Comments on: Being a “Boss” in China

By: LongTian

LongTian — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:27:16 +0000

While at the boss level most are uneducated, and in my opinion, about as useful as a rock, the educated youths are slowly gaining more and more experience, and with the help of their connected relatives, will be the leaders of tomorrow. This change will completely leave these factories in the dust, however, since all talented youths will opt for more money and visibility at international and trendy corporations. Very few will become entrepreneurs in the beginning, but the number will grow. Absolutely none will choose to work for subsistence wages for a moron of a boss at a plastics factory. These factories will slowly die out as China transitions to higher industries, and will continue the slow move to the heartland and cheaper countries.

By: david

david — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:36:25 +0000

Agreed. I think that we do see a lot of this everywhere. As the marketd mature, the individual factories will too. We saw some of this in the last couple of years as many smaller factories couldn’t keep going with the scandals, labor issues and bad economy.

But the point of the post was that the Chinese themselves are very aware of the problems too (verses foreigner that have complained for years). I’ve not heard much of this type of complaining before from owners–they’re usually a bit more guarded and optimistic in public. It was, quite heartening to hear that owners across industries recognized that there needs to be some fundamental changes to the way things are done.

By: George Baily

George Baily — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:21:48 +0000

Great post!

I think every company in every industry in every country has all of these management problems to a degree.

The difference is that in China we expect to get more done, for less money, with fewer and less experienced people.

The only way to solve these more obvious problems in China is with the same improvements in management that you see all successful businesses making. At the heart of this is systematization.

How often in China do we see Chinese managers systematizing anything? The very concept is considered western and alien, e.g. your comment about “transparency” and trusted family members in finance. From the Chinese point of view, as we know, that is not seen as a problem but in fact the best and smartest way of doing things.

Similarly if you make staff document their work so you can move them to different jobs easily, train new staff, and use job descriptions to allocate HR efficiently, this is seen as madness in China… resisted by the staff themselves who don’t want to be replaceable, and if effective, resulting in IP that immediately gets stolen and carbon copied into hundreds of mini “copy-petitors”.

The challenge in China is finding ways to systematize that don’t utterly go against the grain of How We Chinese Do It Best.

By: How Chinese factory owners treat their workers

How Chinese factory owners treat their workers — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:31:03 +0000

[...] Dayton, who writes the excellent SRI blog, reported a conversation he had with several factory bosses. He described how some factory owners feel about their workers, [...]

By: Luca

Luca — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:52:57 +0000

Many of these problems can be solved with money. “Unfortunately”, China is much too expensive now to compete with other countries on low level items while at the same time allow the big boss to earn enough for another top class BMW. I completely disagree with your first conclusion that this time they were not whining about not making enough money. They definitely were, and it was clarified later on in the article. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if they themselves did not implement a rigorous system for bonuses and penalties, employee manual, work procedure manuals and so forth.
In addition, if the manager “don’t care” it’s definitely the fault of the Boss. The truth is, that previously these Bosses could simply swing it, and make a ton of money. Now they also have to be real managers and leaders, just like the rest of us.

By: Renaud

Renaud — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:43:11 +0000

This is a pretty good summary of all the issues the factories have to face, thanks.
Actually I do think QC standards were lower 15 years ago, when there was not so much competition and buyers were lining up to sit down at a booth and sign a P/O right away. Importers have a lot more choice–and experience–these days. Not an excuse, though. Manufacturers had time to adapt.