We were hired by a large multinational IT company to test one of their newly built facilities. The construction company in charge of the fit-out told one of our consultants that the air had to pass standards and asked if we could help. My response was, "Sure, we can definitely offer some advice." This was not the sort of answer they wanted, so they clarified and told my consultant that they were prepared to offer money (didn't get into how much) to make sure they passed. I dismissed it with some polite way, but was strangely flattered. Is this what about the neighborhood bully feels like when he's offered lunch money for protection??
Throat's sore and head hurts after coming out of a workshop for
a large corporate real estate management company. This was a good way to hopefully get our name out to the folks who manage construction projects and are often on the hook to either test the air before occupation, or have to clean up a mess. I foolishly agreed to delivery the training in Chinese. Not a big deal until I got there and discovered that 20 of the 30 participants were dialling in on a conference call. Hard to brief in Chinese to Chinese. Even harder when you can't count on reading facial gestures. Still, it went surprisingly well and we got a lot of questions. So, the lesson learned is that running a company in China is still the best way to learn Mandarin.
I'm currently in the middle of considering three candidates to become the next general manager of the Beijing branch. It's tough. Really tough. One Italian, one German, and one American. Sounds like a bad ethnic joke. I've brought them down one at a time for a couple days each. Looking for a sign...
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