Tag: Valentine Day

If you could read my heart

In Eastern cultures, one relies on traditional matchmakers to “read” marriage prospects.

Online, we’ve got eHarmony.com or Match.com.

Over job interviews, we rely on body language, off-guard remarks and (in)consistencies to form an impression and to determine candidate’s culture-fit.

If only could you read my heart.

How are we to determine his/her reaction after the learning curve? We don’t.

But there are a few principles:

– one tends to act consistently with his or her own internal set of standard

– we subscribe to a social compact

– we seek to preserve a long-term win-win balance i.e. cheating doesn’t pay

– collaboration leads to synergy which in turn feeds the virtuous cycle

– we seek to need-fulfill from the bottom of the Maslow scale up (survival first).

I never forget the Northridge quake, when we couldn’t get to work.

Co-workers, Hispanic, Korean, American, Vietnamese, Chinese (Los Angeles office), were all “quake victims”.

Apparently, there was something bigger than ourselves (and our ethnic make-ups).

We cared for one another as fellow human beings and shared inhabitants of this fragile planet Earth.

If they could have read my heart then.

So, on this Valentine Day, may we – co-workers – assume first the role of fellow inhabitants: from the inner ring loved ones to the outer ring – the human family: black, brown and white.

Once that social compact is bought in, it is easier to work with someone, to empathize and to collaborate. Test your candidate, see what planet he/she is from. Does he/she even feel at all? Respect at all? Or just go about “doing my job” regardless. No man’s island. Especially on Valentine’s Day.

Living in horror shop

This Valentine Day, Vietnam dating scene will be scary!

That is, if they picked  “House in the Alley” for a date movie.

Dan rented a house in District 3, and during the course of trying to find the right film treatment, discovered something about the house in the alley which he had rented (French villa).

http://t.co/NOmCihEI

I shared a Chamber of Commerce dinner with Dan not too long ago. We discussed films such as Joyeux Noel (WWI cease-fire for soldiers to celebrate Christmas. Opposite sides crawled out of their fox holes to fraternize on this snowy holiday in peace and brotherhood. No animosity, just humanity).

Dan’s knowledge and passion for movies clearly showed even then.

Or else, why would a Venture Capitalist decided to “risk”” a chunk of change to produce something that is scarry to him, financially!

I wish him all the success.

Superstition is alive and well, everywhere, but more predominantly in Vietnam, still an agricultural society (the long-breasted ghost tale..)

Now, even ghosts move to the city, and occupy the alley.

I live in the Alley (see Moon Alley).  After three-months here, I can pass as native and not banana (yellow outside, white inside).

My survival instincts long dormant start to kick in when I feel danger or threat.

You gotta to be on your guard, but not to the point of “throwing the baby out with the bath water”.

Dan and his crew (even him got lonely and called me on New Year‘s day) just have to exercise their imagination and creativity.

But, the impact I suspect will be greater for Viet Kieu overseas, since it will carry an underlying theme of nostalgia (missing even the ghosts one had left behind).

I guess, the worst case scenario for Dan is to break even, with interests paid in Underworld dollars.

They burned a lot of those last week, I heard, even I-pads, for the dead to “live” (no punt intended) in digital and 3-D.

One can hardly be lonely, not when living in a Vietnam’s alley.

Underneath is Love

Companies outsource Y2K tech work, then while at it, their software development.

From manufacturing to marketing, R&D to customer care , jobs went overseas to cut costs.

Then we tout culture-building, crowd-sourcing etc…

The truth is, we did not care about our customers or corporate culture.

Yet, it’s culture that reinforces brand.

Weak corporate culture links to weak brand.

From Zippo to Zappos, we see that companies which care always win in the end.

Apple is sitting on a mountain of cash ( near Mountain View) while the FED is predicting another 18 months to full recovery.

The economy has been divorced from life, as if mathematics could exist without math teachers.

Beginning students can tell you that far from it, economics is closely linked to real life (Valentine Day spending? Teacher’s Day bouquet).

We have focused on the transactions and not the people doing the buying and selling.

Great companies know how to get the right mix of technology (efficiency) to free up its people for customer care (effectiveness).

Zappos deliberately designs its work space to foster collaboration and fun culture.

In-and-Out Burger championed a work ethic second to none (mouth-watering double-double).

Customers are intelligent creatures.

As we outsource, automate and streamline our workload, let’s keep it in-house the customer care department.

Customers are not kids to be sent to day care. They call because they have some concerns that need immediate resolution.

When done right, these are our evangelists and advocates. Millions of these transactions will turn complaints into compliments.

Want to ride the wave to the mountain (of cash)? Love the ones you have. They are still the ones who are easier to keep than acquire.