Diary of a CEO: 11/21/2004

2004/11/27

begin with what happen last night, the new members' dinner took place at the Red Lobster restaurant, this time, the other 2 new entries hosted the dinner, they didn't pick Regent as we normally did, they didn't invite A-Ted as the Nakase amusement backing, but hire anothe young person who most of the senior YPOer didn't know, but it doesn't matter.

I was late for about 15 minutes, those who arrived on time saw me , they begin to talk about my presentation last Friday; again, it proved that the self-introduction equeal to an impression management, I am glad the analical slides really pay off, as requesed by Euducaiton Officer, I have to sumit the copy for any members to take as reference; this is fine too, I should take it as the real token to the world of YPO. Mr. Tasi who were in foud of all the talk about and asked if he can get one file too, no problem of course.

Dinner began by 7:00 pm, although the food is excellent, I have to be deciplined to keep the diet program, one glass of red wine was what I consumed last night, Timothy sit next to me, we talked a lot of music, he is a music lover as well, we share a few and exchange a few. I promise to send him more information about what I am interesed.

Senior Chen was the star of the dinner, he took away all the glory from 2 young hosts, but everyone was so impressed by his openess, humor and passion; he told story about the good old YPO days , his current experience dealing across Strait and encourge YPOer's to be more open in such an event; as tradition, everyone must perform -- singing especially , the Karaoke and Nakase equipment was set and wait for the host to open, I didn't sing, but to tell a joke instead, D. neither sing nor telling any joke, the penalty is on bottom up of Single Mall. the party finished by 10 after 10 pm, a little bit longer than our normal gathering. 3 of our Forum members were there, we really had a good time.

forget to unset the mobile phone alarm, I woke up at 8:30 am in the morning, last for the ping pong session in Sat. morning the first time, Tom is MVP today and player of the week, he is so amazing, I only prform in the middle, we complete the game by 12, then I headed for the currey lunch, this is the longest lunch we had for about 4 years, I guess, I don't want to reconnect to the old scene but only wish to look forward, but, I need to somehow accept the exit and outflow of emotion, answering question about the importance, the position, the detail of feeling; I don't know if this healing session really helped, but as I promise to a longer lunch, I should let it flow and hopefully let it go. rush to Kingstone bookshop for the " Davinci Code ", Fruit said it was a great book, the socialogy teacher recommend them to read it, so I bought if for her, I want to read it also as it sold 200,000 copies in Taiwan, I should know what's the taste of the common readers in Taiwan.

Late last evening before went for the dinner party, Lam. visited my office to send the wedding invitation himself, we had a great conversation for about an hour, he told me how the marriage was decided in such a short notice and wish me to be the guest at the church, the Christain Wedding Ceremony is an important part in life, I promise him to go; then he updated me something about the KK, the on line streaming music service they provided, the only legismate online music steaming business, they are doing pretty good, when announcing the subscriber model in early Oct. using Hinet as the billing and collecting exclusive parner, they had average 500 to 700 paid subscriber per day, up to now, the total subs is around 20,000, after Chinese New Year, he will relocate to China and devleop the KK music there, getting marry and begin a new career in new market, this is a brand new life for him; I like Lam, sincere and honest.

me and my wife went for the second run movie tonight, we are targeted at the " Teminal " a Tom Hank's movie we miss, but the Evil Castle 2 wan't bad also, we enjoy both very much, Terminal related to a promise to his father and to the Jazz musci, Benny Gorson, when 88 visited Taipei , we talked about this legend also, 88 said he is recording his album also.

I accept the invitation to attend the ping pong tournament tomorrow afternoon at Regent for th Culb , losing weight help me move faster , I hope I can be a qualified player tomorrow for the team, although I didn't join the exercise with them for a long long time.

2004/11/26

Busy scheduling this week, Sound didn't called home to her mother for 3 days; found more dark side of one of the Forum members; having a great dinner with Fruit; reconnect to a few music initatives; these issues fill up my busy week.

yesterday, the morning is flat, reviewing with HR / FA and learn how the warefare committe of the company plan the year end party; as the experience recalled, lucky draw is much anticipate than the dinner, which is not a favorable sign to Japanese executives, but as a tradition and coming down for decades, we can't change it over night, so, I suggested to the organization team to survey a more ecomonic restaurant and keep the balacne for cash prize.

Lunch with Radio, this is an approach for the YPO event, he run an independent event / pr company and have tight connection to media and entertainment, the pitch is a chace to meet some important people druing the session, the saling point is to invite those who equip with talent ( singers ) to influence on those who ( YPOer ) influence the world; the sales talk worked, he seems please with my persuation and willing to take this very limited budget and come back to me with a proposal next weekend.

Met with M. right after lunch at Regent as well, he took up the CEO helmet of Rock Record 4 weeks ago, when met with Yu. last Friday at the Regent Sauna, he mentioned it to me without disclose M.'s company; the mistyric mood wasn't favored by M. as he thought I knew his where about already, I am happy that he can contribute his talent and expertise to this once biggest Music Empire in Greater China; we discussed some possible project to help each other and I bring the first proposal back and brief to 2 managers, they may involved in the latter stage of development. overheard his comment about the investment banker, I was surprise to know the circle of investment banker hold the same oppinion in one person -- Bad, Mean and taking care his own interest first; this finidng put me in a even hard place to think, I should take the consultancy role before granted my final decision to join his team, I should not be mistaken as the seagul that flock with them together.

IDA officers visited us and tried to idetify more defendent and attacking point for next Monday's hearing, they are in line with us to fight the dominate telecome player - the monster in Taiwan; they don't really get the picture, the education process take our people a decent time, consultant from iii join the meeting, I met the brilliant lady again, smart and stable, we should recruit her to our company -- or any company I am going to, she may be a great aide to any executive.

Bringing Fruit to a Sushi dinner last night, we talked a lot, she had a lot to share with me -- well, without her mother's presence; we really had a good time and she didn't change her mind to become a lawyer, she have my every blessing to achieve it.

Forget to bring my file back, so the PTS prepartion was complete last night, anyway, see what happen this morning.

a very busy Friday is expected as the ISP lunch will be a long and tough one. next week, should be sunshine in Kenting, at least, the sun will shining in my heart. I am ready for the vacation mood.

2004/11/24

Didn't sleep well last night, the sleeping quality is so bad in Nov. too many in-betweens and too much to be concerned; I didn't know if my tranfer my madness to wife is right or wrong, but the sleeping quality wasn't turn good.

this morning, the session with A. is ok, as I have the answers in mind and prepared for any questions, I am not nervous during the conversation, my answers to the career before me is quite simple :
1. there are a few opportunity open for me, but none of them meet my satisfaction.
2. the feasivility of my contribution to the Corporation, especially to the HQ is very low, there should be someone there to provide the career advise for me within the corporation.
3. if number one and 2 can't be achieved in short, to stay for another 2 years is a must. Why ? because COO clearly said to the HQ his last working day is next March, the ultimate letter send, this in not my problem, I have to make sure we had a health company in Taiwan, this responsibily will defenitely keep me here for another 2 years.

I told A. the best scenario is to have both of us stay for another 2 years, as we will process a transforming period, the do it all over again commitment must be carried out once more; the worst scenario is none of us stay in the company, the management shake down will result to a very unstable situation; to compare the pressure and workload within current company or any new career, the level is the same, the unseen side is the acquantance of people and familiar of industy and corporate culture.

the last session I did is to submit the revise and update 2004 goal, and a blue print between 2005 to 2007, I want to show them I am prepared and this company can't success without me.

now the ball handed over to the top management, I am not sit and wait, when told me wife the situation, she have a god feeling that the decision was made, I have to speed up finding my next whereabout; if they wish to transfer me to Tokyo with bad condition, should I take it ? will they make it a excuse to have me resigned ? can I use this as a leverage to negociatie a better exit package ? will them compensate my career with moneiterial reward?

Bringing Sales manger to a lunch outside and share a few thought with him, he is under enormouse pressure to re-sturcture his team and to achieve the sales target as the same time, he is in foud of " Only one " concept, the link in between is sensitive,.

D. Lee give me a call this morning and ask to see my to save his ass, I agreed with a 60 minutes conversation, he arrived by 2:30 and accompany with 2 staff, he is jorperdise in the music business and strive to see the hope in saving his new release. the sale figures is only 2 digit, we never see such a bad thing before. I can only provide a few idea to have them execute, maybe he should call it a shut in 2 weeks.

Mrs. Lee from YPO ring me and persuade me to be the host for the coming Christmas party, I have no objection but need to fix my time, as an earlier promise to participate Culture and Creative Industry Forum in I-lan, the earliest possible time for me to reach the venue is by 7:30 pm, I need to adjust the program to fit the YPO service requirment. they need me more than I can imagine.

Attending 2 meeting which I rare participated before, first is the second project meeting in regard to the streaming services; my attendacne wasn't anticipated, I have no intention to alter the meeting flow, but when observed the porject manager delivered a very long speech and response to questions in extended version, I can't help to raise my hand and asked the chairman if we had an agenda beforer every meeting attendee ? my interuption is for meeting delegate to cirlce around ideas and to exchange information which they requried to report in the second meeting; Honestly speaking, most of us don't know how to process an effective meeting, no wonder speed is on our competitors' hand.

second meeting is a financial review session to check where we are compared with the budgeted we prepared month ago, the gap is significantly huge, in less than one month, the gap increast to a moat, we had 18 millions Gross Profit varience in front of all the managers; when asked how this new gap was created, one manger response that the controller inform him to revise to an achievable target, the very conservative revise throwing a stone in my heart, how we should set the achievable yet challenge enough target for the company ? when asked the rationale behind, his answer didn't please me, I told all the attendee, if you want to revise a conservative target, as least, you should come up with an average figure base on the historical performance, for those item didn't meet our sales expectation, if you want to drop them, you should have a resouce re-deployment and contingency plan, when this adjustment was done, then we may review the new resources and and check how we may achieve it, I am not sure the communication between Controller and COO and dept. head is healthy or not, but I don't witness a consistency in revised the estimation.

we lost the bid for office expention at building H, although I phoned one of the panel to support his vote, but we failed in the end, COO didn't feel sad as he don't feel comfortable when having the presentation session at IDB, he said to me that this is like begging for a new office space, he don't like it, this is he, when feeling bad about someone or something, immediately turn around and show his poker face; no matter how talent one man is, create enemy is never a smart strategy, especially you are a foreiger in town, I need to talk to him and let him know how a mature executive should perform, no man can carry his own will till the end of the world, a soliteri hero is not a hero people appreciate and respect, this is what I am interested to know from people who reported to him directly.

Fruit had a big fight with her mother, yes, she is so lazy and seldom show her appreciation and gratitude to parent; this time, her mother really upset, we decided not to sing-off on the parent-student contact book, instead, I wrote down her wrong behavior at the contact column and explained to her teacher why I rejest the sign-off today; Fruit need to change her behavior from the bottom of her heart, otherwise, she will suffer from all the bad habits developed since her childhood, I don't really want her to be my burdon for all my life. independence need some frustration, she treated to commit suicide, we knew she won't act it, but this is a bad feeling for parent also.

2004/11/23

The press conference finished in 30 minutes, the Q and A wasn't drag too long, I was pulled out by my Japanes colleages, they maybe afraid of my big mouth expressing too much of the confidencial information; I checked the run down this morning and rewrite the speech document myself, 5 minutes in front of the audience / media and 10 minutes of Q/A, after the press conference, I brought 2 of J executive to a Shuchuang noodle restaurant, they seems enjoy the spicy noodle very much, we finished everything in 30 minutes and headed back to office.

the over eating last night result to a gain in 1 kilogram, a warning sign to me, the diet program is in process, I should be more careful about what I am eating and how much I ate them; sit in the office complete my business update with 2 document which I plan to bring over to HQ messager tomorrow morning; I don't mind if this is an open agenda meeting, I will show them how I sincere in what I am doing now. the strategy behind is to glue the unfavor decision about my career if they may.

another member in our Forum call one of the new member pitch for investment, the Forum meeting disclose that he is in deep trouble now, we were there in front of everyone, all the senior members try to save his ass, pulling him out of the fire, but it seems he would like to play his last card; new member as target for soliciting money, it demonstrate a " hopeless " ambient; although I beleive he should try every effort to save his company, his career, and maybe the rain in the desert will turn everything around., I don't know, I simply look at this case a perfect example to me. how to interact with Forum member is a very sensetive situaton. empathy is the key and should be well-thoughted by mutual party.

" Give me distance " and " Give me shelter " was what I heard from the heart of Gary's wife, who suffered from Gary's scandle last week, thanks to Gary's parent, they plan a outing in Japan to cool down each other and revisit the life ahead, as a TV drama actress and married a celebriety, the news explore become a talk of the town these days, media focus on the wife and try to capture her image and feelings, again " dig the shit " is the nature of reporter, they finally grasp this chance at the airport last night; returning from Japan, surprisely, all the camera gathering at the gate and have her naked to the camera, some reporter even push her to release her " Feelings ", what a curl and rude manner , she only response in crying face and mummumed with " Someone save me, someone save me ".

I don't understand why a camera can turn to be an insturment to suffer people more, this is not the reality TV, if they standing on her shoes or ther people who grief from losing their property , beloved or soul, how can these person can asked such a bad question, don't they immute from all the misfits in human life, don't they hunger form other people's support instead of tourching when in bad times ? this is the media culture, the media nature and the terrible human stinct.

Camera can also play a role to show their respect, a long distance shot, a slow moving picture the perosn walking along, without intruger , without interuption, the message can be transfered entirely, why ? how come people with professional training lost the integrity to perform properly ? a long distanct shot is the respect you can demostrate at least.

stay up late last night, wife was eating too much at the All You Can Eat Shabu Shabu, she can't go to bad too early, although the time was 1 in the morning, I told her the story about Yang, the person she knew but never met, we share some value together and exchange how we see this, to know her more wan't a positive experience to me; we cherish what we have now.

Reviewing the Q and A drafted by our PR supervisor, this is for the press conference today, I found it useless, no focus, no point and can't really point our the key message we want to deliver to the media today; I have to rewrite it and revise it, she in not paying attention enough, maybe on our last coffee break, I express my opinion about the childish behavior in challenging other colleage with no hard evidence, this straigh forward advise make her feel uncomfortable; by communicate on that matter, I am more cautious in dealing with her.

R. was on a live radio-interview this moring , I heard a little bit, as the car stop at the gate of Soft Park, I didn't finish it, as a female leader and a qualified celebrity, her join YPO may bringing new aspect to the boy's club. if gender is no longer a concern to her.

2004/11/22

Spending entire afternoon outside the office, a few stories to update, let me begin with the early meeting today, we set up a meeting by 8:30 am to review the statement we are going to present in front of ISP's on Friday, the statement is for forcing S. to conduct a free private peering practice with other ISP's, why we take up this initative ? this is bacaues COO have a resentment to issue an official complain letter to government body last month, he wish to deliver pressure for S. company to exercise on Free Peering pratice; the type 2 telecom law was insufficient in Taiwan, there's no law to regulate the type 2 telecom to connected each other by what criterial, although, all the type 2 telecom were in the datacome domain, a internet without connectivity protocol ? how would it be, H, S utilizied it's first movers' advantange and charge late comer the private peering fees , the unreasonable pricing and practice place an obtacle to ISP's other than S and H, this is why we initative this joint action. in the moring, I advise everyone that to lead this action wasn't a smart move as no one would be glad to act as the bad guy and explore itself to an acusation position, we should be very careful in conducting this activity; I urge the managers who involved in this project to draft a " Confidenciality Agreement " which to be co-signed by all the lunch attendee before we process any discussion, my insturction is to avoid oursleves become the only bad guy in the type 2 telecom industry and taking all the blames.

the mangers' meeting this morning drag too long, the CTQ session at the end of the meeting entailed the meeting to 12:10 am, I was upset by the sales figures presented on the meeting, if we don't recover from the poor and behind target sales activity, we are in danger to achieve the final goals, I am not sure if my gesture alert anyone in the meeting ? I only noticed that J. received my signal.

Lunch at the Fort Restaurant, a Baroco renovated restaurant in one of the oldese venue in Taipei, it's beautiful, we share and update information for the past 2 weeks; I can't help to told all the development in PTS GM campaign, I don't mind sharing it as the decision made already and I have a clear thought won't take the second position in the organization; she updated me with her current new job, to build the Youth Brand of Taiwan, a very challange but interesting mission, no schedule, no deadline and no agenda, the free hand assignment should be a dream job define by a lot of job seeker, she told me for the past 2 weeks, she is curing her furstration from last job, the reflection and experience gain will ultimately help her achieve her milestone next; the service in Fort is excellent, the place is quite and the price is reasonable, a very nice place to sit / think and share. we stay until 2:30 pm before I heading for next appointment.

find time to read the Dell story, highlight what inspired me : Dell make inventory to information. good to practice; appointment wtih Shu was scheudled before I reconnected with Yang, presumely, I want to hear Yang's news via her, since Yang called me already, the curiority of knowing her update wasn't so strong, as the appointment was made, I didn't cancel it and went for the meeting; she is crazy busy during the election period, as the chief office administrator, she worked for Legislor Zhao for 12 years, busy, complicate and nervous accompany with her for more than 10 years, I can tell how she live with notes, calles, follow up and scheduling; She told me stories about Yang, the untold story which I didn't know since high school, Yang left home with brother when graduate from high school, they move to Taipei stay with the elder brother; she didn't pursue education any more, working in the sales front , married with a humble and honesty man, now their son is study in University now; she suffer from the cancer, lost her job, her husband lost his job too, she tried a few part time jobs and living in a low-wedge life; Shu was wondering if I may introduce some job for her husband and indirectly solved their problem; I didn't know if I have this capability to help and I don't know how to grand my help without hurting her dignity? knowing more wasn't a pleasant experience, you tried to putting all the puzzle together, the picture turn out to be what you dislike, I don't mean I don't like to know they more, I mean the turth unveil told a crul story, how an old time friend can support a woman in need ? I don't know, Shu said she will try to obtain the basic requirement of her hushand and let me follow, so far, I don't have any offer I can think of, I don't know if my cross-line of knowing too much is a wise move ?

take the meeting break to check our direct shop, I don't really know how to differenciate our shop with other shops? selling hardware wasn't what we good at, I wasn't sure how to convey a convincing message to media tomorrow, let them understand we are providing a unique sales experience to our customer, I don't know how to do it .

Meeting in Alfa Music is the last meeting this afternoon, contact with Mr. Yang - MD of the musci company last week and set up the appointment, I am open the door for M. to follow with the artist portal management pitch, since the biggest artist Jay is under their management, I promise to knock the door the first time for our colleage. the meeting went well, Yang is open minded and be very honest; the pitch may take time, but to bringing back 8 autography photo is another mission, I have to compensate those wives of YPOer.

dinner at all you can eat shabu shabu, this is the first time me and my wife try this, less expensive, take very long time to finish the meal, you may over-eating accidentally because it all free, I told me wife the meal tonight is my biggest feast since I take up the diet program.

2004/11/21

This is a busy weekend recap; I should began with Friday evening; Friday afternoon was my very important day at YPO, my members' introduction sesseion took place at Rits Hotel, although I've prepard it for month and had a rehearsal the day before during the Forum, but you can't help the nerve come to you; I was list on the second introducter, next to Tseng, Tseng's presentation followed with photo slides, althougt this is not a well-structured format, but he told a very good story, the story about him and the company he built, this is a combination of a person start with a humble beginning and become a successful man story, audience will never sick of a motivated story, and will always respect those who fight their good fight and wind the tournment in the end; this is Tseng's story, acturally , his prentation moved me too, I wrote down his believe below:

「Do the things that nobody willing to do」「Earn the money that nobody willing to make」, on his last 2 session of presentation, he mentioned his " important person in life ", a very Chinese way to show his gratitude to those who help him gain what he has today. when I take over the microphone, I clear my throat and begin with the first slide, the " His Story of .... " draw audience's attention, the cite of " Long life is not good enough, but good life is long enouge " make them think again, the format I crafte for presentation is what they never think of before, creativitly making the power point tool an interesting interface to introduce one person, " Number in Life " raised so many laugh, until, then, I knew I had succefully win the respect and reconigtion among attendee; after the presentaion, almost all the members and their spouse approach me and show their sincere admiration to me and the prepartion I did, this is truly a pay off event, I knew the " impression management " I handled achieved.

waiting in Regent for Itoh-san's check in, run into Mr, Yu in the Sauna bath, we chat for about 30 minutes and I share the PTS and company's situation to him, we had an appointment to see each other when I return from Kenting. I have book the trip with my wife to Kenting from Nov. 29, lose weight deserve a beach vacation, to get rid of all the career puzzle, I need a relax mind to digest it too.

They checked in by 9:10 pm, we went to the Fish restaurant for dinner, 4 of us enjoy the flesh fish so much, the food win their first impression, after the dinner, follow with 2 Jazz Club tour, my friend secure table for us for the 2 venue, Brown Suger is the trendy spot in town, we stayed for an hour, since police is conduction a serach mission, the band can't perform at the searching time, this keep us wait for a hour, I don't really used to the club life anymore, smoke, noize, drink and people dressing in fashion, this is not my life anymore; the second club Club 75 is an newly opened Latin Jazz live house, my friend -- Drummer Mr. Lee co-own this club, we entered the club right before the performance break time, this kept us wait for another 35 minutes before the music started, we left the club be 12:45 am, return home at 1:30 am, I didn't stay outside so late for very long time. chat with me wife when went home, we talked about the introduction, we talked about one members' scandle and how his wife will handled it.

Sat. pick Itoh-san and the guest by 9:00 am, I arranged a Hot Sprint Musume tour to Bei-tou, the musume was convered by a old emplore's house, this house was used to accommodate Emplor's visit to Taiwan 60 years ago, and this is a very Japanese artichiture, they were pleased to see this interesting heritage, as the first meeting scheulded at 10:30 am, I bring them back on time for the first meeting with local promoter, what happen next is the promoter " No Show ", the arrangement by C. was not 100 percent confirmed, we all sit there and chat about the concert scene in Taiwan, when talking about Lisa Ono , who was the best selling performer in Taiwan, Aoki-san said to C. that he will honor to see this promoter, well, this is my call, I called E. right away and set up meeting in the afternoon for them, this great effort impress them a lot, acturally, I am not participate on any business activity these 2 days, but to spend time with Itoh-san, My best friend in Japan and be a good host, provide cars and driver, book good hotels, choose decent restaurant., but I do help them this time, I thanks for E.'s help without a " Why "

Launch at Ding-Tai-Feng compensate the lously morning, they eat so happy, I skip the venue tour and leave car to them, returning to meet they for the arrangement with E. I show up again by 5:00 pm, their second meeting didn't take place and E. arrived on time, I have to find a place to sit with E. and talk to her, thanks God we are good friend, this break the embarssmaent which might happend cause by the improfessional scheduling.

Aoki-san is very keen in letting E. know the artist he planning to bring over, when E. bring them the credit book, it impress them again, the meeting was short and I thanks for E.'s help again.

Dinner at Really on time, we relax and enjoy the great seafood in Taiwnese cusine, during the dinner, Itoh-san share a few inside story about music to us and his liasion with legendary Jazz artist, and how the label 88 was founded and built then. C. left the dinner earlier to prepare the Caberet which will open by 9:30 pm, 3 of us sharing and talking again, I am supprise to know that Aoki-san is 50 years old already and Itoh-san will be retired in 2 years, he is 58 now; before the desert served, Itoh-san turn his face to me and asked : When will you return to Music business ?, I was shocked and don't know how to response, yes, I have passion in music and have experience also, I didn't answer his question, but told him if he want to do his own music business, I will help him anyway in Taiwan.

we arrived at Living Room by 9:10 pm, the room was full of forienger, yes, more than 100 forenger, only 2 Asian ( exclude us ), Itoh-san caught cold on his way to Taipei, he dosen't feel well today, we decided to leave before 10:00 pm, on 9:37, my cellure phone rings, AJ called, I walked out of the crowd and take his phone, his message is so straight : Would you want to change you job ? as Forum members, I can't answer with fraud, when a Yes send to him AJ told me S. is concidering seeking a person to take up EZfly, he wound like to know my oppinion about it, if I am no interest, then I simply erase this conversion, if there's a change to follow, he will let S. know about it. this cold call ruin my very exhauslted day, AJ told me my presentation on Friday was so excellent that everyone is talking about.

Deliver the message to wife , she said this may be a sign of the messanger's message, next Wed. the information HQ bring may not be a positive one, and someone open th ewindow for me again, I shall feel relief, at least, there are a few roads ahead, compare with 3 months ago; I am feeling better and more confidence now.

if you only have one chance to present yourself among the influrenicial leaders, make every possible way to leave strong impression; prepare ahead, putting your heart and soul, deliver the best and perform the best, the New Members' Presentaion is such an example.

Diary of a CEO