Last week I had an incredible opportunity to spend an uncensored day-in-the-life of a senior executive at an American multinational corporation. I went with Bill Taylor to ITT Industries' new 400,000 sqft factory in Nanjing, China. He was going for the day to check in on its progress and to deal with some issues getting up-and-running, and invited me to join him. We spent four hours on a train, so had lots of time to talk and share perspectives. For simplicity, I’m just going to give a rambling list of our conversations:
- ITT in China (what products, why), Manufacturing quality in China, manufacturing safety in China, corporate insurance and EHS, China’s water situation, dealing with the Chinese government, Environmental issues in China: government action vs. government publication/announcement, Industrial equipment sales channel in China, the border between ‘relationships’ and corruption (would an American distribution model ever work here?), The type of people and organizations that western MNCs do business with in China (ones that “look like” western companies, and where corruption is not the primary requirement for success or occurs at organizations lower in the value chain), M&A, conflict of interest in the American sales channel, executive recruitment and building a team, company politics, spotting hidden agendas in a corporation and bringing them to the surface, promotion through networking vs. promotion through results, skiing and mountain climbing, how to go to Tibet, taking risk in your career and spotting key gateways to advancement, spotting and analyzing ambition
The conversations and overall experience was so interesting that I now have a new cause for confusion. In particular, the trade-offs in life. Undoubtedly MNCs can off a career full of excitement, opportunity, leadership, variety, and even social change, but what about the other aspects of life? Hmm...lots to think about. Life is interesting.
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