Final Questions

• Ethical Issues in My Profession:

Ethical standards and responsibilities of businesses certainly are different in the United States than they are in China. China is an emerging economy, and although it has seen an enormous amount of growth in the past thirty years, it is still a developing economy. While the cities we saw are very modern, we learned much of the countryside is still underdeveloped and many people do not yet enjoy running water or internet connectivity. Workplace safety and environmental impact are not regulated as strongly in China as they are in the US and therefore companies are sometimes lax in how they follow the rules. As China progresses though this will change, and already we heard the government is cracking down on pollution centers. The wage issue comes about because many people in China have lived in poverty in the country for decades. They are willing to accept low wages in the cities because it is better than anything they had before. As the country progresses and more and more people are educated, wages will naturally rise, leading to a loss of competitiveness. Businesses in the US must differentiate themselves from a standard manufacturing product, because Chinese companies clearly have the advantage of lower labor costs, if they want to be successful on the global scale.

• Educational Breadth as Professional Development:

From my experience travelling through China, it is extremely important for students hoping to become successful in business to be well educated on a global scale. There are many subtle cultural differences between the way business is done between China and the United States. Some of these are obvious but others require some prep work. In order to avoid an embarrassing situation or misunderstanding forming knowledge of another culture is important before entering the workforce. Small things, like how to address people of higher and lower status than you, the way contracts and agreements are viewed, and doing business over a meal, are important things to know before traveling on business to China. Engineering and business in China are both complex and diverse fields so a broad understanding is necessary before beginning to form relationships. To achieve such an understanding students should take a variety of courses focused on international businesses and economics as well as broader cultural courses on Asia. Additionally, using some new Apps that are being developed in China could be of great benefit to American students. For example, if you become a one-on-one English tutor for Chinese business students you could speak to them about cultural practices and behaviors and gain a deeper understanding this way of how to behave in China.

• Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Development:

The emerging importance and value of education in China will see a big shift in their economy going forward. It has always been known that the primary and secondary schools in China demand a lot from students, teaching them discipline and requiring them to learn a lot of facts and recite them verbatim. But in recent years higher education in China has been growing and it now appears every family’s goal is to send their child to University. Although many still attend American colleges, there is a growth in the number who attend the large Chinese insinuations. All the workers and most of the direct supervisors and quality control people in the factories we toured had very little to no postsecondary education. They have learned how to do their jobs through training and experience. But upper management and marketing, sales, finance, legal, etc. are all growing fields in these companies and the professionals working in them need a formal education, As China is rapidly changing, more and more of a need for education will exist. As the middle class grows and people are more educated, companies will need to be more creative and innovate, two critical skills, which are cultivated by life long learning. As more advanced jobs and service industries grow they will demand people with advanced degrees to work and this in turn will make the country more educated.

• The Social Environment of Professional Life:

As we spoke with professionals and students in China a clear difference between them and the United States became clear. People’s personal/social lives seem far more removed from their professional lives than people in the United States. Because of a system built on respect for age and position, out of office relationships with bosses or people you supervise are very rare in China. The work place is a professional atmosphere where tasks are to be completed and little time is wasted on chitchat and gossip about personal lives, in part because people in the office do not spend a lot of time together outside of work. In seemed people in China new a lot about American pop culture, such as TV and movie stars and our sports teams. Unfortunately I cannot say the same is true for me when it comes to China. Having this kind of knowledge though allows people in businesses settings to make small talk and build trustful relationships before entering into a negotiation or contract. Political and economic issues in China are vital to understand in order to have success in business there. The government is much more involved in business decisions are one must understand to work with the government if you are going to have success there.

• Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams:

When working on any large project you will need to be able to work on a team with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. Be it business and engineering working together or people from finance interacting with sales, advertising, and legal, it is important to clearly and effectively communicate with all members to achieve success. You have to remember that within your field you may use professional jargon when speaking with other likeminded people. When discussing a topic with the cross-functional team however you have to be careful to make sure the language you are using is understood by all. Additionally, you have to accept certain kinds of people think and process things differently then you: they may possibly make decisions with more empathy than the analytical style you are used to. What’s important here is to recognize differences exists and respect them, jot criticizing anyone for the way they think and work since they come from a different background. A final challenge to overcome when working in this cross-functional team is different people measure success differently. Before you start to project you must clearly define the parameters you will use to measure the project and agree to a set of criteria to determine how the team did, so everyone is on the same page.

Day 14 – May 16

It’s hard to imagine that our time in China has already come to an end. These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of sightseeing, learning, and traveling and I have made memories to last a lifetime. Our final morning in China began early, as we needed to leave the hotel for the airport by 7:30. After a minor delay in getting everyone on the bus because a few members of the group overslept, we began our final bus journey of the trip. It was about a 45-minute ride to the Hong Kong International airport and most of us spent the time catching one last glimpse of the city skyline and mountain scenery surrounding it. After everyone had checked in at the United Airlines counter, we had to say the hardest goodbye of our trip, to our new friend Ivy. She was with us since landing in Beijing and we had all formed friendships with her. It is good to know though we will be able to remain connected through social media. At this point our group broke into several pieces as well, as some members had earlier flights to Newark while most of us were flying together to San Francisco en route to Philadelphia. After going through security and immigration we walked around the terminal for about an hour before making our way to our gate. To get there we needed to take a tram to a different terminal. After waiting at the gate we anxiously boarded our plane to take us back to the states. Although the flight was just over 12 hours, the time went by pretty fast as I spent it watching movies, reading, and eating three meals. After landing in San Francisco we went through immigration and customs and dropped off our luggage for the domestic leg of our trip. We went through TSA security again and rested for a few hours before boarding a 787 to fly to Houston, Texas. Although boarding was completed on time, we sat at the gate for almost 30 more minutes before finally taking off and landed in Houston as boarding for our final flight was beginning. Luckily we only needed to walk down the terminal about 10 gates and made it to our final flight on time. After landing in Philadelphia a quarter to midnight we all grabbed our luggage and said heartfelt goodbyes to the many new friends we had made. By the time I arrived home after being up for 30+ hours of travel I fell asleep in my bed immediately.

Day 13 – May 15

It’s hard to believe today is already our last full day in China. The past two weeks seem to have just flown by. Our morning started off with a lecture from Dr. Leo Ho, a retired business executive who has been part of successful companies all over Asia. He spoke on the broad topic of doing business in China, touching on many different topics. I will share a few key takeaways I had from the briefing and how they changed my view on China. First, Dr. Ho spoke on the responsibilities of any key executive. Since he served in such a role for many years he is a great resource when it comes to this topic. He identified three things an executive must do: clean up the mess, identify talent and develop them, and buy time for the future. His second point really stood out to me, as he said some executives have a tendency to be scared of young talent. They may see them as a threat to their own positions and are hesitant to develop them further. But Dr. Ho pointed out an executives loyalty must lie to their corporation, and by developing young talent, even if it means they will end up taking your job, you are moving the interests of your firm forward. The lecture then traced the history of Chinese businesses and interaction with the West since the doors were opened for trade in 1978. We learned about the rapid development and growth that has taken place in the country, but also how vastly living conditions and markets vary in different areas. For example, the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have become very industrialized and resemble markets to those in Europe and America. But the further west you go, the more underdeveloped China is and the markets resemble more like the ones in third world countries. This provides interesting business opportunities and challenges, as the products one sells in China must vary between the different geographic and socioeconomic regions. Dr. Ho also talked about how although western companies cant really compete in basic manufacturing due to costs, they still hold an advantage in several industries, including automotive, banking, education, health care, and natural resource extraction. This means there are still many business opportunities for outside companies to succeed in China. After a few hours of rest in the hotel, which including working on our final group presentations and a quick swim in the pool, we made our way to Victoria Peak. Our tour guide compared this area to Beverly Hills, as it is the area of Hong Kong where many celebrities and athletes live in expansive houses. Victoria Peak overlooks the entire city and has a beautiful atmosphere. After some breathtaking views and picture taking, we made our way back into the city for our farewell dinner. We were treated to a delicious three-course meal on the top of a glamorous hotel downtown with a great view. After dinner each group gave presentations on different business ideas that could succeed in China and Ivy shared some photos from our trip. As reality set in that we would be traveling home tomorrow everyone had mixed emotions. We stayed up late into the night back at the hotel, not wanting to leave the company of the great friends we had made on this trip.

Day 12 – May 14

Our first full day in Hong Kong was spent visiting the final two companies of the trip. After a delicious breakfast in the hotel we boarded the bus and made our way to Modern Terminals, the second biggest container-shipping operator in Hong Kong. Due its location, the city’s port is the 4^th busiest in the world (following Shanghai, Singapore, and Shenzhen), and it processes nearly 20 million containers every year. We began our visit with an overview of the company and learned a little about their processes. I was amazed by the speed of the operation. When a truck enters the facility it takes on average just 46 minutes from the time it passes through the entry gate to when it leaves carrying a container. In that time the driver must receive the information about where the container he is taking is located and the container must be loaded. Seeing this hub of shipping industry was certainly fascinating; as most of our manufactured goods come from China many go through the port in Hong Kong. The company is facing some difficulty though because the amount of shipping through Hong Kong s decreasing. Since it takes an additional customs check between Mainland China and Hong Kong, domestic ports have grown, and recently Shenzhen overtook Hong Kong as the world’s third busiest port. To stay competitive the company is expanding operations in other ports and developing ways to ship goods from the mainland to their Hong Kong hub faster and at a lower cost. The visit was a reminder that business everywhere is constantly changing and to stay competitive you must always be innovating and adapting. We had lunch at a local shopping mall and spent the afternoon at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP). This organization is nonprofit and its goal is to serve as an incubator for startup companies in Hong Kong. The government gave it a large stretch of corporate office space, part of which is leased by established companies who pay rent to HKSTP. The organization offers assistance to three types of startups: App, Tech, and BioMedical. They provide entrepreneurs with office space and supplies; legal, accounting, and IT services; and small sources of funding. They also work to connect the startups with angel investors and venture capitalists so they can acquire more funding and turn concepts in successful companies. We heard from two entrepreneurs who have startups through the park, one an innovative coffee brewing company which links their specialized machine to an app and cloud system, and they other a peer-to-peer English and Mandarin language learning App. Both companies were really impressive and spoke to us about their products and developments and how the HKSTP has greatly benefited them. It was interesting to hear how much the government here supports innovation and startups, through an investment in something like the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park. I think it’s a great investment, as the city will benefit in future income and jobs as these companies become successful. After returning to the hotel and dinner we enjoyed exploring the vibrant nightlife of Hong Kong.

Day 11 – May 13

Today was a busy travel day as we left Shenzhen for our final destination city of the trip, Hong Kong. After departing the hotel by bus around 9 in the morning we soon arrived at the Chinese border check. Here we all had to get off the bus, collect our luggage, and make our way through immigration and customs. Hong Kong was under the control of Great Britain until 1996 when they returned it to China and now is a special administrative region. It belongs to The People’s Republic of China but is a completely open and free territory, with no censorship of the Internet and a capitalistic economy. Because of this we were effectively leaving China as we made our way to Hong Kong. After passing through border control we met our driver and boarded the bus again, thinking we were on our way to the hotel. But little did we know that there was a second stop, just about 5 minutes later. Now we had to go through the Hong Kong border check, effectively immigrating into Hong Kong. After filling out some paperwork we made it through the crowd of people and reconvened on our bus, which again met us on the other side of the checkpoint. From here on it was about a 45-minute drive (on the left side of the road) to the Penta Hotel where we stayed. It was interesting to learn about the process it takes to get from Mainland China to Hong Kong. The government regulates heavily who can come across, especially for Chinese citizens. There is a fear if the border were open millions of people would stream across to live in the free and open city. After checking in we had about an hour for lunch, which most of us had by eating at the Pizza bar located on the ground level of our hotel. We then boarded a tour bus and made our way to Lantau Island, home of the Great Buddha. This island is the largest in Hong Kong, located on the mouth of the Pearl River. We parked at the base of the mountain and took a cable car to the top, a ride that took about 20 minutes. On this ride we enjoyed some majestic views of the river delta and mountains, as well as marveled at the shear size of Hong Kong, a never-ending line of skyscrapers. We also saw the foundations in the river for a bridge that is being built to link Hong Kong with Macau, the other special administrative region in China. Once we reached the top we toured the Po Lin Monastery, as well as the Tian Tan Buddha, which is the largest seated outdoor Buddha statue in the world. Located at the top of over 200 steps it was quite a workout to reach it but the photos we took up there were well worth the effort. The monastery was a place of Buddhist worship and many believers were there to may their respects to their God. It was an immaculate building, with amazing decorations, art, and gold. After leaving the area our bus took us to Tsim Sha Tsui Pier, a downtown area of the city where many high-end shops are located and is on the banks of the Pearl River. Here we split up for dinner on our own and were able to enjoy the views along the river as well. At 8pm our group gathered again for a ferry ride in the harbor, which was a great experience. We all went to bed looking forward to a few more exciting days in Hong Kong.

Day 10 – May 12

Today we spent almost our entire day at the Chinese technology company Huawei. In addition to being China’s third largest cell phone brand, after Apple and Samsung, the company has a strong business in building networks in all shapes and forms and creating solutions for businesses. They divide themselves into three areas: carrier, enterprise, and consumer business. Their carrier division accounts for about 70% of total revenue and sales, as they create towers, antennas, and routers for carriers to set up 3G and 4G networks across the globe. A cool innovation they have been working on is making cell towers much smaller and aesthetically pleasing. They have created boxes to attach to lampposts in cities which functions as cell towers as well as billboards and bus stations that transmit cell signal. They have also developed a conference system for businesses to communicate with offices around the world, competing directly with Cisco in the teleconference field. An advantage the Huawei system offers is that an employee can call into the conference from an app on their mobile device, expanding the number of people and locations that can participate in meetings run by teleconference. For consumers the company has also developed a hybrid video solution consisting of three components: best TV experience, best commercial 4k solution, and best multiscreen sharing. An overall impression we got from our entire visit was how modern the exhibition centers were. Everything looked brand new, clean, and the technology they had to show off was very interactive and fun. It reminded many of us as a cross between Apple and Google, cutting edge technology in all areas of tech. We then received bus tour of the corporate park as the company has over 30,000 employees working at the location we visited. Most of the buildings were in a modern office architectural style but the corporate headquarter building, which houses top management like the chairwomen and CEO, is built in a style resembling ancient Chinese architecture. After a delicious lunch in one of the company’s cafeterias we received a tour of another exhibition hall focusing on enterprise solutions. Basically, these are services that Huawei provides to companies, ranging from servers and large-scale routers to data transmission and video services. We then received a presentation on the mobile phone business of the company and the enormous growth it has. Something interesting touched on late in the talk was why Huawei has had so little business in the US. While they are setting up networks around the world, including BVB’s stadium in Dortmund, Germany, the US government has blocked Huawei from setting up networks in the US because of concerns the Chinese government would use these to spy on America. Additionally, to me the phones and tablets resembled Apple and Samsung very strongly, including a lot of the operating systems. Some copyright and paten infringements may surely be going on because this is hardly enforced in China. Once we returned to the hotel we all took a rest after a long day. For dinner, John and I ate at a little German restaurant/brewery located just around the corner from the hotel. We enjoyed a delicious meal and went to bed happy, looking forward to Hong Kong.

Day 9 – May 11

Our first full day in the city of Shenzhen started off early with a company site visit to ASA Group, a manufacturer of cell phones, tablets, and DVD reader chips. We received an opening lecture and then a factory tour of this smaller sized company, which has about 2,000 employees. Many of the factory workers live in company owned dormitories in the industrial park, sleeping just a few hundred feet away from their workplace. Something that really stood out from the morning’s presentation was the turnaround time of the companies R&D. If a customer comes to the company with a wish list for a mobile phone it takes ASA only 60 days to have a prototype completed and within 90-100 days they can be at mass production capabilities. This timeline is remarkable and goes to show why the lifespan of mobile phones has shrunk so much as new ones can hit the market so rapidly. A major takeaway from the factory tour was seeing how much manual labor goes into the assembly of cellphones. Every step from the circuit board to completed phone was down by hand down a long assembly line. Workers sat on stools doing the same small task like inserting a camera or tightening a few screws over and over again. It’s crazy how a high tech product like a smartphone is still but together completely by hand. After lunch in the company’s cafeteria we traveled by bus back to the city and stopped at a very nice hotel downtown. Here our group received a lecture on the mobile phone supply chain in China by Mark Davis, the CEO of Device Solutions. He previously worked with Apple and Samsung and has a lot of experience in the mobile phone industry across the globe. He had been with us at ASA in the morning and first gave a recap of what we saw and pointed out several key characteristics of the plant. Mark walked us through the different steps used in a manufacturing supply chain from original conversations with a manufacturer to the final manufacturing agreement. Something interesting he touched on was the way contracts are viewed in China as opposed to the US and Europe. In China, businesses do not always honor contracts they have signed completely. If tough times come about they may pay less to an individual or a company because there are few ramifications as it is very difficult to take these companies to court in China. Additionally companies that use a Chinese manufacturer have to be very cautious that factories do not decide to us a lower quality material, different from what was originally agreed upon, in order to reduce their costs and increase profits. Therefore a lot of quality control and auditing of factories is necessary when doing business here. Lastly, Mark spoke about a company founded in 2010 his firm did some consulting work with. FairPhone, a Dutch mobile phone company, launched out of a campaign to create awareness in the abuses in the electronics supply chain, mainly tin mining in Africa. A lot of tin used in the solder of mobile devices was coming from areas controlled by warlords who were profiting off the sale. So FairPhone decided to manufacturer their own phone using only “fairly” and conflict free raw materials. They did a lot of great marketing and sold over 75,000 phones through a crowd funding website before they ever had a single phone produced. Later that evening our entire group went to Party World, a Chinese karaoke entertainment center. We had a great time and partied the night away, responsibly of course.

Day 8 – May 10 (Happy Mother’s Day!)

Today was a busy travel day as we left Shanghai and made our way south to Shenzhen. After departing the hotel at 6:45am we drove for about 45 minutes via bus to the airport and checked in as a group. After everyone had received their boarding pass and dropped their checked luggage we made it through airport security, where we could leave shoes and belts on. To board our 767 we took packed shuttle busses to the tarmac and climbed onboard. After just over 2 hours we touched down in Shenzhen and immediately felt a change in climate. Southern China has a tropical feel and it was an unusually hot and humid day. Walking through the airport we could feel the moisture in the air. After boarding our bus everyone was dropping of sweat and it took several minutes for the air conditioning and water to cool us all down. Once we got to the hotel and had a quick lunch and then made our way back to the bus for a city tour with our tour guide Cindy. We first stopped at the city museum where we viewed artificers ranging from ceramics used by the early Chinese to animals that inhabit this part of China. Our next stop was at a famous city park on the bay, where we could see Hong Kong in the distance. We walked along a path filled with walkers and bikers, enjoying a breeze that was coming off the water. After about an hour enjoying ourselves and having pictures of us taken, we made our way back to the hotel, all feeling exhausted. We had dinner in small groups around the hotel and were quickly asleep, worn out from the weather and travel. 

Day 8 – May 10 (Happy Mother’s Day!)

Today was a busy travel day as we left Shanghai and made our way south to Shenzhen. After departing the hotel at 6:45am we drove for about 45 minutes via bus to the airport and checked in as a group. After everyone had received their boarding pass and dropped their checked luggage we made it through airport security, where we could leave shoes and belts on. To board our 767 we took packed shuttle busses to the tarmac and climbed onboard. After just over 2 hours we touched down in Shenzhen and immediately felt a change in climate. Southern China has a tropical feel and it was an unusually hot and humid day. Walking through the airport we could feel the moisture in the air. After boarding our bus everyone was dropping of sweat and it took several minutes for the air conditioning and water to cool us all down. Once we got to the hotel and had a quick lunch and then made our way back to the bus for a city tour with our tour guide Cindy. We first stopped at the city museum where we viewed artificers ranging from ceramics used by the early Chinese to animals that inhabit this part of China. Our next stop was at a famous city park on the bay, where we could see Hong Kong in the distance. We walked along a path filled with walkers and bikers, enjoying a breeze that was coming off the water. After about an hour enjoying ourselves and having pictures of us taken, we made our way back to the hotel, all feeling exhausted. We had dinner in small groups around the hotel and were quickly asleep, worn out from the weather and travel. 

Day 7 – May 9

Today was a day chalk full of sightseeing and exploring as our time in Shanghai drew to an end. We began the morning with a bus tour, meeting our tour guide Alex at the hotel. We drove to opposite side of the river from the Bund and stopped at the Shanghai TV tower, an iconic building of the city skyline. A museum of the history of Shanghai occupies the bottom two floors of the tour and we spent about an hour walking through and learning the history of the city. It emerged as a center of trade and commerce in China hundreds o years ago and was under British control from the mid 1800s until after WWI. The museum contained many wax figurines and restorations of buildings that allowed us to imagine we were in Shanghai of 1750, 1860 or 1910. Our next stop was across the river at the Bund, getting some nice pictures of the skyline during the day. Our final stop before lunch was at the French Quarter, Tian Zi Fang. It had many tight ally ways and was filled with people, mainly tourists. The area had all sorts of shops, including artists, teahouses, and food vendors. After a delicious lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, we headed back to the hotel and took a short rest. Since the afternoon was all free time, our group decided to head to the ancient garden in the old city. After finally catching taxis, we explored the garden, which lent itself perfectly to a prime picture location. Outside the garden were tons of shops, which we explored again before walking back to the Bund and finding a hidden gem to eat dinner. It was a Montreal deli (where the waitress/owner) spoke perfect English and were shared several platters of delicious food. To catch taxis back to the hotel we utilized the help of Patrick, a friendly bellhop we had met the night before at the Fairmount close by. We spoke to him for a while as not many taxis were free at the time but he was finally able to hail one and we made it safely back to the hotel in order to pack since we leave for our next city, Shenzehn, early in the morning.