Archive for the 'Germany' Category
Landed in San Francisco: Stunning Lufthansa Service
I couldn’t be luckier for today’s flight LH 454 where I just landed in one of my most favoured cities, San Francisco. Bought myself an Economy Class ticket, used my abundance of miles for an upgrade to Business and checking into the Lounge in Frankfurt, I got a free upgrade to First Class. And yes, the Flugröserl was in the game again :)
Surely, this is not a lucky draw in the lottery, but based on my HON Circle-status, but I appreciate these gestures from Lufthansa a lot. Maybe, therefore, I am a bit biased, but overall flying Lufthansa like crazy in the last 3.5 years between the continents, I feel that it is time to express a thank for the splendid work the airline does.
It doesn’t come by surprise that – based on “good old Germany virtues” – Lufthansa consistently ranks high at safety, reliability and punctuality. But those same virtues culture-wise were not always prone to outstanding service, it’s usually not what Germans are like. Slightly on the brush side of life, the understanding of service falls short in the scale of galaxies what one finds in India, Singapore, Thailand or Japan. There, serving a customer is culturally considered an honour.
Hence, it deserves even more hail that Lufthansa grew above itself to be not only significantly better than average German service, but even on the many instances on the ground, but especially on board, truly exceptional. Gone are the times (which I remember) where a bitchy flight attendant would almost throw the tray with the meal in front of you.
Admittedly, passengers in Business and First Class pay more to get better service. But my point is that you can’t buy friendliness, attention and charm when it’s not in a company’s DNA, when you have the wrong people or you have the right people and over time in a bad organisation they degrade to jerks. In my perception, Lufthansa has worked hard to change its DNA. In some instances I spoke to flight attendants off the records where they told me about their training in general and the briefings before every flight in particular. The purser would remind the cabin crew that it’s them who will make a difference in choosing Lufthansa over a competitor and make a lasting impact on the experience. So there seems to be a system of deliberate effort behind, and to me it seems that the system is bearing fruit.
There are many aspects of outstanding service, but it come most in the shade of getting something which you did not expect: Like today I chose for my meal a French wine, the flight attendant asked me if I was sure not to go for the Chilenean one. I stayed with my choice, but he came back to me smiling after two minutes with a sip with the one from Chile just to give me a try.
I don’t intend to celebrate my middle-age-wine-decadency with such an example; it’s just illustrating how small unexpected gestures can make a difference in delighting a customer. Today and in the last months and years I have seen a couple of these instances where Lufthansa’s staff has gone, or rather, flown that extra mile for me. Thanks.
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Kulturempfehlungen.de ist live
Web 2.0 macht vor keiner Nische halt. Jetzt wird auch die Hochkultur davon überrollt bzw. davon aufgerollt, und zwar mit einer neuen Plattform Kulturempfehlungen.de
Wie der Name schon suggeriert, dreht sich alles um Kultur, und zwar in der ganzen Spannweite von Musik, Literatur und Film. Wie ich auch gut unterrichteten Kreisen erfahren habe, wird demnächst auch Kunst, Design, Architektur und Bühne hinzukommen.
Eine erste Vorauswahl wird von der Redaktion getroffen, dann macht die Community weiter und kann CDs, Bücher und Filme bewerten und empfehlen.
Collectively collapsing all Rules at Carnival
After all my successful years of abstinence, I got drawn in this time. Into the weird proceedings of carnival in Germany. Unfortunately, my friend Arnd exploited a weakness of mine which was asking me if I wanted to join him and some friends to the unique, unparalleled und world-famous carnival in Cologne. It took me around 10 seconds to accept. And there we were for “Altweiberfastnacht“, the brave sailors after an exhausting trip on the seven seas ready to go on land (pictures here).
The unbelievable thing is that over the last 5 days of the carnival season, the city is basically in a state of emergency. Nobody works, don’t even try to call someone up for business and everybody in the street is in one form of disguise or the other.
I don’t intend to bore the death out of you by intellectualizing the sheer fun. But I found the social dynamics of something like carnival extremely insightful. Also I realized that quite a few “cultures” (in a simplified usage of the term) have something which carries some similar properties. For instance, Oktoberfest in Munich, Holi in India or Springbreak in the U.S. Or yesterday, I went to another carnival-event, “Fasching” as it is called in Bavaria, thanks to an invitation of the “Münchner Sozietät”, slightly changed my dress and went as both Barack and Hussein ;-) – pictures here
What I mean that for some pre-defined period of time, the usual collective rules seem to collapse. Those underlying values of proper behaviour which we deem essential for the very functioning of our social fabric. Just gone, right through the chimney. People drink in a way where they make sure everyone realize, personal distance among strangers disappear and the approachability between genders raise exponentially.
It was interesting to watch in Cologne’s pub how apparently new acquaintances were polishing each other’s tonsils in a matter of minutes – thereby seemingly reinforcing the communal cohesion for the rest of the year ;-) Moreover during carnival, the very nature of being in a costume creates an alter ego which allows for acting in a parallel self which can’t be held accountable for these unintentional occurrences.
Ultimately, hey, when everyone is doing it, nobody can be blamed. Hence, the state of emergency becomes just a normality. Essential, however, is the common notion of this “pre-defined period of time” where everyone can go berserk before knowing exactly where the point is when it’s time for the reboot.
Videos of my DLD Panels “E-Commerce” & “Mobile” live
So here we are with the videos which got taped last week during the two sessions I moderated during the DLD in Munich at the new format “Technology Enables Success”.
Panel “E-Commerce”
Panel “Mobile”
Link: 
Thanks to all the great panelists with their profound knowledge and enthusiasm which they displayed during the conversation and which they display every day to run their businesses successfully.
Spectacular Football Evening in Munich’s Allianz Arena
Although I am not a completely-out-of-my-mind football fan, FC Bayern Munich still epitmizes something like home for me, as since I was a little boy, I was "Bayern" and clearly not "Sechzig", the other football team from Munich (the spineless bastards ;-)
So yesterday, I felt very privileged to get an invitation from my former Lycos-colleague Daniel Nathrath who heads the German, Austrian and Swiss business of Viagogo. The company operates a marketplace for private individuals who intend to sell and buy tickets for football matches, concerts, comedy and the like. As a major differentiator towards eBay, Viagogo includes an additional layer of transactional certainty for both parties by also acting as an escrow-intermediary. Hence, the buyer and the seller can be assured to receive their money and their ticket respectively.
Just approaching the stadium in the north of Munich by night is like seeing a red lit unidentified fying object which has just landed. The "Allianz Arena" is truly a stunning architectural masterpiece. Inside I had access to the sponsor lounge to the Viagogo-table with delicious food and drinks; Boris Becker as a staunch fan of FC Bayern was also around (no new woman by his side, to answer the most pressing question …)
Getting into the arena for the match was spectacular. It is hard to believe that this rather cosy stadium can accomodate 69,000 people. Needless to mention that is was fully sold out and I heard that another 140,000 had tried to receive a ticket in vain. The atmosphere was absolutely crazy, especially as the match was top-noch in the German series "Bundesliga". FC Bayern, the absolute superstar for decades, currently at the second place halfway through the series 2007/2008 receiving TSG 1899 Hoffenheim who came out of nowhere into the league this year and are currently heading on the pole position.
During the fierce, yet sportive match both teams gave their very best to prevail, with the balance of power being quite equally distributed. Hoffenheim scored 1:0 after the break, but Bayern Munich came back and equalized. Everybody thought that it would end with a tie which would have been fair until the typical "Bayern Luck" turned the table in the last minute of the additional time with 2:1 by Bayern's Italian forward Luca Toni. Whistle and over, standing ovations of the boiling and cheering crowd.
Thanks Daniel, indeed, for your generous invitation and this unforgettable evening. As promised, you are my guest now for a round flight over the Bavarian Alpes when I am next time around in 2009. For some "Vorfreude", a few pics from my flight last weekend.
Bangalore Oktoberfest 2008: Many Nations and the Consul General, too
It must have been the third time in a row, if I'm not mistaken, that I attended the "other Oktoberfest", the one in Bangalore, which lasts exactly one evening, yesterday evening. On the big plus side – as also in the previous years – has certainly been the band from Lower Bavaria which combined true Bavarian "hum-ta-ta" Music with an amazing capability for re-playing contemporary hits. So the party was on, with dancing, in spite of the dance-ban in Bengaluru.
The most important: Pictures for such an event say more than a thousand words. Hence, here we are with the set "Bangalore Oktoberfest 2008" on my Flickr-account. Today I got the question by a journalist: "Is there a difference between the real Oktoberfest in Munich and the one in Bangalore?" – Well, I started with a lengthy intellectual answer on history, culture and tradition of the event, a bit like Barack Obama would do. Then I decided to swap for John McCain and the short answer was: "Imagine Germans in a dance school hopping to modern Indian music and try to compare that to Bollywood."
The crowd was very diverse, with a variety of nations each of then expressing their own interpretation of Bavarian culture, well, at least in South India. Yo, yo, here are the Ladies in da House:
In terms of representation of nation, the event was an official invitation of the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bangalore, Mr. Stefan Graf. (I just looked up out of general interest on Wikipedia, what the official address to a consul general would be. It's in German language "Herr Generalkonsul".) The consulate and Mr. Graf in particular are doing a great job here in South India being visible with their services, caring for the fellow citizens and always having an open ear in case of questions or issues. Hence, I put on my finest Oktoberfest-smile having the honour of a joint picture with the "Herr Generalkonsul" :-)
Ein Prosit (Cheers).
Mountain Tour to Tegernseer Hütte (Bavaria)
There is no such thing as this well deserved real exhaustion of the human body after a day in the mountains. That’s exactly how I feel right not trying to defy too early sleep which would make me sleepless for the night. But ultimately it is an entirely different sort of fatigue than sitting the whole day in front of the computer. Albeit considered the “normal way” of work nowadays, it consists a major alienation of what we human living beings have been created for. And having such a day in nature with this natural exhaustion brings one somehow closer to the true self.
Well, well, enough of philosophical bla-bla, we had a great day, us three guys, no women allowed ;-) who are old friend for more than 15 years. Here is the entire picture set on Flickr. We took today’s fine weather in Bavaria, (that’s the best part in Germany, just in case somebody doesn’t know) and went for the tour to the Tegernseer Hütte on a altitude of 1650 m MSL.
Markus’s shoes proved to be the point of a battle of material which evolved after 20 min. We started out with a strong pace, maybe a bit too strong when Markus mentioned that the sole of his right shoe started to disintegrate. After the sole the entire shoe actually fell apart into pieces. Not really a miracle: The shoes were 20 years old! (They also look like that! :-) So after 40 minutes with reason Markus decided to get back to the car and spend the day at the cosy Tegernsee.
Bernhard and I continued our tour. We had finished the first important part, the summit got in sight. However, as Bernhard had his friendly dog “Guapa” with him, we had to make a major detour for the summit, because the dog – as all dogs – is not really a strong climber. And that was our goal for the day: The Tegernseer Hütte.
Up there, we were anything but the only ones who had fallen for that great idea to go mountaineering on a nice Sunday in Bavaria. The place was quite full, so that we had to queue 20 min for lunch which we greedily swallowed for the sake of carbohydrate-intake. Here a picture of mine as evidence that I really made it – LOL
Walking down with sticks proved to be a cool and helpful thing where we met Markus again. Unpacking my backpack, I just realized that my shoes have also become victims of the “battle of material” as both the soles began to disintegrate, too. My shoes were bit “younger”, only 9 years old and I remember buying them for my mission as a radio correspondent during the Kosovo War.
What does this tell us? The shoes are old, the friendship, too. Maybe we should exchange our stuff for some new gear and do this sort of stuff more often …
Guest at SeoFM.com in Munich: SEO-Outsourcing to India
All my 10 years of being a radio-presenter till 2003 slightly re-appeared yesterday night when I was guest at the radio show at SeoFM.com, a weekly online-format of Germany's leading Search-Engine-Optimizers (SEOs) Marcus Tandler (a.k.a. Mediadonis ) and his "partner in crime" Ralf Götz (a.k.a. Fridaynite). It's a one hour talk format which is about the latest development/gossip from the SEO-scene mixed with a lot of infantile jokes – to which I contributed gladly :-) In addition, Mediadonis interviewed my on my business of offshore outsourcing to India for projects revolving around SEO, which could be either building some content-centred apps, some BPO driven tasks for e.g. ad-campains or content-production. Here is the link to the show for time-shifted listening (German language).
So one after the other:
- Sure, surprise, surprise, India is good at software engineering, yet as I have written already on this blog a few times, it's always a number game, hence: If you have 5 people for at least 3 months, it's worth considering. The more and the longer – the better.
- For BPO also big numbers pay off and it always will be much easier, maybe only feasible, if the task is not to a large degree dependant on German language.
- Content-production can work, again in English language. The challenge will be in recruiting and quality assurance, and again, will only pay off with scale.
Mediadonis charmingy titled this show "Rent a Jobkiller", no wonder as I had explained plainly : "My business model rests on two pillars: One is slashing German jobs and increasing unemployment, the other exploiting poor Indians and taking away their future". As there are really people who argue such nonsense with fully conviction, I have made it a virtue to repeat it ironically as often as possible …
Flying with the “Dead Head” on Lufthansa 754
Yesterday I had a very inspiring flight with Lufthansa 754 from Frankfurt to Bangalore, because my seat-neighbour was a "dead head". What sounds grim to the uneducated ear (like mine was till yesterday as well), is a common expression in the aviation industry. It means that a flight attendant is on a flight (sometimes even in uniform) as a passenger, because this flight serves as a transportation flight to her next mission where he or she will be on duty. The reason yesterday was that there was no paying guest in the First Class, hence Lufthansa kept it empty, but therefore was coping with a surplus of flight attendants. Yet, for the return flight of the same crew which will leave tomorrow morning from Bangalore to Frankfurt on LH 755, there again the plane is fully loaded, hence the flight attendant is required.
Another thing I can assure: My "dead head"-neighbour was very much alive and very friendly, too. And as I always want to know it all, I poked her with tons of question which she patiently answered. How the crews constantly change and they have been trained to work together well in each and every constellation, but that for a longer trip of a few days team-spirit would kick in which would even make a difference for the better. So, it's basically like in any other profession.
What I really appreciated was her commitment which she had towards her company which was true and genuine, and not just a show to please me. And my own observation with Lufthansa's service overall is really positive, and especially it has improved over the last 10 years. In the vast majority, the crew expels a solid German charm which is perfectly fine: It's not subservient, good so, but I'd describe it as friendly, fast and efficient. As the service on board is improving, the gap to the service level on the ground (especially in Germany) is widening. What I have experienced there already from the check-in counter to the desk in the lounges was abysmal.
When I asked my neighbour what the two shittiest incidents were in her 10 years of flying, she mentioned two. The second-shittiest was a flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt when a passenger got a heart attack. Thanks to the defibrillator on board, a doctor who happened to be on board, managed to re-animate the person and recommended a safety-landing to bring the patient to intense care on the ground. The plane was already somewhere at the east coast of Canada and the nearest airport was prohibitive because of bad weather. An other, further airport seemed possible, the plane was in descend, the captain advised the crew that due to bad weather and a short runway that it should prepare for a "safe landing". The weather was that bad that in the final approach, however, the captain decided for a go-around with next destination Reykjavik in Island. At this point the patient who scratched the end of his days by a narrow margin started to argue with the crew.
Not what one might expect, that he was scared for his life and why the plane didn't land to get him to hospital. By contrary, he insisted he was fine, he needed to go to Frankfurt, because he would miss his connecting flight. Yet, the pilot clearly told him "no way", first because the doctor said differently and second, by now the plane had burnt so much fuel through the missed approach that it had to land for refuelling anyway. In Reykjavik all went fine, the ambulance took the patient and the plane could continue to Frankfurt within one hour.
Clearly number one of my neighbours bad events happened on October 7th, 2002 when a Boing 747 from Lufthansa in marginal weather conditions was set for approach to Mexico City airport. The crew on the flight deck got a warning from the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) about another plane which would intersect the course of their flight. Air Traffic Control (ATC) gave instruction NOT to climb what was exactly what TCAS commanded. As the planes got closer and closer, the pilots – according to their training – decided to ignore the ATC, follow the TCAS and pull up. My "dead head" sat on the left side of the plane looking out of the window when the Jumbo went into a steep climb, just at that moment the clouds cleared up for a moment and she saw the other plane, an Airbus from Mexicana Airlines, under-flying the Jumbo at 30 meters distance. Pretty shitty picture, isn't it. I found an online-source about the incident here.
The investigation found out 1.5 years later that it was the clear fault of Mexican Air Traffic Control and the pilots had saved the lives of their own 388 plus 120 people of the other plane through their disobedience. Interesting I found the smart way of my neighbour to cope with the incident: She wanted to come over it, deliberately requested the same flight again and for landing asked the captain to watch the landing from the jump-seat from the cockpit. After seeing how this landing could go smooth and safe, she managed to mentally tick it off once forever, and continue enjoying her work as she had always done.
Cockpit-Videos from my Flying in Bavaria (Germany)
Today I got a bit of video footage which was taken approximately one month ago when I was flying with a my good old school-friend Guido. Him, his wife and their little daughter whom I had visited last year in Luzern (Switzerland) moved back to Munich. And when I happened to be there briefly in February, too, we went for a ride with a Grob 115 which I charted from Augsburg Airport's Schwabenflug, an excellent flight-school and highly recommendable service-company. Guido luckily took his high-end video camera with him, my role that day was to act as "pilot in command".
The best to come are certainly the video-takes from within the cockpit, yet first due to legal regulations, I had to fly three take-offs and landings on my own because I hadn't done so within the required limit of the preceding three months. Hence, Guido was confined to the visitor's terrace from where he filmed the last of my three landings of that beautiful low-wing aircraft. One can see quite well that flaps fully extracted and coming in at a relatively steep gliding angle. This was due to an unexpected instruction from ATC to cut short the downwind and enter earlier as planned into the base and final. Hence at least some sort of excuse for the brakes which I hit a bit too hard as one can easily hear ;-)
Our route took us on a direct way from Augsburg to the little picturesque airstrip of Leutkirch-Unterzeil within 40 minutes. We were taxiing to the holding point, and upon entering Runway 07, throttle on maximum power, soft push on the right pedal to counter the torque-effect, rotation speed at 65 knots and there we go. Climb up with 75 knots.
After reaching our cruising altitude at 4,500 feet we had a relaxed and calm flight where Guido switched on the camera once again west of Memmingen with a quite nice view on the Alpes.
I can't deny that it always has a very particular charm land on a small airstrip compared to a big airport. For one, the workload on the pilot is way less in terms of rigid procedures, communication with the tower etc. which overall provides this unique sense of freedom which flying in its essence is meant to be. Here, we are turning from the base into the final approach of Runway 24. In order to not appear complacent, one can see that I slightly "overshot" to the right which I had to bring back on track for the entry, yet there was ample time and space to do so in a gentle manner.
After having a coffee in the world-legendary "Propellerstüble" on the airport, we took our seats, fastened the harnessed, closed the canopy and after taxiing to the point where we had touched down 20 minutes before we took-off back towards Augsburg.
Homing towards our departure point of the day which was equally our destination, one can tell well the difference in size of the two airports. Augsburg with it 1,200 meter runway looks really like a big airport which one can easily spot from the distance and have a good alignment into a long-final till the safe touch-down.
All in all, it was a fantastic flight, especially as we were so lucky with the weather and the visibility. And even more we were blessed that Guido had his camera with him so that we are able to share that memorable experience here.
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