Proton to submit roadmap to the Malaysian government

Proton car company is Malaysian. It has thus far been protected by the government. This is due to end by 2018.
They have been told to give the government their roadmap for the future.
This a portion of the STAR report.

“At the end of the day, we want our automotive industry to remain and be competitive,'' said Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI) chairman Datuk Kamaruddin Ismail in an interview with StarBiz recently.
“We have asked Proton and Perodua to present their competitive roadmaps and from there, we will chart it.”

Post liberalisation, MAI intends to make Malaysia the most choice destination for automobile production in South-East Asia. To accomplish that, the country will be looking in-depth at the skills the auto industry in Malaysia will possess and offer to foreign companies.

I sincerely hope that Proton includes my MUM proposal in roadmap.

The Government is aware of the proposal as I presented it at the ASLI Automotive conference this year. I met the Proton MD personally, I mediated during his presentation, and even got to shake hands with the Proton adviser Dr Mahathir.

Many thanks to the ASLI team for giving me the opportunity.

Last week Motorcycle news reviewed the new Ducati cruiser, the Diavel. The journalist says the product has:

 SIP... Style Innovation and Performance.

These are qualities we should expect from Proton Lotus and MUM.

Here is the video:

Regime Change. The world moves on.

Today, I have just completed a new CRB form. Should I be successful in getting MUM off the ground it will be useful. As a board member of Essex Media Workshop I need one any way.
Criminal Record Checks are a necessary requirement if you deal with vulnerable adults or children.
The world is changing. Libya is big news today. My father worked in Libya for many years. Green Square is normally where Colonel Gadaffi held his public executions, or stonings. Today it is a place of public demonstrations, against the regime.
The world is changing.
I sincerely hope for the better.

No news from any Lotus or Proton people regarding my proposal. Sad to say this is taking forever. I made an early version of this proposal in 2002 whilst working for Kevin Elgood and John Robinson in Bukit Jalil.
Suffice to say I was a little ahead of my time!
However, since then Lotus has undergone several regime changes and the world has moved on.
I am confident they will see the light eventually...

Waiting for Lotus... A story I made up. Anyone want to illustrate it?

I'm still waiting for Lotus to accept my proposal...
During my time in Malaysia, I have had several people want to go into business with me.
One, Sensei Yaacob (Shorinji Kempo) is an illustrator. He asked me to write a children's story.
He wanted to get a good story, and maybe present it to the government for printing, and use in primary schools.

Here is my first attempt:

The Sensei, a wise and learned man addresses his superhero pupils.

Superheroes! Are we ready for an adventure?

Yes Sir!

Whitey is lost in the jungle of ice cream cones and chocolate. We must save him!

(Young superheroes sometimes get lost in the forest of ice cream cones on purpose.)

On planet marzipan children had to be very careful not to wander into chocolate lakes, fizzy drink fountains, and most dangerous of all the ice cream cone forest!

This was a dangerous mission… Even the sensei really liked the ice cream and chocolate forest. When he was younger he had got lost there many times.

However, if they wanted Whitey to keep his superpowers they needed to save him and soon.

After 5 days in the forest most superheroes lost their ability to jump large logs and things.

After 10 days they could hardly walk, and their bottoms started to make loud noises!
Each superhero was special. Some could break ice cream cones with one blow.

Others could turn chocolate into broccoli… which is really healthy, and very good for superheroes.

Whitey was only learning to become a superhero and didn’t understand how dangerous the forest of ice cream cones and chocolate could be.

He sat on a chocolate log and ate all the ice cream he could!

Whitey was making the chocolate log creak and his bottom was making funny noises.

Outside the forest Whitey’s superhero friends prepared to save him.

Once inside the forest the superheroes had to be focused.

They had to save Whitey from the forest. Luckily the sensei had magic powers.

He could turn Whitey into a frog. Frogs hate chocolate and ice cream.
He would get the superheroes to dress up as princesses.

Frogs love princesses!

So that’s what they did. Whitey croaked for joy when he saw them.

Once out of the forest Whitey was kissed by the sensei and he returned to his old self.

Planet marzipan can be a dangerous place for superheroes. It’s a very safe place for frogs though!

Trulyasia.tv Interview today. Herry co founder of backpacking asia interviewed.

I have been asked to do an interview with Trulyasia.tv today (Malaysia). The interview will take place today between 5pm and 7pm.

It is not MUM related.
The TV team are here to look at Red Palm. Red Palm is an award winning hostel in KL.
I can't embed the interview, as it has not taken place!
I am back in the UK next week. Among other things I have to be available for a board meeting at a Media workshop I am involved in.
As for the MUM project. I have not been contacted as yet by any of the powers that be...
An update: I was not interviewed. Herry, co founder of backpackingasia.com was filmed. Herry and the other founder Tilo filmed and edited my webpage video.
Info needed to access video:

1st Column: 3 letters that describe your Mother

2nd Column: Four numbers that describe perfect vision.

They are both younger and better looking than me!
Sofie, the owner of the hostel is a very special person, I genuinely feel the video team made an error in not filming an interview with her. I'm not calling the shots.
I will embed the video in any event when it comes online.

Southampton University to open a campus in Johor. Lotus v Lotus carries on (YAWN). Albert Lam on his vision for electric cars.

Today I read that Southampton University are opening a campus in Johor:
This is from the NST (New Strait Times)

KUALA LUMPUR: The University of Southampton, world renowned for its engineering programme, will open its first overseas campus in Johor next year. The University of Southampton Malaysia Campus (USMC) will be sited at Iskandar Malaysia's EduCity in Nusajaya, Johor, and its first intake will comprise of 60 students.
They can choose any of its undergraduate and postgraduate courses in electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering...

Khaled (Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin) said with 403 private colleges, 20 public universities, 45 private universities and 15 foreign branch campuses, Malaysia had great potential to tap into the education need of the region...
"We aim to recruit an additional 150,000 foreign students by 2015," he said, adding there would be no ratio for local and international students for private universities.

It would seem that Johor is crying out for educational partners. It has an FIA approved track that needs redevelopment.
I can certainly see a synergy here.

Meanwhile the Lotus v Lotus saga drags on.BBC

Malaysia has three F1 teams it sponsors or owns. What a crying shame they can't all just funnel their energy and technology through a University.

I found this CNBC interview with Albert lam online. I spoke to Albert several years ago in the Hilton, Brickfields Malaysia. It was a neutral venue, where I could converse with him without any outside interruptions (as in all companies, there are some very ambitious individuals working for Lotus).
Albert as CEO of Lotus engineering at the time. "Show me the revenue stream" was his mantra.
He did give me a couple of hours of his time, which was good of him.

An interesting property for sale. A potential Campus?

Today, I saw an interesting article in Autosport...
Buy your own test track!

The test track, previously owned by Honda is available for $2,742,000 ($6,000 per acre). For sale by:
Cantil Properties.

It is 120 miles from Los Angeles. Lotus seem to have a fixation with California, so I have  to put this forward as a potential American campus for the virtual university plan.

The site is just outside of California city.

Click this link to view a flash presentation.

In order to dovetail with the group Lotus vision of having a global presence in Europe (Hethel) Asia (Malaysia-Johor) and North America (Michigan/California). It would be appropriate to have some physical campuses to compliment the Virtual university.

Apart from being in California, the site is purpose built for vehicle testing. It would cost a fortune to replicate from scratch.

http://www.dtgenterprises.com/addg_ca.asp
LARGE CORPORATIONS ARE LOCATING NEW FACILITIES IN CALIFORNIA CITY!
The Hyundia-Kia officials and the California City mayor cut the ribbon on the automaker's new $60 Million North American auto test center. This brand new 4,300 acre Hyundia-Kia facility includes a 30,000 square foot office complex and vehicles are tested on a variety of surfaces including a 6.4 mile oval track, a 2.75 mile winding track, and a 3.3 mile hill road. A two million square feet vehicle dynamics area is also included.
Honda also operates a 3,800 acre test facility just North of California City. This facility includes a 7.5 mile oval track, a 4.5 mile winding course, and four courses to test motorcycles & ATV's.[(Presently for sale at $2,742,000) you can spend $10 million on additional development/upgrades and still be only at 20% of Hyundai's outlay].

Just a thought.

Bob Lutz was being optimistic at 60% chance of success. Lets make it 90%

 A happy and healthy New Year to everyone.

In a recent Telegraph interview Dany Bahar was interviewed on the future of Lotus

Bahar wants the engineering side to create at least one third of the company’s profits in future, with the other two thirds coming from building 6,000-7,000 road cars a year.

“In future we will be fighting in every sports car sector,” he says.

I'm not an accountant. So I have kept this real simple.

7000 units x 100,000 plus pounds average saleable value per vehicle  =  800,000,000 Pounds total 

So using these figures,Lotus can expect to achieve a total revenue of 0.8 Billion pounds per year on car sales

Assuming Lotus covers its R&D costs by 2015 and achieves a profit margin of 25% per car. Lotus can expect approx 0.2 Billion pounds profit per year...Add 0.1 Billion profit from Engineering services.

 Compare this to Phoenix (virtual) University figures for 2010.
Here is a portion of their financials for 2010.
OutlookFor the full year, analysts expect Apollo to grow revenue 23.3% to $4.9 billion. Earnings should exceed $5 per share and grow approximately 20%.

So the present Lotus plan has a potential of  generating revenue of 1.2 billion pounds per year.

The University idea has a potential revenueof ($4.9billion)3.1 billion pounds using official  Phoenix figures as a benchmark.

I don't envisage the University having a 25% profit margin. I would hope however, over time, to have 1 million customers as opposed to the half a million that Phoenix has presently.

I would expect a truly global customer base.

Assuming an eventual customer base of 1 million students globally a 6 billion pound revenue stream would be possible:

Using a 10% profit margin for the University:


Yearly Profit for Virtual University: 600 Million pounds


Using a 25% profit margin for the present Lotus plan:

Yearly Profit for present Lotus plan: 300 Million pounds

The present plan only represents the tip of the iceberg... Look deeper

In my humble opinion adding a virtual University to the plan raises the chances of success from an optimistic 60% (Bob Lutz) to a realistic 90%.

BTW: The British OU celebrates its 40th birthday on the 3rd January. Congratulations!