The Jenny Zhu Show - The Sherpas Story with Mark Secchia

Great podcast, I'm looking forward to more in this series...

This can't be the first comment?!  What an honor.

I especially liked the bit about how the Chinese restaraunteurs can't believe that they will eventually get paid... Seems like there should be a better solution--like what they do with tao bao, for instance.

SD

farting in a closet.. that's awesome...

I really like the China entrepreneurial focus on Jenny's shows.

Mark's story is interesting to hear for me since I am someone who plans to relocate to Shanghai in the near future and try something there. I would have to agree with Mark's comment about avoiding the temptations there that can make one lose focus.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but for the Chinese restaurants that didn't want to participate, couldn't Sherpas simply "steal menus" from a variety of restaurants and post them on their website? Customers order what they want and Sherpas makes the call to the restaurant, picks up the food and delivers it. An extra charge is added onto the total price of the order.

one thing that I really liked about this show was how the hostess and the interviewee discussed specific issues regarding logistics and interaction between Chinese people and westerners.

I would , however,  have liked to hear more Chinese words at the end  of the show

Great shows Jenny. Would also be interesting to hear something about Chinese - Western interacting in other fields than pure business. Cultural exchange, education, ngos, diplomacy (ah, thats probably too touchy). Some topics have been briefly touched in old series, but I like the way your show goes deeper.

And best wishes for Mark and Sherpas

It is always interesting to hear foreign entrepeneurs talking about the ups and downs of setting a business in China.

It will be also interesting to do an activity in Chinese related to the topic.

Interesting Interview. Also Entertaining.

China is the land of opportunity.

I have similar experience as mark but not as bad about the down payment. If you make a down payment you should be 110 % sure about your parner.

Chinese are great business people but when it comes to priorities they put them first. Still, if you act accordingly you will have great business and also good partners. If Chinese see you are always keen on getting things right for yourself, they will respect you and everyone will profit from the colaboration. To reach that point it will take quite a few dinners and 白酒.

I hope we will find some interviews with business people in foreign trade.

Interesting show, indeed!

I agree with those who suggested that interviews with professionals in fields besides business would be interesting, e.g. in culture or academia.

I thought the really interesting part of this show was how people are managing the current economic climate. I would definately like to hear more about that, and whether people would consider setting up their companies in today's climate.

Guys,

Thank you for your comments! You will indeed start to hear interviews of people from non-business background very soon as I've already recorded a few in the bank. But like I said in a comment to the first show, there is an entrepreneurial side to a lot of things that we do. And I find this 'making it happen' attitude to be a key feature of many people (foreigners and Chinese) living in China now.       

hehe,yeah,imagine what a kick start Mark would have had if only he'd had the Menu Stealer on the team.

Great show Jenny.It's so good to hear from people with current experience in China.Adds a whole other dimension to CPod.I really enjoy an indepth interview.Keep probing Jenny.Xie xie.

Long time fan, Jenny, first time poster.  As someone who would like to move back to China one day, I love the insights so far and can't wait to hear what's next.  I agree with others who have noted it would be nice to have an interview all in Chinese once in a while.  Thanks to you and John for making my morning metro rides so enjoyable. 

@bababardwan and annabanana88,

Thank you for your encouragement! (BTW, your user names are like cousins^_^)

hehe,yeah,even down to the 88.Cool as long as no-one does the freaky backward name spelling thing,though that would make 'em drab.

Nice one Mark!

Does everybody except me know what and MBA program is?

Master of Business Administration degree... yeah, I don't care either.... (but I like the show anyway)

Thanks orangina.  Degrees have all sorts of names in different places.

I'd like to also chime in to support the entrepreneurial focus to this show. So much of the English-language media out here is shallow dross; it's nice to have something actually interesting.

To juzi:

Yes, in theory they could do that, but it's a massive headache on your accounting system. It was mentioned in the podcast that restaurants give the meals to the Sherpas couriers, customers give cash to the deliverymen which Sherpas receives and then they settle up at the end of the month. If you're paying out of hand each time you're going to need more cash in the business (since you need a reserve on hand for payments which grows every month) and double the accounting hassle.

Sherpas also caters to those with more money than time. Western dishes are more expensive and therefore the profit margin is higher - people will pay 80RMB for a 70RMB meal, but feel ripped off paying 20RMB for a 10RMB meal. It's a funny old world ...

@alogen,

Thank you for your support! You sound like an entrepreneur yourself.