Tag: China

Telcom’s waste in Vietnam

From beepers to printers, from pay phones to city-phones, Vietnam was in a hurry to leapfrog to latest in Telecommunication.

After all, there are a lot of territories to be covered, even now, with 3-G. But some attempts stick, others faltered according to an article in Labor newspaper.

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=538113

It stated that some rural households were given all three proprietary sets even when not need-justified.

Join the club! It’s not just Vietnam which tries to catch up. It’s the entire post-industrial world which try to connect 24/7. First the device, then the social network. They are discussing mutation of Web 2.0 such as Meet up when your flight is canceled, or rousing young Mexicans to join a dance to promote tourism etc….(too bad the nude photographer did not have this app available to him when he first got the idea of going from city to city to take “artful” group nude pics).

Some wise doctors even prescribed an office with treadmill and desktop combo to combat obesity, to him, an inevitable result of our information age.

I am not sure how CFO’s will buy-in to HR proposal to equip their offices with not only high-speed computers but also slow-moving treadmills (they have just considered cloud computing to get rid of the servers to save on energy bills, now this?).

It lends new meaning to “sweat equity”. Hawkins is no stranger to tapping his key board while on wheels. The guy has always been prescient (except for understanding what love is).

Wi-fi technology has given ways to a host of application (laptop and latte).

Back to our wasted phone booth and city phone (limited range, with no roaming). These apps have not been widely adopted in Vietnam.

Whoever pitched these products did not foresee the ubiquity and fast roll out of 3-G in Vietnam, hence, death on arrival e.g. S-phone. Once you got a hold of an I-phone, it’s hard to come back to beepers, pay phones and city phones. Owning an I-phone is making a statement i.e. I have arrived.

Observers new to Vietnam are marveled at its rate of  I-phone adoption i.e. how can people own an I-phone which costs nearly 2/3 of their annual income!

The same question was asked not long ago and still raises suspicion when people saw young women on Vespa and other expensive import scooters. Often, they were dismissed as being call girls until those critics themselves could afford these newly price-reduced scooters.

The next wave would be cheap auto imports and other electronics manufactured right there in Vietnam for domestic consumption (Canon and Samsung).

By then, the country will be inundated with industrial waste. And rural households will not only receive all three network termination devices, but also a host of other hand-me-down waste components such as tube TV‘s, desktop computers and even a phone booth, if they want to use is as shelter from the storm. I can’t wait to see people trying to place a 3-G mobile call inside a phone booth in the rain. At least, old technology and new technology can both be put to use in modern Vietnam, where nothing is considered waste.

 

Palm Beach to Palm Springs

I blogged once about “Dakao vs Dalat”.

Today, it’s about Palm Beach to Palm Springs.

Mirror image of each other, and located on the opposite side of the country: palm trees, professional golf and private resorts.

Places exclusive.

Unlike Dakao where even after a relief bridge was finished, traffic and flooding still present a nightmare for commuters of District 1 Saigon.

It boils down to the definition of happiness.

What makes you happy. How much can you live on in old age? Where do you want to live out your golden years.

The Japanese were about to build a colony in Dalat for their retirees, then canceled the  plan.

They had a good run in the 80’s. Now, it’s China’s turn.

Chinese students have graduated en mass from foreign universities. They have learned to harness technology way beyond the fax, which was “hot” back in those Tiananmen Square days (remember Dan Rather, reporting from Beijing).

Out of many, the one. By sheer numbers, China’s 1.3 billion will give rise to a few notable and top achievers (a Yale bio professor already made his commute back and forth to Mainland lab, where acres of species are in cage for him to experiment). The rest already acted out their entrepreneurial instinct by investing in apartment blocks in Arizona and California, which BTW, are holding fire sales and rents are up because of high foreclosure rates in those places.

Between harnessing technology and harnessing human drive to get rich (is glorious), China is poised for the 21st century: solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries, oil exploration and rare minerals exploitation. Gone are the days when you think of China as a country which exports only greasy foods and cheap goods. There exists a huge middle-class  who needs housing like they saw on TV: Newport Beach, or Palm Beach. It must be hard back then (60’s) to be sidelined during the Space race.

After all, it’s the Chinese who first invented fireworks.

Having missed out most of the 20th century, their leaders vowed not to repeat history.

This time, it will be either Palm Beach or Palm Springs and not Palmdale, as their version of the Chinese dream. Already, those Bentley in Beijing certainly proves the point.

A flood of love

Every year, flooding in SE Asia killed people and took away their livelihood.

And every year, people rush out to give materials and their time for reconstruction.

So the mishaps were occasions for the best in humanity, and turn a flood of misery into a flood of love.

Nobody wants to be on the receiving end, unless disaster struck.

And only some are willing to be on the giving end.

It’s more blessed to give than to receive.

But only a few step up to the challenge.

I read somewhere that the billionaire dream team (Gates-Buffett) went to China to drum up supports for their cause – giving back. Social activism is calling on the richest in Asia where fatalism rules. You are born into a cycle not of your own doing, thus, can do nothing to undo it. ( As of this edit, that circus did not turn out well on follow-up.)

Live out the rest of this miserable life without exit.

Accept one’s fate.  This view has prevailed among the bottom billion. Now it is challenged by modernity and global commerce.

The region has seen neck breaking change, and with it, pollution, regulation and corruption.

It remains to be seen that a decade from now, which view (fatalism or self-determinism) will hold water.

Even with a flood of talent in IT, Asia still needs commerce and customers on the global scale to, well, scale.

We don’t know when something reaches critical mass. Like rain itself, it has its own cycle and temperament.

Let’s hope we got the right kind of flooding to lift everyone’s boat. Opportunity likes to dance with those who are already on the floor.

FICO and self

For a small fee, we can take a look of our credit worthiness.

But it takes a long time to realize  self-worthiness.

None among us has the future vantage point to look backward.

We often hear about the magic power of MLM. In good times, yes.

In bad times, those multi “levels” quickly become weakest links.

Big banks and big boys have faced Inquisition of their own.

Even when interest rates nearing zero, the engine still refuses to crank up.

It seems as if the confidence game itself can use a reboot.

The Asian tigers found their FDI level decline.

Now the Fed got money printer’s jam, and China refuses to extend credits (so much for country’s FICO).

Meanwhile, people in places like Singapore can’t get enough “satisfaction”. They are on shopping steroid (and smoke).

I can feel the energy of commerce.

But not at the gym.

People just punch in and go through their motion.

Even Todai dropped its all-you-can-eat prices.

So my recommendation (to myself as well) is to reboot our self-confidence and rebuild our FICO scores.

One step at a time. Until we got wings on our back and feel the sun in our face, “fly robin fly”. Just make sure those wings are not made of wax. All along, remind ourselves that we are worth more than our FICO scores, the same way we love our kids not because they bring home an A+ from school.

From BRIC to VIC

http://www.ukti.gov.uk/de_de/uktihome/pressRelease/117708.html?null

Among the top findings from an UK investment survey (Economist Survey Unit – above), Vietnam, India and China (VIC) are the top three to watch. Other findings by HSBC came up with CIVETs (remember BRIC?): Columbia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and S Africa as stable political markets (as of this edit, you can take out Egypt).

Vietnam itself has held top spot three years in the row (ending in 2010).  It’s GDP growth has teetered above 6 percent, despite the Global Recession we all know too well.

While developed countries move toward a post-consumerism stage, Vietnam barely starts shopping (the size of its supermarket shopping carts says it all – half the size of the likes in Walmart and Costco).

76% over 23%  of  surveyed companies say they plan to adjust (localizing) their product offerings to domestic market as opposed to just offshoring for cost-saving .

IT outsourcing stands just below construction, tourism and retail growth in Vietnam. Thus, HP took notice (it is obtaining a license to invest 18 million dollars in a Quang Trung software park company). Samsung in Bac Ninh just passed its $1 B mark of handset manufacturing and exporting to other countries. Hon Hai also chipped in another $ 5 Billion.

http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4515280

Meanwhile, after years of savings, Chinese are on a buying spree for London properties, the same way the Japanese did in Los Angeles back in the 80’s (remember Michael Douglas in Rising Sun?).

Nikita, the TV show, now casts a Vietnamese-Euro actress with sharp shooting precision (to make a case for Euro-Asian mash).

Apple I- phones are selling well in Vietnam.

It has been obvious that China and India are doing well, manufacturing and service respectively.

Vietnam tries to fit the bill as a CI+1 destination, a low-wage labor market despite its own infrastructure problem.

(a taxi stuck head down in a city pot hole during a recent storm).  Sure, Vietnam has an undeniably long history (1000 years Hanoi), but only one future: it will have to move quickly to reverse brain drain, and beef up its infrastructure to accommodate growth. The higher the FDI inflow, the higher the expectations.

Due to easy loan, Shanghai office buildings faced low occupancy rates.  With increased urbanization comes other consequences.

London urban influx in the 19th century taught us a lot (plague and crime). And the new UK investors’ survey tells cautionary tales about a new century, a new market without improving on old business practices (opium anyone). If so, the top ten on the list will have to fight like gladiators, while the King enjoys his grapes and wine.

I am with sword in hand, ready. Gotta to follow the money.

Love on aisle 13

Inside Wal-Mart, you can find towels, pillows and assorted bath items neatly displayed, aisle by aisle.

Almost all the essential and desirable are available in store and online, but you can not find love on aisle 13. You wish.

http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/business-news-briefs/2010/09/money_cant_buy_me_love_but_it.html

Love and happiness are quite alluding. The more one hunts for them, the further they seem to evade.

So we substitute the tangible for the intangible, towels in the tub for tales of the heart.

When asked,  nearly everyone says he/she was looking for happiness and/or love.

Most would say for sure it’s happiness (love means different  to different people) or the pursuit of it.

Yet we see evidence to the contrary i.e. hate speech, threat of Quran burning, and pastor who plays surveillance against his local strip joint patronage (who finally got enough, and gave him a dose of his own medicine). Welcome to America, land of the free. Welcome to Wal-Mart, shop more save more (not sure about the “live better” part).

Will we find love in our life time? Or its resemblance? Even a glimpse into that castle is good enough. One cannot get the right combination to crack that code i.e. when you are young, you have the energy, and time, but not money. Later, you got some money, energy, but not enough time. And at late stage of life, lots of time, little energy, and the money part is questionable (average life expectancy is now 70, and the age of Social Security entitlement extends to 67. What are you going to do in those last three years? Shop at Wal-Mart and look for romance on aisle 13 as some were purportedly doing).

Happy are those who want, for they shall inherit the Earth. Let’s hope so. Attention Wal-Mart shoppers, we have Roll Back items on aisle 13. Heart-shaped and everything. It symbolizes love, made in China. Call it “golden year specials”.  And you can scan the item yourself, wipe the cart handle yourself, etc…. Thanks for shopping. Did you find everything you need? Love and happiness?  Since you don’t seem to have found it (smaller than a lottery chance), we wish you a good day.

Even for lottery winners, studies show that they file for bankruptcy within a few years. Wealth doesn’t equate with happiness. And certainly not love, which involves another human being of free will. That will freely chooses wealth over want, liberty over loyalty, Tiffany over Target.

OK Miss Hepburn, let’s do breakfast (at Tiffany) before our daily shopping for love on aisle 13.

club elements

To have a good time takes some planning. To organize a dance party for instance.. Yet, here in Saigon, it’s happenin every night of the week, and more so during this festive holiday. Clubbing however is for stress relief. It got sight, smoke, sound and scene.

The feel.

Players know where to go, to spot a “happenin”.

When young, I often organized dance parties. So I know a thing or two about how to create a structure and space for bon vivant.

Energy creates a chain of its likeness. Contagious.

DJ’s, lighting, booze, dance partners, and those at tables nearby and guards, all contributing to success at clubbing.

The rhythm of the night, I want nobody but you, Every move you make etc…

are the must haves.  There is a peak time for every party, when everyone seems to be “in the zone”. A party synergy.

When no table looks at the others, that’s when people lost themselves in “the rhythm of the night”.

I threw a Christmas party in my basement the first Winter at Penn State.

Vietnamese abroaders showed up. We dimmed the lights and gave it a try.

It was cold out, yet warm inside. Young exile men and a few female foreign exchange students, trying to make the best of the situation and occasion.

Here, it’s so commercialized, and cookie-cutter-ed (almost bionic).

But still, if you thrive in clubbing sector, you can survive in business.

It’s purely market-driven and customer-service oriented, albeit young crowd. The good-time business, whose benchmark was set by studio 54.

They don’t use bouncers here. Instead, the uniformed guards circled among the crowd. And they are in your face, to make sure intoxication doesn’t lead to violence. Some clubs even have dancers on stage to catalyze and stir up the pot.

The sound is always deafening.

It’s as if people are trying to scare away the dark.

Las Vegas thrived on Hoover Dam‘s electric supplies. Here in Saigon, occasional black-outs interrupted the party. Don’t worry, we got

power generators, enough for karaoke upstairs.

Don’t be interrupted. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow.

Live, love and laugh. I couldn’t remember where I was until I see the flag which reminded me that I still am in Vietnam, a Vietnam in transition,

with all the right elements in place, club elements.

P.S. As of this edit, the NYT also ran a piece on workers in China went clubbing after hours of assembling those I phones. A few years back, similar article would feature Bangalore‘s call center workers. It’s a logical and predictable outcome of automation, industrialization and human revolt against the machination of it all. The irony is, club elements involve a lot of machines: speakers, turn tables, smoke machines, light switches and fire alarm. Mr Bose, whose name is now the same as best sound system, passed away a few days ago. RIP. Who need more volume, when you can hear just fine, the music that is, and certainly not the conversation. That’s not one of club elements.

 

butterfly in the sky

Amidst traffic and smog, a black/yellow butterfly dances its way through the intersection, bouncing from motor bike to motor bike.

I shouldn’t have paid too much attention to the creature. I need to worry about my safety. But it struck me as odd.

All concrete in the city with only few trees left in old Saigon. Yet we saw a rare beauty. Just like Nha Trang, south of China Beach, where Miss World took place.

But I can’t pass on learning from this creature, whose primal instinct is to survive.

Human beings instead took their own lives (in this recession, it happens a lot). Or like a Vietnamese student studying in Singapore, on her boyfriend’s support. When the well runs dry, she committed suicide and found dead in her closet (her love story and financial support ironically have been well hidden, a closeted affair).

And the Fashion TV channel keeps unveiling many thin couture, very chic.

So, the co-existence of what’s ugly and what’s beautiful, what’s shameful and what’s honorable is a norm.

The Prime Minister of Singapore, on the country’s birthday celebration, touches on this issue: many conflicting interests.

One of his solutions is to allow immigrant workers, unlike Japan who opted for automation over immigration.

Meanwhile, in Vietnam, tourists’ expectations are varied.  Many are from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Singapore. Hence, inter-regional business interests arise naturally due to proximity. Reverse tourist flow has also been on the rise. One of these days, the imbalance in trade and tourism will find its equilibrium, and incidents such as dorm-room closet suicide will be a rarity. For now, going abroad to nearby countries,  to study, to settle and to sight-see have been and will be a boost to the ego: look at me, I have it made. Let’s book that regional flight and shop til we drop. Long live luxury goods and those can afford them. High living and up-stairs living. The once-colonies now turn new crops of shopper colonialists.

Who gives a damn about wolves in Mongolia, or butterflies in Dalat? Just cut down those trees and make ways for the flow of goods made else where to come and conquer. The shoppers are invited foreign elements in. No need for Trojan horse.

Even butterfly wants to swing out of the congested situation, much less the nouveaux riches who never seem to run out of options to shop.

 

Happiness all around

If I were the man who sold my company for almost a Billion dollars, I would go off to Rock concerts around the world, instead of sitting down to write a book.

But Zappos former CEO thinks differently. He wants to go on a crusade. That crusade is to “deliver happiness”.

Moving people up the Maslow‘s scale, customers and employees alike.

Bezos saw the potential in Zappos.

So they deliver shoes with return/exchange No Question asked.

Nordstrom in a box.

Shoes and ties used to be made in Italy.

Now in China.

As the costs of production go down, competition goes up, companies like Zappos-now-Amazon, deliver the intangible “and the shoes is you”.

Verizon’s campaign “you rule the air” resonates “Empire of the Air” (back then, it refers to radio spectrum).

So, we are down to ads which speak of either You or I (Ipad, I phone).

What happens to He or She? or the Softer side of Sears?

BTW, the World Cup field invader was a T-shirt designer from Italy (Superman shirt).

Superman will be detained in South Africa long after this Sunday’s final is over (perhaps to help w/ super clean-up of the very field he invaded).

Poetic justice.

Back to Zappos. From top to toes, the only item that needs try on the most is shoes. Yet Zappos manages to turn this rule of thumb on its head: go ahead and put them on. Order online, we deliver and keep delivering until the shoes are fit.

Who would have thought of that (maybe besides Victoria Secret).

Imagine Playboy with similar campaign: “go ahead and view the video. And if you are not satisfied for any reason – 3D version included – you can return and money back guaranteed. Oh, must be 18 to order (but not to view).

So, modern-day success stories come back to old day success stories; keep the employees happy, in turn, keep the customers happy, which lead to happy stakeholders. In Zappos’ case, Sequoia Capital.

Starbucks plundered a bit until Howard Shultz is back at the helm (Apple and Dell both had similar epiphany).

What they should have done is “deliver happiness”, then sold to Amazon, then wrote a book which in turn is delivered by Amazon who bought the company in the first place. This time, it’s in both Kindle version and in print. Happiness in a box or in bits. China is taking a chapter from this playbook. It has to deal with workers’ demand.

Unhappy workers make for unhappy customers. Ford learned this early in his “Wheels for the world” dream. He paid people decent wage and turned them into customers.

Happiness all around.

tricycle economy

Easy to propel forward. Easy to stop and stand still.

No fear of falling (gravity) and no incentive to pedal forward (inertia).

The blessing and curse of a stimulus-dependent economy.

To move  forward, one needs to fight both gravity and inertia.

An extra wheel offers the illusion that things are stable and safe. But it does not create momentum.

If we start with Apple and ATT network, then where are the “B”‘s companies which are the engines of growth? BP?

Then we got C for China. They are going to play soccer today on world’s stage.

This comes after their space exploration and oil exploration.

China has government subsidies as well, But it empowers the province level to bid for businesses.

And if we skipped to S, we have Singapore. And it is a success story there.

Singapore now allows casinos. But only after it opened to tons of industries and foreign companies with rep offices.

Singapore economy is not run on three-wheels.

When you are busy, like Apple having sold 1.7 million I-phones 4 in a  few days, you don’t rely on third wheel, or any wheel.

You start flying, on adrenaline. Confidence feeds itself. Fear of falling on this side of  winning keeps one humble, but not from moving forward.

The wheel needs to come off to return our economy to a fast-moving Tour-de-Lance. G-20 countries seem to agree. Our muscles will be sore.

It will be good for us because muscles toned are muscles healed. Just another paradox.

Other countries, like China, have to struggle with limited language, limited natural resources and limited world trade (it barely joined WTO at the turn of the century), yet it hums along. Hence, besides IQ, EQ and SQ, we will need CQ (not the magazine, but C for confidence. Yes, we can). History tends to reward those who tried and failed than those who failed to try. We need that frontier mentality. Bold thinking, ballsy moves and gut-level execution. Time to take off that extra wheel.