Mr. Fang pay his second visit to me within the week, we were serving at the same military unit back to 20 more years ago, he called 2 weeks ago and explained to me the venture and product he is aiming and seek my opinion / assistant to build the on-line channel upon it; I didn't give him a OK or NO, but set up an appointment with him and get to know the product he plans to launch. the second meeting, he bring along samples for me, I promise to distribute for the target group ( age over 30, female, use facial cover before ) and simply explain to him my idea behind any potential corporation :
1. As this is cosmetic, we need a certificate / prove from governmental lab to identify the safety of use.
2. sample result collection first, user may tell us more.
3. See it the product fit our current customer base or demographic.
4. Check internally if this co-op benefit us and fit in our strategic development.
5. My colleague happy with doing this.
6. set up areas to be cooperated first ( sample distribution, EC.or AD .. ect ) before full scale roll out.
when you are in high ranking position, you easily access resources and your network is larger than others, you need a clear mind about this : your are creating additional non-value add job for your colleagues or bringing the add on value to your business ? if you know how the system operate, you will understand sometimes you will act as the terminator to project inflow which you know going to waste the company resource; however relationship is one of the method for establishing business, you can't always turn down opportunity just because those who present their proposal is your friend or associates, always keep a rule in your heart;
Dinner with 2 EMBA classmates learned that Blue Cat animation venture is another example of leverage relationship but turn out to be disaster, yes. I am lucky to be the gate keeper in the final round and didn't spread the misfortune in our operation. Peter is so upset because he forgot the last night is the 7th wedding anniversary of their marriage, his wife waiting at home but he was eating out with us in a hot-pot restaurant.
hosting dinner for our as agent the night before, I choose the fish restaurant again, people who are above 40 feels happy, young Turk don't seems to appreciate local fresh fish very much, anyway, as host, if I can entertain half of the attendee shall be good enough, before dinner, Ad agency wonder why their customer invited them for dinner, wonder if this is a termination meal, no, of course not, if this is to solve our dissatisfaction or wish to change agent, I will do it this way, my philosophy behind this dinner it to cheer up our partner in service sector -- people in service sector contribute the " quality " and " time " only they call tell, how much heart you win from them, how devoted them are planning to allocate, Ad agency, a highly creative team, something they follow their heart, if they like you, your company or your product, you will be treated better, if you respect their artistic integrity but with a mutually agreeable monitoring scheme, they will value you even more -- sometimes creative person playing to hard and the message they wish to deliver is gone to far, 2 weeks, when playing ping pong with Osking, the prior art director in one of the top agency who told me they have an " principal ' which state : Our customer is pig, don't feed them with human food " so, we are pigs, shall know how to please our creative partner.
the lottery tickets works well, MD of the company said to me this is the first time they receive red envelop from their customer, one of the guest scratch the lottery ticket and win 100, a very lucky sign ( Joe is his name ), during the dinner, I was invited to contribute one article to the Ad agency’s publication -- View point magazine with the title " how to stir up your passion ", they think I am the right person to preach for this and inspired people in the creative world, well, I am flatted to contribute my article to the world-class magazine and viewing by people in Greater China, I am structure the article right now, although the circulation of this magazine won't be huge, but I thinks the impact of viewer ship is greater than anyone's expectation.
Last night, joint parent company in Taiwan's year end party, year end party is an enterprise tradition in Taiwan for business operation, I don't know how this tradition developed, but if translated from Chinese, it shall be " Tooth's tale ", as far as I know, in the agriculture days, day pass tooth's tale - in Lunar Calendar , people will prepare to go home, at that time, it takes days to get back and catch up the New Year, transforming into today, year end party becoming the celebration for employee, it evolved from eating together, drinking together, to performance arrangement and nowadays , the focus in on " lucky draws " employee expect to win some prize from the party, it used to be some electronic applicant, now " Cash " or " Stock " is the rising star, this is the influence of fast food culture, cash reword turn to be the new princess and prince in all the year end party, company employee compare each other for " how much cash our company donate ? " the vicious cycle traveling, all the senior executive fear this culture and hesitate to attend the year end party as they are the target to be skimmy.
in our company, Me and COO decided not to promote this unhealthy culture, we will celebrate, drink and eat, all the donation come from our own packet -- the welfare committee funding and sister company's gratitude, I will provide a trip package instead of cash this year as well. Change comes from someone who takes the initiative.
Parent company's year end party is a traditional party, yes, noisy and a lot of lucky draw. We won't do the same tomorrow. I am exciting, cause I may took annual leave after year end party, but physically I am in town, so, business operation won't be a problem.
last evening, I went for a press conference which were invited by one of the top portal in town, when arrived at the venue, check the itinerary, I found my presence means minor to the party, after sing off on the attendee list, I decided to leave before the ceremony, I am not upset because they don't position me in the value place, but to justify my cost / effectiveness, I shall be informed earlier about the purpose of my attendance, otherwise, the time spending on the road is the cost bear by the company, they pay me to choose what's value or benefit to the company, for things like it, the productivity is slim , this is the reason behind my sudden return to office.
Press conference is an interesting occasion, you have major cast -- person or product, and the story to support, most important, you need to create or design the visual image to impress both audience and media, in house media must be touched by your creativity, media must be feed by your visual design before send it to mass audience; so , most of the case, the press conference will be outsourced to event company, most of the time, when the creativity juicy running day , you will easily see less-dressed young lady standing on the stage to support whatever product you want to present or promote. it cause me remember the 3 major export from the States, said by who : Sex, Drug and rocking roll, and some advertising firm express further, indicate the word " Sex sells ".
Last night, it's 3 men's night , 2 Japanese and me forming a gourmet group to seek unique and delicious restaurant in town, this time, I introduce the " Fresh Fish " restaurant to them, this is the greatest fish place I found in Taipei, but we ate too fast, 50 minutes only, we finished our dinner. so, if we really want to initiative conversation during the dinner, this restaurant wasn’t an ideal place, but, we have lot of fun eating the flesh fish, you know what, when you really enjoy food, you hardly talk during the meal unless there's a drink break, so, if you tired of talking while eating, try any good restaurant, you may save a lot of breath.
Tonight, I am going to the same restaurant again, this time, a big party, 14 people will sit and eat the freshness, I am inviting our advertising agent to a before Chinese New Year meal to show our gratitude for the past year they did for us, I also prepare lottery tickets as the red envelope for them, I thinks this little surprise will make him contribute more next year.
continue Mr. Han's story, as I join Sony Music, our business keep growing and I do climb to the top of the company in 4 years, as the Managing Director of it's Taiwan subsidiary, I see him less and less but heard of his health condition is getting worst, when thinking about my next move, I go to him and try to obtain his advise, what he told me is simply " see the scale and scope of the industry I am now -- music and the future will be, " and explain to me how to be a " Big Bird " by extracting the metaphor from one of Chinese ancient philosopher -- Chuang Chi, trying the new venture, learning new things, I keep the routine seeing him maybe in 4 or 5 months, last time when seeing him, I puzzle is : do I fit the political environment or do I shall go for the public service ? his echo to my question is : the life for politician is temporary, consider something with longer view, even a President in western world -- the most civilized, democratic world, when retire from Presidency, all he can do is lecture, speech or back to school and teach, so, a cross out the idea to join any political party movement and concentrate on my business imitative, this time when seeing him, he told me that he just done an operation to remove the blood tumor, he did it in Hong Kong and stay there for 4 months, just came back to Taiwan last week, what he taught me this time is " knowledge of intensive " is the true power of talent and that's where the competitive advantage grows, this smooth my nervous, as I am planning to obtain his wisdom on my next move, as I set a simple goal for my next venture, which is " Work for Chinese, or Working in China ", but with the limited time flame, I can't really explore these 2 questions, but to listen carefully about what he says, the last greeting he granted is mentioned how happy to see my remember this old man and pay visit to him once again; as the wisdom of aged business man or entrepreneur is limited, I will mining the wisdom of Mr. Han on quarterly basis, he can't really walk now, but a tough guy as him, will never letting people witness his weakness although he told me the story of Roosevelt -- the cripple President who reshape the economy of American and re-won the election 3 times, yes, he do see some role model in front of him, but as no close enough people he trust beside him, I am afraid some other accident might happen at his house. yes, the book he talked about is " The Perfect Gift ", I will try to get it somewhere, and yes, he is planning to re-structure the Himalaya foundation and reinvented new idea on the 5 years old foundation -- as he told me he invest close to 10 millions US to the foundation already.
Coin Laundry is the most visited place for me and my wife these days, as the under water tunnel in under construction in community neighborhood, all the new pipe require every house to open their back door and dig from inside to connected with the new pipe on the surface of the pedestrian, this minor construction force us to move away our laundry for weeks, and now we wait for our own interior designer to call forehead to fix the digger hole and to cosmetic with new tile, so we done our laundry in the coin laundry now, it's convenience and time saving -- relativity speaking if you counted the hang for drying , collecting time all together, the American way of doing washing job can traveling to Chinese community is an interesting discovery, my wife enjoy this convenience so much, our standard procedure will be wash for 34 minutes and drier for another 30 minutes, total cost 110 NT, frequency is every 2 days, during the washing idle time, we can eat or talk , in the car or at some night market.
last night, we went into Asia 1 -- the Video rental shop and borrow the Singapore file " Kid no stupid " a funny, inspiring, touching and ironic movie, the movie mixed with 3 languages in the film -- English, Mandarin and Fochannese, it explore the unique Singapore culture / current issues and the nature attribution of Singaporean, as it dealt with Education Topic from the view points of 3 boys, the education issue is a cross - border topic among all Chinese speaking territories, so, you don't feel distance from the film and I love the way the director present this movie, I Shall credit it the best " Mandarin film of the year 2003 " " FOR YOUR OWN GOOD " -- the Singlish which express all the mothers' voice is the soul of the movie, by all means, for your own good can be interpreted in many explanations, it work in one child but not necessary fit the other one, I love it, watching it can really express you emotion, we enjoy it.
in the afternoon, We -- the family went to Hwa-Fan university , an Baddish established University located in the mountain between Taipei County and I-Lan County, I bought a basket ball and play it with my son there, he is too little to aim the net but play with the big ball, my daughter don't really enjoy playing it, on the way to Sher-ting, we take the highway and identify a fast way to get there, saving 20 minutes more. as we gave up the one day trip to middle of Taichung ( wasting 4000 NT ), the trade off is a good sleep and no rush to conduct our family activity.
I don't exactly value my doing of staying home instead of visiting Chung -liao ( orange county they acclaimed ), plus is the attitude I am follow, subtract wasn’t the idea for me, if you do, you will gain at lease some, if don't do, you gain nothing, so, I am not sure if this is a trade off for the one day trip. sometimes, you need to accommodate a lot of people's opinions before make up your mind, so, I didn't get the chace to see the survivor from 921 earthquake, how they rebuilt house with bare hand and to make new living by introducing this orange festival, it's a pity.
Last week, COO take leave and went back to Japan with his family, I was taking his responsibility then, in order to set a better model, I recorded things which I thought important and make it a diary on one file , the file send over on Friday evening, the past week for me is fruitful, and I am no longer the " Hand on " manager in the company, during his absence, I am officially review and check every detail I want to check; when sign of purchase / expense report from all the dept, I found 3 abnormal report and request the applicant to double check again, one was found miss-filing the expense and over-charge for 25% of the amount; one is the code of conduct issue, as the purchase is up to 14 millions, the dept. who submit it should not be the dept. who approve the usage, even though some tech equipment is very hard for other people to check the functionality, but I am requesting the users ( not the applicant ) to send me the " usage report ", I want to be sure the equipment we purchase is 100% perfect without any major defeat; been through this, I know our company do exist room to improve in the area of administration and auditing, if saving can be done properly, we may reach break even sooner.
Visit Mr. Han on Friday morning, he is 73 years old now, when seeing him, l learned that walking is difficult for him now, even with the stick, he need somebody's shoulder as the other stick to keep the balance; Mr. Han is my mentor, my first employer and a banker who win a lot respect in his are of profession, he recruited me 15 years ago when I unlisted from the army, I join his company -- Himalaya, as that time the licenses of CBS records, I remembered when I went for the final interview, he asked me one question : at your age, back ground, normally we will pay 18,000 as the salary, why you request for 2,000 more ? my reply instantly was : as Himalaya is the licenses of CBS, it respect intelligent property, and so do I, I believe my intelligent will be pay off when recruited ", so I was hired and gain 2,000 more than the rest of the people. actually, he is not the man mange the record company, but we do talk from time to time, the second encounter is 6 years after the Himalaya days -- I left 4 years after and run my own management firm for new talent development, we -- our new family had a lunch in one cafeteria, at the time -- 2 years after I established my own business, I hit some trouble and soon will be jobless, when he asked how's thing going at the accidental occasion, I told him the truth that I am shopping for new job, Mr. Han kindly asking me return to Himalay, but station in the Bank area, doing research and survey for the music industry for 6 months with the same wage level I had with the company, the 6 months, I only report my finding to him once a month, then he told me there's a possible Joint Venture between Himalaya and Sony Music, Clearance Kwang -- a new GM he recruited will in charge of this project, and I shall interview with him and if everything goes well, we may build the team upon then; working with CK is rapport, he take over the management role from prior Himalaya Record, merge Coden record, but the JV project wasn't realized, I think Mr. Han is very disappointed, Pat Hurley, the SVP of Sony Music Asia give him some hardship -- according to Mr. Han, the determination notice was the " Gift " from Pat in one Christmas dinner, this make him remember clear and vivid; I left Himalaya after CK resign from the company and we see no hope for the JP, it stand for no hope for true and professional manager -- cause the licensor will soon come and take the market by themselves.
Pat called after I resign and asked if I am interested in the label Sony Music still, yes was my answer, he flew all the way from New York and introduce me a young talent -- M. Allison, we had a dinner in one of the best Chinese Restaurant -- Fu Yuang -- 10 years ago, my first visit to the gouges restaurant. Pat introduce me to the young man who I soon recognize will be the new MD for Taiwan operation, he subtly touch if I am interested in helping them set up the temp office in Taipei as the regional head quarter is located in Singapore, as I am running my own company, so, no problem, when Sony Music Asia office official launched in Singapore, I was invited and after the ceremony, Pat send me in his office and offer me 2 job in the company -- marketing manager in Asia or helping Matthew set up Taiwan operation, I took the second offer and quite sure this is what they expected me to do. so, together ( me and Matthew ), we need to talk to Mr. Han about the termination follow up including collecting all the Himalaya product from the market in 3 months ( 3 months for house keeping ), this is a very tough mission for us -- me especial, so Matthew took almost all the discussion role in order to protect me, Mr. Han didn't perform any bad behavior to us, a gentleman always, when know I am going to work in Sony Music Taiwan, we had a conversation , the advise clear to me as fresh as yesterday : Don't Loose Chinese Face ", the he withdraw almost most of his investment in music business and focusing on his good at -- financial / banking / investment. ( unfinished )
