After a long trip I think it's important to make sure everyone is clear --

the thank you cards are in the mail .

Firenze travel pics

Como travel pics

Merrow

The purpose of this blog is to keep anyone interested, updated about Merrow. In this case it will be just a bit reflective

This post is a short excerpt from a letter drafted for the Management at Merrow.

__________

After traveling for close to two full months i've learned a lot about our business.

On the train several days ago I met a lebanese businessman and his son. They were curious about Merrow and we talked easily about our challenges and theirs. After a time the fat one asked if we had considered partnering with a company in the textile business who needed distribution worldwide and brand credibility (we haven't).

He went on to clarify his point, that these are things that cost millions to develop and more valuably take years and years to do. Operating in a global environment is one of the most expensive and challenging elements of the modern business.

Most companies who are not global simply cannot afford to build or operate the sales structure that Merrow has.

He had correctly seized on two of Merrow's major assets. There are others. A list of six:


1. management (our team is talented & ambitious)
2. brand recognition (151 countries visited Merrow.com in the last year)
3. product design (high quality, diverse range)
4. customer base (our customer list reads like a whose who in textiles)
5. global distribution (trained distribution in every major market in the world)
6. history (170 years in business)


I could as easily list sixteen things that Merrow needs to work on. In fact I think we spend most of our time (as we should) focused on the areas needing improvement.

Which is why I took the time to write this. I encourage everyone to take a step back, enjoy the things we do well as a company.

______
Over the next two months we will explore on this blog some of the things that make Merrow unique. As much to echo what i've heard over the past two months as to introduce new ideas. Again, perspective is important and I think our customers, our company and our distributors will benefit in the process.

from Firenze

decaf cafe american.
that is UHMEHRIH-CAN KAWFY

I don’t do this often but sitting next to a table of 7 americans ordering desert in a lovely little spot in florence at 10 odd PM is amusing and i pulled my laptop out.

Whereas the chinese tourist orders in a confused way, the uhmehrihcan orders as though the waiter is both retarded and deaf

why?
I don't know.

Couple of suggestions:

1. sometimes ordering from a menu in a foreign language is difficult. If you don’t like a type of food, learn the word for this in the local language. Unfortunately if english isn’t spoken well at said restaurant, when you loudly and with much hand waving try telling the waiter that if he serves you nuts you’ll die, he may simply think you’re nuts and probably serve you pistachios.

2. Also, unless someone tells you otherwise, or your eating at the new cooking school for veterans of heavy artillery, the waiters don’t have a busted tympani, they speak EYETALYIN. You took the time to buy a ticket, pack and travel to a new place. Why insist that it is the olive garden?

________
A guilty footnote. I only speak english. And while a trained monkey would be more impressive speaking Italian than I, I’d like to think that the waiters don’t feel like circus animals themselves after I order. Then again I utilize a repertoire of six italian words like it was the OED (OID?). Maybe this is worse.

Who knows -- i’m actually looking around right now to see if anyone is writing a blog entry about the foolish american who is writing about americans.....

no text, just a few pics

Italian Tubes

a system of clogged tubes.

The Italians, I maintain, are terrific people. Not the nicest, not the most outgoing.... but terrific.

I don’t like midwest nice. Never have. The Italians don’t suffer from the Indiana Accommodation Anxiety. IAA. Defined in degraded centers of learning as a relentless drive to please. This is not an Italian gene.

Now why bother with cheap psychology? Because I still can’t get online and I need to Explain this somehow.

I really think the Italians don’t care out of the generosity of their own culture. Italians have a lot more to do than check email. And if you’re here (which incidentally doesn’t really concern them either), then the internet isn’t what you should be looking at....

Or. And this is just as plausible. Ted Stevens was the consultant hired to develop their IT backbone:




It is much more entertaining to watch it set to music once you understand how absurd this is

italy

I woke up in italy.

This is a sliver of what i saw in turkey

Istanbul

don't have much time -- have taken hundreds of pictures (unfortunately i think there is likely to be a blog post sometime in the not to distant future with the backlog of pics).

i leave for milan today

couple of quick thoughts on istanbul

1. the flag is spectacular. was on the bosporus by boat the other night and over the hagia sophia there was a 1/4 moon -- within the frame of the camera there was also a monster sized, hilltop perched and brightly lit up deep red turkish flag (which is a crescent & start).

2. could attaturk possibly be offered in more curious poses? Every picture of the man ever taken regardless of circumstance (he was standing in line at the post office...) is posted throughout this city -- they adore this man -- the most sincere adoration as well. His bust is everywhere, his head is everywhere, and these strange pictures of his every public move are 2X3 and 4X5 (feet) framed and hanging

3. the history of the city will make your head explode. a lightening tour of a museum could cause serious medical issues

4. traffic is horrible

5. the city is more modern than i imagined. it's like a european san francisco in places (and in others like sprawling LA apartment blocks

6. there is stagflation

7. we can do a lot of business here

8. i'm sorry to have to leave

Merhaba

It is saturday. I am working and this is terrific.

One of the differences between travel & working and the alternative (which would be work) is the subtle time shift. The workday becomes something unrecognizable.

For instance there is no defacto day-off. If one wants a break one must force it.

And the hours of operation are always odd. Some days, as I did yesterday, the traveling starts at 6AM and ends at 5:30PM. In between are three hours where I wrote 30 odd email. At the end (the 5:30 side) I met with our Turkish distributor and spent the next 6 hours with them at the office and then eating.

Once back I tried to spend time on the phone with the office wrapping the day up around midnight.

In turkey Saturday is not a day off (in the Arabic world it is Sunday that people work taking friday off) so my workday will follow the pattern of behaviour here with the grand exception that afterwards I'm sure i'll spend the evening eating and drinking our good friends and business partners. If one doesn't consider this work they haven't done it....

Perhaps this isn't an appropriate place to illustrate the type of schedule is kept while traveling. But on the other hand I'm not sure what works on this blog and what doesn't.

What is important to note is that as a result of the effort the improvement of our relationships to the distributors in Europe is marked.

local SIM cards are for crazy people

The problem with a mobile phone.

Or there isn't a problem at all i guess if you don't care about what it costs. I do, and consequently researched phones and local rates before this trip.

My strategy: buy a SIM card in each country i visited. In this case egypt, poland, turkey and italy. I looked at the local rates etc. and set off to assimilate seamlessly into each locale by adopting a local number and benefiting cleverly from low costs.

The whole thing was/is a bad idea

Aside from my phone only working when i'm in the country with the SIM card (eg. not in any airport en route somewhere else), my number changing every 3 days, and the absurd prepay situation, THE ABSOLUTE WORST are the directions in Polish. Arghhh.... the hours i spent trying to figure out what Witamy Cie w swiecle SIMPLUS! DZIEKUJEMY ze dolaczyles do NAS. meant.

The mobile phone instructions are all in english, but the SIM card is all in polish. A friendly Pole wouldn't be able to make heads or tales of the phone and obviously I wasn't doing well with the polish.

To get voicemail i would push a 'messages' button. This was the last station for english all stops ahead were polish. I'd hear a menu, guess a number (though i was never sure if the announcement was offering a choice) listen to polish techno music and end up in another menu with a patient but cryptic sounding polish woman who may or may not be offering to play me voicemail messages. I'd offer a '3' and perhaps be rewarded with familiar sounding voice wondering why i wasn't returning my calls. More likely I wouldn't, so I apologize if you have called me and i've not called back.

How did end up here, without any distinctive advantage to my clever strategy?

I'm not sure. But please don't try calling me to discuss, my phone doesn't work in prague.

that nomadic feeling

the last 12 hrs. are lost (aren't they always i guess). In this case i snapped some pictures.

the breakfast at the below mentioned hotel this morning was unordinary for two reasons. 1. it was awesome. 2. it was free. rarely do the two lines intersect :



i write from the prague airport:

to walk away from a hotel

stay away from the Hotel in poland.
a caveat for the literal, sleeping outside of the hotel, this is not advised. it is cold in warsaw in march.

but if you want a taxi, walk two blocks from the hotel at least, before ordering, or pay 2 times the price. If you want to eat walk 10 feet from the hotel and pay 50% less. walk 500 feet and pay 65% less. Should shopping or internet or laundry services require your attention run don’t walk from the hotel to save a nickel.

the hypocrites letter. how else am i going to do laundry. at 10:30 at night with 15degrees out side can I really walk the streets hunting for a taxi (in newyork sure, in warsaw it doesn't work). when breakfast is an 18 second elevator ride can I refuse. no of course not.

if the rule is always leave the hotel to eat (except for breakfast because hotel espresso is usually much better unless you’re lucky enough to be in italy...) then you Try to find other places to eat.

i don't write about hotels generally as it begs unwelcome judgement. tonight though i'm staying at the airport hotel okecie, and for the money i will happily recommend this place. it costs 1/3 less than the marriot and is just as nice.

A last thought. Ordering water with gas never gets old. Even at the hotel.

Do widzenia

polish toilets

A polish bathroom starts with a door labeled for everyone but aliens. Only one door however, and despite the excess of options on this one door it is not marked well from a distance.

The splitting of handicapped and sex happens once inside after entering a small antechamber. Through this door is a second antechamber, small with sinks. Taking a hard 90 degree turn, invariably it's not straight on, through another door this time unmarked and you arrive at the desired place. Presumably you've chosen wisely and there aren't wildebeest or something else that surprises you there. Regardless of how hasty your retreat is prepare for the worst. Because when you decide to leave the chances are good, not great but good, that you will make a mistake on the way out and end up in the utility closet.

rare birds

Poznan is a simple smallish show. It is not well attended by customers (end users) but full up with exhbitors.

If asked 'how is the show' the standard reply would be 'shite, but we must be here and we had a good Presence this year don't you agree?' or 'it's good, good, the show is very good don't you agree?.'

In my opinion the show is neither. There are certainly some people buying things but it is an exhibitors show. Lot's of peacocks preening. And not enough oggling.

Was it worth the trip? Sure.

Despite this, the Poznan show may go the way of the dodo. I'm not sure how long a show like this can be justified for just the peacocks.

poland pics

panhandling in Prague

the travel industry doles out humility as a good barman might beer.

This time it was a muck up with the transmission or something with the plane in egypt. So a delay. But the look on the woman's face in Prague when I asked that instead of waiting 24hrs. for the next flight to Berlin i take a plane to Warsaw (it’s the same distance).... i swear she took a long deep breath ‘did he really ask me THAT?’

A great bit of shuffling around to offices behind the Travel Adjustment Desk and I was sorted. But not before I was reduced to begging.

The kid rollerblading around the terminal with maintenance people chasing her has cheered me up.

my day in Egypt

600 pictures. the 1/2 day off on saturday was my egyptian trip.

i’m at the airport, it’s monday morning 2AM -- i’ll be boarding a flight at 3AM to prague and then berlin. From Poland where I arrive tomorrow night i’ll post more.

Today was great for business. We met with 4 large egyptian and one syrian customer. Good business, good orders, and great fun.

...enjoy the pics of the pyramids. I'll spare everyone pictures of sewing machines and finishing plants ;)

egpyt fair...

The industry shifts -- geographically as it has restlessly done for the last 50 years.

It is the rule that whole factories close down overnight and reappear in more affordable places. And people in the industry are dulled to this, almost tired, tolerating decades of uncertainty.

Turks move to Egypt. Pakistan grows, India shrinks, Vietnam is booming, bangladesh not so much. Russia, lots of money. Estonia slow.

But the net is a ridiculously cosmopolitan group, our businesses depend on governments, economies, trends and culture. Talking with any of the manufactures is to speak of a myriad of countries and political situations. People have been--- everywhere.

We get on airplanes, land in strange cities and follow the business. It's really kind of wild, exciting, challenging.... and almost no one agrees with me.

Visiting Cairo is work -- it's 1AM. This is an exhausting day. But what a day it was...

Here are some pictures from the drive in, the show etc...

trade show

after 1/2 day a the tradeshow a couple of observations:

1. should have brought business cards from past shows.... lots of familiar faces
2. it's overrun by turks and chinese
3. there are NO high-end sewing machines... and no butt-seam machines on display (there should be....)

The collection of equipment and vendors is impressive enough to warrant the trip -- the customers here are good customers. But the real value of Egypt for Merrow are Factory visits. Tomorrow and the day after we'll see another 5 or so.

And no upstream data to speak of-- so no pictures for the time being.
---

to the Desert!

I just don’t have enough information. To write anything about Egypt or Cairo that would be reasonable should take longer than a days' observation. It has intimidating depth, this city.

So-- gross generalizations out the window -- a little travelogue with some color:

On the first full day in Cairo we began a trip out to the Desert rd. on our way to Sadat City. Cairo is a city of 17 million (unofficially) with 7 Million commuting into the city (unofficially). Lot’s of traffic. The process of getting to the Desert rd. was slow, and 1/5 of the distance we were intending to travel took 1/2 the trip. On the way out there are things that remind you that Cairo isn't kansas....



















The Desert Rd. was aptly named. I had never seen the desert, and this Rd. to Alexandria (which is 200km north) took us into into it. The abruptness of ‘City’ turns into of all things ‘Green Farm Land’ with labor and oxen, turning again in the span of 50 feet into endless gigantic golden desert... where there is nothing.

















Or apparently nothing. As we drove past an inconspicuous if not wide sand dune I was told it housed the Egyptian airforce (and it is the inconspicuous sand dune in the actual picture to the left...) Yep. After Israel annihilated their airforce in one day in 1968, the Egyptians moved the planes under the sand and I was told they come squirting out of gates (which I saw) with wings folded and in one motion unfold the wings and fly... reminded me of larva turning into mosquitos.











I met some Turks...


















and we ate well. No lunch -- but kebobs and pigeon for dinner.


















One thing that I think I can generalize about; Cairenes enjoy relaxing. There was a pace in that coffee bar, laughter and backgammon and water pipes, that seemed essential to Cairo. There isn’t alcohol to speak of, and the apartments are too hot in the evening. These open breezy coffee bars (where they serve juice and water pipes largely), seem designed to slow the pace down and give people a chance to wait out the heat until it’s cool enough to return home comfortably.

I enjoy Cairo even though I don't understand it... but this is probably ok.

5,000 years later i arrive

CAIRO

this city that revels in the joys of noise
-----
in the hotel after a day traveling and dinner with our Egyptian agent. I am here

that is the Nile. In the morning the pyramids should be visible....

I am in Cairo.

Next Trip

On February 26th I leave for Cairo.

On March 3rd I'll be in Berlin.

On March 4th I'll be in Poznan

__________










_____

I grabbed tickets yesterday using Kayak, and ultimately paying cheaptickets.com. To prepare for this leg, which should be 11 days or so I went back to my journal and found a packing entry I drafted in Shanghai. Here it is...

things I should have packed....

1. a good GSM phone with address book synced to macbook
3. extra video camera/cell phone batteries
4. luggage locks
5. toilet paper
7. one camera/video bag 8. a satchel for the gobs of power cords and adapters
9. more gifts for my hosts
10. two pairs (not one) of jeans
11. lens cloth or cotton swabs
12. a good black long sleeve heavy shirt
13. more socks
14. one pair dress pants (not two)
15. one dress shirt (not three)
16. gloves/hat/scarf
19. extra pair of glasses
20. pocket calculator

you've noticed the layout changed...

Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us | Yahoo | BlinkList | Spurl | reddit | Furl |


With an odd hundred or so visits a day it's time for a new layout.

After visiting several sites to determine the most efficient and ruthlessly effective information distribution layout.... we're going to test this one out a bit and see how she feels...

Obviously if the posts aren't interesting the layout is moot-- so i'm done with this one. On to new adventures!

Eating

I like to eat strange things in strange places.

So does Anthony Bourdain. I don't care whether you like him or not. He eats singapore and it's worth reading.

Jump to the new york times article HERE

British Air -- the saga continues

British Air sent me a letter.

On their website it costs 120,000 'miles' to get a ticket to Shanghai. They offered me 10,000. No other perks.

If they screw up 4 more times in the next year I'll be able to fly to England on BA. (England costs 50,000 'miles'.)

They suck.FIRST OFF.... the 'inconvenience b/c of snow' wasn't the major problem. Read my posts to get up to speed. They really crapped up the crowd management thing and made the delay awful rather than a pain in the tuchas.

SECOND OFF....they should have been more generous regardless of whether they wanted to admit their mistakes. (OR is corporate even aware of the mistakes...)

THIRD OFF... there are other blogs out there that are doing the same thing-- I think we'll start making a list

I'll keep posting all written correspondence from BA.

This could be so easy for them. Here is what the Merrow Sewing Machine Co. would do if we were in the position they are.

1st. Ask the customer what they want.... Mea Culpa, it's our fault, we want you and your family and your grandkids to fly MSMC (BA...) so what do we need to do?
-----now the customer might MIGHT offer something outrageous... but chances are they'll say something like 'a ticket or two somewhere to replace the one you fouled up and upgrade my 'status' with BA for the next year so I can check in first class and be upgraded if seats are available.' ------

2nd. Give them a little more than they asked for. This is rule number 2. If you're in the business of damage control offering more makes you pretty impervious to criticism.

3rd. Ask that they schedule future trips on MSMC to allow MSMC to make it all back up to them.

Think of the future money BA can make.

For instance. I am flying to Shanghai on March 4th, then again on April 4th, and then Again of May 15th or so.

If I were the CEO of BA i'd want my business. I'd work hard to get it. I'd offer me all sorts of incentives to get back on those BA airplanes.... and stop blogging about how horrible the customer service at BA is.....

GIVE A LITTLE, GET A LOT.

Travel Scheduling

Over the past several weeks we've been traveling and consequently researching travel a bunch. Along the way I've found some terrific resources for planning these trips

Sub1. Luggage (not planning but EXECUTING on the plan....)
At the recommendation of onebag.com I bought a redoxx bag. I can almost fit the weimaraner in it.... awesome bag for carry on.

1. flying
1a. don't fly british air....
BUT do use Kayak.com. Kayak is a new-age meta site that looks at orbitz etc... to find the best deal among the websites providing the best deals...

Other than this the wiki travel sections on flying are ok -- and the frequent flyer pages are ok

But the seatguru is exceptional. Want to find the choice seats on the '7 triple 7' before you fly -- chk. out the green seats on seatguru

2. hotels
I've used expedia and hotels.com .... but the place I end up finding the hotels is yahoo travel. Yeah. I don't use yahoo! for much-- but i've found that the reviews section is a great way to get pointed to a good hotel

3. getting around
I use wiki travel. If anyone has a better suggestion let me know. I live online-- and jwire is valuable to stay online anywhere as a hotspot finder

4.eating
In the US and Europe I use Eating around the world and Zagats. Everywhere else I depend on a local recommendation.

There are more... I'll filter through the bookmarks and see what else has been useful.

NOTE: the emblem on the redoxx bag is a Merrow edged emblem.

Economy....

While we're sorting out our next move -- and looking at the global economy to determine where to compete -- I ran across this

One week -- Two things

1st. British Air has not returned my email
2nd. the 'flu' alluded to below was infact a week on the disabled list

I'm back.

With the lions share of the responsibilities of the trip behind me, our focus now is to follow up with people met and projects begun.

I'll keep this current as we map out the next trip, and this time include the blog in the plotting process.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

this morning something caught up to me.

last night, actually. I took our distributor from the UK to dinner. It was great fun. But I felt this thing creeping up ---

and this morning I woke in a sepulcher.

I don't think there's anything mysterious about this, the pace and lack of sleep finally did me in. I got the flu. Time to go home.