… …. because they bring us their money.” . An admission that starts like this might be considered a surprisingly honest one. But that is not the end of the sentence: “But we would love them even more if they just left their money at the airports and then flew back home.”
Somchai had to be the right man to do business with! He bought German glass-cutting machinery, loved red wine and drove a Mercedes. He even called his business “Thai-German”. Of all the craftsmen in Thailand, he was surely the one to choose when you want a glass wall cabinet for your modern conference room.
Those who travel through other countries on a daily basis quickly lose their bearings. Then, even the smallest observations can help to identify your location. For example, if you observe that morning dog walkers do not.
It is hard to separate oneself from preconceived notions. It not only means to start thinking again, but also more often, to recognise one’s own mistakes. This is what is faced by many companies that went to China like lemmings during the last ten years…
Delegation Visits
An “Out of Office” message is the automated response to an incoming e-mail telling people that the recipient is presently absent from work. Normally this means physically absent; very rarely will an employee use such an automated response, if he has just written a wall post informing his 2,797 Facebook “friends” of some nasty incident or when perusing stimulating sites for his dreams that night.