Fast Pace... Slow Change

Fast Pace……  Slow Change

I guess that it shouldn’t be surprising that a country that is steeped in history and tradition would be slow to change; but when you are surrounded by modern skyscrapers and the incredible transportation infrastructure; it remains a little surprising.

The everyday life of a Chinese person, living in the big cities, has undergone a major transformation in the past 20 years.  I relate well to a conversation that I had recently with one of my colleagues.  We were talking about the rapid pace of change that the world has undergone in the past 100 years.  I related a conversation that I had not so long ago with Grandma McCloskey wherein she described the major shift in life style in her lifetime (100 years).  She began with the sanitary infrastructure (in house water and toilets) which completely changed the way of life for many people.  This coupled with conveniences like electric lights, heating systems, gas stoves, telephones, radios, TVs, refrigeration , washers, dryers, vacuums, and so on really made life much easier and afforded people a chance to really use their time more productively. 

Hence the dawn of the industrial revolution. 

During this time, life in China remained virtually unchanged.  Labor was plentiful and hence the need for modern conveniences was minimal and actually posed a threat to the livelihood of much of the population.  Even today there are many signs of this parochial thinking.   Case in point:  we are discouraged from clearing our table at McDonalds for fear that we would be jeopardizing someone’s livelihood.  It wasn’t until about 25 years ago that the government took on the task of transforming the country into a 21^st or 22^nd Century powerhouse.  This task didn’t come lightly.  The skills necessary to transform the infrastructure did not exist in the Chinese population as the Chinese had resisted outside influence and therefore the people were not educated based on global advancements rather only those that were locally invented or those that the government deemed “non threatening” to the power and authority of the government.  So how do you convert a country from rural life to world power status in a matter of 25 years?  They had to rely on the expertise from global sources; they started importing technology from the leading countries around the world.  Unfortunately their approach was to copy rather than invent but it was a start.  As the changes were beginning to take place, the people began to see the importance of education and change.  People were taught the necessary skills to transform the landscape but something was still missing.  When you are taught without experiencing or experimenting yourself your learning really isn’t complete.  People need to be given the authority of decision making and the ability to experiment, to be able to really understand the technology behind the action. I equate it to a persons ability to drive a car without ever being in the car, practicing and learning by doing.  Something is missing; and this same issue we see in almost everything they do.  Without understanding the reasoning; life becomes a cookbook and advancement is a forced function. 

So, as I related at the beginning of this entry, my colleague related to me his vision of the future when he was a boy just 25 years ago.  At the age of 7, one of his neighbors bought a car and he thought that this was the most amazing thing; that an individual could own a car and come a go as he pleased.  He vowed that one day he would be successful enough to one day be able to ride in a car like that; he would never have dreamed that he may one day own one himself.  Needless to say, he now owns his own car and one day dreams of owning a BMW.  Times here in China have changed so quickly that many of the normal learning’s never happened.  I remember having a discussion with my Mom about Brad Weage.  He was the smartest kid I knew growing up and I was telling my mom that he didn’t belong in elementary school but he should go to high school.  But she would say that “there is a lot in life that you need to learn and most of it doesn’t come from books”.  So True!! Many abilities that we take for granted (Painting for instance) are in scarce supply here, I recon that this too is a result of the fast growth and strict adhesion to the rules. 

So all this is to say that the Chinese understand well the requirement for commerce and success in the China Market, but what they lack is a real understanding of the global market requirements.  Success in China has been easy for a Chinese company because of the rapid growth of the economic and personal “wealth”.   However this is changing.  As I mentioned in a previous entry, the Chinese people now have little confidence in the Chinese products because of the quality level of Chinese products.  I had an interesting experience recently when I was trying to get my colleagues at the manufacturing plant to better understand the difference the BMW level of quality from what they produce today.  I asked a room full of operators if they would rather buy a locally made product or a foreign made product.  Almost without exception they would choose the imported item.  When asked why, they stated that the quality of the imported item was better.  When I pointed out that they are directly responsible for the quality of the Chinese automotive product, they did not understand.  Try as I might I could not convince them that they determine the quality. They were insistent that the car manufacturing plant and the designers determine the quality level of the components.   With this view of quality, it will be very difficult to reach global levels of quality in our plant.

Quality seems to be something that every Chinese person is looking for but they don’t seem to know how to achieve it.  I also asked a group of managers at the plant if they believe that the quality of an instrument panel for a $20,000 car should be different than the quality of an instrument panel for a $50,000 car.  Everyone agreed that the $50,000 car component should have better quality.  On the surface this may be true but I believe that the quality should be the same.  The execution of the design should be equally as good for both products only the quality of the materials and the features in the component for the $50,000 car should be better.  So they seem to be able to justify things like, poor fits, grease, dirt and scratches on the components because the customer is building cheap cars.  So my job has again become one of culture change.

We were recently putting together a “Quality begins with ME” campaign and we needed to agree on an approach for this campaign.  The HR director presented his plan; it consisted of telling the people what to do and punishing them for non- compliance!! When I suggested that better learning takes place through employee involvement (i.e. letting them decided what was better quality) he said that it would never work.  So you can imagine what happens to their ideas for process and quality improvement. 

So since we have to be able to supply premium quality parts for BMW now, we have had to change the way we do business.  We set up an area inside the plant where we would reach these high quality levels with special facilities, specially trained operators, and special high capability machines.  So after constructing this “building inside the building” we brought BMW to see the progress we had made.  When they went to open the door to this new facility, the door stuck, when they looked at the brand new floor, it was full of scratches, when they looked at the work benches, the drawers would not work because of the excessive amounts of paint and the poor fits.  The Chinese fail to see that quality is not just the elimination of mistakes but the care that you take in everything that you do.  

Chinese car quality has significantly improved over the past 15 years but as the gap narrows, the challenge becomes greater.  

I expect that as the market pressures increases and the global awareness of personal expectations does likewise, that the Chinese products will adjust not unlike the change that the Japanese products underwent in the ‘70s.  For now I will continue to raise my expectations and hope that it, in some way, it rubs off on my colleagues.