CDE Reflection Term 1 (2)

  It’s been a few weeks since the last reflective journal and during these 2 to 3 weeks of lessons, I have learnt more about the American culture and the differences between the two cultures through the management consultant project and presentation.  During the past weeks, everyone was to do a management consultant scenario project in groups of 4, to help China companies to expand into the US market. Making use of the examples of Google and Apple, try come up with ways and ideas on how the companies can grow and profit in the US market.

  Firstly, as a presenter, I have learnt quite a lot from the research on Google, Apple and Lenovo’s road to success. We decided to choose Meizu as our company, this company is a phone company that had much success in mainland China, HongKong and some other parts of the world. However, it has not expand into the US market. Part of the presentation was to search about the success Google and Apple and Lenovo had.

  From the research, I have learnt that Google’s way to success was to give employees free time to think about ideas. The company is very relaxed and the employees have lots of freedom to think and brainstorm about ideas for the company. This freedom cause Google to come up with many great ideas like the Google Glasses. However, Apples is the direct opposite. Apple employees doesn’t have lots of freedom. Their road to success was due to them making things simple and easy to use, attracting lots of customers. Lenovo’s success was due to their advertising campaigns.

  Thus, our main suggestions were about managing the company the American way, like Google, and employ American workers, cooperate with local telcos, make the phone simple to use and create good advertisements to advertise their products. These will be able to attract local US citizens and slowly expand out the market.

Secondly, as an audience, I have heard a lot interesting ideas from other groups. Many of the groups gave a detailed analysis of how Google and Apple manages their company and their road to success, like the freedom Google employees have. Many groups also gave very good ideas. For example, group 4, doing Geely, ZheJiang Geely Holding Group Co.Ltd gave a detailed suggestion about the values to adopt from Apple and Google and values to keep. This is good as it will be able to attract both Chinese and Americans. Also they analysis the flaws on the company and how to correct the flaws, so that the company can do better in the future. However, there is this problem that most groups just copied the way Google and Apple manages the company, like giving employees freedom to think about projects. They didn’t have a lot of self-created ideas.

  I would also like to comment on group 3. They choose a sports company and not a technology company. I feel it should be fine as the managing company part is still about the same. They gave good ideas like hiring experienced people from Nike to manage the company and make products that the Americans like, like baseball bats. However, their ‘Great Plan’ is not very detailed and not clear. A suggestion was to spend billions of dollars in investments. This isn’t clear as in how should they invest, in making more products? Invest in research? Also, this would take long time, like many decades to see the change. Other than this, the rest of the presentation was quite well done.

  In conclusion, the presentations have made me understand a lot more about Apple and Google and Lenovo, and their road to success. I have also learnt about some problems the Chinese companies faced while expanding to the US market, for example, political issues. I have also learnt about the importance of some of the values in US, like freedom.

  For the next CDE lessons, I expect to learn more about the Chinese culture and values, and how it shaped China and Asia.

CDE Reflective Term 1 (1)

   Being in BSP, I have the privilege to learn CDE as one of my subjects. This is a good chance of learning the different cultures of the East and West. This made me not regret joining BSP as the other special programmes doesn’t have this course. Learning the cultures of the East and West is important as China and USA are the two most power influential countries in the world. Learning the cultures makes us understand them and we will be able to cooperate and interact with them in many fields such as business and science research. The lesson by Mr Karplus is very interesting and it will benefit me in the future.

  The first lesson, Mr Karplus showed us a collection of advertisements by HSBC, the world’s local bank’s advertisements. The advertisement included the conflicts when people from different cultures meet without understand each other. There was this commercial which shows how the Germans felt cars are a source of pride and any minor damage to the car is taken seriously. However, just across the border, the French felt totally the opposite and did not care about their cars at all. This shows that even if countries are right next to each other, their cultures and habits can be totally different. There was another commercial which was an English having dinner with the Chinese in a Chinese restaurant. The English wasn’t used to eating Chinese food. However, the English believed it’s a slur on your host’s food if you don’t clear your plate, whereas the Chinese feel your questioning their generosity if you clear the plate. The commercials shows the different cultures of different places and how people are often not used to the other cultures. From these advertisements, I have learnt that it is important to understand the local cultures of different places and how the cultures can make a difference between the two places.

  Then, Mr Karplus gave us a CQ Self-Assessment to do online to see how much we know about the cultures. This exercise made tests our Culture Intelligence to see how much we know about ourselves. From this, I have learnt that I don’t have a lot of knowledge and I will focus on this area more.

  The second lesson we learnt the cultures of America. Mr Karplus taught us the 15 core values of America. The values are Individualism, Achievement and Success, Activity and Work, Efficiency and Practically, Science and Technology, Progress, Material comfort, Humanitarianism, Freedom, Democracy, Equality, Racism and Group Superiority. The other values added on 1975 are Education, Religiosity and Romantic love. For me, the significant aspect was on education. Previously, I thought the Americans didn’t focus as much in education and only wants material comfort like cars and phones, unlike the Asians whom have lots of work load since primary school. However, later I realised the Americans focus on education more than I thought. Most Americans will go as far in school as their abilities and finances allow. Most people will go to college. My previous understand could be due to the amount of work load received by the Americans. They have significantly lesser homework as compared to the Asian countries like China and even Singapore. Having read about it, now I know that even the workload is lesser in America, but they also focus a lot on education. I have significantly improved my understanding of America education.

  In conclusion, just over the first two lessons, I have realised that the cultures of different places can be so different from others. I have learnt the 15 values of America and that they also focus on education and want material comfort. Although the value about romantic love contradicts the high divorce rate. I expect to learn more about the cultures and lives of the West.