July 4th in Geneva
My mentor at the office pointed out early last week that July 4th was just around the corner. I was shocked.. OK, I knew I was starting at the office on June 30th, but I couldn't believe it was already July 4th! So - in a joking manner, my mentor yelled out to the big boss (President of the firm) that "Kent wants to have July 4th off". Mr President says "well, it's not Swiss holiday - or something to that effect", then I said "well - if you can bring in hot dogs for me on Friday, that's close enough!"



Sure enough, there's an "American hot dog" stand right outside the office. So, on July 4th, I decided to "celebrate" and had a hot dog for lunch. (see proof below). The bread - wow - the most delicious hot dog bun I've ever had. Imagine a baguette - with a hot dog inside it! Then I asked my British office assistant how the British felt about American Indepedence Day.. if there's any resentment, or jealousy. Her response was great "I think it's great - you Americans all don't have enough holidays to begin with!"


On Friday afternoon, I found out that there's this American Club in Geneva, it was throwing a big 4th of July bash. It required registration for some reason, but I decided to just show up. It was totally surprising... 200 people in a sports center park, American flags everywhere, band playing 50-80's hits, and best part: ribs, cole slow, potato salad for only CHF15 (about US$15). That's a steal by Swiss standards. (See proof below)





Going there by myself is a little hard, but I decided to join a table with some other people. And when it comes to explaing where I'm from, and what I'm doing in Geneva, it becomes soo complicated. First I explain that I'm from Ohio, but worked in Minnesota for the past 6 years. THen, I'm now in business school, in INSEAD Singapore and France, but I'm doing an internship in Geneva, but I'm returning to Singapore at the end of August.

After all this, the most common response was: "Wait - are you Singaporean??". It was a bit shocking to here this.. after all, I'm speaking with a plain midwestern accent, coming to a July 4th party - why would I be Singaporean? Because I look Chinese? Expats, of all people, should realize that Americans are a varied lot, of all races. Maybe I was a bit too sensitive, but I expected a bit more from an expat crowd.

Anyhow, it was fun, met a bunch of New Yorkers that have lived in Geneva for 10-20 years (not too surpringly, either working in banking or some international MNC), and had a nice bbq meal to celebrate the 4th.

Goodbye France - I won't be missing you...

My last few days at INSEAD-FBL, and I had the most miserable time last week trying to get away this country. First, I had a visit to Brussels, to say hi to former co-workers. I had to change trains at Gare de Lyon, but the trains were all stopped, nobody knew why, and my Thalys ticket was departing in 1 hr. Another frustrated traveller also taking the Thalys and i tried to get a cab, but couldn't find one, but we found a bus. Then, we arrived at Gare du Nord, too late for our original ticket, and found out, all trains here were stopped too. So - even though we were late, our train was later than we were. Something about fire stopping the train. Ended up talking with the very nice lady who was also stuck on the train, and we ended up chatting on the entire journey. Turns out her seat number was right next to mine... had we not been stuck trying to figure out the trains, we would have sat next to each other anyways!

Then, on the way back, it was so confusing to figure out how to get back to Fontainebleau. Each The map shows a RER line R from Gare du Lyon to FBL, but there's no line R. Each time I got different advice on where to go from 3 different people! I was stuck inside Gare Du Lyon for about an hr trying to figure out how to get back, until I figured out I had to take a surface train, not the RER. Or maybe it was an RER that rain on the regular mainline tracks. In any case, I think I made it back on the last train from CDG to Fontainebleau.

THen the following day, at CDG, I was supposed to board a Swiss Air flight to Geneva out of terminal 1 (as per the CDG website) at 3pm. Except - Swiss air doesn't exist anymore, since it's a Air France codeshare, and departs from Terminal 2! (no way I would have known this) So - had to walk REALLY far to terminal 2 with all my bags. THen, arriving at terminal 2, there's 2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 2F, and 2G! And no indication where is the one for Air France. Needless to say - I missed my original flight, which departed from 2B. I was told to go to 2G to get my tickets redone. Did so, paid EUR244, and was told to run back to 2G (about a 20 min walk, normally) and that the plane was waiting for me. Arrived there, and saw the ticket I was given was for a flight that departed in 5 mins. Obviously, I wasn't going to make it, and the AF guys certainly didn't check me in. So, again had to run back to 2G to get it re-ticketed again, for a 8pm flight. At least it worked this time....... until I got to the gate, when the airport workers decided to go on strike., which meant I didn't leave until almost 10pm.

THis is soo typical of my experience in France, it's amazing the place even works. From a transportation point of view, it's almost as bad as a developing country! Can't wait to be back in Singapore..

INSEAD Cabaret

Ok - lots of entries today to make up for the lack of entries the weeks before. A few days ago, we had INSEAD Cabaret, a fantastic variety show that is put on by the students, from music, singing, tons of comedy acts. I had no idea there was so much talent in our student class. And - there are no sacred cows - I think the students made fun of almost everything - professors, ourselves, interviewers, other students, the school. Absolutely hilarious.

Here's a great example of a film, Gone with the Ding, that came out of Cabaret - it's a National Geographic mockumentary of the life of an MBA student... see below

I have a summer internship!

For the longest time, I thought I'd be without a summer internship, another victim of the current economic problems in the US and in the rest of the world. I think my resume to offers yield for summer internship is hovering somewhere around 10%.

In a previous post, I mentioned that was in Geneva for an interview with a VC firm. Just last week, I got an official offer for them from the summer!

The firm's name is Endeavour Vision, they run a pan-European venture capital fund. One of the founders is an INSEAD alum, so I'm fortunate to have received this job through career services. ANd it's such a perfect match for what I"d like to do in the future.

I'll be working with them as a analyst to review med-tech investments over the next 7 weeks, then it's back to Singapore for the last 4 months of my program!

Wild Animals in the Fontainebleau Forest

So, most people think that INSEAD's main campus in France is in Paris... but they would be sadly disappointed. it's actually in Fontainebleau, a very small (but pretty) town about 45 mins south of Paris, in the middle of the forest, which apparently is the second largest forest in Europe, and the former hunting grounds of the French kings, because it's full of wild animals.

About a week ago, I was driving back home from school in the evening in my little Citroen C3, going about 80 km/h and suddenly, 3 wild boards, one big one ('mom or dad'), and then 2 younger ones ('junior a and junior b') ran out right in front of my car! I was completely shocked... I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could without losing control... the big one was running fast, and cleared my car, then the second one just cleared the front of my car..... but an car incoming on the other side wasn't able to slow down in time, and ... THWAAAP, collided with the boar that just cleared the front of my car. The 3rd boar saw this and run back without crossing the street.

I couldn't believe what I just saw! The car then slowed down and pulled over to the side, probably to check for damage. I was almost shaking.. what if I had hit the boar instead? Or what if the car tried to avoid the big but struck my car instead? And what does one do exactly after hitting a boar? Would you dare go out and try to push the boar back into the forest? He probably has massive interal injuries. Would the mother/father come back and attack you if you tried to move the boar off the road?

After this, I drove very slowly through the rest of the forest....

French border police lazyness

As many of you know, Charles De Gaulle airport isn't exactly the nicest airport in Europe, and my previous experience there has given me a bad taste, including the time when the French border control police didn't even bother to look at my passport when entering (!!)

Well - something similar happened again! I was in Geneva for a interview at a VC firm, and the Geneva airport is somewhat interesting. It's built across the Swiss and French borders.. so one side in in France, and the other side is in Switzerland. I was returning back to Paris, so I took a taxi to the Swiss side, then walked across the "border", where there was a French border police guy in the office. He was on the phone. I stopped, and showed my passport, but he continued talking on the phone, not even looking at me. I waited for like 5 minutes, he continued to talk on the phone, and didn't look at me.

Then, I wondered: "should I just go??". So, I just went on, and crossed the border. It's pretty annoying when you have an official that has so much power of you (ie, the immigration officer), but he's just sitting there, talking on the phone and not even acknowledging your presence, or even giving instructions saying "go ahead".

The days you wonder if the MBA was worth it..

This past weekend, we were travelling in Athens with my other classmates, since we didn't have class on Friday. While in Athens, we were trying to use our student status as much as possible, including getting tickets to the Parthenon, which is EUR6 for students in the EU, or EUR12 for everybody else.

Unfortunately, some of us (including myself) didn't have our INSEAD ID cards with us, but we had our business cards and passports. The following conversation took place between my friend and the guy at the ticket office

Friend: We're students at INSEAD in France, we don't have our student cards, but we have cards from the school

Ticket Officer: "Where does it say that you're a student?"

Friend: "The name of the school, INSEAD is on the back. On the front, it says MBA Candidate, that's what we're studying for"

Ticket Officer: "What is this MBA? This means nothing to me"

We all had a great laugh out of that one... As you can imagine, we didn't get the student discount.

Two new galleries posted

Life at INSEAD Singapore, including pictures of the campus and my little apartment, and pictures from a recent weekend whirlwind tour of Netherlands and Belgium.. It was wierd being in a hostel again, but I can't argue for 15EUR per night!

http://picasaweb.google.com/kent.x.lee/InseadLife02

http://picasaweb.google.com/kent.x.lee/BrugesAmsterdamBrussels

Life in France...

It's been two weeks now since I've moved to INSEAD Fontainebleau, and it's been a 180 degree change from living in Singapore. Good part is the weather is nice, bad part is that nothing is nearly as efficient, and things are a lot more expensive.

My roommate and I nearly had our first disaster within the first week. We have a car that we're using from the student that we swapped apartments with. After class, we wanted to go back home, and I needed to email an assignment out at 7pm. Around 5:30pm, we go back to the car, and for some reason, the key doesn't even turn! Checked all the normal things, battery seemed OK, etc, so we decided to get some help. I was starting to panic, because it was close to 6pm, and I hadn't done my reading required for the assigment due at 7pm.

When we went for help - the secretary was not exactly helpful. She said she couldn't help us call the service line (we were looking for a French speaker), and referred us to some other staff. We went to the other staff, and she said it's not her responsibility either. Luckily, we found somebody else in another office that was much more willing to help. She calls up the service line, asks a bunch of questions, then the technician asked "did you turn the steering wheel?" - then she realizes that we made a simple mistake.

There's a steering wheel key lock!!! I've NEVER heard of this before. Granted, I have a French Citroen, so everything is kinda weird. With this lock, you have to turn the wheel and the key at the same time. I guess it's to prevent kids from starting the car, but it's wierd that it only disables the key sometimes - defeating the purpose of being a safety lock. Ever since that day, I"ve noticed it 'locking' the key only once. (We drive 2x per day). How frustrating - and a nice start to my time here.

Otherwise, it's been nice, each campus has its own student culture, and it's interesting to see the differences. We live in a little old village called Bourron-Marlotte, complete with small streets, gray-stone cottages, etc. It's kinda cute - very quiet, and reminds me of Wooster on the weekends. More photos to come later..

Photo of the Chateau de Fontainebleau via Wikipedia

Done Done Done!!!

Can't believe it, but I'm finally done! Last exam finished about 1 hr ago, now it's a frantic rush to pack and say "zai jian" to Singapore and "bonjour" to France.. this past two weeks have been crazy, managing exams, final projects, packing, and trying to have to balance. Unfortunately, I think my balance is 2 weeks of nothing but studies, and then 5 days of nothing but relaxing, and then back to the regular schedule...

I think I'll miss this place already... I'll post some pictures of my "Singapore life" sometime in the near future...

Pre-exam philosophizing #2

I noticed for the first time that the shower stall in my apartment, has clear glass, and not frosted glass. Isn't that wierd? At least if it was frosted, and somebody had an emergency, they could still use the bathroom if they needed to.

Wonder if I've never noticed it because it steams up when I normally use the shower...

Pre-Exam Philosophizing - #1

P2 exams are here again, and so I've been frantically studying for 6 exams. And we have only 1 day off to study, so that meant starting early... ie, last weekend.

It was about 10pm, and I was at school, walking back to my "office", and through the glass, I saw a nice dinner party in the outside courtyard. Then I understood what it was like to be in an aquarium. Except the question is: Which is the aquarium?

Was it me in the aquarium, wondering about the lone student who was at school at late hours on a weekend, while people having dinner were looking into the school?

Or was it them, enjoy a nice dinner outside, the life that I could be having, and it was me, peering into the aquarium, watching these people enjoy their dinner?

The Economy Hits Summer Internships

Number of positions applied to thus far: 10
Number of positions with first round interviews: 3
First-Pass Yield: 30% (although one interview was with a very prestigious firm)

Number of first-round interviews "in the oven": 1

Number of positions with 2nd round interviews / offers: 0
Final-Pass Yield: 0.00%

Am I being too picky? Or should I not be so desperate? Or should I just take a 2 month vacation? The only such time I'll ever have so much free time?

I love Singapore

And it's not for the reasons that you think. Ok, Singapore does have really tasty dishes, but the reason I love it so much is because it's INCREDIBLY EFFICIENT. More so than the US (can you really believe that?)

I had a Maxtor external hard disk that I bought from the US, and it went bad on me as I arrived in Singapore. I was afraid that I'd have to return it to the US for a warranty exchange, but decided to look into options here. Turns out that Seagate (the parent of Maxtor) is based in Singapore, and there's a local address for RMA returns. This past Friday, I took a cab to the building, did my warranty return, and was told to wait about 2-3 weeks. (Interesting side note: This place was completely full of pallets of hard disks, seems like it's a regional distribution center for Asia, if not North America)

Today (Monday), I got an email from the company that my new hard drive will be shipped to me by Tuesday.

Incredible! I was seriously prepared for a long wait, or at most, logistical issues since I bought this in the US, but the service was beyond my expectations

Just like my experience opening my bank account here... They needed only a few documents, and within an hour, my bank account was open. I made a wire-transfer from the US, and it was credited the next day. That's faster than it takes for me to make domestic wire transfers between banks in the US!

One interesting thought: once Singaporeans (or expats in Singapore) get used to this type of high-quality efficiency, it must be so painful to move to other Western countries (eg, France), where things move at glacial speeds...

Learning about Wooster at INSEAD


As one of the few Americans at INSEAD, I often get a lot of flack from my other compatriots, because I come from the midwest, while nearly everybody else is from the coasts. But recently, coming from the midwest has been advantageous. Believe it or not, we actually had two case studies about companies in Ohio.. I was completely shocked, because I knew about both of them. The first case was about Lincoln-Electric, a welding supply company in Cleveland where my friend Mike Ohlsen did an internship during college. The case discussed LE's unique compensation strategy, where employees on the factory floor are "paid for performance", based on piecework. Apparently, many business school cases have been written about LE's unique compensation program. The professor even showed a clip from an early 90's episode of 60 minutes, where they went to Cleveland, interviewed the factory workers and the CEO. One of the clips showed the old-school Ohio auto plates... it made me homesick.

The second case that was covered, was about... RUBBERMAID! My dad's employer, the company that gave me scholarships to CWRU, and what was the proudest company in Wooster, Ohio, my hometown. Rubbermaid pretty much collapsed in the 90's after raw material costs rose rapidly, and they were unable to pass the cost to their largest customer, Wal-Mart. The accounting professor was talking about Wal-mart's ability to pressure its suppliers, and showed this excellent clip from Frontline, where they went to Wooster to interview Rubbermaid executives and visited the plant where all the machinery were being sold off to Chinese competitors. It was an interesting discussion, because in class, I explained that I was actually from Wooster, and that my family has a close connection to Rubbermaid. To which the professor said "I feel bad for your town... I think it's better in Singapore. I grew up in Bethelhem, PA (home of Bethlehem Steel), and it's a similar situation there".

This week, we'll be studying Newell, which acquired Rubbermaid around the late 90's, and as an assignment, we have to decide whether Newell should acquire Rubbermaid or not... a very touchy subject for somebody from Wooster.

I'd really suggest watching the clip #2 about Rubbermaid on PBS's website, it's a part of a series asking "Is Wal-mart good for America?"

Now, someone may ask, why is Ohio suddenly a hotspot for b-school cases, when everybody else in the world (and perhaps even in the US) thinks that the midwest is all boring and farmlands? Probably because the Midwest has a lot of examples of companies that were the top of their industry years ago, but with global competition, have been under a lot of pressure to survive, which makes for great b-school cases.

Purim Festival

Last week was the Israeli festival of Purim, it's a bit like secret Santa and Halloween all combined into one... and so one of the Israeli students co-ordinated this holiday for all of us here in Singapore. The idea is that you're supposed to give a secret gift (typically food, or something small and nice) to a person, and then the following day, you dress up, and then reveal yourself to your recipient.

It was completely hilarious to see everybody in their costumes on Friday! I think the professors had a good laugh at all of us too! And so much creativity! Photos are up on Picasa... there were these people who rented half of a bunny suit (ie, the ears half), one girl and a guy who dressed up as brides, among others.

As for me, I had a pair of scrubs that I got from a PM implant case some time ago. I've been using them as pajamas, but thought it'd work well for my costume. So, I found some shower caps, used them as shoe-covers, and wore another one as a hair net. And no, I'm not a doctor, I'm a male nurse.

More haircut experience...

It was time for a haircut again, and after the disasterous pre-Chinese New Year's haircut experience at the local HDB barber, I decided to try something more upscale. Our classes let out early on Friday, so some of us went to Bugis Junction, a shopping center near the city centre. It's actually quite interesting.. It used to be a real street, with traditional shophouses, but they've now covered the entire street, and knocked out the spaces between shophouses to convert it into a shopping mall. It's a nice experience, because you feel like you're walking in the city, but it's nicely air-conditioned.

This time, I went to a hair salon to get my haircut, and it was a nice experience. SG$30 for a wash and a cut (about $25).. the process though was interesting. First you get seated, and they bring you two magazines to read (Maxim and some auto magazine... neither of which I was really interested in). And with my vision, I can't see without my glasses. =) Then they do a pre-wash scalp massage, the haircut itself, and a post-cut wash. A very nice experience, BUT... they tried styling my hair in the latest 'Japanese pop-star' look. (ie, long in the front and back, but short on the sides). A little wierd... then she shaped my hair into a bit of a mohawk!

but then I noticed all the other people in the mall.. definitely was catering to a younger crowd.

In all - a more relaxing experience than the last one.. the luxurious treatment was a plus. That reminds me - I'll need to blog about how I learned that massages and facial treatments are actually acceptable for guys here...

Wintery cold spell in Singapore...

It's been super-cold here in Singapore the past few days, setting a new cold record in the past 74 years.. It's so bad that people are actually buying sweaters and jackets... because the temperature has dipped down to a chilly 25C (77F), and even better, a frigid 21.8C (71 F) at night. (I particularly liked the 21.8 precision on the temperature). It's time to buy some space heaters here!

Can you believe it? It's freezing cold!

This recent article in the Straits Times (Singapore's main paper) detailed the consequences of last weeks cold-spell, to the amusement of nearly everybody else who has lived in the Northern hemisphere.

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, it's coming out of the near absolute zero super-deep freeze at 40F...

P1-P2 Indonesia Break

Life is non-stop at INSEAD.. after finishing my last exam on Weds afternoon, I went straight to the airport to join a bunch of other classmates to travel around the SE asian region, and then returned on Sun afternoon for Monday classes.

One of my classmates, an Indonesian national, was arranging a trip to Jakarta and Jogjakarta, where we could visit some ancient ruins of Hindu and Buddhist temples, as well as get an idea of Indonesian culture. It was a fantastic 4 days. I had previously read so much about Indonesia, mainly negative things in the press, but this trip was a good awakening to what Indonesia was really like. The people were friendly and warm, but you also have to realize that it is still a developing country, and that there is a lot of poverty around you. But in the end, this trip accomplished everything I wanted... to get personal perspective of life in Indonesia, and travel to a new country, explore a new culture and society.

I've posted a set of photos on my Picasa page: http://picasaweb.google.com/kent.x.lee/JogjakartaIndonesiaTrip/ More stories to follow later...

P1 Exams!

Wow - I had forgotten what studying for exams are like. I don't think I've bad actually sit still for more than 3 hours in the past 6 years. And doing that twice. Ok, well, maybe for GMAT..

Things get kinda nutty when you're under stress, studying all weekend, and then doing 2 exams, then studying frantically again for another 2 exams the following day.

Nuttiness #1: I realized Feb 29 was an extra day that we had this year... a once in every 4 year treat. I used it as an extra day for studying... what would I have done without this extra day? I hope everybody else used their extra day for something more exciting

Nuttiness #2: I've been taking showers at night because of the heat, and last night, I found myself shaving after brushing my teeth. Only after shaving did I realize that it wasn't the morning, but it was actually the evening! I'd completely lost track of time, couldn't tell morning from evening. Especially when it all looks the same - get up, go to school, study, go home, sleep. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Well - one more left - statistics! Then it's off that same night to Indonesia with some classmates for our 4 day break. Hope to have some nice pics up when I return..