Submitted By: Erik Slayter

I recently received an email from Grant Thornton (a large, global accounting firm) describing to me what they call their “Interest” program. It is interesting to me that they are rolling out this program focusing specifically on the Chinese market. We have several accountants in the MBA program…is this enticing to you?

Under phase 1 of this program, Grant Thornton (GT) works with Chinese Nationals from the People’s Republic of China. Through this program, these accounting professionals are sponsored by GT for a 2-3 year work visa and work in a GT US office. Interest participants have a compensation package similar to that of other professionals at their same level in the US. Additionally, participants receive the same firm training as their colleagues and are provided a coach to assist in their skills development.

At the end of their 2-3 year stint in the US, they return to China for a position with the Grant Thornton International firm in China.

GT states that their program is different than a traditional exchange program offered by other firms because they have a larger dedication to their participants. Interest professionals meet annually with the firm’s national and international leadership to learn about specific Chinese initiatives. Biannually they participate in a videoconference link to the Shanghai or Beijing office to receive an general business update by a partner in the Chinese member firm. Finally, an annual visit home provides the Interest participant to meet with other Chinese professionals to develop relationships they can build on upon their return.

I love Shanghai.  You will love Shanghai.  We will see Shanghai and spend three (3) full days there (which includes two full days of firm visits, one full day of seeing the sites — see below).  While you will have some free time in Shanghai, you won’t have a lot — evenings there will likely be your best bet for solo exploring and adventure.

Here is an article that just came out in the New York Times of some things to see and do in Shanghai.  The article has some good ideas, but the NY Times’ idea of a $500 being “frugal” or doing Shanghai “on a budget” for a few days for this amount is laughable.  If travelling solo, this Midwest boy could do Shanghai for the same amount of time for a lot less than $500, and have even more fun than this Manhattan based author did.

While there, as one of our three days and for some fun and culture, we will likely visit, as a group, the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and the Shanghai Museum.  We will also likely check out, as a group, the famous Bund (along the Huangpu river and right across the river from the Oriental Pearl TV Tower), the French Concession (a district left over from the Western colonial days of ”let’s carve up China” that still retains many shops and mansions with a French feel), and the famous Yuyuan Garden.  Each place, in my view, is a must see stop while in Shanghai, and I think you will enjoy them (last year’s students certainly did; at the end of the “hit the sites” day you will be pretty worn out). 

After Shanghai, up early in the morning, check out of the hotel and load the bus, and we will be off to Suzhou or Hangzhou … 

Submitted By: Stacey Westenberger

As we look to China with all of its potential for growth, physically and economically, I can’t help but be concerned about the sustainability of these conditions. Focusing on the physical environment, the urban population in China is projected to increase by over 250 million people in the next two decades (Libby). The increased consumption of resources allowing for this growth is startling and needs to be confronted. As Libby explains, the Chinese government is also concerned about the rapid growth of urban areas. However, the claims made at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Greenbuild Conference in 2004, were startling, yet seem to be far from fulfilled. “For example, Qiu Baoxing, vice minister of Ministry of Construction, People’s Republic of China, told the conference’s 6,000 attendees that by the end of 2010, all Chinese cities will be expected to reduce their buildings’ energy use by 50 percent; by 2020 that figure will be 65 percent” (Libby). Although these claims are hard to track, the China Rises video, which we all viewed last fall, was released in 2006 and the environmental issues were still a major concern.

With these issues escalating, Danish Architecture firms teamed up with Chinese Universities to create visionary proposals for sustainable urban development in Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Xi’an. (Co-evolution) These creative approaches generate discussions and begin to address the problems in China with conceptual solutions.

As the Danish Architecture Center states, this collaborative approach “illustrates the value of sharing knowledge, ideas, and experiences across borders” (Co-evolution). Denmark, with a population of almost 5.5 million people, is a much different place than China, with a population of over 1.3 billion people. However we can learn from each other, adapting lessons to culturally appropriate solutions. This exhibit won first prize at the 10th International Architecture Biennale in Venice, recognizing its importance as a subject to be addressed among the world.

Submitted By: Victoria Whelan

I thought this Wall Street Journal article was interesting since many of us are taking Marketing this quarter. It will be interesting to see if Dunkin’ Donuts can pull off pushing tea and donuts (flavored to China’s liking) instead of coffee and donuts that we think of when we hear their name. It might taint their brand image since they are eventually trying to revert back to coffee and donuts once they get market share. Starbuck’s is doing the complete opposite and pushing coffee during their large expansion plan in China (see Starbucks Pours It On In China).

Check out this wonderful NY Times feature, with pics and sound, on a teahouse in Hangzhou. My current plan is to take you to a tea plantation outside of Hangzhou where you can see the real deal grown. These tea plantations are quite beautiful. Tea is a big, big, big part of China. Get ready to drink lots of it.

You should also be reading up on Hangzhou in your travel book. We will likely use Hangzhou to catch some rest and relaxation from the fast pace of the trip. Hangzhou is where many of China’s artists and writers used to come live after they made their fortune. That pattern continues today. Marco Polo, who once took a boat ride on the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, called it one of the most wonderful experiences of his life. I would agree.

I am interested in hearing if you are interested in visiting a tea plantation, and, based on what you read on your own time about Hangzhou, how you feel about spending some time there. In my own view, it is less crowded and crazy than Guangzhou and Shanghai. Comment away.

Each year as part of the trip, where possible, we try to informally hook you up with a group of expats in China or India for lunch, dinner or appetizers. These are interesting, accomplished and talented people. I want you to be thinking about what types of questions you would like to ask them over a meal if this comes together so that they feel we prepared for a visit with them and we utilize their time effectively. We want to make a great impression on these folks.

For example, why did they become an expat? How did they become one? What are the pros of cons of being an expat? Do they have families and if so what do their families like/dislike about living in China or India? When, if at all, do they plan to return to their home country? Do they comparatively make more money living and working in China/India than than back home and is their standard of living higher in China/India? What, if anything, did they do to prepare for living and working in China/India before they arrived? How are their kids schooled and how much does it cost? Where were their other postings before China/India? Has/will their working in China/India more quickly advance their career than if they had stayed in their home country? These are just a few of the questions you might ask them. Click the “Add Comment” link below and list a few of your own questions you would like ask in order to start to prepare and to get you thinking about this aspect of our trip.

Even if you drink and buy into the Koolaid that California or the West Coast is the be all and end all of working and living and you have no desire to presently become an expat, no problem, but you may one day find that things have changed. None of us know what the future may deal to us. You may find that your hate your future job(s) and want to experience something new and adventurous outside of Cali. Or, you may find yourself working for a firm or a client that sends you overseas (China/India?) on a temporary or full-time assignment that is too good to pass up. And if not you, then consider the very high probability that your kids will one day be in the expat game given the way the global economy is working and developing (and how expensive it has become to live in Cali and how most folks have little desire to move to Iowa for work; the California market can/will only go so deep for our children so why not head to Asia for business?  Through this trip experience you can give your kids some good advice!

For a good chapter on the pros and cons of the expat life in China, see/read Chapter 9, “Living in China,” in China CEO: Voices of Experience From 20 International Business Leaders.

Professor Carr October 4, 2007 Addendum: See also this previous post I did re: Benjamin Ross’ fantastic journey to China and his blog (Ben’s Blog), AND, check out this recent interview of Ben that recently appeared over at the Ex-Pat Interviews blog re: Ben’s working in China.

Professor Carr Janauary 8, 2008 addendum: 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?

Professor Carr July 23, 2008 addendum: Check out this excellent blog post I just came across, To Localize Or Not, That’s The Question. This blog is by a former upper management Sun executive in China who now works at Juniper in the Bay area. Although his post relates more to proven upper management execs who have had success and proven performance in their home market and THEN are sent to China to work for the company along with the solid and attractive financial expat package that can go with it, there are some excellent nuggets in this post that will help and apply to you in your earlier career stage. E.g., the tax info in particular.

There’s a well known saying among those who write about China: “After you have been in China for a week, you think you can write a book. After you have been in China for a month, if you are lucky you might be able to muster a short article. After you have been in China for a year, you keep silent.”

The point of this quote is, the more you learn about and experience China, the more you realize it has too many faces, it is too complex a place to master, and you have too much to learn. Many of you (all of us?) will return from China with more questions than answers. If so, that’s okay and natural. It’s also, in my view, the way true education should work and is one of the ways a truly educated person learns to view and experience the world. Happily for us, our goal for this trip and course does not require us to become experts on China, but to gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, the global economy and our ability to operate effectively within it.

In China CEO: Voices of Experience from 20 International Business Leaders, attorney Norman Givant (Managing Partner, Shanghai office, China Practice Group, Freshfields, Bruckhaus, Deringer Law Offices) reminds us that China’s booming economic development has taken place despite the messy, chaotic, and confusing backdrop of the transformation from a communist to a socialist and market-based system. He very insightfully notes, “[Unlike many Westerners] the Chinese have no problem at all in living with contradictions. Their question is: Does it work over time?” He points to Shanghai’s’ remarkable growth as an example. “Look out the window: you see a prosperous, dynamic city that has grown tremendously in the last 20 years, and it grew primarily by ignoring the contradictions [e.g., the poor shanty hutongs/alleys that exist next to a five star hotel or world class skyscraper] and focusing largely on economic development.” (Page 205) Simon Keely (Head of the Hewitt Asia Leadership Center, Hewitt Associates China) echoes a similar tune: “China is full of contradictions. Here we are a socialist country, but it’s one of the most competitive places on earth.” (Page 115) Well stated. Both men clearly “get” and understand this facet of China. I don’t think this means the US is not a place of contradictions, but the China hands I call friends seem to suggest that in China the contradictions are deeper and more disturbing than most places.

For more great examples of some of the contradictions in China that will mess with your mind and tug at your heart, check out following recent Wall Street Journal [subscription may be required] and NY Times articles:

• How Capitalist Transormation Exposes Holes in China’s Government
• So Much Work, So Little Time
• In Booming China, Protest By Poor Intensify
• China’s Reporters Face a Backlash Over Investigations
  
• In Chinese BoomTown, Middle Class Pushed Back
• Chinese Success Story Chokes on Its Own Growth

I will try to get you to a port facility in China (in Guangzhou, Shenzhen or Shanghai). Visiting such a facility is important because it will help you see the scope of what China exports, especially to California. Also, this is an important part of the supply chain that you need to see, feel and smell as an MBA student — goods just don’t magically appear on the shelf at Wal-Mart, Target and RiteAid.

Click HERE where you can view an image to get a feel for how many port facilities China has, both inland and along it’s eastern border and coast.  Unlike the US, water transport is still a big deal and huge industry in China.

Professor Carr Update: See this related article in the Wall Street Journal, Global Shippers Play Catch-Up In The Information Age. Much in this article relates to what you study in your MIS class, and, you will all study in your Operations course.

Again, I will try go get you into a port facility in China.   Seeing one of those super-sized cargo ships up close alone makes a visit to a port worth the time and effort.

This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on November 10, 2006. This article is about the banking market in China and the ongoing issue of foreign banking in China.

Citigroup (the article’s main focus) and other non-China based banks are facing difficulties gaining access to the market. Foreign banks have been forced to do business through Chinese banks and have yet to deal with individuals. China has been slowly taking steps to allow these banks to open branches and put ATM’s on their soil in order to reach their potential “bankable” population of 300-400 million individuals. However, new rules and regulations have slowed this progress, if not set it back a step. It is very informative article on a topic that could have a huge effect on the way banking in China is going to be done in the upcoming years.

Here are some questions to think about while you read the article.

What are you interpretations for the future based on the paragraph on the first page?

How do you think allowing foreign banks to reach individual customers in China is going to effect the economy? How might it impact, in general, the way business is done?

Is Citigroup acting too aggressively at trying to reach individual customers? Is this a good strategy? Will other banks follow or continue to do business through Chinese banks?

What do you think about Citigroup being called “Hua Qi”?

What do you think about China’s five year plan?

Does China seem to be as open as they say they are to letting foreign banking in? Are they delaying it to be as safe and conservative as possible? What are your thoughts on the three pages of requirements to be met before individual customers can be reached?

Submitted by Danny Allustiarti

Whether you intend to or realize it or not, most of you going on this trip will one day do business in/with Asia, whether you live there or even if you stay in California.

Rarely will anyone say this openly, but there is a perception among a number of Western businesspeople (not all, of course), including the purported more open minded and “progressive” ones from California, that the Chinese “lie, cheat and steal.”

It is not my role or place tell anyone what to feel or believe. That is up to them to decide, and we all have to deal with those consequences of our beliefs (and the missed opportunities that may go with it), particularly if we are silly enough to make such a statement in public.

Before I open this can of worms, let me make clear from that outset that I am not the “source” of this perception. Nor do I believe it. I merely report what the perception by some is as I have heard it over and over from a number of people. So don’t shoot the messenger. At first blush it seems to me that such a statement or belief, is off-base, it shows a lack of life and business experience, a lack of critical thinking skills, the inability to determine good data from bad, is an over-generalization, etc. I hope we can all agree on that. Moreover, God knows that we have each certainly seen our fair share of Americans who “lie, cheat, and steal”. No country or ethnic group in the world has the monopoly on this, in my view.

Having said the above, one of the things that surprised me with respect to one MBA trip to China is that I think a few students (not all) appear to have returned from China with “some” impression that “you can’t trust the Chinese; they lie, cheat and steal”. When I saw this, I realized that as a professor and college we had missed the mark in some of the pre-trip planning and even during the trip itself by not giving students several “lenses” from which they might analyze and think about this issue before they jumped to such a conclusion. (I am also not sure how one can reach such a conclusion after spending only 10 days or so in any country.)

So, to that end, check out the following recent posts on this very topic: one from the Useless Tree blog (here) and one from the China Hearsay blog (here).  I enjoyed reading these posts and in particular their discussion threads. I learned something new, and I have thought a lot about this issue the past few years.

Any conversation about culture often gets heated (nothing wrong with that), and these posts are no different but the comments do show how complex this issue is to look at and analyze. This information and input from these various people will help better prepare you for what you will see in China.

And after you read these posts, come back here and discuss what these posts and their discussion threads teach you about Asia, China, culture and how it is shaped and perceived, our upcoming trip, and yourself?

And what, in a society, shapes “culture” and business conduct? For example, does the standard of living in a country lead to its culture, or does culture lead to a countries standard of living? (Economic scholars have some interesting things to say about this question; e.g., here is a recent SSRN paper of possible interest you can download for free (”Does Culture Affect Economic Outcomes?”), which relates to this discussion). See also the March 27, 2006 related discussion thread on this blog called “The Role of Women in Chinese Economic Activity“ — students had some interesting things to say on this sub-issue.

Which is more important for you and your future — to understand a culture and look at what forms the behavior at issue, or, to understand how a culture is expressed by those who practice it? Discuss and defend your position.

My experience is that the Chinese have their own sterotypes of Americans — what/how do you think they see us and our culture (in general)? How, in a business transaction, might you take advantage of their stereotypes about you, and is your doing so “lying, cheating, stealing”, just in a different form?

For example, once you see how cheaply a pair of women’s high end brand name dress shoes cost to make in China and how much they are in turn sold for by US retailers to the US consumer, let’s go for a cup of coffee and you can try to convince me that such price gouging by the US retailer … err, I mean what retailers euphemistically call their “markup”, is not “stealing” from the consumers. And yes, blah, blah, blah, I know and appreciate that we all go like sheep to slaughter and pay it, but does that make such business conduct the right thing to do? It may very well be acceptable to do, but I want you/us to at least ask that question.

(I appreciate that you will likely better be able to answer this latter question after we visit English Corner).