It is a growth story that, in many ways, mirrors that experienced by businesses when they first enter China. This does not apply to simple transactional business where an order is placed for 10,000 plastic office knick-knacks selected from a supplier’s catalogue.
A severe cyclone destroyed my garden, uprooting trees and shredding my privacy. I needed to replant with something that would grow quickly. Bamboo was the obvious answer. Except it wasn’t.
For the first four years, the bamboo struggled to get above knee height. Then, suddenly, in the next year, bamboo lived up to its reputation and burst forth with rapid growth. It turned out that bamboo grows fast, but not immediately. For four years, very little appeared above ground, but in the following few years, it surged upward within days and continued to grow to 4m or more within a few weeks.
