Again a very late night being busy with the preparation work. I got into my bed around 01:00 and when switching of the light next to my bed got a power-cut with a smell. Seems the switch burned and caused a power cut. I unplugged the lamp in the dark and went to bed, too late and too dark to get this fixed. This morning I could find the switchboard in my room with the daylight entering through the window. Indeed, the switch of the lamp seems in a bad condition. As for the past days I received a newspaper. It is very attentive of the hotel staff to provide me with a daily newspaper, it keeps me informed about what is going on in the world and I remind me to the current date. The whole newspaper sounds a bit Chinese to me, but it is interesting to go through it and to try figuring out what they are writing about. Duly on time we were picked-up for the meeting at the Lizhou customer, an important manufacturer of springs in China. At their facilities we gathered with the general manager and the management team. The meeting was very interesting and very interactive. We learned many things about their company, their concerns, and the advice they are looking for. These go in multiple directions, going from corporate strategy, marketing, sales, customer service, human resources, etc.

#ibmcsc china

Daily newspaper

Now I start to understand the local need these people, the importance of our program to this region, and how we as a team of people with different experiences can respond. In between we had lunch with the general manager and the vice president, with whom we could discuss his concerns and exchange multiple ideas on how to tackles these. Again, preparation was half the work done.

Today we had Cecily, Christy, and Lesley to help us out with the translations during the meeting. It was a long day, we had Lesley jumping in from time to time which gave me a better feeling not to overload Cecily and Christy in the busy interactive discussions. Thank you!

We returned to the hotel around 17:00, dropped our stuff and went for a coffee and Sabarinath from the other team joined. We discussed with the Cecile and Christy their ideas on the future. I think this is a great experience for them also, and probably might give them an idea on which other job opportunities they could consider besides becoming an interpreter. It also turned out during the chat that the interns gave already Chinese nicknames to all of us, I felt honored. We finished with a simple dinner in a small place which was advised by Cecile and Christy. Back into the hotel I completed my first shopping, let’s see when the parcel arrives at the hotel.

Welcome at Lizhou

Discussion at Lizhou boardroom

Getting around afterwards

Local street where we had dinner