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Change
of Plans
By Michael Alan Hamlin
October 22, 2001
If I were a serious businessperson, I wouldn't be a
columnist. Writing columns is far from an effective way to develop
business and business networks, at least in my experience. For one
reason, there are just too many tempting targets for columns that
may offend clients, partners, and even employees. Even if I were
to restrict myself to steadfastly focusing on business- and management-related
issues, I'd still get in trouble, as in fact I often do.
My political columns get me in trouble with government
- all governments. Believe me, I'm not bragging. My writing has
not only caused me considerable distress, I no longer get invited
to many cocktail and dinner parties. And when I do, people are afraid
to talk to me because they might wind up in a column. Even the management
columns can raise the ire of governments. Several years ago, my
relationship, for instance, with the Business Times in Singapore
was abruptly terminated when certain senior officials felt that
a column on management succession alluded as well to political imperatives.
Whenever I visit Singapore, I'm still asked, in a lyrical, knowing
manner, why I no longer write.
When researchers do a net search on the columns I've
written, invariably the first item to come up is a letter to the
Far Eastern Economic Review from someone in the primer minister's
office in Malaysia. The letter was written to debunk my conclusions
about reform (or the lack of reform to be more precise) in Malaysia
in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. On the Asian Development
Bank (ADB) website, that letter is the only item to come up in a
search of my work. Not even the original column appears.
Sometime back I wrote an opinion piece in The Asian
Wall Street Journal (AWSJ) about the need for a Philsdaq exchange
for the Philippines, arguing that the Philippine Stock Exchange
(PSE) is so hopelessly corrupt and mismanaged that the country's
best chance of attracting portfolio investment would be establishing
a whole new exchange sans the baggage of the PSE.
The editors were asked, I'm told, in a series of furious
calls the day the piece appeared how they could "dare to publish"
such a piece. I don't think the person who made the initial call,
however, is still associated with the exchange. That's of course
not the only time that a column in AWSJ has provoked a phone call
from an annoyed reader. But regular readers of this column will
know what I'm referring to.
So why do I raise these issues? Two reasons. First,
most of these reactions in some way involved my clients, either
directly or indirectly. Second, I'm about to say a few things about
a sometimes client that will no doubt get me in hot water again.
To be precise, I'm referring to Philippine Airlines (PAL). And to
be even more precise, about its business class lounge in Terminal
2 of the international airport, which is where I'm writing this
column.
Regular business travelers on PAL miss only one thing
about Terminal 1, and that is the short-lived world-class lounge
that PAL very late in the day built there for first- and business-class
passengers. It was spacious, the food was excellent, and the computers
provided were well maintained, had the software travelers need most,
and connection to the Internet.
Compare that to the lounge in Terminal 2. First of
all, it's oppressively small, especially considering that all of
PAL's business-class passengers must sit out their wait for their
flights here unless they want to mill around in the spaces where
duty free shops aren't. The tables and chairs are crowded together,
they are uncomfortable, and the computer-equipped cubicles have
no provision for Internet access. Instead, there are large desktops
with what purports to be broadband connections to a wide area network
and the Internet.
When you try to use the machines, though, there are
two major problems. First, as I was told by the lounge attendants
(don't blame the messenger for this) the "server is always
down." Second, there are no applications loaded. Not even a
word processor.
I arrived at the airport early, because I planned to
finish my column (This isn't the one I was working on, obviously.).
I've been here before, so knew that I couldn't connect to the Internet.
But the last time I was here the PAL computer did have a word processor
(which makes one think dark thoughts about why it's suddenly missing),
and had planned to finish up in the cubicle and forward the column
to my editor through Yahoo!.
When I learned that nothing that has to do with technology
was working in the lounge, I remarked to the attendants, "This
is the only business lounge in the world like this." Sure,
I was upset and probably wrong. I'm sure the business lounges in
some countries - Afghanistan is probably a good example - are in
far worse shape. But is that any reason for PAL's lounge to be in
this shape?
Well, it's going to be hard to impress business visitors
with this flag carrier's lounge, I'm afraid, and it's certainly
the wrong impression to leave with departing potential investors.
These days I get irritated when a hotel doesn't have broadband access,
let alone an airline lounge. And sure, I'm being petty and self-serving
writing this column. But we all have our moments of weakness (me
probably more than others, admittedly).
But maybe, just maybe, it'll provoke an irate phone
call.
(Mr. Hamlin is managing director of the consultancy TeamAsia
and the author of three books on Asian economies and managing in
Asia. His latest book is Marketing Places Asia, which
is coauthored. His e-mail address is mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.
If you use a Smart/Talk N Text GSM user, you can text a message
to Mr. Hamlin's mailbox by typing the keyword mikehamlin and sending
it to 200.)
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