陈凯博客： www.kaichenblog.blogspot.com

王安电脑的失败
Wang An's Failure and Defective Chinese Culture

陈凯一语： Kai Chen's Words:

The chains and shackles of the Chinese nihilistic cultural tradition sometimes are just too powerful for some Chinese to break. Yet, having the will and effort to breat it is the first step toward freedom.

虚无主义的中国文化传统的枷锁是邪恶的而且强大的。 能够击破它的奴役的人并不多。 然而，不击破它人就不能自由。

**************************************

By Kai Chen 陈凯 (Reprint 9/29/2011)

Remember Wang An the electronic giant many years ago, which was created by an American Chinese named Wang An? Now where is it?

No one hears about it anymore. It simply drops out of the business talks. It simply disappeared. What has happened to it? If you read Francis Fukuyama's "Trust", you will understand that it has fell to the prey of the traditional Chinese business culture. The narrow-minded Chinese Family-Dynastic Culture has killed many potentially great business ventures, so even today there has almost no ever-lasting brand by a Chinese business. All the brands die with the creators for it is a logical pattern in a dynastic culture that each generation is weaker than the one before. Chinese Communist Dynasty will not be an exception, for that matter.

What happened to Wang An Electronics was when the Old Wang decided to retire after he had originated the business, he fell into the curse of a powerful Chinese family traditional culture: He alienated the talented and able executive staff by shunning them and picking his own mediocre son as the inheritor of his business empire. It was for no reason but because his talented and devoted executive staff was not Chinese, or not within his family connection. The result? Many talented people simply left the Wang An electronics, and the blood-line mediocrity simply failed to innovate, create and initiate with new ideas. Business degeneration gradually set in as a incurable cancer. Years later, this degeneration simply killed the business.

What had killed a great business was not American racial prejudice, or capitalist competition, or some bad luck. What killed this great initiation is the Chinese traditional culture itself. The great innovator Old Wang simply cannot escape the powerful trap set up by his own ancestors. He bestowed all his assets and management authority to a no-good son, because his blood-line connection. Most great businessmen in the Chinese business community fail to produce an ever-lasting business brand for their product, precisely because of this reason.

In Contrast, many American businesses have great, everlasting brand such as Cocacola, Kodak, Macdounalds, Pepsi, GM, Ford, Microsoft... This is because there is a great human business culture permeated in the American businesses: As long as you have talent and innovation, as long as you are devoted and work hard, you will be recognized regardless your skin color, your family background, your religion.... Where you come from is never as important as where you want to go and where you are going. What a Great mentality!

Can't you see the contrast? Can't you see it is NOT, as common wisdom dictates, a matter of Cultural differences? It is, indeed, a matter of forward thinking against backward thinking. It is, indeed, a matter of advancement against stagnation and degeneration. It is, indeed, healthy progress against ill, defected, cancerous regression.

Best regard to you all. And I welcome your opinions.