<p>Haha, kfc4u, I know exactly what you mean. My dad, up until I went to college, kept on dropping "hints" about engineering as well. </p>
<p>However he seems to approves of my econ major now because my grandpa (his dad) studied econ, haha.</p>
<p>Wow. It seems Orientalism is fun to play at, because that's what I'm seeing on the (latter) posts on this thread.</p>
<p>What ridiculous nonsense about characteristics of Asian cultures. You see your preconceptions in other peoples' actions. What there IS, is not a focus on non-leadership, but rather a disdain for business. This comes not from some racial or 'cultural' attribute, but from the historical political economy of countries such as China.</p>
<p>And as was said earlier, this is changing. I'm surrounded by ambitious, talented Asian students here at undergrad, tons of whom have leadership talent. This has always been true. What is different is that some may now want to go into business.</p>
<p>I should have said something, however.</p>
<p>My reply is a bit too harsh. My own mother turned down offers to advance on the management track - but this wasn't because she didn't want to, but because she wanted to have more time to raise my sister and I.</p>
<p>Are the cultural factors? Probably. But I hate this monolithic Asian culture b.s., and I don't think it accounts for that much.</p>
<p>ericmeng, </p>
<p>i don't think the concept of asians being leaders has always been this way. my mother works for the business side in a large corporation (boeing) and they have workshops for employees of asian descent on leadership related topics. it's a popular one (for ALL people of asian descent, not just east asians) because asians would like to move up the ladder, but i seriously think most of them did not grow up in environments that fostered initiative, outspokenness, etc. can asians be leaders? yes. are most asians (not including our generation) raised to be leaders? probably not.</p>
<p>i agree, there has been a slight disdain for business-related careers. but i still do think that leadership is not a primary value of asian culture. </p>
<p>look at admissions standards for universities in asia (yes, including india). your individual performance, your scores on exams, is what's important. leadership, extracurriculars, etc. still take a backseat. a long time ago, to become a govt official (a leadership position) in china, it required exams, and the concept of exams still carries on. while leadership is respected in probably every culture, it is a value in some and not in others... and in american culture, leadership is valued. </p>
<p>but yes, this generation of asians is different. leadership talent is being more realized. and attitudes about business are definately changing.</p>
<p>Yes, I think that's a very eloquent summary, kfc4u. Asians definitely can be leaders of every sort - and I think it only takes one generation. :D</p>
<p>
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there has been a slight disdain for business-related careers. but i still do think that leadership is not a primary value of asian culture
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<p>Actually I would disagree with that. I can agree that many mainland Chinese have a disdain with business because of the legacy of Communism and so forth.</p>
<p>But I don't think we're talking about mainland Chinese. I think we're talking about Chinese-Americans. And the fact is, most Chinese-Americans are not first-generation mainlanders. Their ancestors either immigrated from China a long time ago (hence, they are the long-time Chinese-Americans whose ancestors immigrated predominantly to the West Coast, New York, or Hawaii many decades ago). Or they are ethnic Chinese who came from places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, or other places with large expatriate Chinese communities. </p>
<p>And the fact is, those particular Chinese (who happen to comprise the vast majority of all Chinese-Americans) are among the most entrepreneurial groups of people in the world. I don't want to engage in old stereotypes, but one of the most common ways for these Chinese to make a living is to open and run a Chinese restaurant or a Chinese laundry. Part of the reason of why this is the case is actually historical - in the old days of San Francisco (where many Chinese came), it used to be stipulated by law that Chinese people could only work in Chinese restaurants or Chinese laundries. Even today, there are entire swaths of companies in Silicon Valley who are founded and run by Chinese-Americans, especially Taiwanese. The rate of business ownership and entrepreneurialism among Chinese-Americans is higher than that of almost any other American ethnic group. All of this and more is chronicled in the works of Thomas Sowell.</p>
<p>sakky, I think we're talking a different type of 'business' here. I am totally for entrepreurship, and I do not think micro-entrepreneurship gets the credit it deserves.</p>
<p>However, I think the people on this thread were (quite fallaciously) talking about the kind of corporate career climbing that they viewed as business success.</p>
<p>I would argue that good entrepreneurship is a form of business success. </p>
<p>I would also point out that if you just want to talk about corporate career climbing and you say that Asians don't know how to do that, then I would point you to all the highly successful Chinese managers and executives of companies in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. What about them? If Chinese people don't know how to climb the corporate ladder, well, evidently somebody forgot to tell them. And again, let's not forget that Chinese-Americans are not representative of all Chinese in the world. They tend to be descended disproportionately from highly successful Chinese businessmen from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.</p>
<p>
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I would point you to all the highly successful Chinese managers and executives of companies in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.
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<p>I am not supporting either side here, but that quote is like asking "Why are there so many companies in America with Caucasians running them?" Sheer probability is going to dictate those circumstances.</p>
<p>UC_Benz - I think you are mistaken in thinking that only probability indicates this. If Asians were not good managers and leaders, then why do many Asian companies do so well internationally, head to head, against American and European companies?</p>
<p>Being an Indian I also see this pressure from my parents to become less of a risk taking leader and more of a following, stable income generating drone (indeed I am biased ;)). The main arguments they make to make me be a doctor or an engineer is that A) its a heavily trodden path B) its stable income generating. They use the same arguments to talk me out of being a trader or join the business field. Interestingly most of the Indians I know face this pressure and are pretty much "brainwashed" to become doctors or engineers. This in my opinion kind of explains the high proportion of docs and engineering in the Asian population. </p>
<p>On the brightside many Asians are getting to the top of the business field. Several are top notch business analysts, traders, and managers. The head of McKinsley Consulting is a born Indian with Western education. The tables are turning. Dont worry about racism in business and in many types of business like ibanking and consulting, racism is very rare as hard workers are appreciated. More importantly money earners are appreciated.</p>
<p>There may be a shift soon as medicine is not the stable income generator it once was with HMO's and skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance rates.</p>
<p>Definately. Also there is a rise for entreprenuership that rose among Asians from the tech boom and created the first strong foothold Asians have had in Western Business. This momentum may very well carry on. There is also acceptance of the low satisfaction level of most physicians in this country as most chose it for money and nothing else. But I dont see any great shift among Asians from Medicine and Engineering for quite a while. Case in point, I am pretty much the only Indian guy I know who wants to be a businessman. Rest....you guessed it..DOCTORS! Whose complaining less competition for me ;).</p>
<p>I never said that Asians are not good managers. I never said they were either. That is why I said I am not taking sides in this debate. </p>
<p>But let's put it is this way: if they were bad managers then other nationalities would be running the Asian companies, and if they were really really good managers then they would be running more companies over here. But my point was that of course companies in Asia are going to be ran by Asians. Why wouldn't they be? Asians live in Asia! haha</p>
<p>Your point is well taken.</p>
<p>I think this is turning to a argument about culture, in which case, I would recommend the works of Sowell, Kotkin, Huntington, etc.</p>
<p>However, I would point out that it wasn't all that long ago when the bulk of Asian companies were in fact run by Westerners. Nor was this solely a product of colonial rule. For example, during the late 1800's and early 1900's, people of mainland China often times preferred to deal with Western-owned/managed businesses in China rather than Chinese-owned/managed businesses in China because the former were seen as more honest and more reliable than the latter. {Nor is this particularly unusual - for example, Sowell documents how Russians of the czarist era saw Western businessmen and officials as more honest and more forthright than Russian businessmen and officials}. </p>
<p>Furthermore, as has been pointed out on this thread, it is Chinese businessmen who dominate the economies the nations of SouthEast Asia despite being the minority in almost all of them (Singapore is the only SE Asian nation where the ethnic Chinese are the majority). Ethnic Chinese represent a bare 4% (if that) of the population of Indonesia and yet they dominate the country economically, accounting for about 70% of that nation's economic output. Of the 15 billionaire families in Indonesia, 12 are ethnic Chinese. </p>
<p>So you can't really say that companies in Asia are of course going to be run by Asians. By that same logic, companies in Indonesia should be run mostly by Indonesians, and yet they are not. They are mostly run by the small number of Chinese.</p>
<p>Name one Asian CEO of an American company</p>
<p>thats forbes =)</p>
<p>Jerry Yang founded and headed Yahoo. He isn't CEO anymore, but he is still a major force in Yahoo. </p>
<p>McKinsey is the largest and most prestigious management consulting company in the world. McKinsey doesn't have a 'CEO position', rather the head of McKinsey is known as the Managing Director. This post used to be held by an Indian, Rajat Gupta. Gupta held the post for almost 9 years, relinquishing it in 2003. </p>
<p>Computer Associates is, by revenue, the 4th largest computer software company in the US after Microsoft, Oracle and the newly merged Veritas/Symantec (hence, CA is larger than some better known software companies like EA, Adobe, Intuit, and Siebel). Former CEO's of CA include Charles Wang and Sanjay Kumar. </p>
<p>For the last 6.5 years, the CEO of Sybase has Hong-Kong born John Chen.</p>
<p>Steve Kim founded and headed Xylan until it was recently acquired by Alcatel (making Kim one of the richest men in the world). </p>
<p>James Chu founded and heads Viewsonic, a major manufacturer of computer displays. Viewsonic is an American company, headquartered near LA (in Walnut, to be specific). </p>
<p>Victor and Janie Tsao were CEO's and founders of Linksys. Linksys was acquired by Cisco 2 years ago, making the Tsao's millionaires many times over. </p>
<p>Jen-Hsun Huang founded and is CEO of Nvidia, the Silicon Valley graphics chip company that makes graphics chips for PC's, the graphics chips in the Xbox, and the graphics chips for the upcoming Sony PS3. </p>
<p>That's what I've come up off the top of my head. I'm sure if I sit and think about it, I will come up with many more. But the point is, there are definitely plenty of Asian CEO's of American companies, particularly in the high-technology sector.</p>