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September 2014

It’s unusual for me to start writing towards the end of the month. Four weeks into the semester, I’ve done basically what a college student does: classes, work, sports, and not to forget some own entertainment. But there’s still plenty of things to talk about this month. The Asian Games is happening now. This time we will be at Incheon, South Korea witnessing the second largest multi-sports event happening. Here’s the link to the promotional video of the games.

Let’s talk about Malaysia Airlines recovery plan. It’s going to be the fifth time Malaysia Airlines has embarked on a recovery/transformation/re-energized (or whatever you want to call it) in a decade. It’s obvious that after so much transformation, the biggest problem is yet to be solved. Are they overpaying for their contracts? Are they gaining high productivity from their employees? Are they flying with full loads? Are they operating with the correct strategy?

To be honest, I’m quite pessimistic about this once again transformation. Not much information is being given in the 12-point recovery plan. All we know is that 6,000 staff will lose their job and around RM6 billion ($1.8 billion) is being invested by parent company, Khazanah. This recovery will be a much tougher task compare to the previous ones. The airline not only faces financial problems, they also need to find ways to rescue their reputations as an airline after two airliners disasters. Not to forget competitions from different airlines. Locally, low-cost carriers Airasia and Malindo Air are expanding quickly. Regional rivals-Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways operates similar hub and spoke strategy always provide stiff competitions to MAS. While globally, the rise of Middle-Eastern Airlines have threaten the profitability of most international airlines. There’s a lot of mountain to climb for the carrier. But the carrier definitely can look for Japan Airlines for some inspiration. The carrier filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and after a series of recovery plan, the airline is now back in healthy state, making significant international expansion in these few years.

Remember that I had an article about my prediction about the recently concluded US Open? My prediction for the women’s side was absolutely spot on. Serena winning the title and Wozniacki playing some of the best tennis of her career by reaching to the final. Halep’s shock early exit was perhaps surprising. Back to the men’s side, I’m happy to see my prediction wrong. I guess nobody in the world would predict a Nishikori-Cilic final lineup. This was also the first time there was no Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic in the final since the 2005 Australian Open final. Perhaps a sign that the Big Four (or big three) dominance is crumbling down. We already had two new major winners this year - Wawrinka and Cilic this year and surely this will give lots of confidence to other guys on the tour to make the breakthrough. Maybe, just maybe a new era in tennis is coming soon.

That’s all for September. Until then, see you next time!

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