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.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Saturday, July 07, 2007
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.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
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.
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!
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/
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