What?
“Kai-fu Lee, Google Inc’s former China chief who quit the search giant this week, said on Sunday he will launch his own business next week to fund Chinese technology start-ups.”
*Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5850BQ20090906
(Sept. 06, 2009)
“…During his tenure at Google, Dr. Lee built a 700-person organization with many successes. Under his leadership, Google China’s market share nearly doubled from 16.1% to 31.0% in the past three years (Analyses International)….
Dr. Lee has also devoted himself to fostering the professional growth of Chinese technology students. He has given hundreds of lectures to about 500,000 students, and has written seven public letters and three books for Chinese students. His first book, Be Your Personal Best, sold over one million copies and is still on many best-seller lists. Dr. Lee has built his own website for Chinese students (www.5xue.com) and answered thousands of questions from students.
A true entrepreneur, Dr. Lee will announce a new project on September 7th, 2009. This new project will combine Dr. Lee’s passion for entrepreneurship, technology, experience in building organizations, and love for mentoring young executives.”
*Source: http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2009/09/google_china_he.html
(Sept. 04, 2009)
Lee wrote in Chinese:
“… 我的下一步就是和中国青年人一起打造新奇的技术奇迹，我想用自己的主动性做一个掌控全局的工作。 My next step is to build the Chinese youth with the novelty of the technological marvels, I would like to control their own initiative to do a whole job. 我已经到了这个人生阶段，再不去做，我真的很怕来不及了。 I’ve been to this stage of life, do not do it, I’m really afraid of too late.
所以，尽管加州的山景城再次向我伸出了橄榄枝，希望我再续约四年，但是我却在此刻做出了发自内心的选择，我希望帮助年轻人圆梦的同时也圆自己的创业梦想。 So, while Mountain View, California, offered an olive branch to me again, I hope I renew for four years, but I made from the heart at this moment of choice, I want to help young people realize their dreams as well as fulfill their entrepreneurial dream.
这个周末，我终于能够从业务发展、战略策划、离职宣布、工作交接中松一口气。 This weekend, I was finally able to from a business development, strategic planning, separation, announced the transfer of work in relief. 这个周末，我会把我的思路理顺。 This weekend, I will straighten out my thinking. 下周，我会和大家分享的我的“从心选择”计划。 Next week, I will share my “From Heart Select” program.
每当我想到我将迈出的一步，我就会想起苹果创始人乔布斯的名言： Whenever I think I will be a step, I would think of Apple founder Steve Jobs’s famous remark:
“最重要的，拥有跟随内心与直觉的勇气，你的内心与直觉多少已经知道你真正想要成为什么样的人。任何其它事物都是次要的。” ‘The most important, have the courage to follow the heart and intuition, your heart and intuition already know how much you really want to be what kind of person. Any other things are secondary.’…”
*5xue.com (Translated): http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.5xue.com%2F&sl=zh-CN&tl=en&history_state0=
(Sept. 04, 2009)
P.S. “Google translate“ did a good job in China too.
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PK*Says
Today, I’m not going to discuss in detail about Google and its executive, but to reflect and share my vision about China in the global business context.
- Dr. Lee aims to support the growth of Chinese’s high-technology companies. Also, he provides a great contribution to the educational and personal development for Chinese people. He created a website to support that as shown in the link above. That’s a good idea. Anyway, you may have seen many cases in different areas which are similar to this one before. What does that mean? Chinese people are now trying to reform the educational system both in the private and public sectors. China has already had the labor skills and what they need now is the brainpower. Otherwise, all the executives will be the foreigners.
- Many Chinese companies still take a lead in China, such as the ones in search engine and mobile phone industries – why? Doing business in China is not easy, especially if you are trying to change the attitude of Chinese people. China used to be in a closed-loop system. That still has a huge impact on the attitude of Chinese people in the society. You have to ‘crack’ into the culture first following by creating a great relationship with local people. As I have known some people doing business with Chinese companies, language also indeed plays a very important role. It’s probably a must in China. As I observe, many of my international friends from China, Korea and Taiwan also use personal computers operated in their own languages, not English. Is this good enough to be the evidence?
- For a big picture, we should review the history a little bit: “…With the rise of Western economic and military power beginning in the mid-19th century, non-Chinese systems of social and political organization gained adherents in China. Some of these would-be reformers totally rejected China’s cultural legacy, while others sought to combine the strengths of Chinese and Western cultures. In essence, the history of 20th-century China is one of experimentation with new systems of social, political, and economic organization that would allow for the reintegration of the nation in the wake of dynastic collapse.”
[*Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China]
- Worldview is always a key of success for a new talent at work. Kaifu Lee had also leaded “Google China” to offer free and legal music in China, acting against some of Baidu’s illegal activities which got into trouble now. Baidu is one of the largest Chinese search engines. [*More about Baidu on the music issue: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/04/watch-out-baidu-china-clamps-down-on-music-piracy/] You know “Copy right” is like a bridge to connect people in the global business together. At this point, Dr. Lee knows how to deal with people from another side of the world in order to serve Chinese people, and somehow, he is trying to develop a new business along the line.
- China is a good case study for some other developing countries, such as Thailand. After China opened the country, we have seen a giant wave moving Chinese people toward the goal together (not only in their country). They want to be a developed country in Asia. Nowadays, China is accepted to be one of the world’s most influential countries. However, they still have to face some difficulties in doing a global business – the copyright issue. This has a huge impact on Chinese businesses in many ways from now to the future through the process of development. Today, no matter how much Chinese people could accomplish in the new technological and educational systems like what Mr.Lee did, as shown in the statistics, they still have to face many problems related to the copyright issue. For example, it’s difficult for people from the outside to run a company in China because they are afraid of having trouble competing with the dark market, and so on.
- Who is going to pay for your stuff if they can get the same product which is available all around for free? Most people in developing countries still have that attitude in mind, and yet, many illegal businesses are controlled by the local gang and mafia. Some people in the government have also joined the businesses behind the scene. Therefore, to break the illegal chain, you have to play hard with the value of your products and the attitude of people in the society. Law is just a tool; please remember that people still control the law and there are many kinds of people. Doing a successful business in China, you should be a part of the society. You cannot do it alone and it may take a decade to get done. A real key of success for China to develop the economics, which is very challenging, is to change the attitude of those people who buy and sell the illegal products first.
PK* [Sept. 06, 2009]
