RL
#2UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, April 09, 2013
Actually, in supporting the previous report posted, I'm here to share my thoughts and comments about this company as well. I used to be LNOPPEN's employee for 6 months in both delegate sales and sponsorships. I came to Shanghai back in 2006 hoping to land a job in a multi-national company, then I bumped into this outfit. At first, I wondered if this is that one road block I must overcome in order to achieve the milestones I set for myself on my agenda list. But, as it turns out, it lasted only for 6 months, and the experience was unpleasant.
First of all, the owner, Thomas Du, basically closed himself up in an inner circle of partners and they acted like a secret society of shared agenda and objectives. They place no trust and share no sympathy towards the newly hired, and the perks they've earned are accessible only to those close to them. A very selfish display of the typical Shanghai-nese mindset.
The training they provided are basically skillset that teaches you how to lie, cheat, and bypass receptionists of big companies and try to get on phone with their boss or CXOs. The pitch you would give them, like the previous report stated, are an over-promising version of what the conference is really about. You go to the conference for the free food and you greet the delegates you tricked, but you usually meet them just once in your lifetime. The atmosphere of the workplace is stressful in the sense that every day there's people who made the sale, and the person would go up to the front to ring the bell so everybody can see and applause, but without realizing this short-span happiness just proves there's another $3000-or-so income to the company and the sale representative can only take back a fraction of the earnings as commission, and s/he is back to the game of endless calling.
You call for 8-hour straight, 5 days a week. Because they want you to only focus on calling and pitching, so in the office you're not equipped with a computer for internet research, you're supposed to do your own research after you get home, then after a night's lead generation you have to show your lead list to your supervisor the next morning to be approved. And, once you've generated new cell phone numbers or leads over the phone during the working hour, you have to input them into their system, of which the supervisor can check from his desk to verify the authenticity of the information you've inputted. All these info, becomes the combined data file LNOPPEN owns, and they further compile it into a databank or publish into paperbacks for sale, at a very high price. All of these collective human effort were being extracted and sucked dried by their system. And once you decide to leave, you have nothing left, and they leave you with nothing.
The attitude they have towards newly hired is "take it or leave it." They position themselves high up so as to create a false image of power and authority, and they guarded their interest so tightly among a small circle of people that outsiders can't and won't be able to gain access.
Thomas Du, the owner, would often throw lavish parties for his inner circle members that often involves prostitution and perks the members with helicopter rides. And uses his wife and her family lineages back in Belgium to brand himself and the company to act as a foreign direct investment, but in fact, it's really just a privately owned outfit. In a way, his wife, Ms. Noppen, is being exploited by him also.
Then, there is a department that every conference company must have which is the customer service department. This department in LNOPPEN is basically a complaint-handling call-center. One can imagine there's a lot of complaints from past participants, and the standard way of handling such complaints is that "you signed up, it's in the contract, and we can't do anything about it. If you don't like it, don't come next time."
One thing that often amazes me is how can a group of Shanghai-nese be able to put up such a show to woo foreigners and delegates, the method and tactics are so unethical, yet, they feel so righteous about themselves that they think this is going to last for them. And they acted in such a s****.>