Google and Lenovo are both among the most influential companies in the IT field, but being run by people that come from 2 differing cultural backgrounds, the way they operate are very different. Google runs its company on a employee-oriented basis, while Lenovo operates on the traditional way where its' CEO, Liu Chuanzhi has the final say.
Google operates by allowing its engineers to have 20% of their time allocated on their own personal projects. This promotes innovation and creativity as people can let their imagination run free to create a product that will be able to compete with others so that the product can receive funding to be executed. The extent of freedom Google provides its engineers are amazing, because under such unimaginable freedom, they do not feel stressed at all. In addition, the reason why Google daringly allows its engineers such freedom is because of its extremely strict and demanding employment criteria that only allows the best among the best to be selected. Under such conditions, Google can have no worries on its engineers not carrying out their jobs. Google reflects how important freedom is in the American society, as Americans view freedom as one of the most basic necessities. This point is further enforced by the fact that the Obama Administration is greatly similar to the Google way of management. However, I personally think that such freedom should not be allowed, as it is highly possible for individuals to steer off course in companies or societies. An example would be Google itself, producing up to more than 83 products. But out of all these products, only the Google search engine has beaten all of its rivals in its field, and none of the rest have been as successful as the original product of Google-the search engine itself. Most of them end up like Orkut, Google's social networking website, which I have not even heard of. Apparently, Orkut has been a hit only in Brazil and Iran. Orkut may be a good example of how potentially great products of Google has been buried too deep inside its webpage, where people do not even know about it.
Lenovo's management style is based on Confucian values, where "sage leadership" is encouraged. Such a "sage" would be Lenovo's CEO Liu Chuanzhi, who has brought Lenovo into the global market. Liu Chuanzhi shaped Lenovo by himself since its' birth, steering Lenovo out of dangerous obstacles and leading it into success. If there had been dissent from workers in Lenovo, Liu would have probably ignored it. And he was right in doing so. Such a way of management would be great as the "sage leader" will be able to lead the company towards success, but if one day the "sage" left, like Liu Chuanzhi did in 2005, the company might collapse as there might be the possibility that the next CEO might not be able to guide the company to success. Lenovo's management style greatly reflects the Chinese society, where the people are instilled with Confucian values and also listen to the leader. There was once when I went to Suzhou for an immersion programme and we visited a town that created a economic miracle that was similar to Singapore itself. The town secretary emphasised alot on supporting the China Communist Party and its ideal, as the town itself also supported and ran on communism. Suprisingly, the town had been led by a selfless leader by the surname Wu, and it was under his guidance that the town was able to succeed. But whether the town would be able after Wu's departure, no once can be certain.
In my opinion, freedom similar to that of Google's approach should be considered as innovation and creativity are essential for the company's development, but at the same time a general direction should be set down so that the company does not stray too far away from its goals, resulting in a waste of time and resources. The most suitable approach towards a company's management style is not to set creativity free in a ocean of freedom, but down the great river of success so that the creativity is able to be guided in the right direction.
Monday, January 30, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Reflective Journal 1
Last Friday, we had out very first SES lesson. We were briefed about the syllabus, the motive behind setting up such a lesson and also the mode of assessment, which is not by pen and pencil, but in the form of oral presentation. I believe this is because our school wants us to be able to communicate with others well so that we can share our knowledge and opinions with others. The lesson was set up because our school thinks that China and America will become the two major economic powerhouses in the future and therefore it is important for us to be able to work under the cultural scenes of both countries. Under the SES syllabus, we will be able to learn more about the different ways people from different cultures function and behave. There will be case studies that will enable us to explore how the society affects the economy and vice versa. Although I am not a person who often speaks up in class, I believe that this lesson will make(or rather force) me to speak up more as it is important for us to be able to voice out and also defend our opinions in the assessment.
Yesterday, we had our first official SES lesson. During the lesson, what I think was an important aspect of the lesson was the importance of cultural intelligence when interacting with others. Ms. Yeo raised the example of the HSBC advertisment. If one does not possess the cultural intelligence to understand others, there will often be misunderstandings when he interacts with other people from different cultural backgrounds. At the time, I thought that if a person who is working with people from different cultural backgrounds does not possess cultural intelligence, he will often make misunderstandings, which will leave a very bad impression for his superiors. This situation will definitely be more common in the future if China does develop into the economic powerhouse the world expects it to be as more Western people head towards China in search of a new economic hinterland. Subsequently, I also realised that to first be able to possess a high cultural intelligence, the most important factor is to have the drive to do so. If a person is not interested in the different cultures, he will not willingly learn the differences between cultures. A person with the passion to learn about other cultures will regard the differences very importantly, and so he will subconciously act differently in front of people from different cultures to avoid offending them unknowingly. Such people will be noticed easily by companies as a talent and will succeed in his career. This demonstrates the importance of our motivation to learn about different cultures. Having analysed the different aspects of cultural intelligence, I have learned that what will ultimately affect the way we interact with others is the strategic aspect of cultural intelligence. It is important sometimes for us to know clearly what to do, whether be it to be able to gain the attention of other companies or to draw the line clearly to other people. Strategic planning is important as it will affect the message we intend to convey to others. The desired outcome will be affected greatly if the message is not conveyed correctly, and sometimes a single mishap is the difference between having a job or none. It is therefore of crucial importance that we ensure through our knowledge of other cultures and strategic planning that the message that we intend to convey to others will be able to be understood very clearly.
Yesterday, we had our first official SES lesson. During the lesson, what I think was an important aspect of the lesson was the importance of cultural intelligence when interacting with others. Ms. Yeo raised the example of the HSBC advertisment. If one does not possess the cultural intelligence to understand others, there will often be misunderstandings when he interacts with other people from different cultural backgrounds. At the time, I thought that if a person who is working with people from different cultural backgrounds does not possess cultural intelligence, he will often make misunderstandings, which will leave a very bad impression for his superiors. This situation will definitely be more common in the future if China does develop into the economic powerhouse the world expects it to be as more Western people head towards China in search of a new economic hinterland. Subsequently, I also realised that to first be able to possess a high cultural intelligence, the most important factor is to have the drive to do so. If a person is not interested in the different cultures, he will not willingly learn the differences between cultures. A person with the passion to learn about other cultures will regard the differences very importantly, and so he will subconciously act differently in front of people from different cultures to avoid offending them unknowingly. Such people will be noticed easily by companies as a talent and will succeed in his career. This demonstrates the importance of our motivation to learn about different cultures. Having analysed the different aspects of cultural intelligence, I have learned that what will ultimately affect the way we interact with others is the strategic aspect of cultural intelligence. It is important sometimes for us to know clearly what to do, whether be it to be able to gain the attention of other companies or to draw the line clearly to other people. Strategic planning is important as it will affect the message we intend to convey to others. The desired outcome will be affected greatly if the message is not conveyed correctly, and sometimes a single mishap is the difference between having a job or none. It is therefore of crucial importance that we ensure through our knowledge of other cultures and strategic planning that the message that we intend to convey to others will be able to be understood very clearly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)