Baron Adventures: Destination Singapore & More: April 2013

After Japan, China is the second largest market for my brand, Johnson’s Body Care. But beyond being currently important, China is of course a huge growth engine for every consumer category- and body care is a big one. For this market visit, I was lucky to be able to mix work with pleasure and to spend the weekend with my Aunt Mary Elaine, Uncle Bob, and cousins Margot and Beau. It’s completely wild that I actually have 4 family members living in Shanghai while Rob and I are in Singapore- we feel like such an international family!

My Uncle Bob was my official tour guide for the weekend and I was very impressed at how much he knows about Shanghai after less than a year! I hope no one has as high expectations of what I will know about Singapore if they come to visit us! For lots of amazing info about Shanghai, check out Bob’s blog at http://shanghaiedbob.blogspot.com. Bob met me at the airport and we boarded the amazing bullet train from the aiport to Shanghai- it’s called the “Maglev” for magnetic levitation… this thing is straight out of sci-fi- it travels at about 300km per hour (it has a speedometer in every car so you can check out the speed) and is powered by magnetic force… it literally levitates off the track and doesn’t use wheels of any sort… what!? Very cool… and of course China was aiming to impress and awe when they installed this $1.2B marvel…. The odd thing is that it really only travels from the airport to the city- so it’s truly just meant to impress visitors. Admittedly, I was indeed impressed although of course wondering if that $1.2B could have been better spent.

That night we celebrated my cousin Margot’s birthday at a non-Asian tapas dinner and I had a chance to see the beautiful Shanghai skyline from The Bund (waterfront walkway along the Huangpu River which was across the street from the restaurant. Shanghai truly has a vibe much like New York to me: lots of tall building, many different neighborhoods, dining and shopping everywhere. It is highly cosmopolitan.

On Saturday, it was fairly rainy and cold, but we didn’t let us stop our adventures. We headed out in Old Town Shanghai and visited the sights and smells of the traditional markets in Shanghai. Here, we saw people selling all kinds of things- from dried animals and animal parts of every variety you can imagine, to herbs, to beans, to fresh fruits and vegetables, to live fish, to spare mechanical parts and used TVs. Of course there was also plenty of street meat to be eaten… however, with the H7N9 going around… and admittedly a less than adventurous digestive tract, I didn’t experiment. Maybe next time- because strangely squid on a stick didn’t look half bad J. It was fascinating to pop into each tiny stall to see what was being sold- almost like we were 50 years back in time. Compared to the modern vibe of the rest of Shanghai, it was really a strange juxtaposition.

My other big amazement after spending time with my family is how well my cousins have assimilated into China. My cousin Beau is fluent in Mandarin and works and lives his life pretty much speaking Chinese… and my cousin Margot was not fluent (having only lived in China 6 months), but she was absolutely fearless with her language skills as well as her ability to meet new friends and try new things. I was so impressed and perhaps the better word… inspired!

After fun with the family, I headed off for my work endeavors. Over the course of the next 5 days, I visited 15 stores in 3 cities in China- Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Unlike Tokyo which felt very different than any retail environment I’ve ever encountered, the Chinese retail situation is much closer to the US shopping experience. There are giant “hypermarts” like Carrefour and Walmart, as well as similar local retailers that sell anything and everything under one roof for great prices. There are also smaller, more specialty cosmetics and drug stores like Watsons, which sell mainly beauty items and make the shopping experience fun. In China, there is much more room in the stores than in Tokyo- where there was as much inventory as possible squished into a very tiny store. It was interesting to see that, similar to Japan, many of the locally manufactured brands have plenty of English on the front of the package to try to seem like an imported brand. Additionally, many of the local baby care brands had pictures of blond hair, blue eyed babies on the front of the packs, while Johnson’s has pictures of Asian babies and mothers on the front of the package. Go figure.

In terms of other observations about China…

Everyone smokes… cigarettes are cheap, and are everywhere. People smoke indoors… having lived in the States and in Singapore where smoking is pretty taboo (and costly!) nowadays- this was a rude awakening!

Yep, there are really are a helluva lot of people living in China. Everywhere is pretty crowded, even at 10am on Thursday, the stores were crowded. We took a train from Shenzhen to Guangzhou. The train leaves every 10 minutes and it’s about an hour ride… and it was crowded. Crazy crowded.

There is censorship… you can’t access Facebook or YouTube without a VPN, and certain Google searches were blocked. I could access Facebook on my phone, but every time I tried to post something, it wouldn’t let me. Very big brother. I also read the English language Chinese newspaper when I was there to see what the news slant would be. It was a bit one-sided, especially over the Japan/China disputed islands, but my larger impression was that there just wasn’t much news.

Lines are not orderly. I waited in many lines while in China, but the mantra seems to be “every man for yourself!” While waiting in a 100+ person taxi line in Shenzhen (not exaggerating a bit), people were blatantly charging past me as if I was not waiting in line- including 80 year old men. But strangely, people just seem to accept it without getting pissed. In the US, there would have been a fight for sure, but in China, people just seem to accept that if you are in such a hurry and feel like fighting past everyone else, you somehow deserve to go first. I’m not gonna lie, this really annoyed the hell out of me!! But I can certainly understand why this is the case given the cultural and historical dynamics in China where it really is survival of the fittest and there is scarcity. (BTW- in Singapore, this is the opposite- I have never seen a more orderly, line-centric place than Singapore).

Food was not for me. I had some good Chinese food, yes, especially soup dumplings (soup inside the dumpling!), noodles, tofu and rice…but overall it was a bit of a struggle. Between the odd smell of certain Chinese food, the tendency to literally eat every part of the animal (bones, fat, tendons and all), the fact that my go-to meat, chicken, was off limits due to bird flu, and the oddly unidentifiable meats that were on my plate…I really didn’t truly enjoy the cuisine very much. In fact, I found myself ordering more western food than I would normally even eat in Singapore.

China is really a very modern place. I think there are perceptions that all of China is stuck in the 50 year time warp- but that is just not the case. The cities are thriving with industry, pop culture, and global brands. While there is still a strong heritage that shows up in pockets like Old Town Shanghai and certain parts of every city, it really is a modern and in the case of Shanghai in particular, cosmopolitan place.

My experience was very focused on the Chinese shopping environment (imagine going to the US and only visiting Walmarts and CVS stores…) that I really didn’t have an opportunity to experience some of the most amazing parts of China and Chinese culture- but I did learn about Chinese shoppers (on the plus side!). I will return to China again, and when I do, I hope to see more of it, and to experience more of the cultural sights.

Cousins united in Asia! Margot, Beau and me at Margot's birthday dinner

A pic on The Bund- Aunt Mary Elaine, Beau, me, Margot and two friends of Mary Elaine & Bob's who were visiting.

View from The Bund- Shanghai

Amazing view of Huangpu river from ME and Bob's apartment!

Old Town shopping- beans

Miscellaneous chicken parts...

Eggs! And more Eggs!

Urban Development Museum- very cool reconstruction of Shanghai- I'm now super excited to visit a similar exhibit in Sinagpore!

Example of hilarious English translation- there are plenty in China... this is at the Urban Dev Museum depicting a future Shanghai... the dog is apparently saying "Besides, there should be many trees here. As a result, I will hide all delicious food under the tree."

The J&J Shanghai Office... and my business partners.

lunch- with unidentifiable meat product in upper right.

yum, delicious candy! Nope... it's dried beef disguised as yummy candy... this is plentiful in China! I was duped once... think very dry beef jerky

Pork hock stew... we cooked it at our table. I didn't enjoy the pork part, but the rest of the stew was actually quite good. I just can't stomach eating pure animal fat!

Shopping in China... Very much like Walmart in the US

My brand! Johnson's Body Care

Spent a lot of time looking at shelves like this one... a lot of time. Oh my.

Sight for sore eyes! So happy to be home after 7 days away.

Authentic Chinese Panda Bears :)

In complete contrast to Vietnam, I had the opportunity to visit Tokyo in March. Japan is my most important market from a work standpoint as about 60% of the Johnson’s Body Care business is in Japan. I have been talking to my counterparts in Japan for 5 months and learning about Japan from reading research reports, but actually being there and experiencing this amazing country was completely different.

The first thing I did in Japan was to observe focus groups on body care habits of Japanese women. The content was interesting. I learned that there is so much pride in looking put together and like you “tried hard” (ganbaru) to maintain your appearance in Japan. The logistics were also interesting though- we had a translator who translated everything the participants said into a microphone, which we (the non-Japanese speakers) listened to via headset.

After the focus groups, I had my first experience with the Japanese retail environment. Nothing could have prepared me for the absolute chaos! About 80% of Japanese health and beauty sales are done in small drugstores that are jam packed with merchandise. The merchandise is mind boggling- Japan is one of the most developed health and beauty markets in the world and you would believe it just from one store visit. Categories that don’t exist in the US are huge in Japan- example: bath additives (i.e. little pouches of goodies for your bath are a $1 Billion business in Japan!), facial massage devices to tighten up your facial muscles, leg firming/slimming tights, and decorative wash cloths (which people carry instead of handkerchiefs to either blot away perspiration or use to cover their mouths- and of course they are also a fashion statement) just to name a few.

From a work standpoint, I had two main goals for the week- 1) to learn as much as I could about the business from the Japanese team, and 2) To conduct an ideation session among the Japanese team for new product ideas. I’ve conducted numerous ideation sessions in the States and I didn’t think it would be a big deal… stupid American assumption of the week! When will I learn?? In fact, the last words my Japanese cultural coach said to me before my trip to Japan was “a brainstorm session is a Japanese person’s worst nightmare.” Well, it was indeed a different challenge in Japan.

Things I learned the hard way: Once the most senior person has spoken, the other team members will not contribute…. Because the “answer” has been given. It’s a sign of respect to keep quiet and not contradict. Additionally, collaboration is at an utmost in Japan, so people don’t readily contribute independently, and if you force them to (common practice in the US) they can get quite uncomfortable. Lastly, in the US, it’s easy to facilitate group work by listening to what a group is talking about and asking questions or probing to keep the team moving… well, not quite as easy when the team is speaking in Japanese. So, it was definitely baptism by fire on my end… and there were several awkward moments when I thought that everyone in the room must have been thinking I was fully insane. Eventually my fellow-American colleague and I were able to loosen up the Japanese team and we ended up getting over 50 ideas for future products…. So it was a success, but more than the ideas, I was proud of myself for sticking with it and learning a ton in the process.

A few other thoughts on Japan:

Hospitality was amazing! My Japan team went out of their way to ensure that I was taken care of from the minute I arrived to the minute I left. They took me to great food, they helped me get a special souvenir for Avery (fake sushi of course!), they helped me procure diet coke when I started getting the shakes J, you name it, they went out of their way for me. I can assure you that next time I have foreign colleagues visiting me in the States (or Singapore), I will go out of my way for them as well- because truly, it’s amazing to feel well taken care of in a far away place.

Concern for Allergies: I noticed that many, many people were wearing surgical masks. When I asked my colleagues whether the people who wore the masks were sick or were they afraid of getting sick, they explained that the reason for the masks is actually hay fever/allergies. Put another way, people are very concerned about external pollutants and the masks prevent them.

Cleanliness is key: One of the reasons the body care category is so developed in Japan is because Japanese really like to be clean. But I was most amazed by the toilets in Japan. Truly, they are a modern marvel- they do just about everything you can imagine- even the public restrooms! From providing heat, to “flushing sounds” so you can do your business discretely, to of course the multiple washing functions. Quite impressive.

Yummy Yummy Food: I was actually a bit nervous about food in Japan, but it was delicious! Truly, every meal was delish- from conveyor belt sushi to our 7 course Ninja dinner (dressed up Ninjas served us!) to ramen that I ordered by making my selections from a vending machine, to Japanese pancakes, to our bento box lunches of bizarre, but yummy veggies.

So, overall thoughts- I really enjoyed Tokyo! I’d like to return again to experience more of the country beyond the food and the office so hopefully I’ll be able to head back before I leave.