Very insightful! And it matches well with the particular areas I've had experience.momopi wrote:Every culture has some quirks and it can either be of benefit to you or the opposite. The Chinese are more pragmatic and less perfectionist, so if you're the supplier, they're willing to overlook few minor flaws at the expense of the customer. The Japanese are more perfectionist and "beta" means "as good as production" to them. If you're the supplier to a Japanese company, expect them to nit-pick to perfection, to the customer's benefit. Minor cosmetic flaws, even those that do not affect the actual performance, is unacceptable. The Japanese are polite with one face but the other face is an Oni (*). I've personally witnessed Japanese managers chew out their subordinates in front of other peers with complete disregard for face saving.
Chinese companies can go overboard on hospitality for customers & guests, sending a chaffered car, putting you up at a nice hotel, treat you to banquets and take you to KTV. But to their own workers they'd go overboard on penny pinching. However the ethnic Chinese character has an undercurrent of rebellious streak. Given choice many Chinese would rather be their own bosses than working for someone else, and if pushed too far, the mob mentality takes over and they will riot. The Japanese, on the other hand, were generally better at being a "cog in the machine" and playing the role of the cog to perfection. But that's with the last generation and the current one, raised in relative comfort, have gotten lazy.
Korean bosses have a poor reputation because some of them have poor anger management skills and will verbally and physically abuse their workers. Stories of factory bosses making workers kneel because they didn't meet quotas, or beating workers are not uncommon in the press. I've never worked for a Korean company, so cannot testify to the experience.
If you've ever wondered where the biggest and best looking fruits went, for years they were shipped as premium products to Japan. However this is changing as American consumers are now more willing to pay more for organic or premium quality/selection produce.
(*) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oni
How would you compare these groups on their reliability in honoring contracts and business deals when you don't have power to enforce things?
As for Taco, I think he's just getting screwed over by peasant Filipinos who see him as mister moneybags even tho the poor guy hardly has any money lol.