Trust

So what is the single biggest difference between business operation in North America and Hong Kong? I would say it is TRUST.

North America starts a relationship by saying: "I want to trust you, until you prove it to me that I should not".

The HK way: "I don't trust you, but if you can, prove it that I am wrong."

For example. If you call in sick in North America, most of the time it requires only a phone call (that is why it is called "call-in-sick"). But in HK, you need to submit a doctor's note, else you don't get paid. (that is why we should call it "submit-a-doctors-note-and-prove-you-were-sick")

Yup, it feels like high school all over again in Hong Kong, doesn't it.

This is the fundamental difference in corporate culture between the west and the east. It is why managers in HK tend to micro-manage more, because you are just not trusted.

Raptors Playoff round 1 - Game 1 and 2

Watching game 1 and 2 of Raptors' playoff, something really striked me: aside from CB4, we really don't have a second go-to guy. CB4 really didn't play that well in both game 1 and 2 either, decent in game 2, but not great.

And I have officially joined the I-hate-TJ-Ford group. Watching him play at times reminded me of Kobe, only that he is missing all the skills that Kobe has. Not sure if we can trade him in the off season though, he is injury prone and all-about-me.

Can't wait to see what kind of magic Colangelo can pull together in the off season, we really don't have lots of trading chips. And not sure if trading Calderon and keeping Ford is something anyone should contemplate, it is a dumb idea, Jerry.

The title game

So a friend of mine works for UBS, and a lunch conversation has came up on the titles UBS employees get. And it works something like this:

For entry level positions, you get the title of "non-officer", yeah, what the heck does that mean right? The best is yet to come: after non-officer, you are promoted to Associate Director, yes, you heard me right, Associate Director. After that, it is Director, then Executive Director, and finally Managing Director.

And you think, it is probably very hard to get out of the 'non-officer' rank, since the next rank is an Associate Director. Actually, not really. 60% of UBS employees have a Associate Director rank or better. For example, if you work for UBS's IT team, you could start as an entry level programmer, hence the rank of a "non-officer", then once you become lead programmer, you are an Associate Director, and so on.

So wouldn't you want to work for UBS (hopefully not at the non-officer rank) and pass out your business cards to friends and families? I mean, telling people you are an Associate Director for one of the world's most prestigious iBank is on par to telling your girlfriend you are a famous actor from a popular Hollywood movie. Well, almost on par.

Man, I wonder how such use of titles came to life? One thing for sure is it does inject some pride into the employees and hence lower HR turnovers for the company.

So if one day I start a company, I will start off everyone as a CEO, then Senior CEO, then Chairman and finally Big Daddy Chairman!

Fast Food Restaurant Menu

So it just occured to me there is gotta be some science in restaurant menus.

Woke up this morning around 8 - thanks to my jetlag, decided to do some good old Cafe De Coral for lunch. By the way, Cafe De Coral is my favourite fast food restaurant in HK, and I would rank Maxim second. I have always like Coral, not that because I use it too much since I live alone, but that it is well run, well managed.

As I approach towards the menu board, I started screening for something a bit more healthy and easy for an early stomach. The menu board is sitted next to the cashier counter, it is about 8 feets tall and 6 feets wide. It is separated into 4 columns.

It took me about 20 seconds to find something I want - fish with rice in corn sauce. It is somewhere in the 3rd column from the left, and in the bottom end of the menu board.

As I recall, the first few items under the 1st column are most oily dishes, and it sort of gets lighter as you move from 1st towards the 3rd one (the 4th column is for drinks). Now, suppose most customers screen for dishes in the same manner that I do - from left to right and top to bottom, that means I am not picking a very popular dish, otherwise they would have put it before the 3rd column.

Hm...so much for a healthy diet for Hongkongers. I wonder when the aktin's diet will start its root in HK, but it will be easy to tell when it does, we only need to look as far as the dish order on a Cafe De Coral menu.