Finished 3 days of China Strategy and it has been amazing. Don’t have time to give a lot of details (have to prepare for 3 classes tomorrow, plus job search) but let’s say it’s been so fascinating, better than I had hoped. If it continues, and I’m sure it will, I strongly recommend INSEADers who have some interest in China, to take this course.
For me, the main points were the global-to-local and local-to-global issues facing MNCs and ambitious Chinese companies; questions of ethics versus profitability/competitive advantage, and Guanxi, which was a huge area of discussion every day.
Our professor WC did everything he could to give us a better understand of the Chinese mindset. He told us that as a teacher, he treated us like his children and he really went out of his way to look after us. He said this experience has showed that despite being out of China/Taiwan for 10 years he still has inherently Chinese behaviour :) I’m not complaining there.
Had a pleasant surprise at the China Club dinner last night, when I met the man behind KFC China’s success (to be precise, part of the ‘Taiwan Gang’ of elite overseas Chinese recruited to run KFC in China). He told me his book was selling at Borders. I joked that he should’ve told Borders and they could have arranged an autograph session. That gave him an idea: He said if any of us bought his book, he would autograph them for us as he would be returning on Day 3 to participate in the panel. I informed some classmates and the professor, and then I another classmate CS headed to Borders to buy some of his books. The proceeds go to help the education of poor children in rural China so it is totally worth it.
We received lots of good advice from our speakers. Even among us students - those from China, those of us overseas Chinese, and non-Chinese who worked in China and/or spoke the language, and even non-Chinese with no background in China at all, had different angles and questions to ask, which made this an intellectually interwoven fabric of fine Chinese silk :)
