Masters of the Universe, on the Couch
Published: July 10, 2008
To the Editor:
Your article shows how much the super-rich are just like us: they are human with the same weaknesses. Even though I am not a therapist (I am a business consultant), I find many similarities between the two professions.
A good professional does not compete or compare with the client (or patient). We provide a service; but we are not servants.
James Chan
Philadelphia, July 8, 2008
There's More to China
Published: January 26, 2003
To the Editor:
''Made in China, Bought in China'' (Jan. 5) focused on the changing fortunes of Fortune 500 companies, but failed to mention small and entrepreneurial companies.
Success in the China market is not the sole privilege of billion-dollar companies. Companies with annual sales of $1 million to $100 million a year can also succeed. I am in my 20th year doing business in China, and the newest trend I see favors smaller companies.
Chinese companies continue to duplicate high-ticket products. For example, China is trying to make a good gas turbine, but there are precision-engineered components that China must import. It also lacks certain raw materials to fuel its growing export industries.
Small companies that make parts and components that fill a critical need or that own the right raw materials will find China very profitable.
JAMES CHAN
Philadelphia, Jan. 5
The writer is the president of Asia Marketing and Management.
What Income Figures For Asians Also Show
Published: October 11, 1992
To the Editor:
"A Census Disparity for Asians in U.S." (news article, Sept. 20) reflects the psychological malaise about money and happiness that is afflicting many people in this society. You report that Asian-American males earn lower salaries than Caucasians despite their higher education credentials. You conclude therefore that an advantage in schooling fails to bring a wage advantage.
Contrary to your conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised that the income gap is so close, not so wide. Many of us came to this country only 20 to 30 years ago. For recent immigrants, this is success, not a lamentable case of oppression. The glass is surprisingly full not unequally empty.
Like many immigrants, I came to this country to go to graduate school. My material possessions then included a typewriter and a "Long March" brand suitcase (still in my garage). I came looking for education. I got the degrees I wanted; and I found the mentors I love and respect.
Education separates man from beast. And, as a businessman, I believe that education always pays off. If we were to disrespect education and therefore never got any, do you know what the mass of us would be earning today? You have mistaken achievement for failure, welcome for persecution and joy for sorrow.
Despite all its ills, America is still one of the best places to say and do what one loves. JAMES CHAN Philadelphia, Sept. 23, 1992
Our New China Traders Must Learn Patience
Published: January 12, 1988
To the Editor:
I disagree with Harold J. Wanebo's assumption (letter, Dec. 27) that the products of the United States are not selling in China because they are thought shoddy.
In my visits to China as a trade consultant to United States companies who do business there, I have never heard any of the many Chinese professionals I have dealt with describe American products as a class as shoddy. On the contrary, the Chinese admire American technology and management (believe it or not!). And more than half the country's brightest sons and daughters who are sent abroad to study modern ways come to the United States.
The Chinese respect the directness and relative lack of pretension that they believe are characteristic of Americans but not of the Japanese, Europeans and even themselves. They may complain about high prices of American products, lack of after-sale services or the general unwillingness of American companies to respond to their inquiries, but hardly America's ''shoddy'' products.
A lackluster United States presence in China is partly the result, as Dr. Wanebo rightly states, of America's ''inability and unwillingness to compete.'' American companies are long on short-term profits and short on long-term goals. Most business managers do not want to tackle the China market. Their general lack of knowledge about China, its language and cultures, and Chinese business practices is one part of the problem; the other is that the market is a long-term commitment, which rarely shows great progress quarter to quarter.
The result is that unless chief executive officers support a China venture, few managers want to take the risk. Much of what we sell to China happens despite ourselves, the result of unsolicited orders from Chinese who have searched the world to find a product that meets their needs. Unlike the Japanese and some Europeans, Americans do not sell aggressively. They do not try to understand the Chinese business and governmental systems, their needs and their aspirations. China has not paid rapid rewards for the Japanese and Europeans either, but they, unlike Americans, are willing to make a long-term effort to establish themselves in an economy whose potential must not be ignored. JAMES CHAN Philadelphia, Dec. 29, 1987
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