Aloha from Thailand!
I cannot think of a more fitting end to this whole experience than that which is taking place. As I look out on the noisy night time streets and cross dressing cabaret dancers of Koh Tao, Thailand from my poorly lit internet cafe, I cannot help but get lost in the blur that has been the last month. In only five weeks I have seen the Bird's nest (Olympic stadium), the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the full moon party in Thailand, and some of the weirdest food and people that I could ever imagine. As Dr. Carr noted it is almost impossible to look back and fully reflect on the experience at this point, especially as I am still traveling and continuously meeting with new experiences. Only today I scuba dove for the first time - a breathtaking experience in itself! I will do my best to sum up some of my experiences thus far in the following.
On my most important business take-away:
I think the most important thing that I will take away from this trip relates to Doctor Carr's observation:
"These students should also now have the ability to understand and analyze, at a sophisticated and nuanced level, the next front page article they read about China and India and business that appears in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Business Week, The Economist, et al. and be able to understand why it’s a front page story and be able to separate fact from global legend."
I completely agree with this statement, and think it is mostly due to the simple fact that I have now experienced these places first hand. Before this trip I was interested in China and India, and read related stories in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review whenever they showed up, but never really connected with the stories on a personal level. Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, and Mumbai seemed more like sources of stories than actual places in the world. Having experienced these places and their people (and their food), I can already notice a difference in the way I interpret stories and other media related to the Eastern world. Even as images of Beijing gearing up for the Olympics flash across CNN world news I feel a close connection, as I remember walking over that same bridge only a few weeks ago. This personal connection will allow me to more accurately interpret all kinds of information from the Eastern world for years to come, whether it is from the media or from closer business contacts. I can't think of anything more valuable than the enhanced understanding that this brings me.
On mixing business with pleasure:
The most striking "best business practice" that I took away from the Chinese and Indians that Westerners could learn from is how to mix business with pleasure. In Western business it is generally considered bad form to mix business with pleasure, and it is certainly something to be careful of in some circumstances. However Indian and Chinese business practices turn this around. For example, a typical Chinese business meeting may be followed with dinner and heavy drinking of baiju (which some of us had experiences with on this trip.) This could be followed with a very long, very drunk, and very embarrassing night of karaoke. Where this apparent loss of composure might be looked down upon in Western business, it is often encouraged in the East.
This socialization does take place in Western business, only in more discrete forms, like the golf course. I think that Western socialization outside of the office needs to be expanded upon. The Chinese have a concept called Guanxi, which simply refers to building business relationships. This concept of a social network of mutually beneficial relationships, especially as applied to business, is one that is catching on in the West, as evident in personal networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, but we need to take this responsibility to our business relationships more seriously. This won't happen until we stop looking at people as business opportunities, and start seeing them first as friends. On the train from Delhi to Mumbai I had a long discussion with two Indian men. While we did talk about business, we also had long conversations about religion, Indian belief and infrastructure, and interpersonal relationships. When we ended the discussion around 3:00am one remarked "See? Friendship first - just have fun... the business will follow!" What a great attitude.
On going with the flow:
I now appreciate that one of the takeaways from this trip was the testing of whether I have the flexibility that any firm, domestic or international, will require of me in order to add value to what the firm does. On this trip I learned I did have the flexibility I that I thought. On the trip (and afterwords) I met many very interesting and very different people. Learning to understand these people by interpreting both their accents and their different cultures was a challenge at first, but just like everything else became much easier with time. Since business is based on personal interaction, being able to understand and respect someone in all aspects is the most important part of any business relationship, and thus the most important aspect of being flexible for a business person. Dealing with other challenging aspects of the trip such as food and horrible travel delays was a bit more trying, but certainly bearable. The only time that I almost lost it was while waiting for the connecting flight from Hong Kong to Delhi, which was delayed 6 to 8 hours. With no sleep, and no place to sleep, that was a difficult situation for everyone to deal with - especially with a group of 42. In the end, any situation you find yourself in can be worked out, and I think this trip has increasingly prepared me for doing just that - working things out. In all the day to day business situations I felt surprisingly comfortable, which is especially surprising when thinking back to meetings with big shots like the managing director of Parsvnath - one of India's largest development firms.
On Ko Phan Ngan last week a friend and I shared a bungalow on the side of a mountain. It had one plywood bed, and one wall completely missing. There were holes in the ceiling, walls, and floor big enough for a small dog to crawl through. There was no running water, and the attached toilet was basically a hole in a cracked concrete slab. If that isn't out of my "comfort zone" I don't know what is.
A life changing experience:
The most important thing I learned on this trip that changed me as a person is that America is not, in actuality, the center of the universe. I know, I know... I never really thought that it was in the first place, except I really did! I didn't realize until I experienced being in China and India, and seeing CNN world news in the hotel rather than MTV, just how sheltered I have been. I have traveled plenty - Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Holland and others, but never really been exposed to the rest of the world from a business perspective the way that I was on this trip.
I mentioned before that I never really perceived places like Beijing and Delhi as real places - only as the sources of media stories. I think I can say this about the people in Asia as well. As an architectural illustrator I have received countless email solicitations from 3d animation studios all over Asia who want me to outsource work to them. I'll get an email like,
"Dear Director,Thank you for reading. I am Vivien Chin. I am writing to you on behalf of MaxRENDER., China. MaxRENDER specialize in architectural 3D visualization and 3D animation processing. Our service item include 3Dmax model, architectural renderings and real-estate animation. I want to search for opportunity to outsource of your 3d relative work. If we have chance to make cooperation, you will get a professional 3d production team in China, which costs far lower but can attain a high level quality of your productions..." (names changed for privacy)
I have always found these emails a bit annoying. Not only am I not looking to outsource my work, but they couldn't even find a proper English translator to translate this bulk email that they have no doubt sent to thousands of architectural and visualization firms. I didn't really notice when my perception changed, but now when I get these emails I actually think about the possibility of utilizing their services. Having seen Chinese and Indian firms first hand, I now know that they operate just as efficiently (if not more so) than most American firms. Also, the talent you can find in virtually any industry in Asia is impressive to say the least. Also, when it comes down to it the translation is really pretty good. I certainly could not translate that into Mandarin with any kind of accuracy. Globally outsourcing work to this type of firm is a huge opportunity that I am now prepared to take advantage of. This never would have happened had I not experienced these places and people first hand.
Before the trip we read (by choice or by force) articles about how China and India are emerging as the next super powers of the world, citing the truly amazing economic progress that the countries have made in only a short period of time. While I understood these articles and found most of them interesting, I guess I never really "got it." Upon arriving in both China and India I was met with a completely different realisation than I had expected. Instead of the shining and perfect metropolis of capitalism and progress that the papers sometimes describe, these places were a mess of contradictions. Sky scrapers of steel and icy glass reached towards the sky, as old beaten bamboo shacks leaned up against their mighty foundations. Multi-million dollar bridges, as well as beautifully manicured corporate greens lead to unpaved dirt roads with homeless people sleeping on the shoulders. Many times I recall looking out my clean air conditioned bus window at old men riding on the roof of an eighty year old broken down school bus-looking vehicle with no windows or doors. The beauty and majesty of these places is in their truly incredible transformations over the last few years. This phenomenon also describes the great diversity of space and contradictions that I mention. While LA, San Francisco, Paris, New York, and other developed cities have had decades to organically grow and progress, financial districts in developing cities like Delhi and Shanghai have sprung up over night. This accounts for the huge diversity of spaces ranging from bamboo huts to some of the tallest towers in the world. This rapid growth also accounts for the world's perception of China and India as the next economic super powers.
Having seen these two economic giants in their adolescence has been an absolutely amazing journey. There are so many talented and ambitious people in Asia, and the talent pool is growing at an exponential rate. While these places still have a long way to go in terms of infrastructure and development, their potential seems limitless, at least for the moment. I think this trip has given me a very realistic view of what can be expected from China and India in the next ten years, and has empowered me to be able to identify key network players, who I will be able to create mutually beneficial relationships with as I begin to explore the domestic "real world." I see these places as real places now, and the people as real people. This is the invaluable lesson that the trip to China and India has taught me.
On China:
I don't feel like I am really in any position to comment on China (or India for that matter) on a comprehensive basis. Sure I have read a lot about China in the business world, and experienced more of it than many people in the world, but really I've barely scraped the surface. To me, China is a strange and foreign land (still). I don't know where they get their food, but it's definitely not from the same supplier as Golden Gong in San Luis Obispo. The language is impossible for me to pick up both verbally and visually, so I can't ever tell where anything is - even with a map (unless there are romanised street signs around.) Even with all this, I can also see China as a huge opportunity for any Western business person with a bit of an open mind and a strong stomach. The Chinese culture and knack for business networking make China a very comfortable place to do business - especially for someone who has something to offer the country. I personally would not leave California for a life in Beijing or Shanghai, (or anywhere else for that matter,) but I can certainly see the draw of these places. The welcome that our Chinese hosts showed us on the trip is truly unparalleled in my experience, and I am sure they show this same respect when dealing with both customers and business associates alike.
The first thing anyone ever says when I mention China is, "Oh yeah they are totally going to take over the world!" I don't really believe they they are going to take over the world by any means, but as Fareed Zakaria points out, we (Americans) are definitely going to need to learn how to deal and partner with them. As China and its economic markets develop further, it will undoubtedly transition from "factory of the world" to "business partner of the world".
On India:
It amazes me how similar, and yet how different China and India can be from one another. It also amazes me how efficient Indian business can be with almost no physical infrastructure. I suppose this is a major part of why India has come to specialise more in the outsourced service industry. As our host at one Indian company described, this lack of physical infrastructure actually makes many service industry companies much stronger, by forcing them to become self-sufficient. That specific company's facilities could run effectively without any power from the public grid for a full seven days! I don't know many American offices that can make such a claim.
Another amazing thing about India is that many business sectors that have existed for decades in the US are just now becoming organised in the Indian market. This leaves a huge opportunity for first entrants to monopolise these industries in India. Even better, these "first entrants" can benefit from years and years of proven methods in the US. The first company to enter a market in India has all the advantages of being a first entrant without much of the R&D cost or even risk. Real Estate is only one of these sectors that we looked at while in India. While real estate has obviously been a sector for hundreds of years in India, it was only recently that the sector started organising, and a few firms began to look at Indian real estate as a whole, rather than single owners selling individual plots of land all over the country. This lack of organisation thus far has allowed these few companies to achieve monumental returns with little to no competition from other firms, whereas in the US for example, countless large and small real estate firms compete viciously for land and for customers all the time.
The question for me is how to take advantage of this new market organisation and realignment as a foreign investor or partner? I can't really comment on that (or you would know my secret,) but obviously the opportunities are virtually limitless at this point. To me, India is an incredibly exciting opportunity.
