The lesson? That the timing of tossing in ingredients is the key to cooking a perfect meal.
The official Xinhua News Agency said China produced 5 million university graduates in 2007, but experts say only a fraction acquired the innovative thinking that would make a good multinational executive.
"There's a lack of creative teaching in schools here, but we bring in pro-active students with potential and train them," said Sam Jacobs, British creative director at Jellymon Shanghai, a media design company that moved its operations from London to China. "There's no question that the biggest obstacle holding China back from becoming a true global player is innovation."
Traditional Confucian thinking regards a country's leader as having the most important job, and the Communist Party has kept that idea alive by preaching that only an elite of party specialists are fit to wield power. In contrast, businessmen are seen as one-dimensional, selfish and money-hungry.
That stereotype was evident at a business class at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Could a business executive lead a country? "No," came the unanimous reply.
"It's obvious that an entrepreneur does not have the skills to lead millions, even if their company has thousands of people," said Huang Ziyi, a sophomore business management major.
At the college level, a Netherlands-based group, the International Association of Science, Economy and Commerce Students, is trying to develop Chinese students' creativity to promote socially responsible business.
The group runs an eight-course program in Beijing called the Center for Dream Enterprise, or CODE, and plans to expand throughout Asia. Any undergraduate in the capital can join for a $10 fee.
"We want to open the students' minds and give them hope," said Andrea Krause, a German CODE instructor. "As a result of these discussions, we hope they'll realize there isn't always one right answer and that the possibilities are endless."
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On the Net:
AchieveGlobal: http://www.achieveglobal.com
Jellymon: http://www.jellymon.com
?What If!: http://www.whatifinnovation.com
CODE (in Chinese): http://www.d2dcode.com
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