Things that Can Kill You in Shanghai

The air – it’s terrible.

The pollution is visible most days and resembles a noxious, detectable sewer smell in the city.

Many people get the ‘Shanghai burn’ within the first few weeks of visiting or living there – an allergic reaction coming with a hybrid sore throat, runny nose, and drainage.

The water – tap water is high in both light and heavy pollutants, depending on which part of the city you are in. Even filters on the tap are ineffective.  Bottled water is the only way to go.

The food – street vendor food for the ex-pat, whose digestive system hasn’t acclimated, can be downright dangerous.

Not counting poisonous wild cards like the ‘gutter oil’ scandal that was reported earlier in 2012, when vendors were caught literally scraping the garbage slough of oily residue off the street and mixing it with other low quality cooking oil and then re-selling it to food & beverage merchants who used it for food preparation.

Scooters on the sidewalk – they are quiet, since most are battery powered, and thus it is easy to be walking along and all of a sudden have one speed by you on one side or the other.  If you had accidentally turned to look at a store window display or whatever, they would knock you 20 yards.

Cars and other vehicles that run red lights – traffic laws are treated like suggestions. Pedestrians at intersections are on their own and second-class citizens.  It’s every man for him/herself.

The trash – I walk down city sidewalks in busy, upscale areas all of the time where there are large panes of broken glass, unprotected power tools, nails, tacks, razors, open manhole covers, sharp-edged steel, and more

Celebrations – during the 2012 Chinese New Year’s celebration, ‘only’ about 150 people were killed as a result of fireworks in Shanghai alone, as compared to 2011 when more died during this annual largest holiday season.

Low hanging air conditioners, signs, entrances – they are everywhere, inside, outside, and primely positioned for delivering a wicked head injury.

The dark – scooters and cars, already dangerous during the day, often don’t use their headlights at night, making them even more lethal. Especially, since streetlights are uncommon.

Drinking – I’ve had colleagues say China is an alcohol-based business culture.  Based on personal experience, I believe it.  ’Nuff said.

Not guns – the only people that have them in China are the police, the military …and, of course, criminals.

I’m Done with Dell

I’m done with Dell.

For the foreseeable future, at least – which I grant, can be fleeting in the hyperdrive world of tech – I’m not planning to buy another Dell product.

I’m sure that my many MacColleagues (and Sony and HP and…) are probably saying to themselves “duh, what took you so long?”

But, you have to understand: I live in Austin, Texas and as far as I’m concerned, Dell is a hometown company, as worthy of my local patronage as Austin Java Company or Alamo Drafthouse.

Thus, for decades now, I’ve remained loyal to Dell, buying Dell products – especially PCs – over and over again. After all, Austin has benefitted tremendously from the corporate success of Dell, as well as from the generosity of countless Dell employees.

From Michael Dell on down, the company’s employees have literally given tens of millions of dollars to organizations and people around the Greater Austin area.  Along the way, I’ve been fortunate to work with many “Dell-ionaires” in philanthropy and community work, through United Way, Austin Social Ventures Partners, Knowbility, Austin Community Foundation, and many other groups.

But, I digress.   You know the saying “hate the sin, but love the sinner?” Well, for me and Dell consumer goods, it’s come to this: hate the products, but love the company.

It’s taken a long time to get here. Let me recount just a few of the milestones (patience-thinning transgressions?) I’ve weathered along the way:

There was the PCs Limited – that was Dell’s name back then – desktop computer that was delivered to my door in 1987. It was so noisy, clunky, and buggy that I took advantage of the 30-day, money-back guarantee and returned it.

(Good on you Dell, for making that offer back then – see… you were always a “services” company, even if Michael resisted using that word, until first IBM and then HP started kicking your butt.)

Then, there was my first, true Dell laptop in the early ’90s. But, of course, there was the matter of those giant, black, brick-like batteries that you had to wiggle to hit the contacts so your PC would power-up, when they weren’t simply over-heating or failing-out of charge.

(That set Dell back a bit. Again, credit the hometown crew for bringing in Mort Topfer and a host of others to fix the supply chain and come roaring back with an unprecedented run for the remainder of the decade.)

Then, came the big expansion to consumer products in the late 90s early 2000s. High end TVs, projectors, MP3 players, etc.

I tried one of those MP3 players. Actually bought it as a Christmas gift for my daughter.

You know… the ones with the internal hard drive, instead of flash memory? (Thought I was trading her up from the hand-me-down Rio that I had given her.)

After 2 months, it failed and never worked again. We bought iPods and never looked back.

Things settled a bit by the mid-2000s, at a somewhat steady (predictable?) level of quality.  Inspirons possessed just enough features, and the price was right enough, that I and many others counted on them as a workhorse, corporate laptop. You could even get Windows XP factory pre-installed on them, even when that pathetic Windows ME and other awful, pre-Win 7 variants were being hawked.

It was great. Until my display adapter went out. And then, my hard drive. The first time. By the second time the drive went out, it was time to junk it.

But instead, I took it to the guys at Discount Electronics and asked them to refurb it with a new drive and keyboard.  They did and – to give credit where it’s due – I’ll admit it’s still being used as a print server and occasional desperation PC, when we have a guest or someone in the household has to service their primary machine.

So, against my better judgment, but on the strength of the Inspiron’s refusal to die, I decided I would take a shot at buying another Dell laptop earlier this year.

Mind you, by this time, I was on my 4th iPhone, 2nd iPad, 5th iPod, also having purchased Mac computers for all 3 of our children and a few other random Apple products in our nuclear family.

All of my colleagues were (and are) on Macs at work. They even bought me a MacBook Air. But, having Windows and Microsoft Office products hard-wired into my brain at this point, there was a personal productivity issue at risk from my continuing struggle with the Mac OS (or, so I convinced myself).

So, I persuaded my colleagues that the new Dell Latitude XPS – the “MacBook Air killer” – would be superior choice for me. I’d show them; things were different.  Shoot, Dell was different.  They even had these fancy kiosks with energetic, hair-gelled sales dudes in them at Barton Creek mall. (Even though they didn’t have the model of Latitude that I wanted, in stock, at said kiosk.)

But Dell wasn’t different. At least when it came to consumer products.  The Latitude has been a sad, latest chapter in a book of disappointments.  It’s heavy, noisy, slow, and genetically prone to over-heating. It’s filled with useless bloatware.

But, worst of all, the laptop’s outer case has broken to pieces from normal, non-rugged, every-day use. It’s so bad, I scratch my wrists on it every day; the base of my palms have callouses from the jagged edges.

Even though I’ve learned to hover my hands over the keyboard, I still snag and tear my shirt and coat sleeves on it. (Don’t worry – I’m composing this post on my iPad.)

The factory AC adapter began buzzing and crackling almost immediately, finally failing completely after 7 months use. (Good on you again, Dell, for ovenighting me a replacement adapter promptly, after I complained on Twitter, on the eve of my year in China.)

Yet, why Dell hasn’t changed in my experience with its products, it is different in another way. Dell has finally shed any regard for consumer products.

I’m glad. It’s purer and truer to the Dell I actually experience.  One with relentless process innovation. One with global infrastructure assets that enable it to serve its fellow Fortune 500 companies, on down. And one that runs a business model on good-enough solutions and service, not great products.

So, I’m done with Dell. At least for now.

As for giving the Mac a second chance, however, I gotta tell you – I have high hopes for the Microsoft Surface. Unlike Dell’s consumer/SOHO products, I can’t quite give up on Microsoft’s yet.  With the Surface due this month, I’m looking forward to being among the first in line. I’ll let you know how it goes!

China Inc. – Part 2

I didn’t mention it in my last post, but the ‘China Inc.’ title of this two-part series has meaning beyond just my semi-random, personal observations about doing business in China.

It also represents a view others more astute than me have shared about the way China is run.  Which is to say: China looks far more similar to a diversified multinational corporation or holding company like Berkshire Hathaway, IBM, or General Electric than it does a fearsome, totalitarian state like Orwell’s 1984 or Stalinist Russia.

Think about it: the main decision-making body, the Politburo, operates like a board of directors. Every decade, a new top management team (the premier and president) is appointed with other promotions (provincial governors, ministry heads, etc.) following suit.

The management is mainly concerned with ensuring that the workforce (i.e., citizenry) avoids unrest and is reasonably well taken care of.  And the overwhelming focus is on protecting an economic growth agenda that is oriented around a market-based system of regulated enterprise that incentivizes individuals and encourages wealth creation.

It’s China Inc., plain and simple.

With that in mind, here are a few more of my observations from doing business in China.

7.  The Chinese are extremely pragmatic. They don’t over plan or overdesign.  Copying models that work isn’t being imitative; it’s being efficient and practical.  I have a high degree of admiration for the get-it-done, results-focused, speed-oriented work ethic I’ve seen among many of my Chinese colleagues.

8.  Of course, this emphasis on the pragmatic can have a downside as well.  It is common for people to interrupt what they are doing in a business meeting – even if they are the speaker! – and pick up a ringing phone to answer a phone call.

More than once, I’ve found myself in the middle of a conversation with someone from a service organization – like a hotel desk clerk or a desk manager of a fitness club – to have them immediately pick up a phone the moment it rings, cutting off something they or I might have been saying mid-sentence.

9.  Another counter-balance to the pragmatism and speed is the emphasis in Chinese business on alignment-before-process and, in my observation, process-before-innovation.

Pains are taken to make sure that everyone is fully aligned before work begins. This can often mean many, many meetings, back-channel communications, and documents before work begins.

Then, when the work begins, there is little tolerance for deviation to the process.  Customer-inspired product pivots, rapid assimilation of new data, and quick reactions to new competitive developments are frequently treated as breaking the process.

This is where the American tradition of creativity, agility, and opportunistic innovation still retains an advantage in start-up ventures over Chinese process and pragmatism.

This is somewhat an ironic situation, considering that the Chinese can be highly creative when it comes to finding a way to overcome a barrier or steer around an obstacle.   I’ve had more than one ex-pat colleague say – despite all of the rules and regulations you must navigate when conducting business – that there is always a way to get something done.

10.  Which leads to an area of conducting business that every country and culture has its own fair share of: corruption.  In China, the corruption can be ‘soft,’ like signing an agreement, but then attempting to renegotiate the terms on the fly after the deal is signed before delivering on commitments.

Corruption can also be ‘hard,’ like the institutionalized payments to editors, writers, and key opinion leaders in return for attending your press events or receiving your briefing materials. These payments are usually referred to as expense reimbursements for travel and they certainly don’t guarantee coverage. Yet, everyone participates in the system.

Is it corruption? Or is it simply Chinese pragmatism kicking in, by creating a more easily understood system, as compared to the gifts, ‘special events,’ and other favors that their Western counterparts use to curry favor with the media?

It’s certainly a good example of behavior that is acceptable in one country/culture that is unacceptable in another, where one could argue that the difference is in degrees, definitely not in absolutes.

China Inc. – Part 1

I’m in China for most of 2012 launching a new business.  You can read more about it at Appconomy.

Since I’m here working, I thought I’d share some impressions – in no particular order of importance – of doing business in China.

1.  Make sure when you get materials translated that you have them reviewed for professional writing standards.  There are several times that I have relied on translators to convert my wonderful prose – whether it was website copy or an article – to find out days (sometimes weeks!) later that there are problems with it.

The problems range from missing whole phrases or sentences I wrote, to a grammatically poor translation, to just badly executed meaning.  Thus, for something really important, it wouldn’t be overdoing it to get two different parties to review materials, after the translator has done their work.

2.  For any presentation that you do, always prepare for the ability to deliver it in dual language.

At a minimum, this means translating your PowerPoint or Keynote content into Chinese to go along with your native English.

If you don’t, then you may want to consider having someone verbally translate your presentation while you are giving it.

3.  The need for ‘brown face’ in your business relationship building is important. This phrase comes from my Chinese colleagues – it’s not mine.  Not unlike any other culture or country, the fact is that one needs to have Chinese members on your team to build credibility with Chinese customers and business partners.

4.  Taiwan and Hong Kong are and aren’t China.  The mainland of China is the People’s Republic of China (or PRC, in English).  As far as the PRC authorities are concerned, Taiwan and HK are part of the same nation.  So, if you are presenting a map, for example, of your offices in Asia, be sure to use the one that shows Taiwan and HK as part of the PRC.

However, while geopolitically, both regions are part of the Mainland, they aren’t governed in the same way.  Instead, they operate under their own special sets of rules, based on their unique histories.

Thus, Hong Kong enjoys a much more liberal atmosphere that permits everything from public protests to largely uncensored media. For example, Google operates its services in China from Hong Kong.

Likewise, Taiwan enjoys a more liberal, free society, with its own overlay of elected politicians.  The relationship between the PRC and Taiwan is principally governed via a construct and collection of governance called the Cross Straits Agreements.  But make no mistake: at the end of the day, the PRC firmly believes Taiwan to be part of its sovereign territory every bit as much as the USA believes Puerto Rico to be part of its.

5.  When someone in China says ‘no problem’ or ‘I understand’ the chances are that there is a problem or they don’t understand, but they are just trying to get rid of you.

6.  Americans use a lot – and I mean A LOT – of idioms in their business-speak. This especially becomes clear when you are consciously trying to avoid them with a Chinese audience that is modestly English speaking.  It’s also painfully obvious if you actively listen when there is an American who isn’t as attuned to the literal nature of their speech.

I very clearly remember sitting in a conference call with a team of Austin busdev people on a conference call talking to a Chinese team on the other end of the line. At one point, one of the main Austin speakers used seven sports metaphors in consecutive sentences: ‘ball over the goal line’ ‘quarterback the project’ ‘try an end run’ etc.

It was borderline comical!  I could only imagine to myself what it would have been like if our Chinese colleague had used as rich a set of sports metaphors in reply that were all based on the art of Sumo wrestling!

Bad Things About Good People

It is one thing to travel somewhere for a vacation or touring visit. It’s quite another to actually stay beyond a few days or even a couple of weeks.

Because when you actually stay for a while and live among the people, then your perspective shifts. Those odd, ‘cute’ ways of the locals you might have observed – but were mostly shielded from – as a tourist, turn into curious, annoying, frustrating elements of everyday life.

Take for instance walking on a city street – or really anywhere for that matter. To use an animal kingdom metaphor, I’ve come describe the Chinese way of walking as similar to a bat’s flying, whereas the Westerner is more like a cat.

Most of the time, the Chinese will turn into you – literally starting to walk towards you – as they approach, with only a last moment turn to the side to avoid brushing against you or literally bumping into you when you pass…just like the chaotic flight of a bat whose sonar enables them to avoid crashing into each other at the last second.

A Westerner on the other hand, starts making room to one side or the other, well in advance of passing another, so that there is plenty of extra distance between you and them when you actually pass each other…just like a couple of cautious cats passing, giving each other a wide berth of space as they cross paths.

Another example, which as a boy raised in Texas I’m perhaps especially attuned to, is the difference in common courtesy, especially with women.  Things you never see in Shanghai: a man opening a door for a woman, a man letting a woman get on the elevator (or subway) first, a man giving up his seat for a woman on a full subway or bus.

I recognize that this custom smacks of a particular male Southern tradition that, frankly, may even annoy certain American women who think there shouldn’t be any special treatment for women, as equally as the custom might perplex a native Chinese man.  But, in China, all I can do is model my upbringing, because I’m certain not to see any others practicing this form of Southern gender hospitality.

While these little differences in personal space and courtesy can wear you thin over time, I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight some of the behaviors that seem to me quite admirable.  Here are a few of the more noteworthy:

People do their own community policing – in my short time in Shanghai, we’ve seen:

• a purse snatcher chased down and caught by people on the street,
• a taxi driver who ran a traffic signal (which is alarmingly common) at night and t-boned a scooter driver in an intersection thwarted from leaving the scene of the accident by a crowd that surrounded him and his taxi, and
• a bonfire that was lighted on a city street in memorial of a passing relative closely monitored and ultimately safely extinguished by a citizens brigade of neighbors.

Closeness between men/women – It is very common (typical in fact) for women to hold hands and cross arms and for men – mostly younger men, under 40 – with their arms closely slung over the shoulder of another man, walking down city streets, in shopping malls, etc.

Personal relationships - While the younger generation practices it less, there is a long-standing Chinese  way of building relationships over meals, drinking, and shared activities (like karaoke, known as KTV in China) that include conversation that is given ample time to explore, go deep, provide room for learning your colleagues’ personal stories, etc.

Celebration of youth – there is a genuine joy in playing with and interacting with young children that seems much more broadly shared than I find in the USA.

And later, when they are working age, there seems to be a much greater acceptance of young men and women assuming roles of expertise or leadership.

Whether it is the apartment complex repairman or the director of a computer outsourcing center, it is far more common to see these same roles filled by people at least 5-10 years younger in China than in the US.

Taken up a notch, at more of the community and regional level, there are other admirable social qualities like a heavy emphasis on recycling materials of every and all kinds, as well as what appears to be a full employment philosophy about making sure there are jobs for everyone.

And, of course, one other social quality I favor as a foreigner, is that English is taught in school from an early age, so I can nearly always find at least one person who can understand me at a bar, restaurant, store, etc.

It’s been a fascinating time living in Shanghai, so far – unlike any other travel experience we’ve had elsewhere in North America, Europe, or Australia.  Next: some novice observations about Chinese business practices.

That’s China

I’ve lived in China for more than 4 months now. Specifically, I live in Shanghai.

You probably know that Shanghai is big.

But you may not know that it is the biggest city in the world. It’s 23 million people.

That’s more than three New York Citys, plus a couple of Austin Texas’s thrown in for good measure.

As a big city, it has everything you would expect, good and bad.

One of my colleagues says there are two main things you need to understand about going to China. I’m sure these are true across the country, but I find them especially true in Shanghai.

First: Forget about your notions of personal space – they aren’t respected. (I’ll talk about that one another time.)

Second: Don’t over think anything that you see that is outside of your normal experience or other behaviors that you would typically expect.  Instead, you simply have to get used to saying to yourself ‘that’s China.’

Examples?

How about enjoying a quiet Friday evening in your apartment, hearing something of a commotion outside down on the street, going to your balcony to look out, and seeing a giant bonfire has been started in a lane of a very busy seven lane road, with people around the fire banging drums and chanting in rhythm and, seemingly, throwing items in the fire – no fire trucks, no police, only what looked like a citizens brigade armed with a hose just in case.

Mind you, this is in the middle of the city’s most central business district. It would be like someone lighting a bonfire on 5th street in downtown Austin or Avenue of Americas in NYC near midtown.  I have it on video. It went on for about an hour.

How about walking along a few paces behind a regular guy, dressed business casual, just like you, on a nice (busy) downtown street during a regular work day and having him (by all appearances, not drunk) suddenly turn to the side, whip down his zipper, and take a wiz right there on the sidewalk, against a wall?  I’ve seen that happen multiple times.

How about visiting with your Chinese colleagues over a drink and talking about favorite places to eat and having a 30-something young lady say to you (somewhat sheepishly) that she likes a certain place because they serve the ‘freshest blood.’  She likes the fact that you can get extra portions of it and that they don’t charge you extra when, for example, you use it to flavor your soup.

But, “that’s China.” Order ice tea, and expect to get hot tea with ice poured into it and a cup you would use for coffee.

Go to a happy hour and rather than get drinks at a discount, expect to get two of everything.

Shop for bath towels at the local Costco equivalent, and expect only to find what you would think of as hand towels, because that’s what they use for bathing. I could go on.

China is a giant country, but it is all on one time zone. And that zone is literally the opposite side of the world.

When it is noon in NYC, it is midnight in Shanghai.  Just starting to gear up for your day in Boston at 9am? Just starting to gear down your day in Beijing at 9pm.

The opposite time is perhaps a good symbol for the opposite – or perhaps, better put, ‘other worldly’ – experience that I’ve had living in China.

I Don’t Live in the “Real” China

Let me be the first to say – by definition and admission – my observations are ignorant.

That is, ignorant in the technical sense that they are made with no formal study of Chinese culture, politics, geography, history.

A few blogs I’d recommend to you for a more balanced and informed set of observations about living and working in China include the following:

• Seeing Red in China
• China Law Blog
• All Roads Lead to China
• China Realtime Report, from The Wall Street Journal blogs

A few other facts about my circumstances that bias my writing:

I live in an apartment complex in the central city, high-end district of Shanghai, known as Xintiandi. How high-end?  The cars in my gated complex are a mix of Mercedes, Maseratis, Ferraris, Porsche SUVs, and a smattering of BMWs, Audis, and 1 or 2 Lamborghinis.

Across the street is a row of specialty auto showrooms: the local Rolls Royce dealer, the local Lambo dealer, and a couple of high-end sports coupe dealers I’ve never even heard of …but am certain I can’t afford.

A neighbor in my complex is Yao Ming, the retired basketball great star with the Houston Rockets, who has fashioned a post-sports career as a Chinese cross between Magic Johnson and Bill Bradley – businessman and a statesman.

My point is: I’m pretty sure that I don’t live in a normal Chinese neighborhood.  To draw a comparison, I tell people all of the time from back home that where we live is sort of the Chinese equivalent of what I assume it would be like to live in the Dakota in NYC, or some other West Side condo across from Central Park.

Yes, I’ve traveled to other cities in China including:

• Shenyang – it reminds me of a much larger Pittsburgh, further north than Pyongyang North Korea, and not that far away from it
• Chengdu – a central Mid-West city that reminded me of Washington or Oregon when I was there – rainy, lush, with scenic mountains nearby and home of a well-known Panda reserve
• Shenzhen – something of a border town, just across from Hong Kong, and thus a manufacturing powerhouse, where the weather, traffic, and pollution reminded me of Los Angeles
• Beijing – struck me as a cross between Washington DC and Chicago, with a hint of Silicon Valley tossed in for good measure. Beijing it turns out is where most of the start-up tech ventures are located, due to access to college talent, government support, company headquarters, and capital.

But, even with these travels under my belt, I can’t profess to have gotten any closer to the real nature of the people and what it means to be Chinese.  I don’t speak or understand Mandarin.  And, I don’t read the Chinese simplified or traditional written language.

In fact, I’m not even especially fond of Chinese or other Asian food.  It’s okay – something I’d eat once or twice a month.  But, far from a diet that I’d love to adopt three times a day.

The reality is: I’m an unabashed Austin cheerleader with a healthy dose of no-place-but-Texas pride.  While I try to be fair and seek to understand the perspective of others, I have no doubt that my observations are colored by my own racial, ethnic, and religious upbringing.

Knowing those biases, I hope my observations aren’t interpreted as being insensitive or insulting to any group or people.  Read on and let me know what you think!