vision for a company

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-12/ff_ozzie?currentPage=all

intriguing read. It makes me wonder, in VMware, we do have someone doing this kinda stuff, right? We need a vision, a concrete one.

Another thought. Is MS just a good place to foster good managers? Thus far, I have really like Maritz's stuff, he too comes from MS. Cerrtainly Ray Ozzie doens't come from MS, but he works there now.

The interesting thing to watch might be will MS be as good as today when the Maritz and Ray Ozzie generation of managers retire?

better get back to forming a more concrete strategy for the product I manage............

jump starting the freakin' car

hats off to German sports car maker.........................

You have made jumping a car soooo freaking complicated, and the relevant portion in the manual so disjointed.  Un-Deutsch und unglaublich.

 

We accidentaly left the GPS plugged in. You would think the car would shutdown the aux power when its not running.  Anyway, we were left with a great car that won't start.

We were able to borrow a jumpstart kit from a mechanic but were unable to start the car.  Since it's a mid-engine car, I figured I can't reach the battery leads and the instruction in the manual was what I needed to do to jump start the car.  Remove the fuse box cover, pull out the leads that had the plus sign on it, hook up the red end of the jumper cable to it, then the black end to the car body.  Woowoo, I got lights in the car.

But the car won't start.

We returned the jumpstart thingy, thinking that it just didn't have enough juice for our car.  The mechanic looked baffled.  We borrowed some jumper cables and waited for a friend to get off work.

Did the same routine, and of course, it didn't work either.  Now I am reading the damn manual again, and sure enough, at the bottom of the page in fine print, it said something like: "this won't start your car.  You can now open the front cover of the car (where the motor of a front engine car would be).  It doesn't tell you which page you should read now.  Flipping through the 300 page manual, I found that 10 pages later, you find a picture of a battery and jumper cables hooked up to it.  It doesn't tell you where the damn thing is, it just shows you that you can hook up jumper cables to it.  Damn it!  Well, I guess 2+2 equals 4 and I started searching for something that resembles what the picture had shown.   

After pull out every conceivable cover, faceplate under the hood, I found the battery!  Hooked the jumper cables to the battery and eureka!  

Doing all this while I am sick with a fever really didn't help.............................

Happy Thanksgiving

As expected, we will not be celebrating Thanks Giving with a Turkey this year. Instead, we are heading out to Barcelona for the long weekend.
Pretty tired now from working the whole day. Had lunch with Manu. For those from the Ecole, he moved out to Chicago 1.5 years ago.

Suddenly, I am thinking of a friend from the east coast. I hope you are having Thanksgiving with your mom and things are getting better. I know how it feels. These feelings tend to sting a little during the holidays.

St. Laurent

Today, we enjoyed a bottle of St. Laurent from Austria: Hoepler - Erwein 2005

It's a bit light compared to the Malbec, tempranillo, Chianti, or french wines we normally like, but has yet enough flavor, and is slightly sweet to match with the mild venison Entrecote we had.

I think it's a wonderful match, but also offers such an Austrian flavor that makes me think there is probably enough emotional factor in it for YiChun and me - she lived in Vienna for so long and I when I was so young.

what a week

Lufthansa pushed the flight back yet again...... I am sitting in Munich after a long haul flight from SFO.

looks like some changes are coming down the pipe. Hopefully the situation will improve at work. It will be a hard couple of months, but hopefully all for the better. It's amazing how one person's actions could impact so many people's lives.

Much learning on the job and life. Makes things interesting, doesn't it?

are we becoming dumber?

The Perils of Public Chic. - an op ed from WSJ provided plenty of food for thought for Mark and me.

This reminds me. The American people deserve more credit than I give them. I didn't think America was ready for a black president. I can't believe I would say this, Bush actually accelerate the giant leap forward by screwing stuff up so badly.

Like the Chinese proverb: Mr. Tsai's loss of a great horse is not an indication of loss of fortune.

The 80/20 rule in marriage

From the movie: "Why did I get married?"

In most cases in marriage, you are only going to get 80% of what you need. So here comes this woman offering the 20%, because you ain't gettin' it, you think you are getting 80%. Only when you go with her, and you end up with 20.

back in America

For two weeks of meetings and VMworld.

Oh do I miss it.

Was watching the show Rachael Ray has. Never seen it before since it came on after I moved to Switzerland. (Looks like her voice is more horse, she put on some weight, and she just looks plain tired. Slow down, girl!)

Jerry Springfield was on that day. On the question of what kind of food they provide in the backroom for guests, Springfield said:
"We have ...... and mesh potatoes because most of our guests don't have teeth."

So very cute :)

Russia has invaded Georgia!

My dear Americans, For those of us living abroad, sometimes these kind of posts just don't help persuading how great America is, no matter how hard we try to convince people near us.

before naming your child

ah, one of the often talked about topic. You want our child to have a special name and yet not be ridiculed. With so many bad examples, one should just google a name before you name your child. I had a friend in college of Greek descend, his name was Clito. It's ok, just a Greek name, but did you ever think that you are giving birth to your son in an English speaking part of the world and chances are he is going to have a pretty rough time in school?

Stumbling upon Lev Tylor's divorce news and that she has a child. She named her son Milo?

YiChun said maybe we should consider calling our child Caotina Yiu.

when voters lie

Excellent article on wall street journal on political surveys and voters:

what would you do?

Friends came to visit from Ireland this weekend. Younger of the two sons was a student of YiChun's. The older son is autistic. It's really touching to see how much effort both parents put into raising the son. Not only are the parents, the younger son also takes responsibility in watching over his older brother at times.

Last night, I asked myself what I would do if I had a child like that. I admire what the parents have done. I ask myself if I have the same level of dedication, and I am not at all sure. How could you ever be sure at your child's birth, besides the ten fingers and ten toes, that everything is "normal"? It must have been a gut wrenching thing to find out that your child is different.

Which leads to another question. Some of us strive to be different. "Think different" - Apple's commercials always say. But when it come to physical and mental characteristics, we all wish to be "normal"? Why the disparity?

There are just so many unknowns in life. I guess we all expect the unexpected.

Wedding pics

These are the most hi quality ones since Love who is a professional took them.........

Check back often. I am sure there are more to come.

Sia

why does everyone keeps asking.....

"Are you nervous?"

No, I am not really. I think I was tense a couple days ago because of work. I am cool about Friday though. Everything is pretty much done except the party favors that were supposed to have arrived from Germany today. But that's ok. YiChun are now picking out music for the party. Gettin' married is actually kinda fun. :)

gettin married

ah, the Swiss government just informed us two days ago that we have to get married on May 30th. So we are having the civil ceremony, and a dinner party for the friends nearby.

A little surprised? So are we.

Check out the web page.

Urgh.... OS X 10.5.2 & Juniper SSL VPN

IT had some issues with the SSL gateway. I think they must have upgraded to solve the problem. As a result, when I connected up this morning, it forced me to install a new client and that is where all the problems started. First the software wouldn't install. Then throwing the Network Connect software away didn't help. When I did finally get it to install, I got stuck where it was executing the installation script.

I tried everything on this post and some of the stuff was helpful. This is what worked for me.
Delete the Network Connect app.
Do the links suggested by the last poster.

$ cd /usr/lib
$ sudo cp libcrypto.0.9.dylib libcrypto.0.9.dylib.ppc
$ sudo cp libssl.0.9.dylib libssl.0.9.dylib.ppc
$ sudo ln -sf libcrypto.0.9.7.dylib libcrypto.0.9.dylib
$ sudo ln -sf libssl.0.9.7.dylib libssl.0.9.dylib

Then delete the files:

$ cd /Library/Frameworks
$ sudo rm -R net.juniper.*
$ sudo rm -rf /usr/local/juniper

Then do what sudogeek said here:
The installation for Juniper's Network Connect differs on different OS X versions. I have successfully installed and used Network Connect 5.5 on Mac O X 10.3.x, 10.4.x, and 10.5.1.

Mac OS X 10.3.x, <10.4.9:>

Mac OS X >10.4.10, 10.5.x: This alternative method works for all Mac OS X versions but seems to be necessary only for the newer ones. You need to log in to your Mac as an administrative user and open the NetInfo Manager (10.3.x or 10.4.x) or "Directory Utility" (10.5) application in "Utilities." Under "Edit" click on "Enable root user." Then go the "System Preferences" and change the login options to Name and Password. Log out then log in as root. Now use Safari to open the web site which loads the VPN client. Click Start for Network Connect and the software will be downloaded and installed. Now, log out of the root account, go back to your regular administrative user account and log in. Again open the "NetInfo Manager" or "Directory Utility" application and under disable root user. Then go the "System Preferences" and change the login options to whatever you want.

Don't replace this bit with the sudo safari stuff from your regular user. It should work in theory, but when I tried it, safari still asked me to provide the password.

Even though I am a UNIX guy and don't believe in reboots, I did a reboot just to make sure the links and all the changes I made are in correctly.

When the box came back up, I logged in as root, the installation went fine. Although I tried logging into the SSLVPN, it failed. I logged out and logged back in as the regular user, and was able to get into the SSLVPN without issues. Weird.

Good luck.

HP Laserjet 4 m plus on OS X

what a pain....... If you don't know how it works.

It wasn't available in the drop down for OS X. The new OS X 10.5 drivers from HP doesn't have it either.

On windows, duplex works, and everything is cool.

The printer kept printing everything twice and ignore all duplex setting when printing from the Mac. So here is what it all came down to. To get the Laserjet4m plus working, you have to use the generic postscript driver, and go into the postscript setting on the printer to turn duplex on. In addition, set copies to 1. My printer came in German, so it's "Examplare". That kept throwing me off because I thought the drivers were not working. Urgh......

On March 5th, 1979..............

I turned 4. Our family spent a year in Vienna with an Austrian family.
Today, I went to visit that family. They were kind enough to dig up some pictures of me. I must admit that I really don't remember that much of that year - I was only 4.
I will let the pictures speak for themselves, and you be the judge whether I was a cute kid or not.

St. Moritz

Highly recommended! Go in off season, stay in one of the villages 5km away from it and you too can experience what Prince Charles does every winter. I experienced one of the nicest surroundings in Switzerland. The lakes, the mountains were simply mesmerizing. It was truly incredible.

They have maps you can take for free at the tourist information right in the villages. For hiking, they will also provide you with a list of all the trails available in the area, and how long it takes to hike them. I would recommend a trail map, simply because it provides some comfort in knowing where the heck you are going and better detail than what the tourist maps would.

state side for a few days

Went back to the states for three days. It was an interesting experience. I was able to test my idea of moving back to the states. There are certainly plus and minuses. The up side is certainly obvious - I speak the language, know how things work, have friends that make up a fantastic social network, the job opportunities available, the convenience, the amount of entertainment available, the restaurants, and it is the place I want to settle down in the long run. Best of them all is the powerful capitalist machine - the shopping, the amount of merchandise available, choices. Consumer is KING! (Those of you who know me are probably shocked to hear me say that, but wait until you move to Europe)

There are some obvious downsides too: with the commercialism, things are more about money than anything else, there are people everywhere, no easy access to nature or places where you can take a nice long walk. (I noticed that the three days I was there, I walked less than I would in one day in Switzerland)

It certainly put things in perspectives for me.

do you call?

so, here is the situation.
I traveled across the pond to the west coast for an interview. The time on land between flights was three days. I met up with two friends for dinner the first two days. The girl friend of a good buddy lives in that town; she is also a classmate from last year. Even though I might not have the best relationship with her, do I call and maybe hang out the last night there? Or, do I go to an alum event, and make some contacts? Or, after a full day of interviews, sit and relax?

What's your take?

Nice, Cannes, Eze, and Monaco

Eze, the destination YiChun had talked about for the last six months finally made our travel itinerary. The first trip YiChun and I took after her move here was to the French Riviera (as if the Swiss Riviera wasn't good enough).

We stayed in this little hotel at the center of Nice, in the Messena street. It was well located. The seafood in Nice was pretty good. Although I do have to say they definitely charge a fair tourist premium. But hey, what are you going to do, it's the french!

The beaches in Nice and Cannes were really not that impressive. The Nice beach is stone, and while the Cannes beach is a bit nicer and sandy, both of them cater to tourists en mass. Not my thing. The back streets of Nice are quit quaint and filled with little shops and restaurants that are worth an afternoon's exploration.

Eze was WAY cool. It's this little village built on a cliff in the 15th century. The town was full of little alleys and had a spectacular view of the bay. I have to admit that I was not expecting anything that nice and unique. I was really surprised. If you ever make it out to Nice, and have little time, make Eze your destination. The bus from Nice drops you off right in the center of town. Take a walk up to the town, and be sure to make a stop for a drink at Le Château de la Chèvre.

Monaco is cool for its romantic image, F1, the casino, and of course, the playground of the rich and famous. It's an interesting place to visit.

Macintel part 2

just a couple more things.

1. My clock was running a lot faster than my wrist watch. Weird, I thought. System Profiler reported that the processor speed was at 1.4GHz while it's a 1.86GHz Core2 Duo E6300. So I thought my bios setting was wrong. Sure. But fixing that didn't do the trick either. I know that I applied the jAs 10.4.9 and have the 8.9.1 kernel so I shouldn't have the issues with the older 8.8.1 kernel as described here under Time is wrong. But I tried the fsb=266 trick, and everything worked! Now I wonder if the same thing was causing Skype to have funky audio and drop calls. Huh.

MacIntel

Ah, the beauty of OS Y on two heads without having to pay over $2k for just the system.

Last year, I put OS Y on my Thinkpad. But it never ran quite smoothly because of the lack of SSE 3 support.

Having a MacBook Pro really helped in convincing me of the switch. Long ago, I made a commitment that if a UNIX variant ever had a nice GUI, I would switch. While I am fairly UNIX savvy, it's just a little painful to run as your main box and without the mainstream apps.

This year, I put a new PC together. Up until now, my main desktop was a P3 with rambus ram. I was pretty careful in picking the hardware, especially the video card. I choose the ATI 1900GT. Figuring that Apple supported the 1900XT officially, and it shouldn't be a problem. Well, WRONG!

So here is my documentation on how to put Aqua on. It doesn't take that long, about 8 hours of work. I got everything I wanted to work: dual head, full QT and IC support so VLC plays DVDs and OpenGL stuff works as well.

Couple of things to remember.
1. You might want to get a second drive that you can experiment with. Just in case you blow stuff away by accident. Didn't happen to me, but if your end product is a fully working system (I fully intent on replacing Windows), why not put it on a separate drive?

2. This worked for my system and I have little clue if it would work on anything else.
Core2 Duo
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 motherboard
Marvell Yukon ethernet
AC97 Azalia
ATI 1900GT 256MB from Sapphire

What you will need:
10.4.8 jAs distro
10.4.9 Jas update
AzaliaAudio.pkg.zip
Natit_edited.kext.zip

Installation Steps
1. Install the OS from DVD without selecting the ATI fixes. If you pick the ATI fixes, you will get a blck screen after reboot. A post from jAs suggested that the fix might be incompatible with the video card. You should get 1024x768 after you have gone thru all the installation steps here.
2. Next take care of the network card and audio. Follow this step-by-step guide. (I printed out the directions ahead of time.) I followed steps 9 thru 17. Skipping Step 13.
3. Use this approach. Since it's not as easy to read, understand and has a mistake, I modified it a bit. Here is what I used.
-Get natit_edited
-You will need to copy your Device and manufacture id of ur card (About this mac -> More info -> Graphics / Displays). Mine was 0x724B1002 where 0x denotes it's a hex value and 724B is the device id and 1002 is the manufacture id.
-Open natit.kext and edit plist file, find your model, and change the device id with the correct one.
-Copy natit.kext to /System/Library/Extensions
- Edit Info.plist in /System/Library/Extensions/ATIRadeonX1000.kext/Contents.
- find IOPCIMatch
- add 0x724b1002 in the string section. (this is where I got tripped up. The original guide fouled up here)

-Go into the terminal, browse to /System/Library/Extensions and type:
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.kextcache /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
sudo chown -R root:wheel Natit.kext
sudo chmod -R 0755 /System/Library/Extensions
diskutil repairPermissions /

-Reboot and enjoy!

istanbul

Was at Istanbul two weekends ago. I was really surprised at how modern Istanbul was. It was clean, orderly, and best of all, the people were friendly! Very few people hassled us, and even fewer people tried to cheat (of course, you have cabbies who would take money from you whenever possible).

My friend said: "well, there is no sense of adventure here at all."

Pretty cool place to go visit though. You can definitely see how history marked Constantinople as the place where Christianity met Islam. Some pretty cool sites though. I have never been inside of a mosque before. When I went to Saudi Arabia, I wasn't allowed in since I am not a Muslim. There are some pretty grand stuff over there. Best of all, you could go it. I do enjoy how liberal Islam is there.

That brings up another topic. Neither my friend nor I could figure out what the rule is on the female dress code is among Islamic women. Of course, there were the few classic all-black dresses. However, most Muslim women there dressed somewhere between colored skirts covered by a khaki trench coat and fashionable jeans with nice blouse and matching shoes (plus headscarf, of course). You might think it's not big deal to wear something that covers your entire body and then wrapping yourself in a tight trench coast. Just keep in mind that it was 38 degrees (around 110 in fehrenheit)!

Anyhow, it was a nice weekend and I have the pictures to prove it!

some reflection on El Chemista

Reading El Chemista. The section after the boy meets the al chemist in the desert and was given a speech on life.

I agree, and wish that things in my life would also work out to be the same. Things and people help you get to where you are supposed to go. Any maybe everything that happens is a part of a larger plan to get me to where I am supposedly going. But I wonder how the boy started, and if he was simply told what his destiny is versus figuring it out himself. Yes, there was a dream and that it was the gypsy and the king who told him where to go and what to do. But what did he want? It just seems like he was also making up his mind as he went. Is that how it’s supposed to be? Are we supposed to have a bigger goal and understanding where we are going then go toward it, and make smaller decision to get us there everyday? Or, do we just make it up as we go?

Certainly, reminders are needed every so often once you figure out where you want to go, but I think figuring out where you want to go is more important, and certainly challenging.

I still haven’t figured out what my goal is.

been a while, life hasn't been great

but you still have to find time to have a little fun.

Freak!

Started taking french lessons this week. The lady is very nice and she seems to be very good at what she does.

To supplement my french lessons, I decided to listen to those french lesson tapes when I walk to and from work. To get the most out of the tape, you should always try to "repeat after me." So there I was, walking with ear buds, mumbling to myself. I started to notice strange stares: what the hell is that freak doing, talking to himself, walking?

strategy time

Got a board meeting to prepare for. I need to come up with a strategy, a staffing plan, and a budget. :) I guess this is the kinda stuff b school is supposed to prepare you for, and all MBA students hope to do when they graduate. Yet, I just feel nervous. I know, I have done this many times in school, but yet, I still find myself flipping through the ICP ("International Consulting Project" for those of you who are not familiar with IMD speak) manual trying to find a strategy "cookbook".

Nah, it's not a cookbook, only if it were that easy. The ICP manual does show you the steps to follow though. Cool. I also need to dig up Boschek's notes on industry analysis to make sure I am doing stuff right.

Huh, I guess B school does teach you something. I just wish I have all this stuff in my head so I don't have to keep referring to my notes. Guess I just wasn't built that way, but I know Maria is (good reason to why she is a Bainny).

Anyway, enough bullshit, I better starting digging through Bolschek's notes.

deal time

I have something GOOD to announce!

Cidway just signed a signature deal with the largest bank in a country straddling Europe and Asia. Even though it's just a pilot, when a bank has millions of Internet banking users does a pilot, they do it for x00,000 customers! (Sorry, I can't really tell you what "x" is)

Not only that, we beat out the European market leader! It's pretty exciting!

I hope this is only the beginning of many more deals to come. Stay tuned!

long distance

It's hard. My last relationship endured through two years of long distance. The current one has pretty much been long distance from the get go. We are really happy together, but the distance requires a different kind of romance, and a different kind of passion. Lots of Skype (although I didn't feel it as much last year since I had less say over my schedule, and at least 50 others also kept their relationship going that way), lots of emails. Personally, it's just that much harder to conjure up the kind of passion when someone is right next to you.

Sigh..........

wow, she can write

Banjot, a friend of mine married a writer. I had never read her stuff until recently, and wow, she can write. Meeta was recently published. Here is Banjot's entry about it on his blog.

startups are .......

It is exciting to work for a startup. There is always a lot to do, and there is always that anxiety about getting your first BIG deal. Then there is the nervous wreck about the details of the deal: the engineer turned sales dude (aka me) sold the world to the customer; the application you are delivering on the platform the client wants has never been installed anywhere, your engineers are not familiar with the app since they are not familiar with the platform; your partner is struggling to deliver their end of the deal; your reseller has never sold a product in your industry; the customer is physically on another continent; you still don't have a contract with your reseller.

What a mess! But that is the life in a startup. It's exciting but yet you feel like every deal is dangling by a thread.

P.S. So, ethically, do you still push the deal?

Leaving again

Well, it's been a nice week and half back in Lausanne. I realized that I need to stop traveling. It's difficult to build a company when you are on the road all the time.

Off to NYC to a few days, then down to Orlando for a trade show (actually participating this time). Then comes the part that I am really looking forward to: 3 days on the beach!!!

en route from Singapore to Geneva

Wrote this on the plane, I am a couple days late posting it.

While I travel around the world this month, I have noticed how much my fellow classmates, or ex-classmates from IMD, travel as well.

In San Francisco, I met Ihab, who was traveling from Boston. During my stopover in Singapore, I tried to meet three of my classmates but apparently no one was around: Aaron was in Bangkok (I am transiting thru Bangkok to get to Switzerland), KK was in London or Amsterdam, and Nanang was in Jakarta.

Is this the typical life of an IMD MBA grad? Anyone?

finally back in Lausanne

At last. I am back in Lausanne. Going home to Taiwan was nice; as much as it was home, I still couldn't feel like it was my own space. I was surprised how good it felt to be back in my apartment in Lausanne.

Didn't really suffer from much jetleg. I pushed myself to stay up the first day (yesterday) until 10pm. Still waking up at 6:30, but that isn't so bad.

Feel much more energetic now, and have put a bit of effort cleaning up my apartment. It really wasn't that much work. It's hard to imagine how I really didn't feel like cleaning up the place in January. I must have been exhausted psychologically. Vacation does wonders.

back in Taiwan

Finally made it back in Taiwan, sick as hell, especially after 20 hours in the plane. Had to go see a doctor after I got off the plane. As an honorary participant of the 2007 Swiss flu season who prolonged his doctors visit, I had developed bronchitis. Great, it's exactly what I needed when I am on vacation. Gave up alcohol for the past two weeks because I have been sick, now I am on antibiotic and three other pills for a week. Aih-yah, as a Chinese would say.

And I have to go to Korea for business next week, what a bonus for your vaca.

On the plus side, I am back in Taiwan. Spending time with YiChun, and my family. That has been nothing but great. More on that later.

sound relationship advice

Got off the plane, and am in San Francisco.
Staying with a very good friend in Berkley to hang out, outdate ourselves and save the company money.

At brunch, the topic turned to my love life (wel, his is simple, married, new born, you know the drill). He gave some very sound advice when I brought up some of my concerns, especially on timing. "If you know the fondamental things line up, the daily life stuff will figure itself out in time. It's not going to be easy, but you will work it out." So, the advice is to move forward if I am sure that our values match up. I think they do.

That's what I miss most about the States, I guess: friends to bounce ideas off of.

enroute to San Francisco via New York

The last three weeks in the new job has been stressful, not as much from a workload stand point, but from a psychological perspective. I suppose ever new jobs brings a level of stress. I thought about it, two things really pilled on top of each other, or maybe even more.
1. It’s a new job, a new function, new colleagues;
2. I haven’t worked in a year; furthermore, I am used to work with only MBAs. Working with non-MBAs, not from IMD, brings additional challenges
3. Working in Switzerland, for an Argentine who makes business decisions emotionally is pretty taxing.

The coming four weeks away from the office will hopefully help me make some adjustments.

I am sick, tired, and just want to get to SFO. I guess I will be sleeping on the plane.

they don't have chocolate chips in Switzerland

So what? You might ask.
That means no chocolate chip cookies either.

If you read one of the entries in early 2006, you would know that I finally admitted that I had become quite American, so life sans chocolate chip cookies is somewhat of a disaster. They do sell PepperRidge Farm chocolate chip cookies at the Coop in town, but they are SOOOO expensive, and there are only 8 in a pack.

So, as a part of my "get my life back" project, I broke out some of the stuff I brought from the states: my 6 quart KitchenAid, cookbooks, spatula and cookie rack and got to work.

First challenge, find baking soda. Three grocery stores and 3 Swiss francs later, I was in possession of a little thing of baking soda, or whatever is in the little container that read "bicarbonate of soda" on the label.

Next, vanilla extract. I called YiChun, she said that they have them in Vienna, so I should be able to find it in Lausanne. No. Lausanne is no Vienna, so I used "Vanillazucker" - Vanilla sugar as the substitute. I had no idea what the coresponding quantity was, so I threw in the entire little pouch.

Then, chocolate chips! How the hell do I make chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips? Well, three grocery stores late, I still couldn't find chocolate chip. So much for Switzerland's reputation as chocolate heaven. So, I bought some baking chocolate, and chopped away.

Emeril would have been proud of me. You can find the recipe here.

Life.... Getting it together again

bit by bit....................
Thursday morning, the buzz from my doorbell woke me up. Well, it didn't really, I was awake, just not out of bed. THE MOVERS ARE HERE!

They were there to deliver my stuff from the States. It was great. They put together my bed, my office desk, and brought me all my stuff! My stuff! I could finally piece my life together again.

I spent Saturday afternoon looking for a DVD player (only brought my pre-amp and amp), fiber optic cable, speaker cables, etc just to put my audio system together. It took me another two hours to strip the cables, unpack the 50 pound amp, and hooking all this stuff up. Bam! (as Emerald would say) The moment the sound system put out that little bitty of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons, I almost broke out in tears. So, I took a moment to analyze this Jack Wood style. Why would I miss the audio system? It is the sound, that soft, full range of sound that just would never come out of my Thinkpad or MacBook Pro? No, it's the symbol of it - that I miss my lifestyle back in the States, my kitchen, my house, my friends, my brother, all of it.

working for a startup

two things happened today.
1. I re-learned startups are like giant vortex, they just suck you in. I went into work today to run a conference call. I planned to be there for no more than two hours, and ended up spending the whole day there.

2. Leadership. I think sometimes I am too afraid to exercise my power, and take responsibility for decisions I take. I tried to run a decision process the IMD way by making it a group effort, then taking the decision democratically. It didn't work. No one was happy with then end result, and everyone ended up talking to me at 9pm, asking me to withdraw the group decision and take the decision I wanted in the first place. I need to start making decision and taking responsibility
for them.

Work...... I wonder what working again will be like, and pray that I will remember everything I learned at IMD even after 10 years working.

Search for the perfect Sauvignon Blac

Well, since really enjoying the Ave Maria 2000 and 2001 production of Sauvignon Blanc, I have been looking for something that is somewhat similar. I have been looking for a long time. And, what do you know, before new year's, I went to Globus to pick up some wine, and I am not sure what got into me, but I picked up the house Sauvignon Blanc. Good stuff. What do you know, sometimes house wine is just good. It does say it is made in Seresin Estate. I am not a wine snub, so I have no idea where that it is, but this stuff is good. If you want to know, I had with with basil flavored salmon, carrots, and fennel bulbs.

setting up the new place

In less than one week's time in early December, I found an apartment. I must admit that when I first saw it, I wasn't all that impressed. It's in this old building from the 1920s. The double pane windows are actually not double, it's just two windows one behind another. When you close the windows, you have to make sure that the left one and the right one line up so they close! That shows you how old they are.

Regardless, the place actually turned out to be quite nice. It's right across this park where the Swiss federal court is. It's a 10-minute walk from the center of the city, and less than 10 minute walk from work, and yet quiet since it's right across a park.

I spent the last few days in the apartment doing a little tidying up and unpacking. The place is coming together quite nicely. Now I am just waiting for my stuff from the U.S. to arrive. Finally, I will get to piece together my life again. Well, it's really not quite accurate, my life was never in pieces, I guess I meant my lifestyle. I am getting my hi-fi system, and most important of all, my kitchen toys: Kitchenaid, hand blender, plates, pots and pans, even my pizza stone!

Now that I will be staying in Switzerland for a while, I can actually buy some stuff. Taking advantage of the after Xmas sale, I went to Globus (a upscale local department store with an AMAZING gourmet market) and got me a bunch of kitchen gadgets! Uh, I also picked up a set of silverware from Vilory & Boch :)

Ahhhhhh! LIFE!

America

I didn't realize how much I miss America until I went back two weeks ago. It was amazing. I totally underestimated how much I miss being in a familiar environment. I understood what everyone was saying, but more importantly, I knew how the system works. I was in my element.

I love the availability of merchandise. It's consumer heaven! You can buy anything, any time you want. Instead of a choice of 10 espresso machines at Migros, you have 20 of them in Target. Choice of restaurants and the types of cuisine available simply leaves most European cities to shame. Even in the little part of south Jersey I was in, I had bar food, Thai, Italian, Vietnamese, Mexican, Cuban, Malaysian and Chick-Fil-a for the 5 days I was there. Try to get that variety in Lausanne or Geneva.

And gas is CHEAP! And if I am in a jam, I can get myself out of it because EVERYONE speaks English!
Ergh........ I am such an American.

Transition to the real world

Making the trip to Israel, working 6 days made me realize that ready or not, I am about to get dumped into the real world again.

It was a little rough. I almost feel like a prisoner who has just been released into the real world. I started to wonder if a halfway house would be in order to help me adjust. Working again was an odd feeling. In business school, I have never had to make a decision without the help of a group, in the real world, there are times when I alone must make the decision. Need some industry research? In business school, there is always a team of info center staff who can help you out; in the real world, there is just you and the Internet.

Maybe there is a need for a halfway house for fresh MBA grads..................

where have I been?

I am just so bad at this blog thing. I need to get behind th wheel and starting writing this more often. Well, I guess I should start updating everyone on what I have been doing since the end of November.

Nov 26. - YiChun arrives & Middle Eastern Party at IMD
Nov 27 - International Cooking Series dinner
Nov 28 - School and a couple hours of work at Cidway
Nov 29 - School and apartment hunting. Parents arrive for graduation
Nov 30 - Graduation!
Dec 1 - Recovery in the AM and mad packing in the PM
Dec 2 - Visit to family friends
Dec 3 - YiChun leaves
Dec 4 - Move to new apartment
Dec 5 - clean old apartment, my parents leave
Dec 6 - 5:30am train to Zurich and flight to Newark
Dec 7 - 10 repack some contents of storage unit and stuff the ocean freight container. Meet friends I haven't seen for the whole year.
Dec 10 - flite back to Zurich, transfer through Copenhagen to Stockholm
Dec 11 - Give talk at Ericsson
Dec 12 - 9am flight back to Zurich
Dec 13-15 break!!!
Dec 16 - Israel to meet with some of the Cidway folks
Dec 21 - return to Switzerland
Dec 22 - worked the day
Dec 23 - heading into the Alps for Xmas!!!!!!!

Oh boy, did I need a break or what!

What will Sia do after school?

Well, I have left my blog untouched for a long long time. The last part of the program is now. I am taking electives. The final hom stretch. I only have one more week of class, four days really. Then it's the three days of wrap up, final leadership training type thing (isn't it what we have been doing all year? oh well). November 30th is the official graduation day.

So, the last few weeks were painful. The job hunt, yes, the talk with the startup progressed VERY slowly. The founder seemed too busy to take time to think about my package. With a final push, I went to meet him.

I am happy to announce that I am staying in Switzerland next year! I will be working at Cidway. A startup that offers authentication solutions on a mobile phone and mobile payment. I am really excited about the oppertunity to work at a startup and the responsibility I have been given.

Busy weekend - Visit to my god daughter

Went to Gruyere yesterday. Then went to watch “Perfume”. Today, I took a 2 hour train ride to go see Daniel who just gave birth to a baby two weeks ago, and my god-daughter: Emily. Things are good with them. It’s the first time Emily recognized me, and she was happy to see me. We went to take a walk together, and I let her ride on my shoulders for a while. We painted together, I read her stories when she was taking her afternoon nap. (YiChun, stop cringing) She seems happy. I think going to kindergarten has really made a difference for her. She is happy, still a little shy to show her affection, but she know how to demonstrate it much better now. It’s amazing what a few months of kindergarten has done for her. Things seem to be on track for Daniel as well. I am really happy for the family.

September

I found an ice cream joint named after me!
Sweden, what a place. Man, the babes! It’s so unfair. The “average” girl there are quite a few notches higher than anywhere else. Amazing. Oh yeah, the reason I was in Stockholm is because of the Ericsson project. I spent three weeks in September working on the project. It hasn’t been the easiest project because of the dynamics in our team. I seldom stereotype, but why is this French guy just soooooo hard to work with. The last time I found it just impossible to work with someone was 5 years ago at VeriSign with Boob.

Check out the Ice Bar picures!

Stockholm

Sep 2, 2006 - 130 Photos

August

Getting back into the swing of classes. But they were not the traditional classes. They were classes in ethics, negotiation, and crisis management. I learned that form an ethics standpoint, I am an consquentialist, someone who thinks the end event is most relevant.

Then came the company presentations again. This is when the stress among my classmates started. It’s kinda mass hysteria. I think we must have been told 150,000 times this year that we are 90 “exceptional people”. It’s amazing how some of these 90 exceptional people let the job hunt get to them. Sure, we are in need of jobs, but if we are truly exceptional, experienced managers, shouldn’t jobs just come to us? Relax, people. What’s more worrying is how some people have what I called a “shotgun” job search strategy. They will interview with any company, any position, just to make sure that they land something. I heard someone who had 23 interviews in 2 weeks. It’s just amazing. All the workshops, all the stuff the career office has been telling us all year: be focused, choose a type of position, choose a few companies you really want to work for, and go for it. I am not sure what a power tools company, a commercial boiler company, a wood products company, an oil company, a flavor company, a high tech company, and three consulting companies have in common, but I am sure whoever has 23 interviews must have put them together in a coherent, focused job search strategy. I’d certainly love to hear the pitch though.

In some ways, I am not better, I did apply to l’Oreal. Why, you may ask. Well, I guess they marketed themselves well at the company presentation. I truly believed that they are hiring for talent, and I was looking for a totally different industry to work in. I fell for it.

Traveling for the Ericsson project meant I had to travel. And that did it for me. I had traveled enough during my VeriSign years. The horror came right back to me. It reminded me how I said I would never travel like that again. I didn’t want to do it any more. That meant no consulting for me in the future.

The interview process also helped eliminating options. I failed out of all the consulting interviews. Or in the consulting lingo: I was “dinged”. Before I came to IMD, all I wanted was to work for Bain or McKinsey. I wanted to work for a top rated consulting company because it guaranteed a good income, provided for interesting, challenging work, and some social prestige. Bain didn’t recruit on campus, and I interviewed with McKinsey and Monitor. It was actually fun preparing for these interviews. The case interview style is interesting but I am not sure how effective they really are. It does test for approaches and nerves, but I am not sure how good they really are. Regardless, I was happy to not get any further with the consulting interviews. Monitor deserves a special mention here. The guy that called me back to give me feedback was really up front and honest with me. He said that he could see that I am an action oriented person and might not be the best match for a consulting company. He also said that the passion I have for people really would make me a better manager than a consultant. Furthermore, he said I already have some management experience and why not just continue on that track, and move up the ladder. All good, solid observations and fitting recommendations. That truly affirmed my choice to not go into consulting.

The other option was TECOM in Dubai. What a place to go work! The company is basically the investment vehicle of the prince. If you want to work on projects that are well funded, TECOM is your thing. But, I just can’t imagine living in Dubai. I am having a hard time trying to decide whether to live in Lausanne next year already because I don’t speak French and have a social network. Dubai? U kiddin?

July

July was a welcomed month off. I did some serious traveling. YiChun and I spent the first week with Steve and Mike in Tuscany. Nothing against my Italians, but I only went because of my buddies wanted to go to Italy. Although I must admit that the house we rented was really really nice. I loved it. Tuscany really was beautiful. I really enjoyed it there. The Italians had better luck than the Argentines as the World Cup continued during our stay in Italy. They were certainly no less crazy about football than the Argentines. We were in Sienna for the Germany match, and in Florence for the final match against France. I must admit that I was kinda in pain during the final match suffering from hangover from the previous night’s drinking.

We made a quick stop in Vienna then headed to Ireland. Upon arrival in Ireland, YiChun and I were stopped at passport control. With my US passport, I didn’t have a problem, but they didn’t accept YiChun’s Schengen visa. Huh? Ireland is a part of the EU, right? Yes, but they don’t participate in the Schendgen. Well, how would I know? We called our host there who is a Taiwanese diplomat to seeif he could do something. Since he had just arrived in Ireland a couple months ago, he wasn’t able to help. So we stood at the passport control at midnight, waiting for the guy to tell us that we need to spend a night at the airport and take the next flight back to Austria. But he was nice, he gave her a landing visa, and we were let in. We talked to the Taiwanese ambassador the next day and he said he had never seen this before. So, what else could go wrong? Anyway, we went to collect our luggage. Well, Ryanair screws up yet again (they should have stopped us from boarding the plane when they saw YiChun didn’t have an Irish visa). YiChun’s bag was no where to be found, and mine was still sitting on the luggage belt. Ryanair’s counter was unattended, and we couldn’t get anyone on their customer service desk either. Through some kind of magic, YiChun convinced a guy to go to the loading area and found her bag.

Heading out of Ireland, and we flew back to continental Europe. The original plan was to fly to Paris, see how it is and how we felt, and maybe stay in Paris. You won’t believe how hot it was in Paris. We sat in the taxi to go to the train station, and it was 41 degrees in the taxi! 41 degrees! That was it, we are going back to Lausanne.

After a few days’ rest, we headed into the Alps with a classmate of mine. YiChun left a week after. It was a good July, a lot of traveling, a lot f time spent with YiChun. It wasn’t without problems but we made it through know each other a lot better.

Cry for me, Argentina?

Buonos Aires. What a town. I must say the most memorable part of the trip to Argentina was the trip to a ranch outside the city. It was a first hand lesion on how to not screw up the economy for a country. The cattle farmers were in the width of a populist policy (classically Argentinian). The government claimed that the beef export was driving up beef prices in domestically, so it banned ALL beef export. Well, what they didn’t take into consideration was the fact that beef and soya bean export are the two largest source of foreign income in Argentina. Banning beef export just took out a large chunk of GDP, while Argentine beef production was way above domestic consumption. So cattle farmers were left to survive on other lower margin farm products. It only took 90 days for the government to reverse some of its own policy by announcing a quota system. It finally started to figure out the policy might do more harm to domestic economy than initially thought (or maybe they didn’t even think about it hence the populist policy).

Then 6 months later it decided to increase the quota again. Well, the bad part is that most cattle farmers had stopped to raise young calves in anticipation of a market slump and now they have missed the season to raise calves, there is no quick way to catch up. It’s amazing just how a government can really run a country to the ground. Don’t forget, just 50 years ago, Argentina was the 5^th largest economy in the world!

Since the currency crisis 5 years ago (the government decided to devalue its currency by 2/3 overnight), Argentina has seen great recovery, the economy has been growing 10% a year. But based on the conversations we had with companies, and academics, the general perception is that Argentina is bound to have a disaster every 5 to 10 years, so it’s better to be prepared for the next one.

Argentines are crazy for football. We were there for two of the World Cup matching. The won the first one, but lost against the Germans. They went nuts after the win, people poured onto the streets, and partied all night. The loss was equally devastating, it’s like the country just went into depression. I guess much like people in Taiwan, seldom do the people get a chance on the world stage and the appearances are way dramatized.

With all that said, Argentina does have it’s attractions: the view, the steaks, and beautiful women (highest plastic surgeon per capital in the world). The prices are climbing back up, but still somewhat reasonable for foreigners. I picked up a CD suit for $400 J (Needed it for interviews)

Accounting Relaunch

Yes. I haven’t updated the blog for a long time. Ok, let me do a quick run down of what happened since June.

June: Well, I failed accounting, so I had to do a re-take of the final exam. You probably know that I have had problems with the professor, Stewart. Jerk. But what was interesting was the stat one of my classmates found (he also failed accounting). During the semester, Stewart picked out 10 people who were not doing well in accounting and just gave us a hard time. Then, out of the 10, 5 of us were failed. Was it just coincidence, or does he just pick out the bottom 10, then the bottom 5 to fail? I for one, felt pretty comfortable with the accounting final. I really didn’t think I did that poorly. Anyway, so the first day of my July vacation in Tuscany, I had to talk to Stewart.

The first day of school, the MBA progrma director mentioned that there were a few of us that still need to pass through the hurdle of accounting. I think the whole class knew exactly who we were. Anyway, I was sick of accounting and just didn't study for the re-take. Took it C-O-L-D. The re-take was harder and I thought I did better on the final.

I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Stewart, if you are reading this, I just want to let you know that I would have sign the contract to say that I will never take an accounting job if you had asked!)

more on the situation in Lebanon

Everyday, someone from our class write a little about what happened during the program that day. Today, Mohamad wrote a bit about some of his experiences. One thing I really admire about him is that although he has his own opinion on the issue, he has always said: "it's not about politics, let's talk about how we can help the people there, let's make this humanitarian."

"Cheers" said my friend. "To peace and love!” I replied… As I put my drink on the table, a sudden distant flash in the sky made me jerk my head round. A couple of seconds later, I realised how stupid I had been… I was in Lausanne, the safest place on earth – and the flash had been fireworks in the night sky! My friends chuckled and asked why I had reacted that way. I explained that a flash in the sky in my hometown meant that a bomb was exploding somewhere and that the flash above us had caused my involuntary reaction.

The 1st of August marks the union of Switzerland. The Swiss celebrate this anniversary by shooting amazingly artistic fireworks in the sky. The sounds and sights mesmerized me but the entertaining sounds at this side of the world took me back to the menacing ones back home. I longed more for home... It would have been much easier to stay in Lebanon – yes, under siege and roaring bombs, but also with my family and my people. I had to leave my family going through one of the most emotionally charged decisions of my life. I felt somehow overpowered by my mom’s tears and my father’s persuasion and logic. It was quite painful for me to hear: "It is better for us if you just leave and be safe".

Before taking this decision, I had worked for a couple of weeks with the mayor of my city Saida, the capital of South Lebanon. I was assisting the city’s administration in handling international media and NGOs.

I will never forget my last interview with a British reporter just nearby the Municipality building, where the refugees gathered before being distributed among the many shelters improvised in the city. While I was being interviewed, in English, a refugee kept on interrupting and asking me in Arabic whether I was saying something against the resistance. I could not stop my interview, but I tapped him on the shoulder indicating "No". I also had to point at a signboard trying by sign language to indicate that this was my father’s office hoping that my father’s name might help him understand who my family was and confirm what I was trying to tell him.

When the interview was over, I satisfied their anxiety by translating to them some of what I had said. As much as I witnessed misery and pain, I also witnessed courage and an unprecedented faith in the refugees. It was quite frustrating and emotional for me to deal with all of that. The person who was interrupting had apparently lost a brother and a nephew - but his faith overshadowed any sign of mourning... He made me feel so humble.

I went back to the office to check the latest developments and to bid the mayor and the team farewell. A meeting was going on, where the other angle of the humanitarian crisis at Saida was being discussed. Besides the doubling population, minimum resources and the siege, the alarming subject on the table was the social impact of the crisis on the Saidonians. Around 30% of Saida’s population live under the poverty line and unemployed is a huge problem. Many of the employed survive on the basis of minimum weekly or daily wages, which had basically stopped ever since was broke out. I had to leave the meeting with many questions in my head: For how long can Saida survive? How would we deal with a state of panic? How would people take the loss of their family members after they realize that they actually lost them? Where can the million refugees settle while their homes are rebuilt? Will school activities ever start again for the million Lebanese children whose schools are currently being used as shelter for the thousands of displaced? What will be the impact after the war? What about the ecological damage due to bombing the seven tanks at the shore? What about the thousands of fishermen?

Many questions that are left unanswered... until further notice

Mohamad

The Rothschilds

In the stakeholder module today, Prof. Jeannet told a story and asked as to think about how the world changes, and how the star of tomorrow can quickly become the orphan of next year.

The Rothschild, the prominant European banking family 200 years ago, had six sons and realized that Frankfurt was no longer big enough for his sons to develope. The family decided to send the six sons to six locations that they saw as the most promising business oppertunities in the world: London, Naples, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and Frankfurt. So, what was the hit rate on successfully predicting how the world was going to shape? 2 out of 6 cities became the commercial center of the world. Not too bad. Or?

Pro. Jeannet then asked us to pick 3 cities where we would put our children. Answers ranged from Sao Paolo, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore, London, San Francisco, New York, Lima, Shanghai, Dares Salam to Bangalore. (I chose Sao Paolo, Paris, and San Francisco.) Where would you put yours? And how good would the choices seem 10, 20, 30 years from now?

preparing for job interviews

We have these "company presentation" days when companies that are interested in hiring IMD MBAs come and give an hour presentation followed by an hour of cocktails (they pay for it :)

At the end of the day in one of these days, a female classmate pulled me aside: "Sia, you are pretty slim, your suits are a little too big. Invest in a couple nice suits, you will need them in the future anyway."

Well, she is right. I confirmed with a few trusted advisors. The truth of it is that I bought those Polo suits during my senior year in college at the Polo outlet since my first job required me to wear a suit to work everyday. That was almost 10 years ago. I still fit in them (tightly), but they were a little big then, and still big today.

So I embarked on a suit buying spree this summer. (I also gave up the whole buying suit at outlet deal since a store manager at Brooks Brothers told me that the suits in their outlet is not made of the same quality as the ones at their stores)

First in Argentina, I bought a CD suit. Trust me when I say it wasn't expensive. The suit wasn't any cheaper than regular suits in the U.S., but it was CD. Nice design, and it fit me well.
Then came Vienna. They were having these crazy sales. Benetton had this nice casual summer suit. I didn't really need it, but for $160, why not. I need something casual for the summer anyway. After Benetton, I went across the street to finally fulfilled my dream of owning a Boss suit. They ARE nice, especially at 40% off. The only problem was that I couldn't get it taylored in Vienna since we were leaving the next day. So I will be heading to the Boss store in Geneva on Friday.

Do techies really need suit anyway? I hope it will be another ten years before I buy suits again.
(ok, i will really go study accounting now)

school starts again

well, school started again Monday. It has been a grind. It was a struggle sitting through 8 hours of lecture in the last two days. I am not used to it any more.

The topics have been interesting. The next three weeks are what they called: stakeholder module. We started with a crisis management exercise, and continued with training on how to handle the media. This afternoon, we started with negotiations training.

Mohamad is back. I have the accounting retake on Friday. Not really in a mood to study, but I better get to it.

more on Isreali-Lebanon conflict

As a follow up to the last blog, here is what I found when I checked my email this morning. Although I have my reservations about IMD, things like this is what makes me proud of being a part of this institution. We are not only business people, but also good caring citizens of the globe.

The email came from our political econ professor, Jean-Pierre Lehmann. Enclosed was a "letter published in today's FT by two IMD MBA alumni of 2005, one Lebanese and one Israeli. Of all the comments I have seen, this is the first with joint co-authorship by a Lebanese and an Israeli. It is an excellent letter. It was written entirely at the initiative of the two authors. The FT response was immediate and very positive and the letter is being published in fact within 48 hours of reception."

"I am really very pleased and proud. I think this also vindicates the spirit in which we hold our discussions in the IPE class. This year unfortunately we have no Israeli participant. In the past, however, we have had joint presentations from Arab and Israeli participants, who have had to work extremely hard to find common ground. Just as this letter was the result of numerous exchanges between the two authors, in which the possible meaning of every word counts. It is not easy. This also underlines, in my view, the fact that business leaders should not seek to avoid difficult political issues, but should confront them. The letter by Talal and Roberto will not, alas, bring the war screeching to a halt. But it will be a small yet significant stone in the foundations that need to be built for peace in the region, as elusive as it may appear at this moment. This joint Lebanese-Israeli initiative also underlines the IMD as global meeting place concept. A global meeting place not just to talk about banalities, nor just about serious business issues, but about really serious political issues, which will strongly impact on the global market and global business.
So many congratulations and thanks to Roberto and Talal and may they serve as inspiration to all of us!
Best
Jean-Pierre"

Cheers to the alums, and may the conflict end soon.

shocking news

I have been on the road for the last month. First for a school trip to Argentina, followed by holidays on a european tour to Italy, Austria, and Ireland. The month of traveling meant I was not only out of Internet access, but also extremely short on news about the world, and about my classmates. That is until I came back to Lausanne last night. More on my trip later, but first, I want to write about one of my fellow classmates, Mohamad. Mohamad is from Lebanon, and is one of my brightest and charismatic classmates here at IMD.

Once, during dinner with two friends and me, Mohamad described how his childhood was filled with fear of war, bombs falling around him, and bullets woozing by him. I was shocked. He talked about how their family had to go into hiding, fleeing into the mountains. It wasn't the first time I heard about war: A good friend, Tamra, is from Sarajevo. But it was the first time I felt that way: I couldn't even relate, I couldn't even imagine how life was, days after days of living in a war zone, year after year. Just how fortunate am I to grow up in Taiwan. Even with the constant threat of a Chinese invasion, life was relatively calm. It's nothing comparing to what Mohamad grew up with.

Well, the news of what is happening in Isreal and Lebanon is no "news" any more. It's been around for days. What was shocking to me upon my return to Lausanne is that Mohamad has been back in Lebanon with his family. Nothing has been said about whether Mohamad will return in time for school, but the airport in Damascus has been bombed by Isreal. How will he get out?

Enough of me blabbering about. Here is a real dose of reality from an email Mohamad sent a few days ago.

"The situation is really terrifying... it is just waiting where the next bomb will hit! I am still glad that I am around, otherwise I would have gone crazy worrying about my family and friends in Lebanon from Lausanne. My city now is completely cut from all directions! I hope we can manage to get the basic supplies for children and elders! It is back to chaos and war! I can hear the planes and the machine guns around as I am writing! I hope it will be over soon and both Israel and Hizbollah get back to rationality and put an end to this catostrophy and blood shed. I also hope to see you soon!"

so you guys are big in strategy consulting , huh?

Companies that come recruiting in IMD are mostly professional, and show a lot of interest in us. McKinsey was no different. They brought out a partner, and actually were fairly low key versus the most perception of McKinsey: snubby. (BCG was a different story, but that is for another entry) In all fairness, the partner who came was really nice, down to earth, and left a great impression of McKinsey for me.

The companies come on campus and give an one hour presentation, followed by an hour of cocktail, and informal Q&A. I guess the IMD bunch are tough cookies too. I was standing next to the McKinsey partner when this conversation took place.

Johnny (student): so can you tell me how you measure your success? Do you tie your client's success to your compensation?
Partner: no we don't do that because that usually leads to short term focused goals that are exteremely easy to measure.
..................................................................
more tough questions follow. The last question is below.
...................................................................
Johnny: So, what is McKinsey's strategy in attracting more business, especiallly in those top 100 or 1000 movers and shakers in every market?

Partner: well, our clients are mostly relationship based, we get business usually comes because we have been advising them for a long time or we have had informal relationships with the top brass. We have not had to enter into a bid since the low in 2002. So we don't really have a strategy per se.

Bill (student): well, that is really strange for a company that is known for strategy consulting to NOT have a strategy itself.

Partner: *^@#$(@(#*&$(*#@:"{]+

(I guess they want to recruit people who can think on their feet, IMD is the right place)

the never ending accounting story

bombed it as promised............
(retake scheduled during the july vacation, bloody hell!)

Time to find a job

I guess it's the disadvantage of a one year program. Only 6 months into the program, we are beginning our job search. The two weeks between the end of finals, and our Argentina trip are pretty much set aside for job searches and workshops. We have two days of company presentations where companies like l'Oreal and McKensey come on campus and give presentations about their organization. The first one was last Friday, and tomorrow is the other one. There will be two more days of it in August. I am going to l'Oreal, McKinsey, and Amazon tomorrow. We get two hours for each company, one hour of presentation and another for imformal socialization. I guess it's pretty impressive. This year, 30 some companies are recruiting on campus, and there are only 90 of us. It is looking to be a good year for us.

For me, going through all these presentations is not just seeing companies, but also forces me to really reconsider my original intention before I came here of wanting to go into consulting. The attraction of being a consultant again, the fast paste life is all pretty exciting. But am I really ready to go back into that? And is that what I really want? It promises a certain level of success, but are the trade-offs really worth it?

I have been talking to Stephanus, a classmate from South Africa. He was a trader for RNB, and was really successful. Right now, he is trying to make a choice between going to London, back to the trader life (or lack there of working from 8-midnight), doing exciting stuff he wouldn't have the oppertunity to do in Jo Berg, and going back to Jo Berg, make a very comfortable living but give up the oppertunity to strike it extremely rich in London.

So, is this what we thrity-somethings all confront in our lives?

accounting continued

No, I haven't found out if I failed the accounting final or not. But, I did attend a birthday dinner tonight. The person who organized it has ac accounting background. After I got home from dinner, I got the following email.

Hey, double-double... Kim Kian's Birthday Bill. The damage is CHF 56 each.

Dinner = 1121

Zara = 110

Total = 1231

1x Ayin

1x Kenji

1x Maria

1x Lili

1x Paru

1x Woo

1x Anthony

1x Stephanus

1x Pierre

1x Sia

1x Steve

1x Fei Peng

1x Jie

1x Leizl

1x Nicolas

1x Rohan

1x Sabahat

1x Aaron

2x Carlos

2x Stephan

Total = 22 x 56 = 1232

DR Aaron's cash at bank

CR Accounts receivable

Nice to balance the accounts at the end,

Aaron.

Ok, so I was ready to pay Aaron the 56 francs tomorrow. But I couldn't stop cracking up after I saw the next email from another classmate who is an auditor.

Hey, if my audit is right, the account doesn’t ‘balance’

DR Aaron's cash at bank 1232

CR Accounts receivable 1231

CR Aaron’s profit 1

You’re banking 1 franc profit!!!!

This is what MBAs do in their spare time, I think. I totally missed it, never bother to question it for a minute. I guess this is why I will never be a bean counter.

finals

tomorrow the last final starts, and it's my favorite subject: accounting.
The professor already told the story a couple of times, every year, some of us don't pass the course. He makes them sign a pledge to never apply for accounting jobs. You know what, if he offered me that letter now, I would sign. Who the hell grew up asipring to be a bean counter anyway?

Lausanne Beer Fest

Beer! At last, some choices of good beer. They tell you that europeans drink better beer, but the choices in Switzerland are few and not all that great. I picked up 8 half-pint microbrew for 10 CHF (about $8). Ouch!

Anyway, the beer fest in town this year had a belgium theme, so there was PLENTY of good beer to go around from cherry beer to some pretty serious amber Kwak at 8% alcohol! It was great! Although half a pint costed me aroun $5. Better than nothing.

more interesting comments.......

Experienced ex-McKinsey consultant-turned-professor: "he who tries to understand too much dies of anger."


Prof. to a student A in the auditorium: "Can you wake Scott up?" (referring to the student next to him)

Student A: "You put him to sleep, you wake him up!"

"interesting" comments in class

Our accounting professor, Stewart, is this old, grumpy Scottsman who likes to perform accounting "forensics". He looks like failed companies with tries to pick apart their balance sheets looking for causes. He has also served as expert witness in court, blah, blah. We spent a fair amount of time looking at collapsed companies. One of the companies we looked at was Barings Bank, UK.

The collapse of Barings was caused by this young British trader in Singapore who tried and failed to hide his losses on the futures market. The trader, after being found out, wanted to be tried in the U.K. instead of Singapore since it is a much harsher environment. After Stewart showed us a video of the trader in a German jail (he was captured in Germany), he told us that the conditions in Singaporean jails are harsher than that of U.K.

Nanang, a Indonesian, asked: "Just how bad is it in Singapore? Is it just men raping men?"

Last week, we looked at Enron's collapse. Tina, a really smart, witty, Danish classmate who worked for Mearsk, a large global freight company, shared her experience working with people from Enron. She had moved to Houston before the Enron collapse. At the time, Enron was her largest client. She described Enron employees she dealt with as smart, top notch people who are also nice to work with. However, they also knew they were the best in the industry. They knew, Tina said: "they were the biggest swinging dicks in the room."

The words we say.....................................

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

found a white hair, the first one ever.
(I hope this is just a genetic accident, not an effect of aging or B school.)

WTF [}*$^}{.<(#&($&%)_!+*$*&!@

living close to Ouchy

For those of you who are not as versed in Swiss geography or the layout of Lausanne, let me start by explaining what Ouchy is. It's basically where the tourists go to when they come to Lausanne, and why, of course, it's lakeside. There are cafes, restaurants, and a huge open space for the city to host all sorts of events. For example, I went to see a circus near Ouchy during easter.

Anyway, it's the ultimate place for local dwellings to hang out on weekends as well, beside a great place to take a lakeside walk and all these things I menetioned earlier, you can also hang out by the beach, sail, etc. Last week, the city had a mini amusement park setup.

The traffic at Ouchy was terrible during the weekend. This was one of the few occassions I felt lucky living close to Ouchy. Man, I can just walk places where people have to drive and find parking. Great! I guess the perk only works when it's nice out, I didn't realize the advantage at all during winter. Anyway, I will try to remember to take a picture for you guys next time.

Oh, you may ask, why on earth did I choose to live near Ouchy, it must be pretty expensive. Yes, it isn't cheap, but since IMD is right at the lake by Ouchy, I really didn't have a lot of choice. Like most MBAs, I wanted to live within a 10-minute walk radius from school.

Enjoy spring!

school is ALMOST over

well, officially no. But the reality of it is that there is only 4 days of school this week since the MBA Olympics is on in paris this weekend. Next week, there is a week of International Consulting Project sessions, mixed with Start-up project presentations for four days, and then the "reading period" begins. The last FINAL exam starts on June 6th, and ends on the 9th!

Two weeks of "Stakeholder management" follows, then we are off to Argentina!
We will have July off, and from there on, it's just International Consulting, and electives!

So, I here by announce SCHOOL IS ALMOST OVER!!!!!!!!!!!
(may the job search begin)

Life has been busy even though the building block terms are coming to an end. There is the startup project to wrap up, and of course the pressure of exams. Some professors still find a way to make us sweat: last weekend, I had to write a three page paper on "leadership formula". What an oxymoron? Is there really such a thing as formula to successful leadership? What's next? Should the class co-author "The idiot's guide to leadership?"

Anyway, enough venting. I got to get back to writing a paper on how to improve innovation systems in a company. Man, that will really make me think of innovation, by writing a paper.

insomnia

ok, it's happened before this year. It just hasn't happened for this long for a while.

5/1 - concept bag due for product design and innovation. 2AM.
5/2 - telematics scenario analysis due. 2AM
5/3 - preparation for startup project meeting with consultant - 1AM
5/4 - startup project, meeting with consultant - midnight
5/5 - startup project, meeting with advisor startup project. - Integrative exercise, first nite - 1am
5/6 - meeting with startup company. Integrative exercise, second nite - 2am
5/7 - Integrative exercise, third nite - 4 am
5/8 - prepare for political economy presentation - 1:30am

Today, during Strategy, the prof asked an Argentinean guy a question.
Answer: "I am not paying attention to you."
Well, at least he was honest. The rest of us just kept sleeping.

One thing I have learn to do well this year is to sleep with your eyes open.

Tonite is the first night I will get some much needed sleep. Hallelujah!

cultural differences

I am so tired, and so busy. But I have to share this one.
Just to set the stage. Jorge is from Peru, Peter is an American who has lived in Holland for the last 3 years, Gardar is from Iceland.

This is a set of emails from three of my classmates. Make sure you read the chain of emails from the bottom up. Notice the date stamp on the emails. I really like Peter, but people ought to just observe other people's culture a little bit more. This is the exact reason why people should travel. Ignorance is not bliss.

P.S. Someone I know actually got married on April 23, 2005.

Sorry Peter but I don’t know if you noticed that we are in Europe and the date format is: (dd/mm/yy) J
So I only hope not to receive this unique event in my study room …
Cheers

Jorge


De: Klug, Peter [mailto:Peter.Klug@imd.ch] Enviado el: Miércoles, 03 de Mayo de 2006 08:51 p.m.Para: Gardar Gudgeirsson; MBA Participants 2006*CC: hklug@catalystinternational.comAsunto: RE: Two minutes and three seconds past one

Sorry Gardar to ruin your unique event, but this actually happened 29 days ago on April 5th. Too bad you missed it.

01:02:03 04/05/06

For those of you who don't understand tune in next Tuesday to the IPE presentation.

Peter

From: Gardar Gudgeirsson [mailto:Gardar.Gudgeirsson@imd.ch]Sent: Wed 5/3/2006 8:47 PMTo: MBA Participants 2006*Subject: Two minutes and three seconds past one
Dear all,

Please pay attention to your clocks two minutes and three seconds after one o’clock tomorrow morning (tonight), because for exactly one second, the time will be:

01:02:03 04/05/06

Don’t miss this unique event; you won’t have another chance until May 4th 2106.

Gardar