Building a new blog

I have moved my blog, please follow me there. Alternatively, you can also view my blog from my company website.

Thanks,

Dhaka riots

I was scheduled to be in Bangladesh this week as part of a Due Diligence project. I am quite pleased the trip was postponed, because the streets in Dhaka are burning. I though the BBC gave a good explanation of the situation. Plenty of opportunity in Bangladesh so no need to stay away. You don't just ignore a country with a 160 million people.

When you think you are big

A big problem that some companies have is, when they think they are bigger than what they really are. I see this a lot in the Emerging Markets.

Too big to make use of shared warehousing and distribution facilities. Too big to make use of free Web 2.0 software. Just too big to act quickly enough.

Cheap labour = No warehouse strategy

Good Supply Chain management is still a rarity in Vietnam. I just had a quick look at a fairly large supplier’s warehouse, and was amazed (well not really) to see the lack of any designed layout or stocking patterns. The lack of palletization, and the abundance of cheap labour must equal chaos in the warehouse.

Of Chips and Dhaka

I am off to Bangladesh next week, and still have a couple of stops to make, before I hit the streets of Dhaka. I am working on a Due Diligence project for a Consumer Goods company, and Bangladesh is an exiting place, always full of surprises. In the world of business, sometimes too many surprises.

Unfortunately I require yet another passport, and need to fly to Hanoi to get the necessary paperwork done. I can’t believe in this modern age we are still applying for passports and visas. I am more than happy to implant a chip, if it safes me time.

Manual Distribution pictures

I have uploaded some pictures from my travels working in the Coca-Cola system. The set focuses on manual distribution in the system in Africa and Asia. More to follow.

In the Principal's office

Do you sometimes feel the client, consultant relationship is a bit skewed?

I recently worked on a project in Manila, for a fairly large size organization. They are in the process of relinquishing control of one of their core assets. I was met by an army of consultants, all working on some work stream.

By the end of the week, we (army of consultants) all got an hour to present our “progress to date”.The consultants were not allowed to sit through all the work streams, and you promtly had to leave after your presentation. I felled a little bit like a school boy, going into the principal’s office.

Luckily the “principal” was pleased with what I presented, and I was spared the cane, or chop. Maybe next time I will ask for candy…

Thaksin no more

Sad day in Thailand, as the regions most dynamic democracy falls to a coup. Some in Thailand say this is better than an assassination, but not so sure. I can't wait to check my Emerging Market fund...