Environmental and business thinking in one

Just a short post now when being back in Shanghai again, since I promised to post some photos from the journey. Actually I (un-intentionally) lied to you when writing this, because when browsing the photos I've taken there is really just one that I think is of good enough quality to make it to this blog. For those of you who have been to Kuala Lumpur you will probably recognize the Petronas Towers!

What you might not know is that Elkem has delivered microsilica to the construction of this building. Microsilica is a product that is captured from the smoke at silicon metal plants. Before Elkem invented filters for the smoke some 25 years ago all silicon plants - including our own which was the reason for trying to solve it - around the world polluted the air with it. After designing the filters we actually found out that the "powderish" microsilica gives a lot of benefit for the strenght of concrete and some other materials. This is good environmental and business thinking in one according to me!

This is also one of the reasons that I like working in an industrial company. Even though research runs may take long time and the products may not be as visible or "sexy" as consumer goods tend to be or at least are viewed as, innovations tend to get a large effect on the world, the business is often very international and customer relationships typically longlasting, which all are aspects that I like in my job.

From 30 degrees plus to 15 minus

This week I have been in Malaysia and Thailand for work, meeting potential customers for the two projects I'm working with together with colleagues from the offices in Norway, Singapore and Bangkok. The opportunity to meet colleagues from other offices after having spent quite some time mailing each other back and forth regarding the projects is of course a nice aspect of travelling! Now when working and living in a region with cultures others than my own I really get the chance to think about how background (not the least my own) influences ones behavior. And that "Asia" can not be viewed as "one culture", on the contrary Chinese colleagues and friends have argued that China in itself is as diverse as Europe with several languages, types of food, attitudes... The only common link I've found business-wise in the Asian (southeast/east) countries versus (west) Europe is that things are allowed to take more time since it is more important that the parts have trust for each other also on a personal level. I was told that sometimes in Southeast Asian countries people will take it as offensive if you push the importance of a written contract too hard, since they think that if you have had a relation for some while, trust should be built up and some flexibility is expected from both sides. Quite different from our very "efficient and rational" way of thinking about business here..!

Since I have meetings in Norway next week I flow directly from Kuala Lumpur with almost 35 degrees heat to Oslo where I was met some 15 hours later in the early morning by -15 degrees!

I will post some photos from this journey when back in Shanghai again since I forgot to bring the camera cable... But for this time I would like to share some photos I took during the Chinese New Year week, two weeks ago.

From left to right: Sisters sightseeing in Shanghai with the famous skyline in the background. We took a 3-hour harbour cruise and never got out of the harbour, even though much of the activity is moved to a deep-sea harbour at an artificial island some distance outside Shanghai!With my logistics background I of course had to take pictures of some of the vessels and was a bit disappointed that we never reached the new harbour.... Far away from modern Shanghai - one of the many water villages in the Yangtze delta. Those who have seen Mission Impossible 3 may recognize that a similar village was the setting for the end scenes - it's called Xitang and is located only a short distance from this one called Wuzhen.

Time for weekend and sleeping off the jetlag in snowy Oslo. Perhaps it's time to call my Stabburet-boyfriend and ask him to take some Grandiosa with him for dining in tonight? ; )