In response to my offer to research answers to questions about China business
practices during my past residency there, a senior executive in the pharmaceutical industry asked about the best way to
effectively communicate with the Chinese.
While there is much written about this subject on the Internet, the following is a result of my own research while in Beijing and Shanghai.
It really all depends on what you are trying to accomplish
with your communications. Let’s take the high road and assume that you are
trying to develop early relationships that will ultimately lead to a successful
business transaction. Let’s also assume that defining “effective
communications” with the Chinese in the context of this response are those that
contribute to “developing necessary relationships”. Keep in mind that even in
this scenario, there are a multitude of possibilities, but in general the
following would be valuable to consider.
What I learned was that developing relationships with
Chinese business people is only one value chain outcome of successful
communications. Regardless of communicating from half way around the world, and
what percentage of communications are “lost in translation”, the big picture is
really about developing the right type of, and volume of relationships over a
long enough period of time to build the necessary “Relationship Assets"!
So, the operative term here is “relationship assets”, and in an attempt to answer this question, putting a communication strategy in place that enables you to develop such assets, is much different than how one might define “successful communications”. A term that you may or may not be familiar with is “Guanxi”. You can find the definition in Wikipedia (sourced via: Gold, Thomas, Douglas Guthrie, and David Wank. 2002. Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture and the Changing Nature of Guanxi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ) as: “Guanxi describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence, and is a central idea in Chinese society. Two Western common translations of guanxi as "connections" and "relationships" do not come close to sufficiently reflect the wide cultural implications that guanxi describes.” I would suggest that you go to the URL.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanxi#cite_ref-1 to read about this practice in greater detail.
In its purest form, guanxi is central to business practiced in China. The better that a Western business person understands this practice, the greater the chance of a successful communication and relationship development outcome.
It describes how two people are connected whereas one may
request of the other to conduct a favor or vis-a-versa. Guanxi is also described
as a network of relationship assets that you can call on to progress a business
proposition. And guanxi is also translated as an understanding between parties,
that each is aware of each other’s “wants and needs” and each will “take them
into account when deciding her/his course of future actions…”
In this regard, the relationship building value chain might
look something like this.
1. First wave/initial communication to establish awareness
of a business proposition.
2. Second wave follow-up communications to identify wants
and needs of mutual interest.
3. Third wave of follow-up communications with a greater detail
of the business proposition and reaffirmation of mutual interests.
4. Forth
wave/advanced communications that seek to identify other important relationship
network additions OR, a parallel sequence of similar communications with other
supporting business AND Government contacts previously identified as important
to the business proposition.
5. Fifth wave of communications that continue to move
relationship assets toward the same end of consummating a successful business
proposition.
Keep in mind that there are a lot of variations to the above scenario, however I am simply trying to demonstrate the need for a communication strategy that entails specific objectives for multiple waves of communications, before the first one is launched. I am also emphasizing the need for truly “developing” a relationship that goes far beyond trust, but one that takes time so that both parties share some common interest and ideally a life-event that each will feel a deeper desire to help with a successful business transaction.
The remaining element of maximizing communication
effectiveness is to tweak the core
message that works with customers in all markets, to account for differences in
the local Chinese culture. This is just good international marketing practice.
China
is a country of vastly different regional cultures and include at least 6 – 8
primary languages. For instance, the translator in Shanghai
made an overt attempt to clarify that Shanghai
is not China, and that China is not Shanghai. Her comments were very apparent as
I witnessed the stark contrast between the apparent people’s spirit, dress, wealth,
pace and the cuisines between Shanghai and Beijing.
OK, so here’s the
deal. The fact is that on the current economic trajectory that China finds
itself, it has a shot at becoming the largest global economic power in 15 – 20
years. Of course there are many factors that need to align for this to occur,
but for sure, they are on there way and China wants this to happen. From a
communication perspective, the implication is that virtually every business in
the United States if not already, will be affected by what China produces, even
their wage inflation (as high as 15%-20%), as well as their GDP growth. So,
every foreign industry that conducts business with China
needs to understand how to best communicate and develop relationship assets
with China.
I also discovered
that China
is very much aware of its need to move from their primary position as a
manufacturing powerhouse toward, becoming a global service provider. The
implication of this strategy is obvious. Learn to leverage what China has to
offer. Learn to communicate effectively with China.
This, was a great question!
Posts
