{"id":8071,"date":"2020-02-13T11:29:20","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T10:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/?p=8071"},"modified":"2020-02-13T14:26:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T13:26:00","slug":"connecting-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/2020\/02\/trainee\/connecting-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Connecting in China"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ni Hao,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I am writing this\npost, I am sitting at home working and will only be back in the office next\nweek Thursday. What happened? Last week, I ended my rotation in China\nprematurely because of the Coronavirus and went back to Sweden. The last couple\nof weeks, I will finish my rotation remotely and already transition into my new\nrotation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Husqvarna Group, we\nfollow a local production strategy meaning that we try to produce products for\nthe local markets tailored to the local needs. We produce many entry level\nproducts in Changzhou for the global market and some semi-professional products\nfor the APAC market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Me in a temple in Changzhou<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was in Changzhou to\nlearn more about our manufacturing plant in China during a six month rotation.\nOnce again, I had the opportunity to discover a new culture, a new environment\nand meet new people. But this time was different. Relocating to China, even if\nit is only for some months, brings a lot more challenges than moving to Sweden.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visiting Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our factories are\ntightly connected and supply many components to each other. As a matter of\nfact, our Japanese factory in Kawagoe is one of our biggest suppliers and vice\nversa. And since I came to learn all about the manufacturing in APAC, I went to\nJapan for two weeks talking about our business together and visiting suppliers.\nOur plant in Japan produces mostly for the Japanese market and mainly the brand\nZenoah (Red Max in the US). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Testing our japanese ride-on mower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After two months in\nChina, Japan felt like the opposite in many aspects (a little bit like Sweden\nif you ask me). Especially business meetings with suppliers are certainly an\nexperience in Japan. There are many etiquettes one must stick to. For example:\nBefore the meeting formally starts, everyone will introduce themselves to\neveryone formally handing over their visiting cards (hold them with both hands\nand study the content when you receive them). Then hand over your card and say\na few words about yourself and your title. I really should have been more aware\nof that and I should have packed my visiting cards when I went to Japan. It was\nquite awkward to tell everyone that I do not have my visiting cards with me.\nBut I am a trainee to learn, so it\u2019s fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning to adapt in China<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you need to know\nabout me is that I am fairly self-reliant. I have learned from early on to\nmanage by myself. But with a strategy of being self-reliant you run into a wall\nin China. That is for two reasons: 1. You cannot manage on your own there. Even\nthe most trivial things become major challenges. How do you find a supermarket?\nGoogle maps? Doesn\u2019t work. Then the Chinese maps. Search term? It will not find\nsupermarkets for you. But if you translate supermarkets into Chinese you get\nresults. But then you get like 100 results and most of them are these super\ntiny kiosks. Long story short: I learned to rely more on my colleagues. 2. The\nChinese are very happy to help out. Asking for help also helps making friends there.\nThey want to build a trustful relationship and if they can help you with something,\nit\u2019s a start. Also in a work context I rely on team work much more in China than\nI used to in Sweden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are obviously\nmany more dimensions that require adaptation when you move into another culture\nthat I will not mention here but I think it is important to adapt, not\nassimilate. I, for example, will always keep my personality and my directness or\nbluntness at times but I can carefully choose when to show it. If you want to\nread more about this I recommend the book \u201cThe Culture Map\u201d by Erin Meyer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ni Hao, As I am writing this post, I am sitting at home working and will only be back in the office next week Thursday. What happened? Last week, I ended my rotation in China prematurely because of the Coronavirus and went back to Sweden. The last couple of weeks, I will finish my rotation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[436],"tags":[595,670,594],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8071"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8084,"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071\/revisions\/8084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.traineebloggen.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}