On Friday 26 Amcham organized an interesting presentation by one of the authors of the book, Ms. Laurie Underwood and also Mr. Kenneth Yu, managing director of 3M China Region, one of the CEOs interviewed. Both were excellent speakers and communicators.

Laurie and Kenneth at the the Kerry Center
About every week a new book is coming out on China. Many of my friends urge me to write my own book and I ask myself if it makes sense to add one more to the list. People who have been 6 months or 10 year over here feel compelled to explain to the world their deep insight in this fascinating country. Some authors succeed to focus on interesting areas, many however just list the usual generalities on how to enter the “vast market” or come up with questionable views on the market potential for foreigners or come up with disaster scenarios. So, what should I possibly write about? Question unanswered as for now.
The Amcham presentation was looking into one – important – aspect of working here: “Closing the China-to-Headquarters Communication Gap”. My experience can only confirm some of the comments during the presentation: I mostly felt it was harder to deal with the headquarters than with the Chinese. And still today, with all the information available through the media and the Internet, even well educated westerners have a poor knowledge of what China really is today. A big cultural gap filled with misconceptions, misinformation and unrealistic expectations. Not to speak of the usual lack of effort and patience to understand a world that is so different from ours. Bridging that gap with your bosses thousands of Km away is a real challenge.
The book has the merit that is based on factual research, interviewing about 20 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in China. As far as I can see, some valuable feedback. I happen to know some of them quite well, so I am very curious to find out how they are presenting their story. Let’s be clear – I did not read the book yet. Knowing how some MNCs manage to project their wisdom and professionalism to the outside world while internally things are often a accumulation of personal interests, infighting and plain incompetence it is always interesting reading how they show their colors to a wider public. Maybe I have been looking too much to the inner workings of several MNCs…
What I already see missing in the picture is the absence of some non-western CEOs. Only one Japanese CEO is featured, not by oversight of the authors but because – as I know – those are reluctant to participate in such a project. I have been looking into the way South Koreans companies operate in China (no CEO from that country could be interviewed). They have very different strategies than our western companies. Just take note – South Korea is the third de facto trading partner of China (China Daily!). I met some of those Korean executives, not exactly the open and social type of executives, a bit like the Japanese. But they are very successful, using a nearly totally different management style. Maybe more about that in my book. Some day, who knows.