The Wisdom of A Jewish Businessman

The Wisdom of A Jewish Businessman

In 1946, there is a Jewish businessman and his son has arrived United States. They were running business related to tools that made of bronze.

One day, the businessman asked his son, " Hi, my son, now what is the price of one pound of Bronze?" The son, replied,"35cents, father."

The businessman said," yes, most of the people knowing that the bronze is 35cents, but as a Jewish, our only wealth that we have is our wisdom. So, it is not 35cents, but 3.5dollar."

The son was surprised and looked at his father. The father explained further that:" If you turn one pound of Bronze into one door knob, can it be 3.5dollar?"

After some years, the businessman has passed away. His son has done many different kinds of job including swiss watch, Olympic medals, and even change a pound of Bronze into 3500 US dollar.

In 1974, America government wanted replenish the Statue of Liberty. But after the project, there is a lot of rubbish left over. The government has asking for private company to do the tidying up process of the left over rubbish. This son has heard about it and quickly went to New York. He saw a lot of bronze and wood has been left over at the site. Hence, he quickly signed the contract with the government.

Many people don understand and laughed at him for his foolishness to get himself into trouble. This is because there is a strict law in New York that if the rubbish is not well taken care, he might be sued by the environmental authority.

However, this son has gather some workers and started to categorize the rubbish into different groups. The lead and bronze alloy were made into small souvenirs of statue of liberty. The wood has been made as the base of those souvenirs.

After few months, the rubbish has been turned into 3.5million US dollar cash, it means every pound of bronze has turned into thousands times of value!

PS: Just a bronze, after being manufactured, the value has increased from 35cent to 3.5dollar. Nowadays, there is variety of products in the market, how to produce an unique product? This requires our wisdom, and different of strategy to tell the customer our unique selling preposition (USP), then only we can produce a good results.

Setup An Advertisement Board

Setup An Advertisement Board

Every morning 7 am, there was a middle aged nicely dressed man appear standing right at the junction of the road. This had happened for continuous 10 days.

Everyday, he was holding a stopwatch in his hand. He is either observing all the pedestrian passing by the junction, or thinking something in his mind. Other than that, he seemed writing some records on a paper.

The people nearby were wondering what is this man doing and why he is doing this.

After one week plus later, this man again appeared at the junction. He was busying instructing many staff setting up a big advertisement board. He told those staffs the exact position and direction how the advertisement board should be fixed.

Meanwhile, many people around came to see them setting up the advertisement board.

One of the audience asked this man:" I have been seeing you standing here for more than 10 days continuously at 7am exactly every morning. Is this because of this advertisement board?"

This man replied with a smile that:"Yes! Everyday I came here at the same time and record down how many pedestrian will pass by this junction. At the same time, I observed them about where and when their sight will fall at and estimated their status of living and purchasing level...."

This audience continuously asked again:" Wow, you are so serious about your job, is this advertisement expense very high?"

This man replied that," hmm..., quite ok "

After the advertisement board was ready, the media there reported that this advertisement board was designed and setup by a well known foreign advertising company.

PS: Instead of always exaggerate and creating surprising effect through marketing activities, why not focusing more effort in doing some practical market research, including investigating customer in many aspect, accurately calculating the marketing expense, considering all the possible problem may appear. This may produce a good practical marketing with lower cost.

　

3 June 2007- A ROOM WITHOUT NUMBER

A ROOM WITHOUT NUMBER

In a well established company, all the employees were used to follow company rules and regulations. One day, the General Manager of this company has given an instruction that employees were not allowed to enter a room in 8^th floor which has no number on the door. It is significantly recognized which room is not allowed to go in. There is no reason from General Manager. Since then, every one always followed this rule and nobody will enter the room without number at the 8^th floor.

Few months later, company has recruited a few new employees. And it is also given instruction by General Manager to all new employees that they are not allowed to enter the room without no at the 8^th floor.

This time, there was a young guy, called Alan.

Alan asked the General Manger:“why?”General Manager replied in a serious voice, “ No reason”When back to working, Alan was still keep thinking why General Manager giving such unreasonable order. However, other colleagues telling Alan do nothing but just follow the rules and regulations of the company.

But, Alan still kept asking other elder colleagues, what was the reason why General Manager gave the order? Other colleagues this time warned him by quoting the rules and regulations stated in the company policies.

But, this Alan paid no heed to their advice, and decided to enter the room to see what the reason was. He at first knocked at the door first lightly and waiting if anyone inside would gave him response. However, there was no response from the room inside.

Hence, Alan pushed the door open lightly, and entered the room without number. There was only one table in the middle of the empty room. A red envelope was found on the table. On top of the envelope was written that “pass this envelope to General Manager”.

Alan was confused and took the red dusty envelope and went out of the room. At this moment, other colleagues were worried about Alan and asked him to put back the red envelope and pretended never enter the room. They would cover for him.

However, Alan thanks for his colleagues good help, but he directly walked to General Manager’s office and handed over the red envelope to him.

General Manager was smiling and announced to everyone that Alan was promoted to Sales and Marketing Manager from the very second.

Alan was confused and asked General Manager, “why I was promoted by just took the red envelope to you?”

General Manager replied, “ Yes, I have been waiting almost 6 months, and nobody pass this envelop to me, I believe you are capable of this position!”

It is truth that after few months, there is an increase in company sales and marketing under the leadership of this young man.

After that, General Manager explained to everyone that:” Sales and marketing requires creativity. It needs people think out of the box and more creative. All of you are just used to be obedient and it has killed your creativity and your curiosity. But this is not suitable for a good sales or marketing executive! Curiosity may probably kill a cat , but if
you are just a automatic working machine, isn’t very sad?”

PS: Sales and Marketing job requires us to think out of the box. To be creative, it requires our curiosity and courage.