Management Consultant Scenario

For our Cultural Differentiation Elective lessons these past few weeks, we were asked to come up with suggestions for Chinese companies which are considered successful within China but have very limited success overseas to break into the US market and make their products better suited for American consumers using our knowledge on the core American values and the American culture. This is an interesting task as it requires us to look into different aspects of the companies which made them have only limited success overseas, and come up with solutions to tackle their problems trying to break into the US market effectively.

My classmates' presentations are very interesting and provided insight into many successful Chinese companies (some of which I don't even know existed as there are just so many different companies for the same product in China) - their history, structure, products, success in China and also problems they face abroad. They also came up with many creative and innovative ways to help solve the problems and make their products more appealing to American consumers. One interesting solution is the gamification of a virus protection software which allows users to earn and accumulate points every time they scan their computers. However, nearly every group mentioned hiring experts from the US and employees from rival companies to learn more about the American culture and policies other companies are adopting which the Chinese companies are probably already doing and are not having that much effect. But all in all, my classmates' presentations are really interesting and I learnt a lot from them.

My group chose the popular smartphone messaging application WeChat. We chose this company as it has massive success in China, being one of the most used applications in China. However, in the overseas market, especially in the United States, it doesn't look as good as WeChat is just one of the countless messaging applications competing for users, and it also is not as well know as other apps that are more successful in the US like WhatsApp or LINE. Consumers from the US might also have stereotypes about Chinese products being lousy and untrustworthy and fears that their info are being sent to advertising companies or the Chinese government, which limit the success WeChat has as well. WeChat was also specially catered to Chinese consumers, and much less suited for Americans. To solve these problems, WeChat has to become less "Chinese", and adopt features which would be appealing to American consumers. WeChat also has a ton of functions, some of which very useful, and some of which not so much. So to make their product in line with the American core value of simplicity, WeChat should delete some of its features so as not to make the application seem too complicated. One other very important thing WeChat must do as well is to show consumers in the US and other countries that it is safe. In conclusion, this project was quite a fun and interesting learning experience for me, and I enjoyed thinking about different solutions very much.

All in all, the Management Consultant Scenario was a very meaningful activity as it allows us to explore the cultural differences between the US and China and how these differences will affect how businesses operate in these two countries. Chinese companies breaking into the American market will still have a lot challenges as they try to overcome American stereotypes about Chinese products and make their companies more appealing to American consumers. Chinese companies may have had success in China, but in the US market they would still have a long way to go.

Reflective Journal Entry 1

CDE is an interesting course about the different cultures in the West and the East. It helps us make comparisons and learn more about each culture. As most of us do live in a country in Asia, we are most probably more familiar with the East and its culture than that of the West. Learning about it would help us have a broader range of knowledge of the cultures of the world and also make comparisons and differentiate between the two cultures.

Through the Cultural Differentiation Elective, I want to have a deeper understanding of both the Western and the Eastern cultures, and which parts of them are different and which parts similar. I also want to learn about how different aspects of the two cultures are applicable in our world today, and how they are relevant in the modern society. Through this course, I want to be able to look at things in different perspectives. I also want to learn more about the differences and similarities in the moral values of the United States of America and China, and how this has affected the modern culture and way of thinking of the people in these two countries today.

We learnt about the importance of the knowledge of different cultures, the American core values, and Google during the CDE classes this week. I find the core American values really interesting as I knew little about it before (other than freedom and democracy, which is the stereotypical American values on the Internet), and learnt that some of them are not very different from the Eastern ones, such as hard work being rewarded and competitiveness and striving to be better than others, which are very common in Asian countries. We also learnt about the way Google designs its workplace not just for efficiency and productivity, but for the employees' comfort and enjoyment, to make them stay at the workplace not just to work more, but also to keep the brilliant ideas the highly-intelligent employees come up with inside of Google. Google also has its unique way of making people interact and brainstorm, which may lead to new ideas. New ideas also come by with Google allowing its employees to have one day per week to work on their own projects. Google also actually listens to employees' ideas and use them. In conclusion, Google has its own unique ways of treating its employees for the benefit of the company.

In conclusion, I feel that the Cultural Differentiation Elective is a very meaningful and enriching course, and I am looking forward to learning more about both the Western and Eastern cultures in the rest of the lessons of this year.