Diary of a CEO: 08/10/2003

2003/08/15

the final budge went perfectly, it's smooth and no shooting, I am happy to see this great result, all the preparing is not in vain, but as I told my colleague last night, if the green light granted, it will be a end of a beginning, we need to achieve what we committed, figures can't make up for next 6 months.

HK operation been attacked again, but, this is not a Apple compare with Orange, so, they will survive

this is another budget session, I arrived at Tokyo last night, the weather change dramatically, I though this is normal until this moring the locals told me this is abnormal , last week, when I was here, it's like 37 degree, last night, it turn to 18 degree, fortunately I bring love sleeves,

First time taking EVA's new Airbus from Taipei to Tokyo, this is an unique expericece, the business class is in it's mordern shape, the airline stewdress change the uniform , now look more fashion, the amazing thing is they provide Din-Tai-Fun deserve set menu for business class guest, I know it all come from the competition, sicne Hanada airport is no longer favor China Airline and EVA air, the communicator can't really enjoy the time saving between Tokyo and Taipei, for instance, the transportation between Haneda airport to down down townTokyo will take appromixely 50 minutes compare to the Narida airport, which will take more than 90 minutes to downtown Tokyo, the other benifet from Heneda is the speedy immegration procedure , sicne it's a local / domestic airport, so, it save time again, I remember last year, heganshan launch a new route from Haneda to Shingawa where our Head Quarter is, the train will take 25 minutes direct from airport to office; all I want to say is that no differeciation now, EVA need to secure the customer, so , better price or better service turn to the market place, then customer enjoy better service than before.

I had time for 3C shopping yesterday, the place I went ti Big K, the megastore in the heart of Tokyo, 6 stories of shope they took from SOGO department store, this is a one stop for all electrinic related product. I stay there for 3 hours and do a little shoping, Sony booth is the traffic spot, I found a new competiton internally again, Sony Network Asseccory -- new product line from new entilty product all network enable accessory including mouse, and I saw the Viao shop do sell Viao mouse as well, not to mention other applications.

We had dinner in one of the local Sushi restauanat, a management issue erupt there when COO asking our senior manager her vacation plan and found it was pre-scheduled to extend the business trip here and enjoy holiday in Tokyo, this make him very upset since the policy don't allow our employee to take business trip as advantage and making private funcitons, especially the person been accused is in chagre of the administration dept, I could not say more as this is my finding when met COO at the lobby, it's a little bit emarrase for the perosn who's been challenge, but what make COO angry is the ethic problem, he shalll not be cheated when put lots of turst to the person., the dinner was not a happy one although we have to eat, it seem eveyone losing appetise.

2003/08/13

we sponsor 3 music event this year, a musical -- Wedding Banquet, a Japanese Pop : Oda's concert and a Classical : YoYo ma, to associate ourselves can benefit form branding and to extend the relationship with the entertainment / creative / performance industry where I was from; the link between our business and the show business can also provide benefit to our customer who are in the same demographic and my enjoy the event we sponsor; by doing so, we have secure some tickets to bundle with other related product for retention, this " For Our Customer only " event create a momentum of prestigious customer, so, this is one of the thing I heritage from Music and bring it across to telecom / Internet.

Welly is a good friend, Oda is to re-connected with the promoter, Mr. Yu, Yoyo is an old friend of honor, I do hope this direction won't be treated as lose-focus.

met with primary school classmate made me so exciting, 3 of us had a great time yesterday , Lin is my best friend when in primary school, we have 3 in one group, beside Lin, Wei is another buddy to the group; we -- about the same height, the same ranking range in the class and doing after school activity together; I found Lin last year via the internet search engineer, we send email a couple times, speaking over the phone a few, and finally, we see each other in person yesterday, he said we haven’t seeing each other since we were 18 years old; Shu is our neighboring Classmate, when in primary school, boy and girl are in difference class, we at Class A sharing teacher / resource with Class B, Class A is boy and Class B is girl, Shu didn't have any strong impression about me, but remembered I was sick all the time and didn't develop a good model to communication with girls; well , at least she said I was a good student -- the only judgment is the scores for every examination.

The most beautiful part in reunion is to bring back memory and to share " what's going on " between parties and reveal other classmates' status quo, when the name pop up from the box of memory, it's like unlock of the secret jewel box, we begin to check the most impressive event he or she did before and try to capture the best moment in life.

Yes, someone said it before : when recall the old memory more and forget the recent business, it's the sign of getting old, well, I will never let it happen, as I cherish the old friendship but will keep good and sharp metal status to handle the current me.
I will tell Wei the story when see him this coming Sat. and searching for long lost good friend on the web again.

EMBA diner crazy as before, talking is much important than eating, sharing is much important than seeing each other, we can always find a good reason / excuse to celebrate the get together or to waive the frustrations. Last night is another crazy night.

2003/08/12

this is a recap clip from my trip report. today, I am using the new Viao - SONY NB, Z1 is a greaat model and the function is so powerful, I enjoy it very much.
East Asia operation review will take place in one hour, we may only have 20 minutes to express what we achieve for the past 6 months and our strategic plan for the next quarter, a get together party will be followed then, it’s my headache again to memories all the Japanese name, it’s easy for me to read in Chinese, but it’s hard for me to pronounce it . I should spend sometime with my HK counter partner as well, it seems he is suffering from a great pressure and don’t know how to handle it, as a friend, I will tell him what to do, if what I am doing suit his need.
2003/8/7
the East Asia Operation Review Meeting Taiwan session take place from 3:45 to 6:30 pm, 3 companies from Taiwan present the past 6 months’ achievement and the goals for the remaining fiscal year, although the meeting guidance remind everyone to conduct the presentation in English, but Taiwan session was 80% process in Japanese, our session have to be done in English, as I can’t speak Chinese, and our business becoming the challenging topic as non of the executive attending the meeting garnering the service business experience before, the debating is when shall we make money or is this is a viable model to carry on, of course, we have no doubt about it, but it’s pretty hard to convince hard ware selling people that there’s a horn after break even and the rosy income will be arrived then. Anyway, we manage to handle all the questioning and went for the get together party, the party is a big one, company from Taiwan, China, HK and Korean sharing , eating and drinking, as I have different agenda, so , 4 of us went for a great Lamen restaurant and enjoy the noodle after the party.
Noodle after, I brought J to the train station and discussing the nature of business with the counter partner in HK, J is facing enormous challenge to prove his business can shows the profit and break even, but due the wrongly allocate of the resource in the launch of service, the system design was not in the right track, this is why J didn’t want to committee the number in front of all the delegates, especially this is an review meeting, why did the chairman raise the issue about how to run this business and make the mid range plan a workable one, J thinks this conversation shall be conducted in private and not in front of all the delegate and having people interpretive that there’s a possibility that the parent company will terminate the business , his tone shows some upset about the managements’ miss-conducting the session and leave a wrong impression to all the attendees. It will make him difficult to keep the momentum and convince his people work even hardly, he even told me if the ramous spread out, he will not retain colleague who want to leave and pursue other business opportunity. Our conversation last for about 90 minutes, J said he is lucky than me because I have to show everyone a break even status by next March; I am thinking how to deliver this message to all the managers in Taiwan, not to scare them, but to encourage them in a proper mean, I am thinking how to do it smart and reveal this message in the right timing, be a hammer is no longer the case, I need to figure out a way having people focus on the same direction and try every effort to make it happen..
I feel a little bit tired, next week, I need to come back to Tokyo presenting another budget to different entity, too many bosses to handle, but all of them asking for the same result this time, regeneration 60 is the theme from the company, hope it works.
2003/8/8
The real challenge finally arrive, how to achieve monthly break even before next March will determine the future of the company; counting days and fighting every number is essential to reach this goal, in addition, how to identify new and workable channel acquiring new subscriber will be my homework, price is the tool we knows and we use, but it erode the profit which may defer the day for break even, spending on acquisition is another key, throwing good money to bad money, finding attractive premium or package for potential customer, keep the old customer with us , find a better way to process retention … every issue I write down here is crucial to make the break even a reality.
I shared with J last night for a few learning: first, you must love your customer, yes, they are critical, they are demanding, they complain more then appreciate, but if we don’t love our customer, we are in the wrong business, if we don’t change our mentality, then , we will never happy with what we are doing, if there’s no happy employee, there won’t be any satisfied customer. Second, the learning curve for transaction, now, we have shorten the dealing time from 45 minutes average to 20 minutes , which means the capacity of direct shops sales can double the subscribers if every promotion is going the right direction;
Third is people sign up for premium, they will terminate the service for the same reason, to seduce customer is only for bring them inside the house, then how to perform what they want, how to provide the best quality and service is the key;
We need a quality of time to really think about how to achieve the goal and increase 2,000 something subs on monthly basis, we have no time to think what strategy behind it, but to chasing time for the result.
One measurement, one focus is what I need to say to myself, don’t bringing too much side business and influence on the ISP development, it isn’t smart to allocation resource to objectives which won’t contribute to the growth of the subscriber; for a very short term, I can only focus on one thing and to measure it in one way, and I need to deliver this message to all the employee in the company, we have to achieve this goal, no matter what it takes.
Mid range plan shall be ready, but it’s only a blue print, and it will only stay some where in the document or in my mind, I am not preaching for miracle and won’t be naïve to guess there’s other way to break even other than growing subscribers. Be proactive, and be pragmatic, and be practical, and be professional, this 4 P will be the tattoo from today.
I need to call a meeting in quiet place for such discussion and come out with plan and action to follow, and also inform all of our employee this is the only , the one and only goal to achieve this year. I can’t see anyone have doubt in our creed and I can’t stand if anyone in our company didn’t share the same,
I want to make it, and I will make it.
Today, is father in Taiwan, why? Because Aug. 8 is pronouncing “ BABA “ , this is father in Mandarin, I am away from home, I father won’t be home today, I am celebration it alone here in Tokyo, and should buy some gift for myself.

2nd generation product didn't disappoint me, with high expectations, I bring 2 of my colleague to the off-Broadway show " Wedding Banquet " this evening, the musical was adapted by An Lee's famous Chinese movie and the script was re-written by -- I don't know who, but the repertoire said it's inspired by Welly, the young talent Asian American who establish this non-organization company - second generation production; the story is controversial, it deals with homosexual, east and west, young and elder's difference in value and so on, Weng - Tong - acting by Welly and Simon -- his lover are 2 shining star on stage, the dance routine and melodic music attract most of the audience, 2 scenes caught me in the mood -- the bus tour and the Tai-Chi dance, one is the mix culture and a miniature representing the colorful New York, the other is the ancient Chinese / oriental mystery representing the " When west meet east " dramatic encounter.

a 3 hours musical, no one didn't pay attention to the stage and touch by the story, gay love wasn't easy for Taiwanese to accept, but most of the audience don't feel uncomfortable evening seeing 2 man kissing on the stage -- yes, I did look around and observe the audience.

Of course, there are room to improve, such as : the music porting can be stronger, more instruments and more player to make the song richer, the group dancing team can be bigger, if they put 10 more to do the group dancing and singing, The Broadway effect will influence audience more, third is the setting, maybe it's stage or budget constrain which make the setting a little too simple, if there's some constrain, then lighting can make up for it, but , the lighting design is simple as well, if the above mentioned object can be improved, the result can be better, since this is a pilot show or world premium, so shall be more to revise and polished, they can even replace some of the actor / actress if they want.

If I were a investing banker, I will bet on this number cause I do see the potential to bring this musical to " Broadway " and to run it for years. as the cross-culture , cross-racial and cross-sex issue always generate dramatic story and this is an above standard performance, more resource injection will bring better performance,.

I am glad that Shelly, Jay, and Perry join me to the musical and Jay make believe that I am absolutely right, and this is really beyond his expectation. I am happy that people appreciate art and performing day by day.

2003/08/11

Saturday night, I host the dinner at New Hama for old classmate James, Tom and his wife joint the dinner as guest as well, James come from HK , when we were in College, he is the outstanding student among our average classmate, student leader, active in public affair, and was elected as the chairman for graduation committee, all he did were what we didn't familiar as a " Student", then he join the army after graduation from school, dramatically is that when done his military service, he married a British girl -- yes, a English lady and a lawyer, then thy live in London; when their first child was born, we heard that the kid developed a rare disease, a miss-complete of DNA , and it cause the little child paralyze and can't close her eyes when sleeping, it's a very suffering disease, I saw the little girl twice in Hong Kong , when the servant feed her, it seems the food is very difficult to swallow even it's in liquid form; then he devoice with his English wife in HK, return the single statue and work in a trading company based in Hong Kong, since he move to HK eight years ago, we met often then before, whenever I got t chance to see him during my business trip, we will have deal or drinks then, so, I am somehow connected with his life, one lady who he seeing quit often can't stand to keep the child with them, so, they broke up. the other girl who he is dating now seems accept the situation James is facing, unfortunately, their seeing each other was not blessing by the girl's parent, so the re-marriage arrangement is kind of far away.
We did the dinner , 3 couple talked about school days and classmate, I think James want to show the girl Taipei more, so, we didn't continue our drink after meal.

Sunday it the day for kid , the whole family go for the Disney animation movie " Looking for Nemo ", a film by Pixar , a great film , great animation, great story and great lines, when follow the movie in the theater, you will forget that this is an animation and simply go with the flow and your feeling drives by the story in the movie, this is a film for the family, not for kid only, no wonder it generate more than 400m box office for US only, I can see that the equivalent amount of revenue will come when the DVD releases, this is a definitely must for collector.

At night, I brought my wife to another comedy " the in-laws " casting by Mike Douglas. a funny and interesting movie, there's an ender woman sitting next to us who keep laughing throughout the movie, we were wondering if she have some psychic problem; to comparison the story, I think in-laws have a better story outline then bad boy 2 , BB2 did a terrible job in translating English to Chinese subtitle, the translator putting too much local flavor and change the meaning of original English, it was not a pleasant experience , and it will lead the audience a wrong impression about the American slang, this part is what I didn't like the most.

Diary of a CEO

2003/08/15

2003/08/13

2003/08/12

2003/08/11

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