AMP Treatise

Due to the schedule of school and since it is just getting started and we all have to get used to the unusual workload, I've been a little, uh, negligent regarding the blog. Anyway, I have a far more vocal readership than I expected so if I ever want to return home, I'd best start writing. And its not for a lack of material, either.

Onto the good news. The Chinese government as UNBANNED blogspot.com so I can now view my own blog from China! Now, if that's not social progress, I don't what is!

Onward.

Innovation Challenge
There are all sorts of business school competitions in various locales around the world all with different themes and I've signed up for one with four chinese classmates called the Innovation Challenge run by the Thunderbird business school in Arizona. Basically, four companies that want free and cheap labor all submit a "case" or problem to this program. Thunderbird distributed it to all the teams last Saturday and they give you a week to work out a two page plan. Some judges then pick the top 10 tens and invite them all to go to Arizona where there is round two, except you only have like 24 hours or something, then you give a presentation. The companies involved are IBM, Hilton, American Express, and the USPS. Now, you must be thinking, well, if you have time to do this EXTRA work, how could business school possibly be keeping you so busy? Well, the answer is, we don't have time for this at all! The week we have to prepare includes one midterm, one case study report, a group project report, plus the regular course load. I'd tell you all about the questions in we got, but I agreed to some confidentiality agreement regarding the material, which I didn't read (Hey! This is China! It's easy to forget about intellectual property and binding legal agreements here), and I don't want to disqualify my group before we've even finished.

More CEIBS MBA Class Info
Business Writing and Presentations - This class was only two weeks, although an intensive one, and really added to the "shock and awe" of the first two weeks. After it was over, at least the daily schedule of classes became more manageable. The teacher in this class, a relatively young guy called Mark, was quite a good teacher. This class was more for the teacher since many, although they have decent english, haven't ever written a business report in english or given presentations in it. Anyway, despite this, I'm the last person to say that I couldn't use a little practice in these either. So, until about 2 weeks ago, most of us had a quite favorable view of the class. That is until we got our grading sheets back (one for a group presentation and one for an individual report). We were told that content would play a big minority role in these items since content was not the point, but rather presentation and proper format/structure/logical flow/etc. The grading sheets said about 20% content based grade for each. So our presentation seems to have been graded at about 40% content and the same with the individual reports. And not a single native english speaker was in the top 20 reports. And not to bash the Chinese since its no fault of their own that they can't write perfect grammatical english (ask me how many chinese characters I can write!), but judging but the quality of writing I get (more on that later), it seems a little strange. But, I'm probably sounding a little overly critical now since this is only a 1 credit course and we're really all here to learn and not lose sleep over our grades, but it's a little frustrating when the rules of the game change after you've submitted a report.

Statistics - This course continues on its very useful and entertaining tack (yes! I said entertaining!). Although the chinese have some trouble understanding the teacher, as well as some of the non-english speaking international students, since he's from the south. The most entertaining part of class is when he cracks jokes that only Americans would really understand I'm the only one that busts out laughing (my fellow American and Canadian classmates apparently have better control over themselves) . I think the class has now learned to ignore me. However, I did found out today that this happens in every class where only one or two people laugh out loud at his jokes.

Marketing - We had a really interesting group case project due today about Brita water filtration. Ok, so it doesn't sound interesting, but it was in that nerdy, business school kind of way. Anyway, this is where many of the tensions inside groups started to reach their breaking point. Although all the international students are pretty cross-culturally minded, being in a group of 4 or 5 chinese who work in a totally different manner than we're used to can be a frustrating experience. Part of the reason we're here yes, but I'm not sure if we all expected this. The int'l's past time has become complaining and telling stories about our trials and tribulations in the group meetings, if for no other reason than to vent. Some examples:

• A group coming to an agreement on a plan, the int'l leaving and then all the chinese staying behind and changing everything.
• A particularly forward and direct int' student being essentially cut out of his group because he was not at all participating in the group the way the Chinese expected (here harmony, patience, and balance, even among these young, future leaders of China, are more important than a direct and more confrontational approach).
• A group arranging group meetings with the sole purpose of having a meeting.
• Spending 12 hours on a Saturday in a single meeting.
• Taking 2.5 hours with the only task being delegating duties for individual work!
  

A bit of cultural sensitivity in the approach to group meetings goes a long way. And this is not to say that all the chinese get along perfectly either or that the foreign students are perfect either, its just that since no group really has more than one int'l student, its hard to these stories. In fact, in the second case above, it was pretty much all the int'l students fault he was cut out. However, this is the most trying experience of being here so far, it really is an expected inital result. There are entire companies, studies, and reports about cross cultural differences and especially in societies as different as the West and China, they are bound to play a central role.

Anyway, part of being a native english speaker means that I'm the final proofreader (or, editor is probably more appropriate) for all written reports. And this isn't just changing an "a" to a "the" but more like translating one form of english to another. Not that I mind necessarily, since I'm not about to turn in something with sub-standard english since its so easy (but time consuming) to correct.

Financial Accounting - Mr. Xu continues to somehow making account funny as hell and interesting. Well, since I'm familiar with accounting, sometimes I have trouble keeping my eyes open (especially after a 3am night), no matter how hard I try. Although I do have a finance compatriot who I can count on being on as bad shape as I am. Coffee here is critical! The professor spares no one in his little accouting tirades (US GAAP? Stupid! Chinese GAAP? Stupid!). But the pace has been pretty quick, and even I'm a little worried about the upcoming midterm on Tuesday. The other students state of confidence can be more aptly described as alarm, despair, anguish, terror, panic, and gloom. And I may be underestimating. Accounting is one of those things that seems pretty simple on the surface with clear rules and theories. But its all the little details, and there are tons, that get intimidating. We have a group project (a different group's is due every class) due at the beginning of November on *warning accounting speak* the effect of capitalizing research and development expenses (OK, calm down accountants, this is just for demonstration purposes only!).

Organizational Behavior - We have a midterm... ah... tomorrow but its not one of those classes where there is anything to memorize but supposed to be learning "how to think." We basically get a case to do individually for 2 hours that we have to analyze.

So, I think that's all of them. Oh, no Economics, but nothing especially interesting to report there expect that I aced the first quiz, which was a nice mental boost considering I suck at micro-economics. So in general, classes here at CEIBS are moving along and it seems we've been in them for half a year when its only been 6 weeks. It's a little tricky managing the workload, which is intentionally higher than we're able to deal with since we also have to learn to prioritize and set time tables, etc.

Culture Points
There is so much to say under this general heading so I'll just say a couple of things. China is the land of contradictions. You can't generalize the Chinese, as easy as it is to do physically, it can't be done across regions and provinces and even cities. The culture is incredibly diverse so your impression of China will hinge greatly on where in China you go.

One the more frustrating things you experience here is that you can go to a store, restaurant, or other business and ask a question to four different people and get four entirely different answers!

The students in the group meetings tend to be a little more more generally political than in the US. What I mean is not political in the overall sense of government issues, but in the group setting. There are definitely subtle strategies going on all time and I'm guessing this results from the sense of face and status. Hopefully, more on this later.

Fireworks at on the Huangpu River
Last week was National Week, as I've mentioned and one night I happened to be at an apartment on the Pudong (east) side of the river having dinner on a balcony (where we inadvertantly ate snake. I've always wanted to try it but getting 2/3rds of the way through a meal before realizing you're eating snake was a little anti-climatic. I was hoping to experience it by going to one of those specialty places where they skin it in front of you and serve you four dishes all based on that snake finished off with a glass of snakes blood!) when a ferry stopped in the river (and by no means a big one) and it just started firing off fireworks in an impromptu display which went on for 10 minutes. They really do fireworks right here! Not to mention that during the week holiday you could hear fireworks going all night long, but officially organized and by individuals.

The Language
Still making what seems like slow progress but I'm at the point where I can go about the easy and daily things in life without looking bewildered 100% of the time. More like 95% of the time. But that's a step!

F1
And finally, F1 comes to Shanghai for the 2nd Chinese F1 Grand Prix. We'll see how it benchmarks against Montreal.

And a final note in order to end on a good one, I really love it here. If I sound critical, its not entirely intentional but, the difficulties are a little easier to talk about than the great things. But I'm quite satisfied with the school, the students (all of them!), and Shanghai. I don't think I've said it yet, but if you ever have the opportunity to make it here (here being anywhere in China), don't pass it up!