Business Proposal & Entrepreneurship Class

A student came into the teacher's office today and approached me with an interesting proposal. In return for compensation, she asked me to attend her boyfriend's business opening tomorrow. I would not have to do anything except talk with guests and say that I worked with the owner. This PR stunt is intended to give the impression that an English-speaking foreigner works at the business. Apparently, this allows Chinese businesses to charge more for their products and services by improving their image of quality.

This was not the first time I was asked to do this. Last night, in fact, another friend asked me to do the same for her interior-designer friend.

Although I admire the PR ingenuity and leveraging of foreigners, I wonder whether or not they considered the ethics behind being intentionally deceptive and misleading.

Entrepreneurship Life Club. Weeks into the course, today we jumped into the wonderful world of marketing. The task I gave the students was to join 3 teams of 6 and develop a marketing strategy to introduce tanning salons and women's razor blades into China.

First, I had to explain to them the cultural difference that American women, generally, see tan skin as beauty, which is completely opposite of Chinese culture where pale skin is beautiful.

Second, students learned that American women shave their legs and armpits. It's the opposite for a vast majority women here, once again.

With the cultural lesson completed, it was time to tackle the case study. Students divided into groups and they had to elect a project manager to delegate work and manage their limited time. It was a blast to see them work together, creating strategies for pricing, placement, and promotion. One group suggested that they should hold a PR event at a large mall in Shanghai, where beautiful women would model how to shave one's legs, and then onlookers could come close and touch the silky-smooth legs of a Goddess. Needless to say, we were on the verge of tears from laughing so hard at their wild promotion ideas.