When I was talking to Ming a few weeks ago, something dawned on me. When we first started Nuffnang (Netccentric), the team in Malaysia and Singapore used to be really close. Since then the company has grown. The Netccentric Group we founded which now owns Nuffnang, Ripplewerkz, JPB, ChurpChurp and Nom Nom Media now employ some 60 staff in offices at KL, Singapore, Manila and Melbourne. So what we find now is that some of the Nuffies in the Malaysian offices don’t know the Nuffies in the Singapore office and vice versa.
I went into the office in the next few days and had a talk with all the 25 staff based in the KL office. I told them about how it used to be between us and how it is now. Then… after some discussions among the Nuffies, the LDR Initiative was born! The idea was that we invite the Singaporean team over for a “homestay” with us here in Malaysia next weekend. So we will have a plan to do all sorts of different things, whether it’s paintballing or a day at Sunway Lagoon and in return we will each host a Nuffie at our own homes. So we can get to know each of them better.
So here’s how we executed it. First, Sara sent an email to all the Nuffies in the KL Office.
Ming happened to be in the KL office the day that this email was sent. So Sara was going around collecting the money from us when Ming suddenly came up and asked us “What’s going on?”
Fortunately either Sara or me (can’t remember who) were quick enough to say
“Oh no lar.. just paying each other back for lunch”.
Ming just nodded and went away uninterested… fortunately… or the surprise would’ve been spoilt. And a surprise it was!
On Monday everyone in the Singapore office received a rose each with a card on them with their names.
Inside the card was all sorts of freaking cheesy quotes which go in-line with the LDR theme. Seriously, some of them are so cheesy we all went “eeeyyeeer” whenever we heard it… some of us went ahead and puked blood.
To give you an idea on what the quotes were like:
“We only part to meet again”
or
“What’s the opposite of two? Lonely me and lonely you”
We knew that the Singaporean Nuffies were going to tweet all about it when they got it so Linda sent an email out to everyone to make sure nobody would tell them that it was us… at least until the sunflower came the second day that revealed it all. Naturally when the Singaporean Nuffies got it they started to freak out.
They were wondering who the hell from the outside would know ALL their names. I mean it’s one thing to know the names of a few people here and there since sometimes we blog about them, but even the names of the people that the outside world don’t normally see.. like the Finance or Admin side.
Here’s one of the tweets.
Then they started guessing who the sender could be… and Ming actually guessed me!
I denied it all the way… after being warned by the rest of the Malaysian Nuffies that they would keel me if I leaked out the plan. When Ming asked me about it I was like “NO LAH!! I where got do these kind of things wan!”. So then he started guessing other possibilities. Like how it could be…
And they talked a bit about that with Elise replying Ming.
And Ming replying Elise
The Singapore Nuffies were so freaked out they called the florist to demand that the florist tell them who sent it. They stressed how it was “NOT FUNNY”…. all that while the rest of us on the Malaysian side were laughing away!
The next day, the Sunflower came.
Though miles may lie between us, we’re never far apart, for friendship doesn’t count the miles, its measured by the heart. Though that stands true in every detail, the wax of the candle has shadowed our glow. It has reached the peak to rekindle our romance, so hop on the bus and we’ll meet you on the weekend. Head towards the twin towers on the 2nd of June, we will write a new chapter that will make you swoon.
With all our love,
Your Malaysian Counterparts
And shortly after that we sent them an e-mail to clear it up.
They accepted our invitation and now it’s time for the planning on our side. Next weekend is going to be fun 🙂
What made me really happy was to see how the Nuffies really pulled this together and even contributed time and money to keep the closeness of the Nuffies alive! That’s the kind of people that I think we need to keep the company the way it is… and it’s the kind of people that I’m very glad that we have 🙂
See you next weekend guys!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space