Lost in Translation dealt with the mid-age crisis which I don't think the young movie goers can really understand; maturely is a status, when you are beyond 18, you are legally adult, and you can response for almost all the behavior you conduct, so, a 50 something falling in love with a 20 something isn't a sin, but a strange combination, if you are 50, then you will appreciate more than the 20th; lost in translate pick a city -- Tokyo and one hotel -- the Park Hyatt Tokyo ( one of my favorite hotel I enjoy in Japan and I stayed there for more than 10 times before ), the Japanese language and character is mystery to westerner, so, it stand for another " translation myth " in addition to the mid-age crisis; my wife didn't appreciate the movie very much, she think the story and the scene wasn't in professional manner, well, sort of, if you treat it as an independent production and compare it with the Studios. in the theater, we found lot of foreigner went to this one, I am not quite sure if everyone understand who Sofia Coppala want to express, or encounter / experience the dejavu before; I am very into the film and some of the feeling happened to me before, during the movie, I whisper to my wife and said to her, if the 2 actors in the movie making love in the end, then the film will be totally screw up; I am glad the director share the same intimacy with me; I had an emotion to contact someone, asking how the life now and sharing what's been produced from the movie.
Last night was the surpass 100,000 subscriber celebration party, it's mix with happy and sorrow, it was the last working day for our marketing manager, she attended our breaking 50,000 subs party on April 10th last year and got drunk, tonight, she is absent, I choose one great restaurant, and invited a few VIP to it, no one get drunk last night, strange to me, it's really a challenge to achieve 100,000 subs and this business wasn’t a easy one at all.
Managing Editor of EMBA manager came to see me and follow with a 80 minutes interview to be published on a new column in the magazine; when she contact with my assistant, I was very happy to hear from her, we met 3 years ago at the international book fair, at that moment, I was wondering where to go next, I had decided to leave music industry and haven’t make up my mind for my next move, so, we talked and she introduced me 3 of the books, as I am the magazine subscribers for 10 years, I have a strong feeling about her visit; we talked about how a CEO influence others to work with them or even work for them; the conversation developed , then I gradually told her the story of how to retain my hero product at the time when I face enormous challenge inside and outside my company.
lunch with one of our designer from creative team who resign last month, she is very creative and unique, this is why I want to keep the good relationship with her, during the lunch, I know that she is into fashion business on her will, sell her first design skirts on the web and planning to open a boutique to demonstrate her fashion design, not limit to cloths, the finding brighten my eyes, on the way back to office, I bought 10 cake for employees to celebrate the surpass 100,000 subs, I don't like to celebrate the good news and throwing party with mangers only, so, this is a pre-empt thing I did on Friday.
Thursday, we had a press conference to launch our VIP card, a membership / community tools to retain our customer, Platio is the venue pick by our people, it's a mix restaurant, lounge and cigar bar, we invited 2 of our senior customer to join the celebration with us, they take leave from their company and join our press party, the party went ok , this is the routine that we need to do every year -- telling the media your strategy for the coming year, some figures you wish to show, and differentiation project you want to do ;; to be honesty, the views they don't really interested in the news,the better you prepare, the happier your competitor are, cause they watch every move you make and by the new release, you are naked.
Thursday morning I did 2 welcome talk, one senior engineer who share with me his rock’s roll history, we had a great conversation, the other lady who we hire for the process control is very mature, what I share with her is to carefully review or design process is must, but don't falling to a trap that trying to divided everything and find a owner, if things don't overlap in certain way, it will break, check people who willing to do more and allocate he or her the job that you t know their passion will glue the line, seamless only happen in object with no life, don't make this mistake.
The message delivered after lunch at Starbucks located in Software Park; it's a bad feeling to telling someone your are not qualified to work with us, or telling him / her they don't fit in our culture ; COO start the conversation in straight way, I followed with mild explanation; amicably we agreed to set Friday the last working day and handover all the project to me; after the session, I asked COO how he feels to express such a message, did he fell uncomfortable or pain ? the answer surprised me a little, he said not a big deal right now, as we have to take company interest the top priority, deliver tough decision like this is on our job description.
on the way back to office, COO explained more, and told me as far as he know, only a few Japanese executive garnered such an experience to dismiss someone from his post; this is not a Japanese management style; and only a few people had the experience to run a company -- expatriate working together to complete / achieve mission deployed from head quarter won’t running an independent company; who equip the authority to replace staff is quite a flesh thing to him, this can really bringing someone's will to the bottom and to fulfill the management challenge.
I sent out the article about passion today, this is a request by our advertising agent, the subject looks simply, but when you start writing, you found it is not so easy to develop, abstract, intangible, disciplinable, you don't know how to smooth your logic and make it a easy to understand article; I change the body to " Q and A " style, Minguey seems satisfied with the result, anyway, I am working on behalf of him, I did try my best.
be selected as the judge panel for Golden Melody Award this year, the rule is interesting, to be mutual, anyone in the hot seat can't be invited as the judge, so, I don't have the chance to seat on the panel chair before; 3 years after, I am checking in and review the industry's works from outside.
Today, I have to perform the duty of dismiss the marketing manager's authorization, if we didn't take action immediately, it will either cause the manager go in sane or turn to break up the entire marketing team.
Had a conversation with Tokyo liaison before lunch, we touched upon the career issue, although I didn't expect to conduct such a dialogue with him, but I did illustrated my concept of how I vision my years in S- company; working in China is on top of my career development agenda, as no one can escape the booming and competition battle in China, to carry a up and rising career, facing the challenge in China is a must, S- company is a complicate enterprise, you can't really get what you think, my second option is relocate to the US arm and experience the life I never had before, working in foreign country with difference culture, this is to grow my vision to the world and to bring my family to a new life experience, then retire from the job; Status Quo is the third choice, as the company is growing stable, I don't see an urgent need for me to stay for another 5 years; if I stay 2 more years in the same company with the same position, I may not able to move anywhere to develop my career further;
the business domain we are participating is not a easy business, Hong Kong operation is in a critical judgment of whether we should keep this business running, if the decided to close the operation, we will be the only company performing this domain, their must come thousands of question and challenge of why we are doing this; walking along without companion , fighting in the dark with no lights; support comes from no where; we need to survive ourselves in a tougher environment.
Shanli didn't return the sign-off contract yesterday, I was doing my coffee break with Ivan, when heard this bad news, I am so mad, I've know so many executives in different industry, but never saw a company executive behavior like this, the late and postpone decision from they cause great damage to our business; I need to fix it in 2 days, it's no matter if we should break the deal, even we finally get the sign back contract, how can we partner with people like her ? this is totally ridiculous, if they get second though, we are open for any discussion, but the bad reaction and move really making us upset, it waste our time and people .
review my heath check report with Dr. Wang, Sid is my EMBA Classmate as well, he arrange me to follow a neck and brain check before Chinese New Year as I often had a headache, the report show insufficient blood supply on spine vessel, so I invite him for dinner and bringing another health check report for his review, Sid is a very nice doctor, he helped me lot before and explained to me how to control my current situation; lost weight, on a diet, exercise, eating less, yes these are common sense, but I do need to follow it step by step.
Launch with Corbett yesterday, this is the make up lunch for him, I miss the appointment -- well, mistake contribute by my secretary, which made him wait at the restaurant for an hour one month ago; so I invited him to the same restaurant . when arrived, the owner told me there's an upset person waiting for me a while ago, he drank a cup of coffee then run away with anger; I told the owner I am inviting him again, it make Roger -- the restaurant owner a little bit of out of his word; C will close his internet company by March and thinking of doing something else, he had a principal : every investment shall be limited to 5 millions NT and try to solicited investors to balance the risk; he runs the restaurant -- livingroomtaipei and one site building company mysite, and also runs a virtual talent training / management studio. coming from the back ground of entertainment, as an foreigner living in Taiwan, my suggesting for his next venture are :
1. don't throw away all the technology / telecom / software asset immediately, even thought there's no business now, try to approach enterprise who will need the technology along with the engineer.
2. running a celebrity education / event coordination company in the area of : English teaching, event planning, art and music teaching. internet and website building training.
3. make the restaurant chain a place for next talent scouting venue and building a virtual label upon it.
I will check his site and deliver my opinion.
Elisabeth called, I am a little bit careful when speech English to her, maybe I lack of practicing for too long, my tong and pronunciation wasn't come up with my brain, language is a tool and instrument, I need to sharp it all the time, don't be too lazy in the early morning, I shall pick up the old habit and speak loudly enough every morning. working here limited my practicing in English because there's not much foreign guest and friend as before and the only vicheal for practicing is when doing business review in Tokyo and speech to Japanese in English, well, that don't help much; I shall regularly invite Eithbath for lunch and take chance to improve or sustain my spoken language, written and reading is fair , but expressing is the first impression you make, so, pick it up.
before the lunch, I went to WORKSHOPS and bought ina-san a birthday gift, I pick the little child liuli ( crystal glass ) which made me smile, it works, when Ina open the gift and saw the child last night, he smiles, I did a good deed for him, a yoga smile for one minutes, as least it last for 20 seconds, together with 2 other Japanese colleague, I invited them to the Taiwanese local restaurant -- Meili ( which means beauty ) and eat the ture local delicacy, it seems they enjoy it, I suppose to bring them to oyster cake shop around the Circle night market, unfortunately, it didn't open last night.
It seems that we will get the 100,000 activate subscriber on the coming Friday, 2 very important thing will happen on the day : we black the other eye on the Japanese Puppy Doll and I will drink a few alcohol. this make me hesitate.
Marketing Dept. is another area we need to do house keeping, the manager is too arrogant, no one is smarter than other in a team if we believe " team " is stronger than individual, when we observe the resign employee in Marketing Dept. grow significantly and conduct interview with staff, the finding shocked us, almost all the employee is seeking new job outside company, they lost confidence working here and don't appreciate the leadership from the manager, we are planning to tell the truth, in a honest way and take the control of marketing team before it break up.
Came back from the spiritual trip with wife, this is my 3rd official attendance with YPO, and a overnight experience with the senior members; planning for join this trip for quite a while, I was attracted by the topic " spiritual tour with 2 buddaish masters ", then found the destination caught me too -- Lalu resort in Sun Moon lake and visit Chung Tai Temple the following day; before the trip, I had a long conversation with my wife, for more than 10 times, we decided to join the trip in simply and easy mind and to cut our trip one day shorter then the program, stay one night, finishing the temple visit , then take late bus home next day.
On Friday -- Feb. 6 , we took the second bus schedule to leave Taipei at 12:30 pm; me and my wife arrived at the meeting point 20 minutes before depart time, the bus was there, but no one show up; so, we stroll around Regent neighborhood for 10 minutes, then my cellule phone rings, they are looking for us, we get on the bus and met up with other members, they shows warm hospitality to us -- new candidate; everyone on the bus get a warm lunch box with drinks; we pick up 3 other members on the way to Puli -- where Lalu located; arrived by 5:30, all the attendee gathered at the reception tea house, warm welcome again, we were told to come down for official ceremony opening by 6:00 pm, so, everyone rush to check in, do a little refreshment and walk to the reception venue, walk in, everyone need to put on the aboriginal vest and forehead ribbon for the welcome dancing; it's cold and rainy, so the ceremony was short; dinner come after, the we had a very interesting event -- launch the lantern with wishes , a traditional event on lunar Jan. 15, the day suppose to end the Chinese New Years Holidays in the agriculture days; the speech after were delivered by the Monk from Thailand who obtain master degree of philosophy from Oxford and went to Harvard, a honorable degree from the University of Hamburg; knowledge religion elite; the speech last for 90 minutes, too quick to digest the content, I hardly remember what's important from the speech, something like " yoga laugh for one minutes " " ABCD methodology for problem solving: Analysis, I forget what's BCD is " it's similar to Sheng Yan master's " recognized it, face it, solve it and put it down , I was impressed by one of the spouse who asked the question to the Monk, her English is so good, she even pick up some vocabulary which I don't understand . we finish the first night by 10:00, My wife skip the speech and went back to the room after launch the lantern, she was right, when in Lalu, shall enjoy the ambience / facility it provided.
I wake up early in the morning, said 6:30, but my wife woke earlier than me, we catch the first breakfast before one; the breakfast is better than the dinner prior night, as I experienced before, the hardware in Lalu is far better than software ( food / beverage / food / service ), it didn't improve much according to my observation this time. we went boating by 9:30 am, visit 2 temples of Shung Chuang, the first monk in the history of China Buddish religion to bring back the kama from India and translate it into Chinese after brought them back, the journey took him 16 years, and the story have be adapt to a mystery novel " the Western Journey " by novelist Wu in Ming dynasty... we had lunch in another hotel, taste the famous President fish, name after the late President Chiang Kai Sheng.
Visiting Chang Tai temple is the key activity for the entire trip, we are lucky to take this trip with YPO, who claim the " take back value " for each of the trip, to be honest, the take home value is something like privilege, what you can get others can't; with the perfect connection and arrangement, we are able to see all the detail in this 38 stories tall temple - a contemporary architecture for most of us instead of a temple for worship; all the sculpture were amazing, it took 5 billions and 10 years to build; met with Wei chuang master wasn’t as impressive as we saw the building and architecture;
we stay until 6 and then took car to connect with bus for Taipei, arrived by 10:30 on Saturday night.
next I will disclose more about my feeling to this organization and my interactive encounter with members.
