What does New Born and Smart Grid have in common? I find myself puzzled with this random question on a bright Saturday morning.
Baby has been keeping Dan and I entertained all night long with a great set of lungs and now she seems to be in a less energetic state of coma, after a nice diaper change, lotion treatment and solid feeding. Basically we figure it is a matter of factor elimination, following our engineering train of thoughts, eliminating all the factors that could cause her discomfort and eliminate them one by one.
Smart Grid is an equally fussy area that deserves much attention in its infancy stage. Lots of financial investments and human capital has gone into it, many trial and errors later we might be seeing trends that could work, but like babies, not all smart grid solutions would work the same way, state and government regulations, geographic traits that impact infrastructure deployment (think Boulder, there is a reason for it to be called that), customer demographics, needs, attitudes, utility's operating philosophy and vision toward Smart Grid, etc. These all influence how a smart grid solution will be formulated and executed upon.
It is easier talking than executing. Baby is waking up, I need to run and improvise again.
8/22/2009
8/09/2009
Surprising Source Of Education
Mom and Dad came to the US 3 weeks ago, it is Dad's second visit and Mom's very first in the country. Dan and I have been taking them everywhere, Golden Gate Bridge, Lombard Street, Ocean Beach, China Town, Standford, Half Moon Bay. They were also invited to have a BBQ dinner at neighbor's house on the first Sunday afternoon they got here, Dan made burger and ice cream last weekend, and we had nice T-bone and rib eye steak for a late lunch today after some crispy cream donuts for breakfast. Everyday we take a walk somewhere around the town, Steven's Creek trail has been one of the easiest, we get to cross 5 wood bridges and the trail is almost all shaded by pine trees and wild flowers overhead. We went to Palo Alto duck pond last weekend and watched thousands of doves, pigeons, and of course some black teal, feeding and diving, quite a scene.
It has always been in my mind that this is the time for me to show my parents the way of life. It has been 20 years since I lived with them, first went to college and spend 6 years in Beijing, then came to the US, first in Pittsburgh and then in NorCal. If it is anyone who understands life, who but myself would have the right to say so. But it hit me tonight that parents are still the best teacher in my life. Mom said to me before she came that a house of harmony is a house of success, regardless of recession, and external stress. That went into one of my ears and came out of another very quickly. But I am realizing the spirit of it now more than ever that the love within a family overwhelms you like the ocean waves washing over sharp stones over and over again, it works on you gradually and mostly quietly until it does its job of completely melts you away.
From the smallest things, mom and dad have almost been restless from the minute they got to our home - mom nearly took over when I was preparing the welcome noodle; dad made a menu of non-repeating dishes for the whole week. Mom cleaned the kitchen floor so much it can serve as a mirror. They comforted me in a way that only Chinese parents can, and they are constantly giving and not asking anything for return.
Indeed, I am still learning from my parents and humbled by them, who can't speak English and don't have millions to brag.
It has always been in my mind that this is the time for me to show my parents the way of life. It has been 20 years since I lived with them, first went to college and spend 6 years in Beijing, then came to the US, first in Pittsburgh and then in NorCal. If it is anyone who understands life, who but myself would have the right to say so. But it hit me tonight that parents are still the best teacher in my life. Mom said to me before she came that a house of harmony is a house of success, regardless of recession, and external stress. That went into one of my ears and came out of another very quickly. But I am realizing the spirit of it now more than ever that the love within a family overwhelms you like the ocean waves washing over sharp stones over and over again, it works on you gradually and mostly quietly until it does its job of completely melts you away.
From the smallest things, mom and dad have almost been restless from the minute they got to our home - mom nearly took over when I was preparing the welcome noodle; dad made a menu of non-repeating dishes for the whole week. Mom cleaned the kitchen floor so much it can serve as a mirror. They comforted me in a way that only Chinese parents can, and they are constantly giving and not asking anything for return.
Indeed, I am still learning from my parents and humbled by them, who can't speak English and don't have millions to brag.
7/29/2009
Greenshoots or Brownshoots
IBM is to acquire SPSS for $1.2Billon, the annoucement sent SPSS share price to its all time high of ~$50: the bid price represents a 42% premium over SPSS's steady state valuation. Is this the start of the real greenshoots in business world acquisition or a long swim at bottom of the tub in the pool of the recession? Either way, IBM is executing on its strategy of building a strong analytics practice by consolidating global workforce of 2000+ skilled resources, creating a marketing strategy around it and now purchsing one of the leading software applications (the other one is SAS).
My hunch for the future is, being in the game is more important than watching the game from outside. It is important for IBM to do its best to embark on this journey and be a key player in this space. The opposite strategy would be strategizing and watching where everyone else is going and be left out of the game ultimately. Choose wisely.
My hunch for the future is, being in the game is more important than watching the game from outside. It is important for IBM to do its best to embark on this journey and be a key player in this space. The opposite strategy would be strategizing and watching where everyone else is going and be left out of the game ultimately. Choose wisely.
7/11/2009
Lessons Learned
We learn the most from our failures. Looking at the recent deals we have shaped and lost, I realized what I was taught in consultant schools are never more true -
1. Listen very carefully - the client is always telling us something, we can only hear it if we choose to listen. We are often too busy to credentialize ourselves and forget that, while clients can nod politely at our brillant solutions but really are expressing something else that we should have heard. It could be that I have a unique situation, help me with your perspectives and don't tell me you have been there done that and have the perfect solution for me. It could be that I know you can do the job but I want to know if this is the team I can and like to work with. A mentor once told me, ultimately, IQ is 20% of the factor and EQ is 80% what it takes to make it work. In order to develop the right EQ, start listening and listen very carefully. If we don't pay attention to these emotional details, we will be going to loss review sessions pretty quick.
2. Get on client's agenda - this is such easily said than done. I have a client, let's name him Bob. We signed a contract to deliver a project. A few days later when we were well into the ramp up phase, Bob called me and said the budget that was allocated to this project has been unfortunately put on hold. He apologized profusedly and I agreed to terminate the contract immediately. Although we lost this project, Bob and I became friends, now he knows that I am someone who he can trust in times of difficulty. I know I did the right thing even though lots of upfront efforts were lost.
3. Patience is virtue - in the time of recession, more people (myself included) tend to be more short term focused. There is a study that showed that people tend to be myopic when panic. Consulting is built on the basis of long term relationship and trust, which can't be built over night. The world is becoming more complex and connected, relationship must be nurtured in the old and tranditional way though. One of my colleagues develop relationship over the course of 10 years, wherever he visit, he calls up a client/friend and have lunch or dinner with him/her without specific agenda, just simply there to say hi and check in. He ends up building strong relationships with over 100 CMOs over the years, and he did it without asking them what he can sell them.
1. Listen very carefully - the client is always telling us something, we can only hear it if we choose to listen. We are often too busy to credentialize ourselves and forget that, while clients can nod politely at our brillant solutions but really are expressing something else that we should have heard. It could be that I have a unique situation, help me with your perspectives and don't tell me you have been there done that and have the perfect solution for me. It could be that I know you can do the job but I want to know if this is the team I can and like to work with. A mentor once told me, ultimately, IQ is 20% of the factor and EQ is 80% what it takes to make it work. In order to develop the right EQ, start listening and listen very carefully. If we don't pay attention to these emotional details, we will be going to loss review sessions pretty quick.
2. Get on client's agenda - this is such easily said than done. I have a client, let's name him Bob. We signed a contract to deliver a project. A few days later when we were well into the ramp up phase, Bob called me and said the budget that was allocated to this project has been unfortunately put on hold. He apologized profusedly and I agreed to terminate the contract immediately. Although we lost this project, Bob and I became friends, now he knows that I am someone who he can trust in times of difficulty. I know I did the right thing even though lots of upfront efforts were lost.
3. Patience is virtue - in the time of recession, more people (myself included) tend to be more short term focused. There is a study that showed that people tend to be myopic when panic. Consulting is built on the basis of long term relationship and trust, which can't be built over night. The world is becoming more complex and connected, relationship must be nurtured in the old and tranditional way though. One of my colleagues develop relationship over the course of 10 years, wherever he visit, he calls up a client/friend and have lunch or dinner with him/her without specific agenda, just simply there to say hi and check in. He ends up building strong relationships with over 100 CMOs over the years, and he did it without asking them what he can sell them.
6/07/2009
Frequent flyer
Landed in Denver on a Sunday night, it suddenly occurred to me during the cab ride to the airport that the little life inside me has already become a frequent flyer and could well passed the 1K membership mark on United alone.
She is such a good travel companion: she never complained be there with me in Nov in Minneapolis's minus 20 degree weather hailing a cab on the street, she enjoyed the Omni Parker House in Boston attending a global leadership workshop with my clients, we took a stroll to ground zero in New York one evening after work, enjoyed the Hilton Garden Inn in Cumberland Rhode Island, flew out to Columbus Ohio and Dayton Ohio and never let the ice rain dampen our excitement. The longest flight she has been on was to Helsinki Finland in Jan, we were both new to the country and enjoyed the herring for breakfast, walking in the snow to the office, the 10AM sunrise and 4pm sunset. She went to the client board meeting with me and cheered for me all the way during my presentation and we rewarded ourselves with a Helsinki Chinese meal afterwards, nice black pepper chicken, yum! The most she has been to is Denver, almost every week since Feb, I hope the 2 hour ride is not so much a torture for her. Friends advise me to have baby listen to classic music before birth, all she got was the plane engine noise and the friendly announcements from the captions and the flight attendants. I am going to Wilmington, Delaware next week, I hope she can put up with it still, I promise this will be the last trip she takes before meeting me face to face for the first time.
She is such a good travel companion: she never complained be there with me in Nov in Minneapolis's minus 20 degree weather hailing a cab on the street, she enjoyed the Omni Parker House in Boston attending a global leadership workshop with my clients, we took a stroll to ground zero in New York one evening after work, enjoyed the Hilton Garden Inn in Cumberland Rhode Island, flew out to Columbus Ohio and Dayton Ohio and never let the ice rain dampen our excitement. The longest flight she has been on was to Helsinki Finland in Jan, we were both new to the country and enjoyed the herring for breakfast, walking in the snow to the office, the 10AM sunrise and 4pm sunset. She went to the client board meeting with me and cheered for me all the way during my presentation and we rewarded ourselves with a Helsinki Chinese meal afterwards, nice black pepper chicken, yum! The most she has been to is Denver, almost every week since Feb, I hope the 2 hour ride is not so much a torture for her. Friends advise me to have baby listen to classic music before birth, all she got was the plane engine noise and the friendly announcements from the captions and the flight attendants. I am going to Wilmington, Delaware next week, I hope she can put up with it still, I promise this will be the last trip she takes before meeting me face to face for the first time.
5/31/2009
Up
What does Up, MSN, George Tiller have in common?
They all have a very good plot/story/Intention, but somehow failed in the middle of their endeavor to that ultimate success. Up is about motivation, adventure but a bit too violant for children who have been attracted to it due to balloons and 3D effects; MSN consumed billions of dollars of shareholder investment and falls far behond rival Google; George Tiller believes in helping to stop unintended pregnancy but was shot dead in front of his church.
World is full of unintended but well meaning endeavors. Sustainability certaintly has more and more of the attention from all corners of the world, even China and India are devoting investments into cleaning up their pollution at the expense of rapid industrial expansion. I wonder what makes these efforts "successful" is not really the end outcome that are measured by their original targets, but it is the story, the journey and the people that are influenced/touched along the way that makes these efforts memoriable and enduring.
They all have a very good plot/story/Intention, but somehow failed in the middle of their endeavor to that ultimate success. Up is about motivation, adventure but a bit too violant for children who have been attracted to it due to balloons and 3D effects; MSN consumed billions of dollars of shareholder investment and falls far behond rival Google; George Tiller believes in helping to stop unintended pregnancy but was shot dead in front of his church.
World is full of unintended but well meaning endeavors. Sustainability certaintly has more and more of the attention from all corners of the world, even China and India are devoting investments into cleaning up their pollution at the expense of rapid industrial expansion. I wonder what makes these efforts "successful" is not really the end outcome that are measured by their original targets, but it is the story, the journey and the people that are influenced/touched along the way that makes these efforts memoriable and enduring.
5/29/2009
Friday thoughts
I saw an interesting article that talks about Greenspan use the sales of man's underwear as a key indicator of if the economy has bottomed out. And the conclusion is yes, it seems. I find this theory interesting - man thinks their underweare as the first disposal item to go when things go bad because people rarely sees it. And there this is a leading indicator of how other bigger consumer goods are going to behave if the trend continues.
But I am quite puzzled by the fact that utility fund taking a huge hit together with the rest of the industries, this is a commodity that in good and hard times people would have to consumer in order to make ends meet. Tangible hypotheses for how this could happen is mild winter (relatively speaking) and less commercial activities while residential side has less to fall. Utility industry has the interesting issue of de-coupling, which mean the profitability is relatively capped/fixed ahead of time, and utilities are not incented to sell more (therefore generate more green house gas, etc) in order to make profits. The pre-arranged profitability is negotiated with public utility commissions so that any revenue short fall is recoverable from the public as a whole, which implies higher prices, which in turn implies incentives for more energy efficient consumption behaviors. It is a convoluted way of thinking, but it makes sense at aggregate levels. At individual consumer level, unfortunately the "taxation" is flat - even if you may save more than me in terms of consumption, you will be paying the PUC the same amount of "tax" to support the utility's pre-fixed profitability levels.
But I am quite puzzled by the fact that utility fund taking a huge hit together with the rest of the industries, this is a commodity that in good and hard times people would have to consumer in order to make ends meet. Tangible hypotheses for how this could happen is mild winter (relatively speaking) and less commercial activities while residential side has less to fall. Utility industry has the interesting issue of de-coupling, which mean the profitability is relatively capped/fixed ahead of time, and utilities are not incented to sell more (therefore generate more green house gas, etc) in order to make profits. The pre-arranged profitability is negotiated with public utility commissions so that any revenue short fall is recoverable from the public as a whole, which implies higher prices, which in turn implies incentives for more energy efficient consumption behaviors. It is a convoluted way of thinking, but it makes sense at aggregate levels. At individual consumer level, unfortunately the "taxation" is flat - even if you may save more than me in terms of consumption, you will be paying the PUC the same amount of "tax" to support the utility's pre-fixed profitability levels.
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