Calm after the storm

I'm rather more relaxed and happy today, I know you'll all be glad to hear. I've finished some important work in the office and finished a case study and separate presentation for my Firm Strategy & Management course. Not only that, but after a lot of confusion, I have found out that the exams I was expecting to take this Saturday have in fact been moved to next Saturday. One of those chinese announcements from Uni that I will have ignored on a busy day.

Hooray! That takes the pressure off. I kicked back and watched a movie today to celebrate. Gosford Park. A mostly unexciting film, but interesting to watch if you are interested about the life of the Lords and Ladies of England well before the days of mobile phones.

Mum wrote me a very nice email, which made my evening. Very considered I thought it was. She talked about how I needed to either 'join the locals' or leave them. Funny enough, I realised that the challenge in the office is harder than that. It's not just PRC culture, our management consists of Dutch, French, Singaporean, Malaysian, American.... It really is quite a challenge. An interesting exercise nonetheless.

She also brought up the question of our family friend, the one who's happily shacked up in New York now, after his Chicago MBA. 2.4 kids and all that jazz. She pointed out that he did his MBA at the age of 30 or so, and married at 32. Actually, that's not too dissimilar from my situation, but the point still held, which was what's the hurry. I'll learn plenty from what I'm doing, and that's the important thing.

On that, it's a bit frustrating that I haven't been able to seriously engage in client work yet. It's partly a result of my still limited mandarin. But from my eyes, it's more a result of our office not yet having beaten the market. I'd love for our company to be triumphant in the marketplace, and I know we are heading that way, but we're certainly not there yet. I'm here as one of many others helping to make that happen. It's just personally frustrating for my CV in the meantime. It bums me that I've been in China for what will soon approach a year, and whilst I've been in gainful employment for much of that, I haven't had tangible client work.

Mind you, my understanding of business here has come on greatly. 3 months ago I was asked to write an overview of the China practice. I didn't know where to start! I didn't know much about the practice, our market, our competitors... even who to ask for help. Now, it's much better. I have opinions on most issues, and can reach out to more people for help. My opinions are by no means 100% correct, but hey, it's a start. And they aren't so dissimilar to the views of others in my office, including those of my scary colleague. By being in the office, with some exposure to what sells, doesn't sell, hearing of projects going on and the issues they are facing, I've gained some valid experience.

Still, no way around that. I'm lucky to be paid to wait for client work, and so I'll wait a little more patiently for my bout of client work to begin. It's just a matter of getting myself started. Once I've done one good project, more will follow naturally. I thought today about quitting work, to study some more mandarin. A similar train of thought to the one that tempts me to quit or at least pause my MBA. The argument is that the Mandarin thing really holds me back, but with lots on at work/school, I really don't have much time/energy to learn Mandarin.

It's a tricky balance. Not enough hours in the day for everything. I can't Just learn mandarin - the stuff I'm learning at work through experience, and the context I gain from the MBA, are important as well. It's no good just being able to speak mandarin - I need to know how to operate in this envrionment as well. So.... I'm going to soldier on with the busy schedule as well.

Another thing my mother mentioned... no time for a girlfriend. I'll agree there - just got too much on. It's a shame. I'm a big fan of keeping balance in one's life. But for now, to get over this particular hump, I think I'm going to hide away for a little bit and get this work/chinese/mba thing sorted out proper. It needs to be done so that I can enjoy life better later on. The sad part is when I look back at my life and see the times that I've done that before. GMAT prep, MBA apps, learning mandarin in London, not living in dorms when i started learning mandarin in fudan, and nearly every difficult consulting project I've done - all involved focusing my efforts for a time, and sacrificing some of the fun and interesting things in life.

When does a busy person cross the line from being an interesting person to a boring git? The danger is of course that if I remove all of the interesting things from my life, then with very little creative stimulus, it's hard not to be a boring git. Soap operas, inane american TV such as 'mythbusters' (this week I witnessed them trying to float a child using 30000 helium balloons, and lift a shipwrecked boat using ping pong balls - a perfect example of interesting conversation points but otherwise a complete waste of time). Also novels, magazines, cinema, art exhibits, dinner parties, and organising fun things like cycling, wall climbing, day trips out. These things, I don't have time for write now. It's a real bum.

Ho well, I'll keep a few things to keep me sane. Singing once every four months with my choir gives me something very different to do, and doesn't take up too much time. Chatting online with friends gives me some relaxation. Weekly trips to the driving range, which I am determined not to drop because it's SO difficult to pick up again otherwise, I do really enjoy improving my swing. I'm still terrible mind you, but it's fun trying to learn! Writing on this blog, hopefully shows any readers more of who I am... haha so you can judge my boringness for yourselves!

I wonder if I'm diseased, like so many others of this day and age - addicted by work ambition. So many of us are gripped by this. If it is an ailment, maybe I have it pretty bad. Should I? Or should I turn my back on it, and enjoy life instead? A tricky one to work out.

Enjoy life and relax in relative comfort?
Strive for more and make for a brighter future?

I'm still on the latter of these two. But why? and why are so many others on this plan too? must we be? Is it so bad to take plan A? I'll accept that most of my life thinking sets me up to take plan B. I'm pretty happy with the reasons why, and what I'll achieve if I go down this route. But today, I'm realising that I have the power to overturn that, to change what my life has prepared me for. Not a light decision though, and they do say it's always better to sleep on a problem than to rush into a forcing an outcome.

Food for thought another day. Thanks again for your email mum, and thanks also to wei yee, teresa and emily for asking after me! Good to have friends keeping an eye out for me.

New Boy in the office

So I transferred from the London office, with glowing references. It still took me like 10 interviews and at least 4 months of backwards and forwards before getting signed on. It seems they really weren't at all sure about taking me on. This said, they seemingly do that to everyone at the moment here.

I've only really ever worked for one employer - E&Y/CGE&Y/Capgemini. Coming away like this , where my credentials don't carry has given me the experience that comes with starting afresh. My reputation does not precede me. Expectations however do. So I have to prove myself all over again.

I remember this - my first few of years at work were a hard time, proving myself. At some point when I became 'trusted', I could worry less and be more confident of my abilities. I still have that confidence about myself. But I also need to gain the trust and respect of my new employer.

For most at work, this has gone down fine. There's one major doubter though, who's pushing me hard. She's pretty darn senior, and gives as good as she gets. It's good to be challenged, even knocked down. She doesn't beat about the bush, gives them hard straight and true.

She criticised me today for a couple of things. She expects more from me in terms of driving work through myself. She sees me as delegating and coordinating rather than owning or doing. She's worried that I'm flaky when it comes to delivering. It sounds ok in retrospect, but believe me it was pretty cutting. She clearly established that she expects a lot more from me.

It's a fair concern to have. I'm not too worried because I know I can and do deliver, and drive thing through. Also, I think I know the context of what she's criticizing me for. In my defence, I have enough things on my plate, there are others doing nothing in the office, and I see it as training/good experience for me to delegate work to them. It's plain sensible to me, and effective working. She has me on a couple of other points too, which I could plead defence against too, but there's an underlying truth there regardless, which is that I have yet to win her over.

She's a strong lady, hard working, takes on a lot. I realise now that I should have interpreted that. Most of the time I imagine effective delegation to be an important managerial skill. It is of course. But at the moment, to impress this boss, I need to show her not delegation, but some serious get-stuff-done skills. I could have been smarter about this, mapping out my stakeholders, seeking to understand their personalities and frames of reference, taking a stab at what they look for in staff, and then looking at what their information channels are so as to know when they might be 'watching'. Sure that seems pretty calculating, but hey, that would have been much smarter than waiting to get my ass kicked.

As she points it out, everything I do at work is an opportunity to impress and to prove myself. It's kinda pressuring, given I'm maxed out with MBA and Mandarin, both of which seriously detract from the time I have at work to get stuff done, or get it done well. It's hard to do everything well, especially without driving myself crazy by asking too much of myself.

I'll pay a bit more attention to it I think. But for now I'm accepting that there's only so much I can do. If it takes a while to prove myself, I think it'll just have to take a while. Hope lady luck will be on my side for a bit longer, and I'll be able to get through ok.

Learns on Dr Farhoomand's Business Transformation course

Lecture Learns (lectures 1 + 2)

Dr Ali Farhoomand's Business Transformation course. (HKU iMBA at Fudan)

 

I'm typing this with cold hands - haha no heating yet - no matter how cold, the heating doesn't turn on until after a certain date... haha!  Anyhow, a very stimulating course.  Sadly I can't work or revise other courses while I sit here, but it's nice to be engaged and thinking.

 

1.         A strong left brain is a good thing.  But it makes it harder to tap into your right brain.  Innovation, creativity, and 'thinking out of the box' comes from using the right brain.  The right brain doesn't understand the logical contraints (the box) that the left brain does.  Leadership, according to Henry Minsberg, requires art as well as craft.  It seems I should have a think about my right brain and how I use it.

2.         Different working styles have their pros and their cons.  Hong Kong workers put in the most hours a year (2500), but have one of the lowest per hour productivity.  French workers put in the least hours a year (1500), but have the highest per hour productivity.  Americans put in a lot of hours, and also have high productivity.  Other indexes show a strong correlation between productivity and quality of life.  Except in America, where workers have high productivity but very poor quality of life.  Curious, huh.  So, let's say I broadly have a European working style, should I now adapt to my local environment and conform to an Asian working style?  If so, and if I maintain a relatively high level of productivity, does that make me into an unhappy American?

3.         When working with people, look to their motivations.  Based on 'agency theory', staff are not there for the good of the company, they are there for themselves.  If I want to influence people, e.g. to have them work for me (or at least in the direction I want), I should be conscious of what they want in life.

4.         We brainstorm lots at work.  But how often do we really sit down to use our brains?  We're all busy at work, having meetings, writing emails etc.  Where's the time and space for deep thought eh?  Sometimes in focused discussion perhaps.  Or subconsciously, when walking on the way home, in the swimming pool, at the driving range.  Maybe I should focus my deep thought a little more - pick a puzzle of sorts and then think through it.  Stretch myself.  Hmmmmmm.  Neural workout.

 

Lecture 2 learns 

 

1.        There are levels to thought.  We sometimes talk about being able to see the big picture, or to be able to find the ‘so what’.  Analysis vs Synthesis.  Deduction vs Induction.  Being able to carry out a solution to a problem, as opposed to being able to truly understand what the problem is. 

2.        What’s the problem with strategies.  Is it choosing the right strategy?  Is the problem executing the strategy?

3.        De-linearisation of processes. Object orientation instead of linear value chains?  This is akin to Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) at an IT level. 

4.        Fundamental difference in teaching style.  One is interactive lecturing, where students make comments to support the teacher’s train of thought.  Another is where the teacher guides challenges and facilitates the students in a certain direction.  Both have their merits, depending on the material being taught I guess.

5.        How to move from linear cause-effect thinking to non-linear complex interaction thinking.  (Chaos theory).  Life is no longer so predictive, there’s a great deal more uncertainty.  A chaotic system is one where the output is greatly sensitive to the accuracy of initial conditions.  E.g. Bush’s last election, being swung by only 550 votes.

6.        Competitive advantage – not from good processes (they can easily and quickly be replicated), but from process configuration.  This is the combination of processes or sub-processes in a (often seamless) way that creates additional value.  The competitive advantage comes from being able to reconfigure these processes at speed.  Now I understand what Capgemini’s Adaptive Enterprise / Adaptive IT / Service Oriented Architecture proposals are all about.

7.        Corporate flexibility can be achieved through fractal simplicity – a basic concept that when tested at detailed levels still holds.  The use of common self-similarity of values and beliefs (corporate ethos), provides an aligned mechanism within which flexibility can be achieved.  HP – Invent.  Dell – Sell direct.  Capgemini – Collaboration.

8.        Inertia is a barrier to moving fast.  People who have long been having success will find it hard to believe that the world has changed or that a new approach is required.  This time lag can have terrible consequences e.g. Xerox.

9.        One potential issue with Asian culture – we tend to err towards conformity.  Tension or conflict is generally frowned upon.  But that stifles creativity, or the ability to spot the problems coming up ahead.

10.     measurement.  Measuring things – reliable (consistent) and valid (measuring the right thing)?

11.     Mega-companies will struggle to keep up.  Better to run a big company?  Or a big dynamic network of mini-companies?  Ah could this be the subject of Roger Camrass’s book ‘The atomic corporation’ perhaps.

 

 

 

MBA - the view from base 1 will have to do me!

part time MBA - keeps you busy.  I knew I would be, but never really stopped to think about it.  I remember friends from before, James Couper and Ken Webster each telling me how hard it was for them to study an MBA whilst working full time.

 

For the most part, it's doable.  What frustrates me at the moment is that there are some courses that I'm interested in and want to learn, but I struggle to learn well in the time.  Partly because the lectures are in Chinese, which doesn't help my understanding of the harder concepts, and partly because my schedule of work/study/mandarin and a little bit of life keeps me rather too busy.

 

It's a real shame, because I'm learning more in the courses that I was already familiar with, but the real value for me has to be in these courses I'm not familiar with, but now have insufficient time to do justice to.  After some time it will be easier, once my mandarin improves further and I can ease off on the mandarin front.  Maybe then I'll see if I can go over some MBA material again.

 

Begs the question of course, if I'm not learning lots of new things, then what's the MBA for?  Partly, by virtue of graduating, it's a confirmation of what I know, regardless of how little or much of it I learned through the course. It's also significant in furthering my academic qualifications - otherwise I only have a Bachelors.  Given I can pick up a degree without having to stop work, why not.  There's an aspect of localisation - I may be working for an European company, but HKU and Fudan really are Asian Universities.  Lastly, there's alumni.  Curious eh - only one aspect relates to the academics.  Terrible really, but it's the truth - there is a lot of extracurricular value to be had from an MBA.

Imported foreign newspapers only

Beijing ends plan to allow printing of foreign news.

By MURE DICKIE
296 words
17 November 2005
Financial Times
London Ed1
Page 7
English
(c) 2005 The Financial Times Limited. All rights reserved

Beijing has halted plans to allow foreign newspapers to print in China because of concerns raised by recent "colour revolutions" against authoritarian governments in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, according to a senior media regulator.

Shi Zongyuan, head of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said the role of the international media in such popular revolts had prompted the suspension of what had been an easing of China's curbs on foreign news publications.

"The 'colour revolutions' were a reminder not to let saboteurs into the house and that the door must be closed, so we have closed it temporarily," Mr Shi said in an interview with the FT.

Mr Shi's remarks underline the increasing concern with which Chinese leaders have viewed the toppling of the government of Georgia in 2003, of Ukraine in 2004 and of Kyrgyzstan earlier this year. Fears that China's own political order could also be undermined have fuelled a broad effort by Beijing propaganda officials to tighten controls on cultural and media imports. Mr Shi's linkage of foreign newspaper printing in China to national security issues is likely to disappoint international newspaper publishers eager to build their presence in what is potentially huge media market.

Foreign newspapers are currently flown into mainland China from print sites in Hong Kong and elsewhere, and distribution is limited to places where foreigners are numerous, such as hotels and airports, and to approved subscribers.

The press administration had planned to allow local publications to print foreign newspapers including the FT on a contract basis, while retaining restrictions on distribution.

Mr Shi said that any return to the liberalisation policy depended on the conduct of foreign media.

What the heck am I doing in China anyway? One possible answer.

I had a chat to Pam last night (a strategy consultant friend in HK), about work / life balance, and how sometimes our career choices involve lifestyle sacrifices.  Where is the balance?  And why is it that some of us choose to sacrifice simple pleasures in pursuit of our careers?  Is it really worth it?  I think we left the question open, but we're both sticking to our career guns for now.

 

It spurred me on to finish some of my thinking about what I'm doing here in China, as per my recent blog entry.

 

I figure, if work is your passion, you might as well work somewhere interesting.  Be a part of history.  Make a difference.

 

Sure I could live a fairytale life in the West somewhere, with a fine job, house, car, dog and 2.4 children... but particularly given I'm single, I feel I can decide to chase after my ambitions.  After the first 6 years of my career, I realised that I enjoy making a difference through my work.  Sure it's nice to be paid well and stuff, but I get a lot of personal satisfaction from knowing that my work was actually useful.  As such, I realised that I could help the UK go from good to better... or instead I could help China in its giant leapfrog from the third world to the first.

 

In that sense, maybe I'm drawing parallels with teachers and other service workers.  Although I'm sure they'll resent me for the comparison, though in fairness they probably earn much more than me now.  Many will choose to pursue these careers out of satisfaction for making a difference, not because of the great pay.  Doctors take time to study, and emotionally put themselves on the line for their patients.  Firemen aren't with their families at night, they're running into burning houses to save children.  In a way, we're similar, except for the suit and tie part.  We're all looking for our role in life.

 

I still remember Ming Yee and Sophie keeping me in check, telling me not to delude myself, and that I'm really here for the money.  Lots of money.  Now I'm not exactly earning pots of money just yet, in actual fact I've dropped significantly in terms of wealth.  No disrespect to them, but I'd make more money driving an underground train in London than working as a consultant here.  It's true though, the experience is likely to enrich me.  By the laws of supply and demand, at some point there'll be some value in a person who has experience and languages of both the East and the West.  And so hopefully then I'll start making money again. 

 

Much as I accept this, that my journey is an up front investment that ought to pay off later, I can't believe that I'm here chasing dreams of becoming a millionaire.  Although... the idea of running a large chunk of a large business successfully here appeals to me.  That would be an achievement.  And if I happen to become a millionaire along the way?  I won't complain.

 

Hmmm 1-1 language training

So, i'm trying to find a language tutor.  I'm trialling a couple at the moment. 

 

I can do a fair deal on my own:

- learn vocabulary, either by thinking of words and looking them up, or by using an e-translator on a chinese article

- practice fluency of speech by reading out aloud

- practice listening comprehension by watching DVDs or recorded news/business TV programs

 

The main trouble is finding the time, and not getting bored.  It's kinda hard going on one's own, and it's difficult to make the time.  Advantages of getting a tutor:

- forces me to make time,

- ensures a focused learning environment,

- keeps my brain awake rather than staring at my laptop screen

- hopefully some structured teaching 

- can do some good work correcting pronounciation.  That stuff is difficult!

 

A couple of problems with the tutor idea though.
- expensive (1-1 ranging from 100 to 150 RMB an hour)

- teachers' english not great, so sometimes i find myself preferring to look things up in an e-dictionary than ask

- because my reading is so far behind my speaking/listening, it's hard to follow text books

- business text books don't necessarily contain the language and vocab I'm interested in

 

I think it's a particular problem because my vocab isn't great, my reading is terrible, and i'm really impatient and demanding anyway.  So now I'm in two minds - shoudl I continue with tutoring, or should I reduce the tutoring and make more of a concerted effort to put time aside?

Remind me again, why am I here?

A fundamentally good question I think.  My mother called just now.  She's back from a trip to Vancouver.  She visited some old friends who moved out that way - the Ahmons.  Their son Nicolas, went to Chicago for MBA, worked as a management consultant in New York, and now has moved to a bank in New York.  Working for the bank means less travelling - a more stable life.  He also married a Korean lady, who I understand he met on the MBA.

 

On the face of it, they're not going to have a bad life in New York together.  Good pay, good job,  and with a little luck, a very happy life.

 

So what the smeg(1) am I doing in China?  Hahaha.  She didn't ask me, but I daresay that's secretly what my mother will be thinking.

 

(1) Smeg = british slang.  It's a very mild swear word.  If you want to see it more in context (other than the web of course), then download a copy of Red Dwarf, a british TV comedy, where a man from Liverpool uses it a Lot.  hahhahah

What's wrong with Motorola?

Haha blogging is a great way to vent steam.

 

Now I'm mostly happy with my Motorola RAZR R3 mobile phone.  But recently I've been trying to use the hands-free kit.  Once when I was on a long distance business call, and wanted to make some notes while listening on the phone.  And again today when I was chatting to a friend and thought it would be nice to use the hands-free instead of holding the phone.  Hands-free in this context means a wired headphone thingy that has a built in mike for talking. 

 

I'm understanding Motorola's brand here.  The hands-free kit has a unique design - it looks a bit funky.  But it's terrible to use.  On a Nokia hands-free, the sound quality is the same, and the person you are talking to generally wouldn't know that you were using a hands-free kit.  Assuming you buy a genuine Nokia set that is.  But this Motorola one, I can't hear the other person so well, and they can't hear me so well.  In both conversations, I found the kit not worth using.

 

I guess I'll go buy a bluetooth thingy instead.  But, it boggles my mind as to what Motorola is up to.  Don't they realise they'd make so much more money, and more effectively compete against Nokia, if their products were just half as good to use as they are to look at?

Mum and sis in Shanghai! (this is zhujiajiao) 

yah boo sucks to the river cam 

crabbie crabbie 

icy and a Boy crab (i think!) 

crab lunch on the lake

 

Hairy Crabs at Yang Cheng Lake!

A few weeks ago Bessie at work told me she was going to Jiangsu Province to eat hairy crabs.  Having eaten one in Xintiandi and having thought they were, well ok, I was a little surprised that she’d head that far out to eat them.

 

My friend Icy invited me to join her HK crew on a similar trip out – and with a Sunday free I figured why not.  Just over 20 of us headed out to Jiangsu province – probably about 80 minutes by coach.  We went to Yang Cheng Lake, both famous for its crabs, and the closest of Jiangsu’s lakes to Shanghai.   

 

The crabs were good fun, and tasty.  Not super delicious I’ll admit, but it was a real fun day trip out.  Kinda like going to Brussels to eat mussels.  It’s not exactly that they’re that delicious, but the trip adds the magic.  I don't think I'll both with crabs in Xintiandi again... but give me a two hour coach ride again anytime!
  
On the way back we stopped at a water town to walk off our lunch.  It had 830 years of history apparently.  A pleasant walk for an hour or longer.  We had time to walk away from the touristy areas and check out the streets behind where the villagers lived.  There we could see them playing mahjong, and see some beautiful untouched canals and bridges.  That part especially was beautiful; tranquil; unvisited.  Seeing the villagers ‘punt’ around, it reminded me of the manicured lawns and willow trees of Cambridge.  But somehow this town seemed all the more authentic. 

 

Thanks Icy!