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When East Meets West — Trust v.s Relationship

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

This past weekend, we celebrated Chinese New Year.  In fact, the festivities last 15 days, each day has different meaning to the tradition and a specific task.  On the surface looks like we Chinese are complicated, historically and politically maybe, but when it comes down to trust in business, we are pretty simple.

While eating Hot Pot (A less effort Chinese New Year tradition), a long time friend mentioned he was very frustrated because he thinks his business contacts was not being sincere or serious about working with him.  Here is the tidbit of the frustration:

Friend : “I did you 3 favours in the last 6 weeks, why can’t you help once me when I ask you?”

His contact: “Sorry, it’s your choice.  I didn’t ask you to.”

There is no right or wrong to this, it’s just different.  Being in Canada over 10 years I certainly experience the culture difference first hand, and how Easterners handle business differently than Westerners.

Chinese starts with trust then builds up relationship with the belief that favours received will be definitely returned, lots of business deals are signed during entertainment occasions, contracts or agreement come after.  Hard work is in our blood we just don’t say it, and we trust people we work with are the same.

Where most Westerners, I believe, would first prefer to have some kind formal arrangement or relationship in place before pursuit further; systematic and process-driven.

Twitter may be the game changer in this, if the language is available.  Social media is able to bridge the gap of trust as people who are successful on Twitter are usually generous givers.

If possible, please don’t use the auto translation services on the internet, it can only get you so far but chances are you will get lost in the translation :)

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Would You Donate For Prizes? or Could You ?

January 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I need not say more about the disaster in Haiti, since it happened on January 12, the story evolves day by day, you can get full coverage of Canada’s reaction and the international aid effort stories by day from CBC’s and the most updated situation here.

As a Canadian, it’s wonderful to see people I know or meet through social media are doing fantastic jobs.  Craig Kielburge, Co-Founder of Free the Children, is one of first few people got to Haiti shortly after the disaster.  12for12k, a charity aims to combine social media awareness and fund-raising to change the lives of millions worldwide, started by Danny Brown, has already raised over $6,000.   Every time I watch the news, hear it on radio or see the pictures, I still reach down to my pocket and see how I can help.  It feels good and proud to know real people do care, for those in need.

Last week, I heard there are several elementary schools in my area (Mississauga, Brampton and Oakville) that has set prizes for specific amount of donation.  For example, donate $20 get stickers, donate $50 get a recorder, whole class donate over $150 will have pizza party.  In my opinion as a parent, I think this is so fundamentally wrong.  Setting the goal is fine but the motivation has got skewed during the process.  Think about kids coming home and telling you to donate $20 so s/he can get stickers?  One parent even asked me, “It’s for good cause, what’s the difference of those celebrity or people donate millions of dollars?”   My response?  They can decide how much they are willing to donate for whatever reasons (good cause, tax saving, or fame, yeah, I know I’ll get slap for saying it) but for our children, we need to teach them about compassion, how to help the needs and give back to community, and every penny counts, definitely not for prizes.

Certainly this is not the reason why schools encourage donation  but unfortunately the messages got twisted during the communication.  I’m just glad the school my girls go to didn’t ask donation this way, and both girls proudly gave money out from their piggy banks knowing got nothing in return except sense of accomplishment.

Do you agree?  What was the message your child(ren) bring home about donation?  Keep my fingers crossed the three cases I heard are the odds.

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Please, Information Is Not Free At All

January 26, 2010 By 2 Comments

Seth Godin’s post about “The Future of the Library” has sparked interesting conversations by two groups; general public and librarians.  I know the centre of discussion is about public library in the states, and I am not a librarian, nor do I want to challenge Seth; cause really why would I stand up against the guru who when he speaks half of the world listen?  However, as an Information Professional, I have strong reaction when Seth claimed “The information is free now”.  Such a bold statement coming from expert as Seth, in my mind, not only it has overlooked several areas but could also have some significant impacts in our society, net society to be exact.

  • Where — Seth said it on the net, to the audience who we can safely assume has fairly high level of computer literacy
  • Who — Because of their high computer literacy level, they are most likely the knowledge workers spread out among the corporations
  • How — With the impression that information is free and out there somewhere, any one can and should find it hence everyone can do the research

Potential impact ?

This leads to the danger of  misconception about finding information and doing research. InfoPros verify and validate the sources, try to be as comprehensive and authoritative as possible; but with the convenience and explosion of internet and social media, no one seems to care so much any more.  Google is the fast food to internet search, social media just completes the ordering process.  How so?  You google the information, ask your social network if you want to know more, then it’s done !

Maybe I am biased given my profession, but saying information is free is like saying, your time is free cause it does take time to make information available and useful.   I do hope people value business research as much as medical research, science research or academic research, it is equally important if not more, after all, the decision you make is based on the information you get.

I like what my friend Naomi Dunford (@IttyBiz) said here “How stupid people get attention”, I may just be the down-to-earth stupid person trying to produce useful content :-)

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