Planet E - November, 2000 - "He wields a vision of what is to bo, and designs it to make perfect its structure, from floor to roof he overseea its construction, make known to the world, just how stable it can be. He is the Architet."

Dot-coms today versus dot-coms of a year ago:

"One of the greatest challenges for dot-coms today is to show a healthy P&L (Profit and Loss) statement. Many dot-com companies are now finding it difficult to generate revenue because they either do not have a clear business model to begin with, or they face a scalability issue, that is, they are unable to expand their business. To be successful, the company must be a value-adder all the time. It must also be innovative and flexible to changes. That means constant assessment of the market situation and quick adaptation to changes. The moment a company stops adding value in this new economy, that's the beginning of the end of that company."

Challenges and Strategies for your company to Survive and Succeed:

"There are two main challenges for Singapore HardwareZone. One is that of increasing revenue and two, is that of building a successful brand name. To achieve these, we are implementing various revenue generation mechanisms and are constantly monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of each mechanism. We are also making efforts to beef-up our own marketing (both online and traditionally offline) and publicity efforts."

Is there a Holy Grail to the Dot-com Business Model?

"I think there are several points that are pertinent to all dot-com startups in order to be successful. Five points I would like to share:

	Passion - There must be that passion to want to succeed, and to like doing what you are doing. This passion must be long-lived too, as it may take awhile to realize this dream that you may have, so you must never give up, but hand on to that passion and keep running as fast as possible.
	Innovation - Constant assessment of market situations must be made. You'll need to be sensitive to market sentiments and trends, and make necessary improvements. Innovative ideas must constantly come, for the purpose of improving the product or services.
	Team - We cannot function as individuals in this new dot-com economy. It has to be a team effort - that is why the team is so important. Bad team relationships can hinder growth tremendously and can even be detrimental to the health and environment of the company so it is paramount to have a good team to work with. A team that gels together and synergises is the aim.
	Scalability - The business model adopted by the dot-com must be scalable. This is especially true in our tiny country of Singapore. Naturally, any dot-come in Singapore would have to venture abroad to wide/broaden their audience/client base. Therefore, it is important that the business model can be easily expanded and replicated in other parts of the world.
	Outsourcing - A dot-com company must decide what are its core competencies and which are not. After having identified them, the general rule is to outsource what is not your core competency. This is especially so in this new economy, where companies can gain so much more by concentrating on what they can do best and leveraging on the expert services provided by other disciplines."

"HardwareZone Pte. Ltd. Has a web site called HardwareZone.com. It's aim is to be the premier IT portal providing IT-related content/information to the community. Currently, our target market is Singapore, but soon, we will not be restricting it to just local. We hope to educate the public on the use of IT to enrich our lives and encourage people to be more IT-savvy. With more than 25,000 registered members to date (and increasingly growing), HardwareZone.com is a virtual community and channel whereby IT product makers can raise product awareness and extend brand equity to all our viewers."

As General Manager, Eugene Low manages day-to-day running of the company, from meeting international reps of MNCs to watering the plants and vacuuming the office. He had 8 'A-Level' distinctions from SJI and later graduated with a BSc in Computer Science from NUS.