January
I had my 36th birthday at an airport in
Chongqing,
China. Believe me I was so busy I almost forgot it. The work for me was a prelude of what is to come, when the boutique consulting firm I have been working for in the last 3 years, just got acquired 3 months back by a global company.
I was very active in looking for our first analytics project in the
Middle Kingdom and everyone had their hands full doing the rounds with various operators in several provinces. We seemed to be getting lucky with one.
The work was getting stressful though but everyone else from the erstwhile boutique firm were just too happy to notice it yet, while enjoying the cash rewards they got from the acquisition.
China was freezing cold and the cold outfits were not helping. My colleagues and I were hopping from hotel to another spending 1-2 days in each.
I made my 2nd trip to Bangalore this month, meeting colleagues from various India offices for the first time.
Jo, our strategy head, was conducting Consulting 101. It was a nice time meeting them for the first time and the personal interactions with our India-based colleagues would do me well in the coming months.
I remember my colleague Bhaskar, who was supposed to be in that same workshop, had a car accident on his way from a shop, where he bought the souvenir books for the workshop. He had a terrible accident as he had to be confined in the hospital with cuts on the back. He went back to office afterwards wearing a neck brace.
February
I met and get to present to various folks engaged in the telecom sector in ASEAN especially the country sales folks who I would be interacting in the coming months on opportunities around analytics.
Bintan was the venue and Nirwana Gardens was awesome. I never really got a good look until a week after when I brought along my family for a 3 day holiday for the
Chinese New Year celebrations. It was a nice and relaxing time for the kids.
While it was a working holiday for me, I still had fun.
I also got to present, albeit remotely, to telco folks gathered in Belgium, from the European operations. I did not have enough time to get a
Schengen visa for the trip, which I regret as I have not been to Belgium. The connections and the acquaintances I have made in that forum would do me well in the succeeding months in evangelizing my work to the telco communities in Europe and US markets.
This was also the time when my wife and I finally found the flat we so wanted in Simei. We immediately latched on to it and paid the commitment fee. We applied for a loan aftewards. We were lucky to be among the last few who qualified for the 10% DP requirement, as the
Singapore government decided to hike the DP requirement to 20% to stave off speculative buying of
HDB flats.
March
China opportunities were progressing fast after the massive roadshows we did in the past 3 months. My colleagues from China got a deal for the team to conduct an assessment work on analytics for an operator.
Two of my better analytics consultants were the ones who delivered the project and they did a good job. We convinced the operator with the value add of analytics to their business with our insightful recommendations and generous revenue estimates (which we would later regret that we were not conservative with our numbers).
It was a 5-week exercise and with
CNY celebrations right in the middle of it. As expected, the customer was impressed with the results.
This was the start of a long and winding negotiation for a bigger analytics project that would drag on for a couple of months but would end in a big win for us. Our first taste of authentic Chinese negotiation.
I remembered this was also the time when my boss first asked me "What will it take for YOU to move to China and take on a leadership role?"
Meanwhile, the work in the office was getting a bit more stressful as
Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia got added to the weekly itinerary. Add to it were increasingly demanding colleagues who seemed to think that I was pulling out SOWs and solutions from my ass! Not to mention the deluge of processes that everyone was trying to navigate in the new system.
In this month, my wife and I had our first appointment with HDB officials for the flat we were buying. We just realized that the government has to approve the sale first before it can be consummated given some rules that need to be complied with. It went well though and we did not have to attend the succeeding appointments. Our agent said that we should get the keys to the flat in no time. We were so looking forward to it. We were finally getting a flat of our own after 4 years of renting here in Singapore.
April
My family and I went to Manila for a few days. We had a good excuse as the College of Economics and Management of the
University of the Philippines - Los Banos recognized me as one of its Outstanding Alumni for 2010. It was a pleasant surprise!
But more importantly, it was another fun time for the kids as they had a small reunion with their cousins from both sides of the family in a small resort in
Los Banos, Laguna. It was a bit nostalgic going around the huge UPLB campus and the Old Econsoc Tambayan. My wife and I had spent 4 of our formative years in this University and its good to be back. The kids were so amazed to see such a spacious ground of greenery.
We started a 6 month project for an Indian operator this month. Never really understood the kind of outputs expected by the customer for this project. On the China front, we were still negotiating. The customer has repeatedly said that they want a long term engagement with us, but it seemed their position indicated the opposite.
In Thailand, we were also able to close a small project with an operator for a 6 week engagement. It was a marketing project, interesting and provided a lot of insights into the VAS market in Thailand. It was another opportunity for a goodworking time with the erstwhile Thailand team : Kamlarp, Wichote and Kitima. I was pretty sure, I was going to get fed well.
On the health front, this was the time when I experienced heart palpitations due to stress. There was one fine night when I thought I was going to faint in the middle of a concall. I could not breathe for a few seconds and almost blacked out. That really freaked me out. The day after, when everyone heard about it (me and my big mouth), I got sent home by the boss and forcibly made to rest the day after. That week was so stressful. I remembered losing it that week sending those rare nasty mails to few colleagues in response to their gobbledygook and "taichi" attempts at passing back work.
May
We concluded the negotiations for the first ever analytics project in China and we got a contract signed for 24 months by the customer. Everyone was ecstatic! I was wondering though if we had just sold the souls of the consultants with revenue commitments we made.
My China-based colleagues committed on a June first start for the project. Everyone in our group was scrambling to find the resources to put in the project. Not only that, everyone was also clueless how to get the India-based guys to China. I was not very happy with the entire team, as I only have the PM with the most experienced required. He was himself reluctant to take on the project realizing that he might not be able to take his wife and baby. But well, I had to do with what we have.
I went to Ireland in this month, Dublin actually.
It was a cold place, and I was lucky that I came when it was the least cold. It was a good experience for me. Interesting it was to meet colleagues and I felt proud being able to showcase a different brand of analytics to my Irish colleagues. Everyone seemed to enjoy Stout in that place. As for me, I couldn't take it, too bitter and a bit too dark for my drink.
I was suppose to go Dubai too, but the flight got cancelled. I was hoping to see it better this next time but somehow it was not meant to be.
I finally got my Gold status for my Krisflyer.
I remembered this was also the time when Chintan, one of the younger and arguably the among the more intelligent consultants from our group, decided to take a study leave for his master's degree in New York. I missed the guy and the intellectual conversations and the once in a while visits at home. Not to mention the regular updates I get on what's on TED for the month.
My family and I commemorated the death of my eldest brother this month, who was murdered 2 years back. He was the first of my 2 elder brothers who had passed away in the last 2 years.
June
My wife and I finally got the keys to our new flat. We were ecstatic! Finally, a place we own. We were dillydallying whether to get the place renovated and was looking at spending only Sgd30K for the renovation. But the quotations for the construction and repairs were costing us double than we budgeted. We were thinking, can we afford to borrow money from the banks again?
We kick started the China project on the 1st of June.
The first few weeks were quite a stressful one, with the team yet to be completed and all sorts of challenges were just popping up every day. There were data problems, delays in the arrival of the India-based consultants, and too many conductors.
By the end of the month, we concluded the Thailand project.
We concluded the project but no contract has been signed yet with the customer. The lawyers seemed more concerned with legal terminologies than actually getting paid by the customer, who was all too willing to pay already given that the project has been delivered.
July
There was a re-org in the group. Two units have been merged and what used to be a large delivery group was broken up by vertical. I got to head the Telecom Vertical and continued as the designated Delivery leader for China. Everyone thought, including me that I am set to move to China. I was waiting for the financial package for my move to be formalized and then I can pack my bags and move to Shanghai.
While everyone was congratulating me with my new designation/s in the org structure, I was not sure if I should be happy having 2 jobs - I knew that it only meant more work. True enough, the prelude of the kind of work that was to come, happened quite early. Travels went crazier and at some point I traversed 3 countries in one week - China, Thailand and Malaysia.
In Malaysia, I was involved in conducting a proof of concept for an operator.
It was probably the fastest time I have seen a predictive model being built in barely 2 weeks time. But amazingly, the work went well and the customer was impressed with the work.
Meanwhile, more and more opportunities were coming up and I was struggling to quickly leverage the newly formed telecom team for solutioning while handling big egos and listening to complaints on unkept promises of discontented consultants.
August
The financial package for the China move finally came. Seeing it, I guessed I was both sad but also relieved at the same time that I had to say NO. The package was not I expected and I was not happy with the total value. I could not believe though that the company could not provide enough financial incentive to talents from whom they expect to build millions of business.
Well, its my side of the story though.
My boss seemed to think that it was such a generous package. Well, maybe. But it was still not enough to support my 2 kids going to an international school in Shanghai and still leave me with my savings intact.
I was relieved that I said NO because I knew deep in my heart my wife was having misgivings of moving to a country like China. She knew that it will be a big adjustment for her and most especially the kids. Knowing that there will be a huge language difficulty when we move there, our concern was for our son, who requires understanding and tolerance in the formal school system given his learning delays. We were unsure of how he can cope up with the change and the new environment.
My decision did not make my boss happy. Over many lunches with select colleagues in the office, he had made it sure that I felt his disappointment. I did feel that in the succeeding interactions with him in the coming months. For him, I made a big big big mistake passing up the opportunity to head the China delivery.
No regrets.
September
September is the happiest and oftentimes the luckiest month for me and my family. It is the month when my wife and I celebrate our wedding anniversary, her birthday, my daughter's and my dad's , and yes, RedPill's acquisition.
It is also the month of festivities for my favorite image of Mother Mary, Our Lady of Penafrancia of Bicolandia, who I have not missed visiting since 10 years ago, except for this year. I made that promise to visit Ina (Mother) every year some 10 years ago, when somehow a miracle happened, which I believed was due to Her Grace, that I got to save my dad from a heart attack.
Call it coincidence, but I knew it was because of Her that I was there at the right time.
In this month, we finally got a go ahead for the construction in our new flat to commence. My wife and I took another loan for the renovation. The construction went on full swing and we liked what was being recreated with our new flat. Glad to have a home that you want considering that this is our first real home here in Singapore.
My wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary and managed to get a reunion trip to HK with the rest of her family from Manila as a gift to ourselves. We went to Disneyland and the kids and us had a grand time.
Coming back to office after the vacation, stress seemed to abate a bit. The frequency of travels also went down. However, some problems in the China project was brewing as quality of delivery outputs were being put to a test. Revenues too don't seem to improve and the team could not get to launch campaigns as projected. Our Chinese customer was beginning to get unhappy, and so were our China-based colleagues from the account team.
Not only that, the project in India was also having problems. The project sponsors were also not happy with my team's outputs.
Everyone was looking at me. Oh you mean, its my fault?
So much for so called Lucky Month. May be September is not a lucky month for work, only for my family.
October
I spent 3 successive weeks in China, working with the project team and working furiously to salvage whatever campaign we can launch and improve whatever revenues we can generate to justify our existence to the customer.
Relations improved a bit though, with impressive account management from the newly designated China Delivery leader. The customer suddenly does not seem to mind that we have not reached even half of the revenue targets. My boss did, however. Quite a few nasty mails and sermons I got for the state we were in the project.
The new China delivery head is a capable person. In fact, he should be the only choice in the first place, being the one who has helped a lot in selling projects in China and is experienced enough to manage a Chinese customer. He himself is a local Chinese.
We were suppose to start another project in Indonesia this month, but the project got delayed due to some changes in the scope in the project.
Meanwhile, I was happy with the way things were shaping up in my team. I was beginning to see capabilities I have tried so hard to build in the past few months finally helping in easing up the volume of work. I could breathe a bit now as there are more shoulders to the wheel now.
There were still challenges with new recruits. For some, adjustments take time and there were big gaps in their skill sets when it comes to business analysis and project management - both had nothing to do with telecom experience. Nonetheless, at least things were progressing. The team was also gelling well and I can sense that they were appreciative of the personal touch and teamwork that they see around them.
A lot of other projects have not happened. Although there were few bright spots in the vertical with a few projects that may happen in the next 2 months. If things happen as expected.
Our new home was finally completed.
My family moved in to new flat and we were very happy with the way it turned out. It was exactly the way we imagined it and the furnitures and appliances we purchased were exactly the right match for the space and color. More importantly, my wife and the kids liked the place so much.
My wife and I managed a weekend trip to Manila to attend our alma mater's Loyalty Day celebrations. by the way, I got another recognition from my university as one of its Outstanding Alumni for 2010 for Enterprise Development. Thank you UPLB!
November
We closed the India project in this month. I was so glad that project finally got over . We started a new one in Malaysia. It was probably the project where preparations took longer than the actual project duration. At least, we have a project which means the team has some revenues they were working for - a reason for existence.
The new project was not without issues though. Like the experience in the past 10 months, we were scrambling for resources when we kicked it off. I even had to kick start it myself because my PM was on vacation due to Deepavali Celebrations in India.
The China project was due for a checkpoint meeting in this month too. The project team was preparing for a big negotiation with the customer. I knew that with the dismal revenues we had compared to what has been committed, it will be a difficult negotiation to crack with the customer. Luckily, the meeting got postponed and the customer elected for the next month to discuss the checkpoint on the project.
In the home front, kid's school just got over and they went to Philippines for a vacation. My kids were accompanied by my mother in law and my wife's cousin from Canada on the way to Manila. Both of them were in Singapore for a few days vacation.
For the remainder of the month, my wife and I and our house help were alone in the house, and we were looking forward to an an easy and less stressful weeks to come, now that the kids were on vacation....
So my wife and I thought.
One fine night, my wife and I got the shock of our life. At 2 am in the morning after hearing some noise in the living room, I went out of our bedroom and found a man inside the house! He was standing by our main door. I was not sure whether he was on his way in or out. I screamed and ran after him, but he escaped. I immediately looked for my maid in her room and my initial gutfeel was confirmed when I did not see her in the room...
I knew my wife and I had locked the main door that night before going to our room and the only way it could be opened if somebody went out. And our maid was out in her sleeping clothes without her keys to the flat.
My wife and I could not confirm whether the man I saw in the flat had anything to do with her but we knew that somehow he had. My wife believed that it was the same man we saw with her a year back in the elevator a year back in our old flat at the other block.
>
My maid never admitted to anything, then and even that night. So to cut the long story short, we sent her back to the Philippines. We changed the door lock that day and spent the rest of the month thinking, we had been harboring a stranger for a company these past years that she had been with us - especially when we were not around or probably when we were already asleep. I cringed, imagining my wife and kids in the room, when I was overseas....
December
It's Christmas time. This is the month my family (and most Christian families) always look forward to, being reunited with loved ones and friends back in Manila. This time, we spent our Christmas day here in Singapore and we will also be welcoming the New Year together here.
The kids are back.
My mother-in-law took them back. They had an excellent Christmas fun time with their cousins and my family back in the Philippines.
Meantime, work continues for most in the office, a few RFPs were being responded to and while most colleagues were on vacation, there were still a few activities happening.
Evaluation time is over and I have submitted my recommended ratings for my team. I hope I have fairly given most of them the rightful assessments they deserved.
I was in Thailand for a few days at the start of the month, on the account of Kiti's insistence that the team wanted me to handle the presentations with the customers myself. I obliged, actually I enjoy going Bangkok any day. It is always a joy to be with the Thai friends. I finally met the rest of Kamlarp's family. I was invited to a family dinner and there I finally met his parents and his youngest sister. I got a tour of the much talked-about house, which took 4 years in the making and wow, it was indeed worth the wait for the family. Awesome 5-storey house, with elevator and rooms complete with office desk and there was one which i thought has a conference room area. Larp's dad certainly made sure that all the logistical requirements of his children both for work and play are provided for, and with style!
On the China front, the checkpoint meeting with the customer did not happen this month as scheduled. The team though has managed to salvage the remainder of the 24 month contract and the project team shall be continuing into 2011 with their work in China.
My wife resigned from her job, finally deciding that instead of replacing our househelp, she herself will focus on the kids. Now that they are a bit older and more independent, we hope that somehow we can manage without househelp. Hopefully.
Happy New Year!
It helped that we were there on the tail end of the winter season, which somehow made it manageable to walk around with the slowly warming weather during day time.
We were happy and relieved that we accomplished all that we sought to achieve in the 2 weeks of this trip. 
The flat that we will be renting was a bit far from the city - by Singapore standard of course. It is located in Alcobendas and takes about 30 minutes via Cercanias line plus a 10 minute bus ride from Santiago Bernabeu (Yes! this is also the place were Ronaldo and Real Madrid play - Santiago Bernabeu Stadium is their home) to get to my office in Calle de Santa Hortensia. 
The distance and convenience of the school and the market (they call it 'Mercado') to our new home is nowhere near the convenience of our residence here in Singapore, which is all 5-7 minute walking distance to the kids' school, MRT station and groceries/mall. It's even a 5 minute ride by cab to my Changi Business Park office.
The new house is a little smaller in area than our flat now. About 30 sqm. smaller at 100 sqm., we feel that at its rental rate of a shy less than 800 Euros, it should already be a good choice for a 3 bedroom flat that is about 10-15 minutes walk from the Alcobendas S.S. Reyes, Cercanias train station. Besides, the whole place is newly renovated and repainted. We are the first tenant since its renovation 2 months back. The appliances like the dishwasher, washing machine and fridge are all brand new. 
The cost of utilities like electricity (about 100Euros for an average consumption, considering heating due to cold climate), gas (about 80Euros, also considering heating) water (about 25Euros), cable TV (about 20Euros) and internet (about 40Euros) are seemingly higher, but this can be attributed to more I believe to consumption than the average tariffs.
My new boss and colleagues in Europe seem nice and pleasant to work with. It was good meeting them in Madrid and in Barcelona. But I am not sure, being the only Asian in that office building in Madrid as well as the only Asian in the whole Europe team, I am certainly wondering how such situation will pan out for me in the next 2 years.
