
Rent a White Guy - arthurdent
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/rent-a-white-guy/8119
======
gaius
Heh, yeah, this is nothing new. There is more than one investment bank in
London that hires professional actors to deliver presentations, then the real
bankers take the stage at Q&A time. If someone says "now I'll hand you over to
my colleague..." that's a dead giveaway. In other shocking news, bankers don't
do their own PowerPoint slides either... There are people employed full time
to do just that.

We're all human, appearance matters, you can either take advantage of this or
get out-competed.

~~~
VictorHo
_If someone says "now I'll hand you over to my colleague..." that's a dead
giveaway. In other shocking news, bankers don't do their own PowerPoint slides
either_

Yeah ok that just plain isn't true. I worked at Goldman Sachs in FIG
investment banking, and now at McKinsey and Co in New York as a consultant.
While we do have a graphics department that we can call on to help spruce
things up, as well as workers in India to help with tasks such as following
simple instructions to translate spreadsheets into charts, 95% of the work is
done by the bankers/consultants themselves (i.e., me).

In fact, the reason I left Goldman is because as an analyst 80% of your time
is spent line editing charts, checking footnotes, and making sure everything
is aligned. We even used MS Word with built in macros because Power Point
wasn't precise enough. When you're working 110 hrs/week, that's not fun.
McKinsey is better but not much different - which is why I'm moving back to SF
in 4 weeks to be an entrepreneur.

Same goes for the "I'll hand you over to my colleague" statement. Often times
an Engagement Manager who is well versed in the overall project presents for
continuity sake (so the audience doesn't get confused by 5 people all chiming
in), and questions are directed to the analyst in charge of the section.

~~~
gaius
1 bank out of the 700-odd in London? YMMV, clearly.

~~~
bad_user
Still, his viewpoint is hands-on. What's your story?

~~~
gaius
See above. Working for a consulting firm that was involved with this kind of
thing.

------
patio11
Ahh, this brings back memories.

Japan has a tradition called "sakura" -- bringing in non-essential people for
the sake of keeping up appearances. I've been a sakura, quite frequently. For
example, at my ex-ex-job at the technology incubator, one of our incubated
companies started selling their technology abroad. They were very happy and
even got local press coverage -- a photo on page one. But what can you use as
a photo?

Enter the sakura! The incubator told myself and our black Australian
translator to suit up, and we took a few photos of us looking like we were in
Serious Discussions with the CEO and general manager of the (two-man) company.
They ran in the newspaper, next to a headline similar to "Startup X In
Discussion With Y Firms; Exports Expected This Year".

~~~
RyanMcGreal
Isn't 'sakura' also the Japanese name for the cherry blossom tree? What's the
connection?

~~~
patio11
Sakura are beautiful and wilt quickly.

(My dictionary reports that the usage is originally from the theater, where
folks would be allowed to attend for free if they audibly demonstrated
approval when required. That is the classic usage of sakura -- planted
questions in an audience, etc -- but our little photo-op was referred to as
sakura as well.)

------
jordanb
It sounds like they weren't hiring white guys because the Chinese have an
'inferiority complex', but because the Chinese economy is export driven and
successful companies sell stuff to Americans and they wanted to imply to
potential investors and officials that they were already working on deals with
American companies.

In short, they were committing fraud, but because their lie involved
fictitious American customers, they needed some white faces to pull it off.

~~~
aohtsab
Wouldn't the investors be able to see through the smoke, though? I mean, if a
phony starts getting peppered with technical questions, and he balks,
shouldn't that be a giveaway?

~~~
mkramlich
If the "phony" peppered with tech questions was patio11, I'm sure he could
handle the questions well enough. :)

~~~
ramchip
In Chinese at a carpet convention? ;)

~~~
mkramlich
Never underestimate the power of A/B testing :P

------
inmygarage
These jobs are more prevalent and easier to snag than you think. I lived in
Beijing when I was 21 and after 2 months and with the Chinese proficiency of a
2 year-old, I was working directly with the president of what is now a
publicly-traded (NASDAQ) company as a "consultant". Paid my rent for a year.

~~~
stcredzero
A Malaysian coworker of mine told me about this sort of phenomenon years ago.
(Something like 2002?) He was working for Compaq in the Asia-Pacific region,
and noted that his group would often send in someone with asian features
someplace with a proposal, which would get rejected. They'd later send a white
American to give the same presentation, and it would win.

~~~
lsb
In Providence Rhode Island, the city paper submitted dozens of résumé pairs to
jobs, differing only by obviously-classed name (like William Strathmore vs
Tyrone Jackson), no cover letters. The Tyrone Jackson ones got no calls back,
whereas the Thomas Strathmore ones got about a 50% callback rate.

~~~
tedunangst
Citation needed! If this is the study you refer to, you got the general idea
right, but just about every detail wrong.

[http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/spring03/racialbias.htm...](http://www.chicagobooth.edu/capideas/spring03/racialbias.html)

------
wyclif
In Japan there is a similar phenomenon for couples about to get married; it's
called "Rent a White Minister." Japanese couples who want a fancy wedding
often rent a white guy to perform the ceremony. Very often, probably most of
the time, said white guy isn't even an ordained minister in any Church.

~~~
patio11
Someone tried to recruit me for this at the church I used to attend in Kyoto.
(Not anybody we knew -- they just walked in after Mass and came up to speak to
me.)

My priest responded on my behalf with all the moneychangers-in-the-temple
enthusiasm you would expect.

~~~
wyclif
Awesome!

------
petercooper
There was an article in [can't remember] (something good like the NYT)
recently that talked about the phenomenon of black guys being hired as
security guards in Arabic countries under similar intentions. The choice
wasn't for negative reasons (e.g. cheaper labor or to "scare" criminals), but
because they were seen to be exotic (a good trait for the high end boutiques
being guarded). I seem to recall the black guys who were interviewed were
bemused by the idea but appreciated the work nonetheless.

------
kareemm
In 2002 a good friend of mine moved to Shanghai after graduating from college
to do an internship for a chinese carpet company.

In his first month there he'd given a speech - in English - to 500 of China's
most influential carpet executives, all of whom clearly knew more about the
carpet business than he did. His boss played translator.

I thought it was ridiculous, but clearly there's a worthwhile return on
investment or the practice wouldn't still be happening.

------
mojuba
2040: "Rent a Chinese Guy"

~~~
vdm
Maybe. If they're really that fake and superficial maybe it will trip them up
in the long run.

Even when everything is documented, there are still gaps in communication, and
trust fills them.

~~~
delackner
Ha! Read up the history of the start of Kingston memory, a little RAM
manufacturer that I am pretty sure you've heard of, given its massive
visibility in US retail.

Many many very successful and "respected" companies start out with a big
gamble that is used to fund the creation of a legitimate business. This is a
huge gamble, but the market market calls the losers of these gambles "scam
artists" and the winners "captains of industry".

How many startups have given presentations about their amazing technology,
using demos that mislead the potential investors about how far along the tech
really is, only to turn around and use the investment money to actually pay
for the real hard part?

Personally I prefer the complete lack of stress associated with just being
honest: you never have to care who learns any particular details about your
behavior, because there's nothing to worry about defending.

------
DanielBMarkham
Good article, but it never addressed the question I had: who is this posturing
for?

If this is for people external to the company -- the press, potential
customers, or fake-it-till-you-make-it, then that's great. If this is for
investors -- people who have put money in the company -- then that would be
fraud, at least over here.

One of these can be really cool and show a lot of chutzpah. The other can be a
sign that the investment-structuring process has serious flaws.

Kind of a key question.

------
waterhouse
You know, if we would prefer that people not judge
presentations/companies/etc. according to the race of the person they see (or
anything else in the category of "outward appearances easily faked by bringing
someone in"), then this sort of thing is really _good._ It _confounds_ people
who do make judgments based on outward appearances; it fools them out of their
money, punishes them for their prejudices and induces them to change.

------
patrickgzill
Is this much different from the advantage that those with a British accent
used to enjoy in America?

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holdenc
They have this in America too -- it's called a CEO.

~~~
huherto
This has been down voted. But there is a grain of truth. I have worked in
several american companies and often the directors were tall, white, gray
hair, and good looking. In one case the director was like that and he had a
guy (brasilian born japanese) who was really sharp and handled all the
operations. When they moved to other positions they moved together. Clearly
they were a team. One was the PR guy and the other one was the one making sure
everything ran smoothly. Edit: added a coma

~~~
IgorPartola
Doesn't that sound like a perfect pair for startup founders?

------
Yaggo
If the tradition is well-known among Chinese, what's the point anyway? (Or is
it dirty secret of business people only?)

------
arthurdent
friend of mine went to china on vacation and after a dinner with some
acquaintances was asked by someone he met there to serve as an expert on an
alternative energy panel at a conference.

he's the sort of person who find that amusing, so with no experience, he was a
wind energy expert for a night.

------
moolave
Do you think they just do this only for business purposes? How about rent a
mourner? Very prevalent. You can be more creative but I will not go there.

------
paulnelligan
This presents a good opportunity. Why watch movies for the day while getting
paid, when you can work on your startup instead?!

------
braindead_in
I thought this was some kind of a web based service where you could hire White
Guys to do jobs for you. Bummer.

------
mkramlich
I'm reminded of the Republican Party's recent chairman Michael Steele. One of
the microscopically few black men, percentage-wise, in a party of almost
entirely white people, and he suddenly becomes Chairman, and the timing
happened to be just before or just after (I forget which) the election of
Obama, a black man, to the Presidency. Coincidence? I think not.

~~~
johngalt
Which is worse? A party with few minorities but many at the top, or a party
with lots of minorities and relatively few at the top?

~~~
jtbigwoo
Where I live (in America), the party with lots of minorities is the Democratic
party.

I'm pretty sure the functional head of the Democratic party is black. If
something happens to him, the second and fourth people in line to replace him
are women. Oh, and there's another black guy at number seven. And three asian
guys in the list. And a half-Lebanese guy. And a few more women. And a couple
Latinos. Huh. The Democrats seem to have a fair number of women and minorities
at the top...

What country and party were you talking about?

P.S. At least one of the asian guys is a huge nerd, which is another under-
represented minority, IMO.

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dennisgorelik
That's another proof that China is on on the rise. I'm sure pretty soon "Rent
a White Guy" practice would cease to exist, because being a Chinese
businessmen would be as reputable as being an American.

~~~
Unseelie
How is the fact that Chinese businesses want the chinese people to think that
they're american businesses a proof that china is on the rise?

All it shows, is that China thinks the west is better. A point in time of
china's opinion, not even a view of a changing opinion.

~~~
sesqu
It shows that China cares more about image than function. That suggests, to
me, that they have more money to invest than time to vet applicants.

~~~
ww8520
That's what marketing is all about, creating the image and perception. It only
shows that they've learned very well from us.

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dmlorenzetti
Congratulations, HN! In (at this point) 15 comments, you've managed to give
more context, analysis, and insight than conveyed by the entire article.

