Hangin' with Trent

So my mate Trent came over, and we spent lots of time hanging out and seeing San Fran, including Alcatraz (here's the city view from there) ...



Playing golf on the famous Stanford Golf Course, where Tiger Woods spent his college years (9 holes took us almost 4 hours ... not good!)



City Hall in San Fran center ...



... and of course, the Golden Gate bridge!



Which, of course, is red!?!!

A crazy 24 hours: a quick Brand Trek to New York

So kind of like study trips, one of the things we do at the business school is we go for a 1-2 trip to another city which specialises in a certain area. As I'm trying to work in marketing over summer, I decided to hop along to a New York "Brand Trek" to visit some top retail companies in the Big Apple. The timing wasn't great - less than 1 day after getting back from Vegas! Argh!

Schedule of the day: (you may notice a common theme running through my observations, but seriously, it was about the learning/recruiting!) =)

• 10pm SF time / 1am NY time - catch Jet Blue flight to NY
• 3am SF / 6am NY - arrive in NY for breakfast
• 5am SF / 8am NY - take a taxi in the FREEZING weather and appalling traffic ...
  
  
  
  
• 7am SF / 10am NY - meet with the (very eccentric!) CEO of J.Crew (they gave us all free vouchers!)
• 9am SF / 12pm NY - meet with L'Oreal for lunch (they gave us free samples!)
• 11am SF / 2pm NY - meet with Siegel + Gale, the guys who designed the NBA, Dell, 3M logos, etc ... they only (!) gave us free food, but there could be some good work opportunities here
• 1pm SF / 4pm NY - went shopping for an hour in that incredible district around 6th Avenue and 57th Street. My goodness - the prices of those boutique stores! (nothing free here! Except getting a cold!) =)
  
  
  
  
• 2pm SF / 5pm NY - met with Louis Vitton. They were very, very interesting - a real insight into how the planning and production of $25,000 handbags go. Whoa.
• 3pm SF / 6pm NY - met with Diageo. They make Smirnoff, Bundy Rum, etc - the #1 spirits producer in the world. They put on a great show for us - they have a great function room and had a bar man and everything, as well as giving us "show bags" full of liquor!
  
  
  
  
• 6pm SF / 9pm NY - travel to the airport and grab the plane
• 1am SF / 4am NY - Finally arrive back in Stanford after a very, very long day!

Here we are. Go the Marketing Club!

ps a special mention to JetBlue. Man, what an airline. They're not only the cheapest, but also you get 36 free channels of cable TV live - I was watching the Australian open there!

Goodbye Vegas: underneath it all, a very sad place …

(view from our penthouse during sunset hours)

So, after about 72 hours together, it was time to head back to Stanford for that whole school/study/MBA thing. I had a very enjoyable time here - dividing it between eating, sleeping, watching shoes, and watching people gamble.

There are easily hundreds places to gamble in Vegas. And these places are huge. Some of the bigger casinos would have literally hundreds of different tables (Eg Blackjack, Roulette, etc) and thousands of slot machines. One of the things casinos also have – even though it actually doesn’t provide them lots of revenue (because the players divide the winnings, not the house) is poker. Each casino has lots of tables where anyone can come up and play Texas Hold’em, 24 hours a day, with a bunch of other strangers in the question to win (or lose) hundreds to thousands of dollars. And, while you do it, free drinks and food (spectators included!).

Poker has become a glamourised sport – and I actually really enjoy playing it (but not for money – even though that does add another dimension!). But, one night, as I watched some of my friends play at 4am at the crappy hotel we were staying in (Imperial Palace), I realized that it is a symbol of Vegas, and not a very happy symbol at all.

At my table was your usual collection of Vegas gamblers: a few young guns (like my friends) who were in town for a weekend with mates and were putting a few bucks down as part of the fun. But then there were society’s misfits: elderly men looking for a bit of luck, young guys in their twenties with strange haircuts and awkward social skills but who could play a bit of a poker (though possibly not much else?); a collection of overweight men in their 40s and 50s for whom “Sin City” Vegas provided a little hope, a little solace ...

We were being served by Olga: an Eastern European migrant whose English skills were limited – but who did her best to smile and earn a poker chip or two for a tip. The house dealers themselves fitted right in: middle aged men wearing cheap suits with a dry sense of humour and a fast hand; they were part of the furniture too, long-term employees of this city; part of the system.

What kind of city is this? Glamour on the outside, pain on the inside.

It is indeed a strange world.

More shots of Vegas: extravagance defined

Inbetween watching shows, watching my friends gamble, and eating, there was lots of time to walk around the strip and check out some of the hotels.

The newest big hotel on the strip is called The Wynn. No, it’s not “win” misspelled (or “wine” for that matter), it’s a hotel named after its majority owner and founder, Steve Wynn …



According to my finance friend, Steve Wynn originally built and owned the magnificent Bellagio …



… and built it up to have this large collection of impressionist artwork worth tens of millions of dollars. The investors didn’t like all that excess value being tied up in a cheap art museum, and after a series of moves he was kicked up; leading him to set up the Wynn (which has just been finished – soon after which Wynn bought back from the Bellagio most of the artwork he had originally purchased).

The Wynn doesn’t appear as extravagant or themed as some of its newer counterparts, such as the Venetian (See below) which has its own complex series of interconnect canals and an astonishing number of rooms (starting at $700 for the cheapest – did I mention that’s US dollars?!) …



And inside, all throughout …



But the Wynn is even MORE extravagant in some other ways. For example, it has a full sized golf course AT THE BACK OF THE HOTEL – an extraordinary investment seeing (i) real estate on the Las Vegas Strip is some of the most expensive and fast-growing in the world, (ii) no one uses the course (unless given a free round) as it costs about $500+ a round ….




The other interesting part about the Wynn is that it boasts a full (many cars!) Ferrari dealership in the middle of the hotel.



Whoa. But if you could see the unbelievable amount of slot machines and tables, you’d realize where the money comes from to pay for it all …

Ocean's Six, a birthday celebration and Vegas shows

When I look back on my trip, the highlight will definitely be the fact that we did it as a team. Not the 50 of us Stanford MBAs that went (though they are cool too!), but me and a small group of five of my closest friends at the business school.

We basically tried to do Vegas as cheap as possible with cheap flights ($230 return – US dollars though!) and cheap accommodation – squeezing 3 to a room in a dodgy hotel between 2 beds (awkward I know, but hey – it meant we only paid $137 each for three nights instead of much more!). Somewhat ironically, however, between our group of 6, we finished some $1000 down after all the gambling (mostly due to Poker and Craps/Nevada Dice) … which, if you do the maths, is almost half of what all of us spent …



(side note: the photo on the right is as close as I got to gambling – playing the free World Series Poker XBOX Game at the beanbags next to the MBA poker tournament. The photo on the left is my mate Dave!)

… we called ourselves “Ocean’s Six”; something confirmed by the surprise upgrade of one of our rooms from the “cheap rooms’ to the top floor of the hotel, the Penthouse (this was because one of my friends’ beds broke during the night!!!) which boasted it’s own big hot tub (which we didn’t use – now THAT would’ve been awkward). The new room, however, led to our great conversation starter: “So, this morning I got up from the Penthouse at the ‘Palace …”



It was a great bonding experience. On the second night, one of my mates, Micah, turned 25, so we took him out to (yet another) Vegas buffet (hmmm … unlimited food) and then to a magic show, Lance Burton, who is claimed to be “the next David Copperfield”. Granted, he was pretty good – his best tricks being making doves appear out of nowhere, and making things disappear seemingly magically – such as women, cars, and the $75US we paid for tickets (in only 90 minutes too! Amazing!).



On the next day, we heard the Circus de Soleil was in town – in fact, they had FOUR SHOWS running. Unfortunately, 1 of them was on break, 1 of them was just weird (“Zumanity” – not like their normal circus shows, but a whole lot of acrobats not wearing much doing some weird dances to music), and the others were sold out. We really wanted to see “O”, their first major production – but tickets were very, very expensive and everything was sold out weeks in advance.

We heard that you could wait for cancellations – so, at 3pm, 4.5 hours before the show was to start, we waited 2nd in queue for cancellations, hoping that SOMEONE would pull out, eventually …



… and they did … THREE AND A HALF HOURS later. Oh dear. But the good news was, the seats were AMAZING – 12 rows back from the front, right in the middle; perfect positioning (the stage was MASSIVE so it was good to be a little bit back, but still able to see all the expressions on the performer’s faces). The better news was that, this production was AMAZING – unlike anything I have EVER seen. Sure, the scrobatics were good (with the usual (yawn!) death-defying acrobatic feats in perfect choreography etc) but the quality of the overall production – from an astonishing amphibious stage which kept morphing from 0 to 50 metres deep, some 60 amazing performers, astonishing costumes and sets and great ideas – it was the best production, of anything, I have ever seen. Go O! (not to be confused with Goo!)

Vegas by day ... whoa

At night, Vegas is a flurry of lights, flurry and activity ... but by day, you could be in Disneyland - it's a real family type atmosphere, with lovely sun, lots to see, wide walkways. Well, apart from all the poker machines I guess.

One of my favourite sights in Vegas is the Paris Hotel. It has a large replica of the Eiffel tower (Which I've been to cheap to go and visit, but hey). It is, like so many things on Vegas, very impressive!



The Vegas "Strip" refers to the main road on Vegas where most of the hotels lie within a 2 mile area, mostly. We were right in the middle, at this great-location-cheap-but-cheerful location called "Imperial Palace", which we affectionately referred to as "The Palace" (hoping some people would confuse it with the across-the-road Caesar's Palace). Here's the strip itself ...



Whilst day time does not boast the incredible night lights of Vegas, they both have lot of advertising. Here's a rather strange sight I saw ... three advertising billboards (including two portable ones) for the same rather unpopular entertainer ...



And finally, one of my favourite hotels, Bellagio (from Ocean's Eleven) and its amazing huge fountain, which plays every half an hour to loud music in sync. It's very huge! Unfortunately, it doesn't play every half an hour, leading to confusion ...

Viva Las Vegas!

Well, after a tough week, thanks to Martin Luther King, Americans enjoy a long weekend ... and for this weekend, we are OFF TO VEGAS for the 2005 MBA Poker Tournament at Caesar's Palace!

So a total of almost FIFTY of us from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (including 5 close friends of mine that would "buddy" together and share two rooms, etc) jetted off after class on Friday to head to one of the most amazing and lit-up cities in the world!

The first thing you see when you get off the plane is NOT security guards NOT customs - it's slot (poker) machines. Yup, you got it - here they are, with my buddy, Andrew ...



The city itself looks AMAZING at night. It's filled with beautiful themed hotels and neon galore ...



People walking and driving 24 hours a day ...



And just extraordinary amounts of people! Even at 3-4am in the morning, casinos are packed with all sorts of people trying to win some money ...



Favourite site on the first day? The silly themed slot machines. They'll make up ANYTHING to make it interesting - including Star Wars:

Moving from hot to cold + jet lag + not much sleep = not much fun

Well, I got back from the Philippines late the night before class started - which seemed fine in theory (efficiency, right?) but in practice, it has really sucked.

1. Getting back just before school started meant that I had LOADS to do
2. Having LOADS to do meant I didn't get much sleep - simply running out of time
3. Not much sleep, combined with the fact I was going from VERY hot to PRETTY cold, meant that I easily picked up a cold and runny nose
4. Still having jet lag (Manila is 16 hours ahead of San Fran) meant that when I've tried to "sleep off" my cold, I haven't been able to, getting up every 3-4 hours or so and not always being able to get back to zzzz ...

I know, I know. Please send sympathy mail (and cash or chocolate equivalent) to this address!

On a brighter note, my classes for this term are looking very, very good. I'll probably spend some more time talking about them once I have about 2 weeks, but in general, this is what I'm doing:

• High Performance Leadership. Where we study leadership - both theoretically and practically, meeting together in groups of 7 for 2.5 hours every week to do "exercises" together. Should be interesting ...
• Evaluating Entreprenurial Opportunities. Where you start a business in groups of 5. Runs for 6 months. There is a LOT of work that needs to be done here, but it all is pretty exciting ...
• Strategy. The consultant's dream subject. We look at a different company twice a week in a strategic dilemma, figure out what they should do, then find out what actually happened.
• Operations. This is the fizzer in the set thus far. We spent the whole of the first class talking about critical path - which is something I enjoy, but it was slooooooow. May it pick up! (though not in work required!)
• Business Opportunities in Education. Learning about how to set up a profit/non-profit venture in education and training, where each week we hear from someone who's set one up before. Haven't had it yet, but it should be good ...

So, overall, feeling pretty average, but some good time in reflection and Bible, as well as my upcoming weekend in Vegas, should turn things round a bit!

Blessings
john

Goodbye Manila, Hello Stanford: the final karaoke goodbye

After almost 2 weeks of intense metings, not much sleep, sun and getting to know my colleagues - as well as taking a zillion photos (I filled almost an entire DVD!) - it was time to leave. But what better way to leave Manila than with a night of Karaoke?

Everyone was getting in on the act ...



There were the powerful singers ...



... to those who were happy to play pool instead (we had this whole room thingy to ourselves).



Good bye Manila - you'll be sorely missed! =) It was a great trip, I learned a lot bout business opportunities here, got to know a country fairly well (though sadly managed to avoid learning almost ALL the language!) and got to know 20 of my MBA friends really well. A great way to spend a holiday ... maybe I should organise a study trip to Australia next year?

Blessings
john

What were we doing here again?

So, maybe to provide a bit of background on what exactly we were doing in the Phillipines. The general objective was to better understand the economic, cultural and environmental elements of this place; what that looked like - apart from 3 days "sampling tourism" - were days and nights spend meeting with high profile CEOs and business and political leaders, and looking at factories, call centres etc (Call centres here can be put up cheaper than in India! And everyone speaks english)

Probably our most famous meeting was with the ex-President, Cory Aquino. She had an amazing life - her husband was the opposition leader during the Marcos dicatatorship during the 1960s to 1980s, eventually being assassinated when trying to re-enter the country, leading to this massive "People Power" revolution that led her to being inducted as president (despite her wishes!). It was incredible to hear her story.



We met with lots of Government people (though we had to cancel on the president!). Here's from our meeting with the Minsitry of Finance, and some of their catchy acronyms to try and stop tax evaders ...



We met with some amazing CEOs. Here's the CEO of the biggest and best performing company in Philippines, PLDT (phone company).



The Philippines is basically run by about 4 or 5 large familities who, between them, own lots and lots of stuff. Here's the CEO of the Ayala Corporation - Jaime Ayala - a 7th generation leader from his family. They own all these big shopping malls, the 2nd biggest phone company, and, um, stuff ...



... Overall, we had some great meetings, and it was especially cool when, towards the end, the same names kept popping up in different meetings (The CEO/leader we were speaking to would say, "such-an-such is doing some incredible work" and we could say "yeah, we had cocktails with them last night!). Go Study Trips!

More events with Stanford alumni - Manila Bay cruise

Another Filo Stanford alumni wanted to give us a treat, so he arranged this huge party in a big tug boat in our honour, going up and down Manila Bay.



The Manila skyline is certainly filling up with sky scrapers and lights, as evidenced by these moody landscape shots ...




The party itself was extravagant. He'd paid one of the top dance troupes to come and perform a range of complex national dances for us - difficult as the boat was rocking back and forth, and a lot of it involved balance! But they kept smiling throughout ...



... then a huge dance party with a great band - who, like all these Filo musicians, managed to play non-stop for a few intense hours!)

An appearance on national TV - The Morning Show

Our host, Mike (a 2nd year at Stanford) was really well connected with the Philo aristocracy, and seeing we knew the owners of most of the TV stations personally we had our choice of which morning breakfast show we woul appear on. We eventually decided to go on Channel 23, ABS-CBN.

The most striking thing about the studio was how TINY it was! It was really small, with the four sets (dance arena, interview area, music area and cooking area) all crammed into a biggish room no more than 20 metres by 20 metres.

They had this weird 80s theme with lots of dancers! Ah, to be agile again ...



... We were there to talk about what we were doing there, and I got to talk a bit as the token Australian! Ah, minorities.



I can't remember much of what I said, but I think I was pretty funny. Well, I laughed at them anyway (ah, live TV. No editing!)



Even many of my photos were flashed on TV! I wonder if this makes me officially a professional?!



... some of my friends were certainly enjoying the newfound fame!



Though it was cool to have people to come up to us during the day and say, "hey, I saw you guys on TV ...!"