| The explanation: it is the difference between an industrial environment and a farming way of life. Even in the US, calendars are not uniformly important. On the farms of the South or the Midwest, people plan their activities in more or less the same way as the Chinese do --- “I'll get to that one when I'm done here.” Even in the industrial offices in those regions, the habits (of the employees because many are hired locally) are carried over from the farms. There was once a study that found the work habits (atmosphere) in factories in northern or northeast US are much more serious, tightly clocked, and fast-paced than in factories in the south where workers tend to joke loudly, go on long breaks, and act less "seriously" or "industriously" in comparison. However, that study found, surprisingly, that the overall productivity or efficiency in the southern factories are NOT statistically lower. People work best when they do things in their own pace, in their own habit. It is a good observation that things in China are less planned, but it may not be prudent to link this, thus, to efficiency. As China becomes more industrialized, I am sure calendar use will catch on. However, WTO not withstanding, it is often not at all necessary to measure things in place A with standards from place B. What’s valuable is the awareness and prudence that Jian Shuo has demonstrated here in making a marketing assessment of the present potentials for a particular calendar utilization tool. |