Reflective Journal Entry 2

Time flies and now week 5 has passed. Until now, I have been through several CDE lessons, and I have learned a lot from these lessons. For the first few lessons, Mr Karplus told us that we would be learning about the Western and Eastern cultures. Indeed, the CDE lessons until now have touched on many aspects of the differences of the Western and Eastern cultures. For the past few lessons, we have looked into the different managing styles of the East and West, focusing more on the Western managing styles. Mr Karplus touched on examples such as Apple and Google and introduced us to their management styles and indeed it was an eye opener. I also realiseded that although these 2 companies are both Western companies, they do not necessarily have similar management styles. Another example given was Lenovo, a Chinese company that has prospered in the West. This case study us allows to see and understand how a Chinese company is able to thrive and prosper in the Western world.

Using this new learned knowledge about the varying management style of both worlds and their pros and cons, we were then asked to use this information and what we have learned in CDE so far to assume the role of management consultants and provide advice to help a China based firm to expand into the US market. We are tasked to create a presentation on the suggestions that we have for the Chinese company that we have chosen and also include what they could adopt from Apple and Google.

For this presentation, our group decided to work on the Chinese sportswear company Xtep. Our rationale for choosing Xtep was that it is one of the leading domestic fashion sportswear brands in China, but has little to no presence outside of mainland China. We researched and looked into the current state of Xtep and its business model, then comparing it with other companies. By looking at the success stories of companies such as Li-Ning and Lenovo, we were able to come up with some major points that can possibly help Xtep for their venture into the US market. Other than that, we also included some points that Xtep can learn from Google.

The suggestions that we came up for Xtep was to adopt some of the American management styles and employ Americans so as to get some insight into the American market. Other than that, Xtep can also try to sponsor some famous athletes to let their product reach a wider range of audience.

Through this presentation, I also got the chance to look at the other groups present on the various different companies that they have chosen. They choose companies such as WeChat, Li-Ning, Geely, Meizu and Qihoo 360. From their presentations, I was able to understand more about these companies and what their group thinks these companies should do to expand into the US market. It was interesting to here some of the suggestions that are different from what our group proposed and I think that I learned a lot more from their presentations. Since all these companies range from sports companies to tech companies, I was able to understand more about the different industries and how they operate.

In conclusion, I have learned a lot from these 5 weeks of CDE lessons. For the last few lessons, I was able to learn much more about the different management styles of the east and west through the case studies on Google, Apple and Lenovo. Other than that, the presentations also provided a deeper insight on how to adapt Chinese companies into the US market in order for them to thrive. They also allowed me to see the problems that they face, which clearly demonstrates the differences between the Eastern and Western management styles.

Overall, I am looking forward to the next few CDE lessons and I hope that CDE will continue to be enriching and enjoyable at the same time.