Month: June 2007

Beijing Rotary Club: active & international

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our local attendance may not always be the best – many members have a very busy professional life. But we are blessed by the many visitors coming from all over the world. And we have a range of speakers from many different countries, often Beijing residents.

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On 8 May Mr. Arne Gooss (from Germany), director of KFW Beijing gave us an insight on the many activities of KFW in China. The German bank specializes in special cooperation projects. I know quite a bit of this sector but was surprised by the vast amount of projects the bank has in China, mostly connected with the environment.

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Here we had, on 22 May, Mr. Yiannis Exarchos, the Senior Executive Officer of the Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Company. Our Greek friend gave a nice introduction on his job and the big challenges to broadcast the 2008 Olympics to the world. He is a nice guy, though a long-term IOC person he is not sitting in his ivory tower.

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On 5 June I had the unexpected pleasure to meet with many Rotarians from Brazil and to be able to speak my other “native language”. Indeed I could say I left a BIG piece of my heart in Brazil… Que saudades.. Past President Carl and myself happily received a Rotary cap from, guess where… Recife, the city I still call my “home town” (Sou Nordestino!). Bem, só faltava a caipirinha.

2008 Olympics: nonsense, more nonsense

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

I just gave a 2 hours lecture for Beijing University, Guanghua School of Management, for a UK program of top business executives – 6 June. Small team but very interactive, they seemed much awake and had a good laugh with my (irreverent) insight in the Beijing Olympics, Chinese attitudes and doing business in China.

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the audience in Raffles Hotel (nice place by the way!)

Another recent (and rather long) seminar was done for a large EMBA delegation, on 10 May, in News Plaza Hotel. This time, from the IPADE Business School – Mexico. Another enthusiastic group.

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the Mexican audience

As I mention in my seminars, there’s a lot of wrong information in the press. Part is due to the poor PR of the Beijing officials.
The latest excess is from the Geneva-based “Center on Housing Rights and Evictions”, a so-called “rights group”. They just came up with this nonsense:
“It is shocking and entirely unacceptable that 1.25 million people have already been displaced in Beijing, in preparation for the 2008 Games, in flagrant violation of their right to adequate housing” (they expect it to climb to 1.5 million!).
In what planet are those people living? Do they even know where is Beijing? Well, explains a lot. Now I know why Beijing is becoming so empty, hahaha. Or do they include all the people who have been (happily) house hopping?
They better come and listen to my seminars. I am not exactly sugar-coating 2008 (to put it mildly) and that topic is addressed in my overview – including the Dongsi Batiao Hutong story. Oh yes, if they want to listen to me, I do charge MONEY. I am a real capitalist, sorry for that, nobody is perfect.

London 2012: the logo

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Let’s be happy with our Beijing 2008 logo. London has its own and, oh boy, do I agree with the critics. Looks like 9.11 for me. Kaboom, Pieces shattered everywhere, they dropped the cute porcelain plate.

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Couldn’t they find anything more appealing? And don’t even mention how much that has cost. Hey, Beijing is not that bad, isn’t it?

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Of course still better than the above (really?), if, I said if, you can spot the difference. Don’t ask me where I got that one, call it client-attorney-privilege something.

Working with BOCOG and IOC: tough

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Some days (actually most days) I just wonder why I still care about the 2008 Olympics. Very frustrating really, seems all a total waste of time. No wonder I am taking it VERY easy right now.
Foreign companies bug me with the silliest of ideas and inquiries. They want to sell special eggs for athletes to eat (kind of wonder eggs), small toys to make a clicking sound to cheer up the teams (the sample promptly cut Sun’s finger – Chinese like big stuff they can swing around with flashing lights), etc. etc.
They all expect I am going to make their dream happen at once, just a simple phone call. Well, those inquiries demand lots of work and normally don’t even pay for my taxi.
I am also tired of those endless seminars, every year they talk about the same golden opportunities of 2008, the for certain golden post-Olympic future, etc. etc. Experts give advise, nobody really cares once the seminar is over. One year later, the same scenario.
Now, when you need to contact anybody within BOCOG, good luck. Their “general number” does not work, is officially not even listed in the directory (is on their website, for decoration purposes). So, if you don’t know the direct number, you’ll have to pull all strings to find anybody. Furthermore, most of the staff does not bother to answer e-mails or even pick up the phone. Unless you know them well.
You see, all so easy.
Not that all BOCOG staff are a bunch of useless morons. Not at all. They have their own internal nightmares, like a lack of: real efficient management / decision-making power / budget / competent staff.
Wait a moment: not enough good people? But everybody wants to work there. Well, I was all happy to learn that it is tough to get real good people for the reasons I am tired to explain:
Returning Chinese claim to have excellent qualifications. The fact is, the vast majority does seem to speak some good English but fail miserably in writing skills; they also forgot their own language – Chinese – and fail Chinese language tests. Fresh graduates from local language universities end up being much better – but lack experience for other matters. That is the wise and confidential feedback from BOCOG executives, frustrated. I fully sympathize.
The number of “turtles” or “bananas” coming back to China that are pretty bad in English is staggering. They can’t write one sentence without mistakes. Worst, they often think “they made it”. Yeah. Show me.
So, wanna contact the IOC representative in Beijing? Well, forget that too. Telephone never answers (probably the number is intentionally wrong on the business card). E-mails are received, never answered (not even like “sorry, can’t help”, “bug off”). I guess we poor Beijing mortals are way too low in the scale to be dealt with.
So, if I have questions about ambush marketing, I will not ask them anymore. Maybe we should not even care and all use (free) Li Ning T-shirts (or KANGTA or others), attend the Games and parade in front of the cameras.
Sorry folks. Some days really p*** me off.

Better in Beijing than in … Putrajaya

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Complaining about China? This can make you feel better. No place is perfect.
May 2007 – A “Muslim-born” woman converted to Christianity and was baptized in 1998. A court in Putrajaya (Malaysia) denied to have her ID card changed to remove the word “Islam”. Result: she cannot marry her Catholic fiancé and is ostracized. (Of course she cannot do many other things, like drink alcohol, etc. No glass of red wine for her). She is now considering fleeing the country for better pastures. So Malaysia has its own caste system, you are born with it, you die with it. Religious intolerance. Maybe the next step will be to stone her? Mind you, the date is correct. May 2007.