Tulane University Freeman School BLOG

Whew. I’m back. Jet lag done, class done (really, I have about 2 classes) and graduation on the horizon. This is also tulaneMBA’s 400th post! A lot’s changed in the two years since this blog got started: Freeman’s rankings have continued to improve, New Orleans’ image has also improved (much to the chagrin of the NYT), and we’ve grown by leaps and bounds as well. OK, enough shameless self promotion, onto the trip!

What follows are the first of many excerpts from the final paper I wrote for my China class, along with various asides and pictures injected in. There’s a loose chronological order, but don’t get offended if I backtrack because I remembered something else cool. All pictures I took can be found here.

Up until my flight over to Beijing, I expected the China class at Tulane to closely approximate my two prior global leadership classes. We would learned a little about the country, culture and business environment before heading over for a few days to a week for an intensive session. My China class, however, has been different. The business, culture, people, norms and morays are completely different than anything I’ve ever been exposed to. I’ve never been to a country that doesn’t speak or write in a non-Romanesque language. In fact, the entire concept of the pillar industries is something foreign to me. Thankfully, I’ve had thirteen hours on my flight to Beijing to redigest the previous class sessions and my outside knowledge of China.

I arrived in China about 12 hours ahead of the rest of my class (free flight, thanks Amex Rewards!) They say that flying east leaves you full of bullets vs. west leaves you dead (both true). After yanking out 2500RMB (about $290) and cabbing it to the hotel (aside1 - ok the biggest surprise for me was that no one - no one - spoke english. Beijing, a city of almost 20 mm and virtually no one speaks english except on University Campuses. Totally different than my travels this summer where I was able to get by in Prague, Vienna, Budapest, France, etc.) I decided to take a walk around. I ended up at the Bell Temple. Don’t ask me how I got here or if I could find it again - I can’t, but all the same for 10 quai (slang for RMB, the equivalent of our ‘buck’), I saw some really cool, and huge, bells.

I know from class that China placed a heavy emphasis on its ‘Pillar Industries.’ We specifically focused on the auto industry and spend a great deal of time learning about the concept of joint ventures and partnerships as a way for China to encourage technology transfer and growth. There were a few main reasons for this specific stage of China’s technology revolution, however I believe the main reason reinforced to us in class was to produce unity in the country. The auto industry challenge for China is to construct an economy that was never there before. Unlike the nascent stages of the automobile in the United States and Europe, China does not have the equivalent of our Henry Ford. Something has to hold up the auto industry and MAKE it work. Enter the strength of the Chinese government. The government recognized that the auto industry could at once link the country and galvanize its workers into the next pillar technological revolution. As we learned in class, the auto industry is a global one which by its very nature supports a large portion of the local economy. This represented a great economic opportunity for the Chinese government. They ensured that they were in control over the entire market process by initially granting only one foreign company a license. There were a few reasons for this: the company needed to be 100% trustworthy, have a global capability and footprint and the best technology available in the world to transfer to China. These were the feet of China’s new pillar auto economy.

You don’t see ‘em like this over here

One of our three buses - a complete ripoff of the Mercedes-Benz design. The grifter-looking guy on the right is begging for plastic bottles (do they pay people to recycle here?)

So the Bell Temple was the bulk of my first day. There’s a few vids below. Stay tuned for day 2, class, and food!

-Joel Yarmon, joel@tulanemba.org

At the Bell Temple from joel on Vimeo.

More Bell Temple from joel on Vimeo.

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