8 Asians

12 Comments to “CNN: American Morning: An Asian glass ceiling?”

• Tan wrote:

  I think Asians excel in assimilating into new cultural settings. When there is a conflict between personal and coporate values, we are better off in maitaining a separation of what is personal from what is professional.

  Posted on 16-May-07 at 8:07 am | Permalink

• James wrote:

  I watched this little segment and I agreed with one of the points being made, that Asian cultural values may not coincide with ladder climbing in the corporate world. Namely, that to gain an executive position in a traditional corporate environment, it takes an aggressive and forward attitude, something as an Asian-American speaking, that was not as encouraged by our parents.

  Unfortunately, I sometimes think these attitudes for ’successful’ ladder climbing also means a lot of twisting the truth and chest pounding. One reason I think the corporate world is not really for me (although I work in it unfortunately).

  Posted on 16-May-07 at 11:15 am | Permalink

• tiffany wrote:

  I feel like this might be a generational thing– that Asian/Asian Americans adapt as they are acclimated to American values and ethics.

  I didn’t watch this segment, but I also wonder if the priorities for asians (be financially lucrative and being scientifically inclined/just plain smart) need to be realigned with new values like leadership and …?

  Posted on 18-May-07 at 6:41 pm | Permalink

• Erik wrote:

  I agree with Tiffany. Values differ now more by generational and geographical lines than ethnicity.

  I also believe there are more skill sets that people tend to focus on that aren’t linked to leadership. I hate to stereotype, but verbal communication skills are a must that many Asians still have to master.

  Also, the numbers may be flawed. If 30% are Asian, then I’d say probably 70% of those Asians are focused on the engineering side of things. So they are competing against each other for those same managerial positions. They don’t divide managerial positions up by ethnicity but by department. So maybe there are only 9% competing for the other non-engineering (admin, sales, biz dev, marketing) positions.

  Posted on 24-May-07 at 4:06 pm | Permalink

• 8Asians.com » Asian American Students and School Stereotypes: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:

  [...] in San Francisco / Silicon Valley) have been hitting the glass or “bamboo” ceiling (CNN: American Morning: An Asian glass ceiling?). Any thoughts on the “model minority” stereotype or the “bamboo ceiling”? [...]

  Posted on 08-Jan-08 at 2:17 pm | Permalink

• 8Asians.com » San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong to retire in April: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:

  [...] like stereotypical complaints made about Asian Americans in the corporate world, if you ask me. Just because the traditional model of police chief management and leadership has [...]

  Posted on 21-Dec-08 at 11:50 am | Permalink

• 8Asians.com » An Interview with Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO Nvidia: An Asian American/Asian Canadian Blog wrote:

  [...] a few years back; he’s down-to-earth and approachable.  I asked Huang about the perceived glass ceiling in corporate America for Asian Americans and what we could do to break the ceiling. His advice: to be authentic, be true [...]

  Posted on 10-Feb-09 at 9:01 am | Permalink

• 888 Society | Study: Americans Expect Business Leaders to Be White wrote:

  [...] Do Asian Americans suffer from stereotypes in the business world? Of course we do; after attending business school, I joined a Silicon Valley software company as a product manager and attended a lot of trade shows during my first year (just as the tech boom became a bust). Inevitably, people would ask me at the show booth or in meetings, if I was an engineer on the product and I would have to correct their presumption that I was in fact, a product manager (though I did used to be a mechanical design engineer in the aerospace industry.) I found this an odd question, since most companies did not bring any engineers to any of the trade shows (business travel was something new to me prior to becoming a product manager). Quiet, non-confrontational, back office software engineers is what I think most Silicon Valley folks perceive Asian Americans to be. But we can and are much more – but may be brainwashed to think otherwise. I’ve blogged before about the an Asian glass ceiling. [...]

  Posted on 17-Feb-09 at 2:15 pm | Permalink

• 8Asians.com » Japanese Americans explore the power of ethnic networks in Silicon Valley wrote:

  [...] that although Asian Americans represent 30 percent of technology professionals in Silicon Valley, only around 12 percent of managerial positions are held by Asian Americans compared with 80 percent …. Best of luck to N! Leadership Network in expanding and promoting a high quality business network [...]

  Posted on 02-Mar-09 at 5:23 pm | Permalink

• 8Asians.com » Peering Through The Glass Ceiling wrote:

  [...] 8asians has of course covered this topic of Asians and the glass ceiling in a previous posting, noting that Asians hold only 12 percent of managerial positions, but are 30% of the population in Silicon Valley. This study looked at all managerial positions, and if you compare it with my company, you’d find it’s probably accurate, as there are a fair number of Asian managers in my company, just none at the director level and above, outside of engineering (myself excepted). [...]

  Posted on 18-Mar-09 at 7:32 pm | Permalink

• lazybye wrote:

  I didn't watch the segment, but it sounds like Yul Kwon is basically blaming the victim: if Asians can't move up in the business world, it's their own damn fault. I think he and many Asians realize there is more to it than that–i.e. plain racism, but he can't get up on CNN and say that and expect to be invited back. Several thousand silicon valley firms have been founded by Asians, and many of the most well-known ones have been headed by Asians, like Nvidia, Yahoo and Garmin, so I don't think there's really a dearth of Asians who have leadership skills. On the contrary, many white CEO's like Eric Schmidt of Google or Larry Ellison of Oracle don't seem to be the most personable or dynamic or even likable people, yet all the same they've been successful. I have actually read parts of Jane Hyun's book The Bamboo Ceiling and she basically says the same thing, that it's Asians' fault. Now I know there is an ounce of truth to this, but to fail to discuss the other part–institutional racism–is kind of lazy if not outright cowardly. I wish more Asians would just come out and say it, that much of America still thinks we're foreigners and outsiders, and that's why they don't think of us a appropriate in leadership positions.

  Posted on 18-Jun-09 at 7:27 pm | Permalink

• 8Asians.com » Fatherhood, Time, and Success wrote:

  [...] we have talked about the lack of Asian-American CEOs and the glass ceiling, we haven’t discussed the price of “success” for those who [...]

  Posted on 20-Jun-09 at 6:01 am | Permalink

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