As before, we constantly held our kick off meeting on April 1; this is the 3rd year we did it company wide; we just announce the change of organization and telling managers' " project management " will be the next stage of operation excellency in our company; we rented the multifunction room in NKSP, the room can accommodate 150 people, a perfect size for us; mission statement presentation is my duty to perform at the meeting, 2 years ago, we create the company credo " High Quality broadband ; Sincere Service ", this time, I modified it to " value-added broadband ; Sincere service ", 2 goals which are : annually breakeven and rank at tier 1 from DTG survey again , 3 missions are : 1. introduction project management, increase non-ISP portion income and cross-dept. corporation.
15 is the magic number for the years 2004 , achieve active 150,000 of broadband subscriber and reach 15% of non-ISP revenue ( 110 millions ), we invite KPMG to give a brief introduction of " change management " and " Project management ", and follow with a birthday party. Kick off means we are aim for the new horizon and entering new numbers to be evaluate. Business runs and judged by numbers, we are living in the Arabic numbers' world, this is sort of sad, but, we have to admit that this is the “rule of majority ", you can't avoid nor escape from it.
Dinner with wife in one of our " frequent visit restaurant " the JS hot pot restaurant, it's a neighboring restaurant but provide quality food and service, we accidentally discover it when we move in our second house -- that's 7 years ago, and become regular and loyal customer since; last night, I order the beef rib as before, my wife pick her Vega set again, half of our meal, the lady boss came in and telling us they just open another restaurant, it's an Spargatti restaurant - only on block away, the JS runs a different restaurant with same " Brand ", the quality of deco again prove that the owner have his / her taste; but location is a problem which I can see. We may try it next time.
I was so upset when receiving the call from IDB -- An affiliate of MOEA, one of the section chief speak to me in a bold and rude manner in regard to our complain about the unfair competition , we send out the attorney letter the day before yesterday and complain about the sudden change of infrastructure from major domain carrier which put all the ISP in a very bad situation, we claim that this action is to increase our cost and build hurdle for foreign investment company such as us.
I respect governmental body who willing to solve foreign investment company's problem, but I don't appreciate the attitude this section chief expressed, he said : why don't you assemble all the ISP and protect in front of DGT ? Don't you know this is a trendy fashion these days ? Are you aware that the complain I send really making people unhappy? when this kind of expression coming from the government official, I show no respect for him, my response is direct and simply, I told him I am paid to act and the company hire me to protect its interest in a healthy competition business environment, why challenge me in person ? who make them feel losing face ? it's not me, it's the truth which they don't know how to handle well and don't respect the rights every foreign investor obtained. although the conversation last for about 5 minutes, but it really ruin my day.
try the bloglines and discover a new world of knowledge and interest, I shall regularly visit the site and educate myself all the time, people say, knowledge is the only asset no man can take away from you.
Wife have a serious quillier with Fruit again, again, the very passive attitude make her mother angry, last night, I talked to her and ask her to return the cosmetic which she bought earlier, I am not surprise about her behavior, but wife was astonished and react a bit emotional, how come a kid only 12 years old can manager herself to Watson’s along and bought a set of cosmetic? when wife found one eye-shadow make up tool on the back of the car, she is so mad, I urge Fruit to return all the staff ( I knew this is more than one piece ), We told her if she fail to enroll in top 5 rank for the coming mid-term examination, we will bring her to saloon and making her hair cut to a ear-level, she's been spending too much time on appearance.
I don't really want to take away her love for long hair or deprive her from childhood innocence. I believe my wife neither, why the relationship build between parent and kid must be like this, complain each other all the time until they went independence and grow to its very end.
It recall me when went to the movie “ Taking live “ with wife last weekend, actress ( who is the actress in Tome Raider ) have one scene require her to take off all her cloth and perform erotic emotion naked, as her father John Volft is quiet a famous actor, but if her daughter didn’t become a star, he may never got change to see his daughter’s body after her age of 7, what’s an interesting finding coming to my mind. So, all the parent shall precious the time they spend with their kid when they are young and counting on them always.
Having lunch with Sam, the icon in the music industry of Taiwan, as the Taiwan situation is in smog, so, a lot of middl
This morning, we -- all the golden meloday judges gather together at GIO to make the final confirmation for the 15th Golden Melbe oday Award nominee; this is the fisrt time 2 section meet in one occasion -- the POP team and Traditional team, we need to come up with one " Special Contribution Award ' in this session in additional to approve all the nominee list; it come across some " procedure " issue such as the qualification of certian candidate or the paper support / supply didn't match the critiral or the statement in the application form was wrong; POP team win as they control majority of the votes, group photos is the last event before granted the list to GIO; This afternoon by 2 pm, GIO will officially announce the nominee list to public, then the flood of criticizen will arrived, all the judged is expecting to receive lots of complain and questions even none of us been exploure to media yet, and it supposely won't happen before the ceremony -- May 8th.
Spend another 2 hours witrh H, a very talented project manager and engineer in our operation, the relationship developed between the company and her getting in a worstern situation, this is a complicate story, no geografic or sex discrimination, but it devloped to a certian situation all lead to : first, she is from HK, second, she is pregnet now; it seems we didn't echo to her voice at all even though she claim that she can perform 150% of effort in any condition; I don't want to fail her, but simply ask her if resignation is the only solution to her, because to me , I can feel that she don't want to leave and in the managements' role, we don't want her to leave as well; Initative and response is quiet an important role play in communication, be a pitcher or catcher ? you must know how to handle the ball; mapping between 2 mind is a tast, you need to describe every detail as carefully as possible, otherwise, how to communicate in 100% correct infomration, I don't knwo if COO tired of commmuncate with her, but we can't give in, not to mention give up if she is really the person who will help us -- the company to achieve other challenging missions.
The dominate carrier annoucne to release new DSL product, this format 1m / 64 will bring a significant impact to us in cost and service quality, this is truly an unfair compititon, to upgrade all 512k subscriber to 1m free means we need to :
1. spend more on bandwidth ( IA ), as we provide the buffet package ( this is the practice in Taiwan )
2. buy more equipment to host the lines as the indivisual comsuption will incrase, we need money and time to change it, this is an infranstructure issue.
3. our service will then drop due to : take care of the free upgrade of more than 80% of our exsiting subcriber, check the installation day form the operation team and to varied who in our service area can't meet the upgrade standard due to the infrustaurcture issue,
4. if the fail to upgrade contribute to Carrier, then how can we charge they with the new price scheme, and how to press the complain ?
5. who to bare the cost from number 1 to 4 in such a slim margin business.
My intepretation is , once you become the treat to dominate player in ultility business, the major player can easily kick you out of the business by increas your cost, not to reduce the price, you hardly can compete with them, because of fix cost spending and volume buying bargain power. I don't see a bring sign for player like us, this is what we've been warned by HQ, service counting on others will easily be blackmailed, there's no proven busienss model to exercise on this, I don't know how we gonna survive this year.
are we in the wrong business or wrong market ? this is the question I should think deep and more.
PYO Dinner on Thursday, the guest speaker is not a good selection, although he is knowledgeable, but he can't really deliver the topic which the committee gave him earlier " Taiwan after the election ", yes, when he deliver this speech, the election is sort of dragging , hanging there, but what he mentions such as " lobby scholar, think tank, governmental delegation " to bring peace to Taiwan was not well digest by me, I don't believe " Money can buy Peace " and don't believe China need to listen to the US every time, I don't know why he prepared this important subject in such a poor manner in front of elite group such as YPO.
Taiwan branding is an interesting angle to be exploited, but how to and what to do is equally important to branding concept. C. raised questions as expected, to be smart, you need to learn how to conduct " iceberg phasing " and think in different angles , most of the time, a smart people can raise " Good question " to gain great answers, ' how to ask " something is much important then " how to answer "
read the special report on Fast Company's " Social entrepreneurship ", non-profit operation is much difficult then for-profit enterprise if you want to keep the organization alive, this special report is a fresh angle to review how the non-business world running the business rule to keep the momentum and to influence minority as many as possible ? innovation without execution is all in vain -- the Steve Jobs's special is an inspiriting story to me.
Make and break the thesis discussion with faculty -- no push no gain, how am I finishing my thesis on time will be a very challenging state of mind; the after election depression iron to lots of Taiwanese, so, a rally on March 27 gathered more than half millions people in front of the Presidential Palace; it rains and the weather is low, but emotion and passion keep them warm.
Friday evening, after the judge panel in GIO, I got home earlier and take my wife to the movie " Butterfly effect ", a theory taken from the Chaos and been adopted to this movie, quiet an interesting one, it tells the " change of memory " or " what happened before " alter the life of oneself and people who encountered during the memory stage; it's very much like Chinese thoughts, all the influence and impact is interactive influence, a minor change in one's behavior may lay a strong impact in the future, just like what Butterfly effect try to proved.
Saturday morning, we woke up early and went to Bali visit the old pass friend , Shaio Tang, drove to Bali normally will take about 80 minutes, but the traffic is good on Saturday morning, although it rains, but we arrived the shrine by 9:20, what a good surprise, when arriving, we saw the shrine building a giant tent and a lot of people were coming for this ceremony, this is an annual festival for the lived offering their greeting to the pass-by, no one notify us cause we are not the relative of Tang, we didn't know this is the big day for the soul, but we were there, so, me and my wife are so happy to come in the right time, incant are everywhere, monks prey and preach, we feel content and feel happy that Tang do have friend come to visit at this particular day.
every journey to Bali , we won't miss Tamsui, this time, we are earlier, so , we drove to the fish man’s waft -- a new scenic spot developed together by Taipei city and county government, along the Tamsui river to the Taiwan strait, this new developed water / sea attraction is a good place for Taipei citizen; we drove to the parking lot, walked into a DIY fish market , pick the fresh seafood and go up and hand it to the restaurant owner who will cook for us, sitting in the balcony of the restaurant, watching the sea and enjoy the sea breeze; I am wondering why politician want to ruin this beautiful land ? time pass 11, we did another routine, drove to the " Black shop " -- the nick name of a local restaurant and order the rib rice again, it's only 11:20, the restaurant is full of guess, the rib taste as good as before. My appetite keeps as I didn't have anything before.
droving home, wife want to watch the live broadcasting of the rally, I want to take a nap, in the evening, I propose to my wife to go to another movie " INCANTO " A Spanish movie who I have a desire to check, wife said "OK ", So, here we go again, this is a movie deal with the " luck " and telling a simply story about how people treat their luck and gambling for life. I am a little bit disappointed, so, after the show, I suggested to go for another, the thriller movie " Taking lives ", this series killer movie have a better " Hollywood impact ", more dramatic and the story line is much commercial, finally, I got balance.
Sleep over until 11 on Sunday, I purposely wish to forget the deadline to prepare my thesis, bring the family to the din sun restaurant and suggested to visit the ' wooden sculpture village " near Taichung -- this will take at lease 4 hours on the road, it seems no objection, especially the kids are so found of this suggestion; we finished dim sum lunch by 1:30 and heading for the destination -- Shang Yi , on the way, I listen repeat for 12 albums which were coming out from the finalist of Golden Melody award, some of the songs are really touching, I even got the emotion to sing after the tone and learned how to sing it well, Eson's " decade -- 10 years ", Mr. Shaw Hwang Chi's " GrandMa ", Chang Hui's album , were among the favorable list to me, Penny and Ya-Sun's album become my daughter Fruit's favor album. We arrived Sang Yi by 3:30 and check the sculpture village, I bought 2 pieces and we have a traditional Hakka dinner at Shang Yi, we were home by 8:00 pm -- yes, it leave me no room to do my thesis, what a ridiculous world. but it seems I enjoy this feeling, like a school boy, escape from school, no preparation before examination, take sick leave ..... am I too childish?
Welcoming new marketing co-worker again this morning and bring all members to lunch , this is a routine I did to make marketing people feel ease, I have took up this role for more than one month, they are kind of use to my management style -- free and delegate, I am not in the position to push for trivial or minor issues, but making them feel independence to make their own decision. I am not sure is this new style will pass on to new manger, which I don't really expect, because, -- no measurement, no management, new manage require decent check to monitoring all the process and result. I am in the interval to provide a longer " happy hours ", hope it won't lead to a wrong impression that marketing shall be managed this way.
A. Send me a mail in relate to the job open for me, yes, I will pass it to him when seeing S, tomorrow, I don't want to go back and repeat the same experience again, but only change the location, no one want to carry over his credit and to perform it again to show others' they are the best in the field, everyone have an ambition to grow in new responsibly and to learn in new position / industry, can't be pull back and withdraw from this.
