Final Blog – China Experience

My thoughts coming into paris
The two weeks of Asian Experience in China enabled me to broaden my horizon at many different levels.  I personally feel that the fact we spend two weeks in China prior to Paris would have been so much more different than coming from US.  It implicitly conditioned me as an individual to become more culturally sensitive to the surrounding and the new environment that consists of so many complexities.  Thus, I am now much more prepared to explore Paris and Brussels as the aforementioned preparation will be the prime catalyst that will allow me to maximize my learning experience.

Salient issues I see now
Based on my research and observations, the following are the current salient issues and some major challenges in China:

1. Government Corruption
2. Job Generation
3. Human Rights
4. Environmental Consideration
5. Social Mobility
6. Quality Standards
7. Gap between the rich and poor

These issues are similar to what Rob Gifford has provided in his China Road book.  Though, couple of these issues have transformed in recent years; however further research will be required to determine their respective current magnitudes.

My thoughts on shanghai
Shanghai was one of the most modern megacities that I have ever seen.  The 2010 Expo has boosted the city’s presence not only in China but also in the global arena.  It is the city with many high rises as several of our visits were actually inside some of them including Citibank.  I was impressed how the city has transformed in less than decade.  You can feel the great potential and promising future as it will continue to be a prime location with better opportunities especially for the young generation.

My thoughts on Qingdao
Qingdao was the most conservative cities out of the three cities we visited.  The city somewhat looked like under construction as there were many new building and other infrastructures were being built across the city.  Specifically, many industrial projects were in progress including Wheelabrator – the company that converts the municipal wastes into renewable energy – that was finishing up its final phases of construction prior to full operation.

My thoughts on Beijing
Beijing possessed so much of the Chinese history and at the same time showed how globalization has created so many new opportunities.  One of the many catalysts that has enabled the city to gain more momentum globally is the Beijing 2008 Olympics.  Our visits ranged from cultural visits including the Great Wall of China, and Summer Palace to company visits with different business practices.  In addition, we had the opportunities to meet and connect with some business students at the Peking University.  Some of the major issues of the cities that are existing in other mega cities as well, were the pollution and traffic.

My favorite visits
This is perhaps the hardest question to answer for me as I enjoyed every visit and I felt that each of them allowed me to gain a diverse set of perspectives through different lenses. But, if I had to select one, it will have to be Continuum Innovation.  This company enables other companies with a wide range of visions to continually sustain their innovation and produce success.  One of their key tools that they utilize to produce such success is empathy – one of the core emotional intelligence traits required to become a global leader.  In addition, my favorite cultural visit was the Great Wall where many local and tourists including us came to get the glimpse of one of the main world’s wonders.

My best experience
My best experience was to experience one of the main superpowers of future with 25 other students from various background and learning more about China from three cities each with its own set of position in China.  As one of the local stated, Beijing, Qingdao, and Shanghai represent the “past, present, and future” of China.

One major lesson that I learned
One of the main that I learned throughout this two weeks is the importance of preparation for international business who are planning on coming in to China to expand their market share here.  They need to develop extensive planning that will help them minimize their risks and enable them to sustain their growth in China.  They may be able accomplish this through launching joint ventures with local businesses or mergers and acquisitions of Chinese companies; however, they must have acquired certain tools that will enable them to mitigate current and future risks.  One example will be the protection of their intellectual property.

Do I think China will be the next superpower??
I do think that China will be one of the next superpowers as it has built and continuing to build a foundation to support this transformation.  I also think that this wouldn’t happen anytime soon as some major issues continue to persist and affect many practices and businesses.  In my opinion, the most major issue is corruption as it has been a norm at different levels of all organizations in the past.

Effective Negotiation Techniques in an Intercultural Setting

Managers can utilize the broad principles of cross-cultural communication and negotiation to effectively negotiate in an intercultural setting.  Our visit at Peking University, Guanghau School of Management facilitated the learning of these principles as our Global Partners MBA class conducted a cross-cultural negotiation with PKU students.  I was the US recruiter negotiating with the prospective Chinese employee on several key issues including the salary, location, and starting time.  My counterpart mentioned some of his qualifications and how he can add value to the organization.  Then, we started negotiating on the main issues, and for the most part we were able to collaborate effectively.  We shared the relevant information and were able to build a trust.  I specifically asked diagnostic questions, and offered package deals rather than just focusing on one issue.

During the debriefing, our professors provided us with detailed insights on this specific cross-cultural negotiation entitled as “Expanding the Pie: New Recruit”.  Some of the key takeaways that are also mentioned in the Cultural Intelligence book written by Thomas and Inkson are as follows:

• One key takeaway is to gain the knowledge to anticipate differences.  This requires learning the codes and conventions of groups that the managers are dealing with.
• Next key takeaway is to practice mindfulness by proactively deciphering the context and the conventions of the opposite party.  This enables managers to discover new opportunities while negotiating with their counterpart.
• Another key takeaway is to develop cross-cultural skills that can enable managers to find the optimal point of adaptation.

Thus, extensive preparation is required to effectively negotiate in any cross-cultural setting.  As also Louis Pasteur has mentioned, “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” Now, I am leaving to go to the market, so I can practice my negotiation skills.

Transitioning from the Sailing city to the Capital city

Qingdao considered as one of the most livable cities in China, definitely proved to be one prime location for its current and prospective residents for many years.  The city has economically been boosted by the presence of several international companies.  One of the major international companies is the Tsingtao Brewery that was founded by a German-British joint venture in 1903.  As per our visit, despite the global economic crisis, the company has continuously been able to increase its total revenues from 60 billion RMB in 2000 to astonishing 400 billion RMB in 2010, and it is expected that these numbers will only increase in the future.  They’ve also been able to increase their market share by 6 percent from 8 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2010.

In addition, Hisense, a major electronics company, has penetrated extensively in both China and International markets including Australia and South Africa.  Furthermore, the fact that the city is going through an amazing development of various industries including environmental can create more opportunities and attract more local and foreign investors.  For instance, the successful launch of joint venture between Wheelabrator and Shanghai Environment Group has allowed them to obtain the approval for further expand  their operation capabilites as it would enable them to convert the majority of the city’s municipal wastes into renewable energy.   Yet, there are more companies that are following if not the same but a similar vision that has helped to create the ‘one of the most livable cities’ in China.  Though, we had to say good bye to the sailing city as we departed for the capital city.  We are excited about our future visits and events in Beijing, and look forward to further decipher the proposed riddle.

Wheelabrator & Sustainability

One of the main business trends that has become popular in China is the launch of a ‘joint venture’ with other companies.  This allows two companies to integrate their core competencies and specialties into one unit and subsequently bring their goals into fruition.  For instance, Waste Management and Shanghai Chengtou have launched a joint venture for Chinese market in 2009.  Their respective subsidiaries, Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., and Shanghai Environment Group (SEG), have developed waste management solutions throughout China.  In this partnership, Wheelabrator provides their expertise in the field of waste-to-energy conversion to meet the country’s environmental, energy, and waste needs while SEG brings the market position and strong local knowledge.

This partnership helps to sustain our natural resources by converting the municipal wastes into renewable energy.  The concept is similar to one of the simulations that we practiced in our Leadership Practices class.  Specifically, we were dealing with an ecosystem with a finite size of natural resources.  Our excessive consumption of its natural resources resulted in a collapse and failure.  Scientifically, this correlated with the fundamental laws of thermodynamics as the energy or matter is neither created nor destroyed, and entropy as the economic activity is entropic.  We learned about the importance of social responsibility that is nothing other than the shared values and responsibilities of individuals.  Furthermore, this practical experience allowed us to learn more about not only a technical problem, but also an adaptive problem, which required a distributed leadership.

Utilization of innovative business practices can lead to an effective and productive sustainable environmental development defined by Bruntland Commission, which is as follows: “Sustainable development means ensuring our ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.  Companies such as Wheelabrator have mastered this leadership as they continue sustaining our global natural resources for us and our future generations.

Last Stop in Shanghai

Today, at the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, we had the opportunity to not only see the Shanghai’s yesterday, and today, but also get a glimpse of the city’s future through professional exhibits and interactive displays.  This center is located in the downtown area, specifically in the people’s square.  The architecture of this building was inspired by the China’s traditional architecture with a large grid roof symbolizing the Shanghai’s city flower magnolia as shown below.

This is the city that held the Expo 2010 with an exposition theme of “Better City – Better Life” signifying the new status in the 21^st century as the “Next Great World City”.

The mascot of the expo, as shown below, is called the Haibao, which means the “Treasure of the Sea” and represents the Chinese character for men/person.

One of the most fascinating exhibitions inside the center was the model of the downtown area of central Shanghai.  Personally, I think the scale model of this city considered as the most populous city in China with a population of over 19 million people, was just incredible.

It allowed me to further my understanding of the city and motivated me to check out couple of its major developments (as shown below) within the remaining couple of hours prior to our departure for Qingdao.  I would definitely recommend this place to visitors and even locals.