A culture’s food tells you its values — some of its most important ones. I just had fresh squeezed mango and some mangosteens on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. They cost almost nothing here. They were as delicious as any fruit I’ve eaten. Two weeks ago I could barely put another oil soaked vegetable in my mouth in North Korea. We had little choice in where or what[…] Keep reading →

Sebastian posted the video of my North Korea strategy talk to his strategy group of entrepreneurs in Beijing. Check it out. The video didn’t capture the questions and answers afterward. One of the first questions people asked was if I worried I was overly sympathetic to North Korean decision-makers. My goal is to understand them and their perspective, which people sometimes interpret as support. It bears repeating that understanding doesn’t[…] Keep reading →

Greetings from Beijing and another amazing North Korea trip! This time we visited places few (no?) Americans or non-North Koreans have visited in decades. We also saw the incredible beauty of the country outside Pyongyang and the DMZ. Pictures and stories to come! By the way, I tag this post with leadership because, as you’ll see, we did a lot more than just tour around. We interacted directly with many[…] Keep reading →

My friend Sebastian organizes Lectures on Strategy, strategy talks to entrepreneurs and other strategists in Beijing, and invited me to speak to his group. If you’re in Beijing, see me speak April 22 at 4pm, near the Shuangjing subway stop. RSVP to me or Sebastian (sebastian at sebastianmarshall.com) for details. I’m basing it on my talk at Columbia Business School last month, using mostly the same slides. He plans to[…] Keep reading →

I just found this video one of my group-mates took that illustrates one of North Korea’s benign oddities — they make amazing scale models of things. Their museums are full of them. This video shows a model train. I’m not sure the value of showing these models. What do they convey besides model-making skills? I don’t quite get it. You also hear at the beginning one of our funniest running[…] Keep reading →

Here’s the first of two podcasts of four of my travel-mates made on our August 2011 visit to North Korea. The original is here. Jordan, who produced the podcast, runs a dating school, which is why you’ll hear ads for it in the podcast. Neil runs a dating school too, among other things. Gabriel is a writer, among other things. Joseph took the most amazing pictures of North Korea I’ve[…] Keep reading →

My interactions with North Korea have taught me more about myself and my values than anything else in recent memory. I was going to say it taught me more about being an American, but being an American means something different to me today than it used to, and means something different to everyone. I’m thinking about America in the context of North Korea today because I’m in the middle of[…] Keep reading →