Saturday, July 14, 2007

Salam Maaf dari editor

Saya mohon maaf sekiranya blog ini lambat update.. Ini kerana saya telah bertukar ke seremban dan tidak mempunyai internet di rumah. Ini membuat saya terasa susah untuk membuat update dan berkongsi cerita dengan sahabat. Saya berharap sahabat saya terus memberi sokongan pada saya dan blog saya untuk terus menimba ilmu dan mencari pengalaman.

Sekian terima kasih...

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park

How they got started: For a decade, Steve, an avid spelunker, had been trying to persuade a mountain man to sell him some land with some millennia-old caves on it. In 1999, the man finally relented, and Steve and Jeanne quit their jobs--he owned an unsuccessful oil-production company; she was working in a corporate job--and moved from Denver to Glenwood Springs. They immediately started a small cave-touring business, driving people up the mountain in a van and guiding them through the caverns. But it wasn't until April 2003 that Steve and Jeanne transformed their independent operation into something quite different: an evolving, growing theme park that revolves around their cave tours. Now, a tram carries passengers up the mountain. From there, visitors can tour the caves, hike scenic trails, dine in the restaurant or purchase knickknacks at the gift shop.

How the company evolved during AOL's reality series, The Startup: The Beckleys' year on The Startup was actually their second year as a full-fledged theme park, and in many ways, their growing pains were over. During that first year, they were hammered by crowds that had to wait hours in line, and they had a restaurant where the food ranged from mediocre to inedible. (Occasionally, hot dogs were delivered to customers--still frozen.) And one day the power went out, stranding their banker, who was en route to the park, on a stuck tram.

During their second year of business, the Beckleys were trying to live down their reputation, and generally, they succeeded, mastering the art of crowd flow and revamping their restaurant to offer classy, yet family-friendly, fare. Customers raved, and Steve was able to persuade the city to let him continue his expansion plans.

But for all the good news, everything wasn't perfect. They had a streaker dart through the crowds one summer day, and a lightning storm once took out the power, shutting off the electric lights strategically placed throughout the caves and leaving one tour in the dark.

What's next? Steve and Jeanne have been working on a detailed plan that involves installing everything from rides--like an Alpine coaster--to an amphitheater, where they'll be able to have concerts. The cave tours are fascinating and an excellent reason to visit, but the Beckleys recognize that to get the public to return, the park needs to grow.

Friday, July 6, 2007

Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan

Tatparanandam Ananda Krishnan (is a Malaysian businessman and philanthropist. Nicknamed TAK, he is currently estimated to have a net worth of US$6.0 billion according to Forbes' latest annual list of billionaires, making him the third wealthiest man in Southeast Asia behind Robert Kuok and Ng Teng Fong..
Ananda Krishnan hates public exposure and is known to maintain a very low profile for a person of his stature. However, his hugely successful business activities always thrust him into the limelight and his name represents a huge business empire.

Early life
He was born in 1938 in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur's "Little India" to a Tamil immigrant family from Sri Lanka and is of Sri Lankan Tamil descent (Ceylonese/Jaffnese).Ananda Krishnan studied at Vivekananda Tamil School in Kuala Lumpur and furthered his studies at Victoria Instituition, Kuala Lumpur. Later, he attended University of Melbourne, Australia for his B.A. (Honours) degree majoring in political science. Following that, Krishnan obtained a Masters in Business Administration at Harvard University, graduating in 1964.

Business
Ananda Krishnan’s first entrepreneurial venture was in oil trading, setting up Exoil Trading, which went on to purchase oil drilling concessions in various countries. Later he moved into gambling (in Malaysia), stud farming (in Australia) and running a Hollywood cartoon studio. Soon, he diversified into a host of other business opportunities. In the early part of the 1990s, he started diversifying, in a big way, into the multimedia arena.
Currently, he has business interests in entertainment (Astro), space(MEASAT) , oil, power, shipping, telecommunications (Maxis, Aircel), property and gaming (Pan Pools Malaysia). His companies operate in a most parts of the South East Asia. A quarter of his wealth comes from the gambling business (lottery, horse-racing wagering). He is also said to be behind the world's largest indoor Water Park in Tropical Islands,Germany with former Genting Group executive Colin Au [2].He is also pondering an online lottery venture in Russia[citation needed].
Said to have an extraordinary entrepreneurial flair and far sighted, it was Ananda who sold former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on the idea of the 88-storey Petronas Twin Towers, the world's second tallest building, which stake he has now sold off.

Fortune magazine, in a 2001 article, called him "Kuala Lumpur's Mr Big".

Multimedia dealings
He first came to prominence by helping to organize the Live Aid concert with Bob Geldof in the mid-1980s. In the early 1990s, he began building a multimedia empire that now includes two telecommunication companies - Maxis Communications and MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems - and has three communication satellites circumnavigating the earth.
He also effected the purchase of 46% of Maxis Communications, the country's largest cellular phone company, from British Telecom and AT&T for $680 million - raising his stake to 70%. Maxis has more than eight million subscribers, with more than 40% market share in Malaysia. Recently, Maxis has acquired Aircel, Tamil Nadu's largest cellular phone company and has plans to expand to rest of India. Maxis is also under negotiation to buy over and expand an Indonesian cellular phone company.[citation needed]
He is also the head of Astro All Asia Networks Plc, the only company currently providing a DIRECT to HOME TV satellite service in Malaysia. http://www.astroplc.com/05/ (accessed 18th August 2006). It currently broadcasts to Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.
In an agreement between Astro and India's Sun Network, Ananda plans to produce TV channels which cater to the Indian market, especially Tamil diaspora in countries such as US and Europe. Ananda also plans to offer TV services featuring Web-based interactivity.Ananda Krishnan owns stakes in TVB.com (the interactive arm of Hong Kong's main broadcaster) and the Shaw Brothers' movie archives, which holds more than 800 movie titles. He also operates a chain of TGV multiplex theatres.

Personal life
Ananda Krishnan has been called everything from a recluse to a humble, silent worker. Not much is known about him and his tightly guarded private life because he maintains such a low profile.
He is known to be apolitical. But he is also a close friend of both former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and Mahathir's former arch-foe Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. He brokered the peace deal and healed the political rift between them a few years ago. He is also known to be generous and donates to charities and temples as well as has established scholarships for the deserving. In 2005, newspapers reported that he had given away RM160 million to charities through his privately owned Usaha Tegas group of companies.Despite his wealth he still maintains and stays in his family's Minangkabau styled mansion in Kuala Lumpur.He was one of the earliest tycoon to own a Dassault Falcon private jet.

Monday, July 2, 2007

Cereality

Cereal Entrepreneurs: Roth enjoyed helping clients through his brand development and marketing firm, but the thought of applying his branding skills to another business fired him up. Seeking a product with strong personal ties, he was intrigued by cereal's lasting hold on consumers. "They were eating it everywhere, at different times of day," says Roth. The idea of a cereal retail experience excited Roth's graphic-designer friend Bacher, who was inspired by the creative challenges and possibilities.

Survey Says: According to both Kellogg's and Quaker, 95 percent of the American public enjoys cereal, and even more enjoy milk. Armed with that information, Roth and Bacher set out to create a way for people to savor cereal away from home.

Initially targeting the college market--"They basically live on cereal," quips Roth--the entrepreneurs knew that acceptance by these cynical consumers meant they could get in with everybody. In fact, the popularity of Cereality's prototype kiosk in Tempe, Arizona, at Arizona State University's food court has been trumped by the December 2004 opening of their full-fledged cereal bar and cafe in Philadelphia.

Breakfast Bonanza: Thirty cereals are scooped by pajama-clad "Cereologists," who add any of 30-plus toppings, including the number-one seller: bananas. Cereal bars, snack mixes, "Slurrealities" (smoothies meet cereal), juice, soft drinks, coffee, steamers and seven different milks round out the menu. Next, the company plans to expand into office buildings, airports, hospitals and train stations.