Diary of a CEO: 08/22/2004

2004/08/28

The correspondence between me and RS. to memorize the spark in between:

Hi, Robert,
This is Roger, would like to know if everything goes well with you, I missNY and friend like you. Hope the mail find you well.Best
RegardsRoger

Dear Roger,
It's so good hearing from you. I must apologize for not staying in touch,but am always glad to hear from you.I'm sure you've heard about the merger between Sony Music & BMG.Obviously, this will have a major impact on our SMEI staff worldwide.We're actually feeling some changes now that Bob Bowlin (SMI / CEO) andRick Dobbis (SMI/ President) were let go earlier this month.Now the company has advised they want to reorganize and let go of staff.They've now asked for volunteers to leave by offering severance packages orearly-retirment (for those who qualify). After which SonyBMG may haveadditional layoffs. Needless to say, it's a very different & stressfulatmosphere here.I will keep in touch and keep you posted over the next month. (Employeeswho accept the packages must advise SonyBMG of their intentions by October5.)Now, enough about that: how are you? How is your business? And yourfamily?Good luck to you!
Robert

Dear Robert,
Aware of the merge between Sony Music and BMG, but didn't know the impactto SMEI is so significant; I am sorry to hear that my friends in Sony Musicencountered with such an unpleasant condition; I do hope you are fine andas a true friend, I will support you on every decision you make.Let me share with you a true story of mine, 3 plus years ago, when I facingthe career change and standing in the cross road with no one can consultwith, Yo Yo Ma was in town for a concert; as usual, we will have an afterconcert meet and greet with celebrity and after that an intimacy socialdinner will take place, the attendees are musicians, me, promoter and Yoyoonly; at the late supper, I told Yo yo that I will depart from Sony Musicin one month, guessed what's his response ? “Congratulations, Roger, nowyou don't have to deal with what you know and can pursue to what you don'tknow in your life ahead, enjoy and appreciate changes, you will like it ",I feel relief when heard his instinct message; actually, he is the onlyperson who understand why I decided to leave my " Good at " when standingat the peak of my career.Yo yo and I met last year, by then, So-net were Number 3 in the market andwin the best ISP recognition by governmental body, we hug and shaking handsand he didn't forget what he told me before; Robert, don't be afraid ofchange, because it is the only real thing in life.So-net is doing good, by now, we didn't launch any internet service relatedto digital music, with a scale close to 150,000 broad band subscriber (ADSL ), we are expecting the annual break even this fiscal year; franklyspeaking, I am not proud of building new business, this is a " Have to ",I am now more favor to exercise on " Want to ", a new aspect to review mylife; for the last few years, I seldom traveling, spending time with familyand obtained my MBA degree one month ago; Kids are alright, they have theirown life to live and they will facing new issues which we didn'texperienced before ( new / unknown virus, GMO and the environmental change;technology and digital gap between the rich and poor ................ ), mywife will celebrate her 40th birthday next week, I send mail to Pat Hurleyonce in a while, visiting Harold Han quarterly and shower in his wisdom.I may join public or non profit sector in next few years and contribute tothe land I live and people I love, but this is not what I can planned now.Please do keep in touch and let me know your where about, in case youdidn't keep my correspondent, they are :
Best personal regardsRoger

Dear Roger,
First, I have to thank you for your concern. Second, I truly thank you forsharing your advice.You have expressed some feelings that I have know I had buried. To behonest, I have some fears, but I also feel an excitement in the air. Ithink I'm mostly afraid of the unknown, and realize intellectually thatthere's really nothing to fear. Life should be an experiment. Life shouldnot be lived in fear. Perhaps I've been slightly paralyzed with this fear.You also touched upon another important factor - the larger picture. Lifeis more than work. It is family, friends, and society at large. To have abalanced life, work cannot take complete control. I'm so happy for youthat you not only have recognized this, but that you are attempting to liveby that creed.I will keep you posted about my situation over the next few weeks. I amtaking part of next week off to enjoy the end of the summer - as well asattend the out-of-town wedding of a good friend's daughter. During thattime I hope to be able to think quietly and objectively.In the meantime, here's my contact information (in case you don't alreadythe personal contact information):Email (home) Do take care of yourself.
Warmest personal regards,Robert
P.S. -Thanks for "being my" Yo Yo Ma!

this is how a new page of friendship is open.

The greeting mail to R. S at New York get a swift reply, the content is much deeper than I expected, heard the big change in SMEI, the wake of merge cause let go of 2 heads and the panic in head quarter; my second reply to RS is a chain reaction to his uncertain and fear, I am glad that is does help him.

High Speed Rail tour is Aug. YPO event, with the resource from Nina Yin - Chairperson of HSR, we managed to leverage her time and resource to a previlliage tour to the station site and experience the explore with the accompany of artichetist Chris Yao.

Nina's speech is very good, different from what we see on TV, Chris told us the design concept behind the Shin Chu Station, in consist 4 element Shin Chu well presented : Wind, High Tech, Haka cluture and Glass. with his in depth presentation, we appreciate more than other normal tourist.

I should make it longer, but now I am working with Fruit, who we think is out of our control now, we must adjust her behavior before it's too late.

2004/08/27

Making friend with next generation is much more important than maintaining relationship with last generation; in the early 40's, the output will tend to be more experience, knowledge, leadership, judgement, networking rather than hard working or working long hours. this new finding enhanced by my wife, how to lead next generation and convince them to work as hard as we did in the old days and letting them understand we've been to the same stage and now contribute more time in thinking than doing.

Digitized my library continue today, I brought 30 more CD to the office and doing it when working on my PC, have a quick lunch with CTO, asking something about the hack attack, COO urge him to find the assasiant, I knew this was not a easy job, why attacks us is what I concern about.

M. politely decline my request for ' Life " support; I am not surprised, but from the letter he sent, I can smell that what I am doing is not a common interest for most of the business man. yes, the book " Monk and the Riddle " reflect to the situation I am facing, between " Must " and " Want to ", I choose " Want to ", I wish to reach a higher ground, a peak where no fame and fortune's interupption , a Shangerila where people can pour out their warm heart, doing good and sharing / caring one another.

My reply to his letter is simple, understand his difficulity and wishing him well, only under one condition, go to the movies when I preparing 2 tickeks for him.
Playing with the Linkin and find it can access to my address book, pick up 2 email address and sending my personal greeting to Pet and Vicky, they are :
Dear Pet,

How are you? Hope this mail finds you and find you well; it's been a long while since I updated you my recent this and that; things are going smooth here and I am gradually picking up the broad band business in Taiwan. Become a runner-up in a competitive broad band access market within 3 years of operation, it surprised a few people ( include me ). as the nature of internet service provider is very capital and labor intensive, I can only see the dim of light before sun goes up, but compare with the sunset of music industry, I am lucky.

Matthew came back to Taipei a few times, we met on his every return, he will running his own business in Taiwan before end of this year, a Yoga studio and developing it to a bigger scale of " Life style " chains, I didn't provide too much help but to listen and express my welcome his coming back to stay.

I've graduated from National Taiwan University and earned my MBA degree there this past summer, I share this excitement with my family and a few friends as well, this is one of my life goal and I am happy that I achieved it.

Family are all well, my father traveling to China very quarter, Fruit ( my daughter ) now begin her diet program, Sound ( my son ) is very into nature and science study, my wife will celebrate her 40's birthday next week, I am living a quiet life now. to take off the halo of entertainment spot light, life itself become much solid, I read and write, spending time with family and doing some " want to " such as : charity event, public advisory service.

Hope my this and that won't be a lose-focus letter to you and wish you a very health and happy life.

Best Regards
Roger

PS. I visited Harold Han once in a while, he share his insight and wisdom to me from time to time, it's nice to have a elder wise man who is willing to listen and to share.

Dear Vicky,

I am wondering if the e-mail I kept working still, simply want to draw you a " Hello " mail and see if everything goes well with you.

Life is Taipei is different now, as you may know the Presidential Election and emigrates who jumping to the emerging market in China have changed the land we live.

Yes. I am working at Sony Group still and the overall broad band connection business in Taiwan is relatively OK, as a runner up in the market for less than 3 years of operation, we are making a few records, the only problem is, we are not turn profit yet.

Family is doing well, kids are naughty as usual, telecom / internet business is a very local business, it refrain me from free traveling, I miss NY.

any chance to come to Taipei ? I changed my mobile phone number, this is the update : 886-910385678, the number I picked is for easy memorizing, in case I forget how to get home, you know, I am no longer a young man.

Hope this mail finds you and find you well.

Best Personal Regards
Roger

2004/08/26

Digitized 30 plus albums in my new toy -- The Sony Atrac 3 player -- W-HD, this 20g device can storage up to 3000 songs, a revolustion of music collection, what I did is different from the savvy net music user, normally, they down load music from the internet and enjoy free music, what I did was turn my music library into a digital storage device and brining all the collection with me, as this is a very time consuming efforts, I simply tranfer the entire album to the libreary and dump them into the HD once. if a man of 45 know how to operate it with fun and can work by his own, the revolution must win a tremendous victory in the new music domination war; the digital music win, the package music lose.

When it come to a subject like " Service sector ", people are dealing with human factors, behavior and interface, from the article today, I discoved one very intersting artilce , the inverviewee express his " behavior observation " to us, PC / TV domination is a hot topic for a while, " Study room vs Living room " is a sub-topic derive from the PC / TV debating, yet, this gentelman -- Chiarman of Chinese Handwriting regonition Software " MONG TIEN " express further -- this is a 30 degree angel's different, when we working wit our PC, we are 30% lean to the screen, but when we listening to music or watching TV, we tend to be relax and posture a 30% lay back in sofa or chair, how an interesting observation, so , the revolution is not simply " Key board and Mouse ", I like it.

Lunch with G. this is an invitetion send by COO, he received a call from VP of Company G. while he was enjoy the Europe holiday, it happend when the HK operation termination news annouced, G send a message of " Buying " and see if there's a chace to meet.

Ironically, back to 18 months ago, G, wish to liquidate the operation and seeking buyer to acquired their subscriber, the contact window now is approching us in an oppisite position, I am a little bit upset about how this information communicate , via COO to me, but as we are the team ( in spirit, in physical ), I was informed immediately by COO and I send an OK reply to join the lunch -- no matter how the G hing ranking officer think.

The lunch was easy and simple, these financial guys provoke an American way of M and A, chasing the potential margin of merging and seeking the best targer and potential deal to enter; the CEO of G is inhertit from Nelson and he recruited a new CFO from HK investing banking 2 weeks ago, M and A is the finanical game for consultant ; they propose a so called " Crazy idea " and brief us about the possibilty of sending their existing customr to our service brand and make an absoultely number 2 in the market for surviving or profit; if I were not read the book " Windows " by Noami Klene these days and impressed by her interpretation ( or defination ) of " Corporate Brand ", I will be very surprized to see how a Nasdeq listed company will dispose it's brand name just for seeking a higher margin in the game of M and A ? what Noami said about corporate brand " is a solo dance ( taking to oneself ) which corporate propogang and wish to achieve the impression of a " social dialogue " , thus, the Branding itself is to paralize people from thinking of how the product or service this corpoarte offers?

I know the market for second tier will go through a series of M and A as the telcom industry encounted just now, it will come in a few years, are we going to make it happen earlier and jump into this hot water first ? I doubt it; I keep silence during the entire lunch and tried to observe how these M and A expert leading this conversation. on our way back to office, I am wondering how a telecom veteran like Tarn working with 2 fininacial expert?

contact with the chairman of Forest school this afternoon, there's no vancancy for last arrivals but will keep Sound on the waiting list if any of the exising student withdraw or didn't report to school, it will all goes to his fate now. I am done with what a father and husband should do.

Finishing reading the book " Monk and the Riddle " late last night, the speedy reading contribute a no-interruption Sunday and 2 storm days off; Randy is an unique person, the book is easy to digest, I retrieve 2 points which leave me strong impression, the first is " Virtural CEO " - The position to aggretively support a star up to success ( or complete its mission ) and " Putting people first before any figures presentation ", the book also touch upon how the VC industry runs, they are not afraid of failure, but would like to know why. I am happy to complete reading early tghan my expectation.

Sound catch 5 snails in the garden and brough thme in his room, we tried to explanined to him " Snail " is not something similar to " pet " he can keep as a domestic animals, he wouldn't listen, we explanied to him again, telling him to have a closer observation of them, and think why they want to crawling out of the box he prepared as their temperory home ? that's because they knew they don't belongs here and wish to return to the dirt where they feel comfortable and where can can find the live supplies; his sister is very childish, she keep another 4 snails in her room as well, this is not a game to be fun with, to clean up her room by herself is a big hurdle for her, not to mention she will take care of other specise, when those snails crawl to her bad, I am wondering how she will react to it; to appreciate nature should not be conducted like this.

Sound's teacher called up by 9:30 last night, she is asking voluntee to help clean the class tomorrow before the new semester; my wife answer the phone and replied with a polite reject; after the conversation, my wife become so mad, they have a gesture in between, but how come a primary school teacher asking for help in such a short notice and without a decent paraphasing and communication skill ? my wife developed a therory of if we don't grant our help, Sound may suffer from her retaliation when the new semester begins and insist we should have Sound move to other schools, such as the Forest; she think I am not in an agressive pace in solving this obstacle. I repsone to her, I don't really mind if Sound move to any new school, but for the Forest school. what we should think of is this is a boarding school -- he is only 7 years old and have to sleep 5 days a week in a totally stange environment, the athmor disease which bothered him for quite a long time may put him in a even harder place, because we all understand non of the school teacher will take care of an alerge kid as decent as his parent; if we wish him to move somewhere, anywhere should be fine, be a humid place and boarding environment may not be our first choice.

2004/08/25

I woke up around 7:00 in the morning, the wind blows so strong and the rain was porung in almost horizental position, the wind is so strong that I do believe Typhoon Eli will do a lot of damange to us, the water pouring in my father's room, he've been to China for 2 weeked, we didn't locked the window last night, must be the storng wind which push the window to a semi-open, in such a typhoon night, you can't only close the window.

the scheduled lunch on Monday was postponed to today, as this is another typhoon day off, I send the short message out and call it off again, as the topic for the lunch is to gain a better picture for " out of the box " primary education, we've been thinking to move our son -- Sound to either Seeding or Forest primary school, and want to seek advice, obtain more information before this big decision, if the heavy purposely postphone this appoinment, will that means we don't need to do anything , keep him where he is now ? or wait until next semester, as the school will be opend next week, I don't have time to relocate him in next 2 days, the call goes to God right now.

almost finishing " Monk and the Riddle " the gift from C. easy reading and full of insights, lying on bad last night, I told my wife that last Friday, I saw J. Huang on TV, he is now the sepcial assistant on one of the terrical TV station, an old colleages back to Himalaya days, who I don't have a positive apprisal about, on TV, he looks young still, but how come he turned himself a " Taiwanese ? " speak nothing by Fucanese dilects, I have no objection of which language peopel carry to communicate, but as I knew this person quite well, his backgroud and education won't let him fluently speaking Taiwanese, a quietessential opportunisist, take side on which benefit his favored interest, I don't know the vacabrary equibulent to " Little man " in Chinese, he is the typical of this person. this is why I want to write it down before forget.

wind stop blowing now and rain is not heavy as early morning, I would like to take a walk in the afternoon, see the street after typhoon.

2004/08/24

in the morning, I played the PS2 game with Sound, in the afternoon, me and my wife decided to take a chance outside, since the weather report indicated that the typhoon won't hit TAIPEI until midnight.

Chung Chang theater was our choice, the cenema which shows artistic or Europen films is what we like the most now, I don't mind bringing my wife to " Spicy " again, as I knew she will be touched by the compelling story and the characters who bring those story so vivid.

as time is ealier, we go to the Japanese animation film " Tokyo Godfather " first, what impressed us is how Japanese animation can draw the details so real that make you hardly believe that it's an animation; compare with the creative work done by French animator and the film " 3 sister from Chnali village ", we appreciated the French film more, how to present your artistic work with the originality is what impressed us. Tokyo Godfather wasn't a bad movie, but an adult animation film.

Spicy do moved my wife a lot, how a Greece film can build up so much imagination and linking the relationship between life and spicy, how Greece can leverage movie, making it a tool to illustration life , this is a ture art, this is what we like about Europen film, they give every film a soul, they respect movie as an artisitc form to expresss life they feels. since my wife don't have a first love ( I am his first boy friend and them husband ). so, she asked a few question about the complxcity between they. a very interesting angle to check.

by 8:00 pm, city government announced that tomorrow will be an extended day off for the typhoon, 2 consective day off due to the typhoon wasn't normal, the raing pours heavier and heavier, although we have additional day off, but the pay off will be more serious of damange typhoon might caused.

anothe night for good sleep, my wife love to sleep in raining night, especially you don't need an alarm to wake you up. for her, this is happiness.

Typhoon number 16 ( I can't remember her name ) is approaching Northern Taiwan, the news from City goverment announce a day off today, the announcement was made 11:30 pm last night, the act of God bring a holiday to people less suffer from the typhoon, it gave me a very good night last night.

wake up at 8:30, didn't sleep for too late, waking my wife up and we go out for prepare some food in the bad weather, whenever there's a typhoon, I always think of keep enough food at home, the shortage of food and water make me feel uncomfortable, we do prepear can, snack and other life supplyment.

Playing PS2 shooting game with Sound after we finished our breakfase, I didn't keep my promise to play with him on last Sanday -- the auwful Sunday, this is a make up day for playing TV games; we managed to clear all the stages and win the last triumph together, it took us 1 hours in the game, father and son playing TV game together, observed by my wife, this is a common way father did with son for family.

check the mail at home now, nothing special. the unexpected holidays will defenitely impact on our business and the monthly target, as we operate in stores, close of shop and without traffic, the sign up potential subs will not meet our target. I remember 3 years ago, when typhoon Nari hit Taipei, the flood running over the first floor of our park, no water and electricy for a month and that's only one month after we lauch our service in Taipei.

I am checking our network via using the net, it works and connected, now , with the service amount up to 120,000. any service down will impact decent amont of subscribers.

2004/08/23

Take an early leave this afternoon to fix the broken relationship with wife, this is a " Do it right at the first time " believe, as we didn't sharing the Chinese Valentine's Day yesterday, I want to make it up today; not only for her, for me as well.

after a 70 minutes long conversation with COO, he've return from his Europe trip, I invited him for a coffee and go over the " operaiton update " which I recorded it every day last week, this is a very good action for me to revisit the operaiton issues and to think deep in the hands-on situration, conducte a few coffee with senior employee, dig some problems hidden somewhere in employees' heart and trigger some incentive to stimulate the team spirit was what I did last week, to take the chance of coffee, we share my findings one by one, and exceeded the scheduled 30 minutes.

Wife came and pick me up in the windy afternoon, Typhoon is approching, we returned home and chage to casual dressing, then headed to Chang Chuang theater; dinner at Ba-Jane -- a very local yet delicious restaurant and I bought 2 tickets for " Evil ", yes, exactly, this is the movie I saw yesterday, as it reflect to a very similar character of our son -- Sound, so , I want to bring my wife to see it, even I don't get too much sleep last night ( I went to bed around 4 am ), but I knew this will change some of her perspective about boarding school and our son; a good movie indeed, I didn't feel boring even wath it again the follow day, I didn't told my wife I've been to this one yesterday, we talked and talked and she made up her mind sending Sound to the " Forest primary school ",

I enjoy watching Evil again, why a Sweeden film can touch Asian's heart, why the story of a rebel kids can travelling all over the place and become universally concerned issue, why we moved by the story telling and why we worried about the actor and carefully followed the script written by the screen play writer ? human must have a common nature to communicate without language. Love, Hate, Tear, Laugh, there must be lots to follow... again, I enjoy Evil so much.

The dispute between me and my wife come to an end 3 o'clock in the morning, this is a routine of ending our querriel, but this time, it's severes than before because I emotionally said to her " why not devoice ? ", a taboo in our relationship, I remember long ago, we had an oral agreement which is no matter how sour our relationship goes, no one can raise the topic of devocing, I break the rule this morning, a little bit regret now, but we didn't take it as a mean to slove the problem and treat it as a remendy to continue our dialouge; I am so exhausted to finish this game. as they came home by 1:00 am in the morning, how can I stand for this auqual situation, I want to make a strong statement about my upset and want to have this thing get over me today. I know I am sacrifice my life for this solution, but there's no way to have her understand the " Love " inside her unless she see a dying me or a rotten life of me.... this is a very pity situation, but how can I make her understand the thing didn't happen to her ? to feel regret about what happened ?

I invited K. for a coffee the first time in the NKSP, explain everything to him and told him how my family suffered by his inmature behavior and how it cost me to re-invented my family value with my wife -- his sister, until I disclosed what happen to me and my wife early this morning, he feels less touched, but when telling him how I suffer from the one I love ahnd how it torches me, K. shed tears, the first time I guess, the tears bring to a amically resolution of his future and his mentality, I appreciated his way to express in such a sincere way, I resepct that and willing to work with him longer. this is the day. I will follow bring my wife to 2 movies I've been yesterday, which I know will bring back the relationship and itimancy to us.

2004/08/22

If I didn't put myself ( physically ) in the theater for more than 6 hours ( 3 different movies ), I will defenitely blow up; return home by 10:30 pm, this is very late, I don't see my wife and kids, but found the suit case with cloths of them packed in my room, I almost went mad immediately, why she never think of me and the family we built together and perform such an emotional reaction, every time. I really mad, by writing this bolg, I hope I can delute some bad temper when seeing them return home, although I don't know wethere they will return home today or not.

late last night, my driver ( my brohter in law ) call my cellure, when checking the numer on the screen, I switch to busy function, in half an hour, that's 11:40 pm, he called again, I pick up the phone, he said that he is outside our house and would like to coming in, I told him to handle the business issue Monday at the office, the response turn me mad, he said he don't want to drive and want to quit now; I keep my temper inside and kindly told him that I will not take his car to the office on Monday, but he MUST follow the regination policy and to proceed it at the office on Monday; a very immature reaction and bad attitude, this make me mad.

this morning, my wife didn't want to talk to me, I apologise so many time, and told her this is not because of me, what should I take all the blaim, if she don't want to bear the burden for her family, simply quit it, why shall our family suffer from this intrigutor and to create such a tonado in our life ? she didn't resoponse and don't want to answer, I take my decision to go out for a day, nothing, to keep my cool outside and stay away form the big trouble it may occured.

if I don't stay in the dark room for 6 hours and letting the drama lead me somewhere, my mind will be fulled with anger , movie is the distractor today , a temeporary cure to my bad mood today; I tried to concentrate when watching the movie, but during the breaks and meals, it comes and hit me hard again, why sould I suffer from this, doesn't she ever think of the love I give her and the sacrifice we been through for the past years, a cold blood woman, always take the smallest issue and make it a maga issue, I am so angry , I am mad right now, it's 11:00 pm, I don't see them yet, I will called her and deliver my firmilty , this is not a way to handle it.

Diary of a CEO