By Bradley Charbonneau – Global Career News Contributor
Jan 21, 2003
Richard Robinson, CEO and Founder, MiG:
Richard heads up MiG where he can mix his love of games with his marketing and management experience from past Internet startups.
Previously, Richard worked as the VP of Marketing and Sales for renren.com where he built the renren brand as well as the sales and customer service teams. He was with renren.com from a ten person company to a 300+ person company and continued with the company from funding of nearly US$40million led by News Corp, on to its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and finally through to its successful acquisition in early 2001.
Prior to renren.com, Richard was the Regional Media and Strategy Director for Nasdaq listed Modem Media working with clients in Asia such as IBM, AT&T, Citibank and Cathay Pacific.
Richard is one of the founders of IandI Asia www.iandiasia.com, the leading networking association for technology professionals in Asia. He is also the founder of the first chapter of the Interactive Advertising Bureau in Asia www.iab.net. In 2000 Richard was chosen as one of the Top Ten International Internet Superstars by Ad Age Magazine http://www.adageinternational.com/iaa/nojoke.html
Richard holds an MBA in International Business from the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in The Netherlands and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.
Global Career Center: How did you get from your hometown of Medford, Massachusetts to Beijing, China? Did you have family or connections there?
Richard R. Robinson: I lived in Hong Kong for four years from 1996-2000 and eventually worked my way up north to Beijing in late 2000. Since coming to Beijing overland from Switzerland in 1993 through a combo of hitchhiking and taking the Trans-Siberian, I had fallen in love with the Mainland and had always wanted to live here.
I am 35 and have lived in 10 countries and have travelled to over 80 and for me right now the Mainland is the most exciting place and offers the most opportunities/challenges of any country in Asia and beyond.
Global Career Center When did you first decide that you wanted to work abroad? Did you go to college abroad? [Where did you go to college? bachelors and masters] What attracted you about Asia?
Richard R. Robinson: If you have seen Good Will Hunting, then you have a good idea of the type of guys that I hung out with while growing up in Boston. From Boston, I ended up getting my B.S. in Business at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and then studying at Cambridge University in England. While at USC I got a taste of Asian culture but it was while studying in England that I fell in love with Europe. I eventually got my MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in The Netherlands (perhaps the most international MBA program in the world) after living in Europe for almost five years in total (as a concierge and then bartender in the Swiss-German Alps, English teacher in Prague, housepainter in a Norwegian fishing village, grape-picker near Bordeaux and an assembly-line worker at the BMW factory in Munich).
Global Career Center How did you go about finding that first job in Hong Kong in 1996? [schools, online, newspapers, networking, other?] How did you send a resume? [fax, mail, email, online, in person, other] Which language was it in? How long before you received a response? How did they interview you? [phone, video conference, in person, other?] Did your company have to sponsor a work permit for you? Did that take long to process? Did they organize your travel plans or relocation? [If so, what did this entail?]
Richard R. Robinson: To find a job in Hong Kong I did what a lot of people were doing in 1996 (mostly Brits who could work there without permits) : I got a one way ticket and showed up
with 800 bucks, a backpack and an attitude. Besides being assigned and
sent out by one’s existing company to a foreign posting, I have found that the best way to get a job in a foreign place is to just show up and network. Find a cheap place to stay, give yourself three months and start passing out simple name cards. I didn’t even bother to try to find a job before I showed. I had just finished my MBA and didn’t have a lot of work experience. However an established consultant or marketing director, etc could do well by putting out feelers first, but I think that for younger, hungrier job seekers, just showing up and being there opens up a world of opportunity that is ten times more effective than trying to lay any foundation remotely.
Global Career Center Once you got there, did you have trouble finding your way around? Did you have to relocate your family? [I know you didn’t, so … If not, do you know how others relocated their families? How did they know which schools to put their children in?]
Richard R. Robinson: When I arrived (solo) I crashed on my pal’s couch while I pounded the pavement. Hong Kong is *easy* place to live for an expat and is really ‘China Lite’ so it is not too tough to adjust, especially if you have experience living abroad already. The toughest transition is adjusting to the cost of living while job seeking. Took me a few months to find exactly what I wanted, but it launched a four year dotcom career there. While ‘just showing up’ in HK is not as common since the Handover in 1997, it is certainly more and more common here in the Mainland, especially in Beijing and Shanghai.
Global Career Center How does working in Asia compare with other countries you’ve worked in? [Where else have you worked? What did you do there? How about getting the job elsewhere versus Asia?]
Richard R. Robinson: I had worked in Europe for three years before working in Asia but not on a professional basis. While my positions in Asia have been much more professional focused than in Europe, I have found that working in Europe can offer stability, training, etc but less opportunity for risk. Companies in Asia and especially China are not as advanced or mature as their European counterparts, but they do offer much more upside but also more challenges.
Global Career Center Do you have any tips for people who would like to come work in Hong Kong? China? Asia? For example, how important is it to learn the language of the region? Are work permits hard to come by? Housing?
Richard R. Robinson: Come to work in China, but if you don’t already speak Chinese, then take a 3-6 month intensive Chinese course when you arrive. That can give you the opportunity to assimilate and also network and lay the groundwork to find a position. Also, if you get a one-year student visa when you arrive (even if you only study full-time for three months) then that will eliminate the need for ‘visa runs’ to Hong Kong later. Living in Hong Kong, Shanghai or Beijing expect to pay at least US$700-1200/mo for a basic apartment on your own and half that, of course, if you share. You can get cheaper more local accommodation in Beijing and Shanghai for US$300-500/mo as well.
Global Career Center What are some cultural do’s and don’ts that you only learn after you’ve been there for a while?
Richard R. Robinson: I have found that randomly pulling out other people’s nosehairs while you casually speak with them is a global no-no. Actually globalization has minimized the cultural divide and Chinese are usually pretty forgiving of laowai (“foreigners”) that are increasingly flocking to China. But as anywhere, it is best to display a friendly attitude and a patience and not to ever say: “Well, where I’M from we….”. No one wants to hear that from foreigners in America and no locals wants to hear it from foreigners here in China.
For instance in a market, haggling should be viewed as a fun game – not a fight – and should not be taken personally. Nothing makes me cringe more than a loud tourist getting visibly angry with a market merchant. Also due to the many homynyms in the Chinese language, some gifts sound like other things, i.e. a clock (someone dying) and should be avoided. Bad idea to also give umbrellas (person’s family will be dispersed) or books (delivering defeat). Also don’t wrap things in white (funereal color) or give a green hat (means your wife is cheating on you). Lastly anything with the number eight is good (making money) and the number four is bad (death). This is really not so unusual since some buildings in the States have no 13th floor (my apartment building lacks 4th, 13th, 14th and 24th floors).
Lastly, it always help to build guanxi (relationships) here in China which means indulging in small talk at first and slowly making your to the business at hand instead of getting down to business right away.
Global Career Center Hong Kong has long been a center for international business, but how about China? Are there opportunities for expats to work and live in China? What about the future? What industries seem to be expanding or even booming?
Richard R. Robinson: China rocks. All fields are open for improvement and WTO and the amount of foreign capital coming in here opportunities abound. Anything in telecoms, media, wireless (my line of biz), internet, etc is mostly Beijing based since it is still necessary to be closer to the seat of government here. More advertising and trading companies are in Shanghai and most manufacturing is south of that all the way to Hong Kong. This is a general overview, but the fact is that there is ample opportunity for almost anyone who is flexible and open in the main cities.
Bradley Charbonneau, Global Career News Contributor
Global Career Center You’ve been learning Mandarin, but I heard that there are “more Chinese people learning English than there are Americans.” Can you get by in business without speaking Mandarin? Also, I’ve read that ‘guanxi’ (‘interpersonal relationship’) is key to doing business in China. As a foreigner, are you always on the outside of these inner circles?
Richard R. Robinson: Chinese are very pragmatic and not nearly as insular as the Japanese or Koreans. If you speak the language and really get into China, then the Chinese are quite open. I have even talked one into marrying me!
Global Career Center Do you have any favorite books or websites that people might read who hope to learn more about China today?
Richard R. Robinson: For sites, I like local sites like: www.xianzai.com or www.thatsbeijing.com for local events. I recently read Shanghai Baby which is an overview of the racier side of Shanghai. It is interesting although I can’t say that it was very well written.
Global Career Center So now that you’ve been through the dotcom boom with two rollercoaster start-ups in Hong Kong, founded and run a comedy club in eight cities around Asia and founded Mobile Entertainment company in Beijing, what could possibly be next?
Richard R. Robinson: I aspire to be one of the top ten rodeo clowns in Northeast China by Spring of 2008. Just in time for the Olympics. Keeping my fingers crossed. Actually I have a dream of opening an American Style Diner (After 11 years abroad I still crave American breakfast) here in China. I would also love to get my Chinese language skills to a level where I can perform stand-up comedy here (believe it or not Chinese stand-up comedy is well-established!).
Global Career Center Thank you very much for your time and good luck in the future.
Richard R. Robinson: Xie Xie Ni!
? Copyright 2004 by GlobalCareerNews.com