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Consulting to Bridge U.S. and China

After a decade in the United States, this Beijing-born technology-business consultant enjoys reestablishing old ties and building new business links to China for U.S. companies.

by Rong Zhang, MBA ’08

Three feelings have been dominant since I returned with my family to our hometown of Beijing last June: It’s great to be home. It’s exciting to be a bridge between two countries. There is still plenty to do here.

1. It’s great to be home.

When I took off from Beijing Capital Airport’s only humble terminal in 1998 to attend school in the United States, I looked through the window and tried to take in all the landmarks that I recognized, including Miyun Reservoir and Badaling Great Wall.

Why I came to Stanford (in English) Choosing Stanford GSB (in Mandarin) Translation of Rong Zhang's reasons to choose Stanford GSB "There are two main reasons why students from China should come to Stanford. The first reason is people, and the other one is innovation. Talking about people: Stanford is a small school, and every year there are about 370 graduates. Because of the size of the class, people can really get to know each other in person and can build a strong friendship. Some of our classmates, for example—they get their dream jobs because of their classmates’ network. Also, a lot of the classmates start their own business in partnership with other classmates while in school. There are some successful new start-up companies already. "The second reason is innovation. Stanford is in the center of Silicon Valley. Historically, Stanford’s graduates have created a lot of famous and large companies, including HP and Cisco. Because of this environment, Stanford has strength in the entrepreneurial spirit for both profit and nonprofit companies. Here, you can get to know the best entrepreneurs and venture capital firms, and you can find your potential partners. So I believe if you are looking for a long-term relationship, if you want to use innovation to create social value for your career, Stanford is a perfect place for you. Thank you." (Recorded in 2008) Leading a Study Trip to China

Ten years later, when I was landing at Capital Airport’s gleaming, brand new Terminal 3, I found myself amazed by the city’s new landmarks, such as the “Bird’s Nest”(National Stadium), the “Bird’s Legs” (new CCTV Tower), and the “Bird’s Egg” (National Center for Performing Arts). Rivers of bicycles had turned into rivers of cars. Although the city looked drastically different from the decade before, the feeling of home has never changed.

It’s great for my wife and me and our two sons—TinTin, now 4, and DonDon, 2—to be physically close to our families again. One cab ride away is a whole lot better for our families than an international phone call away. What used to be a luxury has now become so convenient. I can drive my mom to visit my grandmother. I can go to the zoo with my parents and the two boys, just like they did with my grandparents and me when I was a child. I can enjoy a tea at my aunt’s home chatting about her business ideas and sharing some experiences with her college-age daughter. I can make the Chinese New Year family portrait more complete than in any of the past 10 years. It’s also important to know that we will be more available to our parents whenever they need us.

It’s also great to see our two America-born boys adjusting to the new life. When we were at Stanford, TinTin went to a local preschool. We had to consciously speak Chinese with him at home to keep up his Mandarin. Even then he would still respond in English to our Chinese questions if not reminded. Since we returned to Beijing, we sent him to a local bilingual preschool and switched to speaking English to him at home. One month into his new life, he responded more in Chinese than English. It was fun to observe him speaking Chinese as he played with his new friends and to be surprised by his Beijing accent, picked up from his grandparents.

It’s great to reconnect to long-lost friends. During my 10 years in the U.S., I made many friends. For example, I added about 200 new contacts to my address book during the two years at Stanford.

When I was meeting a new friend in the U.S., oftentimes I felt that I was establishing new ties into others’ close-knit social web. It was not surprising for me to meet two MBA ’08 classmates at an LPF who were roommates in college or neighbors when they were 7. Now that I’m back in Beijing, I frequently find myself discovering existing ties within my own close-knit social web. I bumped into four acquaintances of 10 to 20 years on my first day in McKinsey’s Beijing office, a site of about 100 people. Within the residential community of about 700 households, we found five friends we met in the U.S. and two McKinsey co-workers. Because of the years we lived here before going to the U.S. and our family roots, to me the degree of separation with any stranger in Beijing feels even lower than in the U.S.

I also found that services are widely and conveniently available in Beijing because of the higher population density and closer vicinity between customers and service providers. For example, from laundry to grocery, from take-outs to online shopping, almost every daily need can be delivered to our apartment very quickly. Hourly domestic service and baby-sitting are available at the first floor of our building. Given the quality and choice of restaurants within five minutes’ walking, we don’t need to cook at all unless we want to. We really enjoy these convenient services since they allow us to spend more quality time with our family and friends.

2. It’s exciting to be a “bridge.”

With my Chinese heritage and my education at the University of Illinois and Stanford and my work experience in the U.S. at General Motors, I was looking for career opportunities to continue to be a bridge across the Pacific. During my decade in the United States, I helped Chinese students adjust to campus life and helped introduce the larger university community to Chinese traditions such as Chinese New Year. I continued to serve as a cultural bridge at GM and led a Stanford MBA study trip to China in 2007 (see slideshow). Naturally, I was delighted when my first project for a McKinsey client in Beijing was a U.S. software giant who had minimal presence in China. The CEO had been invited to the Olympic Opening Ceremony in August. Blown away by the stunning show, he asked his team under the fireworks: “Why aren’t we in this place?” That’s how our team got the project to give them China-specific recommendations on how to be more successful in China.

3. There is still plenty to do here.

From time to time, I find myself missing life in the U.S., not just when I’m having trouble ordering from the Chinese menu at a Starbucks in Beijing. Although we have more days when Beijing’s West Mountain can be seen from east of the city compared to 1998, Beijing’s sky is still not as blue as California’s most of the time. Although more people are enjoying car ownership, every rush hour parts of the Second and Third Ring Roads still resemble long parking strips. Although China has enjoyed double-digit economic growth in recent years, consumer spending is still less than 40 percent of GDP, compared with about 70 percent in the United States.

Every time I see a gap between today’s China and the U.S., I realize that it’s an opportunity for someone to make a difference. For example, I have helped five Chinese friends with their application essays to b-schools. Their career aspirations include raising China’s occupational safety bar to the U.S. standard, setting up an investment fund to help small and medium enterprises, and introducing performance-based budgeting to China’s central government administration, such as the Ministry of Commerce. I was so excited to hear recently that the friend I helped apply for the Stanford Sloan Master’s Program, Daniel Wu, was admitted—we’ll see yet another GSB alum doing great things in China in a couple of years.

At McKinsey, I belong to the Business Technology Office. My second project was to help a Southeast Asian state-owned enterprise transform its business through the adoption of a new enterprise resource planning technology. The state-owned nature of this enterprise resulted in a lack of market competition, which led to the lack of organizational transparency and performance visibility. The new resource planning technology promises to increase efficiency, and lessons learned in this project will be applicable to China’s transforming state-owned or formerly state-owned enterprises.

There is still plenty to do here, including opportunities for more people who would serve as bridges between China and the United States.

Rong Zhang, MBA ’08, works in the Business Technology Office of McKinsey and Company in Beijing.