I organized a lunch to match a pre-Kyoto trip advisor session. AJ is the guest, Mr. Shu is the advisor, I am the host, we pick Regent to meet, Shu arrived on time, I forget to bring up the books / maps Shu informed, so, go down to get it, AJ late due to the traffic jam in Lin Ko; the scheduled lunch is a " Basic Understanding of Kyoto -- or how to escape and get lost in Kyoto ", but we didn't touch the subject, 3 of us talked everything but Kyoto, the time running fast, we hardly finish the lunch by 3 pm, AJ is so excited to see Mr. Shu and impressed by his way of looking life and feeling life; yes Shu is an unique person, met him twice with Director Chang, reading his book and listening to his opinions about everything is a wonderful thing. His book " An idea afternoon " is a best seller without any physical promotion, people want to associate with him. a great traveling author.
Attending a radio interview at BBC, as I guessed, this is a independent production company buying airtime from the station and creating business upon it, by inviting people to the show, they keep on creation the interface with possible advertisement from varies enterprise; they didn't study me or our company well, so , the interview is imbalance, the interviewee -- me, performing much better then the interviewer. 45 minutes of talking, I controlled 80 percent of the time.
Inviting new but yet on board Finance manger to dinner is for updating both party's situation, we provide her the offering letter 3 weeks ago, but her on board day is still month from now, in order to keep the intimacy, I told COO we better invite her for a private dinner, casually talk and build trust; the dinner went on as expected, she receive our message, as I know she is living in my neighborhood, so, I send her home and sensed that her resign from current company is not a happy situation; we are lucky to have this dinner, this can inject some blood to her " made-already " decision.
Out of the office for half the day, I love what Shu suggested to all the big boss " Look Busy " is the tactic everyone shall learn, I shall follow this magic ? Or medicine?
become the judge panelist for Golden Melody Award (equivalent to GRAMMY in Taiwan) this year, I receive about 300 CD in box and have to screen for more than 2000 songs in 3 weeks, this is a heavy loading, no wonder GIO keep warning me if this is really OK for me, as I didn't have the chance to involve in " how to judge a song and select artist, song, producer ", so I take this job and begin my screening life.
it doesn't make sense most of the applicant apply best album , best producer and best song of the year from one album and also apply every song in the album in all the catalogue of " best song " Best lyrics " " best music arrangement ", this attitude really making judge a hardship to compare each song in each category. I think some of the judge may skip songs or lyrics....
Professor Lee didn't let us down, he made an impressive lecture about " strategy " in our workshop this morning; he is as knowledge and persuasive as before, I think who ever pay attention to this speech will gain a lot about " strategy ", when he show us the " DELL" way of running the competitive market, I am inspired by the " No Victory Laps " concept, to achieve goals is must, there are lots of goals to be achieved and ahead of everyone, no time to take any break, keep walking and keep doing the right thing; is it the Taylor's way of current business environment ? Follow his speech, we break up and conduct brain storming session with our advertising agency in Ogilvy Center.
I shall write it down; Jay asked a question to Professor Lee: who shall be the one to set the strategic direction for corporate? Lee response with a good answer, he said strategy comes from origin, not from hierarchy, but ultimately someone shall make final decision, yes, the person who take the responsibility shall make the final decision, so, it goes top down. But origin of strategy is a good answer.
head hunter rings me in the afternoon, it seems a " Greater China " role is created for me, I am not in a hurry to dance with they, but willing to check it up next week.
Done a 2 days re-location training meeting at Yum ming mountain on Monday / Tuesday; I didn't expect the weather will change dramatically, last week, it's hot like summer, short sleeve and pant, over the weekend, we didn't aware the weather is changing; this is a marketing combine management training / meeting; I design the program for all the marketing member when take the helm of the dept. in Mid- Feb.
Try to set a model for " well prepared meeting ", I look into details and invite speaker by myself, a few purposes need to be served, when opening the meeting in Monday noon, I address the important of "relocated training " is for provide a paradigm shift, for all of us concentrate on right here, right now; workshop is designed for producing annual marketing calendar, business and competitor directing is to better understand who we are and where are we; speaker were set to stimulate us in different perspective; well, not everything go as planned; we hit some walls such as : before marketing planning, they raises questions about " what's the product plan and strategy behind ?", we stop there and try to build nonsense upon it, then we decided to extend the conversation after dinner, product mangers spend additional 3 hours educate us what's all about the product planning.
First speaker is a truly professional, no power point, no handout, a black board and pen is enough for him to deliver a non-stop 3 hours speech, too many input and too little time to digest.
I am a little bit disappointment about the second speaker, not prepare enough, loose and didn't focus on the topic, actually, both speaker didn't follow the subject which I gave them, the difference is the first speaker is good at communication and expression, so, nobody notice that he is out of the tone.
it's hot spring resort, no body got time to enjoy the facility, I prepared 2 local desert for colleague each day, it shall warm their heart.
Coming home around 6, tomorrow we will participate the 3rd meeting with AD agency, I secure professor lee to conduct a speech of " how to formulate a workable strategy ", he is the best professor in NTU, Everyone shall be exciting about it, I am expecting tomorrow a great leaning for each of us.
Last Sunday, me and my wife went to the movie " Gold mountain ", it's a good one, equivalent to ' The English patient ", we enjoy it until going home.
