Doing business in Taiwan: Dealing with Men vs. Women

I'm going to throw a cultural stereotype/generalization at you, which I think may mostly be true.

Recently I needed to get some printing done. I went to my usual store, which is run by a bunch of teenage girls, and was quickly frustrated. They had no customer service, I was always waiting, they didn't try hard to figure out what I wanted, and rather than offering solutions I got a lot of negativity. They didn't know how to print just what I wanted, how I wanted, in the right size, with the right paper... and in the end, when I said I needed it in 2 days (by Saturday) they said it was impossible. So I walked out.

Down the street I found another shop. A 40+ year old guy helped me out. He was very helpful, got exactly what I need ordered. At first he made a big deal about Saturday being impossible, but I kept pushing and finally he said he'd get it done. I was very excited; he'd shown me samples - if my stuff looked like the samples it would be great. Very high quality.

Unfortunately.... to get things printed well shops need to send them out to a factory for laser printing. There's a 2 day wait that can't be sped up. Because I had pushed so hard and the guy wanted me business, he took the job but printed the fliers in store on his copiers. Result: thinner paper weight, much lowered quality. He even squished my file to make it fit the standard printing size, so the pictures were squished. Not horrible, but not the quality that I had wanted. Yes, it's my fault for being in a rush and feeling like I deserve to be able to break the rules and get things done faster. But still.

Cultural Stereotypes about Taiwan/Asia that I've learned from the experience.

1) Girls are taught to follow rules. They are slow, insecure, can't think outside the box, follow the instructions and guidelines. However - they probably have learned the 'right' way to do it and that way may really be the best way. They probably know what they're doing. It's best to conform to them and their suggestion than make them conform to what you want; you may be wrong/not understand why they think you need to do it their way.

2) Guys are more inventive. They'll cut corners. They'll give you what you ask for. They're less concerned with making the best product and more concerned with meeting your requirements. They may be more likely to cheat or scam you with less quality.

Also - the men are often the bosses: so if they scam or cheat you, it's because they are directly getting the extra profit.

Meanwhile women are the employees. They aren't interested in scheming you out of your money - because they won't see any of it anyway. They are concerned with giving you the best product.

Thus: When doing business in Asia/Taiwan, deal with the women if you want the best. Deal with the men if you want something faster, cheaper, or more customized.