This is the mood of the day, M. didn't reply with any call when heard my personal appointment with him related to " Career ", it surprise me and make me feel sad; maybe all the rich and famous learn how to escape from the predictable troubles, or they are sensitive enough to smell anything they feel won't do good to them ? I don't know, I am 44, can't be too naive now, remember my " Independent 45 plan ", not only drawing the plan , but to complete and execute it; Chiarman spare his time for breakfast with me in a very quick reply, it surprise me also, as I should not deliver message of my flying out, I can only think of non-business related topics, this is kind of hard; Jean called this morning during my ping pong session, she want to meet me befor fly out to Shanghai tomorrow, as I disclosed the " consultant " concept to her, she is aggrestively digest the idea, so, tomorrow moring for breakfast is for " Truth finding", I had a lot of question, the first one is to map the " Consultant " - see if the defination we have in mind is the same.
Attending the executive dinner last night at Tien-Shang Lao, the best Hung Chow cusine in town, another no-English dinner, everyone speaks Japanese, the isolation didn't put me far away, I am used to it now, but as the dish wasn't arrange perfectly and I am still on the diet program, it's kind of boring for me.
Before the dinner, I tried on the Texido at the shop, my first Master of Ceremory experience is about to take off next Sat. this is a very intereting try on, the store manger gave me a couple -- a customer made talier couple, for buy one get on free. as I have no suit now, should measure my new shape -- a 9 kigogram disapper new shape, and reward my self a little bit.
Bringing M. to see Sony Music and check the possiblity of access the internet community / artist clus business again, over heard the SONY/BMG merge story from A. he is really a charactor, who told me in the world, Sony/BMG Taiwan is the first company to lay off employee, he sound like some medel decorated on his shoulder, the office have 4 persons, I don't know what his staff think when he said it loud to me, I knew it's tough, to keep the same top line ( the combined 2 company budget ) and can only increase 10 percent of the cost ( which means to reduce 90% of overhead ), it will turn this new company a hell. well, this is how digital / internet destroy the music industry.
Ready Fast Company , the creativity issue, learnd how Bill Core develop a company without organizational heriecty and invonavtedly invented new product with a team spirit, quiet inspiring. Sylvis talked about John Nash again, John thinks class will only make student dull, a very astonishing idea, doing thing differently make him and the game theroy a remarkable achievment, but we can only number a few of them, Sound don't like to be in class, Forest school satisfied his need, but I don't think a new Nash will born in my family.
Visited K. in the morning of 9th, she is the employee who in critical stage due to arterial / heart decease; the 8 hours of emergence surgery save her life in the end, it was so closed. I bring the birds nest - a Chinese way of food nutrition for recovery , the gratitude from my wife; a fruit blanket from the company visited her at Cathay Hospital; She recovered quiet well, no more pale face, speak and think as normal as anyone else; her manager accompany me to see her, she told me her recovery condition is much better than doctor's expectation. Kang share with us a lot of reborn insight which were so turth and precious, she said, she became so talktive now and willing to express her feeling of reborn to everyone she knows, althought the suffer she encounted is greater than anyone else, but I told her the life after is bonus ( a plus mindset ) to her, not like rest of us, we are minus day by day; every little happy to her can be a cheerful ceremony, her way of looking the world is totally different now; we talked for 40 minutes, during my visit, her doctor who perform the surgery came to see her, a young doctor with warm heart, Kang is lucky to have such a good doctor.
Lunch with Y. long time friend , as I set a meet with him every 2 month discpline, not because I have to, but I want to; a friend for more than 20 years and always told me experience / story that impressed me; lunch will him normally exceed 2 hours, no exception this time; we updated each other and the story of his house ( been injunction from neighbor ), his elder son ( run into trouble again, this time, not arson, he steal goods from 7/11 and been caught ), his business plan ( release a venteran rock album, come up with solo protest album; doing promotion with artist Pan in southeast Asia, finding a distribution partner in Taichung ) and life ( spend last few months with the pass away songwriter / producer Liang ), his torelance to struggle and suffering is much greater than me, he can even hold the positive thinking to a unbeliveable level, the interaction with him is another growing fountain to me. maybe I am selfish to have his enthusiam keep me going.
coffee with A. - Network product manger, he disclosed a secret to me which cause my surprise; our major window to the donimate carrier asking us to pay him " Consulting fees " ( the bribery / kick-back ), this is an unbelivable development, as an international company, we will never perform inethic approach to conduct our business, the dominate carrier is a State Own Enterprise, if our window been seized, he will not only lose his job but facin the criminal charge of corruption; the I discovered how it happend and advise our manger how to act properly on this issue.
On my way home, I call Fang and Hwag Yuang, 2 long lost friend and commit to them securing time for chat or meat , I want to do it and keep those promises.
Morning breakfast with O. is good, although we had 45 minutes only, but the message he send is clear; network business in not the core in the eyes of our Parent company, my chance for next career development shouled be in China, they will create a same machanism as they did in the United States , I send him my will to be on the candidate list helping build the structure. anyway, this is another light I should turn on.
To continue what I didn't finished at the lunch with J. other than asking his opinion about the superior, I illustrated a few " Future ahead " to him, such as : when complete the Mid Range Plan, what the company should do; the overall structure change in organization, how we identify next tier of executives in the company and areas I think he can improve and ready for the executive table. I am honestly advise J. a healthy competition ( well, this is what I hope ) with other condidate is include in my success plan, to deliver this message, I told him the story of Sony Music SVP - HR Frank's , how he excile from Portuge , becoming a refugee in Spain, return to Portuge as head of Sony Music Portuge, planning his successing and idetified 3 candidate who think they are the protege until the last day of his retirement. I hope it will lead to a heathly environment somehow.
Coversation with COO smell that everyone is seeking O.'s comment or support in finding their next destination in the corporation; well, I am one of them who make an earlier appointment. we scheduled our breakfast tomorrow morning in Ladis, I prepred lot of material in advacne, but I think this is not a proper manner to deliver tons of informtion in writing on the breakfast table; I am gonna change it to the oral conversation, but to deliver the information up to the flow.
Receiving Yu-ching's new hand-writing article with a greeting card, another heart-breaking story she wrote and a loving blessing in the card; she just got back from South Africa; to know more dosen't represent more. keep the old image in the flame, like the old photographe, that wasn't bad either.
Reexamine my lens at the eys clinic the other day, I am not feeling comfortable since wearing my new glasses, sore and tired for about a month, I am so afraid of losing my sight, the doctor said the left eye lens is the killer, it's over 100 degree, thank God I found the reason, change a pair of glass last night, my left eye didn't work that hard anymore.
Professor Shu is an interesting and weired guy, I rejected the offer of teaching at Chin-Nan University again, and call him for apology; our conversation can't help lead to suble life and fortune subject; I told him he is THE professor who I encounted with speaking of " Death " the most during any conversation; he told me why he tried so hard to place on to Puli and out of the busy commercial zone is because in 10 years, I will suffer from a physical pain - a dicease most likely; well, his good intention brings bad impact, when talking to me wife last night about his fortune telling, she's so mad. how can a man tell someone a bad fortune in 10 years ? if the answer is tomorrow, you only suffer for a day, 10 Years ? the drag long years keep you thinking about it, this is a very bad attitude; I favored my wife's comment and agree not to initatial any conversation with him.
Changing Sound's Chinese name with one more straw in the morning; the one straw means a lot to his mother, I spend 2 hours for this and hopefully, all the good fortune come along with this minor change.
Invited, J for a casual lunch, for the quality purpose, I bring him to resturant out of the office, I asked him tough question such as his working experience with COO and any improvement area he discovered, Yes, he point out 3 areas:
1. Cordinations : the reluctant to make the decision for pararell depts .making some obstacle hidden somewhere; the problem doesn't go away, but with no solution, managers extended the suffering longer than expected.
2. Communicaition : when it come to a decision discussion session, if the answers or proposal doesn't sound to him, he will suggest for more discussion until the favor answers appear to him; the guessing game elapse the dececison process and delute the speed advantage.
3. Reward and Penalty : no clear Right or Wrong for decision maker, the performance can't be justified immediately, motivation turn to low level.
I response to J. in three main area : How I see the operation delimn from my viewpoint; How he should train himself to an executive ; how I see the organizational development to cope with the MRP; J. share the good news with me about his getting marriage , with an old colleage which we all fond of; they are planning an engagement ceremony next March and Wedding before next Summer. they have all my blessing.
Another busy day without assistant; I managed to clean my thick files on the table; revising the interview questionare for tomorrow and rush to have a coffee with engireering manager, I asked him how's cross-dept. corporation with product dept; he told me eveything went well, I raised a sharp question about the dead line? his answer was there's no dead line issue and the application service is a phase by phase development, we don't need to release every wish at once; I buy this concept, then he ( B. ) told me, the product development process for On line service is quite unususal comparing with Network product; as every new service we lunch in the OS dept. we don't have a existing model or template, so , we need to spend decent time to analyse the business criteria, and the marketing side of the business, I am a little bit confused as I thought the " Marketing " input should come from the marketing team instead of Engireering team, his response is we have to understand why we want to launch this new service and how to get them to use it? I decided not to spending time debating on this issue, but when B. asked my opinion about Blog? I told him I used it for almost 2 years, my finding is:
1. the total amount of blog user exceeding the critical mass , the rampage turn it to a trend.
2. it's like writing a diary, the difference is in the old days, people wrote it on the paper and reluctant to share with stranger. now, they tend to do in on the internet and sharing it to public.
3. from the broadcasting to narrowcasting to one-to-one interactive communciation, net create a new eggterian for people.
4, If our blog service can catogrolize by the nature of interest group and featuring the most-read, most welcomed blog, it may direct our user to a frequent user.
then I share with him my finding about PSP and why SONY position it as the " walkman of 21 century "
1. It's wireless.
2. the storage is mini disc with a Sony technology instead of HD, which means, the changeable CD turn the device a no limitation of multimedia device - not only for games, but for films and music.
3. the chip and disc creat a new barrier for competitor.
lunch with A-kuei, I brought him to the Flesh Fish restaurant, I found the taste wan't as good as before, maybe today the chef is on leave; A-kuei is quite happy about this gathering, he been to Tibet since our last meal, it seems the Tibet trip is a turing point for himself and for his business; I am glad he find a way to intepretate the good luck ahead of him.
Jean called in the evening, another light turn on.
Chair the Monday managers' meeting alone, COO had another meeting with Financial Administrator; I fixed the e-paper problem between 2 dept, the issue kept at a very slow solving pace which I don't know why; as I had coffee with managers in varies occation, but the problem lay there like a big stone; this morning, I moved it, I can sense smiles in some of the manager's heart, they finally see the executive dealing with problem and fix it with firm attitude; I don't want to overrule the authority of COO, but this morning, his absence make a great room for us. Fix it, I did.
COO join the game company's Golf tournament in the afternoon, this is the 4th anninverally of the game company -- our sister company in Taiwan; I stayed at the office and cosmetic my " Home work " for PTS; another impression management I perform when they receive my plan, I did it during the weekend, and can be seen as a month-long efforts; Chairman called by 5:00 pm to demonstrate his appreciation about my endevouse contribution. next week, we gonna see each other again. I would like to polish the INPUT before.
V. give me his professional critism about the logo issue, he is really the supervisor of the art / design, his points impressed me, I may use them to counter with the desiger at PTS.
Henry Cheng came for a coffee, this is another routine development. he broughe me a piece of paper, the idea and insight paper he wrote; again, his trend catching and profound intellence make him an unique person; I learn a lot when he go over those finding and share how those ideas come from; he is so opend to friend, this is what I like to spend time with him, no matter how busy my schedule is, I will squeez time to shower with his extraodinaray discovery.
The exploration session from Wired Magazine inspired me a lot, the confession of James Camoron telling the true story behind shooting " Titanic " -- the win the chace diving to the wrech site for discovering the ship - a 12000 under water; the courage of disapprove the " Risk adverse " and the adventure spirit from westerner; my reflection is : why we don't see Chinese / Taiwanes Great Explorer these days ? remember 600 years ago, Cheng Ho in Ming Dynasty who lead the fleet cruise all the ocean and been identifed the person who " maybe " discover American 50 years before Columbus ( the book 1421 - the year Chinese discover American is the story about this re-discoverey , compare with 1492 - the year mark for Comumbs ), this gave me an idea to reconcill and recreate the exploration spirit by making a series of documentary about those ancient heros -- making it a series in PTS.... I want to sell this idea to them next week.
Game company's anniverlly party take place at Formasa Regent, I was there earlier than other guest and run into an old colleage from Music, she joined the gamed company in Aug. a girl who I over heard suffer her emotion with her superior 5 years ago, the no one blessed office affair end up with the resigation of this young girl; she didn't know that I heard this story from other colleage wheh she left, but I didn't bring the memory back to her when chat with her at the dinner party.
COO asked how many kitchen at Regent? my answer is more than one, the food I taste at Noble House where YPO nomally conduct event was cougious, you never experience the same food twice, from presentaion to material and taste, but the dinner party cusine was not impressed at all; I am still on a diet program, no big deal for me; I am lucky to sit next to one of the Cable channel operator -- another sister company executive, he share lots of TV / Cable practice / knowledge and information to me; this is great, as no one knows I am sitting on the advisory seat for PTS, any information will help me play my role properly.
The dinner is OK, sourvernier is good, went home, wife found a great way to change Sound's Chinese name, with the same pronouncation and character, but one mor straw, we will turn everything around, with the " lucky straws " and keep the same meaning for him, she is too excited to tell me about it and willing to do it tomorrow; I support her decision, this will make her feel comfortable; every mother in the world wish any symbol can bring all the good luck to the beloved, no exception..... well, I do hope so.
I spend half of my weekend doing the plan for the PR / Promotion / Event dept. of PTS, I havn't been so detailed in execution a plan, this is a good trial, I think my old skill stays, as I am going to launch my consualting / Training company, it help me to double my confidence; the draft plan of self-employement getting stronger and stronger, it encourage by my wife and thanks for the stimulate of my father, who said is the second time ( maybe more than that ) to my daugher that I am not filial morality son to him, I am really really sad when my daught say it to us last time when we were out eating in the Wan Hwa Night Market; it gave me new strengh to think about my future and career in a selfish approach, I want to be in China, to leverage my relationship with YPOer and play the role as the consultant / trainer to bridge my connection to China is a good strategy, I draft the plan, and finish the PTS Promotion stragety as well.
this is like back to the Essay writing period, concentrade and non-stop coming out of the spring of ideas, I am focus and focus. this is the emtrepunership I current developed.
