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It’s a small world…

Tonight we had dinner at South Beauty 881, one of my favorite Chinese (Sichuan) restaurants in Shanghai. I don’t go there very often on the weekend as it’s located close to downtown, and therefore at least a 20 minute ride from my home. But because my sister and a friend are visiting we decided to go there for a spicy meal.

The dishes were great as usual, but after a while Scott had had enough food and wanted to play. So I walked around the garden with him (we were sitting outside) looking at the water and the fountain. While walking back I suddenly heard someone calling out my name. I look around and suddenly see my former professor Kees Koedijk! He is now dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Tilburg University, but when I knew him he was still a young professor of Finance at Maastricht University.

Kees may not realize this, but he influenced my life in a big way, starting during my last year in Maastricht. Together with Piet Eichholtz he had just set up Global Property Research (which they later sold to Kempen & Co.) where I did a 6 month internship and also wrote my thesis about the research we did there. Kees and Piet both where my thesis advisers.

While writing my thesis Kees introduced me to the corporate recruiter at Mercedes-Benz in Holland, and through that contact I eventually ended up in the international management trainee program at Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart. Mercedes-Benz was the company that “sent” me to China back in 1999.

While doing the research for my thesis (in 1995) I considered doing a PhD, but I still remember the honest advice Kees gave me: he told me that he didn’t think I would be able to focus 4 years on one research topic, I would want to do more than that. I guess he knew me very well, I just didn’t realize it myself yet.

I see Kees Koedijk and Piet Eichholtz’ names in the media every now and then, but I hadn’t seen either one of them in person in years. So it was a real surprise to see Kees suddenly here, it’s a small world! He told me about some of the projects that he is working on, and there may be connections with the things that I am doing. So I look forward to catching up with him again in the near future, either in China or in Holland.

Smart marketing: Change your KLM frequent flyer card for a Lufthansa one

KLM plane from Shanghai to Amsterdam A very smart marketing idea from Lufthansa: If you are a KLM frequent flyer you can get a Lufthansa frequent flyer card at the same level in their Miles & More program. Or actually you can get an even better deal, because both KLM Gold and Platinum card holders are eligible for a Lufthansa Senator card. And you will keep your status until February 2013!

The only thing you need to do is book one return flight on Lufthansa or one its European partners, fill out a form and upload a copy of your KLM Flying Blue card.

Despite flying way too much I was downgraded from Platinum to Gold in the KLM program last year. KLM is incredibly stingy with their miles, only for full fare trips you get normal points. And of course I always try to avoid full fare flights, I prefer non-changeable non-reroutable economy or economy plus fares and then upgrade myself with points to business class (I still have over 800,000 frequent flyer miles that I can use).

So I might consider taking Lufthansa’s offer. On the other hand, I already have frequent flyer cards from 2 other Star Alliance members (Singapore Airlines and United Airlines). And for the United one I am just one or two flights away from their Premier Executive status, so the Lufthansa card doesn’t add much value for me.

But if you are a KLM Flying Blue member without a Star Alliance card you should certainly consider this offer. It’s really smart marketing and I think it might convince a lot of frequent flyers to change from KLM-Air France to Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners. If I would be KLM I would immediately offer all Miles & More flyers the same benefits. Smart marketing Lufthansa!

UnitedStyles wins Apparel Magazine

United Styles beta launch

Although the May issue of Apparel Magazine does not seem to be out yet, we already received a press release saying that UnitedStyles.com won a top innovator award from the magazine.

“UnitedStyles is one of 40 visionary apparel retailers, brands, and manufacturers that have achieved noteworthy success in the highly competitive global apparel marketplace. UnitedStyles will be featured in the 4th Annual Top Innovators Report, which will be published as a special issue in May and online at apparelmag.com.

UnitedStyles shares the Top Innovator award with other companies such as Burberry, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Columbia Sportswear.”

Once the magazine article is out and available online I will link to it from here, or I will write an extra post about it. Congrats to the team!

Update: The article is out, you can read it here: http://apparel.edgl.com/magazine/May-2011/2011-Top-Innovtors72609 (registration required…)

Ho-Pin Tung will be the first Chinese to race in the Indy 500!

With F1 reserve driver Ho-Pin Tung and Scott at the back of the pit lane

Chinese race car driver Ho-Pin Tung announced that he will be competing in this year’s Indianapolis 500 race! He is making history by being the first Chinese ever to compete in this event. Ho-Pin told me the news already during last month’s Formula One race in Shanghai, but at that point it was not official yet. I am very happy for him that he managed to get qualify for the 500-mile race.

Indycar.com writes about Ho-Pin Tung’s participation in the race:

Only in China: Royal wedding dress copied 2 hours after wedding

Copy of royal wedding gown available in China 2 hours after the wedding

A couple of weeks ago one of the investors in Lightinabox told me that the site was able to copy fashion within a few hours, and yesterday’s Royal Wedding of Kate and William proved him right. Kate’s dress was available online within 2 hours after she first showed it to the world. If you’re interested in getting your hands on one you can order one here for just USD 399 (they ship worldwide). Somehow I have the feeling that the original dress was a bit more expensive!

Huge lines at Beijing Apple store for white iPhone4 launch

Huge lines for the Beijing Apple store for the white iPhone 4 launch

This morning I was in Sanlitun in Beijing for several meetings at Element Fresh. While walking there I saw a huge crowd of people at the Apple store. It turns out that they were there for the launch of the white version of the iPhone4.

Crowds are normal at Apple product launches these days (even I waited in line to buy an iPad 2 a couple of weeks ago), but to wait in line for a white version of a product that has been available for about 9 months already is something even I have difficulty understanding.

The interesting thing is that most people in line were not there to buy a phone for themselves, but only wanted to buy it to resell the gadget on Taobao.com or other Chinese e-commerce websites. When I walked by a couple of hours later the line was still about the same length, but now the crowd was harassed constantly by people who managed to buy a white iPhone already and tried to resell it to the people in line.

All around the Sanlitun area I saw people waving with white iPhone boxes and the official receipts for them, trying to resell them to other people! And there were many takers. To be honest, if I had wanted to buy the phone (which I don’t want, I just bought a black one which I prefer to the white version) I would rather pay EUR 50 extra for a new phone than to wait in line for a few hours.

Take out sushi attracts no lunch crowds anymore

Today's sushi lunchbox (price: about EUR 5)

About once a week I pick up some sushi from the take-out place in the basement of the Raffles shopping mall on People’s Square (the place is called Sushi Take-Out, right next to my other favorite Beard Papa’s). Tasty sushi for a decent price, most pieces are RMB 2 to RMB 3 per piece. The box above cost me RMB 43, less than EUR 5. So far I never got sick, so despite the low price they seem to use good fish and have decent hygiene standards.

The take out restaurant used to be packed at lunch time and you normally had to wait in order to make your choice of sushi. But since the Japanese nuclear disaster it looks like the lunch crowd is avoiding the place. I am sure they don’t import the fish from Japan at these prices, so I wonder why people are so worried. But I now have all the time I need to choose my favorite kinds of sushi and the staff even packs and carries it for me. I hope the place will survive, with the current number of clients I am afraid they won’t be able to keep up their business much longer…