Launch of New Travel Blog

... And I'm the new intern whose going to tell you about it, but more on me later ...

Thanks to Merrow's international business relationships the following months will be filled with plenty of traveling, working and meeting with Merrow customers, making new friends and seeing old ones, and who knows, maybe a little bit of intrigue. This blog will provide a separate space for our travel news, documenting all of our global exploits and the surprises along the way, and hopefully providing a forum for us here at Merrow to share our adventures with you and to learn about yours! Maybe there'll be a post about what its like to try the street food in Bangkok, or maybe you have some advice for us from your last trip to East Asia? Let us know!

The summer is kicking off this weekend with Charlie leaving on a 3 week trip that begins in the city of Shanghai. He'll then make his way East, heading to Bangkok June 29th and then up and over to Istanbul July 4th. Thanks to friends of mine, who

are either from Shanghai or have studied abroad there, I know a little bit about it (though admittedly not too much). It is apparently a city of contrasts where you're likely to be walking down a street on the level of say NYs Fifth Avenue, only to turn a corner and find yourself in a bustling street market, or perhaps the grittier, uncompromising side of town. Thanks to a class I took I also know that the metropolis is famous for its architectural heritage, filled with skyscrapers, and exhibiting styles as varied as modern, neoclassical, art deco, and traditional Jiangnan. I checked the weather for Shanghai, and apparently June is both the city's rainiest and most humid month—we'll have to wait until Charlie posts on the travel blog to see what he thinks of it. Be sure to check it out and keep an eye out for new posts!

Hope everyone gets to enjoy the sunshine and their Friday Afternoon!

Best,

Christine

British Air

In light of the crushing travel issues in China, and the absolute poverty and suffering I saw in India there should be little margin for a post about the 48 hrs. it took get from Shanghai to London on BA.

and for full disclosure I'm staying in a hotel that is being paid for by BA (second night in a hotel paid for by BA)

But this isn't going to address the inconvenience of travel. Travel is often a pain in the ass.

British Air doesn't respect their passengers and mismanaged 200 people to the point that it could have been dangerous. This is the issue. It should be addressed by their customer service people, by the passengers and by their competitors.

Long queues with no communication. Long delays without any explanation. Little Children and babies waiting in the back of these lines with no attention or priority. People rescheduled on a first come basis without anybody even asking if there were urgent needs.

And no one was apparently in charge. Let me repeat this, no one was apparently in charge.

Whether one presumes the flight grounded by weather or BAs ineptitude (see below) is irrelevant. And for anyone from BA reading this please be clear -- the travel time doesn't matter.
They could have paid ONE person to just make sure that everyone knew exactly what was going on and to move people that needed more help to front of lines.

Obviously they didn't. But the simple solution has an asymmetrical relationship to the size of the problem. There was a crowd of 200 odd people who were tossed around for 2 days without anyone managing the situation. This is awful. People were wildly upset for things that hours later turned out were rumor.

200 odd people is a mob if they get upset. 200 people is a mess if it's not organized. And BA allowed this very preventable situation from devolving into relative chaos. And even then I think the crowd was really really well behaved.

And in great contrast to the relative restraint shown by the passengers -- 40hrs. into this process the CAPTAIN (in his one and only appearance) had the balls to announce to that if anyone was rude to the staff they could walk to london.

He seriously said this. Come on.

Managing people in airplanes and airports is the business of British Air. Blaming weather for the issues is misdirection. The management of their customers when things went wrong is their responsibility.

Let me put it a different way. How could that same flight crew manage a real crisis if they couldn't even manage to keep people in a line in Shanghai?

Makes you wonder if the certainty with which they cross-check and handle tray tables is all just an elaborate ruse.


For my money I'll wait to hear from BA -- to see if they give a toss about whether I ever fly on their airline again. The cost to me was significant and I haven't focused on this b/c it really isn't the pt. (but would it have killed you BA to not have been complete assholes when asked if I could get an upgrade for the flight to Boston... apparently everyone was told no as well...)

I bet that if BA had simply respected the passengers and shown a little backbone in Shanghai most of us would just shrug it off...

But they didn't, and I Blog and people talk. Thousands of people now read this Blog (i'm just as surprised as you) -- To point out the obvious it's 2008 and you can't get away being horrible at your business without people taking note and talking about it

You want to know how bad it is at Heathrow -- even the CUSTOMS agent was upset about BA... the customs agent!

So what are you going to do BA? What are your customers worth to you?

I'll be more than happy to post your response.

Regards,
Charlie Merrow

Snow in Shanghai

Millions are put out. Millions saved for months to afford a train ticket home for new year, and have been left at the station.

I took some pleasant pictures before I heard of the horror show that is the transportation system (though I can't upload pictures -- for some reason. )

My flight was canceled.
Now i'm one of the Millions.

But at least i'm in an airport and reasonably sure that if I wait long enough i'll be able to get home.

China's been undone by a bit of snow, go figure.

Leaving

I’ve actually had time to think about leaving, it hasn’t just whacked me in the forehead as I scrambled off to another airport.

my thoughts: I really enjoy Shanghai, and this China leg feels unresolved.

The list of things i haven’t done eclipses those i have -- and the short list of accomplishments isn’t satisfying considering what needs to be done.

Yet the trip itself is a watershed. I feel comfortable coming to Shanghai, to China -- the mistakes i’ve made we can remedy on the next trip.

and -- and this is a big And -- this week is among my favorites in the past 30 years.

Not the least of which is the result of Merrow’s past, present and future all crashing together -- or Personally the food, people and newness of China being thrilling.

Why was it unresolved? Because I didn’t do enough. I didn’t find closure with some big issues for the company, I didn’t meet enough people, I didn’t eat enough, I didn’t learn enough Chinese. I didn’t do anything touristy. Despite not resolving business issues I worked the whole time I was here.

Nonetheless as I prepare to leave Shanghai, I feel settled, not exhausted-- a big difference from India and certainly from Massachusetts.

I’m much more confident in what Merrow can do, what I can do-- even if the big challenges lie ahead. And more importantly, I’ve had a lot of fun working on the process.

We’ll be back in Shanghai. I miss it already.

the Chinese Brand

i’ve been mulling the post about arrogance. And noticed three things in the meanwhile.

1. the elevator is English. she announces ‘going up'.... and 'the 17th Floor’ in a singsongy english voice. she doesn’t even pretend to speak Chinese.

2. Starbucks a couple blocks from my hotel is excellent. for real. The espresso is better. The croissant is much better.


Better than what? the average starbucks in the states. The butter croissant may be on the List. And there’s more. Yesterday I got a raisin scone and it was memorable (....a memorable scone....)


3. The process sheets (work order traveler that follows a part as it’s manufactured) were written in english. Imagine a credit card application written in Chinese.... this is what it must look like to the workers.
_________________________

There is obviously an intersection of culture in Shanghai, resulting in a whole lot of commerce: The Chinese must live with western brands and products whether they like it or not.

Can you imagine going to new york, staying at the Hilton, getting in the elevator and it talking to you in Chinese and NOT English? ...... maybe every elevator worldwide is restricted to English. I’ve never noticed... and I guess that’s the point....

Also it appears that the Western Brands are making a real go of it. Staples, Starbucks, Audi; the presentation of these companies is impressive -- with Staples it’s the advertising and size of the store, with Starbucks the quality of the food and service, and with Audi -- well you should see the flipping show room.

Circle back to the comment about arrogance. I suspect that the psychology must in some way be rooted in a desire to see Chinese brands simply be as successful as the Western brands that are so IN YOUR FACE in this city--

There was a time when the two concerns with sourcing in China were quality and ‘extra’ product going out the backdoor and making it to market. Actually these still are the big issues...

But perhaps another issue is looming. If a Chinese factory’s primary business model becomes developing it’s own brand it will necessarily subordinate a ‘sourcing’ customer to the demands of the Brand. If a factory capable of making 90 million socks is developing its own brand, then the relationship with Hanes or whomever will have to change.

Moreover with an incentive to sell product under it’s name and an outlet for direct sales (of quantity) it will face a pretty significant temptation to ‘leverage’ technology and design trusted to it for production.

So what’s different between this and the Knock Offs.... everything. We talk about buying $10 Gucci bag on the streets of New York not a Chinese Brand of bags that’s as good as Gucci. The ridiculous handbag industry is worth another whole essay.... suffice to say that Gucci and everyone else in that industry makes bags in China. Right now all they face is a copy of their bag being sold as a fake gucci bag. But what if that Gucci factory had the brand power of Kate Spade.

To draw a clearer example. If Boeing were to make a plane at a Airbus facility. The conflict is self evident and really doesn’t need more explanation.

There is an intersection of commerce here. If China is intent on evolving from the sourcing model to the establishment of worldwide Brands it may open the door to a whole lot of second guessing from folks who have for 20 years poured money into the country to get their goods manufactured.

Cold Feet

this may sound insipid, but it's cold in here. and my feet are freezing.

the heater-- for the whole office. gloves and coats are requisite work attire ;)

mo' food

ate chinese this afternoon -- tonight it was taiwanese. I'm going to need a bit to collect myself after this last one (no pictures of the evening feed... ) in the mean time here's the afternoon fare which was kind of light weight but interesting :

perhaps it will change

There is an arrogance here.

I really enjoy Shanghai, I like this city a lot. On par with Cities that i’ll record as my favorite. It’s lacking in a couple of areas.... but so significantly makes up in others that the lack of things to see is offset by the things to do and for the time being my choice level of cultural clumsiness.

the blush of being new in China hasn’t worn off. I wake up with a grin and eat with first date anxiety. I haven’t gotten tired of not understanding anything and have picked up ‘thank you’ and ‘hello’. Got them backwards for a whole day. Learned that people like to teach me chinese if I ask. And my ear feels like it’s stuffed with marshmallows when they talk-- spelling things is the only way.

in this mess of newness and business i’ve also see one nasty consequence of the economic success that defines shanghai --

and that’s hubris. Maybe it was just surprising, and i'm sure it isn't the Rule (this is a big place after all...) But it's also not hard to find.

Someone may read this and damn the jingoist . But i’m not, don’t really care. and I genuinely like the place.

the businesses here have exploded. 5MM three years ago, 50MM this year. Again and again you hear the same story. For eons as economies ebb and flow as the fates of success roll up somewhere new-- And in China a cosmic scale lottery ticket has been cashed.

The cynical head of an old American brand? yeah. i am.

But the circumstantial success of a shanghai. did you grow the billion and pay them nothing sir? no. you happened to be in a place where you could well exploit a population, and were an able enough skipper to navigate through some chop to end with a successful business. no bitterness -- a lot of respect. respect.

But to mistake the scaled production of cheap goods with genius, or worse with brand integrity is arrogant. Of course this economy will mature and I know that some of the great brands in the 21st century -- a la GE, Coke, Apple, Ferrari, will be Chinese.

But if you’re knocking off thousands of sewing machines and think for a moment that you’ve nailed the integrity factor that builds a worldwide consumer base who trusts and invests in your product for generations. no. ain’t happening.

why? well my reaction probably sounds a little ham handed-- but is it? Name some great brands that have developed and lasted building a business on knocking things off. Brands. Not behind the scenes ‘shaws’ brand pepper. If you can, name them in the comments.

I rattled off a pile of 50 and couldn’t tag one as fitting the bill. The closest i got was Walmart. And actually this category has a couple, so maybe the whole boxstore enchilada can be assessed.

But is driving across state lines to buy cheap teeshirts and chachkis to sell cheap back home the same thing? I’ll help here. No it’s not. Because your business is predicated on customer service and low costs. People liked Sam Walton, they liked shopping at his store.... and his prices were better.

So what’s the bottom line. Shanghai has a good thing going and I'd bet there are a handful of Sam Waltons as well. But the business leaders here should be aware that good fortune is often chairman of the board. Careful to whom you lift your nose. massive economic good fortune has a tendency to not give a whole lot of warning before taking a walk.

construction in shanghai

somewhere in this city there is apparently a scale model of what shanghai is anticipated to look like in 5 years.

it would be worth finding. The poor guy who has to work on this thing, for him every day must suck. ‘kim chi you have not updated model, what happened?’ ‘sir, i went to sleep’, ‘you do not sleep! this is shanghai, model out of date!’



the long highway that i’m driving is curbed with new skyscrapers. the height is generally not outlandish -- if you look i suppose that the average is 30 to 40 floors. But by volume it’s almost impossible to imagine how there is enough stuff to occupy, nevertheless pay for rent in all of this space.

Residential? was the population homeless yesterday?

The count is 25 million in Shanghai, I assume they live somewhere to be counted. Is the residential construction meeting the demand of people immigrating to shanghai? Or are there a lot of abandoned crap shanty housing somewhere as a middle class develops?

Either way a lot of people have new digs, and by the looks of it a lot of realestate developers will be investing in tums if the markets show so much as a whisper of slacking.

some walking around the city

Today was kind of a mess -- was a half a day off-- but I did get to walk some around the old temple downtown. Caught a movie tonight in Chinese --

Here are some of the pics. Didn't get anything real decent other than this one:


Which I think captures the contrast well, of this ancient and bleeding edge.

It was a sleeting rain all day

delicate inaccessible subjects

-----
a quick update to the post below. turns out that it was even easier to get at the blog, after googling 'blogspot proxy china' the first link is here. allowing simple access via way of proxy to the banned website.

With all the technical muscle the banning of information seems trivial. So what's the deal?
-----
a perfect follow up to the last post.

can't get at my own blog. or wikipedia. or a host of other sites

chinese won't let me.

links die. these things simply aren't available.

the weird thing -- when I click on this link -- it loaded! for an eighth of second and then shut down. This means that somewhere a chinese black box was actively, not preemptively, filtering. So they are watching what i'm looking at....do they know my hotel room #?

so is it sinister, or childish? As the link describes a simple script in firefox circumvents the government firewall-- that's not exactly a whole hearted effort to stop information transfer.

I'm sure if I hunt around there is a lot written on this-- and after a quick look it seems like a smaller and smaller deal. but it was a touch disconcerting to not be able to just go to a website...

so after writing a quick and sincere post about how darn capitalistic shanghai is -- i butt heads against the System that somehow is nurturing this and keeping a finger on the button. As one of these posts mentions 1984 meets 1989 -- throw a little 1999 to the mix and we'll bake cake.

Fish Eyes

Kindy and I ate dinner at a Japanese restaurant (in Shanghai).

1st. I never heard or saw Kindy order. I was watching the waitress scribble frantically as he was reading the menu, but figured she was practicing or something-- he was certainly not saying or discernibly pointing to what he wanted to eat. Obviously I’m wrong as we got food -- but still it seems cryptic to me.

And he ordered 22 plates of food. Like tapas. They started with 5 and as we ate more appeared.

And 50% was new to me. scallop concoctions (served in the big shell), exotic sashimi, large sardines, egg soup, a good kim chi... Fish heads

So we’re half way through when the first fish head comes. The first one was tuna head. It comes with two pieces, the whole head and then a chunk from the shoulders (fish shoulders?). Kindy advises me to go for the head.

I did with commitment. This whole eating thing is my bag. The stranger it looks the happier I get. The hotter, the mo’ bitter whatever. I love eating food -- challenging food. The fish head wasn’t necessarily this....

But then I got to the eye. Big grin on my face. Was having fun and thinking ahha! my first chinese challenge! Not going to even ask -- going to savor the eye, I think I read it’s a delicacy..... do i pop the whole thing in? or bite it? whole thing! aha--hmm ,round, slippery rolled around on tongue, it popped, salty, thicker than I thought, woah meaty, viscous, mouth is very full, need to chew, it’s a two swallower.

I still can’t figure out what the chalky white thing in the center was, but I’ve never eaten anything quite like tuna eye.

A couple of plates later we got salmon head. I asked Kindy to take it. When he got to the end all that was left was the eye....

i pointed chop stick; said saving this for last eh? He laughed; said you eat eye? i never have, ok ok i’ll try.

He had a nibble and spit it out.
I assume because he’s taiwanese and not chinese he must not know....

C