MY MBA LIFE

一轉眼已經是十一月底了, 看了一下上一篇文章的日期已經兩個月, 其實真的不是我要偷懶, 而是第一個學期的一切都把我壓的喘不過氣來. 稱著今天晚上有點空檔, 跟大家報告一下吧!!

1. Case Method
以前在台灣常常聽到個案教學, 心裡完全不知道這個有什麼屌的. 到了IESE我終於體驗到它的可怕, 因為每天兩到三個case大概都要花我四到六個小時準備, 搭配本校嚴謹的點名制度, 上課發言品質跟頻率的評分方式, 以及抓最後10%的品管概念, 每天的作息跟打戰基本上沒有太大的差別:
0700起床吃飯
0740出門
0820到校
0830小組會議, 討論完當天上課的case
0945第一堂課
1100第二堂課
1230中飯, 不時出現公司的presentation, 常常只能咬著冷冷的bocadillo, 草草結束中飯
1400第三堂課
1530西文課(星期一到四)
1700下課
扣掉回家, 吃飯, 打屁, 喘息的時間基本上都是在準備case. 當然也可以擺爛啦, 只是上課就很難講出什麼像樣的東西, 早上小組討論也沒什麼貢獻, 我只能說這樣的課程設計真是一絕!!!! 但是沒有興趣者, 請勿輕易嘗試 @_@

2. Summer Internship
另外一個重頭戲就是找暑期的工作, 這個部份相當的妙, 因為你剛進來唸MBA沒多久, 投資銀行跟管理顧問的工作申請截止日期就在眼前, 不過好險學校有拖了七十幾間公司, 花了三天的時間來跟我們好好接觸一下, 大家被迫對下了決定, 在11/20之前完成了Consulting & Investment Banking的暑期工作申請. 接下來就是漫長的等待. 當然明年開始還陸陸續續有產業的工作機會出現, 大家也是隨時保持警覺, 看到機會就準備攻擊, 我只能說這裡簡直是非洲大草原啊!!!!

我呢? 去了一趟學校的倫敦銀行之旅, 我決定專注在顧問公司的機會上, 加上語言能力的考量, 最好的落點應該會是在Dubai: 一個我ㄧ輩子沒有想過我會去的地方, 哈哈哈! 但是我總是會全力實踐我理性分析的結果, 希望這次我的分析也可以幫我自己找到一個正確的切入點.

3.Personal Life
雖然我常跟大家開玩笑我住在IESE, 不住在Barcelona, 但是週末的生活還是要安排一下, 郊區之旅, Home Party, 當地美食是一定要安排一下的, 也很感謝親愛的Kay寶貝幫我們兩個的聖誕假期規劃了西班牙南部跟葡萄牙之旅. 我個人可是相當期待離開壓力鍋的日子呢!

短短兩個多月, 其實有更多的感觸在心中, 有苦有樂, 我相信這一切都會內化變成我的一部份, 陪著我走接下來的日子, 人生不就是應該這樣用力去嘗試, 用心去體會.

大家呢? 你們過得還好嗎?

!Mi primera presentacion Espanola!

From 8/30 untill today, I has spent most my days studying spanish in IESE and preparing the upgrading test at home.Why do I have to torch myself like this? Because I am the only one speaking chinese in my classroom, which mean I am the only one whose mother tongue has no connection with Spanish. There are Italian, France, German, Holland, USA, Polland and Philipine in the class, and their languages all have some connections with Spanish becasue of all kinds of reasons. They can always use imagination or association to find out the meaning of a word or a phrase. But for me, everything is new. However, it is really a rewarding experience to take this kind of challenge since I really improve quite a lot in this short period of time. Although my speaking and listening still suck, I am able to know more business spanish vocabularies, phrases, sentence stuctures and even some terminologies. Moreover, I can read some articles on the news paper to kill some time every morning on my way to school.

Yesterday I just finished my first Spanish presentation and would like to put the draft on my blog to remind myself of the pasion I have right now. Stick there and feel the difference. Every second does count.

Que es Taiwan? (What is Taiwan?)
1.La introduccionPosicion – al sureste de China
2.habitantes – 23 millones mas o menos
3.Lengua – Mandarina y Taiwanes. (Parecida a la relacion entre Castellano y Catalan)
4.Las ciudades importantes – Taipei, Hsing-tsu, Tai-chun y Kao-hsiung.
5.La relacion con China – Despues de la batalla interna en los 40, el gobierno vino a Taiwan. 6. Aunque no ha sido independiente hasta hoy, tenemos gobierno propio y elegimos el presidente.

La economia que debeis saber. (The economy that you have to know)
1.Es el mas importante fabricante de productos eletricos
2.Taiwan fabrica el 85% de ordenadores portatiles, la mayoria de las partes de ordenadores y otros productos electricos para todo el mundo.
3.Las marcas más famosas del mundo – Acer, Pc-clinic, Asus, BenQ, HTC y muchas otras empresas fabrican productos para las marcas internacionales.
4.De OEM a ODE y de “Hecho en Taiwan” a “Hecho por Taiwan”
5.Para alcanzar los beneficios mas altos, muchas empresas empiezan a crear sus marcas propias. Ademas, trasladan las fabricas a China, India, America Sur y otros lugares con coste mas bajo. Para dirigir el sistema grande y internacional, las empresas empiezan a buscar los mejores empleados del mundo.

Cosas Interesantes (Intersting things)
Aunque tiene montanas bonitas, playas espectaculares, campos maravillosos, y otros recursos naturales. Yo quiero presentar tres cosas muy interesantes para todos.

1.Museo Palacio (Palace Museum)
- Historia. Cuando el gobierno vino a Taiwan, trajo todas las obras a Taiwan tambien. Despues, contruyó el Museo Palacio en el norte de Taipi para exponer las obras.

- Las diferencias entre Museo Palacio de Taipei y Museo Palacio de Bei-king. El palacio de Bei-king es muy famoso. Pero no tiene obras importantes y preciosas como tiene el Museo Palacio de Taipei ahora, todas estan en Museo Palacio de Taipei.

- La obra de arte china más preciosa del mundo. Muchas obras fueron realizadas hace quinientos anos. Estan hechas por los artistas más famosos en la historia de China. Son muy antiguas y unicas.

2.Mercado de Noche (Night market)
- Hay muchos tipos de comidas Taiwanesa y Chinas. Se puede probar el sabor
local al mejor precio.

- Hay muchas tiendas para comer, para jugar, para comprar. Se puede pasar
toda noche en el mercado de noche.

- Cada noche para todo el mundo. Se pueden encontrar algunos mercados de
noche en todas las esquinas de Taiwan. En algunos campos el mercado de noche es
el centro de la vida de los vecinos.

3.Cultural de Nuez de areca (Betel nuts culture)
- Un negocio con mucho beneficio
¿Que es Nuez de areca?
¿Porque los consumidores quieren comerlo? Revitalizante

- Es un negocio competitivo debido a muchas caracteristicas.
*Las tiendas contratan a senoritas de Nuez de areca para atraer a los consumidores – los chicos que conducen un taxi o camion.
*Construye un negocio Nuevo para los modistas – disenarn ropa unica para las senorita de Nuez de areca. Las tiendas presentan ropa con temas diferentes cada estacion. Ahora los consumidores no estan comprando el producto solo. Estan comprando la marca y la imagen de la tienda.
*Sitios turísticos – cada vez más a los extranjeros les gusta visitar las tiendas de Nuez de areca y mirar a las senorita Nuez de areca. Nuez de areca no es solo un negocio interno sino también un negocio internacional.

Everyone can cook!!!!

俗話說的好民以食為天, 在巴塞三餐怎麼吃變成一件我跟老婆的重大課題, 我們比較喜歡在家裡自己料理, 一方面外食的成本實在太高, 二方面我們也比較習慣口感較清淡的菜餚, 這個在巴賽的餐廳是不大容易找到的...哈哈!!!

平常都是老婆擔任大廚, 我在旁邊幫忙洗菜跟切菜, 一起分擔每天重要的三餐, 這個週末為了犒賞老婆平日煮菜的辛勞, 我決定擔任大廚, 讓她可以休息一下. 這邊就跟大家介紹一下我們星期六中午的菜色.

1. 橙汁豬排
- 一般來說豬排都是用炸的, 但因為炸很麻煩, 我決定改用煎的, 我用奶油將豬排的表面煎到有點酥後, 就至於一旁備料.
- 橙汁部份, 首先先將薑, 蒜以及洋蔥爆香, 之後加入醬油燉煮至醬汁滾燙, 接著到入現擠的新鮮橙汁以及少許的新鮮切絲橙皮, 蓋上鍋蓋悶煮一分鐘.
- 最後將排骨置入醬汁當中悶煮, 入味, 這個料理就完成了.

新鮮的現擠橙汁跟橙皮切絲讓整道菜有著很特殊的田園風味

2. 洋蔥磨菇大蒜花椰菜大混戰
- 先將磨菇切片, 洋蔥切絲, 大蒜切片(我大約用了一顆, 喜歡的人可以加更多), 花椰菜去硬皮.
- 洋蔥跟大蒜進行爆香, 同時加入大量的黑胡椒, 務必充分將洋蔥跟大蒜的香味逼出來, 但不可以有焦黑的狀況, 所以建議全程都要適時的翻攪; 爆香完畢後, 加入適量的醬油, 蓋上鍋蓋進行燉煮.
- 燉煮的同時, 將花椰菜用為波爐加熱後, 擺設在盤子的中央.
- 燉煮約兩分鐘後, 將磨菇切片全數到入, 進行翻攪, 確定磨菇與醬汁充分混合後, 在蓋上鍋蓋悶煮一分鐘.
- 最後將洋蔥大蒜磨菇到入盤中, 圍繞著花椰菜, 這場大混戰就結束啦.

洋蔥大蒜磨菇三種新鮮素材的味道混合在一起真的滿妙的! 再加上中間清爽的花椰菜, 口感也很平衡.

3. 西班牙特產: Melon
- 這在西班牙是一個相當普遍的水果, 形狀長長的瓜類, 隨便挑都好吃, 吃完中餐在享用這道清爽甜美的水果, 真的是週末最棒的享受啦!!

口感很像台灣的哈密瓜, 但是又更清甜一點!

就像料理鼠王說的: Everyone can cook!! 今天的料理老婆給了非常高的評價, 我自己也吃的很開心, 我想只要有心人人都可以享受到煮飯的樂趣, 最重要的是你可以了解美食真的是拉近大家距離最好的東西之ㄧ!! Que buena la comida!!

巴賽遊客日記

八月是整個巴賽最悠閒的月份, 因為當地居民都離開這裡去放一個月的大假, 整個城市基本上除了遊客之外, 沒有什麼人氣. 加上今天又是國定假日, 我連西文課都不用上, 所以跟老婆決定從當地居民的角色變成外來遊客, 去看看巴賽著名的景點. 查了查地圖, 剛好我們家附近就有Parc Guell以及Casa Vincent, 決定就從這兩個景點開始玩玩, 接下來就跟大家分享一下這兩個景點.

Parc Guell
首先先簡單介紹一下誰是Guell, 這位人兄是個有錢的傢伙, 也是支助Gaudi的金主, 他出錢給Gaudi建了許許多多重要的建築物, Parc Guell就是Guell為上流社會所規劃的公園, 現在已經變成免費參觀的重要景點. Gaudi在這個公園充分表現他最擅長的技巧 - 採用自然元素作為設計的理念跟表現方式, 所有的建築物外觀幾乎都不是方正的形狀, 上面拼貼的也都是色彩繽紛且形狀多變的磁磚, 而且在公園較後方的石頭建築物也是以"自土地長出的樹根"最為表現的方式, 營造出一個很不可思議的視覺效果. 最特別的是在這個偌大的公園裡, 有很多的街頭藝人各據一塊地方進行表演, 有古典吉他, 爵士樂, 哈瓦那樂團等等, 讓大家逛到一半可以停下來欣賞高水準的音樂, 真的是一個很棒的享受.

下面是我要跟大家分享的照片跟我的感想

最有名的"流口水蜥蜴 ", 從他口中流出的冰涼清水是所有遊客拿來降暑的最愛.

公園的門口, 一進門就可以看到Gaudi令人贊嘆的建築風格, 以及數量驚人的世界各地遊客. 由於Parc Guell的位子在偏北的山坡上, 可以清楚地看到整個巴賽的風貌, 非常壯觀.

巴賽有多熱, 看看地攤熱銷的中國扇子就知道!!


粉紅色的Gaudi博物館

形狀不規則所製造出來的視覺震撼, 令人印象深刻

Casa Vincent

這是個有錢又有文化素養的閒人, 請Gaudi幫忙設計的屋子, 所以基本上它是個私人財產, 大家就只能在屋子的外面參觀, 瞻仰它的神奇. Casa Vincent其實是在一個很平常的巴賽小巷子裡面, 旁邊就是一般的公寓, 甚至還有藥局, 很難想像這樣壯觀的古蹟就位在尋常的巷弄之中, 真的是很屌!!!

Casa Vincent全貌

近照可以清楚看到建築物上繁複精采的線條, 真的很難想像這個工程的浩大跟難度.

有多美? 連老婆都主動說要跟Casa Vincent照相.

從鐵門的縫隙中可以看到屋主的小紅車, 基本上這家子光靠這個房子的版權就可以不愁吃穿了!

連門口的小裝飾品都相當講究, 精緻程度可見一番.

基本上我的照相功力很不怎樣, 不大有辦法把我今天眼裡看到的美景表現出來, 我只能說沒有親眼看到很難相信它可以這麼美!

Discussion over finance and subprime mortgage with Michael

Below find my discussion with Michael. Would like to share with people interested in this topic.

*All the material is quotated from Michael Hsueh's blog post.

Michael, 08/11/07

Impact of mortgage crisis spreads all over the world. Recently, Bear Sterns’ two hedge fund investing mostly in subprime mortgage related securities failed to allow investors to withdraw the money and announced their net values were probably less than half of their initial investment amount. Besides, a long Island based mortgage lender called American Home Mortgage filed for Chapter 11 and laid off more than 7000 employees, in the meantime, several peers facing the same difficulties. It seems that fallout from the credit crisis intensified in these few days, after three hedge funds under BNP Paribus, the largest financial group in France, froze the withdrawal request from investors and a lender investing subprime mortgage backed securities seeking for bailout in Germany. The central banks in U.S., Japan, and E.U. all pumped fund into banking system to stabilize the tightening short term capital supply and to pushed the short term interest rate back to fund rate level.

Why and how did it happen? I think expanding monetary policy around the world after last economic downturn, institutional investors and individual investors with lots of money in hand, and the heavily use of securitization products might explain some of the reasons.

First of all, the low interest rate environment caused borrower to take more and more leverage and investment, no matter in credit card, mortgage loan, leveraged buyout and capital expenditure. Right after the downturn in 2001 and 2002, the banks around suffered from a series of defaults and from the fragile equity market. The IPO and M&A business shrank, the brokerage volume dropped, and the capital needs dried up. As a result, the central banks began to cut interest rates in order to boost up the economics and avoided the possibility to deflation which happened in Japan in 1990s. Aspired by the monetary policy and the capital supply, the home buyer, consumers, and companies started to leverage their credit and boost up the growth of housing market, consumer spending, and M&A activities, which in turn vitalized the asset prices, business earning, and the comeback of private equity and the boom of hedge fund; however, it also brought the speculation and the bubble on the commodity market, the housing market, and the overbidding of targets around the world.

Secondly, as the interest rate level hit the record low around the world in 2004, the global economics seemed not so robust and the equity market didn’t rebound much from the turmoil of 2001; therefore, the infrastructure fund, mortgage-backed securities, CDO, these fixed income products attracted investors much. Imagine that, after the tumbling stock market in the recent past, the investors long for a safer investment vehicle that could protect the principals and earn a decent yield compared to the low-interest deposit or treasury bonds. For example, Macquarie, the largest investment bank in Australia, specializes in securitization and infrastructure investment. It caught the opportunity of the investor preference and the low funding cost to acquire many infrastructures around the world, such as the cable TV in Taiwan, the stock exchanges, the harbor. It even wants to buy airport and toll road in Taiwan. It got lots of money from fix-income investor and abundant financing power from commercial bank or bond market to acquire these targets on e after the other, and then it packaged these targets into a pool to certain infrastructure fund. As a result, the bank could expand its business in a very short period through its business model.

Third, the accelerator or the culprit of the fallout may be securitization. Theoretically, these securitized, fixed income products could certainly deliver their interests to investor based on the cash flow of the underlying, which could be an infrastructure, such as toll road, harbor, airport, commercial real estate, and residential real estate, or could be debt or receivables, such as loans, bonds, subprime mortgage, or account receivable, etc. But it depends on the stability of the cash flow generated and the price of the underlying assets. In my opinion, because these kinds of products really have their merits and can really make bunch of money, the investment banks are willing to advice their clients to securitize their assets. On the other hand, for the commercial bank, they can earn the spread between the net interest income they earned and the interest expense they paid to those investors under the conditions that the credit risks had been taken by the investors through securitization. Securitization changed the mindset and the way commercial banks, insurer, and homebuilders doing business. For example, once banks thought the only way to lower credit risk is to wait until the borrower repay or to sell down to others in secondary market, but now they can hedge or transfer the credit risk by means of CDO or CDS. Therefore, all these stakeholders fell in love with these products and thought the party could last forever, since the investors have lots of appetite, the borrowers have lots of needs, the price of the collateral have lots of potential to appreciate, and the economics seemed well.

The subprime mortgage crisis happened because investor appetite for MBS shrank in view to the default rate of subprime mortgage done in 2005 and 2006 growing sharply. Hence, the mortgage lenders got strapped in lots of fragile mortgage loan but without any buyers willing to buy its loan or securitized one. At the same time, the home buyers with worse credit record can’t get credit approval to buy the house and the housing market investors also got burned in the downturn of housing price and have to sell them to repay the mortgage. In the end, the impact will broaden to constructors, the retailer, and the banks with large exposure in mortgage loan. What’s more, the crisis in subprime mortgage will probably spread to other fields such as leveraged buyout segment and hedge fund segment. The crisis has awaked the lenders and investors the credit sense with the evidence of the spike credit spread over treasury yield and the difficulties to get financing in some ongoing M&A deals initiated by private equity funds. Once, the economics turns upside down and the stability of cash flow turns sour in previously acquired targets, the possibility of recap or IPO becomes remote, and the banks started to tighten credit facilities, private equity funds will suffer severely and leveraged-buyout turmoil will emerge.

Hsiang-wei -08/12/07

Hey buddy,

Your "murmur" really reflects the problems about financial industry I think of all the time. I always ask myself does financial industry really improve the real productivity of our society. Or its most functions are just about manipulating numbers to host lots gambling games to satisfy the greedy humanity for mass consumers and itself. In my opinion, finance should be a tool to observe, control and re-allocate the monetary resources to make sure the input resulting in the most output, which is very important function in the management system to improve the productivity. But does the reality look like the way it should be? Or it is me who is too naive?

According to the law of mass conservation, the mass of the reactants must equal the mass of the products through the process in a closed system. In the case of US subprime mortgage, is the value of the prime market able to double or triple in the subprime market? Once the supportive momentum stops and the market crashes, it takes more than what it invested to settle down the chaos The most pathetic is that the game hosts are not the ones suffering most but those players, who gain the least but take the most risk, bear the down side effect. Of course, the financial tools enable the game hosts sell out the risk, transferring the risk to others.

I am thinking of applying IB sales summer internship besides my consultant application plan to diversify my job hunting risk. However, I don't really know whether financial industry improves people's life or it is just a game proving good monetary return only. I would like to know your opinions to this issue.

Hsiang-wei

Michael - 08/12/07

Hi Raymond,

It’s my pleasure to have your comment on my stuff and your precious idea. As for your argument on whether finance contributes to the overall economy, whether finance only results in manipulation of numbers and in the endless gambling and speculation, and whether the value of the prime market able to double or triple in the subprime market, I would share some of my thoughts.

First, let’s define what finance is and how it works in our life. Without finance, we can only do one dollar business if you have only one dollar, which means no leverage, no payment tenor, all cash and all by yourself. Then you will have limited clout to expand your business. Therefore, I argument for finance should play its role in corporate finance and daily business practice. Let’s go further to discuss trading and investment. Trading and investment are zero sum games, which is equal to your idea of the law of mass of conservation. The purpose of trading could be hedging or speculating. Somebody loses and somebody wins, but each one of them has his/her reason to do the transaction. For hedging, I think finance has its reason to exist in the world and it made the business owners concentrated on their core businesses. Besides, investment is also a way to finance the issuers of stock or debt in the primary market and a way to increase personal wealth and to reallocate wealth in the secondary market. As for the derivatives products or securitization tools, I believe they all have their merits to exist in similar reasons.

However, human is greedy, proud, and fearful in the process of investment or of any business practice. Providing subprime loan is not bad initially, but it has gone too far and stakeholders involved were too greedy and overconfident in the business model, which they thought is invulnerable and eternal. Then it turned into a speculation on the housing price and unlimited investors’ appetite for these CDO and MBS. Therefore, though I think finance and these advanced financial instruments are beneficial, I admit that human couldn’t resist greed and the weakness of personality.

Finally, I believe after the credit crisis in mortgage loan, investors will turn to select the credit worthy investments, such as treasury bills, AAA rating bond, and gold. The spread of junk bond grade will definitely widen, which you could observe from the credit default swap points of those companies with worse credit rating, in the meantime, however, you can see the yield dropped sharply for the treasury bonds, the sign that suggests not only Fed probably cut interest rate in near future but also investors seeks for safe harbor during the crisis. Therefore, I agree with you that prime market will perform wildly from subprime market under the condition that the subprime crisis won’t spread further to shake the global economy severely.

Note: thanks for your application for the law of conservation of mass, which I found its definition on wiki as follows:The law of conservation of mass/matter, also known as law of mass/matter conservation (or the Lomonosov-Lavoisier law), states that the mass of a closed system of substances will remain constant, regardless of the processes acting inside the system. An equivalent statement is that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, although it may change form. This implies that for any chemical process in a closed system, the mass of the reactants must equal the mass of the products. The law of mass/matter conservation may be considered as an approximate physical law that holds only in the classical sense before the advent of special relativity and quantum mechanics.This historical concept is widely used in many fields such as chemistry, mechanics, and fluid dynamics. However, mass is not conserved in nuclear reactions.

Best regards,

Michael

Where are you from? Taiwan.

I was viewing the blog of a friend and I found this linkage to a video talking about Taiwan. Would like to share it with everyone viewing my blog.

http://www.wretch.cc/video/sagax&func=single&vid=1013119&o=self_a&p=10

I totally agree with the view point the video stands on - to be proud of being a Taiwanese. But I believe the pride needs not only the slogans but the actions. That is the reason why Wang (the New York Yankee's pitcher) is so popular to the island coz he does better than any politician does for our home town. I really hope everybody could ask himself or herself what can I do for Taiwan? Not just sream the slogan, Loving Taiwan, on the street during the election peak seasons but really do something making Taiwan more competitive internationally and a nice place for everyone to stay. Remember that Taiwan is not a huge country with strong internal demand to drive its own economy but a small island struggles to link to the world to gain the resources, markets and even talents from other places. Taking Singapore, Netherlands, Belgium and other small country as reference, you can see how much they do to put themselves into the international market but to constrain themselves to the local glory. Moreover, they can even keep the roots prosperous at the same time. And how is Taiwan?

Every time my classmates ask me, where are you from? I am so proud to tell them I am from Taiwan. I will do my best to be the gate for them to know and to recognize Taiwan as a shining brand in the world. Coz it really is!!!

被動的西班牙

到這邊這麼多天, 最令我跟老婆不習慣的就是這個國家的服務業水準, 我舉幾個例子來跟各位分享:

1. 洗衣機送到府, 但不知道何時到.
話說我跟老婆買了一台洗衣機, 並且跟店家約了時間送到家裡, 由於我的房東(Quim)跟房東請的水電工(Marcelo)會一起幫我把洗衣機從窗戶搬進來, 所以我特別跟店家再三強調要17:00準時到我家, 而老板也再三保證我們是第一趟, 而且店家離我家很近, 沒問題的……

由於這是西班牙, 我, Q & M很自然地約了17:15在家門口碰面, 可是等到六點連個鬼影都沒有, 期間打了三次電話給店家, 店家都說: 我不知道送貨的人員在哪!!!! 我心裡就在想, 那該是我要知道嗎??突然間我才發現他們打從心底認為當他們把貨交給外包的貨運公司之後, 這個生意就跟他們沒有關係, 天殺的….. 到了18:30終於看到那台貨車出現在我家門口, 兩個送貨人員很快地把東西丟到我門手上, 拿了尾款, 連測試一下的程序都沒有做就馬上閃人, 速度之快跟他們之前遲到的狀況形成強烈的對比…

2. 銀行當作扮家家酒
銀行在巴賽的路上大概跟台北的7-11一樣多, 幾步路就是一間, 品牌也相當多, 每一間都搞的好像很有聲有色, 似乎是相當發達的行業. 由於太多所以決定詢問一下房東的意見, 開哪一家比較好, 房東就推薦我們去附近以不收手續費聞名的Bancaja開戶, 因為滿街都有ATM的La Caixi幾乎什麼都要收手續費.

進了銀行, 行員以相當親切表情對著我打了個招呼, 接下來就是以無止盡且相當快速的的西文攻擊我們, 啊我是看起來跟你同文同種喔!! 我只好拿起字典開始跟他鑿戰大約五分鐘, 他終於了解了我們要的東西, 並且開始執行開戶動作, 在此同時, 我跟老婆發現這間銀行跟台灣的銀行有很大的不同, 因為滿桌子都是客戶的資料, 各種存款單, 證明文件, 內控似乎有相當大的問題, 此時行員問我們開戶要存多少錢, 我們拿出了預備好的歐元給他, 哪知道他接過後就丟在桌上, 並且轉身去影印我們的護照, 我該說他們相信人性本善呢? 還是我該能說這家銀行應該沒有內控這種東西?

開完戶後, 我們又順便問了一下存旅支有沒有手續費, 他說每一張旅支要3歐元, 我們就想算了. 但我們隔天去了Bancaja另一家分行, 結果是一張旅支1歐元, 這一切似乎有點像是在扮家家酒!?!

3. 施工, 我家是誰家?
我們在看房子的時候, 房東就表示他的鍋爐壞了, 會換一個全新的給我們, 剛好我們也要買洗衣機, 所以就請Marcelo直接把廚房改一下Layout, 把洗衣機也安裝好. What a good deal!!

今天Marcelo一大早九點就出現在家門口(阿根廷人似乎比較準時喔), 帶著大大小小的工具跟今天會用到材料零件, 然後穿著他帥氣的鞋子就踏進了我家擦的乾乾淨淨的地板, 接著他身上的東西直接就往地上一丟, 也不管木頭地板到底能不能這樣折磨, 可以發現他們的服務業真的還在很初級階段, 在台灣的話工人好歹會問一下可不可以放, 再擺上一塊布墊一下, 接著我們就把樓上交給了他, 靜靜待在樓下等待施工的結束(這也是為什麼我今天有空寫這麼長的文章), 我不時上樓看一下狀況, 突然發現我們拿來擦碗盤的布已經被他拿去擦地板跟水管, 我只能說我他跟我滿不見外的, 已經把我家當作他自己家了…我只能祈求今天的工程盡快結束, 還給我跟老婆一個安靜的空間.

4. 行銷學 v.s. 巴賽的生活
在巴賽的兩個星期常常讓我想到大四上的服務業行銷, 除了基本的4P以外, 還有另外3P也是決定服務業成敗的關鍵: People, Process, Physical evidence. 在這邊跟大家分享一下我的學以致用, 獻醜了!!

People – 人員是傳遞跟實現服務的節點, 所以人員素質的好壞決定了很大部分的滿意度, 除了技術以及知識外, 人際關係的處理能力跟服務的意識更是決定消費者心中感受的關鍵, 尤其服務的結果通常是服務人員以及顧客雙方互動的結果, 所以好的服務員人要有技能跟知識還要有好的互動能力把服務的品質導向正向的發展. 這點我認為就是巴賽服務業最需要注意的地方, 因為當地的服務人員幾乎沒有服務的意識.

Process – 但是為了控制人事成本, 通常不可能全部的職位都用有技術, 知識又有服務意識的人員, 所以這時候流程的設計就變成了關鍵, 因為藉由流程的設計去定義去哪些活動是必要的, 哪些活動是要避免的, 如此一來就可以減少不確定因素來控制服務品質的穩定性. 再這我發現同一家公司地不同服務員常常都會有不同的流程跟說詞, 導致我心中常常有很高的不確定性跟不安, 服務的品質跟結果當然也可想而知.

Physical evidence – 另外, 藉由一些實體證據來強化服務品質跟價值也是一個很重要的工具, 因為這可以幫助消費者意識到他得到的服務品質, 間接幫助無形的服務具體化, 進而支撐價格的合理性, 假如你發現你的銀行人員穿著輕鬆的便服, 並且邊處理工作邊聽音樂, 桌面亂七八糟, 你自然會調低你感受到的服務品質. David Aaker的品質資產裡面就說過, 品牌的價值不在於企業怎麼認定, 而在於消費者心中的 ”Percieved Value”.

以上是我今天邊聽著Marcelo在我頭頂鏗鏗鏘鏘所寫出來的文章, 希望可以幫助大家對西班牙的理解, 也可以吸收到一點點我謹知道的管理知識.

!Viva Barcelona!

第一天到巴塞，行李就被很遜的義大利航空搞丟，開啟了辛苦的巴塞之旅，迷路、語言不通、人生地不熟，一點一滴的不順利讓兩個人都挫折不已。

第二天一早就得到好消息，義大利航空說行李中午就會送到了，結果一直等延誤到晚上十點多才出現在家門口，但在這一天當中我們開始熟悉這個城市，從地理位子到如何生活，開始有了了解我必須說這真的是個特別的國家、城市以及文化。

第三天開始找房子之旅，我們的屋主的網路掛了，只好在路邊上網找房子的出租資訊，看到哪裡有房子，不管屋主講英文還是講西文，地圖拿了，背包背了，就來個巴塞走透透，下午還要趕去超市買材料，親手做三餐。

第四天、第五天、第六天、第七天、第八天.......在走遍南南北北、從要看地圖到地圖已經了然於心中，從同學們一起分享資訊到自己可以判斷房子的好壞, 終於我在巴塞有了自己的家，花了一整天清理跟打掃後, 一切看起來似乎越來越有安全感.

謝謝老婆天天努力地計畫菜單, 精進廚藝, 讓我能夠以最快地速度在求學的路上向前衝刺, 也謝謝家人跟朋友在台灣那頭不斷地關心我們, 謝謝!!

我們很好, 我們在巴賽有了自己的家!!

大家再見!

終於到了今天!! 一早醒來, 就開始再清點一次行李, 想想過去一年的努力都是為了要挑戰接下來新的旅程, 這一年有太多太多的感觸跟學習, 從親情, 愛情, 工作, 人際關係, 到人生觀, 都有了更多的體悟, 也許這就是成長的樂趣吧.

今天晚上就要跟老婆兩個人一起撘深夜的飛機飛往歐洲了, 一覺醒來就是羅馬, 然後轉個機就到了巴塞隆納, 一切又是新的開始跟新的環境. 期許自己在那邊要把老婆照顧好, 要在學業跟事業上達到自己當初設定的目標, 要努力體驗西班牙跟歐洲.

再會啦! 我最愛的家人, 同事跟朋友.

Nos quedamos en Barcelona.

Case 4 HomeStar R&D

This case is about a company facing external and internal challenges at the same time. This home appliance manufacturer has had its long-lasting reputation because of its ability to come up the best technology innovation. However, the market is changing all the time and now the consumers are not only looking for the breaking edge technologies, but also the design and emotional attributes. Observing this market trend, HomeStar's main competitor launches certain number of new products in a very short period of time, gets great attention from the press, and successfully grabs some market share from HomeStar. So what about the internal problem HomeStar has? Its R&D director, Charlie, is a veteran in this industry, has contributed a lot to the most innovative products HomeStar ever had, and also has attracted lots of tech talents for Homestra as well. However, he just devotes himself into the technology that he consider to be the one, but refuses to deal with the new product needs that market research department asks him to do. The most ridiculous thing is that the CEO, Hal, is not really the one who makes the final call. Not surprisingly, it is Charlie who is the one always makes the final call in HomeStar. So what should Hal do? He is thinking of hiring someone could balance the company's long-tern needs, advanced technology, and short-tern needs, the products that could satisfy consumers needs in the short-run. So far there is a candidate in Hal's list – Peter, who just sold out his R&D service company. However, how to deal with Charlie is really a serious problem when executing the re-organization plan or HomeStar might lose this veteran and the talents sticking to Charlie reputation.

My suggestion is to divide the new products into several groups. One axis is the product category - consumer product, homebuilders' product, and new generation product. Another axis is time period – six month, one year and more than one year. The reason why I suggest emphasizing on the product category is there are different needs for these three groups. In terms of the time period, according to Parkinson's Law, since the working hour expands to fulfill the available time, there has to be a very clear time frame to control the new product development to make sure HomeStar can most utilize the NPD resources. I would tell Charlie that the problems the company having now. Although Charlie might respond to Hal that only morons will buy those craps, this conversation might give Hal a chance to touch on the possibility that company will establish a new division to take charge of those "craps" product development. So Hal can appoint Charlie to take care of the long-tern NPD, and hire Peter to direct the mid and short-tern NPD. Of course, Peter could also outsource some short-tern projects to shorten the time and to lower the cost since he has sufficient knowledge and network of R&D service industry. However, Hal needs to review the evaluation system to make sure that the rewards are highly related to R&D staffs' contribution. Without a good evaluation system, R&D department can't really start to make the most use of the resources – Parkinson's Law again, expense expanses to the available budget. At the end of the day, it is all about management.

So what is your opinion to this case? Don’t hesitate to post your opinion on my blog.

Mom's cooking class - Sushi

When the date leaving for BCN is getting closer, I feel I have so many skills to learn. One of the most important skills is cooking. I won' t expect myself to be a chef but I really don't want to eat my survival cooking all the time. So it is time to ask the dear Mom to teach me several meals that is easy to make and great to taste, and Sushi must be the one I want to learn first. Why? Coz I can make several rolls of the Sushi, store them in the refrigerator, and eat them whenever I need. It is even a great choice to be my lunch box.

So I waked up at 7:00am and went to the market with my Mom to pick up some materials, including some snap beans, carrot, and some fried pork flake. Before this early morning shopping, I bought the Japanese sauce and dried lavers. It was a little bit nervous when thinking that I had to eat up all the things even the taste was terrible. But I believed that my dear Mom would not let this tragedy happen. I did what my Mom told me to do step by step with her coaching aside. Rice is the key success factor since it composes most of the Sushi. Make sure the wind blow at the rice when you are mixing the rice with vinegar to make the texture good. Then water boil the snap bean and carrot, and carefully do some omelets. After all the preparation jobs are done, let's start the rolling job. First, put the rice evenly on the dried lavers laying on the bamboo curtain. Then put the fried port flake on the rice. Carrot, snap beans and omelets are tapped on. At last, roll all the staff carefully to make sure everything get into the roll perfectly. Grasp the bamboo curtain tightly to make the shape of the Sushi roll round and compact. Then here the Sushi comes. You can find my Sushi cut into two rolls. Does it look nice? I think so. Does it taste good? You will find out how does it taste later when you are here in BCN to visit me coz this is the must course I will serve you if you visit me in the future.

My first roll of Sushi!!!


Does it look tasty?!

I got to say it is not easy to make your own food but it is really great enjoyment to make food yourself. You will appreciate the food a lot and appreciate your dear Mom a lot. Moreover, you will start to think about doing something more next time. So the next course I am going to learn is one of my Mom's best courses – Lion Head Meat Ball. I will introduce this dish with you next time.

Why MBA in “Barcelona, Spain”?

This might be the question that pops up in my face most often these days. I know lots of friends have this question in their mind. Some of them take a try to get the answers from me and the rest don’t know how to start this topic. Actually, the answer itself is really easy. However, the difficulties drop on the process I made assumptions to come up the decision. So I might take this chance to write down my explanations in a more structured list to share with my dear friends.

1. Diversified environment
What is Globalization? When my R&D people told me that the juice beverage margin is going to shrink because Florida real estate biz is booming and the farmers there slash the citrus trees to sell their land for better profit, that is what globalization means. When the herbal material cost is climbing historically high because EU area is crazy about the Chinese herbal concept, this is what globalization means. It is no long about US but the globe. I am not the fan of the book - “the world is flat” but I have to say the ripple effect within this planet is getting. Suddenly, middle-east “oil money” might become the next biggest capital resources for Taiwan or your company. Or South America might become your main source of the raw material and the exporting market. You never know what is going to happen next. All you know is that the opportunity and the problem might come from the ever corner around the world. Then what should I do to get myself well-prepared for this kind of trend? I will definitely go for a program that is most diversified in nationality or functionality.

2. Career change possibility
After working for three years and for three companies, I know what direction I am heading to. I need a program providing me the adequate resources to help me realize my career change goal. The resources include teaching method, classmates’ background, courses design, alumni strength, and the excellence of the career center.

3. Spanish learning
At the beginning, I took this point as a plus. But now I am more serious about this point since there are so many western people able to speak fluent Chinese. We taiwan people really need to learn one more foreign language to make sure we can tap into the market not speaking english.

Taking these three points into consideration, I have to say IESE is definitely my best choice.

1. 80% students come from 55 countries with the much diversified background and working experience. The amazing student profile can provide me the most precious opportunity to work with team members coming from different countries and from different backgrounds.

2. IESE has great understanding and relationship with Investment banking and Consulting companies, and most all the tier one players in these two industries will attend the on-campus recruiting event to introduce themselves to students and to have 1st round interview with us as well. The strong ambition of IESE career center does help the students’ career a lot and fulfills career change needs for the students like me.


3. IESE really tries to differentiate itself. One of its efforts is to provide IESE Bilingual MBA certification to the students graduating with good business Spanish skill. I know it is quite tough for a Taiwan student to achieve this goal but I believe the school really tries its best to provide us the related resources to equip us another useful weapon when we leave the school. Speaking Chinese, English and Spanish might be another personal uniqueness.

Above is why I choose IESE. Although I would suggest everyone to take a look at this great program, you still have to find out your own best answer. Good luck!

IESE
Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Empresa
http://www.iese.edu/

Case Study 1~3

I have done four cases until today. I will update some thoughts about three of them. The case study process is really interesting since the case could bring us a real life situation, providing a platform to discuss and to dig deeper into the possible solutions.

1st - Cross Selling Or Cross Purposes
The first one is a case about the organization structure. How to balance the sales and consultants within the organization? How to come up a rewarding system to encourage both sides to co-op but to have a conflict? It is a typical problem that the big organizations face all the time. This case let me recall my life in Chinatrust since CTCB was looking for an answer for this kind of problem. It is easy for us to stick to how to re-org the structure to encourage the mutual understanding between two parties but the humanity does not work that way, right? We all know this but tend to neglect this point when coming up a solution. After a long debate, Albert gave us a solution that amazed me a lot – to set a book value for each sales and a fixed ration of the book value for the other party. This method will contribute to a positive relationship between two sides and result in a useful evaluation system; you can call it a control system if you like. That is the value of MANAGEMENT! Without a good management system, even the best talents can’t really know how to deliver good performance in the organization.

2nd - All the Wrong Moves
The second case was about the decision making process of certain company and the leadership style of top manager. This CEO tends to be the “nice” guy who always looks for opinions and, usually, the decisions from other people. He tries to be nice to everyone so he can’t really gives his employees clear direction and makes the good decision based on the sufficient information. The decision process is loosing and no one really knows where the problem comes from. Of course, who dare to say the CEO is the problem. What is interesting is that this company hires a consultant to de-structure the decision process and to point out the problem. This consultant gives a presentation about the rough information he gets from several interviews with the middle management people. The direction to the answer is quite clear but the way to point out the problem might be very challenging, since no one is so stupid as to blame on the person who pays him the money.

3rd - The Cane Mutiny
The third one was about the HR problem. This week Albert assigned another reading material for me and Alex. The book calls MBA in a day. Honestly speaking, this book is quite skin deep for the person who studied “Business Administration” for years but I found this book very helpful. Although the content of the book is really general, the structure helps me a lot when tackling the case. Take this case for example. I read the HR chapter of MBA in a day this week so when I read the case about HR this week; I can break the case into the structure quickly and precisely. Combining with my working experience, I finally can come up with a suggestion that looks ok. The learning is easy for understanding but not easy for execution in the real world. HR needs to take the following steps,
1. Work with management team to pin down the short-term and long term goal
2. To find out the current employees’ capability
3. Find out the gap between the current employees’ capability and the capability that company’s future goal needs.
What is the most difficult part? I would say stage one might be the most difficult part for Taiwan companies since so many of them change the plan so often without solid planning structure and logic. “Losers are those who make decision slowly and change their decision often”. So CEO or the management team needs to do their duty to come up a distinct plan for their company then the departments know how to come up the plan aligning with the company goal. The case is talking about a company’s market is aging and its employees are aging as well. HR manager is afraid of the shrinking market might affect the bottom line of the company and also worries about the recruiting effectiveness and efficiency. So he proposes to invest more on the welfare to make the company a better place to stay, lack of reasoning between the problem and the solution. This German company should realize the developed country population is always getting smaller, no one can change that. So what it can do is to leverage on its core competency, the hi-tech and the know-how, to grab the market out of its local market. This strategy might totally change its HR plan. It might need to hire the sales from different market, which depends on its market expanding plan, and only leave the people with the core competency at the HQ. Becoming a global player in its market, the company should be looking for the employees with better mobility and flexibility and with more international experience to deal with the international working process. Moreover, how to retain the knowledge of the current aging employees and to pass this core value to the younger new comers is also a task for the HR department. Knowledge management is such an important system that this company needs. It is really rewarding going through this case.

More cases are coming and I will share with all of you later. Don’t hesitate to leave your opinions if you want to discuss anything in the article. Of course, you can leave message to say Hi, which is also very nice.

Theory

I took my first class in core and corner on Tuesday night.

Frankly speaking, I just take it as an opportunity to practice my English and to get myself more ready in the English speaking environment. But I got to say the course was quite amazing. My teacher, Albert, who was an IT consultant really made the class different. He not only helped us, around 7 participants, practice their English but also provided us lots of biz knowledge and cutting-edge thoughts. I would like to share some great conversation in the class with you guys. Hope that it also gives you some new ideas to find out the news things from the material in your hand already.

The subject we had supposed to be about “some fastest growing tech companies on Biz 2.0 list”. (Biz 2.0 is a very cool magazine and everyone should take a look if one wants to know what the world will evolve to be in next generation.) Reading the articles in advance, I tried to come up three points to summarize these successful stories. First, these companies have their own core competency. Second, they all grab opportunities resulting from society changes. Third, they all aim to expand their business through enlarging biz scope but keep concentrated on the current competency, which I considered not easy for companies looking for growth, you know.

In the class, Albert kicked off the discussion by asking everyone, “Why don't you run your own business?” Some of us responded to him the same answer I got – we have no core competency. However, Albert turned down our guessing. He said he would put it in this way – we don’t have a unique theory for business. Yes, theory! What he means is that there are theories behind every business and its brand, the theories that make the companies and their products attract the certain customers in a certain way. For example, what is Apple's theory? The answer is - People are willing to pay more for the products sexier. This theory makes Apple the way it is today and attracts stupid consumers to pay more for its iBook, iPod series, and the coming iPhone. Moreover, I am one of those stupid consumers and now I know why I got hooked to this brand. Want to know something more. 85 degree Café – The price you pay for a cup of coffee in Starbucks can get you a cup of joe with a piece of cake in our stores. So people went into 85 degree café always leave the store with more than a cup of coffee. This brand is not selling the coffee actually but the great satisfied feeling more than coffee itself. Hagen Daz – Coz your tongue is stupid, you might go to Hagen Daz if you are looking for some premium ice cream. Notice that the premium we talk about here is not the quality of the ice cream but the brand image of the brand. HD is a biz coming from New York but it has a European name, why? Coz it makes this brand more premium. That's all.

We got lots of talks about the theory but skipped the most of articles. I don't know whether there would be anyone blame on that we didn't go through all the articles but, for me, I felt totally ok. Once you step into the core thinking, you can use the idea across as many things as possible. Always look for the cause, not for the effect.

Last not the least, I started to ask myself, “What is my theory?”

Escape

5/31 was my last day in Coca-cola Taiwan. It was quite stretching taking three months to prepare GMAT, TOEFL, and MBA application, and even to finish my interview with the admission. What was the most terrible was that I went back to work immediately after finishing the application process. After 8 months working at Coke, an intense job that I have never imaged it would be, I could finally take a rest before leaving for Barcelona to kick off my MBA life. Here I would like to re-cap some learning and the life experience in Coke as a personal record.

First, the experience in agency is totally different from that as a client. As a brand person, I have bigger job scope and always has to swim through chunk of market information and research data to figure out the opportunity to enlarge the market share in the most cost efficient way, to get profit in the short-term and to establish the brand momentum in the long run. Also, to save the cost and to ensure the quality of the campaign, brand person not only has to coordinate different parties and agencies, but also has to educate these partners at the same time. Working at Ogilvy, I can only took the brief from client side and go back to client with the communication solutions to satisfy their needs. Not surprising, agency's core competencyy is to provide the high "quality" ideas, also execute the ideas efficiently, but to decide where the brand is moving to and why they have to do so. Agency daily job does nothing with the quantitative analysis actually.

There are pros and cons in both positions and I am very luck to have this vertically integrated experience. Marketing job not only requests for logical thinking and analytical spirits, but also demands the balance between emotional and rational factors to develop a "big idea" campaign to motivate target consumers, clients and even the sales force. The successful brand people must be very flexible since they are always thrown up and down all the time. :p The situation might be like this - after the meeting with agency to decide which TVC script is the best one to excite our consumers and to strengthen the brand, brand person may head to another meeting talks about all kinds of number about YTD sales, market evolutions, or consumer panel result. Up and down. Right and left. Calm or crazy. It depends.

So I decide to do something special in the very first escaping day. I went to Hsin-fon, a country side that near Hsin-tzu, to have lunch with my buddy at a very pretty and natural cafe - Hsi-mu Cafe. Jumping on the train with the back pack loaded with books and my laptop, I feel really excited when the train going through the forest, big plain, and the tiny rail way station. Everything is so different from the grey area in Taipei city. The green touch, the bright reflection of sun shine, the grassy smell, the tender wind........ That's what I am looking for - escaping from the messy Taipei. When arriving Hsi-mu Cafe, I am stunned by the beautiful scene. A white construction stands in front of me with its simple and elegant shape, surrounded by well-decorated garden and the waving rice paddy. It is really a enjoyment eating a nice homemade curry rice and Panini with this fantastic environment and with the best friend, of course. I put some fotos on the blog to share with you. If you are interested in this great place, just search 喜木 Cafe on Internet. Of course, you need to spare some time and to slow down your pace first.

It is your mood and attitude decides what you feel.

Front Door View

Want to spend whole afternoon here?!?!

What a scene!

Blogging~

2007. 5.27, a normal day as always.

Went to Yang-min Mt. enjoyed some great food with my wife and her mother, shop around Taipei Station area to look for my wife's laptop, had a cup of coffee, surfed on the internet to search the information of the coming trip to central Taiwan two weeks later, and went home to wait for another working day coming. Quite normal, isn't it??

People always forget that everything is not granted but earned. 2007 is a very special year for me. Take myself for example. I got married few days ago and my wife will go to Barcelona at the end of July with me to support me to realize my dream to study abroad. A totally new and challenging life is waiting for me and, as always, I know I will devote myself to it. However, I haven't recorded this important moment at all so far.

I believe that it is worthy to spend some time writing down my own stories, and to share these stories with my family, my friends and myself, the future one that would love to look back. 2007.5.27, I start to BLOG!!!!