A British friend and I talked recently about how difficult it is for Chinese companies to internationalize their operations. “The owners don’t know how to step back from the businesses they built. They believe that what they had done to make the business successful in their back yard will work in international markets, too.” I commented that they figure they’re pretty smart about everything. “No,” my friend said, “it’s that they’re scared: they’re afraid of losing control of the business. They don’t know how to let the business work without them. They don’t know how to simply advise the managers they hired to do the job: they always step in. But they don’t know anything about accounting standards, international quality standards, customer service.”

In other words, know-it-alls don’t know what they don’t know. Not just a Chinese thang [sic]!