Business and culture
marcelbdt
July 18, 2008, 11:29 PM posted in General DiscussionI have a friend, who works for an electronics related company in Europe. This company has recently bought another company in China. The European headquater is quite happy about the work done by the Chinese engineers, but they do have some difficulties in cooperating.
There are many facets of this, here is one. The main office in Europe would like to be informed as early as possible about emerging problems - but as it is, they will never hear anything from the China branch except that everything is going well. Even if it is not. To the Europeans, it seems that the Chinese are afraid of loosing face and hide difficulties from the main office as long as possible. Which is not what the company wants.
My theory is that this is about break down of communications, and about cultural differences. Does anyone here have an idea about how to solve the problem, so that the main office gets early warnings about problems, and the Chinese branch does not loose face?
andrew_c
July 19, 2008, 12:50 PMI think that I have a story related to the one in the original post.
Back in the day, my grandfather ran a business in the NY garment center producing women's dresses. When we ask him about it, he will talk about an issue that would arise when he made an order with local factories run by Chinese people which would sew the dresses. He says that when they were late and he would ask them what's going on, they would always say that the dresses were ready and being put on the truck to be delivered. Very often this wasn't even close to the truth, as he would occasionally discover by going over to the factory, and seeing the fabric he provided sitting there untouched!
From his perspective they were blatantly lying to him, but I guess that the difference in culture discussed here explains what was really going on.
marcelbdt
July 19, 2008, 10:25 AMThank you for taking the time to give such great input! I will be back on the subject!
auntie68
July 19, 2008, 10:40 AMP/s: Thank you for not complaining about the length of my post! May I please mention one more thing? One surprisingly useful tactic is to give those guys a "hostage" (like I was on that project):
- Not so junior that they feel insulted.
- But still junior enough to get the facts from the people who were really doing the work, the younger associates.
- And senior enough to give the Chinese partners "face", underline the fact that you take the business relationship seriously, and channel useful information to your side and get the bosses on your side to do the necessary.
- And experienced enough to avoid getting drawn by the young associates into any office politics involving the "dead wood" boss.
- I'm guessing that it is very important that the "hostage" go in like a mole, ie gently, rather than as an agent of change who is going to teach the ignorant Chinese how to do business. The "bad boss" may have a lot to contribute, once his talents are properly channelled in a healthy way.
All this "advice" is given on a "without responsiblity" basis, of course. Please don't forget that this Auntie has spent the best part of the last two years totally absorbed in "The Wheels Of The Bus", doing the school run, and watching "Pocoyo" etc etc with a Stunt Toddler who only turned 3 on 29 June 2008!.
RJ
July 19, 2008, 10:47 AMThe best solution is to keep someone from the EU office there on site in China at all times. Weekly or daily conference calls for the purpose of updating progress and solving problems can also be helpful but you have to ask direct questions and create an atmosphere that doesnt blame anyone. It still amazes me the things they wont tell you if you dont ask. It can get rather complicated, but I would still rather work in China than anywhere else.
auntie68
July 19, 2008, 10:49 AMrjberki, in Singapore we call those on-site reps "hostages"...
auntie68
July 19, 2008, 10:05 AMI've only done two projects with Chinese partners, both of them were short-term, but what marcelbdt is describing is a pretty familiar fact of life all over Asia (except maybe in Singapore, where people are proud to be almost as blunt and pragmatic as Israelis). I agree with luoyan's advice.
And would like to add 2 cents': The problem faced by your friend may be down to only one or two individuals. Due to the hierarchical, top-down corporate culture in Asian countries, the real problem could be a middle (or even senior) manager somewhere who doesn't know how to, or is too insecure to, to let his subordinates do the job right.
He's covering his ass, probably out of his depth in today's business culture, and may be feeling threatened by bright young things below him as well as by rigid, old-fashioned bosses above him.
Unfortunately the only solution is for somebody sufficiently high up in your friend's company to get the bosses above that guy on the right page.
I base this principally on a very educational experience I had doing a project with a "well-calcified" Korean entity.
The younger Koreans I was working with were some of the brightest, more practical and internationally-minded people I had ever been fortunate enough to work with.
But this is how the day went (I know because my boss "parachuted" me in to save a project which was failing from exactly the reasons described by you):
From 8.30am to 2.00pm, these brilliant people were basically goofing. At 2.00pm, panic set in and all their energy was diverted to producing something for the boss to see before he left at 4.00pm.
No point whatsoever sending any fax to update the partners in other countries, because this boss would look at the day's drafts/ guest list, undo exactly half of it with ceremonial changes, maybe physically throw the folder at the poor guy delivering the briefing, and then... go home.
This boss never noticed that some pages were stapled upside down, it didn't matter to him because he never read anything.
And that tokenism was spread to his team. It's a very Asian thing. I myself had an Asian boss like that once: He would amend a draft, and when it was returned to him he would make fresh amendments. So instead of each successive draft narrowing down the troublesome areas, we just went round and round in a circle.
Well, from 4.15pm to about 9.00pm, my Korean associates would undo all the silly typos that they had put in earlier in the day, struggle to incorporate the amendments demanded by their boss without introducing too many inconsistencies (yeah), and have a nice subsidized (but delicious) dinner in the office canteen as they waited for the evening rush hour to subside.
And -- this was one of the keys -- at about 9.15pm, I would quietly fax a copy of the work-in-progress to my own boss and the partners in other countries.
The junior Korean associates let me do this because of two things: (i) I did the "helpless chickbabe" thing (Eg. "My boss is going to KILL me! You gotta help me."; no face lost in helping a helpless foreigner), and also, (ii) eventually, it dawned on them that my relationship with my own boss was different, and that by giving him a realistic advance warning of the issues, he would HELP US to manage the difficult Korean boss. Eg. my boss would be prepared so that he knew exactly how to avoid putting the Korean boss in a spot (not helpful for the Korean underlings and the Hostage Auntie!).
Truly sensitive (and non-negotiable) points were handled by my boss, and he was sufficiently positive with the Korean boss to keep that guy calm and keep him out of our hair. After all, if he could go to his superiors and report daily that the foreign partners were happy, he was much calmer.
Good luck!
auntie68
July 19, 2008, 11:17 AM"Stockholm syndrome"! Hee hee... :-)
RJ
July 19, 2008, 11:27 AM哈哈，I imagine there is a business version of the stockholm syndrome. Now, if I could just figure out those Shanghai girls. :-)
changye
July 19, 2008, 11:48 AMHi guys,
Thanks. I thought of me as being a poor scapegoat that has alcoholism syndrome, but I've just realized that I AM actually a hostage who has Stockholm syndrome here in China, though I don't know which is better............
RJ
July 19, 2008, 11:02 AMAuntit68, I pretty much agree with your assesment. The details often differ but the basic principles remain the same. I dont mind being the hostage. Its a skill not everyone has.
luoyan
July 19, 2008, 09:30 AMIn short term, start by asking more detailed, specific questions to find out by yourself if anything wrong . Straight forward questions like " Tell me the truth. Tell me if anything goes wrong" will lead you to nowhere and will be considered as threatening. So save your energy by not asking them.
For long term, train them about the appropriate behaviors you desire and explain the cultural differences. Still you need lots of patience since it is going to take quite a while to see any change.