Monday, November 19, 2007
Crackberry addiction
Jungle eats
Piranha, by the way, is a Tupi-Guarani word that means fierce fish.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Only in Japan
I was addicted to Tetris in college. This was found by Maria, my college roommate who watched me waste many hours playing it.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Meet and Greet around the world
Tyler Brûlé : The best and worst in meeting venues
If you live in the northern hemisphere October means autumn, if you're south of the Equator you're in early spring and if you reside in that special place called "medialand" it means the season of the list. At this very moment on editorial floors stretching from Taipei (my current location) to Melbourne across to Santiago and back up to Vienna, writers are busy compiling their year-end lists for December and January issues.
Not to be outdone, I've been working on a list of my own. But instead of making you buy this paper sometime between Christmas and New Year's, I'm going to save you the suspense and give you my ranking of the world's most and least hospitable places to conduct business meetings. The following criteria were gathered over the course of the past two months while on assignments in Asia, Europe and North America:
1. Venue. The meeting had to be held in the client's place of business.
2. Friendliness of reception staff. Points were deducted for offices that had laid off their receptionist in favor of a staff list stuck to the wall and a lonesome looking phone.
3. Security procedures. Points were deducted for silly measures like having your photo taken.
4. Waiting time from the moment the receiver was replaced to the time someone came out to greet guests.
5. Waiting time from being placed in holding room until the moment the host materialized.
6. Greetings. Points deducted for not having a business card. Further points deducted for avoiding eye contact, fishy handshakes and untucked shirts.
7. Coffee, tea or? Extra points for additional catering. Points deducted for not offering anything. Automatic failure for showing up with your own beverage but not offering anything to your guests.
8. Pacing of meeting. Automatic failure for starting the meeting with: "Just so you know, I'm a little pressed for time so I'm going to have to be out of here in less than 20."
9. Focus and engagement. Extra points for putting your mobile phone on silent and placing it face down and disqualification for taking a call in the middle of a presentation.
10. Farewells. Full marks for seeing a guest all the way to the exit and marks deducted for leaving them to get lost in a maze of partitions and desks.
Over the past few weeks I've visited the following countries: France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Britain, Denmark, Sweden, the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Finland, Singapore, Spain, Belgium and now Taiwan. While you'd think there'd be a global corporate standard for receiving and hosting guests, the following reveals that a few countries need to enroll in finishing school. Here's how five of the 16 fared.
GERMANY German receptionists tend to be efficient and to the point. Hosts usually show up promptly and security is kept to a minimum, though some banks have started to behave like American companies with their security measures. Business cards are the norm rather than the exception and coffee, two types of water and apple juice tend to feature at the center of the table. In wealthier companies there might be chocolates too. Mobile devices are kept at a distance and ignored. The host will usually escort you to the lift and offer a firm handshake goodbye. Score: 9/10
SWEDEN Blame it on efficiency or cost cutting but many Swedish firms have resorted to the "call me on my mobile phone as you enter reception and I'll come down and get you" school of meeting and greeting. Sometimes a meeting that was supposed to be attended by three will only feature one person because one is off sick with a cold and another is home looking after a child with the flu. Meetings start on time and there's always fizzy Ramlösa on the table. Mobile devices are peered at occasionally. Meeting rooms are always well equipped with extension cords and full wireless and chairs tend to be ergonomic. The host will show you to reception and will often ensure your transport is sorted. Score: 6.5/10
UNITED STATES Receptionists increasingly seem to be off-brand and might be better suited to running their own nail bars than greeting visitors. Security measures are too heavy-handed - passports are required for crossing borders, not riding in elevators. It's become industry standard to make guests wait before sending an assistant out to fetch them and an all-too-common practice to make them sit while the host paces around the office on the phone. Guests are seldom offered drinks but the host(s) usually show up with towering coffee thermoses or water bottles that indicate they know something about a looming drought that you don't. Meetings are prefaced with odd sayings like "I'm going to have to jet in about five minutes but my colleagues will fill me in after" or "I'm glad you reached out today and came to see us." Blackberries will be consulted throughout the session and quite often the visitor will have to repeat main points several times. Guests leave meeting rooms parched and bewildered. Score: 4/10.
JAPAN Hosts are occasionally waiting in reception already and there's always a juggling act of dealing with shuffling umbrellas and bags while pulling out business cards. Meetings occur in rooms that are uniformly gray on gray on gray and tea (hot or cold) or coffee (hot or cold) will be brought in by a young girl teetering on Vuitton heels while balancing her tray of beverages. If there are four to six hosts, one will usually nod off during the presentation but this will be compensated for by colleagues who will make all kinds of grunts and gasps. You won't be quite sure when the meeting has ended, but eventually everyone will put hands on thighs, bow and visitors will be escorted to reception and hosts will bow till the visitor is out sight. Score: 7/10
ITALY Reception is often a man's job and the mood can range from personable to not particularly interested. Waiting times in Italy get longer the further south you go but are never as bad as you might expect. A good coffee is always a feature, more so than even water. Mobile phone calls will be taken and callers will be told off accordingly for ringing during a meeting, and visitors shouldn't count on meeting rooms featuring a broadband cable let alone Wi-Fi. Guests will be sent off with much animation and excitement. Score: 7/10.
If I were to draw up another list, it would be for business opportunities in 2008, and a global chain of workplace etiquette schools would top the ranking. My first campuses would be in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.