(Update Sept. 17 see below)

Sunday night after I arrived back in China I decided to make a to do list for this week. But I first decided to upgrade the software on my Apple to the latest version. That was not so smart, because while installing the updates the computer suddenly became unstable and I had to turn it off. While restarting it I got a grey screen with the so-called kernel panic warning. Not good… I tried to restart the computer, but it was impossible: each time I got the same error message. Normally I would probably be very angry at my laptop (or actually at Apple) but because I just came back from vacation I was pretty relaxed. I decided to forget about work and send my computer to the Apple service center first thing in the morning.

I realized that my last back-up was almost 30 days old because for some reason my computer could not recognize my external HDD anymore during the past weeks. I had been too busy with work before my holiday, and had decided to wait until after the vacation to take care of the problem. I regretted that now, but most of the files that I had not backed up I could probably retrieve from my mails. So I sent the external HDD to the Apple service center as well on Monday morning, in case there would be a HDD problem with my laptop.

A few hours later the Apple guys called me, and guess what they told me? Both my normal HDD and my back up HDD had failed at the same time! Unbelievable. That a HDD breaks down every once in a while is normal, to me it happens once a year on average (I use my computer almost 24/7). So that’s why I make constant back-ups with time machine. The fact that the hard disk breaks down right at the end of a vacation when I am fully motivated to start working again is a bad timing already. But that at the same time also my back-up drive fails is something I could not make up. Murphy’s Law at work once again…

Today I sent both my laptop and my external drive to a data recovery company, hopefully they will be able to at least retrieve the data from one hard disk. If not, then… I don’t know yet. I could say that I would switch from Apple to Windows, but that’s so radical that it won’t happen soon. Next to the fact that hardware for Windows is not any better than Apple’s hardware (and often a lot worse, but that may have changed since I left the Windows OS about 5 years ago). Let’s hope for the best, I am still quite optimistic because I have 2 chances for data recovery. One thing is for sure, from now on I am going to make weekly back-ups at home and in the office. And I am also going to look at storing important data in the cloud, so this cannot happen again. Any recommendations for good services for this in China?

Update Sept. 17: The Apple service center sent the 2 HDD’s to the data recovery company but came back a day later saying that for both of them no data could be recovered… I still had to pay them of course, but it was not too expensive. Then one of the guys at Spil Games (he does not want to be named) played some magic and managed to bring the external HDD back to life! So now I have a back-up again and a working external hard disk. I wonder if I should sue the data recovery company, I feel they did not even look at the disks and just charged me some money. I told the Apple guy but he just said that I was lucky. Was I really lucky or did they just try to rip me off?

This week I was checking Google for what the Dutch media had written about the opening of the Academic Year in Maastricht, when I noticed that someone had bought AdWords for my name on Google.nl (the Dutch version of Google, so not on Google.com).

The advertiser is the website of Dutch business magazine Quote, more a gossip glossy than a real business magazine, but (or maybe because of that) quite popular. I was featured twice in the magazine in a listing of successful entrepreneurs, and they seem to have bought the names of other people that were featured in their listings as well. At least, I checked it for Spil Games co-founder Bennie Eeftink, and search results for his name have a similar sponsored link.

Not sure what to think of this, but it probably works for Quote: a friend told me they have been advertising with my name for a couple of months already.

In China I try to speak Dutch to Scott, but he normally does not really understand what I say, except for some frequently used sentences (where are your shoes, you’ve got to go to sleep etc.). The problem is probably that I am the only one talking in Dutch to him at home, and when I talk to my wife or the staff at home I always speak English or Chinese. So often I end up talking to Scott in Chinese as well, to make sure he understands what I mean. Not good of course, because you should stay with one language while talking to your kids.

Exactly one week ago today we flew from China to The Netherlands. Since then Scott has mainly heard Dutch, because my parents and I speak Dutch to him. When my wife and I went to Maastricht last weekend, Scott stayed with my parents. At first we were wondering whether my parents would be able to communicate with him, but it turned out we didn’t need to worry. Scott understood a lot of what they were saying and picked up words very quickly.

Now that we are almost one week in Holland I realize I only speak Dutch with Scott and he perfectly understands me. One week ago he probably would have looked at me showing that he does not comprehend what I am trying to tell him, and now he even replies to my Dutch questions (in Chinese or by nodding, not in Dutch yet). I think it shows kids can pick up a language in a one week. Of course not the complete language, but the main words he needs to understand, and the structure of sentences. I am truly amazed by this, I wish I would still have this ability!

His own talking is still mainly in Chinese, his favorite words right now are qiche (Chinese for car) and mei you (don’t have, finished), and he starts to make sentences such as dao qiche boom (when he rides his tricycle backwards and he hits the wall, with boom being the sound of hitting something). But if he is looking for something and finds it, he now says “Daar!”, which is Dutch for “There!”. The only English word he regularly uses is “no”. As usual for toddlers his age (20 months) that’s quickly becoming a favorite word. But he also starts to use the Chinese variety of no, especially bu yao (Chinese does not have one word for no, it depends on the verb you use).

I like to observe his language abilities and I wish I had learned several languages as a toddler already. I look forward to seeing his (and soon also Elaine’s) progress over the next couple of months.

Yesterday I was invited to deliver the keynote speech at the opening of the Academic Year at Maastricht University. I was very honored to speak at my alma mater, exactly 18 years after I started my studies at Maastricht University.

It was a very busy but also a very interesting day. It started early in the morning already with a breakfast with Andre Postema, vice-president of the executive board (College van Bestuur) of Maastricht University. We had a nice talk about the university and its strategy, about the city of Maastricht and of course I told him about what I have done so far. Afterward, we walked to the Minderbroedersberg, where I would speak in the aula at a symposium about New Leadership. Before the presentations started, I finally met several of the staff of the university that I had been communicating with over the past months, for the first time in person. I also did another interview, which was finished right before we started.

The symposium had some high level guests: among others a delegate from the Chinese embassy had come to Maastricht to listen, Prof. Jo Ritzen (Maastricht University’s president) was there, and even the Bishop of Maastricht was sitting on the first row. Prof. Will Foppen opened the symposium, followed by a presentation about leadership and leadership styles in the academic world by Prof. Marja van Dieijen-Visser. I did the last presentation on leadership in the business world, where I focused on what I see as important traits for a new leader and on new leadership styles.

In preparation for the symposium I had proposed a statement that students should react to in a written essay, and the 3 best students were invited to defend their statements in a presentation. After the discussion with the students and the audience Laura Gutierrez Gomez was voted by the audience as the winner, and she won a luxurious lunch at top restaurant Beluga. The number 2 Lianne van Exel won a balloon trip and number 3 Andrea Proto received a wellness package at Thermae 2000 spa.

Then it was time for a nice lunch in the sun at the patio inside the Minderbroedersberg building. When the lunch was over I went for a quick walk around town, visiting among others the economic faculty where I graduated with a Masters degree in 1995. After that I walked over to the “Theater aan het Vrijthof” together with Prof. Jo Ritzen and Jeanine Gregersen (the spokesperson of the Executive Board) for the rehearsal of the opening of the Academic Year. This went fine, and after doing an interview with ScienceGuide (see here) it was time to be seated. After all the guests were on their seats the cortege entered, with all the professors dressed in their traditional robes and hats (to get an impression of yesterday’s cortege, see this short film here). I like this kind of rituals, it makes the academic world special.

Prof. Jo Ritzen started the session with a speech about innovation and leadership. Among others he mentioned what he thinks are the most important characteristics that a university graduate should possess. Not only expert subject knowledge, being able to work in teams and solve problems, but also having a strong moral backbone. Moral consciousness is unconditionally linked to knowledge and skills. A good point, especially when looking at some of the causes of the global economic crisis.

After a short musical intermezzo I was introduced to give the keynote speech. The title of my speech was Entrepreneurship and Internet Innovation: Lessons and Experiences. In my keynote I reflected on my time studying in Maastricht and the choices I made in life because of this. I also talked about social media and how business leaders should embrace it. If you want to read the complete speech you can find it here (pdf).

After another musical intermezzo Prof. Gerard Mols, rector magnificus of Maastricht University, performed the award ceremony for the Maastricht University Student Award and for the Edmond Hustinx scholarship. Prof. Jo Ritzen then did the closing words before Ode an der Freude was being played and the cortege left the building.

Following the ceremony there were drinks, but I first had to do another video interview. When that was finished I had a few glasses of beer and wine with several friends and classmates, and some of my former professors. It was nice to see marketing professor Hans Kasper again, he was actually the professor who gave me my very first lecture in university. I got to know him quite well over the years in Maastricht, especially during the academic year that I was president of the Maastricht Marketing Association.

After the drinks my wife and I had a dinner with the executive and supervisory board, the deans of the university and the commissioner of the Queen. During the dinner prof. Jo Ritzen gave me a very nice modern painting of the famous Vrijthof square. I plan to hang it in my office, so I will be reminded every day of the great day I had in the beautiful city of Maastricht!

Today Scott has his first day at school. There is a small private kindergarten located in our compound, and now Scott is old enough to join the classes. In total there are 11 kids (all toddlers), with 2 teachers and 2 ayi’s.

Scott was very happy to go to school, although it was a bit of a disappointment for him that he had to walk instead of going by school bus. Every day all the school buses pick up the kids for the international schools at our compound and he always likes to watch them. Although Scott was excited at first, when he arrived at the kindergarten he suddenly got second thoughts and he did not want to go in. So I held him on my shoulder for a while so he could look around from a safe position. Each time I wanted to put him down he started crying and did not want to let go.

Eventually I sat down with him in the back of the class room when he suddenly started smiling and walked up to the other kids. He was still a bit reluctant to play with them but he was not afraid anymore. He quickly found his own play castle and observed the others from there. Just before my wife and I left he started interacting more with two other kids and he did not even realize that we left the class room. I hope he will have a good day today, it feels very strange to leave your little boy to other people and not knowing what he is doing.

I noted that out of 11 kids only 4 showed up today. The reason is that most flew back to China over the weekend from all over the world and they all are still jet lagged. Some others are still outside China on vacation and won’t start until next week. Probably not bad for Scott, he won’t be as overwhelmed with just 4 kids and 4 staff. I look forward to seeing him tonight, too bad he can’t tell us all his stories yet.

This summer it rained a lot more than usual in Shanghai, and it also rained a lot harder. Over the past week it poured every day at least 1-2 hours and these were usually heavy rainstorms, flooding the streets in downtown Shanghai. Every single day our garden now turns into a (very shallow) swimming pool after it rains.

This morning I sat in the garden (if it doesn’t rain it’s often sunny a few hours a day) and noticed that half the grass had already died because of the water. I think we will need to order a new lawn when the monsoon will finally be over. That’s the good thing about Shanghai, you don’t need to grow your own grass but you just call a company. The next day a truck loaded with grass tiles comes over and within two hours all your old grass is gone and replaced by a fresh new lawn.

This is what our garden looked like last year after we changed the grass right after moving in: picture. Within days you don’t see that the grass consisted of separate tiles anymore, and it looks like a normal lawn.

During a trip to Indonesia a few months ago I was browsing the bookstore on Jakarta airport before departure, when I saw the book “The Man Who Owns The News: Inside The Secret World of Rupert Murdoch” by Vanity Fair journalist Michael Wolff. Murdoch and the News Corp conglomerate that he built over the past decades fascinate me for quite some time already, so I decided to buy the book. That was a good decision, I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot. If you’re interested in media and how the media works, this is probably a good read for you. But the flaws of the book will likely make the book less enjoyable for most readers.

For one thing, the book is too long. I don’t mind long books, but sometimes a writer should come to the point more quickly. The core of the book is the batlle to take over the Wall Street Journal. Certainly an interesting episode in Murdoch’s career but because Wolff spends about half the book writing about Murdoch’s obsession with the WSJ and all the details of the negotiations of the take-over, it gets boring at a certain point. Even worse, because of this other things that happened during the same time are only touched upon. For example the whole MySpace episode should have taken a much bigger part in the book in my opinion. The same for Murdoch’s ventures in China, they are mainly mentioned as background to describe the role of his latest wife, Wendi Deng. Of course I am biased working in the Internet industry in China, but I think Wolff focuses too much on traditional media in the US (and the UK & Australia) instead of new media and instead of up-and-coming countries like China. Some more things are missing. The book mentions that Rupert Murdoch was almost bankrupt in the early 1990’s, but does not describe what exactly happened, nor what tricks he needed to pull of in order to survive. I think that’s actually a very important part in the history of News Corp, and it deserves a much more detailed place in this book.

But apart from these points the book paints a vivid picture of who Rupert Murdoch really is. Michael Wolff had full access too both Murdoch and all of his family members, including his old mother who is still living in Australia. Murdoch does not come over as a very likeable person. He does not even want to be likeable, not to his staff and not even to his family. He is described as a merciless predator, not somebody who you would like to do business with. But despite these character traits (or maybe because of them) he became the biggest media mogul on this planet. The book does not really make clear how he did this. It describes a lot of the deals, but once a deal is done it moves on to the next one. I wonder how Murdoch was able to manage them all and to make sure that they would not work against each other. That’s what I would have liked to read more about. I still don’t understand why his business is so successful. Is he so good? Was he lucky? I think it’s a combination of both. He took enormous risks at the right moment (especially in the 1980’s) to grow his businesses, and that eventually paid off. That together with his excellent dealmaking skills and the ability to motivate his staff to do everything for him. Don’t underestimate the last part, I think most of the people working for him fear him, but still everybody wants to please him.

If you like some juicy gossip about his family and especially his relationship with his Chinese wife Wendi Deng (who is almost 40 years his junior), you will also enjoy this book. Michael Wolff seems to enjoy to dig into his private life and does a good job explaining all his family relationships. Having access to all his kids certainly helped him, especially to the ones that felt that they were not treated very well by their father. Rupert Murdoch is a ruthless business person and because he cannot distinguish between private and business life he uses the same business approach to managing his family. I hope my kids will see me in a different light when they grow up!

After reading the book I still admire Rupert Murdoch for what he achieved. But I see him differently than I did before I read this book. He lives for his business and I don’t think he can ever say goodbye to it. He just does not have another life, everything is business. I don’t think I came across any real friends in the book for example. I also wonder what will become of News Corp if Murdoch will ever pass away (something that’s also touched upon in the book). That may still be years from now (his 99-year old mother is still alive and doing well), but I wonder if there is really somebody who can hold the ship together. I will keep on following News Corp much more closely from now on, it’s a fascinating company with an even more fascinating CEO.