UPFRONT

I have been an avid reader of Management since my honours year at Victoria Uni and must admit that this is magazine that I have been following religiously throughout the past few years. But after reading for while, I gradually noticed that your magazine seem to lack an Asian content. As New Zealand experiences steady increase in the number of Asians, I sometimes wonder why the gap between Asian and European businesses (and management) remains so distant, when it is very obvious that both can benefit from each other.
In most of your articles, there is hardly any mention of Asian businesses when in fact, there are numerous successful Asian businesses (or businesses managed by Asians) scattered around. After six months of teaching I moved back to Christchurch and recently started the Christchurch Chinese Weekly, free community newspaper. Revenue comes from advertisements and sponsorships. What my team and I have realised is that Asian markets seem to be so foreign to European businesses, ie “I don’t know how Asians think”, or “we don’t have any Asian salesperson”, or “we don’t have any Chinese/Cantonese speakers” etc.
I hope I haven’t offended you but I would like to raise the point that the Asian markets in New Zealand are relatively large and there is immense potential for some strategic alliance between east and west. I know this takes more than just education but this is something which my paper hopes to achieve over time. Thank you.
Arthur Chin
Christchurch Chinese Weekly