Dragon can learn a few lessons from the elephant

[aimarraul]

Dragon can learn a few lessons from the elephant
08:22, June 04, 2010

Indian gurus commanded high respect in China - when the country was learning Buddhism more than 1,500 years ago.

But do the Chinese still have anything to learn from their old shifu (Chinese for master) when it comes to building a modern economy?

Pan Song says "Yes". Having had long-time work experience in India, Pan, himself a Chinese businessman, published his book about Indian economy and management entitled What Can China Learn From India - the Rising of Indian Superstar Private Enterprises and Its Inspiration?

The book was released on Thursday by the Beijing-based China Machine Press.

This is the first Chinese book entirely devoted to the managerial practice and operational experience in India since the beginning of China's start of market-oriented reform in 1978.

"China always keeps its eyes on catching up with the US, UK and Japan. But it has yet to realize that its Asian neighbor India, whose year-on-year economic growth has averaged 8-9 percent in the last decade, is actually becoming China's largest competitor," said Pan, the regional director of a Chinese company who has worked in key Indian cities like New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad for more than a decade.

The two countries are growth leaders in today's world and have much to learn from each other, he said.

"The core advantage of India is its private enterprises, which contributed more than 85 percent to the economy," he said in an interview with China Daily at the book launch ceremony on Thursday.

"India currently has 33 world-class private enterprises. Their astounding performance is the best lesson for Chinese enterprises."

According to Pan, Chinese enterprises should learn from their Indian counterparts' innovative spirit, experience in global operations, skills in mergers and acquisitions, and the unique way of training managerial elites in the era of globalization.

Since the process of economic liberalization began in 1991, the leaders of India's private businesses have articulated inspiring visions and mobilized their enterprises to achieve internationalization.

Pan focuses on three Indian sectors that have made great progress in the last two decades, namely, information technology, the pharmaceutical industry and financial services.

He also points out success stories in each of the sectors that Chinese companies can learn from. Infosys, which started with only $250, has now become the so-called Indian Microsoft, while Ranbaxy is the first Indian multinational pharmaceutical company. ICICI Bank is the largest private bank in India with the largest market value.

With strong support from the government and banks, an increasing number of Chinese enterprises are looking beyond their horizon to invest. Soon many of them could join the "going global" race, but they still lack experience in internationalizing operations and management. "That's why we should learn from Indian private enterprises, as they did a commendable job in the journey of internationalization," he said.

At the beginning of this year, The Times of India published the Top 8 assumptions for 2020 and said the top assumption is that India will surpass China as the fastest-growing economy. India's newly-appointed Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu expects the country to possibly surpass China's growth rate in four to five years.

"China must have a sense of urgency as well as a sense of crisis from today and Chinese enterprises must try their best to learn as much as possible from the experiences of their Indian counterparts," said Pan.

Ramakrishna Velamuri, an associate professor at the China Europe International Business School, said the new book is "very timely", and "imperative for policymakers, businessmen and the general public of both China and India to have a deeper understanding of each other."

Source: China Daily

 

[below_freezing]

just take as joke. india should fall apart before they catch us.

 

[genetic_nomad]

India has much to learn from the Chinese development model, the other way around may/or may not be necessary (it's for the Chinese administration to decide). As for India falling apart, lol

 

[Treatment]

just take as joke. india should fall apart before they catch us.

China's hegemony is built on cheap labour which has started to dry up, according to analysts from 2013 there would be a negative growth in labour force.

So yeah i can see where china is going

 

[Swift]

Foxconn Workers in China Say ‘Meaningless’ Life Sparks Suicides
June 02, 2010, 8:00 PM EDT
June 3 (Bloomberg) -- Ah Wei has an explanation for Foxconn Technology Group Chairman Terry Gou as to why some of his workers are committing suicide at the company’s factory near the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

“Life is meaningless,” said Ah Wei, his fingernails stained black with the dust from the hundreds of mobile phones he has burnished over the course of a 12-hour overnight shift. “Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here.”

Conversation on the production line is forbidden, bathroom breaks are kept to 10 minutes every two hours and constant noise from the factory washes past his ear plugs, damaging his hearing, Ah Wei said. The company has rejected three requests for a transfer and his monthly salary of 900 yuan ($132) is too meager to send home to his family, said the 21-year-old, who asked that his real name not be used because he is afraid of his managers.

At least 10 employees at Taipei-based Foxconn have taken their lives this year, half of them in May, according to the company, also known as Hon Hai Group. The deaths have forced billionaire founder Gou to open his factories to outside scrutiny and apologize for not being able to stop the suicides. Gou built his company into the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer and now clients from Apple Inc. to Hewlett-Packard Co. are probing the company’s working conditions.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s billionaire chief executive officer, who depends on Foxconn to make the iPhone and iPad, said the suicides are “very troubling.”

‘All Over This’

“We’re all over this,” said Jobs, speaking this week at a technology conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. His company does one of the best jobs inspecting suppliers, he said, adding the company is “not a sweatshop.”

Foxconn’s Longhua complex outside Shenzhen spans three square kilometers (1.16 square miles) and is criss-crossed by tree-lined streets with a water fountain at the center of the facility. Workers wearing polo shirts emblazoned with “Foxconn” in Chinese characters over their hearts walk along the streets. Men wear blue, women wear red. Security personnel wear white. The complex boasts its own hospital, a collection of restaurants and a swimming pool surrounded by palm trees.

The workers, 86 percent of whom are under 25 years old, live in white dormitories with eight to 10 people sleeping in a room. The living quarters have stairs running up the outside walls and the company has begun covering them with nets to prevent people from jumping.

12-Hour Stand

Inside the compound, at a factory devoted to computer motherboards, rows of young men and women stand at assembly lines, their feet shod in blue slippers and white caps on their heads. The smell of solvent hangs in the air. About 80 percent of the front-line production employees work standing up, some for 12 hours a day for six days a week, according to Liu Bin, a 24-year-old employee.

“It’s hard to make friends because you aren’t allowed to chat with your colleagues during work,” Liu said at Shenzhen Kang Ning Hospital where he was seeking help for insomnia. “Most of us have little education and have no skills so we have no choice but to do this kind of job. I feel no sense of achievement and I’ve become a machine.”

The company provides counseling for workers such as Liu, according to supervisor Geng Yubin. Geng, who has worked six years at Foxconn, says between 30 and 50 workers come to him daily for advice on their personal lives. Common problems are homesickness, financial woes, lovers’ quarrels and spats with co-workers, Geng said.

Without Direction

“For many of the young people who are here, this is the first time they’ve been away from home,” Geng said. “Without their families, they’re left without direction. We try to provide them with direction and help.”

Tian Yu fit Geng’s description. Tian, 18, left her parents and a life of growing sweet corn and rice in Hubei province, central China, to find a job in Shenzhen after graduating from high school, her father, Tian Jiandang, said. She was isolated and without friends at work, the elder Tian said. She worked at Foxconn for about a year.

On March 17, she jumped from the fourth story of her dormitory in the Longhua complex. She survived and was in a coma for almost two months. Her father still doesn’t know why she jumped and is afraid to ask because he thinks it will upset her, he said in an interview by her hospital bed. Foxconn is paying for her medical care.

Puzzled

The suicides and how to stop them mystify Gou.

“Are we going to have this happen again?” said Gou, speaking on May 27 when he opened the factory to the largest media gathering in company history. “From a logical, scientific standpoint, I don’t have a grasp on that. No matter how you force me, I don’t know.”

Less than a day after Gou made the remarks, a 23-year-old Foxconn worker jumped to his death, according to the Shenzhen police. Another worker slit his wrist and was hospitalized.

Born October 8, 1950, in Taipei to parents who emigrated from China’s Shanxi Province, Gou formed his company in 1974 with $7,500. Over 36 years, he transformed the supplier of plastic television knobs to the maker of iPhones and Sony Corp. PlayStations. Hon Hai Precision Industry generates more revenue each year than Microsoft Corp., Apple and Dell Inc.

His net worth reached $5.9 billion this year, according to Forbes Magazine. He owns 10.8 percent of the company as its largest shareholder, according to Bloomberg data. Hon Hai Precision has dropped 21 percent so far this year.

Gou’s Success

The basis of his success is clear, according to Pam Gordon, founder of Technology Forecasters, a market research firm specializing in contract manufacturers and supply chain.

“It’s the prices,” said Gordon. “Their prices are lower for high-quality work.”

Gou says he’s proud of what he’s accomplished at Longhua.

“I came here more than 10 years ago to this piece of fallow ground, this mountain,” Gou said. “We brought some colleagues and step by step we built it up.”

Gou’s ambition and discipline come through in his interactions with subordinates, according to people who have worked with him. He can talk for hours without notes and remembers product plans in minute details, according to six people who’ve attended meetings with him.

In a session Gou held in the second quarter of last year with about 200 managers and engineers to discuss the future of the company’s mobile-phone business, the chairman peppered division vice presidents with questions on progress reports, said three people who attended the gatherings and declined to be named because the event was not public.

Executive Punishment

At the same meeting, Gou ordered a senior vice president who could not respond in enough detail to stand before the group for 10 minutes as punishment, three of the people said.

Foxconn won Apple’s order to make the iPhone after Gou ordered the business units that make components to sell parts at zero profit, according to two people familiar with the plans who declined to be named because the details are not public.

Foxconn’s labor policies and practices are in line with industry standards and are regularly reviewed by government authorities and customers, it said in an e-mailed response to questions. Foxconn declined to comment on Gou’s management style.

Because Gou is willing to forego margins to win orders, clients like Apple and HP are able to boost their own profits, said Daniel Chang, who rates Hon Hai Precision “outperform” at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Taipei. Hon Hai Precision had an operating margin of 4.3 percent last year, compared with 27 percent for Apple and 9.6 percent for HP, Bloomberg data shows. The company’s net income jumped 37 percent to NT$75.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in 2009, its second-best year on record.

Fundamental Problem

“The fundamental problem for Foxconn and other Chinese factories is that their business model relies on a low-cost workforce sourced from rural areas of China,” said Pun Ngai, a professor of applied social sciences at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “Due to its size, Foxconn has to be that much tougher than other factories, and has to become more emotionally detached from its employees than others.”

In addition to Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, the world’s largest and third-largest personal-computer makers, have begun investigations of Foxconn. Dell spokesman Jess Blackburn and Hewlett-Packard spokeswoman Shelby Watts declined to comment on the status of the investigations.

Apple and other computer makers should emulate American toy makers, who faced a similar predicament, according Gene Grabowski, who chairs the crisis and litigation practice at Washington-based Levick Strategic Communications, a public relations firm in Washington.

Lead Paint

After Chinese suppliers for Mattel Inc. were found to be allowing lead paint into products sold in the U.S. in 2007, the company sent inspectors to watch over the plants and invited the media to monitor improvements.

“Apple is especially vulnerable because Apple’s computer buyers tend to be more socially aware,” said Grabowski. “They care about computers, they care about the environment, they care about working conditions.”

For the group’s more than 800,000 employees in China, Foxconn’s success also provides a livelihood. One of them, 30- year-old Chen Zhonglei, said the suicides are due to the immaturity of the workers and not the company’s policies.

“These young workers coming in now are not as ready to take on hardship as much as I was when I arrived,” Chen said. “Psychologically they’re more fragile. These new workers need to come in with an idea about what they want to get out of working here.”

Best Conditions

Foxconn’s working conditions are among the best in China, said Huang Ping-der, an associate professor of Business Administration at Taipei’s National Chengchi University. The recent suicides in China have highlighted weaknesses in the company’s management structure, he said.

China had a suicide rate of 16.9 people out of 100,000 taking their own lives in 2004, according to estimates from the World Health Organization.

Foxconn raised pay for workers by 30 percent to 1,200 yuan from 900 yuan a month, spokesman Edmund Ding said yesterday. The additional money may not be enough to stem the suicides, according to Xiao Qi, a college graduate who works at Foxconn in product development. He earns 2,000 yuan a month, yet gets no joy from his job, he said.

“I do the same thing every day; I feel empty inside,” said Xiao, who said he has considered suicide. “I have no future.”

--Stephanie Wong and John Liu in Shenzhen and Tim Culpan in Taipei, with assistance from Mark Lee in Hong Kong, Yidi Zhao in Beijing, Connie Guglielmo and Peter Burrows in San Francisco, and Douglas MacMillan in New York and . Editor: Bret Okeson, Young-Sam Cho

To contact the reporters on this story: Stephanie Wong in Shanghai at swong139@bloomberg.net; John Liu in Beijing at jliu42@bloomberg.net; Tim Culpan in Taipei at tculpan1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.
Sponsored Links

 

[Swift]

Will angry workers threaten China's economic miracle?
Today at 14:15 | Reuters
A rare strike by Chinese workers at a Honda Motor Co car parts factory in southern China, and a spate of suicides at a Foxconn plant that makes electronic products including Apple's iPhone, have focused attention on wages and working conditions.

Honda gave the workers a 24 percent pay rise and full production resumed last week, while Foxconn announced a 30 percent pay rise for employees.

Wage pressures are mounting in China as the balance of power starts to tilt more towards workers, raising questions over how the country will preserve its status as a low-cost manufacturing base while avoiding growing discontent among employees.

But while rising wages in the workshop of the world have sparked worries over thinning corporate profits and inflationary spirals, some analysts argue labour unrest is good for China -- and indeed for the world.

By spreading the fruits of growth more evenly, higher incomes will boost domestic consumption and help resolve imbalances that bedevil the global economy.

 

[Ahchai Eliminator]

This is definitely something China need to learn a negative lesson from India, not to mistreat your farmers forcing them to kill themselves. Really sad indeed.

1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India

Wednesday, 15 April 2009

Over 1,500 farmers in an Indian state committed suicide after being driven to debt by crop failure, it was reported today.

The agricultural state of Chattisgarh was hit by falling water levels.

"The water level has gone down below 250 feet here. It used to be at 40 feet a few years ago," Shatrughan Sahu, a villager in one of the districts, told Down To Earth magazine

"Most of the farmers here are indebted and only God can save the ones who do not have a bore well."

Mr Sahu lives in a district that recorded 206 farmer suicides last year. Police records for the district add that many deaths occur due to debt and economic distress.

In another village nearby, Beturam Sahu, who owned two acres of land was among those who committed suicide. His crop is yet to be harvested, but his son Lakhnu left to take up a job as a manual labourer.

His family must repay a debt of £400 and the crop this year is poor.

"The crop is so bad this year that we will not even be able to save any seeds," said Lakhnu's friend Santosh. "There were no rains at all."

"That's why Lakhnu left even before harvesting the crop. There is nothing left to harvest in his land this time. He is worried how he will repay these loans."

Bharatendu Prakash, from the Organic Farming Association of India, told the Press Association: "Farmers' suicides are increasing due to a vicious circle created by money lenders. They lure farmers to take money but when the crops fail, they are left with no option other than death."

Mr Prakash added that the government ought to take up the cause of the poor farmers just as they fight for a strong economy.

"Development should be for all. The government blames us for being against development. Forest area is depleting and dams are constructed without proper planning.

All this contributes to dipping water levels. Farmers should be taken into consideration when planning policies," he said.
1,500 farmers commit mass suicide in India - Asia, World - The Independent

 

[navtrek]

the thread has been derailed with just one comment come on guys all this mud slinging is not needed stop being blind with nationalism.

Contribute points which make sense

 

[Jade]

Good post. If you have nothing to contribute atleast please don't post trolls

 

[Speeder 2]

Dragon can learn a few lessons from the elephant
08:22, June 04, 2010

Indian gurus commanded high respect in China - when the country was learning Buddhism more than 1,500 years ago.

...

After reading the first sentence, I 've known already that the guy who wrote this is a joker, for 1500 years ago there was no Indian gurus, oke? The so called gurus back then could well come from Modern day Pakistan or Afganistan, or Nepal or wherever...



Normal Chinese just don't get this simple concept that :

modern-day India =/= prehistoric, and ancient Hindu Valley civilisation



Maybe the dragon could learn a lesson from the self-claimed elephant how to eat with nose? or with both hands?

 

[SpArK]

Learning more--!!!!

 

[Jade]

modern-day India =/= prehistoric, and ancient Hindu Valley civilisation

Maybe the dragon could learn a lesson from the self-claimed elephant how to eat with nose? or with both hands?

I thought Chinese are proud of it old civilization and its history. Am I wrong?

 

[SpArK]

I thought Chinese are proud of it old civilization and its history. Am I wrong?

Yes mostly all of them are proud of their long traditional history cultures..but not these trollers here..

 

[Speeder 2]

Each country is different. India is not a Confucius country such as Vietnam or Korea, to which Chinese cab show humbleness, saying to learn 1 or 2 things from them.

Towards India, if you wanna be humble and say you 'd like to learn 1 or 2 things from it , it will turn around and bite your hand whenever you don't pay attention. Brits are the best emaples here. See how Brits dealt with "India" with iron fists? The Indians then turned around, kissing the ground the Brits walked on and worshiping them.


See the difference ?

 

[Nemesis]

ormal Chinese just don't get this simple concept that :

modern-day India =/= prehistoric, and ancient Hindu Valley civilisation

By your insipid analogy, there was no such thing as "China" either.