The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Hong Kong exhibition version - Business tips for Chinese market

編著：Home Office Content (homeofficecontent@gmail.com)

內容：市場觀察(Market Watch)    香港
特色：以電影經典比擬市場現實

日期：寫於2011年

Production: Home Office Content

Date: 27 April, 2011

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Hong Kong exhibition version

Business tips for Chinese market

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

Red hot as the red skirt of a young mistress in tango dancing, shinning bright even no sun, flaming lips of a beauty in no match. - It was nowhere but an exhibition booth in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre situated in Wanchai, Hong Kong Island. Decorating as red as saffron, the sole products exhibited, the booth was one of the eye-catching and graceful booths in the Food Expo 2009, especially with the aid of high-intensity discharge lamps.

There, everything red, the color of the broad, the display stands, the saffron, and so as the face of the old man dressed in his own traditional costume, sitting inside - the only people I could see when I was passing by. I stood aside, and looked around the surroundings for a while. The old man seemed to be in fury, sat down by himself in the corner. There was no greeting, no introduction when I was stepping inside the booth and looked around.

It's bad.

The movie character, the Bad in “The Good, the Bad and Ugly” refers to the man with nickname Angel Eyes who was a Union sergeant at the time of the American Civil War, accidentally learnt the name of the cemetery where the gold was buried when torturing the Ugly, another main character in the movie. He left the Ugly alive and was team up with the Ugly and Bondie (the Good), the main character in the movie. Angel Eyes lost his life and never saw the gold in his life. Although the Italian movie director Sergio Leone did not tell us who's who in the movie but I am sure he is the Bad because he was neither making fortune, nor survived in the end.

In analogy, the boss of the saffron booth is considered as the Bad for the same reason. The old man could be the boss or the person in charge with. It seemed that he should be bearing the costs or the consequences. He did not tell but I knew everything. Everything was already well written on HIS FACE. I certainly have sympathy for his situation. The money he paid for the organizer was not cheap, the decorations, the transport costs to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong back to his home if he insists to keep his unsold saffron, the air-fare, the hotel expenses are also no bargain because of the location somewhere near the Exhibition Centre.

It's time to talk about the Good. The Good is anyone who successfully closed the deals with the buyers in particular long term business relations and/or sold out the goods which brought to Hong Kong making enough money to cover all of the expenses or even in surplus after the exhibition. I think the Good don't need further elaboration as we are already overwhelmed by the Good's stories. The old man must be one of those listeners. Agree?

In the movie, we can always hear the Ugly calls Blondie. He made a living by conspiring with the Ugly to cheat the local authorities. - Every time he pretends to be the one who caught the Ugly for awarded money. When in execution, he will show off his gun shooting to scare off the local authorities and free the Ugly from hanging.

Well, Blondie is the Good because he is good at shooting? So he was responsible to act as the bounty hunter for the wanted but not the risky position as what the Ugly did and most importantly, he killed the Bad while he survives.

Or, Blondie is the Good because he had good luck? So he learnt the name of the grave triggering the Ugly to save him from dehydration and heatstroke even the Ugly was supposed to kill him to retaliate their unfair partnership for the awarded money. Whatever storytelling, he was just a treasure hunter by all means. Anyway, he got the gold and left the cemetery with a horse, leaving the Ugly alone. He was the ultimate survivor.

Speaking backward to the saffron, it is something on the Chinese books. It is considered as a kind of exotic herb to be used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In other words, it is not something for the mass public, the major visitors of the Food Fair. Although saffron can also be used for making soup or alcoholic beverage for supplementary purposes but these are not common in Canton, so as in Hong Kong. Note that top-grade saffron is an expensive item for its rarity. There is indeed a niche market in Hong Kong and China. The only problem is how you get there.

Lastly, the Ugly we had always mentioned before is a bandit. The Ugly is Ugly but he is still better than the Bad. At least, he was freed by the Good's last shooting afar from where he was hanging at the end of the movie. He was still alive. And, he also got some gold. What he lacked were drinking water and a horse to give him a ride together with his burden, the gold!

In reality, those doing business but with no wit are ugly - Companies already got enough funds to go exhibition but the money was not spending wisely or the management teams did not take up opportunities. They are alike the Ugly. Let's look back to the Food Expo again. The tent somewhere opposite to the saffron booth mentioned before was also no visitors except several staff sat down and chatted by themselves, a few empty long tables as well as the family of three standing around a table - the father was struggling to take the dates as many as he could into his bag. The daughter, at around 18 to early 20 was speaking in Cantonese,“Enough! Enough!” while her father kept grasping the dates. The mother was just looking. I stopped walking and looked to the staff but nobody came out. The family was still there after I looked around and then walked away.

To make a comparison, I would like to show you what I saw in the Tea Fair held in the same Exhibition Centre the same day. It was the last day of the fair in the afternoon. Most of the booths from South East Asia were already empty except some were still opening. One of the keen strugglers was an Asian lady sat down with the table, keep using sheet of papers to wrap trace of red tea, and hand in to everyone who stopped by. At another booth, an Asian man wearing smiling face answered my questions in patient after working 3 days exhibition and at least 1 day setup even I did not purchase anything. He told me he was selected to stay at the booth while the boss and other staff left.

It is not uncommon to see staff sat down by themselves without greeting the visitors when their boss or supervisor left. It's ugly.

I talked to some of the staff left behind. Some of them told me those who left the exhibition half day before the closing nothing but hurry up in doing shopping! Ugly!

Every year, I spend some time to go to the exhibitions in Hong Kong. Food Expo, Tea Fair, Wine Festival, Book Fair, Jewelry Show...... I am so glad to see many different faces all around the world coming to Hong Kong and bringing us something new. Thinking back how they were running their businesses, the music and scenario of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, the western movie classic sometimes come up on my mind.