Going places - Tehran
What do you do in a country where big US brands are a NO NO, but chicken fast food is a feasible business? Well you name your business in such a way that it sounds like KFC when pronounced in the local language.
You also could borrow some decorative ideas <g>. And NO I didn't test it. Our host gave us no chance to surrender to such a temptation, but fed us with excellent food and entertainment.
And NO I wasn't there to talk about nuclear fuel. I did attend the Management Excellence conference in Tehran as an exhibitor and key note speaker. You can download the presentation from the UMsys website.
Hospitality in Iran is outstanding and the speakers had a good time presenting to a special audience. Special in a sense, that using handphones or taking a break by walking out was considered quite acceptable behaviour. It was also special for me, because it was my first presentation with a translator. He was standing with me on stage and translated and explained every sentence I made into Farsi. Preparing for that gave another boost to clarity of my message.
The Iranian economy is quite interesting. The workforce is VERY young. One of our hosts claimed 80% are below 30, everyone wants to do business, most of them rather keeps the government out of it (which is kind of difficult since the big industries like Oil&Gas, cars, mining etc. are government dominated and everyone wants to improve. I've seen very modern very advanced estates in Tehran and quite some outdated stuff too. What differs from sights I'm used to other places are the drastic contrast.
Carefully spoken (since I need to return there). The fact that the population is rather young and the government rather old, suggests that their might be at least generation tensions if not more, that make a change in government without outer influence a possibility that is not so out of this world.
You also could borrow some decorative ideas <g>. And NO I didn't test it. Our host gave us no chance to surrender to such a temptation, but fed us with excellent food and entertainment.
And NO I wasn't there to talk about nuclear fuel. I did attend the Management Excellence conference in Tehran as an exhibitor and key note speaker. You can download the presentation from the UMsys website.
Hospitality in Iran is outstanding and the speakers had a good time presenting to a special audience. Special in a sense, that using handphones or taking a break by walking out was considered quite acceptable behaviour. It was also special for me, because it was my first presentation with a translator. He was standing with me on stage and translated and explained every sentence I made into Farsi. Preparing for that gave another boost to clarity of my message.
The Iranian economy is quite interesting. The workforce is VERY young. One of our hosts claimed 80% are below 30, everyone wants to do business, most of them rather keeps the government out of it (which is kind of difficult since the big industries like Oil&Gas, cars, mining etc. are government dominated and everyone wants to improve. I've seen very modern very advanced estates in Tehran and quite some outdated stuff too. What differs from sights I'm used to other places are the drastic contrast.
Carefully spoken (since I need to return there). The fact that the population is rather young and the government rather old, suggests that their might be at least generation tensions if not more, that make a change in government without outer influence a possibility that is not so out of this world.
Posted by Stephan H Wissel on 07 March 2005 | Comments (0) | categories: UMsys