Dutch winter in crisis times

I’m happy to have a relaxed Sunday evening after a very busy week in the Netherlands. The Dutch winter is at its peak and outside its totally freezing. It's worse than the week in Beijing. I haven’t experienced such cold temperatures since a long time. I got a little ill and right now I have a real sore throat. I didn’t have any time to be sick this week, because my schedule was totally packed with work and social activities, so I’m very happy I didn’t really get sick. Right now I’m slowly getting better …. Two more days and I’ll be totally fine.

It’s nice to be back in Holland. On the outside nothing has changed of course, but the atmosphere is a little different. The financial crisis is the talk of the town. Also at De Baak the financial crises hit the company. The budgets for training are mostly one of the first things a company limits, when the business is going down. So, when I came back to the Baak I found people to have a different mindset. Everyone is focused on finding clients and getting business deals. People are making long hours and work harder than ever before; however the results are staying behind. It really opened my eyes, because when I was in China I couldn’t feel this. Of course I got some information through email and telephone, but when you’re in the middle of it, it’s totally different.

It’s good that I am here to get a clear picture of what going on in Holland. Last week I had many many appointments with people from all the departments of the Baak. The CEO of the Baak, Harry Starren, told me he wants to have me in China at least until the 1st of June. However, if I want to extend my work for De Baak in China we need to start to make money in China, because the budgets now are too small to experiment without financial results. Fair enough! It is an interesting challenge. I see enough possibilities to really get the business rolling within the coming weeks in China … let’s hope everything works out well. Last Friday I gave a presentation about my China experience and the strategy of the Baak for the MBA-students at the Rotterdam School of Management. Very nice and a good preparation for the presentation I have to give next week in for my Baak-collegues in Driebergen about the developments so far.

Next to busy working days I’m very happy to see my friends and family again (of course it’s also very nice to see my colleagues). Last weeks all my day were very full, but I survived and enjoyed … I am very happy I didn’t became ill, it was a close call. It feels very normal when I see my friends, almost sometimes like I never even been to China (China feels far here in Amsterdam, as it is). However, I more able to look objectively to the things that happen here and the way people do things. Being months in the Chinese culture opened my eyes wider for my own culture. It is quite a logical idea actually, but nice to experience. I’m very happy to be here, but also looking forward to go back to Shanghai after next week.