Room With A View

I had an interesting dinner conversation at a party last weekend. Several people were involved. One individual was particularly interesting. He’s originally from China, attended university in the U.S., worked for Microsoft in the U.S. for several years, but is now back in China. He works for a U.S. based software company—not Microsoft. He’s been back in China for nearly ten years. Some key points from his conversation include:

1. At first they were very concerned over security and that their code may be stolen by employees. This turned out to not be a problem at all. He said the Asian desire to “save face” has meant that employees are very honest with the company’s code.
2. At first all managers were expats. Now fewer and fewer managers are expats. Good managers can now be found in China.
3. The “creative” side of the business still comes from overseas. Company innovations come from the U.S. I know Freedman in The World Is Flat quotes Bill Gates as saying it’s a myth that the creative side of work/education is better developed in the U.S. but the man I spoke to suggested otherwise.