“Doing Business in China” seminars and advice

A "Doing Business in China" seminar was held at the Tel Aviv University (TAU) this week. Topics included "China-Israel business connections", "Chinese business culture", "How to start up a business in China", "Doing IT in China", "Farming technology for China" and "Diamond sales and marking in China". Unlike other business seminars on China in Israel, this seminar was free and open for all, and started off with full-house of East-Asia TAU students.

I’ve been to many "Business in China" seminars, some open and some smaller and more prestigious, and I feel uncomfortable in all. I’ve never done business in China like the people giving the lectures have, but I’ve already made up my mind about the general aroma of "Doing in Business" lectures in the west. I would go as far as saying that I would advise against participating in too many seminars of this type and would refrain from following their advise as is. I see guests sitting down in those lectures, sucking up information in awe, writing down every word like it was pure gold, and I worry.  

 

How do you talk about China without resulting to cliches? How do you introduce business in China in a 30 minute lecture to people who know nothing about China? It’s very difficult. Even if you have 6 thirty minutes lectures of various aspects of Business in China, it’s still problematic because it is just too general.

 

Here are a few of the main problems with what was going on in this seminar (I’m generalizing to all the speakers) :

 

"China is different"

After all the time they’ve been doing business in China - speakers felt like they still don’t understand China, and that feeling shows. Even after years of China presence, the main message is - "China is different". How different? "VERY different". Yeah, okay, but different how? that’s when things start to sound confusing. One minute you hear "do alot of research" and on the next "but nothing prepares you for what actually happens". How, then, should you prepare yourself for China?

 

"China studies suggest…"

With a country as big as China, statistics serve as a wonderful presentation. They allow a speaker to give a very strong impression on China and say whatever he wants to say without saying anything. The speakers admit this - "these stats will not help you with understanding China, but they will give you a general feeling of what’s happening". Will they? listening to students sitting next to me I heard just how confusing those stats are.

For example - how much does it really cost to hire someone to do IT development in China? depends on who you ask, depends on when you ask. The third speaker said it’s 10% of the Israeli price and 40% less than in India and that’s after we’ve already heard from the second speaker that engineers in today’s China are just as expensive as in the west. One would tell you they have a low 1% tenure, another will say that their engineers are always looking for the next high-paying job, making them employ 2 more engineers in "stand-by" mode. One thinks the Chinese are extremely professional, the other thinks the Chinese are still way behind the "expertise level of the west". Sometimes, a speaker would even change his message from one Powerpoint slide to another.

Sure, there are explanations with endless details and statistics given about side-costs, work-culture, professionalism etc. but it’s all in-coherent, confusing, and gives a feeling of a inherent misunderstanding.

 

"China has great potential, but we had it really bad"

The experiences are somewhat biased, which is understandable, yet the stories are usually quite negative and are described from a condescending sometimes hurt point of view. What’s even more paradoxical is that all speakers agree that the Chinese show remarkable skills and that everybody should be in China because "it’s where things are happening", but when it comes to discussing details - they still look at China as a place to be used (if not "conquered")  by the superior, more educated and organized western-oriented business. Western speakers about China often show the impossible combination of admiring the Chinese while looking down on them. Most concluded with "China is full of promise and opportunities and you have to be there, but actually, very few make money in the long run, and nobody makes money in the short run".

 

"We know, because we’ve been there"

Doing one project in a specific industry in a particular part of China can not be generalized to all projects in all industries in all of China. The broad generalizations hurt rather than help. Furthermore, one company’s journey in Chinese business world would say very little about another company’s experience. I don’t understand how any speaker can give such direct advise of "China truth" when they say that part of their experience was that most of the advise they got didn’t work out.

 

"Here it’s clear what the system is, over there everything is vague"

I believe that if you’ll ask foreign companies doing business in Israel they’ll say the same thing about Israel. It has little to do with China - it is the essence of international business and trade. I’ve even heard this about Israel from Israeli companies, being confused about local laws and the way things should be done, and if it’s hard in the local market that you think you know, then it’s reasonable to expect it will be as difficult some place else.

 

Other opinions on the seminar might be found on the Tapuz China forum.

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What can you learn from those seminars? Here’s what I think is a reasonable general international business cliche advise :

• You can’t plan everything, so even if you’re not sure how - just go and do it. Start small, preferably with more than one option and a backup plan, and grow as you go. Assume failure the first time, and plan it as a learning process.
• Focus on your niche - Learn from companies your size, who’s industry is similar to yours, in the geographical area you’re planning to target.
• Find the best person who’s advise you trust and who’s been involved in China and study what he tells you. Seek his advise along the way, as things get though. He might be wrong, but at least you’ll have a starting point that will not confuse you. Advise from various open-lectures in seminars is confusing and misleading.
• Find a local partner. This could be achieved through a local international-oriented law-firm or business consultants. Yeah, it will cost you. Yeah, it will be cheaper than the alternative.
• If you’re feeling confident about yourself because you think you know something about other cultures - don’t be. If you’re feeling confident about yourself because you think you know something about yourself - don’t be.
• If you’re studying East Asian studies or attending "Doing Business in China" seminars because you think it will gain you invaluable understanding of the Chinese market, you’re probably making a mistake. It might, however, help your cross-cultural openness, which I believe is a vital quality for international business success.

 
tags: Asia-Israel connections, China