Stephen R. Covey: SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE : Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Thomas L. Friedman: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Seth Godin: Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Tom Kelley: The Art of Innovation : Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm
Daniel Goleman: Emotional Intelligence : Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
Stephen Denning: The Springboard : How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations
Today is my last day in Shanghai. I'm leaving this afternoon. I took a little walk on the Pudong river walk this morning and snapped a couple of shots. It was very sunny and warm -- a typical lazy Sunday feeling. I miss Joe and Amy and am ready to be home. But I've loved every minute of this adventure. Goodbye Shanghai.
Technorati Tags: China, Pudong, Shanghai, IPREX, Haungpu River
Our Friday session at IPREX was an outstanding education on the state of business in China. Our Asia partners and hosts, Upstream Asia, arranged for a presentation from William Reinfeld, a management consultant, Asia expert and professor at the China Europe International Business School.
Here are the highlights from his presentation:
1. China is modernizing, not Westernizing. They don't want to be like America. They do want to be rich and powerful. Deng Xiaoping famously said, "To be rich is glorious," and the Chinese people are taking this to heart, albeit in their own way.
2. Foreigners doing business in China must understand the Chinese philosophy of Confucianism, the way of thought that still drives Chinese to this day.
3. China is not one market, but many markets, cultures, and ethnicities.
4. China's businesses are built on two models: family businesses or state-owned entities.
5. In China, the law of large numbers attracts foreign interest, such as:
A population of 1.3 billion people; 500 million in the urban centers.
25% of urban households are middle class; 75% will be by 2015.
500 million mobile subscribers and growing at 19% annually.
31 million credit-card holders
China accounts for 30% of global merchandise exports.
China has the second highest investment rate in R&D in the world (second to the US)
Approximately 200 million Internet users (second only to the US).
12 million private cars
Literacy rate (male) of more than 90%
Less than 10% of Chinese citizens are in the Communist Party.
There are 350 million Chinese who speak English; it's the largest English-speaking population in the world.
The other major point Reinfeld made I found so interesting, and relevant to us in the PR profession, is how important relationships are in doing business in China. Reinfeld said, "Business here (in China) is not transaction based, it's relationship based." Chinese look beyond the transaction. In a business situation, the Chinese are looking for a person to show "Guanxi", which is ones true personal interest in a relationship.
What I love about this is that every business relationship should have Guanxi, and as PR Professionals, we should be trying to build Guanxi between our clients and their stakeholders.
Later in the day, we heard from Sam Flemming, CEO of CIC, a social-media monitoring firm that monitors only in Asia. Sam was a wealth of information about social media use in China. Some nuggets:
The Chinese use social-media tools to a higher degree than Americans; The net culture is very mainstream.
75 million Chinese are using social media
There are 50 million Chinese bloggers
The most popular blogger in the world (in terms of traffic) is Chinese
I'll be coming back from Shanghai with many new insights. This trip has been incredible.
Social sessions are always a highlight of any IPREX meeting, and our Shanghai meeting is no exception. Our hosts, Upstream Asia, are amazing and have shown us a wonderful time.
Our first official gathering was Thursday night starting with dinner at South Beauty. The highlight of the evening, however, was going to a club called "Cloud Nine" on the 87th floor the Jin Mao tower, the tallest building in China and the world's either third or fifth tallest (I found conflicting information). Cloud Nine is the top floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the world's highest hotel. We had to take three different elevators to get up there.
It was a glorious view. The drinks were a bit pricey -- $20 for a glass of bourbon. And it was Jack Daniels Single Barrel -- not my favorite, Maker's Mark. But I suffered through it.
Last night we ate at the Whampoa Club in Pushi. Wow. Amazing place. I didn't have the energy to go out last night, so no great stories to share (like I would anyway).
Technorati Tags: China, Pudong, Pushi, Shanghai, Jin Mao Tower, Whampoa Club
Ok, Tuesday was half the story; yesterday, I saw how the "other half" in Shanghai live. We visited "Old Shanghai," which is the city west of the Haungpu River. And "old" is relative, depending on what part of the city you're in. They're construction is such a mashup of very old (hundreds of years), kinda old (like the pink-looking building below built in 1909 by the British when they occupied that section of the city), and brand new. 
I took this picture while standing on "The Bund," which is a river-walk on the west side. It's full of tourists. In fact, most of the day I was surrounded by other tourists and Chinese hawking stuff to the tourists -- watches, toys, flags, kites. Every five feet. They weren't too aggressive, so it was fine.
(See my Smugmug profile for more pictures).
According to our guide, she believes all of the "relatively old" buildings -- like this typical apartment complex with no indoor plumbing -- will be torn down and replaced with new high-rises within 10 years.
In addition to The Bund, we toured the Yuyuan Garden -- a beautiful 5-acre, 400 year-old-garden/home right in the middle of Old Shanghai. Even with all the tourists in there, it was incredibly peaceful and full of meaning.
From there we visited the Jiang Nan Silk Exhibition, a.k.a., the Shanghai Silk Museum, which is a regular stop on the tourist path. According to the folks at the Museum, Shanghai boasts the best silk worms in the Orient. It was very interesting to see how the silk-worm cocoons are unraveled into silk thread.
We ended our tour in a newly remodeled section of the city called Xin Tian Di. It has a completely European bent with recognizable US-brand restaurants (Lawry's Prime Rib, for example). The most interesting part of this part of the city, however, was this building:
This is the birthplace of Communism in China. It's the location of the 1st Communist Party Congress meeting on July 23-24, 1921, at which were 12 delegates, including Mao Zedong. This was prior to the founding of the People's Republic of China. Of course, the Chinese are very proud of this history -- and like our Democracy, they brand and sell it:
Technorati Tags: China, Shanghai, Pudong, The Bund, Yuyuan Garden, Communism
Gray is how I'll remember my first day in Shanghai, China. It was cloudy and raining, but still beautiful and exciting to be present in this amazing Country. After a 15-hour plane ride and only about 5 hours sleep, I was running on adrenaline.
The Pudong Airport was huge! Definitely the biggest I've ever been in. And spotless. Getting through customs was a breeze. I exchanged my dollars (1:7 exchange rate), and by the time I was done, my baggage was on the carousel. A car from the hotel was waiting, and I was off.
I tried to soak in every detail during the 50-minute drive:
1. The highway was in great shape -- brand new. Not a pothole anywhere. It was the smoothest I've ever been on.
2. Every highway and street we were on was lined with beautiful trees, manicured shrubs and flowers in bloom. And I mean every mile of every road.
3. There wasn't much traffic. Of course, it was 2 p.m. on a Tuesday, but at that same time in San Francisco, for example, the streets would be flooded with cars. For a city with 23 million people, I sure expected more traffic.
4. Most of the cars I saw were Buicks - 2 out of 3!
5. All the road signs are in both Mandarin and English. In fact, just about every sign I've seen -- in the hotel, mall and on the street -- are in both languages.
6. The structures along the highway were either old, dilapidated, high-rise apartments or brand new apartments and office buildings; nothing in between.
7. I didn't see any free-standing homes. All of the housing was either row-houses or apartments.
8. I didn't see any retail in the suburbs. I didn't expect that. I mean, no little stores or shops on the corners, no gas stations, no strip malls. Think about wherever you live -- you can't go two blocks without seeing some sort of retail.
9. I saw very little advertising. Most of it was outdoor boards around the airport, and they were advertising construction companies and banks. The ads were in Mandarin and English, too. As I got downtown, I expected to see more, but I didn't. It's very uncluttered, visually.
10. Everyone I have encountered is extremely polite, and 4 out of 5 speak conversational English. All of the hotel staff are fluent. Of course, I'm a white American tourist in a 5-star hotel, so courtesy comes with the territory. However, even the people in the airport and on the street and in the mall were polite. And I only had one person try to sell me a fake watch.
The Pudong Shangri-La is fabulous. According to the bartender in the hotel bar where I had dinner, it's the number-one rated hotel in all of China. Don't know if that's true or not, but it is the place were dignitaries stay when in Shanghai. As I was checking in, the President of Chile was checking out!
I took a couple of photos from my hotel window...this one of the Huangpu River.
And this one of the famous Shanghai landmark, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower:
After settling in, I went across the street to the Chia Tai Mall, a.k.a, the "Super Brand" Mall. It was nice to see our client Lee jeans there:
Today I'm taking a guided tour of several parts of Shanghai, including the Bund, which is the area of the city in which I'm staying (the financial center, with a very interesting history); the Yuyuan Garden; and Xin Tian Di, a new entertainment district. I bet it's just like KC's new Power & Light district! :)
In the midst of what will one day probably be a major PR case study, I am heading to Shanghai, China, for a meeting of IPREX -- a trade association for independently owned PR firms across the world, of which Barkley is a member. We are not meeting in China because of the issue; we have had this meeting scheduled for several years. It just so happens this crisis is occurring at the same time.
I have never been to China, and I am both excited and nervous about the trip. My nervousness is not because it's China -- I'm fascinated by the Country, its culture, and its economic rise. I'm privileged to be alive at this time in history when China is undergoing its change. It's more about being away from my family for so long, so far away.
Of course, not everything in China is changing for the better. The government's strong-arm tactics in Tibet seem completely at odds with their forward-looking economic development. Every time I read a story about this issue, I'm reminded of Tienanmen Square in 1989. My guess is most of us that remember this incident have permanently associated it with China, Communism and the dark side of both. And it's exactly this image China's government is hoping to erase by hosting the Olympics. But its almost certain they will not. Because this isn't a PR problem, it's a character problem. Freedom is the solution to this problem.
Anyway, I didn't want this to turn into a political post...I'll be staying at the Pudong Shangri-la Hotel.
I depart tomorrow and return on Sunday, April 20. I'll be blogging daily and posting pictures to my Smugmug account.
A special thanks to my colleagues at Barkley for being such an excellent team that I can even venture on a trip like this, and to my wife for just being you. :)
