Santa Monica, in the wintertime, the lazy streets so undemanding...

We had one last free day in LA before flying home so Sandra, Carla & I took the public bus to Santa Monica.  This was an experience in itself and gave us a view of the less glamorous side of life in LA, with some interesting characters, and also an acceptance by the driver that a certain percentage of struggling passengers just weren't going to pay the fare, which was only $1.25 (or 55c concession) anyway.  We are staying in Hollywood itself and there is certainly a seedy side to life here which is pretty close to the surface.  The bus left from Hollywood Boulevard so we had a wander along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, past Kodak and Grauman's Chinese Theatres, and there were plenty of hustlers out and about. 
After a fairly long ride we inspected Santa Monica beach and pier then walked back to the Broadway for some final shopping and a late lunch.  The MAC store was an experience in itself with two if not three drag queens working as somewhat intimidating but very well made-up store assistants, who were rather over-the-top but very LA!  I'm not sure if Melbourne would be quite ready for that but nobody seemed to bat an eyelid here.
The bus trip home was even more of an experience with some complete space cadets alternatively ranting & raving at people, trying to convert them to bizarro religions or blowing raspberries at them.  It was hard to know where to look at times and also difficult to suppress the giggles.
Before we knew it, it was time for pre-dinner drinks in the Simons' room as hosted by Simon G in his bathrobe in true Hugh Hefner style, followed by our final group dinner at Malo, as recommended by Mischa Barton's bestie.  It was a fun night but sad to say good-bye to everyone after a fantastic three and a half weeks.

Disney x 2!

We started the day with a very interesting and informative visit to Walt Disney headquarters, where we were privileged to gain an insight to some of Disney's marketing strategies and goals for the coming year from Jo Pascoe, marketing manager for consumer products.  It was also interesting to hear about the cohesiveness of the different Disney business units and the ways in which marketing resources can be harnessed to support new initiatives as necessary. 
And then it was off to Disneyland!!  Call me a big kid, but it was a really, really fun day with lots of rides and laughs.  We split off into a group of eight and had a ball going on Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, Indiana Jones, Star Tours and the Haunted Mansion.  We caught the tail end of the Celebrate 2010 parade and had a bit of time for shopping at the end.  Unfortuntely being a Thursday the park was only open until 8pm and there were no fireworks, but we had a fantastic day anyway.
Today concluded the formal part of our program - it's hard to believe it has already come to an end but it has been an amazing experience and it has been wonderful to share it with such great people!!!

Another flight - but with celebrities this time!

A free morning today so a fairly slow start before getting ready for the flight to LA.  Sandra, Carla and I went into the American Airlines lounge at Newark airport so missed the excitement at the gate lounge - Mischa Barton & her bestie, singer Nikki Lane, plus two dogs, waiting to board our flight.  The plane was quite empty but Nikki & one of the dogs got booted out of exit row and shifted down to a row behind our group, so was duly grilled for tips on where to hang out in LA.
The rest of the flight was uneventful and we arrived safely in LA, ready for a big day on Thursday!

An awesome day in New York

The sun was out today and we were running early for our visit to Bergdorf Goodman so we started with a quick photo stop in Central Park.  We then wandered back to Bergdorf Goodman for our visit with the very distinguished and amenable David, training and development manager, who showed us the store before it opened for the day.  We started in one of the Chanel boutiques before moving up to footwear  and other European designer boutiques, before we were given a VERY special treat - we were invited to sit in on a private showing of Michael Kors' new Spring 2010 collection by the designer himself for the Bergdorf Goodman staff.  This involved four models and two assistants showing off each piece of the new collection while the designer discussed the features and offered sales pointers.  The clothes were just beautiful and the session provided a glimpse into how the other half lives, as indeed  the whole store did. 
It is clear that Bergdorf Goodman strongly believes in building long-term relationships with its customers rather than taking out full page advertisements in the newspaper.  It has also put a great deal of effort into making the store a destination in itself, offering fittings and furniture which its upper crust clients are at home with, and preserving as many features of the 1920s building as feasibly possible, while modernising it with energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.
Following the B-G visit, we wandered down Fifth Avenue for a spot of shopping before I met an old friend from Monash undergrad days for lunch.  He took me to the Oyster Bar, a massive barn of a place at Grand Central Station, with several sections including what looked like an authentic saloon bar!  We had a lovely catch up over a long leisurely lunch which took me through to beer o'clock, when I caught up with another old school friend for mojitos at Havana Central in Times Square.

Meeting the Googlers

Today's visit was to Google.  We had to sign an NDA so I can't really say too much about it here, but we were first given a tour around the office by Raymond, a very amusing site reliability engineer whose job title reads International Man of Mystery.  Google allows employees to choose their own job titles because it makes them happy, and Raymond has been around the traps long enough to appreciate the culture and way of doing things at Google, compared to his previous employers who were less than concerned with employee wellbeing and happiness by the sound of things. 

It was interesting to note that Ernst & Young introduced some similar initiatives to Google when we moved into the new Melbourne building in 2007 (although our foosball table didn't survive the first day), however Google takes it to a whole different level.  Some service lines within Ernst & Young require employees to move desks every few months and we get some free food in the kitchen, but not M&M's!
We then received a presentation from Ben, a Google sales analyst who discussed emerging online advertising, consumer and market trends in search marketing.

New York, New York!

The flight from Paris to New York was fairly uneventful - American Airlines wasn't as bad as I was expecting, although $7 for a drink on an international flight is a bit steep - however security at Paris and immigration at JFK was extremely painful.  It took care of most of Sunday, but we did get out for a quick walk to Times Square then ribs & burgers at TGI Friday's.  The weather was surprisingly mild - around seven degrees when we landed and no snow on the ground at all.

Free day in Paris

Unfortunately the weather was not the best today, however a small group of us, capably led by our fearless tour directors Sandra and Carla, set out for a walking tour of Paris to make the most of our last day here.  First stop was Place de la Concord, followed by the Tuileries Gardens, the Louvre, L'Avenue des Champs-Elysses, Les Places des Voges and Notre Dame.

Cars, cars, cars...

After a morning wander around the area near our hotel including the Galeries Lafayette precinct (and it was interesting to note the prominent Gap store across the road from Galeries Lafayette has disappeared - victim of the GFC perhaps?) we headed to the Avenue des Champs-Elysees for company visits to the Citroen, Renault and Peugeot concept stores.  These were all quite different with Citroen probably standing out the most, due to the building itself, which is much more modern than most, if not all, the other buildings along the Avenue and also apparently the only one to allow public viewing of the Arc de Triomphe from its top floor.  The Citroen concept store is currently dedicated to the upcoming launch of the all-new DS3 model, and there were some very clever marketing ideas such as the webcam game and also the photo booth where you could email a picture of yourself superimposed inside a customised DS3 with your choice of options. 
Renault's concept store is currently set up as a museum celebrating the success of Renault's light commercial vehicles, while Peugeot's was the smallest of the three and only had four actual vehicles in it, however six(!) shelves of the retail area were given over to Renault salt & pepper shakers!!
We returned to the hotel briefly then headed up the hill to Montmatre and Sacre Coeur, the view from which was stunning, and the inside of the basilica is also absolutely beautiful.  We then had dinner and sampled some of the local wines at Les Coulisses.

A very hectic 48 hours - Madrid-Milan-Paris

We are in Paris now after a pretty awful overnight train ride from Milan, which suddenly made Iberia look a whole lot better.
As a result we were all less than our sparkling best for the L'Oreal visit today but it was still very worthwhile. We were treated to a champagne lunch then received presentations from four different managers in various parts of the business.  The case studies around the success of Kiehl's in South Korea and the recent launch of a new Garnier Fructis 2-in-1 shampoo plus oil in India were particularly interesting.  I think the biggest Aha! moment of the whole study tour for me came during the Garnier presentation, when we were asked to guess why unit sales of shampoo in India are higher than Australia but the total revenue is lower.  It had not occurred to me that not everyone can afford to buy their shampoo one bottle at a time so sachet strips are the main unit sold.  This really reinforced the importance of cultural awareness to me - having lived in Japan I like to think of myself as fairly aware, but if doing my masters has taught me anything, it is that my viewpoint is only one way of looking at the world. 

We visited Mediaset in Milan yesterday, which was also very interesting and contained very up-to-the-minute information on the pay TV market, the switch from analogue to digital TV (which was very useful, as Italy is switching off region by region so Mediaset can learn from mistakes, whereas Australia will do it all at once), and the relaunch last week of a website which allows viewers to download full episodes of TV shows.  It was also interesting to see the use of branding extend to the company logo (the white flower) being used on steps as a safety warning, instead of the yellow strips we generally see in Australia.  We then had the afternoon free in Milan, our only taste of Italy on this trip, which was just beautiful. We managed to fit in the Duomo, the Castle, hot chocolate and gelati, then a group dinner before the train.

Xanadu

No, not the film – today’s company visit was to Xanadu mall, which is slightly south of Madrid and which is Spain’s largest shopping centre. It consists of both a leisure and retail area, with anchor tenants including Snow Zone, an indoor ski slope similar to the one in Dubai, and El Corte Ingles, Spain's largest department store chain, Zara, H&M and others – in all there are 20 anchor tenants in an area slightly smaller than Chadstone. We received a presentation from the property manager then had three hours to investigate the centre ourselves, which was not long enough! The key point I took away from this company visit was the granting of permission to build an express light rail from the centre of Madrid to Xanadu - obviously the regional government takes a very different view to investing in public transport infrastructure than the Victorian government does!!

Zara HQ

Another very early start today for our flight to A Coruna and a visit to the Inditex Group, which owns Zara, Mango and several other large labels. Zara is yet to make it to Australian shores but the group's unique business model has made them a market leader.  Inditex is a huge employer in the A Coruna region and the office & factory complex are vast. It was a comprehensive visit which started with a presentation from Raul Estravera, Communications Director, and continued with a tour through the offices, design studios, concept stores, pattern cutting area, pressing area, picking and packing, and final dispatch. It was fascinating to see the scale of it all  but at the same time the three ambulance bays outside the factory sick bay were a sobering reminder that factory work can still be dangerous. 

After a tapas lunch we travelled to Santiago de Compostela for a walking tour of the cathedral and a quick hot chocolate (which you could just about stand a spoon up in!) before our flight back to Madrid finished a very long but worthwhile day.

London to Madrid - first major weather delay

Unfortunately the winter weather caught up with us today – Madrid airport was closed by fog for several hours, so we had a lengthy delay at Heathrow and lost our half-day of sightseeing in Madrid. We finally arrived at the hotel after 7pm so quickly checked in then walked up to Gran Via for a look at some of the Inditex shops(gold sequinned bra & knickers at Oysho, anyone??) before a group dinner at La Paella, apparently Madrid’s second-best restaurant (no. 1 was closed because it was a Sunday). The paella was spot on and the sangria went down well too.

More soccer and old friends...

Saturday in London continued with more socialising, starting with a lovely brunch at Le Pain Quotidien in South Kensington with two old school friends. Once again it was great to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for a while and the organic pain au chocolat was pretty good too!

It was then back to the hotel to add some layers and head back out to the soccer. We saw Chelsea at home to Sunderland, and although it was a bit of a one-sided game with Chelsea winning 7-2, the atmosphere was fantastic and it was better than watching a nil-all draw. The atmosphere did however make me realise what we are now missing at AFL games in Melbourne - when I was in high school a family friend used to play for North Melbourne so we would all trek over to Arden Street to watch him play, occasionally venturing into enemy territory such as Kardinia Park or the Junction Oval if he was playing a milestone game, and it was completely different to today when most teams share home grounds. 

We returned to the hotel for a quick shower and change then the socialising continued for me at dinner with a Sydney EY pursuit manager currently on secondment to global, at a local pub, the Kensington Arms, then we met the rest of the group for drinks & dancing at Kensington Rooftop Gardens, Richard Branson’s club for the rich and beautiful, which is just around the corner from the hotel. Another fun night was had by all and it was very tough to get up for the early start the next morning.

Arsenal and old friends....

Today’s company visit was to Arsenal at the new Emirates Stadium, which they moved to in 2006 after outgrowing the old stadium at Highbury. Highbury has now been redeveloped with housing built around the original pitch. The apartments were marketed to members who wanted to have the same view from the seat as they held on their season’s ticket. The new stadium was developed on an old waste depot and includes affordable housing for London’s “key personnel” – firemen, nurses and so on - who can no longer afford London’s steep housing prices. The stadium tour began in the Diamond Club, Arsenal’s top tier of membership – the annual fee is £25,000 and members must commit to a minimum 35 year contract to demonstrate their allegiance. We were also shown through the corporate suites, the dressing rooms, the press rooms and the tunnel onto the pitch. I am a North Melbourne supporter and also a Melbourne Cricket Club member so it was interesting to compare these state-of-the-art facilities to what we have in Melbourne - the Diamond Club was on a completely different scale, even compared to the Long Room at the MCG. We finished in the largest of several retail stores at the ground, where the group enthusiastically contributed to Arsenal’s revenue! 


We returned to London and I headed into the city to catch up with a couple of Ernst & Young friends. I had the address of the Global EY building (as opposed to the London EY building), Beckett House, and a scratch map I had copied from the website, but as it was already pitch dark at 5pm, I wasn’t sure I was at the correct address until I was right outside – there was only a small ‘Ernst & Young’ sign at ground level, and no neon illumination at all, which made me realise that there is really not much neon in London at all, in stark comparison to Hong Kong.

The snow is melting....

It was a bit warmer today (although it's all relevant!) and most of the snow has melted. We had two company visits - Marks & Spencer and JCDecaux. The M&S visit was fascinating and particularly relevant for our research topic, as we were presented to by the director of Plan A, which shows what can be done if a company is really serious about CSR. The initiatives go way beyond just paying lipservice to sustainability and have proven to be beneficial to the bottom line as well. It was interesting to see how some ideas which didn't work led to better ideas and initiatives which were ultimately very successful. An example of this was recycling plastic bottles initially for polar fleeces, which was not successful as customers would not pay a premium to cover the extra cost, to recycling bottles as polyester filling for homewares, which has been very successful.
We then travelled to JCDecaux and were taken on a tour of some innovative outdoor advertising concepts, including the Cadbury Creme Egg goo game bus shelter and some cute floating rubber ducks for O2. From a sustainability point of view JCDecaux have recently developed a 100% recyclable vinyl surface for their billboards, eliminating the need for paper and paste. This has helped them win large contracts with organisations which are becoming concerned with the greenness of their suppliers.

Snow, snow everywhere!

We arrived in London at 5am, somehow managing to land early despite the snow! It started snowing again as we left the airport and has not really stopped since. I'm not sure what the actual temperature was but I'm guessing in the minuses - certainly as cold as Chicago in January last year.

The overnight flight was not a lot of fun but we had a bonus when we arrived at the hotel and were able to check straight in to our rooms, not wait the six hours we were expecting, and on top of that they threw in a hot breakfast for all of us - great customer service all round!
We set off for a day of exploring in the snow, starting on the hop-on hop-off bus but getting off to play in the snow in Hyde Park. From there we wandered down Oxford and Regent Streets, where it was amazing to see big-name brand stores in beautiful old buildings, before getting back on the bus and taking the scenic route via Trafalgar Square, the fountains of which were completely frozen over, Big Ben with snow on top, Westminster Abbey, Belgravia, Hyde Park and Harrods, finishing at the Natural History Museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which did not disappoint. 

Last day in Honkers

Today we received three truly outstanding presentations at Ogilvy & Mather, from Dr Royce Yuen, Chairman, Thomas Crampton, Asia Pacific Director – 360 Digital Influence and Michael Dunn, Director, OgilvyEarth. The visit surpassed everyone's expectations and we were extremely grateful for the amount of time we were given by these three very important (and no doubt very busy) directors.   Our last day in Hong Kong included  a free afternoon so we were going to catch the Star Ferry but came across the Aqua Luna, which was much cooler, so we cruised around the harbour in comfort, before heading back to the hotel via Nathan Road, and dropping into the Peninsula Hotel for a stickybeak at the beautiful lobby and the hoi polloi indulging in high tea.

The study part begins....

Today we started the study component of the tour with a visit to Time Warner this morning, which covered many facets of the company and discussed some of the challenges being presented in the current climate, including a decline in print media sales (although 'People' magazine, published as 'Who Weekly' in Australia, is apparently still very profitable.  After lunch at a yum cha with the locals in central, it was time for yet more shopping at the IFC Mall (I was determined not to buy anything today, until I came across a pair of black boots at Nine West, and that was the end of that... I did however manage to resist the pair of Christian Louboutin heels I also saw on sale, which would have gone perfectly with a certain pink handbag....)
We then backtracked to the building we started at this morning for a visit to Jack Morton which was really interesting, particularly from my recent event management perspective and also for the work they are doing with clients internally around employee engagement, given the recent "change" agenda at Ernst & Young.
In the evening we headed out to the Ladies' Market which was a bit like souvenir central and finished up with some world-famous Hong Kong mango pudding as recommended by Dino. It was amazing to see how many people were still out and about at 11pm on a Monday night - the shopping culture is alive and well here. This was illustrated from the minute we got on the plane - the Cathay Pacific in-flight shopping guide is almost twice as thick as their regular in-flight magazine, in stark contrast to Qantas, and the satellite navigation map on the TV screen which shows you where your plane is was regularly interrupted by ads!

Day 2 Hong Kong

We start the "study" part of the tour tomorrow with two company visits, but today we had a Hong Kong city tour this morning, which included Peak tram, Stanley markets (was interested to note the 7-Eleven in this upmarket area had Moet prominently on sale behind the counter!) and a sampan ride around the Aberdeen fishing village (and as you can see from the pic, we got the cool sampan with all the hanging lanterns!), finishing off with a visit to Elements, a fancy shopping centre which claims to be the future of Hong Kong shopping, introducing some completely new brands to the city.