East Meets West via Internships
The differences between doing business in the United States and in China can be major and obvious--for starters, Americans thrive on competition, but the Chinese are just testing the waters.
But for Chinese businessmen Shen Longlong and Chen Xianjin, the little differences are just as intriguing.
“The Chinese are hard workers and Americans are hard workers,” but the approach is not the same, Shen said, sitting in a conference room high above Wilshire Boulevard at the Laventhol & Horwath accounting firm. “Chinese never miss their lunchtime--12 exactly; here maybe 2” in the afternoon will be meal time for Americans.
And “Chinese work six days per week and no vacations, except teachers,” Shen said. “I hope we change.”
As for Chen, he has learned that the axiom of U.S business is “Time is money.”
Shen and Chen are part of a group of 22 business people from Shanghai who are completing six-month internships with U.S. businesses (and one Canadian company) as part of an agreement between Shanghai and the San Francisco-Shanghai Friendship Committee.
“There are all kinds of seminars about how to do business with China,” said Gordon Lau, a San Francisco attorney and chairman of the San Francisco-Shanghai Friendship Committee. But the internship program--which followed 18 months of study of business fundamentals by the interns with Chinese professors and U.S. academics and businessmen--”is a fine opportunity to learn how to do business” firsthand, he said.
‘Rising Stars of Shanghai Business Community’
And while internship programs are not unique, Lau said he knows of no other program that involves such intensive MBA-like training.
“The Chinese think these interns are probably the rising stars of the Shanghai business community,” Lau said. “Quite a few of our sponsors said they would hire their interns if they could.”
Among the companies sponsoring interns were Pacific Telesis, Price Waterhouse, Tandem Computer, Wells Fargo Bank and the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. The program is funded by the Shanghai city government and the sponsoring companies.
Another class of 13 Chinese business people will start U.S. internships early next year, and a group of American business people and students will travel to Shanghai in 1987 to visit Chinese enterprises.
Since the death of Chairman Mao Tse-tung 10 years ago, the Communist government in Peking under Deng Xiaoping, China’s top leader, has become increasingly pragmatic and less ideological. It has eased central control, given more responsibility to the managers of enterprises and encouraged economic incentives.
Chen and Shen agreed that the most valuable part of their internship was getting a close-up look at U.S.-style competition.
“For a long time in China, we have had an expression: ‘The emperor’s ugly daughter never worries about finding suitors,’ ” said Shen, deputy manager of the machinery section of China National Machinery & Equipment Import & Export Corp. Shanghai Branch. “Now the government encourages competition, and I now understand the concept,” he said. “The internship for me is terrific. For my future, it is good.”
Said Chen: “Because our country is much more open than it used to be, our government wants to send more and more people abroad to see the Western system, and for our future businesses, I think we should understand more about the Western side.”
Chen is project manager in the Shanghai exhibition department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, an organization much like a chamber of commerce in the United States.
“When foreign firms come to our country, at first they don’t know how to do business in China,” and the council assists them, he said.
“For me, it’s very important to understand American business and American society. If we can understand better, we can provide more business opportunities.”
At Laventhol & Horwath, Shen and Chen moved from department to department to get an overview of how the company operates. The two men learned the company’s computer systems and worked on specialized projects, such as tailoring personnel manuals for their companies in China.
“In terms of service industry in our country, it is quite new,” Chen said. “How to manage such a firm is a new problem for us.”
Laventhol & Horwath decided to sponsor Shen and Chen and three others in San Francisco because “we are committed to establishing a presence and working in China over the longer term,” said Saul F. Leonard, national partner for leisure-time industries. “Long term, it will help Laventhol & Horwath, it will help the American business community and it will help China.”
