Off The Record

The question then is, what, if anything can be done to address the matter.

A Dream of Red Envelopes

In this post we’re going to focus on the issue of paying journalists hong bao or red envelopes.  Another euphemism used for this practice is “transportation fee”.  The fee is paid to media to attend a function such as a press conference or even a one-on-one interview and can range in price from RMB200 per journalist to about RMB500.  Some companies have been known to pay more to attract senior journalists and editors to events and use a sliding scale depending on which journalist attends.  This writer has heard of amounts as high as RMB10,000 being paid for editors of top newspapers and magazines and producers of leading TV news programs.

The practice of hong bao started in the early days after
China’s opening when foreign companies needed to attract media attention but found they couldn’t get the media to attend as journalists were not compensated by their outlets for expenditure on transportation or their lunch when working outside the office.  Hence, the euphemism “transportation fee” came into existence.  Some years ago the foreign PR firms got together to cap the fee at RMB200 per journalist.  But local firms are known to pay as much as RMB500 per journalist, which is creating pressure for the international firms to increase their amounts.  Rumours abound that some foreign PR firms have started paying more.

The fee is justified by many in the industry on the grounds that it does not guarantee a story; indeed paying the hong bao does not even guarantee a positive story as, on occasion, journalists attending press activities and happily taking the fee have written negative articles about the host company afterwards.  But for the most part it does get the host company at least two column inches of neutral to positive coverage.  The problem is too many PRO’s are satisfied with showing their bosses a fist full of clips regardless of the quality.

But the fact is that the practice remains illegal under Chinese law and under the anti-corruption laws relating to the conduct of international business held by most OECD countries.  That’s why considerable steps are taken by foreign companies in China to cover the payment of the fee.  In most instances it is rolled into the fees of the PR agency so headquarters in home countries need not be aware of it being done.

A simple rule of thumb definition for a corrupt practice might be anything one feels a need to cover up, to hide from headquarters, the company auditors, and/or government authorities.  At the very minimum many companies are breaking their own internal codes of ethics by paying hong bao to the media.

A Way Out of the Mess
The real problem with hong bao is that it is the thin edge of the wedge.  It gives Chinese journalists the impression that foreign companies are prepared to pay for coverage.  And that opens the door to other corrupt practices amongst the Chinese media (which we will take up in a future post).  As pressure mounts for the hong bao fee to go up, it is clear a way needs to be found out of the whole sorry mess.

In Shanghai the cash filled hong bao has largely been replaced by transportation cards to the nominal value of the hong bao.  Shanghai being a modern, sophisticated metropolis has magnetic cards that can be used on the city’s transportation system – on everything from taxis to buses and the light-rail system.  Companies hosting media events have started to use these in place of the insidious hong bao.

While the transportation card is markedly better than handing over an envelope, red or brown, stuffed with cash, it is still problematic.  The problem is that companies trying to attract media to events will be tempted to increase the value of the cards.  They could go from RMB200 to RMB500 to who knows how much.  And then the cards can be transferred to friends and family members – so it doesn’t matter too much how many one receives or for what value.

It would be far better to entirely stop the practice of hong bao.  But how?

As I have often said, the payment of transportation fees will not end until everyone who is angered by it stops doing it.  The problem is no one wants to be the first, to go it alone as it were.  So the industry needs to join together and all players must agree to stop paying the fee.

Not paying the fee will lose media coverage only for the short-term, but eventually the media will need to come back as journalists need to find material on which to file stories every day.  They cannot afford to avoid news events for a long period of time – their editors and owners of their media outlets will not put up with it.

Currently both Chinese and foreign government agencies operating in China do not pay the transportation fee and the media accept that they do not and continue to attend their events.  Likewise, China’s large SOE’s do not pay transportation fees because they know the media cannot afford to ignore them when they have real news to announce.

This writer was impressed recently by a journalist from the magazine Cai Jing who handed back her red envelope to a PR flunkey at an event saying “we’re not allowed to take hong bao; we’re only interested in real news.”

That says it all.  If foreign companies operating in China have real news for the media they don’t need to pay hong bao.  But then, of course, many companies are locked in to paying hong bao precisely because their “news” is anything but newsworthy.  You just can’t have your cake and eat it too.

According to a report in the China Daily of 23 December, passengers flying on Chinese airlines are being told to stop complaining by the nation’s civil aviation authority.

According to the report, the authorities blame poor education of passengers for the high number of complaints received each year.  Complaints cover high prices of food at airport eateries, tasteless in-flight food, lost and destroyed baggage, and poor service by aircraft cabin crew. 

The aviation authorities believe passengers would be more understanding if they acquired an appreciation of the complexities of flying hurtling metal cylinders through the air.  They say safety is the paramount consideration.

That makes me feel much better.  What the heck?  Destroy my baggage and be rude to me during the flight if that’s going to get me to my destination in one piece.

 While it might all seem a little bit odd to foreigners, there’s nothing wrong with trying to localize the festival in some way.  Indeed, Christmas has always subsumed local customs.  For example, climatic conditions in Australia meant sleigh-rides and building snowmen had to be replaced by BBQ’s and cricket on the beach.

But why the need to take such a Bolshevik approach to the whole concept of Christmas?  A clue is provided by one of the Shanghai-ren interviewed by the China Daily.  A Ms. Xu Qian told the paper she was tired of how commercialized Christmas had become and wants to find something different.

Hear, hear to that.  We fully support a more Chinese Christmas and, hopefully, one that finds the true meaning of this festival.  Something worth reflecting on as you walk through China’s shopping malls this festive season listening to “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” playing in the background.

If you google the words “career success”, which I just did, you get more than 109 million hits.  This tells me two things:  first there must be a lot of interest in the subject for so much information to have been posted on the world wide web.  Secondly, there is an awful lot of information out there – more than any one person could ever sift through; and you can leave it to google to decide what’s important for you to read because these hits are prioritized according to mathematical formulae created by some geek who’s been living on a steady diet of pizza, soda and Internet chat rooms for the past 15 years.

So what’s a young upwardly mobile professional – what we used to call “Yuppies” back in the day - to do to get the best advice to start building career success?

At the risk of sounding smug – you need look no further.  Having spent the past few years of my career hiring, firing, training and retraining people, I have a few insights – four actually – to share with those who are interested in achieving success in their professional lives.  But, before I get to them, let’s define what success is so we can be sure we are talking about the same thing.

 Career success is about being recognized by your peers and superiors as an outstanding professional in your chosen field.  It is not about money or title, though those often do come with recognition for one’s abilities.

Now it’s very easy to look at a definition like this and say – that’s easy:  The geek who graduated dux of the class is going to rise to the top.  Maybe.  But probably not if the geek was a geek.  The person who is going to be successful in their career is the one with the right mix of hard and soft skills.  Hard skills are the knowledge and expertise the person has in their chosen field.  If they graduated there’s a good chance the person at least has that –no guarantee though as blockheads occasionally get through Harvard Business School, for example.  Even law schools and medical colleges have been known to graduate their share of dolts.

So what are the soft skills that are important to long-term career success?

Communicate like you know what you want to say
The first is probably obvious, but sometimes watching recent graduates in job interviews I wonder.  But good communication skills are the base building blocks.  If you don’t have these or can’t acquire them it’s probably time to think about a career selling shampoo over the Internet or something similar.

Good communication skills come in two forms and these days you need both.  Written communication is fundamental given the amount of work that has to be done in writing – business reports, e-mails, proposals and plans.  If you can’t write to save your life, as the saying goes, then your career is also unsalvageable.

Can you do anything to improve your writing skills?  A lot.  First spend less time chatting on line because that’s not writing – it’s cryptography understood only by the initiated, usually teenagers who have too much time on their hands.  As your boss doesn’t spend as much time in chat rooms, chances are he’s not going to understand what you call spelling.  Start reading good books.  Professional books are a good start because you can learn more about your career as well as picking up good pointers on how to write well.  Secondly practice writing.  Just write for the sake of it.  Keep a diary or write a short story; but write.  The more you write the better you get at it.  Who knows, if you write well enough your blog might become a hit and Google might buy it for US$100 million or more – eliminating the need to fret about career success at all.

The second type of communication is oral.  Learning how to talk is important.  Again, you won’t learn this on the Internet.  It’s about talking and sounding professional and articulate.  The more you do it, the better you become.  But to really move up the food chain you need to become a good public presenter and speaker.  There are courses you can do, such as via Toastmasters International.  There are also training companies, such as AC Capital Strategic Public Relations that can tailor courses to suit your company: Talk to your human resources director, we’re friendly people eager to help staff improve their abilities.

But practice, practice and then practice some more.

A third part of communication is about learning English.  It’s the new lingua franca, which is Latin for a language that is widely used as a means of communication.  (And you have to learn the lingua franca as much as it might gaul you; sorry, bad pun.)  Most global companies now – even French and German ones – use English as their language of business.  So career success these days does require a good working knowledge of the language.  If you’re having trouble reading this, duibuqi kids, but you’re going to have to brush up your language skills.  One way to do that is by taking a course, of course.  And again, practice, practice and practice some more.

Of course the secret to good communications is what my good friend
Alistair Nicholas calls the Kippling Maxim.  Rudyard Kippling was a great British journalist who lived in India in the last century and wrote wonderful stories such as The Jungle Book and Kim.  Kippling said that every good journalist has six friends – Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.  If you follow this maxim to structure your communications you will go a long way towards becoming a great communicator.  It will help you to also eliminate the circumlocution to which Chinese writing and speech is held hostage and which frustrates bosses who are standing by waiting for you to get to the point.  You’ve got to learn to talk fast and talk direct.

Network till you drop
The second soft skill to learn, and very closely related to the first, is how to network.  If you are going to succeed in your career you can’t be the Invisible Man in the company.  You need to learn to network both within your organization and outside it.  And again, Internet chat rooms are not where this networking takes place.  Nor is it about the idle gossip that goes on around the office water cooler.  Leave those two to the geeks and gigglers of the office.  Serious networking is done over lunch and coffee where you talk about serious issues affecting the company and offer practical solutions.  This networking positions you as someone who cares about your company and someone who is thinking about how to solve the problems it may be facing.  Bosses don’t like employees who bring them problems; but they certainly like team players who bring them solutions.  In other words, make yourself part of the solution, not part of the problem in the company – whatever the problem might be.

External networking is equally important to being recognized as a professional.  Therefore it is important to join business associations such as chambers of commerce and industry associations or professional associations and clubs.  These organizations are always looking for someone to work on one of their committees or to help out arranging a networking event.  Volunteer to help.  That way you will be seen and respected.  One of the things you find on these committees is that the most successful of professionals tend to be on them.  If you have something to contribute, don’t snipe from the sides; join in and make a contribution.

When you get high enough up the tree you can do your networking on the golf course or in the corporate box at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.  But when you’re starting out you need to do it by rolling up your sleeves and pitching in to help.  The long-term dividends will be worth it.

Be a quick learner, too

The ability to learn new things quickly is increasing in importance.  In a world that is increasingly moving at the speed of light there is no room for slow learners.  We all need to master new technologies quickly and technology is changing every day.  Being able to chat on MSN is one thing that speeds up communication for companies.  But MSN is the grunt end of the business food chain.  Fourteen year olds master it in the blink of an eye.  But if you are going to really be successful in your career you need to master the company’s database software and other mission-critical programs and technology that the firm uses.  Bosses don’t like to hear excuses about why the technology doesn’t work.  They usually have a view, right or wrong, that it doesn’t work because there is a Luddite or technophobe trying to use it.  Ironically, even if they can’t use the technology themselves they will hold a poor view of you for not mastering it.  So the best thing to do is master the technology that your company uses.  And by all means demonstrate that you are a quick learner when new technology is introduced.  If you think you can change the way the company works or the way your boss thinks it should work, think again.  You won’t succeed; therefore you need to adapt to the company’s work processes and your boss’ requirements.

Analyse this

Analytical skills are also very important in today’s world.  This is because leading companies don’t just make widgets any more.  What successful companies do is process information – and vast amounts of it.  A pharmaceutical company doesn’t just make drugs.  It looks at trends in disease development and contagion and finds solutions to those problems.  At the top end of such a company, the smartest people are employed to process everything from scientific data to market research information, to financial data, etc. in order to develop solutions that will bring products to market profitably.  Obviously an ability to analyse information quickly and accurately and develop solutions is going to make someone indispensable to their company.  A successful “analytical aggregator” - for want of a better term - is someone who can get to the nub of a problem quickly and then bring the right information to bear in solving it.  The few who can do this are the few who will make it to the very top of their careers – provided of course they have the other three parts of the formulae for success.  Analytical ability combined with good communication skills, a networking sense and flexibility to learn new things puts you at the top of the food chain.

Master these four things and you will be sailing.  But, of course, that’s the trick; if everyone could master them we’d all be equal.  Those who can master these talents will tip the career success balance their way.

* Uma Li is a human resources development consultant living in the United States.  She previously worked in public relations in China.

 The 27 year old Liu Qian had orchestrated the escape of a former director of a state-owned construction company Yao Chuanrui. The escape involved 16 others, including one of
Yao’s guards who had been promised an apartment by the couple. 

 The couple had apparently been together for eight years and had a child.  According to chat rooms she was a model mistress because of her loyalty to sugar daddy Yao.

Yao is still awaiting trial for embezzlement of more than RMB70 million of company funds.  It may be some time before the couple see each other again.

Those Chinese who can afford it plan their overseas holidays to coincide with a Golden Week holiday.  And herein lays the rub.  Those able to really drive economic growth by spending more are probably doing so in the US, Australia or Europe.  Vacationomics is starting to prove more of a boon to overseas markets than for China for which it was intended.

 

And there’s another issue.  Vactionomics slows productivity.  Imagine a whole country shut down for a seven-day long period.  Seven days in which not a single widget is made.  Seven days in which not a single bank is open for business. Seven days that your accountant and lawyer and everyone else you need to get things done is unavailable.  It’s not slow productivity.  It’s not even low productivity.  It is no productivity.

The Chinese Government is aware of this and has taken steps to address it by having everyone in the nation work during the weekend prior to the holidays and/or following the holidays.  That means the nation’s entire workforce ends up working seven to nine days straight in order to get their Golden Week holiday.  Imagine how tired people are at the end of that period without rest.  Imagine how hard it is to do business with the rest of the world because they don’t work the weekends before or after a Golden Week.

The truth is not much gets done in the week immediately prior to Golden Week because everyone is gearing up for their week off.  The only thing that really seems to get done in China during Golden Week is the booking of holidays and idle chat around the office in the lead up to the holidays.  And of course the week after the holiday is spent trying to get back into the swing of work again.

The situation is so bad that some companies, especially foreign companies and companies in the manufacturing sector, ignore the holidays.  They choose instead to keep working and pay the penalty of overtime rates to their employees.  They do so because the cost of paying overtime is still lower than the costs of lost productivity during Golden Week.

Mr. Hu, tear down the Golden Week holidays!

P.S. Off the Record blog will be unavailable during the Chinese New Year Golden Week Holiday as we sun ourselves in Phuket.

Reports of possible outbreaks of bird flu rise and fall with the seasons.  Some countries are more affected by it –
Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, for example.  But cases have been reported as far afield as Turkey and Iraq, Russia, and parts of Western Europe and Africa.  While efficient human-to-human infection is yet to develop, the scientific world sits on tenterhooks because history suggests the world is overdue for a flu pandemic.  The nightmare scenario that has been painted for the next flu pandemic is that somewhere between 20 million and 150 million people could perish.

With all the discussion in the media of a possible pandemic, who will be able to claim ignorance for not being prepared if/when it strikes?  Yet many companies remain woefully unprepared for such a crisis.

So what are the steps that companies can take to be better prepared, from a communications perspective, whatever crises may hit them?

Therefore it is essential that companies have in place the systems and tools to deal with all aspects of a crisis.  The time to prepare is before a crisis hits.

Speed is of the essence
Too often the first casualty in a crisis, as in war, is truth.  Mark Twain said, “A lie will get half-way around the world before you even get your pants on”, and that was in the days before the Internet and mobile phones.  Therefore a key to successful crisis communications management is fast response to the unraveling situation.  Failure to respond quickly can result in untold damage to a company’s reputation even if it had taken the right steps to deal with the crisis.  AC Capital Strategic Public Relations advises clients to respond within the first hour of a crisis by issuing a “holding statement” that outlines the company’s concern, immediate action being taken to address the crisis, and which puts the situation in perspective.  The longer a company delays communicating its side of the story the more opportunity there is for distortion of the facts.

Honesty still the best policy
Integrity is demonstrated when companies take responsibility for a crisis.  That means they demonstrate the action they are taking to deal with a negative situation.  Taking responsibility does not mean a company accepts blame for a crisis.  Failure to take responsibility or show empathy with victims and public opinion can be seen as arrogance.

Companies have a responsibility to disclose all relevant information provided that disclosure will not endanger anyone or compromise an investigation of the crisis.  It is important to provide all relevant stakeholders with accurate information on what has happened, how it is being dealt with, and what else they might expect to happen.  Failure to disclose relevant information can easily be construed as an attempt to cover up fault and could cause immense damage to the company’s reputation.

Do it often, with feeling…
It is important to communicate frequently so the media and other stakeholders know you are keeping them in the loop on developments.  Depending on the nature of the crisis it might be necessary to provide media briefings as frequently as daily or even twice per day.  By communicating frequently with stakeholders you can demonstrate your openness and reinforce your integrity.

Keep things straight
Never allow the wrong information to go unchallenged.  It is important to correct any factual inaccuracy swiftly, before they can obtain momentum and credibility.  Misinformation is usually the result of incomplete information and hearsay and can easily be addressed if a company corrects it quickly.

Only the designated spokespersons of the company should speak to the stakeholders, internal and external, about the crisis.  This will ensure consistency of the company’s messages during the crisis.  If possible, there should only be one spokesperson; if this is not possible, however, all spokespersons must be well trained and they must all speak from the same set of messages to avoid conflicting and contradictory statements.

Get your allies talking
It is essential that companies have a number of allies in their industry and in the community that they can call upon to act as third party advocates in times of crisis.  These might include industry associations, academics, consumer groups, government officials and other influential parties in the community who can be mobilized to validate the company’s practices and procedures during a crisis.  Given the importance of third party allies, a company should cultivate these relationships long before a crisis hits.

Even the media can be your friends
View the media as a useful tool to get your side of the story out.  Treat journalists as friends and allies and treat them with respect.  Too often companies in crises situations evade engagement with the media, which only gives credence to the view that the company is hiding the truth or important information.  By communicating openly and frequently with the media you will be able to publicize your side of the story.  Given the critical role that the media plays in a crisis, it is important to cultivate relationships with key journalists long before a crisis occurs so that you can call on those journalists with whom you have strong relationships to get your side of the story out.

Accept the inevitable
But even with good media relationships and open and frequent communications, you should accept that media reporting of an issue or crisis is going to be disproportionate to the actual event.  The reasons for this are that the media is a business based on “entertainment value” and bad news is entertaining to the news consuming public.  Secondly, there is going to be considerable misinformation and hearsay that is being put out and journalists, who are not experts in your industry, cannot afford to ignore anything that is being said.  The best that you can hope for in a crisis situation is balanced reporting.

Stay on Message
It is imperative that you have a well-defined set of messages and that your spokespersons stay on message, particularly in media interviews.  You should have a positioning statement, backgrounders and questions and answers, developed and agreed to by senior management for use in media interviews.  It is unacceptable to say the words “no comment” to a journalist.  This phrase only works in Hollywood films and would be taken as a sign of guilt in real life.  If you are unable to answer a question you should give a reason for it and provide a timeframe in which you will be able to answer.

 * This article originally appeared in the September 2003 issue of Off The Record, long before we entered the blogosphere.  Its lessons, which then were made with respect to the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic that had hit in Spring of 2003, remain pertinent to all crises.

 Xinhua estimated the “aggregated” loss of Chinese airlines in the first half of the year at RMB3 billion.

 In response, Chinese airlines are also expected to cut back on the amount of blankets, newspapers and magazines carried on board flights as all increase weight to the aircraft resulting in higher fuel consumption. 

China’s new no frills airlines will offer less frills than in the past.  “Preaze to enjoy fright with us.”

China’s tabloid press and blogosphere has been in the grip of a hot debate since the Party Secretary of the Shanghai International Studies University, Wu Youfu, recently proposed in an interview with the Guangming Daily that the dragon should be dropped as China’s national symbol.  More than 90 per cent of some 100,000 people who responded to a survey on sina.com voted the suggestion down.

Even the national English-language China Daily weighed in with not just one news report, but a follow-up Op-Ed on the matter.  We believe the question is of such national (even international) importance that we too are weighing in.

Professor Wu, who has since claimed he made no such recommendation, apparently made the suggestion because he believed many Westerners misunderstand China because Westerners see the dragon as an evil and fearsome beast.  Other experts also commented on the West’s misperception of dragons and how it impacts on their perception of China.

A number of professors and other “experts”, including a Professor Pang Jin who is the Director of the China Research Centre on Dragon and Phoenix Culture argued that the conception of the dragon in China is fundamentally different to the West’s view.  In Chinese culture dragons are always “good” and “non-aggressive”, according to the taxpayer-funded expert.

Some dragon experts even suggested that China takes some positive action to promote a better understanding of its conception of dragons.  Professor Yu Guomin of the Journalism School or Renmin (People’s) University said China could make some movies that portray the mythical creatures in a better light.  He drew a comparison with the film Shrek which he pointed out has helped to improve the image of ogres in the West. 

 To be sure, dragons have shared a bad rap along with ogres in Western culture.  Most of us were brought up on a steady diet of knights saving damsels from one or the other. But then, the misconception many have held of dragons has been challenged in the West in recent years by Hollywood itself, such as via the long-running children’s cartoon series Dragonland, or the bliss inducing dragon Falcor from the  “Neverending Story” which was screened in 1984  and the 1996 movie Dragonheart (which used the dulcet tones of Sean Connery for the voice of the last dragon, Draco).  These and other popular films have transformed dragons into nice and cuddly creatures. 

 Given this change does China really need to make movies to improve the poor rap dragons have in the West?  Is the real issue of China’s poor perception internationally linked to its national symbol or is there something more to it.

 As the Times of India editorialised on the debate: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.  With apologies to Shakespeare, one could well ask what’s in a symbol?”  The point made by the Times is that even if China were to adopt another symbol, such as the panda, would it change foreign perceptions of the country’s business practices or its geopolitical ambitions. 

 Of course, it is not our role to take sides on that specific issue.  But on the broader issue of national reputation we have a point of view – a point we have made often and loud.  Countries, like organizations and even individuals, need to ensure that their actions match their rhetoric.  At the end of the day it doesn’t matter to people around the world what China chooses as its national symbol; the dragon is well appreciated because it is strong and the West does in fact have an understanding of its significance in Chinese culture.  We no more deplore the dragon than we do the British lion or the American eagle as national symbols. 

 Truth be told: We probably don’t pause very often to give a second thought about these symbols.  What matters more to most people are the actions of national governments and organizations.  The thievery committed by Enron’s executives, if it went unpunished, would have spoken far louder about the US’s culture than either the American eagle or the Statue of Liberty.  Those symbols remain strong because of a national ethos that brings crooks to book.

 In this context, China’s current debate about its national symbol is tantamount to medieval thelogians debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.  Does it really matter if China were to replace a mythical creature with a near extinct one as its national symbol?