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Archive for the 'Day to Day' Category

Our new office is ready!

Published on 17 October, 2006 in Day to Day. 0 Comments

We stepped-up our pace after the 1 week China National Day holiday in order to get our new office ready.

Here are some photos taken over the weekend with the desks in place. (The photos are stitched from multiple photos so they look somewhat distorted. )

The main office area. 6 partitioned cubicles with plenty of empty spaces for expansion.

Office Area

Meeting Room 1. The larger of the 2 meeting rooms.

Meeting room 1

Meeting Room 2. Smaller meeting room next to the windows. Plan is to double it as a photo-shooting room.

Meeting room 2

Floor plan. A simple floor plan that I drew to plan and arrange the furnitures.

Office floor plan

My partner will be moving up to the new office to start a sales team.

A friend’s company has taken up one of the desk at the corner. We are still looking for another one or two entrepreneurs/startup to share our resources and lower our overheads.

Picking up Golf

Published on 13 October, 2006 in China and Day to Day. 0 Comments

So far I had been to the driving range 2 times. Out of a 3 boxes of practice balls each session, a few did fly. 150m with a 7-iron. It was pretty exciting.

I’m picking up golf.

Many people think that when you start playing golf, you are either getting old or getting somewhere. Neither is anywhere near the truth since I saw kids hitting the ball better than me and I’m not quite anywhere near successful.

Since moving to China, I hardly exercise. Last week I finally signed up for a year’s membership at the gym AND went to the driving range twice. A pat on my back. All work and no play make a dull entrepreneur.

Never did I imagine golf could be tiring. The beginner’s excitement is all over me. I’m seeking out all kinds of information to learn more. Should I go for lesson? Get training video? Read books? Practice, practice, practice?

Stay tuned for more of my golf adventure so I go along.

Other people’s problem can become your problem

Published on 5 September, 2006 in China, Day to Day and Entrepreneur. 2 Comments

This may sounds familiar.

You did everything right and was expecting to deliver a job well done to the customer. Then out of nowhere problem came. What’s worst part is that the problem was not caused by you and there is no way you would have anticipated that.

Just this shit happened to me last week and the aftermath dragged on to this week.

We did a job for a client, exceed their expectation, below budget and well within schedule. How perfect can it get? We were going to surprise the customer. But alas, we were suprised instead.

The first sign of storm came when the customer emailed us to say that they did no received the goods at the specified time. We called the shipper and was told it was in the custom processing. That was before the weekend so everyone happily put it at the back of the mind.

Last Wednesday, another email. This time the warning sounded.

Countless calls later we dugged up a whole can of worms. How the whole thing could happen still baffles me. Some might say “Well, it is China.”

Suffice to say some heads rolled but that isn’t going to save us. The goods that was supposed to be in the customer’s hand is now sitting somewhere held ransom! It wasn’t our problem but we got dragged in nevertheless.

More calls and negotiation later, the boxes of goods returned back to our office. By now we are now a week late. Digging into our pocket we sent some of the goods via UPS so that the customer could use them immediately. That arrived today. The rest of the goods is leaving office tomorrow.

Hopefully no surprises this time. But who know, touch wood.

What is Quality?

Published on 17 August, 2006 in China, Day to Day and Entrepreneur. 0 Comments

Quality - you know what it is, yet you don’t know what it is.

Was Quality something that you “just see” or might it be something more subtle than that, so that you wouldn’t see it at all immediately, but only after a long period of time?

This was the question, If everyone knows what quality is, why is there such a disagreement about it?

- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Quality, something that had occupied my thoughts recently.

How do you describe quality to your staff? Is it as subjective as “the boss likes it” or can an objective standard be applied?

Does culture play a part in the perception of quality. For example, many people still harbour the notion that “Made in China = Inferior Quality”. How can a company in China tackle this issue, both internally and externally?

First Vision Meeting and the Road Ahead

Published on 4 August, 2006 in Day to Day and Startup. 2 Comments

We had our first vision meeting yesterday evening. The outcome of the meeting was not clear but from the look of what the guys are working on today, I say they got a sense of where we are heading.

Which is a good thing. The past few months has been very exciting. After numerous stumbles and falls over the past 2 years, things are finally starting to take shape.

Few things happening over the next few months:

  • getting a new office
  • putting in place remote teams
  • ICP permit is in the process
  • starting development of 2 ideas we want to incubate

Bending over backward for client

Published on 10 July, 2006 in Day to Day. 0 Comments

Yesterday was Sunday. We went to visit a bag manufacturer that is rushing some backpack for one of our client (which is well known, but shall remain unnamed).

As usual, the factory is way out of the city, almost an hour and a half drive.

As usual we arrived near noon, given a tour then we headed for lunch. Typical chinese hospitality.

The factory is running at full capacity, working through weekends and night shift. We were fortunate that they agreed to change production schedule to cater to deliver 150 pieces in advance.

The client’s logistic company was supposed to pick up the item and send them to Wuxi the next day. We waited. We called them. They then told us they can only show up after 8pm. Too late.

We quickly decided to moved the goods back to our office in the city so that the logistic guy could pick up from there. 4pm was the time given to us for the pick up. Again we waited. Until 6.30pm.

Today, this morning, the client told us that they need another 60 in advance to be sent to Shandong.

Ok guys, bend over. Backward.

Bridging the culture gap with local partner

Published on 7 July, 2006 in China, Day to Day and Startup. 0 Comments

Despite being Chinese by race, Singaporean Chinese still have a hard time understanding and adapting to the culture differences of the China Chinese.

An example is the roundabout relationship-authority-money interplay. For someone used to a culture that is direct and systematic, the Chinese way can be a rude shock.

What is this roundabout relationship-authority-money interplay you may ask. It is hard to define, but let’s do an example.

Say you want some permit done so that you could do something. (BTW, if you think Singapore has too may permit, you have not seen anything yet.) So you ask around and maybe surf the Internet for the procedure. So you went ahead to get it done. So far so good.

At the whichever authority that approve your permit, you find that you need to have this information and that information. Maybe you don’t fit certain criteria. The officer points you to other officers and they direct you to even more officers. Hence starts the roundabout.

Eventually you realise that it is getting nowhere and you seek help. Then you discover that who knows who knows someone that have some relationship with the autority. If you are lucky enough, you find this someone and the person get your permit done in a blink of the eyes.

Sure you certainly pay more, in cash or in kind, but aren’t you glad it is done.

If you are doing business in China, expect to deal with that daily. It helps to have plenty fo cash. If you are bootstrapping like me, my advice is to find a good local partner.

In my case, I am very fortunate to have a local partner to help me cushion the differences. He dealt with all these day to day annoyances that could drive one crazy.

As I type this, he just dealt with another. Thank God.

Consistency build Company Culture

Published on 28 June, 2006 in Day to Day and Entrepreneur. 0 Comments

Popular media often portray company culture as the one-size-fit-all creator of competitive edge, the force behind huge success of many companies.

Job seekers nowaday even look for job based on whether they like the company’s culture. Companies play along by tooting their culture.

Consultants charge a hand and a leg to help companies define, align and execute their corporate culture strategy.What exactly is company culture?

Despite going through business school, working in company, I never fully grasp the slippery concept. But now I’m slowly finding out. Not by some Harvard framework or methology but by consistent hard work in the trench.

When I least expect it, the light illuminates and then I get the “aha”. Linking what was done unconsciously to what was commonly termed culture. Here’s my take on company culture.

For a small startup, company culture is nothing but what you do consistently. When you do something consistently often, the idea gets rubbed off on every member of the company. Soon it becomes the culture. Simple.

I often stressed initiative to my staff. Now, how do you instill a sense of initiative? Especially in a societal culture like China that do not encourage initiative. (My own subjective view but I believe many would agree.)

Simply by repeating it over and over and over and … over again. After that, lead by example.

Over the years, I found myself to be a better and better leader. And I’m proud. If the boss take initiative himself and he barked down initiative at every opportunity. Soon everyone gets the idea.

How many company can claim to start their culture from the very beginning and not get some hotshot to define the culture when they are already few thousand employees strong.

I hope I can.

Selling myself better

Published on 14 June, 2006 in Day to Day, Entrepreneur and Startup. 0 Comments

Another dinner, another thing to talk about.

Last night, a Malaysian friend invited me for dinner. He said he had another friend with him whom he like to introduce. We had steamboat (again!).

At the door he told me that this person might be a potential investor.

I was unprepared.

About a week before, I just spoke to him about an idea. Didn’t did I expect that he would bring an investor so soon. I wasn’t myself during the dinner and it was uneasy. It might have been better if he had not revealed to me at the door.

Long story short, after the dinner, he gave me a little debrief. He told me that 3 times he tried to create opportunity for me to present my idea but I did not even realise.

Man, I was caught totally unprepared and I really need to sell myself better.

A month’s worth of dinner

Published on 7 June, 2006 in China and Day to Day. 2 Comments

Last evening I met my former boss for dinner. His responsibility had increased tremendously since we last worked together. He is now taking care of technology for international sites outside of US. Naturally, China is one of the focal point.

We chatted the usual. From business to online ideas, friends and former colleagues, life here and back home.

At the end of dinner, he picked up the bill. And this was what blown me away.

We ate through a month’s pay worth of dinner! ï¿¥1200 That’s how much we had eaten. A month’s pay for me and some of those working for me. Imagine that.

I felt a little depressed. If only I’m still working… I shook it off.

By the way, if you are conversant with Chinese and English, he is looking for an MIS director to be based in Beijing. The company is a major online company. Drop me a note and I can make the intro.