Carlton Bale

Day 9: Tuesday the 20th Where did the day go? I spent the entire day analyzing data and making the actual first presentation. This presentation barely followed the outline that was presented the day before because the data was showing a much more clear direction. I switched frequently between the spreadsheet and the presentation, trying to form a strong strategy to go about identifying specific recommendations. I became one-with-the-chair in the team room. I barely left it for a couple of meals and stayed there until almost midnight, when Brian kicked me out. We were very thankful to have our own dedicated room. First ofRead More →

Day 8: Monday the 19th Today was when we first started our presentation construction. Garrett came up with an outline and I included some of the data (in table format) from the detailed financial spreadsheet that was built the previous day. We were asked to present what we had so far to Professor Lyles. It was somewhat lacking versus what I desired to present but this was not inappropriate for the situation. We did not fully explain the detailed data that we had in the spreadsheet, including a comprehensive income statement and monthly occupancy levels over a two-year period. Thinking that we did not haveRead More →

Today I felt like we really came together as a team. We met for a late breakfast to start our day (it is the weekend after all). We discussed our strategy for the day. We weren’t deciding which pricing strategy to follow, we were working together to determine the best meeting location for our team. We could either meet in the war room with all of the Hong Kong students or we could go off on our own and start to formulate our strategy. I had talked to a couple of the Hong Kong groups and sensed that they were unsure of their direction, soRead More →

Today was a bit anti-climactic. It was even more apparent that a team member was missing since we had more free time to hang-out with one another. It was the first morning since the morning after I arrived in China that I was able to sleep in. the group meet in the lobby at 11:00 to go to the Pearl Market again; the only thing I purchased was a inside-painted glass ball for my mom. I was tired and didn’t feel like haggling, so I only got the price down to about half the original value. Everyone except Prof. Lyles went to Silk Row inRead More →

Today has been much more productive than yesterday. The day started off with long meetings and no specific answers. However, the team was able to meet individually with the finance manager and we were able to get some detailed year-end financial data, at least as much as is available. The accounting leaves much to be desired. Weekly, monthly, and quarterly financial reports are not even a possibility as they only prepare yearly reports. Since demand for rooms (in theory) fluctuates daily, this poor of resolution of data is not nearly as useful as would be desired. The % utilization of hotel services is not trackedRead More →

Today was a very long and frustrating day for all 5 of the team members. We were asked to formulate a plan for addressing pricing strategies before we left and a very vague plan was included in our pre-trip report. It would have been unproductive to devote any more effort to that plan because everything we were lead to believe about the operation and management of the hotel was incorrect. This was not a surprise to any of us I don’t believe but pre-trip planning can be only as accurate as the information provided by the host. We were originally supposed to have meetings betweenRead More →

Today was largely uneventful. I was 20 minutes late to breakfast because I couldn’t figure out how to work the alarm clock. Actually, there isn’t an alarm clock at all in the room, just a sophisticated lighting controller with a time display. I set the alarm on my Palm but that didn’t wake me from my slumber. I just downloaded an alarm clock for my PC from qlock.com. I set it to play the karaoke version Bust a Move by Young MC, so hopefully that will awaken me tomorrow! I had a couple of observations about China in general today. First of all, the drivingRead More →

Garrett and I flew into Dalian today from Beijing. The flight was no problem as everything was both written and spoken in English. The small amount of warm Sprite in a small paper cup was the only unsurprising detail. When we entered the 21st Century Hotel, I was struck by how elegant it was, much more so than I was expecting. The staff was very courteous and helpful and my room turned out to be quite nice. I was surprised that it was not in as rural of a location as I expected; it is well within the city limits. Since all of these wereRead More →

Only in China can two engineers walk into a bar and be the center of attention for all of the females. Two engineers walking into a bar is usually the opening line of a joke. There are two possibilities here. One, engineers are completely irresistible. Or two, there are a very large number of “working women” in the bars in Beijing. I know that employment can be a major issue. For reasons of personal pride, I’ll assume that option one is correct and I’ll never attempt to find out which is really the case. For the record, I love and miss my wife and I’mRead More →

I slept until 11:00 this morning when Faye gave me a call. Those over-the-counter sleeping pills work pretty well! Faye graciously arranged to take me on a tour of some areas that the group will not get to see when we return to Beijing. I wish I could remember the exact names of the places we visited! We started out a Buddhist temple — the only one in Beijing. It was interesting to young people there worshiping. Next, we went to the old downtown area where we climbed the bell tower, visited an actual Chinese home, and toured the gardens of a former prime minister;Read More →