Send the Right People

Abstract

So here you are on your first day of your posting, installed in an office which could be in a tower block in downtown Jakarta or Central District in Hong Kong, in a special economic zone near Shanghai, a portakabin on a building site in Sumatra or perhaps overlooking a factory floor on a new industrial estate on the edge of Bangkok. If you really drew the short straw, your office might be in a run-down, formerly state-owned enterprise building on the banks of the Yangtse, with the smell of the rubbish drifting by and an overflowing spittoon in the corner of the meeting room — a sign of a long-standing local habit which you may or may not get used to.