same time, the transferred manager in the new position generally
works very hard to prove that he/she is a competent manager.
Specialization
Another managerial philosophy/principle mentioned by our interview-
ees isspecialization, which was described by eleven interviewees in
terms of ‘‘professional people working on specialized tasks,’’ ‘‘fully
devoting oneself to the task one is doing,’’ and ‘‘never do business that
one is not familiar with.’’
Interviewees generally held that a company should do what it is
good at and make the best use of its advantages but avoid its dis-
advantages. They believed that in today’s intensely competitive
market, each firm should develop its unique competence and find its
niche. A general manager from a mold-manufacturing factory held a
master’s degree in mold manufacturing. The majority of graduates in
this major would rather find a job in a popular industry like finance
than stay in their major. Unlike most members of his cohort, this
interviewee developed a mold-manufacturing business in which he
could make full use of his special skills. His company became the
leading organization in that specialty area. Another general manager
was from an electronic product manufacturing enterprise, which con-
centrated solely on the research and development of laser products,
and had become very competitive in both local and international
markets. Its products had taken 70 percent of the market share in
the Chinese market.
The following case illustrates that the philosophy of specialization is
in part one of business professionalization. It is a team of husband and
wife providing consulting services for real estate developers including
project planning, promoting sales of apartments and flats, and evalu-
ating property value. The husband is the chairman of the board and
his wife is the CEO. The husband had worked in Hong Kong for
several years and accumulated rich experience of real estate service.
When his wife, who used to work in the government’s Land Bureau,
set up the real estate consulting company, he resigned from his job in
Hong Kong and joined his wife. Both were graduates of economics
from top universities in China and had professional expertise in prop-
erty valuation. The couple’s original objective was to earn some
money for a living. After their company made substantial profits that
were enough for their whole life’s expenditure, they started to think
Chinese traditions and Western theories 251