For six months I was diverted by another grand vision in the wrong hands.

Some of you may have heard of the grand scheme for creating a new advertising platform on the internet to be launched first in China.  It was a good idea — give the advertisers the specific demographic they want and they pay only for those who have been guaranteed to view their ad.  The incentive for the viewer is the very real opportunity to win immediate cash (a sure-fired incentive for the hugh gambling-obsessed Chinese internet viewer base).  The concept had everything going for it except the personnel capable of executing it.

The man running this project is a kind-hearted, bull-headed, spoiled, rich Pollyanna who can afford to waste money on extravagant offices in Sanya and Beijing and a crew of half-committed, unproductive, incompetent con men.  All it takes for this guy is a constant smile on your face and never saying no or critiquing his mercurial approach.  I tried for six months to pick up the pieces the others were dropping but finally had to give up for lack of  any support from the top.  And as usual I waited too long to quit (see last Dispatch).

This grand idea may work somewhere else (he was also going to launch in the Philippines) but it is never going to work in China with him and his crew doing it.  He is just too susceptible to glib Chinese happy talk and glad-handed expat flimflam.  He is incapable of focusing on the concrete details and real obstacles needed to operationalize such a vision.

Another lesson learned!