When I had lived in Seoul in the late 1980′s, it was really difficult to get decent-sized paper napkins at local restaurants. If lucky, you would be given a small single-ply piece. Please understand that Korean food can be very messy to eat with the red sauces. I remember my American female  friends treating soft tissue from the states like they were strips of gold. Now, napkins and tissues are relatively abundant in Korea.

Even in the UK back in the 1990′s, I remember my wife complaining about the lack of quality paper napkins at some restaurants. Things have improved a lot since then. Of course, at nice restaurants you  would get the cloth napkins there.

Now, as I visit Vietnam frequently, I’m usually in search of bigger-sized paper napkins (unless at Western style restaurants). What Vietnam restaurants do, however, is provide pre-packaged wet towels. This is very convenient given the tropical weather. These are placed in front of you but if you use them, you are charged extra for them. So, technically there still aren’t good free paper napkins.

Of course, this is all from an American perspective, where we consume an embarrassingly disproportional percentage of the world’s natural resources. Go to any fast food restaurant and watch people grab handfuls from the unlimited supply of napkins, much of which is never used before being thrown away.

I once heard a story while in Korea about a man who would use a paper napkin and then put it back into his pocket. This was truly a frugal man who would re-use his napkin again.

This past week we had 10 visitors in the office. One group was there to launch projects for a wonderful new client, who has really created a partnership model with us as his company’s social media vendor. The team worked hard and endeared themselves to him with real insights, dedication and warm hospitality.

Our Vietnam team members have an authentic culture of enthusiasm and collectivism that just draws visitors in. They love doing things together. They think about activities from a group perspective, rather than from an individual perspective. They are instinctively inclusive. They don’t act entitled, but thankful for each day together.

I think our client knows he will get great work and effort from the team. He also now knows he has a group of people who really are interested in him as a person and cares about his success.

A second visiting group was there for our quarterly leadership meeting. We started scheduling these meetings in Vietnam because of the cost savings of hosting them there. However, now it could cause a mini-revolt if I tried to move the meetings to other cities. They say the positive energy and gracious hospitality of the Vietnam staff creates the best environment for these off-site meetings. Not to mention most of them are addicted to the Vietnamese coffee.

To date, every visiting person has been complimentary about their experience with the Vietnam office. That’s real credit to the team and its leadership.

It was cooler than my last visit in Spring. It’s rainy season and the overcast skies provided some relief from the sun, and the occasional down pours cooled the city.

The Intrepid research center moved during my trip. While the start-up office, two rooms in a large house, was adequate for the first year, we needed to create a better working environment for our growing team. The new location is a nice commercial office building in District 4.

Everyone enthusiastically helped in moving the equipment. There were a lot of excitement in claiming personal work areas in the new bright and open environment. Well deserved. After all, this group of analysts are a large part of our recent success.

I also had a couple of American visitors on this trip. Showing them around and seeing their reactions to the unique elements of Vietnam reminded me about my first trips here: The shock of seeing the scooter traffic for the first time; the hesitation on the first few attempts at crossing the street;  the utter delight when sampling the wonderful local cuisine; feeling the vibrance of a developing economy; the pleasure of that first hair and face washing at the salons.

I realized that I have learned a lot about Vietnam since first coming here to start the research center about a year ago. I was able to answer most of their questions. I even taught them a few Vietnamese words, or at least my version of those words. We made a lot of the locals smile with our attempts.

I also have a great network of friends here who fill any open time with meals, drinking and even dancing at times. Again, they kept me out pretty late last night and I only got  to the airport less than hour before my flight.

Just another typical Vietnam trip. I leave now with manicured nails, a bit of a hangover, and the knowledge that as the company continues to grow, there will be many other trips in my future.

Savoring Boudain's "Lunch Lady" noodle soup

Travel is a passion of mine. It is for a lot of people.

Once in Jakarta as a young businessman, I moved out of my five-star hotel for a weekend, just to stay with back packers in another part of town. That, however, was a long time ago. Yet, with such perspective in mind, let me share a few personal experiences from Vietnam during my recent visits there.

• I absolutely love Vietnamese food. I’m addicted to the intense flavors from the tropical herbs and spices. I adore the fresh vegetables and appreciate the small portions of food. One of my favorite meals was from Anthony Boudain’s recommended “lunch lady”. Finding her was difficult, but the $0.75 bowl of noodles with pork and solidified blood was well worth the search effort.
• There are also great mainstream Vietnamese restaurants. One of my favorites is Quan An Ngon, where various vendors cook different regional foods, while as a customer you can order any combination of dishes from your table. I particularly enjoyed the snails in coconut curry and the shrimp on a sugar cane with rice paper.
• While taxi’s are cheap, the fastest way to get around is to ride on a back of a scooter. It’s exhilarating to be maneuvered around the congested streets on a scooter. But be warned, this is not for the faint of heart.
• Talking to locals whether they want me to or not is always fun.  Once, a street vendor desperately tried to avoid eye contact as I walked up and ordered a “banh mi” (a Vietnamese sandwich). We kept motioning to each other until I realized that she wanted me to choose a type of sandwich. Eventually, I pointed to a chunk of unfamiliar meat. After getting my sandwich, I gave her a 100,000 vnd bill (around $5.50), causing yet another adventure for her. She went to three different places to find enough change. When we finally completed the exchange, she  gave me her first smile — a beautiful smile — obviously relieved that we were done. I want to go back another time when my Vietnamese is improved to see how I can make her smile then.
• I like watching the economy behind the economy. There are street vendors everywhere in Ho Chi Minh City. While the tourist and local upper class frequent the store fronts, many of the workers at the store fronts frequent the street vendors. I’ve watched with fascination elderly women conduct bustling business with one huge pot of soup delivering breakfast and lunches to the workers in the stores.
• One great moment for me was watching a little girl in clean but worn clothes, holding her grandmother’s hand with tenderness and steeled determination, crossing a crazy roundabout street of Ho Chi Minh.
• Given that extended families live together in small houses or rooms, young couples don’t have many places for privacy. So, near the Saigon River, under bridges, I unwittingly witnessed many young couples cuddling and kissing on parked scooters. They seemed quite dexterous on those little two-wheelers.
• One of the my favorite things about Vietnam was getting “the treatment”. For me, this was a pampering session by a few young ladies that included a head and face massage, a shave, a facial, a neck rub and sometimes a manicure or a pedicure.  Why ever wash your own hair or even shave yourself when the whole experience runs less than $10?

To be fair, a few things that bothered me.

• Ho Chi Minh is not a good walking city. The sidewalks are over run by vendors or scooters, and there is no subway system.
• There is a lack of any ethnic diversity, but this may be an unfair complaint given that Vietnam is a developing country, and Ho Chi Minh not yet cosmopolitan.
• Music is too loud in clubs, and they over-play Akon’s “Right now, (Na Na Na)“. There’s no way of getting that song out of your head once you’ve heard it 20 times at an ear-piercing volume.

Lift9 is building part of its social media research center in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to support our efforts here in the states. We believe that in order to make much of the social media data relevant and useful, extensive research needs to be a big part of the solution.

While initially building the research team in Vietnam, I was excited about the eventual competitive advantage that was being created. Later during the process, however, I became just as excited about the human element of providing employment and opportunities to our new recruits from this foreign land.

I was impressed with many of the candidates’ English skills and willingness to interview in a foreign language. They asked critical questions and each sold him/herself in different and interesting ways. The interview process was difficult, with language and cultural barriers among other challenges. It, however, was an extremely rewarding process, as we bonded with those who joined our team. Breaking down the additional barriers makes the eventual relationship that much sweeter.

Moving forward, we will continue to have barriers to overcome. For one thing, the employment practice in Vietnam is to have sequential one-year employment contracts with an initial two-month probationary period. This creates a business environment of higher potential turnover, as opposed to the life-time employment culture during the “developmental eras” in Japan and Korea.

Yet, we’re excited to overcome these barriers. We plan on providing a nurturing, creative and challenging work environment for our Vietnamese staff. They are valuable contributors to our overall solution, as well as human beings deserving of respect and capable leadership from us.

You know, this is actually a lot of fun.

Ho Chi Minh City traffic

I hold on tightly behind my brother as he deftly maneuvers his scooter through the seemingly chaotic traffic of Ho Chi Minh City.

At first, watching hordes of cars and scooters sharing the streets and avoiding each other without apparent defined rules can be both astonishing and terrifying. But from the back seat of Paul’s scooter, I soon begin to understand certain rules and reasoning behind the commuters’ actions. The traffic, as it turns out, moves along rather well, despite the congestion of the city.

Doing business in Vietnam works in similar ways. The rules and expectations are different than in the US. People seem to be coming at you from all directions, but then a pattern starts to develop.

Vietnam is a developing country. Its people have a relatively high education level.  The country also has a disproportionally high number of young people under the age of 30 compared to developed countries. The government is very stable. Compared to its Southeast Asian neighbors, I’ve also noticed that the Vietnamese culture has more elements of the Chinese work ethic like those in the Far East countries.

In addition, Vietnam is a handsome country, with a long, beautiful coastline. Vietnamese food is fabulous, gaining popularity throughout the world. With a population of around 82 million, Vietnam could someday become an economic pillar in Southeast Asia.

For now, though, Vietnam remains a developing economy, and the labor extremely cheap. Get a haircut, and you can have one person cutting your hair, while two others will manicure your finger nails. I played golf, and frustrated with a bunker shot, I raked my own mess. My caddy (and you have to have a caddy) thanked me profusely, embarrassed that she didn’t move fast enough to take the rake away from me. People are everywhere to serve you. It can be humbling, yet charming.

For the right type of business idea, Vietnam represents tremendous opportunities. Some entrepreneurs have already built technical development teams here to service the West’s appetite for off-shoring those components. International marketing and research firms have established operations here to help foreign brands move into the Vietnamese market. To support new innovations, venture funds are now being established here with both foreign and local money.

Nonetheless, many more foreign ventures will fail here than succeed. It is not easy to manuever through the local business and cultural environment. The risk remains extremely high. Like Paul steering us through the traffic, any company that has a fighting chance of success here needs the guidance and support of someone(s) who already understands the business climate and culture in Vietnam.

Having lived and worked in Europe and Asia, I was comfortable with either or both. As fate would have it, I’m heading back to Asia and couldn’t be happier about it.  If the business plan is well executed, we’ll be in Europe soon enough. Discussions are already under way.

For now, I’m excited about coming back to Asia. It’s so different here than the US, and that’s a good thing. I get to be reminded about a whole different point of view, and that’s invigorating. People are capable of such diverse approaches to life. What a privilege to have chances to witness these differences.

On our plane ride, my colleague Ed Kim and I realized that we both brought Vietnamese phrase and custom books. Mine, thanks to my niece Aileen who lives part-time in Vietnam.

Look, we know even just being able to say courteous Vietnamese phrases will require a lot of time and effort. The joy, however, will be in trying. That attitude will change everything forward about our experiences in Vietnam regardless of how much Vietnamese we eventually learn.

Yes, we are going to Vietnam with a compelling business plan, but what a shame if we came back not having soaked in some of the local culture as well. I’m determined not to let that happen.

Right now, during a four-hour layover at Taipei Airport, I saw a person who looked curiously at me. I smiled as warmly as possible looking straight into that person’s eyes. She ended up helping us get into a wonderful Airport business center that has made the layover enjoyable and productive. So, in many ways, we are so much alike as we are different.

We want to keep smiling at locals with an attitude of professionalism, empathy and respect throughout our business ventures in Asia.

Joe is a single 30-year-old Korean-American, born in Vancouver, WA and never lived outside of Washington state.  He gets teased sometimes for being a banana, an endearing (hum-hum) term for his Asian appearance but Americanized attitude and ways.  

Joe is a man about town in Seattle.  He is known to frequent Belltown establishments in the weekend and has an extensive network of friends who all enjoy time together.  So, what could Southeast Asia possibly offer Joe?

“People are so much nicer (in Thailand),” he said.  ”It’s the land of smiles.”  Yes, true, the Thai are known as very hospitable people with warm dispositions.  The Buddhist culture shines there.  But it seems that Joe, the banana, would have some more interesting insights; after all, he’s not just your average “Joe, the Plummer”.

“Well, there seemed to be a lot more women (than men),” he said.  Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.  He lowered his voice a tad, as if letting you in on a secret, “They were a lot hotter than i expected too.”  Really?

Lucky for Joe, Korean pop culture is pretty hot in Southeast Asia and many admired his boyish Korean looks. His friend whom he was visiting, played that up as well, telling the locals that Joe was indeed a Korean actor.  Hum, I wonder how they got past the fact that Joe doesn’t really speak Korean at all.

it was obvious that the trip has had a profound impact on Joe.  He speaks of possibly returning and living in Thailand for some time.  There, he saw elephants in the streets, snake shows and constant friendly smiling faces.  Everything was hot: the weather, the food, the night clubs and the women.  He saw the stark contrast between the ultra modern and the old that are always evident in developing countries like Thailand.  

Now, with the economic downturn in the States and the relatively lower cost of living in Southeast Asia, the temptation to move could be great for a growing number of Americans.  Additionally, when the economy returns to steady growth, more and more of that growth will be generated from Asian economies.

Well, we can’t finish Joe’s story without some romantic elements.  In vietnam, he was introduced to a very nice local girl through some friends.  They met a couple of times with other friends, which was important since she didn’t speak English and he didn’t speak Vietnamese and needed interpreters.  When they would text each other, it was obvious to him that she was getting translations from Babelfish or some other online translator.  The sentences were cute but often difficult to decipher.  Nonetheless, he appreciated the effort.

Finally, when they decided to go out by themselves, he was surprised at how well they could actually communicate through facial expressions, hand gestures and body language.  They ended up in a club where he ordered a bottle of whiskey for the table.  The night flew by and they ended up drinking the bottle between them.  ”Oh, the girls there can seriously drink,” he added.

In the end, it was a date like he’s never had before — not at Amber, not at Venom, not anywhere.  It was a date full of animated conversations, but without many words.  It was a cool date.  

“I felt like i had a better connection even though we couldn’t verbally communicate,” he said.  ”I can’t explain it any other way.”

Joe in the middle