Su Fang's Reflection
International Business Study Mission Reflection

Project: Strategic Considerations of Foreign Direct Investments in the PRD region.

Q & A sessions:
We have to be fast in asking questions, if questions are not posed quickly, we will miss the opportunity to ask questions. An example would be at China South Material City whereby the lady Victoria was quick on her toes. When there was a moment of silence, she immediately mentioned to bring us on the tour in the material city. Therefore, we have to quick on our toes during question and answer sessions. Subsequently, the Q & A sessions were much better and next questions were posed once the answer was given for the previous questions. Therefore, there were great improvements

Chinese businesses are relatively structured. For example in Gree Electric Appliance, they adopted the six sigmas. In my opinion, this is good implementation as consumers are assured of quality of the products they purchase as these products have gone through stringent testing before it is sold to them. In this case, it has highlighted to me that rules are meant to be followed. In life, rules are there for us to guide us. Without rules, things may turn chaotic and this may result in misunderstanding.

To do business in China, one has to be fast thinkers and quick minded. My observation at EPCOS with John, highlighted this point to me. During the Q & A sessions with John, he was very fast in answering our questions. He answered our questions steadily and he knows his facts at his finger tips, this despite he had a meeting to attend to after us. I reckoned that in the business environment, when we have to meet datelines we have to be objective and know our facts well. Another example would be at KPMG where Mr Raymond also had to make an urgent phone call before he came to meet us. These industry people are able to take stress and be able to adapt fast and be steady in their approach. From these observations, I hope I’ll be able to follow into their footsteps and learn more from them so that I can be as successful as these people.

At EPCOS, we had lunch in a simple yet memorable experience for us. It allows us to integrate into the Chinese culture and to understand their way of life/work through my observations when I had lunch there. The Chinese people returned their trays to the respective area after they have finished their meals. In Singapore, or rather in Ngee Ann, we are also encouraged to return our trays after we’ve finished our meals. But, how many of us actually bothered to listen and heed the advice given by the school management? I think we should reflect ourselves and our attitude with these Chinese people.

Learning experience to do business in China through networking dinner / lunch:
1) Every minute is important as time waits for no man in the business world. This point has been highlighted to us by the Singaporeans working in PRD region many times. Therefore, it has inculcated in me that in life, we should seize our time and grab hold of every minute in life. If given the opportunity to venture and work in different countries, I would definitely not hesitate to give it a nod to work overseas.

2) Chinese workers are very hard working
à They are willing to work on Public holidays even on Chinese New Year. At Epcos, the workers are paid 3 times more, these workers are willing to strive and work though it is a public holiday.
à However, in Singapore, most of the Singaporeans are not willing to work on a public holiday given though we’re given a double pay increment. We will whine and cry “hoo- haa” over every small detail. In my opinion, Singapore has many things to learn from the mainland Chinese. If Singapore is going to slacken in our pace, we may have to play “catch up” in the near future and we may fall backwards as China garners the competitive edge over us.

Marketing Strategy in China

We have visited the Dragon Ball Tea Plantation and the “Ju Xiang Yuan”. From my observations, I noticed that their marketing strategies are almost similar as both used our human 5 senses to entice us to buy from them

Personal Experience

The first night at Canton Hotel was horrendous and almost everyone had an “Eerie” feeling about the “Eeerie” hotel. But after listening to Mr Lau had to say about his experiences, I overcome my fear about the ghostly feeling about hotels. 3 nights at Canton Hotel with no harm done onto me, made me overcome my fear of the darkness and eeriness. Therefore, if I’m to enter into a hotel which is similar to Canton hotel or even worse hotel, I will remember Mr Lau’s story and overcome my fear.

My room experienced blackout on the 3rd night at Canton hotel and we didn’t have any source of light except for a pathetic beam of light from the handphone. We were scared the wits out of us when we had total darkness in the room. One sure thing that I’ve learnt is to bring a torch light with me during the trips.
China has deep cultural roots. At the Wong Fei Hong demonstrations when the kids were demonstrating their kung fu skills, it came across to me that the younger generation is still very much attached to cultural roots. Moreover, what inspires me most is to find out that foreigners are also learning from the Chinese counterparts about culture traditions and I noticed one of the foreigners actually became a disciple of one kung fu masters.

At the Sun Yat Sat Memorial hall, I left the place with a lasting impression. The quote that I shared with everyone was “ Learn something about everything instead of everything from something”, which implies that in life, we should learn a little things from everything so that we can be more knowledgeable and resourceful in life by knowing a little of something.

Lastly, through my experiences to carry my “hippo” around which resulted in greater difficulty especially for the guys to carry my luggage up the buses, what I’ve learnt most is to “TRAVEL LIGHT”. If the others didn’t learn about that…I sure did… and I have all the guys to thank for working so hard… !

--SuFang