The Permanence of Diversity
In the past, this blog has been unequivocal about criticizing the downsides of a particular company called Rocket Internet. It that process, it has accumulated feedback based on derision and ridicule, most of which by different employees of the company who find themselves, in one way or the other, compatible with everything that the company seem to represent. This blog very much continues to stand by those comments made by the previous posts, but does concede that it has lacked the positive coverage that prompted its author to remain (and come back) for quite a long time so far.
Work-wise, for a person whose background is nothing related to administration of any private businesses, there are many more interesting tasks found elsewhere. Having work that directly document social movements with far-off future implications for nations and global politics sound much more palatable to a person with international political economy background than coming up with business strategies will ever be. But this line of work does have one thing that many organizations of its size, whether corporate or otherwise, can ever boast: that sense of true diversity.
A quick look at the group of people that was gathered in a single team can quickly impress the most seasoned of global citizens. Among a dozen people, there are just as many nationalities and languages spoken, with correspondingly different religions, beliefs, ideologies, and cultures. Perhaps the only thing that unite them initially in the objectives of their work at hand, but gradually, the fact that they are all hastily thrown into a strange town called Kuala Lumpur by an equally strange company they work for is enough to create endless conversations out their separate experiences.
This is certainly not something that any organization, even the most widespread and determined of multinational companies,can come up with. Rakuten is a prime example of how internationalization has remained largely superficial despite years of investments and efforts. The identity of such multinationals are simply too attached to their home country A that when they decide to set up shop in a new country B, they cannot help but stack the country management team of B with talents sourced in from A, and subtly request local employees to undertake immersion into A's culture.
Rocket has never been this way and perhaps never will. Despite all the internal jokes about German efficiency and nitpicking the details of structures and processes, the German factor, at least culture-wise, in the expansion of the company has been rather minimal. Non-Germans easily rise to the top of the management team, and there is no effort to introduce measures that will make the company's subsidiaries more German in anyway. The company's founders just happened to be Germans, but that did not make the company German in any distinctive way.
On the flip side, this also goes for the company's local presence. The Southeast Asian offices, obviously, are staffed predominantly by Southeast Asians, but do not seem to suffer from the typical social issues of the region that in turn affect the region's work culture. Yes, perhaps this can be attributed to the presence of expats from across the world in all departments, but it is still amazing how such a small number of foreigners managed to not acquiesce to the local culture, especially when the local culture seem to be so alluring from a social-harmony-for-minimal-effort perspective.
Such ability of foreigners to stay true to their original self is precisely what makes this company different from the likes of Rakuten. The foreigners there gradually molded themselves into the Japanese corporate culture, not so much because they think Japanese culture is amazing and they all wanted to be Japanese, but because, at the end of the day, they had no choice. They were the minority, and as minorities who wanted to get things done with the help of the majority, they had to follow's majority's way. Fortunately, such things do not happen in Rocket, at least to extreme extent.
Even with significant numbers of people who salivate over chances to live abroad, the world is becoming less and less of a friendly place for people with such aspirations. Economic downturns have brought more controlled borders with only a few notable exceptions. It only makes one wonder how long a great group of human diversity that gathered in one place can last. Hopefully, those opposed to free flow of labor across international borders can see that, contrary to their long-held perception, heterogeneity can sometimes trump homogeneity in the context of getting useful work done.
Work-wise, for a person whose background is nothing related to administration of any private businesses, there are many more interesting tasks found elsewhere. Having work that directly document social movements with far-off future implications for nations and global politics sound much more palatable to a person with international political economy background than coming up with business strategies will ever be. But this line of work does have one thing that many organizations of its size, whether corporate or otherwise, can ever boast: that sense of true diversity.
A quick look at the group of people that was gathered in a single team can quickly impress the most seasoned of global citizens. Among a dozen people, there are just as many nationalities and languages spoken, with correspondingly different religions, beliefs, ideologies, and cultures. Perhaps the only thing that unite them initially in the objectives of their work at hand, but gradually, the fact that they are all hastily thrown into a strange town called Kuala Lumpur by an equally strange company they work for is enough to create endless conversations out their separate experiences.
This is certainly not something that any organization, even the most widespread and determined of multinational companies,can come up with. Rakuten is a prime example of how internationalization has remained largely superficial despite years of investments and efforts. The identity of such multinationals are simply too attached to their home country A that when they decide to set up shop in a new country B, they cannot help but stack the country management team of B with talents sourced in from A, and subtly request local employees to undertake immersion into A's culture.
Rocket has never been this way and perhaps never will. Despite all the internal jokes about German efficiency and nitpicking the details of structures and processes, the German factor, at least culture-wise, in the expansion of the company has been rather minimal. Non-Germans easily rise to the top of the management team, and there is no effort to introduce measures that will make the company's subsidiaries more German in anyway. The company's founders just happened to be Germans, but that did not make the company German in any distinctive way.
On the flip side, this also goes for the company's local presence. The Southeast Asian offices, obviously, are staffed predominantly by Southeast Asians, but do not seem to suffer from the typical social issues of the region that in turn affect the region's work culture. Yes, perhaps this can be attributed to the presence of expats from across the world in all departments, but it is still amazing how such a small number of foreigners managed to not acquiesce to the local culture, especially when the local culture seem to be so alluring from a social-harmony-for-minimal-effort perspective.
Such ability of foreigners to stay true to their original self is precisely what makes this company different from the likes of Rakuten. The foreigners there gradually molded themselves into the Japanese corporate culture, not so much because they think Japanese culture is amazing and they all wanted to be Japanese, but because, at the end of the day, they had no choice. They were the minority, and as minorities who wanted to get things done with the help of the majority, they had to follow's majority's way. Fortunately, such things do not happen in Rocket, at least to extreme extent.
Even with significant numbers of people who salivate over chances to live abroad, the world is becoming less and less of a friendly place for people with such aspirations. Economic downturns have brought more controlled borders with only a few notable exceptions. It only makes one wonder how long a great group of human diversity that gathered in one place can last. Hopefully, those opposed to free flow of labor across international borders can see that, contrary to their long-held perception, heterogeneity can sometimes trump homogeneity in the context of getting useful work done.
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