Working in China

Last week, I had a chance to go to travel for work. We had a 3-day management meeting in Hangzhou, which is about a 3 hour bus ride from Shanghai. Let us just say that it was a total immersion into Chinese culture! In the group, I was the ONLY western face! There were a few American Born Chinese (ABC), but you can't tell they have more of a western background. Also, 95% of the meeting content was in Mandarin. I exhausted quickly trying to comprehend the conversation. I quickly learned that comprehending casual conversation, which I typically can at about 50%, is much harder when listening to business presentations. The words they use are definitely NOT in the small vocabulary list I have in my head!

• I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of the main business differences between China and the US.
  When travelling for business events like this type of meeting, it is very common for businesses to book two travellers into a single room. This is the second time I have had to stay in a room with another co-worker. I NEVER in the U.S. did the same thing. Americans are such private people, I don't think the whole room-share thing would go over well. My roommate, who thankfully I actually knew, ended up leaving a day early, so I had the room back to myself for one night. Whew...


• There were no name tags and no effort into introducing the employees. Keep in mind that this event was for Roche more senior employees (150 or so) from all over China, so many employees did not know each other. Nor did it seem there was effort to get to know them. Not one person asked me who I was or where I worked! I think in the U.S. it is much more common to use meetings like this to get to know each other and that starts with names and organizations.
• The Senior Management team for China presented overviews of the results and upcoming activities, but there was NOT 1 ORGANIZATION CHART in any presentation! I find that really weird. There is not a real sense of organizational awareness here.
• The Chinese workers tend to have interactions ONLY with their own small departments. During the three days, I observed very little interactions between the various business areas. Contrast this to the US where may individuals embrace the networking opportunities associated with a get-together like this.
• There were many secretaries who appeared in the hotel. Hmmm... In the U.S. most managers do not even have secretaries supporting them, let alone the flexibility to have them travel with them! And the implication of observing a manager who had to have his secretary come with him was that she was travelling with him for more "aesthetic" reasons!
• The idea of team building is a bit reversed here. The smaller break out groups I participated in had more trouble expressing individual ideas then they did expressing a group opinion. Asking a person for the thought on something almost always resulted in them looking around the table for an ally, who was usually sitting next to them, and then they collaborated on the answer. Weird. In talking to some Hong Kong-born Chinese, they shared that this is normal.
• I don't feel that the younger employees have a real sense of what it would take to be deemed successful in the long-term. Right now, it is all about the money. they define success in terms of how much they make or can make. Contrast that with the U.S. where we really are made to understand that our career decisions have to about the end-game. I would guess that if you asked many Chinese employees where they want to be in 5 or 10 years, it would have nothing to do with the company they are working for! It would be about money and status. When I was younger, I felt that that I needed to find ways to move up the ladder and worked to get that next big opportunity, but usually it was inside the same company. Maybe the younger American generation has the same view as their Chinese counterparts!
• Professionalism is totally different here. From the clothes to the behaviour in meetings. Women in particular do not seem to be particular interested in dressing in a Western-style professional way. Now, the standard dress for the event had been determined to be "Smart casual". Their 4 inch stilettos and short skirts did not exactly call out "future executive" to me! However, there were a handful of women in very smart suits and conservative shoes! And many employees chatted away during most of the meetings. That drove me crazy! several got up and actually just started having a normal volume level conversation right in the meeting rooms! In the U.S., many speakers or presenters would have asked for some respect. But the speakers at the event just tolerated it.
• Our dinner events involved going to a restaurant and eating a Chinese meal. That meant groups of 8-10 sitting around big tables. And of course, the same people sat together for both meals! There was no Happy Hour, which is more conducive to mixing and getting to know everyone.

I think that some of this differences probably sound negative, but really, it is just in contrast to the U.S. I am betting that if I had worked in the U.S. in the 60's and 70's, the contrast would not be so great. China business will mature rapidly, they know they have to to survive. But I hope I don't get another immersion for a few months...