With just about 6 months of ‘real corporate experience’ as some of my professors would call it, I’ve realised some of the vital differences between the Europeans and the Chinese.
Both the communities have gone through different periods of highs and lows; each economy had their own share of downfalls, but how they’ve eventually grown up is whats so interesting about them...
Coming to the point, my examples would probably refer more to the cosmetic industry, but I’m sure a lot of it applies to other industries too...
If you go to an international trade exhibition for instance, the way the Europeans set up their stalls is way different from the way Chinese people do. The white dudes always have that panache, that extra thing in their stalls... perfumed tissues and chocolates(tiffany’s and not some shady brand), coffee vending machines, freebies and all that... while the yellow dudes have completely plain and simple stalls, with the weirdest names possible. All they can offer you are bulky brochures and have some thousand pieces on display... As for Europeans, they have minimalistic display of actual products on the stalls... rather there are flat screen displays and cute little ladies with laptops ready with the latest presentations on new products...
While the Chinese people take out a visitor register for you to enter you name and email address and the company you work for, the Europeans have a bowl somewhere to drop your visiting card in... while the Chinese people welcome you with a genuine smile, they really cant get ahead more than that since their language skills are limited... While a European makes sure that he’s not too forthcoming in welcoming attendees to his/her stall and keeps the talk rather focused.
While the Europeans guarantee the best in terms of cutting edge research (even for something as boring as plastic bottle packaging), the Chinese guarantee that you give us anything, and we’ll give you a cutting edge copy of the same!
While the Europeans blabber a lot about R&D and innovation in design, thats sadly not something that a Chinese supplier would ever be able to do. But tell him what you want, specify it, guide him, and he’ll give you exactly what you asked for.
The Europeans feel the product. Its as if they add a soul to something so boring as a glass jar and call it exotic or something. But the Chinese just look at the product as a product. A glass jar, is a glass jar, is a glass jar. Cut the crap and get to the point types! They cannot innovate. They cant think on ‘how can I make this better’. They can always say, that, ‘you tell me what to do, and it’ll be done’...
And even when it comes to dealing with Europeans on a business relationship, they’re way too finicky, especially the French. They talk as if, even making a plastic bottle requires so much of care and precision like probably a gourmet dish does. They’re extremely slow in replying to queries and take their own sweet time. The Chinese on the other hand, are like hungry cats, waiting to get new orders. They will do as many changes as asked, to make sure that they get the final order.
And I feel all this is really sad. Its sad because the Europeans just dont see that their businesses are being taken away by Chinese suppliers, while they’re busy being finicky with the customer on how should a bottle look like. And, its also sad to see that a Chinese supplier has no knowledge base of the product he’s making at all, so as to make some improvements to it and give it to the customer...
While one supplier base, can provide real customer service, they’re overdoing at certain areas, whereas the other supplier base can give great value for the goods, but is zilch on any most kinds of customer services... Its like choosing the lesser evil...
Arabs and food
There’s some pretty interesting stuff I found out about Arabs and their relationship with food. Firstly, Arabs as a tribe or as a community is plagued by a compulsive eating disorder. They have to eat… all the time. Doesn’t matter whether they’re hungry, or thirsty, or what time it is… they just have to eat. And that’s really one of the reasons why a large part of the Arab community is so obese. This includes young Arabs too.
Whats more interesting to know, and it’s a sad thing too, is that they purposefully waste food. That is, they never buy things in small sizes. They always buy things in family packs or large quantities. It’s always more than what’s required. If 2 packs of chips would do, they’d buy a family pack of 4 instead, and obviously there’ll be some leftovers, which they’ll throw away.
In a way, its proving that we have so much (in terms of opulence) that we can afford to throw it away.
Sad no?
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