STEP Reflection- Operations Global Lab China

My STEP project was to participate in the Operation Global Lab in China with the Fisher School of Business.  The trip consisted of meeting with industries across many different industries to understand how the companies operate on a global scale.  The trip involved spending one week in Hong Kong, three days in Shanghai and three days in Beijing.

China was a very special place and I can say I have definitely changed after being there.  Being in a country that is so different from your own can be very scary and overwhelming.  There were a few times where I felt lost.  I had to learn to overcome this feeling and to be able to navigate my way through this foreign land.  I always knew that China was a different place but after spending time there, you learn that a lot of it is the same.  I had always assumed that Chinese people would hate Americans but the people we encountered were very welcoming and friendly.  We had a few instances where local people would come up to us to take pictures to send to their friends and families.

I was also under the impression that the technology we came across would be very similar to that in the United States.  I can honestly say that I was surprised to find out how much more technologically advanced China was from the US.  The technology that was readily available to the mass public is technology that is still limited to corporate use in the US.

One experience that sticks out to me about interacting with the locals would be a stop we made in Beijing.  We stopped at a mall for free time on the way back from one of our business meetings.  A couple of us decided to find a restaurant to eat at.  When we got inside we found out that the menu had no English on it.  I began to panic a bit because I realized that this was going to be extremely hard to try and get lunch.  The workers in the restaurant recognized this as well and we could see the concerning looks on their faces.  Never the less I tried to use google translate to order beef.  We found out quickly that even google translate has its troubles.  The workers thought I was trying to order a whole cow and they were on their phones translating back that they don’t serve whole cows.  Our table started to laugh realizing that the language barrier was going to be too hard to break.  We opted to leave the restaurant after a few laughs with the workers and would up finding a restaurant with English on the menu.  Not once did the workers get mad at us or try to kick us out.  They tried their hardest to work with our group.  I appreciated this because in the US I can’t say that the same would have happened in the reverse situation.

An experience that sticks out to me about the advanced technology in the country would be the major use of RFID readers.  An RFID reader is a technology that allows for tap-and-go transactions.  Every transportation system we used in each city used RFID readers.  Whether it was the subway, the bus, the tram or even the ferry, each method of transportation was accessible from the tap-and-go metro cards.  I have never seen anything like this.  Being from New York, I am used to having to swipe the metro card in order to use the subway.  I know that the tap-and-go technology is being tested in some parts of the US, but I found that this technology was available in most parts of China.  This made me angry at first as to why china would be so far ahead, but also happy to know that this technology is proven and can soon be implemented in the US.

Another experience with advanced technology in the country would be the use of mobile phones for payments.  One of the toughest things to get over was that there is almost nowhere in China that will accept Visa or Master Card as forms of payment.  In the US I, as well as most people, are used to paying for everything with a credit card.  In China this is not the case.  Everybody, and I mean everybody, uses their mobile phone to pay for anything you can think of.  Food, gas, clothing, even transportation is just one phone scan away from being yours.  The main forms of payment are called WeChat Pay or Ali Pay.  Merchants have QR codes that the customer scans to pay for the item they are purchasing.  It is a quick and efficient system that you can’t find in the US.  After seeing this technology, it really hit me how much more advanced China is technology wise.  I hope that we can one day see this technology in the US.

The changes I experience in China were very important to me.  The goal of traveling to China was to learn about a very different culture and to see how that culture fits into the grand scale of global business operations.  I believe that I accomplished this goal.  China plays a major role in the world economy and engineering industry.  I believe that I know have a much better understanding of their role and the culture behind it.  I think this is important because it will give me an edge over other students and industry professionals in my field.  Sooner or later in the engineering world I will have to work with China/Chinese companies and I will be able to outperform my co-workers and give a better experience to my company and the customers I work with.  I also hope to work in China one day and by having this trip under my belt, I feel confident that I can succeed in any role I might have.  China now has a special place in my heart and I know I will be back there in the future.