Its late 2004 and December normally spells "Vacation Time!" for me and the family.

However, with a huge online platform project due to be launched mid Jan 2005, December is going to be a long trudge while I drive and park in the now half empty car park.

Looking for my photography buddies, half of them are out of town traversing Tibet, Thailand, Inner Mongolia and Bangladesh. Chobi Mela is ongoing in Dhakar and I'm missing out on all the fun.

Business used to be a personal and intimate skill. Now I'm part of a corporate machine trying to undo that and make it impersonal and cold in the name of achieving global reach.

On short notice, I found myself in Guanzhou, Shenzen and Hong Kong from 28-30 November a couple of weeks back. I've never been to Guanzhou before and the city's highways in the sky frightened me. I bused in from Hong Kong International Airport.

I was scared out of my wits. In Guanzhou, the highways are mostly off the ground and at certain areas they criss-cross each other like a spider web suspended in mid-air. At a few points I found myself looking out my comfortable bus window and seeing the roof-tops of 15 storey buildings a couple of hundred feet below our wheels, with only a 3 foot retaining wall on either side of the 2 land carriageway. Its almost no different from being on the apex of a giant roller-coaster ride especially when the bus yawed a little over the edge when making a turn.

They could start quite a few bungee jumping outfits off some of these skyways.

I last visited Shenzen a year ago. Then, I thought that this city in one of China's Special Economic Zones had reached its capacity in taking in any more new skycrapers. A year later, 2 weeks ago, construction work continues with new skyscrapers sprouting out of every corner of this city. It felt more cramped than Hong Kong. Shenzen's saving grace was that the roads are much wider and its pedestrian walks much broader than Hong Kong's ridiculously small roads and walkways.

Hopped over to Bangkok on 30 November. Ahhhh, my 2nd home. Bangkok in November and December is pleasant with great moderate weather. I attended the CEO Summit which featured personalities like Mr Thaksin, Thailand's current Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore's former Prime Minister and now Minister Mentor, Mr Xanana Gusmao, President of Timor Leste and Mr Fidel Ramos, the former President of the Philippines.

Thaksin and Lee commanded respect....... Lee edged ahead on reverence. Gusmao, formerly heading the guerilla resistance movement against the Indonesian regime and now head of such a young nation, did not seem comfortable in his role as President. He didnt seem to like the business suit he was togged in either.

Now Fidel Ramos........ he retained all his charisma of old charming the crowd of CEOs with his wit. Chewing on an unlit Cuban cigar, he personified the very essence of charismatic leadership. I spoke to him briefly during lunch, "Your Excellency, despite your age, your dismeanor and personality reflects that of someone 40 years younger, what's your secret in being still such a ladies' man?" He's in his 80's. "Look here young man" he stared me straight in the eyes, the rest of the table listening in "Make love 5 times a week .....but never more than 2 of those times with your wife!"

He spoke in a simple manner in which we all understood. His golf anecdotes and stories kept the table rocking with heavy laughter.

I considered the 2 days at that summit as time very well spent. Leadership was about not being afraid of making wrong decisions, it was about getting people smarter than you to work to the best of their abilities. Leadership was not about branding, nor distribution nor corporate governance. It was about managing lives of people who worked with and for us.

to be continued..........