A 148-Day Learning

Posted on April 5, 2010 by sinyaw

It is easy to be the boss in a Chinese firm. In this authoritarian civilization, everyone agrees with you and seeks your approval. What you uttered becomes gospel. People quote and obey you. It is the toughest thing to be the boss in a Chinese firm. You cannot be wrong. Ever.

Chinese have perfected this authoritarian art over about 2,500 years of practicing and try-and-error. They knew that the boss can be apprehensive at times and found ways to obtain diversity, have discussions, debate: all in somewhat a, gasp, diplomatic manner. History and classic wisdoms have both warned the difficulty of those skills — yet few middle level executives have any time to practice them.

Today’s typical Chinese firm has a cadre of menacing, abusive, tycoon, and domineering junior executives, those who manage a large organization and have slightly more than a decade of industrial experience, usually at the same firm. They are competent, smart, and driven. They fought hard and won most of their battles. They have been loyal, obedient, competent, and hard-working. What they give to their boss they want it doubly with their subordinates. They are authoritarian and like it. They crave for the big glory.

Only a superior or disruptive competitor will ruin the plan. If a new and foreign power shows up, years of hardworking will go to ruin. They are too senior to start over, the jungle is ruthless, they cannot afford the risk and must eradicate those new comers before they take roots.

Street smart, decisiveness, and guerilla-like nimbleness brought them the success today. Inspirational and diplomatic skills are critical to the next phase. But time has long passed for them to learn those softer skills. They do what every cornered beasts will: kill the new comers before they are proven superior or disruptive, even at the expense of the company. What’s the point of the company thriving without self sharing the glory?

Many wrote about different leadership styles; I found Hershey and Blanchad’s theory most straight-forward:

The “telling” style is for project lead and junior managers. Executives must migrate to other styles as they progress in their career. Heeding this will make a difference to those Chinese companies aspiring to be a global force, instead of a domestic player forever.

Posted in China, Management Thoughts, Witness to my life | 2 Comments

Home Plumbing

Posted on April 1, 2010 by sinyaw

Before Wife woke up, I started the coffee and readied for the well planned 15-minute project. I fantasized the victory breakfast, bacon and pancake, as I was fishing for the white Teflon tape. When the J-pipe, the hooked pipe that’s directly under the sink, crumpled with a slight twist of my big and heavy wrench, I sighed and threw out the pancake dream. Put everything down, came inside from the garage, and yellowpaged local plumbers. Within minutes, Wife woke up with a “what have you done this morning” look. Three plumbers would bid for this job and I expected to shell out several hundred dollars that day.

“Now that you are here,” I shook hands with the chosen plumber in jump-suit off a well-stocked van. “Would you mind fixing my leaking faucet in the bathroom too?” He shrugged and added $25 to the estimate.

He started and I came inside. Five minutes later, I heard a groan. The pipe that goes into the wall, broke off. He needed to replace it by first sawing off for a clean cut. Had I kept going, I would not have the tool. “I sure glad that I called you,” I smirked. Half an hour later, he finished the pipe job, started testing, and found water dripping off to the floor. “Your sink is leaking,” he was not pleased. It was a cast-iron sink that weigh about a ton and was as old as this 40+ year-old house. It is a back-breaking job to replace it. He called office and scheduled himself for the next day. After that, he headed the bathroom for the leaky faucet. Should be an easy $25 to make in five minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, I heard another groan. He went back to the van for his torch. “What happened?” I do not have a torch and this has become more interesting. “Your pipe twisted off. I need to cut it off and extend it. It will take about 45 minutes.” “I sure glad that I called you,” second time I said that. He smiled back. We were now buddies.

That 45-minute project became 90 when he broke my faucet. He was now quite hungry. When I handed over my credit card, he said, “You did exactly the right thing. You started early in a day and called a pro when you are in trouble. You would have got into a much bigger trouble than I am about to charge you.”

Wife actually rewarded me a great breakfast. She was glad that I took care of the problem professionally. She knew that I would have wasted more time and money had I not called.

The morale of this story? Know when to ask for help, prepare for the unexpected, and customers do not care who solved the problem, as long as it was solved.

Posted in Management Thoughts, Witness to my life | 3 Comments

Haiku

Posted on March 24, 2010 by sinyaw
Monty’s piercing paw
On my sleeping hand, Wake up!
Feed your hungry pet.

I dozed off in the recliner. Monty jumped up and stood on me with his nose touching mine. His tail was wagging in anticipation of what I was to do immediately.

I showed him who’s the boss by filling his bowl obediently.

Posted in Witness to my life | 1 Comment

Who’s pays for speed?

Posted on March 21, 2010 by sinyaw

In a simplistic way, the Net can be divided into three parts: the contents or services owners, these are the brands you know Google, Facebook, WoW, CNN, etc. They are the reasons you are on the net to begin with; next is the mystic cloud that magically connect those contents to you; last is the device you use to access those contents — that’s your smart phone, laptop, or set-top boxes.

Pundits proclaimed that the Net will have much higher bandwidth in the future. Google and Cisco both added fuel to that roaring fire of enthusiasm. It shall outpace Moore’s law, they said. Whatever speed you are connecting at today, you shall have 10 times, or even 100, more in 3 years.

Really? Who pays for the higher bandwidth?

Google does. As they are rolling out bright cables across the country, all they asked is a nominal fee not higher than your current bill. The new and fatter pipes are part of Google’s promotional budget.

Or Cisco will? They just announce the product that will change the world. (Juniper, of course, thought little of it.) It is a next generation router that handles 3 times the traffic than the previous one. As backbone operators upgrade their equipment, the pipe just got fatter. Isn’t it wonderful that technologies give us better life without us having to pay for it?

The paper-based industry pays for it. As online media replaces traditional ones, the revenue shifts. When New York Times becomes newyorktimes.com, its massive print press, truck fleet, and ad sales force disappear. The new company (probably under the old management) retains its old readership, or even larger, but with a much leaner and smaller operation. That pays for the new fat pipe.

You pay for it. Have you looked at your bills? How much you paid for your fixed-line phone, cell phone, data plan, cable TV, broad-band connection, iPhone apps, Netflix subscription, iTunes music, SecondLife spending, WoW weapons, etc.? Did you also upgrade to a faster connection? Did you even blink for the $15 Internet fee at the hotel you last checked-in? Internet is far from free to us surfers. The debate on how to monetize Internet has long ended. Consumers pay billions of dollars (and so did corporations) for their rich Net-based experiences. Oh, did you buy that digital camera by clicking through some links?

Yes, Internet will continue to expand and the bandwidth will continue to increase, like Google and Cisco have led you to believe. As for me, I am just trying to make a buck.

Posted in Management Thoughts, Peek into my mind | Leave a comment

Repo 105

Posted on March 16, 2010 by sinyaw

Lehman Brothers’ executives had the incentive and were creative. To receive big bonuses, they needed to reduce debts. It was not easy, since the fundamental was bad. The right thing to do — like eat healthy and exercise — was hard and, more importantly, would not keep them up with the Joneses. So they cooked up a scheme that turned debts into transactions: same business, different label. The firm appeared healthier. This practice, now infamously called Repo 105, continued until the hidden debts reached over 50 billion dollars. Stopping would feel like an addict deprived of drugs; no one has enough will power to do so voluntarily.

Those executives were smarter than law makers and judges. It is unlikely that any of them will go to jail. Given their business savvy, I doubt any government can touch their vacation homes on Mediterranean coast stocked with extensive wine collection. When smart people lost their morality, there is only one thing left to do.

Corporal punishment! Public caning comes to mind. Of course, the same smart people would have lawyers arguing those being cruel practices. Did I mention that they were rich too?

Guess there is nothing left to do.

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Entering Stardom

Posted on March 13, 2010 by sinyaw
Warm Strangers

Vienna Teng

I like to be pleasantly surprised. After two CDs, I thought that would be the end of my Vienna Teng collection. I liked her music, at the same level of Charlotte Church’s first two CDs. Two are enough for my library. After all, I have more music than the time of the day.

Then, through Kid’s connection, I got her Warm Strangers album. In this CD, she moved up from a niche voice singer to a big league star. Her other two CDs were good, but couldn’t hold my attention long enough. After several songs, I would start to press the skip button, hoping to find something that was not a re-mix of the same ingredients. This one, however, every songs was distinctively her and has lasting power. I could savor each of them and would try to play them again.

ITunes starred six out of the entire 12 songs. That’s impressive. The bonus track, a Taiwan folk song, was a treat. Her Mandarin voice was sweet and authentic. I can imagine a tour in Taiwan and China entirely in Chinese songs. Imagine her parents’ proud expressions.

Yes, I knew this is her second CD and I actually had her third, Dreaming Through Noise before this one.

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Where have all the young girls gone?

Posted on March 8, 2010 by sinyaw

In the haunting song, Where Have All The Flowers Gone by Peter, Paul, and Mary. One of the verses wonder where have all the young girls gone. Of course, the song is about anti-war and the girls were mourning their dead boy friends. It appears that many Chinese young men, and their Indian counter-parts will soon wonder where to find eligible brides in the world.
Gendercide

The Economist reported that China will have a surplus of eligible bachelors as many as the entire Germany’s population! India, South Korea, Taiwan, and several mid-eastern countries are heading the same imbalance. This article reminded me the short-fiction Goddess, by Linda Nagata, in which future Indian elders routinely implant a gender selector in young woman’s wombs — have a boy or have no child what-so-ever. Modern Chinese and Indians would depend on the skills of the ultrasonic technicians for such decisions.

A surprise consequence is the size of the dowry. As eligible maids become less available, they command higher dowry or whatever forms of payment from the groom’s side. Parents of young boys need to save more, since wealth is part of the bidding to win a bride.

The society will fix this problem by itself. The surplus men will be denied opportunity to have a traditional family. They will share a wife with someone else, import a bride from outside, or stay single. The society will gain its gender balance in one or two generations no matter what. The question is really how violent the process will be — unwed young male is the source of most mayhem in the world.

Maybe the song is hinting a solution after all? Where have all the young men gone? Gone to graveyard everyone. Oh when will they ever learn?

Posted in Books & Reviews, China, Peek into my mind | 2 Comments

Walt Whitman (1819-1892): The Runner

Posted on March 3, 2010 by sinyaw

I am a runner and an inapt pupil of poetry. The runner, not this mid-aged over-weight one, is so vivid that I can almost hear his pant and feel his body heat.

On a flat road runs the well-train’d runner,
He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs,
He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais’d.
Posted in Witness to my life | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Over-hyped

Posted on March 1, 2010 by sinyaw
SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner

978-0060889579

Do Indian men really have smaller penises? Can you imagine the tease toward our brown friends?

They over-hyped the book dead. All interesting concepts were ruined by all those blogs, media coverage, and party talks. It read like a long re-run. Many meant-to-be startling or new concepts have become old and stale by the time I read them.

Other than that, the chapters were unorganized. Steven and Stephen jumped from one concept to another with very weak linkages. By the time I reached the end of the chapter, I needed to think back the original concept and frequently found the trace-back too winding. The biggest let-down was their approach. Behavior economists should examine data and found insights that explain the world. Instead, the book read like a 300-page news magazine. The articles were interesting, just not very social economical.

The chapter on geoengineering was simply ideas, with good scientific theories behind them. That is disappointing, since I expected experiments or prototypes. Nathan Myhrvold is a billionair and his venture is well-funded. Why are those ideas not backed by solid proofs?

The chapter on “cheap and simple” fixes felt just naive. There are almost insurmountable problems. Historical examples of simple solutions do not guarantee, what-so-ever, that the next one will just emerge miraculously. Most of those solutions took Herculean efforts, rare ingenuity and talents, and solid funding. If we all just sit and wait, the miracle will never come.

They went to length to refute the existence of altruism. Every good Samaritan did good for some incentives, they claimed. No one is completely altruistic, everyone does it for themselves, at least partially. Altruism is an intention and can never be proven one way or the other, with or without the existence of any incentive. Philosophically, however, what good is for humanity to prove that altruism does not exist?

The epilogue, on monkeys, was extremely entertaining. I was laughing out loud. Good closing.

Posted in Books & Reviews | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Ethics

Posted on February 25, 2010 by sinyaw

Kevin Smith

Recently, Kevin Smith, a well known Hollywood director, was kicked off a flight for being too fat. He was furious and started a twitter storm. His flamebuoyant communiques aroused media coverage and strong opinions everywhere. Fat people have rights too! They proclaimed. Besides, the number is on their side. The US shall have more and more fat people. Airline had better cater to their needs, lest losing their patronage.

Airline coach seats are about 18 inches wide with 32 inches “pitch” (the distance between two rows of seats). They are good for skinny and short people. (An average American woman has a hip width of 19.7 inches, and man 17.2.) Strapped in one of them is a discomfort that most people wish to get over as quickly as possible. It’s torturous if your seat-mate is nosy, noisy, smelly, messy, or, the worst, fat. Few things can bring up more terror than being squeezed against a stranger’s skin in a tight space.

A group of Californian students are seeking reversal of proposition 209, passed in 1996 to prohibit public institutions from considering race, sex, or ethnicity. Under this law, the UC system would consider only academic merits — GPA, SAT scores, etc. — to admit students.

In 2007, Latino, black, and Native American students comprised 45.1 percent of California’s high school graduates but those groups comprised only 16.9 percent and 19.9 percent of new freshman admits at UC Berkeley and UCLA, respectively. This is an outrage and a social explosion waiting to happen.

Prior to Prop 209, UC has the infamous affirmative action system that give each ethnic group a quota in the new admission pool. The graduation rate of those disadvantaged ethnic groups were miserable. UC system wasted precious resources, and admission slots, for those academically ill-prepared students that essentially robbed the education opportunities from those who were otherwise qualified.

In the study of ethics, there are the concepts of just, utilitarian, fairness, and equality. It is not just to violate any individual’s rights. But utilitarian will strive for the most good for the most people, usually sacrificing the minority. Kevin Smith may have his right as a passenger, but many more passengers suffer if airlines accommodate too much for fat people, directly with discomfort or indirectly through delay, lost of available seats, or increased price from reduced capacity.

The group that sued UC called themselves “Equality by Any Means Necessary.” Equality is an economic concept of the allocation of resources. (Five dollars for you and five for me will be equal.) Fairness means all considerations be merit-based. (We each get paid by how much we contributed will be fair.) It is obvious that UC admission system has not been equal. But is it fair? To answer, ask if the admission is merit-based.

Ethics is a complicated subject. Topics are controversial because different approaches do not arrive at the same result. We would like things to be just and good for the most, fair and equal too. Choose your stance based on an ethic yardstick, not whether you are fat or slim, Asian or Latino.

Posted in Management Thoughts, Peek into my mind | 1 Comment