Stock management and spring rolls

We've made a lot of progress this week at the client. The excel training for the accounts team is now complete, the order schedule is being used by the site foreman, and I have also identified another area of the business which we can help them with – stock management.

I discovered that they have no current process for managing or recording (paper or otherwise) the amount of raw material e.g. steel, which they have in stock. They are also not fully sure how much material they receive from their suppliers as every 'package' (as they describe it) of steel is different in terms of size, weight and content. They just go to their supplier and pick up a ‘package’ with the hope that what it contains is sufficient for them to produce the order for their customer, and if it isn’t, they go back and get another ‘package’. So today, with help and input from the team of IBM supply chain management consultants back in the UK, I have produced some basic training material which includes a fancy but very simple excel based tool for tracking stock. I spent this afternoon working with my interpreter, to help her understand the training material so that she could translate it into Vietnamese for the client. We’re planning on delivering the training to the client tomorrow and I feel a bit like a child on Christmas Eve (how sad does that make me sound?!) I get very excited about sharing what IBM has to offer its clients, particularly the ones we have been working with in Vietnam, as I know how something seemingly simple can make such a massive difference to their business. I have to admit it’s very motivating. It’s also a challenge because we quickly forget what it was like to work without computers.

So, in between producing the training material, discussions with my interpreter and the client, as well as my Vietnamese lesson, my client’s wife showed me how to make spring rolls - sounds like cha nem (tone going up). You’ll be pleased to know that I didn’t manage to poison anyone at lunch. Even my client’s sons and father seemed impressed by my culinary skills (but then again, they may have just been being polite). Anyway, Team Taylor will be hosting a Vietnamese dinner, when I return, for any of you who are brave enough ;-)

Crickets and Beatles

Today has been a day of two halves. The first half involved a trip to the market to do some shopping. The second half was dinner and karaoke with one of our clients.

We’ve been to a few markets since arriving in Vietnam, as they seem to be everywhere. Most people do a daily food shop at the street market, rather than a weekly shop at the supermarket, so today my language lesson got practical and off we went on the scooters to try out some of my Vietnamese. As I have been bombarded with vocab today, I have lots of new words to share and it actually gave me an insight into how complicated and tonal this language actually is.

Qưa (sounds like qwa) means fruit and is put in front of the name of the fruit itself, for example, qưa xoài (sounds like qwa swy – tone going down) means mango, qưa dưá (sounds like qwa zooa – tone going up) means pineapple. But, qưa dưà (sounds also like qwa zooa – tone going down) means coconut. The word nươć (sounds like neug and is the same as water) put in front of the name of the fruit, means juice. This I discovered when we ordered nươć dưà, coconut juice, from a street vendor. (Unfortunately, depending on your computer the Vietnamese symbols may appear as squares)

Interestingly, dương (sounds like doo-ung) is the same word for street and sugar. The way they can tell which one you are referring to, is through the context of the conversation, apparently. So you could, in theory, get handed a bag of sugar while asking for directions.

Most prices are negotiable in Vietnam so haggling is common place. Phrases, which sound like cuy (tone going up) nuy (tone going down) zaa bow neuw? Meaning how much is this? and cuy nuy daat qwa (tone going up), meaning this is too expensive can come in handy.

We spent the evening sat on cushions, on the floor, while we were served numerous traditional Vietnamese dishes. One of them was… yes you’ve guessed it from this blog title – crickets (legs, shells and all). If I’m honest, they don’t really taste of very much, so all those contestants on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here are really kicking up a fuss for nothing. The rest of the dishes were also delicious with a few minor exceptions. I think it has probably been the best meal we’ve had in Vietnam so far and I’m pleased to report that there was no beer involved. We followed the meal with singing (if you can call it that) in a private karaoke booth with our hosts, where the IBM team attempted the Beatles’ classics Let it be and Yesterday (as these seemed to be two of the few English songs choices that we knew). There is video evidence, but I think for the sake of public health we may have to keep that to ourselves ;-)

Cabin Fever

Its spring at the moment in Vietnam which is muà xuân (sounds like moo-a son) and as a few of us have been suffering from a bit of cabin fever today we decided to do some springing of a different variety. Our hotel is on the outskirts of Hai Phong and not in an area you would necessarily want to go wandering around at night, so the routine of being either at the hotel or on client site was starting to take its toll. This is the unglamorous side of consulting and so we decided to go burn off some energy and have a giggle by playing the keepy-uppy shuttlecock game we had been introduced to on Sunday. Armed with something similar to a shuttlecock we made our way to the floodlit car park of the hotel, where we were joined by the bell boy, to attempt to emulate the teams we had seen playing in the park at the weekend. It was a lot of fun and we soon attracted an audience (the security guard and restaurant staff). I suspect it wasn’t because of our skill, finesse or grace as we struggled to keep it going for bôń (4) kicks between us. People joke about hand eye coordination, for this game you need feet eye coordination, which is something we were all severely lacking as we tried to do ballerina leaps across the car park. We quickly became aware that most of us have a warped perception of the length of our legs – mine, unfortunately, are not 6 feet long as my brain seems to think they are ;-) With feet covered in bruises, we returned to our rooms, refreshed and ready to get on with some prep work for tomorrow's session with the client.

A day of surprises

I had a lovely and completely unexpected surprise when I went to work this morning. Within about half an hour of arriving on site, the illusive site foreman appeared in the office to show me the order schedule he was producing on the white board in the factory. You could have knocked me down with a feather. I’m not often lost for words but after some of the resistance I had experienced from him last week I just couldn’t believe that he had actually listened to some of my advice and was taking what I had recommended, during the training session, and putting it into action. I also found out that Mr Dung has been practising on his computer over the weekend! Working on a Sunday is pretty unusual in Vietnam, I’ve discovered, as they usually work a 6 day week (Monday – Saturday) so there must be something in the water as I don’t think I’ve worked with a client who has been quite so responsive.

We had another delicious lunch of spicy bbq style pork ribs, rice and spring rolls. It seems the fact that I devour the plate every time we have this dish (subtle, I know), has not gone unnoticed by Mrs Dung, as this is the third time we have had it for lunch. She made the amusing comment that the Vietnamese weather and food (!) suits me as my complexion is glowing apparently.

News from my daily Vietnamese language lessons is that I’ve branched into reading and managed to stun myself, my interpreter and my accountant friend, by correctly reading out loud something she had written. The phrase was tôi có môt em gái (sounds like toy kaw moat em guy) which means I have one younger sister. Today, I learned how to say something that sounds like tee-ung (tone going up) Viet (tone going down) kooa (tone going up) toy ghum tot lam(tone going up), which means I do not speak very much Vietnamese. I am trying though and I think that is appreciated ;-)

Running away with the circus

We spent the morning on an excursion, which was arranged by the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, to Do Son Beach and Hon Dau Island. This would not necessarily have been our choice of excursion, had we arranged it ourselves, but it was interesting to see what our Vietnamese hosts thought would entertain us. We were given an intriguing insight into their perception of foreign business people and this was particularly evident when we were taken to an exclusive local casino only to discover that neither the IBMers nor our Vietnamese hosts where interested in gambling. There also seemed to be endless team photos where everyone had to line up and pose in front of the local sites to get snapped. This contrasts with the more informal photos my team mates and I prefer to take of our activities.

The afternoon was spent back at the SOS Children’s Village playing games with the kids. We had a lot of fun and they seemed to appreciate the lolly pops, books and IBM stationery we were giving out as prizes. We arranged a treasure hunt, were introduced to a game of keepy-uppy using something similar to a shuttlecock and, with the help of Debbie, I honed my circus skills. We were mobbed by children as we entertained them with our juggling and balloon animals. Yes folks, I can now make swords, dogs and cats out of balloons. So, you'll be please to know that I now have a fall back plan of running away with the circus, if a career in consulting doesn’t work out! ;-)

With all the activities and excitement of the day, this leaves me with only one thing to say and it sounds like toy daang met (tone going down), which means I am tired.

A family dinner

I was invited to have dinner with Dung, my interpreter, and her family at their home this evening. Wearing a bright pink helmet and what looked like a surgical mask to keep me from inhaling the dust, I sat on the back of her scooter as she skilfully manoeuvred her way through the Hai Phong traffic. Helmets, you’ll be pleased and possibly surprised to know, are common place in Vietnam, everybody wears them, even the little kids sat perched on their parent’s lap.

I got introduced to 4 generations of her family - her mother (sounds like mayaa – tone going down), her father (sounds like bowa – tone going up), her 2 sisters (sounds like chi guy), her brother-in-law (sounds like ang chy), her grandmother and her 1 year old nephew. After a dinner consisting of clams, noodles and some delicious homemade spring rolls, we sat down to drink strawberry flavoured tea and to watch the Man U/Liverpool match. Dung’s parents are huge Man U fans and they plan to celebrate their wedding anniversary by going to watch them play at Old Trafford. Shouting, cheering and disagreeing with the ref’s decision through the TV screen, is something we amusingly share with the Vietnamese.

During my visit, I was also shown Dung’s sisters’ wedding photos and got quizzed on my own upcoming wedding (7 weeks to go!) They would like to see photos and have asked me to bring Pete (and our children) back to Vietnam with me in the future. I had a lovely time, and it is another example of the hospitality we have been shown. To finish off the evening, they asked me to text them once I had got back to the hotel safely, which reminded me so much of my own parents. They have invited me to come and visit them again before I leave Vietnam.

Lemon Tree

I have had the strangest day today, which I can’t explain but will try to describe. The day started with what has become the customary greeting from my client Mr Dung, which sounds like, baan kaw hoya (tone going down) ghum (tone going up)? Which means, how are you? My response is always a smile and the phrase toy hoya, meaning I am fine.

I had discovered earlier this week that Mr Dung had never used the computer which sits on the large desk in his very large office. This is 1 of the 2 computers owned by the company and I learned that Mr Dung has it, not to use for work but as a status symbol. As he had some availability today and I had been having no joy with the other employees, I offered to show him how to use it. This is when it all got a bit strange. We were sat trying out some of the functionality of Word, when suddenly 2 guys arrived to connect the computer to the internet. As we couldn’t use the computer while they were working on it, Mr Dung announced that we should do karaoke! This is a very popular past time in Vietnam so he plugged the karaoke machine into the TV, which is also in his office, and we began to sing. Dung, my interpreter, decided that she and I should sing Lemon Tree by Fool’s Garden. What an appropriate choice, I thought, as I was starting to feel a bit of a lemon myself at this point – how basic computer training turned into karaoke, I will never know. Mr Dung followed this with a rousing performance of a popular Vietnamese song.

We returned to his office after the customary 2 hour lunch break and I introduced Mr Dung to the internet. He started to surf the web and I showed him the online IBM toolkit for small businesses (called the IBM SME toolkit) which offers free advice and is available in a variety of languages including Vietnamese. After spending some time reviewing this, he announced that he wanted to have the company networked and that Arjan (our group techie) could come in and help with this. He followed this announcement, with another bombshell, which was that his company was going to be inspected in a months time for their ISO 9001:2000 certification and that he wanted me to help ensure that they were ready for it! This is the first time he had mentioned this and I know enough about ISO certification to know that it takes a lot more than 1 person and 2 weeks to prepare for it. He had essentially asked me to boil the ocean. I went into expectation management over drive and with a smile on my face, agreed to provide some recommendations for the company based on the industry, company and process analysis I had done and the things I have heard and observed over the past 2 weeks. These I said would help them on the journey towards certification. All I can say is the work just keeps getting more and more bizarre.