Reflection 2

Reflective Journal 2

My first project on CDE is about a management consultant scenario. In the scenario, we are to give a company renowned in China but not widely known in USA some advice on how to step into the USA market effectively using the knowledge we have learnt in our first few lessons of CDE. I was able to use successful examples such as Lenovo and Apple to see why they have succeeded . In our project, we are helping a company called Xtep (特步）, a mainly footwear company,  to expand.

It is actually very hard to choose a company to research on. As Newbies, our group have no experience in how to decide on the kind of advice to give, thus we need to choose a company with great potential yet have adequate foundation to prevent making things seem too impossible. This excluded many choices of companies we are quite familiar with such as 360 safe and Xiaomi. In fact, this made us to think more in-depth and analyse more than what we are actually supposed to do. Despite being daunting, this process helped us to understand the job ethic of  a market agent, which may in fact become a choice of career for us in the future. We chose Xtep eventually as they have inadequate English information on the internet yet they have some publicity in Europe as they signed a deal with Vilarreal C.F. from La Liga. They are also backed by CCTV, which creates a good foundation in China, allowing the brand to have adequate money and time to establish itself in USA.

I realised that it is in fact very difficult to expand  a company especially to overseas, as according to research, there are also many companies which are famous in China yet failed to proper when they try to start the business overseas. Moreover, the task becomes more challenging as the Americans have the mindset that the China-made products are very fragile and not durable at all. They are also fixed to buying American brands like Nike and Adidas, thus Xtep will suffer the lack of customers. However, I learn to solve situations like this, and one way to minimise customer loss is by doing something more creative and more futuristic than other brands such as Nike. I am sure that even though the American customers trust their brand  more, if we understood the advantages of our product, they will choose our products. This project also helped me to understand more about how the economy works through advanced research on the various markets in the world and comparing them thoroughly.

Overall, I feel that this project has benefitted me in many different ways. Firstly, it allows me to have a more in-depth view of  the international markets. It also helps me to understand how to do business  efficiently and what to consider, when to expand, etc. I also learned a lot from my freinds on how the do their research work. This experience is very important and fruitful in my opinion.

Journal Entry 1

My first two lessons on the subject culture differentiation education are very enriching, and now, it is time to reflect on what I have learnt.

Firstly, I found the culture difference studies very interesting and fruitful because I am able to gain a lot of knowledge especially on the western culture. For example, I learnt about the principles or core values of the Americans such as efficiency, science and technology, as well as freedom. Compared to the Chinese side, I think the main difference can be summarised to a single principle: openness and trust. The Western are very open towards everything, for instance if the president is not doing his job well, the populace will reprimand him while at the same period when Mao Zedong is still the chairman of China, it is against the law to say something bad about the chairman. It is evident in the book Mao's Last Dance, when the main character Li Cunxin realised how different the world is outside China. I personally prefer the American's way of thinking  as I personally love their openness to one another as well as the freedom in which they trust  people to do the right things. (well that's a bit imaginative after so many shooting incidents haha ;)

Secondly, I also learnt how a company really works and why America's science and technology is advancing so quickly. The sole but extremely helpful example Mr. Karplus gave till now is Google. Based on the American's core value, Google hired the smartest people they can find and were given the best facilities to eat, exercise and enjoy themselves. Ironically they are not restricted to certain projects but instead were asked to give their initiatives, which in Chinese's perspective, will not work as they feel that these people may take the chance not to work seriously. However, this kind of freedom actually gave these intelligent beings the willingness and desperation to work harder and come out with more interesting things. This actually shows that American's core values are not so unrealistic and instead it can bring success to the organisers. On the other hand, the Chinese's core values which is mainly on obeying and collectivism, seem to be very different from the American's culture yet they can succeed as well. Therefore, what I learnt from these three periods of lesson is that different cultures definitely have a lot of difference but it does not restrict them from succeeding in every area. Instead, if the  cultures I combined and the positivity of the culture is mixed, it will take very long to blend and for sure there will be many setbacks at the start but after all, it will become more powerful; I wonder if it is possible.

I cannot wait for more case studies such as Lenovo and even Xiaomi because it originates from China and can give me a better view of the difference in  how culture influences the way the company is managed.  For example, Xiaomi's employees have poor welfare and had to push their limits due to  the Chinese mindset of work first, play later (先苦后甜). This is a striking contrast with the Google company which gave her employees wonderful welfare as mentioned earlier.  I am also very interested in the discussions that will be taking place soon. The exchange of thoughts between my classmates and I will be able to make me less biased and more capable of viewing from different perspectives. For sure, it can boost my knowledge as well. I hope that I can have a fruitful journey in Mr. Karplus's awesome cultural differentiation education class and gain good grades while gaining great knowledge.