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.
Hi Ming Chuan,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that we have certainly learnt a lot from the presentations. I also realised that you have indeed listened to all of the presentations and gave an in-depth analysis on each of the presentations. From our presentation, I can see that you have indeed understood the management styles of Google, Apple and Lenovo. Google has more freedom for its workers such as providing many facilities for its workers to relax in and having lots of free time whereas in Apple, most employees are rather restricted. Lenovo's success was mainly due to their advertising and user-friendly products. I most certainly agree with you that as part of the audience, we have indeed heard many interesting ideas. Group 4 had indeed done a good analysis and provided solutions based on their company's flaws which made their group stand out. As part of your presentation group, I felt that our presentation was pretty well done and I certainly have learnt a lot from this assignment. In conclusion, I think that we both have indeed gained a lot from the presentations. I look forward to more of such assignments!
Yo!
ReplyDeleteI can see that you had put in a lot effort in writing the journals and that is very good! I can also see that you had been listening to their presentations carefully and put down a lot of notes, thoughts and suggestions. We had indeed learnt a lot from other groups. In terms of their suggestions and their researches. You had provide good analysis on almost every presentation. I believe we all have learnt a lot from Great companies like Apple or Lenovo. I also agree that group 3 has chose a wrong company. They should choose a tech company instead of sports company. But their presentation is well prepared and the suggestions are quite effective. i must also say that their 'Great plan" is a bit unrealistic and they should do research and planning first before they plan. We had heard some good points by the audiences which is very good. It shows that most of the people are listening to us. But they can be very noisy sometimes and using their devices. i think we all learnt a lot of new things through this presentation and i just hope that the audiences can be more co-operating. I am also looking forward to learn more things and know how China is shaping the world. In conclusion, this is a really meaning assignment and i hope that you will have a great learning journey ahead!
-yikun
Hi Ming Chuan,
ReplyDeleteI can see you putting alot of effort in writing your reflective journal, that is great. I think that you have done a great analysis of the other groups. That shows that you have listened well. you have also pointed out that we and other groups have all done researches on other companies. I think you have made a good point about most of the groups blatantly copying from the strategies adopted by Google. I think that Group 4 had really done a good analysis and provided solutions based on their company's flaws. I think that is very good.I also agree that For the Lining group, their plans are flawed. But I think one of their bigger problem is that they has plans to "copy" from Nike, since Nike is so successful, does Americans still buy from a company is about the same?
Overall, I think we have gained a lot from the presentations. I hope that you have enjoyed the CDE lessons.
Hi Ming Chuan,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I must say that you have put in good effort in writing this reflection. I can see that you have learned quite a lot from the case studies that Mr Karplus has gave us about Apple, Google and Lenovo. I agree with your comparison between the management styles of Apple and Google. Looking at your suggestion, I think that although it will be good for Chinese companies to manage the company the American way, maybe you can elaborate more on what can be changed and how it will affect the company.
I can also see that you have been listening closely to the other presentations and I believe this is commendable. I agree with you that a lot of the groups just merely copied the way Google and Apple manage their company and lack some self-created ideas.
Overall, this is a good reflection and I hope that you have learned a lot from these few lessons. Good luck with CDE lessons in the future.