Beijing to DC

By: Andi Ma

Mengyao (Jecy) was born and raised in Beijing, China. She came to the United States to pursue her Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a concentration in Finance at the George Washington University. Jecy started creating her own cosmetic brand, Chaton-Chatonnne Health Development, with some help from her mother at the age of 17. She did an excellent job in sales in the non-Asia-Pacific region which motivated her to enter the U.S. market when she was a sophomore. The sales record for all the products combined last year in the North America region was 1 million units of goods including cosmetic products and skin care. 

China and the U.S. had very opposite ideas on workplace culture. Jecy revealed the most challenging cultural differences she encountered while she built the team in the U.S. was the idea of work-life balance. Salespeople in Chinese teams always reply to their work messages (on WeChat) within 10 minutes even during Chinese Lunar New Year (equivalent to Thanksgiving or Christmas) and tend to grasp every second to do business. Whereas, in the U.S, employees are not obligated to reply to work emails during their break time. Jecy had an argument with her content editor once when Jecy asked her to finish some extra work on Saturday night. After that, Jecy realized overtime was a norm in China but not in the U.S. People paid high attention to work-life balance. Moreover, technology (WeChat) plays a crucial role as well. Jecy found interesting that the email solely serves a working purpose whereas text message serves for daily life exclusively. She concluded this phenomenon into the application of working overtime culture that the working messages on WeChat constantly remind people to reply regardless of the time or location. It reminded me how Germany countries’ governments advocate to automatically delete the emails after 6 pm (end of working hours). The separate of personal connections and work matters explain the basic ground rule of doing business in the U.S.

Jecy enjoyed the directness of communication between colleagues (organizational hierarchy) and negotiators, which was the main reason she chose the U.S. as the first oversea market to enter. She used an example of picking raw materials suppliers in both the U.S. and China. When Jecy came up with a list of ideal suppliers in America, she called each one of those and scheduled an appointment ahead to tour their factories. The whole process was simple but sufficient. She toured the facility for about two hours in Philadelphia and had a quick lunch with the manager, negotiating the price offer. The manager showed hesitation when Jecy asked to lower the price by 75 cents per each unit. Jecy recalled that, amusedly, quote “I think we are so done when he said, ‘let me check with my boss’”. In Chinese business talk, that signaled a subtle way of rejection. Jecy then showed her complete understanding if the company was not quite satisfied about the pricing. The manager was a bit confused and calmed Jecy down by saying “I am not saying no, I am just checking. Chill out.” One day later, the manager called and closed the deal with Jecy. As shown in Trompenaars Dimensions of culture, China is more diffuse versus the U.S. as more direct through communication and Jecy proved it to be right. 

However, picking the right supplier was way more complicated in China. It was not only limited to communication but also involved with power distance. The bar graph of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions demonstrates that power distance is much more present in Chinese society. In a professional environment, there is a clear division of power between entry level employees and executive one. When Jecy and Chinese manager had lunch after the tour, one assistant weighed in during her conversation with the manager. The manager gave that assistant a very unfriendly eye warning right after since that assistant was not supposed to cut in when senior leadership was speaking.

The most puzzling and interesting part Jecy found was people’s attitude towards independence. 90% of Jecy’s employees are female. During the interviews she conducted, when Jecy asked about their future plan in general, most answers she received from China were “settling down and supporting the family”. Whereas, in the U.S., the most frequent answer was “having my own life without financial pressure”. Jecy concluded the reason for Chinese’ huge influence under patriarchy society whereas U.S. strong advocates of feminism. 

Two great pieces of suggestions Jecy valued the most were a) don’t take things personally and b) watch and learn from locals. When she first started business in America, she took a great amount of self-criticism out of the feedback. When she learned about the online review which criticized her product only because it was “made in China”, she felt deeply discriminated against only because of her racial identity. She was more relieved after she learned the significance of bad culture stereotypes/generalization. Despite that was the drawback of culture, generalization still existed, and it has nothing to do with her. She also mentioned entrepreneurs are required to keep up with this rapidly changing world. The only way to achieve that was through real practices. Jecy read every day at least one hour without the interruption of technology. However, she still felt a bit lost for her product photos despite having read the whole book of How to Take Instagram Picture Like Pro. After all, she hired a professional commercial photographer who understands the taste of Americans. Adapting culture is a long process which requires an abundance of patience and knowledge. Jecy’s career in America has already kicked off and I am quite positive about that.