Category Archives: China

Students from Guiyang show their Entrepreneurial Side

Posted by on February 18, 2012 No comments

After visiting some of the most beautiful and ecologically sustainable places in Singapore, students from Guiyang set out to discover what they can do for their own home town in China.

How do they put together a product or service that was meaningful for their community as well as desirable, economically viable and technologically feasible?

After much deliberation and many late nights working together in their small groups, with fights erupting now and again due to disagreements on how to go forward, the students emerged with some powerful ideas whose detail and analysis astounded the judges.

Hearing from these youngsters cemented our long held belief that Chinese innovation has never gone away, the stories of those who can still think brilliantly have simply been suppressed. Their efforts, young as they were, reminded us of Cambridge Professor Joseph Needham’s amazement at how technologically advanced China actually was compared to the rest of the world. He famously documented them in his massive work Science and Civilisation in China which he thought would fill one (1) book has actually taken twenty (27) and since his passing has been taken over by other scholars in Cambridge’s Needham Research Institute.

Surely, the Chinese penchant for invention and innovation is very much alive and well and we wouldn’t be surprised if the next big thing comes not from the Western world but from the Chinese.

Moving vs Fixed Prices

Posted by on June 2, 2011 No comments

Which do you prefer? Prices that are determined by haggling or goods that have a sticker price on them? Students from Nanyang Junior College (NYJC) took to the famous street markets of Kowloon, Hong Kong to test their negotiation skills and market savvy. Some were very happy with their purchases, others knew they had been taken for a ride and then some.

nurenjie

In a world where everyone wants to get more for less, it is amazing that the markets seem to find their own equilibrium somehow. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” works its way through all the ins and outs and while there are people who get conned, for the most part, the markets really work best when left with as little governing rules as possible.

Words of Wisdom

Posted by on November 4, 2010 No comments

CEO of Tsingsoft.com.cn 清软创新科技有限公司 (energy forecasting and management software system), Liu Mei 刘梅, spent some time with students from Nanyang Girls’ High School to share her personal story on how the big and small experiences of her life shaped her into becoming a leader in her industry.

Unlike many of the stories you may hear from Westerners, especially that of Americans who are go-getters from a young age, Liu Mei had a very simple childhood with simple cares. “I didn’t know my dream in the beginning.  It just became clearer over the years.”

She didn’t enter computer sciences by design either, but simply because computers was “hot” and everybody else seemed to be getting into it.  What did set her apart was her drive in solving problems.  She would not stop until she got the answer.  She also soon found out that she was really good at programming which boosted her confidence in an industry filled with men.

However, one of the aspects Liu Mei knew she was lacking in was in her EQ (emotional quotient). “I believe when you’re young, you assume that what affects you affects everyone else in the same way.”  This was a key insight because in order for her to be a capable leader, she needed to be able to see things from various perspectives. Indeed when asked what makes her company successful, Liu Mei said, “At the end of the day, it’s all about the people.”

Another hard earned lesson came as she was adjusting to married life and her initially strained relationship with her mother-in-law.

“There are many situations you may not like but cannot change. But I found out that  if you change yourself, you change the situation.  So therefore, to change the situation, all you need to do is change yourself.”