Culture Shock

Some folks told me to watch out for culture shock when you deal with Malaysians. Speaking as a Malaysian I thought to myself, how can a Malaysian get CS from Malaysia. Then recent events led me to believe that it wasn't culture shock I had to get over but just the shock of witnessing nonchalance. Being now a part of the Malaysian wine and spirits industry, I was invited along with many of my team members to a seminar hosted by one of our most important suppliers.

I was naturally excited as the venue was a location I have not been to in over 14 years. Plus I wanted to get to know the brands we represented. It turned out to be pretty disappointing. Most of the presenters merely read from their Power Point presentations with hardly any elaboration or connection to how we could use all this information. Some even concentrated their presentations to cover material that was hardly relevant to our industry achieving its goals of achieving efficiency or increasing sales.

Most I could forgive because sometimes the audience wasn't really paying attention. But I was. I had driven 1 hour out of the city up to this venue on a Saturday afternoon. I expected much, much more. Perhaps too much for this group. I'm sorry when you are covering the presentation of wines, you should know the case production of the winery you are talking about. Period! I've worked in the wine and spirit industry for over 10 years now. That isn't and shouldn't be something I have to ask for. It is declared very early on so that one can make an accurate decision on how hard to place their brands in the market. No, not only did they not have the information but I was surprised to hear their response to my question.

A high ranking manager voiced out in a sarcastic tone, "We haven't got a clue!" I could hardly believe my ears. Here I am sitting sitting in a room hoping to learn a few things while I am sacrificing my weekend and the best response, this multi-national-company could come up with was that. Not even the courtesy response of public speaking 101, "I'm sorry, I don't have that information. Perhaps I can find out and let you know later?" was not used. And that was from the top management team in the room. Next thing I knew, another gentleman rises up from the back and singles me out with a shout saying, "you tell me much you want and we can get it for you." Talk about overcompensating for bruised ego. I just wanted to know the winery's production capability.

It just shocks me the level of professionalism that was lacking in the room by the hosts. Needless to say I left the room shortly after the lame presentation was over (which felt like an eternity). I guess they thought they could have gotten away with putting up a sub-standard seminar and thought I was being the smart-ass trying to stump them. If we as the Malaysian Wine and Spirits Industry want to get better at what we are doing, we have to grow up and start listening to one another and to the customers needs. A well educated market is a profitable market.

One things for sure, I doubt I'll be invited to the next seminar by these jokers and thank God, I get to keep my weekend.

All things aside there was one good seminar on Scotch and I learnt a couple of things from that one presenter.