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| Americans share impressions of Chinese business practices |
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More than 50 students and faculty members from the College of William and Mary's executive MBA program recently returned from China, where they got a firsthand look at business practices, customs and quirks. After returning, students jotted down their observations -- the good, the bad and the offbeat. Here's what they wrote: China will likely become the world's economic power within the next 10 to 20 years. Western ideas and culture were spread throughout (the first large poster that I saw in Beijing was that of Philadelphia 76ers basketball star Allen Iverson). We visited a school for children from 1½ years old to 6 years old. The parents drop their children off on Monday morning and pick them up on Friday afternoon. I like Chinese food better in America and Pizza Hut better in China. Free speech is suppressed but capitalism is not. There is a Starbucks located in one of the historic buildings in the Forbidden City -- like having one in Monticello. The Chinese definitely seemed to be brand-conscious and particularly welcoming to American brands such as McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC, Haagen-Dazs, Coca-Cola, Marlboro and Starbucks. At one mall in Shanghai, I actually saw a Marlboro/NASCAR store and it was packed full of people. Chinese people are fascinated by Westerners. My picture is now in many Chinese family photo albums. The No. 1 issue in China is employment. (A possible explanation for much of what we witnessed throughout the trip -- the cleanliness of the streets, frequency of garbage collection, the gorgeous flower gardens on every street and the frenetic pace of construction.) Shanghai is Manhattan on steroids; I could not imagine worse traffic. < Source: www.timedispatch.com |
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