The Colonel Mac Pizza Power It was a late Sunday morning that one of my old friends, Mr. Wang and his wife arrived at the "Yuan-Yuan-Yuan" tea house. They brought their three year old daughter along with a nanny from Eastern Fujian. Both of them are doing quite well under this reformed Chinese economy. Mr. Wang is a senior municipal official, his wife is a senior executive with a multinational firm. It was already 12.15 when they got there, thus, the first business on our agenda was naturally where should we have our lunch. The answer was arrived with surprising simplicity and expediency. Our youngest member, Wang Ke-yaun, made that snappy decision for all of us - McDonalds! My other friend Miss Shen, Mr. And Mrs Wang, the young Miss Wang and the Nanny took a 150 meters stroll down the street to a large McDonald's outlet. It was a two storey building with a well over 500 seating capacity. We barely squeezed through the packed crowd into that store. Not only that, but all seats were taken, each table where the occupants appeared to be half finished with their lunch were guarded by groups of waiting people waiting for their turns at the seats. To give us a better chance of getting a table, we spread out to "guard" our target tables. After 15 minutes, Mrs. Wang suggested that we give up and try the KFC nearby instead. "KFC has more seats, we may get a better chance there." The KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) outlet was even more crowded than McDonalds. The Pizza Hut across the hall from KFC had about 40 people standing in the waiting line. What now? We could have easily got a table in one of the restaurants nearby. However, the little one simply would not accept any "non-sense" alternatives. There was also a large cafeteria type Food Center in the basement level. Finally, I cam up with a compromise that our young dictator accepted. "Let's try to get a table at the food center and we will get some take out goodies from KFC for the little Missy." After 45 minutes of "Hit and Run" fights for lunch, we finally got something into our stomach. I cannot help imagining what would happen if one of these popular Western fastfood establishments decided to celebrate some special days by giving out free french fries. That might need to get the armed police involved to subdue the explosive crowd. Qi Bao - The Nursery of Future Brains of the Country Qi Bao is a less well known district not far from Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai. It has been designated as the "Cultural Zone" of the city. I once visited the Qi Bao High School from where I came back with nothing but absolute awe for the huge investment that the city government had put into building the school. Very easily, it is the most modern, spacious, and beautiful high school that I have ever seen anywhere on earth, including the U.S. It was completed with underground parking, Olympic standard swimming pool, full size Gymnasium, huge modern library, air conditioned modern classroom buildings and workshops plus agricultural experimental plots. Among the students there, I was told, was a young prince from a Southeast Asian country. The Youthful Future Ping-Pong Coaches Not far from Qi Bao High School, is a Qi Bao Sport and Recreation Center. My friend, Chen Wei, took me there for a table tennis game. Chen Wei played competitive intramual ping pong at Beijing University and I did win a few men's singles at San Francisco State. Thus, we have found in each other an interesting ping pong partner. Partitioned from the open area for outside players, we can see through the glass doors to the reserved table tennis training areas inside. Scores of youthful trainees spent hours training there under their coaches. The youngest one among them was probably around 11-12. We got an opportunity to chat with some of those trainees during their breaks. "We are being trained to be coaches because we are not good enough and will never make it to the national team" said one of them. Eventually, all of these youthful ping pong experts will be sent to coach the game through the country and overseas. What surprised us was how or why they made the "cut" so early in these youngster's career and put them onto a coaching rather than internationally competitive path. The Seasoned Sales Ladies I was invited to conduct a four-days executive training program in Beijing shortly after arriving back from Bangkok. Deciding to get a new business suit for the occasion, I surveyed one of the most popular modern department stores in Shanghai, the Pacific Department Store. Since I have not done much shopping for clothes for quite a while, the degree of eagerness, effort, and enthusiasm of those sales ladies surprised me. In contrast to the relatively passive or inactive younger sales girls that once filled the men's clothing floor, now most of the departments are manned by the middle age sales ladies that were laid off from failed factories. I have to believe that having been on the unemployed row for a time, these seasoned and matured ladies are determined to leave no stone unturned to give their best efforts on their new jobs. Product knowledge, sales effort, pleasing, and services,... you name it, they will exceed your best expectations. It certainly made a lot of difference from those young sales girls that were typical before. Armies of these mature, seasoned and once unemployed ladies and men are now taking very serious lessons in English, computer, and business management. It is probably not long from now that the typical multinational offices will begin to find the wonder of these middle-aged work forces. As I mentioned very often in this column, the most powerful economic weapon that China possesses is not cheap labor but that 5000 years old "Learning Culture." These new wave of mature sales ladies is only a warning sign. APEC, Summer Olympics, World Exposition "100 yuan penalty, if I am caught not saying hello to the passenger when they get into my taxi.", my taxi driver said to me on a recent trip. So, that's how the major taxi companies are enforcing opening-up and modernization with their drivers. "You know, they hired 3000 'dogs' to check on us. If we take a D tour or fail to greet a passenger, they will give us the booms." In addition, many taxi drivers are required to attend classes including English classes. I noticed some of them reviewing their English lessons and memorizing the English vocabularies during their breaks. "Don't you think that I could be one of those 3000 too?" I asked him. The president of Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee recently informed world media representatives that 600,000 Chinese in Beijing will be ready to communicate with the expected athletes and officials from over 200 countries in "any major language." Among them will be 400,000 university students who will be able to communicate in English. Beijing will build 3 new subway lines in addition to the current 2 lines to accommodate the Summer Olympics crowd. The announced budgets for infrasturcture and reconstructure of Beijing is in the area of 154 billion US dollars. The very next week from the announcement of the selection of Beijing as the site of the 2008 Summer Olympiad, came the announcement that Shanghai was bidding to host the 2010 World Exposition. (Expo) For a start, all the city buses in Shanghai are now slated for air-conditioning within year 2005. What's next? Piset Wattanavitukul Shanghai, China

Piset Wattanavitukul is Managing Director of P. W. Consultants specializing in Investment, Management and Trade in and with China and Human Resource Development in Shanghai and Ningbo.

...from Piset Wattanavitukul's Awakening Dragon

Piset Wattanavitukul Amigo Consultants Shanghai, People's Republic of China

Piset is the Asia Pacific Management Forum's newest columnist, providing on-the-ground tips, advice and commentary on doing business, marketing, and management in China. Piset is based in Shanghai, one of the world's most exciting cities. You can learn more about Piset by clicking on his photo.

Index - About Piset - Other Columnists Join the APMF email list Monthly updates on new content

Asia Pacific Management Forum   Asia Market Research dot com   Branding Asia dot com
asia's only dedicated daily ezine for the asian business, management, strategy & marketing professional
research articles   news   independent columnists   business strategy   market & street intelligence

© Asia Pacific Management Forum and Piset Wattanavitukul 2001