Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

chinafile.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 258 posts

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#41

Post by godzillabrennus »

duxup wrote: post #21
underlines wrote: post #7

I'm a foreign CTO working in Bangkok and being fully fluent in Thai showed me that it's exactly the same practice in SEA regions: Got to close a deal with a government official? They'll head to the "bathtub massage" area Huai Kwang. Need to bond with a local Business man? Deal closes there as well. Bond with male work mates? On to the bathtub place! Everyone knows it, there's jokes about it and this particular busine…

Heck in the US 20 years ago, a coworker of mine was assigned to a job where his first account was some old school east coast bank. One night dude calls "OMG man we are at dinner and the sales guy didn't show up so it's just me and them and they want to hit the strip clubs a couple blocks away after this." I had no good advice as I was a n00b too so I told him to call his boss. He was told "keep them happy" so he spen…

I helped a sales focused tech company as their CTO for a few years. The sales team met at the bar for lunch and after work. Drugs were everywhere. The CFO kept a liquor cabinet in his desk drawer. There were parties all the time. Orgies were not uncommon.

They ended up being acquired before they could get full on wolf on wallstreet going but it was damn near close.

I drank with them but never took it any further. It’s a really unhealthy life both physically and emotionally.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#42

Post by Teeer »

sanderjd wrote: post #33
taneq wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I turned down several invites to such activities and got the usual gay jokes behind my back. I'm surprised they didn't just invite you to a place that caters for both.

I think you missed the point; he didn't turn down the invites because he's gay, they called him gay because he turned down the invites...

I think you missed the obvious joke

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#43

Post by lixtra »

kerng wrote: post #36
duxup wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck in the US 20 years ago, a coworker of mine was assigned to a job where his first account was some old school east coast bank. One night dude calls "OMG man we are at dinner and the sales guy didn't show up so it's just me and them and they want to hit the strip clubs a couple blocks away after this." I had no good advice as I was a n00b too so I told him to call his boss. He was told "keep them happy" so he spen…

I think this is not uncommon, even nowadays. Noone likes to admit it because being politically correct and stuff. Even at company parties at big corporations, some Sales and Marketing folks tend go a bit overboard - and employees hooking up with each isn't unusual during such festivities either.

> employees hooking up with each isn't unusual Of course they do. Employees are not slaves. They are free to bond as they like.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#45

Post by shanghaiaway »

forkLding wrote: post #2

I see this as an East Asian phenomenon, I believe Koreans and Japanese do this to a certain degree as well as certain other East Asian groups. I've heard Russians do bathhouse deals as well although I could be wrong and there is also the finance sector's strip club visits with their clientele that I've heard of ( https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-12/it-s-clos... ). It seems so weird to see people have t…

I've heard Americans go to strip clubs

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#46

Post by tjr225 »

duxup wrote: post #26
hackits wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know that this is normal don't you? Very tame by any stretch of the imagination.

I don't know. After we were bought by a west coast company the stories like that stopped. While I worked with sales teams, I also worked with engineering teams so I wasn't on the front lines in that way. Did the events end, I don't know.

God bless the best coast.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#47

Post by 3131s »

ct520 wrote: post #37
hackits wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know that this is normal don't you? Very tame by any stretch of the imagination.

Extremely normal for sales (in my experience)

Totally. My dad worked in sales at IBM and it seemed like a regular occurrence to take clients to strip clubs. This all happened on huge 10-100+ million dollar contracts and of course was all charged to the company credit card.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#48

Post by da02 »

godzillabrennus wrote: post #41
duxup wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck in the US 20 years ago, a coworker of mine was assigned to a job where his first account was some old school east coast bank. One night dude calls "OMG man we are at dinner and the sales guy didn't show up so it's just me and them and they want to hit the strip clubs a couple blocks away after this." I had no good advice as I was a n00b too so I told him to call his boss. He was told "keep them happy" so he spen…

I helped a sales focused tech company as their CTO for a few years. The sales team met at the bar for lunch and after work. Drugs were everywhere. The CFO kept a liquor cabinet in his desk drawer. There were parties all the time. Orgies were not uncommon. They ended up being acquired before they could get full on wolf on wallstreet going but it was damn near close. I drank with them but never took it any further. It’…

Why would they get acquired? They were doing good work in-between the partying?

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#49

Post by 2muchcoffeeman »

PakG1 wrote: post #39

A few female entrepreneurs, however, explicitly reject the values pushed by businessmen. “One of my husband’s business friends got married just two years ago,” explained Li, in her early 40s, who co-owns a steel business with her husband, “We went to his wedding. But when we hosted an event last year, he came with a young girl who was obviously his mistress. I told my husband that if he cheats on his wife only after…

I would not trust any person who cheated on their spouse either.

Nor would I want to hang out with colleagues at a strip club if we were not friends outside of work.

I don’t think this is some gender thing. Maybe be men are more likely to be coerced into doing these things. But I think they’re having fun.

Re: Booze, Sex, and the Dark Art of Dealmaking in China (2015)

#50

Post by tempestn »

chairmanwow wrote: post #18
pnw_hazor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like it is SFW at a lot a places in China and SEA.

They are talking about the article itself. You wouldn’t want to click on this at work because of the picture of the naked erotic dancer featured.

Pretty sure your parent knows that and was making a joke. (IMO a funny one, for what it's worth.)
Post reply on HN