We started out our official tour of China with a visit to the place the whole world will be watching in just over a month, the Bird’s Nest (Olympic Stadium) and “The Cube” (venue for the water sports). We were immediately impressed by the scale and magnificence of the stadium, but at the same time disappointed by the smog, which made it very difficult to see. Unfortunately, the fact that construction was ongoing made it impossible for us to get nearer to it for a better shot. In front of the stadium, there were quite a few migrant workers using shovels accompanied by guards standing under umbrellas asking you not to take pictures of them. It was surprising to see that work was still going on this close to the Olympics.

After some confusion on our meetings place for the bus, our group was finally reunited and we began our trek to the Chinese “Silicon Valley,” located in northwest Beijing, and near Peking University (China’s Harvard) and Tsinghua University (China’s MIT) . The bus weaved through pedestrians and bikers and arrived at a bundle of tall buildings with big name logos, such as Microsoft and Google, mounted to their tops. The group admired the elegance of the marble staircase and courtyard then proceeded to butt heads in front of two fighting bulls (don’t worry it was a statue).

On the way back to the bus the group was reminded of the Chinese pride held in the Olympics from a young man on a three wheeled bike. The man’s hair was shaved in a tribute to the Beijing Olympics; hosting Olympic rings, Beijing’s name, and multiple colors. A few stopped to pose with the exuberant man, but had to move on as the group had to travel to the third largest computer manufacturer in the world - Lenovo.

Lenovo greeted our Cal Poly group with open arms. We were provided with an excellent presentation from a San Jose state grad whom moved to China three years ago and now works for Lenovo. He gave an excellent, informative and very intriguing presentation. It began with a discussion of the skill set everyone needs in the changing world. He gave a rundown of five new global business skill sets that we should take heed of: 1) global business practice and customer service, 2) have a creative and innovative focus, 3) be a team player, 4) have specific knowledge of your industry and technology, and 5) be fluent in the language of the region in which you conduct business. He also stressed the importance of maintaining relationships by initiating or returning gifts and favors. This is the Chinese idea of guanxi. As an example of this, he described a time when he received a book from a man who he had given a DVD set to a year and a half earlier. He had forgotten their relationship, and was surprised to receive the book. This highlights the difference between American and Chinese business relationships, namely that American business relationships end when the business deal ends, but Chinese business relationships extend beyond the deal, and are maintained indefinitely. We now understand Chinese guanxi at a deeper level.

He then went on to discuss Lenovo. The company has a thirty-three percent market share in China, which produces forty percent of its revenue. In America, they hold an eight percent market share. As a result of their recent marketing campaigns, they are now the most recognized brand in China, and their market share in India and the rest of the world has increased dramatically. They encourage their engineers to look to all areas of science and nature for inspiration (bio-mimicry), which has led to some very successful innovations. For example, after observing that owls are extremely quite while in flight due to the notches in their wings, Lenovo developed the world’s most quiet computer fans by mimicking those notches.

We then began a tour of the factory. All of the topics we had learned about in Dr. Olsen’s operations course came to life. There was kanban systems and visual management everywhere. Each employee had a set of lights above their head and an electronic board displaying their completion time for various tasks. If they were doing well the light above them glowed green and if they were doing bad it glowed red. Other systems were in use including bunches of grapes that were colored to different degrees based on the amount skills they had. The other thing that was most impressive about the tour was the fully automated warehouse where machines brought supplies to the many workers constructing the computers by hand.   In summary, we were incredibly impressed by Lenovo, their staff, and what it has accomplished as a company, and we thank them for their time.

After the Lenovo visit, we went to dinner. On our way there we saw new Lenovo computers being transferred from a truck to bicycles. This enabled us to another facet of the supply chain. Soon after this, we arrived at Peking University. We walked around admiring the buildings and came upon a beautiful lake set next to a tower. Then we followed along the winding paths that forked into many different paths. The campus was somewhat confusing as we came upon what we thought was the bookstore, but turned out to just be a smaller version that sold t-shirts and other “Peking University” memorabilia. After another stop at another “bookstore,” we finally found the official bookstore. However, unlike Cal Poly’s bookstore that only sells books and memorabilia, this bookstore was full of clothing, antiques, a pharmacy, and even Olympic memorabilia. We spent some time perusing the store and buying souvenirs before heading back for the bus. Unfortunately, the university was confusing and we got a bit lost, but luckily Gary led the way and we found the bus. Visiting Peking University was important, as were were able to get a feel for the environment in which some of China’s best and brightest are being educated — some of these students will one day be our business collaborators or competitors.

Just as we arrived in English Corner, it began to rain. This was not preferable because English Corner is outside, but the people there took pity on us and shared their umbrellas with us as they practiced their English. This spoke volumes of Chinese kindness and generosity for a guest. We were surprised by the how much we all enjoyed our time there since many of us were not originally enthusiastic about participating in the event. The group quickly dispersed into the immense crowd of eager learners. Many of us were surrounded by multiple English language learners, and were probed by questions ranging from sports (Do American hockey teams frequently lose to Canadian ones?), to politics (Who do you want to win the U.S. Presidency? Obama or McCain?), to current events (What do you think should be done about the current credit crunch in the U.S.?). Many of us were humbled, candidly, about our lack of knowledge regarding certain facets of our own country when compared to these Chinese participants and learners. That this many people would come to this plaza on a Friday night and enhance their learning and English skills was impressive. We now better understand a part of China’s comparative advantage. Our two hours in English corner felt like two minutes and many of us felt guilty as we bowed out of twelve person conversations to run to the bus and return to the hotel to sleep for our next eventful day.