- From dry and cool (22C) Kenya to hot and very humid Hong Kong.
- From the dusty roads of the Nairobi to the busy waters between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.
- From the bunk beds on Ngong road to the 8th floor on Harbour Plaza hotel.
- From the desperate poverty of the Kibera slum to the Ferraris and high rise office buildings.
- From the wide and bright laughs of the Kenyan’s to the complete absence of even just a little smile from the people of Hong Kong.
It is amazing that you can travel between two such extreme contrasts in less than a day. Kenya was a first for me and so is Hong Kong, so I have the privilege of exploring them both with eyes that have not yet been coloured by experience and opinion. The only things I can see that they have in common are that they were British colonies and that they therefore drive in the wrong (left) side of the road and use the same electrical plugs.
In Friday’s diary entry I asked why Kenya is so underdeveloped, when there are so many smart and hard working people in the country. A number of different Kenyan’s (from old colleagues to the taxi driver that took me to the airport) have replied to that questions and they all say the same:
What Kenya is lacking is leadership!
What they mean by that is that the Kenyan government is too busy lining their own pockets to help their country develop. There is no doubt in my mind that if Kenya had a Nelson Mandela they would leap out of poverty as quickly as South Africa is doing it. They already have everything else that it takes.
The next two weeks there are no classes and no project. The time is reserved for job hunt and on-campus-recruiting (known as OCR) where a large number of companies will come on campus to conduct interviews. I will be spending those days in a somewhat different way, though.
I have chosen to start my own company upon graduation and am therefore working on a business plan that I aim to have ready in November. I have conducted most of the operational analysis, but now I need to know whether the customers will want to buy such a product at all. That is why I am in Hong Kong!
An old friend of mine (a Belgian that I met in Indonesia, who now lives in Hong Kong. Long story, I know) is hosting a networking meeting for 50 people from 28 countries that all are potential future customers of mine. They are here to get to know each other and I am here to get to know them. The networking meeting will run over the next two days. Tomorrow they will do a lot of short 5-10 minutes presentations and Tuesday morning I have been given a 15-minute slot to present my idea. It is obviously a truly unique opportunity to be able to pitch your idea for fifty customer representing most of the world. I am not doing a sales pitch, though, but am purely here to get an idea of what it is I need to deliver for them to buy my product. To truly understand your customer, as they say.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I have set up a number of other meetings with potential customers and a supplier in Hong Kong and Shenzen. Over the weekend I will move to Singapore, where I have set up a number of similar meetings. Sounds expensive, but with the exception of these first three days (where I need to stay at the hotel for the networking meeting) I will be staying with old friends, so it is actually not that bad.
All day today I have been working on my presentation for Tuesday and the questionnaire for the subsequent interviews, so I have not seen anything of Hong Kong yet. I hope I can find some time on Saturday to do that.
Now I better call my girlfriend and go to bed. The jetlag has hit me harder this time than it usually does.
Thorsten
Welcome to the worlds second largest container port!
This is the view from my hotel. Notice the constant fog. It is very, very humid here. 
Exactly the same skyline, just taken at night. Hong Kong is one big island of colourful light!
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