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Random thoughts

Tonight my son and I finished carving our pumpkin into Oliver the Train.  It looks pretty good!  I carved the train’s face on the front and the number "11" on the side (Oliver’s number is 11).  On Halloween night it will look great on our porch, welcoming trick or treaters.  I posted a few photos of the final product.
 
So Dr. Ben Bernanke has been nominated to replace Alan Greenspan as chair of the Federal Reserve.  At least we now know who will be Greenspan’s successor.  While the name "Bernanke" doesn’t quite conjure images of money and Wall Street like the name "Greenspan" does, it appears that Bernanke will not deviate significantly, at least initially, from Greenspan’s policies.  While I believe that Greenspan’s true legacy does not rise to mythos, I do think that Bernanke will have some big shoes to fill.  Unlike the recent nomination of Harriet Miers to U.S. Supreme Court, it appears that Bernanke will easily win confirmation.  I’m glad that the market reacted positively to the news.  After Hurricane Katrina battered stocks over the past couple of weeks, it’s about time that stocks headed upward for a change.
 
Wow, the Chicago White Sox look like they’re headed to their first World Series victory in 88 years.  Barring a disaster, they may sweep the Houston Astros or win in five games (if the Sox do choke, people might start wondering if the Sox rigged the World Series like they did in 1919, the infamous "Black Sox" World Series).  Although it’s a shame the outcome is so lopsided, it’s good to see some very close games.  And I guess my prediction of the Astros in seven is wrong yet again!  I guess I should stick to investing.
 
I finished a very important project today.  It’s something I developed from scatch and have been slowly transitioning to a team of people.  It’s a system for managing our operations.  The head of the operation will be heading back to the United States with the project results in hand and will be showing it to the Powers That Be.  If they like it, it could be implemented worldwide.  Now that it’s done, I’m turning my focus to implementing an ISO 9001 Quality Management System in our organization.  This is an even bigger challenge.  I have about one year to put together a team, a plan, and implement the system.  Not everyone is sold on the idea, so it will take a lot of work just to convince people that it is worth the effort.
 
Kevin, a blog reader, asked if the community association I wrote about in my previous blog is common in Korea.  Yes, and no.  Our community association is an expat community association; I don’t think there are many organized community associations for the expatriate community in Korea.  Most expats here are either affiliated with the military and are under the auspices of by U.S. Forces Korea, teachers, who are active in their schools and universities, and businesspeople and government- or non-government employees, who are usually taken care of by their organizations.  However, there are many Korean community associations.  In fact, it’s my understanding that Koreans who live together in apartment complexes often form community associations.  Some have been accused of price fixing, pressuring those who want to sell their apartments to sell at prices set by the group.  This is an illegal practice in Korea, and the "speculation" that arises from this has been popular in the Korean press.  If someone is coerced into selling their property at a fixed price, I can understand why it’s illegal.  Still, I question why there’s been a crackdown on housing speculation in Korea.
 
Blog Notes:  Dear Reader, I received my first hate comment today.  It’s been almost a year since I started this blog and have never received malicious comments before.  I never thought this blog was controversial enough to get any at all.  How do you respond to this comment? 

 

You make me sick. Cancer is God’s way of getting rid of parasites on planet Earth. If you have Cancer I hope you die soon!!! If you have a problem with this, you’re a retard. Stop by my space and learn more retard. Ryan Benedetti

I could delete it, but I won’t.  I think it’s really sad.  It seems he just wants to use this as a platform to advertise his own blog.  He doesn’t really say why I make him sick and why he wants me to die.  I do take exception with how he treats cancer–it’s extremely inconsiderate of those who actually suffer from cancer.  He could very well have spammed a bunch of MSN blogs with his vective just to get attention.  He claims on his blog that someone else is spamming other people’s blogs and misusing his name.  If so, if I were him I would shut down the blog and start over rather than becoming a target for people’s ire.  Interestingly, his handle is Canadiankick.  I thought Canada was a peaceful nation.  Oh well, thanks for stopping by anyway, Canadiankick.

Weathering the proverbial storm

Late last month I took over as chair of our community’s association.  The association serves our expatriate community and manages the community’s myriad assets.  We have a large facility and lease space to several vendors, including Quiznos Sub and Starbucks.  We manage some extended-stay suites, event hall rentals, a business center, and merchandise sales.  We have many revenue streams and offer many services to the community.  We also host social events throughout the year, and we plan to invest the association’s excess cash so that we can meet the future needs of our community.  We’re a non-profit entity, but because we have so many revenue streams, we function like in many ways like a corporation.  It is truly an amazing operation.  I don’t use my MBA much on the job, but as part of the association’s Board, I am able to put my business skills to work.  I enjoy it very much.
 
Lately, the association faces several big challenges.  We haven’t had a cafeteria since last March, and we just lost an important vendor in a messy divorce.  Our business center vendor’s lease is almost up, and our facility desperately needs some maintenance.  We have to put on several key events for our community.  We’re losing some valuable employees.  Our association has a full-time general manager who’s been working hard to manage our operations.  However, I think her job is too much work for one person to handle.  She has a small staff, but each employee is assigned to a specific function.  As chair I’ve tried to work closely with her and her staff to make sure we do everything that needs to get done in the next six months.  Although some people in the community think a Board chair should sit back and take a passive role in the association, letting the GM function like a CEO, I prefer to be much more activist and as involved as I can be.  The GM appreciates this.  Corporate boards that serve at the whim of the CEO (in this case the GM) are not doing their jobs.  Corporate governance experts tend to agree with me.  I also see the chair role as a that of a visionary, where I help instill a vision of what the future of the association will look like and work with the Board and general manager to make it happen.  Many of the best boards in the corporate world are led by dynamic Board chairs who guide their companies and ensure the best interests of shareholders are served.  In this case, I need to look out for the interests of our community.
 
Right now the association faces several daunting challenges.  Last night, the association hosted a major reception for the community.  I emceed the event.  I don’t like public speaking, but I did fine addressing the crowd of about 160 people.  The reception was a culmination of the joint efforts of many people who worked to make sure everything was perfect.  I was really happy to see how we all pulled together to make it happen.  Today the Board approved the new business center vendor, who will offer Vonage phone service and business services to the community.  They will also build the association a professional web site which will serve as a portal for our potential customers.  If they deliver what they promise, the community will have a viable, alternate phone and Internet service provider.  For the next few days, we need to focus on finalizing the divorce from one of our vendors and finding a replacement vendor.  I hope we can accomplish this within two weeks.  The new vendor will offer food and coffee to our customers, and the absence of the previous vendor has been conspicuous.  Next, our attention will turn to reopening the employee cafeteria.  At the same time, we will sell merchandise at the upcoming APEC Summit in Busan in mid-November, and we will host Halloween and Thanksgiving events.  We will also finish facility maintenance before winter arrives, and we will invest our excess cash in low-risk, high-yield municipal bond funds.  Juggling all of these commitments is a momental task.  It feels at times like a perfect storm.  While overwhelming, we must weather these challenges and persevere.
 
When the dust settles and the smoke clears, our vendor contracts will be in place, and we will have given back in myriad ways to the community.  It’s a lot of work, and at times my wife asks me why I expend so much effort volunteering on behalf of the association.  It’s because someone needs to do it.  At this critical juncture in the association’s existence, we need to get through the challenges and outlast the storm.  And after my term ends in five months, I hope that the next association chair will be left with a tidy ship and calm waters.

Kudos from “The Economist”

I received an E-mail newsletter today from my alma mater, the University of Washington (UW).  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the University of Washington, based in Seattle, is considered one of the world’s top universities by British-based magazine The Economist.  In its September 8 edition, the magazine listed the university as one of the best insitutions of higher education in the world.  As The Economist is the premier English-language business and economics magazine, that is high praise indeed.  In a survey published by Jiaotong University in Shanghai, China, cited by The Economist, the UW ranks #20 in the list of top 20 universities in the world based on "academic and research performance, including Nobel prizes and articles in respected publications."  Here is the complete list of schools (ranked in order):
  1. Harvard University
  2. Stanford University
  3. University of Cambridge
  4. University of California, Berkeley
  5. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  6. Californai Institute of Technology
  7. Princeton University
  8. University of Oxford
  9. Columbia University
  10. University of Chicago
  11. Yale University
  12. Cornell University
  13. University of Californa, San Diego
  14. Tokyo University
  15. University of Pennsylvania
  16. University of California, Los Angeles
  17. University of California, San Francisco
  18. University of Wisconsin
  19. University of Michigan
  20. University of Washington

Among the top 20 schools, only Cambridge (Britain), Oxford (Britain), and Tokyo (Japan) are outside the United States.  The article, which can be found at http://www.economist.com/printedition/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=4339960, candidly states that the U.S. system of higher education is a model for higher education and that other nations can learn from the U.S. model.  This high praise does not extend to American elementary and secondary education, unfortunately.  Still, I am proud that America’s colleges and universities are among the best in the world.  Granted, The Economist and Jiaotong University provide only one academic ranking.  There are many other university rankings, such as the one that U.S. News & World Report publishes annually (U.S. News ranked the UW #45 nationally).  I also noted that some universities I thought should be on the list are absent, most notably, McGill University and Queen’s University, both Canadian schools, and the University of Melbourne in Australia.  There are many other outstanding universities not listed in this ranking.

Nevertheless, I am very proud to have attended a great university.  Many Americans consider the East Coast to be the premier college destination, but the West Coast also has many excellent schools.  Note that seven of the top 20 schools on the list are located on the U.S. West Coast.  The UW’s secret is that its medical center, along with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, share the honor of being the preeminent medical research and healthcare universities in the United States.  Its engineering programs are also top-notch.  The UW School of Law is highly regarded, and the Business School, where I completed my MBA, is ranked #18 nationally and on the rise.  Perhaps most of all, the UW retains top academics who turn down offers move to more elite schools because they love living in the Pacific Northwest and teaching at the UW.  If you’re looking at colleges, check out the UW.  Not only is it a great school, but you can’t beat living in Seattle.