The past two weeks have been enlightening for me.  Two rather obvious events reinforced my own thoughts on a couple of topics.  I was in my office on the 12^th floor of an office building in Hangzhou when the earthquake in Sichuan happened.  Sitting at my desk I began to feel queasy and considered that I was having a medical problem before I realized that the building was noticeably swaying.  Having lived in Southern California for 10 years I wasn’t particularly distressed and quickly concluded what was going on.  ...

March 31, 2008

I’ve been out of commission for awhile but happy to be back.  I feel like writing about getting medical treatment in China but that’s a different story.  Well, we are now pretty much past the annual planning season for Chinese companies which revolves around the Chinese New Year.  I’ve been on a two year quest (since I joined the Chinese company that I work for) to transform our organization into a more customer focused, project and program oriented organization.  Seems easy enough.

With the economy struggling and companies tightening their belts we are starting to see more and more resumes of good project managers on the street.

Having been in the project management web-based SaaS software field for 10 years this seems like the 2nd time we have been through these challenging economic times.  The good news for our company is in down times our software sales actually increase as companies invest in systems to automate and replace people.  The sad part is knowing that is taking place and good people will be looking for work.

Well since we have no control over the Federal Reserve the one thing I can offer is a way to decipher the job postings they find so they know the "truth in advertising" behind some of these companies.

NOTE:  I literally lifted these off of the bathroom wall were many people post funny quotes and stories and am unable to attribute the original author.&n ...

Happy Chinese New Year!

There have been lots of stories recently about the bad weather in China and its impact on people and the economy during the Spring Festival.  It’s billed as the biggest mass movement of people in the world in which 100’s of millions of people take to the roads, rails, and airways.  It’s the center of the annual cycle for people and businesses.  Our company’s all hands annual meeting is the 1^st day after the holiday and culminates with a dinner and live performances.  The perfo ...