CASE STUDY

Alstom in Saudi Arabia and China

The French engineering giant ALSTOM is building infrastructure projects all over the world. As is typical for
engineering and construction firms, ALSTOM sends its engineers abroad, often on short-term expatriate
assignments for a few months. Their construction projects are typically in remote locations far away from the
major urban hubs, where the engineers have to work with a local workforce and live in a local community. They
thus have to learn to adapt - quickly. For example, they may be invited to a party and be expected to actively
participate. A Swiss ALSTOM engineer recalls his experiences from Saudi Arabia:

Once, there was a farewell for someone from the building site. On this occasion, there was a
little celebration. We were told, at midday, after work, there would be a party. We waited and
were wondering what would happen, where they would do it, and if they would bring
something. There were neither chairs nor tables. Around 2 pm, they came with huge aluminium
tablets, the size of a wagon wheel, filled up with rice, and in the middle a huge piece of mutton,
grilled mutton. Finally, three or four of these tablets were standing on the floor of the
workshop. They just put them on the floor! Of course we had cleaned up before. They came
dressed in their celebratory dresses, and we expected some sort of ceremony, but they just sat
down on the floor in their white gowns, around the tablets, and started eating.

The (Swiss] colleague who was with me was vegetarian. He said, ‘Listen, I won't squat on the
floor like that, and I won't eat anything either.’ Everyone had a piece of mutton in his hand-it
was incredible. One would hold the mutton, and another pulled out a chunk and passed it to
me: ‘Here, mutton, that’s good, you must eat.’ We had no plates or anything.
Everyone grabbed into the bowl, and scooped out a handful of rice. And now, my mate said, ‘I
won't squat on the floor like that’, and I say, ‘Come on, let's just sit down, you don't have
to eat mutton, but you can at least do as if you are.’

They were very happy that we were there, and that they could invite us for this meal. It
was important to them that we would participate. We had known these people from work, but
still, initially the atmosphere was a bit uncomfortable. We didn't know how to behave. But
then, after we sat down and meat was passed around, it got really interesting. We got
talking and relaxed. My mate also sat and afterwards he said he enjoyed it very much.
 The English vocabulary of those people was quite limited, so we had to talk 'with hands and
feet'. Even so, we have been chatting about work, and what kind of rice this was, and what
was in this rice. It was typical Saudi rice with raisins and the taste was quite fantastic. We
couldn't talk much, the language barrier was just there, but then we picked up a few bits
of Arabic, and the next morning we could say ‘Good morning' in Arabic. Every daya word
more—they had immense joy hearing us speak Arabic.

No alcohol was served at this party, as you would expect in a Muslim society. Yet this was quite different from the
experiences of an Italian engineer who was posted by ALSTOM to China. He was an experienced serial expatriate
when he arrived in Foshan, a smaller city in China (1.1 million inhabitants), where he and his team settled down in
a local hotel for a couple of weeks. But work is not separate from the rest of life in China:

In China, we knew to party—the staff of the Chinese (JV partner) company, we the ALSTOM
people and all of us together. Parties didn't happen in a regular patten, but when a party was
announced, everyone dressed up, queued at the buffet and toasted with thelr glasses. After
dinner came the inevitable: karaoke, or as they call it KTV. We Europeans politely said 'no
thanks', with one very talented exception. Among the Chinese, however, a group dynamic
developed, there was no avoiding it: everyone had to accept the microphone at least once. Not
even the bosses at the top of the hierarchy could have an exception. I remember how we often
had to endure with tightly closed ears three or four horrible performances in a row before a more
talented singer took the mic.

... At the banquets, a lot of alcohol came on the table. One morning, I knew that this must have
been the case the previous evening. How my colleagues got me back to the hotel, I do not recall.
When I met the same Chinese people who also were at the party on the construction site, I was
showered with congratulations. ‘You are our hero.' Apparently, I must have gone to the highest
boss, and had challenged him to 'ganbei’. Ganbei is a popular game where people challenge
each other to drink a glass empty, and those who didn't join were considered ill-mannered. I
stood there and didn't know what to think of these compliments. Was it the fact that I had the
courage to do that, or did they have an especially good time with their boss that evening?

Food is a central part of both Italian and Chinese culture. In fact, both love noodles, which reportedly
were brought by Marco Polo from China to Italy in the 13th century. Yet there are also differences that can be
quite challenging, which the expatriate describes with typical Italian flair:
 The menus of the Chinese cuisine would certainly allow eating a different dish every day for
months. That's because there is an incredible diversity in preparation methods and sauces in
Chinese cooking. Moreover, it seems that Chinese people eat everything that moves, or has once
moved: cockroaches, dogs, cats, monkeys, rats, snakes.

I have my own experience with snakes. That was probably the biggest surprise event for me. It
started with a bet that I had with the deputy director, a young Chinese man. Our deal was that
both of us would invite the other to a local meal, and the other had to eat at least one bite. The
snakes were still alive when I had to tell the cook my preference, and we could watch the chosen
animal being prepared. I did manage to swallow a bit of the fried dish, but the sight of the
cooked dish already deterred me from trying. The next week we had our revenge. In an
international restaurant I ordered a rare steak, well seasoned but without sauce—just the way I
like it. After one bite, my Chinese colleague asked me to relieve him of the plate. I can still see his
desperate eyes, and hear him saying, ‘I am sorry, but l cannot eat this.'

Sources: (1) N. Felix, 2007, Dann hat man es gewusst, und dann war gut, p. 29-37 (p. 30): (2) L. Etter, 2007, Gerosted nicht geröstet, p. 98-
104 (p. 99-100 & 103-104), both in: (3) M. Spisak & H. Stalder, eds: In der Fremde, Bern: Haupt. Translated by Klaus Meyer.