Manchester United vs Liverpool Match Report

In what could be the biggest match in Manchester United history, they will not get a bigger opponent than arch rivals Liverpool. Macnhester United’s performance this season has been somewhat inconsistent. And the loss of Antonio Valencia due to an ankle injury turn things from bad to worse for the eighteen time League Champions.

Arch rival Liverpool’s new era under Roy Hodgson has not convinced their fans just yet.However, this Sunday the momentum seems to be in Liverpool’s side after they won  their last match with a convincing 4-1 victory in the Europa League. Another win for Liverpool will increase stability in the team On the other hand, Manchester United also need a win to get back on track, and a loss at Old Trafford could kill their chance of winning the title this season. A win is a must here for both teams, and it cannot get any bigger than this.

The first ten minutes saw a dominant spell by Manchester United who kept pressing Liverpool in their own half. The first best chance of the game came in the fifteenth minutes after Berbatov and Rooney did a very nice one-two play before releasing Nani free in the penalty box. Liverpool, however did well to hassle their opponents and Nani’s shot in the end went off target.

Liverpool’s Glen Johnson gave the team the first shot of the game. After receiving a pass from the corner, the England defender tried a shot with his left foot, but the shot disappointingly went wide off the target.Fernando Torres then tried to fire another shot for his team, but the shot sadly was too weak to do any harm for Van Der Saar’s goal.

Referee Howard Webb has made himself the center of attention for both the players and the spectators after turning down some foul appeals, which judging from the replay, the fouls done by Nani and Konchesky to each other, deserved a yellow card.

Liverpool tried to dominate their opponents, but their delivery into the box has been more than disappointing. Those poor delivery could haunt Liverpool. On the forty first minutes, a quality delivery ironically came at the other end from Ryan Giggs. Giggs send the ball beautifully straight into Dimitar Berbatov‘s head who was poorly marked by Fernando Torres, and the Bulgarian headed the ball calmly into the goal. 1-0 to United.

A few minutes later, the referee once again was lenient to blow the whistle this time for a hand ball by Jamie Carragher. The referee perhaps decided to let him go because it was not an intentional handball. Manchester United use Liverpool’s confusion into their advantage by creating another change, however Wayne Rooney’s shot from outside the box went just off target. At half time, the score ended 1-0 for United.

At the second half, Lieverpol’s attack were still disappointing as their passes always failed to connect at the crucial time. On the other side of the field Manchester United’s attack looks absolutely menacing with a shot that rattled the bar from Nani

Just when you think that shot would give Liverpool a wake up call, it was United who surprisingly increase their lead.  After receiving a cross from Nani, Dimitar Berbatov controlled the ball with an exquisite touch and scored his second goal with an amazing bicycle kick that came out of nowhere. 2-0 for United.

The goal seemed to have made United to get complacent and Jonny Evans failed to tackle the ball successfully, and brought Fernando Torres down inside the box instead. Steven Gerrard this time successfully convert the chance from the penalty spot. 2-1 the score.

A series of fouls that follows after that seemed to have heated up the game for both teams. The referee failed to see a blatant foul from Christian Poulsen who could have well deserved at least a yellow card. While United kept appealing for the foul their players ironically get some yellow card for themselves.

Another yellow card was brandished for John O’Shea who pushed Fernando Torres just outside the box. In reality that could have been worse because he looked to be the last man. But that didn’t seem to matter for Liverpool as Steven Gerrard‘s free kick has successfully reached the back of the net.  Liverpool finally got their equalizer after two out of the training ground set-piece plays. 2-2.

The tempo seemed to get slower after the equalizer and both managers responded by bringing on a sub. Liverpool’s Daniel Agger was brought in for Martin Skertl, while Manchster United’s ‘Kiko’ Macheda entered the field for Ryan Giggs.

On the 83rd minute Manchester United have finally successfully regain their lead through their number nine man. Dimitar Berbatov finally earned his first hat-trick for the club after heading John O’Shea’s cross into the back of the net. With that cross, John O’shea has also successfully atoned for his earlier mistake. Good riddance for both players. 3-2 for United.

Sir Alex Ferguson then decided to sub his hat-trick hero and Ryan Giggs soon after the goal. Darron Gibson replaced Ryan Giggs while Brazilian youngster, Anderson, went in for Berbatov who finally played his first game for United after long spell in the sidelines due to injury. The crowd gave a well-deserved standing ovation for Berbatov for his performance.

The score stands 3-2 until the final whistle. Manchester United will hopefully get back on track with this important win, while this loss would hand another set-back for Liverpool. Nevertheless it was yet another entertaining fixture in Old Trafford. Final Score Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool.

Everton vs Manchester United Match Report

Everton entertain Manchester United at The Goodison Park this saturday. Manchester United play Everton without their star man Wayne Rooney, who has been headlining newspapers due to problems in his personal life. Sir Alex Ferguson has decided to rest him to give him time to recover.

The first thirty minutes has been back and forth for both sides, with no goals to separate them. Then on the thirty fourth minute, United has a great chance to score from the set-piece after Ryan Giggs was fouled just outiside the Penalty Box.

Nani decided to pass the ball to the unmarked Paul Scholes who almost gave United the lead with his bullet shot, only to be denied by a great save by Tim Howard.

Then four minutes later, Tim Howard made a great save once again for Everton, this time denying Giggs for the goal after a superb effort by Darren Fletcher to open Everton’s defence.

Ironically a few minutes later, a goal was scored at the other end. Everton players cleared the corner successfully and sent a long ball to Mikel Arteta. A mistake by Evra allowed the Everton man to break free to face Van Der Saar alone. But despite a great save from the Dutch Veteran, he could not stop Steven Pienaar from converting the rebound.

Then, on the forty third minute, United got even with their counterpart. Darren Fletcher successfully convert Nani’s beautiful cross into a goal to make even the score at 1-1.

Just a minute before half time, United almost took the lead through Dimitar Berbatov. However the Bulgarian failed to take advantage of Giggs’ killer pass after his first time shot went just outside the post.

Two minutes into the second half, United wasted no time to shock Everton. This time it is Nemanja Vidic who converted another beautiful cross from Nani into a goal. Everton looked a bit unprepared going into the second half, and this goal seemed to have given them a wake up call. 2-1 for United.

Everton kept pushing United in the next twenty minutes, but not any of their players could score a goal. Steven Pienaar gave Everton one of the best chance in the game, but his shot from outside the box was easily saved by Van Der Saar.

Two minutes later Nani almost earned a goal for himself but his effort was denied after his shot being parried away by Tim Howard. But it did not take long for United to finally extend the lead. Dimitar Berbatov was left one-on-one with the keeper and scored the goal successfully with the outside of his foot. 3-1 for United.

Everton manager David Moyes responded immediately by sending in Aiyegbeni Yakubu and Seamus Coleman to sharpen their attacking front. John Heitinga and Tony Hibbert taken off.

After the score was 3-1, the game was very much on United’s half. Everton persistently pushing but was still without a result. Around five minutes before half time United almost increase their lead after a beautiful counter attack. Substitute Park Ji-Sung made a beautiful pass to release Dimitar Berbatov who this time put the shot wide outside the post.

A huge drama came in the last three minutes of the game. Everton scored two goals in two minutes to even the game. Their second goal came from Tim Cahill who successfully headed Leighton Baines’ cross into the net. Then two minutes later Tim Cahil himself gave an assist for Mikel Arteta who was unmarked at the edge of the box who kicked the ball into the back of the net and equalized the game for Everton. 3-3.

United tried to push back immediately but they could not find another goal until the final whistle. While Manchester United might be feeling unlucky, but it was a great entertainment for the fans at Goodison Park with three goals each for both sides. Final Score Everton 3-3 Manchester United.

Lecture Review: Sander Jonker

Lecture Review: Sander Jonker

First I’m going to talk about how he presented the lecture. To be honest, attitude-wise, he’s probably the best & most adaptable. He knows that he will be talking in front of students, so he really adapted his presenting style very well & was more relaxed than most of the previous presenters/lecturers.

And honestly, he’s presenting style is a very good example to any other lecturers out there. Most lecturers usually demand their students/audience to be very serious (sometimes even too serious). But he did not do that which is very good. He combines the level of seriousness & relax perfectly, and that’s what every lecturer in the world should do when lecturing students of our group age. He can joke a bit, be serious and most importantly, he really connects with the audience which is perfect. And to be honest, I believe that is what most students want out of their lecturers too.

In my opinion, what he does was not only presenting, but more like of doing conversation with the audience. And that is the perfect thing to do to keep the audience awake & to keep the audience’s attention focused on what is presented.

Now about the content, he did bring something new and some repetitions (which is not bad at all). Things like cloud computing are certainly new to us, and it was nice that he brought it up in the lecture for us. He also gave a more elaborated explanation about what social media really is before moving on to explain to whom social media may be of use.

Next up, he finally link the use of social media with internal communication. He explains the importance of the five C’s (Clear, Credible, Concise, Consistent & Constructive) in doing internal communication with social media which is very good. And the other stuffs that he explained as well were very good & useful.

And if there’s one thing that I find unique from his presentation was the fact that he asked the students to use twitter in asking questions. For me that’s very creative and a good way to give example right away to the students.

Overall, I believe he did very well in the presenting & connecting with the audience. There wasn’t much negativity from his presentation and I also believe that it would be good if he is called again for the next master class.

Change Management Essay

Introduction

Change. Change is something that many people often talk about. The word ‘change’ even become more popular when President Barack Obama used it when he was running for the presidential campaign last year. But what is change? Why is change necessary? And why do some people are afraid or even resist change? How should people manage & deal with change? Those are the questions which could probably raise some curiosity for some of us. But to answer all of the questions above, we need to answer the first one. We need to understand what change really is. How can we even manage something that perhaps some of us do not truly understand yet? Therefore let us answer the first question first.

What is Change?
According to Webster, the well known dictionary, change is “Any variation or alteration; a passing from one state or form to another; as, a change of countenance; a change of habits or principles.”[1913 Webster].

And if we want to talk about change, it is like talking about life. Maybe many people still do not realize, but change, is actually a certainty. Seconds change into another seconds. Minutes change continuously into the next minute, hours also change continuously after 60 minutes. Then days change into another day, and months, years, seasons they are also changing continuously in an ordained cycle. Even if we do nothing, that will not stop change from happening. And if we want to sit silently in a room in the middle of the night and do nothing, the clock will not stop ticking, the hours will not stop changing, and eventually the night turns into day.

And of course for us, from a baby, we change into toddlers, from toddlers we change into young little children, and from that we grew up and change into youth, and from youth we change into a mature man/woman, and then we will grow old, and eventually we will all die. Once again, we also need to keep in mind that doing nothing at all, will not stop us from growing up & eventually become old.
The parables above really indicate that not only change is a certainty but it is also inevitable at times. And if we want to contemplate, we could see that not only change is a certainty & inevitable, but it is also necessary. Just imagine what will happen if we have daytime forever without nighttime at all which we could rest ourselves? Or what would happen if the earth stops spinning? That would probably mean the end of the world.
Now that we have all the information above, the answer to the first question is:

• Change is “Any variation or alteration; a passing from one state or form to another; as, a change of countenance; a change of habits or principles.”[1913 Webster]
• Change is a certainty. Like seconds that will certainly change into another seconds, like minutes which will certainly change into the next minute, etc, things like this are a certainty. And so does change
• Change is inevitable at times. Even if we decide to be silent and do nothing in a room, that will not stop the clock from ticking, that will not stop the hours from changing, and that will not stop the night turns to day.
• Change is necessary at times. We cannot have the daytime forever nor the nighttime forever as well. That would be disastrous. Therefore a change between the two times is necessary. And like that parable, change is also necessary at times.

The reason the word ‘at times’ is being put above is because the subject we are dealing with is the people. You never know when people need change. At times people and/or an organization need change, and at other times they do not need it. Before making changes they need to analyze and monitor the whole situations of their surroundings first before deciding to make some changes. Which is why the wise words of Sun Tzu below from his book ‘Art of War’ is very important for us to always remember.

“Before doing battle, in the temple one calculates and will win, because many calculations were made;
before doing battle, in the temple one calculates and will not win, because few calculations were made; ?
many calculations, victory, few calculations, no victory, then how much less so when no calculations?
By means of these, I can observe them, beholding victory or defeat! ?” (Sun Tzu)

Why is change necessary?

“Everybody’s changing
And I don’t feel the same” (Keane)

As explained above, change is a certainty, inevitable & of course necessary. That does not only apply for nature or any other stuff related to it, but it also applies to us, people. Like the quote from Keane above, “Everybody’s changing”, and that is one that we could actually consider to be a fact. From babies to toddlers, from toddlers kids, from kids to youth, from youth to mature man/woman, and eventually we will grow old and die.

In each of that stage we are physically & psychologically different. Babies are obviously small, and cannot express their feelings except by crying. Toddlers, are also small, but he/she starts to grow bigger and most of them will have been able to speak a few words/sentences. There are of course some changes that we experience in other stages of our life as well. When we have understood that, we should be able to know that we do not need to look far to understand change. We only need to look on ourselves.

But still, that hasn’t really answered the question of why change is necessary. On a personal opinion, sometimes people need to change in order to make progress. When we see that others who are in the same situation have decided to change in order to make progress (and have successfully applied the change in a good way), are we just going to sit still and do nothing? What progress will we make by doing nothing? Well, of course there is always one, but the only progress that we could make by doing nothing is getting left behind. And if people keep doing nothing in a situation where change is necessary, the worst case end-scenario is that they will exist no more and could possibly lead to extinction, just like other animals who have lived to see their extinction.

And when we have understood that, we could see that change is not only necessary to make progress, but it is also necessary to be done in order to survive. Therefore it had been wisely said before by Clarence Darrow, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, but the one most responsive to change.” (Darrow)

Why do some people are afraid of or even resist change?
Toin Pijnenburg in his presentation at De Haagse Hogeschool about change management and new media a few weeks ago mentioned the issue of resistance in change. One interesting thing that he mentioned related to resistance in change is ‘Fear’. In the slides of his presentation, he regards ‘fear of change’ as “The wish of keeping it predictable. The dislike of surprises”(Pijnenburg). For some reason, maybe we cannot help but to agree with this, because in this life we could often see the kind of people who fear change purely because they want things to be always predictable, and they do not like surprises (especially bad surprises).

But is that all the reason why some people are afraid of or even resist change? Now let’s go a bit religious here and look at the holy books. After doing some contemplating and research, the stories of Moses (A.S), Jesus (A.S), and Muhammad (S.A.S) which were mentioned respectively in Torah, Bible, and the Koran actually teach us some lesson related to the fear in change.

*Note: For Muslims, A.S is an abbreviation for (alaihis salam) which in English means ‘peace be upon him’. And as for Muhammad, being the last prophet S.A.S (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) which means “peace & Allah’s blessings be upon him”.

First, let us observe the story of Moses. Moses was ordered by God to go to the pharaoh and ask the pharaoh to free the tribes of Israel from slavery.” 9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Bible, Exodus 3: 9-10). Moses then, with his brother, Aaron went to the Pharaoh to deliver God’s message. But then pharaoh rejected & refused to accept the message. “And We showed Pharaoh all Our Signs, but he did reject and refuse.” (Quran, 20:54) And of course the rest was history, Pharaoh died in the Red Sea, while Moses A.S and the tribes of Israel succeeded in fleeing after crossing the Red Sea.
Now if we want to contemplate, truly what Moses A.S brought to the pharaoh could also be considered as a change. Moses A.S was ordered by God, to ask the pharaoh to free the children of Israel. It was a drastic and quick change which was directly rejected by the pharaoh himself at the time. It was also a change that could possibly have a changing impact on not only himself, but also on his whole kingdom as well. The fact that pharaoh was on top position at the time, actually doubles the will of resistance. Because if there is anything that people would hardly willing to give up on are bliss and/or comfort, just like pharaoh’s top position. (This is a personal opinion)
Then let us move on to the story of Jesus A.S. Jesus was sent down by God to the tribes of Israel to settle the disputes that happened at that time and to confirm all the laws written in the Torah. “And in their footsteps We sent Jesus the son of Mary, confirming the law that had come before him: We sent him the Gospel: therein was guidance and light, and confirmation of the law that had come before him: a guidance and an admonition to those who fear Allah.” (Quran, 5:46).
The change that Jesus A.S brought with to the tribes of Israel was less of a drastic change compared to what Moses A.S brought to the pharaoh. What he brought was merely a message and a gospel confirming all the laws that came before him. 17″Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Bible, Matthew 5:17) The change that he brought was like making a delicious dish even more delicious.
As written above, the target group of Jesus A.S son of Mary, was the Jews at that time who were in dispute about the laws in the Torah. However, as all of us have known, the message brought by Jesus A.S was rejected. He was then arrested and was put on the cross by authorities and/or influential people who conspire against him. “ 45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.” (Bible, Matthew 21:45-46)

The way his message was rejected by the Pharisees was quite similar to the way Pharaoh rejected Moses’s A.S message. Both the Pharisees & the Pharaoh were at top position at that time and perhaps their reactions should not be a surprise to us considering the position that they were in.
So another wisdom that can be taken from those two stories is that people are less willing to accept change when they feel that they are already in a comfortable or top position. The Pharaoh and the Pharisees at that time saw a drastic change coming when the two prophets came to them respectively. The fact that they both were in a top and comfortable position doubles the will of resistance. It is like a person saying “Hey, I’m already feeling comfortable, why should I accept the change? Why should I move out of my comfort zone?”
The same thing happened to Muhammad S.A.S when he is sent by God to the tribe of Quraish, the Arab people and then the whole world. The change that he brought to them was also considered a drastic change. Some people from the tribe of Quraish who then were on top position also blatantly rejected the change. And the people who embraced the change easily were mostly people from lower class and Muhammad’s close friends and family.
The change that he brought was done very slowly and patiently. It was done slower & more patient than his two predecessors. Muhammad S.A.S was not only firm in his faith & kept believing in it, but he was also adaptable to any change of situations that he was faced in. (It does not mean that the other two did not adapt very well)
In fact, he was also a man of Justice and would justly punish those who trangressed & outlaws. And although he was a man of peace & loved peace, he was also a brave & intellegent commander in war when he saw that he had no choice but to battle against the oppressors.
And although he was considered the Prophet of God & the smartest among the group that he led, but he was not a ‘too-dominant’ commander and he always loved to hear what his companions think of any issues that they had.
That kind of attitude gave him a very sweet result, which toward the end of his days, the tribe of Quraish in Mecca finally accepted the change. This was the victory which was known as ‘Fathul Makkah’ (The victory of Mecca). It was one of those unique victories when an army was victorious without doing any battle. The Muslim army of 10.000 people just entered the city of Mecca, with no retaliation at all from the citizens. At the end, the people of Mecca finally accepted the change.

How should people manage change?

Should we be surprised with their reactions of the people who reject? Should we be surprised how Prophet Muhammad (S.A.S) conquer Mecca without a battle in the end? No. The legendary strategist, Sun Tzu had explained this kind of thing to us many centuries ago with a parable in his book, ‘Art of War’. In fact, we could make a strategy, on how to successfully plant the change into our target group simply from this parable.

“The army’s formation is like water.
The water’s formation avoids the high and rushes to the low. ?
So an army’s formation avoids the strong and rushes to the weak. ?
Water’s formation adapts to the ground when flowing.” (Sun Tzu)

Like water that flows in a river, the water flows from high places to the lower ones. It avoids the strong (things like rock etc) and it rushes to the weak (in this case, open places like lakes/ponds where the water can stay or keep flowing). And the water adapts to the ground when flowing simply by slipping pass through the rocks, or any other gaps available between the rocks.The water that flows in the river would eventually reach the sea.

In the sea, the water then evaporates a after being boiled by the sun and is blown above by the winds to finally form a raincloud high up in the sky. The wind then drives the clouds into various places. Next, the rain that fall from high place (which is the sky), will fall down onto the low places.
So what is the relevance of the rain cycle with change management? The change bringer here is like the water. And like the water in the river that flows downstream rather than upstream, the people who are in a lower class/position are more likely to accept change rather than the people who felt that they are on the top class/comfortable position. But it does not mean that it is impossible to change the people from the top class . Like the long and somewhat difficult journey of water into the ocean which then evaporates to the sky and form a raincloud, anyone who wants to bring change to any people or group (especially those in top position) should expect nothing easy, because they should not see it as a surprise if their target group shows resistance.
Sometimes the change bringer need to find a rough and long detour just like the water that needs to be able to find the gaps between the rocks and grounds in order to find their way into the ocean. And they also need to adapt very well to any change of situations that they could face in, just like the water’s formation that adapts to the ground when flowing.
The example of the water’s journey to the ocean is a good example of how to handle with resistance. Toin Pijnenburg gave a few tips on how to handle with resistance:

“1. Identify in your own mind what form the resistance is taking. The skill is to pick up the cues from the other and then, in your head put some words on what you see happening.
2. State, in a neutral, nonpunishing way, the form resistance is taking. This is called “naming the resistance”
3. Be quiet. Let other respond to your statement about the resistance.” (Pijnenburg)

Sometimes, the change bringer cannot change their target group right away. And as stated above they also need to be able to adapt to any change of situations. When they see resistance, sometimes the best way to handle it, is to be more passive than before and see what the others will do. Toin Pijnenburg also suggested that. In the first step he basically advises us to analyze the situation first. Then, in the next step he somehow indicates that we need to go at them again, this time in a more passive and less imposing way, in order to see how the others will react. The second step is basically like trying to identify our target group in order to know them better before deciding on what to do next. Then the third step basically suggests that we need to give them space and move ourselves away from them just like the water that moves away from the river into the ocean.

Now what do we do as the change bringer after we move away from the target group? Just like the water that arrives in the ocean and ‘join up with the others’, we need to rebuild ourselves and join up with the people who could assist us. We could also rethink everything again and ‘make calculations in the temple’. While making calculations, we could also try to remember the 8 steps of change by John P. Kotter and think of how to actually apply them this time. Let us take a look once again the 8 steps to change by John P. Kotter:

8 Steps to Change by John P. Kotter:

1. Increase urgency
2. Build the guiding team
3. Get the vision right
4. Communicate for Buy in
5. Empower Action
6. Create short-term wins
7. Don’t let up
8. Make changes stick

The first step basically is to prepare and encourage ourselves mentally for the start. We then need to build a team to do it and delegate tasks. Third, we need to make sure that every member of the team shares the same vision. After that, we need to communicate regularly with the team in order to provide an understanding of the change. Fifth, we then finally need to encourage our team to do the job, but still always remind them not to impose the change. Be like the water that falls down from the sky that don’t make a hard impact, but still make their presence felt gently. Sixth, do things step by step and try to create short term wins in order to build confidence. Seventh, do not ever let up and after the change has successfully been embraced by our target group, we then need to ensure that the changes stick.

When we could successfully apply all that gently like the water that falls down from the sky, it is almost certain that our target group shall embrace the change just like Prophet Muhammad’s (S.A.S) final victory in Mecca where the people finally embrace the change without any retaliation at all.

Conclusion

Changing people is not an easy task at times. The change bringer could often meet fierce resistance from the people they want to change. But here are a few tips for us that we could hopefully always use in the future:

1. When we position ourselves as the change bringer:

• We need to be able to analyze the situation well and adapt to various situations that we could face in.
• Whatever the difficulties, we should not let up.
• We could always ask for assistance from any people who are willing to help.
• Do not try to impose or force the change to the people, instead be like the water that falls down from the sky that don’t make a hard impact, but still make their presence felt gently.

2. When we find ourselves as the people/group that wants be changed:

• To resist is normal because we do not want to embrace something that we did not know right away.
• Use our ‘resistance period’ to find what exactly the change is all about before deciding to accept or to refuse. Accept if it is good, refuse if it is bad.
• Lastly, because change is a certainty and could come at anytime, we should always be ready for it. Especially when it demands us to move out of our comfort zone. Confucius said:

“The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security, he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his states and all their clans are preserved.” (Confucious)

When we could understand all this, hopefully we could face any change, whether as the change bringer or the change target group without any problem at all.

Finally I would like to thank you all for reading, and I hope this could be of use to you.

Aaron El Yazar

Master Class Review: Alex Matatula

Heya fellas, Assalamualaikum! Long time no see! I guess most of ya have probably forgotten about me already. It’s been two years since I update this blog. I haven’t been doing this due to the heavy school workload, but funnily I’m doing this again also because the school ask me to! ^ ^’ Man… Now that’s something special!

Anyway, this post isn’t really related to you at all, but maybe there are some things that you can learn from the lecture I got in school. Oh I’m also doing this for a school assignment too btw. So here goes:

“On Tuesday, July 6th 2010 a guy named Alex Matatula came to the masterclass to give a lecture about ‘Corporate Reputation Mangement & Interactive PR. The guy says that he’s a social media marketer in his own company which called the ‘NoLinea Marketing’. He describes ‘NoLinea Marketing’ as ‘marketing without boundries’ which for me is pretty interesting. I’d like to know about the concept in more details.

And his vision of ‘Live & Learn’ is very simple but it is actually something that we all should do. Kudos to the guy for this one. His mission statement is to make the dialogue happen, taking challenges & enjoying life! (I guess this one is his life motto as well, very simple but a good one to follow). His working motto is to make processes more efficient, to make work more pleasant, and enhancing life experiences. These are the kinds of things that worth to keep in mind.
Anyway, let’s get to the point now. What did he talk about corporate reputation management? “Reputation management is the process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entities’ opinions about those actions; reporting on those actions actions and opinions; and reacting to that report creating a feedback loop” (Matatula). If I may translate that into Bahasa Indonesia: “Manajemen Reputasi adalah proses pelacakan/pengamatan tindakan-tindakan dari suatu badan usaha dan pendapat badan usaha lainya tentang tindakan tersebut; pelaporan tentang tindakan dan pendapat dari badan usaha lain; dan bereaksi terhadap laporan tersebut dan membuat putaran dari masukan-masukan untuk badan usaha yang bersangkutan.” (I apologize for the bad translation, it’s been a while since I wrote some report in Indonesian ^ ^’)
And what does he say about PR? Public Relations is “the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders, and implementing planned programs of action, which will serve both the organization an public interest” (Matatula). In Bahasa Indonesia, this would be translated as: “Seni dan ilmu social dalam menganalisa trend, memprediksikan konsekuensinya, memberikan bimbingan kepada pemimpin-pemimpin organisasi, dan mengimplementasikan program kegiatan terencana, yang akan memberikan manfaat untuk organisasi dan kepentingan publik”.
I am not going to write the full report of what he says in the presentation here, because that was just a teaser for you. I’ll try to share the rest of the stuff in the next few days Insya Allah. Anyway, now I need to comment and give feedback about his presentation, (because that’s what my assignment is all about).

Basically, the content of his presentation is very good. And all the stuff that he talked about (and the ones I wrote above) is applicable when working in any organizations, in my opinion. Because to get better, you need to know what the others think about you as well & react positively on the feedback given.

In presenting the guy was very much ‘down to earth’ just like what the others said in class, but I guess he could use some assistant or a remote control to change the presentation slides. I am sure he could move around more freely & express his thoughts even better with that, because I get the feeling that he was held back just a little bit because he couldn’t move around the room to interact more with the audience. Other than that, it’s all good.”

That’s all for my assignment this time. I hope the teacher would be pleased enough with this. Oh yea, Alex (and any other person out there), If you read this I recommend you to read the book “Marketing 3.0″ mate! It’s the latest book from Philip Kotler, Hermawan Kartajaya & Iwan Setiawan. I haven’t read the whole book, but I was lucky enough to join the seminar held by Hermawan Kartajaya last month. The book is really ‘Refreshing’ & gives you some new insights in marketing.

And before I end this, I’d like to tell you what I’m gonna do in this blog in the future.

Insya Allah starting from next football season 2010/2011, I will write football related articles. In here, I’ll try to write pre-match preview and post-match report of various football matches in Europe.I’ve been learning some stuff about journalism And I hope I could write some good articles with the skills that I’ve learned. So stay tuned in this blog & I hope we could interract with each other again starting next August when the season starts.

Wassalamualaikum fellas!

To know more about Alex & his company click on some of these links:

http://nl.linkedin.com/in/alexmatatula

http://nolinea.nl/

http://twitter.com/alexmatatula