Download - MACC Gathers for New Jersey Conference
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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Vol. 4, #6, July 2014, No. 40
MACC Gathers for New Jersey Conference
Midea America & Canada Corp held its 3rd annual sales conference
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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ADVANCES Newsletter
Contents
Midea Advances Newsletter is published monthly
by the International Strategy Department of
Midea Group. We welcome all comments,
suggestions and contribution of articles, as well as
requests for subscription to our newsletter. You
can reach us by email at: [email protected]
Address:
ADVANCES, International Strategy Department
Midea HQ
No. 6 Midea Road
Beijiao, Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong
P.R.C. 528311
Tel: +86-757-23270461
Web: www.midea.com/global
Managing Editor:
Kevin McGeary
Regular Correspondents:
Anggie Cai
Crystal Lun
Jack Zheng
Cai Yu
Tian Fangling
Chen Minshan
Lin Shan
Liu Xi Benjamin Pena
NEWSLINE
Training for Graduates at
Shunde Polytechnic PAGE 4
MACC Holds Sales
Conference in New Jersey PAGE 3
Midea Gives 10 Million RMB
to the Poor in 1 Day PAGE 3
Hefei Factory Embraces
Automated Revolution PAGE 5
Midea CAC Wins African
Games Project PAGE 5
www.midea.com
ITIL Ideas Man PAGE 15
Big Picture
People
Idea
Idea of the Month: The
Seriousness of Humour PAGE
14
Kitchen Appliances Division
Wins National Quality
Certification PAGE 6
Midea Included on
Leadership List PAGE 8
Midea Wins Zhuhai College
Bid PAGE 8
The Usefulness, or Lack
thereof, of Learning Manda-
rin PAGE 13
Net Profit Growth of 45-60%
Forecast PAGE 6
CAC Wins Thailand Airport
Project Page 10
Hidden Wind AC Wins Design
Award PAGE 9
The Early History of Air-
conditioning PAGE 12
Fun Facts
Photovoltaic Power
Generation Project in
Operation PAGE 10
Midea-Carrier Attends
Major Chile Expo PAGE 11
Refrigerant AC Certified as
High-tech and Green PAGE 7
Factory Workers Enjoy Team
Building Activities Page 7
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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MACC Holds Sales Conference in New
Jersey By Jack Zheng
M idea America and
Canada Corp (MACC) held its
3rd Annual National Sales
Representative Conference
this month, with more than 30
reps coming from all over
North America to meet at
MACC’s head office in New
Jersey.
The conference was
useful for providing an im-
portant explanation regarding
new United States Federal
Regulations that will relate to
home appliance energy consumption, and how Midea and its
partners can remain in full compliance with the regulations. In
addition, Midea also introduced its new dishwasher product line
and exhibited its newly developed Wi
-Fi connected air conditioner feature.
Attendees were said to be impressed
with the strong growth of Midea in
the United States, the increasing
number of product lines, and its
commitment to building a real pres-
ence in the United States, character-
ized by improved Oracle systems.
The overall feeling from those in
attendance was that conference was
both enlightening and a great team
building opportunity.
NEWSLINE
Midea Gives 10 Million RMB to the Poor
in 1 Day By Cai Yu
M idea donated 10
million RMB (US$1.62 mil-
lion) on June 30, which is an
officially recognized day in
Guangdong for helping the
needy. A ceremony was held
in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
in Guangzhou where a repre-
sentative of each organization
in attendance was given a
banner to show how much
money it had donated.
Deputy Party Secretary
of Guangdong Ma Xingrui
and Executive Vice Governer
Xu Shaohua led the proceedings, which have been held every
year since 2010. Since June 30,
2010 Midea has donated 115
million RMB to the poor and
needy in Guangdong.
The money mostly goes to the
less developed rural areas of the
province and the poorest and
most vulnerable people in those
regions. As of June 30 this year,
a total of 25.8 billion yuan had
been donated in Guangdong as
part of the program.
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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Training for Graduates at
Shunde Polytechnic
A camp for graduate recruits of Midea
was held at Shunde Polytechnic from July 14-19.
Around 1,200 new employees attended the camp
in which they were initiated into the corporate
culture of Midea and taught about the values,
missions and responsibilities involved.
Human resources boss Liu Jufeng was in
attendance and commenced the camp with a
speech explaining what the recruits had to look
forward to and what was expected of them. He
gave an introduction to Midea’s future strategy and
some of the challenges the company is likely to
face in the coming years as it strives to become a
leading global brand and promote potentially in-
dustry-leading programs such as M-Smart.
The camp consisted of two segments, the
first being general induction and the second seeing
recruits divided into their respective departments.
Senior representatives of each department were in
attendance. The general induction included lectures
about the product line, technology, history of the
company and other key knowledge. Even gradu-
ates in non-science subjects are expected to have a
decent understanding of the technology.
Themes of the camp included “Midea’s Road to Interna-
tionalization”, “Midea’s Market and Brand”, “Midea’s
Product Quality” and “Midea’s Product Innovation.” This
may make the whole thing sound a bit dull, but the training
came in a wide variety of forms including learning the offi-
cial Midea anthem, basketball matches and a micro movie
making contest.
This will hopefully have taught the recruits that it is not
enough to devote their time and energy to the job. They
are also expected to put their hearts into it.
NEWSLINE
By Tian Fangling
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
5
Midea CAC Wins African Games
Project By Anggie Cai
T he 11th All-Africa Games is to be held in Brazzaville,
capital of the Republic of the Congo, next year. Thousands of
elite athletes from across the
continent will then gather in
Brazzaville sports center and
compete in a variety of sport-
ing events. The games are a
huge media event and draw
spectators from all over the
world. At this time the air
conditioning facilities that
serve the 84,000 square meter
stadium will have their mo-
ment in the spotlight.
To make it an inviting
environment for all fans, the
stadium management wanted to use high quality air condition-
ers. Midea CAC worked closely with its distributors, repeatedly
refined its plans, offered tailored climate solution to the owner
and ultimately stood out from the competition to win the pro-
ject. The success relies partly on the excellent installation and
after-service provided by
Midea’s team and also largely
owes to the persistence of
Midea’s staff.
Since its founding in 1999,
Midea CAC has kept improving
and upgrading. Now its prod-
ucts and service are of the high-
est caliber. The winning of the
African Games Stadium Project
is another sports related coup
to follow on from the World
Cup.
NEWSLINE
Hefei Factory Embraces Automated
Revolution By Anggie Cai
A s its production output continues to surge, tradition-
al distribution modes such as manpower, tractor and forklift can
no longer meet the needs of Midea
Commercial Air-Conditioning (CAC).
To handle its increasing needs, CAC is
embracing automated technology.
In early May, the Engineering
Department, along with the finance and
logistics departments and the Produc-
tion Workshop set up a special team
aimed at achieving unmanned automa-
tion distribution. It was decided to
choose W4 as the pilot line for this pro-
gram. However, the way to design and
make the material delivery car posed a particular challenge. In
addition, laying out the logistics route, positioning the produc-
tion equipment and delivering the material accurately to the
designated place all proved difficult. Realizing the information
system between the logistics and produc-
tion lines also needs to be taken into ac-
count. Because of these difficulties, the
unmanned factory has not become a wide-
spread phenomenon.
The project team needed a detailed plan.
They visited and investigated a number of
factories to assess the possibility of un-
manned operation. Then they reviewed
successful predecessors as well as the fail-
ures and reasons why they didn’t succeed.
This is a milestone, not just for Midea ,but
for factory production in China.
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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Net Profit Growth of 45-60% Forecast
By Chen Minshan
M idea Group Co. Ltd published its forecast for the
first half of the year on July 14 ahead of the publication of the
Interim Financial Report before August 31. The holding compa-
ny is expected to see net profit
grow by 45-60% compared with
the same period last year. Net prof-
it is expected to be from 6.059
billion-6.686 billion RMB (US $
976,649,960 - 1.077 billion). Earn-
ings per share are expected to be at
1.44 yuan-1.59 yuan.
Central to the company’s
plans for 2014 are a new partner-
ship with Alibaba and the embrac-
ing of the Internet of Things. The
latter is mostly manifested in the
form of M-Smart, a program that
could revolutionise people’s relationship with their home appli-
ances by creating a “smart home” of integrated intelligent tech-
nology. In 2013 the company completed the development of
eight categories of intelligent product. This is expected to reach
25 this year.
As well as M-Smart, B2C e-commerce is a huge priority
for Midea. This has included the
opening of an online shop, lo-
gistics and the achievement of
online to offline business inte-
gration (O2O). Principles to
follow include continued invest-
ment in products and technolo-
gy, establishing a new cost ad-
vantage, intelligent manufactur-
ing, strengthening fine manage-
ment, maximizing resource utili-
zation, discovering new busi-
ness, and eventually entering the
top 2 in the industry
NEWSLINE
By Lin Shan
Kitchen Appliances Division Wins National
Quality Certification
M idea’s Kitchen Appli-
ances Division was awarded a major
national qualification certification
correlation (QCC) after an evalua-
tion that took place July 7-11. The
event, held in Xining, Qinghai
Province, was also attended by other
Chinese giants such as Haier, Liby
Group, Geli and China Tobacco. A
total of 400 attendees were attend-
ing and 100 QCCs were granted.
The Kitchen Appliances Divi-
sion won four certificates. The first
was for having one of the outstand-
ing quality management systems in the industry; the second saw
one of the division’s teams certified as
“highly trustworthy”; the third saw
the same team awarded for outstand-
ing quality management; and the
fourth saw the team awarded as an
outstanding participant in quality con-
trol related activities.
The Kitchen Appliances Division
makes small products such as micro-
waves, rice cookers and hobs as well
as larger appliances such as dishwash-
ers and ovens.
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
7
Factory Workers Enjoy Team Building
Activities By Liu Xi
M idea’s Shunde-based factory workers were treated
to a range of outings over a period of a month to help relieve
stress and build camaraderie. Activities included white water
rafting and hiking with attendance at over 90%.
The workers were thanked for their hard work over the
years by being
taken to local
areas with a
strong natural
and cultural histo-
ry and being
treated to group
meals with dis-
tinct local cuisine.
This is part of
a campaign by
Midea to
make its
Shunde facto-
ries more
staff-centred.
NEWSLINE
Refrigerant AC Certified as High-tech and
Green By Crystal Lun
M idea R290 new refrigerant air
conditioner has been certified as authentic hi-
tech technology by the Guangdong provincial
government. This proves that Midea is leading
its competitors in environmental technolgy,
something that is likely to be reflected in the
market in the near future.
Refrigerant R22 is still commonly used
in air conditioners in the Chinese market. This
is known for being environmentally unfriend-
ly, producing greenhouse gases. For this rea-
son, most air conditioners exported to Europe
and North America in recent years have used
the upgraded refrigerant R410a. Although it
doesn’t damage the ozone layer, R410a still
produces greenhouse gases.
As demand for environmentally friendly products increas-
es, R290 is considered as the most promising
new refrigerant, with fluoride-free, low-carbon,
natural, effective, and many other advantages. It
is not only consistent with the demands for the
phase-out of ozone-depleting substances under
the Montreal Protocol, but also meets the re-
quirements of the Kyoto Protocol on reducing
greenhouse gases. Moreover the reliability of
R290 has been approved after years of experi-
mentation.
In 2011, Midea conducted the world's first exam-
ple production line for R290 ACs with multilat-
eral funds from the United Nations. In Decem-
ber last year the project was completed and ac-
cepted by the United Nations and related agen-
cies. The model awarded was assembled on this line.
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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Midea Wins Zhuhai College Bid
By Crystal Lun
Beijing Insti-
tute of Tech-
nology. This
summer has
seen RAC dou-
ble down on its
efforts to get
more university
campus pro-
jects.
The air-conditioners used in college dormitories are held
to a higher standard than those used in homes. Because they are
used by a number of people at the same time, the air condition-
ers require a better cooling performance and higher energy effi-
ciency. Being switched on and off more frequently also requires
a better control system. Midea will also be expected to deliver
strong after-sales service.
NEWSLINE
M idea RAC won the bid to supply up to 7,200 units
of air-conditioners to the Zhuhai campus of Jilin University on
July 15. The first delivery was sent within 24 hours of the deal
being done. “The installation will be completed in 50 days
weather permitting, in time for the new semester,” said a dean
from the campus.
In the same
week, Midea
RAC also
won the bid
to supply
1800 sets of
air-
conditioners
to the Zhuhai
campus of
Midea Included on Leadership List
T he China Standardization Institute Energy Efficiency
Management Center announced its
2014 Leadership List on July 10, and
Midea Air Conditioning was granted
four awards, “Leadership of Intelli-
gence Household Appliance Enter-
prise”, “Leadership of Intelligence
Household Appliance”, “Leadership
of Consumer’s Most Favorable
Brand”, and “Leadership of Con-
sumer’s Most Favorable Product”.
The appraisal was conducted
by the National Development and
Reform Commission, involving air
conditioning and refrigerators, wash-
ing machines, and flat screen televi-
sions. It is committed to award and distinguish qualified prod-
ucts and excellent enterprises, to set a high standard in energy
efficiency, and to promote social responsibility.
Importance is attached to
product intelligence and
user experience for this
year’s appraisal. With out-
standing technology for
energy saving, Internet of
Things, PM2.5 removal,
turbo cooling and heating,
and low noise of only
23dB, four types of Midea
split AC and six floor
standing AC won the
award.
By Crystal Lun
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
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By Crystal Lun
Hidden Wind AC Wins Design Award
T he results of The Red Dot Award for design
concept 2014 were released in July with Hidden Wind by
Midea RAC industrial design center emerging victorious.
TheRed Dot Award is an internationally recognised
quality label for
excellent design.
Today, the Red
Dot Award for
design concept
has grown to be
the largest and
most prestigious
competition for
design concept
and prototypes worldwide.
The award represents the values of imagination, in-
novation and competitiveness. The evaluation process
focuses on originality, ecological impact and durability. This
year saw 4,791 nominees from 60 countries. Winning a Red Dot
augurs very well for a product’s performance in the market.
Midea’s Hidden Wind is a conceptual air conditioner pow-
ered by solar energy. It was given a mini appearance and an
intelligent interface. The designer was determined to explore the
possibilities of intelligent environmental protection.
Hidden Wind was designed to have a minimalist appear-
ance that is ideally suited to the surrounding environment. The
most challenging part of this concept is the panel design that
allows the user to control the intensity of airflow. The vanes of
the outlet wings are hidden in the wall, resulting in more space
and making it easy to clean. The intelligent touch screen offers a
minimum interface and a better user experience. “Hidden wind”
can also be activated through a smart app that gives us an intui-
tive user experience. The external component contains solar
panels that can absorb and store the energy. With the free solar
energy as its main power source,”Hidden wind” becomes
more energy efficient.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
10
CAC Wins Thailand Airport Project
By Anggie Cai
A nother month another international airport project
in another country. Midea Commercial Air-Conditioning (CAC)
has won the project to
provide equipment to
Thailand Don Mueang
Airport Project to follow
on from other recent
international airport
projects such as one at
the Singapore Changi
Airport. The equipment
arrived in June.
In late 2013, the
airport announced its 3
billion-baht (US $93.3
million) renovation plan; this included the reopening and renew-
al of terminal two, maintenance of airport from south to north
and renovation of the parking building on the seventh floor. The
project is expected to be completed this year. By then, Don
Mueang’s passenger capacity will reach 30 million a year. To
ensure that the refurbished airport has well-conditioned air,
Midea threw its hat into the ring early in the somewhat intense
competition for the
project. Midea CAC
overcame its competi-
tors to provide the
airport with air cooled
screw chillers.
The success is owed
in huge part to CAC’s
sales team. It is also
down to the still ris-
ing faith in Midea
products. The top
class after-sales ser-
vice and cordial and sincere attitude of staff have contributed
much to recent successes. These things will be needed in
Midea’s bid to provide a healthier and greener future to its cus-
tomers.
NEWSLINE
By Anggie Cai
Photovoltaic Power Generation Project in
Operation
solar cell as a photoelectric conversion device. All the materi-
als used for the project are cutting edge and are set to last
more than 25 years. It was initiated on
December 10th, 2013 and the commis-
sioning of grid-connected power gener-
ation was completed in April. As of
June 19, the project had been in opera-
tion for nearly two months.
The photovoltaic power generation
project provides electricity to the facto-
ry and reduces the workshop tempera-
ture to make a comfortable working
environment. It also drastically cuts
energy consumption and has a yearly
economic value of 1.2 million RMB.
T he installation of a photovoltaic power station on the
roof of Midea CAC’s workshop has
been accepted by experts. It is now
operating.
The project received 70 mil-
lion RMB (US$ 11 million) in invest-
ment from Guangdong Yudean
Group Co. Ltd, and is contracted
under Guangdong Power Engineer-
ing Corporation. With a gross capac-
ity of 7.7418 MWp (Megawatt
Pmax), the project supplies power to
the factory by adopting a polysilicon
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
11
By Benjamin Pena
Midea-Carrier Attends Major Chile Expo
J oint venture Midea-Carrier Chile was founded
with the belief that two global leaders in the appliances
industry could be a powerhouse if they joined forces.
This belief has seen the joint venture awarded im-
portant commercial and industrial projects, public and
private. The most famous of these projects was the
awarding of the contract to provide air-conditioning
equipment to nine World Cup stadia.
As the number one air conditioning company in
Brazil, Midea-Carrier was represented at the Expo Frío
Calor Chile, which in Latin America is one of the big-
gest events in the industry. It was held on May 14-16 in
the Cultural Center Estación Mapocho in Santiago.
Products that were exhibited include Midea’s V4
Plus S series, innovating with their highly efficient DC
Inverter-type compressors, and the heat pump LRSJ-60
for residential swimming pools that can operate up to -
7°C outdoors.
At the same time, visitors got the chance to look at the
chilled water fan-coil units which come under the Carrier brand
and have variable-speed LEC motors, allowing up to 75% ener-
gy-saving compared with traditional systems, and the range of
highly efficient Toshiba VRF, including models from 8HP to
42HP for heat recovery systems.
Another novelty for 2014 is the presentation of Midea’s M
-THERMAL system, with heat pump type technology for resi-
dential application, which satisfies the needs of heating, climati-
zation and sanitary hot water (ACS), with the possibility of in-
corporating solar panels.
“The exhibition was a great opportunity to show our
customers the new products that Midea and Carrier
have to offer in our market; particularly the lines that
had no participation before and where we were not
recognized as a potential supplier, as for example, Preci-
sion Units, Sanitary and Commercial heating, and mod-
ular Chillers. Today, we are expanding our product of-
fer with very competitive prices, with the quality and
efficiency that characterizes Midea-Carrier”, remarked
Ricardo Pérez, Sales Manager of Direct Expansion and
Totaline, Midea-Carrier Chile.
The international exhibition, one of the continent’s
most important, had over 100 exhibitors, 300 brands
and an average of 5,000 visitors during each of the three
days.
NEWSLINE
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
12
Via Mental Floss
The Early History of Air-conditioning
I n a new series, Advances will explore some interesting
facts about electrical appliances. The first will look at the early
history of air-conditioning, which most of us take for granted
nowadays. These facts come via the website Mental Floss.
·When Dr. John Gorrie of Florida was treating victims of yellow
fever in the 1840s, he cooled his infirmary by hanging a pan
of ice from the ceiling. When the ice ran out, he began tink-
ering, and in 1851 received a patent for a machine that
made both ice and cool air. Unfortunately, thanks in part to
the Northern Ice Lobby, which made money by shipping
ice down south in the summer, Gorrie was roundly mocked
in the media.
·By the 20th century, the world was ready for air conditioning.
Though it had been installed in the new New York Stock
Exchange building in 1903 by Alfred R. Wolff, it had its
public debut in 1904, at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Accord-
ing to the November 1904 issue of Ice and Refrigeration Maga-
zine, “Visitors, not aware that the building was artificially
cooled, were struck with wonder .”
·Cinemas were among the first businesses to install air condi-
tioning. In 1922, Willis Haviland Carrier installed his system
in Sid Grauman’s Metropolitain Theater, which advertised
its new system by saying that the theaters were “cool as a
mountain top.” In 1924, Carrier outfitted the Palace Thea-
ter in Dallas. Owner Will Horwitz gave the system a glow-
ing review, writing “The cooling plant is revolutionizing
picture show at-
tendance.” In
1925, Carrier in-
stalled his system
in New York
City’s Rivoli Thea-
ter. On its debut,
patrons’ fans grad-
ually dropped into
laps as the effects
of the air condi-
tioning became
evident. Only a
few chronic
fanners persist-
ed, but soon
they, too,
ceased. The
Rivoli made
$100,000 more
that summer than it had the previous one.
·In 1928, the St. Petersburg Times wrote: "Press the button, John!
And turn on the cold. This room is too warm to be com-
fortable," will say the wives of Johns all over the country
some day. And John will push the button and in a few
minutes the room will be comfortable. This is not a fairy
story. It is a picture of a future modern home, electrically
refrigerated.” And it turned out it wasn’t a fairy story.
·In the early 1930s, railroad companies began equipping their
cars with air conditioning. Carrier employee L. Logan Lew-
is tested out an air conditioned car in 1932 and wrote to his
aunt that "I am completely sold on air-conditioning for
passenger trains. I was comfortable at all times and felt just
as clean when ready to leave the train as when I entered it
in Lexington, Kentucky."
·Carrier took its A/C systems—including home units—to the
1939 World’s Fair in New York. The company’s “Igloo of
Tomorrow.” On its opening day on April 25, with Mr. Car-
rier himself in attendance, the temperature outside was 90
degrees Fahrenheit, but inside it was just 70 degrees.
·In 1947, British scholar S.F. Markham declared that "The
greatest contribution to civilization this century may well be
air-conditioning—and America leads the way." In
1953, Fortune wrote "The rump of a room conditioner bulg-
ing out of the window is becoming as much of a social
symbol as the television aerial overhead."
Fun Facts
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
13
The Usefulness, or Lack Thereof, in Learning
Mandarin By Kevin McGeary
M uch controversy was stirred in July when Guang-
dong Television announced its plan to scrap Cantonese-language
news. This is a major milestone in the forceful and hugely suc-
cessful imposition of Mandarin over the hundreds of dialects
and languages that are spoken throughout China.
At the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the new govern-
ment decided a national language must be established and so it
was decided by a group of scholars in 1913 that it be Mandarin.
Sun Yat-sen himself wanted Cantonese but considering that the
capital of China has traditionally been in the north, a northern
language was chosen. Sun, a local boy, may have been biased but
it can be said that Cantonese, a language
with a considerable literature, is more au-
thentically Chinese than Mandarin.
Unlike Mandarin, Cantonese has not
been influenced by once “foreign” lan-
guages from the north such as Mongol or
Manchu. Ancient Chinese poetry, one of
the pillars of the culture, is also said to
sound better and more faithful to the origi-
nal sound when recited in Cantonese. Now
that Mandarin has triumphed over Canton-
ese and other Chinese languages, can it
triumph around the world? A lot of pow-
erful people think so.
Last year, U.K Prime Minister David Cameron urged
schools to ditch French and teach Mandarin. London Mayor
Boris Johnson was even more enthusiastic. China is acting upon
this movement by promoting its culture around the world with
organizations such as Confucius Institutes, 1,000 of which will
be established by 2020.
However, being spoken by a large number of people is not
enough to make a language truly international. When you go to
Yangshuo and see Russian tourists communicating with Chinese
restaurant staff in flawed English, you are reminded that it will
take some time before English is supplanted as the international
lingua franca. In fact, a study by French investment bank Natixis
this year concluded that French could be the most spoken lan-
guage in the world by 2050.
Perhaps East Asian languages weren’t meant to go global.
According to linguist Claude Hagege, writing developed in an-
cient Europe and the Middle East for the purpose of controlling
crops, herds, and people. Writing in China did not appear to
develop with the same utilitarian agenda. “The origin of Chinese
writing appears to have been magicoreligious and divinatory
rather than economic and mercantile,” writes Hagege. Attend-
ing a corporate conferences in this country can be a reminder
that traditionally, Chinese people have more flair when writing
than when speaking.
When I met a fellow of the Institute for Translation and
Interpreting (ITI) last year, he told me that the Japanese military
didn’t bother encoding much of its sensitive information during
World War 2, so confident were they that no
foreign devil would understand. Afterwards,
Japan’s post-war economic boom certainly
didn’t lead to the language taking over Yang-
shuo.
Mandarin is not a terribly useful tool in the
job market as there are over a billion fellow
speakers to compete with, so why should we
still learn it?
Poet Matthew Arnold, who was the son of a
headmaster of the famous Rugby School,
said education should be about studying the
best things that have ever been written and
said. He lived in Britain during a time when
elite education revolved around Latin and Ancient Greek. This
also happens to be the time when Britain ruled the world, but
that’s beside the point.
There are plenty of reasons why learning Mandarin makes
you a smarter and more interesting person. Reading Chinese
aloud activates far more widespread networks of the right hemi-
sphere of the brain than English, probably because of the sub-
tlety of both visual and tonal demands by Chinese, according to
Ian McGilchrist’s “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided
Brain and the Making of the Western World.”
So climbing a career ladder is only one of many reasons to
learn a foreign language. As the English teacher in the Alan
Bennett play and 2006 movie “The History Boys” tells his stu-
dents: “All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the
slightest human use.”
BIG PICTURE
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
14
IDEA
Idea of The Month: The Seriousness of
Humour By Kevin McGeary
C omedian George Carlin once began a set by assert-
ing: “I’m a professional comedian, as opposed to those unpro-
fessional comedians you get at work.” He had a point in that
the joking you get in a workplace may not be up to professional
standards, but it is important that there is some humour there.
Humour is by its nature subversive, so why is it an important
thing to have in a respectable business?
The Chinese word 幽默, a transliteration of the English
word “humour”, entered the language as recently as the 1930s
when author Lin Yutang decided that China needed the con-
cept of humour that he had encountered while studying in the
United States. Writing in “The Importance of Living”, Lin
opined: “The inability to laugh cost the former Kaiser Wilhelm
an empire, or as an American might say, cost the German peo-
ple billions of dollars.”
At that time, the existing
Chinese word for humour 滑稽
had too many lowbrow and slap-
stick connotations. China does
not have a tradition similar to, say,
The White House Correspond-
ent’s Dinner in which comedians
make fun of the U.S. president or
The Friar’s Club Roast in which
speakers take it in turns to ridicule
a celebrity who is present.
Lightly embarrassing a per-
son in power helps reduce social
distance which facilitates a connection. According to LinkedIn
influencer Dr. Eric J Romero, humor is important in organiza-
tions because of its positive effect on a variety of factors rele-
vant to management such as: group cohesiveness, communica-
tion, socialization, leadership effectiveness, creativity, and stress
reduction.
Of course, there can be a dark side to this, much of the
time laughter is no laughing matter. Humour can just as easily
be about laughing at people as laughing with, which is doubly
serious in China considering the culture of “face”. As Mel
Brooks said: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when
you walk into an open sewer and die.”
What makes someone funny? It is universally agreed
among comedians that Bugs Bunny is funnier than Mickey
Mouse. This is because Bugs is devilish and irreverent while
Mickey is a toothless nice guy. Mickey smiles more easily, but
in a lobotomized kind of way. Bugs’ joie de vivre and reckless
abandon are what make him the funnier character. However,
Bugs Bunny’s tendency to always win is to the detriment of his
likeability, so his style of putting people down is not a good
approach to humour in the workplace.
How is humour best used? Having the ability to laugh
with someone is a sign of being able to get along with them. If
you want to foster such a culture, it is a good idea to figure out
what makes colleagues laugh, this may include nicknaming,
banter, the creation of humorous songs and rhymes, the taking
and sharing of funny pictures and non-violent pranks.
Good humourists tend to be unthreatening neurotics
(think Woody Allen). Bad humourists tend to be smug bullies
(think the typical workplace blowhard). Comedic actor Rob
Lowe complained to The New York
Times earlier this year that his good
looks were holding him back in his
career. This may sound criminally
self-regarding but it is possible that
he had a point. To make people
laugh you have to display some kind
of vulnerability, and people find vul-
nerability harder to believe if it’s
coming from a person who has no
visible blemishes.
The transcendentally funny comedi-
an Louis C.K. derives most of his
material from being an ageing, unat-
tractive single father with an unglamorous life. His brilliance
and his likeability both stem from this willingness to embarrass
himself. In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan agreed to be the subject
of a celebrity roast as he prepared to run for president, display-
ing an aspect of his persona that turned out to be a vote win-
ner—the joker.
What those two men do most skillfully is make them-
selves at least 70% the butt of the joke. They clearly under-
stood what psychiatrist and academic Thomas Stephen Szasz
said: “When a man can’t laugh at himself it is time for others
to laugh at him.” And any leader must prefer being laughed
with than being laughed at.
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
15
ITIL Ideas Man
By Kevin McGeary
Kiran Kumar Pabbathi
ITIL process manager and author
Kiran Kumar Pabbathi is an Information Technology
Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Process Manager for Bizenit
Information Technology. He contracts for Midea and is
currently based in Beijiao, home of the Midea Group
headquarters. He has also authored three books and has a
fourth on the way, sharing his knowledge of information
technology, business and life.
Kiran’s previous jobs have included that of technical
support analyst at Dell, senior technical analyst at IBM,
and project manager at Hewlett Packard. Midea is cur-
rently among the most
prestigious clients that
his company deals
with.
A deeply spiritual
person, Kiran medi-
tates for two hours a
day and follows a
strictly vegan diet. He
lives with his wife and
will soon go back to
India to settle down.
Advances: What is
your role at Midea?
Kiran: I am an
identity and access man-
agement process consult-
ant, which means I do process designing for the applications
that Bizenit are giving to Midea. These applications are Smart
Identity Service (SIS) and Smart Identity Manager (SIM) which
enable the IT administrators at Midea to control or monitor
user identities.
When you join Midea, you get your username. Bizenit is
responsible for creating and monitoring these user identities,
and then when the employee leaves the company, deleting and
disabling these accounts is managed through our applications.
SIS is something that most workers will come across.
When you forget your password and you retrieve it by entering
your phone number, that is SIS, our product. Our other prod-
uct, SIM will be accessible only to IT administrators.
I am into process consulting where I confront questions
such as “what should happen when…?” and “what is happen-
ing?” and taking care of how the tools, the functionality and the
coding happens. I also do ITIL training for south Asian coun-
tries. I am an accreditor for ITIL for a U.K. institute called the
I.T. Knowledge Academy, covering Singapore, The Philippines,
Hong Kong and other south Asian countries and regions.
Advances: ITIL was the subject of your first book. How
did that come to be written?
Kiran: It was written for all IT managers. It tells compa-
nies how to start off implementing Service Desk, a primary IT
service. How do you develop good policies and procedures?
How do you
make sure that
your Service
Desk opera-
tions are run-
ning perfectly?
And finally,
how do you
improve? This
book is about
the procedures
and processes
about end-to-
end IT man-
agement.
Advances:
Was your role
at HP similar?
Has all this experience gone on to inform your latest book
“Guidance for IT Asset Management”?
Kiran: I have eleven years of experience, much of which
has gone into my most recent book about IT asset management.
The ITIL concept is about managing IT services. For example,
when you go to a restaurant, all you expect is good food. You’re
not bothered about the ingredients, the cost of the ingredients
or whether any accidents have taken place while cooking. All
PEOPLE
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
16
ITIL Ideas Man (Cont.)
By Kevin McGeary
you want is the food and to pay the amount quoted on the
menu.
In this case, the service is food, and if you get it the way
you want it,
you are a happy
customer. In
the same way,
ITIL defines
the process for
managing IT
services in an
attempt to
make your
customer abso-
lutely delighted
with your ser-
vices.
IT asset
management is
about optimum
utilization of
assets, return
on investment
and value.
How do I ensure that an asset is being 100% utilized? These are
the three foundational pillars IT asset management focuses on.
It involves a lot of processes, such as how to design a strategy
to acquire assets, what assets do I need, what are my organiza-
tional goals, what kind of assets should I go for?
Next is financial strategy for financial assets, such as
“How much should I invest in acquiring IT assets?” and “How
should I charge?” After that is procurement. Then comes in-
ventory, which includes how to store the assets so that you can
access them whenever you need, track them, and ensure you are
using all of the assets in your inventory. Other processes in-
clude asset maintenance.
Lastly comes retired services. After an asset has reached
the end of its life, what can be done with it? At this stage, you
need to check the status of the assets. If the assets are in good
condition, they can be sold in bulk although the cost will be
low. They can also be sold as scrap. Other options include do-
nating them to charities or orphanages. This is how you dispose
of your assets.
I.T. asset management is quite a broad term that covers all
these things. It’s all about utilizing assets and return on invest-
ment.
Advances: Does mainland China provide a good business
environment for what you do?
Kiran: Actually, this book on IT asset management is the
first in the world of its kind. It will be applicable for all domains
such as banking, finance, manufacturing, healthcare, any do-
main. I have recently written another book titled “Enterprise
Asset Management” which will define procedures for all assets.
It will be released on August 17 by servicemanagers.org .It’s my
fourth book.
Advances: Your second book was about friendship.
Kiran: “Charm of Friendship” tells of how friendship can
develop a person, and how friendship can destroy a person. If
you put a pinch of salt into a glass of milk, it is completely ru-
ined. Yet if you add an iota of curd it makes the milk extra deli-
cious.
Friend-
ship is very
necessary for
every age
group, from
toddlers to
teenagers to
the elderly.
What I want to
say in this
book is, if you
see that a
friend has
some bad qual-
ities, try to
change him,
try to make
him ask him-
self what is
wrong and
what is right.
PEOPLE
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
17
ITIL Ideas Man (Cont.)
By Kevin McGeary
If he insists on sticking to his own principles, then you need to
go away.
Having a bad friend is a bit like having a snake in your
house. You never know when he’s going to bite. In this book, I
use a lot of stories from Indian history and mythology from the
Vedic tradition to show the importance of friendship.
Advances: What about life in Beijiao? Are you impressed
by this company?
Kiran: I think it’s really fantastic, the way Mr. He devel-
oped the company over
just a few decades. It’s
really unbelievable.
How did he do this?
I’ve worked for
really good companies
like IBM and Hewlett
Packard. I’ve seen
some impressive offices
and corporate head-
quarters. But I’ve never
seen a company like
this. It’s like a five star
hotel.
Advances: Do
you think this company
will be successful in
India?
Kiran: It’s difficult to say, but the joint venture with Car-
rier was certainly a step in the right direction.
Also, cricket is like another religion in India, so a great
way to advertise the brand would be to get the logo on the bat
of a famous player like Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Advances: How long do you expect to be here?
Kiran: Another six months. My wife and I want to go
back to India and settle down, but I will stay with Bizenit. My
years in China have been a great learning experience. I’m very
impressed with the place, and to be frank, enough people here
have treated me very well which has made me happy.
The way Chinese people treat foreigners is really very
great. I like the systematic approach here. I like the way the in-
frastructure is built and the roads are maintained. I like the
cleanliness. Even the most developed cities in India have power
outages, filth on the road, and other problems.
Advances: Are there ways in which India is ahead of Chi-
na?
Kiran: The only way I can think of is spirituality. In terms
of infrastructure
development, I
think India will
take another 50
years or so to get
to the level
where China is
now.
I think the re-
cent election
result in India is
excellent and is
what we all
wanted. It’s like
we just got rid of
a very dangerous
disease called
congress. We’re
very happy that
we have a prime minister who can cut the roots of corruption.
A good society needs a good leader who the citizens can
respect and follow and that’s what we now have.
The rise of Midea is partly attributable to the Chinese gov-
ernment which has been encouraging entrepreneurship and is
against corruption (like bribery and such). If the head of the
government is involved in corruption, then all the government
officers would also obviously get into corruption and make it
impossible for creative people and entrepreneurs to do some-
thing new and good for the society.
PEOPLE
Advances Newsletter, July, 2014
18
SNAPSHOT
R290 refrigerant AC certified as green technology