All Good Things Must Come to an End

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All Good Things Must Come to an End

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All Good Things Must Come to an End

By Qiong Wu

The past two weeks have been lovely, but all good things must come to an end. Today was our last day of class; as I write this blog one of our classmates has already left for his home country of Nigeria and several more will be hailing a Grab taxi to the airport in less than an hour.

Characteristic of most of the days we have spent on this trip, this morning began with one last company visit, this time to PKT Logistics Group. Of the ten companies that have hosted us in the past two weeks, PKT seemed to be a favorite, and it's easy to understand why.

Upon our arrival, we were shown into a canteen with various refreshments, including sandwiches, two types of pastries, teh tarik, and coffee. After we'd had plenty of time to rest, we were shown into an auditorium for a presentation on the company given by Bobby, a sales manager at PKT.

Bobby introduced us to the history and timeline of PKT—how they rose to where they are today and continued to thrive even in the face of many global challenges such as the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, and the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s. He also discussed the company’s employee-focused culture, impressive commitment to sustainability, creative architecture (at the site we visited, the buildings were in the shapes of waves, a ship, and a lighthouse), and dedication to education, shown through their Peninsula College program.

After the presentation, we went downstairs to the front steps at the main entrance to take a quick group photograph, then headed up to the 15th floor for a tour of the “lighthouse” (Peninsula College and office space), where we could see the “waves” (warehouses) and “ship” (warehouse and corporate headquarters). We then made our way back down to the 5th floor for lunch, stopping on each floor as part of the tour. We saw a gym that took up an entire floor, locker rooms that came with saunas and hot tubs, and office floors with themed break rooms modeled after the environments and architectural styles in different parts of the world.

We had lunch in the canteen on the fifth floor, then continued making our way downstairs to the exit. On the second floor, there was a big red slide, and many of us (myself included) could not resist sliding down, ignoring the staircase right next to it. I hadn’t done that in a few years.

As we walked out the door, we each received a copy of the group photograph we had just taken a short while earlier, as well as a foldable frame on which to display it. I was extremely impressed by the speed with which they were able to put this all together. As we climbed back onto the bus, our tour guide, Victor Yen, said he felt PKT exemplified excellency in Malaysian business. I agree with him.

In the afternoon, we gathered in the Camelia Room on the second floor of our hotel. We shared different things we learned from the trip and discussed teams for the final project, a group report detailing what we have learned from the past two weeks. Professor Lee also took the opportunity to give a presentation titled "Branding & Intellectual Property,” which he had planned on giving at the Xiamen University conference we were meant to attend on Monday before our flight was delayed.

It quickly became clear just how passionate Prof. Lee is about marketing. He was able to relate IP and branding to what seemed like nearly everything under the sun in just a few minutes—from Barbie to Apple to our visit to Micron last week. I wish I could have seen him give this presentation at Xiamen.

Shortly after the meeting, we ate dinner together downstairs. It was our last gathering as a class, but I tried not to think about that as I was eating. Spending so much time with this group of people in the past two weeks has molded them into my routine—in a good way. It will be strange to wake up the next few days and not immediately go with my classmates on a bus trip or company visit filled with the laughter and little conversations I’ve learned to look forward to.

Prof. Lee gave a toast, as did several other students in our class. I loved how professional yet causal the gesture seemed at the same time.

To Professor Lee, and to Diane Crawford, and to everyone else who has been a part of this wonderful journey, thank you. I will miss the lovely people, places, and companies that I’ve gotten to know through this class. But as Winnie the Pooh once said, “How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”

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