But as the school system is very „streamlined“ – it consists of learning by heart, and not questionning – it’s challenging to find qualified employees willing to think and act without getting guided all the time. Initiative, independence and self-reliance are a scarcity in the Middle Kingdom!

Additionally, the 80ies seem not to be very motivated to work. On one hand side it doesn’t take me by surprise. The learning system at the school is so rigid that they don’t learn to listen to themselves or do what they like. The parents wishes and the requests of the teachers have priority over own individual targets. How should they then know suddenly, what they themselves want to achieve or become?

The strength of todays economic system in China isn’t based on their shoulders, but on the earlier generations who work hard and dilligently.

The 80ies generation expects convenience. If the company is moving the workplace to a too remote location, they switch enterprises or stay home. If the workload is too heavy, they leave. If you ask them why, you seldom get a clear answer or the excuse “for family reasons”. Therefore selecting employees of the 80ies requests carefull choice!

The 90ies generation is critical towards their own society.

They undergo the same tough school system as the 80ies and also don’t know the word leisure time, but they look at their own society critically. And they ask for their rights and freedom. They listen to their parents until about 12 years old, and play an instrument or learn to sing and dance. But then, they stop without letting their parents interfere.

More and more elite institutions have additional lessons away from the normal stuff and learning by heart. They ask their pupils to do team work, and let them organise theater events and competitions outside the curriculum. So at least at these schools, initiative and creativity get a chance!

That’s one of the reasons why I look hopefully forward to that generation entering our workplaces and dealing with the future challenges!

The generation 40+: expects a life long support from the enterprise, believes in Western managers, obeys and works dilligently. Having missed 10 years of school from 1966 – 76, they have often a simple education. And they didn’t learn to learn. That is THE big challenge for them today, as China also uses more and more machines for simple work.

But this generation also generates quite some „self made man and women“. They have learned their job from scratch and are today’s entrepreneurs. Their leadership style is often authoritarian, the control system is personal and tight. These Chinese SMEs prefer less well educated persons as they are glad about any chance, willing to work hard and long, and don’t expect too much from life.

A much better idea is to let several people do interviews with a job applicant. We focus on the English level and the work capabilities, the Chinese focus on the social competencies and the adaptability to the team as well as the company.

What counts for Chinese candidates? A clear development and career plan as well as a good team. The younger generation looks for varied work without too much stress. The older employees seek for job security.

What should interest us when interviewing applicants?

1.That they show interest into the company and its overall development

2.That they are open to work in international teams

3.That they are willing to work hard.

The city government has 20 buildings. Within them lies a huge and lovely park. The central conference hall offers places for 30’000 persons and resembles the Hall of the People in Beijing.

Looking at it from a fengshui perspective, the University of Yunnan has the best spot: on a hill lies a tremendously huge Roman villa. Staircases mount to the top from the main door. The University for Minority Studies looks definitely more Chinese or Yunnanese!

The price for it: all the former villages are torn down. No more vegis are grown, but brains and the farmers are removed into new highrise buildings. They get paid for the loss of their fields and houses. Some of them work in the parks or as street cleaner. Many of them just spend the money received on cars and other “unnecessary” things. They don’t ask their kids to go to school, but just give them some money, so what will happen with them in the near future, when they run out of money?

Conclusion: Yin and Yang are always closely following each other in China. The people who study and work in this beautiful surrounding might admire and love it and therefore care for it. There is no real support for the farmers future. And I wonder whether China will be able to support itself in the future, if cities just grow, but nobody is growing vegetables, fruits, and food!

First the Chinese produce a very simple product for a foreign enterprise. Then they see what happens before and after, and start to add some of the processes and products. Finally they copy more and more parts until they understand the whole production line and process. That’s when they start with their own product line – or when they bring the copy on the market with a price no foreigner can ever compete.

We could – in fact – learn from them if we aren’t so arrogant! As the EU ambassador to China, Dr. Markus Ederer said in an interview (S.18)

“We Europeans are probably not as good as the Chinese at studying the best practices abroad, while the Chinese are very good at learning from others.”

What does this mean for us as producers in China?

1. Why not learn from the Chinese?
2. Undertake all the necessary steps to guard your core competencies!
3. Watch your future competitors closely, and don’t ridicule them as they might learn fast and overhaul you.

To get China as a partner, you first need to invest:

• Time is most important
• 2nd comes attractive projects or products

It’s amazing how many people from the West lack time. They would prefer to fly in in the morning and leave again in the evening. Naturally with signed contracts! This „rush“ leads Westerners to many things as making mistakes, trusting the wrong people. We then read in the news or books about China that Chinese have once more „taken someone to the cleaners“. My opinion is that the foreign investor didn’t take time, but wanted to rush into the business immediately.

A close Chinese friend has delivered a very good example for that. She’s responsible for choosing and managing suppliers for her European company. They always request her to seek the number 1 in the field. That consumes a lot of her time as she carefully researches and visits the possible suppliers several times. After several interviews only she decides, who will make the deal.

When the China team finally decided who’s number 1 supplier, they received a complaining mail from Europe. They expected the team to carefully check on all possible suppliers, but obviously one was missing. Europe just received an email from an outstanding company in China which was not in the list of the team. How the team thinks to reply?

When my friend read the brochure of this supplier, it indeed sounded impressive: perfect English, superlatives all over. Just not a single detail about the hard facts as founding date, number of employees, revenue, etc. My friend called the enterprise immediately and found out within 10 minutes that the company has just been founded. ,The female boss didn’t want to specify the hard facts, and all of a sudden they found out that they know each other. The boss of this new compan was the former finance director of supplier number 1.

Typically Chinese, she wrote a very kind email to Europe explaining the situation. I would have asked my European counterpart clearly whether he would like to trust some email from China or rather his China team.

An excellent show in the middle of the park mixes tea and Zen – a visit a must and after all the walks it’s a great possibility to relax and still be entertained fantastically!

The huge park lies a little bit outside of Shenzhen to the East and was built by Huaqiao Cheng. Besides

• Interlaken you’ll find
• wonderful tea gardens and bamboo forests with old Chinese culture (paper, caligraphy, shadow figure theater)
• a big hotel with spa to rest
• as well as an immense golf course in the middle of the mountains and lakes.

Everybody will find something to enjoy!

I perfectly understand why the China man is translating so shortly. If he would translate everything, he would be degraded – also in the eyes of the customer. The hard work of translators doesn’t really pay off in status! Therefore your “China man/woman” needs to be careful to stay on the same level as the customer.

Another question from my side: what is the reason for flying in with all your expertise if you don’t understand what’s going on or if you are just partly part of the discussions? Asked differently: Did you ever meet with a Chinese delegation in Europe without their own translator? Or have you ever seen a Chinese sitting in a meeting for 2 hours without understanding a single word?

For Chinese this would be a waste of time and money! Why do we then economize on the wrong end? Especially if it’s about Your market position in China”

If it comes to translators, you have to carefully choose them. Translating is not as easy as many think! Especially if complex technology and details are involved. But even if it’s about small talk, there are pitfalls! That was an experience, the former president of the US, Bill Clinton had to make. When he received the Chinese president with his wife, he wanted to be polite and made a compliment. He said to Jiang Zemin: „Your wife ist very beautiful.“ The Chinese president answered: „nali, nali“ which means: „not really!“ and is a common way in China to modestly reply to a compliment. The translator didn’t say: „not really!“, but translated literally „where, where?“ Clinton felt very surprised, but politely said: „Everywhere, everywhere.“ This statement irritated Jiang Zemin. He was only able to smile strangely.

I’m often surprised to see on what simpel language level foreigners and Chinese meet – and still reach their targets! But I’m not surprised that it takes quite a while to do that. The biggest disadvantage is that you can’t build up a really trusting relationship if you build on one language (English) only. And trust is the prerequisite for success!

Instead of laboriously learning the other’s language, there is the possibility of using a translator and interpreter or to make use of bilingual colleagues.