Business Beyond the Reef

Let’s go back to how Hollywood portrays embassies.  Remember those diplomatic receptions I mentioned in the previous two posts?  See them here and here.

An embassy reception can be wonderful – if you are not working.  The food is usually good and the drink well picked and enjoyable.  Conversation is sometimes stimulating – and sometimes not.  If you work at the embassy that is giving the reception, however, you are working and working hard.  Knowing who has been invited, you have picked your targets to establish new contacts, make points that couldn’t be made in another setting, or pumping for information.  Many of the guests are doing the same to you, just as you would at someone else’s reception.  It takes concentration, a strong memory, and a willingness to forgo.  At receptions at my own embassies, I drank nothing alcoholic until late in the evening when all my targets had departed.  Dinners are different; you have to drink the wine.

Once you have run out of your chosen targets, you still don’t relax.  You are on the lookout for any guest who is alone or seems out of sorts.  After all, the purpose of a diplomatic reception is to project your country’s image, so you don’t want anyone unhappy.  Among old-school diplomats, too, we did not leave an embassy function until after our ambassador had departed and the last guests were out the door.  I had one ambassador who delighted in announcing to 200 guests that they should party as long as they wished, and then she would disappear up the stairs and go to bed – leaving her officers to entertain for a few more hours.

4th of July at Embassy Budapest (Embassy photo by Attila Németh)

Food offered by an embassy is generally superb, but there are exceptions.  In bad budget years, you eat little at your own receptions until you know there is enough for your guests to enjoy.  One ambassador insisted on serving vegetarian lasagna at every event, sometimes relieved by hotdogs or sliders if it was July 4.  That brings up the subject of holidays.  Most embassies are closed on local holidays as well as on their own holidays.  That sounds generous, but some of those “holidays” are hardly restful.  I never looked forward to Independence Day.  At any American embassy, July 4 occasions the biggest longest party of the year – and embassy officers spend much of the day wearing coat and tie, talking to the targets described above.  Receptions were not my favorite part of embassy life though, I’ll admit, there are some who thrive on it.  I knew one officer in Singapore who managed to go to receptions or dinners almost every night.  Neither he nor his wife cooked.

I am often asked about diplomatic passports, the famed “black” passports.  Vastly overrated, though occasionally they get you into a faster immigration line at an airport.  In many countries, however, a diplomatic passport is required to have a visa before you can enter – even if you don’t need one on a tourist passport.  And guess what happens to the passport-carrying American diplomat when terrorists seize your aircraft?  I carried a normal passport whenever possible.

Now, a subject near and dear to American hearts: are diplomats really exempt from obeying local laws?  No.  They are not exempt, but they may not always be subject to the same penalties.  Diplomats can be declared persona non grata and deported, but you are not likely to do that for a few unpaid parking tickets.  In U.S. embassies you are told that, if you break local law, the embassy is not going to bail you out of trouble.  In fact, unpaid parking tickets were billed to the embassy by local authorities and collected directly from you by your own admin people.  Not all nations’ embassies are quite so cooperative.

Lastly, are embassies safe?  There is a memorial plaque in the main lobby of the State Department to U.S. diplomats who have died in service overseas.  The plaque carries 239 names, ranging from a diplomat lost at sea in 1780 to an officer murdered in Ethiopia last year.  ‘Nuff said.

I am always ready to respond to questions about embassy life and living in other countries.  Send in your questions!

Doing Good - and Well - in India

Like you, I am skeptical of many claims by multinational companies that they do wonderful things for poor people or the planet.  So much of what I see in the media, particularly image ads on television, is so clearly self-serving that I discount it immediately.  But we should give credit where it is due.  And it is due in numerous cases.

The U.S. India Business Council published a booklet last fall, which I just got around to reading, about development programs instituted by American companies in rural India.  The report, Unlocking India’s Rural Sector, is striking, both for the progress made by these companies and because this is in the country that has never forgiven Union Carbide for the Bhopal disaster.  Case studies are presented showing the business and development activities of companies such as Coca Cola, Walmart, Cargill, John Deere, Mars, Monsanto and Pepsi – many of these firms we like to complain about.  Read about Walmart’s training center for farmers and entrepreneurs that prepares them to supply Walmart and other retailers in India with high quality produce.  Cargill has come up with specially fortified brands of edible oils that deliver vitamins to more than 25 million people through the company’s “Nourishing India” program.

Coca Cola and PepsiCo both depend on good supplies of clean water for their business, and the are applying their water resource knowledge to help solve drinking water problems in rural villages.  Mars is working with Pepsi to help women’s groups in Tamil Nadu get into the business of harvesting seaweeds for industrial use.  Monsanto is running a childcare program that has reduced child labor in cotton seed production fields from 20% to less than 1%.  Paramount Farms has introduced their California pistachios to Indian farmers together with an innovative food safety and health program.  These just scratch the surface.  These U.S. companies and others are helping bring prosperity to India’s farmers.  The report hasn’t received wide distribution, so I don’t think this is just more industrial propaganda.  They are doing well by doing good.

Entrepreneurial North Korea and Vietnam are striding into capitalist ventures.  Never thought of North Korea as entrepreneurial?  Think again.

Come and Get It! (photo: Shih-Tung)

Admittedly, they started out in Cambodia, that hotbed of free enterprise.  The North Korean government opened the Pyongyang restaurant chain – with the first two “franchises” in Phnom Penh and Siem Riep – back in 2002.  And they are expanding across Asia, reports the South China Morning Post (subscription), featuring North Korean food, waitresses, decor and entertainment.  The SCMP correspondent raved about the food, but expats sampling the fare in the Phnom Penh restaurant have a few complaints.  Following their success in Cambodia, the Pyongyang chain moved into Bangkok in 2006, quickly followed by Vientiane and Kuala Lumpur.  They have had restaurants in China for years, but I don’t know if they are officially part of the chain.  That said, one store manager in China complains that their owners in North Korea (the infamous Bureau 39) exact an “annual franchise fee” of $10,000 to $30,000 per restaurant.

Those franchise fees are what this all about.  North Korea needs foreign exchange and has been trying to earn it legitimately through restaurants and other enterprises since the 1990s.  Unfortunately, they have also tried illicit trading ventures.   There is a report of a Pyongyang Restaurant in Vienna, but I haven’t confirmed that Austrians are now eating kim chee.  Chinese restaurants in Vienna are generally pretty poor, and their prime business has often been money-laundering.  I recall a gangland style killing at one near my house in the late 1990s.

The recession may be catching up to these new capitalists; there is a report from last summer that many of the restaurants are closing.  They depended on South Korean tourists for cash flow.

In a similar vein, says Asia Times, former Vietnamese Army officers who fought in Laos are back on the battlefield.  This time their mission is to build a luxury resort and golf course where they fought so many years ago.  The Long Thanh Golf Trading & Investment Joint Stock Company (snappy name) is developing their resort just outside of Vientiane, amid charges that the Laotian government has given them a sweetheart deal to obtain the land and get rid of the farmers now living there.  It’s curious that, just before the $1 billion golf resort project was announced, the Vietnamese Army gave significant quantities of “armaments” to their counterparts in the Laotian Army.  Coincidence, of course.

Aside from the occasional reference to outrigger canoe paddling (we started practice again last night and I am sore this morning), Business Beyond the Reef generally sticks to business.  But, just as we did when BBR was a radio show, our definition of business can be broad and today’s risky topic is religion.  But with an international slant that can impact how and where you do business.

Most of the media I see is entranced with any event in the Western world that seems to discriminate against Muslims.  I suppose this is a natural response to Islamic claims that the United States launched a crusade when the Bush Administration rushed into Iraq and Afghanistan.  Besides, western press thrives on bad news, and loves to beat up on its own countries.  We see stories ranging from ill-advised cartoons in Denmark to banning minarets in Switzerland, and editorial writers preach to us ignorant readers that we should be more tolerant.  I’ve got no problem with that.  But it must work both ways.  Islamic and other countries must also tolerate western religions if they expect reciprocity.

The European edition of the Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed piece January 8 entitled “Islamic Christianophobia” that should be read by anybody who is internationally active, not withstanding your own personal religious beliefs.  The editorial is based on the Open Doors 2010 World Watch List, which purports to rank countries in order of their discrimination against Christianity.  The premise leaves me skeptical because the list is compiled by an openly Christian ministry that I doubt is entirely unbiased.  My takeaway, however, is that westerners, including international businesspeople, may be insufficiently aware of how one-sided the Islamic-Christian debates in western media have been.  That tide may be turning.  In recent days, there have been a spate of articles about church burnings in Malaysia over a court decision to allow Christians to use the word “Allah”, and there was reporting on the murder of seven Coptic Christians by Muslim extremists in Egypt.

Banned Together? (source: http://www.crossed-flag-pins.com)

But very little is said, for instance, about Saudi Arabia’s absolute ban on public Christian worship.  We’re not just talking about banning steeples, but banning the existence of churches.  The Swiss banned minarets, not mosques.  (In a delicious bit of irony – and inconsistency – Saudi religious authorities have called for a boycott of Switzerland.)  The Maldives require that all citizens must be Muslim.  In several places, conversion from Islam to another religion can mean the death penalty.  Tolerance needs to work in all directions, folks.  I believe that is a corollary to the “Golden Rule” that is preached by both Islam and Christianity.  Most extremists argue to go “back to basics”, but I don’t think they mean the Golden Rule.

Despite the subject, this is definitely Business Beyond the Reef.  A company cannot be fully effective internationally without being aware of the religious and other cultural influences in the markets it is attempting to penetrate.  This can extend from decisions to position an expat in a foreign market, to choices made in packaging and labeling of your products.  Be aware – and be tolerant.

One of my far flung network sent me this one.  Wish I knew where it is.  But the moral of the story is that if you can’t find the book you are looking for, you must be in the …

Wong Fook Hing Book Store

APEC Business Travel Card

I was surprised this week to discover the APEC Business Travel Card.  The card is a substitute for a visa used when entering APEC member countries.  It is used in special APEC entry and exit lanes at major airports, eliminates the need to apply for visas in participating countries, can be used for multiple entries, and is good for three years of travel.  Sounds good to me!

The APEC card has been around since 1997 (I was in Europe then, which explains why I’m surprised to hear about it now).  The participating countries (economies, APEC has to call them) are: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guniea, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.  The United States and Canada are “transitional members”.  I’m not quite sure what that means, but card holders can use the “air crew” immigration lanes at all U.S. international airports and eight of Canada’s.  That’s a good time-saver by itself, even if foreign travelers still have to get U.S. and Canadian visas.

To be eligible for the APEC card, you must hold a passport from one of the participating countries, be a frequent business traveler within the APEC countries, and not have any criminal convictions.  Each participating country may have additional requirements.  Follow this link to discover more and to see if you are eligible for the card. U.S. citizens can’t get APEC cards yet, but many of your overseas customers and colleagues can.

If any of my readers have been using the APEC Business Travel Card, I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences with it.

Vagina Tandoori

When you live and work around the world, you become acutely aware of the pitfalls of language.  Marketing lore is filled with stories of language faux pas, some delightful.  There’s the famous letter from a New York buyer reporting on the new fall line and the sweaters that “tickled her to do death.”  The factory in central Europe was dismayed that their sweaters “scratched her until she died.”

Soon Fat

Restaurants are a constant source of language fun, and I howled when a friend in Malaysia sent me some pictures of restaurant names gathered worldwide.  I’ll share a few with you in this post, and more later if there is demand for it.  Watch out for menus, too.  There was a decent restaurant around the corner from my office in Taipei that featured “cow penis in brown sauce.”  I don’t believe cows have them and, veteran of Rocky Mountain oysters though I am, I never mustered the courage to order it.

My Dung

Restaurants aren’t the only source.  Taipei also boasted the Yelling Dentist Clinic, and Honolulu once had Junko’s Beauty salon.  If you have some to contribute, please send them in.

Actually, it is British Airways making the offer, but it can’t be refused if you are a small business looking to break into international business in 2010.  BA will make grants to 100 small businesses consisting of FREE flights to anywhere in the world in the British Airways system, FREE global shipments for up to 500 kilos, and much more.  The grants are competitive and your company must apply by September 30.  Fly to British Airways!

Kudos to Tom Moore of Tropical Telecom for tipping me off to this one, and to Jürgen Thomas Steinmetz of ETurboNews, for reporting it.  Both are fellow members of the Hawaii Pacific Export Council.  You can see the ETurboNews article here.

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Welcome to Business Beyond the Reef!  Some of the posts will be international business news and comments about that news, some may be musings about international trade policy, and others may focus on events in Hawaii or the United States that have implications for international business.  Some posts may tell you about my own business activities, most of which are also “beyond the reef”, whether educational videos about the oceans or projects involving deep ocean pipes.  And there may be occasional post that is simply about my love for outrigger canoe paddling.  It’s all Business Beyond the Reef when you live on an island in the Pacific.