Importing American Start-Up Vibes into Taiwan
Commentating a bit on this story of importing American tech management into Taiwan as an American working in Taiwan:
How One Company Is Challenging Traditional Working Conditions | Connected Feature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvFDLW0l8k0
The office environment at PicCollage featured on this TaiwanPlus story is table stakes for an American tech company, but I’m aware it’s a far cry from traditional Taiwanese working environments.
The office environment at PicCollage featured on this TaiwanPlus story is table stakes for an American tech company, but I’m aware it’s a far cry from traditional Taiwanese working environments.
It’s interesting because there’s a misconception that working at a company like this is all fun and games. Importing this operating model can have some complications.
This type of American management technique is about empowering employees by giving them autonomy and an attractive working environment. The ideal of the empowerment model is if you take care of your employees, they’ll take care of your customers.
However, this freedom comes with more personal responsibility. Employees need to be able make decisions independently — you cannot rely on a supervisor for all the answers, the ability to understand the company’s goals and bigger picture of the industry, self-managing work, actively demonstrating value, and often being subject to brutal KPIs, eg. if you don’t make your quarterly numbers, or if a company decides to change direction and your role is no longer needed, you’re out.
By importing this operating model, foreign operators may find both a skill gap and will gap without investing in significant employee training. If successful, using this model will also empower employees who innately understand the local market and help organizations thrive and be successful.
從這部由TaiwanPlus所拍攝的影片中介紹的PicCollege的工作環境就是一個美國科技業的公司的典型例子，但實際上，這與傳統的台灣工作環境相去甚遠。
當我在看這則報導時，我覺得有些有趣，因為一般大眾可能會誤解在這樣的工作環境是很輕鬆且較自由自在的，但事實上，將這種商業模式導入不同市場可能會出現一些摩擦。
大部份美國科技公司的營運模式是透過提供員工自主決定權和充足資源的工作環境，來達到更好的工作效率以及公司營運。這種商業模式是透過給予員工自主權和舒適的工作環境，來進一步提升員工主動和客戶之間的正面互動關係。
但相反的，這種自由的工作環境相對於也要求更多個人責任。譬如說：需要能夠有獨立做出決策的能力，無法依賴主管代為決定，也要能夠理解公司的目標和環境的大局，並在適時的狀況下做出取捨，以及自我管理工作，積極展示自己工作內容的貢獻，同時也會經常受到殘酷的KPI的約束，如果你沒有達到季度業績，或者一家公司決定改變方向並且不再需要你這份角色，那麼你就會被淘汰了 — 完全沒有所謂的人情味。
外商希望實施這種營業模式，如果沒有投資大量的員工培訓，可能會發現到員工技能與心理建設和期望有所差距。然而，如果實施成功，這種模式將能讓相比總公司來說，更了解當地市場的員工和企業家，也能夠更順利的發展成功。
