Let’s see some hustle out there!
February 22nd, 2009 by Kent KedlA number of years ago, I had a client who, although he had never been to China, considered himself an expert on all things Chinese. We were doing some market entry strategy work for his company, determining the market opportunities for him here and mapping out a strategy to go after them. However, this client – I will call him Del – already had it all figured out and, on occasion, would wonder out loud just why the heck he was paying us to find out stuff he already knew (its those kind of clients that make you question your chosen profession!). Del would pontificate on all the problems in China and how it was messing up his business: they were “stealing his technology” and “manipulating their currency” and this was making it very hard for him in his home markets. He didn’t think that China had anything going for it other than these “illegal practices”.
I listened patiently to his griping and then came back with some alternative views (hey, the guy was not paying me to agree with him … at least I didn’t think he was!). All the time, I was thinking to myself, “I can’t wait to actually get him to China so he can see things for himself.”
Finally, that day came … we had completed the first phase of work and wanted to present it to him and his management team face-to-face. They came to China and we spent a day, huddled together in a conference room and then four days going out to see potential customers, competitors, government ministries, the works. To say that Del was blown away would be a vast understatement – he was agog at everything around him, going 24-7 and moving at a frenetic pace. The market information we showed about the complexities of the China market took him totally by surprise – at the end of the first day, he told me “Wow, I never knew this … this is incredible” (thereby confirming to me, once again, my chosen profession!).
I took him to the airport on his last day. As we were having a final drink and gab session, I asked him, “OK, Del … you were pretty down on China before you came here. What do you think now?” He got this sheepish look in his eye and said, “Well, I still think that there are problems with their currency and they’re playing fast and loose with intellectual property … but I think that, if we get beat by them, it is not going to be because of this. It is going to be because we’ll get out-hustled. They don’t talk about ‘work-life balance’ here. They never stop. What they lack in efficiency and accuracy they make up in sheer volume of effort. And that is scary!”
As I look around at the state of the world today, I have to think that Del was right: we in the West are in danger – particularly in such a down market – of getting out-hustled. We can spend so much time complaining that things are not like they used to be that we ignore the fact that WE are the ones that made it that way and that we need to work our tushies off to do it again. People in China are NOT stopping to complain that their growth has dropped precipitously either. They are not expecting to find work where they grew up … they are willing to uproot themselves to go find a better life.
Don’t get me wrong … just working harder is not going to help us. We need to change our systems, upgrade our companies, give a helping hand to those that need it. But don’t think for a minute that we are going to be able to put in the same level of effort we did when we were a couple of generations into our upswing. Nope, we are going to have to raise ourselves a few orders of magnitude and hustle along with our friends/partners/competitors around the world. Guaranteed, they are not going to be slowing down any time soon.
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:17 am
I’ve been reading and downloading all of your podcasts for a while and I’m very, very impressed. I’m a college student that’s going to try and raise VC/angel money within the next year or two and my business vision and focus has changed dramatically while I learn more and more about the world.
I’ve only begun educating myself on doing business within China and even bought the Frontline:DoingBusinessinChina DVD set after I saw it advertised on your site. Went beyond my expectations, even though it took me a while to force myself to pay for it, not gunna lie about trying to pirate it because I just didn’t think it was going to be worth it but it REALLY was. I’m not a crook i’ve just been living on the internet since I was 13 or so and using shareware is an old habit.
Please keep up the great work, I listen to a lot of podcasts but this is by far the most professional, and for my current interests, it’s the most valuble.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Twitter Comment
@DanHarris Very helpful. I got an email today …what about exporting XXXX product to China ? [link to post]
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February 24th, 2009 at 4:23 am
This post seems very short on evidence.
What specifically do you mean by “beat?” Is it even possible for one country to “beat” another economically?
What evidence do you have that the Chinese are more diligent than Americans?
Your thinking seems very reminiscent of the Brazil/Japan boosterism of the ’70s and ’80s.
February 24th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Excellent point, Jerome. Admittedly, the evidence is mostly anecdotal that the Chinese “work harder” than other national groups. But I think there is general agreement that people here work pretty hard and that this has contributed, in part, to their success. Other nations have done the same thing … I would say that my great grandparents’ generation in the U.S. did the same thing when they came over from the “old country”. They knew they had to work their tails off to make it happen for them and they were willing to do it. My concern is that my generation has had it pretty easy in the U.S. and, as a group, we have had the luxury to talk about things like “work life balance”. I am just saying that we might need to dial back on this a bit and start to think about hunkering down … because the Chinese are working pretty hard at it.
February 24th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Glad this is helpful to you, Adam. There is LOTS of good stuff out there (some of it giving alternative views to ours) so take it ALL in. China is a big place and we all need all the inputs we can get.
I am glad you found the DVDs helpful … and thanks for your commitment to NOT put them on the web!