HK/China pics

One country, two systems...





A rare pic of Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek toasting the Chinese victory over Japan
(At the Foreign Correspondents Club in HK)




Time to say goodbye...

Hong Kong again... :)

After a few fun days in China, we headed back to Hong Kong.

Though China was fun, it was difficult to move around due to the language barrier.
Hong Kong, on the other hand, is quite easy to navigate. The public transport system is excellent and I particularly like the subway system - extremely well connected, easy to use and a high frequency of trains (a train every 2-3 minutes). Also, you are more likely to find people who have at least a basic knowledge of English. (English hardly works in China, which is why I intend to learn Chinese before my next trip!)

Another highlight of the trip was our dinner with the Chief Economist of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, David O'Rear. It was great to hear his insights on the HK and Chinese economy and their way of business.

Like all good things, this trip too had to end.
If I had to choose one 'best' part of the trip it would be the time we spent with the Hong Kong MBA students. [Recap..we attended the Tippie exec MBA classes in Hong Kong]
An extremely talented bunch of people, they ensured that we had a fabulous time in Hong Kong. The authentic "hot-pot" dinner we had is just beyond words.....a lot of great food, great conversations... even new drinking games!

Thank you folks, for the great memories!!

"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again after a moment or lifetime is certain for those who are friends."

- Richard Bach

A few days in China... (contd.)

The highlights of the China trip were probably the visits to the Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT) and the Wal-Mart in Shenzhen.

The YICT is a perfect example of the giant strides being taken by China to propel itself onto the world stage. Within a few years, YICT has become the fourth busiest port in the world. (interesting tidbit – Hong Kong and Shanghai are number 2&3 on that list. So, three of the largest four ports in the world are in China.)

Extremely hi-tech and efficient, I’d be surprised if any first time visitor to YICT could leave without a feeling of awe.

As one of our professors at Tippie say - if you want to understand the way of life in a foreign country, visit their retail outlets.
So how would a Wal-Mart in China compare to a Wal-Mart in the US? Well, lots of similarities, but a lot of obvious differences too. The most obvious difference is in the food section. Apparently, Chinese consumers prefer fresh food and hence shop more often. So, the frozen food section is much smaller.

And when the Chinese say fresh, they mean fresh - especially with respect to fish and meat. No, not fresh as in fresh fish on ice. Fresh as in 'live'.
Yup, you read that right. So, Wal Marts in China have tanks for fishes, shrimps etc. The customer uses a net to pick out the fish, which is then cleaned and packaged right away. They also have live crabs, turtles etc.

Don’t trust me? Check out these pics below.

Yes, that’s an alligator.

A few days in China...

First, my apologies for the delay in this post.
The last couple of weeks have been absolutely fabulous and equally busy!!

Let me give you a quick re-run of events since my last post from Hong Kong.

After the advertising class on Sunday, we took the train to Guangzhou in the evening. I have to tell you friends, China is quite an experience!
The frantic pace of development is quite apparent wherever you look. When you see all the construction activities going on, it does actually sink in that this is the most rapidly growing economy in the world.

In Guangzhou, we visited the manufacturing facility of Burton Snowboard. The factory we visited manufactures snow boots for the Burton brand. Of course, it was great to learn about the design, manufacturing and the excellent quality controls, but the best part was to see the yet-to-be-launched boots of the ‘Shaun White’ range. (Sorry folks, no pics!)

The next pit-stop was Jabil – a Fortune 500 company that I hardly knew about before this trip.
Jabil is essentially a contract manufacturer for global electronics and technology companies.

The company itself is hugely impressive, which is to be expected given that they make products for companies ranging from HP to Nokia.
But what I found most interesting was that though most of us have probably used a product made by Jabil, we have never heard about the company itself. And apparently this decision by Jabil (to not market products under its own brand) has been an extremely profitable one.
Read this article on Jabil. Definitely interesting.

We also visited a furniture manufacturer - Lamex (recently acquired by HNI corp.) – and OnHing Paper. All these visits were so informative and educative (to say the least!) that I was taken by surprise!
And this was largely due to the interactive sessions with the management (both senior managers and line managers) at all these firms. Yes, I did expect value addition; but these discussions just blew my mind!

Welcome back!

It's blog time again folks!
Hope you've enjoyed the holidays as much as I did! :)

I reached Hong Kong a couple of days back. Its my first time to this part of the world and I'm just loving it! HK is such a vibrant city, it's tough not to get carried away by the energy it exudes.
Yesterday we went out for some authentic local food - and trust me, it's good! (Though I have to admit that some of us had to stop by McDonald's on the way back!)

We had our first class in HK today. [For those who've come in late, this trip is part of our course in 'International Marketing'.]
It was really interesting to learn about the various subtle challenges that accompany the obvious ones when companies decide to go global. The cases we discussed were so exciting that they make you wish that you were involved in some of those real time problems!
In tomorrow's class we will be doing a 'best and worst' ad analysis and I'm guessing that we should be in for a rollicking time.

After class, we leave straight for China. So watch this space for the next post from China!