employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

The Silk Initiative

Is this your company?

One of a kind to learn and to grow, particularly from the leadership - Project Manager The Silk Initiative Employee Review

3.0
Aug 25, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Easy access to a lot of brainpower, especially in the food/beverage space. You will learn a lot from your co-workers who are smart and savvy, often graduated from top institutions around the world. Clients are professional and amicable, and apart from field knowdeldge and experiece, most of them attained a great sense of humor. They are generous to show their caring and kindness, even you're just an intern. Believe me, clients are the shields from stress and can operate as beacons of calmness and satisfaction in a difficult time when you feel lost at your job.

Cons

I saw someone wrote this and it's correct. Startups, especially ones with aggressive ambitions, aren't for everyone. If you are the people who want meaning and purpose, a sense of calling, and jobs that are crafted to develop your personality and reshape your values . You are smart, proactive, thinking creative, and manage challenges with great grit, and perhaps most of all, you can learn from failures and hardships. Then do not look further, the Silk Initiative is THE ONE you could not afford to miss. You could learn perhaps the greatest lesson among the industry: leadership. In theory, leaders should be shielding their followers and subordinates from stress, operating as a beacon of calmness and safety throughout difficult times. In TSI, however, the leader is more likely to cause stress than to reduce it. Do not be panic, this is a universal problem even among top employers. After getting employed and working here at TSI, you would clearly tell the good from the bad. You would never doubt or blame yourself for the sheer incompetence of the leader when you are suffering the consequences of his bad leadership. It may include burnout, alienation, and decreased mental/physical wellbeing. This is particularly true when managers practice abusive behaviors, but lacking technical expertise, having no clue how to give or receive feedback, failing to understand potential, or a general inability to evaluate their subordinates’ performance, are just some of the common signs of incompetence, and luckily enough, you're going to experience most of them from the CEO. He has some great qualities and he could be a nice friend after work, but, sadly, the ability to a good leader doesn't in his book. You will learn his lesson, and stay away from being anyone like his kind. I'm not joking. You would be my position one day and you would get the importance of hiring great talents, and its difference from hiring great leaders. Most employers seek for good. Best even, but what are best talents look like? Great performance, yes. Thinking and acting proactive, yes. Do they have EQ, empathy, and integrity? Do they have their toxic or extreme tendencies? Do they display any dark-side traits to make their colleges suffer? These questions are lessons you would learn , and might learn only, from the working experience at TSI. Toxicity spreads faster and wider than good behavior, and when bad behavior comes from the very top, it can pollute the company culture like a virus. Finally, I want to give some response to some views that simply portrays facts or insights into badmouthing about leaders. First, no employees want to badmouth the place they've passionate about and dedicated to. They are very brave, to stand up and to wave a flag to the followers.

avatar
The Silk Initiative Response
6y
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about your time at TSI. I'm sorry you didn't have a great experience during your time here, and it's true that working at TSI isn't for everyone. The high standards we place on ourselves come directly from the high standards all leadership and management board of the company place on themselves. That’s how we’ve been able to grow into one of the fastest growing brand consultancies in the market. Today, we have a strong book of repeat clients, excellent value-add solutions, and a great team. This has all helped us achieve some very ambitious growth plans year-on-year. Our leadership is busy 24/7 and we recognize that sometimes, from a pace perspective, not everyone wants to sign up for this. We try to be tough on performance and soft on people but from your feedback it is evident we failed you on the latter. TSI is a very different place today than it was two years ago with significant changes in place around people and performance operating standards. I’d like to address one of your specific concerns around performance feedback. TSI has for several years used a full 360-degree review process for all staff. Formal reviews happen quarterly to make sure all staff are able to have an established forum to share feedback and to identify areas of growth and development. It may be possible that this process was not functioning as strong as it should have during your time here. We welcome the opportunity to look at your reviews again with you so that you can help us identify where feedback wasn’t captured or developmental plans put in place. Thanks again for your review. We do appreciate the feedback and wish you the best in your career.

Explore other reviews about The Silk Initiative

5.0
Apr 23, 2018
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Over a few short years, The Silk Initiative has grown from a one-person local operation to a global powerhouse influencing brand strategies for Fortune 100 companies. That tremendous growth is because people that work at TSI are passionate about what they do. It also means this is a great place to learn and grow from globally-recognized thought leaders in food and beverage, brand consulting, and marketing. Other pros of working here: -A multi-cultural and diverse team. As a member of the LGBT community, I'm especially proud of TSI's track record at employing people from marginalized groups. Gay, straight, Asian, western, conservative, liberal doesn't matter here. It's all about what you bring to the table. -Exposure to a massive business and consular community. TSI is well regarded in the business community, with chambers of commerce, consulates/embassies/trade offices, and even high levels of Australian and American governments. If you do well here, dropping TSI on a CV is guaranteed to get your foot in the door. -Loyal clients that are engaged and collaborative. Clients tend to stick with TSI because they know the quality of the work they are getting. That means you get to work with clients that are more like partners than horrible dictators. You also get exposure to different businesses, fast tracking learning. -Work hard/play hard mentality. As a food and bev consultancy, there's always a trip to the latest restaurant or bar, whether that's in Shanghai or somewhere else in Asia. The office environment is pretty chill too: downtown lanehouse, bring your pet to work; cool murals on the office walls. -Focus on personal branding and professional growth. TSI has a monthly speaker's series that brings in some big hitters in the business world to talk to employees. The marketing team also focuses on individual branding, which is great for future job opportunities. I'm really surprised by some of the negative reviews. Maybe people just didn't quite get what TSI was doing...I'm not sure. Shanghai's full of places where people just show up and get a pay check. This isn't one of them. Really, though, who wants to work in a boring place like that?!?

Cons

Startups, especially ones with aggressive ambitions, aren't for everyone. The people that don't make it at TSI are usually lazy and looking for a conventional 9-5. They also tend to be the type that wants everything handed to them instead of being proactive, thinking creatively, and managing their own futures. It's sad to see that when a company's standards are high, people bad mouth them and their leadership because they weren't able to hack it.

4.0
Apr 26, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Management is entirely brilliant, extremely intuitive, very motivated, and extremely experienced in the realm of marketing research and business consulting. The projects are very high-level, entirely fascinating, and will enhance any employee or contractor's skillsets and career opportunities.

Cons

Because management is so driven to overperform, they require that employees perform to a degree many people are unable, or unwilling, to match.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All