ECUST

My last posting

2007-06-21T07:17:00.000-07:00

I finished class tonight and will catch a flight early in the morning. All-in-all, a very good experience: a well run place, good students, gracious hosts, and I learned as much as I taught.

My conclusion for China is that it is doing a good job of following the same paths Japan and Korea took, only third-mover advantage, improvements in technology, and more gender equality will shorten the time it takes China to climb the last few rungs on the ladder.

It is interesting to compare this place to about 95% of the other countries that became independent after WWII (I'm thinking the 55+ nations of Africa, for example, India, and much of the Middle East and Latin America). Compared to those distasters, China and a lot of the rest of Asia (Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, even Vietnam now) must be superior in some regard to Africa, etc. I'm guessing it must be Confucian values of hard work, education, long-term planning, and thinking of the common good. These countries have none of the mineral wealth of Africa, but have built real countries - democratic and not - raised people out of poverty, and have become global innovators. Africa remains just a dying, drying land mass destined for the footnotes of history.

China still has a long way to go, that much is certain. But perhaps just as certain is that it will get there. Can't say that about most of the developing world.

Pictures: the local indoor/outdoor farmer's market

2007-06-20T21:52:00.000-07:00

A restaurant TAIL

2007-06-20T21:46:00.000-07:00

I ate lunch on my own today - having slept in, my morning walk became a late morning walk and I was hungry. I went to normal looking place, ordered what turned out to be rice with a chili-like sauce, and enjoyed it.

While there, a young man (maybe 30) at a table of three suddenly shouted. And shouted again. He and another guy at his table pulled out their cell phones and took a picture of his bowl of soup. I'm pretty sure he got something in his soup he didn't order ... :<)

A waitress came over eventually and looked in the bowl, nodded, and walked away without taking away the bowl. Later, the manager came over, picked the bowl and started a discussion with the customers. He left with the bowl and then I left.

Rice is nice.
Especially with some spice.
But I won't go back twice.

Intellectual discussions

2007-06-20T18:37:00.001-07:00

I got to meet with some senior faculty of the school and ask them all the politically incorrect questions as only an American can. The first was easy - why is the Shanghai Daily only 2 RMB? In fact, the intended audience is local, not foreign - the government subsidizes it so that the people can learn/practice English. Makes sense now.

The cultural revolution? A total disaster at every level, everyone agreed.

The Communist Party? Still very powerful. Must approve virtually all positions in any government organization, including the universities.

I also asked what was the current view of Mao. Everyone agreed that if you polled everyone in China over 45, half would say that Mao was crazy/evil and wrong and half would say that Mao was well intended, but wrong. Wrong is 100%. Deng Xiaoping is who is studied now, certainly in the business schools. I love his quote when, after implementing his reforms, he was asked if China still had a Communist economic system. "White cat. Black cat. Who cares what it is called, so long as it catches mice." He also said, "To get rich is glorious."

According to Time Magazine (1997):

"Leaders," Deng Xiaoping once said, "are men, not gods." To China's 1.2 billion people, the diminutive Deng, who rose to become one of the most significant figures of the 20th Century, was a little of both. Although it was Mao who destroyed the old, feudal China, it was Deng who brought the country into the modern age. Amid the wreckage of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Deng launched reforms that have quadrupled the size of the economy, leaving China poised to become an economic giant in the 21st Century. By the end of his life, the communist leadership had elevated "Deng Xiaoping Thought" on economics to gospel and almost deified him.

Teaching day four

2007-06-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

For those devoted readers (it looks like about a number between 20-25) expecting this post last night, I came home after teaching and fell asleep for 10 hours. I'm very much enjoying Shanghai, but I think I just ran out of gas.

Last night we had three presentations, including one done by a group of soon-to-graduate undergraduates who are auditing the course. One of the team members is the 2007 national English speaking speech champion in China - no kidding. He just won it Macao. I think if you win the national anything in China, that is pretty amazing. As Thomas Friedman wrote, "Remember that in China if you are one in a million, there are 1,300 people just like you." Anyway, he doesn't sound like a native speaker, but his confidence and incredible vocabulary would leave him way ahead of most U.S. college students. And his accent is Australian.

His team presented on a Chinese textile company trying to enter the U.S. market. Great slides. Lots of interesting content. They are full time students and spent a lot of time on this to impress the Dean and me. Mission accomplished.

The second team presented on SAIC, a Chinese company making cars in Shanghai in JVs with GM and Volkswagen. They bought the bankrupt British Rover name and a jeep-like company in Korea, Ssangyong. Now they want to enter the U.S. market with low-end models, like Toyota in the 1980s and Hyundai in the 1990s. Anyway, the class tried to encourage them to focus on Eastern Europe instead where there is less competition and lower expectations for car quality.

The third team presented on Rolex with the goal of eliminating all the fake watch factories in China. They concluded that the local governments have no interest in supporting this because the factories provide employment.

The Shanghai Daily

2007-06-19T22:43:00.000-07:00

Every weekday morning so far, I have walked a couple of miles outside the campus, stopping at the end to buy the local English-language newspaper - The Shanghai Daily (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/) - and read it over a light breakfast of something resembling a sugarless croissant and a cold drink, usually an orange juice like substance. Three consequences:

1. These walks, coupled with the two long walks on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, coupled with the bike riding I started before I left the USA and the daily swimming I did everyday in Seoul last week (that is a lot of couples), have given me super hero calf muscles. Alas, that appears to be the only similarity.

2. I have the sniffles. I often get this in China. I attribute it to the pollution.

3. I have come to see the Shanghai Daily as my window to the world. The price is 2 RMB (about US$0.30), which I understand given that this is China. But the audience is not local and they should charge much more. It has many stories that the central government would be proud of, but it also has stories criticizing various local governments. Most of the articles seem to be from western news bureaus and thus don't appear particularly biased pro or con China, though obviously the decision as to what to include is where any bias might be more obvious.

Every day there is a pull out section, like Entertainment (new movies, events in town), Weekend, or today's, StyleHai, with fashion news and great pictures of beautiful women (Asian and western) wearing beautiful things. There is an interview with David Wu, a local TV star, explaining how his black Armani suit makes him look thin. I beg to differ. In the words of Liz Taylor, "Clothes don't make you look fat; fat makes you look fat."

Christina Aguilera is on an Asian tour and will be Shanghai next week after finishing in Osaka. The "sultry Aguilera is ascending compared to her counterparts who are busy rehabbing, divorcing, or serving a jail sentence," reports the Daily. Wow. Christina for sainthood. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man can become king.

Teaching day three - student presentations

2007-06-19T07:46:00.001-07:00

Tonight was very interesting. Just two days ago I gave the students their assignments to prepare a PowerPoint presentation about their respective issue. They didn't need to make any conclusions yet (that is for the paper due two weeks after I leave), just introduce the company or the issue to the rest of the class. The first two (of seven) teams went tonight.

Team 1 is tasked to help Barnes & Noble enter the Chinese market, both where (location) and how (build a store, buy a store, e-commerce only). Given how little time they had, the team did well. The English was completely understandable and the ideas showed they are on the right track. Some uniquely Chinese issues came up in their analysis - the store will complete against the state-owned powerhouse, so maybe the government will try to make B&N's life miserable. Also, the government must approve all foreign books to make sure they don't contain "harmful" information or images.

Team 2 is tasked to help the city of Shanghai increase residential recycling. The team focused on the power of the government to force changes in behavior. Later we discussed the difference between "carrots" and "sticks" and the students seemed interested in incentive management. The team also recommended "punishing" companies that use excessive solid waste in packaging - a pre-emptive strike. Good idea.

This was the first evening class (Sat and Sun were all day). Class started at 6:30 pm. Only half the students were there by 6:45 pm. Traffic and work schedules make evening courses difficult.

The discussion tonight focused on "success" in business. Virtually all of the students said they would choose less money in exchange for less stress and more stability (read: job security). Working for a foreign firm is the best money, but comes with lots of stress. They also fear that no matter how hard they work, the foreign firm will bring in Hong Kongers or Singaporeans to run it after the American or European management staff leaves.

We also talked about Shaomin Li's theory of traffic policemen vs. traffic lights as a metaphor for the migration from China being a relationship-based culture to a law-based culture. The students seemed to agree.

Wed and Thurs will be the other five teams and continued discussions.

Picture: Chairman Mao watching over the sports facilities on campus

2007-06-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

The washing machine

2007-06-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

I do laundry at home sometimes; on the road I have the hotel do it. But my room has a modern looking front-loading Siemens washing machine and I thought I'd try, even failing English-language instructions. I have enough clean clothes, but why not.

So I went to the on-campus grocery store to buy laundry soap. No English spoken here. I got a bar of hand soap and gestured like I was washing my hands. I got a nod. Then I pointed to my shirt. I was shown another kind of bar soap to use. I shook my head no and start twirling my finger around and making motor noises. I was taken to the laundry machine soap.

That proved the hardest thing as the machine worked well. My t-shirts smell great.

Wenni in Shanghai

2007-06-19T00:43:00.001-07:00

For those readers who remember Wenni from EAMBA-9, she is alive and doing quite well in Shanghai working for a U.S. HR consulting firm. We had lunch at Tony Roma's today at the Shanghai Center on west Nanjing Road. The very high-end custom suit place next door fixed my tie while we ate (restitched the back) for 30 RMB (about US$4).

Picture: request for Chinese "self-discipline"

2007-06-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

"It's because of your self-discipline that we can have this vesture of verdure."

While the vocabulary may be strained, the sentiment is not. Right out of The Tragedy of the Commons.

I didn't know what "verdure" was, but google.cn did: "NOUN: a. The lush greenness of flourishing vegetation. b. Vigorous greenery. verdurous, verdurousness."

Chinese television

2007-06-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

I have cable television in my room, but not Sky TV service (Rupert Murdoch's dominant network provider all over Asia). So I have 63 channels, but only one in English - the Chinese government's English-language news service. It is CCTV channel 9, broadcast on channel 34. Hmmm.

The first day the headline was that the Australian PM had met with the Dalai Lama in "an obvious and unwelcome attempt to interfere with domestic Chinese political issues." Groan. Oh, also that Sharon Stone had arrived in Shanghai and praised the city for being so modern. Apparently she has Sky TV at her hotel.

But in fact, the station is great. News, weather and sports with native-speaking talking heads. Yes, there is a Chinese slant on things, but it is more balanced than I first thought. Last night I watched an hour-long documentary on the first Chinese exploration to Antarctica, where they built a research center in 1989. The had to have the steel fillings in their teeth removed because they would crack at -50 C. "Everyone worked night and day for 45 days to complete the center, regardless of their rank or social position." I also have learned about different provinces, the impact of pollution around the country, etc. These could be National Geographic kind of productions.

China won the world badminton championships for about the fiftieth time in the past 25 years. That was the sports headline this morning. The news was focused on progress on the North Korean nuclear issue. The weather is humid in the south and dry in the north - that doesn't change much in June.

The haircut

2007-06-18T08:17:00.000-07:00

I woke up from an evening nap in need of a good face washing - a common feeling after any time in Shanghai. But why do it myself in China? I walked five minutes to the local Hair Cuttery clone. I was greeted by the greeter who quickly panicked and found the lone woman who could speak English. She informed me for 15 RMB (about US$2), she would wash my hair and face and shave me. She shaved me with a straight edge, only the second time for me (the only other time was in Milan, Italy). I decided to spring for a haircut - all the barbers are men, by the way. It cost a whopping 40 RMB (about US$6). My shaver stood by as translator. I tipped her 20 RMB and you'd have thought she won the lottery.

If you could live in China with an American salary, you would live well.

I'm reminded of the story of the difference between heaven and hell. Heaven is a Japanese wife, a Chinese cook, a British country home, and an American salary. Hell is a Japanese home, a Chinese salary, a British cook, and an American wife.

Shanghai

2007-06-18T02:17:00.001-07:00

I left my hotel at about 0930 this morning and dropped off my shoes at the local (on-campus) shoe guy. They needed new heels. I walked about 15 minutes to the closest subway station and took the train to central Shanghai. There is enough English in the subway to get you going in the right direction, but a map helps too.

I walked down Nanjing Road - the commercial heart of the city - east toward the river, through the Bund. I ate at a Yoshinoya beef bowl restaurant for lunch - was stuffed for less than US$3. I walked along the river, circled back and took a taxi to the new "Xiangyang Market" (knock-offs), now located near the Longhua subway station. I bought a cool Ferrari shirt for my son and a bright Nike soccer shirt for my daughter. I bought an official Beijing 2008 Olympic backpack (at a government store) to hold my wares.

I took a taxi home, paid US$4 for my heels, and I'm safely back 7 hours later. It was a leisurely stroll. After teaching 6 hours yesterday and the day before, coupled with this hike, I cancelled dinner with the dean tonight. I want to crash instead.

Today is my birthday. According to the Shanghai Daily, people born today "are moving into a new phase and, by putting everything in order now, I can make the most of my opportunities ... Stop living in the past and realize my potential is only as limited as I make it."

Not sure what opportunities I'm missing, but I do have new heels.

Sharon Stone

2007-06-18T02:08:00.001-07:00

Sharon Stone is with me here in Shanghai this week, though we are not staying at the same hotel. She's here for the 10th Shanghai International Film Festival. The China Daily (no kidding) said about her, "Sharon Stone is a lot more than just an ambassador for Dior, she's also a champion of the poor, speaks a lot of sense and at 49-years-old the mother of three is still drop-dead-gorgeous." Not my type.

Picture: the parking lot

2007-06-17T06:11:00.001-07:00

Day two

2007-06-17T05:48:00.000-07:00

Day two (Sunday) is over - six more hours of teaching. I continue to be impressed with the students. Today we did an exercise where each team had to calculate the cost of completing a different project so they could bid with the right price. The answers were all reasonable, although they needed a reminder that their task was to propose solutions, not implement them.

They think an excellent consulting wage is RMB 250, about US$35 / hour. If you convert this via PPP, their figure is quite reasonable - it would be about US$225 in the United States.

One member of each team must come to the front of the class to report their respective results. The students applaud them as they walk up and when they finish. Yesterday, the team members chosen by their teams to speak were generally the strongest English speakers. Today I insisted that a different team member report to the class - the English was still quite good.

We also spent an hour discussing the ethics of management consulting and the difference between laws, morals, and ethics. I tried to explain my approach of getting rich slowly rather than by taking shortcuts or cheating your partners or clients, and the notion that if you want to grow your business, you must share the wealth with others (para multiplicar, hay que saber dividir). A good day, but I'm happy to have a day off tomorrow.

The average age is about 30 (you MUST have three years work experience to start an MBA program in China). The class is about 50/50 male/female.

The staff is very kind and attentive to me - bottled water in the morning, a delicious lunch near the campus, and Pepsi in the afternoon.

Picture: campus tennis courts

2007-06-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

Pictures: current vs. new hotel (everything in Shanghai needs to grow)

2007-06-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

The movie business

2007-06-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

I read in a recent Economist article that something like 82% of software on PCs in China is bootlegged; I have no reason to doubt that. At night near the many entrance gates at the edges of this sprawling campus, people come out (not students or at least it doesn't appear that way to me) to sell stuff. It is a giant open air market every night for a couple of hours. Bootleg DVDs seem to be the hottest items (another pun) and the disks sell for 5 RMB each, about US$0.60. But they bundle movies on the disks so, for example, the complete James Bond collection or seasons 1-6 of 24 are US$1.80.

But when the movie business says they lose billions in China, I'm not sure that is true. These people wouldn't spend US$15 for a DVD, so movies simply wouldn't get sold here if botleg copies were not available. Software is different - you need an OS and Office.

Toilet paper

2007-06-16T03:08:00.001-07:00

The rolls of toilet paper are very small - not much bigger than a big bar of soap. I assume this is to discourage waste, no pun intended. But the rolls themselves (the cardboard center) are the strongest things known to man. I stepped on it and couldn't crush it.

Picture: the classroom

2007-06-16T03:06:00.001-07:00

First day of teaching

2007-06-16T02:49:00.000-07:00

Today I taught for six hours - three hours in the morning, what turned into a two hour lunch with the Dean and three students, and three hours in the afternoon. I know some of my colleagues at Crummer who teach a full day, but it is hard for me. The only thing worse than talking for six hours is listening to me talk for six hours, so I am sympathetic to the 54 students in my class. I did have a breakout session (a great tool that Ilan taught me - the teams go off by themselves to solve a problem and report back to the class) and regular breaks, but they were fading at 5:00 pm so I ended 30 minutes early. The Dean sat in my class all day and said she was pleased with the results. I hope so.

All the students are Chinese except one 25-year old from Germany who speaks about five languages fluently and looks like a super model. She'll do well in life. The overall level of English is much better than I expected - they contribute regularly. We have had some very good discussions and they are able to argue back and forth in English. We discussed at length, for example, why Disney chose Hong Kong over Shanghai years ago - the students had good ideas and were able to express themselves surprisingly well.

The role of the women in the class is interesting to watch. They often take leadership roles in their groups and, generally speaking, have better English language skills than their male peers. I commented on this to them and contrasted it with Japan and Korea. The women were all smiling. One man said that only Shanghai women were like this, but it was not the norm elsewhere in China. The women threw things at him.

Tomorrow is another six hours or so with two breakout sessions. One will be an exercise where I give each team a project and they have to decide how much to charge for it. I'll teach them a process first and then see how well they can apply it.

Picture: the graduate school building (all programs)

2007-06-15T14:59:00.001-07:00

Picture: the admin building

2007-06-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Picture: the view from my room looking down

2007-06-15T14:55:00.000-07:00

First impressions

2007-06-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

A recent graduate of ECUST's undergraduate program picked me up at the airport. She majored in English and seemed delighted to speak to a native speaker. Her English is very good. At just 22, I think she'll do well in the new China. The entire staff has been extremely professional and easy to work with leading up to my arrival.

It is about 45 minutes in traffic to get from the Shanghai Pudong airport to the campus. This is a big campus, home to about 15,000 students. I'll be teaching about 50 MBA students who pay about US$7,000 for the 30-month program. That is a lot of money in China. There are now 106 MBA programs in China (you need government permission to start one - this is still China). The more famous schools in China charge about twice this amount. About 15 years ago there were no MBA schools here.

This is an urban campus surrounded by all the things that students want and need, from junk food to chic clothing. Lots of restaurants and on-campus bike and shoe repair.

I'm staying in a hotel for foreign faculty and those international students who pay extra for the privilege. They are building a new hotel scheduled to open in six months - it will be a more modern building. But my room is a suite with a small kitchen (microwave, refrigerator, washing machine (no dryer), and a coffee maker). The living room has several reasonably new couches, a PC with an ADSL connection to the Internet, and a TV. The bedroom is quite large with a queen-size bed and a dresser, office table, and lots of closet space, though the closets seem to narrow to be useful to someone my size. There is also a traditional hotel safe. The bathroom is clean with a large stand-up shower. It is not the Ritz, but for a week it is more than adequate and more than I expected.