- Elle Zhang, MBA candidate at San Francisco State University. Below is my latest post at www.spicyspirit.com/blog
Today I found another good reason for coming to U.S. for theMBA.
The amazing thing that I’ve found out about America(probably should limit to the bicoastal cities) is the people’s willingness tonetwork and interact with others. Many well-established entrepreneurs, high-profilemanagers are quite accessible for junior people who are looking for theirmentoring.
Even though Beijing accommodates diverse cultures and peopleare very open-minded nowadays, I haven’t experienced the same level ofaccessibility when I actively sought to upgrade my network to a higher level.
A simple explanation of “people are nicer here in the U.S.” isfar from enough. I’d like to describe a little more of my experience and try toexplain why there is a difference.
I remember seeing a graph (see attachment) depicting the different network patternsof Chinese and Westerners when I had my first job in Ogilvy Advertising. It tried to say that in China, doing businessis all about building connections which is “Guan Xi” in Mandarin. Not just about government jobs, almosteverywhere in the society, you can climb the ladder much faster than others ifyou have an uncle who knows your boss or your boss’ bosses. Because of that, people are often seeking helpfrom relatives or friends to find a job or sign off a deal. On the contrast,westerners are playing less of the Guan XI games and the political and businesssystems are showing a larger extension of fairness.
While I’m now looking at the graph again, I totally disagreewith it. I think the labels should be switched. In America, people value network a lot andparents or teachers are constantly telling kids to build up a strong networkingskills to help their career. The difference is that when you are in the U.S.,it’s so much easier for you to reach out and ask good people out for a chat.Even though it still requires extra braveness, more likely than not, you will getthe chance to meet the person. While in China, you don’t approach ahigh-profile CEO or an adorable alumnus by calling or emailing him. In mostcases, your requests are rejected by his secretary or simply ignored for good.In fact, after I left Ogilvy, my Cantonese bosses don’t even bother to reply myemails. Oh well, I may have done something really bad but I won’t know until theyare willing to tell me…
I think one reason is that U.S. has a higher level ofgeneral trust among people because this is a wealthier and more civilized country.The other is Asian culture’s emphasis on family bonding and low level of individualism.Lastly, the traditional value of social-status division is still strongly embeddedin people’s mind. So neither a government official nor a business executive willbother to meet someone that he/she has never known.
Now I’m enjoying my effort in reaching out to a lot of greatpeople in the bay area who are willing to meet with young guys and mentor us.Like I said, the money spent on a U.S. MBA got its value.
Welcome to my blog for more MBA/Business related contents and welcome for comments too!
www.spicyspirit.com/blog
Elle | 
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发表于 2010-3-24 10:07:39
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