Chenggong - "Success"

I am back to Normal... literally. I arrived Saturday evening at the Bloomington airport to my lovely bride, Pamela's, smiling face and perfectly clear blue skies that I really had not seen in weeks. It is wonderful to be back to the simple life. It is good to be back where people really understand me. No translation needed.  I found that the most difficult headache in my 28 day trip was not knowing the Chinese language.  While the Chinese are making a very big step to improve their English skills, they are a long way from really being able to speak English so almost all conversations had to be translated.  Not that I blame them for not knowing English.  After all, if they came to America, how many Americans could speak a lick of Chinese?  It was still difficult, though, when we were trying to communicate difficult subjects, particularly technical ideas, and leadership ideas.

Culture

The cultures are very different.  The government policies are different.  Everything is different except the hearts of the people who as Dean Kuroff from my team mentioned in one of the meetings.  We all want the same things... quality of life and pursuit of happiness.  Liberty?  Maybe not, but the government seems to be able to keep their economy rolling at an 8.1% growth rate for GDP so they have the freedom to pursue enterprise.  The people are being fed and that keeps revolution away and the government in tact.  There is no such thing as outsourcing when you have 1.6 billion people.  People generally seem to be satisfied and the government does seem to really try to attend to the people's needs.  Jobs are job 1.

It was an amazing experience.  I respect many aspects of the Chinese way of life.  They are very orderly except when it comes to traffic.  When their government decides to do something, they do it.  There is very little wrangling among the leadership.  So when I say that I think our Executive Service Corps recommendations will be carried out, I can say, "Shoulda or Yes",  I think they will.

Final  Banquet at the Secluded Purple Palace

We were successful.  In Pinyin (Western Alphabet of Chinese) success is spelled "Chenggong." The Fab 5, as we jokingly called ourselves, delivered a very complete 140 page Powerpoint report and our recommendations were well received.  Mayor Ji and his Directors and Vice Mayors seemed genuinely excited to receive the results.  We feel pretty good about the work that we did in 3 short weeks.  We are confident that it will provide ample opportunity for both the City of Nanjing and the local IBM team who covers the public sector in China to make considerable progress on all 4 of the objectives laid out for us:  Smarter City, Software Development, Industry Transformation, and Social Media.

Final Charter

We had a very aggressive scope of work and realistically we could have taken anyone of them and gone deeper more effectively.  You do what you must, however, and we were chartered by the Mayor on these 4 areas so we worked to deliver something of value in all 4.  I think we did it.  It was a marvelous experience and team effort.

Let's put it this way.  They want us all back in mid-October to carry out the recommendations and do a deeper dive in each of the areas.  The major focus they want us back for is the Smarter City objective.  They have some serious problems in implementing a Smarter City, particularly with traffic control.

It was something that everyone should do in their lifetime.... take a sabbatical to another country for a bit. Of course, if you can get someone to put you up in a 4 star hotel, drive you wherever you need to go, and treat you like royalty, leap at the chance.  IBM's ESC program is a great for developing leaders and kicking off major new efforts in the emerging countries.  I can't say that this is a truly humanitarian effort, but I can say that "we came, we saw, and we made a difference."  It is all related to to pursuit of happiness which we were told by one official, is what matters.  To know that you made a difference contributes to well being.

I think I can speak for my team that this was a unique and wonderful experience.  I went with a little trepidation and being away from family was certainly a challenge.  But, I wouldn't have changed anything.  I leave you with a saying from Confucius:  Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.  You will be well rewarded.  Thanks, IBM, and the City of Nanjing (who will never see this behind the Great Chinese Firewall) for the opportunity to do something will all of my heart.

Nanjing is beautiful and full of potential

Nanjing Software Expo reminds me of Comdex in the 80's

Fond of Nanjing

I have grown very fond of Nanjing. It is a city of great potential. I have seen many sides of the city. It is beautiful and visually stunning.  It has culture. The people are well educated and hard working and crazy drivers - ask me about traffic chaos theory.

Hello Nanjing Web Site

It has resources. It has some very sincere and capable leaders. It even has a good sense of openness to ideas from around the world. All of this, but it still has to conform to central government policies which in some cases require a less than perfect strategy. Ok, this is just another architectural constraint, right? I deal with these everyday. It is frustrating, but there are ways around the constraints.

If you were to move here you would find mountains, lakes, rivers, and and a passion for greatness. What else is needed?  How about an effective management system? Yes, I think this is what is needed. It is fundamentally what we will provide in our recommendation.  Our slide deck is now at 125 but how to short to 10 slides for Mayor Ji?  Hmm.

The Team

Our team is well matched. Despite the pressure of cranking through what should have been a much more limited scope that is trying to solve all of Nanjing's evolutionary issues, we gel well and are pretty compatible. We are already talking about a reunion in Bora Bora or Figi. Or more realistically, Las Vegas. :-)

We meet with the IBM and Chinese media over the next couple of days to prep them for what will be. You will be able to read about this on IBM's intranet and the CCTV in China. (Good luck finding that on Hulu.)

Doug Robinson - Team Member and PM

We meet with Mayor Ji on Friday. Mayor Ji is responsible for a 8 million person corporation. The challenges are great. I think we are up to the task.

Back to Normal

I would like to share so much with you all as this has been an experience of a lifetime. I miss my family, though. I have never been away this long from them or my dear friends.  I miss my tennis group, my church, my small group and the harvest moon. I miss the smell of smoke in the backyard from all of the fires post high school football games.  I miss it all.  You wouldn't think that one month is that long.  I can't wait to catch up with all of you.

We wrap this up soon and it will be back to Normal by Saturday evening.

One of my jobs in this consulting gig is to help Nanjing develop a social media strategy. Blogging is just one component of social media. Thanks for indulging me in it.  See you soon.

On a Clear Day......

I woke up this fine Saturday morning to find the clearest day we have had so far.  No clouds and minimal pollution.  A great day to go out and explore the city.  Today we are headed out to see the Japanese Massacre site and a boat trip down the Yangtze river.  I am taking my camera so be prepared for more photos on the Flickr site:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinaesc3 .

Here is what I was treated to out my 65th floor window this morning:

Mid-Term Report - Excellent!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we made our mid-term report to the Nanjing government today. It was a two and 1/2 hour meeting with the Vice Mayor.  It went very well, but we have realized just how much extra work is required next week to provide detail to our recommendations.  But, the weekend is ahead and we need a break.

We are on to an Italian restaurant called Ciao and then a massage.  A much needed break after a long week of work in preparation for our presentation. Everyone did a great job setting up for the recommendations for next week.  We think we are well on our way towards helping the City of Nanjing in their quest to be a Smarter City who cares about their citizens and provides many green jobs in the software industry.

Our Photo Library

Our team has been taking lots of photos!  We will be consolidating them on our Flickr site which you can find here:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/chinaesc3  We will be adding more as I get them from my mates.  There are a few dodgy photos in there (not the best).  "Dodgy" is a new word I I have learned my Australian teammate, Doug.

Management Consulting is Hard! But I love it.

The Mission

My team from Left, Me, Ron, Judith, Doug & Dean

Hi everyone from beautiful Nanjing, China.  Sorry I haven't posted any new entries for several days.  We are heavy into cranking through the interview notes, city documents, and various sessions we have had with the IBM teams closest to the Smarter Cities initiative which the City of Nanjing has undertaken.  What we are doing is management consulting, pure and simple.  The IBM Corporate Service Corps is much more of a grassroots, on the ground, hands on effort to build a solution to solve a specific problem.  Sometimes the work is humanitarian in nature. The executive service corps is much more of a relationship building effort at the executive level that also is designed to tackle major strategic problems. There is more management strategy involved, which frankly I love.  I really enjoy tacking Harvard Case studies.  The Nanjing mission qualifies.

In our case we have been chartered to look at 4 major areas where the City of Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province, has decided to build their future upon:

1. Software Development and Outsourcing - Want to Rival Bangalore in outsourcing capabilities and revenue.
2. Smarter City - Keen on building a smarter city that builds a high quality of life for citizens through better transportation, healthcare, water, and electrical grids.
3. Industry Transformation - Would like to upgrade the more than 1000 enterprises in the city through business transformation software such as ERP Systems.
4. Social Computing - Building a bridge between citizen and government to provide for "Happy Citizens."  

Nanjing - A Second City Who Wants to Compete at the Highest Level

If you look at China today you find some very interesting dynamics that look very familiar to anyone who has been in IBM for 30+ years (of which there are very few these days).  In the early days of IBM we had divisions that competed with each other.  In history, China's economy has been very closed.  In the early 1990's everything changed for China.  They started to compete globally.  But, until then, all of the cities in China competed for country resources and looked to stand out in ways to convince the highest party leaders of their competence and might.  Specialization existed in many provinces and cities.  Everyone today looks to provide the best jobs for their people as those who have jobs are the best fed.  People who have food are happy people and not prone to revolution or uprising in the land.  Jobs are the new currency both here and abroad.  China is focused on jobs and green jobs are the best.  What is the most green job?..... Software development.  It involves a higher level of intellect and training and generally commands higher wages than lower level service jobs.  It is something that the US wants to outsource as labor costs and overhead are very high in the US making software development expensive.  With a very powerful currency, the US can find much cheaper labor overseas and often does largely at the expense of the "middle class." 

Nanjing wants to best the other cities in China and Bangalore.  They have a very tall order, but I would have to say that they are well positioned to do this if they can focus on a couple of very key areas:  Software Engineering and Full Lifecycle of Development and testing are clear opportunities and areas often neglected by their competitors. They can do this as they take a very rigorous approach to quality and testing - it is their factory and manufacturing psyche.  

English competency is still an issue, but here is an interesting fact.  The Universities in Nanjing teach all of their computer science classes in english and they use english textbooks.  Their ability to speak the language is there, but because of saving face and not wanting to make mistakes, prevent them from really trying to speak face to face.  We do everything through interpreters.  If you have ever had to spend your entire day working through interpreters, you will find that taxing, but also in many ways easier.  You can often think about what you want to say while something is being interpreted.  The down side is that every meeting lasts twice longer than usual.  It is just something you get used to, but my assessment is that it doesn't necessarily breed trust as everything is done through interpretation and we all know that there are things missed and lost in interpretation. 

Service Opportunity - Talking Careers at Nanjing University

All five of my team, Ron, Doug, Dean, Judith and myself went back to school to speak with the business students at the University of Nanjing about careers in business and more specifically in IBM.  It was a good time meeting with young people and hearing about their aspirations.  Interesting.... most wanted to get a good government job.  I tried filling their minds with dreams of becoming the next Facebook, but after the FB stock has dropped so low, I am not sure that they are too keen on trying to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.  I did have to laugh that one young man in my group decided that he wanted to work for Boston Consulting as a management consultant.  He said "if that doesn't work out, I will go get a government job."  

Deep Thoughts

I could give you a day by day sense of our engagement, but I won't.  We can talk about it in person when we see each other back in the states.  A few deep thoughts before I retire:

• It is important to have a good driver.  Driving is crazy here and if you don't have a good driver you will end up with your face in the back of the front seat.
• We don't have Dragon Fruit in the US, but we need it.  It is very tasty.  
• There isn't much variety of food here. It is difficult to find an "American" restaurant that is not KFC or McDonalds.  KFC doesn't have original recipe either.  :-)  Just crispy and spicy wings.  McDonalds is pretty much the same, but they also sell chicken here.
• Massages are cheap!  $15 for a one hour massage.  Beware of foot reflexiology, though, it is a bruising experience.  I am still not totally recovered from that.
• Pedicures are cheap and I was forced to have one.  :-)
• Chinese are crazy about golf, but there are no golf professionals in China.  They have learned about golf by reading books.  It is still expensive to play here, though.  Not like Central Illinois!
• The central government IS in charge and once convinced can make anything happen as we saw in the Bejing Olympics. There are days I long for this in the US, but given who we have in congress and the presidency, I am thankful that we don't have highly centralized government.
• Like the US, everyone is basically now supported by the government and have government jobs.
• Like most places in the world outside of the middle east, people are very nice and respectful here.
• The cost of food is cheaper.  A big mac, fries and a coke are 15 RMB - about $2.25.  Services are cheap, too.  

The Engagement

Do They Have What it Takes?

The City of Nanjing wants to be a world class software development headquarters.  They have the assets.  There are more than 50 Universities here in Nanjing.  One of the colleges has a software institute that leads all of China in turning out software engineers.  Their curriculum is amazing and much deeper in focus on software engineering and full lifecycle of development than most American schools.

They have built software parks that look and produce like silicon valley.  Our visits to the governmental agencies are all focused on the mission of producing high value jobs.  They are willing to do what ever it takes to edge out India for software outsourcing.  Because of their manufacturing prowess, they are very skilled in embedded development.  They could become the Smarter Planet Showcase for the world.  They have built a Smarter Transportation System already.

Why haven't they taken over already?  That is what we are aiming to find out.