Take time to learn from silver surfers and grow your market
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet four Japanese seniors – two couples – who were visiting Singapore. One couple’s last visit to Singapore was 40 years ago and, of course, their impression is, “It’s completely changed.”
They stayed at the Marina Bay Sands, dined and wined at t [...]
Lessons from WIT: Key ideas from Day 1
Sitting at Penang airport and just got the news on my social feed that Lou Reed is finally taking the wildest walk of his life. Reed, 71, was a huge influence on blues and rock in his time and his words and music always made me smile for all that it implied.I feel like I too have just taken a walk o [...]
Letter from Hong Kong: Some pick hotels for returns, others for romance
Just returned from Hong Kong after attending the HICAP conference – good to see how the event has grown since its early days when it was held at the Kowloon Shangri-La.
It’s a sign of the growth of the hotel industry in our part of the world – when it began in 1989, the business was being dri [...]
Letter from Guangzhou: Mobile rules, outbound’s the new black
Alipay has 700 million customers. There were 83.2 million outbound trips in 2012 and Chinese travellers spent US$102 billion overseas. 98% of Chinese travellers, totaling 295 million, own a smartphone.At every conference, staggering numbers about the Chinese market are thrown at you. On their own, [...]
Letter from Seoul: Change will come as low cost effect takes hold
Just returned from Seoul – did you know, it may not have the fastest average Internet speed in the world (fourth after Hong Kong, Japan and Romania – Latvia was fifth) but it does have the highest high broadband penetration (10mbps) in the world, followed by Japan, Hong Kong and Latvia in that o [...]
Letter from Honolulu: Bringing back ancient ways to the islands
The last time I was in Honolulu, I joined a pilot friend on a ferry flight across the Pacific back to Hong Kong where I was living at the time.
We took about three weeks on a single-engine Piper Malibu to fly across the Pacific, from the Hawaiian island through Kiribati, Tahiti, Cook Islands, We [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 5: Spending time in Shangri-La
My first morning in Shangri-La and I have to admit, I didn’t wake up as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I had planned. I had been warned that I’d have a fitful night. The body needs time to adjust to the thin air and sure enough, I felt dehydrated all night, plus it was colder than I was used to [...]
Letter from Singapore: Tale of contrasting worlds
Every now and then, I feel an urge to write a letter from Singapore because when you travel a lot, you can sometimes forget what’s happening on hometurf, so couple of things got my attention this week.One, the announcement by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong about “Project Jewel” [...]
Tea & Horse Caravan Trail, Pt 4: Onwards to the first bend of the Yangtze, onto Shangri-La
I wake up with a sense of excitement. Never mind the rain, but today is the day I will finally get to see Shangri-La. It’s a place I’ve long wanted to visit, it being the home of Uttara, my friend, for the last 16 years.But first, we take a detour to Yuhu, the base of Joseph Rock, a self-made bo [...]
Letter from Auckland: If you are hungry for innovation, read on
This thing about innovation and entrepreneurship is catching.I was in Auckland over the weekend and was invited inside The Generator, a start-up sharing space in the city, where you pay less than $200 a month for access to hot desks, meeting rooms and function space. Coffee is free and good, as [...]
