A number of firms enter the Chinese market primarily because it’s a wide open place to test, gather feedback and refine their technology. Case in point — people in the PRC change cell phones much more often than is the case here in the US; yet, many Chinese may make less money. Why is that? Is this openness and fixation with new technology and gadgets cultural? Historical? Economically driven? Other? Whatever the reason, it makes China a haven for testing new cell phone ideas, styles, brands and technologies.

Here are two good pieces that touch on the topic of technology adaptation in China:

Wall Street Journal, Motorola Dials In To China’s Under-30 Set.

China Business Network Podcast, Interview with Cat Rust, Founder and Director of Catalist Group.

Self-explanatory pieces. Good stuff.

Oh, and the “great sex” part of the title of this post? I just put that in there after reading a recent article that suggests that the word “sex” pulls in more readers to a blog post than other monikers. If that was the reason you read this post … gotcha.

You may have seen the movie, No Country For Old Men. If not, check it out. This film is an example of why movies get made and why I they hook me (the good ones, that is). Amazing film and acting. Amazing. No silly, happy, pandering, unrealistic Hollywood ending that plays on people’s desire to feel good at the end of the story so they will keep coming back to the theater and spending money, so triple amazing.

If you saw that film, you perhaps noticed and maybe heard about lead actor Josh Brolin’s request that the film’s director get a shot of a fellow actor on a bridge wearing a “Templeton Eagles” jacket. Brolin went to middle school in local Templeton, and he did this as a nod to his time and friendships there.

Click on this YouTube clip and you can see a similar Oscar award winning cameo sweatshirt appearance pimping the Cal Poly Orfalea College of Business from some of our guanxi in Guangzhou — Lonnie Hodge and David DeGeest of the China Dream Blog for Charity Project.

David, a Grinnell College gradaute, was in a contest which put him in the running to be one of the few foreign expats in China who got to carry the Olympic torch for a few meters this upcoming summer (for more info see my prior blog post Vote For David DeGeest!).

Okay, so maybe this YouTube shot is not as dramatic as the No Country For Old Men scene I note above, but I had to make a link to acting and the Oscar in some way to spice this post up a bit.

And while you are at it, check out their limited edition items for silent auction (gifts of Olympic pins and coins from Lenovo, which David won through coming in as a runner-up in the Olympic torch carrying contest). The funds from this silent auction will go to their charity project, it’s a great cause, and these are good fellows. Click here jump in and bid. You can bid on anything (but leave the pins for me!). Let the bidding begin!

I am taking time off for Christmas to get away from work and be with my family in heart, body and mind. I will start posting again in another week, maybe two if the football bowl games are good and capture my attention. Until then … I hope you can still hear the bells of Christmas ring because you still see the world with the wonder of a child and believe in all that is good and true.

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!

Ahh, the presidential race is upon us. In the primaries we will watch candidates in the from both sides morph into extremists and take absurd positions to pander to their base, and then in the general election we will see them sprint back to the political middle as fast as they possibly can onto safer, politically moderate ground. (As the Talking Heads so famously sang, ‘same as it ever was‘.)

I had high hopes for Obama to stand strong and lead. Still do. But today he showed he is human, not immune from this crazy process, and can make the mistake of pandering using fear with the best of them.

Check out this NY Times article, Obama and Clinton Touch on International Issues, where he calls for the banning of all toy imports from China.

What?

China. Today’s big, bad boogeyman used to whip up hysteria and votes in middle America Iowa and East Coast New Hampshire. Just what America needs right now — more decision making and analysis based on fear, half-truths, no data, protectionism and at times mild or severe xenophobia. China seems to be the one issue now the unites the most conservative and the most liberal of the American electorate — the Neo-conservative crazies on the right and the Protectionist nutcases on the left.

Obama-man, I don’t know what were you thinking on this one — do you really believe this or do you not understand global business and trade? If the former, you are as smart guy and a bright light and we need you to check back into reality. If the latter, please fire the Harvard stuffed-shit- staffer that planted this silly idea for a sound bite into your camp’s head.

December 24, 200 update: Well, the bell was rung, but it appears that a few days later Obama-man stepped back from the precipice and checked back into mission control and reality. According to this Reuters article Obama Retreats From Call For China Toy - Import Ban Obama “stepped back from a pledge to halt U.S. imports of Chinese-made toys because of safety concerns.” Instead, he has “reiterated his longstanding call for barring toys with more than a trace amount of lead” and called for doubling “the funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission.” Not as strong of a backtrack as I would have liked, but better than nothing. I’ll take it.

As a follow up to Rob’s recent good post, Three Gorges Dam, Current Issues With Historical Context, here is a relevant and related front page WSJ article from a few days ago, Dissent Slows China’s Drive for Massive Dam Projects.

The most interesting and important part of the article, in my view:

In other countries, public debates over dam projects have proved to be turning points in how a society treats environmental issues, says Andrew Mertha, a politics professor at Washington University in St. Louis and author of a forthcoming book on Chinese dams. In the U.S., for example, a 1963 government proposal to build dams on the Colorado River, in the area of the Grand Canyon, unleashed an outpouring of opposition. In 1967, the government abandoned the plan. Many scholars now date the decline of large-scale dam-building in the U.S. to that event.

Cal Poly’s Dr. Morris and his history colleagues across the world are dead on. It all starts with knowing history. Can’t see what lies ahead tomorrow and appreciate its import in any country unless you know something about the past.

See also this related WSJ article, China Eco-Watchdog Gets Teeth. A sign that Beijing is becoming more emboldened?

December 31, 2007 addendum: I knew it! Those darn Canadians are to blame for all of this. See today’s WSJ article, Canada’s Aid Seeded China Dam.

A number of you read Sun Tzu’s classic, The Art of War for your Fall quarter book review and discussed how it applies to business.

Go a few steps deeper in your analysis and knowledge of that wonderful book, and check out this must read NY Times article, The Newest Mandarins, discussing that book and its resurrection in Chinese business schools and society

Good stuff.

I love the Big Iz and his music. I was bummed, really bummed, when the he died at the young age of 38 a few years back. He was a music and Hawaiian icon. I especially like his song, White Sandy Beach In Hawaii. Tears come to my eyes when I hear that song. Check out his music. You won’t regret it. His rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow is, for my money, the best ever made.

Hawaii used to be filled with Japanese tourists. Not so much anymore. And, they are being replaced by Chinese with money — loads of it.

See this Honolulu Star Bulletin article, US-Chinese Pact To Boost Tourism.

Any interest in moving to Hawaii, a paradise if there ever was such a place, and make a living servicing this soon to be burgeoning Chinese tourist clientle? Would that lot in life be worse than driving being stuck in traffic on the way to work everyday on the 405, 101 or 280? If you wanted to jump in on this, how would you do it?

See also these related China Business Network podcasts:

• The 2007 WTM-ChinaContact Future of Travel Forum

• The Online Travel Market in China

Braddah Iz, we miss you ….

Harsh language, I know. I wanted to get your attention.

One pattern I often see in discussions in and outside campus re: China and its many problems, is a lack of appreciation for how Beijing has its hands full trying to control its various provinces, so as a nation it can get some things in order.

E.g., refer back to some of my blog posts such as Canary in a Coal Mine: And the Feds in Washington DC Don’t Think Our States Show Them the Love on dams, coal and coal mines, other, etc.

And here is another ‘Exhibit A’ that highlights Beijing’s dilemma in this regard and just how rebellious and disobedient some of these provinces can be:

NY Times, Far From Beijing’s Reach, Officials Bend Energy Rules.

So to appreciate this issue and deepen learning, let’s personalize things a bit.

What is an example, in your past or current personal or professional life, where a request or mandate was given to you by a higher authority in your organization (or to others you knew or worked with) and you either intentionally ignored said request or tried to find a way around it, or saw others or other departments in the organization try to do so, because it personally benefited you (or them) to do so?

What theory have you studied in one or more of your classes explains this phenomenon?

Why does it happen over and over and over again in business organizations?

What, if anything, can be done to eliminate or curb it?

What type of a person/business leader has the best chance of eliminating or curbing this in his/her business organization?

Discuss. And welcome to the reality and difficulty of business, which the business bashers of the world don’t appreciate — they think we just wave a magic wand in our organizations and all proceeds smoothly and people/departments/units happily skip along and do what they are asked.

You would also be seriously mistaken to contend that we do not have these same types of power grab and disobediance issues between the feds and the provinces (here, though, we call them states) in in the US. See, e.g., this WSJ article, Backlash Endangers California Pot Dispensaries.

An interesting podcast here by Christine Lu of the Chinese Business Network with Greg Bissky of Treasure Mountain Consulting, The Three Types of Westerners in China.

A very good podcast. Self-explanatory. Check it out.

Which type of Westerner are you now, which do you think you will be in China, and which one do you think you will be when you return home? Be honest in your self assessment. I am not asking you to engage in wishful thinking, but realistic and honest thinking and self-assessment.

You can also pick up some good pointers for your future business career (e.g., what types of things should you be aware of as you manage, motivate and lead Chinese employees in your organization) and trips to Asia from this CBN podcast, The Role of Face in Chinese Business Culture.

Submitted By: Simeon Trieu

Beijing Reorganizes Olympic Ticket Sales: Olympic Ticketing Director Is Replaced

Now is not a good time to screw up.

Unfortunately for Mr. Rong Jun, the director of Beijing’s ticketing operations, the ticketing system that was supposed to distribute 1.8 million tickets for the Beijing Olympic Committee (Bocog) sales event crashed before even processing 9,000. It was reported that the system was only equipped to handle 200,000 requests per hour. However, when the flood gates opened, consumers gushed into the site, purchasing tickets at a rate of 150,000 requests per second.

Mr. Rong Jun was recently replaced by Mr. Zhu Yan. Any guess as to why?

Mr. Zhu has not commented on why he succeeded Mr. Rong, however, from a little deduction, we can guess that it was because of the ticketing fiasco. China knows that the eyes of the world are on them, and this fiasco will not reflect well on their image. They cannot afford to screw up and will not tolerate anything that tarnishes the country’s image.

Similarly, for China’s space program in Sichuan, they are looking for ways to impress the world and establish dominance in Asia, as Japan tried to do not too long ago in World War II (except China is not resorting to military force… yet). But does the world world care, as Rob Belloni has said in “Government Promises and 2008 Olympics”?

Now is the time for China to prove itself as a world power. Throughout the modern Chinese history after the fall of the Qing dynasty, they have been exploited and looked down upon by the Western powers. Going from one of the richest nations in the world to one of the poorest (as Andrew Morris in his China lecture has said) has put them at a major disadvantage in the world. However, they are struggling to get their position back… and winning according to Deloitte Consulting (see bar graph entitled “History Share of Global GDP”). As the US middle class shrinks and China and India’s middle class grows, maybe we should care what China is doing?