International CVs and working cultures

21 09 2009
CV

CV

Analyzing the format and style of CVs in different countries is one of the best ways to learn about different working cultures and to be able to work with culturally diverse teams.

Writing one’s CV in another language is not just a matter of translation, it is a complete adaptation of one’s expertise to the values and practices commonly accepted inside a certain culture.

I have worked in a number of countries and I have faced the challenge of writing my CV/resume in a number of languages. In this article I would like to compare American, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese working cultures by means of analyzing their CV styles. The only kind I have not written myself is the Japanese CV but I include it here because it very particular and interesting.

I will compare American resumes, not American CVs, which are equivalent to what is called CV in most other countries

Individualism Vs Collectivism

Western CVs (America, Germany, Spain, France) usually highlight individualistic values: competitive spirit, initiative, passion for personal challenges, critical thinking, ability to challenge ideas…

On the contrary collective values are much more important in China and, above all, in Japan:  zeal, obedience, devotion to the community, loyalty to the Company, social abilities…

Flexibility

Flexibility is especially important in China and Japan, where employment has traditionally been seen as a very long term relationship. During this time, the employee will have many functions in the company. General culture and reasoning abilities are more important than specific abilities in a certain work-line.

Achievements Vs Responsibilities

American resumes are achievement-oriented. You do not talk about what you were in charge of but about how well you did it. You try to market and sell yourself. American CVs are very commercial. Without lying, you can really turn a sand grain into a sand castle! However achievements must be objective and must be quantified whenever possible.

All the others are usually responsibility-oriented, which is more conservative. You usually explain your tasks rather than your accomplishments. Talking openly about accomplishments in Europe and Asia can be a kind of taboo. For this reason, CVs are much less commercial and more factual and formal. An American style resume in Japan or in Germany will probably sound too aggressive.

Verbs or Nouns

Bullet points in American resumes must start with action verbs (See examples), which are used to empathize the accomplishments. Bold the individual contribution and the result, which is the accomplishment, must be included. Each bullet point must emphasize one personal strength. Don’t forget that America society is very dynamic and action-oriented. You have to look dynamic to the recruiter.

On the other hand, Germans, French, Spaniards use nouns or nominal sentences in the bullet points because they need to list responsibilities.

Achievements are better told with verbs and responsibilities are better listed with nouns.

Chronological, Anti-chronological Vs Functional

Spanish and French CVs, as well as American resumes, are usually either anti-chronological or functional.

German CVs are mostly chronological for the sake of clarity. Germans are usually very organized and formal.

Japanese CVs are also usually chronological.

Length & Level of Detail

The shortest format is the American resume, which must be one page.  The longest is probably the German one, which may be several pages.

Americans are usually very precise and direct. This is what they expect to see in the resume. On the contrary, Germans are more minimalist and methodical and, as a result, expect much more details. German CVs even go to the primary school and include college marks, specializations and thesis topics.

French and Spanish CVs are somewhere in the middle. They are usually one page in length but two pages are OK if you have a lot of working experience.

Formality

German CVs are very formal and sober. The layout has to be conservative. Even in the digital age, German CVs are often send in paper and signed.

Flags

Flags

Candidate’s Personality

Personal data is not really important in the American CV (no photo, no nationality, no age, no family situation). All this information is omitted for the sake of avoiding discrimination. The candidate’s personality background is very important to recruiters but this information is contained in extracurriculars or hobbies.

On the contrary, personal information is key in Japanese CVs because Japanese really want to know how well a candidate fits in the organization. It is compulsory to write about birth dates and birth places, family history and include a photo. It is not strange either to find information about the candidate’s weight, size or visual acuity.

For the sake of accuracy and detail, German CVs also include a lot of personal data (photo, parents profession…).

Spanish and French CVs are in the middle between Germans and Americans: photo, marital status, family data etc. have been traditionally included but some people tend not do it anymore. But if you are not EU-citizen, don’t forget to mention it. It is relevant for work permits.

Education

Having studied in a top university (grande ecole) is of a paramount importance in a French CV. Similarly, a top university will be a very good point in an American resume. In French CVs and American resumes, only the highest degree is shown.

On the contrary, marks are more important to Spaniards and Germans than the ranking of the university . The concept of nation-wide university rankings is strange to Spaniards. Germans are more familiar with this concept but still value marks a lot because they are more tangible and detailed than the concept of university prestige.

Education is very important in Japan and China, comparatively much more important than in the West. Both Japanese and Chinese are eager to learn. Furthermore, work in Japan has been traditionally been considered for life, which makes education even more important. Japanese usually give a lot of details about their education experience.

Career Goals

French CVs include a line on the top to describe the career goals of the candidate. This can range from the position title the candidate is applying to to an statement about the long term. Career goals are very important for employers in America, Spain or Germany but it is usually preferred to talk about this in the cover letter or during the interview rather than on the CV. Western societies are relatively individualistic and this is why individual career goals are important.

On the contrary, Chinese and, above all, Japanese societies are much more collectivist. Recruiters are not interested in knowing about the employee’s career goals because those cultures assume the Company will decide about their professional evolution. The Company’s success is more important than the success of an individual.

Professional Experience

Americans are usually very practical and achievement oriented. For this reason, the American resume focuses more on professional experience than on education. This is also the case of Spain, France and Germany.

Japanese value education a lot and sometimes devote more space to it in the CV than to professional experience.

China is somewhere in the middle.

Extracurriculars & Hobbies

Extracurriculars are very important, especially for American, German and Japanese.

For Japanese recruiters, extracurriculars should show candidates are social community individuals. Candidates should not look competitive or caring about individual success.

Generally speaking, hobbies are less important than extracurriculars in all kinds of CVs. Probably Americans tend to include Hobbies more than the others, because it is very important for Americans to know about the candidate’s personality.

Attachments and recommendations

Cover letters are common in America, France and Germany.

In Japan, they whole recruiting system is based on recommendations, which are not necessarily written. If an application does not come through the network of contacts, it has no possibilities. The same is applicable to China to minor extent.

Germans also include a lot of attachments like school transcripts, diploma photocopies, job certifications and very detail reference details. Details is important to Germans. They do not just want to believe what the CV says. They also want to be able to verify and interpret themselves the contents of the CV. As a result German CVs are very factual.

Background Verification

It is common that prospective employers in America and China call the candidates former employer to verify data of the CV.

Image: I found the image of the CV on Trabajo y Economía and the one of the flags on faq.org.


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Categories : America, China, France, Germany, Spain

Chinese and Taiwanese students at Chicago Booth

6 09 2009
China and Taiwan direct flights are allowed since 2008

China and Taiwan direct flights are allowed since 2008

Last week we had our International Student Orientation in Chicago Booth, in which we had some presentations about American culture and multiculturalism. Something quite interesting when talking about cultures is to observe how people sit spontaneously in an event like that.

Most people on my table were from Greater China. Half of the people were from Taiwan and the other half were from Mainland China. I probably chose to sit there because of my three years living in China, which make me feel like part of China. But what is really interesting is why they chose to sit together.

These people are the generation whom the future of China and Taiwan belongs to, and they spontaneously choose to sit together on the same table. I think this shows that people from both sides of the Taiwan strait recognize each other as belonging to the same community.

When I was living in Mainland China I was asked several times, whether foreigners considered Taiwan was part of China or not. My oversimplified answer to this hypercomplex problem was that, for me, this is not the right question. For me, the right question is “Which country is China?”: Are we talking about the People’s Republic of China or about the Republic of China? Or are we talking about a community with thousands of years of history extended on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and all around the world through the Chinese diaspora? In fact, this third idea, with some important variations, is shared by both the Communist Party on the mainland and the Nationalist Party on the island. They just disagree on the definition of China.

The history of China is the succession of dynasties: establishment of a dynasty, prosperity, fall of the dynasty, chaos. The history of China is also the succession of periods of union and disunion. We are now in what we could call the Communist Dynasty (whose current emperor is Hu Jintao). But the Communist dynasty will fall someday -I do not know how-, exactly the same as the Qing, Min, Yuan, Song and other dynasties fell in the past. I believe the next dynasty will be something we could call the Democratic Dynasty. This dynasty will not be a western-like democracy but a Chinese style democracy, which will also have its own series of emperors. I believe the sooner the Democratic Dynasty arrives on the mainland, the sooner the mainland and the island will be back together.

People like those who sat together on table at Chicago Booth International Student Orientation, or maybe their children, will be in charge of carrying out this.

Note:

See my article about the values of Chinese people at work to imagine what a Chinese style democracy could look like.

Image: The image belongs to jaunted.com


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Categories : China, English

Tiananmen and beyond

3 09 2009
"Execution" by Yue Minjun, a painting which really remembers me of Tiananmen

"Execution" by Yue Minjun, a painting which really reminds me of Tiananmen

Speaking Mandarin allowed me to learn a lesson about peace in my home country, the land of the Basques.

While I was living in Hong Kong,  I spent 3 holidays in Beijing taking a 3-week intensive Mandarin training each time. In one of those Beijing courses, I met a teacher who wanted to know more about her country’s recent history. She asked me about the events of Tiananmen square in 1989. I was afraid to answer. As she insisted so much, I finally accepted. We discussed about the historical context China was living at that time and, eventually, about the events in the square. All she had heard before about the events in the square was just rumors. She wanted to know more.

On a later visit to Beijing, I brought my teacher a 3-minute documentary about those events, which I had downloaded from youtube in Hong Kong. When I showed it to her, she bursted in tears!

At that very moment, while she started to cry, a sudden flash about my own country came into my mind. Why is she crying? Why don’t people usually cry in the Basque Country when they watch news about terrorism in the television? Maybe because they do not know the victims personally? But my teacher does not know anybody who was in Tiananmen either! Why then?

My teacher cried because nowadays Beijing people are not used to violence. Unfortunately, many Basque people are so used to the problem of violence in the Basque Country that are no longer shocked when somebody is killed. The lesson I learnt that day is that peace in Basque Country can only be constructed when we stop seeing violence as something normal. And  my opinion is that this can only be achieved through multiculturalism and education.

Important note

The events of Tiananmen in 1989 and the Basque terrorist problem are events of very different scales, historical backgrounds and significance in geographical and political terms. Although in this article I have established a subjective connection between them, they are not connected to each other in any possible objetive way.

Another important point is that the emotional charge that my teacher experienced with that documentary was by far much higher than that experienced by watching news about terror attacks.

About the Figure

Yue Minjun 岳敏君 is my favourite Chinese painter. He always paints people laughing ironically, even at the most serious things. Unlike people portrayed in his paintings, Yue Minjun is not laughing at all; he is making constructive criticism about nowadays China.

Yue Minjun’s is representative of a contemporary Chinese style called “Cynical Realism“. Cynical Realist artists make a humorous and post-ironic kind of art and provide a “realist perspective and interpretation of the transition that Chinese society has been through, from the advent of Communism to today’s industrialization and modernization”.

Yue Minjun’s “Execution” (above figure), which is clearly inspired in the events of Tiananmen, became the most expensive art work ever by a Chinese contemporary artist, when in 2007 it was sold for the equivalent of  US $ 5.9 million at Sotheby’s in London.


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Categories : China, Spain

Cultural Shock

13 08 2009
Sock Sign

Sock Sign

Those who saw me frightened running away from Chinatown in New York could have never imagined I would speak fair mandarin seven years later.

I visited New York when I was 21 on a stop-over on my way back to Spain after a summer job in Denali National Park (Alaska). As soon as I stepped into Chinatown, I got so absorbed looking at the exotic kinds of fish on the street market, that I did not realizeI was going deeper into a new world. Suddenly I lifted my eyes and found myself surrounded by a crowd of people with unfamiliar facial features, bargaining in a musically strange language. I panicked so much that I literally ran away into Little Italy where I could finally fell protected.

That day in Chinatown I learnt that fear of the unknown is one of the reasons for narrow-mindedness. That day in Chinatown, I was narrow-minded.

This story was constantly on my mind when, years later, I worked in China. In one of my frequent travels across Asia, I visited a vendor in Shanghai to know more about a software application. When I founded myself in a meeting room with a dozen people speaking mandarin I felt a bit troubled, but this time I had learnt the lesson. There was nothing to be afraid of.  Those faces were no longer unfamiliar. That language was no longer strange but musically delighting. I put into practice my four years of mandarin lessons and my local colleagues helped to understand the difficult parts of the conversation. The meeting was a success.

Cultural shocks are something that happens to everybody. The important thing is to learn from them.

Image: the shock sign was found on the web page of the North Carolina Industrial Commission.


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Categories : China, English, General, Society

China Telecommunications Panorama

12 08 2009
Image from Casa Asia

Image from Casa Asia

This article, which I wrote in 2004 and updated in 2006, describes in a simpel and accurate way the telecommunications market in China. The current situation is a bit different regarding the Internet market and the “Xiaolingtong” services, which has practically disappeared, but the regulatory environment has not changed significantly. The Spanish version of this article was published on Casa Asia.

Abstract

This paper gives an overview on the telecom industry in China including Hong Kong, the British ex-colony.
China became in 2002 the world’s single largest telecom market. Understanding the complex and multifaceted internal mechanisms of the fast-changing and extremely competitive Chinese telecom scenario is essential for a foreign investor to succeed.

The former public monopoly has given way to an initial state-run competition: China Telecom and China Netcom in the fixed-line business, China Mobile and China Unicom in the mobile sector, as well as two minor players, China Satcom and China Railcom.

As a result of China’s entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, a new regulatory regime is being established and foreign operators are gradually allowed to access the market.

After the last explosive-growth years, the main market trend is the stabilization of the growth rate.

1. INTRODUCTION

The Chinese telecommunication sector’s growth rate was about 20% between 1997 and 2002. This is the double of China’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) rate [1] and is the strongest and fastest growth in world in this line of industry [2].

China fixed-line and mobile operators have invested an average of 25 billion American dollars [1] on network infrastructure in the last years, more than all western European carriers together [3]. As a result, with 1.3 billion citizens, China owns the world’s largest fixed-line and mobile network in terms of both network capacity and number of subscribers [4].

Only one out of ten Chinese citizens had a phone five years ago. Today more than one out of three have a fixed telephone subscription and more than 1.25 million cellular subscribers sign up in China every week. In five years, there will be more than 950 million fixed and mobile subscriptions, three times more than the entire population of the United States (US) [3].

China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11th 2001 resulted in the gradual opening of the telecom services market to foreign companies. Besides, Beijing’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games and Shanghai’s 2010 Universal Exposition will create great business opportunities for both Chinese and foreign companies [4].

2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Before 1994, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MTP) provided telecom services through its operational arm, China Telecom. Pressured by other ministries and dissenting customers, the Chinese government officially started the telecom industry reforms in 1994 by introducing a new competitor: China Unicom. However China Unicom could hardly compete with the giant China Telecom [5].

In 1998, due to a ministerial reorganization, the MTP was replaced by the new Ministry of Information Industry (MII). The MII took two large scale reshuffling actions targeting the inefficient state-monopoly. In 1999 the first restructuring split China Telecom’s business into three parts (fixed-line, mobile and satellite). China Mobile and China Satcom were created to run, respectively, the mobile and satellite sectors but China Telecom continued to be a monopoly of fixed-line services. The second restructuring in 2002 split China Telecom geographically into North and South: China Telecom – North kept 30% of the network resources and formed China Netcom (CNC) and 70 % of the resources were retained by China Telecom – South or simply the new China Telecom [5].

These resources consisted of a 2.200.000 km. long [6] nation-wide optical network, based on ATM  (AsynchronousTransfer Mode), SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) and DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex) technologies, [3] and several submarine cables, in particular with the US,  Japan, Germany and Russia.

Parallel to this double fission, the telecommunications division of the Ministry of Railways (MOR) established a new actor in 2000: China Railcom [1].

To sum up, in the last decade the Chinese telecom industry has changed from a state-run monopolistic structure to state-run “oligopolistic” structure.

3. REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT

The MII is responsible, among other duties, for elaborating regulations, allocating resources, granting licenses, supervising the competition, promoting  Research & Development (R&D) and service quality as well as of developing tariff rates [4] [7].  The MII has built up a nation-wide regulatory system composed of Provincial Telecommunications Administrations (PTA) with regulatory functions within their respective provinces. A number of other significant institutions also influence China’s telecom picture such as the State Development and Reform Commission (SDRC) [4].

Following its WTO accession, China is accelerating the establishment of a legal framework for the telecom industry. This framework includes adopting a western-style Telecommunication Law and setting up an independent regulatory and arbitration body to deal with the telecom operators [2]. None of these objectives have been yet truly accomplished:

On the one hand, Telecommunication regulations are still in an infant state. The Telecommunication Law is still expected to appear although the government promulgated the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Telecommunications Regulations in 2000 and the Regulations on Foreign Investment in Telecom Enterprises (See next section) in 2001[4].

On the other hand, given the close relation between the MII and the state-owned Chinese telecom companies, the MII is far from being a truly independent telecom regulator. As an example, most senior executives of the Chinese telecom companies have links to the MII, the Government or the Party.

Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : China, Economics, English, Hong Kong

La mujer oriental y la mujer occidental

12 08 2009
Gene Tierney as Victoria Charteris in Josef Von Sternberg’s The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

Gene Tierney as Victoria Charteris in Josef Von Sternberg’s The Shanghai Gesture (1941)

En general y partiendo del hecho de que todas las generalizaciones son falsas, creo que las mujeres piensan de manera muy diferente en Oriente y Occidente.

La mujer occidental busca independencia, entre otras muchísimas cosas que son también muy importantes, mientras que la mujer oriental otorga una gran prioridad a la búsqueda de la seguridad, la cual en ocasiones puede conseguirse mediante la dependencia de alguien.

Tanto Aristóteles en Occidente como Confucio en Oriente creían en un modelo de mujer subordinada al hombre . El movimiento feminista, junto con diversos fenómenos económicos, han creado una sociedad más igualitaria en cuestión de sexos. Sin embargo este cambio en Oriente se está produciendo con poco de retraso con respecto a Occidente. Hay diversos factores económicos y culturales para explicar este retraso.

¿Evolucionará la mujer oriental hacia los niveles de emancipación femenina que son normales hoy en día en Occidente? Eso no lo sé. Pero lo que si sé es que la filosofía de Confucio esta mucho más presente en la vida diaria de los orientales que la de Aristóteles en la de los occidentales.

Como este es un tema polémico, del que es fácil salir malparado, lo voy a dejar aquí…


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Categories : China, General, Society, Spain

La gestión de los pasaportes en los consulados españoles en China

11 08 2009
Pasaporte español

Pasaporte español

Muchos son los obstáculos que sufre la comunidad española en China. Este artículo pretende hacer una crítica constructiva sobre uno de esos obstáculos: la gestión de los pasaportes en los consulados de España.

España tiene tres consulados en China: Shanghai, cuyo distrito consular abarca unas pocas provincias cercanas a esta ciudad; Hong Kong, que abarca Hong Kong y Macau; y Pekín con jurisdicción sobre el resto del país (4.000 km de Este a Oeste y 3.000 de Norte a Sur).

Este organización, que está determinada en gran medida por el gobierno chino, es muy poco práctica para los españoles que vivimos en la provincia de Guangdong (Cantón), que está a las puertas de Hong Kong pero depende del consulado de  Pekín. Guangdong, que contiene a la tercera metrópolis de la China continental, es posiblemente el mayor polo industrial del mundo, donde se fabrican desde juguetes y productos textiles hasta ordenadores y móviles. Me atrevería a afirmar que todos los españoles tenemos en casa algún producto fabricado en Guangdong. En Guangdong hay muchos españoles y cada vez somos más.

El problema es el siguiente: Por ejemplo, yo resido en Shenzhen, ciudad china fronteriza con Hong Kong. Por motivos tanto de trabajo como personales debo cruzar la frontera 4 ó 6 veces por semana. Cada ida y vuelta son 5 sellos en el pasaporte. Consecuentemente, cada  3 ó 4 meses mi pasaporte ya no tiene páginas libres y tengo que renovarlo.

Con arreglo a la jurisdicción española y presionado por el gobierno chino, el consulado de España en Hong Kong, que sólo dista 1 hora en metro de mi casa, no tiene potestad para renovar mi pasaporte puesto que no tengo permiso de residencia en esa ciudad sino en Shenzhen. Así que debo acudir al consulado de Pekín, que se encuentra a más de 3.000 km. Alternativamente, también puedo renovarlo en España.

Esta paradoja, que es consecuencia directa de la fórmula “un país, dos sistemas”, supone un inconveniente importante para algunos ciudadanos españoles que viven en Guangdong y para hombres de negocios españoles que visitan la famosísima Feria de Cantón y que desgraciadamente les roban o pierden el pasaporte (lo cual no es raro). Pero lo peor de la situación es que nos hace sentir a los españoles en Guangdong un tanto incomprendidos y, hasta cierto punto, desamparados.

Otros países occidentales tienen soluciones para este tipo de problema:

  • El Reino Unido y Australia han previsto un tipo especial de pasaportes con más páginas.
  • Francia, el Reino Unido y EEUU contemplan proporcionar varios pasaportes simultáneos a un mismo ciudadano en casos justificados.
  • Francia envía comitivas a ciudades importantes chinas un día al mes para prestar servicios consulares.
  • El Reino Unido contempla la solicitud o entrega del pasaporte por correo seguro en determinados casos.
  • Finalmente, la mayoría de los países occidentales tienen consulado en Guangzhou (Cantón), ciudad en donde España proyecta desde hace años abrir uno, pero no hay fecha definida para su apertura.

En el consulado de Hong Kong me han atendido siempre muy bien. Me aconsejaron escribir una carta al Ministerio de Exteriores y de Cooperación para informarles de esta situación y así lo hice. También fui invitado por el cónsul de España en Hong Kong, don Juan Luis Flores Arroyuelo, para discutir sobre este tema, quien me recibió muy cordialmente.

Finalmente, quisiera explicar un truco que yo he encontrado para amortiguar este problema. El Departamento de Inmigración de Hong Kong vende unas libretitas que se llaman Hong Kong Travel Pass por unos 500 HKD (aproximadamente 50 Euros). Con el Travel Pass, los tampones de las autoridades de Hong Kong se estampan en esta libretita en vez de en el pasaporte. De esta manera cada ida y vuelta entre Hong Kong y China sólo supone 2 tampones en el pasaporte, que son los de la autoridades chinas. Con este truco, el pasaporte dura 2 veces y media más, lo cual pueden ser unos 9 meses, es decir dos veces y media menos gastos en viajes a Pekín o a España.


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Categories : China, Hong Kong, Politics, Spain, Spanish

Panorama de las Telecomunicaciones en China

8 08 2009
chinabinary

Imagen tomada de Casa Asia

Este artículo, que escribí en 2006, describe de una manera sencilla y precisa el mercado de las telecomunicaciones en China. La situación actual es un poco diferente en lo que refiere al mundo de Internet y al servicio “Xiaolingtong”, que prácticamente ha desaparecido, pero pocos cambios regulatorios han ocurrido desde 2006. EL artículo fue publicado en Casa Asia

RESUMEN

Este artículo ofrece una visión general sobre la industria de las telecomunicaciones en China y en la ex-colonia británica de Hong Kong.

China se convirtió en 2002 en el mayor mercado de telecomunicaciones del mundo. Comprender la compleja y polifacética mecánica interna del cambiante y extremadamente competitivo escenario chino de las telecomunicaciones es esencial para un inversor extranjero en China.

El antiguo monopolio del Estado ha dado paso a una oligarquía controlada por el propio Estado: China Telecom y China Netcom en el negocio de la línea fija, China Mobile y China Unicom en el sector móvil, así como dos actores secundarios, China Satcom y China Railcom.

A raíz de la entrada de China en la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) en 2001, un nuevo régimen regulatorio está naciendo y comienza a permitirse gradualmente el acceso al mercado chino a los operadores internacionales.

Tras los últimos años de crecimiento explosivo, la tendencia del mercado en 2006 es la estabilización de las tasas de crecimiento.

1. INTRODUCCIÓN

La tasa de crecimiento del sector chino de las telecomunicaciones fue aproximadamente del 20% entre 1997 y 2002. Esta tasa dobla el Producto Interior Bruto (PIB) del país [1] y representa el crecimiento más rápido y fuerte a nivel mundial en este tipo de industria [2].

Los operadores chinos móviles y de línea fija han invertido una media de 25 mil millones de dólares americanos [1] en infraestructura de red en los últimos años, es decir, más que el conjunto de todos los operadores juntos en Europa occidental [3]. En consecuencia, con 1300 millones de habitantes, China posee la mayor red móvil y fija del mundo tanto en términos de capacidad de red como en número de abonados [4].

Sólo uno de cada diez ciudadanos chinos tenía teléfono hace cinco años; ahora, uno de cada tres está abonado a un número fijo y 1.25 millones de clientes se abonan al móvil cada semana. Dentro de cinco años, en China habrá entre fijo y móvil más de 1000 millones de abonados, es decir, más de tres veces la población entera de los Estados Unidos (EEUU) [3].

La entrada de China en la Organización Mundial del Comercio (OMC) el 11 de diciembre de 2001 ha dado como resultado la apertura gradual del mercado de los servicios de telecomunicación a las compañías extranjeras. Por otra parte, los Juegos Olímpicos de 2008 en Pekín crearán enormes posibilidades de negocio tanto para las empresas chinas como para las extranjeras [4].

2. MARCO HISTÓRICO

Hasta 1994, el Ministerio de Correos y Telecomunicaciones (MTP) proporcionaba servicios de telecomunicaciones por medio de su brazo operacional, China Telecom. Presionado por otros ministerios y por el descontento de los clientes, el gobierno chino emprendió la reforma de la industria de las telecomunicaciones en 1994 introduciendo un nuevo competidor: China Unicom. Sin embargo China Unicom era demasiado débil para competir con el gigante China Telecom [5].

En 1998, debido a una reorganización ministerial, el MTP fue reemplazado por el nuevo Ministerio de la Industria de la Información (MII). El MII realizó dos reorganizaciones a gran escala sobre el ineficaz monopolio del Estado. En 1999, la primera reestructuración dividió el sector de actividad de China Telecom en tres partes (fijo, móvil y satélite). China Mobile y China Satcom fueron creadas para explotar, respectivamente, los sectores móvil y satélite; pero China Telecom siguió siendo un monopolio de servicios de línea fija. La segunda reestructuración, en 2002, dividió China Telecom geográficamente en Norte y Sur. China Telecom – Norte conservó el 30% de los recursos de red y formó China Netcom (CNC). El 70 % lo mantuvo China Telecom – Sur o simplemente la nueva China Telecom [5].

Estos recursos consistían en una red óptica nacional de 2.200.000 km. de extensión [6] basada en las tecnologías ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) y DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplex) [3] y varios enlaces submarinos, especialmente con Estados Unidos, Japón, Alemania y Rusia.

Paralelamente a esta doble fisión, la división de telecomunicaciones del Ministerio de Ferrocarriles (MOR) estableció un nuevo actor en 2000: China Railcom [1].

De este modo, en los últimos 10 años la industria china de las telecomunicaciones ha pasado de ser un monopolio del Estado a una estructura “oligopolística” controlada por el propio Estado.

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Is China ready for Democracy?

4 08 2009
Liberty guiding people

"Liberty guiding the people" by Delacroix

This article is very personal and I just want to explain how my personal opinion about this has evolved during my time in China

When I first arrived to China in 2006, I experienced the mindset differences between Hong Kong and the mainland. Generally speaking, Hong Kong people are very considerate with each other, care about community problems and are engaged to resolved them. My impression at that time was that the mainland was far behind Hong Kong on these issues. A five minute walk in Beijing is enough to realize that Chinese people have embraced individualism: traffic is anarchic, some people throw rubbish from the 20th floor, pollution is extremely severe, somebody could even die on a crowded street without people even looking at. (I am of course making an exaggerated caricature of China, which is not intended to offend anybody). At that time, I had the impression that Chinese people do no care much about each other, in comparison with Hong Kong or European people. And democracy is just about caring about the community, nothing else. So, at that time I though that China still needed to continue evolving quite a lot before reaching a level of social awareness that makes democracy possible.

But then something happened that made me change completely my image of China, something that made me very proud of my Chinese co-citizens, something that made me realize the depth of the social changes in China. In 2007, a massive case of child slavery in Chinese factories was discovered. Some years before nobody would have cared much about that. But this time there was a strong public opinion, saying very clearly that that was wrong, showing that Chinese people cared about those children. A public opinion that says what is right and what is wrong is a necessary condition for democracy. It is not possible to have democracy without a social aware public opinion. And that day, for the first time in modern history, China showed the world that it does have an spontaneously driven public opinion.

But this was not just an isolated happening: On March 12th 2008, an earthquake in Sichuan province took 68.000 lives. And the reaction of China, as a society, was exemplar. My colleagues in Shenzhen organized a donation campaign. I saw people donating as much as one month’s full salary! People rushed to the supermarkets to buy Sichuan products! Everybody talked about donating money… This was the first time in Chinese history that such a huge wave of solidarity happened. In 1976 there was an even more destructive earthquake than this but nobody really do much to help victims. This made me even more proud of being, in a certain way, part of China.

I do not mean at all that Chinese society has traditionally been individualist and that it is changing now due to the western influence. Quite the contrary, China has traditional being a very supportive society (Confucian thinking praises solidarity) but this social awareness was neutralized as a result of passing from being poor to be reach in only 30 years, and now those traditional Chinese civic values are coming back, first in the big cities, and later in the country side.

Is China ready for Democracy? My opinion is that many people in big cities are. China is running at a vertiginous speed toward a social awareness that will eventually enable democracy. But due to the size and complexity of the country, it needs just some time. I hope we will see political reforms in the needs decades.

For my impressions about Hong Kong democracy, see: Good Morning Hong Kong Democracy I and II.

Image: “Liberty guiding the people” by Delacroix


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Expatriates in China: expectations Vs experience

20 07 2009

Experimento de OerstedI have recently published:

These two letters are part of a psychological experiment. I would make a comparison between the two letters in order to make some conclusion about the expectations of those who come to China and their experience when they depart. This is an interesting experiment because it was not intended to do like this when I wrote the letters.

Topics of letter N1. (before China in 2006)

  • China as an exotic country
  • China as an ultra-modern country
  • China as a huge country
  • China as a an impressive culture
  • China as a fast changing country

Topics of letter N2. (after China in 2009)

  • China deep in my heart
  • Unforgettable experience in China
  • Now more familiar with China culture
  • China helped me to challenge my own assumptions

Interpretation of the topics

The letter I wrote before coming to China reflects most of the stereotypes foreigners have about China. This means that at that time (2006), I did not really know China very well. I do think that, like me, most expatriates make the mistkae to identify China with the image of it that we get in the media. By the way, one of the stereotypes that was not in my email was “China as an evil dictatorship”. This topic deserves another post that I will try to write in the future. (But I have some posts about democracy in Hong Kong: post 1, post 2)

The letter I wrote after coming to China does not have any stereotype at all. The theme of the letter is that China helped me to see things from a very different point of view and now I am familiar with that, feel China deep in my heart and care about it. This was my experience and many colleagues agree with me. I think this is probably also the experience of most expatriates.

Result of the experiment

Expatriates expectations about China are mainly related to stereotypes; expatriates experience is more connected to personal development.

Image: This image of Oersed’s belongs to the Universidad de Oviedo


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Expectations before arriving to China

19 07 2009

The other day I published the farewell email I sent to my colleagues in China. After publishing that, I read again my farewell email from France, which I wrote to my colleagues in France before coming to Asia. (You will notice that farewell emails is a genre I particularly cherish because I think that the last impression is the most important one and most times is not the last but the “second last” time)

While my farewell email from Asia focused on my experience in China, the farewell from France focused on my expectations about China. Later in another post I will make a comparison between the two letters and, above all, between the expectations of those who come to China and their experience when they depart.  This will be just an psychological exercise.

France and ChinaAu revoir L’Europe

… comme disait Herbert Groenemaier, “les jours étaient comptés et il n’en reste aucun”. Quelques-uns en restent mais mon étape parisienne est en train de s’éteindre comme celle en Allemagne s’était épuisée auparavant.

A partir du mois de Mai, le destin m’amène au “Port Parfumé”, à l’extrême Est de la route de l’opium, à l’ancien bijou de la couronne Britannique, au Hub commercial et financier le plus libéral du monde, à la ville la plus cosmopolite de l’Asie, à celle qui était la seule porte de la Chine jusqu’à 1978 … A Hong Kong, je serai chargé de l’évolution de l’architecture informatique dans toute la zone Asie-Pacifique (Chine, Japon, Corée, Thaïlande, Nouvelle Zélande et Australie) chez un important groupe Français.

Je ne peux ni rater la métamorphose de la Chine, ni reporter encore plus longtemps la conquête du pays-continent qui commence sur l’île de Hong Kong. Rien ne m’avait jamais fait sentir aussi humble que la culture imposante de ce pays infini. La dernière fois que j’ai été en Chine, je suis parti en larmes ; maintenant je rentre pour y rester.

Mon expérience à France Télécom R&D a été très positive : dès mes premiers pas en tant que stagiaire jusqu’à la création du projet coopératif [...] avec l’Union Européenne en passant par le projet [...] et notamment par les expérimentations à [...]. Je suis très heureux d’avoir travaillé avec vous et je souhaiterais que nos chemins se croisent un jour prochain.

Vagabond de patrie en patrie, je ne m’enfuis de personne mais je me cherche moi-même. Très bientôt à Hong Kong, les jours commenceront à être comptés encore une fois mais le moment arrivera ou il n’en restera aucun et le vent me soufflera ailleurs.

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Good Morning Hong Kong democracy! (II)

17 07 2009

Following my post in French about democracy in Hong Kong , I would like to add a video of Anson Chan, a pro-democracy leader in Hong Kong. I met her once in Hong Kong when she was running for the Legislative Council in 2007. I got deeply impressed by her humility and by her smile, which make people feel very close to her. This is something that many politicians fail to do. I agree up to a very large extent to her vision of Hong Kong.


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Farewell from China

14 07 2009

Very very soon I will be quitting Asia, in General, and China, in particular. I am going on some holidays before finally arriving in Chicago.

I would like to publish the farewell email I sent to my colleagues because It shows very well – I think – what my experience in Asia meant to me and some of the things I learnt here.

I think most foreigners that, like me, have  had the chance to live in Asia or China love it and we will never forget it. And many of us will come back.

Farewell – 告别

Asia from Irkutsk

…As the German singer Herbert Grönemeyer used to say, “the days were counted and none of them is left”…

…一个德国诗人和歌唱家 Herbert Grönemeyer 经常这样说过：”命运数算着我的日子,但日子现已所余无几了”…

I used to dream of Asia when I was in Europe. Now I do not know anymore whether I am a European who dreams of Asia or an Asian who dreams of Europe. During my dreams in Asia, the breeze of the Pacific has been blowing onto my face in front of Victoria Harbor, along Shennan Road, in the Bund or on the top of Tokyo Tower. Now that wind is blowing me away across the airs of the Pacific Ocean.

我在欧洲的时候经常梦想亚洲。现在我不知道我是一个梦想亚洲的欧洲人还是一个梦想欧洲的亚洲人。这些年在亚洲，我在维多利亚港的时候，在深南中路的时候，在上海的外滩或者在东京塔的最高一曾的时候，太平洋的微一直轻拂我的脸。现在这微风将带我去太平洋的另外一岸。

On August 9th, that inspiring tornado will drop me onto the American continent, where I will start a new dream, a new adventure: an MBA (Master of Business Administration) at the University of Chicago. I will major in General Management and Finance, and will focus on emerging economies like China, but also like India or Brazil. My studies will last for two years and will be fully sponsored by a renowned scholarship of a Spanish bank called La Caixa.

8月9日，微风将带我到芝加哥大学，在那里我会留学两年学习一个MBA（国际工商管理硕士)。我的专业是管理和金融。我会特别学习发展中国家，其中不仅有中国还有印度或巴西。一间西班牙银行的一个很有名的奖学金会付我的学费。

My time in [company name] has been one of the best periods of my life. [company name] has given me the opportunity to lead two amazing projects in a part of the world where I was a stranger but I am not anymore. Each one of you has given me the opportunity to learn new things, to see business and life from very different points of view, and to challenge my own assumptions. It has been wonderful to work with you. I do not know exactly how my life will be after my studies. But, for sure, I would be delighted if my way crosses again in the future with yours or with that of [company name].

我在［公司的名字］的经验是我的生命最好的时期之一。威立雅给我在我不太熟思的一个地去管理两个项目的机会，可是现在我熟思比较好。你们每一个人都给我学到新的东西的机会，从另外一个角度了解商业和生活的机会，挑战我自己的看法的机会。同你们一起工作真精彩。我还不知道我毕业以后我的生活怎么样。但是如果我的未来和你们的或者［公司的名字］的还有合作的话，我一定非常高兴。

On August 9th, my days start to be counted again in Chicago. But at some point, none of them will be left and the wind will blow me somewhere else…

8月9日在芝加哥，我的天再开始计算。但是日子都过了的时候，风会把我去另外一个地方...

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Good morning Hong Kong democracy!

10 07 2009

Now, that I am leaving Hong Kong and China I would like to publish an article of mine about Democracy in Hong Kong that I wrote in 2004 when I first came to Hong Kong. Five years later, I do not exactly think in the same way. But that will be the topic of a future post.

Hong Kong democracy march 2007

Good Morning Hong Kong Democracy

Le premier juillet 1997 il pleuvait sans cesse sur Hong Kong. Quand les ciels se sont ouverts la “Union Jack” n’ondoyait plus au vent de l’Extrême Orient. On avait perdu pour toujours le bijou de la couronne britannique et il y en avait beaucoup qui pleuraient amèrement.

Septe ans se sont passés et plus de choses que la météo ont changé.

Hong Kong a été cédée en 1842 à la Grande Bretagne par l’empereur chinois à la suite
pendant 150 ans la colonie a été gouverné depuis Londres avec censure de presse et interdiction de se manifester.

Quand les tentatives de Margaret Thatcher pour prolonger la cession ont échoués (1984), et surtout à la suite du massacre des manifestants pro démocratie à la place de Tienanmen à Pékin (1989), Chris Patten, le dernier gouverneur britannique à Hong Kong a promulgué en 1990 une mini constitution, appelée “The Basic Law”, qui avait été approuvée par le gouvernement Chinois. D’autres reformes successives, qui ne sont pas reconnues par la Chine, ont permis aux Hongkongais d’élire ses représentants en 1995 pour la premier fois.

Pékin s’est engagé en 1984 à conserver le régime de Hong Kong sur l’accroche “un pays, deux systèmes” pendant 50 ans après le retour de la colonie à la Mère Patrie. L’ancienne colonie est devenue l’actuelle Région Administrative Spécial de Hong Kong (HKSAR). Tung Chi Hua a été désigné gouverneur par le régime de Pékin en 1997. Tung, qui est considéré une marionnette de Pékin, est un multimillionnaire qui représente la fusion entre le colonialisme britannique et la bureaucratie pékinoise. Le model que Tung veut mettre en application à Hong Kong est le micro état de Singapour: un capitalisme sauvage contrôlé par une dictature de fer.

Récemment le gouvernement chinois a interdis aux Hongkongais le droit à élire le successeur de Tung en 2007 et le nouveau “Conseil Législatif” en 2008. Par ailleurs plusieurs activistes pro démocratie et pro droits de l’homme Hongkongais ont été arrêtés, emprisonnés et torturés.

Pour ces raisons, un demi million de citoyens de Hong Kong ont manifestés le jour du septième anniversaire (1er juillet 2004) du retour de Hong Kong à la souveraineté chinoise, dans une massive et passionné marche pour la démocratie et contre l’autoritarisme de Pékin. Pékin croyais que les Hongkongais ne protesteraient pas si on les permettais conserver ses “privilèges” économiques. Les Hongkongais viennent de démontrer que leur liberté n’est pas à vendre.

Tung et ses successeurs (quels qu’ils soient) doivent affronter un terrible dilemme entre la prospérité économique et les limitations des droits politiques: D’un coté les limitations politiques ont des conséquences indéniables sur la confiance des agents économiques étrangers. D’un autre coté si on permet une certaine démocratie à Hong Kong beaucoup du monde en Chine continental commenceront à se poser la question: ”Pourquoi Pékin respecte les souhaites de liberté de Hong Kong mais pas les notres?”

Le future de la démocratie en Chine continental dépend dans une grande mesure de la façon avec laquelle les citoyens de Hong Kong sauront imposer ses libertés à Pékin.

Image: Hong Kong democracy march in 2004. I got the image on bbc.co.uk


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Indirect communication and indirect leadership in Asia

24 06 2009

indirectOne of my most challenging cross-cultural experience was defining a global Information Technology  (IT) plan for all subsidiaries of my company in Asia-Pacific.  There was a large number of Joint Ventures, half of them in China, and all of them used to have independent IT plans.

My assumptions about Chinese people were based on my interactions with very internationalized Chinese friends in Europe. I had heard about the differences between Chinese and Western communication. I knew I had to communicate indirectly with Chinese people. But until I arrived here and experienced it on the real world, I did not really know how to do it.

During six months, I visited subsidiaries across Asia and interviewed local staff from different departments about their software applications. I was interested in their problems, needs and plans. I had prepared very specific questions and imagined they would be happy to talk about this, as it would have been the case in France.

Unfortunately, apart from technical software specifications, I got little information at the beginning of these travels. I found problems conducting the interviews. I was using a translator and the atmosphere was very cold. There were very long gaps after questions, translations and answers. Moreover, answers were short and vague. accounting for differences between Asian cultures, this is the way they were responding to me, regardless of where I was.

I had this frustrating experience in four plants before I arrived to a subsidiary where the General Manager was a Chinese who spoke French. I told her about my interviewing problems and her advice was: “Start with some small talk. Then, make open-ended questions and get very slowly into the details”.

In that subsidiary, where the local Management supported me, my interviewees were much more engaged than in other places. This made me realize that many interviewees were passive because they were afraid of getting in trouble by saying something the Joint Venture management would have preferred to hide.

This General Manager’s advice worked very well. I asked an HR officer in that subsidiary what he would do if a new staff arrived. This was an indirect question. I could have asked how the employee arrival procedure was implemented in the IT systems. He answered he had to create accounts in Systems A and B, which were not interconnected. By using follow-up questions, I found out that both systems did not exchange any data and he had to synchronize this systems manually after every staff-related data change. He spent around three hours a week doing this.

After that subsidiary, I confirmed in other subsidiaries in China, Korea and Thailand that the incompatibilities between system A and system B were resulting in a lot of extra work for local staff. Back to the headquarters of the company, I informed the Directors of Department A (the headquarter department managing System A) and Department B (the headquarter department managing System B) about this.

Director A and Director B both came from Greater China. They both spoke English but were not really westernized. They blamed each other for the issue. I tried to arrange a meeting with them but they did not want to work together. I could never get them in the same room. I made many proposals, like for example sharing a common database, but they refused them with a harsh tone highlighting the disadvantages. They did not want to be told what to do by a new employee like me. An answer I heard from both directors was that her system could exchange information but the other one could not because the other department was more concerned about its own interests.

I did not know how to handle the situation. I was totally disoriented. Then, I got an interesting feedback, which reminded me of the French-speaking Chinese General Manager. One senior colleague told me: ‘Lead them indirectly, in such a way they feel they are still in charge”.

I guided them separately to brainstorm about possible solutions focusing on the pros and cons. Then, I shared the solutions with them. I avoided digging in their personality conflict.

I knew Director B did not consider this issue as a priority. I explained to her why that was a problem for her. I told her I met some local staff, who were reluctant to use her system because it was not compatible with System A. I explained how the information of System A was useful for her. Then, she proposed sharing data automatically. However, when I presented this idea Department A, Director A argued this would involve confidentiality risks. This answer was final and blocking. During the following month, nobody talked about the issue.

I had studied how those risks could be managed but could not tell Director A directly because I knew she would react defensively. Instead of telling her, I asked her how to avoid them and she proposed controlling this sharing manually. Then, I told Director B about that and she did not object. I drafted a preliminary project definition and discussed it with them. This way, I reached a consensus to launch a project to connect both systems by a manual data interface.

Thanks to this experience, I improved my indirect communication ability with Chinese people. I learnt practical skills to ask questions and get feedback indirectly. I also learnt I had to understand people’s feelings, fears and agendas so that my interlocutor does not feel embarrassed, uneasy or annoyed. My interviewees in the subsidiaries were afraid of getting in trouble. Communicating indirectly reassured them. That is why I had to be indirect too.

The second thing I learnt is that effective leadership does not necessarily mean other people recognize you as a leader. This is another aspect of indirect communication. Leadership is about getting people to work together for a higher purpose. Sometimes, you need to guide people subtly so that they find their own reasons to give you what you need, as I did with Directors A and Director B.

I discovered this communication and leadership style in China. Obviously it also exists in the Europe and in the USA. It just depends on people’s personalities and personality depends on much more aspects that cross-cultural or international factor.

Image: I found the picture on copyblogger


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