Power Thinking

Musings from Dennis #68: My boss walked over and passed me an invitation card from a major retailer inviting us for their grand 25th anniversary dinner. He could not attend and asked me to go instead. “Er boss, this is an important dinner and I am sure many senior people will be there. I am just an Assistant Manager and not very comfortable at all about going”. “Listen”, he said, “you are a representative of the Walt Disney Company, a global tour de force that everyone recognizes. Who cares about your position? Attend and be confident!” And so I did but after a mindset change and carrying a different disposition. And while the entire table of 10 (typical Chinese sit down dinner) were filled with Managing Directors minus one, I believe the entire evening went well. I was also able to have an intelligent conversation with that Japanese infant feeding brand MD on my right (and also after exchanging name cards!). That power thinking is what I passed on to my junior direct reports now – "you are representing Paramount, a leading and very well-known global media and entertainment company!". For the many of us who enjoy networking, we would have found something about the company we work for that is unique, and stands out among the crowded brand landscape that we can be proud of. Those are conversation starters and we should never cower even when our work titles are not significant. Because it is not about who we are but all about who we represent.

Ending It All

Musings from Dennis #67: He was just 18, my wife told me today. Came from a well-to-do family with high expectations but hanged himself, still in his college uniform. Instead of seeing a future of endless hope, he saw a hopeless end. I know that feeling. At age 27, I wanted to kill myself. I had 7 days but could not finish the task assigned to me at work. It was a public event, the deadline was there and the press announced the opening date. I had difficulty sourcing the items needed for the project. My immediate boss could not comprehend the pressure I was in and offered no help. Neither did my colleagues. One even tricked me. The various help I hired were playing in their own world (did not realise they did not understand English). The equipment that was needed to help me get the work done broke down when we needed it. The overhead sun on a cloudless sky was searing and I knew no reprieve. Even when I needed a high tide to make this beach event a success, it was not to be. That feeling, that hopelessness. Suddenly on the 6^th day, a day before opening, everything fell into place and we opened well on that weekend. Tanned to the point of being sunburnt, I fell ill on the Monday immediately after and got chicken pox, to spend 3 weeks on medical leave and well-earned rest (I still have the pock marks). Since that day, I have always felt that no challenge can now overcome me. Leaders, spend time with your direct reports. They could be quietly crying in their pain and we can make that small difference for them, even if it means stopping what we do and giving them a listening ear. That was what I needed at that time as no one wanted to listen. Recalling that day, that feeling of hopelessness washed anew all over me. But thirty years on, I have been living in days of endless hope.

Sweet Retail Marketing Memories

Musings from Dennis #66: Lovely feelings! Two memorable retail marketing success stories in Singapore I can’t get out of my head. The first one was in 2001 when we launched Disney Princess at Raffles City with the then Sogo Department Store. The mall show in the atrium was stupendous with 28 Disney characters that the mall spent a princely amount on – but we knew that was just a sales driver for where the real action ought to be – the retail pop up store right next to the stage – and yes the response was overwhelming. I remember trying to help fold the little girl Princess blouses over and over but gave up after 30 minutes because the shoppers kept pulling them off the wagons, shelves and racks! Then in 2016, with Nickelodeon and when we launched PAW Patrol at City Square Mall with the first ever live stage show, the response was really unexpected. Soon after each show, the shelves where the toys and stationery items were display began emptying themselves. Parents were seen grabbing a Chase under one arm while holding onto a Marshall and a Skye in the other. (I got photo proofs). The cashiers were happily ringing non-stop and we had to get the toy distributor to open their warehouses on both Saturdays and Sundays just to fill back those fast-emptying shelves! I remember being happy one Sunday seeing the shelves filled at 5pm and then going home to take a nap. I was awakened at 7pm by our upset mall owner “Hey Dennis why are the shelves empty? See those photos in your phone..” What? We just filled them 2 hours before! Unhappy situations? No, quite the other way around!

Time and Chance

Musings from Dennis #65: Time and Chance. I sat with my 84-year-old mother last week and we reflected on my career through the years. She noted that I was not a university graduate yet enjoyed the blessings of a wonderful work life. She then said something I had not heard before. My late maternal grandmother (passed on at age 92, 19 years ago) once told her in peranakan baba patoi (we are a Straits Chinese Peranakan family, a sub-set of the Chinese race here) “Pandai tak lawan Nasib” (Intelligence is not more superior to your blessings). It made me think and wonder and realized King Solomon once said something similar: “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all”. So if you feel that you have been left behind in your career or have not moved on to where you want to be at, take heart – your success will soon come, and it will! Your ‘nasib’ or blessings will win over any ‘pandai’. Just like Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan! 

Sell-Through Tactics

Musings from Dennis #64: Great sell-through, or was it? Doing my rounds at Takashimaya at the household department in Basement 2, I chanced upon this gathering shopping crowd literally swiping off the crystal ornament (good brand name starting with an “S”) accessories and wondered if the price-offs were too good to be true? Not really my sales supervisor colleague informed. "We sold these exact same pieces at Level 1 where the accessories were usually displayed but not much response then. So we kept the entire stock for 3 months and resurfaced them here and look at the response now!" So the 4 P’s of marketing has a twist of a lesson here: you may have the right Product at a good Price and with a sound Promotion but the PLACE is key too. And if that does not work, change the place and layer in a fifth P… Patience!

I Am Woman

Musings from Dennis #63: Int'l Women's Day 2023. I walked into this interview room at Sentosa for this Events job. It was a large conference room and was cold. I was told I was one of as many as 60 candidates. Across the huge table were about 5 to 7 (was told senior members of the board) people and I was in my mid 20’s then and this was the mid 80’s. I was prepared for most of the questions tossed at me until this last one came along. “Dennis if we accept you, we wish to let you know that your boss is a woman. How do you feel about reporting to a woman instead of a man?”. A few seconds in and then I said “Well, in our line of work and in events, what can make or break it will be the details that go into the planning of it all. Women are highly detailed and for that it will be good for me to have her as my boss as she can help ensure all will be good”. More than 30 years have passed since that interview (yes I got the job which started it all for me) and with International Women’s Day coming tomorrow, I wish to dedicate this post to all the women bosses in my work life whom I had reported to and still do and taught me (and other men!) so much about all those details! Linda, Maria, Georgette, Samantha, Jee Yah, Anita, Sherlyn, Charlotte Castillo (she/her/ella), Claire O'Connor, Veronica Hart – and all the rock star women in the global and regional Paramount franchise, trade, retail marketing, corp comms teams with whom I interact with ever so regularly AND the Paramount Asian teams as well – here’s to you all!

Detained!

Musings from Dennis #62: So I made my way down to meet with our PAW Patrol licensee in her office. We had a retail promotion in KL Malaysia to talk about. The Malay-speaking cab driver said no problem but we soon got lost in the midst of the confusing road network in this “Taman Perindustrian” factory area. Soon he was driving slowly along the rows of shop houses and stopped by three uniformed persons on motorcycles, wound down his window and I thought to ask for directions. After some muffled discussions all in Malay, I found two of these ‘patrolmen’ coming onto the left back passenger side of the cab where I was, opened the door and asked me to step outside! They asked to see my passport. Fortunately while I usually leave this document in the hotel when I go out, I had it with me! Some quiet browsing through the passport but I panicked and called the licensee. “Amy please help me!”. All this time I looked at the wooded hillock beyond the roads in front of me and wondered if my remains would ever be found if I had to follow them. Soon enough they gave me back my passport and left. Nervously I asked the driver what happened? He said, oh they thought I was someone they were looking for and from Myanmar!