The Las Vacas Steak Challenge is back! After the huge success last year, this is the fourth installment of our annual event. And it is the biggest ever. What started out a s a small session with some 6 meat lovers saw 60 participants competiting in 2011. This year we are doubling the number of participants we take in.

Showdown will be on 26 Feb 2012 at Las Vacas Kelana Jaya outlet. The meat is HALAL Australian Grass Fed Ribeye. The prize is flight and hotel for 2 pax to Gold Coast Australia. Registration opened on 13 January and will close on 15 Feb 2012.

We are limiting this challenge to only 120 participants. So register early to ensure your seat! Payment and registration can be made at both Mont Kiara or Kelana Jaya outlets, or via a reply e-mail, followed up by your payment.

Our last year’s winner went to Australia and he called it “a life-altering experience!” You can read about him here: http://www.lasvacasmeat.com/news_events.html   

Details
The fee is 100RM per participant.
Registration 1:30pm and 2:00pm on the day of the event 
Competition starts at 2:30pm
Grand Prize: a trip for 2 to Australia

Launchpad is handling this event for the second year in the running. We will be supporting Las Vacas with the promotion of the event and the organisation of the actual event.

www.perimalaysia.com

PERI was founded in 1969 by Artur Schwörer. The company’s name is taken from the Greek preposition “peri” (English: around). PERI has been a competent partner to building firms for more than 40 years across the whole range of formwork and scaffolding technology. The family-managed company with head office in Weissenhorn is one of the top 50 companies in Bavaria and over the last few years has achieved above-average growth in new staff and turnover.

In Malaysia we are assisting the company with fotography, E-Newsletters and client success stories. The above press clippings shows the complete work, from foundation to completion. For this we interviewed clients, took the pictures and identified suitable media platforms to publish the material. A second edition of the material was also used in the bi-monthly newsletter. Basically, we provide an “all-around” service for this client.

PERI Malaysia has been our very first client and we have been working for them ever since.

In 2009, Stefan Pertz, founder of business consultancy Launchpad, was faced with a dilemma posed by a client. “A lubricant manufacturer came to us and said, ‘I want to give my sales for heavy-truck lubricants a boost. How do I do that?

“The obvious answer was, you put an ad in a truck magazine,” he said. “So our client said, ‘Okay, find me a trucking magazine where I can advertise.’”

But a search for such a publication in Asia came up empty-handed. “It’s a huge industry. But we were amazed to find that, apart from Thailand, there was no trucking magazine in Southeast Asia,” said the German entrepreneur.

Six months later, Asian Trucker was launched in Malaysia, a trucking hub in Southeast Asia. Covering the latest in fleet management and operations, the quarterly includes articles on the latest truck models, focusing on technical and engineering features. The publication counts driver and fleet owners and operators, as well as container port operators, as part of its readership.

Last October, Asian Trucker launched a Chinese edition in Hong Kong, where drivers of a thriving trucking industry regularly ply cross-boundary routes to the Chinese mainland. “What’s unique to the Hong Kong market is that, unlike places such as Malaysia, many of the drivers are also the owners of the trucks,” said Mr Pertz. “That’s key because they’re also the decision-makers in their business.”

Read the complete story: http://www.hktdc.com/info/web/mi/article.htm?LANGUAGE=en&ARTICLE_ID=1X07RQ6O&DATASOURCE=hkti 

(Photo: Tore Claesson)

Renting Is Better Than Buying

Today in organizations there are more PCs than there are employees. Some employees even have another computing device, such as the BlackBerry or an iPhone. IT equipment has become a commodity and technology needs are guaranteed to evolve in the years to come. The one certainty in business is that there are no certainties. With that, why then are some organizations still buying and servicing PCs like in the 1990’s, when there is simply no need for it?

Rentwise is in the business of renting out adequate technology platforms. Our clients are financially savvy organizations that realize there is little value in being first movers to try out new technologies and understand it is a risk to do so given IT prices go down rapidly as new technologies mature. These organizations also understand there is no need for the latest and greatest technology across the board as it would be overkill and not required by most business areas. They like the benefits of renting what is needed and the value rental brings by releasing capital for critical investments in uncertain economic environments which naturally brings costs savings to their businesses.

Rentwise provides a wide range of IT equipment on rental plus we maintain and administrate them so you can work hassle free and focus on your core business areas.

Launchpad helps Rentwise with E-Newsletters, Client testimonials, creation of new collaterals as well as the development of this new website. Images are a mix of original photography, shot on site, and stockimages where appropiate to allow for exchange in line with the changing models rented out.

As more and more Asian brands make it into the list of most valuable brands, it may be interesting to look at some Asian principles to be applied into the Western marketing strategy. Many companies are already using Kaizen and Kanban, so why not go beyond the production and see how Japanese Principles could be applied in marketing?

Customer service is something everybody is talking about: customer satisfaction and beyond or exceeding customer expectations, offering world class service are other expressions are used. Unless we establish the customer needs in advance by research we cannot actually anticipate the needs. Isn’t this the same as the Japanese “Omotenashi” where the hosts (service providers) anticipate the needs of the guests (customers) in advance or offering services? One of many definitions of Marketing would be: The management process that identifies current and future needs of clients to satisfy them profitably (CIM).

Aren’t these two the same? Shouldn’t your website for instance be inviting and giving the user more than they expect? If we were to see a potential client / client as a guest to our business, then we could say we are the host and our job is to ensure that we provide more than expected. If we succeed in this, then the guest will keep coming back. Not only that, this guest will talk about the pleasant experience; word of mouth becomes a powerful tool. Have you had a look at your website recently to check if it is inviting? Does it only talk about your business, not the client’s benefit of using your service?

Highly successful with social media, Doubletree by Hilton, Kuala Lumpur is currently ramping up for a competition that you wouldn’t want to miss. Companies can post a video as to why they deserve a offsite, complete with meeting rooms, via a FB app. The competition will be aimed at businesses in Malaysia and Singapore.

Currently, Launchpad is building the app, which is to launch by 12th of January. We recommend you follow the official Doubletree by Hilton Fan page via www.makan-kitchen.com or www.makan-moments.com (Both build by Launchpad).