Dry cleaners

Struggling to find somewhere respectable in Beijing near my hotel to sort out my clothes in a suitably lazy fashion.  Only option - resort to the company I use back in Shanghai.  象王, Elephant King, a taiwanese laundry/dry cleaning chain now all over China.  I think they screwed up my clothes once, damaging my suit.  So no guarantees.  But they collect and drop off, which is what I need.

 

http://www.xiangwang.com.cn/jiameng/ditu.asp

EY to grow to 20,000 staff in China!!!

A recruitment and training Monster.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5-2413404.html
"Ernst & Young has indicated that it plans to quadruple its staff in China to 20,000 in the next decade.

The increasingly global nature of the firm’s business was reflected in its recruitment this year of 650 staff from a record 26 countries, Mr Otty said.

Mr Otty said that the firm was seeking to recruit skilled employees interested in working in emerging markets.

Like rivals, Ernst & Young has encountered problems recruiting staff for its Chinese offices and has been forced to comb universities abroad for speakers of Mandarin."

Insight: Investment: Portfolio segmentation by goal

Why only have one investment portfolio?  Examine your investment goals.  Do you have one, or more than one?  e.g. do you have short term as well as long term goals?  Segment your portfolio by these goals to better ensure it is aligned to supporting these goals.

Cultural adjustment - living like Chinese

So I'm on another client site in Beijing, on a hi-tech business park in the middle of nowhere.  I got drafted onto an SAP project due to a shortage of SAP folks and a drive for more business knowledge.  Beijing seemed a great idea until I discovered the hours we are working, and the fact that I'm an hour away from all of the interesting parts of Beijing.  The accent is cool though!

 

The client site is pretty sweet actually.  We have a big space to work on, plenty of desks, wireless internet, and a wireless printer.  Great to have good infrastructure.  Limited telephones though, so my phone bill is going to get quite big me thinks.

 

One of the downsides is... despite this being a new facility, the type that has aesthetic water features outside, there are still only squat toilets.  Great.  Surprising design decision for a modern building if you ask me, but shows me how much I understand.

 

It's a Chinese speaking client, with English language written materials.  A nice gentle segue into Chinese consulting I suppose, although I generally prefer diving into the deep end. 

 

Haha the same applies to the toilets.  Whilst they are squats, they are the cleanest and most sophisticated I have seen.  That they are clean and hence mozzie free, means that the only uncomfortability remaining is the psychological aspect.  With a few months of being up here, I guess I'll get accustomed to it.  Not much choice really!

 

Also good preparation for a real "local local client".

 

Food and accomodation is another issue.  Lunch and dinner are generally taken at the client's canteen.  At under 10 RMB (70p), it's cheap.  I can't say it agrees with me that well though, and it's generally pretty stodgy greasy stuff.  Worst is realising how they wash the chopsticks.  Whilst thankfully they are plastic chopsticks and not wooden, they are thrown into a very large bucket of soapy water.  Not the reassuring regulation high temperature washer that you might hope for, when feeding a canteen of several hundred people.

 

It's almost as SARS doesn't exist.

 

Accomodation really isn't up to my historic standards.  I've been spoilt by the belief that consulting is glamorous, and that we adhere to a high level of accomodation as a minimum standard.  Our accomodation in this local area is somewhat more basic.  4* apparently, but looking at the rooms you wouldn't know it.  And certainly no pool to relax or keep fit in.

 

If I'm going to participate in these 'local local' clients, unless I suddenly get brighter, more specialised or more fluent in Chinese, then I'm going to have to bear through this period, until the big consultancy firms like Capgemini are able to turn a healthy profit, and bump up the expenses policies to retain us.

 

Sure I'm slumming it.  But it's a good experience I think.  I know my grandparents went through times in Asia when they lost their fortunes and had to rebuild themselves up, for example, going from having 4 maids in the house to living in someone's garage and living off selling chicken eggs.  But the UK and this era being very much more stable, it's unlikely that I will go through this experience.

 

Slumming it in Beijing gives me some of this experience - having what one has taken for granted and enjoyed freely, and having little choice but to accept something quite different.  It's an exercise in flexibility, and also in appreciation.

 

That's right, next time you sit on the lav, you think about how lucky you are!

First real chinese project; working in wai di (outside of town); fitting in

So.... my travel schedule has been crazy as of late, with as many flights as days, and more cancellations/rebookings than I have flights.

 

I've just arrived in Beijing to backfill a colleague who left the company.  (Yeah thanks Andy, i'm loving picking up after you!!**!)

 

It's looking to be a bit of a nightmare at the moment.  For two weeks some other colleague covered for the position, and now he's trying to hand over to me, with what little understanding of the project he has.  And a new PMO manager is putting pressure on us to get moving with planning, scope, progress, all that good stuff.  Great.

 

The team have been working long long hours day and night, weekdays and weekends.  We're here for another few months.  Quite how I have enough shirts to come with 12 days away at a time, and how I can continue to live my life (including needing to find new accomodation in Shanghai and move house), I don't know. 

 

Far from the norm, I understand the situation this project is at the moment one of the worst.  I'm not at all familiar with the background, so I don't yet understand the full reasons why it is such a difficult project at the moment.  It does demonstrate our willingness to go the extra mile for our client, but it's a little scary as a consultant who has just arrived and begins to realise what he's got himself in for.

 

We're an hour or so outside of Beijing, which sucks, and we're all staying in a not very nice local hotel.  One day when I figure out where we are exactly... I'll see if I can find a better hotel - our expense policy allows it.  I personally don't find it a nice place to come home to, what with the frayed towels and the discoloured bathtub.  Moving to a nicer hotel presents some interesting challenges though - singling me out as 'different' from the others.  Asia being strongly collectivist in mindset, it's often not wise to be anything other than a sheep. 

 

But cultural exchange is part of the game, and maintaining personal happiness and sanity is an important aspect as well.  If I'm miserable, I'll end up leaving the company, simple as that.  Indeed, in this industry many do just that.  But for now, I'm not going to be the one to suggest that pampering is a simple means to improve talent retention...

american express business culture

focus on execution

management communication intensive (written)

english speaking

joint working teams

leverage local knowledge

Shanghai politics - got a mind of it's own? Not any more!

Analysis of the sacking of Chen Liangyu, Shanghai's party secretary - top politician in the region.  Too powerful for Beijing's liking?  Refusing to slow down develop of Shanghai?

 

Sep. 28, 2006 (China Knowledge) - Media reports on the sacking of Shanghai Communist Party secretary Chen Liangyu are seeking to explain the motives behind President Hu Jintao's actions. Chen was ousted as Shanghai party secretary on Monday on charges of the possible misuse of money from government pension funds to invest in real estate and other projects. He is accused of aiding illegal businesses, shielding corrupt colleagues, and abusing his position to benefit family members.Hong Kong newspaper The Standard reported today that the corruption probe by Beijing is progressing further and more officials may be implicated. Chen's sacking is the highest-level purge in a decade and is an indicator of President Hu's bid to consolidate his power.Analysts say that Hu is on a drive to consolidate his power and also to restrain development.

Sacking Chen would send a message to leaders of other local governments to rein in investments, as Chen is reported to have a reputation of being against government measures of slowing the economy - he is reported to have had a fierce argument with Premier Wen Jiabao in 2004 when Beijing first tried to slow the economy.According to AP, President Hu is also seeking to stamp out corruption and the anti-corruption drive does not stop at the sacking of Chen. Gan Yisheng, general secretary of the party's Discipline Inspection Commission, said at a news conference in Beijing that investigations are underway and that eight auditing teams are looking for misconduct by senior government officials and leaders of large financial institutions in areas across the country.Inspections of officials in 30 provinces and cities as well as nine state banks have been carried out, and the insurance industry and major state companies are next, Gan said.