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If you are reading this right now, chances are you are interested in On-Demand Learning and probably have heard of some mixed opinions regarding On-Demand Learning and other forms of upskilling courses. If you are looking for a decisive voice (or just another set of opinions that you may not have heard) then you’ve come to the right place!

On-Demand Learning has definitely gotten more popular in recent years. This is not solely due to technological advancements but it also has to do with the benefits it brings as compared to its drawbacks. As the title suggests, On-Demand Learning not only provides you with a pathway to upskill yourself faster than other channels, it also has tons of other benefits as compared to its drawbacks. As such, let’s jump in to why On-Demand Learning is the secret express to upskilling in 2022!

On Demand Learning: The Secret Express To Upskilling in 2022

1. I will follow you … follow you wherever you may go (Convenience)
2. Can’t pick between a racecar or a tortoise? How about both? (Pace)
3. Another one… And another one … And another one! (Sustainability)

I Will Follow You … Follow You Wherever You May Go

Remind you of Digi? Well that is essentially On-Demand Learning! The word On-Demand means that you can learn anywhere and anytime you choose! Bored when your partner is having boys/girls night? Kids went to bed early and have too much time on their hands? Have an awkward amount of time on your hands and don’t know what to do with it? All of these can be put to good use with On-Demand Learning Take myself for example, I decided to start off in an ASL course to learn how to communicate in sign language (because it’s interesting to learn another language and why not?) 

I started learning and practicing signs whenever I have an awkward 2 – 10 minutes gap. This ranged from waiting for the decision on where to eat for lunch to heading up to bed a little too early. I started off learning how to sign the basic alphabet and eventually by the end of week one, I could sign “Hi my name is Bryan, and I enjoy buffets”. After one month, I was able to actually do what I call “Sign singing”. I could sign to the song “Way Back Into Love” (My personal all time favorite song). This was achieved with all the tiny 2-10 minute awkward gaps regardless of where I am. Instead of needing to stay at one particular location or attending a particular course at a particular time, On-Demand Learning provides the power for you to learn anytime and anywhere!

Can’t Pick Between A Racecar Or A Tortoise? How About Both?

Obviously the decision is clear, most if not all would pick a racecar over a tortoise (p.s. Not applicable to animal lovers). Essentially On-Demand Learning does not force you to choose whether you want to go through the course fast or slow, you are allowed to be fast and slow whenever you wish and whenever you want! So you would not be bombarded by messages regarding how a very particular owl misses you or how your streak is about to be ended.

As young adults, adults and working adults, we would definitely want to learn new things, skills and knowledge. But we wish to learn at our own pace and not be rushed. Understandably we might be facing a tough day at work, maybe a not so happy gathering, we might not be in the exact mood to learn or may be limited by our own ability to absorb the learning material. 

On-Demand Learning can be done anywhere and anytime, this also means it can be done anyhow and anyway we want. Comparing this to physical based settings or online class settings, we need to prepare ourselves or we would miss whatever is being taught and that certainly would be wasting our resources. For On-Demand Learning however, we can set our own pace to learn faster when we are mentally and physically ready or slow down our pace on days where we might not be ready to absorb as much information. This alone makes all the time we spent with On-Demand Learning worth every moment.

Another one … And Another One … And Another One!

Have you ever faced the scenario where you want someone to repeat what they said but hesitate and just nod awkwardly because they repeated for more than 3 times? Well, me too and I believe everyone too! It becomes awkward as we feel guilty for missing out on what the other person says. On-Demand Learning on the other hand, can be repeated again and again and again and again. The neat part is, you can even pick up from where you left off!

I remember there was once where I took an Advanced Excel Training Course. The instructor was very patient and was very clear with his instructions and explanations. However, as time went on, I started to realize I was a little lost and I had asked him to repeat a few times before, so I dare not ask him to repeat again (in fear of annoying him and wasting my other course mates time). In the end, I only managed to pick up bits and pieces from the training and had to spend an extra 3 hours in total to pick up all the things I missed out on my own!

For my negotiation course I took from the On-Demand Learning course on the other hand, which allowed me to repeat and repeat the same content multiple times until I finally managed to be able to practice the method. Furthermore, whenever I forgot about some basic fundamentals, I could always go back to previous sessions and repeat them. These are the reasons behind why on demand learning is the secret express to upskilling, not only because it is fast, but because it gives us the freedom to learn as much as we want, revise as much as we want and pace ourselves accordingly as well. 

Beyond realizing the benefits and power of On-Demand Learning, next comes which On-Demand Learning Platform to choose, and that is a whole other headache for us to explore. Fortunately, if that is your worries, we got amazing news for you as you can check out our SHRA E-learning platform. It comes with a career and skill analysis to guide you through which courses to take to get that dream job you want!  If you’d like to check out our other programs, feel free to click here.

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon. 

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As mobile internet and information technology advances,  consumers’ shopping journey has also been changed from pure in-store visits to the mixture of both in-store visits and online store visits. With this emerging consumer trend, it has made more and more retail companies adopt a business strategy that integrates both online and offline business stores. Nevertheless, when huge amounts of time and money are invested, do they help to enhance the business?  

Tracking Data In Omnichannel :  Why Do You Need To Start Tracking Retail Data? 

1. Identifying consumer trends
2. Increasing marketing ROI
3. Improving store productivity

Identifying Consumer Insights

To win customers’ hearts, it is important for retailers to understand their potential customers’ behavioral data. From the average value of sales per customer per visit to average number of likes or shares of a post on social media and average time spent on viewing an online page. If all these data are being taken into account , it would offer a bigger and more accurate picture to retailers and help them to make better informed business decisions. 

Increasing Marketing ROI

Without looking at the retail data, chances are high that retailers make business decisions purely based on their intuition that might be opposed to the retail data. On the other hand, through understating retail data such as click-through rate or lead generation rate from each marketing post, in-store promotion or marketing email, it could help retailers to measure the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. With this information, retailers can stop marketing strategies that do not provide the expected results and they could fully utilize all their marketing budget on marketing strategies that really boost their business. 

Improving Store Productivity

When retailers track retail data like customer dwell time at different sections of their offline store and online store, retailers would better understand the spots that draw the most attention of customers. This could potentially help retailers to determine the best spots to place the suggested product and best store layout . On the online platform, dwell time information of their potential customers could also help retailers to formulate their customer engagement strategy. As the customers receive more relevant engagement, retailers would naturally get more buy-in from the customers, hence increasing the sales of the store. 

All in all, tracking retail data would bring you one step closer to your omnichannel strategy’s success. To ensure that all the business channels initiatives contribute to the overall growth of your business, you will need to start tracking the retail data that is already at your hand and make sure that your business decisions are in accordance with what retail data suggest. Wondering what are the important data and key performance indicators of your business channels  that would contribute to your business growth? Want to learn more in-depth on the breakdown of online and offline store KPI that would affect your business? Fret not! You can check out our Professional Certificate in New Retail Marketing. If you’d like to check out our other programs, feel free to click here.

Written by Lim Ee Hau,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Ee hau is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He has a  psychology background and he is passionate in assisting individuals to achieve their life goal. He loves to connect with people by initiating insightful conversation. He enjoys swimming and you can catch him bouldering in the gym during his free time.

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Let’s try out a small exercise! On your phone, tablet or computer, type in the name of your product, merchandise or services. Chances are you will find tons of other products or services similar to yours that appear on your search result. To make matters worse, the content that we write for our products, services and business is like a drop of water in a vast ocean, floating on the web with tons of other similarly written content.

The decision to invest time and resources into content marketing is evidently important, but merely investing resources in content marketing is no longer enough to stand out, we need to go beyond and begin exploring elements that truly spice up our content marketing. Especially in this world of “New Retail” creating engaging content can truly separate yourself from the competition. So what are some of the essentials we can use to spice up our content you ask? Well let’s take a look at the 3 essentials needed to spice up our content marketing in this new era of retail!

Content Marketing: 3 Essentials To Spice Up Your Content

1. Think and search like your customers
2. Don’t judge a book by its cover … But Cover Sells Books
3. Everything is about content

Think and Search Like Your Customers

This may sound simple enough yet tons of retailers miss out on this! Take my previous retail experience as an example, we would often put promotion, sale and discount as our main keywords whenever we post our products, thinking it would attract customers since customers get excited by promotions. To our dismay, it did not yield much results. Fortunately, we finally decided to try searching the keywords we used, that was when we realized where we went wrong! We were bombarded by tons of other products instead. To make matters worse, some of our competitor products appeared before our products appeared!

We decided to optimize the keywords for our products in line with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), it turns out just from a change of keywords and word usages, the amount of engagement as well as click rate tripled compared to the previous method! Not only that, but we managed to increase our sales for mid range and premium products too! In New Retail, it becomes important to not just include words that attract customers in our content marketing strategy, but crucial for us to think from the perspectives of customers searching for our products and services. Only then will our content be seen and appear at the top of our customers’ searches.

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Cover … But Cover Sells Books

I believe most of us have heard this phrase, but the latter stands true as well! With so much content out there and so little time to filter through, an enticing title or an intriguing visual that sparks interest could be the difference between our content being looked through or completely ignored. As a consumer myself, I noticed I would oftentimes mindlessly scroll through social media to look for something interesting or even type in titles of content I’d like to read and pick one that has an eye-catching title!

I remembered the most interesting content that caught my eye, was one about low calorie ice-cream! They included a picture of typical ice creams (900-1200 calories) and their brand of ice cream (250-340 calories). The picture alone caught my attention instantly. As a foodie and someone who is trying to diet, it was extremely attractive and I instantly ordered 2 pints. After I ordered from them, I scrolled through my social media and realized that I have actually followed them for quite some time but never had that strong attraction to buy or engage in their posts until then!

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Low Calories Ice Cream🍦 (@jollyicecreams)

To truly excel in content marketing and creating hot topics, we need to dive into New Retail and truly integrate data collected both offline and online into our content marketing to better suit and attract both existing and potential consumers out there! After optimizing keyword search, the next step we should take would be to create attractive visuals as well as titles to attract consumers.

Everything Is About Content

Ever heard the term content is king? Well it is the absolute truth! It matters not how attractive our title, visuals or the usage or correct keywords if our content does not keep our consumers hooked! The type of content we pick as well as the content of our marketing strategy is a key component and requires us to truly understand our target audience and consumer! When we first started to do content marketing for my previous store, we focused mainly on the products and services we offered as well as some important and relevant content such as ways to prolong product usage and quick hacks to solve product issues. 

However, we did not garner much engagement. So we decided to switch a different strategy! Utilizing tiktoks, memes and gifs about hot topics or current topics to attract a larger audience. The result? It worked, we had tons of engagement from our audiences. Although we managed to garner high engagement, it was merely a sudden influx and increase but it was not consistent enough. That was when we sat down and thought of how we can combine both or utilize both methods to achieve the best effect. Once we figured out the balance, we had a consistent increase in engagement with audiences while also being able to convert some of them to our customers!

Ultimately, it is important to find the perfect balance between sensational topics or contents and lasting topics or contents. To curate a hot topic and hot content, we need to start by making sure we appear on the top of our customers’ searches, attract their attention with enticing visuals and titles to finally lead them to read through or consume our interesting, helpful and relevant content. That is the essence of how we can begin to spice up our content in the ultimate journey of achieving true new retail marketing.

Beyond these essentials, there are tons of other strategies including creative content management, Essential P’s in the retail landscape and many others all found within new retail marketing. Interested to find out what this new retail marketing is? Want a more in-depth breakdown of the strategies personalized according to your business? Wait no further! You can check out our Professional Certification in New Retail Marketing. If you’d like to check out our other programs, feel free to click here.

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Our lives as citizens, parents, workers and even educators are all impacted by the latest innovations in the commercial world and technological advancements in the social media landscape. It is our responsibility and privilege to investigate, understand, and steer the inevitable arrival of the educational metaverse. The issue is, where shall we begin? Reading, researching, and, most importantly, acquiring new skills help us get ready. If you are thinking about advancing your career, getting a professional certification is a great step in the right direction. So what is it all about? 

Definition 

For those who want to enter a professional career or advance in their current one, formal training isn’t the only choice; a professional certification program is also an excellent option. In fact, the market for continuing education is seeing an increase in the number of professional certificate programs. Specialized knowledge used in the performance of duties or tasks is generally recognized by these programs. In most cases, a professional certificate program consists of focused training for a specific career, such as retail management, healthcare technology or even auto mechanic. It’s also possible to get an additional certification that will enhance your current career path. Furthermore, prospective employers can see from this certification that the applicant has a solid grasp of the subject matter relevant to their position. In the event that your career path does not necessitate a college degree, these certificates are essential. You can show prospective employers that you’re a well-trained professional in your field and that you have certain hard skills. As for the duration of the course, it will only take between 3 to 4 months to complete it. 

Benefits 

To begin, you’ll have an advantage over the competition if you have access to training they don’t. Professional certifications set you apart from the competition by proving that you have put in the time and effort to learn about and excel in your chosen subject. This can provide you an edge, which is crucial in the modern business environment. Know how to utilize that up-and-coming app or social network before it becomes ubiquitous. Earning professional credentials is another great way to set yourself up for success as an entrepreneur. 

This is because specialized coursework may provide you with the advanced training, information, and expertise that will guide and direct you in the execution of your projects or tasks using up-to-date tools and technological methodologies, allowing you to manage all parts of your work more efficiently and effectively as well. Moreover, by learning about developments in your field, you may improve any inefficient or sloppy practices that are now holding you back, all the while expanding your skill set. This can equip you with the knowledge and bravery to try something new, like laying the groundwork for a more high-tech office setting for your consulting firm. The benefits that professional certifications can bring to your job make them a valuable investment. In order to maintain these advantages as you grow and change, it is important to maintain current certifications with the skills that you learned. 

So now, you want to upskill your education but don’t know where to begin? Fret not because we have just the right program for you. Introducing the Professional Certificate In New Retail Marketing in collaboration with London Examination Board (LEB) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC). This certificate focuses on workplace applications grounded by real industry case studies where it can help you to gain valuable insights in the world of New Retail, improve competence of sales and marketing team as well as helping your businesses grow in 3 exceptional ways. However, if you are concerned about the price, don’t worry because our professional certificate program is claimable by the HRD Corp. You can start by visiting our website for more information on the professional certification that can boost your career today. 

Written By Syuhada Rozihas,
SHRA Corporate Trainer

Syuhada Rozihas is a Corporate Trainer at SH Retail Academy who is passionate about making a difference for herself and those around her. She has trained more than 1,000 sales professionals, executives and managers in the areas of retail sales. Meanwhile, in her free time, she enjoys hiking and running to keep her in shape, as well as baking for her loved ones. You can find her on LinkedIn. 

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In 2022, social media platforms are undoubtedly the gold mine for everyone to market our products! Let’s have a small exercise, let’s do a mental tick on whichever platforms we are currently using to market our products:

Facebook ……………（         ）

Instagram…………… （         ）

TikTok…………………（         ）

Online Store…………（         ）

Shopee………………（         ）

Lazada………………（         ）

Done? Well, I believe all of us would at least have 1 of the above checked. Furthermore, most if not all of us have put in tons of effort solely to make sure our products are marketed well on these platforms. The choice to invest in these platforms is a must, but beyond investing in these platforms, we need to take a step further to analyze and even introduce different strategies to fill in the gaps left by purely focusing on digital marketing. This integration comes from the idea of “New Retail”. So what are some of the gaps missing you ask? Well, let’s take a look at some of the gaps we can start patching in order for us to thrive in this era of new retail.

Digital Marketing? Haiz… So Many Gaps, How To Fill?

1. Don’t put all your eggs into one basket!
2. Always check your eggs as they are cooking
3. Centering your eggs around your customers

1. DON’T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS INTO ONE BASKET

Back when I was working in a brick-and-mortar retail store, my manager was inspired and would often spend most of his time focusing on social media marketing. Besides time, he would invest tons of money in terms of advertising our products. However, throughout that period, our sales did not increase significantly. Furthermore, the walk-in rate during that time was immensely low as we were still going through CMCO. Our manager was obviously stressed and looking for ideas to keep his store afloat. That was when we came up with a few amazing ideas!

We decided to start what we call a “Mobile Demo Booth”, we walked around the vicinity of the store with our demo product engaging passing customers with some mini challenges as well as mini games. One of our colleagues then decided to record the process down and post it on our social media accounts. That was when we started seeing an increase in sales! We then proceeded to attempt different ways to connect with more customers.

As such, one thing we learnt from our manager that still applies now, is that social media marketing is a powerful tool, but on its own, the effects it can achieve are very limited. However, when we adopt the concept of new retail, combining social media with other different channels such as physical touchpoints, we can actually reach a wider audience and create a much stronger marketing strategy.

2. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR EGGS WHEN THEY ARE COOKING

After noticing this, all of us were obviously excited! My manager is able to keep the store alive and gain revenue, while we managed to get higher commissions (yay!). So instead, my manager decided to take a portion of the funds he used to invest in social media marketing into other channels such as telemarketing as well as our “Mobile Demo Booth”. For the next 2 months, we were surprised by the amount of sales we were getting and our manager looked less stressed and had more time to relax as well. So he gave us full control of how we want to utilize the funds.

2 weeks down the line, our manager was shocked to find out the monthly fund was used up in just 2 weeks but there was only a slight increase in sales comparatively! We spent the funds on games and challenges we can play with customers as well as some treats to keep each other motivated! We obviously had a meeting and decided to start looking into what was truly bringing in sales. Turns out, most of our sales came from returning customers due to telemarketing and there were no changes in walk-in customers from the walking booth!

From then onwards, before we invest, we would look into which of the marketing strategies we are applying are actually giving us the most returns while also keeping cost at a minimum for other strategies. So an important aspect for us to reflect would be whether we know the way to measure our online marketing success. In the current era of new retail, to succeed is to assess our performance, to identify the areas we need to improve in.

3. CENTERING YOUR EGGS AROUND YOUR CUSTOMERS

After optimizing our strategy, our manager believed we are practicing proper new retail marketing strategies. Thus, he wanted us to challenge ourselves to get more sales within our areas and offered an additional team bonus to whichever team did the best in terms of sales. We were very motivated and we strive to attract more customers and to close them! This continued on for 2 weeks before all of us lost our motivation. Why? Well, the social media team had a 3 minute average response time and had tons of enquiries, but none of the customers wanted to buy the product without testing it, even if they did, it took 5-days worth of convincing before they even considered buying.

The demo booth team on the other hand could close customers easily, but the foot traffic around the store was very limited, the whole team had an average of 3 sales a day. The telemarketing team was even worse, they would sometimes spend much time introducing the product only to be met with a “I’ll think about it” or “Not interested” after nearly spending 5-10 minutes on a call. We were completely devastated. That was when our managers realized we became so focused on the commission and sales that we forgot the most crucial thing, our customer!

In line with the concept of New Retail, our manager actually got us to focus on working with each other instead of against each other to provide the best service to our customers. Rather than closing customers online, we now set up appointments for them to visit us or even real time live sessions for them to ask us and demo the products for them. The telemarketing team focused on calling to follow up on appointments and spending short and sweet calls to contact previous customers and introduce promotions instead of selling. 

Our effort drove most of the online customers to visit our stores where we can easily demo the products and get their interests while optimizing the amount of energy spent on each customer. By centralizing our efforts on customers, utilizing multiple channels to market products to customers and always checking the returns of our strategies, we were able to find a mix that not only is effective use of resources, but one that actually generated lots of revenue for our store! However utilizing all of these strategies is only the beginning, the true challenge, is to integrate all of these channels, becoming what we call “New Retail Marketing”

The trends as well as the gaps for an effective digital marketing strategy does require time as well as the know-how’s before it can be successfully implemented. Interested to find out what this new retail marketing is? Want a more in-depth breakdown of the strategies personalized according to your business? Wait no further! You can check out our Professional Certification in New Retail Marketing. If you’d like to check out our other programs, feel free to click here.

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 3,125 total views,  5 views today

It’s no secret that retail is a hard slog. Why? Everyone says retail has high fixed expenses, high working capital intensity, unreliable clients, and low entry barriers, therefore it’s not surprising that it’s so expensive and difficult. But it’s okay because I’m not here to aggravate your pain. Instead I will share some secrets that other successful businesses won’t tell you especially about transformation.

Have you ever wondered why some businesses out there are so successful? So famous? So strong? Imagine, if we can have a teeny tiny bit of their glory to be implemented in our business, sounds exciting right? Let me tell you, your business can flourish just like them. But how? The secret and key here is, RENEW.

That’s right! You heard it loud and clear. RENEW YOUR BUSINESS. This is where businesses need to transform from time to time to be on top of the world and succeed no matter what happens. Fasten your seatbelt and join me in this rollercoaster ride of information!

Business Transformation Secrets People Won’t Tell You One

1. The Pain Of Your Business
2. What Is Renewing Your Business?
3. Why Need To Renew?

1. THE PAIN OF YOUR BUSINESS

As retail undergoes rapid transformation as a result of technological advancement, new challenges arise constantly. This trend is expected to continue through the end of this year and I hope it will be a wake-up call for retailers to think about transformation, so you’ll be aware of the major challenges you may face in the near future. The question here is, what will happen if you don’t transform your business? Now, let’s see whether these problems sound familiar to you or not.

• Low walk in rate to your store
• Your sales are dropping, whereas your competitors are doing well
• Your customers have shifted to online platforms
• Not sure what’s wrong with your business operations
• Your staff are not motivated to change
• Your business is not fast enough to fulfill customers’ order
• Don’t know how to digitalize your business
• Slow in getting relevant sales or operational data
• Too much paperwork
• Poor ROI on digital marketing efforts

By listing down these common problems faced by businesses out there, I hope you can now identify what are some of the problems that are causing you agony and figure out what we can do about it, okay?

2. WHAT IS RENEWING YOUR BUSINESS?

Quick question. When your business comes across a hurdle, what do you do? Do you stay there and do nothing or do you take action to solve it? I hope your answer is the latter since staying quiet and complacent is going to kill your business, for sure. Talking about actions, what kind of action should we take then? This is where renewing is the ultimate action to save your business. What we mean by “business renewal” nowadays is not just any improvement, but rather a shift in mindsets and putting people first to bring about real change in the workplace.  If your business isn’t using its full potential, it’s time to take a fresh look at what you’re currently doing and how you could improve it.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’ve spent a lot of money on technology but your employees aren’t interested in using it? As an alternative, they insisted on doing all of the work themselves. This is where digital transformation necessitates the acquisition of new technical skills. The need for a digital mindset explains why employees must be motivated to use their skills to create new opportunities. There will be difficult decisions and growing pains along the way because it won’t be an easy process for most. This means your team needs a healthy dose of curiosity and openness, which in turn fosters adaptability and creative thinking in your members. In addition, you and your team must first alter your perspective on failure. How your company’s culture views failure will have a significant impact on your ability to successfully transition to a product mindset. Failure isn’t always a bad thing, of course. Some failures have negative consequences, while others are catastrophic. However, there is a type of failure that you should seek, which is the opportunity to learn. Make a conscious effort to ask yourself if the idea or task you’re working on has failed or if it’s just part of the process of learning.

3. WHY NEED TO RENEW?

The most important of this renewal is why? As you can see, even the cutting-edge “gig economy” brands emerging from Silicon Valley can benefit from business renewal. As a result, the business needs to undergo a radical shift and the organization’s way of working must be restructured accordingly. As our markets expand on a daily basis, it is imperative that we place a high value on the effectiveness and efficiency of our systems and the employees who use them. Even though it may be daunting to start over from scratch when reviewing systems implemented decades ago, we risk falling behind in the pack with a diminishing market share if we do not.

A successful business renewal plan can help your organization’s people and their work experience long-term positive change through improved leadership, strategy, and culture. Do not implement a strategy and then put it on hold for another decade when thinking about business renewal. Be on the lookout for when your employees approach you with budget requests for software updates or with proposals for a complete overhaul of your company’s processing technology. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas that could change the way your company does business and set a precedent for others to follow.

However, simply renewing your company’s contract is insufficient. Renew, Reignite, and Replicate (3R) are the three components of any successful formula for transformation. To discover even more, check out our upcoming piece soon.  In the meantime, visit our website for more information on available programs that can boost your business today!

Written By Syuhada Rozihas,
SHRA Corporate Trainer

Syuhada Rozihas is a Corporate Trainer at SH Retail Academy who is passionate about making a difference for herself and those around her. She has trained more than 1,000 sales professionals, executives and managers in the areas of retail sales. Meanwhile, in her free time, she enjoys hiking and running to keep her in shape, as well as baking for her loved ones. You can find her on LinkedIn.

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To stay relevant to the market, it is common that many businesses go through several transformations across the year, especially when business operations have been fully recovered as we enter the endemic stage. Nevertheless, it is natural that resistance to change occurs among your businesses when they have to move out of their comfort zone and get used to the new way of doing things.

Why Do Businesses Have To Transform Before It’s Too Late?

1. Business KPIs Falling Behind
2. Significant Business Landscape Changes
3. Identified But Missed Opportunities

1. BUSINESS KPIS FALLING BEHIND 

First thing first, when business key performance indicators are falling, it would be a sign that your organization needs a transformation.  Especially if the business sales profit could not cover the operating cost , products and services quality standards did not meet average consumers standard and high numbers of customer complaints are raised, these are all red lights for the business that something needs to be transformed. If businesses persist in their existing work processes, they might risk being substituted by other business that could better serve the consumers. This phenomena can be commonly seen especially in the fast-changing retail sectors. One of the main pain points of retailers even after the border is opened is lower walk-in rate. If we do not transform to online business, not doing digital marketing, not coming up with different promotion initiatives, not offering fast response or fast delivery services and not having seamless shopping experience, high chance is we will be forgotten by consumers and being eliminated in the market.

2. SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS LANDSCAPE CHANGES  

In the retail sector, one thing you might realize is many of the major retail businesses have begun to move to online platforms. If other retail industry players still refuse to hop on the trend to digitize their business, they will soon be dominated by these retail business giants. One of the business landscape change examples is the shift of consumers’ behaviors from buying offline to ordering online,picking up offline. This phenomena actually has been accelerated during the pandemic times. At that critical time, consumers had been forced to browse products and do their shop online as it was the only way to minimize human contact. If businesses did not provide online order services, they would immediately be excluded by the consumers. On the other hand, those businesses which undergo the new retail transformation and provide online ordering services will indeed be considered as more attractive for the consumers.

3. IDENTIFIED BUT MISSED OPPURTUNITIES

Nevertheless, identified but missed opportunities could also be a big nuisance that indicates business needs to be transformed. When the employees put too much focus on their daily manual work processes, they might miss out many opportunities to improve their work productivity, hence hindering them in achieving their full potential. For example, employees might be too engaged in fulfilling the timeline of the task while compromising the quality of the work. Inversely, employees with perfectionism might suffer in fulfilling the task at the stipulated timeline.  When smart business leaders identify these work struggles among their employees,  they would introduce technology or solutions that support, encourage and enable employees to act on these opportunities that help them grow and increase their work productivity. However, if business leaders choose to not transform their business, their staff might suffer from handling tedious low level tasks that eat up long working hours yet contributing low values to the business development.

All in all, these are the key indicators that show that businesses need to begin to transform their business. Want to have successful new retail transformation? You must know about this 3R success formula – Renew, Reignite and Replicate. More details on this 3R formula will be explained in our next article.
While waiting for our next article, if you are feeling that no business can escape from transformation, but don’t know where to start? Fret not! You can start by visiting our website for more information on available programs that can boost your business today!

Written by Lim Ee Hau,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Ee hau is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He has a  psychology background and he is passionate in assisting individuals to achieve their life goal. He loves to connect with people by initiating insightful conversation. He enjoys swimming and you can catch him bouldering in the gym during his free time.

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Ever find yourself struggling as a manager? From handling tons of emergencies and employee problems to working late at night to prepare reports, proposals and finish your own tasks. Well the truth is, tons of managers are facing the same issues especially when it comes to handling day to day operational problems and emergencies, not to mention tons of managers are also struggling to manage their own work-life balance while trying to ensure employee’s work-life balance!

During times like these, we wish we could have the ability to snap and solve every problem instantly! Although just snapping our fingers to solve problems may not happen, there is in fact a way to break this cycle and make most of our problems disappear! The secret? The art of continuous improvement! Rather than focusing on solving surface problems happening around us, we should be focusing on the elements we can improve to solve the root of the problems! Here are some of the secrets I have overheard!

Don’t Tell My Manager, I Overheard Her Secret Successful Management Formula!

1. Maximize available tools
2. The true essence of a team
3. Aim for the moon

1. MAXIMIZE AVAILABLE TOOLS

“The grass Is always greener on the other side, so let’s make our grass greener!”

In my previous jobs, most of the time we would focus on suggesting new tools or new softwares for us to use to improve our current work practices. I remember suggesting to my manager to purchase and implement using this software that simplifies our work processes to speed things up. My manager at the time would approve it and immediately implement it and brief us on how to use it in hopes of improving our productivity and work quality (since she spent at least thousands for this software)! Did it manage to increase our productivity and the quality of work? Short answer, yes! Long answer, only by 5%.

Spending thousands of ringgit just for a 5% increase in productivity and work quality sounds like a waste right? Well, that’s where this unique quote comes in! What my manager currently would do on a daily basis would be to challenge us and guide us back to the tools and resources we currently have available to us. I remember once suggesting to try out this new tool to which she suggested one of the existing tools we already have. I was a little disappointed at that time but soon realized it was some of the best advice I could have received!

After her suggestion, I was still a little adamant and decided to look more into the tools I suggested. Turns out, not only was it expensive, but it can only be used for one particular activity only! To make matters worse, if I had gotten that tool, the setup would take a long time and eventually cause delays! So if you’re eager to improve and manage your team or business and are very willing to invest in new tools, consider the ones you have now first! One of my manager’s secret in having less headache is by making sure all the tools we have and are familiar with would be considered first! This saves time in getting, implementing and testing out new tools (as well as potential last minute headaches)

2. THE TRUE ESSENCE OF A TEAM

“A group of people together – A Gathering, a group of unified hearts – A Team”

In any organization, business or company, teamwork is the one golden skill that every employer is looking for in their teams. I have been through a few organizations as well as companies and ultimately “Teamwork” is always one of the company’s core elements and core skills. Don’t get me wrong, teamwork is truly necessary in order to succeed and excel in this ever growing world, but how many of us truly understand what truly makes up the core essence of teamwork and practice it when managing our teams?

I would often feel excited working with different supervisors, managers along with colleagues in developing programs and sessions. On one such occasion, we were able to bounce off ideas and craft a 3-day external program that was so well received that the participants were eager to sign up for the next program we were planning to have next year! That sounds like good teamwork right? Well, that was when I met one particular supervisor. He implemented tons of changes and directions for us to think of that were quite new to us. We managed to create a pretty good session and was well received as well. However, after that session, most of us lost our motivation to work on future sessions anymore.

So what happened? We felt the supervisor in question was often hard to reach and was often fixated on his ideas and concepts. Whenever we suggested elements that were different, we were often faced with rejections without consideration. Fast forward to today, everything makes sense to me with regards to why my current manager practices certain methods. After she delegates tasks and explains to us the expectations needed for the tasks, she would welcome any questions, objections or even complaints we had and address every single one of them! Were some of the things she addressed what we were hoping for? Not always, but somehow it always makes us feel lighter afterwards and productive.

Her secret? She is focused on how we can achieve our KPI and target. However, she was more focused on how all of us could get there together without leaving anyone in the dark or leaving anyone behind. By doing so, not only were we able to produce good results, but we would support each other, let out any concerns once and fully focus on completing the task as a team. So working well and producing good results are actually by products of actual teamwork! The actual teamwork would be how we are able to support each other, help each other through struggles and reach the finish line together consistently throughout our work tasks. In case you’re looking for some tips, she never talks about work during breakfast, lunch and dinner, but would instead share with us about her life and learn about ours genuinely. Additionally, she would often set up a safe space discussion with us!

3. AIM FOR THE MOON

“Aim and focus on the bullseye, You will either end up getting 10 points or 9”

I believe we are familiar with Walt Disney’s quote about aiming for the moon, and at least hitting a star when we miss. Well, that isn’t really far away from my manager’s secret! We usually focus on aiming high and aiming to achieve more so we would list out tons of areas we want to hit and tons of goals we want to achieve. At the end of the day when we achieve one of those goals, we would celebrate that one goal achieved compared to zero goals achieved. That was what I used to practice and believed in until now.

I would often list down tons of things I want to develop and tons of areas I want to improve on (because we want to achieve as much as we can in the shortest time). At the end of the month, as long as I achieved one, I would be happy! That stopped when I met my current manager. Rather than all these tasks and areas, she would tell me to focus on one. Sounds cliche right? Well, it doesn’t stop there. One time she asked me which do I think is my main priority, my “bullseye”. I said my ability to curate content that is relevant and relatable, and she discussed together with me on what are some of the ways we could achieve that target. Just a few days after this conversation, I reflected and actually conducted one of my personal proudest training as of now!

It doesn’t just stop there, I was able to actually achieve 3 goals that month instead of just 1! Furthermore, the success wasn’t one off, I was truly able to practice this technique for the following training as well. Her secret? She mentioned that it’s not just about aiming high and aiming for more, it’s about adjusting your aim to that one single target so you can hit it instead of expecting for the worst. By focusing on this element, our team was able to actually speed up the processes of our work tasks as well as the quality of it, significantly reducing our manager’s headache.

So my manager’s secret formula really isn’t about focusing on using the best tools or adopting the best practices of others. Her secret lies in continuous improvement on the things we already have! Our team, our tools as well as our goals are often aspects that are overlooked but can actually be the most powerful way to not only increase our productivity and reduce day to day operational problems, but it also allows our manager to focus on what truly matters, strategizing and looking for gaps to practice continuous improvement!

Management is not an easy role to play as it requires lots of skills as well as strategies to ensure everything runs smoothly. Interested to find out about how you can practice this low cost but effective continuous improvement method? Maybe you’d like to learn other management techniques on top of continuous improvement? Well, wait no more as we have the program just for you to improve your management skills today! Interested to check out any other courses we are offering? Feel free to check out our programs here!

Written by Bryan Law Chu Zheng,

SHRA Corporate Trainer

Bryan is a member of the SHRA trainer team. He is a major in Psychology with a retail background. He has a deep passion for human interaction and personal development.

You can catch him dancing or playing the uke on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

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Executive Diploma Vs Diploma, Are You Aware Of The Differences?

In your quest for knowledge, do you frequently find yourself delving down new internet rabbit holes? There’s no limit to the random topics you’d like to learn more about, from historical figures to foreign languages. The fact that you’ve always thought this was just a personality trait may surprise you—your desire to learn is a sought-after trait that can help you advance in your career. For one to upskill, you might be confused on which program is the best for you considering that there are plenty of options to choose from.

Students who are particularly interested in earning a diploma can select from a wide variety of options. However, when it comes to furthering our education beyond the bachelor’s degree, things can get a little muddled since it can be difficult to sort through all of the options available at various colleges and universities. That’s why for today we have narrowed down two programs for you.

Executive Diploma and the standard Diploma are two popular diploma titles that have persisted over time. Aspiring businesspeople may find it difficult to choose between these two options because they lack sufficient knowledge of each. But worry not because the information in this article will assist you in making an educated decision about which of these two credentials is best for you.

Executive Diploma Vs Diploma, Are You Aware Of The Differences?

1. DIPLOMA

First of all, what is a Diploma? The Diploma that we are talking about here is referring to a Graduate or Postgraduate diploma where it is an additional specialization that enhances a person’s employability, and it is typically shorter in duration than a degree program. After completing a bachelor’s degree, many students pursue a graduate diploma, which is an academic or vocational credential.

A university or graduate school usually bestows this degree, which typically necessitates two semesters of study to complete. Acquiring a master’s degree may be possible in some cases for academic graduate diploma holders who want to move quickly. The awarding body must be registered with Malaysia’s Ministry of Education in order for a graduate diploma qualification to be recognized locally.

In some nations, a graduate diploma and a postgraduate diploma are the same thing, however in others, the postgraduate diploma represents a more advanced level of education than the graduate diploma does. Part-time diploma programs are often offered at two different times throughout the academic year at the majority of institutions and universities.

Online independent study, consultations, workshops, and lectures are some of the many educational opportunities available. The length of time required to finish the tenure for these kinds of classes is often between one and two years, depending on the institution.

2. EXECUTIVE DIPLOMA

Executive Diplomas are designed for working professional to expand their expertise in a specific field. Most applicants to such a program have at least some professional experience (at least 1-2 years) to draw from. For example, a marketing manager in retail industry may have extensive knowledge in marketing, however lack of knowledge in retail industry. Therefore, Executive Diploma in Retail Management would be an ideal choice for the marketing manager to gain more retail knowledge.

Having a diploma demonstrates that you understand the obstacles that a position like this would provide and that you have the necessary resources to overcome them. Training for executives, entrepreneurs, or university graduates who want to learn how to run and grow their enterprises in an ever-changing and competitive national and international environment is another goal.

When it comes to qualification, there is not much difference between the two options. To improve the standard of living of individuals, the executive diploma program can also be a government or private sector initiative to further their education.

3. THE DIFFERENCES

Now that we have a rough idea on these two diplomas, let’s begin with the differences between these programmes. First, let’s talk about the duration. Traditionally, a standard Diploma will take 1 to 2 years to be completed with a relatively tough full-time curriculum. Another full-time program like an Executive Diploma, on the other hand, can be finished in 3-6 months only.

Furthermore, candidates with less professional experience or recent college graduates are more encouraged to apply to the standard Diploma program. After getting their diploma, these aspiring professionals go on to achieve positions at the entry level or in management. On the contrary, it is recommended that experienced professionals enroll in the Executive Diploma Program instead if they are interested in switching to a different professional field, enhancing their business skills, or taking on leadership or entrepreneurial roles in the future.

Besides, students for the standard Diploma program are given an overview of fundamental aspects of business throughout the first year of the program. In the second year of the program, students have the opportunity to select their area of concentration, and the last semester of the program requires them to do an internship.

Meanwhile, due to the fact that students of an Executive Diploma are typically seasoned professionals, the material covered is somewhat different. Students will gain the ability to more effectively address difficulties that arise in the workplace as a result of the course’s focus on practical applications and interactive business learning.

That being said, how can you know which one is the best fit for you? Ask yourself what you want to accomplish in your life. Do you want to further your career in your current field or do you want to make a career change? Are you prepared to put in the time, effort and investment required for your studies? When you get these questions covered, it’s time for you to pick the option for yourself. You can only benefit from the programs if you know exactly what you want to accomplish!

You want to upskill your education but don’t know where to begin? Fret not! You can start by visiting our website for more information on available programs that can boost your career today!

Enquire For Our Certification Program Today

Written By Syuhada Rozihas,
SHRA Corporate Trainer

Syuhada Rozihas is a Corporate Trainer at SH Retail Academy who is passionate about making a difference for herself and those around her. She has trained more than 1,000 sales professionals, executives and managers in the areas of retail sales. Meanwhile, in her free time, she enjoys hiking and running to keep her in shape, as well as baking for her loved ones. You can find her on LinkedIn.

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University-industry collaboration has been emphasized in the Malaysian Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education). Digital disruptions has greatly affected the global retail environment, in which both graduates and workforce needs relevant and future ready skills to stay competent. As an industry player, Senheng Electric (KL) Sdn Bhd has stepped up to provide its real-world business case studies in the development of curriculum design and delivery of Professional Certificate in New Retail Marketing. Through this initiative, students gain practical insights from Senheng as one of the top industry players in the market, benefiting students in terms of acquiring the right skills and industry relevant knowledge to tackle challenging issues in retail landscape.

The Professional Certificate in New Retail Marketing is jointly developed by TAR UC Centre For Continuing And Professional Education and SH Retail Academy Sdn Bhd, enabling industry exposure to retail businesses, both for teaching (quality of knowledge) and work place applications (quality of employment).

Mr Lim Kim Chieng, President of Senheng Electric (KL) Sdn Bhd is invited as the guest of honour for the signing ceremony. Present to witness the formalization of this academia-industry partnership was Vice President of Retail Operations and Retail Support, Ho Weng Hung, and TAR UC’s Vice President Assoc. Prof. Dr Chook Ka Joo, and Vice President Assoc. Prof. Say Sok Kwan.

A Memorandum of Agreement (‘MoA’) signed between Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (‘TAR UC’) and SH Retail Academy Sdn Bhd on 14 July 2022 at TAR UC’s Kuala Lumpur Main Campus signifies the start of new academia-industry collaboration to prepare both graduates and professionals with updated knowledge and capabilities so that they can thrive in retail industry.  The MoA was signed by  Ng Chiah Yee, Director, Centre For Continuing and Professional Education and Cassandra Chan Yi Rong, President CEO of SH Retail Academy.

“By providing Senheng case studies and best practices to be infused in this program, we help students develop the practical skills and know-how understanding of business needs related to the theories, allowing them to thrive and succeed in their workplace” said Mr. KC Lim, who attended the signing ceremony as Guest of Honour, in his welcoming remarks.

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