A German friend sent me a text message recently after the Chinese General Manager of a Nanjing factory had canceled the interview he had arranged with her. He was interested in working with my highly capable friend to implement quality controls and document systems in the company. The text read: “That boss is going to meet me after the 28th he is drunk [sic] cause of meeting that he had all day and tomorrow morning he has to fly to Xian so I meet him after the 28th … What does that mean when Chinese behave like that?”

To which I suggested if that’s the job she wants, she’d better lower her expectations for actually having a boss who knows how to manage. Of course, the boss would merely respond, “Chinese Way.”