Thanksgiving

Fall is always my favorite season. It is colorful, mellow and relaxing. A good year’s efforts would give you the sense of accomplishment. People like results and celebrations. And they like to share. Share their stories, their feelings and their opinions. This is the beginning of the season of celebrations and giving. We give our compliments, write the over due congratulation notes or simply say thank you to everyone around us. It makes the difference.

Recently I read about “China’s Me Generation” in the Time magazine. “Young Chinese are the drivers and chief beneficiaries of the country’s current boom: according to a recent survey by Credit Suisse, the incomes of 20- to 29-year-olds grew 34% in the past three years, by far the biggest of any age group. And because of their self-interested, apolitical pragmatism, they could turn out to be the salvation of the ruling Communist Party – so long as it keeps delivering the economic goods. Survey young, urban Chinese today, and you will find them drinking Starbucks, wearing Nikes and blogging obsessively”. This is hardly anything we could have imagined 16 years ago when I left China. But somehow, we have contributed to this, at least for me by working for American consumer companies who have the mission to penetrate the Chinese markets. Now these 300 million adults in China under age 30, noticeably about the total population of the United States, are growing into the main force of production and consumption. The impact is to be global.

Now I personally have transitioned from marketing products to providing services, specifically executive consulting and coaching. The question is how to make global best practice relevant to the Chinese markets. A year and a half ago, at LeapFrog, we worked with a local Chinese partner to localize software titles. This relationship ended. And I am no longer at the company. But the processes and development know-how stayed. The Chinese software developer learned the best practice by striving to meet higher standard set by LeapFrog. They would not have got that far if their goal was just to make it good enough for their local customers. They were forced to change old habits and established better processes through the working relationship with LeapFrog producers. I wonder whether they would have paid for the training instead of having been paid for completing the job. Learning by doing has been the best practice in China.

Benefiting from the inflow of direct investments, technology and talents, Chinese economy has been growing like no other. And we somehow are all contributing to it by pursuing opportunities, which we believe will pay off. I was told during my last visit in Beijing at a university “There is money everywhere here. It is just a matter how you pick it up”. Sounds exciting! And look at the list of companies gone public or waiting in the pipeline, you cannot help thinking it is just incredible. Specifically, I am happy for Perfect World (NASDAQ: PWRD) and Acorn (NYSE: ATV) since I had the pleasure knowing their leaders in the past.

There are gaps to be filled with more talents needed to sustain the growth and move the economy up the supply chain with more innovation, better quality and less waste. Taking a long path away from home and learning many lessons in different places, I wonder where the life journey will take me next. Somehow if I can be helpful to bring soft skills to the new leaders and workforce in China, it would be a great thrill. But you never know whether you are just a little too early for the market when you see what others don’t see. The basic principle of demand and supply presents a challenge to be where you are needed at the right time.

Now taking a break from work, I want to say thank you to all the old friends and new ones. It is Thanksgiving time. Although it is a very American centric holiday, I do feel it is a good tradition to express gratitude to others and be thanked for whatever. I am grateful for the positive energy I possessed and shared in my life, and for my two darling children David and Lily. I am happy for the lucky “Golden Pig” babies that joined us this year, Jake Wang and Daoyuan Chi, just to name two. Two family weddings in May, Jody and Chris respectively got married! And I am most thankful for Jeff’s job at the Alameda County because he is so happy there…

One Month Note to My Friends

It is September 21st. An important milestone for me. I have to say it felt like a long time since my last day at LeapFrog, which was exactly a month a ago. And I feel bad that I did not write to my dear friends, or have coffee, lunch… All the nice things I wished to do at my departure.

Not sure how many of you know that I have started at Pivotal Resources, inc., an executive consulting and coaching firm in Walnut Creek, CA. I am the Vice President of China Operations. Yes, I took a portrait picture just like an executive. I actually took two (out of over 20 shots) back to the office. The one won the vote was my pick (vs. the photographer's). Talking about culture and fit. I felt great about it here! Thanks to Laura Garnier! She introduced me to Pete Pande, the President of Pivotal, a well-known author of books such as The Six Sigma Leader, The Six Sigma Way and What is Six Sigma, and a great mentor.

I got my first Apple PowerBook G4, but a hand-down repaired Laptop… It was a long story. There is no IT department or travel agent here. Now I know how spoiled I was. I am writing this note on the Mac on the way home from Las Vegas. To learn about the new arena, I attended the Lean Six Sigma Improvement Summit 2007, a conference at the Venetian. I proudly booked my Southwest Airline flights online. Used to long flights across the Pacific Ocean, I was excited about this 1-hour plus journey. Should be easy. Well, I missed the flight while sitting in front of the gate for almost 2 hours READING! Never figured out why the plane just left without me but my checked-in bag. It could never happen on United to Tokyo. I panicked while the smiling Southwest agent issued me a new boarding pass and assured me that my suitcase will be in Vegas waiting for me at their luggage office when I get there on the next flight. Yes, he was right although I couldn’t help questioning him twice. What a relief! Do they use Six Sigma process management?

Met a Japanese attendee at the conference during the first-day lunch. He’s from NEC in charge of “New Solution Development”. It’s his first time in Vegas. He exclaimed what a STRANGE city it is. “It is so artificial. It’s like a big Disneyland…” He couldn’t understand! He said it’s all amusement. It reminded me of Japanese amusement industries… Nintendo, Sega… I thought it was crazy at the Tokyo Toy Fair when there’s so much noise, so many action figures and characters and games after games. It’s all about perspectives. An attendee from US Army told me that it was fun just watching people in the casinos. You can learn so much just watching human behavior.

One thing I learned was life is not about take actions for the sake of taking actions. We were so busy with our action items back at LeapFrog. I saw so many changes there that life without crises and changes could make me uneasy nowadays. WOW. How bad is that? So forgive me if I drove you crazy in the old days. Now I am learning a lot everyday by reading, watching others, talking with very smart people… not taking much action yet honestly. I know it’ll happen. And I am planning to take some small steps first when the strategy is in place. It is such a diversified, talented and supportive team of people! I am very fortunate to be on a new learning journey so soon. It is a thrill working with Laura here. We have so much fun together. Please feel free to visit us at www.pivotalresources.com or better yet in Walnut Creek with so many great places to hang out.

Almost forgot to mention that David started kindergarten right after Labor day. He is the tallest in his class. Lily is now potty trained. She misses David terribly at the preschool and asks to go to David's school from time to time. Our aquarium has been prospering. So far 3 baby fishes were born and they are happily growing up. It is a good sign, right? But no more kids for us. Jeff agrees. We just had our 7th Anniversary while I was by myself at the conference in Vegas. I treated myself to the Phantom of Opera. No matter how many times I watch it, I am always fascinated by the music and performance. May God bless us with love through the rest of our lives. Happy anniversary!

P.S. This is my first blog as part of my first month learning. There may not be another one. What do you think?