Monday afternoon it suddenly started, I received a call from a construction company telling me they heard that our company would move and that they were interested in designing and constructing the new office. I told them they had the wrong information, but they insisted their source was very well-informed. An hour later the boss of the company called me with the same story, seemingly trying to pressure me to admit that we would move our company in the near future. He even said he knew how many square meters we rented. I stayed polite and told him he was wrong.

Tuesday two other construction companies called me with the same question, all telling me that their sources told them that we would move and that they are interested and qualified to work with us. This continued the whole week and it’s driving me nuts. If I get a call now and hear the word ‘construction company’ I immediately say “we are not moving” and hang up on them.

I think I know where the rumor comes from, another company that I am involved in is likely going to move to a much bigger office (no name, otherwise they will get all the calls). For some reason the well-informed source mixed up my name with the person in charge of the other company and has given all construction companies that he has connections with my name and mobile phone number. Hopefully some of them will first Google my name and find this blog post before calling me.

Update: Right after posting this I received my first call from a moving company, telling me that ‘their friend’ told them we are relocating to a new office. I hope the call is not the beginning of another trend.

Today was a beautiful day in Shanghai, not only did we have a blue sky but temperatures went up to 26 degrees around lunch time – see the screen shot below from Yahoo Weather. I had an excellent lunch at M1NT again, Dan Segall is doing a great job as the new executive chef at M1NT. With 4 people we decided to order all 12 different items on the lunch menu, and all of them not only looked impressive but also tasted fantastic. Because of Dan’s fusion cooking talent M1NT has quickly become my favorite place for lunch.

Because of the nice weather I afterward decided to have a look at the roof terrace. That did not open yet officially, but once it will open in April this year it will be one of the best places to hang out for after work drink. As you can see from the picture, M1NT put half-open windows in the exterior walls, so you have a great view over the city from the 25th floor roof top. By April there will also be a big open-air jacuzzi installed in one of the corners, so you can even enjoy the views while soaking in a hot tub. I now already look forward to that!

It’s been a while since my last post. Not because I am getting tired of blogging (not at all!) but because I have been on vacation for the past 2 weeks. First I spent a couple of days in Beijing for Chinese New Year. It was freezing cold so among others we went skiing in Shijinglong, one of the many ski resorts north of Beijing. For some pictures see for example here, here or here. We also visited the ice sculptures in Longqingxia and we went bathing in an open air hot springs north of Beijing – very nice to warm up in the middle of winter.

After Beijing we went back to Shanghai for a day to pack our suitcases for a week-long trip to Malaysia. We decided to fly Air Asia from Hangzhou (a 2-hour drive from our home, 1 hour more than to Pudong airport). Air Asia is a low-cost carrier that offers a “business class” type seat on its A330 which was a lot cheaper than business class seats on a regular flight to Malaysia. With Scott it’s better to have a bit more space on the airplane, especially during a 5-hour flight. We were quite happy with the airline (we also used them from KL to Langkawi and back), the planes were excellent and they had very friendly staff. The only thing they should improve is the international terminal at KL airport (at the LCC terminal), this was dirty, noisy and far below what I had expected after having seen the domestic terminal.

We (my parents, my wife Grace and our son Scott) spent 2 days in KL to do some sightseeing and shopping. We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel in KL, the same hotel where I stayed 5 years ago as well with Grace. Still a good choice and excellent value for money and a central location next to the Petronas Towers.

On Sunday we took the 1-hour flight to Langkawi, a beautiful tropical island that had not changed much since I last stayed there a couple of years ago. Langkawi is not as developed and commercial as most of the Thai islands, and I therefore it has a more relaxed atmosphere than places like Koh Samui. The only downside is that Malaysia attracts a lot of conservative muslims, so you should not be surprised to see women dressed in burkha’s on the beach. I always feel a bit strange when I see muslim men wearing shorts, tank tops and sport shoes in the tropical heat, but their wife (or wives) has to wear the black robes covering their whole body including their face. I don’t judge it, people should make their own decisions about their religion or how they want to live their life, but it’s very different from what you see in most other tropical resorts where I normally go.

The vacation in Langkawi was great: we stayed in a good resort (the Meritus Pelangi Beach Resort) and had a relaxed week. But it was also a bit different than former beach holidays because Scott joined us this time. I probably spent more time in my hotel room trying to get him to sleep (and staying with him while he’s sleeping), feeding him, changing his diapers etc. than on the beach or at the pool. But it was nice to be with him 24 hours a day, and he also liked it a lot to see us all the time.

I rented a minivan upon arrival so we could travel all over the island whenever we wanted. We made a couple of trips to other beaches and to visit some of the other beach resorts, and we went to one of the night markets on the island. If you go to Langkawi I would advise you to rent a car, it’s relatively cheap and there is not much traffic in the island.

It turned out that our resort was not very busy, even though it was high season. While talking to the owner of a local restaurant we learned that this was because of the global financial crisis, they are really starting to feel that there as well. He told us that normally around this time of year he would serve 150 tables per night, and on the night we were there we only saw two other tables… If the crisis gets worse I think a lot of restaurants and resorts might have a very hard time to survive.

Interesting was that one of my Dutch Twitter friends (www.twitter.com/fishinchina) was also staying in our resort . We found out by coincidence (through Twitter) and we had a couple of beers in the swimming pool bar. He closed down his agency for a while to travel the world with his wife and kids and Langkawi turned out to be their first stop. Interesting enough my father knows his father quite well, it’s really a small world – and Twitter makes it even smaller!

During this holiday I tried not to work too much and that worked out well. On average I only checked my mail once every two days or so and I just answered the most important mails. I felt good because I was informed about what was going on in the company, but I did not feel the urge to reply all mails or make phone calls. In the past I could not really distance myself from the company, except when it was impossible to keep in touch – such as during our bike trip in Tibet or while climbing Kilimanjaro. But I realize I am more and more able to let go. Good to know, and I plan to keep on doing this during future vacations!

The only downside is that I spent most of the da
y today in my study catching up on email, because I want to be up to speed on everything before entering the office tomorrow. But I feel very relaxed and am ready to go back to work. One week on a tropical island with my family is exactly enough for me to recharge my batteries. Maybe I should do this more often?

Happy New Year! At midnight last night the Chinese New Year started and it is now officially the Year of the Ox.

This year I am in Beijing during the celebrations and as usual the fireworks were amazing. It was like being in a war zone, inside we could not even hear the sound of the TV anymore after 11 PM (even with our windows closed) and the whole sky was yellow and red because of the fireworks. The weather was perfect this year, a clear sky and enough wind to get rid of the fireworks smog. From our 18th floor apartment we had a good view over the city and I enjoyed the free show.

The Apple store in Beijing, the only official Apple store in mainland China, had a water emergency yesterday. I am not sure exactly what happened (maybe someone here knows more about it?), but the ground floor was evacuated and everybody had to either leave the store or go to the second floor. And of course I took some pictures 🙂 Within an hour they managed to clean everything and the store looked as if nothing had happened (see last picture).

My family and me are in Beijing at the moment to celebrate Chinese New Year. Yesterday we made a walk around Houhai where I took some typical Chinese wintertime pictures. There are not just skaters on the ice, like in Holland, but people invented all other kinds of transportation.

In the US it’s very common to have self storage facilities where you can put stuff that you don’t want to have laying around your house anymore. Considering that the average Chinese apartment is a whole lot smaller than the average US house, it makes sense that self storage might work in China as well. So far there had not been any serious attempts to set this up, but now Carson Block (a former US attorney at Jones Day Shanghai) and his wife have started Love Box Storage.

Last night Carson gave a talk at a NextStep event at Lounge 18, and it was interesting to hear his entrepreneurial ideas. It took the company almost a year to find the right location and get it approved by the fire bureau, but now they got started in Zhabei (on Hutai Lu, just to the Northwest of where the NS Elevated Road and Inner Ring Road cross). Pricing is not very cheap for Chinese standards (starting at RMB 458/month for the smallest room), but you will have a guarded facility with controlled humidity – not unimportant in Shanghai! The company can also arrange insurance for your goods, and you have 24/7 access to your room.

The idea is new to most Chinese, but as China has also become more of a consumption society it could be a potential hit. However, as one attendee noted, most Chinese do not want their goods to be outside of their home (Is that true actually? I did not hear about this before). I am sure it will take time to get used to, but I think there will eventually be a market for it. Maybe starting with expats that have too many things in their small Shanghai apartments, or landlords that need to store their excess furniture when new tenants move in who already have their own furniture.

An interesting business idea for sure, and I will follow how Carson and his team will fare. One thing is certain, if this takes off there will be a lot of local competition very soon. They will then need to compete on service and storage quality, and not try to compete on price, and if I look at their site they understand that. They now already offer pick-up and delivery services for example, and they plan to offer the online management of tenants accounts. Carson even put his mobile phone number on the site, so people can always get in touch with him should there be any issues. In case you read this Carson: I think it’s a great idea, good luck to you and the team to implement it and make it a success!

Yesterday I was reading some newspapers and magazines online when I came across an Associated Press article about the response of companies in China to the global downturn, especially with regards to bonuses and Chinese New Year parties. It was an interesting read, and I was surprised to see among others a comparison of Tudou.com (where I am a board member) and Daimler China (my former employer in China, before I became an entrepreneur) in the article. However, when I read what had been written about Tudou I had the feeling some comments were taken out of their context.

The article quotes a Tudou spokeswoman saying that “Tudou will fly employees to Shanghai for an annual gathering”. It also implies that bonuses, gifts and parties are the same as usual at Tudou. Both statements are not correct actually: what the Tudou employee probably did not know is that the annual gathering she is referring to was a national sales training that Tudou organizes once a year. This was planned to coincide with the annual party, but the party was certainly not the reason to gather the sales staff in Shanghai.

With regards to the statement about gifts and other expenses, Tudou has always been very serious about cost control (which has indeed not changed in comparison to last year) and there is certainly no culture of lavishly spending. Tudou has a fun culture, but not a culture that costs a lot of money. Most people who have been to the Tudou office remember the colorful graffiti on the walls. But one of the reasons to cover the walls in graffiti was in fact that the company did not have much money for an office refurbishment and we therefore decided on a low budget (but fun) solution.

I assume the employee was proud to work for Tudou and in her eagerness to answer the journalist she may have not realized how she sounded, but it gave the wrong impression of how Tudou is handling the effects of the economic downturn. The company indeed had a great Chinese New Year party (I was there as well), but although the food and atmosphere were fantastic I know that our total budget was relatively low. You don’t need a lot of money to organize a fun annual party in China and now I come to think of it, it’s actually a compliment for the organizers that people seem to think it was an expensive one!