life is a vacation: Blog

life is a vacation

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:37:52 GMT

If life is truly a vacation, then it makes sense to live without a purpose. Yet the worldly victories we source happiness from - fade away all too quickly in the shine of time. When God to us become a prefix to damn it, the purposeless victory seeking vacation will inconveniently expose ourselves in pain.

The reins of philosophy.

communistic

Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:25:38 GMT

imagine a society in which the average after-tax profitability of all companies is exactly zero - ie. when state government collect the exact total residue value all employers/ capitalists would capture from the production - could this be an idealist communistic society masquerated in a capitalistic market driven economy (which presumably incentivizes inventicism and efficiency of management too)?

will this be ultimately the best way to distribute wealth as reasonably as possible - because of its based on a zero-sum principle? will this mechanism generate enough entrepreneurism and inventicism to sustain growth and competitiveness? has china been the closest economy to this model in at least within the commoditized industries, perhaps?

* * *

re comments - the average profitability is zero but individual companies still have their chances to make profit - which can be their drive to improve productivity/ invest in the efficiency of running business? you think?

happily drunk

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:06:00 GMT

again i woke up not remember what happened last night - major hangover plus inked letters written on my face - yet i woke up today with a big big smily face - knowing that i was again happily drunk

deeply grateful to be able to end 2006 with last night's party - for the moment that takes my breath away, for the caring intelligent friends of mck - you are my source of being good - and what makes my boring life a true sweet vacation

thank you and all the best wishes going forward - yours jialu.

toys r us

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 19:36:37 GMT

went to the new toys r us store in pudong's super brand mall (zheng-da sq) yesterday - for those who dont know, toys r us is america's largest category killer for toys - except only that it was struggling against bankrupcy and then bought out by a group of private investors (eg bain capital) in 2005 - due to mainly 1) competition from walmart, and 2) bad customer services

their chinese store followed global product mix, priced similarly, and mechanically grafted the style of their hongkong stores - or in short - their current steps of entry prioritize 'politically correctness' over 'the warm human touchs' .. which might as well be a major mis-step in this whole deal?

two key questions yet to be answered - is entry to mainland china likely to be the first step of its overall turn-around strategy? how much value can be captured before hypermkts push into the toy space? i am eager to see how things will turn out

extroverts

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:08:47 GMT

couple friends of mine claimed to have a personality just in between extrovert and introvert - to which i perhaps have a clue to help clarify - so as to understand ourselves better - try answer the following three questions -

1. genuine curiosity to understand other people?

2. drive to be understood by other people around you?

3. ability to relate to other people?

and here's the pitch - by other people i mean general people instead of the closest persons - so here if you got 2 out of 3 trues here, you are definitely one of us :)

bubbles

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 08:02:19 GMT

this time it's not a bubble - people argued that the web 2.0 heat was more realistic and/ or likely to turn into real shareholder value as compared with seven years ago when the bubble burst - with the following three good reasons

1. tangible revenue source (e.g., Google's gigantic pool of advertising dollars)

2. video applications (due to large improvement of infrastructure/ internet bandwidth)

3. mobile applications (driven by 3G investment and increasing data ARPU)

however - these reasonings are based on the following assumptions

1. internet players' key drivers of revenue will not get commoditized (e.g., search engines)

2. quality of user generated videos will improve to justify ad dollar (beyond porn and cheap laughs?)

3. mobile operators need partnership from internet firms (rather traditional media firms?)

i am not sure - but these look like not on solid ground - quite shaky actually

nanshan skiing

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 03:02:30 GMT

spent a day at nanshan skiing - just a little hill to the northeast of beijing - but good enough for the emerging life-style driven beijing middle class to go there for a nice relaxing weekend trip .. link: http://www.nanshanski.com/

couple differences if compared to wachusett - a small and smiliarly-positioned skiing hill 50min drive from boston

1. huge area of bunny hills (also splitted into skiier bunny and boarder bunny hills)

2. vip deck at main lodge second floor (charge only 50rmb more than basic)

3. one seperate loading point for advanced skiiers - serving the only diamond trail (steep and moguled - comparable to the steepest moguled trail in waterville valley)

there's also a funny pseudo-coffee shop at the peak point - serving mainly 20rmb coca-cola and sprites

little victories

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:39:02 GMT

bathrooms are not the perfect place to cry - especially the ones in the office - it depresses, makes the workplace a lot less attractive, and flows the pain in the air all-over

and we also see the shitty things around us - almost on a daily basis - friends breaking up, people getting pissed off over EPRs, or more frequently, freaking out and becoming angry about ourselves for various reasons

i mean - sorry - but life isnt perfect for anyone of us - and shit may just be part of our lives - we were covered with shit when we were born, only to take more shit as we grow up - and until eventually we dont smell the shit anymore

so maybe - taking vacations isnt always effective to wash away the fatigues, dating promiscuously isnt the right indulgence we deserve, traveling around cant really be the magic pill for our heart

right way i think - is to learn to pick the right battles, and enjoy the little victories - in the meantime, look for the bright side of our lives - especially the little things that sometimes we simply overlooked

google china

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:59:46 GMT

here they dont have contents, nor youtube - nor the kind of fancy office like the one in the valley

will localized engineer team and parashooted business school grads live up to the challenge from baidu? fundamentally a marketing/ strategic question as it is - instead of a technology one - i didnt see google china moving in that direction quickly enough yet

papajohns

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 08:37:24 GMT

i think a lot about papajohns lately - the ordered ones from somerville - when i used to spend days at home before i ran out of the last piece of the pepperoni double cheesed pizza - and the chicken wings

and my DIY bookshelf, quote on the bedroom walls, newegg desktop with my 1.5TB hard drives - and my keyboard abused by my random improvision that doesnt make any musical sense, rossignol ski set with the smuggled ski boots, netflix mails and hbo

looking out of the office window, its the messed-up winter of shanghai - all dusty that i can barely see the building across the street - cold without heating, cinemas without movies, weekends without interesting places to hang by

its been one and a half year since i came back - have i got used to these yet

rss

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 07:34:26 GMT

finally came to understand how rss works - download it here http://www.sharpreader.net/

to snyc my blog in the reader, for example, paste and save the following xml link to the software - http://namename.spaces.live.com/feed.rss - likewise, any websites that has a "rss" symbol supports this function

it makes news reading much easier - incl. friends' blogs

fabric market

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 06:43:31 GMT

finally checked out the fabric mkt across the road of my apt - its an old styled 3 floor building - with around 500 shops dealing custom-made dresses for cost-concious locals and increasingly localized foreigners

tailor made top quality shirt is around 100rmb, tang dress 300rmb, coat 800rmb - plus 1 week turnaround time - not bad at all for the mix-and-match fanatics or people like me who'll bring my armani shirt there to pirate

semi annual review

Sat, 09 Dec 2006 04:49:13 GMT

did my formal semi annual review couple days ago - strikingly i feel more of being reset to ground zero - because the review synthesized everything i did over the past six months - so well that i feel naked walking out of that partner' room

pressingly needed would be new drivers of growth - which'll involve defending core area of growth, capturing emerging opportunities and securing future options - apparently the classic corporate growth framework is applicable to personnel development as well

couple functional/ industrial areas i seek to develop myself - marketing (leveraging prior experience in pepsico), media/ entertainment industry (working on couple knowledge document next week) and perhaps corporate finance, etc - it would be very nice to find someone to do these things together with - so pls let me know if you're interested :)

better than movie world

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 15:18:51 GMT

there's an video store at da-gu road called movie world - right opposite to which there's this another video store called better than movie world - the area has largely evolved into a middle-high class dinning area/ community center because of the location - with the highlight of a mediterranean restaurant which i frequently visit

in fact - the video store is the best i've seen in shanghai - good selection, placement and pricing - or in short, a good aggregation of the video contents and resell to the target consumer segments

challenge is 1) sustainability of revenue - given that generating new titles may not be able to keep up with current speed of consumption, and 2) scalability - mostly due to the internet piracy cap

the movie click

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 14:48:33 GMT

watched the movie Click featuring Adam Sandler - thumbs up - and perhaps should recommend to friends who work in professional firms - who frequently return home late, or has to sleep extensively over weekend instead of hanging out with friends/ families

remake

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:06:30 GMT

finally saw the american remake of the chinese movie wu-jian-dao today - think they have captured most of the essense of the originals even though the counterpart of huang-qiu-sheng was played poorly

among the many cursing and improvision they added throughout the movie (to cater to american audience) - i want to highlight one particular improvision - a scene when they commented on the key benefits of man wearing a wedding ring to pick up girls - which is - quote - girls will know immediately you're not a homo, have some cash, and a cock that works ...

perfect example to show the importance of local insights in adapting global content

another night in beijing

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:21:18 GMT

had a wonderful final review meeting this afternoon with the media client we've been serving for last four weeks - client got 50 pages main deck and another 120 pages appendix - and we get to understand the asia-pacific media and entertainment landscape by segments - also my first time to work in a truly international team which was very interesting as well

went to do massage and facial afterwards to relax - similar price and quality compared to evian spa at the bund - but the point-of-sales marketing was more aggressive, e.g. flexible spa schedules, and the give aways of 300rmb worth of coupons

then its dinner at a restaurant called courtyard - famous for being right next to the forbidden palace and the quality of their french food (which i wouldnt know how to appreciate) - good part is we walked around forbidden palace and tian-an-men sq for quite a while after dinner - which was real nice

indoor skiing

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:05:23 GMT

last weekend i went to the indoor skiing in shanghai with friends - overall good experience given great powdered snow, well maintained trails, plus the park management (processes, pricing, etc) was exceptional - that said - the place is 1) too far from the city center, and 2) has nothing to offer besides 2 hours of skiing

strategically correct for them to invest in shanghai - but penetrating somewhere closer to city center with similar investment by partnering with land developers with aligned interests in drawing lifestyle driven traffics could be a better option - with that, the indoor skiing facility could have been a hit i figure

anyway - good to be able to ski after two years

eight months

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:46:37 GMT

after eight months with the firm it'd be nice to take a step back - and think about this whole thing

besides being indulged about charts, values, and business fundamentals - besides seeing the world of people through mbti types - and besides driving workstreams, delegating tasks, and constantly bargaining for the future - i am more grateful to the opportunity to have met the fun, interesting, or to the least, smart people in the firm

lifestyle has been getting better - but like everyone else, feeling insecure when lifestyle actually gets better - simply because being smart is not at all a competitive edge in the firm - instead hard work has always been the last piece of wood in the sea

on the downsides - i see myself remorse much less and pray less often - seems pretty bad as i reflect and likely a result of my recent indulgence of the consulting life and affairs

i guess instead of saying we sometimes got too obsessed about things we do - i'd rather say we're all susceptible to the addiction of the things that we derive pleasure from - like the bullet points we consultants adore

first class

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:22:27 GMT

it's pleasant to take a first class to beijing on a monday morning - even though the 777s first class isnt as nice as the 747s

last two weekends were nice - limited work and enough rest - discovered couple new good restaurants, had lunch at citic plaza's wagas, used the extra free time for couple hours of shopping - which leads to an armani shirt and a reasonably good faragamo wallet

though these felt like the peace before storm - thinking about the weekly update call this thursday, and a major client progress review next week - hope these may go well so i can peacefully take a week off in amsterdam end of this month :)

heavy weight

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:50:07 GMT

today over lunch, my best friend at a major PE firm said he's been reading the final document of my first engagement - incl. the valuation part that i did - gladly we used five methods to triangulate the valuation and have sufficient backup for the assumptions

small world - and echo well with last week when i had dinner with another client i'm serving - she said their china division has been following "word by word" with our recommendation - and gladly again we have been recommending the right things

heavy weight responsibilities - and we should all remind ourselves to be careful and sensitive about everything we do - for the good of our own reputation - and the sustainability of our firm

exhibitions

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 03:57:08 GMT

for very coincidental reason, i sat at a meeting table in the shanghai new exposition center last thursday - with five of their board members on the other side - each of them ran major convention centers back in germany, e.g. munich, frankfurt - given they're stakeholders of my previous study (most likely will be influenced somewhat negatively) my objective is to ease their concerns and resolve the potential conflict

luckily for me - i turned it around in 1 hour and between them and our client - using a standard mck conflict resolution model - likely have convinced them that establishing a partnership with our client is the only strategic option for them in 5-10 years' term

after the meeting they showed me around their massive exposition halls - and what's more interesting, insider tips/statistics about running a place like this, e.g. pipeline for exhibitions, split between the operating models, trade show vs. consumer shows, top categories, traffic management - also they told me a second shangri-la in shanghai will be build right at their expo center ..

supermarket of faiths

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 10:34:29 GMT

the world we live in is very much like a supermarket that sell faiths - we come here, pick up the kind of beliefs we like, pay a little price, and leave happily with the things we take - on the other hand for the unlucky ones who couldnt find the kind of beliefs they like - walks out the supermarket of faiths empty handed - and in general not as happy

then after days, weeks, months - or for the very special ones maybe years - the stuff we took from this supermarket - wore out, went missing or dumped by ourselves - so we may come back and find ourselves some new ones - actually quite convenient as it is

also we like to judge others based on how much they took away from this supermarket - in which case we all know we'll have something to say be it either more than what we took, or less

making friends

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 10:23:17 GMT

the keys to friendships are being sensitive, willing to communicate, and proactively making offerings - one will rarely gain true friends if he has the mentality of trying to build or maintain social connectivity or whatever type of network - which i feel strongly against

i mean - friends are the ones we care and have real affections - not someone we manage .. sigh

zhongshan park

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 09:50:08 GMT

there's a high-rise building next to the zhongshan park subway station - inside which there's a mega shopping mall - one of the largest in shanghai in terms of the sq meters

however the mall has not been a hit - limited shoppers and second tiered brands despite the fact that the place was connected by two subways lines and couple major roads - so apparently it takes more to build a popular shopping mall, e.g. vertically integrated entertainment facilities etc, to improve shopping experiences and increase customer stickness

in addition, re the two existing subways - line 3 connects shanghai outskirts which is not the highest income group communities, whereas line 2 connects the good part however most traffic flows to the more established places 2-3 stops down the subway - so underneath the surface, the location isnt that great either anyway

world class

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 08:40:50 GMT

am on a train leaving for hangzhou right now - from the newly finished shanghai south railway station - and with no exaggeration, i am absolutely impressed by the design of the station

1. consolidated waiting area replacing old individual waiting rooms, making everything much tighter

2. removing the check-in step at the individual gates, greatly improving the speed of passenger flow

3. applying open roof and circled taxi ways, promoting air circulation and facilitating nearby traffic

world class indeed - its been a long time since i was this impressed by our city improvement

sam adams

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 00:49:51 GMT

last weekend i was very happy - first i saw the boston beer sam adams was on the menu of a newly opened xin-tiandi restaurant, and then i saw it on sale at the supermarket around the somerset buildings

so i guess i still miss boston a little bit - a city that i spend three years - and not only that i guess, because i also spend 4 years in beijing and have never missed there a bit

and if i think about it - whenever people talk about the traveling experiences abroad - i have always thought those are no comparisons to newbury st, fenway park, harvard square, wachusett, and all the other boston places

egypt

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 00:39:39 GMT

will go to Egypt in the mid-december and stay there till chinese new year - helping the egyptian government design/improve one of their newly developed cities - i'll be able to invite my parents there on business terms, and in the meantime avoiding the winter in shanghai

but still its the toughest decision to make - i have already started to miss shanghai, esp. the friends

guys i feel very very sad today ...

early nights

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 13:06:47 GMT

today is one of the rare nights that i came home around 8pm - partly because of a 7am phone call tomorrow

am serving a major multi-national media client now, and for next six weeks - will look at the asia pacific media market, incl. content production, programming, distributions, magazines, books and the other new media stuff - in all asia/pacific countries - fascinating and hopefully will learn some good stuff along the way

team setup is interesting too - a japanese engagement manager who once dated flight attendent too - and another japanese who get her phd in harvard chemistry and post-doc in new york - but she's still an analyst .. :)

owning stuff

Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:58:53 GMT

think about the tendancy of "owning stuff" - be it houses/cars, or friendships/relationships, or projects/positions - when in most cases we start by acquiring the stuff, then protecting the stuff, and then acquiring more stuff, and so on

the following is why i've gone asset light over past couple years - i.e. keeping only the essential "stuff" with me and losing the rest -

1. flexibility of moving around without too much time spent packing/unpacking
2. security of knowing that i have not much to lose anyway
3. opportunities to go all out when the stuff i really want appears

so here's the formula - how much stuff we keep ends up being a trade off between the maintenance time of owning the stuff - and the actual convenience we get from the fact we own them - which in my case, leads to my way of very simplistic life

tattoo place

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:59:34 GMT

since its launch two months ago - the small tattoo place at where i live has become the real community center - i'm amazed today seeing a 50-year-old security guard in there chatting with some customer - and also the hardcore inner circle

as the traditional communistic community centers (ju-wei-hui) have long been dysfunctional, and the highly developed zones are too commercially oriented - these type of people oriented, artistically elevated and economically sustainable shops are likely to flourish in the next couple years to take the roles of connecting people and support the idea of harmonistic societies

pizza

Sat, 21 Oct 2006 17:40:41 GMT

aside from pizza-hut's imminent success with its romance mktg targeting young couples - other pizza players (incl. my favorite brand papajohns) have barely taken off even in the big cities like shanghai

the underlying difficulty to stimulate demand is that pizza is historically shared food, i.e. most suitably consumed by more than two people - as a consequence, the emerging pizza consumers are challenged to find someone else to pizza with

therefore the bottleneck is between trial and purchase - and apparently pizza players could either target eat-alone segment with adapted product offerings, or refocus the group dining segment with a whole new set of value proposition

dinner with my parents

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:46:01 GMT

last sunday i had dinner with my parents - we talked for couple hours about my job - among which i found i enjoy most about talking about the days when i have a laundry list of must-complete-by-end-of-day tasks, and how i managed to sort it out

i had wanted to talked about the home parties but eventually gave it up

limit

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 13:18:15 GMT

my personal limit of working is 21h per day for five consecutive days - the key benefit of knowing which is that i now have more confidence to choose to work late knowing that i can still wake up and be productive the next day

like this week - i worked 21h from mon to wed - thursday meeting went fabulous and everyone was very happy :)

changes

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:54:46 GMT

sometimes we dont see things until they change - for example early this week they changed the (flower) decoration at the entrance of our office tower - immediately i knew it was different - yet i couldnt remember a thing what it was like before that

i can think of many reasons for this - but after all it's because we are all seeing the things that we want to see - overlooking the obvious and the things taken granted for

nevertheless - still better than those who dont see or choose to ignore the changes even if they're there - which usually leads to pretty bad things as a consequence

question

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 15:03:18 GMT

a friend and i led the analyst discussion last friday - over 15 new analyst attended - during which we were asked the question of how to become a "star" analyst - my reactions were the following

1. to be a star analyst is Mck angle-type of goal - less practical than personal-type of goals

2. to work for goals is less enjoyable than to assume the journey and learn stuff along the way

3. to have a good journey, one should balance the gives and takes with people who you work/live with

family and friends

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 03:39:30 GMT

i was asked to summarize the differences between the girl friends and the female friends - both of which i value much about and often not distinguish - and my reaction to the question is the following -

1. degree of confidence in predicting reactions to events, people, and actions - e.g. knowing what they will say when things come up, knowing that they will be there without actually saying it, etc

2. degree of satisfaction when doing things - e.g. more fun hanging out, getting drunk, and more likely to end up having great sex

3. degree of forgiveness when screwed up - preferably forgiveness before a lot of apologies, etc

take a second thinking about expanding this a bit - these three dimensions of measurement may also help to understand friendships and relationships - or perhaps, to some of us help beat the fears of committing to a longer relationship

back

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 02:41:35 GMT

i'm back from a very long week - phase 1 progress review on wednesday, jump starting phase 2 afterwards, directing a three minutes short video for the final presentation to shanghai mayor, and leading the BA round table discussion on friday - all went smoothly thanks to the learnings from my heavy-lifting september - i would say it paid off fairly well

my parents are also back from zhe-jiang, where they hanged around for almost ten days - i think they wouldnt have come back this weekend had my dad's laptop not broken down due to a software upgrade - given that they are quickly leaving again for su-zhou tomorrow morning

next two weeks will be tough - for me and couple best friends of mine - closing and wraping up

behavioral analysis

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:33:52 GMT

when people talk about demographics, most of the time they are referring to income groups, age, household size, etc - where i think from a MECE point of view - demographic analysis has yet to be complemented by behavioral analysis - which i think is equally important if not more important given it happens with relatively faster time scale

i give two examples to illustrate what i mean by behavioral analysis -

changes in behavioral elements often contribute to important economic drivers - e.g. young people in major chinese cities are less bound by the moral/value standard of their parents, ergo. more tatoo shops, massage places, prostitution, etc

differences in behavioral elements between countries/regions often make success stories unreplicable - e.g. americans are more verbal than their chinese counterparts, ergo. mobile text messaging market is orders of magnitude less attractive in US than that in china

in addition to rationalizing business cases with this demo/behavior framework, i tend to believe it can be a practical tool to draw implications and/or make predictions of some sort

intern

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:59:53 GMT

my favorite intern was offered mck analyst position a week ago - me and couple friends are all escalated about the news - even though we all knew it would happen

if i think about it - the reason it feels great to support other's dream comes true - maybe - is partly because it covers up the void of uncertainties of our own dreams - in a way of seeing the images of ourselves through those whom we support

think this is also true from the opposite perspective, i.e. normally one could only succeed by reflecting thoughts and wishes of his/her support groups in a way that images themselves

but above all - aside from my over-analyzing this - all the best wishes to my favorite intern for a happy life and a rewarding career at mck

season

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:37:27 GMT

somehow i think the end of september signaled the start of a fresh mating season - three guy friends of mine have officially hooked up in the past month when a few others are actively searching for their other halves - and not to mention my lady friends who have completely gone off radar

then here am i - sitting alone through this very long holiday with a bad cough - still waiting for the someone for me to come around

confidence

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 14:54:46 GMT

to me, and maybe people of ENTJ personality type - the key source of confidence would be the ability to predict, manage and control future - e.g., predicting outcomes of conversations, managing personal relationships, or control the trajectory of my life within next couple years

understanding this could well explain a number of things, esp. situations where i feel uncomfortable about - AND given that the lack of confidence would easily turn/lead to insecurity, irritation, or depression - it's important to either find alternative sources of confidence, or learn to cover up/deal with the moments of losing it

holidays

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:53:19 GMT

mom and dad will fly to shanghai tomorrow and spend the holidays with me - ergo i have been cleaning up my apt for the past two days - and hiding up my dirty laundries, CDs, etc

(Trackback, Oct 5) i deleted my original plan here because except the the first day, rest of the plan was all scratched because i'm coughing pretty badly and my temperature has been going up - i guess past two months of fatigue has finally caught up after all :S

look sad

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:38:06 GMT

a comment made by a communication faculty member keeps coming back to me - he was doing a private coaching session with me - until at one point he said - "jialu, i don't know why - but sometimes i think you look really sad ..." - which is definitely not something i have anticipated but nevertheless make me reflect quite a bit

confrontation skills

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 18:58:10 GMT

quite a few people rationalize their unwillingness to take team leadership role is because of "laziness", i.e. whenever someone else offers to take lead, they choose to sit back and be good team players in supporting role - however i tend to believe it's the underlying fear of potential confrontation that might arise from the leadership role

in other words for one to be up for the leadership positions, think its the skill and confidence to deal with potential confrontation that matters - in addition to the widely acknowledged mix of initiative taking, responsibilities, communications, etc

also point needs to be made on the fine difference between leadership position and management position - where in the latter one has the positional and hierachical influence leverage which is a luxury the former position does not always have :)

red lights

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:51:33 GMT

went with two college mates to see the red light district in singapore last night - unless they intentionly led me to the wrong area, the place had definite room for improvement, e.g. the followings -

1. set up landmarks to signal travellers/first-timers that they are in the right zone

2. move the mega-bite food places to somewhere else because it was very confusing

3. complete the the value chain by adding e.g. clinics, bars and massage places, etc

4. place more cash machines to faciliate purchase

also it maybe helpful to remove the catholic churchs and buddist temple, which were very wierd in the first place :)

latest training

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:16:02 GMT

my analyst training at singapore is about to finish - guessing from the very boring training content, i think the point of training wasnt really about improving myself - it was instead helping me discover where i should or could improve, e.g. the following

1. care about only the people i care - which will then push up my daily energy level by quite a bit

2. learn to take more shit - in general we take more shit as we grow (as it's simply part of the package)

3. delegate responsibilities - but follow up if have to

4. assume base case mentalities - and also keep a contigency plan in the pocket

understand that i've a lot of other stuff i need to improve on - but think these are the fundamental area to push myself towards :)

sentosa beach

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:40:06 GMT

last night i went out with a group of mck friends after the group dinner - we took the cable gondola back to sentosa island then tried to walk to the beach - other five people gave up after a hour of walk when two taxi came by - but a beijing analyst and me thought it's too lame not to keep on - we got to the beach in another 15 minutes and then spent next 2 hours lying on beach talking about random stuff

the beach hasnt changed a bit since 6 years ago - sand still sucks, oil droplets in the water, and the southernmost point of asia looks fake - however as i now see the beach by its components - have to admit it's very well segmented and excellently laid out

1) left - target business and family travellers with shangrila, outside bbq, seaworld, and walking trails

2) middle - target family, children and sg locals with dolphin shows, biking trails and swimming area

3) right - target nightlife savvy with a bar at sentosa resort and an beachside party facility

actually now i think about it - the layout can well be some mck work 10 years ago - who knows

pressure

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 05:16:01 GMT

think people are defined by the moment when they are under pressure - in other words, we will be able to understand someone better if we observe how they operates under pressure - specifically in the following three areas

1) values- prioritization of personal values as limited time requires him/her to

2) personality- behavioral elements, e.g. irritation, disappearance, assertion, etc

3) capability- management skills (self and others), multi-tasking, communication, etc

to push this one step futher, suggest we should all proactively understand how ourselves operates under pressure to uncover the development needs

tendencies

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:49:36 GMT

we hopped from hongkong to singapore for a company training - before i start to bitch about singapore - allow me to state two of my favorite tourists' tendencies - backed up by concreate facts i observed from my fellow tourists in hongkong and singapore :')

1. read out (proudly) the words on signs, banners, etc

2. scream (excitely) when there's a franchised store seen before in home city, e.g. l'octannine, delifrance, etc

besides these, some also have the tendency of - which i dont like - thinking about me (without any reason) when they saw durex in-store advertising, lingerie shops, roasted or naked ducks, or those extremely tiny hongkong sausages ..

sigh, tourists ..