Men at work..

Petronas F1 Fuel

Something’s stirring in the air, and it’s an impending new fuel from Petronas. I’ve just spent the better part of the day at what was tagged an Experience to Believe event, organised by Petronas Dagangan, which teased the new fuel.
No details were revealed about the product, which the company says is inspired by F1 fuel technology. The only information that was managed was that it will offer improved acceleration and better fuel economy, and that it will be launched sometime next month (presumably, around the time the F1 Petronas Malaysian GP takes place – it’s simply the best time to shout it, no?).
The participants at today’s event were given a tankful of the mystery fuel to use in their own cars, and asked to provide feedback on what they thought about it, with a drive up to Bukit Tinggi part of the programme. As luck would have it, I’d just gassed up my ride a couple of days ago, so with almost a complete full tank there was no means to experience what the new offering was about. Yes, I know, the timing is just sucky, but happily Petronas has offered to gas up my ride next weekend, so there should be some notes about it when the fuel is launched.
Is it going to be a singular RON 95 or RON 97 product, or will the two current Primax forms be revised – and of course renamed – at point of launch? As mentioned, nothing was divulged, and though a hint was dropped that it was a RM1.90 product (which would make it a 95 fuel), the manner in which it was dropped suggests that it was likely a red herring.
What is improbable is that the new fuel will be an unregulated one like Shell’s V-Power Racing; to go down that path doesn’t make commercial sense, and 955 Petronas stations nationwide serving up the new fuel does make that one moot. In all likelihood, this will be Petronas’ version of what Shell worked with V-Power 97 – now, dare we hope for a 95 with significantly improved characteristics, while at that?
Guess we’ll find out next month!

Safety Car for F1 '11

The entire drivetrain is claimed to be the same as the production car though – a 340 horsepower inline-six M TwinPower Turbo engine mated to a 6-speed manual transmission, the only available gearbox option for the M Coupe.
Even though the engine may be the same, this car will go faster than a production model due to weight reduction techniques. The safety car comes with a carbon fiber bonnet with integrated air vents, polycarbonate side and rear windows, and a lightweight titanium race exhaust system. There’s also an adjustable rear wing.
n the interior,the rear seats are missing,while the front seats have been replaced by
two racing bucket seats with six point belts.Theres a rollover cage bolted behind .

Porsche. There Is No Substitute.

Well, the response to the 918 Spyder has been good enough for Porsche to put the car into serial production – the company has announced that dealers around the world will begin taking customer orders for the vehicle, which is set to begin production in September 2013. To keep things exclusive, only 918 examples of the plug-in hybrid sportscar will be built.

The company says that the production 918 Spyder will remain faithful to the concept car which made its debut in Geneva last year, though the two-seat production version, based on a carbon fibre-reinforced plastic monocoque, will feature a manual roof system with removable panels that can be stored in the front luggage compartment.

The car will be powered by a high-revving 500+ hp V8 engine that will have a minimum 4.0 litre displacement, assisted by two electric motors with a total of at least 218 hp. The engine will be based on the Porsche RS Spyder racing unit, and power will be transferred to the rear wheels via Porsche’s compact, seven-speed PDK double-clutch gearbox.

Meanwhile, the two electric motors – one each on the front and rear axles – will offer an innovative, variable all-wheel drive system with independent control of the drive forces on both axles. Electrical energy will be stored in a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery that can be recharged from a standard household outlet.

Electric-only driving range is expected to be more than 25 km on the NEDC cycle. Recharge time will depend on each country’s electrical power network; on a 110V/10A line, the charge time is around seven hours. A quick-charge option is being evaluated to further reduce charging times.

Performance figures include a 0-100 kph time of 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 320 kph. Porsche adds that under the right conditions, the 918 Spyder will be able to drive on electric power alone at speeds up to 150 kph for limited distances.

The 918 Spyder customer gets a further deal sweetener – he also gets the opportunity to acquire a special-edition 911 Turbo S Coupe or Cabriolet, which he can hope to get much earlier, in this case later this year. Also limited to no more than 918 units, the 911 Turbo S ‘Edition 918 Spyder’ will have exterior and interior design elements echoing the 918 Spyder’s styling.

It features similar exterior colours, carbon-fibre elements inside and out, enhanced leather equipment and numerous acid-green accents on items such as the brake calipers, illuminated sill plates, interior stitching and instrument cluster needles. A limited-edition badge on the glove compartment door will feature the same production number as the customer’s 918 Spyder. All this for no added cost over a standard 911 Turbo S model, be it in Coupe or Cabrio form.

...by enthusiasts..for enthusiasts...

Here’s what happens when enthusiasts get beyond being merely enthusiastic in armchair fashion and do something about it. It’s called the Mono, and it’s the creation of BAC, a company started out by a couple of Brit lads.

The Mono (as in monoposto, or single seat) has been designed to bring formula race car levels of handling, performance and thrill to the public road, but it’s also the perfect trackday tool, racing school car and one-make series racer.

Conceived by brothers Neill and Ian Briggs, the Briggs Automotive Company creation offers superlative performance – at 520 hp to the ton, its power-to-weight ratio surpasses that of the Bugatti Veyron and it gets from nought to 100 kph in just 2.8 seconds, to 160 kph in 6.7 seconds and on to a top speed of 273 kph.

The car is an object of engineering perfection and desire, courtesy of the Briggs brothers’ 15 years experience of the motor industry, during which time they’ve handled design and engineering consultancy projects for the likes of Ford Motor Company, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, through their company Adaptive Space. Ian Briggs says that the Mono is the culmination of a 12-year dream for the brothers, the car they wanted to own but nobody else made.

The Mono’s aerodynamics were optimised using CFD in partnership with Stuttgart University, and is constructed in carbon fibre with a tubular steel driver safety cell, complete with FIA-compliant rollover protection system – similar in concept to a DTM race car.

Power comes from a 280 hp normally-aspirated 2.3 litre Cosworth unit mounted longitudinally and mated to an electronically-controlled, paddle-shift, six-speed sequential Hewland transmission with a limited-slip differential.

The vehicle features a rose-jointed, aero-profiled pushrod suspension with adjustable Sachs Racing dampers. Elsewhere, there’s an AP Racing braking system, bespoke HRT alloy wheels by OZ Racing, purpose-developed, street-legal track tyres by Kumho and vehicle electronics and instrumentation by GEMS.

The driver is secured by a full six-point racing harness by Willans, with a secure locker in which to store a helmet and the detachable steering wheel when parked. The seat is fixed for safety and optimum weight distribution (48/52 front to rear), and drivers of varying shapes and sizes can be readily accommodated thanks to a fully adjustable pedal box and steering column alterable for both height and rake. There’s even a F1-style fully-profiled seat option.

The Mono – which goes for £79,950 – is built to order on a first-come, first-served basis, and production capacity is currently between 50 and 100 vehicles per year.

The real news we were looking for last year.

Despite emerging from a global financial crisis, 2010 proved to be an exciting year for the Malaysian automotive industry. Here, StarBizWeek recaps some of the key events that made headlines last year.

JANUARY

20: Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA) reviews 2009 vehicle sales, forecasts outlook for 2010

MAA announces that total industry volume (TIV) for 2009 slipped 2% to 536,905 units and predicts sales to hit 550,000 units in 2010.

26: Peugeot announces decision to make Malaysia its right-hand drive production hub

Peugeot, together with local partner Naza, announces it plans to make the latter's Gurun plant its right-hand drive manufacturing hub that will not only serve the Asean region but also Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

29: Local Toyota distributor assures that its vehicles are not affected by global recall

UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd, the local distributor of Toyota vehicles, announces that its cars are not affected by the faulty “accelerator pedal dilemma” that caused the recall of millions of Toyota vehicles in the United States, Europe and China.

FEBRUARY

1: Sime Darby takes over Porsche franchise in Malaysia

After nine years of holding the exclusive rights to import Porsche cars to Malaysia, businessman Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir decides to pass the wheel over to conglomerate Sime Darby Bhd.

5: BCorp ties up with China-based company to develop cars for Asean market

Berjaya Corp Bhd and China's BYD Auto Co Ltd sign an MoU to explore the possibility of building the latter's F0 1-litre passenger car for Asean market.

MARCH

2: Emas unveiled at Geneva Motor Show

Proton Holdings Bhd unveils its Emas Hybrid concept cars at the Geneva Motor Show, with production expected in 2012.

4: Tiered fuel subsidy system scrapped

The Government officially scraps plans to introduce the two-tiered restructuring of fuel subsidy following negative feedback from the public.

5: Naza becomes Chevrolet distributor

After months of speculation, the Naza Group officially ties up with General Motors to become the official distributor of Chevrolet cars and parts in Malaysia.

APRIL

6: DRB-HICOM to manufacture Westfield sports cars in Malaysia

DRB-HICOM Bhd signs a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Potenza Sports Car Ltd, owner and manufacturer of Westfield cars, to manufacture and distribute the latter's products, including hybrids and electric vehicles, locally.

JUNE

7: ProtonVolkswagen deal ends

The on again/off again negotiations on the possibility of a tie-up between national automaker Proton and German automotive giant Volkswagen AG officially end. Volkswagen would, however, hook up with another local partner later in the year (see December).

22: Five-year business plan for Lotus unveiled

Proton says it hopes to transform its British sports car maker Group Lotus plc into a profitable company under a five-year transformation plan. Lotus also sets its sights on entering the premium sports car segment alongside Porsche and Ferrari.

JULY


12: Naza to assemble C-Segment Peugeot car

The Naza Group and Automobiles Peugeot ink an MoU whereby the former would produce a Peugeot sedan, code named the T73, at its plant in Gurun, Kedah. Production is slated to begin before the end of this year.

21: MAA reviews H1 2010 TIV, revises full-year forecast

MAA revises upwards its 2010 total industry volume (TIV) forecast to 570,000 units from 550,000 initially. The new forecast, if achieved, would make it a record-breaking year in terms of sales for Malaysia, surpassing the country's all-time high of 552,316 units in 2005.

TIV for the first-half of 2010 grew 19.8% to 301,077 units compared with 251,305 in the previous corresponding period.

AUGUST

14: DRB-HICOM signs pact with Volkswagen

DRB-HICOM signs MoU with Volkswagen AG to assemble and manufacture Volkswagen vehicles at the former's manufacturing plant in Pekan, its largest automotive manufacturing facility in Malaysia.

SEPTEMBER

14: Foreign car assemblers poised to get green light

The Malaysian Investment Development Authority is reportedly evaluating the possibility of five foreign automotive assemblers to set up operations locally.

21: Former-Perodua MD joins Naza Kia

Naza Kia, the official distributor of Kia Motor vehicles in Malaysia, appoints former Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) managing director Datuk Syed Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar as its new chief operating officer.

28: Proton and Lotus Racing to battle in court over name rights

Proton and Lotus Racing F1 decide to clash at the British courts over the rights to use the Lotus name.

OCTOBER

1: Lotus unveils five new models

Group Lotus plc unveils its Lotus Elan, Esprit, Elite, Elise and Eterne at the Paris Motor Show. The cars would be released in the market one by one every year starting with the Elan in 2012.

14: Proton unveils its Inspira

Proton reveals its new mid-sized four-door sedan, the Inspira. The car, which would be launched later in November, is essentially a rebadged Mitsubishi Lancer GT and is RM40,000 cheaper.

15: Budget 2011

The Government decides to grant full excise duty exemptions on hybrid cars below 2,000cc until Dec 31, 2011. The move results in a significant drop in price for hybrid cars in Malaysia.

22: BCorp granted vehicle manufacturing plant licence

Berjaya Corp Bhd is granted a manufacturing plant licence by the International Trade and Industry Ministry for the assembly of hybrid and electric cars as well as commercial and luxury passenger vehicles.

DECEMBER

2: Launch of Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show (KLIMS) 2010 new models unveiled.

MAA launches KLIMS 2010. The event sees a slew of local and foreign concept cars revealed and new models launched. Honda Malaysia launched its entry-level Insight hybrid, which replaced its Civic Hybrid. However, some big brands are largely absent. Over 300,000 people attend the 10-day event.

8: Lotus ties up with Renault in F1

Proton's Group Lotus plc officially announces its entry into F1 in 2011, acquiring a major stake in the Renault F1 Team from Genii Capital.

21: DRB-HICOM officially ties up with Volkswagen

DRB-HICOM signs an agreement with Volkswagen to produce the latter's cars in Malaysia, starting with the Jetta and Passat from end- 2011.

..in da news today..

BUSINESS research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan expects Malaysia's automotive industry to reach an all-time high this year, selling up to 623,000 units of vehicles.

The growth will be spurred by new model launches, stable economic outlook, greater employment stability and marginal impact of the expected interest rate hike.

In 2010, the domestic total industry volume is likely to hit 598,200 units, a growth of 11.4 per cent over 2009, Kavan Mukhtyar, Frost & Sullivan partner and head of the automotive and transport practice for Asia Pacific, said.

The Malaysian Automotive Industry is set to announce the sales data for 2010 in the middle of this month.

"The record vehicle sales in 2010 were mainly attributed to the improved economic sentiment and spillover sales from new models launched in 2009," Mukhtyar said at a media briefing on Frost & Sullivan's Malaysian annual automotive industry outlook in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Perodua will continue to hold a leading position, commanding an expected 34.6 per cent market share last year due to robust sales of Alza and Myvi models, while Proton will have an estimated 29.3 per cent market share.

Rising oil prices in 2011 could present a renewed challenge but Mukhtyar is optimistic that the impact will be minimal as rises in the country are marginal, and it would not hurt the industry that much.

"As long as the increase in fuel prices is reasonable, there will be no dramatic impact on vehicle sales. This is more so in a country where public transportation service still has some gaps. Consumers do not really have an option, as they need vehicles as their means of transport," he said.

While hybrid car sales in Malaysia are likely to take off in 2012 and beyond, sales this year will likely be more than double to 3,400 units as compared to an estimated 1,500 units sold in 2010.

This is due to the excise duty exemptions on hybrid cars below 2,000cc until the end of 2011.

"This depends on the government's commitment to ensure the development of hybrid vehicles. Incentives given by government are likely to generate high interest on the likes of Honda Insight and Toyota Prius. Proton is also likely to launch a hybrid model for Exora by end of 2011," Mukhtyar said.

This year, small and compact cars will continue to be the fastest-growing segment, increasing 14 per cent year-on-year to 91,044 units in 2011 due to launch of new Perodua Myvi, which will likely receive good response.

What you can really do with your data...

You wouldn't buy a car or a house without asking some questions about it first. So don't go buying into someone else's data without asking questions, either.

Okay, you're saying... but with data there are no tires to kick, no doors to slam, no basement walls to check for water damage. Just numbers, graphs and other scary statistical things that are causing you to have bad flashbacks to your last income tax return. What the heck can you ask about data?

Plenty. Here are a few standard questions you should ask any human beings who slap a pile of data in front of you and ask you write about it.

1.

Where did the data come from? Always ask this one first. You always want to know who did the research that created the data you're going to write about.

You'd be surprised - sometimes it turns out that the person who is feeding you a bunch of numbers can't tell you where they came from. That should be your first hint that you need to be very skeptical about what you are being told.

Even if your data have an identifiable source, you still want to know what it is. You might have some extra questions to ask about a medical study on the effects of secondhand smoking if you knew it came from a bunch of researchers employed by a tobacco company instead of from, say, a team of research physicians from a major medical school, for example. Or if you knew a study about water safety came from a political interest group that had been lobbying Congress for a ban on pesticides.

Just because a report comes from a group with a vested interest in its results doesn't guarantee the report is a sham. But you should always be extra skeptical when looking at research generated by people with a political agenda. At the least, they have plenty of incentive NOT to tell you about data they found that contradict their organization's position.

Which brings us to the next question:
2.

Have the data been peer-reviewed? Major studies that appear in journals like the New England Journal of Medicine undergo a process called "peer review" before they are published. That means that professionals - doctors, statisticians, etc. - have looked at the study before it was published and concluded that the study's authors pretty much followed the rules of good scientific research and didn't torture their data like a middle ages infidel to make the numbers conform to their conclusions.

Always ask if research was formally peer reviewed. If it was, you know that the data you'll be looking at are at least minimally reliable.

And if it wasn't peer-reviewed, ask why. It may be that the research just wasn't interesting to enough people to warrant peer review. Or it could mean that the research had as much chance of standing up to professional scrutiny as a $500 mobile home has of standing up in a tornado.
3.

How were the data collected? This one is real important to ask, especially if the data were not peer-reviewed. If the data come from a survey, for example, you want to know that the people who responded to the survey were selected at random.

In 1997, the Orlando Sentinel released the results of a poll in which more than 90 percent of those people who responded said that Orlando's National Basketball Association team, the Orlando Magic, shouldn't re-sign its center, Shaquille O'Neal, for the amount of money he was asking. The results of that poll were widely reported as evidence that Shaq wasn't wanted in Orlando, and in fact, O'Neal signed with the Los Angeles Lakers a few days later.

Unfortunately for Magic fans, that poll was about as trustworthy as one of those cheesy old "Magic 8 Balls." The survey was a call-in poll where anyone who wanted could call a telephone number at the paper and register his or her vote.

This is what statisticians call a "self-selected sample." For all we know, two or three people who got laid off that morning and were ticked off at the idea of someone earning $100 million to play basketball could have flooded the Sentinel's phone lines, making it appear as though the people of Orlando despised Shaq.

Another problem with data is "cherry-picking." This is the social-science equivalent of gerrymandering, where you draw up a legislative district so that all the people who are going to vote for your candidate are included in your district and everyone else is scattered among a bunch of other districts.

Be on the lookout for cherry-picking, for example, in epidemiological (a fancy word for the study of disease that sometimes means: "We didn't go out and collect any data ourselves. We just used someone else's data and played 'connect the dots' with them in an attempt to find something interesting.") studies looking at illnesses in areas surrounding toxic-waste dumps, power lines, high school cafeterias, etc. It is all too easy for a lazy researcher to draw the boundaries of the area he or she is looking at to include several extra cases of the illness in question and exclude many healthy individuals in the same area.

When in doubt, plot the subjects of a study on map and look for yourself to see if the boundaries make sense.
4.

Be skeptical when dealing with comparisons. Researchers like to do something called a "regression," a process that compares one thing to another to see if they are statistically related. They will call such a relationship a "correlation." Always remember that a correlation DOES NOT mean causation.

A study might find that an increase in the local birth rate was correlated with the annual migration of storks over the town. This does not mean that the storks brought the babies. Or that the babies brought the storks.

Statisticians call this sort of thing a "spurious correlation," which is a fancy term for "total coincidence."

People who want something from others often use regression studies to try to support their cause. They'll say something along the lines of "a study shows that a new police policy that we want led to a 20 percent drop in crime over a 10-year period in (some city)."

That might be true, but the drop in crime could be due to something other than that new policy. What if, say, the average age of those cities' residents increased significantly over that 10 year period? Since crime is believed to be age-dependent (meaning the more young men you have in an area, the more crime you have), the aging of the population could potentially be the cause of the drop in crime.

The policy change and the drop in crime might have been correlated. But that does not mean that one caused the other.
5.

Finally, be aware of numbers taken out of context. Again, data that are "cherry picked" to look interesting might mean something else entirely once it is placed in a different context.

Consider the following example from Eric Meyer, a professional reporter now working at the University of Illinois:

My personal favorite was a habit we use to have years ago, when I was working in Milwaukee. Whenever it snowed heavily, we'd call the sheriff's office, which was responsible for patrolling the freeways, and ask how many fender-benders had been reported that day. Inevitably, we'd have a lede that said something like, "A fierce winter storm dumped 8 inches of snow on Milwaukee, snarled rush-hour traffic and caused 28 fender-benders on county freeways" -- until one day I dared to ask the sheriff's department how many fender-benders were reported on clear, sunny days. The answer -- 48 -- made me wonder whether in the future we'd run stories saying, "A fierce winter snowstorm prevented 20 fender-benders on county freeways today." There may or may not have been more accidents per mile traveled in the snow, but clearly there were fewer accidents when it snowed than when it did not.

It is easy for people to go into brain-lock when they see a stack of papers loaded with numbers, spreadsheets and graphs. (And some sleazy sources are counting on it.) But your readers are depending upon you to make sense of that data for them.

Use what you've learned on this page to look at data with a more critical attitude. (That's critical, not cynical. There is a great deal of excellent data out there.) The worst thing you can do as a writer is to pass along someone else's word about data without any idea whether that person's worth believing or not.

...its all about the money...

The most ‘entertaining’ side show of the off season, the naming battle between Group Lotus and Team Lotus, will finally go to the British High Court today to be settled once and for all. However, all’s not well in the green and yellow corner as Tony Fernandes’ bitter dispute with David Hunt has come to surface. This is major, since Hunt is a main character in this soap opera.

This comes as a surprise as we’ve all been led to think that Hunt – brother of ex world champ James and the man who sold Tony the rights to use Team Lotus – is a firm supporter of Tony’s cause. The reason of the conflict? Money, of course!

As reported in UK’s Telegraph, the dispute centres around Hunt’s claims that Fernandes has gone back on an agreement they struck in January over payment for the Team Lotus name.

Tit for tat, Hunt is now refusing to back Team Lotus in court, despite having agreed to do so in January. He’s now claiming that there are “potentially some serious holes” in TL’s case. The paper also said that Tony has allegedly instructed his lawyers to sue Hunt for defamation in the past week.

“When we had to make the Team Lotus staff redundant in 1995 I made a promise to them and the fans to return it to F1 in the hands of a worthy custodian, and initially I had high hopes that Tony, Din and Nasa were going to tick the boxes,” David Hunt told Telegraph Sport.

“What angers me is that I have, in good faith, worked extremely hard on the build-up to the hearing because I believed Tony would honour our January agreement. He’s apparently ‘changed his mind’ at the 11th hour, by his own admission, now that I’ve done so much work on his company’s behalf, and he’s trying to renegotiate by offering new terms which are, frankly, ludicrous.

“All I’m looking for is for Tony to stick to his word and honour our agreement. If he doesn’t, then regrettably I don’t see why I should continue to provide assistance and this trial won’t be the last battle he’s facing, even if he wins,” the man added.

For full effect, read it through again with For The Love Of Money by the The O’Jays (theme song for The Apprentice) playing in the background. Money money money money…. money!

..will the real team Lotus..please stand up..

Last month, we heard Heikki Kovalainen’s views on the Lotus T128. The Finn said that this year’s car is now at the level that a modern F1 car should be, and that the mood at the Team Lotus camp is bouyant. To recap, the Malaysian owned team, which didn’t score any points in 2010, is targeting between 40 to 50 points this year.
Now we get to hear some comments from Jarno Trulli, who just finished testing the Renault powered T128 at Barcelona. The Italian says that TL has made a huge step forward.
“We have one of the best rear ends you can have in the paddock, because the gearbox is amazing, as well as the engine. Everything fits perfectly. The car looks good, and it looks quick as well,” he told Autosport. “If I have to compare to last year, it’s day and night. It’s a huge step forward, and everybody has been working really hard.”
The team wasn’t totally free of reliability issues in testing though, and Trulli gave hints that they won’t be starting the season in Australia in full flight. “So it might be difficult at the beginning, but maybe then we can get on top. Looking at the lap times it’s difficult to get a clear idea, but we can probably chase Force India and maybe Sauber. Obviously we are ahead of Virgin and HRT. This at the moment is the picture that we have,” he said.
Meanwhile, TL has announced Italian Davide Valsecchi, Brazilian Luiz Razia and Ricardo Teixeira as their test and reserve drivers this season. The former two drive for Team AirAsia in GP2, while Angolan Teixeira drove in Formula 2 last season.

shoew time!! hehe

Okay, so this is where it all starts getting a little bizarre – first Play-Doh, then this. So you think you’ve seen electric cars in all shapes and sizes. Well, can’t have seen one shaped like a men’s shoe, yes?
Built by a footwear company in China called Kang Shoe, the three metre-long vehicle took six months to build, and features bodywork made out of real leather, which five bulls generously donated. Seems it’s made like a normal shoe too, just scaled up to fit.
The shoe, sorry, car, can carry two people up to 400 km on a single charge at speeds of up to 30 kph, and the battery is located underneath the driver’s seat. By the looks of it, it can even be classified as a convertible. Minus the rag top.
It was demonstrated outside Kang Shoe’s headquarters in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejian Province, where the company’s workers got to drive it. Undoubtedly, they must have had a real kick out of it. Company president Wang Zhengtao says there are plans to make 40 of these for stores around the country, as promotional tools. Wonder if you can have them in left/right pairs.

Public Bank #1

Malaysia's Top 10
Ranked by average score
1. Public Bank
2. Nestlé (Malaysia)
3. DiGi
4. Maxis
5. Genting
6. Maybank
7. CIMB Group Holdings
8. Petronas Gas
9. Malaysia Airlines
10. Astro
..Customer deposits grew at an annualized rate of 12.2%. Public Bank, Malaysia's third-largest lender by assets behind Malayan Banking Bhd. and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., also amped up its Tier 1 capital ratio while touting a dramatically lower impaired-loans ratio at 1.2%, versus 3.4% for the industry overall.

CIMB Group this year makes a new showing on the Asia 200 list, with a No. 7 ranking. The company, which is involved in investment holding, property management and consulting, is the second-largest company on the Malaysian stock exchange after Maybank Banking and has a presence in much of southeast Asia as well as China, the U.K. and the U.S. For the first half of the year, the company saw net profit rise 35%, fueled by its consumer bank PBT as retail banking and credit cards picked up.

Mog, the Digital Music Service, Takes Aim at the TV and the Car

The next frontier for digital music is not a tablet or a smartphone, but two items that have been part of everyday life for decades: the car and the television set.


David Hyman, Mog’s founder, said “the car is the holy grail” for digital music companies because it was where people did most of their listening.

For years, digital music has been confined mostly to traditional computers and phones. But that limitation is slowly disappearing as the market shifts toward cloud services, which stream content from remote servers, allowing anything with an Internet connection — like smart TVs or Blu-ray players — to become portals for vast libraries of entertainment.

One music streaming service, Mog, is counting on this change to draw new subscribers and help it stand out in a crowded field. On Tuesday, the company will announce a string of deals that could introduce it to millions of potential new customers. LG, Samsung and Vizio will incorporate Mog into their Internet-ready televisions and other devices, and the service will become available on Sonos, a wireless system for managing music throughout the house.

And in what the company calls the first integration of an on-demand music service into a car, Mog will also become part of BMW’s Mini line. (On-demand streaming, unlike radio, lets you pick the songs you listen to.) More such deals are on the way, said David Hyman, Mog’s founder.

“When you are thinking about buying into a cloud-based music service,” Mr. Hyman said, “I imagine you asking yourself, ‘Can I use this on my phone? Can I use it in my car? Will it work in my new TV?’ The value of these services goes up the more places consumers can access you.”

Mog, based in Berkeley, Calif., was founded in 2005 as a social networking site. It changed in late 2009 into a subscription streaming service, offering 10 million songs at rates of $5 a month for music on PCs alone, or $10 for additional access through mobile devices. On new TVs and home theater systems, Mog will be a preinstalled feature, and in the Mini it can be activated by plugging in a smartphone. (Mog users paying $5 will get access through their TVs, but the $10 subscription is needed for Sonos and the Mini.)

Unlike MP3s, which a customer buys once and then possesses, music accessed through the cloud needs constant contact with the service that provides it, which means the service must be available everywhere its customers spend their time. And if you’re looking for ubiquity, the first places to go are the living room and the car — both of which, analysts say, represent huge untapped markets for digital music.

“I don’t think anybody in the music industry quite grasps how much of an important opportunity lies in the living room,” said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research. “And the window for that opportunity is closing ever more as every year goes by.”

In many homes, the Internet-ready television, preloaded with streaming services like Netflix and Pandora, is fast becoming a multipurpose entertainment hub. Sony has recently introduced its Qriocity service, which offers streaming music and movie subscriptions through Sony’s connected devices like televisions and PlayStations.

“Home theaters and Blu-ray get a lot of attention when it comes to playing movies or TV shows, but music is a critical feature for those devices too,” said Matthew Durgin, the head of smart TV for LG Electronics in the United States. “In a lot of cases we put the highest-quality speakers in the living room.”

For subscription music services, the competition is intense and the rewards so far have been small. In addition to Mog, the field includes Rhapsody, Rdio and the remade Napster. Spotify, a European service, is expected to enter the American market this year. But relatively few customers have been willing to pay for streaming music. Rhapsody, online since 2001, has 750,000 users; Mog does not report its subscription numbers, but analysts estimate that they are much lower.

Apple and Google are also working on cloud-based music services, but they have been mum about their exact plans.

Mr. Hyman says he believes that the car, where people do a majority of their listening, could be digital music’s biggest opportunity by far, capable of attracting millions of new subscribers. Pandora, the Internet radio service, is already in many cars, including the Mini, and 20 million subscribers pay for satellite radio from Sirius XM. But so far on-demand music has been unavailable.

“The car is the holy grail,” said Mr. Hyman. “I look at the satellite-radio market in America, with 20 million subscribers, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t be 20 million subscribers.”

Mog’s controls on the Mini are integrated into the dashboard’s digital display, and activated by hooking up a smartphone through the car’s Mini Connected system. The program connects to the Internet through the phone, but otherwise it is handled entirely through the standard dashboard controls. Only recently have car manufacturers been able to incorporate such new features, said Rob Passaro, a senior project manager at the BMW Group.

“We interact with lots of cool technology companies, and the conversations we’ve always had over the years is: ‘Hey, awesome service, we want to get it into the car. When can it happen?’ ‘Oh, in about five years,’ ” Mr. Passaro said. “Now we can move as quickly as the consumer tech industry on these things.”

To attract listeners who enjoy the sense of serendipity they get with Pandora, which creates custom music streams based on users’ tastes, Mog has developed a feature that combines on-demand and radiolike service; when a digital slider is moved to one side, a stream of one artist’s music will gradually filter in similar music.

“We want to be in all these places where consumers listen to music,” Mr. Hyman said.

The new Alza

Perodua has released the Alza M2 Edition, which will be limited to 500 units. It will be open for booking at all Perodua sales outlets beginning 1st April with an on the road price of RM69,990, the same price as the Alza Advanced Version, which it’s based on.
First unveiled by former Tun Mahathir Mohamad in January when he visited Perodua’s Rawang facility, the M2 Edition is named after the code name “M2” given to the second national car project, which was later renamed Perodua. For every unit of the M2 sold, Perodua will be donating RM1,000 to the ex-PM’s Perdana Leadership Foundation.

Unique features include an “M2” grade mark and a special “Midnight Blue” colour. Other features include custom leather seat covers and custom carpet mats. Besides those already mentioned, the M2 Edition will have all the equipment that’s standard on the Advanced Version, including the 5-inch touchscreen LCD entertainment system with GPS and bodykit.
The official product photos aren’t out yet, but you can see the new colour from the image above.

DPM bringing Tata home..

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is on an official visit to India, has revealed that Indian carmaker Tata Motors has expressed interest to enter the Malaysian market. The maker of the world’s cheapest car plans to do this by working with national carmaker Proton.
“Mr Tata (Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group) is keen to work with Proton again. About seven or eight years ago there were some joint discussions to manufacture cars but nothing came out of it. Now our automotive policy is more liberal and there are new opportunities,” Muhyiddin said.
“It’s now up to the Proton management to study this proposal and whether a car like the Nano can be brought into Malaysia. Perhaps we can also come up with a kereta rakyat costing about RM20,000, modelled after the Nano,” the DPM suggested to Malaysian journalists in Mumbai.
“He felt there should be some synergy because they had been in the automotive industry for a long time. He can bring his technical team to discuss with Proton or Perodua,” added Muhyiddin, although we’re not sure if Perodua, which is part owned by Daihatsu and has its own compact car plans, will be interested in such a development.
A cheap Tata Nano based kereta rakyat, anyone?

how the big boys play....

Integration. It sounds simple enough, but given the way the world has become these days, the idea has complexity written all over it. Gone are the days when a car had features you could count on all your fingers, when an in-car entertainment system was called a cassette deck (or four-track cartridge player) and when brakes were just brakes and didn’t have three-letter acronym suffixes attached to them.
No, these days, we need integration, because there’s simply more. Modernisation – or, if you prefer, progress – means that a plethora of technology is available in an automobile today, and all those new functions and features has brought about a serious need to redefine the terminology of the genre. After all, even functions have subsets these days.

Associating these and presenting them to the user is the perennial headache. So, what’s a manufacturer to do? Well, grouping them seems a smart enough idea, and giving a specific name to that particular bunching an even better one.
Thus, you’ll find that the likes of auto start/stop, brake energy regeneration, lightweight engineering and electric power steering are now assembled as a family of positives. In the case of BMW, these come under the banner called EfficientDynamics.

While that takes care of the mechanicals, it doesn’t sort out the other stuff, things that don’t fall under the ambit of ED, not directly, even if they happen to share the same body. Solution? Placing all the rest together into a singularity and cleverly calling it ConnectedDrive, which thus puts all the king’s men into two cleanly configured and coexisting sets – a rather novel idea, you think?
EfficientDynamics has been presented in significantly large fashion, even if not all the accomplices in the group have been made present for consumption here in Malaysia, but nevermind that. With that association pretty much nailed, the next step is of course to present ConnectedDrive and make it the next household term.

The best way to do this, of course, is to showcase the host of technologies within that umbrella, which is just what BMW did in a dazzling blitz of presentations at an Innovation Days – ConnectedDrive meets EfficientDynamics event in Munich late last year.
Since there are so many things to talk about (well, it really was a blitz!), we’re going to have to do it over two parts, starting with the communications, infotainment and personalisation aspects first, with the driver assistance stuff – which crosses into ED territory.

An Exclusive with Petronas' maestro,Ross Brawn

During our recent visit to Barcelona, Spain we have managed to catch up with the team principal of the Mercedes GP Petronas Formula 1 Team, Ross Brawn. To refresh your memory, Brawn was one of the brains behind Michael Schumacher’s championship victories in Benetton as well as in Ferrari. The Englishman first started his Formula 1 career with Williams in 1978 as a machinist. He then moved up the ladder and landed a role as technical director of Benetton.
The famous race strategist then moved to Ferrari in 1996. After taking on a sabbatical in 2007, Brawn then became Honda’s team principal and served at the Japanese team until the end of 2008 before the team left the sport. To everyone’s surprise, Brawn fully acquired Honda and renamed it as Brawn GP, which went on to win both the championships in 2009 with drivers Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello. He then sold a majority of his stake in the team to Mercedes which resulted in the birth of the Mercedes GP Petronas team.
2010 wasn’t a year that he is particularly proud of despite having top driver Michael Schumacher back in the cockpit. As the team moves into the 2011 World Championship, he shares his thoughts with us.

What are your comments after completing the 2010 season?
Disappointment in some ways. We obviously won the championship in 2009 and that is the standard we set ourselves and I know you can’t win every championship. I have been here long enough to know that is an unrealistic objective but it was disappointing that we didn’t challenge for the championship and of course we didn’t win any races in 2010. So that is our objective, that is our challenge for this year, to try and win some races and hopefully challenge for championships.
Can you comment about this year’s car?
I think the 2010 car was born during 2009 and 2009 was a successful season for us because we had so much happening, we managed to save the company, we had to find a future for the company and strategically I have decided, the best chance of securing the future success of the company is to make sure we won the championship so we put all of our resources to try to win the championship in 2009. And it was a much smaller team that it was previously so I think we felt the effects of that in terms of building a 2010 car.

What is your say about Pirreli tyres?
They are completely different to Bridgestone. They are quite high performance, high degradation which means we are going to have multiple stops for the races and I think the races are going to be a lot more eventful than we have had in the past. But I hope Pirelli have done a good to get us far ahead in such a short time.
What is your opinion on the re-introduction of KERS?
KERS I think is a good thing because it is a relevant technology and Formula 1 has been lacking a little in terms of pushing the technological boundaries so KERS is great, it is very relevant for Daimler so I think it’s a great thing that we are involved in that.

What about the moveable rear wing?
It is really an option that we can introduce or we can tune. It is there to try to improve the possibilities of overtaking and can try to create some performance differential between the lead car and the car behind. We can use it as much and with the FIA we can work at right levels to have it available and what we don’t want is overtaking to become so easy that it is not an event. But it will facilitate overtaking.
What do you think about McLaren’s U-shapped sidepods? It is as significant as the double-deck diffuser used in 2009?
No, I don’t think it is that significant. It is an interesting solution they have chosen. I think they have chosen that because of their exhaust layout so it’s a complete package of the car. It is probably too early to say, we have haven’t looked at their concept at great detail yet but will do so during the year. But it is just part of a package. I don’t think by itself it is so relevant but as part of the package it is quite relevant.

What is your take on team orders?
Generally I don’t like them but what I don’t want to have is a situation where there is ambiguity in what is going on where team orders are hidden behind some sham of secret messages or secret instructors that can bring this world (Formula 1) into disrepute. I think teams should try and avoid to use team orders but I would rather it was done in the open.
You see the problem with team orders is that if you hide them, you could be accused but you wouldn’t be able to prove or disprove otherwise. If you say that one driver has received a coded instruction, then the whole thing gets very messy and I think that is fooling the public more. We still have to make sure that we don’t bring the sport into disrepute, that is the cornerstone of the sport and we have to respect that as well.

Is it correct to say that Schumacher’s lack of performance in 2010 was contributed by the fact that the car wasn’t really developed with him in mind?
We can’t really develop a car specifically for Michael and both drivers give some sort of indication of what kind of car you ought to have. They tell you where you need to improve the car and where you don’t so I think Michael coming back after three years is a massive challenge. I think he did really well and I think he will do better this year so I don’t think there is such a thing that a car that is tuned to the driver but of course both drivers give you guidance through the season as to what sort of car they want.
Do you think if Schumacher, given the right car can become champion once again?
Yes. I think Michael is capable of winning races and I think Nico is capable of winning races and if either of them can put enough wins they can win the championship. Both are very capable of winning races.

Are you confident of winning races this season?
Definitely. You will never know how the competition is like but that is our ambition.
Do you think that the now postponed Bahrain GP can be held later this year?
I think it is very difficult in a 20-race calendar to find a gap because previously we had a few gaps and we could drop a race in but it would be very difficult in 2011 to find another gap. So I think we will lose it for a year.

thats how we do things around here...a conceptual study

When corporate leaders talk about change, they usually have a desired result in mind: gains in performance, a better approach to customers, the solution to a formidable challenge. They know that if they are to achieve this result, people throughout the company need to change their behavior and practices, and that can’t happen by simple decree. How, then, does it happen? In the last few years, insights from neuroscience have begun to answer that question. New behaviors can be put in place, but only by reframing attitudes that are so entrenched that they are almost literally embedded in the physical pathways of employees’ neurons. These beliefs have been reinforced over the years through everyday routines and hundreds of workplace conversations. They all have the same underlying theme: “That’s the way we do things around here.”

This phrase (and others like it) typically refers to the complex, subtle practices that become ingrained in an organization’s culture, to the point where they become part of its identity. Habitual thoughts and behaviors are not bad in themselves; indeed, they are often the basis for what a company does well. But when circumstances shift or the company becomes dysfunctional, those habits may need substantive change.

We teamed up to write this article, despite our disparate backgrounds — in neuroscience (Schwartz), learning and development in a major international corporation (Gaito), and ethics and leadership in the financial-services industry (Lennick) — because during the past six years, we each came to recognize the power of conceptual focus in organizational change. Altering habits is difficult enough for individuals. Studies suggest that the number of people who voluntarily shift away from addictive or obsessive-compulsive behavior, even when they know their lives are at stake, is staggeringly low, perhaps one in 10. At corporations, the complexity of collective behavior makes the challenge even greater. Furthermore, as with repairing a ship while it is at sea, these changes must be made at the same time that the company continues to operate.

But there is a particular type of highly charged conversational process that leads to changes in the neural patterns of people throughout an organization — a process that works with, not against, the predisposition and capability of the human brain.

Cargill’s Strategy Transformation
Consider, for example, the way that Cargill, a major agricultural and food products company, applied knowledge of the human brain to raise its game in collaboration and innovation across business units. Cargill had already undergone one major shift, starting in 1999, toward becoming a more agile, solutions-based organization. The company’s executives had defined the “heart of leadership” for their company as integrity, conviction, and courage. They had also set out to create a “culture of freedom,” empowering and encouraging employees at every level to act with decisiveness and accountability on behalf of customers.

But some elements of the company’s culture and practice still did not fully support the customer-focused culture that they were developing. One customer, a large packaged-foods manufacturer, told a Cargill executive, “You send 15 different people to our offices each week from different businesses, and they all ask us some of the same questions, but they never try to understand exactly what we do with all of your ingredients. If you brought all those people together, you could potentially offer much more to us.”

The situation clearly called for new behaviors. Better collaboration among Cargill employees, for example, would not just solve the problem of redundant sales calls. It could lead to new logistics, risk management, and quality assurance practices. But that type of collaboration, especially across Cargill’s 70-plus businesses operating in 66 countries, would be a stretch — particularly since in Cargill’s culture, it would require bottom-up commitment.
2006, the company renewed its commitment to move to the next level in fulfilling its strategic objectives in serving customers more effectively. Corporate leaders described some major behavioral, structural, and cultural changes that were needed — in effect, a major shift in “the way we do things around here.” This initiative sparked a new interest in understanding and working with the realities of the human brain.

Ameriprise: Cultivating the Counterintuitive
Around the same time, the leaders of Ameriprise Financial — a US$7 billion company that is the leading source of financial advice in the United States — began taking a fresh, dispassionate look at their own behavior. In 2007, an annual investor performance study from the research firm Dalbar showed that most investors consistently did less well as individuals than the market as a whole. Their instincts led them to miss some of the gains inherent in a volatile market. For example, when stocks fall sharply, a fully rational investor should step back and wait for a signal of what is going to happen next. But many investors rush to sell, fearing a further downturn, and move their money into cash or related interest-bearing products. This exacerbates their losses, because stocks often rise again soon afterward.

Ted Truscott, CEO of U.S. asset management at Ameriprise, stated it this way: “Remember, when you have the price, you don’t have the proof, and when you have the proof, you don’t have the price.” In other words, by the time investors felt comfortable with a stock (the “proof”), it was probably already priced too high to be a good investment. By seeking reassurance, investors were undermining their own portfolios.

The Ameriprise leaders prided themselves on building a better future for their customers, and the study results suggested an opportunity to enhance their own practices. Their advisory teams (either on staff or franchise holders) were not consistently giving clients the advice that would have helped them avoid this trap. “Being a great financial planner and advisor requires not only technical expertise,” concluded Kris Petersen, then the Ameriprise senior vice president of financial planning, “but an understanding of how people make decisions. Our clients are misbehaving with their money, and we have to do a better job of helping them.”

Jeff Marshall, a franchise leader in the Pacific Northwest, moved rapidly to put in place a new training program to change the company’s approach. But response was very limited at first. Of the 12,000 Ameriprise advisors, only several hundred signed up for that first round of training in 2007. Even many who were initially enthusiastic expressed doubt when they discovered that the training would take several months. Interest grew broader in late 2008, of course, after the financial crisis began. By then, Ameriprise leaders had recognized that they needed to confront deeply ingrained habits of thought, which required a thorough understanding of the limits and capabilities of the human brain.

The Principles of Change
A viable approach is emerging today that applies neuroscience to organizational change at dozens of companies like Cargill and Ameriprise. Specific practices vary from one workplace to the next, but they are always based on principles grounded in brain research:

• Habits are hard to change because of the way the brain manages them. Many conventional patterns of thinking are held in circuits associated with deep, primal parts of the brain that evolved relatively earlThe basal ganglia’s processing, in particular, is so rapid compared to other brain activity that it can feel physically rewarding; people tend to revert to this type of processing whenever possible. Moreover, every time the neuronal patterns in the basal ganglia are invoked, they become further entrenched; they forge connections with one another and with other functionally related brain areas, and these neural links (sometimes called “action repertoires”) become stronger and more compelling. This helps explain why when people in a workplace talk about the way to do things, they often reinforce the link between their own neural patterns and the culture of the company. If an organizational practice triggers their basal ganglia, it can become collectively ingrained and extremely difficult to dislodge.

Similarly, if you want to create permanent new patterns of behavior in people (including yourself), you must embed them in the basal ganglia. Taking on new patterns (also known as learning) often feels unfamiliar and painful, because it means consciously overriding deeply comfortable neuronal circuitry. It also draws on parts of the brain that require more effort and energy, such as the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with deliberate executive functions such as planning and thinking ahead.

In financial services, for example, when the market goes down, selling equities feels reassuring, because the news about the market has triggered habitual attitudes about risk (stored in the basal ganglia) and fears (generated by the amygdala). Holding on to the stock may be more prudent, but that decision requires activity in the prefrontal cortex, which requires extra effort and energy. Similarly, if people at a company such as Cargill find it difficult to innovate in teams across business units, they may be collectively protecting their basal ganglia– and amygdala-driven instincts (the attractions of habit and the fear of change) at the expense of the new goals of the organization.

At work, being forced to try something new can trigger fear and anger (sometimes called the “amygdala hijack”), the urge to flee, or exhaustion disproportionate to the actual provocation. In the grip of such emotions, people resist change. Their capacity for rational and creative thinking is also diminished; they revert to their rote behaviors, such as arguing, passive-aggressive compliance, or covert resistance. To overcome this reversion, people need to prepare for organizational change in advance — they must train to recognize the source of a strong emotion even as it is triggered, and to find more effective ways of responding.

• Despite the seeming inflexibility of the brain, neural connections are highly plastic; even the most entrenched thought patterns can be changed. The kind of mindfulness that accomplishes this combines metacognition (thinking about what you are thinking) and meta-awareness (moment-by-moment awareness of where your attention is focused). Adam Smith, the 18th-century economic philosopher, understood this. He described self-directed reflection as an “impartial spectator” and commented on its importance.

A growing body of neuroscience research confirms the power of the impartial spectator. For example, a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) might ruminate on a single belief, such as “I have to wash my hands to make sure they’re clean.” Day after day, this thought reinforces neural connections in parts of the brain such as the basal ganglia, gaining influence over the individual’s behavior. But MRIs show that asking people to observe their own thinking process as they ruminate can cause activity to move to more deliberate, conscious brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex. Research at the University of Toronto shows that moment-by-moment self-observation activates executive planning areas in the prefrontal cortex and deactivates areas involved in attention-distracting rumination.

Working in any corporation may lead people to adopt repetitive patterns of behavior. But the neural connections remain plastic. Once people know how to bring the impartial spectator into play, they can recognize when their old habituated neural patterns no longer serve them (or their company) well, and reshape those patterns in new directions.

These include the basal ganglia, or the brain’s “habit center,” which normally manages such semiautomatic activities as driving and walking; the amygdala, a small, deep source of strong emotions such as fear and anger; and the hypothalamus, which manages instinctive drives such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire. Information that is processed in these parts of the brain is often not brought to conscious attention
• Paying attention to new ways of thinking, however uncomfortable at first, can rewire people’s thinking habits. The name given by neuroscience to this phenomenon is “attention density.” When a person repeatedly pays conscious attention to desired thoughts and related goals, the processing of these thoughts and goals stabilizes and moves to the part of the basal ganglia called the caudate nucleus, which lies deep beneath the prefrontal cortex and processes a massive number of neural signals from it. MIT neuroscientist Ann Graybiel has referred to the basal ganglia–caudate nucleus complex as the habit center of the brain. It shifts circuits into place so that ways of thinking and acting that at first seemed unfamiliar soon become habitual. The power of focused attention is enhanced further by the “quantum Zeno effect”: just as quantum particles become more stable when observed, neuronal patterns solidify more rapidly when repetitive attention is paid to them.

• In focusing attention, don’t tell people what they’re doing wrong. Instead, accentuate what they’re doing right. Most brain activities don’t systematically distinguish between an activity and the avoidance of that activity. When someone repeatedly thinks, “I should not break this rule,” they are activating and strengthening neural patterns related to breaking the rule.

Therefore, to engender change among people in an organization, it’s important to keep attention focused on the desired end state, not on avoiding problems. This goal-directed positive reinforcement must take place over and over. The most effective way to achieve this is to set up practices and processes that make it easy for people to do the right thing until it becomes not only second nature, but an ethic taken to heart (and to the brain) by the entire company.

• Cultivate cognitive “veto power.” Veto power is the ability (among both individuals and groups) to rapidly consider outside provocations and choose to stop dysfunctional impulses before they lead to action. In one of the most discussed experiments in the history of neuroscience, preeminent researcher Benjamin Libet used electroencephalographic equipment to measure the brain functions underlying simple finger movements. He discovered that three-tenths of a second before people are aware of the will to move their finger, there is a brain signal related to a desire for finger movement. A person may have the desire to move, but then choose not to move; these two thoughts — the desire and the choice — are separate.

Many people believe that their control over their impulses is limited, particularly in the face of such strong emotions as anger, frustration, enthusiasm, or grief. To an extent, that is true, but Libet’s work shows that people can always constrain (or choose not to follow) a particular impulse. People may have only limited free will, but they have powerful “free won’t.” In organizations, when a strong impulse reflects “the way we do things around here,” there is always the option to veto the action, especially if people have practiced this ability. Even as simple a response as counting to 10 when stressed opens up possibilities for responding in more functional ways.

• The capability for focusing attention needs to be built over time. Few companies have established a strong capability for focused attention. For that reason, we suggest a path for getting there. The six steps that follow are a synthesis of work the authors conducted separately: Schwartz in helping OCD patients and then organizations, Gaito in leadership development work at Cargill, and Lennick at Ameriprise and other companies. These steps, which we have seen applied in practice, allow you to build a company’s capacity to refocus its attention on its most desired goals. They also create a virtuous cycle.
Step 1: Recognize the Need for Change
“Every organization wants to be in a groove,” says venture capitalist Jeff Stiefler. “But no one wants to be in a rut. The problem is when grooves become ruts. The key is to be able to recognize when you’re in a rut and then [figure out] how to get out of it.”

That’s the essence of this first step, which is particularly important for leaders of a change initiative. You cannot expect others to reflect on their behavior if you have not started to look dispassionately at yourself and to recognize where you need to change. After all, you are one of those responsible for painting a positive vision of the future, articulating the new possibilities in the collective mind, and calming the sense of upheaval. Your behavior therefore gives employees a highly charged impression of the changes you espouse, directly affecting many circuits of the brain.

But participation in this step is not limited to leaders. Anyone enlisted for change, at both an individual and a group level, should take part. For individuals, this means reflection. You must build greater awareness of your thoughts, emotions, and actions and their connection to real-life outcomes. After a difficult exchange or episode, you can step back and ask yourself: “What was I thinking? How am I feeling now? Was my behavior aligned with my goal at hand and with the big picture?” You can begin to recognize the effect that high-energy emotions have on your rational judgment and decision making — and the changes worth making in your own thinking and behavior.

At a group level, the recognition step involves bringing a group of self-aware people together to talk about the possibilities for change, with the premise that the current approach — “the way we do things around here” — cannot continue.

Practice of this step can send an emotionally charged signal to others, because it often means rejecting or abandoning some convenient but counterproductive actions. For example, Jim Cracchiolo, the CEO of Ameriprise, recognized the need for change in the financial-advice industry, which influenced him to decline TARP funding in May 2009. Government funding, he said, would hinder the company’s pursuit of its potential. This explanation resonated strongly with the people of the firm.

Step 2: Relabel Your Reactions
This step is an analogy to a necessary process in cognitive therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder. By giving a new name to maladaptive behavior, an individual with OCD can override the content of dysfunctional thoughts (“I have to wash my hands to make sure they’re clean”) with the knowledge that they are merely thoughts (“Here comes that urge again, but it is simply a thought that my OCD condition produces”). The mental act of relabeling enhances your ability to make this distinction and thus decreases your personal attachment to what you are thinking. This improves your ability to clear-mindedly assess the content of the thought. By relabeling these thoughts, you can break the cycle of rumination, emphasizing that these thoughts are driven, not by some external factor, but by the patterns in the brain itself.

Relabeling means giving a new name to something, and though the idea of applying a mental label may seem simple, it has often been shown to have the power to calm emotions and engage the rational centers of the brain. Neuroscience researchers Kevin Ochsner and James Gross, for example, connected people to brain imaging devices and showed them photographs of horrific traffic accidents. There was an immediate rush of anxiety and fear — a classic amygdala hijack. But then Ochsner and Gross asked their subjects to think differently about these upsetting images: for example, to tell themselves, “I’m an emergency medical technician coming on the scene. I have to be calm and clear in my thinking about this.” Subjects in the experiments then found it easier to maintain a clear, calm perspective. In general, the act of relabeling changes the way the brain processes information in such emotion-related and instinct-related areas as the amygdala and hypothalamus. Activity shifts rapidly to the prefrontal cortex.

In this organizational step, you conduct a similar reframing of the collective impulses that don’t work well. “The way we do things around here” may have been unquestioned for years, but now you communicate an accurate assessment about why it no longer works. Cargill’s articulation of its “future state” and Ameriprise’s stated intent to do a better job helping clients were both good examples of reframing.

Step 3: Reflect on Your Expectations and Values
In this step, you set out the nature of the new conditions you believe you can create. You replace old expectations with a new image of the desired state you are trying to achieve. In management circles, this is known as a vision. But unlike some corporate vision exercises, the reflection in this step must result in something specific, tangible, and desirable enough to capture people’s attention.

At Cargill, there is an evolving idea of what the “heart of leadership” means in practice. Recently retired executive vice president Dave Larson points out, “Our good leaders are those who focus on others, give undivided attention, and build trust. Leaders can either give energy to people or drain energy from people.” Many leaders within the company instinctively know how to translate this into their own day-to-day behavior. For others, including some who have been at the company for 15 years or more, this concept requires a major shift.

Your new expectations and values could reflect aspirations for your company as the leader of a shift in your larger industry. Don Froude, president of the Personal Advisors Group (which includes coordinating franchisees at Ameriprise), raised the stakes for the firm in 2009 when he said: “The [financial-services] industry needs to consolidate to regain client trust. We can’t pretend the financial crisis, the problems with derivatives, and the TARP bailout haven’t happened. We have to be proactive — to take advantage of the dislocation in the industry to bring more advisors and more clients to Ameriprise. We believe we can do [financial advising] better than others, and better than we’ve ever done it before.”

Both Cargill and Ameriprise offer internal sessions on the skill of collective reflection. Participants talk about the type of company they are trying to create and the leadership behavior that will foster it, as well as the needs and values of their clients and customers (individual investors for Ameriprise, and food manufacturers and other customers at Cargill).

In this reflection, the company uses the expectation of better conditions as an effective tool for reinforcing productive neural patterns. The power of expectations has been demonstrated in neuroscience, notably by Donald Price at the University of Florida. Price set up a carefully executed series of experiments with volunteers who had a medical condition that made them particularly sensitive to certain kinds of pain. He gave some subjects a placebo along with a specific suggestion that led them to expect a reasonable chance of pain relief. This expectation, in itself, was enough to relieve pain as effectively as real medicine would. It also calmed down the brain’s pain and visceral centers — the thalamus and insula.

For neuroscientists, this is a fascinating finding because the thalamus is a primitive part of the brain, and both it and the insula are often considered centers of “automatic” sensation, beyond conscious control or thought. But Price’s experiments — and those of other researchers, such as Robert Coghill of Wake Forest University — suggest that effectively communicating that “things will feel better if we change” can produce a powerful range of assuaging reactions. (In fact, expectations of relief can have a calming effect akin to a 6 milligram dose of morphine.)
Financial advisors at moments of economic crisis have experienced this phenomenon firsthand. When they field calls from panicked clients, they routinely open the call by saying, “It is going to be OK. Let’s not forget the big picture. Don’t forget that we have prepared for uncertainties like this crisis. Let’s stay focused on your values and what really matters.” After reflecting on the fact that it is possible to navigate the storm, clients are more prepared to make the necessary counterintuitive moves, and advisors are more prepared to suggest them.

Similarly, during the economic crisis in late 2008, the Cargill leadership encouraged employees to manage for the future by “hunkering down wisely” — cutting expenses with confidence that it would make life better for them. This phrase helped calm anxiety about Cargill’s ability to weather the crisis, and it empowered people to come up with creative ways to save money for the company. Reflection led to a far greater sense of ownership and effectiveness than would have been produced by across-the-board budget cuts or other top-down directives.

In the reflection stage, you may find yourself rethinking the purpose of your business. Is it making money by any means necessary? Or are you seeking to make some other contribution — through what you create, what you protect, or the wealth you hope to engender around you? For example, you might decide that in your current cultural and economic environment, enhancing the stability of society and the free enterprise system is particularly important.

In the spring of 2009, Ken Chenault, the chairman and CEO of American Express, set a pattern for that type of reflection at his company. The company’s first-quarter earnings had not yet been posted, but the 2008 results, like those for most other companies, were dismal. It was late on a rainy afternoon, and as Chenault looked out from his 51st-floor office in the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan, he could see much of New York harbor. “There has not been a compelling articulation of the importance of capitalism to a well-functioning society since Adam Smith,” he said. “What’s the role of business in society? We need some renewed thinking, and we need to update our view of capitalism.”

Statements like this might seem cause for anxiety themselves — business is difficult enough without setting out grandiose new purposes — but the act of reflection calms people down and improves access to more rational thought. It reduces the chances of either amygdala hijack or habitual, basal ganglia–style response to the need for change. The real-world results are evident, particularly when CEOs and other leaders channel reflection into a recurring gesture, reminding employees, day after day, of their goals and aspirations. This repetition helps people create new neural patterns and sets the tone for the all-important next step.

Step 4: Refocus Your Behavior
In this stage, you bring your habits in line with your goals. You identify the practices you need to follow and begin to set them in motion. For example, Cargill executives have been trained to refocus (although they don’t call it that) by classifying difficult situations as problems, predicaments (impasses), and polarities (situations with conflicting goals). “If it’s a problem, we work on solving it,” explains a Cargill executive. “If it’s a polarity, it’s not an ‘either-or’ situation but an ‘and’ issue that requires management. And if it’s a predicament, you have nothing to solve or manage; you can only accept and endure.”

In companies navigating traumatic situations (such as an economic crisis), refocusing may mean pursuing deliberate practices for triggering people’s impartial spectators. If you’re a leader in such a situation, you can start by talking openly about how you feel, ask others to talk about how they feel, and then help others take a broader perspective: They are still OK, they still have jobs, their families are intact. Next, try to engender an emotional state that is calmer, and that draws people back to more effective frames of mind and more deliberate thinking. At American Express, Chenault did exactly this after one of the most shocking moments of his professional life: the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He called the company together at Madison Square Garden, told people how he felt, acknowledged how they must feel, and then drew the conversation to the things that they might think about as they moved forward.
The refocusing step provides the most powerful change of the entire sequence: It has the greatest impact on the prefrontal cortex, where new behaviors must be processed and integrated into complex response patterns. When people focus repeatedly and bring this part of the brain into play, their new neuronal connections can become stabilized by attention density and the quantum Zeno effect; as a result, a more productive set of brain functions are put into play, and the potential for developing new action repertoires is established. This is often experienced as having one’s beliefs open up, and as becoming more capable and productive. When practiced regularly and consistently, the change rewires the basal ganglia and becomes a set of adaptive new habits. A prefrontal cognitive process has become internalized into deeper parts of the brain. People can now do the right thing without having to think consciously about it.

Step 5: Respond with Repetition
Hold yourself and others accountable for responding consistently with the needed new or improved behaviors. One example at Cargill is the use of metrics to set leadership priorities and track the day-to-day behaviors that managers are expected to demonstrate. As Cargill CEO Greg Page puts it, “As leaders at Cargill, we measure our collective efforts in terms of engaged employees, satisfied customers, enriched communities, and profitable growth. In this very deliberate way, we’re telling people we’re focusing not only on their sales and profits, but also on other key drivers of business performance.”

It takes discipline to develop new habits; they feel difficult at first. Once again, if you are a leader, your behavior makes all the difference. Other people closely watch what you say, what you do, and where you pay attention. Of course, leading requires a high level of self-awareness, which is one reason the recognition step (step 1) is so important.

Step 6: Revalue Your Choices in Real Time
The sixth step is the step of progressive mindfulness. Individuals gain the capacity to recognize their own thoughts in the moment, resist the amygdala hijack, and take crises in stride. In organizations, instead of automatically reverting to the idea that “that’s the way we do things around here,” people begin to think, “That’s how we used to do things around here. Now, we do things better.” When these automatic responses change in enough people, a new way of operating is instilled in the ethic of the company. More productive values become the basis of management decisions, especially at times of stress.

Over time, in the same way that individuals who change their health habits gradually come to crave healthier foods and exercise, people in an organization will come to choose and expect higher-performance forms of operation. Change then becomes truly generative: It is no longer something imposed on the brain or on people’s desire, but something chosen and instilled by the participants. They may have wanted to change before, but only now does the new way seem the natural way to operate.

The Way We Will
The initiatives at Cargill and Ameriprise have been in place since the late 2000s, and they are starting to show results. At Ameriprise, for example, 85 percent of the advisors who participated in the new program training report that they are becoming more effective at advising clients. Client acquisition, client retention of assets, financial planning fees, and referrals of new business from existing clients are rising, in ways that are linked to the new training.

Setting this type of cycle in motion is not easy in real life. The probability of falling back into old habits and old ways of doing things is very high. But for those who can follow the practice, the payoff is enormous.

The concept of organizational reframing is still relatively young. The potential impact of neuroscience on management practice is mostly unrealized. But processes like the steps we have outlined represent a starting point, focusing attention where it should be focused: “From now on, that’s how we’re going to do things around here.”

a peek at our neighbours..

The nickname ‘Detroit of the East’ isn’t that apt after all, since Thailand isn’t just the regional hub for American brands GM and Ford, but host to most of the big Japanese automakers as well. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Mazda all produce and export vehicles from our northern neighbour.
How big actually is the auto industry in Thailand? Last year, auto exports contributed about 13% to the kingdom’s total exports of 6.18 trillion baht, which means it’s the second biggest sector after electronics and computer parts, according to data from the Commerce Ministry. The auto industry accounts for 12% of Thailand’s GDP, said the World Bank.

The ongoing political situation that occasionally flares up, as it did in the first half of 2010, doesn’t seem to affect the sector either. Car output was unaffected; although 20% less than 2009, auto makers still poured in about 32.5 billion baht ($1.1 billion) to Thailand in 2010. Some are expecting a rebound. “The flow of FDI this year is expected to be as high as 400 billion baht ($13 billion), with automotive and parts being a key sector, led by number one investor Japan,” said BOI Secretary-General Atchaka Sibunruang.
The country’s Eco Car program is a success. Mitsubishi is spending 16 billion baht ($535 million) to build its new Global Small Concept that’s due to roll out in 2012 (from a third factory in Laem Chabang, Chonburi), Honda’s Brio is launching this month, while Nissan’s Thai made March is selling very well. Outside of the Eco Car, Ford is building a new plant for its new Focus and GM has a diesel engine plant that will bear fruit soon.

Low wages, strong infrastructure and a good habitat are Thailand’s strong points. According to the International Labour Organisation’s 2009 report, average wages for manufacturing workers in Thailand is $245.50 per month, compared to China’s $412.50 and Malaysia’s $666. It’s not just about exports, as Thailand is also the biggest market in ASEAN – 800,357 vehicles were sold there in 2010, compared with Indonesia’s 764,088 and Malaysia’s 605,156.
“You have a good supplier network. You really have a lot of experienced suppliers across the board so there’s a potential to really localise a lot. The fabric is there. You can’t just drop an assembly plant into nowhere and think that cars would just magically pop up. There has got to be the right environment that brings high-quality cars,” commented Martin Apfel, GM’s ASEAN boss.

If there’s a regional threat to Thailand’s auto crown, it’s Indonesia. Average wage wise, it’s just $129 per month according to ILO, which is almost half that of Thailand’s. And unlike Malaysia’s relatively saturated market, there’s plenty of room to grow in that highly populous nation – TIV is estimated to be 800,000 this year. Growing affluence also means that Indonesia could soon overtake Malaysia as the region’s biggest consumer of passenger cars – 541,475 units were sold there in 2010, only just behind Malaysia’s 543,594.
Some analysts say Indonesia could overtake Thailand as a regional manufacturing hub by 2014 because of strong economic growth, growing national wealth and a more stable currency. We’ve already seen companies like Nissan commit money to double production in Indonesia, and Audi setting up local assembly for the A4 and A6. More recently, Daihatsu announced a 20 billion yen investment to build a new plant in Indonesia for a compact low cost car.

Will Indonesia’s auto industry gather enough steam to challenge Thailand’s status as the Detroit of Asia? Since Malaysia is out of the competition, we’ll just enjoy the match from our centre seat!