Learnings from Mainland China (Beijing and Shanghai)
While working for HP/HPE, I had the chance to travel abroad
and work with people from all over the Globe; and even though I had the chance
to work with some Chinese colleagues, I never had the opportunity to travel to
China.
I spent 8 days with some of my MBA classmates in Beijing and
Shanghai. I climbed the Great Wall, visited a few companies, spent a few hours
in the US Embassy, ate amazing dumplings, watched Jimmer play, and learned a lot.
My purpose for this post is to provide a high-level overview
of some of the things I have learned.
The pace of change in
China is very rapid.
The Great Leap Forward
People seem to focus on the greater good. Communism is very
much alive. There are cameras ALL over the place. As I was crossing a street, I
counted 30+ cameras in all 4 corners. The Gov’t is watching everything, and the
people are willing to give up rights for social prosperity. Are you willing to
give up a right for the better of the US? (Think of all the arguments we’ve
been hearing about gun control in the US)
The 5 Tiers
Each city is classified into a tier depending on the
population and economy. While in China, I am visiting all Tier 1 cities:
Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. When it comes to doing business, there has
been a huge growth in the Tier 3-5 cities. Even though these cities are poorer,
they do have a lot of people. Companies are also focusing their marketing
research on these cities to ensure that all consumers are accounted for and
represented when innovations and products are being designed.
E-Commerce.
The Chinese e-Commerce has grown tremendously in the last
few years. As China has been growing in the past decades to catch up with the
Western culture, it seems that they leap-frogged the Retail stage and went right
into e-Commerce. Due to this, a lot of brand building is done in the Digital
space, which brings its own challenges. If you think about a lot of the brands
in the US, most of them have been around for a while and were all growing their
brand well before Amazon came around.
Myth Buster: Well-traveled
= Open minded?
Those who know me will say that networking is one of my
strength. I love meeting people and learning from them. In my mind, each person
is their own universe, and I feel that I can learn a great deal from them. That
being said, I would say that I have an open mind, and I love when people challenge
my ideas or way of doing things. However, during this trip to China, I learned
that just because someone might be “well-traveled”, it doesn’t mean that they
are open minded. I believe that traveling can help you have a broader mindset of
the world, but it doesn’t necessarily make you open minded. So, if you want to
become more open minded, don’t waste money traveling the world- start in your
own backyard.
I am certain that many books and articles have been written
on these topics, but I wanted to share with my network some of the things I
have learned in just a few days in mainland China.
Comments
Post a Comment