Messages I answer from Dalian, and the subjects I leave alone

Most of the useful conversations I have had outside Yanxiao started with a precise question, so a precise question is what I would ask for here. If you chair a nomination committee or advise one, tell me the company, the seat, the committees it would involve and how the board's year is scheduled, and list any work the company has done with Yanxiao, with Kurobane Systems or with a Japanese systems integrator; I check those ties before agreeing to talk. If you run a Chinese company setting up delivery teams, plants or service operations abroad, and you are weighing a currency clause, data separation or a centre in a second country, I am glad to compare what we got right and what we got wrong. Organisers of events for exporters, company directors or business students are welcome to write as well.

Some subjects are closed. Yanxiao's shares trade in Hong Kong, so unpublished results, live client negotiations, the Fukuoka decision and anything else price-sensitive stay off the table, as do questions about buying our shares. Recruiters with executive roles will not find me available. Messages sent through this page come to me directly, and I answer them myself in Chinese, Japanese or English, usually inside ten days.