Connecting with China: Business Success through Mutual Benefit and Respect

Chapter Thirteen

GETTING READY FOR CHINA

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step

- Lao Tzu

Developing a strategy for success in China²³

Leading your company into new international markets is a challenging but stimulating role which calls for a wide range of professional and interpersonal skills and a measure of personal assertiveness. Some of the challenges include:

• having to negotiate between the different cultures, operating styles and expectations of the organisations and individuals from very different backgrounds;

• acting as a go-between for your own partners and stakeholders, who are used to calling the shots, and who can be reluctant to share power and responsibility in a joint venture;

• being expected to act with an air of relative impartiality to balance the needs and aspirations of both your own organisation and that of your potential international partners with which you are seeking to engage;

• having to work at the speed of both the fastest and the slowest players;

• sheer hard work over long periods of time in an environment in which it can sometimes appear that not all parties are signed up to the same agenda;

• dealing with raised expectations and any anger and despair which well up when expectations are frustrated.

In order to best prepare yourself for a sustained process that will ultimately bring about effective cooperation with new partners in China, it is critical to be clear about;

• what you want to achieve;

• how you intend to achieve it; ...