I was much more uncertain of India than China, since I have gone to China many times before. But even after meeting so many Chinese, I still have learned much of the Chinese, especially from a business perspective. When I visit China, I often see my peers of my own age, but after meeting expats, ABCs and Chinese nationals much older and wiser than I am, I found a treasure trove of insight from both those on the outside looking in, as well as those from inside looking outward to expanding in other countries. Starting with the Lenovo visit, we learned very early on the requirements for living and doing business in China. Work well in teams, be creative, learn the language, internalize customs and culture, keep an open mind. Since I was particularly interested in becoming an expat, where I would be living, working, and making a way for my family in China, I was particularly interested in what it takes to live in China or India. Some requirements, such as flexibility are easy to say and much harder to do. In many ways, flexibility is akin to humbleness, being able to lower oneself to a position that accepts that there are ways of doing things other than the way I do things. I get business done in a business world in America with solid infrastructure, where everything is planned out in a corporation’s business plan, and the language is still familiar to me. But in China, these same perceptions are not true, and I learn that my way of doing things doesn’t fly in China a lot of times, since they cannot afford the same luxuries that exist in the US that make the complex more simple. However, by some miracle, the country still seems to run. But it’s not by any help from the infrastructure or even from the country itself, but as Kaiser Kuo put it, by innovative people able to make sense of the chaos. I have to admit that even though I thought myself humble and able to sacrifice anything for the greater good like I was taught as a Chinese, I have found myself in this contradiction in my life… that I do crave some sense of structure. How can I possibly get anything done? I do want to conveniently pay for those services and outsource my life. But that isn’t where I need to be if I want to possibly live in China or India. I need to be innovative. I need to be creative. I need to not be phased by the fact that life here seems so much in disarray. I need to not be offended by the different ways of these people. I need to be more humble. It is difficult to say all this because my dream is to live here, and I have just realized that I still have a long way to go. There are so many things I need to learn first before I can live here successfully.

Even as I am writing this, I am in India on the bus going to the airport to finally leave this country and end this trip. Even now I feel such despair for this country. It is so dirty, the beggars are so pathetic, the disparity between the rich and the poor are so great, and it’s just so easy to think, “I never want to come back here or do business here.” Yet this is the cradle of life. This is where business is booming, where opportunities are being realized, and in my mind, I am already missing it. I’ve already prejudicially decided that this place is the last place I want to be. Even now, it’s so difficult to bring myself around to come to the reality that this is where the future is. It’s funny that everyday before the trip, I said that I was ready; that there would be nothing there that would truly shock me. But at the end of the trip, I keep asking myself this question: “How can I possibly get myself to like this place?” When I think about the reasons that I wanted to live in China, I think of the people. If businesses do not benefit people, then why do they exist? Every business must add some value to the people they serve. This is the primary reason why I wanted to get into business in the first place, and why being an entrepreneur is such an exciting prospect for me. I don’t need to sit idly by while the world deteriorates around me. I can do something innovative and help add value to those around me: give people jobs, provide services that they need, improve their quality of life, give them products they love, create purpose and drive my employees, and numerous other benefits that businesses can give. But when I am here, I see the chaos. I see it, but I feel so helpless to do anything about it because I don’t understand it. I just don’t, but I desperately want to. But the question of “How??” has burned into my mind and makes me so frustrated. The question asks, “What did I know now that I did not know before?” But I think that this trip has created more questions and answered few, if any, of my questions before departure. Truly this is the start of journey, the first step of many that will take me to China and India, then back again.

In order to fully understand how to do business in both India and China, it is obvious that the language is a key barrier to not just understanding what people are saying, but also to understand the social nuances that we stumbled upon daily. For example, in India, we found that Indians rolled out the red carpet for us, and we were to repay in kind with gifts and respect. However, respect meant many things including not leaving for the bathroom during presentations, focusing attention on the person of highest respect, not sitting behind the person of highest respect, and other cultural mines.

I also discovered that I need to know more about business theory and concepts. I am a dual degree candidate, obtaining both an MBA and MSEE. This means that when I was in China and India, I did not have the opportunity to finish all of my coursework. As a result, some course concepts were not instilled in me yet. For example, marketing concepts came up that I’ve never seen before. Although this is a disadvantage, I can turn it into my advantage by simply knowing that when I take marketing, I will be able to identify key concepts easier and appreciate learning more.

Also, in order to have a full understanding of China and India, building relationships, starting with the contacts we met, would be absolutely essential. They are the teachers, and I am the student. I need to humble myself more and more to learn more about these countries. Following up with these contacts is absolutely essential for my future in Asia.
Also, I need a deeper understanding of supply chain management. I noticed that suppliers can be tricky to deal with. In China and India, you must always be on guard. Hold up issues are common and frequent in any business in Asia. Vertical integration seems to be almost necessary, as the case was with Mandhana. However, other managers, such as Kurt from Subway, didn’t find as much trouble with suppliers in Shanghai. It seems that when suppliers are correctly managed, they are reliable to an acceptable degree. But how are suppliers to be managed? Should I be as ethical as I am in America when in Asia? I am still not sure. From the advice I was given, I should not compromise my ethics, and I would rather not compromise my ethics. However, in order to survive, I am sure that I will have to make grey deals, especially when a structure is not already in place. An example of this is from NGOs, as the Beijing United Family Hospital told us. There is no formalized method to form an NGO in China. So, how? I see it as an opportunity to use guan xi to get it done. But, it will require a grey deal, a deal that isn’t official because it can’t be. By definition, there is no standard, so all the deals are grey.

What I discovered about the business aspect of China and India were some best practices when either doing business in an American company with these countries, and also, working in a foreign company, doing business with America (and other countries). China is much better in terms of infrastructure than India, but still has some hangups with corruption and government formalities. You can easily get buried in paperwork, spend much on dinners and KTV nights just to make a business contact, and run into brick walls setup by the government because there’s no formal process on how to deal with new business ideas or ventures. But these can easily be solved by sticking it through and working with the system, not trying to impose American systems onto a Chinese system. Its just what works in China… even if it seems corrupt. While some may call it immoral, it is simply the way Chinese have found to deal with the lack of formalized processes, law, corruption, and… simply survival. For India, the situation is similar. India showed us that even though infrastructure is not there, it can be made. Genpact, although it is in an environment that isn’t reliable, has triple redundancies on their internet connections and backup generators that can last the entire week without power from the state. This is simply amazing, partially because this kind of backup protection is necessary, and also because it is something that shows the quality and caliber of Indian companies. In order to do business here, Nokia stated to us that we need to be flexible and understand the Indians for who they are. Most are agrarian in nature and still need much education. Although there is a shortage of skilled workers that are university educated, there is still much local talent to be taken advantage of. And what’s more is that the government is for foreign investment, not against it like China is. And for this reason, China will not see as much growth as India. The Silicon Valley in California has prospered because it has California law to backup business growth, a good talent pool from around the world, and an infrastructure to support it. We don’t see that yet in either China or India. Shanghai and Bangalore come to mind as potential cities that would mimic a Silicon Valley, but it is simply not there yet. Where the government is open, they do not have infrastructure. Where the government has infrastructure, they are not open. These countries will develop open avenues for business, but it is simply not there yet. However, it is obvious that there is much opportunity to be had in all the chaos.

Finally, I want to elaborate more on what it takes to come to China or India. This person needs to be top of their country, smart, intelligent, adaptable, humble, open, and caring of their destination country. If I were trying to pick out an employee of mine to send to China or India, I might spot their creativity, willingness to help others outside the workplace or authority, ability to work the dirty jobs around the office, and a love of travel. These kinds of qualities would serve them well, but to be world-class requires much more than this. It also requires education, a skill that exceeds their peers, an ability to be independent, a courage to be a leader, assertiveness to ask questions and put out their own opinions, and an affinity to learn new things quickly (like languages). I’m not sure if I’m cut out for this… yet. I do not have the education necessary or work experience, but I do plan on moving to China, so I will work my hardest to excel beyond my peers and be the person that my company will send over. I plan to work in an engineering firm overseas, managing projects and developing business relationships. After this trip, I realize now just how far I have to go.