In 2004, when I was writing my dissertation for my MBA on the theoretical best ways in entering the Chinese market, I was convinced it was as easy as landing in Shanghai and Chinese businesses would be banging at my door as soon as the sign went over the door of our newly opened office in one of the many new and swanky high tech parks. Sadly, as with most things in China, the reality is much different from the theory and after 9.5 years in China, the same can be said. If after reading this you take away only one thing, I hope that it’s this: “Plan for the worst and hope things will be a little better”. There is no doubt that massive opportunities exist, but Chinese business culture is very different from what we know and expect in the West.
As I talked to my friends and acquaintances from around the globe, the story was always the same – Head Office’s unrealistic ambitions for growth in the Chinese market – “What do you mean no one wants our product? It sells great in the UK”. Instilling the core values of the [Western] parent company in to the Chinese counterpart is inherently tricky. There are still massive cultural differences that effect the working relationship between people from the UK and China, many are generational and simply based around a lack of understanding of capitalist principles, but some are just merely steeped in Chinese culture. For example, Chinese sales people rely upon strong personal networking to win orders rather than being able to sell the benefits of a product or service as in Western culture……..I heard it all the time – “the customer does not care if it lasts 5 years; their product needs to be cheap, so our parts need to be cheap too” . That said, once a customer was won, they were very loyal and a deep relationship would be formed, one an outsider like me could never have achieved had it not been for my Chinese sales team (lest I had developed a strong understanding of Chinese culture and language prior to my move overseas). Language is a great moderator and the ability to communicate in Mandarin is an undeniably huge advantage. One of my regrets was not having the time or the tools to gain a much deeper understanding of the language and its nuances in order to be able to relate to my customers and employees more easily – something which is paramount in a society such as China where business runs and thrives on relationships, or as the Chinese put it, ‘Guanxi – 关系’.
If I had to give one word of advice to anybody planning on venturing into the world of Chinese business; study Chinese, know your Chinese culture, etiquette and manners, but most of all, network yourself cautiously but confidently – After all, these people you will be dealing with will make or break you.
Antony Carter | VP Sales & Marketing | Fenner PLC (China)
