For your Fall quarter book review, several of you picked Ha Jin’s War Trash or as I remember one of this other books, Waiting. I was reading Newsweek last night and it had this nice, short feature on books that have influenced him. He is a winner of the National Book Award and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; no small feat for a guy who writes in his second language. Tonight I was doing some more digging on him on the Internet and came across this 2007 Newsweek article — click HERE. What a fascinating man and unique life he has lived!

(On a related note, I read each book review before Christmas. I usually made a brief comment to your review, but due to the number of reviews (times 3 over the year), I am unable to leave extensive comments (as was noted would be the case in the syllabus). For a few of you, I could not post a comment unless/until you alter your blog comment setting to allow comments from “anonymous” or “other” as requested in the syllabus (I always type my name when I leave a comment using either), or, your blog requires me/the reader to register for a Google or MSN Hotmail account in order to leave a comment. Please check this, and if you can plug in the “anonymous” or “other” option for a reader to comment please do so.  But if your blog is one that requires me to register to comment, I am afraid you are stuck with that format, and that’s okay — just know I do read your reviews, but am unable to leave a comment.  If this all makes little sense, surf a few of your classmates blogs and reviews and you will see what I am referring to.

I have always said and tried to make crystal clear on the expectation front, that one gets out of on-line learning what they put into it. Good effort and reflection in, then good, self paced learning can take place. Poor effort in or no reflection, then don’t bitch about what what little one gets out of it.

Online learning, whether in a 100 percent distance format or a hybrid format — part face-to-face and part internet (this course is a very lightweight variation of a hybrid course), puts the onus on the student for that portion of their learning and requires them to struggle with connecting some of the dots.

I have found that merely suggesting at a place like Poly that a course be built with an online component often gets one “you are a child of satan” stares by a wide number of stakeholders. Yet, nobody wants to take on and discuss the true elephant in the room — that is, how, under the traditional model of a professor at the front of the room spewing knowledge while students furiously take notes trying to decipher what they will be tested on for the exam, the research clearly shows that student retention of said material where that is the mode of delivery is very, very, very low. But, I digress and hey, I will just have to accept that I won’t win a popularity contest on this issue in parts of Mustang Land (ironically, many companies today train their employees through different types of online learning and tools and one of the things I seek to do by using such a learning mechanism is to let students start to get comfortable with the very type of continued education and professional learning their firms will provide to them after they graduate).

One of the advantages of online learning in the form of a blog is that the student(s), through the posts they submit in a course like this, take ownership of and help design a part the content of the course and what they find interesting and relevant and what they want to discuss.

I have also found that in a traditional classroom setting you can’t easily replicate others in the world being a part of the learning process as you easily can with a blog and its asynchronous nature. On this note see the below post from the Corporate Social Responsibility in Asia blog that shows that people are interested in your work product and evaluating it (another reason I incorporate a blog into some of my classes is because I have found that transparency and public sunshine on things like work product are tremendous mechanisms that can separate contenders from pretenders).

My PhD student Rob Hanlon (doing his thesis on human rights, corruption, CSR and business) alerted me to this fascinating blog. It’s run by [a professor] as part of his teaching in a business course and the lead up to an annual China trip by Cal Poly MBA students. As somebody who regularly gives talks to MBA students from various universities, I was intrigued by this post, which asked these future business leaders to define human rights. The students’ answers are interesting; I wonder if they will change their views after visiting Shenzhen. Nevertheless, I had lunch with Rob today and we talked about how so few companies in Hong Kong (both local and otherwise) even talk about human rights, let alone define them. Yet if they are sourcing from workplaces across the border, investing in China, or just doing business there, the issue is inescapable; workers’ rights, land acquisition, and numerous other issues are simply becoming a greater risk to business (and also an opportunity). Even if you don’t use the term “human rights”, somebody investing in your company is probably going to ask you at some point about migrant workers, social security payments to workers, overtime hours, wages, workplace safety, water, emissions and so on. Forget rights; think about risk. And if these students aren’t clued into the risks and opportunities associated with what eggheads and NGOs call human rights, then they really are going to find China an unfathomable place.

Thank you, CSR in Asia, for the feedback. Please do check back in and let us know what you think of this comment stream. We welcome your constructive input, critique, expertise, and feedback, good or bad.

In a few weeks, I will publish Part II of this post, which will discuss how mainstream scholars look at and discuss human rights, so that each Cal Poly MBA and MS in IT student on the trip can go back, look at their own response, and see if they were in the right ballpark. Stay tuned.

I am working on a visit for you in China with an NGO that works with orphans in China. This will help us better understand how non-profits work in China, their challenges and opportunities, and how they differ from their US counterparts.

If you are in such a disadvantaged class, China is one tough place to be. The chances of you making a decent life for yourself if you are an orphan or somehow disabled there are very, very low. I can’t at this point promise this NGO visit will work out, but will do what I can to push this along.

So a friend sent me this amazing and beautiful video, and it made me stop for just a moment, and think about children in places like China, America, Iraq, the Sudan, now Kenya, and the rest of the world who are in need in some way, shape or form.

The band, Five for Fighting, is generously donating $0.49 to Autism Speaks for *each time* this  VIDEO  is viewed. The funding goes toward research studies to help find a cure for autism. When you have a moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it along to your friends and family. And as you watch it, turn up the music as loud as you can and let the words and their power hit you.

They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them to surpass this goal.

And this is apparently the real deal and and autism research gets money for each time viewed. Check it out.

January 27, 2008 Addendum: One nice feature of distance learning that takes place in the form of a blog, is that others from around the world with different perspectives can jump in and assist the learning process.  See Dan Harris of the China Law Blog’s response to my/this post (Why Paying More Is Good China Business), and the comments thereto.  His post raises some important distinctions (that my post did not go into in terms of detail, but much of which I agree with), and the comment thread thereto also raises some good opposing and similar views on this important topic.

A while back we had some nice discussion on the Choose Your Economic Poison post I made. Some suggested that we could solve the problem of too many defective products coming from China by paying more to the Chinese suppliers that make this stuff. I questioned that assumption, and still do.

One example I gave in that discussion thread was that if paying people more solved the problem, then why does paying most good employees more still result in good performance, but not superior performance? (See Comment No. 29.) And why does paying most bad employees more money still get you bad performance, and not good performance? (If you feel that more money correlates to higher performance, come see me after you have hired, managed and fired more than a few people, and let’s compare notes.)

Paul Midler, who coined the phrase, “quality fade,” has a blog called The China Game where he discusses China product quality issues (a hat tip to Dan Harris at the China Law Blog for this lead).

Midler has a post titled, The New Bugaboo: Low Prices, where he points out the illegitimacy of blaming China’s quality control problems on foreign companies seeking low prices.

Midler contends that the goal of buying low and selling for what you can get is nothing new — it’s business and the way business has always been done and the way it will always be done. Midler takes issue with those who contend that we can make all our problems go away by paying Chinese factories more for their product and service. Midler also notes that paying more money to a supplier who has behaved unethically sends that supplier the wrong message. He is also skeptical that those who behaved unethically at $1.00 per unit will behave ethically at a $1.10 per unit.

Your thoughts on this? I won’t let you off the hook by throwing out the ol’ business school canned, safe and easy answer that many give of, “Aw shucks. If we all buck up and pay more these issues will be solved, and I am willing do so.”

And if paying more to Chinese suppliers is not the solution, then what is? Discuss.

I considered buying an I-phone shortly after its launch, but then learned that if/when you buy one you are stuck with AT&T as the mobile service provider, in which case if you are a person that travels outside the US for pleasure or business you will in turn get stuck paying very high extra fees to use said I-phone abroad. I.e., why switch from Blackberry and T-Mobile? So that fact, coupled with the fact that AT&T’s service can be nearly as bad as Charter Cable, means that I have yet to buy an I-phone and will hold off until an affordable solution appears.

This situation is somewhat frustrating because I do not understand why Apple did not cut a deal with China Mobile, who holds the cell phone service monopoly in China, as part of it’s product launch.

Now I know more about why said deal has not been done. Click HERE and listen to this China Business Network podcast with Sean Rein of the China Market Research Group, which sheds light on why Apple has not/could not yet cut a deal with China mobile.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge, Steve Jobs has never been to China.   Huh? If that is, in fact, the case, I am scratching my head on that one.

Now onto things that matter … golf.

Golf in China is getting big as discretionary income there continues to rise. Really big. Big enough so that some business undergraduate programs are starting to require their students to take a golf class so they can be more effective in the “business schmooze game” that is such a big part of hitting the links in the West.  See this recent CBN podcast on the topic, Golf in China.

The last time I was in China, a buddy took me golfing at a course located along the Great Wall. On almost every hole, we could look over and see the Great Wall and if we looked up at the even higher elevations, we could see the light snow that had fallen the night before on the mountain-tops along that part of the Great Wall. It was quite a site and perhaps the most amazing round of golf I have ever played and at a price I could afford. Yes, it was also client development work, but somebody’s gotta do it.

My score was in no way inspired by the beauty that surrounded us, and remained as pathetic as ever.   Notwithstanding Chevy Chase’s exhortation in Caddyshack, I will never be the ball.

Check out Christine Lu’s latest China Business Network podcast, How To Live and Do Business in China.

A nice feature on a normal, everyday Canadian that went to the PRC and made the adjustment.  He also has an interesting take on corruption in China vis-a-vis the West.

Submitted By: Tai Massion

Dharavi is allegedly the biggest slum in Asia . It is located in the city of Mumbai, India . With a population of 1 million housed (if you could call it that) in low-rise wood, metal and cardboard dwellings, within one square mile, it is cramped to say the least (and you thought Isla Vista was bad- try taking out all the parks/roads in IV and plugging in 1 million people — are you getting a visual?).

A family interviewed for an article in the December 22 issue of the Economist said he and his extended family (mother, father, brothers, brother’s wives, kids, etc.), 12 people in all, live in a 90 square-foot room (half the size of a parking spot) which is very typical of Dharavi. This level of poverty many of us will never be able to comprehend unless seen by our own eyes, and even then it may be hard to believe. But Dharavi is thriving.

Dharavi’s formation began in 1943 as migrants came into the city from farmlands during the large famine at that time. Waves such as this continued over the years when there were droughts and natural disasters. Migrants claimed a patch of Dharavi by squatted on it and constructing a shanty-type shelter. Today there are more permanent dwellings and many one room factories. Shanties are even sold, and the prices are gong up, but no titles exist. A small hutment will go for about 500,000 rupees ($12,700 dollars). The city has put in some wells, one water pump per 100 people and 16 public latreens — one per 300 people, (but that costs $0.75 for a monthly family pass). On many levels the shanty-town is working. There is a sense of ownership, community, culture and business.

This article synopsis: Asia’s Largest Slum Is An Economic Powerhouse tells of how residents are industrious and fierce entrepreneurs:

“Dharavi…may be one of the world’s bigger slums, but it is arguably its most prosperous, a thriving and productive business centre propelled by tens of thousands of micro-entrepreneurs. Estimates vary considerably, but the collective economic output of Dharavi is as impressive as it is improbable: at least $800-million a year, and perhaps well over $1-billion.

This is the unspoken side of the Indian economy, the impoverished counterpoint to the gleaming call centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad that have transfixed Western investors and come to symbolize the country’s gradual emergence as a potential global power. It is also a rebuke to the typical prejudices that dog slum-dwellers: that they somehow inhabit a world of despair, that they have no other community than that of shared poverty and frustration. These people may be lacking, but they are also industrious and enterprising — and, for the most part, fiercely attached to the slum.

Dharavi, a slum in Mumbai, India, may appear at first to be a squalid concentration of misery. It is also the prosperous home of some 5,000 single-room factories and tens of thousands of entrepreneurs.”

To make this situation more interesting, the state desperately wants to redevelop the land into high-rise apartments. It has offered to give the residents a new apartment for free, but many are opposed. The biggest reason is that the one-room factories are free from taxes and regulations. City officials do not set foot in Dharavi. If it were redeveloped business owners would be forced to rent commercial-spaces at high prices. Many small entrepreneurs would be finished. Redevelopment work was scheduled to start this year, but has been stopped due to bad press and local protests.

What should be done? Does Dharavi have a good thing going here? Or does the state need to be more forceful in stepping in and knocking out the shanty-town to make way for high-rises? What potential problems do you see? Keep in mind the UN expects the population of Mumbai to double in size over the next 10 years, also keep in mind the many cases of Chinese city-planning corruption we have read about.

Submitted By: Simeon Trieu

Eric Bellman, “Moving Up in Mumbai: Humble Jobs at the Mall Are Lifting Legions of Indians Out of Poverty”, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 17. 2007, at A1.

Although India is often seen as the world’s IT and services resource, the fact is that much of India’s population still lives in poverty.

According to a study from Deloitte Research (commented on in the article: China or India?…And Follow Up Questions?), only roughly 7% of India’s population aged 18 to 23 is enrolled in higher education. In addition, 75% of India’s children leave school before finishing 8th grade (Kalish 6-7).

In the article, Mr. Shaikh comments that “once you start looking for money, you stop thinking about education.” While the poverty figures may not decrease, even after India obtains a large share of the world services market, there is still hope for many uneducated people living in poor conditions, at least in Mumbai.

At a retail store, Pantaloon, three men from poor families applied and got jobs to work as retail associates. Some of these men make less than $50 a month to sustain them and their families. Often times, it is not enough, and the families end up hungry. So, why work at Pantaloon? Their wages are roughly $1600 a year plus the prospect of regular raises and promotions, all of this being double the average salary in India. Since the Indian population is largely uneducated, there are plenty of wealth creating opportunities for both foreign investment and local Indian labor. Much of the new wealth resulting from IT and services goes largely to college educated computer programmers, consultants and call-center workers. All this totals up to a whopping 0.2% of India’s 1.1 billion population, which leaves the rest with the same conditions before all this began… or does it?

What does the new wealth given to India’s college educated change in India? It creates a middle class with needs for consumption. This is exactly what provides the poor city dwellers in their 20s and 30s with: jobs to service the middle class. In other words, India’s growth is being led by a sharp rise in domestic consumption. It is predicted by the Images Group, a research and consulting group in India, that the retail sector alone will create 2.5 million new jobs within the country. This is good news to the poor living there! Although, this mostly affects the city areas that are more metropolitan, where brand name goods and services will attract the new free-spending consumers.

In addition to providing opportunities for new wealth for the impoverished people, it also offers them a chance to learn new skills such as developing rapport, confidence, fashion-sense and even better hygiene. Through talking to people much richer than themselves, especially with the hierarchical levels of respect built into Indian society, the associates learn better communication skills while developing confidence in themselves.

And lastly, one reason this particular article touched me was that it offered the people hope, something they are in short supply on. Mr. Gundeti’s father is very cautious about what to expect in life. “Every time we have a little hope, something bad happens.” But with these new positions teaching their children how to properly communicate and work a steady job, they can improve both personally, as well as financially. One particular sales associate even said, “I try to teach my friends to end their vulgar language and behavior. They don’t change, so I don’t spend time with them anymore.” The workplace develops into a community of sales associates that spend time with each other, even outside of work. The jobs given to the poor have an even greater effect than just the money: they find hope and confidence in their futures. It’s very easy to look at this issue analytically and forget that we’re dealing with people. As an MBA student, it is my dream to have this kind of lasting, uplifting effect on people in any business I do. While the jobs are very humble and often derided by many Americans, those same humble jobs are producing the positive changes that India desperately needs.

Wonderful article in the January 6, 2008 edition of the NY Times: 1977 Exam Opened Escape Route Into China’s Elite.  Enjoy.

This is one of the things I love about China and its people — many (but I recognize in a country of 1.3 billion people not all) who are treated poorly and/or fall on hard times just pick themselves up, dust themselves off and stay focused, and keep fighting to move forward to try to make a better life.

Last quarter we had some nice comments made re: living and working abroad. I just came across this article and questionnaire from TransitionsAbroad.com that helps people size up whether they can hack living and working aboard. It is not terribly scientific, but it touches on the main points — flexibility, adaptability, independent, not a me-me-me person, etc.

Click HERE to check it out and take the 5 minute questionnaire.

How did you score? What are some strengths and weaknesses of the questionnaire and your resulting data set/result?