From Cool Kenya to Hot Hong Kong

Wow, what a change of scenery it has been.

- 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!

Reunion and Rematch

If you thought things would slow down after we had the last class on Friday, think again. At least it has not been the case so far.


Saturday morning was kicked off with a Career Services session where four alumni told the stories about their job search and answered questions from the class. From left it is Patrick Wang (MBA2007), OJ Skjelten (MBA2007), Mathieu Pointeau (MBA2008) and Thomas Buus (MBA2007). The overall message of their experiences were: 'Be focused and be prepared!'

The afternoon was spent doing mock-up interviews with a number of alumni who had volunteered to act as interviewers. The aim was to practise our skills of being interviewed and get some feedback, so we know what to improve in the future. And so we did! I had my interview with Dr. Peter Walti from the MBA class of 1979! Although his class is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Dr. Walti still attends the interviewing session every year. That is the commitment of the IMD network.



Until this point we had occasionally met alumni or had contacted them using the alumni database in connection with our startup projects, but we had as such not really felt the proclaimed strength of the alumni network. That changed completely Saturday evening, where the school hosted a networking event for our class to meet the alumni. More than 200 people showed up! Time flew by until my back and my feet started telling me that I had been standing around talking for five hours straight! For many of the alumni this was also a small reunion with many of their old classmates. Judging from the many hugs that were exchanged they had clearly made friends for life during their year at IMD.

Today Sunday was the day for the long awaited rematch between the 2008 and 2009 classes. On 16 April this year the 2008 class had suffered a humiliating 5-0 defeat so there was much at stake.



The 2008 team including some reinforcements.



The 2009 team including reinforcements from the 2003 and 2007 classes.


The game is on! It was very even and after one and a half hours of play the score was 2-2. In the last minutes before the whistle the 2008'rs attacked with a quick rush to the goal line by Janislav Marinovic [Chile]. Janislav put in a cross to Paul Holmes who scored the winning goal to 3-2. There are, however, witnesses that claim that the ball was out of bounds before it was sent across and that the goal therefore should be annulled. In the spirit of the game the 2008'rs were given the benefit of the doubt and thereby the victory.

This incident has certain similarities to the 1966 FIFA World Cup Final where England met West Germany. In extra time Geoff Hurst hits the crossbar and the ball bounced down on or just behind the goal line. England was awarded the goal by the linesman, but despite much subsequent technical analysis and discussion the two nations have never been able to settle the issue. You can read about it here or watch the video here.

The 2008 and 2009 classes do not want any ambiguity about the results, so a new date was immediately set. On 28 August the two teams will thus face each other again in what likely will be the final showdown!


After the match the partners had arranged for a lunch around the ping-pong tables in Parc de Milan.


Here it is Ryo Abe [Japan and MBA 2009] getting a bite.


3 x MBA2007! In the middle is Sergiy [Ukraine] who plays with us every Sunday. I unfortunately never got the names of the other two gentlemen.


Angela Akamine with a tired son!

Thank you to all of you that coordinated, cooked, transported and in any other way helped make this event so great:
Andres Akamine
Angela Akamine
Barbara Martin (MBA office)
Angelika Vytogiannis
Myriam Vacher
Aude Tavernier
Beate Gensel
Kanika Lakhwani
Chris Eaborn