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Re: Why is so hard to for majority Chinese companies to take documentation seriously?
Subject:Re: Why is so hard to for majority Chinese companies to take documentation seriously? From:"Moshe Kruger (AllWrite)" <moshe -dot- kruger -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> Date:Tue, 16 Jul 2013 23:42:23 +0300
I was a consultant on-site for a project involving a German mobile operator
and a well-known Chinese technology giant (the solution provider). The
solution was supposed to have been a complete and thorough transformation
of legacy systems in a way that would guarantee uninterrupted service.
It was a fascinating match, for if there are two cultures that are
diametrically opposed, these are they! At any event, I'll keep my comments
to the Chinese side of the equation, as they were my customer.
There are many answers to Simon's question. One sits at the meeting point
between two cultural axioms: (1) If information is power (and it certainly
is in China), then to succeed, you ought to share as little of it as
possible, whether it is among your peers or with your customers. Also,
putting something in writing is to over-commit, and that endangers the
other axiom: (2) Chinese business culture is about making maximum profits
from minimal investment. Anyone who has used a product that is "made in
China" knows that. It is no different in hi-tech. Minimalism says that if a
half-baked solution is good enough, why waste resources to make it better.
Chinese business people are forever pitching their solution just below
satisfaction level.
On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 6:17 PM, Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
> I think it's a lot simpler than that. They observe their competition and
> realize that nobody really cares much about documentation unless they're
> forced to by some ISO or government regulatory requirement, and being
> relatively new in the tech industry they see no particular reason to pay
> documentation the lip service that more established businesses give it
> before they end up ignoring it.
>
> Gene Kim-Eng
>
>
>
> On 7/15/2013 5:45 AM, Simon wrote:
>
>> I contribute my two cents here:
>> Most Chinese companies have no proprietary technology. Secondly, most
>> Chinese bosses think business is an art of connection(Guanxi). Good
>> processes and practices come next.
>>
>> What do you see the reasons? I have been with alocal Chinese company for
>> three years and the notion of "documentation" seems to be very disconnected
>> with local staff.
>>
>
>
>
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