This Chinese tech investor carries no cash and no credit cards and he says it's a sign of why American startups have fallen behind
- Kai-Fu Lee has a lesson to offer US tech execs about doing business in China, a market where success has eluded most of them for decades.
- US managers operating in China need to adopt more of the local businesses practices, or else homegrown rivals will outmaneuver them at every turn, Lee said.
- An added benefit of studying Chinese entrepreneurs is that they might teach US counterparts something that can help back at home.
- After all, China has succeeded in a couple of tech segments where Silicon Valley has failed.
US internet services and tech products have largely failed to catch on in China. The causes are many but those American technologists interested in spotting one of the bigger ones need only stare into a mirror, according to Kai-Fu Lee.
Speaking at the Artificial Intelligence 2018 Conference in San Francisco last week, Lee, a longtime US tech exec working in China, showered all kinds of criticism on the efforts of American tech companies operating in that country.
"American companies tend to treat China as just another market," Lee told conference attendees. "The local team isn't empowered with full resources and ability to build new product suites targeted and customized for local customer needs.
"Secondly because the people who are sent by American companies are professional managers whose next aspirations is to become the senior VP of sales," Lee continued, "they will behave by corporate standards and achieve (the results) that gives them the promotion, and not roll up their sleeves and work 24-7, and fight the competitor."
But the problem with this, according to Lee, is that "everyone else in China is doing that." ...
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