Had lunch yesterday at one of my favorite spots in Jacksonville (Bamboo Creek Bistro) with my friend Jason Sadler of IWearYourShirt.com. (His first experience with dim sum!)
Everyday in 2009 Jason will be outsourcing his clothing to the guy or gal lucky enough to grab the spot. It’s a cool idea that’s getting abunch of buzz lately. He’s even been featured in a LA Times articles that made the front page of Digg.
Jason’s idea is a great case study of social media in action. Follow him on his site Iwearyourshirt.com where you’ll find his daily videos and blog and can even reserve your day to have him wear your shirt in 09′.
Had lunch Friday with my buddy Aaron, from MarketingExperiments.com - (If you’re in online marketing at all and not getting their stuff…shame on you!…head over there and sign up.) I met him up at their offices right on Jax Beach and grabbed an awesome deep dish from Chicago Pizza right across the street.
Before I jumped in my car to head back to the home front (I had to get back to work sometime) I realized I how much I would have hated myself if I didn’t put my toes in the sand, if even for a minute. After all, it was 80 degress out there in the middle of December. One of the benefits of living in Florida. (And global warming =o )
Anyway, I took this video just to show you around wonderful Jacksonville Beach. There were a ton of people out soaking up the sun.
Check it out.
Francis
P.S. Now, I know I haven’t done much in the way of keeping this site updated, but I have some things up my sleeve to change that here shortly. (Bernard’s done an equally crappy a job–I’ll talk to him about that when he’s down here next week and straighten him out)…
Joint MBA Class with Shanghai Jiao Tong University
One of the most valuable and memorable parts of the China Study tour was the joint MBA class with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Seattle University. We discussed two important topics, doing business in China and marketing to the Chinese consumer.
I walked into the classroom thinking that the Chinese students would be quiet because we were foreign students and that they may not know English too well. In contrast, as we walked into the room, these students firmly shook our hands and engaged us. They had tons of questions and stories and provided answers to all of our questions. It felt like any class back home in the United States.
I was surprised that language was not a barrier. Before I entered the room I did not know what to expect. I did not know how well they spoke English, and of course I did not know Mandarin.
The SJTU students were able to understand and clearly present their ideas to the entire class. These students clearly were China’s next managers and leaders in the business world. They were vibrant, smart, entertaining and well educated. The only difference was their background. The average Chinese MBA student in the room was from a local town, did not own a car and was paying out of pocket for their tuition, with help from family and friends. They were here because they are the best and brightest of the pack.
As a business person and student in the United States I am interested in opportunities to learn business on a global level. Shanghai would be a good option. It would give me the experience of doing business globally and provide something I could take back home and apply. However, the time to do so is now. As Chinese business students learn the skills and language needed to grow U.S. companies in the local market, there will be less need for U.S. employees. Most of our company visits were facilitated by expats, Americans who work in China. They established a career in China to help U.S. companies set up management and operations. I predict that next year’s business leaders will be from local and surrounding Chinese areas. U.S. companies based in China will look more towards local talent for their management and operation needs of their global operations. There is a ton of local talent from the China Universities that will be able to cross the language barrier and have the management skills needed to run business on this level.
I was fortunate to learn and connect with these future business leaders. This experience outweighs any text book or article I have read about doing business in China. It was great to experience it all hands on from the students.
Our next company visit took us to the Suzhou Science and Technology Park. Often the “Made in China” label is associated with mass manufactured goods at a low cost. These two visits provided me with a different view of China. I now see China as a major player in technology innovation of the future.
This trip to the Suzhou Science and Technology Park reminded me of the technology incubators that started springing up in the early 2000’s following the dot com rush. When I lived in Maryland, I remember visiting these locations as a bright eyed entrepreneur. I had the same level of excitement as I walked through the Suzhou tour and listened to the future of China to come.
During our pre-departure class we were asked to evaluate specific cities in China that would be best to start a business. We could only answer the question with the information provided in our text book “Source Code China.” Visting these cities in person provided me with a different context that I did not expect. The Suzhou Science and Techology Park and surrounding areas was modern and had the feeling of a new up and coming city. The buildings and infrastructure were set up for rapid growth.
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