WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND DE-BENEFITS OF BEING A FOREIGNER, A "WAI GUO REN" HERE IN TAIWAN

Finally was my time to publish my article for Taiwan International Cooperation Alliance Newsletter (TICA Newsletter Vol. 28) as part of my ICDF scholarship. Now I want to share in this post my experience and thought about my topic assigned. Enjoy it!!:


Being a foreigner in Taiwan is one of the most challenging and amazing experiences I have ever lived. Three years ago because of my last job I traveled to Peru, a beautiful country in South America, things were interesting there, but that experience was not even close to what I have experienced in Taiwan.

Such an amazing island envelopedin a rich and totally different culture of what I am used to.
I mentioned Peru because it was a different country from Nicaragua, but it was similar at the same time, which means I still was in Latin America. People in certain ways behave the same, food is quite similar and the way we Latin American people interact is almost the same everywhere, of course with some interesting peculiarities. Taiwan on the other hand is a land of millenary cultures ....Read my full article here

My Marketing's final presentation....

I conclude my Marketing class with a presentation of our product, Azucar Latina Spanish Language Center. It was a great experience shared with my classmates, SWOT analysis, marketing strategies, sales forecast, web 2.0 and our surveys and more things done to complete our project. Lesson learns: well, if you're numbers tell you that you can do it, and your breakeven point it's acceptable for you and of course if you truly believe in your product, just do it! but remember never, never never forget that Web 2.0 has to be part or your strategies no matter what you sell. Onlince communities, Facebook, blogs and all solutions offer by Web 2.0 can help the company to improve their product. How? give to your costumer a direct channel to get to you, receive from them a true feedback.

Now I conclude this article sharing with you the video I made which we presented in our marketing final presentation.

By the way, the classmates who I worked are Doris Lara,  Rawle Browne-Maynard and Gorki Alfaro. Good job my friends!!

Mis experiencias en Taiwan - IMAX Movie Theater

Expecting to be impressed by IMAX technology, I went to Taipei last saturday to see Harry Potter the Deathly Hallows Part 1, (from this last I wasn't expecting anything good, and I was right), but from IMAX I was expecting an totally different and new experience, but it wasn't. I just saw a bigger screen, bigger than an average but beside that and the pretty good sound system's quality, I didn't see anything as awesome as I was expecting, what you see in IMAX are just larger images, which is good if you have sight problems or if you read subtitles, you can read it more easily with this letter size (if you don't read it with IMAX, better go to visit an ophthalmologist). 


I guess that there is to way to be impressed by IMAX:


- One is to watch a movie in a even larger screen than the one I saw in Ximen, Taipei. According to wikipedia a standard IMAX screen is 22 × 16.1 m (72 × 52.8 ft), but can be larger.
- Watch a movie in IMAX and 3D technology at the same time. Wikepedia says that  all IMAX projectors, except the standard GT system, can project 3D images. That, I think would be a TOTALLY new experience, e.g. TRON.


There is another option, a friend told me that in Taipei Astronomical Museum he watched a movie in IMAX DOME theater. This is called  OMNIMAX which use a GT projector with a fish-eye lens to project an image on a tilted hemispheric dome screen. I'm planning to go there soon, then I will let you know.

Mis experiencias en Taiwan - Servicios Higienicos

Bueno este artículo se debería de llamar mi falta de experiencia, por que la verdad no he experimentado un típico baño Taiwanes, ahora es mas común ver los baños occidentales en lugares públicos por eso he tenido la fortuna de no haber pasado por la necesidad de usarlos, comenzando por el dorm de la universidad, el cual  pueden observar en la foto es un baño como los que se usan en occidente, pero los servicios del Gym por ejemplo y algunos lugares públicos como Subway y los baños del metro en Taipei Main Station son como los que se supone que hay en las casas de los taiwaneses. El baño básicamente es un hoyo en el suelo y según me informan ellos utilizan ese diseño por que es mas higiénico que los baños occidentales. Estoy de acuerdo con que es importante el aseo en los baños pero también considero importante la comodidad a la hora de realizar una necesidad básica y por lo que veo de esos baños, no tienen nada de cómodos, comenzando por que hay que hacer equilibrio. Claro de pende de como se acomode la persona, eso ya queda a cuenta de la imaginación del usuario. Por mi parte espero no llegar a verme en la necesidad de utilizarlos.

Marketing en su maxima expresion!!

According to wikipedia "Marketing is the process of performing market research, selling products and/or services to customers and promoting them via advertising to further enhance sales. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments. It is an integrated process through which companies build strong customer relationships and creates value for their customers and for themselves".

In other words, excellent marketing equal excellent profits!!!  Think about that, what is the difference between HP's processor and Dell's processor, or the difference between HP's video card and Vaio's video card, answer: none. They are made from the same suppliers, what make them difference is the quality of server they offer and how they market their product. You don't even need to produce anything to have a profitable business, a good idea and a good marketing strategy can give anyone a lot of money. Michael Dell is a good example of what I am saying but if you think it looks too unreachable, look this simple example and tell me if 130 thousand dollar is not enough reason to consider how powerful simple marketing strategies can be and how far you can go with a good idea, and of course never forget to use internet and all its facilities as one of your best allied. So let's start to think in a good a idea and implement marketing strategies, you can lose some money or you can get a lot regardless the age, or you think only 17 years old boy are capable of doing this????

Certainly this kid can happily says: "God bless iPhone 4".

Read the article, if you can't read spanish, use google chrome!!

Un adolescente gana 130.000 dólares con la venta de carcasas blancas para iPhone 4

The power of consumers

Today consumers has more power than ever, many years ago before social networks and internet facilities, suppliers decide what consumer like or dislike, what products should they use and what  consumer's right are. Guess what suppliers, not anymore!! With all kind of social network available, wireless technology connections and smart phones; in few seconds hundred of people, friends of a person and friends of friends of that person can know that he had a bad experience with a product, with that printer, with that kind of cellphone or may be the gear of his new mower get stuck all the time. With this bad publicity suppliers should think what kind of product they're going to sell, the quality of the server they're going to offer and how fast they're going to fix a problem. An unsatisfied costumer nowadays can cost a company hundred of thousand of money. So suppliers listen to your costumers, care about them, ask what they want and how they want a product, I can assure that putting extra effort you will be very well rewarded.

Do you think I am talking nonsense? That consumer power is not true? well look at this example and let me know what do you think.