China Recruiting Blog

Chinese Culture and Making Boring Profits

I learned about balance here in China.  My life showed signs of running from one ditch to another until I considered balance as found in Chinese ideas on eating and lifestyle and which are represented by Yin and Yang.  I have never become a follower of any Chinese local religious thought, but China moved me with their principle of balance. It also contributes to them helping many companies in making boring profits.

There are times in life when one should be extreme, but in general the conservative path of balance of the Chinese can be instructive to the overspending Westerners.  Often work is done well by reducing variance and making boring profits. So, the balanced, boring and even not very colorful Chinese people are just what business needs.

So, we can see a reason why Chinese make good quality products and boring profits when properly led. They have that base and are not flighty. Factory work is too boring for people in many cultures. Tell them their goal is to make 10,000 more exactly the same but the exact same process, and they are dying. The diligent conservative Chinese people are ready. They can take the boredom better than many other cultures. They can hold a process stable.

China – The Place for Making Boring Profits

I once received a US business leader in a factory I was leading in China, and he looked around my plant and came back and said he would invest in China.  He then very successfully invested $10M.  He had previously started a factory in the Philippines. It is a colorful place, but he had trouble making boring profits in a culture that is so alive. That factory I started and led made better quality than the California plant after just one month of production. China’s potential is great when properly led.  You may also want to read how the Chinese culture succeeded at start of covid.

Their gap is often that Western companies do not invest enough in making sure they get the right leadership.  Then they do worse than California and wonder what is wrong with China. Nothing is wrong with China. They did not find the right way to ensure good hiring.  Let’s Make this Money, Be a Great Place to Work in China.

China was the answer for the factory leader coming from the Philippines, and it is another reason why manufacturing has taken root here.

Of course, many said China could not innovate as they are so boring.  But time is showing their diligence and commitment can bring many new things to market.  China is completely different than the West, so even their boring thoughts were innovative.  Imagine that.