After moving to Hong Kong and hearing all the management horror stories, I had an epiphany in regards to the failure of general Chinese / Asian style education.
When I hear about poor management, I realized I cannot possibly work under such a manager or in a company that is governed by “command and control”… and then it hit me… when I went to primary school in Hong Kong, I was also quite rebellious! I was only a few years old, but I already acted out against meaningless rules and unreasonable authorities! My mom would scold me and beat me up, some adults would say I was a bad kid for not obeying the rules… but had anyone really thought about why?! I finally understand… even when I was a kid, even when I was still very inexperienced in life, I could tell what’s efficient, what’s effective, what makes sense… When I encountered “bull shit” rules, like when the adults or teachers told us to just follow the rules and do some stupid shit. I was always like… “Why?! Why do I have to do this?! This is stupid!! Why can’t we do it some other way!!”
Last week, I talked to my friend who’s a psychiatric therapist and child psychologist. I told her about this, and she said: “Yes, kids nowadays are still the same way… but eventually, they learn to shut up and comply.” And I said: “That is exactly the problem!!” You see, children are born with creativity and curiosity, but as they grow up, the adults beat them into following their sad footsteps… “Shut up and comply!!” That’s exactly what most working adults do these days! Continue reading ‘Children Education - Raising a child in Hong Kong’
Management that view their people as replaceable “gears” within a machine seems to be the norm these days, but that only applies to low level, mundane jobs that can be handled by robots. Obviously, this shouldn’t be applied to software developers. I would even argue that within any level of a company, it is crucial to recognize and keep your “Grade A” workers! I think I read about this in one of those Harvard Business books, a “Grade A” worker is not only more productive himself, but he also increases the productivity of those that work around him! In the case of a developer, various studies have shown that good developers can be between 10 to 20 times more productive than poor developers! But before we get to the part on how to keep them, the question should be… how to identify them during interviews and hire them?! That’s the question that bothered me the most.
A few years back, when Yahoo!’s stock was doubling every few months and we were hiring like crazy, I read a book that gave me some interesting tips on how to do that. It’s really common-sense stuff actually… First, as the person hiring, you need to identify the characteristics you expect in the person you want for the job, and develop an interview technique that will test for these characteristics. Design some questions that can highlight the desired qualities of the candidate and have HR use those questions instead of their stock ones.
Continue reading ‘How to Identify and Hire Good People’
One stereotypical image of a Chinese manager / business owner is that they tend to be stingy and would work their employees into the ground. I’ve never worked for a Chinese or Asian company (unless you count Yahoo as Asian 
), but I have heard enough horror stories and now, my wife works for a local handbag design company in Hong Kong. I get to experience the legendary Chinese management style… second hand. (Phew…)
How’s this for a job change? You are a mid-level designer that makes more than $60K a year in New York, working 5 (or 4.5) days a week. You don’t have a boss to look over your shoulder and the decisions you make in your designs are final, albeit there may be some final, minor changes to suit the buyers’ taste. Now, you moved to Hong Kong! Guess what? You have to work 5.5 days a week! (Yes, working on Saturdays are still the norm here in HK!) You make 1/3 of what you used to make in NY, you have to risk your life and travel to lawless China to visit the factories in order to monitor the making of the samples. You have a time card to punch, when you are late, your vacation time are deducted! Your boss or your boss’s wife literally sit behind you to “look over your shoulders”! You have a 1 hr lunch and it’s restricted to 1 - 2 pm! Your boss has the final say on your design, your opinions are not respected. Sales people in the US tell their customers that they can make changes or ask for new designs anytime, because the Chinese here work 24 hrs! Your boss basically expects you to have no life and work your ass off!
Continue reading ‘Management Problems in Hong Kong (and generally in Asian Companies)’
Recent Comments