Pelangi Pemikiranku

Melihat banyak pro dan kontra tentang UU Pornografi yang banyak berseliweran di dunia blogsfer termasuk yang saya tulis ini, membuat hati saya menjadi sadar bahwa memang setiap orang punya persepsi berbeda. Yang beragama Islam, terpecah menjadi yang mendukung, yang menolak dan ragu-ragu. Yang beragama lain cederung menentang RUU ini yang dalam hatinya sebenarnya cenderung mendukung pornografi. Yang Islam KTP biasanya sih turut menentang RUU ini, walaupun mungkin tidak semua.

Tetapi ada satu fenomena yang membuat saya agak sedikit merasa geli bahwa mereka yang tinggal di luar negeri cenderung untuk memakai standard “negeri baru” mereka. Sebenarnya wajar-wajar saja. Namun yang membuat saya geli adalah, mereka menggunakan standard “negeri baru” mereka jikalau standard itu mudah diikuti oleh mereka, seperti hal-hal yang berbau pornografi ini. Namun sayang otak mereka gagal memenuhi standard “negeri baru” mereka. Setidak-tidaknya ini dilihat dari mereka yang ngeblog yang sudah tinggal di luar negeri. Blog-blog mereka tidak lebih bagus dari blog saya mereka yang tinggal di dalam negeri. Itu sedikit menandakan otak mereka gagal beradaptasi dengan otak standard “negeri baru” mereka. Mereka hanya berhasil beradaptasi dengan hal-hal atau budaya-budaya yang gampang ditiru seperti yang berbau pornografi. Merekapun cenderung menganggap budaya dan kebiasaan “negeri baru” mereka lebih superior dari “negeri asal” mereka padahal….. hidung mereka tidak bertambah mancung semua budaya dan kebiasaan tidak bisa dinilai begitu saja mana yang lebih unggul dan mana yang lebih rendah, semua punya standard sendiri-sendiri. Itupun menandakan juga bahwa otak mereka gagal beradaptasi dengan fikiran “negara baru” mereka. Padahal mengenai budaya dan kebiasaan, yang terbaik adalah “hormatilah budaya setempat”. Jikalau budaya setempat tersebut tidak sesuai dengan anda, minimal anda tidak menganggap rendah atau menghina budaya setempat……… bukan begitu??

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A: Ikan apa yang paling terkenal?
B: Ah, gampang, Ikang Fawzi…..
A: Nah, sekarang Ikan apa yang nggak bisa hidup di air??
B: Pasti Ikang Fawzi lagi deh…. garing pertanyaannya…..
A: Ho’oh…. sekarang Ikan apa yang bisa bikin marah?
B: Hmmm… (sambil berfikir agak lama…) nggak tahu…. nyerah deh… Ikan apaan sih??
A: Ikang Fawzi juga goblog !! (sambil menggampar si B )
B: *#%$@****%# (menahan marah)

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Which team do you think will bring home the Euro trophy in 2008? Germany? Spain? I actually don’t care who will but I expect to see the Spaniards will lift the trophy. Why? That’s because the Germans have had two Euro titles while the Spaniards only have one. So to make things even, I think this is the time for Spain to grab the title to collect another title for the Iberian country.

Moreoever I don’t care what team will win the title as long as it is not England. I don’t like England football team because they are always in the limelight while they always show minimum achievement in any international tournaments. Apart from the 1966 World Cup tournament, England has even never made to the final! I hope it will keep that way…

Let’s enjoy the final match of Euro 2008 whoever will top the pack!

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Do you always hear from anybody that experience outdoes noviciate?? If you do you are not alone, in fact everybody worldwide is told the same thing. But do you know that there is almost an exclusion for everything? Take a match of Euro 2008, for instance. I don’t believe that Les Bleus are overwhelmed by the orange-clad Dutch team! The scoreline is beyond belief: 1-4. I did not believe what I was watching when the scoreline showed the fact that the French managed to score a goal but they conceded 4 in return!

As a semi-francophile in every international or continental tourney I always root for France (In fact, at this Euro 2008 I also root for the Spaniards to lift the trophy for the second time). The French are actually crowded with the top-notch talented players especially when it concerns the strikers. But look at the back, the French are only powered by aging players! Lilian Thuram, already 34, is no doubt an experience-fed player. But that experience already under his belt did not save France from defeat. The Dutch who gained the power of young legs of their strikers prove out that experience does not always speak louder! And the night the Dutch overwhelming Les Bleus, everybody realises that every experience-noviciate contest can end up in a very stunning way!

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Dapatkan anda menghitung berapakah angka 5 yang kemudiaan diikuti oleh angka 8 tetapi yang sebelumnya bukan angka 4 ?? Hayo, bisa nggak??

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Perhatian:

Test seperti ini bukanlah untuk mengetahui kemampuan numeris atau matematis anda melainkan untuk menguji kekuatan visual anda.

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Kisah percakapan antara seorang turis Amerika dan seorang petani Meksiko ini pernah saya baca di komik yang dimuat di salah satu majalah terbitan Amerika tahun 1980an, jadi sudah lama sekali. Nama majalahnya saya lupa dan juga percakapan aslinya yang dalam Bahasa Inggris saya sudah lupa, tapi saya masih ingat benar jalan ceritanya. Kira2 percakapannya adalah sebagai berikut:

Seorang turis Amerika pada suatu hari mengunjungi seorang petani Meksiko, maka terjadilah percakapan seperti ini:

Turis Amerika (TA): Wah, rupanya kalian mempunyai anak banyak sekali ya, apa tidak bisa dikendalikan??

Petani Meksiko (PM): Maaf, maksudnya apa ya?

TA : Begini, penduduk di negara2 berkembang seperti kalian sudah memenuhi 80% di Bumi ini sementara sumberdaya alam kita di bumi ini terbatas.

PM : Oh ya?? Kalau begitu sumberdaya alam kita ini akan cepat habis, bukan begitu?

TA : Benar sekali. Untuk itu kalian harus cepat2 mengendalikan perkembangan penduduk kalian agar sumberdaya alam kita tidak habis.

PM : Oh begitu?? Kalau begitu ini masalah pengendalian jumlah penduduk ya agar sumberdaya alam tidak habis?? Tetapi….. bukankah berarti bisa juga dilihat dari sisi pengendalian penggunaan sumberdaya alamnya sendiri ??

TA : Eh……. ehm….. iya betul.

PM : Nah, yang saya dengar, kalian, penduduk negara2 maju yang cuma 20% itu, menghabiskan 80% sumberdaya alam di bumi ini sedangkan kami yang 80% dari penduduk bumi hanya menghabiskan 20% dari sumberdaya alam yang ada di Bumi ini. Kalau begitu kalian dong yang mengendalikan penggunaan sumberdaya alam di Bumi ini. Kalian yang serakah yang menghabiskan sumberdaya alam ! Jangan serakah dong !!

TA : Eh… anu…. ehm…. iya.

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Pricing is perhaps the most difficult and cumbersome aspect of doing business. The price given to your product has more than just monetary or economic implications. It may also touch the psychological implications as well. For example, if you price your product 20 percent less than the competitors, some buyers may simply take it as a cheaper price and for them it is an advantage but for more thoughtful buyers a reduced 20 percent price can mean anything from low-quality product to scrapped product.

So to best determine how to price your product, it is essential to be aware of the competition and the marketplace around. There are at least three criteria for setting the prices of your products and services as given in detail below:

Cost-Based Pricing:

Using this method, you calculate the costs of the components needed to produce each item in the line of products and services. You set the price of each item at whatever amount is required to pay back these costs and produce a margin of profit. As the costs of these components fluctuate, you reset your prices to reflect the latest round of changes.

Cost-based pricing can work well in  heavily costumised products, particularly when there is a heavy service-component to your offerings. The cost of labour is naturally one “component” in every product or service, and it will automatically reflect the cost of customising a product or providing a unique service to a customer.

This pricing method is common in the public sector too where cost-plus contracts are often more “acceptable” and easier to adiministrate than other pricing schemes.

Brief Scheme:

Cost of Products + Profit = Price

Market-based Pricing

This pricing method is suitable whenever you operate in a very competitive market. The only viable basis for setting prices in this kinda environment is to stick to “what the market will bear”. Using this approach you set prices at the level of competition with possibly a little variation (above or below). That is important to position your products or services as the best choice for consumers desiring quality, lower prices or special features that they prefer.

Market-based pricing provides a strong discipline for the organisation to hold down some costs, transfer other costs to customers or suppliers, and increase sales volume in order to benefit from the economy. For example if the costs are increased and you sell furniture, you can switch to knockdown furniture which leaves the “cost” of assembling to the consumers and at the same time reducing the cost of shipment from the factory.

Brief Scheme:

Product =< Competitor = Price

Profit-Based Pricing:

This approach makes the most sense when there is only little competition around.  Knowing the total monthly or annual expenses and sales volume, you set your prices to cover your costs and provide whatever level of profit you want (frankly it reminds me of TELKOM’s services a few years ago! ouch!).

For example, suppose that keeping the costs Rp. 1 billion a month and each month you’re selling 10,000 units. It’d take an average price of Rp 100,000 per unit to cover your costs (using the breakeven analysis method which we will possibly discuss in the future in my article). if you want to make Rp. 50,000,000 per month, you simply set your prices at the proper level - in this case, Rp 105,000. (Please correct the figures if I’m mistaken, I did not use calculator to come up with the figures because I was in a hurry! Please help me correct it, if the calculation above is a mess!)

So, shortly said, in this kinda pricing, you are the king and you ‘control’ the market, you set the profit ‘whatever’ you like until it shows a down-sloping line in your sales chart!

Brief Scheme:

Cost of Product + Other Expenses + Profit = Price

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Sambil iseng2 menunggu dibukanya jam2 kantor saya iseng2 membuat postingan yang iseng dan kurang bermutu ini…… Jadi karena postingan ini dibuat pada waktu yang kurang tepat, jadi harap maklum kalau postingan ini terkesan iseng dan tentu saja kurang bermutu. Hehehe……..

Inilah lima peristiwa terjayus yang pernah kualami, mungkin di antara anda punya juga pegalaman yang lebih jayus lagi silahkan ditambahkan!

1. Ini terjadi beberapa tahun yang lalu ketika mobilku yang lama disenggol cukup parah oleh angkot dan harus dirawat inap di bengkel untuk semingguan.  Nah selama mobilku dirawat di bengkel aku ke mana2 pakai angkot dan Taxi. Suatu hari aku harus pergi ke Jalan Palasari, ya daerah pasar buku2 di Bandung ini. Karena jaraknya cukup jauh dari kantorku maka aku meminjam mobil temanku. Sebenarnya aku orang yang sangat jarang sekali meminjam mobil teman karena aku lebih nyaman pakai taksi atau bahkan angkot daripada pinjam mobil orang.  Namun entah kenapa aku hari itu ingin meminjam mobil temanku mungkin karena ingin urusan cepat selesai. Pendek kata, aku segera meminjam mobil temanku dan segera berangkat. Nah, ini dia jayusnya, pada saat urusan selesai, aku lupa kalau aku tengah meminjam mobil temanku (yang kebetulan aku parkir agak jauh waktu itu), aku pulang pakai taksi yang kebetulan ada satu yang lagi mangkal di situ !! Aku baru ingat bahwa aku tengah pinjam mobil temanku pada saat taksi yang membawaku sudah ada di perempatan Jalan Dago dan Jalan Merdeka !! Dan akhirnya akupun terpaksa kembali lagi ! Weeekz…. jayus banget !!
2. Ini terjadi beberapa tahun yang lalu juga, menyangkut kebiasaanku buang angin sembarangan walaupun di kantor juga. Kebetulan waktu itu di kantor ada klien penting dan akupun juga turut diperkenalkan namun aku nggak ikut berbincang2. Nah, ceritanya pada waktu itu aku kebelet buang air kecil, aku masuk ke WC kantor yang memang didesain mirip dengan WC mal jadi sedikit nyaman dan lega kalau orang ingin buang air. Ketika aku masuk, WC dalam keadaan tak ada orang satupun, dan ketika aku tengah buang air kecil tiba2 terasa ada angin yang ingin keluar dari belakang. Karena kupikir tidak ada orang (dan aku nggak mau repot2 ngecek lagi), kukeluarkan angin tersebut dengan segenap “tenaga dalam”ku yang menghasilkan suara menggelegar. Nah, ketika aku selesai buang air kecil dan merapihkan bajuku kembali, tiba2 aku mendapatkan si klien kantorku juga tengah buang air kecil di urinoir di belakangku sambil menahan senyum! Siwalan….. kapan masuknya tuh orang?? Kok nggak kedengeran masuknya sih?? Aku cepat2 keluar WC sambil menahan2 malu senyum pula! Dasar jayus!
3. Ini cerita terjadi sekitar 15 tahun yang lalu dan masih bersinggungan dengan WC. Waktu itu masih agak sering menonton pertandingan bola langsung di stadion Senayan, Jakarta. Entah menonton pertandingan mana lawan mana waktu itu karena sudah lupa, yang jelas di tengah pertandingan perutku merasa mulas dan ingin buang air besar. Walhasil aku berlari ke WC terdekat dan menemukan WC yang kosong! Wah kebetulan nih, aku pikir. WC yang pesing dan jorok (kayaknya khas WC stadion Senayan waktu itu)  itu akhirnya aku putuskan untuk aku gunakan karena sudah tidak tahan lagi. Namun apa yang terjadi?? Ternyata pintu WC itu tidak bisa ditutup karena engselnya lepas satu !! Walhasil….. karena sudah tidak tahan lagi…. aku terpaksa juga buang air besar di situ dengan posisi yang agak aneh… yaitu menghadap ke samping dalam upaya untuk menutupi “kehormatanku”. Untung waktu itu tidak ada orang yang masuk. Cepat2 aku buang air besar di situ namun setelah selesai “penderitaan”ku belum usai,  aku baru sadar bahwa tidak ada air mengalir di WC itu !! Pantesan WC-nya jorok dan bau !! Akhirnya setelah difikir2 terpaksa deh kukorbanan GT-Man ku untuk cebok dan setelah itu kutinggalkan deh GT-Man-nya di situ!! Dadaaaaag!! Jayus Banget !!
4. Cerita jadul waktu di SMA menjelang kelulusan, makan di kantin dekat sekolah. Beli Mie Bakso yang waktu itu harganya cuma Rp. 200,- (tapi kualitasnya kurang memuaskan). Waktu itu tiba2 aku ingin mengambil buku dari dalam tas di dalam kelas dan terpaksa mie bakso kutinggalkan sebentar. Namun setelah aku kembali kok ternyata ada ibu2 yang makan mie baksoku. Lantas aku bertanya: “Lho, bu, itu kan bakso saya kenapa dimakan??”. Lalu ibu2 itu berkata dengan kalemnya: “Oh, ini mie baksonya adik toh?? Dikirain saya, saya udah beli mie bakso!”. Duh! Bloon sekaligus jayus deh tuh ibu2.
5. Ini cerita pada saat mengangkat telepon jadul juga kira2 akhir tahun 1980an lalu. Ada yang telepon ke rumahku: “Halo…. di sana PT X?” kata suara di seberang telepon. “Bukan pak… ini rumah biasa!!” kataku. “Lho…. kok bisa salah ya??” kata suara di seberang sana lagi. “Mungkin salah sambung pak!!” kataku lagi. “Lho…. kalau udah tahu salah sambung kenapa teleponnya diangkat !!” katanya dengan suara agak kesal dan langsung menutup telepon. Yeeee…… jayus amat tuh orang, wong yang harusnya marah itu aku kok !!

Nah, demikianlah sekilas info tentang peristiwa2 jayus yang pernah kualami. Ada yang lebih jayus lagi??

Berbagi

If you have ever studied accounting, you will tend to have heard about accrual. Yes, of course you will easily know what the word accrual is by searching the word in the dictionary and voila the definition is there to see.  But do you know exactly what accrual (based) is?? Accrual is actually the opposite of the cash-based accounting and bookkeeping widely recognised by even laymen who have never studied accounting before. Cash-based accounting is based on the practice that income is posted or recorded when it is RECEIVED while expense is posted or recorded when it is PAID.  This kind of practice is widely carried out by most of businesses especially the proprietorships including most small single professional offices like doctors, lawyers, etc. On the other hand, accrual-based accounting or bookkeeping is based on the practice that income is recorded when it is EARNED rather than when it is received while expense is recorded when it is INCURRED rather than when it is paid.

Now take a closer look at this following simple example:

Suppose you don’t have any cars nor (motor)bikes and your current monthly public transportation expense is Rp. 350,000.00. Now you decide to buy a motorbike  in hope that you can press down the expense. You buy a motorbike which costs you 12 million rupiahs. But that’s not all, even with a motorbike you will have to spend more for gas or fuels, parking fees, etc, which totalled Rp. Rp. 250,000.00 per month. Now what is the total of the monthly transportation expense according to both cash-based and accrual-based calculation?

According to the cash-based calculation, your this month transportation expense will be:

- The purchase of the motorbike Rp. 12,000,000.00
- Gas or fuels, parking fees, etc. Rp. 250,000.00
TOTAL TRANSPORTATION EXPENSE Rp. 12,250,000.00

But in the next month your transportation will drop sharply to:

- Gas or fuels, parking fees, etc. Rp. 250,000.00

Yes! That’s it. Your next month transportation expense will drop to only Rp. 250.000,-

For several reasons which are beyond this text, this kind of sharp fluctuation is so much disliked by accountants. Shortly said, accountants don’t like to see a sharp fluctuation expense which is caused only by a single ’normal’ activity like that of buying a motorcycle. So accountants need to invent another way to express the total expense. From this point of view, the accrual-based bookkeeping is born.

In this motorcycle case, accountants tend to allocate the motorbike purchase into the approximate number of years served by that motorbike. Let’s suppose that the motorbike will approximately serve for 10 years.  Than the transportation expense from purchasing a motorcyle will be allocated as Rp 100,000.00 (12 millions divided by 10 years and divided again by 12 month). This Rp 100,000.00 will stay in the book as part of the transportation expense every month for 10 years.

So, according to accrual-based bookkeeping the total transportation of this month will be:

- The purchase of the motorbike - Rp. 100,000.00
- Gas or fuels, parking fees, etc. - Rp. 250.000.00
TOTAL TRANSPORTATION EXPENSE - Rp. 350,000.00

And how much will the next month total transportation expense be? Simple! It is totally constant and we see no more sharp fluctuation with this accrual based method:

- The purchase of the motorbike - Rp. 100,000.00
- Gas or fuels, parking fees, etc. - Rp. 250.000.00
TOTAL TRANSPORTATION EXPENSE - Rp. 350,000.00

The complexity of using accrual based accounting is growing as the company is growing as well. And using this accrual based bookkeeping requires adjustment entries at the end of each accounting period and often those adjustments are very complex, cumbersome and prone to human errors. But believe me, they are just a small price to pay for large organisation requiring numbers that accurately reflect the full value of the effort, accomplishment, and economic activity occurring during each accounting period.

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Rafael Nadal (Spain) and Roger Federer (Switzerland). 

As I watched Badminton Thomas Cup final on Sunday (5/18), my focus was also divided on the world class tennis final match in Hamburg between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. And as the Thomas Cup final did not involve the home country, Indonesia, which team I rooted for, my focus began to stay steadily on the tennis match. And I’m sure my choice to focus more on the tennis match was very much unregrettable as the play rose up to the top world class quality.

As all the tennis fans around the world realise that Rafael Nadal is entitled with the king of clay while Federer is known as the god of tennis which has been identical to him for at least 4 years, the final match’s atmosphere in Hamburg became turned up as those two will perform the ultimate showdown on the clay court. If the match was held in other (than clay) courts nobody will expect Nadal to win over the tennis god, but this match was performed in the clay that made both chance even with Nadal had a slightly better chance. But don’t forget Federer beat Nadal in the same tournament last year which prevented him from bringing home a shield from Hamburg.

At the beginning of the opening set, Federer seemed to take the set as he broke Nadal’s serve very early. But later on in the set, Nadal managed to turn the tables and took the opening set. In the second set, they were even getting more neck and neck and the set was decided with the tie-break and this time it was the Federer who took the advantage and he took the second set. In the decisive set, it was the reverse of the opening set. In this set Nadal broke early Federer’s serve to give him a chance to win the set without a tie-break. And that was what happened, Federer never managed to break back Nadal’s serve which means Nadal won the championship and brought home a shield which he missed last year!

Congratulation for Nadal. And it was a good job for Federer for being a very tough competitor for Nadal even in the clay court. And I believe both players are going to play in another ultimate showdown in the next clay court tournament, Roland Garros, the most prestigious clay court tournament on the planet!

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