Back to you . .... Working in China

This has been a while since I wrote here. infact long time, since I even had a look at my own blog. 2 reasons: 1 - China has stopped blogpost, 2 - I stay in China:) So whats news and what I should write here today. Let me first of all introiduce what I do and some of my current thoughts and plans: I am currently workign at Bureau Veritas in China, which I trust is an ideal company for me to work in a chinese environment with truly global clients (including Chinese giants). Work is nice to learn. One thing I would say about workign in China is that anyone who doeasn;t have cultural sensitivity, would fail in vein here. I see this with some of the foreign clients, who just refuse to accept the truth of culutre in China. One of the thing, I usually say is that there are 2 significant thing any foreign company and foreign professionals see for China: 1 - Language, 2 - Culture. and I trust that the 1st if over rated and the 2nd is under rated.

The speed of things in China is very very fast, the quickest I ever saw. Decisions are made very quick. I see this not only at my employer in their chinese operations compared to those in other countries , but also within large chinese companies. Which may be contrary to the conventional wisdom. Lemme explain....Most of the chinese companies are large state owned enterprises (SOEs) which makes big investments. Once they think of doing something (which is very sudden: but mostly strategic), it happens very quickly. This probably doesn;t happen in other parts of the world. This quickiness in chinese companies has a buisness impact, that once the decision is made the suncontracts shall be awarded to companies / peoples who have already established business relationships with them, called Guanxi (关系). I write udner assumption that they are able to deliver). This makes the implementation very quick and Guanxi, the most improtant business etiquette in China very important. Enough for my understanding. This is open to discussion. I'd be happy receive your comments if any. I wish to continue to leverage my understandign of chinese culture and continue to deliver value for my employer.

Have a good day. Write back to me your opinion.

Green Zone : A question for the character

I liked this movie…. Very much. In addition to many other elements of a good movie, I encountered the Chief encountering similar questions, such as we were dealing with during the Ethics class cases in my MBA. On 14th minutes of the movie, despite being told that he should not question around the genuinely of the sources, Chief questioned the same. He was leading this operation sacredly and was wondering the upstream input from Intelligence. So, the big question is “What you would do, if your environment stops you from questioning the decisions taken by others, despite the fact it effects your personal values and work?” I am now thinking about it, but more importantly I want to see the movie further, so give me few minutes….

Few minutes later….



Till it is streaming:

He questioned and I suspect that I might do the same. But he is risking his position in the settlement. Many people around will not like him and might want him removed. Now, what are his options?: 1. He gives this politics some time (and that’s what happens most of the time, due to which things doesn’t move further as quick as they could), 2. He doesn’t bother and move further as best he can. I suspect he would do this in this movie…, lets go back there…


After an hour or more …

Now the feared has been done, The Chief is outlined, although in this case, as he found some supporters, who would help him since their objectives are same i.e. to find the truth i.e. to do the right thing. So it is back to politics and muscles wriggling between two groups against a common enemy.

The movie is as interesting as Bourne series. I liked it much, but in India I can not find the DVD as cheap as less than 1 USdollar as I could in China. I dislike this… thank god, YouKu is there… hehe…

And in the end, he did what best he did. He made the truth open; which was coherent with his thinking. It needed courage.

Absolutely fantastic movie…. Full of concentration and depth. The only think which I did not like was the ending Music though, not as good as in previous Greengrass’s blockbusters.

How does BCG gets project from BSNL?

BCG has recently done a study for "Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited" (BSNL), the fifth largest mobile operator in India. BSNL is semi- overnment telecom operator in India, the only one untill few years back. And it is losing market share to private operators. I remember that 15 years back when the phone was a luxury in India, BSNL was the only provider of landline phones, so if there is any problem with your connection such as the open hanging telephone line from pole to your home is damaged by a monkey, next morning you have to go and wait for the BSNL lineman to come and fix it. Additionally you have to give him some "kharcha paani"(accepted bribe). The situation is widely understood to be same (for bribes) from lineman (the lowest in hierarchy) to the top bosses (either executives or minister responsible). The result of this unholistic approaches widely taken over the years, looking only at short term face saving fixes (and personal gains), BSNL is a loss making company and going down. BCG, on the contrary is an epitom of professionalism. BCG like consulting firms and Cisco like vendors works usually with the givernment firms like BSNL. Then What Happens ?

I am putting some thought points but also would urge the reader to add anything as comments freely...

We can analyse on many issues:

1. Who benefits: BSNL does for sure. But does Cisco gets something from BSNL? Has BSNL something which Cisco needs to learn?

2. Are these deals bribe free? BCG is supposedly ethical, but for BSNL consulting projects, Will BCG like to pay upto 1 M USD to various officials for getting the contract?

3. What is the future of such governmental organisations? Can under monopoly systems (such as in China) they learn to complete projects within time and upto satisfaction? (Indian common wealth games vs. China Olympics/ Indian railways vs. China's transportation services).

And many more to see....

China to India, My airport story

I landed in India after completeing my MBA from CEIBS, China. It was 4 o'clock in the morning when I realised that I was on New Delhi airport rather than a train station. The differences were evident. It was looking everything was shabby. The baggage belt had flight number which was written so small that u will see it only from very near. So I went around but could only find one for our flight, when I saw some fellow travellers standing there. After studying an MBA (where we discuss about giving comfort to customers) and living in Shanghai, where sometimes I have seen them makign new road newer again, I was thinking why not put up a bigger LCD here, will it be a big expense compared to the expected comfort of travellers?
Second shock, I wasn't expecting that it would be so bad, but there was no sign for which way somebody at 4 AM could look at for washroom. Again you need to go to information counter, where the young lady was sitting with an angry face and seeming to be giving a great service by showing her hand into oine direction and looking into completely opposite:-). That was quite unpleasant but funny. Finally, I could find a washroom, entrance was so small that one have to leave the trolley outside and go in, may be the space inside was also small :-).

And finally, for me to make a local call, I waited for the guy on phone booth for 30 minutes but he never came back from his tea time.....

Welcome to INDIA!!

CEIBS is a thrilling place

Having spent more than one year at CEIBS as a MBA student, now this journey almost coming to an end. This is the time, I often ask myself a question "How has been the CEIBS journey & what I got here". The answers are many but the few important ones can be useful for the readers.

Every milestone in learning paves serves as a milestone for the new learning. And CEIBS has been a thrilling journey for me. I was partly picked based on my cross functional experiences into R&D, Operations and Marketing. CEIBS has provided me with further expansion of my business acumen into vast geographies, industries and functions through Business cases, interactions with fellow global students and stories from professors's experiences. If I have to gauge the exposure in the form of speed, I would say that every week , I come across 4-5 industries through business cases, 2-3 countries through company presentations and numerous cultures through my classmates; It never stops unless you close yourself into your dorm room; and do not open the computer. Because even if you just want to walk silently into the very very small and beautiful campus, chances are you will see high profile business and governmental executives there, who are in the campus for attending a global seminar or for giving a speech. God,if you happen to be one of those networkers, it is absolutely a great place to be at. I am not sure of the number but more than a quarter of China's richest (CHINA'S RICHEST) people got education at CEIBS. A few of our professor's are kind of intellectual authorities in China's economic expansion and public policies. If you are intellectually curious and eager to benefit, how would you not thrill within such an environment.


My classmates, who makes everything more interesting, comes from more than 25 nationalities and from almost every common industry and functions. Needless to say they were on responsible positions in world class MNEs and governmental institutions. It is interesting to see an Asian classmate commenting the need for respect for elders and a westerner classmate questioning the ideology of respecting the elderly more than youngers; And seeing the professor, guiding discussion to bring cross cultural self-reflections into open is an unmatchable experience.

I am convinced that CEIBS is a great place to be at for learning and the interational MBA positioning of being the best MBA school (FT rsnking) in Asia is well rewarded.

I would seek your thoughts on CEIBS in the form of comments or mails!!

Could Arcelor & Mittal truly Unified ?

I am just coming back from the campus presentation of Arcelor Mittal. The presentor were CEO of Arcelor Mittal China, (European) and the HR person, a (Chinese).

Truly they have got a lot in them to be the world’s Number-1. I liked the way they presented …particularly avoiding the subject of high energy usage, pollution and global warming from their talk, rather adding those of CSR and communities building . ...But what I also saw is that they are missing something very important… read below…!!

During the Q&A session, one guy asked “whether Arcelor Mittal is an Indian company?” CEO explained to him the formation of the company and stated that the company is headquartered in Europe and is not an Indian company. In my opinion the fact and figures of this explanation were enough to make any of the CEIBS guy clear on this point. But then what I saw simply astonished me. CEO, China said “How it can be an Indian company, we don’t have even a plant in India”.

What he stated did not make me surprise, but the way he said it (with a smile), made me realize that the magazines and reports about Arcelor employees’s outlook were not wrong. The people who worked long for the Arcelor, could not accept and appreciate the fact that Mittal’s takeover of Arcelor is for the good of economic decisions. Moreover some probably did not feel good because Mittal steel was a smaller (than Arcelor) company run by an Indian, Mr. L.N.Mittal.

Of course, there must be his reasons and thoughts behind what he said, but here I my perspective on his wordings.

Additionally, I endorse CEIBS’s emphasis upon organizational behavior studies and truly our OB’s Professor, has done a great job of making us sensitive towards such issues. :-)