Submitted by: Morgan O’Hara

Please take a look at this beautifully written article, entitled India Calling. It talks of the allure of the motherland for young, Westernized Indians.

The “brain drain” trend has greatly benefited America. That the world’s brightest minds decide to coalesce within our borders has given this country a sustainable competitive advantage over other nations. We can argue that the rest of the world has benefited, in that the U.S. has dragged it along. But now, the rest of the world is picking up steam.

In the conclusion of the The Post American World, Zakaria claims that for America to preserve its leadership, it must continue to welcome the brightest minds from abroad, who in turn must aspire to succeed in this country. This is a virtuous cycle.

So what do you think of the brain circulatio’ trend? Will the world?s brightest minds no longer be so enticed by our roads paved with gold? And though this new trend may not solely benefit America, won’t it surely be good for the world? Maybe then they can drag us forwards; or is that already starting to happen? As Americans, we value our supremacy, geopolitically speaking. But isn’t the world better off , us included, if the playing field is more leveled?

Albeit a small sample size, of the students I met from Cal Poly’s Indian Association, only a few seemed willing to relocate to India. I get the impression that only the most intrepid souls will take the plunge and thrust themselves into a very chaotic country. And they will likely be the ones to reap the benefits. In turn, the ‘brain circulation’ trend will continue to increase.

I know some people who consider dollar stores to be beneath them. I have heard elitists mock those who shop as dollar stores as being white trash (WT).

I love dollar stores. So, yes, I guess you can call me WT. Really. Go ahead. It won’t bother me as I have been called worse. I can get lost in a dollar store killing time. I like the people who work there. I like their business model. I also love swap meets. I can take my two young daughters to a dollar store, let them spend an hour running around looking for things (I always frame it as our “own treasure hunt”), I buy them each the promised one item (and resist their screams and pleas for two or three items each), and I come out of the store with only a $2.14 bill — that’s the cheapest baby sitting venue you will ever find (aside from a public park).

Plus, it’s educational in that it teaches my kids to practice their letters, words and numbers by reading labels, boxes and packages, they have to make priority decisions in the midst of a mad scramble to decide what they want to select (as I tell them “girls, only eight minutes left until the bell to go home rings!”), it gives us a chance to talk about where the goods in the store come from, where China is and how far away it is, why pops goes there each year, they learn how to address an adult respectfully and with confidence when they take their item to the cashier, etc.

Here is a great Times Online article (”To China For the Holy Grail: A Price of 99p”) about a day-in-the-life of a British buyer in China buying product for dollar stores (yes, folks, most, if not all of what you buy in a dollar store comes from China). Amazing stuff. Talk about a cut-throat business where margins are tight and the line between profit and going broke is razor thin …

Dollar stores, golly gee. WT, I guess that be me.

Submitted by: Oscar Merlin

There is a recent article in the Wall Street Journal titled New Taxi Driver Strikes Test Chinese Authorities. What got my attention from this article is that it seems to me that China is growing a little bit more tolerant on demonstrations. All of the information at least conveyed in this article shows a structured way of handling the protestors. There are no police officers beating the demonstrators or anything in the like. It seems that the government has reacted quickly enough, at least on this issue, to make the modifications necessary in their power to appease the demonstrators.

But usually, when I think China and demonstrations, there are two stereotypes that come to mind 1) is the brutal China and 2) is the complacent China. The brutal China shows up when the government handles a situation badly and all of the protestors get beaten horribly by the police. Then you have the complacent China, which is somewhat like a teaser. The complacent China says “O.K. you can demonstrate for now”, and gives this little tiny bit of hope to Chinese citizens to think, “Hey! maybe after all we might be able to get away with a demonstration”. But, just in the nick of time the brutal China shows up and once again destroys any glimmer of hope that the Chinese people might have on this regard.

What are your thoughts on how China is handling its protests and strikes?

Submitted by: Oscar Merlin

The Wall Street Journal had an article titled China to Create Market for Land Rights to Promote Consolidation of Farms. This article discusses how the Chinese government is thinking of implementing new regulations that would allow Chinese farmers to “sublet, lease, swap and transfer” their land rights in order to ultimately make “less land produce more”.  Their objective is to revitalize the rural economy that consists of 730 million farmers.

When I was reading this article, I kept recalling how in an interview this architect kept bringing back the point that China was moving forward and could modernize any industry it set its sight on. And that is probably true to some degree in agriculture. I think that if China set its mind to it, the country can bring its agriculture sector forward to the 21st century. But, if this were to happen on a wide scale though, it would probably tumble the government. If China fully modernizes its agriculture and leave only 1-2% of its people as farmers (as is the case in the United States), then there would be 716.8 million Chinese farmers too many. That would leave millions and millions of Chinese unemployed.

There is no more land in China to bring forth to cultivation. This means that China does in fact need to produce more on less. But again, the government has to be careful on how it approaches agriculture in its country. What I think China could do, is to run its cooperatives better. And, by better, I mean that it needs to modernize only enough cooperatives to keep up with demand. In other words, the country will have to consolidate some acreage but not all of it. It needs to make sure that if machines are brought in to increase productivity that these machines are being used as aids to hand labor.

So, the government has to pay really close attention to what it lets its farmers do on their land. Otherwise the millions of peasants who only have a little piece of land to show for, won’t even have that in a few years (they might lose it somehow). This in turn will lead to unemployment which in turn will lead to millions of homeless. They cannot allow for chaos in this regard in their country, otherwise their chaos is our chaos.

What do you guys think about granting farmers land rights to promote consolidation? Is this the right step to take for China? How would you handle land issues in China? What would you different? What do you think about my point of view?

Submitted by: Jimmy Spann

The answer is that they are all terms in exciting game of Cricket. A nightwatchman is a batsman who comes in to bat out of order towards the end of a day’s play in a multi-day game. If a batsman gets out without scoring any runs, he is said to be out for a duck. And if a bowler completes an over without any runs being scored from it, it is termed a maiden.

Cricket is the largest sport in India and is also commonly played in England, Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. I have seen part of a game played a few years ago and it has intrigued me since. The game takes a lot of skill as well as a lot of discipline and persistence. I have never had the opportunity to be a part of any sporting event that lasted over multiple days, and think that it would take a lot of talent and strategy to win a game of cricket.

The game is very similar to Baseball in the cases that there is someone throwing a ball towards a player from the opposing team. This is referred to as bowling the balls, where the bowler is the one throwing the ball and the batsman is the one attempting to hit the ball. If the batsman swings and misses, then it is called a ball. Six balls constitutes an over, at which time a new bowler and batsman start the process all over again. A typical game usually lasts around 55 overs.

There are a few ways of scoring runs. The easiest way is to hit the ball and then run between the wickets, which will score a single run. The other way of scoring is to hit the ball out of the playing field. If this is done without bouncing 6 runs are scored, while only 4 are scored if it bounces at least once before leaving the playing field.

I, like many others, enjoy playing and watching all kinds of sports. I would be interested in attempting to play this game before we embark on our adventure. What are everyone’s thoughts on the game and possibly the chance of trying to play some afternoon before we leave?

This is the basics that will help everyone get started and the link listed below has an in depth description of the game:

http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/hosking/cricket/explanation.htm

Also here is a fun fact about the game:

The longest and highest scoring game on record was 9 days long between South Africa and England and it ended with an agreed upon draw.

This Youtube video also helped me understand the basics. And many others gave me more insight to the game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9STtcwo0xE&feature=related

Click HERE to read a nice post re: some post-Cal Poly visit thoughts from the recent guest you hosted from the southern China city of Guangzhou, Dr. Lonnie Hodge of the blog One Man Bandwidth.

What did you learn about China and/or business from his talk that you did not know before?

Per the recent post on networking, were you able to reach out, accept his invite to connect with him using Facebook and/or Twitter and start to build and a form of guanxi (social media) relationship with someone in China?

And yes, that is the urinal at the Madonna Inn you see in his Part I post. His point: We can be just at “kitschy” as China (when you get to China you will see what he means).

Lonnie, we enjoyed having you in SLO town. Thanks for taking the time.

Time for some visual stimulation. Check out these incredible China pics I came across.

Which particular photo moves you, and why?

(Note/Disclaimer:  Some of these pics look to be dated and/or are not things you might see in many of the larger cities in China today.  That said, we can still look, learn and react to them as human beings.)

Humanizing China, Part I (Survival)

Humanizing China, Part II (Relationships)

Humanizing China, Part III (Desires)

Think back to our meeting with Dr. Hodge last week, where we both signaled one thing you need to get ready for in China will be the level of pollution.

As part of being a member of the “I am a world power and player” club, China will have to get used to taking some shots from critics like the rest of us. For those that follow China, we know that China can handle domestic issues and controversies pretty well, but she can stumble badly when she has to play the modern, move quickly PR game in the international and global arena.

On that note, a good friend of mine, who is Chinese and loves China as much as anyone by the way, sent me this pretty darn funny video clip: The Onion: China Celebrates Status As Number One Polluter.

So yes, China will have to learn to withstand both fair and unfair attacks from others across the globe that use cut-to-the-bone humor and sarcasm, and in time the excuse of “they are out to get us and/or hold us down” won’t fly anymore.

But let’s also dig deeper and be fair to China and its populace. Ask yourself, what is it about China, where it came from, where it is going, etc., that makes it so very difficult to address and get its hands around its environmental problems? Where was the US at this same stage when it industrialized? How does the US and each and every one of us contribute to this problem via our consumption patterns? How long will it take for China fix this? What can we do to assist? What business opportunities does/will cleaning up the mess present, both in China and here in the US? And perhaps most importantly, what would your solution be to this problem and if it were that easy to fix, why has it not yet been done?

Think about this. Do some digging. See what you can find on this topic that you did not know before. I welcome your thoughts.

This is a tongue in cheek post. Kind of.

We are fortunate to have several outstanding professors in the MBA, MS in IT, and MS in Tax programs who early in your program teach those who invest in themselves by taking such a course some of the tools and basics to lay a foundation for effective communication skills, a number of which relate to networking.

Candidly, where we need to improve is after you take their initial Effective Communication Skills for Managers course, by building a stronger and more consistent culture of continued networking in our grad and undergrad business programs and across our entire university for all students. Here, I am talking about much more than the weekly touch base and briefing at a local pub to blow off steam.

This can be a challenge to do in paradise SLO (or Santa Barbara) and Cal Poly where you can run into the mentality of, “Dude, it’s all good all the time here in sunny SLO town; I did not come here to be pushed in such a manner and I already think I am pretty awesome at this so why you sweatin’ on this stuff?”

Perhaps the first reason is that it’s my job to push people out of their comfort zone. Taxpayers don’t pay me to be another government bureaucrat interested in keeping the status quo.

Perhaps the more important reason is that it’s a big part of business, my friend, and your future and your survival (in this economy) may depend on how good you are at it. On this note check out this WSJ article, Networking? Here’s How To Stand Out.

Each of us can also get better at this skill.

What are your take-aways from this article? And as an reflective future manager, what can you do differently in the future to develop your networking skill set in SLO or Santa Barbara town and at Cal Poly while you are here studying with us and in Asia in this regard when we travel there?

What can you learn from the Chinese and Indians in this regard? (After all, networking is one of the big reasons we are loading up and heading to Asia this summer for your international field study, and you will see from our travels that you can learn a lot about this business practice from the Chinese and Indians.)

As an aside, if I benchmark and point toward another business program to emulate that does networking really, really well, as much as it pains me to do so I would have to acknowledge that it would be USC and the Trojan family. Sit in a first day freshman class there and you will see what I mean. Of course, you also need gobs and gobs of money to be a Trojan and it’s likely your student loan debt will be astronomical if you do so. USC is not perfect and also has its own share of challenges like any institution.

That said, what programs are you aware of that do networking really well? How did they create and how do they sustain said networking and entrepreneurial culture (refer to your OB course for ideas)?

And how are those business cards coming along that I suggested you get? If you don’t yet have them heading into week 7 of the quarter especially in this economy, can you tell me, pray tell, why not?

I welcome your thoughts.

And like I said. This is a tongue in cheek post. Kind of.