.
It was unfortunate that many potential buyers were not able to meet us during this show. I however, had more time to wander around the Hall, studying some new products showcased by other exhibitors, and of course, had more time to concentrate on fascinating ‘promoters’ around the hall.
Preparing for the Show
Despite of the whole lukewarm turnout, FingerTec managed to get good contacts during the show, which I hope, would yield a long-lasting and fruitful relationship with us.
Mr Castro from the Philippine bought 3 sample readers
Taiwan has always been one of my favorite countries because of the richness of their publishing industry. During the trip, I took the opportunity to visit bookstores and bought some books. No doubt, Taiwan has culturally influenced me a lot. Want to see what I have bought? Feel free to visit my online bookshelf, http://www.anobii.com/honseng/books
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Stood Out In Mumbai
Since we were the only Malaysian exhibitor surrounded by an ocean of Chinese companies in China Sourcing Fair in Mumbai, the foremost questions we anticipated were, “What are the major differences between FingerTec products and China products?” and “Why should we Indian buy from your company while we are indulged by loads of cheaper China products?”
In fact, we received no such question at all. While thousands of Chinese exhibitors simply transformed the Exhibition Hall a China Town, FingerTec, among a handful of other countries’ booths available, stood out easily with local Indians handling inquiries.
Bhooshan & Imran, Compax handling crowds
Visit Compax office in Pune after the Trade Show
I agree that the intangible value might be less important for electronic components and consumer products, which constitute the larger part of the Sourcing Fair, but it’s hard to believe that security products which supposedly be more holistic in solution; software, the main driver of most security hardware, is also taken lightly by most Chinese players.
Without any doubt, low price is one of the best strategies. But for security and office automation products, it should be more than that because quality and reliability must be second to none. A question for users, do you want to enjoy (the price) first and suffer later? That’s why our partner for seven-year, Compax never turned to sell Biometrics products from China, although repeatedly approached and offered with attractively low price products. However, they did use the price lists from the Chinese competitors to negotiate with us.
In reality, FingerTec sales grew exponentially in India for the past few years. The more pricey Korean products also are in demand in India market. To me, this is a good sign. It proves that the Indian market starts to take other elements besides price into their consideration.
IFSEC India had just ended two weeks ago in Delhi; and now come the China Sourcing Fair in Mumbai. With huge crowds drawn to our booths in the two most populace cities in India, it should keep Compax busy for the coming months.
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Moscow - To Thaw The Icy Reception
Influences of wars, wants, struggles and suffering are central to the history of Russia. After toppling the Tsars’ ruling, Stalin once remarked:
Old Russia … was ceaselessly beaten for her backwardness. She was beaten by the Mongolian khans. She was beaten by the Turkish beys. She was beaten by the Swedish feudal lords. She was beaten by the Polish-Lithuanian gentry. She was beaten by Anglo-French capitalists. She was beaten by the Japanese barons.
Can you believe? I took a photo with comrade Lenin (left) and Stalin (right) at Red Square.
Harsh in Weather and History
But not all Russia’s sufferings had came from outsiders as the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (b. 1933) testified:
She was christened in childhood with a lash,
torn to pieces
Scorched.
Her soul was trampled by feet,
Inflicting blow upon blow,
Of Pechenegs,
Varanhian,
Tatars,
And our own people -
Much more terrible than Tatars
Yes, from these roots stem Russia’s melancholia, paranoia, passivity, xenophobia and national self-pity.
“And our own people – much more terrible than the Tatars”, this is not only true in Russia, but it also applies to many other countries, where their own political leaders are far more cruel than the invaders, killing more people.
Russia’s extremely cold weather and hardship in history explains to us why most of them are frosty, straight face, even those who are serving hospitality industry having not much smiles to offer their guests.
Moscow and Beijing: Cities look alike
I saw some resemblance in the city scenes of Moscow and Beijing, especially the old buildings and apartments that were built in the Communist ruling era. And, both cities adopt the same Ring Road concept. In Moscow, it is called Moscow Automobile Ring Road, or MKAD, more precisely МКАД in Moscow word, an acronym for Московская Кольцевая Автомобильная Дорога.
Moscow covers an area of about 386 square miles (878,7 square kilometers), its outer limit being roughly delineated by this Moscow Ring Road. Most of the areas beyond this highway have been designated as Forest-Park Zone, or greenbelt.
The map of Metro Station of Moscow
The Ring of metro is one of the tourist attractions
Spring in April is still cold in Moscow, the temperature can drop to - 4 Celsius at night and I witnessed a few snowfalls during my short stay.
When the Russia communism collapsed in the nineties, it gave way to freer market activities and allowed possession of private assets, the first wave opportunists with strong political connections, and the far-sighted entrepreneurs were the first who became either filthy rich or über-rich. Although the present economy is badly hit by the global slowdown, the roads of Moscow filled with luxury vehicles tell quite a different story.
In Search for The Right Partners
FingerTec 4-day exhibition ran quite smoothly with Batyr around. The market potential is huge, and we have yet to find steady partners, only have a few irregular customers from the past. Just like Brazil, unpredictable custom procedures and high duty imposed deters the ordinary companies from directly importing any merchandise into Russia. We have to look for the right partners to start a more robust business in the Russian territory.
We received quite some visitors from the Russian speaking CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries. Our advantage, again, Russian language is readily available in our hardware and software, including in some of the marketing materials. Like what we always highlighted, “With FingerTec, we make everything easy.”
Ms Roza from Armenia
Mr. Kovalchuk (middle) from Ukraine and Mr. Batyr (left)
Thanks to Mr Kovalchuk Olekksandr, Axioma – Techno and Mr. Pastushenko Yuriy, Egida Ltd. from Ukraine; and Ms Karapetyan Roza, Elcomp Electronic Company from Armenia, who were unhesitant to purchase sample units on the spot. We hope our small steps would spark a bigger business collaboration in the future for the market of Russia and The Commonwealth of Independent States.
To thaw the icy reception, we put our best foot forward, presenting our Russian staff, Batyr Komurzoev, an avid economist who is pursuing his Phd in International Islamic University Malaysia at the frontline, for better communication and product’s localization process. I always believe in long-term business planning.
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Dubai: Uprising Dream Hits The Ceiling
Burj Dubai, the tallest skyscraper in the world (computer image)
There is a prophecy saying the economic crisis will hit hard once a country built the tallest building in the world. It’s true to witness the opening of the then world’s highest Empire State Building in New York in the stumbling Great Depression in 1931. The Petronas Twin Towers of Malaysia celebrated its world’s tallest in 1997, and the Asia Economic Crisis descended the following year without warning. The Taipei’s 101 Tower overtook Malaysia’s record, its construction was in the middle of the Dot-Com Bubble burst in 2000 that affected Taiwan which was economy heavily depended on IT industry.
Now, the same omen seemed to haunt Dubai. The Burj Dubai was shot up into the Emirates’ skyline; currently stood at 818 meter high and could be higher. The jubilant of achieving the world’s record might not been felt at all, because the people in Dubai have already been slapped hard by the sloppy economy. Due to the job-cuts, a report says averagely 5000 expatriates fled the country everyday. Some even left their unworthy loaned cars behind unreclaimed which have piled up the parking bays of the new airport.
I flew the Emirates to Dubai with just a quarter of seats taken, but full occupancy when I returned to Kuala Lumpur. Some says the situation could be worsened in the next 6 months. A furrowed taxi driver told me his passengers were reduced by 40%, the shopping malls garnered thinner crowds than the previous years.
In fact, when a bubble is blown overly too large, it’s just a matter of time to expect a burst. When ones’ earnings cannot justify their extravaganza lifestyle, the credit chunk will crush anytime.
But some Emiratis welcomes the slowdown. "This is a blessing; we need it," Abdul Khaleq Abdullah, a political science professor at United Arab Emirates University, said of the fiscal crisis in an interview. "The city needs to slow down and relax. It's good for the identity of our country.” Emiratis have fretted for years over the loss of their culture, as social norms became more a product of the newcomers than of the nationals. Now, some are pinning their desires for a cultural salvation on the global economic downturn, which they hope will give them a chance to reassert their customs and way of life.
Mr. Ali Jaffal (left) from Palestine and Dr. Riyadh from Iraq
Mr. Maher Deiri (right) from Syria
Visitors from GCC countries at our booth
Despite the slowdown, our booth at the three-day InterSec Show still drew quite an extensive sum of visitors mainly from the Middle East and North Africa. Some FingerTec partners, direct or indirect, to name a few, like Dr. Riyadh of Al Salam Co. from Iraq; Mr Maher of New Al-Mawared Co. from Syria; Mr. Khalil of Betalink Technology from Yemen; Mr. Hazim of UltraTech from Sudan; Mr. Ali Jaffal of Jaffal Group from Palestine; Mr. Abdelhak of ADC Electronique from Algeria; Eng. Abbas M. Hussein of Larsa Trading, Mr. Tahir of Nice Technology and Mr. Tabish of The Ghazi Khoory Group from UAE; dropped by to say hello; not forgetting to mention Mr. Faisal from IPTEC and Mr Pillai and Mr. Abbas from Seven Seas in Dubai helping us at our stand. When FingerTec gains its popularity over here, the exhibition booth is also a meeting point for our partners to meet us and share their market experiences, besides drawing in some new prospects.
The economic downturn no doubt is taking some effects on Dubai, but the overall impact does not really spread to the other parts of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries (yet?), I still expect the market bullish for FingerTec products in this region this year.
Next year, for the same show, we’ll come again.
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
Turkey: Tug-of-War with Eternity
A bridge linking the European side and the Asian side
Istanbul, aged two thousand years old but still a vibrant cosmopolitan city, and one of my must-visit top destinations, here I come.
The Istanbullus are very much in their own center of gravity, receiving foreign visitors in (luke) warm manner; and some turns cold shoulder. Perhaps, 6.5 million tourists (in 2007) flooded Istanbul city make them less enthusiasm for foreigners.
There is a bridge over the Bosphorus Strait linking the European side and Asian side, the interface and the mixture of civilization has inevitably engulfed Istanbul in an endless tug-of-war between the East and the West, between Islamic and Christianity, between ancient and contemporary, and between certainty and uncertainty of their own identity. It seemed like the Turkey's application to enter the European Union (previously the European Communities) has also becoming a long march of tug-of-war since 1987.
The rise and fall of the Roman Byzantine Empire and later by the multicultural Muslim Ottoman Empire nourished the culture in Istanbul, produced Mr. Orhan Pamuk, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2006. His writing has a lot of reminiscence of the glorious past and depicting his brought-up city like a thin air of melancholy.
And Istanbul is situated at the hilly location where the modern asphalt roads and the old cobblestone pavements are free flowing up and down according to the land structure. Some alleys snaking and sloping into the residential apartments are even very steep.
Mr. Noharuddin Nordin, CEO of Matrade (right) dropped by our booth
Surprise!! Our former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam (middle) came to the Booth. Mr. Tamizi, representing Matrade on the left
Is this guy, Fatih Gemi (staff from the opposite booth) resembling the model in our poster?
The 12th Musiad Exposition is well organized, unexpectedly attracted quite some foreign visitors from the neighborhood countries besides the domestic's. The Trade Show is in conjunction with the International Business Forum (IBF), hence it brought along a lot of decision makers.
Despite the wide range of industries covered in this Exhibition, FingerTec received quality inquiries from Kosovo Republic, Pakistan, Algeria, apart from the locals. Thumbs up also for Matrade (Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation) for their excellent works in arranging a Pavilion for Malaysia's exhibitors.
The second day after the Trade Show, I have a meeting with one of my prospective customers in his office in Perp Tic. Merkezi in Okmeydani Istanbul. It is a very large 13-storey complex that housed approximately 5 thousands mainly electrical or electronic products merchants' offices. It is common for buyers and sellers to involve in tug-a-war in business dealings in Turkey, and the whole process took me a 6-long hour. At the end, I gulped at least ten cups of Turkish Tea over their hospitality.
Turkish Tea, Turkish delights
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
FingerTec in Iran: Perceived Sensitivity
Tehran, Mt. Damavand in background
You won’t find urinal in any gent toilets in Tehran; but it doesn’t really matter, you carry out your business like usual. What really matter is, you have to use cash to pay your hotel, your meals, your shopping, practically everything. No merchants take credit card here. This should be part of the outcome after the US imposed a blanket trade embargo on Iran in the aftermath of the Islam Revolution back in 1979. And most of the active importers have to make Dubai their financial hub to deal with suppliers.
Once strong and fascinating ancient Persian culture slowly receding after the Islam revolution, left Persian carpet, still attracted buyers for its whiff of mystique. No alcohols, no western entertainments and the TV channels could doze you off in a matter of seconds.
What is well perceived by all foreigners: Women have to put on scarf to cover their hair, and enough cloth to cover their body before stepping onto the Iranian’s soil. What’s not so sensitively perceived by me: My exhibition booth’s backdrop showing a model lies on her belly exposing her arms, although considered quite conservative in other places, create some uneasiness here.
The controversy backdrop and the conservative Ms Mehri Molaee
Being the world’s fourth-largest exporter of oil, the petrol price here is extremely low and enviable, USD0.10 per liter. Tour the city with a cab, you won’t feel the pain.
Back to business: FingerTec is Farsi language-ready for hardware and software; hence the inquiries were overwhelmed in the Trade Show. But without the assistance from my interpreter, Ms Mehri Molaee, the communication would most probably be a halt.
Always strike hard and hope for the best; FingerTec in Iran, and in everywhere.
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
by Teh Hon Seng, CEO, FingerTec HQ
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