an alternative view of today's news

So as we can all see, the strategic review is being carried out by a company owned by none other than the new acting MD.

Such a massive conflict of interests, that its not even worth going into.

Presumably there was no tender. How much of our money are they being paid?

However...

...putting all that anger and obvious wrong doing out of the way, I have a possible alternative view of this...

To the Chinese, and many other Asians, "face" is a very important concept. It is considered very important not to be seen to "lose face", particularly if you are in a position of authority.

In fact its so important that people often go out of their way to make sure that YOU will not put yourself in a position where YOU would be seen to lose face. (This can be confusing, as its hard to understand why someone won't do something apparently easy.)

So my thought is this: maybe, just maybe, this is their way of backing down without being seen to lose face.

I had been thinking for a while that it would be very difficult for them to back down without losing face, and therefore that would be a big obstacle to our achieving success.

The fact that Harry's company is carrying out the review means they may be able to influence the outcome to say what they want, something they wouldn't be able to do with an independent company. Then, when the review tells them to do what WE want them to do, the board can claim it is following the advice of an independent review.

Remember, the chinese have a fundamentally different way of looking at things to the Western perspective, so there may yet be method in their madness...

...of course the other logical conclusion to this line of thought is that they have commissioned Harry's company to rubber stamp their position, and again, not be seen to lose face.

Either way, it won't fool the market, but it might yet result in us getting what we want.

Final thought is this...

...if they ARE doing this so as to be able to back down without losing face, then it is VERY important for us all not to let on that we know it.

Its a "don't ask, don't tell" situation. If we let it be known that we "know" what they're up to, then the whole thing might go belly up.

I therefore suggest that we don't email in about this until we find out the results of the review.