It’s Called the Forbidden City for a Reason
January 20th, 2007
Great article on the Starbucks in the Forbidden City in Beijing (and the power of blogging) in Friday’s Wall Street Journal. We will visit the Forbidden City on our trip.
Is this an example of globalization, or, the erosion of Chinese culture?
I am also curious … if you were the person at Starbucks who had to make the call re: whether to put that store in the Forbidden City in the first place, what would you have decided, and why? What if you were the person at Starbucks with this flap now sitting on your desk — what call would you make re: keeping this store in place or removing it, and why? Oh, and by the way, after your boss at Starbucks gives you one of these tasks, he/she says as you head out the door at the end of your meeting “Make a good decision. Don’t screw this up,” and that’s all the guidance you receive. To help your analysis here is a related WSJ article, Starbucks Pours It On In China, which will help you learn more about Starbucks’ strategy in China.
Welcome to being a manager and a decision maker in business, where this mess is now on your desk to own and clean up (or screw up to the detriment of your career), and not the underling below doing the grunt work who gets to go home at 5:00 pm.!
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, Beijing, China, Misc.
3 Comments Add your own
1. Juma Kamao | January 21st, 2007 at 9:35 am
I can understand the profit starbucks will lose by losing its site at Forbiden City. But there is one important lesson that almost all western corporations are NOT taught in class or otherwise; i.e: respecting the local cultures.
There is this cocky and a purely ignorant attitude of most of the Managers of these companies from Europe and America, that the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE IS MONEY and in particular PROFIT. However, this is not true for most part of the world out there. What matters most for most people out there (out of the west) are cultural respect and dignity.
And that is exactly what the Chinese want from the starbuck. Quitting the Forbiden City is a sign of cultural respect and that is what starbuck should do willingly. Otherwise, (if not) starbuck may find itself losing almost everything in China because this campaign CAN EASILY LEAD TO A COMPLETE BOYCOT of starbucks coffee in China! If anyone doubts this ascertion, let him/her ask Japanese companies operating in China what happened to them sometimes back!! China is China and Chinese can be a lot of trouble if they want to! Mind you, this campaign is being led by a media professional! Quit forbiden City OR Lose China!!
2. LONNIE | January 21st, 2007 at 9:52 am
My friend Dezza at Mask of China in Hong Kong gives a no nonsense picture of the issue here: http://www.maskofchina.com/hk/2007/01/trampling-in-china-not-new-thing.html
The formidaqble Peking Duck weighed in on this too: http://www.pekingduck.org/
I am with Dezza on this one: There is NO cutural spot in China that is not teeming with beggars, trinket sales people or garbage…
We will try to guide you to some pkaces where you can get your waving hand Mao watches without being hassled….
Starbucks is the least of China’s worries….
3. Chris Carr | January 21st, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Good blog references, Lonnie. They make some excellent points, as do the discussion threads that go along with them. The Mask of China site in particular was good.
I had forgotten how damn small this Starbucks is and how hard it is to find once you are in the Forbidden City. Cheers.
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