Techniques for motivating vendors or subcontractor partners?

We have consistently had problems managing quality with our test lab partners.   Sometimes they screw up the sampling at the client's house.  Or, they cut corners on analyzing the results.  We've caught problems on both ends.   The root of the problem is that the people who do the work (sampling or lab analysis) just don't care.  They are not paid enough to really value their jobs and they don't get any reward for doing better.  If we pay the company extra, they do not see this money so actually are more likely to have worse results when we have a rush fee.  So our only way to ensure quality is to micromanage and we can't be everywhere at one time.

One suggestion one of our staffers had was to give certain people some money under the table.  But, this is not really based on any standards and I worry that they may start expecting it.

What do you think about this idea:  every month, we nominate 3 best performing staff -- can be sampling staff or lab staff or even customer service, and let them know that they were selected.  We state very clearly what the criteria is and also have a little citation on why that person was nominated.  Then, we pick one to win a cash award -- doesn't have to be much (maybe 200-300rmb?), maybe a gift card, but the idea is that it is appreciated, unexpected, and very visible -- and it doesn't just motivate one person, but all three and hopefully anyone else who sees this.  We want to tie performance to results.

Do you think this idea would work?  Any modifications?  Should we pick 3 best across both labs so maybe they even feel some pride in their own lab and some healthy competition?   

What have you guys done that's worked,  either with your own staff or subcontractor/partner companies?

Day 5 & 6 - Chasing Mandarinfish & Mola Mola!

10/4/11 – Day 5 – Mandarin fish: Much ado about nothing

Decided to join the mandarin fish hunt tonight and amazingly, Sarah agreed to come along. She rarely goes night diving so I can only assume that the promise of really pretty fish convinced her. The idea is that the mandarin fish, a garishly hued species that does a mating dance at dusk, can be seen at certain places on the reef. I didn’t know anymore than this, but got ready for it like I would any other night dive.

Turns out that they do not want you to use white light lamps (only red light, which the fish can’t see) because this disturbs the mandarin fish. Also, we are to sit in a circle in about 3m of water waiting for the fish to come out. The good news is that the fish were plentiful here – I saw about 6-8 alone. I wasn’t cool with sitting in the dark with no light, and then losing my night vision repeatedly from high-powered strobe flashes by the photographers on the other side of the circle. All just to see some fish chase each other (supposedly they also “kissed” later on). I eventually (after 15 min), got bored, and wandered the reef with Sarah. She seemed to like it and found it “not scary” though I was plenty scared by how many sea urchins came out in the area we were in. All in all, I think it’s a unique diver who likes mandarinfish dives and it won’t be on my list of repeat to-do’s in the future.

10/5/11 – Day 6 – Nearing the end

The days have settled into a rhythm:

7am Wake up & get breakfast

8am In the boat for two morning dives

1:30pm Return to the resort for lunch

1-5pm Lunch, relax, nap, work on photos, work emails, read for 4 straight hours (if you are Sarah)

5pm Night dive – house reef or mandarinfish hunt

7:30pm Dinner

8:30-11pm Chat with other guests, share photos, update logs, work emails, read for 3 hours (if Sarah)

11pm Bedtime

It’s really quite relaxing – though the dives are by far longer here than anyplace I’ve been to before, they’re not tiring (no strong currents, sites are nearby, and the staff handles just about all your equipment transfer for you). The weather has been perfect, about mid-70s, light breeze, no humidity, and dry with only a couple episodes of rain. The staff is lovely, there’s tons of places to lounge around and you can be as social or introverted as you want. Best of all, no outside hawkers or vendors or random people, so it’s quiet and you can leave your rooms unlocked. We had originally planned to do some sightseeing or land trips, but never felt the need or really had the energy to do so. This is a perfect vacation site and resort for busy people who want to unwind, but also stay connected if they want (there’s wi-fi with enough bandwidth for email, but not enough for VOiP, so don’t plan on making calls)

This morning, we had a nice treat. We were originally supposed to dive at Leaning Rock I, but when we got there, there were too many divers (there is a 15 diver max, incl guides) rule in Lembeh, so we diverted to a site called Angel’s Window. We dropped in, went through a swimthrough (hence the site name), and then I heard Marnez uncharacteristically making signaling noises. I looked up to see the last thing I expected at a macro site: the huge, slow-moving, and unmistakable silhouette of a mola-mola (oceanic sunfish). The solitary animal was about 10m away, moving at a relatively shallow 5-10m. Several of us swam with it for awhile and it didn’t seem to be spooked, though it started moving away from the reef. I got a short video and a single photo. We finished the rest of the dive, then Simon, the resort owner, who had joined us to check out his new camera and housing, linked back with us near our surface interval. I showed him (while still underwater) the shot of the mola mola, and to my surprise, he gave me the one-finger salute. When we were back on the boat, he explained, saying that in all his time here, many thousands of dives, he’s never seen one either when he worked in Bali or here in Sulawesi. Paulus, a local guide, was also surprised, saying that in his 20 years diving here, he’s never seen one. Sometimes Lady Luck shows up at the most unexpected times.

Day 3 – Another day in paradise & Day 4 - Trouble in Paradise

Got a little more sleep last night and came to breakfast with more energy.  It's funny how quickly you get to know other guests and staff and how comfortable you can feel sitting down with someone new.  A large group of 14 guests arrived last night and they were still doing their own thing.  Serge was running around busy organizing everything and I felt bad hitting him up with a request to rent a computer.  My Oceanic VT6 wireless air-integrated wrist-mounted computer that is pretty new and had just been repaired at the shop was malfunctioning after the first dive.  Really annoying when you pay good money for something that should be top notch and it performs worse than rental gear.  Especially when it's critical life-support systems.  I got a computer and an SPG and started the second dive.  Sarah stopped me early on to signal I had a leak.  I looked at my SPG and the hose was leaking from half a dozen spots.  The dive guide signaled that I should go up, so I did.  The two boat guys really were pretty clueless and tried to fix it by wrapping it with masking tape which obviously didn't work.  I came back up and just removed the hose and replaced it with my original transmitter as a plug.  Got back to the group and still got about 40 min dive.  Unspectacular, but ok reef dive.

I learned that some hoses are designed to rupture in multiple places when they fail in order to dissipate the pressure and allow you to finish the dive as opposed to a single catastrophic fail point in the hose.  Serge later said that he had dove for like 2 weeks with a hose like that and it only lost about 10 bar (5%) during a dive.  Good to know for later.  Still, having a failed computer and SPG in less than 24 hrs is no fun. 

Our second dive was also a reef dive.  No major finds, but still nice to just float along and look for little things casually with good visibility and very pleasant topside weather.  Another 70+ min dive.

No one was up for a night boat dive, or even a shore dive, so I went on my own.  We're in sort of a bay, and max depth is probably around 20m so it's really hard to get lost.  I went looking for the wreck again, and although I didn't find it, I did get to take my time figuring out camera controls and taking some shots of shrimps, crabs, and nudibranchs.  I really enjoy the house reef – in a small area, it's got a little of every environment – muck, black sand, coral, and even eelgrass – sort of a mangrove.  At these shallow depths, you can literally go as long as you want.  My longest dive this week was over 100 min and I only came in when I started worrying that dinner was getting put away !

Day 4 – Trouble in paradise

Little bit of drama today.  There is one big group from Europe – they are a sort of dive club of people that all work at the European Space Agency.  Major egghead and rocket scientists, but as you might expect, some funky personalities and egos.  Apparently, some in the group were unhappy with the constant muck and black sand diving and wanted more coral reefs.  As a result, the groups were broken up into a group that was mainly muck diving, one that was mainly coral diving and one that was in between (or maybe mainly photographers).  We asked to be counted in the muck dive group and was put onto a new boat with new divers, which was fine.  We met a nice Dutch couple – Peter and Karim, Luis from Portgual (who now lived in Spain), and Wim, a slightly eccentric older gentleman.  Was still diving with Marnez, who has a quirk – he rarely signals with audible sounds, unlike just about all dive guides I've ever come across.  He just sits there and when you check over at him, he's waiting patiently with something to show you.  I suppose that's one way of making sure that you don't wander off and keep tabs on him, but I wonder what I'm missing and it doesn't seem the most efficient use of his time.

After we came in from the second dive, there was a group arguing loudly with it seemed other group members and either Simon or Serge.  I guess the boat came back to refill some of the large 15L tanks and some divers felt this was an inconvenience.  I think that's pretty crazy because a 15L tank is a privilege, not a right, and at most other resorts, you'd just have to suck it up and finish your dives early if you were an air hog.

At night we had a special treat.  Bent gave a presentation on marine life symbiosis and it was really educational and entertaining.   Among other things, we learned that some jawfishes live their lives in the anuses of sea cucumbers, eating their gonads and gaining nourishment through their excrement.  If  any anenomefish (clownfish) appear to be ventilating a lot or opening and closing their mouths rapidly, they could be carrying a parasite (some sort of 10 footed decapod) that lives in their mouth, eats their tongue away and then digs its feet into the stump of the tongue and stays there.  Sometimes even two can occupy the mouth, which really seems to bother the fish.  The fish sometimes will even suck on anemone tentacles to try to remove the parasite.  The image of this apparently grinning demon face peering out of a clownfish's mouth is the stuff of nightmares.  No need to make up monsters when they exist in real life!

Day 2: Hit the water running

We were up at 7am, and groggily rolled into breakfast by 7:15am.  Chow was buffet style, simple fruits, cereal, bread, and you could request eggs.  We set up and were ready to go onto the boat by 8am.  There were 8 guests with about 3 guides.  The boat was really spacious with plenty of space for divers to get setup without being in each others' way and backroll entry and ladder re-entry.  The distance out to the first site was longer than I expected – about 20 min.  Sarah and I were paired up with local guide Johan, who was a terrific spotter and always cheerful. 

I had high expectations and they were surpassed by the very first dive.  Muck diving is just about the only place in the world where trashing the environment actually has a positive upside.  The area around Lembeh Straits has mostly either a silty or a black sand bottom with some spots of coral reef or coral rubble.  For the most part, however, it's a barren, inhospitable environment that offers little shelter.  As a result, the marine life that survives is tiny, often cleverly camouflaged to blend in, and there's a lot of symbiosis.  Anenomefish living in stinging anenomes is a good example.  So is the gobies that stand guard while their blind partner shrimp ceaselessly dig safety holes and push sand and rocks out of the way.  When there's any sign of danger, the goby communicates this to its partner through the link provided from the shrimp's antenna on its dorsal fin and they retreat to the hole in the blink of an eye.  So how does trash fit into this?  It gives the animals an extra place to hide.  Tires, shoes, coconut shells, all become highlights of a dive because of what you can find in them.  You can't pick up a bottle without finding something peeping out from inside its neck. 

The first site was silt giving way to black sand, and surprises were everywhere.  Cuttlefish of all sizes, two mimic octopuses (by first encounter with them), nudibranchs (but not the huge variety I've seen elsewhere), a bizarre two-foot buried crab that shot out like an arrow when disturbed, many different shrimp, and best of all, warm temperatures (81F/28C), shallow depths, and a 70 min pleasant dive.  I came up thinking, "This is going to be an awesome week!"  The only downside was due to my own fault.  I had a new camera, a CanonS95 point and shoot in an Ikelite housing, but the strobe and macro lens I ordered arrived too late for me to bring it along, rendering the camera virtually unusable for anything but shallow, well-lit subjects.  So frustrating, because you come to this area to hunt bizarre creatures you won't find anywhere else and it's ideal to claim photos as trophies.

We did two dives, the second at a reef and not nearly as nice as the first and then returned around noon.  The crew was awesome, took care of everything and we just took our cameras, lights, etc.  Annoyingly, my Oceanic hoseless dive computer crapped out again on the second dive.  I just had it fixed earlier this year after it died about 100' down on a wreck. 

The resort has dedicated wet and dry camera rooms.  Lunch was served and as soon as you sat, plates were brought out to you.  Delicious and healthy local food.  Basic water, coffee, tea, and Milo are free and sodas/beers/smoothies are pay as you go.  There was a third boat dive after lunch around 2:30pm, but we were on the 2 boat dives a day plan and were pooped anyhow.  We caught a nap and then around 4:30pm, when the boat came back, a group of about 5 of us went for a twilight dive in the house reef.  The "house reef" is a bit misleading, because it's not really a reef, but just the area in front of the resort.  Still, I managed to see two octopus, a stingray, a Harlequin shrimp, leaffish, banded pipefish, sea snake, and a variety of crabs during the 70 min dive.  Came back, took a quick shower, and it was dinner time.

The guests are from all over.  We have Bent, Swedish university ecology professor who takes and sells photographs on the side; Liz, also a university teacher from Newcastle, Australia; Olaf, a single photo enthusiast from Germany, a couple from Germany, and Godfried and Micky, an older but really energetic and fun couple from Denmark.  Everyone is a competent diver, considerate, and pleasant.  We spent the evening just chatting with each other and the owners, Simon and Zee, who bought the resort in 2010 after managing it for two years.  It really is a labor of love and the remarkable thing – the one thing every well-run place has in common that I've stayed at – is that you can tell the staff is happy, empowered, and genuinely happy to be here.  A lot of laughing and smiles, though they clearly work hard in the background so the guests can chill out.

Chinese National Day Holidays in Indonesia

It's annual holidays in China (happens twice a year) and this year, we planned early enough that we could have our choice of dive destinations we hadn't yet visited.  The short list included: Fiji, Manado/Lembeh, Sipadan, Palau, and the Philippines (again).  The only criteria was that we needed to be able to use award miles.  Fiji and Palau just didn't have good connections and we were pretty indifferent to Manado/Lembeh or Mabul/Sipadan.  Both are renowned for muck diving, which is finding bizarre, tiny aquatic creatures in silty or black sand. 

I found award tickets  to Jakarta via Singapore and then we purchased domestic tickets to complete the trip to Manado.  There are about 10 resorts in the area, all that essentially package accommodations, full board, and diving (either 2 or 3 boat dives a day).  We settled on NAD, which seemed  like a reasonable  price but with nice bungalows.  Simon, the owner, was very responsive and we got a 7 nt package with upgraded bungalow, full board, and 2 dives per day (and unlimited house reef diving) for around 800 USD total.  Like I said, very reasonable.

We had a midnight flight out of Shanghai.  Sarah and I had both been so busy that we didn't have a good chance to pack and we threw everything together in about half an hour and jetted to the airport at about 9:30pm.  It was 24 hrs later before we finally arrived at our destination.

Our first leg was to Singapore via Singapore Airlines, my favorite airline.  Uneventful 4-5 hrs – I napped a bit.  Then we were in Singapore for about 3 hours waiting for our hop to Jakarta.  Of course Sarah made a beeline for the La Perla shop.  I took care of a few work emails and then did the male La Perla equivalent and hung out at one of the many technology/photo/audio/computer shops in the airport.  Singapore is truly a nation of geeks, but I'm thankful for that.  I picked up a wireless signal repeater that you supposedly can just plug in to increase the strength of the signal.  From experience, wireless signals don't go very far in resorts and I can't count the number of times I've literally dangled my laptop out of a window or been crouched in some courtyard getting bitten by mosquitoes to take that IP call or get that important email out.  It was only $70 too, so if it works, will be money well spent.

We got onto the Jakarta flight, also on SQ, and landed in Jakarta a couple hours later.  First step was getting a visa on arrival (most countries can do this).  This was painless and quick and cost USD 25 per person.  We paid in RMB, which was a bad idea because the exchange rate was much worse.  I always forget that the international arrivals terminal is quite a way from the domestic terminals.  You have to go upstairs and then take a taxi or free yellow shuttle bus (better) to T1 or T2 (starting from T3 Intl).  The transit easily takes about 30 min, so it's good to leave plenty of time.  We were lugging a good amount of dive equipment, but still made it under the weight limit.  For future info, the check-in limit is 20kg per person.  If you're traveling together, the limit can be combined.  We came in at about 34kg.  We had another 3 hrs to kill and first hit the ATM (usually a good idea to do this in Jakarta because a lot of the smaller places don't have ATMs or they are not the right network).  We found ATMs that would take Unionpay and also a Citibank.  Actually, in Manado we also saw several ATMs at the airport, but not sure if they would have worked.  

My experience with flights from Jakarta is that they are usually late and this time was no exception.  We were about an hour late.  One nice thing is that a middle-aged distinguished man stopped us and introduced himself out of the blue at the terminal.  Asked us where we were from and told us that he had lived in the US for a little bit.  Turned out he had been in San Bernadino, which is not a big county, and near LA.  I was surprised to find out that San Bernadino is a sort of community heartland for immigrants to the US from Manado!  Youke works in public health and we exchanged info.  Genuinely nice guy.

The flight was fine though Sarah remarked that the seats were more cramped than any flight she's taken in a long time.  Being a budget airline, food and drinks are not provided but can be purchased.  It was a 3-4 hr flight, and by the time we touched down, we were pretty tired and hungry.  Manado was a small airport, and the thing which stood out the most was that there were touts and taxi drivers everywhere.  Worth getting someone right away to drive the other touts from swarming you.  We found our driver from the resort and were on our way.  The drive from Manado to Bintang was about an hour through tiny roads where we were continuously swerving to dodge roadside traffic.  But the van was really comfy and we just fell asleep.  Arrived at the port, transferred onto a boat and took another 20-30 min to arrive at the resort.  So glad that we did not decide to stay in the town (which you can do for cheap, diving during the days).  It was quiet once we left the port.

Zee and Surge met us and greeted us by name as we stepped off the boat, which was a nice gracious touch.  We dropped our bags and were invited to have dinner and a welcome drink right away which was great.  The first impression of NAD, our home for the next week, was a quiet haven, well-kept, with most activities centered around a homey, but open eating and community lodge area.  There are little housing units on the ground floor, steps from the eating area, and then three bungalows about 50m away.  Our bungalow was really nice.  Not glamorous or mint-on-the-pillows luxurious, but clean, dry, attractive, big firm bed, working & quiet A/C, and a bathroom that didn't stink and had actual working hot water instead of the cold water in a basin ("mandi") that I was used to in Indonesia.  Really the perfect type of place that Sarah and I like.

I was ready to crash, but had a bunch of work stuff like payments, customers, and a paid webinar, etc I had to take care of, and with the poor wireless Internet coverage (we're on the edge), it took about 5 hrs before I could sleep and got about 3 hrs before I was up for our first full day.

My first Chinese radio interview

Last week (well, the week before I was sick), I did one of those things I would have never thought possible a year ago.  I gave an hour-long radio interview entirely in Chinese.

Maybe it was that adage, "No publicity is bad publicity."  Or, that we're on a ghetto guerrilla PR & marketing budget and this was free.  But, when an acquaintance in the LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) asked me if I'd be willing to talk about  air & water on the on the daily radio program "LOHAS Everyday," I thought, "why not"?  After all, I do it all the time with clients.  

I started worrying the night before.  I was supposed to show up at the station in 12 hrs and still didn't know where it was, hadn't seen any questions, didn't even know how long the show was, and suddenly started doubting my ability to speak in complete sentences in Mandarin.  Finally, my liaison called me with some info and a read-ahead on the questions.  They were actually the sort of questions I normally field, so I jotted down some notes in English and then got some rest.  The next day, I got to the station.  There was a surprising amount of security to get in.  I met Lisa, my intermediary, and then she brought me into the studio.  I met the two hosts, two nice, young Chinese radio DJs.  Wu Bing was an upbeat, energetic guy in his mid-twenties from Beijing.  Ruan Jing was a little older and more thoughtful -- a nice counterpart to Wu Bing.  Kind of the way Jackie was for Howard Stern.  They were both very nice and went over the process with me.  We'd go through the entire show, complete with fade in's and outs, and then they would make edits later to piece the show together.  If I made any huge mistakes, they could edit out later.  

We started -- I thought it was pretty funny that their intro music was Ludakris.  They must have kept their questions especially basic, because I didn't have any problems understanding and not a whole lot of problems speaking, though I'm sure my Chinese teacher would have had a few choice words for me for some of the mistakes I made.  But all in all, it was really like just having a chat with interested friends.  Lot of fun.

Afterwards, we took a few photos, I got a little tour of the station and their offices.  The show played a couple days later and Lisa was nice enough to send me a CD of the audio.  I'm not sure how to leverage this interview, but just wanted to share with y'all.

My body is a mystery

Some (and I believe the smartest) Christians use the mystery of life to prove the existence of a higher power. I definitely believe that. After a topsy turvy week of health ups and downs, I know that the body is so incredibly complex that either God or aliens had to have put us together.

So, a couple months ago, I blogged about coming down with Scarlet Fever. 5 days ago, on Monday, I woke up fine. Went to the new office, participated in Monday morning show and tell, and got through a long day. As i do every Mon, I went to brazilian jiujitsu. Once there, I started feeling a little out of it. I didn't grapple very well, felt tired and hot, but kept going. Afterwards, when I rode back, I felt so exhausted and almost lightheaded that I was afraid I wouldn't make it back. My temp was about 102, and I was still feeling chilled. I tossed and turned for most of the night and then worked from home, mostly laying in bed. For most of that day and night, I continued to have a fever and a steady, heavy headache.

On day 3, I finally went to the doc, when i realized i had a large patch of itchy raised welts on my chest. This doctor diagnosed what I had as non-bacterial, viral infection. I was given Tylenol and sent home.

Day 4 was fine -- I had less appetite, my throat was raw and I wasn't drinking much - but I could still function. The patch of raised welts that had been just in patch areas were now covering 70% of my body, less my face, thank goodness. Nights were bad, as body temp goes up and your body becomes more sensitive to itches.

On Day 5, I went into the office to organize some things, and spent half the day there. Sadly, I wasn't even thinking so straight anymore. I was hardly eating or drinking, and my nights were hours of tossing and turning. I was still doing okay. Until about 3pm, when I realized I was sort of wheezing fluid into my lungs and my lips were so puffy they looked like Angelina Jolie's. I had one more important planning meeting and actually had to have my marketing person talk to me while I typed to her in a chat window. It was strange, but it worked. I went to the hospital and actually was sort of pissed at the doctor who let me leave the hospital with Tylenol only and didn't warn me about any of this. She said it was very unusual for adults to get the same type of virus twice so close together. Then she wanted to admit me overnight. I ended up not doing that, but agreed to walk through a battery of blood samples at a different location.

The doc was great and said:

1. I have a viral infection

2. My liver bloodwork is way off, about 6x

3. He recommended steroid injections to reduce the swelling. Apparently, my body is fighting the virus so hard that my immune system haywire and is super sensitive. Everything is now a threat so my body reacts by getting inflamed, itchy, wheezing, swollen. And that makes me miserable not talking, eating, or drinking.

I took the steroid through an IV drip. I was very worried because the very next day, we were due to host a BBQ and pool party that might draw between 10-40 people. The day rolled around and I woke up and could swallow, talk, and my face was mostly back to normal.

Day went by great, my chest returned totally back to normal. but I have to say that I have never swung between such highs and lows. The worst was feeling like you have a mouth full of ulcers and not being even able to talk without feeling all cut up.

Takeaways?

* Next time you get sick, main thing you can get tested is if you have a viral or bacterial infection. Antibiotics work only for bacterial. Nothing (western) is known to solve viral infections so all you can do is reduce the symptoms and ride it out

* Normal cycle is 5-7 days. After 4 days, get on steroids (last about 24 hrs)

* You are contagious through droplets of moisture you release, but after the first night, i didn't have time to put on the mask

* I feel so sympathetic now for people who have bad allergies. Right now my back is so itchy that if i rub up against sometihing a few seconds later I was to sleep on top of it.

You know you've been married too long when...

So what's the only case in which you can live down forgetting your wedding anniversary?

... when your spouse also forgets!

Sad, but true.  I came back from jiujitsu practice as usual, pretty late, and Sarah greeted me with a smile and a "Happy Anniversary, Dear".  My mouth dropped open, a few choice words came to mind, and since I can keep no secrets from her after over 15 years together, I admitted that I had totally forgotten.  Normally, this would have sent me to matrimonial purgatory, but she cheerfully admitted that she only remembered that afternoon when her mother emailed her to wish her well.  That's how I know I married the right woman -- who else would have let me off that easily??

These days, I put everything in my calendar.  If it's not there, I forget it.  It's a modern day crutch that helps me to function by letting me only remember what I have to (hence the Far Side cartoon).  Anyone else do this?

When it rains it pours

I think you're supposed to say that when bad things are happening.  Is there a saying for when good things happen?

Last week was a good week.  A very good week.  The amount we brought in last week (no cash yet, but deal value) was nearly 50% of our total revenue to date.  True, much of this was from one project alone (a big deal with a bank covering nearly 6000m2), but this was actually 6 different projects.  On average, we've been doing maybe 2 projects a week.  The best part?  They were all commercial projects -- the direction I've been wanting us to go.  Doing homes is fun, satisfying, tangible, but in no way scalable.

The other interesting thing is that our business is growing into a relationship role.  In many of these projects, we were the general contractor, bringing subcontractor(s) to do some work that we billed for, coordinated, managed, and took responsibility for (and a sizeable cut).  In one project, however, we were contacted by a HK services provider to be their subcontractor.  They took almost the same size cut but did very little value add besides landing the deal.  But, it's worth doing because we aren't at that point where we can find business like that and we are learning about how to be a general contractor by being on the other side of the fence.  Pretty fascinating and really learning on the job.

Keeping fingers crossed, last week was really the first week where I felt like there was really promise beyond just feeling like we were doing a good thing, being professional, and meeting a market need.  I felt excited that this could actually make some money and be a real business venture.  Maybe not a coincidence that I averaged about 3-4 hrs of sleep too...

Oh, forgot to mention that at the end of the previous week, I gave a talk to a community of builders, architects, designers, and property managers on how indoor air quality is important to green building.  Way more  people showed up than we expected.  Normally, 50-80 people have gone to the events I've attended.  The organizer estimated about 130-150 at this one.  After some scares with the audio not working and then a challenge of all the pictures in my presentation not being displayed, I still went ahead and gave it.  Got some decent questions and then chatted with about a dozen people after the talk.  I'm pretty sure I should follow up with the opportunities and business cards a little better, but I'd like to think that this week's amazing uptick might have something to do with that talk.

Thanks for letting me share my bit of happiness!

Inc magazine...mmm good

For my birthday, my big bro L got me a subscription to Inc. Magazine.  He probably saw me browsing his back issues when during a visit.  Like probably most entrepreneurs or small business owners, there's so much we don't know and learning from other people or reading real case studies is immensely important.  I started receiving the issues a couple months back and I really enjoy the magazine and wanted to give a shout out of appreciate to my bro.  The best gifts are the ones you wouldn't go out of your way to buy yourself, but can use and appreciate.  

And, I hate reading online, so the added expense of print magazines was so much nicer.  It's weird.  I like and do all my research online.  But, reading newspapers and magazines online totally ruin the experience for me.  It may be generational.  Sitting back on a lazy Sunday morning with a Wall St Journal is really a relaxing time.  

Inc does a great job being relevant to the brand new one-person startup baking cupcakes out of their apartment kitchen to the $50M tech company with 30 employees.  I suspect larger companies probably find it less interesting, but that's the nature of the beast.  There's probably a graduate-level Inc. out there somewhere.

But for the moment, I really enjoy reading stories and different approaches, whether how someone dealt with trademark infringement, libelous claims by competitors, decisions on whether to expand into franchises, etc.  The best part is that reading these things, even how someone dealt with failure (always the best lessons) fire me up.

In other news....

Next week, I've been invited to give a talk ambitiously titled: "Managing Indoor Environmental Quality for Green Building Success" to a group of mostly builders, architects, interior designers, facilities managers, and people in the green and sustainable industries.  It'll draw on a few real project case studies we've done to highlight why indoor air testing and paying attention to indoor environmental quality can impact green building, from marketability to cost savings to productivity to health and safety to minimizing legal liability.  This is going to be big in helping us strengthen recognition as thought leaders in this space.   If you have any ideas (other than an email to a bunch of acquaintances inviting them to attend) on how we can market this or use it to increase our SEO or credibility, please post your comments!

Who got fever? I got fever. Scarlet Fever

This Saturday I woke up with a bad sore throat. It happens in China. I didn't think much of it, but then was chilled, and when I took my temp it was over 102F. Sarah suggested helpfully that I had the flu.

No biggie, but thought it was weird because I just had a flu shot (I always think those things are useless).

That night and the next day, my temperature hovered around 102-103 F and I got to enjoy a cold bath and other fun home remedies.

Then on Sun, the fever broke. But instead, I started feeling tingles in one foot -- how it feels when your foot falls asleep. My feet are pretty beat up, cracked, and always itching from being on the jiujitsu mats, so I didn't think too much of it. But during the night, the itching got intense -- I actually dreamed about it. And, the spots and itching spread to both feet.

On Monday, after a quick websearch suggested I might have anything from strep throat to foot and mouth disease, I decided I'd just get down to the doc's and get antibiotics started.

Good thing I did. The French doc diagnosed the strep throat immediately when she looked into my throat, but then when she saw my feet, she said, "Hmm....very interesting". That is not something you want a examining medical professional to say. She believes I have come down with either scarlet fever or hand and mouth disease. (Actually I just looked it up and I my symptoms match the classic symptoms of foot and hand disease 100%, but I'm just an amateur doctor) Doesn't really matter because both are related to streptococcus bacteria and both are treated with penicillin. It's often transmitted by children and according to PubMed, "Coxsackie virus is transmitted by contamination with feces". WHAT? Coxsackie? Feces? Now that I think about it, I went to a Chinese hospital on Friday and probably encountered about 500 people in two hours or so. Next time I'm wearing a mask and gloves.

Although I didn't even know scarlet fever still existed, apparently I have it and should be better after a week or so. In the meanwhile, it really sucks because I'm hungry all the time but can't eat much because I have these big white ulcers in the back of my throat and it hurts like heck to swallow. If you're trying to lose weight, I highly recommend this.

If you're in Shanghai, look me up and I can pass it on to you personally :)

Hope everyone had a more fun Fourth of July wherever you are...

Blogger's block?

I have been stricken by a weird sort of writer's block over the past several months.  Growing up, I kept a journal (dozens of these stashed in my parents' homes).  I write trip reports whenever I travel.  I blogged every few days when I was deployed on Line of D.  And up until recently, I regularly blogged on my company's website.  But strangely, I have been unable to blog lately.  I think it's that the idea of catching up seems overwhelming, so I don't know where to start and then I don't want to.

So, even though it's midnight and I'm jetlagged, I'm going to quit putting it off (at least on my personal blog) and update with what's gone on in the past couple months.  Forgive me for being so mechanical and bullet-like, but this is after all, also a personal record of eventful moments, so I'd rather be cryptic than forget to record something down at all.

1. I became an uncle again!  CEC or "He Who Is Powerful In Battle" was born a big baby on May  to my big bro.  He actually was born unnamed and L asked us to weigh in on the options.  The shortlist was: Callan, Cory, Toby, and Milo.  It was an easy choice for me, especially when I found out it was a Gaellic name with some serious badass meaning.  This was made more fun when my dad declared in an enthusiastic email that his grandson was "well endowed". Anyhow, his sister loves him and I got to see this on Skype recently when I called in for her birthday and got to see her holding him.  

2. I went to Germany to do my annual military duty.  My reserve unit has been on Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.  But before I went to Iraq, my slot was eliminated and I had to find a new one.  I put off finding a new unit because the Iraq tour covered me for 2 years, but eventually I had to look and I ended up finding a unit in Germany.  It had been 10 years since I had been back to continental Europe and I really enjoyed being in Southern Germany.  On the other hand, my job sucked because no one really knew I was coming, so I had to make work for myself and it was tough to get people to just give me stuff to do.  On the positive note, the light workload meant that I could actually continue to keep the business chugging along back in China.  A special treat was meeting up with and hanging out with my buddy Sven, whom I knew (and lived with for a short while) when I lived here 10 years ago.  I visited him and his girlfriend Meike in Munich and they really took me out to see this beautiful city.  The downside of Germany was getting 6, yes, count 'em, 6 speeding tickets in 3 weeks.

3. Came back to Shanghai for 2 days and then went to the US for my 15th yr college reunion and good friend's bachelor party.  The reunion was nice -- like last time's (the 10th), but with fewer classmates and lots of rugrats running around.  People still cool.  I got to see Candice and catch up.  Also found out that our year is still famous as the year of the murder-suicide at Dunster.  Then after the reunion weekend, old college pals Jaime and Joe and I went for our annual road trip.  This was pretend to be a bachelor party, but actually was a mellow guy's weekend out.  We went up to NH, where Joe charmed my in-laws and we made a blood donation to the mosquito gods, hiked around, and then went back to Boston.  There we took in a Sox game (they lost).  It was good fun.

4. My business issue of the week is dealing with a trademark claim.  Rather, someone has "my" trademark and is now trying to take over my website legally.  Fortunately, my stepbro is a lawyer in Beijing and is guiding me through the response.  Still, now we have to file defensively and it's still a pain in the ass to jump through all the hoops.

Human resources -- The China Problem

So the good news is that this past week was focused on filling two key positions: a marketing person and a client advisor and I made some headway.  

These two positions are so key because I've reached the realization that I'm not going to be able to build the business by doing everything myself.  Plus, at least in the case of marketing, I'm not the best person to do this.  Finally, I leave for 3 weeks for my annual military reserves duty at the end of this month, so the business has to be able to keep moving forward.  So, I finally quit my bitching, forced myself to write job descriptions, talked to a bunch of people and sent them out through a small local network of expat and local Chinese friends.

Here's what I've been looking for:

1. Expat marketing/PR person.  This person probably needs to be a member of our target market (expat families with children) to be effective because he or she would know the ins and outs of the community -- what media parents go to, what appeal is most effective, and most importantly, have a big network themselves.  I am looking for someone who used to do marketing, advertising, or PR work, but now is either taking a break, is a trailing spouse, or is a full-time mother with time on her hands.

2. A client advisor to interact with the clients during testing and take some limited samples.  The ideal person would probably be local Chinese, because they need to give some directions to the non-English speaking lab techs and also to be in a position to build the Chinese market later.  But, they would need to be strong English speakers, and more importantly, have experience with accommodating foreigner and knowing how they think, etc.  

I got a call from one woman earlier this week who was interested in the marketing position.  On paper, she sounds perfect -- former small business owner, currently building a business around advice for expat families, looking for part-time work,  has a background in public health and policy, and has worked in sales and marketing.  I'm meeting her on Monday, but unless she's really off or pay requirements are out of whack, I'd like to get her started asap. 

As expected, the client advisor is a tougher find.  I considered many sources: relocation agencies, bank client advisors, post-doc students (who have more time than money), and even expat compound concierges. Talking to my local friends, I found that estimates for hourly wages ranged from 20rmb - 250rmb.  I don't know where my JD has been posted, but in the past several days, I've gotten about 4 emails from Chinese students.  Holy cow, career offices here are bad.  3 of the 4 had no useful subject line, not even a description, just a resume.  The JD even says to send a CV and cover letter.  I think there could really be a business teaching students how to find jobs and that students would pay to get a decent intership, one that's carefully managed and vetted by the business placement agency.

Fortunately, I also have a front-runner here: my Chinese teacher.  About 6 months ago, not long after I started the business, I decided that since I would be needing to conduct my business discussions in Chinese, I needed to start Chinese lessons again.  So, I found this teacher online -- no spring chicken (maybe late 30s, early 40s), but a really nice person, and as we talked, I realized that she knew quite a bit about my business because she has a background in interior design and used to work for a renovation company.  So, I approached her about filling more of her time with some project-based work and she seemed quite interested.  This would be good because I feel I can trust her, I know she's smart, and I'd be able to afford her while still increasing her per hour fee by about 50%.

Keep fingers crossed....

Japan continues to struggle after being struck with the most powerful earthquake in its history

For those of you who have been following the news or have Japanese friends, Japan's woes continue to worsen.

Quake survivors forage for supplies

(UKPA) – 10 minutes ago

Millions of Japanese are without drinking water or electricity, surviving on instant noodles and rice balls, two days after a powerful earthquake and tsunami hammered the north eastern coast, killing at least 1,000 people.

Although the government doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the aid effort to 100,000, it seemed overwhelmed by what is turning out to be a triple disaster.

Friday's quake and tsunami damaged two nuclear reactors at a power plant on the coast, and at least one of them appeared to be going through a partial meltdown, raising fears of a radiation leak.

"First I was worried about the quake, now I'm worried about radiation. I live near the plants, so I came here to find out if I'm OK. I tested negative, but I don't know what to do next," said Kenji Koshiba, a construction worker, at an emergency centre in Koriyama.

According to officials, at least 1,000 people were killed - including 200 bodies found today along the coast - and 678 were missing in the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that hit with breathtaking force and speed, sweeping away everything in its path.

The US Geological Survey calculated the quake to have a magnitude of 8.9, while Japanese officials raised their estimate to 9.0.

Either way it is the strongest quake ever recorded in Japan.

Teams searched for the missing along hundreds of miles of the Japanese coast, and thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centres that were cut off from rescuers and aid.

At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck and some 2.5 million households were without electricity.

Large areas of the countryside were surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed and people were running out of petrol for their cars.

Baby's first step: First corporate contract signed

Ok, for those of you who grew up in the 80s, you should get the reference....

I'm riding on a high right now -- just inked our first corporate deal!  It sounds more glamorous than it is.  There's no long-term relationship going or recurring ongoing services, but for a new company that's trying to get credibility, this will be big and will be a great reference case if we do a good job.  We're doing testing and advisory consulting to a big multinational company here in Shanghai as they renovate two floors.  We'll be testing the before and after and helping project manage the vendors through auditing the air quality (and  therefore the work that they do and the materials selected).  The value of the contract is small -- around $6k, but it's quite a step up from residential projects and I'd like to see more of them.

Lately, I've also been looking at two new segments.  The first is the upstream architecture/design/interior renovation space.  I was introduced to a boutique design firm that built the first LEED Gold certified retail store in China and also did the Urbn Hotel in Shanghai.  We hit it off and the owner/partner thought that we could have a pretty strong offering if he added my knowledge of indoor air quality to his green building.  We could help each other and create a stronger  total package for clients.  So, we have started on several projects and last week, he brought up the idea of me formally starting up a company that merged these two concepts:  building fit-out/interior design and indoor environmental testing and consulting.  He would offer up the part of his company that was dedicated to interior design and I would do the air testing/consulting part.  Since he's busy expanding the architecture piece and doing other things, he asked if I would consider heading it up as its own company -- when I explained that I wanted independence, he said he'd be amenable to me keeping it under my company's brand-name if that's what I wanted.  Little premature to think this is a done deal, but it certainly is an unexpected direction this early in the game but also an interesting idea to scale up and add some revenue pretty fast.  It would be a little scary and really turn this whole venture into much more of a managerial role (instead of the satisfying solo expert that it's been).

Also, I am going to start expanding into the Japanese market.  To date, the vast majority of my clients have actually been American or Brits.  But there are 200,000 Japanese in Shanghai and only 30,000 Americans.  The Japanese are almost always here on contract, are very health-oriented and used to high levels of hygiene and environmental health, and expect a high service level.  These are all well-suited to my business model.  The key will be to get someone who is Japanese and can help me localize my materials and offerings and then be the Japanese face of my business.  I think I may have found someone who can at least start part-time and then later, I can look for someone who is able to do this full-time if it is promising.

Hope you're all having a great week  -- Shanghai is finally warming up and the sun on your face when you go outside really does pick you up.  Looking forward to Sarah's brother Tris and my mom coming to visit in two weeks.

Thought I'd share two cool little pieces of news I got about military equipment soldiers are starting to get on the frontlines.... The new helmets that are lighter and 70% stronger are a huge benefit. I wore the old ones two generations prior in Ranger School and remember them being so heavy that I had problems keeping my head up near the end. Love the quote, "We're going to have to get more powerful test guns to see how strong they really are"!

New Helmet Blocks Rifle Shots

February 04, 2011

Military.com|by Christian Lowe

The Army and Marine Corps may soon field a lighter combat helmet with nearly double the bullet and blast protection of the current Advanced Combat Helmet.

Army officials said that recent tests of the so-called "Enhanced Combat Helmet" showed the helmets were so strong that engineers didn't have equipment powerful enough to penetrate them with simulated IED fragments.

"The test lab we sent it to couldn't calculate an [average ballistic rating] because … the test guns they had couldn't shoot fragments fast enough to penetrate the helmet," said the Army's top protective equipment buyer, Col. Bill Cole. "We don't know exactly what the [average strength] is, but it's better than we've ever seen before."

"We're going to have to build stronger test guns to figure out how good it is," he added.

Testers hoped to get about a 40 percent increase in ballistic resistance over the ACH. But Cole said in some tests, the new ECH was 70 percent stronger than the helmets worn by Soldiers and Marines today. Additionally the new helmet weighs about four ounces less than the ACH.

"It's really a huge leap forward in terms of head protection capability," Cole added. "The data that we were getting from prototypes is even better than we'd hoped."

Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. runs the ECH program for both services. Officials with the command were unable to comment on this story by post time.

In 2007, the Army and Marine Corps began looking into how to make current helmets -- the Army's ACH and Corps' Lightweight Helmet -- stronger without increasing weight. Both could withstand a direct hit from a 9mm pistol round and some bomb fragments, but senior officials in both services wanted improved protection against rifle shots.

At the time, military helmets were generally made from layers of Kevlar or Twaron material -- both of which get heavy when the layers pile up. In recent years armor makers have developed technology to shape ultra-strong materials akin to plastic sheets that are lighter than Kevlar and have similar ballistic resistance.

After a first round of test failures in 2009, the Army has finally found a design made by Ceradyne, Inc. that works -- so well, officials say, that some types of 7.62 rifle rounds can be fired point-blank at the helmet without going through.

The service plans to purchase 200,000 ECHs beginning in the fall of 2011, with Soldiers in Afghanistan or deploying there getting the rifle-stopping helmet first. Officials say the new helmet costs about $600 each, double the price of the current ACH.

"We're very excited about this and we're going to try to take this revolutionary capability in head protection to the field as quickly as we can," Cole said. "This is like stepping up from an up-armored Humvee to an MRAP in the head protection arena."

© Copyright 2011 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

‘Punisher’ Gives Enemy No Place to Hide

February 03, 2011

Military.com|by Christian Lowe

A new Army weapon designed to target the enemy hiding behind barriers is being affectionately called "The Punisher" by Soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.

And by all accounts, the futuristic XM-25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has been quite a rude surprise for the bad guys.

"I don't know what we're eventually going to call this product, but it seems to be game changing," said the commander of the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier, Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, during a Feb. 2 briefing with reporters at the Pentagon. "You no longer can shoot at American forces and hide behind something. We're going to reach out and touch you."

After years of XM-25 development, last fall the 101st Airborne submitted an urgent request to field the weapon for troops on patrol in Afghanistan. In response the Army took the five weapons it had been testing at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., added 1,000 hand-made explosive rounds and shipped them to the war zone in October of 2010.

On arrival the XM-25 gave infantry squads the capability to precisely target bad guys hiding behind walls, in irrigation ditches, or among rocky escarpments. The Heckler & Koch-made XM-25 pairs a barrel-mounted targeting computer and a 25mm programmable air-bursting round that's fed precise range information just before being fired. A Soldier can simply push a button to range an enemy firing position, dial in one more meter, and the round will explode precisely where the bad guy is sitting.

"I had one lieutenant tell me that normally these engagements take us 15 or 20 minutes to get through, [but it's] several minutes when the XM-25 is involved. It's that quick," said the Army's top weapons buyer, Col. Doug Tamilio. "One major told me every time the XM-25 was involved in engaging enemy positions, firing stopped immediately."

So far the still-experimental XM-25 has stood up to the harsh combat environment of Afghanistan with "no maintenance issues," Tamilio said.

"To me that means we've got the ruggedness part of it right," he said.

Tamilio admitted that they need to make some tweaks to the weapon, including finding a new power source for the targeting computer that currently uses rechargeable batteries.

"We are learning some features that we do have to enhance," he added.

The five hand-made weapons have been field tested by two Army units so far and a third unit will get "The Punisher" next if the Army can find the money to buy more ammo, officials added, declining to be specific about which units will get the weapon.

"The kids are naming it ‘the punisher' because … a person can't hide anymore," PEO Soldier Fuller added. "Now I can go punish them for trying to engage me."

Officials say Soldiers aren't complaining about the nearly 13 pound weight of the XM-25 since it's been so effective. Gunners wielding "The Punisher" often opt for an M4 or a pistol for personal defense, but some carry no other weapon at all.

The Army wants to buy 36 more XM-25s -- which run about $35,000 each -- but the buy isn't fully funded. And the air bursting ammunition costs about $1,000 per round, but Tamilio claims that full rate production will drop the price to $35 per round.

Even in a tight fiscal environment with many high-dollar programs competing for scarce resources, many top Army officials say "The Punisher" is worth the investment.

"We're giving Soldiers a capability down range that's making a difference in terms of lethality," Tamilio said. "There are many times that weapon has disrupted attacks."

© Copyright 2011 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.