Simon Chan | Towards Ventures
Simon Chan's blog - entrepreneurship, venture capital, innovation and technology

The answer is short and simple: Because there's no garage! Yes, >90% people live in tall residential buildings, and they do not have private garages. Well…. Before you click away from my blog, and back to Google, please take my answer serious for a few more seconds. ‘Garage’ symbolizes the life and work style of the early-stage technology startup companies in the Silicon Valley. So, the true question is, can we afford it in Hong Kong?

Seven millions people are packed in Hong Kong - a small-sized city covering only 423 sq. miles, you can easily imagine the sky-high price for real estate. Job stability is the prerequisite for the high housing rental fee, or initial down payment and mortage of the real properties. In addition, most young adults are having family financial responsibility immediately after they graduate. However westernized it may seem, Hong Kong still keeps some Chinese traditional family concepts – one is that childrens have the obligation to support their parents (which I think is reasonable, too). The consequence of such environment is that the risk and opportunity cost to do startup become very high even for fresh graduates, who are supposed to have nothing to lose in other countries.

On the other hand, such an atmosphere is perfect to train up professionals. People tend to enjoy climbing up the large corporations’ ladders step by step, and become professional managers and executives eventually. It provides certain excitement and job satisfaction within the stable environment. And just because you cannot quit the job easily, you have to accept all difficulties and unhappiness you are facing everyday. No wonder Hong Kong is doing so well in customer services

Sad and frustrated.... but that's the reality.

Read more: Why there’s no garage startup in Hong Kong »

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It has been a long time since I have stopped updating this blog. It's nice to be a silent observer for a while, and then come back with fresh feelings and ideas. I decide to write in English again, after all, it's my space, and I should be writing in whatever language I want, in whatever way I enjoy, about whatever topics I feel like.

Providing innovative ideas for the China startup community was kind of my innocent reason for writing in Chinese at the beginning, but I don't feel such demand yet. While more and more friends back in US, and may be from the rest of the world, are interested in the China startup development. So I'll try to write more on it.

P.S. My company has gone through a silent re-structuring period just as my blog. And as you can expect, COOL THINGS ARE COMING SOON.

Read more: I'm back »

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这个月暂时闭关停笔。

Read more: 闭关 »

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一支对工作火热的团队容易遇到的问题就是内部的摩擦或压力。

产品设计和策划的成员忙于管理和協调正在开发的功能，确保安时上线。也忙于未来功能的设计，希望产品最终可以显出特色。技术开发忙于解决手上复杂的技术问题，也需要维护旧有系统安全稳定，支架优化。他们也需要改进旧有产品，同时开发新功能。美工忙于设计新页和统一风格。新旧设计要求同时需要照顾到。市场推广和合作忙于面对用户和合作伙伴，他们各有不同的需要和意见。

每人都有自己负责的方向，这会出现什么问题? 每人都觉得自己这块最重要，希望其他同事可以先完成有关这块的事情。但是其他人又有他们手上已经安排了的工作。

企业不是平面，而是个立体。必定各方面做好和互相配合，这立体才能成形。

公司内部必须“以和为贵”，“和而不同”。“和而不同”追求内在的和谐统一，而不是表象上的相同和一致。成员应该与别人相协调，但并不盲目地重复或附和别人，因协调而不重复故能达成和谐。善意地提出意见，解释自己的情况和需要。追求和谐，为此而包容差异，在丰富多彩中达成和谐。当然，这有一个前题条件，就是大家都抱有相同的最终目标，共同了解整体公司的发展优先次序。

内部不和，如何面对外面的世界? 和气生财。

可能是年纪开始大了。。。。想不到我也会谈个"和"字。

Read more: 企业不是平面，而是个立体 »

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一种要打破

我在国内创建团队已有一段时间了，发现到一个有趣的现象，就是一种无形的溝通架构模式很迅速地自动建立出来。团队成员很懂得分上分下分部门，例如遇到不明白的地方，常会跟身边的同事说两句就算，不愿意行多几步问真正可以解答的人。我不知道其他公司的想法，但在蛙爪, 我可以肯定的说我们不需要溝通架构。小小的办公室，没有经理房，大家都坐在一起，不用玩什么分级上传说话游戏了。对公司或产品有什么问题或意见，我和任何一位蛙爪管理人都乐意随时溝通。

以下是一些绝对需要直接溝通的例子：
- 澄清不确定的事情，例如产品新功能要求
- 公司大方向，计划目标
- 工作上的资源需求
- 任何意见或感受
同一公司，同一目标，上下一心。

一种要建立

另一种架构，我觉得是每一个团队都需要努力去建立的。它就是工作流程架构：为经常重复而涉及多个人员，特别是多个部门的工作定下程序。

很多朋友说创业公司讲求创意和灵活性，不需要工作流程，他们甚至憎恶流程。没错，新公司头三个月可能真的不应浪费时间做这工作，因为这段时间公司很难定下实际的程序。但我觉得用流程有很多好处，包括方便了公司每一个人都知道那事情应该如何执行，确保通知到有关人事，完成多人质量检查和批核等。在过去的日子，工作流程帮助了我很多，令我不需要粗心常规性工作的细节安排，是管理的自动化工具。另外，定下清楚的工作流程也是企业营运优化的先决条件。将步骤写下来一一看清楚，管理人就可以用创意加速和简化工序，就更能善用资源，更有效工作了。

打破溝通架构，方便意见和问题直达最上层；建立工作流程架构，不容许任意发出执行指令，确保工作质数。这只是我个人的看法，管理需要经验，我还是有很多需要学习和尝试的。

Read more: 中国企业两种架构：一种要打破，一种要建立 »

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