This is China! BLOG

Chinese Talent: The Next Generation

I had the pleasure last week in Suzhou to speak to a group of undergraduate students from New York University Stern School of Business. I have to say it was a great pleasure. I had prepared myself for a group whose participants either fell asleep while I spoke or asked impertinent questions just to show off or who didn’t have any questions at all. After all, I speak mostly to dour business people addicted to Blackberries. Happily, only a few of the twenty-somethings nodded off (after all, it was a gorgeous Friday afternoon after a full day of listening to government suits drone on all morning about the exigencies of investing in Suzhou Industrial Park); and they asked insightful questions. “Earnest” with a sense of humor is how I’d best describe them.

I think it helped I didn’t prepare a presentation ahead of time. As it was, the request came just a few days before the presentation. Still, I don’t think I would have formalized it anyway.

Interestingly, the group of thirty students was vastly composed of ABCs: American Born Chinese. There were a couple ABKs: American-Born Koreans. And a couple white kids. All were well-behaved, had a great sense of humor, and were attentive. Makes me wonder about the state of American education: is it really improving? Or was this just the cream of the crop of a school with an excellent reputation and whopping USD45,000 annual price tag. In my cynicism I prefer to think the latter.

When I asked reasons for students choosing to study in China one answered self-consciously, “I guess to find my roots.” “Where are your parents from?” I asked. “Taiwan.” “I mean, in China.” “I don’t know,” he answered with a shy smile, to which I replied, “I guess that’s like my going back to Africa to find my roots! Have no idea on the continent where to start!”

The questions they asked me ranged from why did I choose to settle in Suzhou as an expat rather than in Shanghai; how do local Chinese perceive Westerners; and what was the overall net effect of having so many Chinese from outside Suzhou come to Suzhou to fill positions in manufacturing and the nascent services industry.

Most of the students were in the semester-long program in Shanghai to study Chinese language and to learn about doing business in China. The class I spoke to was a marketing class led by an American professor with a long history in China and time spent in Japan studying Japanese language.

At the end of the talk I encouraged them all to think about a future working in China. “The single greatest challenge Western companies investing in China have right now is talent that speaks English well and that can analyze a situation and solve a problem. That’s where you all have an edge over the locals. It will be at least another generation before the local Chinese in the big cities can be at ease with working to international standards just as the Singaporeans do, for example.”

It just may be the best has yet to come.