in Uncategorized

The slow China Internet costs us 3 working weeks per year

Over the past days the Internet speed in Shanghai has been horrible again. At UnitedStyles rendering something that should take 30 seconds in a normal situation took up to 20 minutes yesterday, meaning that it is impossible to work. When I was in Europe a few days ago talking to Joop Dorresteijn (who was in Shanghai) I advised him at a certain point to just send the staff home. You can’t work at an Internet company without a decent Internet connection to the world outside the Great Firewall.

Over the years I had my share of negative experiences, but it seems to be getting worse. Connections time out and without a private VPN it’s almost impossible to jump out of the biggest LAN (local area network) in the world.

Tonight I was particularly frustrated when I was trying to test a website hosted on Amazon, and each time I was trying to check something the connection timed out. I got so upset that I even tweeted about it. Fellow entrepreneur Alex Duncan then replied with a blog post that he had written out of similar frustration 2 months ago.

In this post he calculated that at the US multinational he used to work for, the staff spent an average of 30-45 minutes extra per day because of the slow Internet. That means a full 3 weeks of lost productivity (plus added stress and frustration) per year! Can you imagine the macro impact of this in a country like China? Of course only a relatively small number of people regularly uses the foreign Internet, but still the total effect must be huge.

Alex mentioned that he might eventually consider to leave China because of this. Naturally I have pondered about that as well, but for me the advantages of China generally (still) outweigh the disadvantages of the terrible Internet. But at times I am so frustrated that I can’t wait until my next trip outside the Great Firewall.

in Uncategorized

The Influence of Online Media – Stars 2011 in Stein am Rhein

Over the past 4 days Stars 2011 in Stein am Rhein took place, an event for the ‘global leaders of tomorrow’ to discuss the challenges and opportunities that we will see over the next 10-20 year. Among others speakers like Bertelsmann CEO Harmut Ostrowski and politicians-turned-corporates like Lord Hastings from KPMG and Mona Sutphen from UBS shared their insights with the group of top managers.

I was invited to talk about the future of online media, discussing how online media changed the world over the past 18 years since I first started using the Internet. I actually wanted to say ‘since I first fired up a web browser’, but browsers didn’t exist yet at that time. Netscape was only founded a year after and I was using the Gopher protocol to make my first small steps into cyberspace. Hard to believe how difficult it was to go online in those days, my kids will probably never be able to understand that – good for them!

The Internet has literally become a second brain to me. Wherever I am I always carry my iPhone, iPad and laptop with me so I can instantly look up what I need. I think finding the right information online is one of the most important skills that kids should learn in school. That doesn’t mean that you don’t need to know anything anymore, however. I think people will always judge others by how much those persons know and if they can put that knowledge to use, instead of how fast they can find the right information. But being able to instantly find additional information makes life a lot easier and fun.

In my presentation I also touched upon how fast news spreads and how social media are changing politics. Not all politicians may embrace social media yet, but it is a fact that the Arab Spring was only possible because of Twitter and Facebook. I argued that this could not have happened even one or two years earlier, simply because there were not enough people online yet in social networks to get the required snowball effect. And this is not only happening in developing countries: also the riots in England this summer were coordinated through social media.

Don’t underestimate what this could mean for businesses – whether good or bad, fact is that the management is no longer in charge of the conversation. If top management does not embrace social media they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. But don’t see it as a threat, if management is entrepreneurial (which should be the case, right?) they should see it as an opportunity that their business can profit from.

New very profitable businesses suddenly emerged (social games anyone?) because of the changing role of online media. It’s forcing many traditional companies to quickly adapt their business models. I discussed the book, music, newspaper and TV industry in more detail with my ideas about what they did right and wrong and what their future will look like. In my opinion this is just the beginning – we ain’t seen nothing yet.

I enjoy giving talks like this, especially to groups that are not as focused on the web as I am, or to peers that like to challenge me on my purposely rather bold statements (“I don’t believe in privacy”, “If you don’t want to see others what you put on the web, you probably shouldn’t have put it there in the first place”). Above I embedded the slides that I used as guideline for my talk.


If you have a conference or corporate event where you would like me to speak feel free to get in touch with me directly or through the China Speakers Bureau.

in Uncategorized

Stein am Rhein in pictures

I was quite impressed by the medieval town of Stein am Rhein in North Switzerland where I spent the last weekend. I already put up a blog post on Sunday with a few pictures, and here are a few more that give a good overview of the town and its surroundings.

View over Stein am Rhein from Hohenklingen castleView over Stein am Rhein from the Hohenklingen caste

Vineyards above Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandVineyards in the hills above Stein am Rhein

Vineyards around Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandCountryside with vineyards around Stein am Rhein

View during lunch in Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandView over the Rhine during lunch at the Chlosterhof Hotel

The Rhine is still very clean at Stein am RheinThe Rhine is still very clean when it passes by Stein am Rhein

Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandView of Stein am Rhein and the Chlosterhof hotel

Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandView from the bridge in Stein am Rhein

Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandStein am Rhein as seen from the bridge

Stein am Rhein, SwitzerlandStein am Rhein with the Hohenklingen castle

in Uncategorized

The power of social media: meeting Yanik Cantieni because of Facebook

Yanik Cantieni and Marc van der Chijs at Frankfurt airport

After speaking about the influence of online media in Stein am Rhein, one of my points about how social media has changed our lives was proven on the way back to Shanghai. Yanik Cantieni, a former Daimler colleague and friend of mine (we were both on the international management trainee program 15 years ago and we later both moved to China/Hong Kong for the automotive multinational), saw on Facebook that I had been flying through Frankfurt over the weekend and asked when I would fly back. I told him I would transfer at FRA on Monday night and by coincidence he also had a late night flight that evening from there!

I only see Yanik about once a year or so, we live in different places and both work a bit too hard. The last time was in November last year when I was speaking at an Internet conference in Jakarta. At that time Yanik was still working as CFO of Mercedes-Benz Indonesia, but since then he has moved back to Europe and he is now a vice-president for Magna. Usually when we meet for dinner and drinks the evening only ends when the bars close (work hard, play hard!), but because I only had less than two hours to change planes we had to pack our stories of the past year in a shorter time frame.

Yanik Cantieni at Frankfurt airport

Yanik picked me up at my arrival gate and we then went for drinks in the Senator lounge at FRA. This one has a good bar with a bar tender that mixes some excellent cocktails. We decided to stay with Weizenbier though; I was thirsty and I am not a big fan of mixes right before going on an overnight flight.

We both had quite a roller coaster year, not only in terms of our business but also of private lives. But I guess that’s normal when you’re in your late 30s and try to get the most out of life? I won’t go into detail – my life may be semi-public but Yanik is in corporate life where privacy is still valued a bit more :>. While walking to our respective gates (coincidentally his gate was almost next to mine with only a 5 minute difference in departure time) we concluded that we both had enough material to write a book! It was cool to catch up again Yanik, let’s talk a bit longer over the next couple of months somewhere on this planet.

in Uncategorized

Stars 2011 in Stein am Rhein and social media

STARS Symposium - Stein am Rhein, Switzerland

I am spending the weekend in Stein am Rhein in Switzerland where I speak at the Stars 2011 conference. This is a bi-annual conference in Switzerland and China where 80 ‘Leaders of the Next Generation’ come together to discuss about the challenges and choices for the next decade.

The participants are leading figures aged between 35 and 40 years old from the world of business, science, politics and NOGOs, all hand picked by their own bosses. Think partners in top consulting and accounting firms, country managers for multinationals or directors of NGOs. I am not one of them of course, but was invited as a speaker on the influence of online media. I will give a talk on Monday in a section on “The Media and its Changing Influence”. Among others Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski will also speak in this session.

STARS 2011 - dinner

I look forward to the talk, because after spending since Saturday morning with the group of participants I realize that many are far behind in social media use – at least in comparison to the people that I normally work with. I spent quite some time talking to people here about why they should use Twitter, Facebook or other social media. Several argued that they are too busy, but actually most have never tried it and don’t really know what they are missing or how it can help your business.

In contrast to other conferences that I normally attend nobody was using iPads or laptops during the talks, and there were no Stars hashtags on Twitter. I found a couple of tweets from participants, but most were actually using pen and paper to make notes. I realize of course that social media usage at big organizations is different than that of start-ups and that is fine. But I think it’s important that this group of future multinational CEOs realizes how online media has changed the world and how it will keep on changing it.

Excellent speech by Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick at #stars #2011

This morning I was surprised by two of the speakers when they among others discussed the use of Twitter and Facebook. English politician Lord Michael Hastings of Scarisbrick (Global Head of Citizenship at KPMG) and Prof. Joachim Bitterlich (former foreign policy advisor to Helmut Kohl and currently a.o. board member at Veolia) both argued that Twitter and Facebook lead to a focus on short term decision making and don’t allow you to step back and take a longer term view. Having that opinion is fine of course, but not when you first announce that you don’t use Twitter and Facebook! It’s so typical that people who don’t use social media seem to be the biggest critics of it.

When Joachim Bitterlich then called mobile devices ‘awful devices’ (“During most of my career we did not use Blackberries and that worked just fine”) and Lord Hastings nodded in agreement I could hardly believe it. They are very smart and experienced men, but without being disrespectful I have the feeling that life has moved faster than they have and it almost seems they don’t want to acknowledge that. Generally they have excellent views on the world and the strategic risks for the future, but this part made my hair stand up on end.

View from my hotel room in Stein am Rhein

The location of the symposium is in Stein am Rhein, a late-medieval town on the river Rhein. I took the Friday midnight flight from Shanghai to Frankfurt and the shuttle flight to Zurich from there. A driver picked me up from the airport on Saturday morning and drove me to the town. The hotel we are staying is directly on the Rhine and my room (a suite actually!) is directly on the river, with a huge balcony. On the other side of the Rhine I see the vineyards, it’s an amazing place to spend a few days. The late September weather is also great, sunny with highs in the low 20s Celsius, which makes it even nicer. Before the seminar started yesterday I ran 20 kilometers along the Rhine (a good remedy against jet lag) and it almost felt like a holiday.

Stein am Rhein, Switzerland

I had never been to Stein am Rhein and I have to say it’s a beautiful town, full of old renovated houses. If I understood it correctly the town owns 1% of stock in Novartis and they use this money to renovate the buildings. The conference is held in the Buergerasyl, a renovated building that’s hundreds of years old (one of the participants told me the renovation costs were 13 million EUR just for this building!). An impressive location for a seminar, probably one of the most interesting place I ever spoke at. And tonight we will have cocktails and dinner at the castle of Hohenklingen high above the town and the river, which something really special that I now already look forward to.

Stein am Rhein, Switzerland

All in all the Stars conference is excellent, in terms of participants, content and organization. Most of the speakers are top notch and I had tons of interesting discussions about politics, NGOs, strategic views of the future and (of course) social media. I am very honored that the organization asked me to speak to this group and I am happy that I could fit it into my schedule. I met several people that I will likely stay in touch with and I learned a lot already. Thanks to the organization and the sponsors for putting together such an amazing event!

in Uncategorized

Google calendar sharing issues

Sharing your Google calendar

Last night I was asking Grace about an interview she was going to do with Bloomberg today. She was surprised that I knew about the interview because she didn’t think she mentioned it to me. I told her that she put it in her calendar, so that’s where I saw it. Then she was even more surprised because she didn’t know I could see her Google calendar.

I told her that while I was in the US last week suddenly all her calendar items popped up in my Google calendar. I assumed she was finally convinced of the fact that the more you share the better it is for you, and that she took it to the next level by sharing her calendar publicly. A year ago she was still complaining to me about me sharing my whole life on my blog, on Twitter and Facebook, but now she probably posts more on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) than I do on all social media sites combined. So this could have been a logical step. Or maybe she just wanted me to know when she needed the car and driver without having to tell me. Whatever the reason I found it quite practical.

Because around the same time my colleague Joop Dorresteijin also started to share his Google calendar I thought that Google may have given people an incentive to share calendars. I checked with Joop today and it turned out that it was a coincidence, he had not planned on sharing his personal calendar but only the work related UnitedStyles items. The settings in Google calendar are not very clear and now also some of his private appointments appeared in my timeline.

For Grace it turned out to be a mistake as well. She set up a new MacBook Air and I assume she must have unknowingly changed some settings while importing her old calendar items. She was obviously not too happy that I had access to her calendar without her knowing this, so she changed the settings right away. Well, at least my calendar is not so clogged up anymore. And I will check my own settings to find out with whom I am sharing my calendar!

in Uncategorized

Speaking at Silicon Valley Bank CEO dinner this Thursday

Silicon Valley Bank logo

On Thursday I will be speaking at a CEO dinner organized by Silicon Valley Bank at Kathleen’s 5 in Shanghai. About 100 people already confirmed their attendance, so it will be a nice crowd. Not sure if there are still seats available, but if you want to join best is to get in touch with Libby Tang at (+86)-21-6143 3812 or ltang@svb.com to reserve your seat.

Text from the official invitation:

The Chinese tech industry is developing faster than ever with massive potentials. It is the place for entrepreneurs to be. Ken Wilcox, Chairman of Silicon Valley Bank, will be joining us for a panel discussion. Ken moved to Shanghai three months ago to head up Silicon Valley Bank’s creation of a joint venture bank with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co. Ltd.

Other panelists include, Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio, and Marc van der Chijs, Co-founder of Tudou. Both Jacob and Marc have successfully started and grown their business ventures here in China. We are also delighted to feature Dr. Lu Gang, a pioneer tech blogger with many followers, to moderate the panel discussion. He is a technology and social media expert who was awarded as TOP10 Best Expert of 2008 by iResearch.

The following topics will be discussed:

– The differences of entrepreneurship between East and West
– Experiences in doing business in China, what is the must and what is the must-not
– Views on local investment environment, what are the current and next investment sectors
– The trends in Chinese tech industry
– SVB’s China strategy and views on Chinese market

Speakers:
Ken Wilcox, Chairman of Silicon Valley Bank
Jacob Hsu, CEO of Symbio
Marc van der Chijs, Co-founder of Tudou

Moderator:
Gang Lu, Founder of TechNode.com

Kathleen’s 5 Rooftop Restaurant
325 Nanjing Xi Lu, 5F, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai
地址: 上海市南京西路325号上海美术馆顶楼

Thursday, September 22, 2011
5:30 – 9:00 p.m.

Agenda:
5:30 – 6:15 p.m. Sign in and cocktails
6:15 – 7:15 p.m. Panel discussion
7:15 – 7:45 p.m. Q & A
7:45 – 9:00 p.m. Dinner

in Uncategorized

Elaine’s multiple language skills

Elaine is Start of the Week!

Last week Elaine was chosen as Star of the Week for her Nursery class, and so her picture was put at the entrance to the school. Elaine was very proud of her achievement, and of course I am also proud of her being the first Star of the Week in her class.

I am also proud of her language skills, and how easily she switches from Dutch to Chinese and to English. Her Chinese is now basically fluent, her English is quite good (and even better than Scott when he was 2 years and 4 months old) and her Dutch is already at a basic level (she understands most Dutch things I am saying to her, but her vocabulary is not big enough yet to really talk back to me in Dutch).

Sometimes things go a bit wrong though, especially after I come back from a business trip and she did not hear nor speak any Dutch for a couple of days: on Saturday she came to me and asked me “You leave me papa?”. I was a bit surprised by her question, I thought she was asking me whether I was going on another business trip. But no, it turned out she was trying to find out whether I like/love her, and she used the Dutch word ‘lief’ for that, which does sound very similar to to English ‘leave’. She was using English grammar, however, so it took me some time to figure out what she meant.

Another example of a Dutch mistake that she makes and that always makes me laugh is when I ask her what she is eating (=’Wat eet jij?’). It happened a few times already that she answered ‘Elaine’. It took me a bit to figure out why she answered with her name, but then I realized that she thought I was asking her her name, which sounds similar in Dutch (=’Hoe heet jij? -> Eat=eet, your name=heet).

Swimming with the kids before sunset

Scott, who is now 3 years and 9 months old, is now fluent in Chinese and almost fluent in English and is very good at Dutch. He can even translate things from Chinese to Dutch or English for my parents when they come to visit. That can come in handy sometimes with our staff who only speak Chinese.

It’s amazing to see how quickly kids pick up the languages we speak at home and how natural they switch from one language to the other. Interesting is also that the kids often speak English among themselves when their nannies are around (so the nannies can’t understand what they are saying) and Chinese when they are with my parents in Holland (for the same reason). But if they ask them something they switch to another language without even thinking. Wish I had learned Chinese and English at their age already…