Q & A

I am sitting at the Starbucks in the new giant ION shopping centre on the fancy Orchard Road in Singapore. The whole ground floor is packing with brand new stores with Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Armani, Patek Philippe and the likes. From the ground floor the mall goes four stories DOWN, not up. In the basement there is the typical Asian food court. I got myself a ‘Nasi kuning ayam merah’ which is Indonesian and/or Malay for ‘Yellow rice with red chicken’. Another reminder of the good ol’ times in Indonesia.

Yesterday I treated myself to a trip to the movies. I used to do it regularly, but it is almost a year ago I went last time. I saw Tarantino’s latest creation ‘Inglorius basterds’ about an American Jewish hit squad working under cover in Nazi occupied France. As usual with Tarantino you leave the cinema with a funny feeling. It leaves you thinking, but you don’t really know about what, because the movie did not teach you anything. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my first evening off in weeks and the first movie theatre trip in a year. And I did not even fall asleep!

My trip here in Asia is coming to an end. I have a meeting tomorrow for lunch and tomorrow evening I head back to Europe. The trip has been an intense learning experience, as intense as a week of building blocks at IMD. Hong Kong overwhelmed me with a lot of new questions and things to consider while Singapore answered a lot of these questions. The reason being that in Hong Kong I mostly met customers, who listed an endless amount of requirements I would have to fulfil if they were to buy my product. In Singapore I mostly met suppliers who offered solutions that I did know existed and I met seasoned industry experts who could give me the high level perspective on the forces in the industry.

My parents are right now working their way down from Denmark to Lausanne by car. We agreed that they should pick me up on the way in whatever airport whereto I could get a convenient (=cheap) flight. That ended up being Frankfurt, so they will pick me up there Thursday morning and we will drive to Lausanne together. I look forward to seeing them again. I actually even look forward to driving with them to Lausanne. It reminds me of the trips in Germany we used to do as a family when I was a kid.

In half an hour I will meet an old colleague at Harris’ on Robertson Walk. Almost exactly one year ago this was where I met my coming classmates Henry Low (Singapore) and Sylvain Cabalery (France) for the first time. It seems like it was only yesterday we were sitting there at the high tables outside the bar enjoying a cold beer. On the other hand, if I look at how much has happened since, how much I have learned and how differently I think, it seems like it must be ages ago. Who did this to me? :-)