Days 28, 29, 30, & 31: A Bittersweet Farewell to Asia

Well my friends, this is my final blog post for my trip to Southeast Asia.  It is a bittersweet moment because it is the end of one brief part of my life and the beginning of a new one.  My last few days in the "Pearl of the Orient" have been truly incredible and I am very sad to be leaving Hong Kong, my friends, and this program.  However, I am really excited about coming home to share it all with you!  In the meantime, here's some of the things we did:

Thursday we took a bus to the main campus of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.  The campus was unbelievably beautiful. It's perched right on the side of the island where it looks out upon the sea and some minor islands:

We began our day with several hours of lecture and discussion on the diamond industry by one of the HKUST's Professors, Jaideep. He was amazing and had done his PhD work with one of our trip leaders, which was really neat. We read and talked through a case on DeBeers' challenges in marketing diamonds to the Asian consumer.  The case highlighted differences between consumers in the East and West and how difficult marketing diamonds in Asia has been.  Diamonds have a history of romance and regalia in the West because they were exchanged in royal circles as emblems of love and power.  DeBeers successfully leveraged this when they created the A Diamond is Forever campaign, which remains the single most successful marketing campaign of the modern era.  Western consumers hold romantic love as one of the highest ideals and men give women diamonds as a gift of enduring love.  This positioning allows DeBeers to have a recession proof luxury good.  When DeBeers tried to replicate this same notion in Asia, they were confronted with little success.  Asian consumers found DeBeers' positioning as overly romantic, impractical, and generally considered diamonds to be a luxury good that competed with cars, tvs, handbags, etc.  It was also interesting because Asian women saw diamonds as something they would purchase for themselves. We were asked to break into groups and present recommendations to DeBeers management about how they could market diamonds to the Asian consumers.

 That afternoon/evening, we worked through two cases with Laurence Franklin.  Larry is a great friend of UVa, worked in Finance for 25 years, and now teaches at HKUST.  We did two cases based on real deals Larry has worked on.  The first was between Firestone and Chinese tire manufacturers.  The case was about Firestone selling older radial tire technology to multiple Chinese firms with a buyback agreement.  The case explored the difficulties of doing deals with China from intellectual property rights to the reach of the central government.  We had 4 people role play as consultants pitching to Firestone about what characteristics to look for in a Chinese firm and which city they should go to first.  My friend Lena and I presented to the class of "Firestone Managers."  We made a suggestion that was very different from what Firestone ended up doing but Larry said that it was great because it demonstrated how many different strategies there are.

 The next case we explored was the building of a gas pipeline from the Yadana Gas Fields of Burma to a power plant in Thailand.  This case was really interesting because it involved higher risk from dealing with multiple governments, environmental implications, currency risk, and human rights issues.  As you may remember, the US has imposed economic sanctions against Myanmar (Burma) based on how the military regime has treated villagers and dissenters.  Also, the deal took place right before the Asian financial crisis and was delineated in both USD and Thai Bhat.  We role played as investment bankers attempting to pitch the deal to Thai Bankers, AIG, and a Myanmar Bank. Larry had a pretty interesting perspective on US relations with Burma that I did not particularly agree with but it was great to hear his opinion nonetheless.
Here is a map of the pipeline:

 Here is a picture of the pipeline that ran through the land:

 That night and part of the next day, Kathryn, Theo, Steve, Jeff, and I took a boat ride to Macau.  Macau is another Special Administrative Region.  It is a former Portuguese colony where the only commerce was a small fishing village.  Today, it has surpassed Las Vegas for gambling revenues.  We spent most of the night at the Venetian which is the largest casino in the entire world (pictured below).  It was very beautiful but has a very different feel than the casinos of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or even Reno/Tahoe.  Macau has a distinctly Asian reservation about it.  While the grandeur of the buildings may surpass Las Vegas, the people have a certain demureness.  We obviously managed to have a great time nonetheless!  Kathryn gambled for the first time in her life and we enjoyed hopping from casino to casino to enjoy the different ambiances.  The entire island is pretty impressive.

 We came back at 7 in the morning after staying up all night and had the most beautiful hour boat ride back to Hong Kong where we saw so many little islands and fishing villages through our windows:

Friday, after catching up on some sleep, was spent walking around the city, eating delicious food, finishing my final reflection paper, and our capstone project (can be seen at www.mcintiresea2.com, password: mcintiregie).  If anyone would like to read my final paper, please send me an email and I'll send it out to you (madelinechiavini@gmail.com).

Saturday, we had informal presentations of our capstone projects, then a discussion where we reflected and synthesized our month long experiences with those of the China group's.  It was really great to get some time to think together as a class about the Asia Pacific Region--its challenges, opportunities, future prospects, and impressions upon us.  Finally, we had a graduation ceremony where our professors gave us speeches about our growth and all the wonderful things that lie before us.  Because we do not officially receive our diplomas until August, the program presented us with Jefferson Cups as a token of congratulations.  If anyone is really curious about the history of The Jefferson Cup, it can be read here: http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/jefferson-cups

 Here's a picture of the class on orientation in August 2010:

 What a long way we've come!  In honor of our completion of our Masters degrees, the program chartered a boat to take us to Lamma Island:

 We docked here:

 And stepped into the Rainbow Seafood Restaurant to enjoy a multiple course meal celebrating the end of our trip and studies at UVa.  We toasted to our class and the dedication of our professors many times and it was so neat to take a moment to appreciate everything that this past year has been.

 We jumped back on the boat to Ferry back to Hong Kong Island and sang the whole way home.  Mom, you would have been proud of the variety because it ranged from everything from You Can't Hurry Love to the Backstreet Boys.  I will always remember that moment because we were almost hysterical with happiness and a sense of accomplishment.  We went out to Lon Kwai Fong, a very fun bar district, with our professors to continue the celebration and the singing and dancing.  We said tearful goodbyes in the wee hours of the morning because most of our friends and professors left early Sunday morning.

I spent the day on Sunday saying more goodbyes, exploring the city a little further, and making some last minute purchases.  We plan to have one last dinner with the remaining classmates before I get on a plane home to San Francisco tomorrow morning.  It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to my dear friends with whom I have shared one of the best months of my life.  I can not be more grateful for the opportunity to explore this region and learn so much that I never could have otherwise.  I am honored to have been part of this program, studied alongside my wonderful professors and fellow students, and experienced global business firsthand.

Luckily, the learning doesn't stop here.  In a few weeks, I will be taking another plane ride out to Asia.  This time, it will be to Beijing to intern with Xinyuan Real Estate Company for a few weeks.  I am bursting with excitement!

Thank you to each and everyone of you for reading about my adventures and discovery.
I hope you have enjoyed hearing about them and I hope to share more with you in person.
Much love,
Maddy