Day 5 ~ National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 101, KPMG

National Taiwan Normal University:

I don’t know if it’s because we are starting earlier or if I’m just feeling my age but I’m tired! Today was a busy day and we did a lot of walking. It also happened to be a business dress day which meant high heels. Fortunately I ignored good fashion sense and wore my practical tennis shoes to NTNU but the heat and humidity didn’t make the blazer I was wearing feel very good. Anyway, the day began with a visit to National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) where we listened to an MBA lecture from a marketing professor. The format of the class is to analyze case studies and today’s case was Intel. The lecture encompassed two questions: 1) Can any ingredient provider initiate ingredient branding just like Intel? 2) Should Intel apply ingredient branding to handheld devices? Even though marketing isn’t my major, I thought the lecture was pretty interesting.

Next we enjoyed a lecture from the marketing director of Asus, Cecilia HuangFu (Huangfu Peilun). Asus is a computer company that posted $10.1 billion in revenue in 2010 and employs 11,000 worldwide. They won 8 innovation awards this year and we got a taste of their innovation from a YouTube video called “The EeePad Story.” If you get a chance, it is worth your time to watch.

KPMG:

We visited KPMG on the 68^th floor of Taipei 101. Taipei 101 was the tallest building in the world until last year when the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was finished. I’m not sure if it actually has 101 floors or 100 since some Taiwan buildings exclude the 4^th floor because the Chinese word for 4 sounds like the word for death, similar to the American superstition of the 13^th floor being unlucky. The KPMG presentation included information regarding the various services that KPMG provides such as audit, business and financial advisory, as well as tax services. After the presentation we were given a quick tour that included the break area for employees where they can sit in a massage chair while enjoying the breathtaking view or get something to eat at the café. Employees can also get a massage and there is a room for yoga class. Talk about perks!

After our visit to KPMG we ate lunch at Mos Burger which is a fast food restaurant that originated in Japan. I had a sandwich that was different from anything I have ever had before. Rice is used for the bun and it has some type of seafood and green leaf vegetable in the middle. It, along with the fries and ketchup, was delicious.

I went back to the hotel after a little shopping at Taipei 101 with Pat and Vanessa so I could work on my blog. I have had to write everything in a word document because my blog still isn’t activated and getting it set up has been an exercise in futility. Everyone got back to the hotel fairly early to do laundry and pack.