“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain
As I am reading on in my book, I have found out that many of the villages in China have existed for hundreds of years. Some of them even have existed almost one thousand years. One of the reasons that these villages have lasted so long is that many of the families have not moved but stayed in the same relative spot. One exception to this is that recently or around the time that this book was published, many of the young people are leaving their villages in order to seek a western education. Some of the countries that these people travel include Canada, the US, and the UK. Many of them do return to their respective villages and obtain jobs there.
There was an extremely interesting section in my book about the population of China. I've always thought that it's strange that you can't ever get a solid number on the population of China. My book keeps saying "1.3 to 1.5 billion population" and "90 million to 300 million migrants." The official census says that the population is 1.3 billion, however economists (or whoever) say that the level of grain consumed far exceeds the needs of 1.3 billion people. The people missing from this census are literally hiding in the crowd. These could either be children whose existence, if known to authorities, would threaten the livelihoods of their parents. It could also be farmers who are migrating through the country without official permission or it could be debtors who cannot go back home. While China is known for their massive population and people see it as one of China's greatest assets, it can also be seen as a huge threat to its prosperity. The millions of people who are just "floating" around are all people who legally ought to be one place but are not, or who ought to have one job but have a different one, or who are simply just roving around the nation as potentially extremely disruptive and uncontrollable.
@Josh: an interesting point that my book makes is that these ancient villages/cities are growing extremely rapidly, almost to the point that they cannot handle the huge influx of migrants. The book says that China can develop a city the size of Chicago or Los Angeles in just a few short years. It's so difficult to imagine THAT many people living there! And, if you look at a map, you can see that only a very small portion of China is actually inhabited.
The last chapter that I read talked about the major problems that the United States' automobile industry is facing and how China and other countries overseas are taking over the market dominance. The chapter ended off on a harsh and somewhat pitied note, but the current chapter I am reading started off with a lot more excitement and hope when it comes to market dominance. The chapter that I read was talking about the computer industry and essentially contrasting our success in that industry with our failure in the other industry. The author of the book seems to think that our innovative leadership in the computer technology field is a great example of how we should be innovating in every field. We have dominance in almost every computer sector, and our major companies such as Dell and IBM are constantly researching micro and nano technology that helps to keep us on the leading edge. It is a market that China, as well as other parts of Asia and Europe are having to scramble to keep up in. The situation that we find ourselves in is not all good, because one of the main reasons the United States is doing so well is through outsourcing and keeping costs low. This essentially drains jobs from our country, which can get worrying. All in all, on the technological forefront we, as a country are still doing fine. In order to keep from suffering the fate of the car industry we just need to make sure that we keep innovating and being open to change.
That is probably one the most interesting facts that I've read in these blogs. Usually you don't think past the figures that you're given in books or things that you read, but to try and understand what those figures actually mean is interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense, especially in a country that is oppressed in the ways that it is, for people to be unwilling to want to be formally recorded on a government census. There are no doubt people in our country that go unnoticed or accounted for, but I can only imagine the great amount that remain unaccounted in China and how much that number will increase as the years go on. If we didn't think China had a lot of people to begin with, now we know that there are more of them aiding in their country's growth every day
The main theme of this chapter in my book is that China's economic influence and military might has increased relative to its neighbors, and they have not taken an interest at trying to stay ahead of them. Also, China is becoming the largest trade partner and most popular place to invest in the region. Historically that position was for the U.S., but now China has surpassed us in that area.
A couple specific examples of China's advanced economic influence were given. The first instance was when South Korea raised tariffs on Chinese garlic, the Chinese retaliated with much more tariffs on key South Korean exports. But South Korea was essentially powerless to re-retaliate because China is such an important trade partner. They ended up having to relent their tariffs and strike an agreement with China. And the second was a similar incident with Japan, with the same result.
So basically the regional powers are simply "accommodating" China's new position, and they are not taking aggressive steps to keep the historic balance of power in the region.
I've had a couple questions mulling around in my mind about China's population too. Like what is China going to do when all the natural resources in China are completely used up? Is their vast population going to suffer terribly? Or are they going to expand mercilessly to take care of their national interests? Are they going to contend for world domination? I don't really think they would try that last one, but I still have to wonder what they will do when they run out of resources, at least to keep expanding like they are.
My portion of the book this week talked about the Art of War written by Sunzi, the date it was written is argued by many but according to an expert in my book it was written after the time of Confucius during a time of great war. That would make since to me. This chapter talked a lot about the changes that occurred to the structure of Chines military during that time. They became more structured and led my more trained and qualified individuals, the soldiers where more trained as well as apposed to before just being farmers and presents garbed off the farm and told to fight. They compared and contrasted this to the evolution of management in modern corporations. This was one of the more interesting chapters I have read so far.
@ Brittany That is really interesting I never thought of it like that. To me it always seemed that China's large population was nothing but an asset, being such a large work force and paying taxes in to the government. It never occured to me that it could also be a liability to the country and actually make it easier for illegals and criminals to hide.
This week I read chapter 6. One thing that I found it interesting is the way of thinking difference between western and eastern. This difference is obvious. Western people prefer to make things straight forward; however, eastern people would like to illustrate things euphemistically. The different way of thinking between Chinese and German brought problems to communication especially in the translation process. For example, there is a dialog in the book between the German and the Chinese, and it said “Mr. Fei explained in his Chinese way of responding: ‘we have tried to talk to XYZ about this,’ and ‘We have tried to coordinate this with such and such a department…’… Finally, Mr. Paul lost his patience: ‘I don’t want to hear about trying, I want a straight answer: a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’” As a result we can see the Germans like fast facts, but the Chinese prefer roundabout approach. This kind of characteristic not only exists in communication but also showed in business. In later of this chapter, it talked about Germans concern about the result of a project, but the Chinese are more interested in solving problem in different process. The roundabout approach is still existed in the Chinese society today. Chinese do not prefer to bring things straight forward because some of facts are hard to speak up. We feel like roundabout approach one thing sometimes is easier for people to accept.
@ Brittany I think the number of China's population is quite correct. Since Chinese government realizes the huge number of population could be a problem in the future, Chinese government set up a policy that people in the city can only have one child. Although you may not see how this policy works at the moment, I believe it can decrease Chinese population in the next ten years.
@lauren. I totally agree with what the book says. In order to get ahead in life, one must work for it. With the auto industry, it seems like America is content with where it is and is not putting forth the effort that it can. With computers, we are never satisfied and want ones that are faster and smarter than what we have. We must have the want to get ahead if we are to get there.
Chapter 5 is talking about “Joint Ventures.” It is important for foreign investors to find a good partner, so they need to ask the following questions: 1.Is the Chinese joint-venture partner an entity enjoying full registered legal status under Chinese law? 2.What type of ownership is involved—state, collective or private? 3.What advantages and disadvantages does the particular type of ownership enterprise offer the prospective joint venture partner? After reading the chapter, I understood what is the different between state, collective, and private enterprises. State-owned enterprises have a lot of skilled workers, full of technological expertise, and the support of the government in terms of raw materials and financial resources. But they have low effectiveness and heavy financial burden of employees’ welfare provisions because of offering a full array of material necessities such as medical insurance, housing, childcare, schooling and entertainment. Collective-owned enterprises have organizational flexibility combined with an element of government support, good appreciation of market-orientation and a relatively high degree of production effectiveness. But they have less direct government support, while worker quality, technological expertise and overall performance may also vary significantly from one organization to the next. Private-owned enterprises have high effectiveness. They are generally free from bureaucratic interference. They have the flexibility to hire and fire staff and a strong sense of a market-orientation. They don’t need to have heavy financial burden of employees’ welfare program. However, they have trouble obtaining the necessary operational resources for production from the government. In China the more you know about different types of enterprises, the more likely you are to choose a suitable partner.
@Joshua rural population is moving to city rapidly in the recent year because of the high education and salary in city. fast economy growing and currency revaluation leads more and more young Chinese leaving their villages in order to seek a western education. After learing western education, the young will have more opportunity to find a good job when they return to their respective villages because villages need these kinds of talents who know western technology, education, and English.
Shanshan Zhang this chapter talks about the education in Dongguan China. Many young people cut short their schooling to go to work in factories. Also, it talks about the Chinese economy were changing very fast, but the education system was not keeping up. The author also visited many schools. She found out that many schools have the same curriculum, and she thinks that it was likely that they copied it from somewhere. Furthermore, she described how the schools looked like, how the schools were hard for students, how the schools sold fake diplomas, and how bad the environment of education was. The author mentioned a nice book calls Square and Round. I really like some of the thoughts from this book:
Shaking hands: a handshake that releases immediately on contact show your indifference to the other person. Paying brides: try not to get into the habit of giving someone something every time he helps you. Bargaining: ask the price of expensive clothes first if you want to buy cheap ones. Helping others: do not accept thank-you gifts and thank-you dinners…i would rather people remember my favors to them and the debt they owe me.
It really teaches me something that is not from the school
This chapter of the book describes the way in which Americans behave during negotiations internationally. The American negotiation style differs from those of other culture. It states that the typical behavior of American negotiators are impatient, poor listener, or argumentative, but not every American is like that, but many encounters difficulties during international negotiations.
These are some ways in which American behave in any negotiation situations. First, they think that they should go alone because it shows strength and also to get the full credit for success, but it doesn’t work in the Chinese negotiation table because the need of approval and agreement of others which can have effects on the negotiation outcomes. Another American thinking is that there is no need for learning a foreign language, because everyone most know some English. The reality is that this is a disadvantage for the American, because during negotiation Chinese executives would sometimes have interpreters even though they know very good English. This allows the executives to have time to think and create responses during the translation process which could be a very big disadvantage at the negotiation table.
The book mention other American negotiation style which are or can be in disadvantage for themselves.
@ Shan Shan the education sounds like is not good for the country, because then there is less intellectual people in the working without knowing what they had to learn in school. I do think that has changed since now school in China are stricter and harder on the students. The students have to study hard to be able to persue a higher education. I like the thoughts you shared with us from the book. So every time we do something we can thing about the meaning each action has to others and also use it to our advantage. :)
in my book this week i read about the relationships between products and who are the top buyers in china. the book was talking about how the men products have a higher sell rate than the women's. witch is weird because just about everywhere in the world the women are the more dominent shoppers. they sad it is because the men have more control over who spends the money in the house hold. i thought all this to be very interesting. how that role in life still very much exists.
@ Lauren Lauren i am really jealous of your book because it talks about cars. and i did not know that we are the leading the computer world. i actually always thought that China and a lot of parts in asia were very well off and developed int the technology seeing how they make everything we sell over here. but thats cool sounds like a good book i am interested to read more
Tyler: I never realized men had such an influence in the shopping in China. I guess one factor is also that it is a male-dominated country, since families prefer having a boy due to the one-child law. Do you think that women aren't as free to go shopping whenever they want like women in the US are? I mean, are they allowed to go without the consent of their husbands, or must they always get permission? I think it's good that Chinese men have a bit more control over the spending of the family income, because it may reduce the amount of debt that they get into. Hmm... anyway, that was an interesting concept.
The Naxi are a minority group that live in the Lijiang region of China. Because they have been living in LIjiang for many years, the Naxi people have become accustomed to the Han culture. The term they used in the book was "Hanicized". Lijiang used to be just fields, over the years souvenir shops were opened , and the city square was built. Lijiang became a main tourist attraction. It seemed as if the Naxi culture have lost their culture over the years. Hardly anyone speaks the Naxi language and they don't wear the traditional clothing, The old town of Lijiang was being commercialized. It had the same restuarants and shops as any other city. A lot of the vendors aren't even local Naxi people, because of the tourism they "set up shop" in Lijiang to make money, while claiming the Naxi traditions.
That is very interesting, I would have thought it was the other way around. I guess it is a good thing that one person is in charge of their spending, they are less likely to get into debt. But, I also think it should be either the husband or wife, not limited to just the husband. But I also understand that it is apart of their tradition.
I found it very interesting and somewhat humorous about how you stated that Chinese executives during negotiations will have translators even if they know good English. Thus, allowing them more time to process their thoughts and think of a good response. This is very cunning and clever of them and I feel like would be a huge advantage to them. Sometimes Americans can just be so unknowing.
That is amazing about how the schools are there. Selling fake diplomas and stuff. That would be a little more difficult here. Also, people dropping out of school to begin working in the factories. That is much like many of Americans. They drop out of High school to begin working, but rarely go far within their career. I wonder what some of the statistics on education are for China vs. USA.
Also, those were some good tips on. Although I would find it hard to not let someone thank me for something I did. Anyway, very interesting.
This week in my book, Chan (the author) describes some of the preliminary steps in breaking into the Chinese market.
First one must to get to know the local mindset in order to gain expertise and local support. Then, to determine potential, one must conduct market research. Market research can be done by a large research company, but Chan seemed against this way of conduct. He notes that these services are expensive and typically only give you a small percentage of the information that is actually pertinent to your business. Also, he says that many of these services are lazy and not trustworthy. Therefore he suggest either building a relationship with an established research firm, or conduct your own research.
When one conducts his or her own research there is a gateway formed that one can not receive from a research company. You can get to know your potential customers, suppliers, and retailers and begin to build a business relationship before the product is introduced. Most importantly, when conducting self research, one is able to truly see first hand the need —or lack of—for the product.
Either way, decide which way will provide you with the best, most useful, and accurate results for your research.
This week my book was talking about the issues as far as the workforce in China. China's economy is growing at an incredible speed. Business leaders are having a lot of problems finding middle management level skills. Because of the Cultural revolution in 1966-76. The people 45-65 were deprived of education. There are many graduates and entry level positions but mid level professionals are very scarce. It's hard to find someone with enough experience to oversee all the new workers.
@Daily I wonder how they compared the evolution of modern management to Chines change in military. That should have been interesting. Nevertheless, sounds like a good mixture of economics and history.
I had never thought of it from that perspective but in my book it talks about alot of the revolution and lack of education. Since so many people came to America to get their education everyone that did is one somewhat of a level playing field. So right now China does not have much of a diverse amount of management. This could a hinderance because then maybe people who are not quite as qualified would being doing jobs that experienced people should be doing. Unfortunately they do not have those older experienced people because of the revolution. Never really thought about that make sense though.
While I was doing some reading in my book it has been really focused on the internet and what is has and is doing for China as a whole. One portion was talking about E-commerce. In 1998 China only generated $8 million of revenues. That may sound not that bad, but compare that to close to $4 BILLION in 2003. And since my book is a little older it doesn't have numbers for today but I am sure that this number has grow at an exponential rate. The E-commerce has helped bring products to China and help people have more of an option. In the past when they went to go get products they had to go to the clerk desk and the clerk filled out a triplicate form. Then the customer moved to a different station to pay and then a different one to pick up a purchase. So having the ability to order things online with such a seamless experience is such a great thing for China. This area has tons of potential and people are beginning to take advantage of the opportunity of E-commerce in China.
So this week I read chapter two of my book and it was about the rising oil consumption and pollution due to the automobile industry. Basically the chapter was talking about how many more cars there are on the road now, and how much it is increasing. The first half of the chapter was about the implications of the rising oil consumption and the second half was about the effects of rising pollution. In the first half the author gave a lot of evidence that the auto industry is increasing in China. There was a graph showing how many cars are sold each year in China since 1990 and it stays relatively flat until 2002 when the growth rate started to climb incredibly fast. Then the author used that data to predict a bunch of options for oil consumption in 2020 and these predictions range from about a half a million barrels a day to 124 million barrels a day. The second half of the chapter talked about the air pollution in China from cars and talked about how bad their standards are for emission control. Basically they are about 10 years behind Europe and even further behind the US. one of the biggest problems for emission controls is that they have dirty fuels which make counter measures less effective. That was pretty much all about chapter 2.
@ Winston: So it sounds like China is experiencing an internet bubble similar to the one that the US went through in the '90s. It would be interesting to see what the sales numbers were for 2010, I wonder how much they have grown. I also wonder how much the government has impacted the use of internet shopping in the past vs now.
My reading this week contains the progression of Science and Technology in China. In 1999, the Chinese government held a national conference on technological innovation. The intent was to promote the development, application, and commercialization of new technologies. This initiative has rapidly increased China's Science and Technology advancements. According the the National Bureau of Statistics of China 2006, Exports of high-technology products increased from $37 billion in 2000 to a wopping $218 billion in a short five years. Although there has been great achievements in China's S&T development, rapid increases in patent applications, R&D expenses, and the increasing scale of high-tech enterprises have created some challenges. 1. The inability to determine intellectual property rights have really restricted the industry. 2. China has introduced too many advanced technologies to begin to acknowledge. 3. China's ability for industrial innovation hasn't been able to keep up with other developed countries.
Lastly, I found it interesting that the ratio of technology introduced for investment in Chinese enterprises was 1:0.15 while the ratio for Japan and Korea was 1:5 - 1:8. (Ma and Wang, 2006).
Week 8 - My book is talking about the retail and exhibition industry. The Chinese retail industry is in its growth period right now. It has rapid expansion right now, but people know that eventually the upper end of the market where foreign-invested enterprises are will eventually take over because they have the clear competitive advantage. The Chinese-owned retail enterprises mainly expand at the lower end of the market. Chinese shoppers have become more educated and more picky in their shopping. The entry of foreign retail firms has transformed the nature and structure of ownership and competition in the industry. In addition, the competition is increasing within the retail industry has made the market from a sellers market to a consumers market, resulting in the changes of the relative bargaining power among suppliers, retailers, and consumers. The retail stores are learning from the Western retailers. This requires strategi management as well as money at the operation level - a pool of skills and competence that the industry has yet to develop, but is making steps in that direction.
Winston - Wow the growth of that is amazing, and i bet it has grone a lot since then. It is amazing to think of 4 billion dollars, and how the internet is changing the business world over there.
I too think its very interesting that Chinese were taught how to fight even if they were farmers. This whole military mindset can definitely been seen all throughout China. Chinese definitely fight for what they want whether it be in an actual war or a mind war. In my book it also mentions how Chinese kids are taught since they are kids how to fight and win a war. Thanks for the information it should be useful once we get to China!
Myth: Chinese people don't really like foreigner however polite they may be on the surface. The old view of 'yang guizi!' (foreign devils!) remains in the psyche. You can't do anything about this-just put up with it.
Reality: There is some truth to this myth, especially with Chinese that are less educated and have had less contact with foreigners. Throughout history the US has been seen as a power that doesn't care about others and that want get to the top no matter who they have to step on. But now days this ideas has faded away because the new generation of Chinese have embraced business with Americans and don't carry with them all the prejudice that their ancestors do. It is the older generation of Chinese that mainly have the greatest prejudice but if you can show them that you are trustworthy and build your "face" with them, then they will learn to respect you.
Foreigners have a huge misconception that a mispronounced phrase in Chinese could turn a simple sentence into an insult. People believe that the slightest misstep would ruin a deal, but its was the furthest thing from the trust. In many cases the Chinese have laughed at people for making mistakes , but when it came down to it, a good deal is a deal. The Chinese are business people and know what is the right thing to do. Chinese manufactures do not care one way or another about gifts; they care about making orders and getting deals. Offerings cant make a bad deal look good. China is full of wannabes, and there were many agents who pretend to be manufactures when in reality they are not. Many Chinese factories are specialize in making many of the counterfeit products we see on our streets today. The author explains how many times when importers came with business and had tours of the manufactures they met online, many of times the show rooms were literally, “SHOW-ROOMS”, and the products that were being displayed were not even made there. They had to fool customers into thinking they were already in motion. Just one purchase order and the factory would work out the rest:)
@haslel I'm so glad that the our posting are kind of similar. Change is good and a new generation of chinese people embracing business with america has helped. Many of the older generations (not only china) in different societies have had had prejudice feelings towards foreigners, but with every generation comes with its own way of thinking. Since we're moving into more of a global economy trade with foreigners has increased and globalization is happening. So people are naturally becoming more acceptable to other peoples and cultures. Its either get used to globalization or get left behind.:)
my reading for this week talked about the changing face of accounting management in china. One issue that they deal with is accuracy of information. This in turn affects accounting practices negatively. The book offers that in order for China to make progress, they should model their accounting practices against those of the US. The problem with that is however is that because of the different cultural practices, their business approaches can end up with practices deviating from ours
As I am reading on in my book, I have found out that many of the villages in China have existed for hundreds of years. Some of them even have existed almost one thousand years. One of the reasons that these villages have lasted so long is that many of the families have not moved but stayed in the same relative spot. One exception to this is that recently or around the time that this book was published, many of the young people are leaving their villages in order to seek a western education. Some of the countries that these people travel include Canada, the US, and the UK. Many of them do return to their respective villages and obtain jobs there.
ReplyDeleteThere was an extremely interesting section in my book about the population of China. I've always thought that it's strange that you can't ever get a solid number on the population of China. My book keeps saying "1.3 to 1.5 billion population" and "90 million to 300 million migrants." The official census says that the population is 1.3 billion, however economists (or whoever) say that the level of grain consumed far exceeds the needs of 1.3 billion people. The people missing from this census are literally hiding in the crowd. These could either be children whose existence, if known to authorities, would threaten the livelihoods of their parents. It could also be farmers who are migrating through the country without official permission or it could be debtors who cannot go back home. While China is known for their massive population and people see it as one of China's greatest assets, it can also be seen as a huge threat to its prosperity. The millions of people who are just "floating" around are all people who legally ought to be one place but are not, or who ought to have one job but have a different one, or who are simply just roving around the nation as potentially extremely disruptive and uncontrollable.
ReplyDelete@Josh: an interesting point that my book makes is that these ancient villages/cities are growing extremely rapidly, almost to the point that they cannot handle the huge influx of migrants. The book says that China can develop a city the size of Chicago or Los Angeles in just a few short years. It's so difficult to imagine THAT many people living there! And, if you look at a map, you can see that only a very small portion of China is actually inhabited.
ReplyDeleteThe last chapter that I read talked about the major problems that the United States' automobile industry is facing and how China and other countries overseas are taking over the market dominance. The chapter ended off on a harsh and somewhat pitied note, but the current chapter I am reading started off with a lot more excitement and hope when it comes to market dominance. The chapter that I read was talking about the computer industry and essentially contrasting our success in that industry with our failure in the other industry. The author of the book seems to think that our innovative leadership in the computer technology field is a great example of how we should be innovating in every field.
ReplyDeleteWe have dominance in almost every computer sector, and our major companies such as Dell and IBM are constantly researching micro and nano technology that helps to keep us on the leading edge. It is a market that China, as well as other parts of Asia and Europe are having to scramble to keep up in. The situation that we find ourselves in is not all good, because one of the main reasons the United States is doing so well is through outsourcing and keeping costs low. This essentially drains jobs from our country, which can get worrying.
All in all, on the technological forefront we, as a country are still doing fine. In order to keep from suffering the fate of the car industry we just need to make sure that we keep innovating and being open to change.
Brittany:
ReplyDeleteThat is probably one the most interesting facts that I've read in these blogs. Usually you don't think past the figures that you're given in books or things that you read, but to try and understand what those figures actually mean is interesting. It makes a whole lot of sense, especially in a country that is oppressed in the ways that it is, for people to be unwilling to want to be formally recorded on a government census. There are no doubt people in our country that go unnoticed or accounted for, but I can only imagine the great amount that remain unaccounted in China and how much that number will increase as the years go on. If we didn't think China had a lot of people to begin with, now we know that there are more of them aiding in their country's growth every day
The main theme of this chapter in my book is that China's economic influence and military might has increased relative to its neighbors, and they have not taken an interest at trying to stay ahead of them. Also, China is becoming the largest trade partner and most popular place to invest in the region. Historically that position was for the U.S., but now China has surpassed us in that area.
ReplyDeleteA couple specific examples of China's advanced economic influence were given. The first instance was when South Korea raised tariffs on Chinese garlic, the Chinese retaliated with much more tariffs on key South Korean exports. But South Korea was essentially powerless to re-retaliate because China is such an important trade partner. They ended up having to relent their tariffs and strike an agreement with China. And the second was a similar incident with Japan, with the same result.
So basically the regional powers are simply "accommodating" China's new position, and they are not taking aggressive steps to keep the historic balance of power in the region.
@ Brittany J.
ReplyDeleteI've had a couple questions mulling around in my mind about China's population too. Like what is China going to do when all the natural resources in China are completely used up? Is their vast population going to suffer terribly? Or are they going to expand mercilessly to take care of their national interests? Are they going to contend for world domination? I don't really think they would try that last one, but I still have to wonder what they will do when they run out of resources, at least to keep expanding like they are.
My portion of the book this week talked about the Art of War written by Sunzi, the date it was written is argued by many but according to an expert in my book it was written after the time of Confucius during a time of great war. That would make since to me. This chapter talked a lot about the changes that occurred to the structure of Chines military during that time. They became more structured and led my more trained and qualified individuals, the soldiers where more trained as well as apposed to before just being farmers and presents garbed off the farm and told to fight. They compared and contrasted this to the evolution of management in modern corporations. This was one of the more interesting chapters I have read so far.
ReplyDelete@ Brittany
ReplyDeleteThat is really interesting I never thought of it like that. To me it always seemed that China's large population was nothing but an asset, being such a large work force and paying taxes in to the government. It never occured to me that it could also be a liability to the country and actually make it easier for illegals and criminals to hide.
This week I read chapter 6. One thing that I found it interesting is the way of thinking difference between western and eastern. This difference is obvious. Western people prefer to make things straight forward; however, eastern people would like to illustrate things euphemistically. The different way of thinking between Chinese and German brought problems to communication especially in the translation process. For example, there is a dialog in the book between the German and the Chinese, and it said “Mr. Fei explained in his Chinese way of responding: ‘we have tried to talk to XYZ about this,’ and ‘We have tried to coordinate this with such and such a department…’… Finally, Mr. Paul lost his patience: ‘I don’t want to hear about trying, I want a straight answer: a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’” As a result we can see the Germans like fast facts, but the Chinese prefer roundabout approach. This kind of characteristic not only exists in communication but also showed in business. In later of this chapter, it talked about Germans concern about the result of a project, but the Chinese are more interested in solving problem in different process.
ReplyDeleteThe roundabout approach is still existed in the Chinese society today. Chinese do not prefer to bring things straight forward because some of facts are hard to speak up. We feel like roundabout approach one thing sometimes is easier for people to accept.
@ Brittany
ReplyDeleteI think the number of China's population is quite correct. Since Chinese government realizes the huge number of population could be a problem in the future, Chinese government set up a policy that people in the city can only have one child. Although you may not see how this policy works at the moment, I believe it can decrease Chinese population in the next ten years.
@lauren. I totally agree with what the book says. In order to get ahead in life, one must work for it. With the auto industry, it seems like America is content with where it is and is not putting forth the effort that it can. With computers, we are never satisfied and want ones that are faster and smarter than what we have. We must have the want to get ahead if we are to get there.
ReplyDeleteChapter 5 is talking about “Joint Ventures.” It is important for foreign investors to find a good partner, so they need to ask the following questions:
ReplyDelete1.Is the Chinese joint-venture partner an entity enjoying full registered legal status under Chinese law?
2.What type of ownership is involved—state, collective or private?
3.What advantages and disadvantages does the particular type of ownership enterprise offer the prospective joint venture partner?
After reading the chapter, I understood what is the different between state, collective, and private enterprises.
State-owned enterprises have a lot of skilled workers, full of technological expertise, and the support of the government in terms of raw materials and financial resources. But they have low effectiveness and heavy financial burden of employees’ welfare provisions because of offering a full array of material necessities such as medical insurance, housing, childcare, schooling and entertainment.
Collective-owned enterprises have organizational flexibility combined with an element of government support, good appreciation of market-orientation and a relatively high degree of production effectiveness. But they have less direct government support, while worker quality, technological expertise and overall performance may also vary significantly from one organization to the next.
Private-owned enterprises have high effectiveness. They are generally free from bureaucratic interference. They have the flexibility to hire and fire staff and a strong sense of a market-orientation. They don’t need to have heavy financial burden of employees’ welfare program. However, they have trouble obtaining the necessary operational resources for production from the government.
In China the more you know about different types of enterprises, the more likely you are to choose a suitable partner.
@Joshua
ReplyDeleterural population is moving to city rapidly in the recent year because of the high education and salary in city.
fast economy growing and currency revaluation
leads more and more young Chinese leaving their villages in order to seek a western education.
After learing western education, the young will have more opportunity to find a good job when they return to their respective villages because villages need these kinds of talents who know western technology, education, and English.
Shanshan Zhang
ReplyDeletethis chapter talks about the education in Dongguan China. Many young people cut short their schooling to go to work in factories. Also, it talks about the Chinese economy were changing very fast, but the education system was not keeping up. The author also visited many schools. She found out that many schools have the same curriculum, and she thinks that it was likely that they copied it from somewhere. Furthermore, she described how the schools looked like, how the schools were hard for students, how the schools sold fake diplomas, and how bad the environment of education was. The author mentioned a nice book calls Square and Round. I really like some of the thoughts from this book:
Shaking hands: a handshake that releases immediately on contact show your indifference to the other person.
Paying brides: try not to get into the habit of giving someone something every time he helps you.
Bargaining: ask the price of expensive clothes first if you want to buy cheap ones.
Helping others: do not accept thank-you gifts and thank-you dinners…i would rather people remember my favors to them and the debt they owe me.
It really teaches me something that is not from the school
@Joshua
ReplyDeleteI think the villages are like homes for many people who born there. Also, its like a property that their ancestors left for them.
This chapter of the book describes the way in which Americans behave during negotiations internationally. The American negotiation style differs from those of other culture. It states that the typical behavior of American negotiators are impatient, poor listener, or argumentative, but not every American is like that, but many encounters difficulties during international negotiations.
ReplyDeleteThese are some ways in which American behave in any negotiation situations. First, they think that they should go alone because it shows strength and also to get the full credit for success, but it doesn’t work in the Chinese negotiation table because the need of approval and agreement of others which can have effects on the negotiation outcomes. Another American thinking is that there is no need for learning a foreign language, because everyone most know some English. The reality is that this is a disadvantage for the American, because during negotiation Chinese executives would sometimes have interpreters even though they know very good English. This allows the executives to have time to think and create responses during the translation process which could be a very big disadvantage at the negotiation table.
The book mention other American negotiation style which are or can be in disadvantage for themselves.
@ Shan Shan
ReplyDeletethe education sounds like is not good for the country, because then there is less intellectual people in the working without knowing what they had to learn in school. I do think that has changed since now school in China are stricter and harder on the students. The students have to study hard to be able to persue a higher education.
I like the thoughts you shared with us from the book. So every time we do something we can thing about the meaning each action has to others and also use it to our advantage. :)
in my book this week i read about the relationships between products and who are the top buyers in china. the book was talking about how the men products have a higher sell rate than the women's. witch is weird because just about everywhere in the world the women are the more dominent shoppers. they sad it is because the men have more control over who spends the money in the house hold. i thought all this to be very interesting. how that role in life still very much exists.
ReplyDelete@ Lauren
ReplyDeleteLauren i am really jealous of your book because it talks about cars. and i did not know that we are the leading the computer world. i actually always thought that China and a lot of parts in asia were very well off and developed int the technology seeing how they make everything we sell over here. but thats cool sounds like a good book i am interested to read more
Tyler:
ReplyDeleteI never realized men had such an influence in the shopping in China. I guess one factor is also that it is a male-dominated country, since families prefer having a boy due to the one-child law. Do you think that women aren't as free to go shopping whenever they want like women in the US are? I mean, are they allowed to go without the consent of their husbands, or must they always get permission? I think it's good that Chinese men have a bit more control over the spending of the family income, because it may reduce the amount of debt that they get into. Hmm... anyway, that was an interesting concept.
Chapter 6
ReplyDelete"Selling Ethnicity- The Naxi"
The Naxi are a minority group that live in the Lijiang region of China. Because they have been living in LIjiang for many years, the Naxi people have become accustomed to the Han culture. The term they used in the book was "Hanicized". Lijiang used to be just fields, over the years souvenir shops were opened , and the city square was built. Lijiang became a main tourist attraction. It seemed as if the Naxi culture have lost their culture over the years. Hardly anyone speaks the Naxi language and they don't wear the traditional clothing, The old town of Lijiang was being commercialized. It had the same restuarants and shops as any other city. A lot of the vendors aren't even local Naxi people, because of the tourism they "set up shop" in Lijiang to make money, while claiming the Naxi traditions.
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting, I would have thought it was the other way around. I guess it is a good thing that one person is in charge of their spending, they are less likely to get into debt. But, I also think it should be either the husband or wife, not limited to just the husband. But I also understand that it is apart of their tradition.
@Diana
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting and somewhat humorous about how you stated that Chinese executives during negotiations will have translators even if they know good English. Thus, allowing them more time to process their thoughts and think of a good response. This is very cunning and clever of them and I feel like would be a huge advantage to them. Sometimes Americans can just be so unknowing.
Shanshan:
ReplyDeleteThat is amazing about how the schools are there. Selling fake diplomas and stuff. That would be a little more difficult here. Also, people dropping out of school to begin working in the factories. That is much like many of Americans. They drop out of High school to begin working, but rarely go far within their career. I wonder what some of the statistics on education are for China vs. USA.
Also, those were some good tips on. Although I would find it hard to not let someone thank me for something I did. Anyway, very interesting.
This week in my book, Chan (the author) describes some of the preliminary steps in breaking into the Chinese market.
ReplyDeleteFirst one must to get to know the local mindset in order to gain expertise and local support. Then, to determine potential, one must conduct market research. Market research can be done by a large research company, but Chan seemed against this way of conduct. He notes that these services are expensive and typically only give you a small percentage of the information that is actually pertinent to your business. Also, he says that many of these services are lazy and not trustworthy. Therefore he suggest either building a relationship with an established research firm, or conduct your own research.
When one conducts his or her own research there is a gateway formed that one can not receive from a research company. You can get to know your potential customers, suppliers, and retailers and begin to build a business relationship before the product is introduced. Most importantly, when conducting self research, one is able to truly see first hand the need —or lack of—for the product.
Either way, decide which way will provide you with the best, most useful, and accurate results for your research.
This week my book was talking about the issues as far as the workforce in China. China's economy is growing at an incredible speed. Business leaders are having a lot of problems finding middle management level skills. Because of the Cultural revolution in 1966-76. The people 45-65 were deprived of education. There are many graduates and entry level positions but mid level professionals are very scarce. It's hard to find someone with enough experience to oversee all the new workers.
ReplyDelete@Daily
ReplyDeleteI wonder how they compared the evolution of modern management to Chines change in military. That should have been interesting. Nevertheless, sounds like a good mixture of economics and history.
Ozzie,
ReplyDeleteI had never thought of it from that perspective but in my book it talks about alot of the revolution and lack of education. Since so many people came to America to get their education everyone that did is one somewhat of a level playing field. So right now China does not have much of a diverse amount of management. This could a hinderance because then maybe people who are not quite as qualified would being doing jobs that experienced people should be doing. Unfortunately they do not have those older experienced people because of the revolution. Never really thought about that make sense though.
While I was doing some reading in my book it has been really focused on the internet and what is has and is doing for China as a whole. One portion was talking about E-commerce. In 1998 China only generated $8 million of revenues. That may sound not that bad, but compare that to close to $4 BILLION in 2003. And since my book is a little older it doesn't have numbers for today but I am sure that this number has grow at an exponential rate. The E-commerce has helped bring products to China and help people have more of an option. In the past when they went to go get products they had to go to the clerk desk and the clerk filled out a triplicate form. Then the customer moved to a different station to pay and then a different one to pick up a purchase. So having the ability to order things online with such a seamless experience is such a great thing for China. This area has tons of potential and people are beginning to take advantage of the opportunity of E-commerce in China.
ReplyDeleteSo this week I read chapter two of my book and it was about the rising oil consumption and pollution due to the automobile industry. Basically the chapter was talking about how many more cars there are on the road now, and how much it is increasing. The first half of the chapter was about the implications of the rising oil consumption and the second half was about the effects of rising pollution. In the first half the author gave a lot of evidence that the auto industry is increasing in China. There was a graph showing how many cars are sold each year in China since 1990 and it stays relatively flat until 2002 when the growth rate started to climb incredibly fast. Then the author used that data to predict a bunch of options for oil consumption in 2020 and these predictions range from about a half a million barrels a day to 124 million barrels a day. The second half of the chapter talked about the air pollution in China from cars and talked about how bad their standards are for emission control. Basically they are about 10 years behind Europe and even further behind the US. one of the biggest problems for emission controls is that they have dirty fuels which make counter measures less effective. That was pretty much all about chapter 2.
ReplyDelete@ Winston:
ReplyDeleteSo it sounds like China is experiencing an internet bubble similar to the one that the US went through in the '90s. It would be interesting to see what the sales numbers were for 2010, I wonder how much they have grown. I also wonder how much the government has impacted the use of internet shopping in the past vs now.
My reading this week contains the progression of Science and Technology in China.
ReplyDeleteIn 1999, the Chinese government held a national conference on technological innovation. The intent was to promote the development, application, and commercialization of new technologies.
This initiative has rapidly increased China's Science and Technology advancements. According the the National Bureau of Statistics of China 2006, Exports of high-technology products increased from $37 billion in 2000 to a wopping $218 billion in a short five years.
Although there has been great achievements in China's S&T development, rapid increases in patent applications, R&D expenses, and the increasing scale of high-tech enterprises have created some challenges.
1. The inability to determine intellectual property rights have really restricted the industry.
2. China has introduced too many advanced technologies to begin to acknowledge.
3. China's ability for industrial innovation hasn't been able to keep up with other developed countries.
Lastly, I found it interesting that the ratio of technology introduced for investment in Chinese enterprises was 1:0.15 while the ratio for Japan and Korea was 1:5 - 1:8. (Ma and Wang, 2006).
Week 8 - My book is talking about the retail and exhibition industry. The Chinese retail industry is in its growth period right now. It has rapid expansion right now, but people know that eventually the upper end of the market where foreign-invested enterprises are will eventually take over because they have the clear competitive advantage. The Chinese-owned retail enterprises mainly expand at the lower end of the market. Chinese shoppers have become more educated and more picky in their shopping. The entry of foreign retail firms has transformed the nature and structure of ownership and competition in the industry. In addition, the competition is increasing within the retail industry has made the market from a sellers market to a consumers market, resulting in the changes of the relative bargaining power among suppliers, retailers, and consumers. The retail stores are learning from the Western retailers. This requires strategi management as well as money at the operation level - a pool of skills and competence that the industry has yet to develop, but is making steps in that direction.
ReplyDeleteWinston - Wow the growth of that is amazing, and i bet it has grone a lot since then. It is amazing to think of 4 billion dollars, and how the internet is changing the business world over there.
ReplyDelete@ Michael Daily
ReplyDeleteI too think its very interesting that Chinese were taught how to fight even if they were farmers. This whole military mindset can definitely been seen all throughout China. Chinese definitely fight for what they want whether it be in an actual war or a mind war. In my book it also mentions how Chinese kids are taught since they are kids how to fight and win a war. Thanks for the information it should be useful once we get to China!
Myth 6: The Chinese are irrationally xenophobic
ReplyDeleteMyth: Chinese people don't really like foreigner however polite they may be on the surface. The old view of 'yang guizi!' (foreign devils!) remains in the psyche. You can't do anything about this-just put up with it.
Reality: There is some truth to this myth, especially with Chinese that are less educated and have had less contact with foreigners. Throughout history the US has been seen as a power that doesn't care about others and that want get to the top no matter who they have to step on. But now days this ideas has faded away because the new generation of Chinese have embraced business with Americans and don't carry with them all the prejudice that their ancestors do. It is the older generation of Chinese that mainly have the greatest prejudice but if you can show them that you are trustworthy and build your "face" with them, then they will learn to respect you.
Foreigners have a huge misconception that a mispronounced phrase in Chinese could turn a simple sentence into an insult. People believe that the slightest misstep would ruin a deal, but its was the furthest thing from the trust. In many cases the Chinese have laughed at people for making mistakes , but when it came down to it, a good deal is a deal. The Chinese are business people and know what is the right thing to do. Chinese manufactures do not care one way or another about gifts; they care about making orders and getting deals. Offerings cant make a bad deal look good.
ReplyDeleteChina is full of wannabes, and there were many agents who pretend to be manufactures when in reality they are not. Many Chinese factories are specialize in making many of the counterfeit products we see on our streets today. The author explains how many times when importers came with business and had tours of the manufactures they met online, many of times the show rooms were literally, “SHOW-ROOMS”, and the products that were being displayed were not even made there. They had to fool customers into thinking they were already in motion. Just one purchase order and the factory would work out the rest:)
@haslel
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that the our posting are kind of similar. Change is good and a new generation of chinese people embracing business with america has helped. Many of the older generations (not only china) in different societies have had had prejudice feelings towards foreigners, but with every generation comes with its own way of thinking. Since we're moving into more of a global economy trade with foreigners has increased and globalization is happening. So people are naturally becoming more acceptable to other peoples and cultures. Its either get used to globalization or get left behind.:)
my reading for this week talked about the changing face of accounting management in china. One issue that they deal with is accuracy of information. This in turn affects accounting practices negatively. The book offers that in order for China to make progress, they should model their accounting practices against those of the US. The problem with that is however is that because of the different cultural practices, their business approaches can end up with practices deviating from ours
ReplyDelete@grant
ReplyDeleteI like how our readings are along the same lines. China needs to modernize their practices according to the US in order to be successful.