Diary of a CEO: 06/29/2003

2003/07/05

I brought 3 colleagues to a club tonight, one is Yoshi, our friend from Japan, Vincent, art director, and Shelly, I bring them the " River Band " a tiny little club near by Taiwan University, tonight, the performance is " Delta on the main street " the first and only fusion band in urban Taipei, band leader and drummer Mr. Lee used to be my collage who graduate from Taiwan University, but become a session player and musician. I show up is a surprise for him, fusion jazz in Taipei, so nice, I enjoy it a lot, Vincent / Yoshi had a good time too.

I present a terrible speech today, can't blame that due to the short notice as I can turn it down easily, but too confidence on delivering any subject for all kind of audience; today, I do learn a precious lesson, never overconfidence on anything you don't familiar with, and never accept any public appearance without proper preparation. to remember this personal disaster, I wrote my principal guidance when taking public speech :

1. Never accept any speech invitation 2 weeks before the schedule.
2. Be preparing for the subject you familiar.
3. Power point is only the tool, you need to digest enough information before deliver any speech.
4. Structure before drafting, prepare a compelling story with road map, logic and layer.
5. Know your listener and understand their expectation before speech.
6. Meter and practice before public speech.

Don't forget the day of humiliation.

2003/07/04

It's a busy day for me, meeting started from 10 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, met with different people discussion different topics; Jason and the Energy project is what I concerted the most, as we set our tone before corporation month ago, we deployed decent resources in the new model which both of us would like to take it as an entertainment initiative and helping revamp the recording industry in a healthy way; it seems there lays big rock in achieve the goal, Jason encountered enormous pressure from the distribution company who hardship the corporation we are going to launch together, I still don't know why bad old habit didn't die? as I see now music industry is like endangers species, why they are trying the last strike without thinking of participating on the big trend, not playing defense, but to embrace the bright future.

It's a stressful day, until I went for the “Charles Angel " premium with a few friend, it's really an entertaining movie, fun and exciting, it covered all the elements to make it a box office killer, sex, violence, car racing , gun fighting and CG. I enjoy it very much.

2003/07/03

Lunch with Ken Yang is a great experience, a person full of passion and love for culture and music, Ken is the owner of a few indie label in Taiwan – Wind Record did a lot of interesting project and dig in culture music scene, the thing impressed me is the channel distribution strategy Ken did, according to him, the traditional record outlet only account for 25% of his total sales. So the shrink of retailing , even SARS did a little harm to his business, we met in the Executive Yaun's consulting meeting and set up appointment the following day, he mentioned that Social Club is coming to Taiwan on Oct. and had secure 10 tickets for good friends, I am among the candidate list, well, I am flattered and honored, as to see the Cuban legendary musician is a rare change, I send a big OK immediately.

I am happy to indirectly told him why I joint the new industry from entertainment and how the idea and decision developed, last night is a terrible night, I need to finish the power point for submission today for Friday's speech, the subject I am gonna deliver is " Network management and EC after SARS ", The invitation comes so late that I only have less than 3 days to prepare this very new subject, last night, when working on my home laptop, one bottom kills my 2 more hours hard work, no secure, no copy, and it pass midnight already, I was so frustrated and went to bad .

Set up the alarm at 5 am this morning, I finally complete this tough task, it's 7:30 am right now, I get to take a shower and feed myself a very strong coffee before going to office.

By the way, me and my wife found a very interesting noodle vendor in the close by neighborhood, we accidentally discovered it, it only provide vegetarian noodle , rice noodles , but the taste is really good, the only problem is that's a vendor, no air conditioning, so, it's so hot when taking hot noodle.

2003/07/02

. Received 4 premium tickets for " Charles Angel " from Joe, the younger boss of Ambassador Cinema Complex, the date is July 3rd, one day before the street day, I don't know who should I bring or who should I give it to as a gift, free premium bothered me, how strange? Maybe I will call Tom again for this opportunity, but I doubt he can come, well. Check it tomorrow.

Maggie win the best sales / employee of the season today during the Direst Shop manger meeting, supervisor ask her to share her experience to everyone attending the meeting, she not only explained how she did it, but write it down and send it to her manger; she impressed everyone during the meeting, with a record of achieve 502 subscriber for the season, 200 more than her runner up, I listen carefully, and I learn, she reiterate the most important factor : treat everyone potential customer , no matter if she or he is doing window shopping or not. supplement done by her supervisor explained how she did it in a detail look, they say, Maggie always wearing smile, when customer stand, she won't sit, present every paper / document with both hand, she cares, she care her potential customers' feeling with true heart; I am touched by how her collage describe her and how she achieve this record. I touch by her carry our credo " Sincere service " and make a perfect example for everyone in the family, if we can deliver our goal in the long run, our lovely direct sales are the heroes who pave the road for us, my wrap up comments are, to keep 3 customer contact interface as friendly as possible, the we will make a huge difference among customer and among all competitors, the 3 customer contact interface is : DS -- personal contact , CIC -- voice contact and Website - screen contact. Service Business is a tough business

2003/07/01

The experience is awful, why people taking their attitude with them when playing sports after work? It's hard for me to image why elegant people get together at the health club -- a high class, high status club member, compete each other so furious and explicit the ugly human nature? maybe I am over react, but since I join the other ping pong team and playing with them every weekend, it's easy for me to compare each other, I discovered a totally difference way of people compete in the sports game,

In the creative team-- I mean people in the soft business, we fight at game seriously, but when the tension of game release, we feel happy and intimacy build; at Regent club, when people playing the same game, you can tell that there's some discrimination or hatred between players, when the game is over, the hate stays. I found it so strange that I almost give up playing in Regent.

Purpose for playing Ping Pong at my age -- over 40, is not the game of win or lose, it's how much sweat you shed and how you feel the circulation inside your body; it's all about health both in your body and in your soul, so, playing in Regent hardly contribute to your soul; maybe I am too sensitive, maybe I am over react, maybe I am not one of them yet, I think I will never be one of them.

I was invited to Executive Yung ( equivalent of Prime ministry ) this morning attending the first " Industry leaders' "public hearing for rearview Culture and Creative Industry Development Policy in Taiwan, the CACID is designed under the architecture of " Challenge 2008 " the Chen Shuaibai administration's heavy waight Country Restructuring Project toward 2008 , Under the umbrella of Digital Taiwan, Culture and Creative industry will play the left arm to balance the other arm focus on Hi-tech industry, this two speared projects were interpreted as the power play for next Presidential election to be held next year ( 2004 ), and to balance the Beijing Olympic fever on 2008, eTaiwan is a big project, in involved too many organization, today, we only covered the recording industry -- the dying industry cross the globe.

Ministry without Portfolio Mr. Chen Chi-Nan is one of my respected scholar, I valued him very much due to his publishing back to 20 years ago, I read his book talking about the social / culture change in Taiwan / China and some field study report which bring me to another place where I never been, I valued him very much, it's my lucky day to see him in person and voice my name a couple of times, although I didn't mentioned anything about his writing influence me a lot, but I am willing to granted my help to digest the problem of recording industry in Taiwan, and find the proper solution to balance the logic and creative world.

I am happy to see an old friend there, the deputy minister of education, we met a few times and both leave good impression, well, I have volunteering to conduct the educational process in helping revamp the music / recording industry in Taiwan.

Today , the diary is a little bit too broad, well leave a trace to be tracked is a good thing, I make an appointment on Friday night, a private dinner to be remembered.

By the way, Ken Yang and Samuel Chou were there to provoke their opinion about the pop and non-pop music industry in Taiwan, good to see old friend there as well. this is my first time entering Executive Yuan, I've been to Presidential Palace 3 times already, well, kind of personal record.

2003/06/30

Today, at the joint meeting with CHT, the largest carrier in Taiwan, I witness the leverage of Mr. Chu, a professor who I knew in NTU, he called me last week to set up meeting with CHT and told me there's a chance to team up with CHT in the development map for MOD -- multimedia on demand, in the sector of GOD -- game on demand; I thought he mentioned this idea with CHT already, so, I bought one dept. manger to join the CHT meeting together, actually, we are familiar with CHT -- especially the MOD sector chief Mrs. Yang, and talk about possible corporation for quite a few time. but this is the first time Mr. Chu met Mrs. Yang, and right after we met each other , I noticed that Mrs. Yang didn't know why we are here and have no idea what subject we are gonna discuss, I feel strange about this call, but keep silence and carefully listen to Mr. Chu's pitch, follows are my conclusion:

1. he mentioned couple of times about the National Development Fund he is managed to invest on initiatives which will benefit the Digital Content Business in Taiwan.
2. he try to build a ground between CHT and us before go after the content owner -- game licensee for the potential business model.
3. he is too loose on concentrating focal point -- the role each party plan and how to build consensus among parties involved, but talk too much on this and that.
4. no result or concept established after he present this idea, to be honest, even I followed every word he said, I didn't know what's his point?
5. he quote few of my private comments with him before and use them publicly as his standing points, it embarrassed me.

To leverage each party and set up meeting is fine, but a pre-distribute agenda and goal setting for the meeting is essential to any meeting. I don't know what's next and what will follow. I am lucky didn't bring my Japanese colleague with me, otherwise, he will confused about why joint the meeting and why wasting our time on this matter.

this month is a big moth for me, I suddenly become famous , after my EMBA classmate call me to alliance on a Government - Industry complementary chain in the Broadband Development Filed, my life become busy, my public figure raised all of a sudden, today, I went for a seminar chaired by my classmate, he approached me and shake hand with me, demonstrate my VIP status among all the attendee, he already arranged a keynote speech on the 25th of July to talk about the now popular " Mobile entertainment ", then another governmental body asking me to deliver another speech in conjunction with Wireless Internet, to prepare this 2 different subject will turn my life to hell, but in comes another invitation with a very short notice, to deliver a speech on the " Taiwan Knowledge Association " on the coming Friday with the topic " E-commerce after SARS ", So, my life with be miserable these days.

On top of that, interview with one of the prime newspaper is scheduled on this Friday morning with the theme " Marketing Hero " , the reporter went for one of my speech 2 weeks ago, she is impressed about my insight and foresight of marketing and today, beside taking note during the 3 hours seminar, she wish to cover my story in the newspaper via contact with our in-house PR. to sum it up. July will be my Media month, from newspaper to speech on all occasions, if the newspaper release the story prior to my 2 speeches, then it will be a free promotion for the hosting governmental body.

Ye, the pace of life faster after complete of the MBA courses, open Thursday for additional arrangement / appointment / meetings put myself back in the circle of business environment, I made the new routine on PDA, and wish to carry it out , let's call it my personal and professional life KPI.

2003/06/29

Daughter Fruit got beaten again because of her lazy and didn't take care of her cleanliness, her mother running out all the good and bad method in teaching her how to be a clean and independent girl. but it seem everything's in vain, I woke by the shout and crying , but as I know it, so didn't stop my wife educating Fruit in a mean way.

I don’t know where her personality will be changed by the way her mother treat her, but to be honest, we try it all and really can't change her bad habit such as -- don't want to change her underpants over night, don't want to wash face. wash teeth in the morning, don't want to organize her own room; talk back to parent and speak bad about her mother outside; No, she in not having behavior bias, but too lazy, her mother something accusation me and point figure to me saying this is a bad DNA, heritage from my family; well, what can I say.

I love Fruit of course, I try to change her in good matter, but nothing in return, but I will still love her, if in our family, no one appreciated her existence, she will be very lonely and feeing no love in the family.

Executive gathering, a very constructive after-hour activity was first introduced by new Chairman Mr. T when he located in Taiwan, our company taking synergy as a slogan for quite a long time, but the gap between hardware and software companies still stranger to each other, as Taiwan is relativity a small island, intensity of popularity, open minded and welcome new idea, so Mr. T thinking of bringing the intimacy before instruct any collaboration in hard way; the result is impressive, we held the gathering every 2 months, hosted by each company , the activity can be designed by the hosting company, the first 3 gathering were simply dinner, then one company arrange a golfing tournament, this time, I arrange a half day trip to enjoy local Taiwanese country cuisine and take hot spring bath after lunch in northern coast highway;
Our Japanese friend held a golfing Champaign in the early morning, we chose the restaurant as our meeting point, I got there 30 minutes earlier in order to greet the owner of the restaurant -- an old friend who we first met in the army, he run the restaurant business very success, you can't image that a little tiny country restraint can bring him more than 4 millions revenue every month, how he achieve it ? a little restaurant can't make it happen, he did a lot of catering business and making the restaurant one of the famous catering restaurant in northern Taiwan, in addition to that, last year, he opened the banquets hall, a giant restaurant which can accommodate 1200 dining at the same time, last time, I went to check the banquets hall, to everybody's surprise, no one believe in a country ( Chinshang -- named after the gold rush in the Japanese occupation period -- Gold Mountain ) this giant restaurant exist and can survive. Mr. Ko, the owner of the restaurant is a decent person, who set an example of no matter how trivial your business is, you can always make it big by putting your heart into it. we spend 30 minutes chatting until all the attendee arrived to the meeting point -- the old Brother restaurant. Mr. Ko's wife bring us to the banquets hall, yes, another surprise come from everyone, the lunch is a feast. we order the " sample food " to check if it's OK for a possible year end party for the entire Taiwan subsidiaries, 6,000 NT is the list price, we had almost all the precious material include abalone, scallop, lobster, shark's fin and all kind of delicious cuisine , everyone is so happy, cause we are in a rush to next destination, so, we didn’t waving goodbye to the owner.
Elite Spa is where we had hot spring after meal, a quiet and nice place , a Japanese architecture with Zen atmosphere, it surprise our friend from Japan, I can tell that they are amaze about this out of the world in the mountain of Yanmingshan , the drive from restaurant to Elite Spa only took us 10 minutes, when we taking bath, they are so tired, so , only one round, stay in hot water for about 15 minutes, we are lucky to have a room for rest, after 18 holes, they are exhausted, napping for 40 minutes then we saying good bye to each other; on the way home, I drove through the Yanmingshan National Park; nice weather and nice view. after sending guests home, I arrived by 6:00 pm. take a short rest, I brought my wife to Whsi street night market to enjoy vendors and eating local food.

this complete my day and the week for gathering -- from Wed. seafood with Ping Pong team, Thursday with Inayoshi-san, Friday EMBA, Sat -- Executive gathering. what a week.

By the way, on the way to Chinsan, I manage to re-organized my monthly routine in my PDA using the software -- thought manger, the re-organized routine and check list will make me punch to the monthly to do's and remind me to check the schedule and status on hand - for business and personal, well, July resolution -- this is what I say, plan ahead make me feel secured, implement deliver achievement.

Diary of a CEO