Returning soon...

Blogging is going to be light for the next few days (as it has been for the past few). I am kind of relocating to Guangzhou for a few months as I work to change the way we work and the way our organization thinks. As noted in a previous email, it's going to be an interesting challenge (that's supposed to be some Chinese curse incidentally - 'may you live in interesting times').

My company is going through a number of changes, most of them preparing for the growth that we're expecting - and compounding the difficulties in any growing organization is a significant language barrier (I don't speak mandarin and most of them don't speak cantonese or english). I have to get up to speed and I have to do it quickly and in the midst of all of this we are adding a new accounting/ERP system and all the fun that comes with that.

This could actually be a new direction for this blog but I need to consider what I want/can talk about. My ultimate goal is to change the DNA of our company. It may seem excessively naive of me particularly as a bit of an outsider in China, and to that end it can get a little irritating when people dismiss your ideas as an outsider but from what I've found, it's just a matter of patience. Though I may not have much of that, I'd like to think that I make up for it in persistance.

I'd like to do in China what is already challenging for some in North America - having those who work with me feel that it's their company as well, optimizing around everyone's strengths, improving revenue and profitability metrics per team member and sharing in that wealth, and improving transparent communication and improving on trust. I'd like to document some of where I hope to head (and why), my successes and failures in the hopes that it may be useful for readers and myself later on.