macc gathers for new jersey conference

Advances Newsletter, July, 2014

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Vol. 4, #6, July 2014, No. 40

MACC Gathers for New Jersey Conference

Midea America & Canada Corp held its 3rd annual sales conference


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ADVANCES Newsletter

Contents

Midea Advances Newsletter is published monthly

by the International Strategy Department of

Midea Group. We welcome all comments,

suggestions and contribution of articles, as well as

requests for subscription to our newsletter. You

can reach us by email at: [email protected]

Address:

ADVANCES, International Strategy Department

Midea HQ

No. 6 Midea Road

Beijiao, Shunde, Foshan, Guangdong

P.R.C. 528311

Tel: +86-757-23270461

Web: www.midea.com/global

Managing Editor:

Kevin McGeary

Regular Correspondents:

Anggie Cai

Crystal Lun

Jack Zheng

Cai Yu

Tian Fangling

Chen Minshan

Lin Shan

Liu Xi Benjamin Pena

NEWSLINE

Training for Graduates at

Shunde Polytechnic PAGE 4

MACC Holds Sales

Conference in New Jersey PAGE 3

Midea Gives 10 Million RMB

to the Poor in 1 Day PAGE 3

Hefei Factory Embraces

Automated Revolution PAGE 5

Midea CAC Wins African

Games Project PAGE 5

www.midea.com

ITIL Ideas Man PAGE 15

Big Picture

People

Idea

Idea of the Month: The

Seriousness of Humour PAGE

14

Kitchen Appliances Division

Wins National Quality

Certification PAGE 6

Midea Included on

Leadership List PAGE 8

Midea Wins Zhuhai College

Bid PAGE 8

The Usefulness, or Lack

thereof, of Learning Manda-

rin PAGE 13

Net Profit Growth of 45-60%

Forecast PAGE 6

CAC Wins Thailand Airport

Project Page 10

Hidden Wind AC Wins Design

Award PAGE 9

The Early History of Air-

conditioning PAGE 12

Fun Facts

Photovoltaic Power

Generation Project in

Operation PAGE 10

Midea-Carrier Attends

Major Chile Expo PAGE 11

Refrigerant AC Certified as

High-tech and Green PAGE 7

Factory Workers Enjoy Team

Building Activities Page 7


3

MACC Holds Sales Conference in New

Jersey By Jack Zheng

M idea America and

Canada Corp (MACC) held its

3rd Annual National Sales

Representative Conference

this month, with more than 30

reps coming from all over

North America to meet at

MACC’s head office in New

Jersey.

The conference was

useful for providing an im-

portant explanation regarding

new United States Federal

Regulations that will relate to

home appliance energy consumption, and how Midea and its

partners can remain in full compliance with the regulations. In

addition, Midea also introduced its new dishwasher product line

and exhibited its newly developed Wi

-Fi connected air conditioner feature.

Attendees were said to be impressed

with the strong growth of Midea in

the United States, the increasing

number of product lines, and its

commitment to building a real pres-

ence in the United States, character-

ized by improved Oracle systems.

The overall feeling from those in

attendance was that conference was

both enlightening and a great team

building opportunity.

NEWSLINE

Midea Gives 10 Million RMB to the Poor

in 1 Day By Cai Yu

M idea donated 10

million RMB (US$1.62 mil-

lion) on June 30, which is an

officially recognized day in

Guangdong for helping the

needy. A ceremony was held

in Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall

in Guangzhou where a repre-

sentative of each organization

in attendance was given a

banner to show how much

money it had donated.

Deputy Party Secretary

of Guangdong Ma Xingrui

and Executive Vice Governer

Xu Shaohua led the proceedings, which have been held every

year since 2010. Since June 30,

2010 Midea has donated 115

million RMB to the poor and

needy in Guangdong.

The money mostly goes to the

less developed rural areas of the

province and the poorest and

most vulnerable people in those

regions. As of June 30 this year,

a total of 25.8 billion yuan had

been donated in Guangdong as

part of the program.


4

Training for Graduates at

Shunde Polytechnic

A camp for graduate recruits of Midea

was held at Shunde Polytechnic from July 14-19.

Around 1,200 new employees attended the camp

in which they were initiated into the corporate

culture of Midea and taught about the values,

missions and responsibilities involved.

Human resources boss Liu Jufeng was in

attendance and commenced the camp with a

speech explaining what the recruits had to look

forward to and what was expected of them. He

gave an introduction to Midea’s future strategy and

some of the challenges the company is likely to

face in the coming years as it strives to become a

leading global brand and promote potentially in-

dustry-leading programs such as M-Smart.

The camp consisted of two segments, the

first being general induction and the second seeing

recruits divided into their respective departments.

Senior representatives of each department were in

attendance. The general induction included lectures

about the product line, technology, history of the

company and other key knowledge. Even gradu-

ates in non-science subjects are expected to have a

decent understanding of the technology.

Themes of the camp included “Midea’s Road to Interna-

tionalization”, “Midea’s Market and Brand”, “Midea’s

Product Quality” and “Midea’s Product Innovation.” This

may make the whole thing sound a bit dull, but the training

came in a wide variety of forms including learning the offi-

cial Midea anthem, basketball matches and a micro movie

making contest.

This will hopefully have taught the recruits that it is not

enough to devote their time and energy to the job. They

are also expected to put their hearts into it.

NEWSLINE

By Tian Fangling


5

Midea CAC Wins African Games

Project By Anggie Cai

T he 11th All-Africa Games is to be held in Brazzaville,

capital of the Republic of the Congo, next year. Thousands of

elite athletes from across the

continent will then gather in

Brazzaville sports center and

compete in a variety of sport-

ing events. The games are a

huge media event and draw

spectators from all over the

world. At this time the air

conditioning facilities that

serve the 84,000 square meter

stadium will have their mo-

ment in the spotlight.

To make it an inviting

environment for all fans, the

stadium management wanted to use high quality air condition-

ers. Midea CAC worked closely with its distributors, repeatedly

refined its plans, offered tailored climate solution to the owner

and ultimately stood out from the competition to win the pro-

ject. The success relies partly on the excellent installation and

after-service provided by

Midea’s team and also largely

owes to the persistence of

Midea’s staff.

Since its founding in 1999,

Midea CAC has kept improving

and upgrading. Now its prod-

ucts and service are of the high-

est caliber. The winning of the

African Games Stadium Project

is another sports related coup

to follow on from the World

Cup.

NEWSLINE

Hefei Factory Embraces Automated

Revolution By Anggie Cai

A s its production output continues to surge, tradition-

al distribution modes such as manpower, tractor and forklift can

no longer meet the needs of Midea

Commercial Air-Conditioning (CAC).

To handle its increasing needs, CAC is

embracing automated technology.

In early May, the Engineering

Department, along with the finance and

logistics departments and the Produc-

tion Workshop set up a special team

aimed at achieving unmanned automa-

tion distribution. It was decided to

choose W4 as the pilot line for this pro-

gram. However, the way to design and

make the material delivery car posed a particular challenge. In

addition, laying out the logistics route, positioning the produc-

tion equipment and delivering the material accurately to the

designated place all proved difficult. Realizing the information

system between the logistics and produc-

tion lines also needs to be taken into ac-

count. Because of these difficulties, the

unmanned factory has not become a wide-

spread phenomenon.

The project team needed a detailed plan.

They visited and investigated a number of

factories to assess the possibility of un-

manned operation. Then they reviewed

successful predecessors as well as the fail-

ures and reasons why they didn’t succeed.

This is a milestone, not just for Midea ,but

for factory production in China.


6

Net Profit Growth of 45-60% Forecast

By Chen Minshan

M idea Group Co. Ltd published its forecast for the

first half of the year on July 14 ahead of the publication of the

Interim Financial Report before August 31. The holding compa-

ny is expected to see net profit

grow by 45-60% compared with

the same period last year. Net prof-

it is expected to be from 6.059

billion-6.686 billion RMB (US $

976,649,960 - 1.077 billion). Earn-

ings per share are expected to be at

1.44 yuan-1.59 yuan.

Central to the company’s

plans for 2014 are a new partner-

ship with Alibaba and the embrac-

ing of the Internet of Things. The

latter is mostly manifested in the

form of M-Smart, a program that

could revolutionise people’s relationship with their home appli-

ances by creating a “smart home” of integrated intelligent tech-

nology. In 2013 the company completed the development of

eight categories of intelligent product. This is expected to reach

25 this year.

As well as M-Smart, B2C e-commerce is a huge priority

for Midea. This has included the

opening of an online shop, lo-

gistics and the achievement of

online to offline business inte-

gration (O2O). Principles to

follow include continued invest-

ment in products and technolo-

gy, establishing a new cost ad-

vantage, intelligent manufactur-

ing, strengthening fine manage-

ment, maximizing resource utili-

zation, discovering new busi-

ness, and eventually entering the

top 2 in the industry

NEWSLINE

By Lin Shan

Kitchen Appliances Division Wins National

Quality Certification

M idea’s Kitchen Appli-

ances Division was awarded a major

national qualification certification

correlation (QCC) after an evalua-

tion that took place July 7-11. The

event, held in Xining, Qinghai

Province, was also attended by other

Chinese giants such as Haier, Liby

Group, Geli and China Tobacco. A

total of 400 attendees were attend-

ing and 100 QCCs were granted.

The Kitchen Appliances Divi-

sion won four certificates. The first

was for having one of the outstand-

ing quality management systems in the industry; the second saw

one of the division’s teams certified as

“highly trustworthy”; the third saw

the same team awarded for outstand-

ing quality management; and the

fourth saw the team awarded as an

outstanding participant in quality con-

trol related activities.

The Kitchen Appliances Division

makes small products such as micro-

waves, rice cookers and hobs as well

as larger appliances such as dishwash-

ers and ovens.


7

Factory Workers Enjoy Team Building

Activities By Liu Xi

M idea’s Shunde-based factory workers were treated

to a range of outings over a period of a month to help relieve

stress and build camaraderie. Activities included white water

rafting and hiking with attendance at over 90%.

The workers were thanked for their hard work over the

years by being

taken to local

areas with a

strong natural

and cultural histo-

ry and being

treated to group

meals with dis-

tinct local cuisine.

This is part of

a campaign by

Midea to

make its

Shunde facto-

ries more

staff-centred.

NEWSLINE

Refrigerant AC Certified as High-tech and

Green By Crystal Lun

M idea R290 new refrigerant air

conditioner has been certified as authentic hi-

tech technology by the Guangdong provincial

government. This proves that Midea is leading

its competitors in environmental technolgy,

something that is likely to be reflected in the

market in the near future.

Refrigerant R22 is still commonly used

in air conditioners in the Chinese market. This

is known for being environmentally unfriend-

ly, producing greenhouse gases. For this rea-

son, most air conditioners exported to Europe

and North America in recent years have used

the upgraded refrigerant R410a. Although it

doesn’t damage the ozone layer, R410a still

produces greenhouse gases.

As demand for environmentally friendly products increas-

es, R290 is considered as the most promising

new refrigerant, with fluoride-free, low-carbon,

natural, effective, and many other advantages. It

is not only consistent with the demands for the

phase-out of ozone-depleting substances under

the Montreal Protocol, but also meets the re-

quirements of the Kyoto Protocol on reducing

greenhouse gases. Moreover the reliability of

R290 has been approved after years of experi-

mentation.

In 2011, Midea conducted the world's first exam-

ple production line for R290 ACs with multilat-

eral funds from the United Nations. In Decem-

ber last year the project was completed and ac-

cepted by the United Nations and related agen-

cies. The model awarded was assembled on this line.


8

Midea Wins Zhuhai College Bid

By Crystal Lun

Beijing Insti-

tute of Tech-

nology. This

summer has

seen RAC dou-

ble down on its

efforts to get

more university

campus pro-

jects.

The air-conditioners used in college dormitories are held

to a higher standard than those used in homes. Because they are

used by a number of people at the same time, the air condition-

ers require a better cooling performance and higher energy effi-

ciency. Being switched on and off more frequently also requires

a better control system. Midea will also be expected to deliver

strong after-sales service.

NEWSLINE

M idea RAC won the bid to supply up to 7,200 units

of air-conditioners to the Zhuhai campus of Jilin University on

July 15. The first delivery was sent within 24 hours of the deal

being done. “The installation will be completed in 50 days

weather permitting, in time for the new semester,” said a dean

from the campus.

In the same

week, Midea

RAC also

won the bid

to supply

1800 sets of

air-

conditioners

to the Zhuhai

campus of

Midea Included on Leadership List

T he China Standardization Institute Energy Efficiency

Management Center announced its

2014 Leadership List on July 10, and

Midea Air Conditioning was granted

four awards, “Leadership of Intelli-

gence Household Appliance Enter-

prise”, “Leadership of Intelligence

Household Appliance”, “Leadership

of Consumer’s Most Favorable

Brand”, and “Leadership of Con-

sumer’s Most Favorable Product”.

The appraisal was conducted

by the National Development and

Reform Commission, involving air

conditioning and refrigerators, wash-

ing machines, and flat screen televi-

sions. It is committed to award and distinguish qualified prod-

ucts and excellent enterprises, to set a high standard in energy

efficiency, and to promote social responsibility.

Importance is attached to

product intelligence and

user experience for this

year’s appraisal. With out-

standing technology for

energy saving, Internet of

Things, PM2.5 removal,

turbo cooling and heating,

and low noise of only

23dB, four types of Midea

split AC and six floor

standing AC won the

award.

By Crystal Lun


9

By Crystal Lun

Hidden Wind AC Wins Design Award

T he results of The Red Dot Award for design

concept 2014 were released in July with Hidden Wind by

Midea RAC industrial design center emerging victorious.

TheRed Dot Award is an internationally recognised

quality label for

excellent design.

Today, the Red

Dot Award for

design concept

has grown to be

the largest and

most prestigious

competition for

design concept

and prototypes worldwide.

The award represents the values of imagination, in-

novation and competitiveness. The evaluation process

focuses on originality, ecological impact and durability. This

year saw 4,791 nominees from 60 countries. Winning a Red Dot

augurs very well for a product’s performance in the market.

Midea’s Hidden Wind is a conceptual air conditioner pow-

ered by solar energy. It was given a mini appearance and an

intelligent interface. The designer was determined to explore the

possibilities of intelligent environmental protection.

Hidden Wind was designed to have a minimalist appear-

ance that is ideally suited to the surrounding environment. The

most challenging part of this concept is the panel design that

allows the user to control the intensity of airflow. The vanes of

the outlet wings are hidden in the wall, resulting in more space

and making it easy to clean. The intelligent touch screen offers a

minimum interface and a better user experience. “Hidden wind”

can also be activated through a smart app that gives us an intui-

tive user experience. The external component contains solar

panels that can absorb and store the energy. With the free solar

energy as its main power source，”Hidden wind” becomes

more energy efficient.

NEWSLINE


10

CAC Wins Thailand Airport Project

By Anggie Cai

A nother month another international airport project

in another country. Midea Commercial Air-Conditioning (CAC)

has won the project to

provide equipment to

Thailand Don Mueang

Airport Project to follow

on from other recent

international airport

projects such as one at

the Singapore Changi

Airport. The equipment

arrived in June.

In late 2013, the

airport announced its 3

billion-baht (US $93.3

million) renovation plan; this included the reopening and renew-

al of terminal two, maintenance of airport from south to north

and renovation of the parking building on the seventh floor. The

project is expected to be completed this year. By then, Don

Mueang’s passenger capacity will reach 30 million a year. To

ensure that the refurbished airport has well-conditioned air,

Midea threw its hat into the ring early in the somewhat intense

competition for the

project. Midea CAC

overcame its competi-

tors to provide the

airport with air cooled

screw chillers.

The success is owed

in huge part to CAC’s

sales team. It is also

down to the still ris-

ing faith in Midea

products. The top

class after-sales ser-

vice and cordial and sincere attitude of staff have contributed

much to recent successes. These things will be needed in

Midea’s bid to provide a healthier and greener future to its cus-

tomers.

NEWSLINE

By Anggie Cai

Photovoltaic Power Generation Project in

Operation

solar cell as a photoelectric conversion device. All the materi-

als used for the project are cutting edge and are set to last

more than 25 years. It was initiated on

December 10th, 2013 and the commis-

sioning of grid-connected power gener-

ation was completed in April. As of

June 19, the project had been in opera-

tion for nearly two months.

The photovoltaic power generation

project provides electricity to the facto-

ry and reduces the workshop tempera-

ture to make a comfortable working

environment. It also drastically cuts

energy consumption and has a yearly

economic value of 1.2 million RMB.

T he installation of a photovoltaic power station on the

roof of Midea CAC’s workshop has

been accepted by experts. It is now

operating.

The project received 70 mil-

lion RMB (US$ 11 million) in invest-

ment from Guangdong Yudean

Group Co. Ltd, and is contracted

under Guangdong Power Engineer-

ing Corporation. With a gross capac-

ity of 7.7418 MWp (Megawatt

Pmax), the project supplies power to

the factory by adopting a polysilicon


11

By Benjamin Pena

Midea-Carrier Attends Major Chile Expo

J oint venture Midea-Carrier Chile was founded

with the belief that two global leaders in the appliances

industry could be a powerhouse if they joined forces.

This belief has seen the joint venture awarded im-

portant commercial and industrial projects, public and

private. The most famous of these projects was the

awarding of the contract to provide air-conditioning

equipment to nine World Cup stadia.

As the number one air conditioning company in

Brazil, Midea-Carrier was represented at the Expo Frío

Calor Chile, which in Latin America is one of the big-

gest events in the industry. It was held on May 14-16 in

the Cultural Center Estación Mapocho in Santiago.

Products that were exhibited include Midea’s V4

Plus S series, innovating with their highly efficient DC

Inverter-type compressors, and the heat pump LRSJ-60

for residential swimming pools that can operate up to -

7°C outdoors.

At the same time, visitors got the chance to look at the

chilled water fan-coil units which come under the Carrier brand

and have variable-speed LEC motors, allowing up to 75% ener-

gy-saving compared with traditional systems, and the range of

highly efficient Toshiba VRF, including models from 8HP to

42HP for heat recovery systems.

Another novelty for 2014 is the presentation of Midea’s M

-THERMAL system, with heat pump type technology for resi-

dential application, which satisfies the needs of heating, climati-

zation and sanitary hot water (ACS), with the possibility of in-

corporating solar panels.

“The exhibition was a great opportunity to show our

customers the new products that Midea and Carrier

have to offer in our market; particularly the lines that

had no participation before and where we were not

recognized as a potential supplier, as for example, Preci-

sion Units, Sanitary and Commercial heating, and mod-

ular Chillers. Today, we are expanding our product of-

fer with very competitive prices, with the quality and

efficiency that characterizes Midea-Carrier”, remarked

Ricardo Pérez, Sales Manager of Direct Expansion and

Totaline, Midea-Carrier Chile.

The international exhibition, one of the continent’s

most important, had over 100 exhibitors, 300 brands

and an average of 5,000 visitors during each of the three

days.

NEWSLINE


12

Via Mental Floss

The Early History of Air-conditioning

I n a new series, Advances will explore some interesting

facts about electrical appliances. The first will look at the early

history of air-conditioning, which most of us take for granted

nowadays. These facts come via the website Mental Floss.

·When Dr. John Gorrie of Florida was treating victims of yellow

fever in the 1840s, he cooled his infirmary by hanging a pan

of ice from the ceiling. When the ice ran out, he began tink-

ering, and in 1851 received a patent for a machine that

made both ice and cool air. Unfortunately, thanks in part to

the Northern Ice Lobby, which made money by shipping

ice down south in the summer, Gorrie was roundly mocked

in the media.

·By the 20th century, the world was ready for air conditioning.

Though it had been installed in the new New York Stock

Exchange building in 1903 by Alfred R. Wolff, it had its

public debut in 1904, at the St. Louis World’s Fair. Accord-

ing to the November 1904 issue of Ice and Refrigeration Maga-

zine, “Visitors, not aware that the building was artificially

cooled, were struck with wonder .”

·Cinemas were among the first businesses to install air condi-

tioning. In 1922, Willis Haviland Carrier installed his system

in Sid Grauman’s Metropolitain Theater, which advertised

its new system by saying that the theaters were “cool as a

mountain top.” In 1924, Carrier outfitted the Palace Thea-

ter in Dallas. Owner Will Horwitz gave the system a glow-

ing review, writing “The cooling plant is revolutionizing

picture show at-

tendance.” In

1925, Carrier in-

stalled his system

in New York

City’s Rivoli Thea-

ter. On its debut,

patrons’ fans grad-

ually dropped into

laps as the effects

of the air condi-

tioning became

evident. Only a

few chronic

fanners persist-

ed, but soon

they, too,

ceased. The

Rivoli made

$100,000 more

that summer than it had the previous one.

·In 1928, the St. Petersburg Times wrote: "Press the button, John!

And turn on the cold. This room is too warm to be com-

fortable," will say the wives of Johns all over the country

some day. And John will push the button and in a few

minutes the room will be comfortable. This is not a fairy

story. It is a picture of a future modern home, electrically

refrigerated.” And it turned out it wasn’t a fairy story.

·In the early 1930s, railroad companies began equipping their

cars with air conditioning. Carrier employee L. Logan Lew-

is tested out an air conditioned car in 1932 and wrote to his

aunt that "I am completely sold on air-conditioning for

passenger trains. I was comfortable at all times and felt just

as clean when ready to leave the train as when I entered it

in Lexington, Kentucky."

·Carrier took its A/C systems—including home units—to the

1939 World’s Fair in New York. The company’s “Igloo of

Tomorrow.” On its opening day on April 25, with Mr. Car-

rier himself in attendance, the temperature outside was 90

degrees Fahrenheit, but inside it was just 70 degrees.

·In 1947, British scholar S.F. Markham declared that "The

greatest contribution to civilization this century may well be

air-conditioning—and America leads the way." In

1953, Fortune wrote "The rump of a room conditioner bulg-

ing out of the window is becoming as much of a social

symbol as the television aerial overhead."

Fun Facts


13

The Usefulness, or Lack Thereof, in Learning

Mandarin By Kevin McGeary

M uch controversy was stirred in July when Guang-

dong Television announced its plan to scrap Cantonese-language

news. This is a major milestone in the forceful and hugely suc-

cessful imposition of Mandarin over the hundreds of dialects

and languages that are spoken throughout China.

At the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the new govern-

ment decided a national language must be established and so it

was decided by a group of scholars in 1913 that it be Mandarin.

Sun Yat-sen himself wanted Cantonese but considering that the

capital of China has traditionally been in the north, a northern

language was chosen. Sun, a local boy, may have been biased but

it can be said that Cantonese, a language

with a considerable literature, is more au-

thentically Chinese than Mandarin.

Unlike Mandarin, Cantonese has not

been influenced by once “foreign” lan-

guages from the north such as Mongol or

Manchu. Ancient Chinese poetry, one of

the pillars of the culture, is also said to

sound better and more faithful to the origi-

nal sound when recited in Cantonese. Now

that Mandarin has triumphed over Canton-

ese and other Chinese languages, can it

triumph around the world? A lot of pow-

erful people think so.

Last year, U.K Prime Minister David Cameron urged

schools to ditch French and teach Mandarin. London Mayor

Boris Johnson was even more enthusiastic. China is acting upon

this movement by promoting its culture around the world with

organizations such as Confucius Institutes, 1,000 of which will

be established by 2020.

However, being spoken by a large number of people is not

enough to make a language truly international. When you go to

Yangshuo and see Russian tourists communicating with Chinese

restaurant staff in flawed English, you are reminded that it will

take some time before English is supplanted as the international

lingua franca. In fact, a study by French investment bank Natixis

this year concluded that French could be the most spoken lan-

guage in the world by 2050.

Perhaps East Asian languages weren’t meant to go global.

According to linguist Claude Hagege, writing developed in an-

cient Europe and the Middle East for the purpose of controlling

crops, herds, and people. Writing in China did not appear to

develop with the same utilitarian agenda. “The origin of Chinese

writing appears to have been magicoreligious and divinatory

rather than economic and mercantile,” writes Hagege. Attend-

ing a corporate conferences in this country can be a reminder

that traditionally, Chinese people have more flair when writing

than when speaking.

When I met a fellow of the Institute for Translation and

Interpreting (ITI) last year, he told me that the Japanese military

didn’t bother encoding much of its sensitive information during

World War 2, so confident were they that no

foreign devil would understand. Afterwards,

Japan’s post-war economic boom certainly

didn’t lead to the language taking over Yang-

shuo.

Mandarin is not a terribly useful tool in the

job market as there are over a billion fellow

speakers to compete with, so why should we

still learn it?

Poet Matthew Arnold, who was the son of a

headmaster of the famous Rugby School,

said education should be about studying the

best things that have ever been written and

said. He lived in Britain during a time when

elite education revolved around Latin and Ancient Greek. This

also happens to be the time when Britain ruled the world, but

that’s beside the point.

There are plenty of reasons why learning Mandarin makes

you a smarter and more interesting person. Reading Chinese

aloud activates far more widespread networks of the right hemi-

sphere of the brain than English, probably because of the sub-

tlety of both visual and tonal demands by Chinese, according to

Ian McGilchrist’s “The Master and His Emissary: The Divided

Brain and the Making of the Western World.”

So climbing a career ladder is only one of many reasons to

learn a foreign language. As the English teacher in the Alan

Bennett play and 2006 movie “The History Boys” tells his stu-

dents: “All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the

slightest human use.”

BIG PICTURE


14

IDEA

Idea of The Month: The Seriousness of

Humour By Kevin McGeary

C omedian George Carlin once began a set by assert-

ing: “I’m a professional comedian, as opposed to those unpro-

fessional comedians you get at work.” He had a point in that

the joking you get in a workplace may not be up to professional

standards, but it is important that there is some humour there.

Humour is by its nature subversive, so why is it an important

thing to have in a respectable business?

The Chinese word 幽默, a transliteration of the English

word “humour”, entered the language as recently as the 1930s

when author Lin Yutang decided that China needed the con-

cept of humour that he had encountered while studying in the

United States. Writing in “The Importance of Living”, Lin

opined: “The inability to laugh cost the former Kaiser Wilhelm

an empire, or as an American might say, cost the German peo-

ple billions of dollars.”

At that time, the existing

Chinese word for humour 滑稽

had too many lowbrow and slap-

stick connotations. China does

not have a tradition similar to, say,

The White House Correspond-

ent’s Dinner in which comedians

make fun of the U.S. president or

The Friar’s Club Roast in which

speakers take it in turns to ridicule

a celebrity who is present.

Lightly embarrassing a per-

son in power helps reduce social

distance which facilitates a connection. According to LinkedIn

influencer Dr. Eric J Romero, humor is important in organiza-

tions because of its positive effect on a variety of factors rele-

vant to management such as: group cohesiveness, communica-

tion, socialization, leadership effectiveness, creativity, and stress

reduction.

Of course, there can be a dark side to this, much of the

time laughter is no laughing matter. Humour can just as easily

be about laughing at people as laughing with, which is doubly

serious in China considering the culture of “face”. As Mel

Brooks said: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger, comedy is when

you walk into an open sewer and die.”

What makes someone funny? It is universally agreed

among comedians that Bugs Bunny is funnier than Mickey

Mouse. This is because Bugs is devilish and irreverent while

Mickey is a toothless nice guy. Mickey smiles more easily, but

in a lobotomized kind of way. Bugs’ joie de vivre and reckless

abandon are what make him the funnier character. However,

Bugs Bunny’s tendency to always win is to the detriment of his

likeability, so his style of putting people down is not a good

approach to humour in the workplace.

How is humour best used? Having the ability to laugh

with someone is a sign of being able to get along with them. If

you want to foster such a culture, it is a good idea to figure out

what makes colleagues laugh, this may include nicknaming,

banter, the creation of humorous songs and rhymes, the taking

and sharing of funny pictures and non-violent pranks.

Good humourists tend to be unthreatening neurotics

(think Woody Allen). Bad humourists tend to be smug bullies

(think the typical workplace blowhard). Comedic actor Rob

Lowe complained to The New York

Times earlier this year that his good

looks were holding him back in his

career. This may sound criminally

self-regarding but it is possible that

he had a point. To make people

laugh you have to display some kind

of vulnerability, and people find vul-

nerability harder to believe if it’s

coming from a person who has no

visible blemishes.

The transcendentally funny comedi-

an Louis C.K. derives most of his

material from being an ageing, unat-

tractive single father with an unglamorous life. His brilliance

and his likeability both stem from this willingness to embarrass

himself. In the 1970s, Ronald Reagan agreed to be the subject

of a celebrity roast as he prepared to run for president, display-

ing an aspect of his persona that turned out to be a vote win-

ner—the joker.

What those two men do most skillfully is make them-

selves at least 70% the butt of the joke. They clearly under-

stood what psychiatrist and academic Thomas Stephen Szasz

said: “When a man can’t laugh at himself it is time for others

to laugh at him.” And any leader must prefer being laughed

with than being laughed at.


15

ITIL Ideas Man

By Kevin McGeary

Kiran Kumar Pabbathi

ITIL process manager and author

Kiran Kumar Pabbathi is an Information Technology

Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Process Manager for Bizenit

Information Technology. He contracts for Midea and is

currently based in Beijiao, home of the Midea Group

headquarters. He has also authored three books and has a

fourth on the way, sharing his knowledge of information

technology, business and life.

Kiran’s previous jobs have included that of technical

support analyst at Dell, senior technical analyst at IBM,

and project manager at Hewlett Packard. Midea is cur-

rently among the most

prestigious clients that

his company deals

with.

A deeply spiritual

person, Kiran medi-

tates for two hours a

day and follows a

strictly vegan diet. He

lives with his wife and

will soon go back to

India to settle down.

Advances: What is

your role at Midea?

Kiran: I am an

identity and access man-

agement process consult-

ant, which means I do process designing for the applications

that Bizenit are giving to Midea. These applications are Smart

Identity Service (SIS) and Smart Identity Manager (SIM) which

enable the IT administrators at Midea to control or monitor

user identities.

When you join Midea, you get your username. Bizenit is

responsible for creating and monitoring these user identities,

and then when the employee leaves the company, deleting and

disabling these accounts is managed through our applications.

SIS is something that most workers will come across.

When you forget your password and you retrieve it by entering

your phone number, that is SIS, our product. Our other prod-

uct, SIM will be accessible only to IT administrators.

I am into process consulting where I confront questions

such as “what should happen when…?” and “what is happen-

ing?” and taking care of how the tools, the functionality and the

coding happens. I also do ITIL training for south Asian coun-

tries. I am an accreditor for ITIL for a U.K. institute called the

I.T. Knowledge Academy, covering Singapore, The Philippines,

Hong Kong and other south Asian countries and regions.

Advances: ITIL was the subject of your first book. How

did that come to be written?

Kiran: It was written for all IT managers. It tells compa-

nies how to start off implementing Service Desk, a primary IT

service. How do you develop good policies and procedures?

How do you

make sure that

your Service

Desk opera-

tions are run-

ning perfectly?

And finally,

how do you

improve? This

book is about

the procedures

and processes

about end-to-

end IT man-

agement.

Advances:

Was your role

at HP similar?

Has all this experience gone on to inform your latest book

“Guidance for IT Asset Management”?

Kiran: I have eleven years of experience, much of which

has gone into my most recent book about IT asset management.

The ITIL concept is about managing IT services. For example,

when you go to a restaurant, all you expect is good food. You’re

not bothered about the ingredients, the cost of the ingredients

or whether any accidents have taken place while cooking. All

PEOPLE


16

ITIL Ideas Man (Cont.)

By Kevin McGeary

you want is the food and to pay the amount quoted on the

menu.

In this case, the service is food, and if you get it the way

you want it,

you are a happy

customer. In

the same way,

ITIL defines

the process for

managing IT

services in an

attempt to

make your

customer abso-

lutely delighted

with your ser-

vices.

IT asset

management is

about optimum

utilization of

assets, return

on investment

and value.

How do I ensure that an asset is being 100% utilized? These are

the three foundational pillars IT asset management focuses on.

It involves a lot of processes, such as how to design a strategy

to acquire assets, what assets do I need, what are my organiza-

tional goals, what kind of assets should I go for?

Next is financial strategy for financial assets, such as

“How much should I invest in acquiring IT assets?” and “How

should I charge?” After that is procurement. Then comes in-

ventory, which includes how to store the assets so that you can

access them whenever you need, track them, and ensure you are

using all of the assets in your inventory. Other processes in-

clude asset maintenance.

Lastly comes retired services. After an asset has reached

the end of its life, what can be done with it? At this stage, you

need to check the status of the assets. If the assets are in good

condition, they can be sold in bulk although the cost will be

low. They can also be sold as scrap. Other options include do-

nating them to charities or orphanages. This is how you dispose

of your assets.

I.T. asset management is quite a broad term that covers all

these things. It’s all about utilizing assets and return on invest-

ment.

Advances: Does mainland China provide a good business

environment for what you do?

Kiran: Actually, this book on IT asset management is the

first in the world of its kind. It will be applicable for all domains

such as banking, finance, manufacturing, healthcare, any do-

main. I have recently written another book titled “Enterprise

Asset Management” which will define procedures for all assets.

It will be released on August 17 by servicemanagers.org .It’s my

fourth book.

Advances: Your second book was about friendship.

Kiran: “Charm of Friendship” tells of how friendship can

develop a person, and how friendship can destroy a person. If

you put a pinch of salt into a glass of milk, it is completely ru-

ined. Yet if you add an iota of curd it makes the milk extra deli-

cious.

Friend-

ship is very

necessary for

every age

group, from

toddlers to

teenagers to

the elderly.

What I want to

say in this

book is, if you

see that a

friend has

some bad qual-

ities, try to

change him,

try to make

him ask him-

self what is

wrong and

what is right.

PEOPLE


17

ITIL Ideas Man (Cont.)

By Kevin McGeary

If he insists on sticking to his own principles, then you need to

go away.

Having a bad friend is a bit like having a snake in your

house. You never know when he’s going to bite. In this book, I

use a lot of stories from Indian history and mythology from the

Vedic tradition to show the importance of friendship.

Advances: What about life in Beijiao? Are you impressed

by this company?

Kiran: I think it’s really fantastic, the way Mr. He devel-

oped the company over

just a few decades. It’s

really unbelievable.

How did he do this?

I’ve worked for

really good companies

like IBM and Hewlett

Packard. I’ve seen

some impressive offices

and corporate head-

quarters. But I’ve never

seen a company like

this. It’s like a five star

hotel.

Advances: Do

you think this company

will be successful in

India?

Kiran: It’s difficult to say, but the joint venture with Car-

rier was certainly a step in the right direction.

Also, cricket is like another religion in India, so a great

way to advertise the brand would be to get the logo on the bat

of a famous player like Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Advances: How long do you expect to be here?

Kiran: Another six months. My wife and I want to go

back to India and settle down, but I will stay with Bizenit. My

years in China have been a great learning experience. I’m very

impressed with the place, and to be frank, enough people here

have treated me very well which has made me happy.

The way Chinese people treat foreigners is really very

great. I like the systematic approach here. I like the way the in-

frastructure is built and the roads are maintained. I like the

cleanliness. Even the most developed cities in India have power

outages, filth on the road, and other problems.

Advances: Are there ways in which India is ahead of Chi-

na?

Kiran: The only way I can think of is spirituality. In terms

of infrastructure

development, I

think India will

take another 50

years or so to get

to the level

where China is

now.

I think the re-

cent election

result in India is

excellent and is

what we all

wanted. It’s like

we just got rid of

a very dangerous

disease called

congress. We’re

very happy that

we have a prime minister who can cut the roots of corruption.

A good society needs a good leader who the citizens can

respect and follow and that’s what we now have.

The rise of Midea is partly attributable to the Chinese gov-

ernment which has been encouraging entrepreneurship and is

against corruption (like bribery and such). If the head of the

government is involved in corruption, then all the government

officers would also obviously get into corruption and make it

impossible for creative people and entrepreneurs to do some-

thing new and good for the society.

PEOPLE


18

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