I'm back in Canada now after a few days in Hong Kong following the end of our study tour in Shanghai. Let me recap the end of our study tour for you...
Thursday May 14th started out for us with a lecture on campus at SAI delivered by Professor Li Tingyu. The theme of the lecture revolved around how economic reforms in China since the late 1970s has led to massive GDP growth and accompanying social changes. Professor Li mentioned that many people in China are eager to share information with us so that we can understand their country better, or in the words of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao "see China in the light of her development". Professor Li shared with us some of the changes that she personally has experienced since economic reforms began. One of the changes that we could directly observe on some level is the massive growth of car ownership. The number of personal vehicles has exploded to 169.9 million, and by our judgement a large proportion of those are new black luxury vehicles, all kept spotlessly polished!
Of course with all of economic reforms individualism in Chinese society is growing and social patterns are undergoing fundamental changes. This all contributes to great social risk, and Professor Li outlined for us methods that are being focused on in order to move modern China from a 'risk society' to a 'harmonious society'. Key to this transition is the goal of decreasing the gap between the rich and poor by expanding the proportion of middle income earners. In light of an earlier lecture we heard at CNSA in Beijing, I imaging that this will be a long and challenging process given that underemployment appears to be a significant challenge.
The afternoon was meant to be filled with our visit to GM Shanghai, which was cancelled. The gap was not able to be filled with an alternate company visit, so we paid a visit to Yu Gardens in downtown Shanghai which is a combination of gardens and bustling market streets. Also, many completed their souvenir shopping (to the under-breath mutters of "you want watch? hand bag?") in the secret back rooms of shops under the neon lights of the famous Nanjing pedestrian road. Being invited into a back room to check out the selection of knock-off goods was quite the experience... especially when it involved sneaking through a secret door concealed by racks of clothing!
Speaking of shopping, on Friday morning we paid a visit to Giordano Group, one of the biggest and most well known garment retailers in the Asia-Pacific region. They are hardly confined to this region anymore though with over 1900 stores in 30 countries around the world, including new stores in Los Angeles and Vancouver. Our host was Bernard (Bernie) Mah, who is an Executive Director of Giordano Group, and a University of Alberta graduate from the 1970's. He still has many family ties to Edmonton and his children are also U of A grads. Mr. Mah described Giordano as the "Asian Gap".
Giordano Group was founded in Hong Kong in 1981 and made their debut in mainland China in the early 1992. However, because of the risky mix of business and Chinese politics, Giordano operations on the mainland were halted by the government starting in 1994. They were not able to be fully operational in China again until 2000. It is incredible that despite their challenges with the government Giordano was able to survive and flourish as a company. I believe that a major contributor to their success in their core focus on quality, service, and "getting things right the first time". In addition, with much of their vertically integrated operations based on the mainland, Giordano has become a leader in socially responsible business practices in China with their focus on fair and equitable treatment of their employees.
After our meeting with Mr. Mah we had the opportunity to visit the Giordano store on Nanjing Road for a bit of shopping. Many items were purchased, especially by the guys in our group who loved the selection of golf shirts! It was great and we look forward to their Canadian expansion! With the tour drawing to a close we had some free time in downtown Shanghai to explore areas including the Bund, an area heavily influenced by European architecture. Though the Bund is under heavy construction at the moment in preparation for the 2010 world exposition (Expo 2010), you can still get a great view of the waterfront and the awesome modern architecture of the Shanghai Pudong district which includes the landmark Perl Tower. We got to get an ever better look at the Shanghai skyline that night when we were lucky enough to have dinner in the Perl Tower's revolving restaurant as the sun went down on our last day in Shanghai. It was spectacular!
The next morning we visited a Buddhist monastery en route to the airport where we said our good-byes, many of us carrying on our travels to other destinations and others heading onto the long flight back to Canada. It was a fantastic trip; we learned so much both about doing business in China, its fast paced change, as well as its people and sights. For me this was an experience I will never forget, and I hope to visit China again someday. I could not have asked for a better way to wrap up my MBA, and I'm a bit saddened that its all over now. But much lies ahead...
Well, this is where I sign off for good. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Shanghai Death Race!
Alright. Our drivers here in Shanghai are completely insane. We have two mini buses to take us around while we are here and the drivers like to race. Crikey. Our drive back to SAI this evening was like a death race. We all held on for dear life, and more than a few yells of "oh my @&^#*" were heard on the way. Let's just say that what was expected to be a two hour ride turned into a 70 minute one. Yikes. The bus I was in "won"...
The objective of our bus ride was to get us to Suzhou today. Suzhou is about two hours outside of Shanghai (depends who's driving though!) and is described as an "earthly paradise". It is a city and industrial park built in a perfectly planned and ultra modern style. The ultimate in manufactured landscapes without so much as a blade of grass out of place. New, new, new. I found it to be incredibly surreal with its army of gardeners and watchful eye of surveillance cameras.
In Suzhou we paid a visit to the Xi'an Jiantong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). This new University, opened in 2006, is a joint venture between Xi'an Jiantong University and Liverpool University, and has already achieved 1st tier National University status here in China. Its focus is to provide the overseas educational experience to China's top students at home in China. They achieve by aggressively recruiting top international faculty and students from around the world. They have established six research centres, among which is the finance, management & urbanization studies research centre, who we were guests of today. One of the topics discussed was their management teaching method MBAR2. I found this method to be of interest and it appears to parallel our learnings in the University of Alberta MBA program, with a focus on results based management, use of a case-based approach, and management by objectives.
We were treated to a view of the architectural plans for the complete XJTLU campus, which is under rapid construction. It is amazing. As I mentioned, the school has only been in existence since 2006 but there are already several beautiful buildings comprising its campus with many more in stages of completion. This is a major difference between Canadian and Chinese University infrastructure... It takes us many years to go through the process of getting a new building, but they can build an entire grand campus in under five years. We were also treated by XJTLU to one of the most delicious lunches we've had... we were guessing much of the time what the dishes were, but found them all to be great. We later learned that dishes included jellyfish (which we thought was some sort of vegetable), sea cucumber (thought it was eggplant in sauce), and eels (thought it looked unusual but had no clue... maybe sardine?)! We had no idea these item could be so delicious.
Well, the sandman beckons... bye for now.
The objective of our bus ride was to get us to Suzhou today. Suzhou is about two hours outside of Shanghai (depends who's driving though!) and is described as an "earthly paradise". It is a city and industrial park built in a perfectly planned and ultra modern style. The ultimate in manufactured landscapes without so much as a blade of grass out of place. New, new, new. I found it to be incredibly surreal with its army of gardeners and watchful eye of surveillance cameras.
In Suzhou we paid a visit to the Xi'an Jiantong-Liverpool University (XJTLU). This new University, opened in 2006, is a joint venture between Xi'an Jiantong University and Liverpool University, and has already achieved 1st tier National University status here in China. Its focus is to provide the overseas educational experience to China's top students at home in China. They achieve by aggressively recruiting top international faculty and students from around the world. They have established six research centres, among which is the finance, management & urbanization studies research centre, who we were guests of today. One of the topics discussed was their management teaching method MBAR2. I found this method to be of interest and it appears to parallel our learnings in the University of Alberta MBA program, with a focus on results based management, use of a case-based approach, and management by objectives.
We were treated to a view of the architectural plans for the complete XJTLU campus, which is under rapid construction. It is amazing. As I mentioned, the school has only been in existence since 2006 but there are already several beautiful buildings comprising its campus with many more in stages of completion. This is a major difference between Canadian and Chinese University infrastructure... It takes us many years to go through the process of getting a new building, but they can build an entire grand campus in under five years. We were also treated by XJTLU to one of the most delicious lunches we've had... we were guessing much of the time what the dishes were, but found them all to be great. We later learned that dishes included jellyfish (which we thought was some sort of vegetable), sea cucumber (thought it was eggplant in sauce), and eels (thought it looked unusual but had no clue... maybe sardine?)! We had no idea these item could be so delicious.
Well, the sandman beckons... bye for now.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
New Advances in Cycling
Hello from Shanghai! Yesterday was our last day in Beijing, and we spent it first by paying a visit to the Alberta China Office. They act as liaisons between Chinese businesses and Albertan representatives, to facilitate relationship building and business interactions. We were presented with an overview of market statistics and opportunities in China, in particular within the oil and gas sector.
Later in the day we tried our hand at bargaining at the market again, armed with what we thought were honed skills. Too bad it was Monday though... we found out that the real deals are harder to find at the beginning of the week when the vendors are trying to meet their revenue targets early so they can later relax. I struck out on my attempts at buying a watch! After the market whirlwind we headed for a huge Peking duck dinner. I think we were all stuffed even before the duck made its appearance, and we were initiated into the Chinese business tradition of "hierarchical" toasts with little glasses of spirit, Bajiu.
Following dinner we went to an acrobatics show. It was all kinds of crazy. The performers were superhuman, and I suspect lacking joints or pain perception. Imagine a contortionist balancing five chandeliers, no two on the same limb. Crazy, I know. How about a stack of people balancing on a teeter-totter with the person on top flipping bowls up with another teeter-totter (also balanced on the whole stack) and catching them in a nested fashion on his head. Hard to believe but we saw it. And for the final vignette, there were 12 contortionists performing incredible stunts on bikes, with a finale of all of them on one bike... it was hard to tell which person owned which limb. Now we've seen some life-endangering cycling in Beijing (such as business suit clad women riding side-saddle style on the back of a bike being driven by their boyfriend through chaotic traffic while talking on the phone or applying makeup), but this really took the prize for new advances in cycling.
Today we left what was a comparatively clear day in Beijing and arrived in Shanghai. On the drive to the Beijing airport we were finally able to see past a couple of block radius (normally obscured by the air quality) and managed to get some bearing on how Beijing was laid out. It was like we were in a hazy bubble all week! Anyhow, we arrived in Shanghai and are back into our bubble. We are guests of the Shanghai Administration Institute (SAI), a government training facility... it has hotel style accommodations. We have not been far from the SAI yet so I have not really formed any impressions of Shanghai yet, so I will have to reserve those for later.
Time for me to sign off; bye for now!
Later in the day we tried our hand at bargaining at the market again, armed with what we thought were honed skills. Too bad it was Monday though... we found out that the real deals are harder to find at the beginning of the week when the vendors are trying to meet their revenue targets early so they can later relax. I struck out on my attempts at buying a watch! After the market whirlwind we headed for a huge Peking duck dinner. I think we were all stuffed even before the duck made its appearance, and we were initiated into the Chinese business tradition of "hierarchical" toasts with little glasses of spirit, Bajiu.
Following dinner we went to an acrobatics show. It was all kinds of crazy. The performers were superhuman, and I suspect lacking joints or pain perception. Imagine a contortionist balancing five chandeliers, no two on the same limb. Crazy, I know. How about a stack of people balancing on a teeter-totter with the person on top flipping bowls up with another teeter-totter (also balanced on the whole stack) and catching them in a nested fashion on his head. Hard to believe but we saw it. And for the final vignette, there were 12 contortionists performing incredible stunts on bikes, with a finale of all of them on one bike... it was hard to tell which person owned which limb. Now we've seen some life-endangering cycling in Beijing (such as business suit clad women riding side-saddle style on the back of a bike being driven by their boyfriend through chaotic traffic while talking on the phone or applying makeup), but this really took the prize for new advances in cycling.
Today we left what was a comparatively clear day in Beijing and arrived in Shanghai. On the drive to the Beijing airport we were finally able to see past a couple of block radius (normally obscured by the air quality) and managed to get some bearing on how Beijing was laid out. It was like we were in a hazy bubble all week! Anyhow, we arrived in Shanghai and are back into our bubble. We are guests of the Shanghai Administration Institute (SAI), a government training facility... it has hotel style accommodations. We have not been far from the SAI yet so I have not really formed any impressions of Shanghai yet, so I will have to reserve those for later.
Time for me to sign off; bye for now!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Great Wall
Nihao! We are just back at the hotel after our weekend of sightseeing around the Beijing area. We're getting ready to play cards in one of the rooms, kind of in the way we saw people playing cards in their storefronts last night. A few quick updates: We are over the jet lag, all healthy, and GE Healthcare has joined the companies that do not want us to visit due to the flu. The weather cooled off which was great for the sightseeing, and we are our skills at crossing hectic roads is improving as are our chopstick skills. We have employed a few Mandarin phrases, our favourite of which is "bu hao" meaning "not good". If you are late for a group meeting you will be bu hao'd!
Renee, who expertly coordinates this trip for us received a funny email today. It was from the Great Wall. Nope, I am not kidding. Aparently the Wall didn't want us to pay it a visit because of the flu. Too bad for the wall that we have already visited it.
So. The sighseeing. We've been all over including Tianenmen Square, the Forbidden City, Beihai Park, a perl market, a clothing market, Ho Hai district, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. The highlights for me have been climbing the stairs of the Great Wall, and the scale and sheer grandeur of the Forbidden City. We had a blast at the markets where we got to test out our bargaining and negotiating skills bartering for everything from jewlery, to fake designer bags, to knock off brand-name clothes. Last night in the Ho Hai district we were the majority of the patrons in a pub where we took over the stage and hosted our own open mic night. We called it "Luigistock" in honour of one of our fellow students on this trip, Luigi, whose birthday is coming up.
Time for me to go and catch up with the card game. Tomorrow morning we are having a meeting at the Canadian embassy, adn then since our visit with GE healthcare is off I'm not sure what our new plan will be. Dinner will be the Peking duck feast!
Bye for now!
Renee, who expertly coordinates this trip for us received a funny email today. It was from the Great Wall. Nope, I am not kidding. Aparently the Wall didn't want us to pay it a visit because of the flu. Too bad for the wall that we have already visited it.
So. The sighseeing. We've been all over including Tianenmen Square, the Forbidden City, Beihai Park, a perl market, a clothing market, Ho Hai district, the Summer Palace, and the Great Wall. The highlights for me have been climbing the stairs of the Great Wall, and the scale and sheer grandeur of the Forbidden City. We had a blast at the markets where we got to test out our bargaining and negotiating skills bartering for everything from jewlery, to fake designer bags, to knock off brand-name clothes. Last night in the Ho Hai district we were the majority of the patrons in a pub where we took over the stage and hosted our own open mic night. We called it "Luigistock" in honour of one of our fellow students on this trip, Luigi, whose birthday is coming up.
Time for me to go and catch up with the card game. Tomorrow morning we are having a meeting at the Canadian embassy, adn then since our visit with GE healthcare is off I'm not sure what our new plan will be. Dinner will be the Peking duck feast!
Bye for now!
Saturday, May 9, 2009
A U of A success story
I only have a couple of minutes but I want to tell you about a company we visited yesterday here in Beijing. Deya Tech was started by two University of Alberta graduates, Yanning Li and her brother, early in the 2000's. Now they are a highly successful enterprise software company focusing on document managment and sharing solutions including regultory compliance components. Our visit with them was really great; we all gathered in the loft of their Beijing offices, a vibrant, creative, and productive space... you could feel the entreprenurial energy there in the room. We had a great question and answer session, where the climate for start-ups in Canada and China was discussed, as well as their success factors, and strategies for operating in Asia. What a great visit!
Because of another company visit cancellation (flu strikes again!), we got the opportunity to go visit the Olympic park and have tours of the Birdsnest Staduim and Watercube facilities. They were incredible! I particularly liked the Watercube.
So here's a few general observaions I've made on Beijing so far: The buildings are not particularly tall, but they are massive. HUGE! With the exception of the air, just about everything is spotless. There always seems to be troops of people cleaning things. There are beautiful gardens everywhere. The food is great (Ok, maybe not the bugs on sticks!), and the beer is cheap. The convergence of Eastern and Western clutures is evedent, as are the generational differences.
Time to go! We are doing sightseeing this weekend so I'll update when I can!
Because of another company visit cancellation (flu strikes again!), we got the opportunity to go visit the Olympic park and have tours of the Birdsnest Staduim and Watercube facilities. They were incredible! I particularly liked the Watercube.
So here's a few general observaions I've made on Beijing so far: The buildings are not particularly tall, but they are massive. HUGE! With the exception of the air, just about everything is spotless. There always seems to be troops of people cleaning things. There are beautiful gardens everywhere. The food is great (Ok, maybe not the bugs on sticks!), and the beer is cheap. The convergence of Eastern and Western clutures is evedent, as are the generational differences.
Time to go! We are doing sightseeing this weekend so I'll update when I can!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Jet Lag and Things on Sticks
Hello again from Beijing! Needed to test if blogging would work, so please pardon the previous post!
After our long day of travel starting Tuesday morning, we arrived uneventfully in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon. No quarantine... phew! A few changes to our itenerary though: we are not able to stay at the Chinese National School of Administration (CNSA) as we were scheduled to, nor will be visiting GM Shanghai. We are staying at a hotle across from CNSA instead. There is a significant amount of sensitivity surrounding the flu, and we each received a gift of a thermometer to check our temperatures upon arrival.
Yesterday was our first day of company visits, and a full one it was. Our first stop was RBC Bejing where we heard about the Chinese banking industry and RBC's involvement in its development and reform. We were frotunate to hear from the leaders of all of their divisions, on topics including their new China focused balanced mutual fund product for the national market, and also the rise of insurance products in China. Cool... Beijing's financial district! We also visited Lenovo, which was an awesome experience. We got to see a massive multimedia display about Lenovo's history, operations, products, and future. We got to see some amazing concept and prototype products... I think we all picked out a few things we want to buy in the future!
Later in the afternoon, we were really feeling the effect of the jetlag. Around 2pm we all get a bit quiet when our brains are telling us it should be night time. The wierdest part of it is that you go to sleep at night and are wide awake by 2am since your brain says it should be the afternoon! We really need to find a good source of coffee to get us through the afernoon sessions until this wears off. Ater a little nap on the bus while the driver battled with the Beijing traffic, we went to CNSA for a lecture about China's economic policy since 1992 when the idea of a socialist free market was implemented. I imagine the China of 2009 is incredibly different than the China of 1992... the country has come so far, but is still rushing headlong into the future.
In the evening we went to to the famous Wangfujing night market, where you can get everything on a stick. Scorpions, silk worms, baby sharks, sea horses, starfish... all beautifully displayed under rows of red lanterns and deepfried to order! I didn't try any of the crunchy morsels but few brave souls did!
Well... I'm outta time, more next time I get a computer.
After our long day of travel starting Tuesday morning, we arrived uneventfully in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon. No quarantine... phew! A few changes to our itenerary though: we are not able to stay at the Chinese National School of Administration (CNSA) as we were scheduled to, nor will be visiting GM Shanghai. We are staying at a hotle across from CNSA instead. There is a significant amount of sensitivity surrounding the flu, and we each received a gift of a thermometer to check our temperatures upon arrival.
Yesterday was our first day of company visits, and a full one it was. Our first stop was RBC Bejing where we heard about the Chinese banking industry and RBC's involvement in its development and reform. We were frotunate to hear from the leaders of all of their divisions, on topics including their new China focused balanced mutual fund product for the national market, and also the rise of insurance products in China. Cool... Beijing's financial district! We also visited Lenovo, which was an awesome experience. We got to see a massive multimedia display about Lenovo's history, operations, products, and future. We got to see some amazing concept and prototype products... I think we all picked out a few things we want to buy in the future!
Later in the afternoon, we were really feeling the effect of the jetlag. Around 2pm we all get a bit quiet when our brains are telling us it should be night time. The wierdest part of it is that you go to sleep at night and are wide awake by 2am since your brain says it should be the afternoon! We really need to find a good source of coffee to get us through the afernoon sessions until this wears off. Ater a little nap on the bus while the driver battled with the Beijing traffic, we went to CNSA for a lecture about China's economic policy since 1992 when the idea of a socialist free market was implemented. I imagine the China of 2009 is incredibly different than the China of 1992... the country has come so far, but is still rushing headlong into the future.
In the evening we went to to the famous Wangfujing night market, where you can get everything on a stick. Scorpions, silk worms, baby sharks, sea horses, starfish... all beautifully displayed under rows of red lanterns and deepfried to order! I didn't try any of the crunchy morsels but few brave souls did!
Well... I'm outta time, more next time I get a computer.
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