We began our class with an introduction over breakfast at
the hotel. We met the balance of our
classmates, teachers, and some students from the Webster Shanghai MBA program.
We took the subway to go visit our first business and take a
tour of SAP's Shanghai’s office. It was the
same as something we would see in any office in the states- cubicles, cafe,
meeting rooms, company memorabilia.
After a presentation on the company, we had lunch in their caferiteria
with the employees. I noticed that
everyone working there looked soooo young.
Yes, Asians generally age well, but none of the employees looked over
35. I asked the guy and he said yes,
they were all very young b/c only the younger people have had the opportunity
to study computer technology so older adults aren’t really in this field. Our school day was completed back on campus
with a lecture on Chinese history and common business practices. It is very common for Chinese business relationship
be built on a foundation of dining, heavy drinking, and late night karaoke bars. Our instructor said this strategy was based
on the belief that when drunk, people show who they really are and have a
harder time hiding true intent. The next
couple of nights as I was in the lobby using Wi-Fi, I did see several Chinese
businessmen stumbling in and even so wasted his two colleagues were practically
carrying him to his room .
I also found it interesting when my teacher said that many
of the Chinese are still very immature when they enter the workforce. He said that dating is not allowed in high
school and very rarely in college.
WHA??? Also, most Chinese do not
get their first job until after college.
So in many cases when they graduate, they have no work experience and
may be preoccupied with finding a mate.
I can't even imagine- What in
the world would you do as a teenager with no boys or jobs?
After the long day of learning, a one of my classmates and I
went to see the TV tower and grab a bite to eat. The TV tower is to shanghai how the arch is
to St. Louis. It was pretty neat, all
the China. All the buildings were lit up and glistened with Christmas décor-YES
Christmas-LOTS of it and obviously not for religious reasons, but more as an
event. We had dinner at a Brazilian restaurant
called Latino. The weather was quite
nice (especially in comparison to Beijing) so we ate outside. When we headed back to the hotel we learned
Dominic had 500 stolen out of his hotel room.
Grr, that stuff makes me so mad...It made me remember what if felt like
when the housekeeper in Thailand accidentally threw my ring in the trash. Stuff
like that makes it so hard to trust anybody.
