China, Collectivist Culture, and Organizational Success
January 23, 2012
“Huawei people, especially the leaders, are destined to work hard for a lifetime and to devote more and suffer more than others.” – Ren Zhengfei, President and Founder, Huawei.
Huawei, based in Shenzhen, is one of the largest telecom companies in the world (with 2010 Revenues of $28bn) and the single largest such company in China. In this Harvard Business Review post (hat tip: Brian Pan) by China-based consultant, Ruxiang Jiang, the author questions whether the work ethic at Huawei, and in China in general, will be enough to propel that country into 21st century economic leadership.
A key quotation:
A collective culture is great for rapidly building an organization from scratch. But too often, companies with collective approaches continue to disempower individual employees and devalue their intellectual contributions.
As would many in the West, I tend to agree with Mr. Jiang’s conclusions. The enormous size of China’s labor force, which Mr. Jiang does consider, could push off China’s day of reckoning for some decades, however. One important question is how deeply business culture in other parts of the world would be influenced by such Chinese success, in the meantime.
Steps towards crowdfunding
December 23, 2011
High-speed transactions that leveraged large amounts of information were vital to banks and financial institutions supporting the real estate bubble that preceded the 2008 crisis. Today, banks are still viewed with suspicion and, at the same time, themselves lack visibility to the quality of debt that they have issued. Trust is hard to come by from all quarters.
The solution, oftentimes (if not always), harnesses the same energies that created the problem: Namely, the explosion of information and transaction speed in finance suggests that new institutions, capable of processing this information in a manner that garners greater trust, are not only necessary, but possible.
This Business Insider article details some of the changes in finance that could be harbingers of more dramatic changes in the years ahead. One tidbit (in the context of start-ups):
Crowdfunding startups has long been a dream deferred. But it’s finally happening. Direct crowdfunding via equity financing is still a big no-no, because SEC rules make it difficult for non-accredited investors to invest in startups. But exciting things are going on.
One of the most exciting such examples is AngelList, a “Match.com for investors and startups” that lets startups vie for capital from angels and (increasingly) VC firms. AngelList has seen torrid growth on the back of rising early-stage valuations in Silicon Valley. And it has also been expanding horizontally and geographically.
There are non-tech companies listed on AngelList, along with companies from around the world. AngelList is not technically crowdfunding–it just makes it easier for startups to get accredited investors’ attention and get funding–but it is certainly an early step in that direction.
Start-ups, by their improvisational nature and limited funding options, are likely to continue to be innovators in this space. But look for changes in finance to be an instrumental part of our economic recovery across multiple sectors. I am not promising that this will happen soon but I am promising that major structural changes, such as the ones described in the Business Insider article, will be necessary for economic recovery in a global informational environment that has dramatically changed in the past decade.
A Great Article about iCloud, Google, and Microsoft
June 12, 2011
On Google and Openness
March 1, 2011
“Despite all the talk about Android being “open,” there are even some things that Google’s huge Android partners can’t change.
For example, when Motorola wanted to swap out Google’s built-in location services on its Android phones for a competing service from a startup called Skyhook Wireless, Google effectively forced them to stop, according to a lawsuit that Skyhook filed against Google.“
