ir, Dominique Vanhamme

Walking on the New Silk Route

DISCLAIMER

the New Silk Route

From 1st century BC until the 14th century AC, the Silk Route was the main exchange and trade route between Western and Easterncivilizations.

Spanning more than 6.500km between Rome (Italy) and Xi’an (China), it carried various goods like silk, gold, jade, but also wool, laquer, glass, fuits, wine, etc …

Not only goods travelled, but also culture was exchanged, includingart and religion like Buddhism.

Walking on the New Silk Route

• With globalization and communication technologies, East and West are walking along a new Silk Route. Exchanges flow back and forth, with concepts and models being (re-)discovered.

• Just like the Silk Route of the past upon which culture travelledwith the caravans, today distant cultures are coming in contact closer together than ever.

• Technologies, culture, arts, and management style are nowcoming into increasing contact.

City of Samarkand : midpoint of the Route

• In response to many requests, here’s a way to share personalexperience, reading, learning, …

• This is basically an ‘eye of the beholder’-type of summary fromthe recent 18 months, « spanning Rome and Xi’an », within the ICT business.

(a « Disclaimer » in which I basically decline any harm and/or negativity, only focusingon the positives of learning.)

New Silk Route Markers

• Of old, there was in fact, not just one Silk Route, but many roads from East to West and back, including evensea routes.

JUST LIKE

• Many road markers can be found on the Silk Routes, allowing each and everyone to chose the best path to travel.

• Road Markers were sort of milestones, regardless if travelled east- or west-bound.

• Just like those route markers of old, my 18months worthof year notes can be in experience markers. Surely wasfor me.

• Hopefully they can help the journey of someone else.

List of « Route Markers »

1.Group mass vs individual performance

2. Empowerment vs task management

3. Belief to adapt to business environment

4. Last minute organization

5. Notion of success : Superman vs RiceMan

6. Collaboration and the Boss

7. So « alien » to each other : beyond the language barrier

8. Face, reputation and the Western appearances

9. Ten words in chinese you need to know

10.Talent management vs on-the-job training

…

List of topics (cont’d)

11. Vision&Strategy vs Chengyu

12. Value Proposition & Solution selling vs product swamping

13. Evaluation & reviews vs Confucius

14. Motivational speech vs legendary stories

15. Ego of the leader

16. Collaborative Directions or Topdown partnerships

17. Event vs workshop : internal alignement methods

18. On innovation, inventions and product design

19. Peter Drucker vs LiBai

20. The Heart : center of the universe

…

I picked up four markers (in bold) in this presentation and detailed them

Marker #5 : Superman vs Rice Man

TRAVEL EAST

Strength dirives from numbers. And being humbly at the service of the nation. Pick Mr Y. Longping : he invented hybrid rice thatdoubled yield of rice fields, feeding the population and avoidingfamines and will work until his death to reach 4x yield.

A humble ‘rice man’ at the service of the nation, a national hero.

TRAVEL WEST

Man of Steel, Superman, faster, stronger, brighter, he is the super-hero, protecting society.

The cult of the individual hero helps forging the ideal model and be an aspiration for success.

Marker #11 : Vision&Strategy vs Chengyu

TRAVEL WEST

To struture and manage companies, Western management culture teaches in business schools and books and preachesinside corporations for the use of casting a Vision, defininga Mission, articulating a Strategy with Objectives, measuring performance with Dashboards, drive Executionwith clear team Tactics, …

TRAVEL EAST

Chengyu is a way to tell a lot with little words. In four characters in fact. It summarizes in keywords a whole knownstory, historical or mythical, but of public knowledge. There are more than 30.000 chengyu to chose from.

Giving company directions and winning corporate battles todayare more a question of relating to a clear story withdocumented chengyu explaination.

Marker #14 : Stories: speech vs legendary

TRAVEL EAST

History and Legends. Pick among more than 100’s of historicalscenes and legends : what did Three Kingdoms’s warlord Cao Cao that is relevant to the audience, for instance.

Reminding the audience of past scenes and actions (historical or legendary) to gain aligment and also understanding of the directions taken beyond the simple words.

TRAVEL WEST

Storrytelling is used to appeal, capture and move the audience, motivating corporate troups.

Picture the on-stage speeches that are motivational and inspiring, personal and touching, energetic and enthousiastic.

Marker #19 : Peter Drucker vs Li Bai

TRAVEL EAST

Based on cultural heritage, 19th century Empress Cixi, 230AC cancellor Zhuge Liang, First Emperor Shi Huangdi, 220AC warlord Cao Cao, paper inventor Cai Lun, 8th century poet Li Bai, etc … and of course Chairman Mao are references.

The teaching from situations and reactions of historic and national heritage leaders provide principles and lessons.

TRAVEL WEST

Business strategy and management, references are prestigiousand expert thinkers and authors. Think of Peter Drucker, Michael Porter, FW Taylor, Geoffrey Moore, Stephen Covey and their teaching : ‘five forces’, ‘crossing the chasm’, ‘7 habits’, ‘time & motion study’, ‘decentralization’, etc …

These authors provide a series of principles, models and learning.

THANK YOU FOR READING