Beijing was held under a damp muggy blanket of fumes and drizzle all week, and we were gifted a glimpse of the big blue yonder only on Sunday, a parallel in some ways to the seven months of hard work and the reward at the end of this week. The SOHO is beginning to be more an Small Office than Home Office, with Dell computer boxes piling up in my bedroom, and finally people are beginning to say that they have seen our logo everywhere. Being everywhere, or rather being on the inside, is a useful skill for winning deals, and while Qi and the team did their best on Tuesday our consortium failed to win the 800hr project. Ambition to win the project was matched by frustration as we seemed to never quite understand one another; a function of assumptions and different business practices. ‘Insiders in 800HR have clearly told us that they disliked PR firms analyzing PR strategy or telling them what is PR all about during the presentation, and they just preferred to see the detailed executing plan,’explained Oliver, one of Qi’s exceptionally bright and driven young men. “Kai Yuan New Century", the chosen and one of the largest agencies in Beijing, apparently has an efficient ‘execution’ plan to "Release the news" in a wholesale method, which essentially involves buying placements. I couldn’t argue with this, and learnt more about the financial dealings of having an ‘insider’ and the perception of PR by many firms as low cost advertising for which strategy is an inconvenience. I was disappointed not to win 800hr but the EASTWEST brand is starting to become recognized and the sales pipeline is starting to become fuller. At a client event a tall bespectacled Swedish engineer from Ericcson received my card and said, ‘I have seen your logo before – ah from Mobile Monday.’ By Friday we had everything in place for our WOFE Celebration party, with branded note pads, mousepads, pens and even a huge advertisement on the side of SOHO. Ben, Judy and I banded our 700 some business cards together, (we are ruthless about gathering, scanning and emailing contacts) and on Friday about 100 people came, including existing and potential clients, journalists and partners. I read once that successful people celebrate even the smallest of victories, something that I was too insecure or mean to do when I started EASTWEST in Singapore. I can’t underestimate the value of creating a series of wins for the team and for the market, although I also can’t forecast right now the value of the business that may arise from spending RMB2,500 (US$312) to feed and water our guests. I was helped the morning after the party by the latest housecleaner, Ms Wang, to understand the value of the debris strewn around the office. ‘What was I going to do with the cans?’ asked the tiny Ms Wang whom I wondered could single handedly reclaim the office. I don’t know the word for ‘recycle,’ and through a fuggy head suggested that she could have them. She is not allowed to take them she told me, nor the bottles, as she proceeded to stack them like prize possessions in our entrance hall. Apparently each can is worth some RMB1.5 (US 0.18c) on the street and our 96+ Tsingtao beer cans alone made for a decent haul, not to mention the 48+ wine bottles. Ms Wang is contracted to clients by the management at RMB12 per hour. In one of those awkward, ‘is this really happening’ moments I was encouraging the cleaner to remove the rubbish from the apartment, that she wanted me to keep to sell – another case of assumptions and unknown business models. Heading to the gym to sweat out some of the contents of this growing pile of valuable refuse, I said that I didn’t want to see any of it when I came back. I doubt that I will ever see the hard working Ms Wang again either, for we seem to be ill fated with Ai Yi (literally auntie, but a name given to women who come in and do domestic chores). We lost Mrs Li several weeks back – she was our first regular cleaner who even had the prestige of holding a key, and arrived in a snazzy sun visor on occasion, and to whom I referred a friend who needed an Ai Yi. Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea as Mrs Li never returned, nor called, nor gave back the key. Ms Zhang was a replacement that Judy found, who was extremely good on the cleaning but for some reason was unable to work any of the electrical equipment which meant operating the washing machine, iron and vacuum clear became a potential loss of face. The latest in the line of Ai Yi’s to arrive is also a Ms Wang, who approaches tidying my clothes as if it were an origami test, but for some reason is unable to manage the sweeping or mopping part of the job; perhaps because there is no folding involved. I have now little faith in knowing who will come next, nor how my wardrobe will appear, but I am pretty sure I will be able to guess their name(1). There are some 4,100 family names in China, but 94% of the population, i.e. 1.316bn people, share the 300 most common surnames, and 85% share the top 100 names(2). I haven’t seem similar research for the UK where Smith is the most common surname, but names Li, Zhang and Wang are their Chinese equivalent. Apparently 100,000 people are called Wang Tao, including male soccer stars and female academicians, which explains why sometimes people don’t know if a person is a male or female just by the name – as with everything in China, it is all about context. This week I will leave for my 3 week vacation but feel that seven months into the start up EASTWEST PR is starting to get noticed. I have to hope that mountain of beer cans and wine bottles outside the office this week doesn’t mean we just get noted for our parties. NOTES 1. Source: "100,000 share the name Wang Tao," China Daily, 03 August 2006 2. Source: Answers.com