Everyone tells you that getting China right is a big job. Good intelligence and a qualified team are critical. Okey dokey.
Here’s what no one tells you. Respect from the Chinese, categorically, will never come from a job title, an org chart, or a contract. And, if the Chinese don’t respect you, it’s over before it starts.
The stories of eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) vs. Alibaba (HKSE: 1688.HK) or Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) vs. Baidu (NASDAQGS: BIDU) show clearly that macro demand, industry expertise, and deep pockets aren’t the issue. The ability to execute daily in a complicated, unpredictable, relentlessly competitive place that is Not Western, is. Pointedly, for each and every one of us who would lead or manage anything in China, we need the respect of the people who drive execution: Chinese people. Chinese organizations. They don’t necessarily see us as the Purchasing Manager or the VP. They see us as Josh from New York or Melanie from Chicago and unless they respect us as people, unless they think we’re Smart - we’re going to be very limited in our effectiveness.
Here’s how to squander any chance of respect: walk in with the wrong mindset. Here are the basics – what the Chinese will see as The Opposite of Smart:
• Overconfidence: we’re big and famous, so move over, we’re going into China In A Big Way
• Righteous Indignation: Prepared for the battle of teaching the Chinese the right way. Or else.
• Denial: Business is all about the numbers, and nothing else. Culture is irrelevant. Besides, China is Westernizing.
• Rigidity: We have a business model and that’s what HQ wants. What’s there to talk about?
Without question, tax codes, transparency, turnover, national security and the rule of law – the main topics of China business books and articles - are all relevant to execution and profitability. Their relevance does not obviate the fact that to the extent we can learn to minimize Overconfidence, Righteous Indignation, Denial and Rigidity, we’ll spend less time spinning our wheels, banging our heads against the wall, pulling out our hair, and generally trying to go through an insurmountable cultural barrier. We can only problem solve if we can get Above The Barrier.
Why does nobody address the barrier and the respect gap head on? There’s an industry built around explaining China business to westerners:
• Hundreds of media articles each week on China’s currency, China’s military, the price of fuel in China, the latest China clean tech victory.
• About 200 books searchable by the term “Doing Business in China” on Amazon. All full of stories, data, analysis.
• At least 150 orgs dispensing China business knowledge and networking to westerners , some of which have been amassing expertise and institutional knowledge for decades. They’ve got those rule of law, tax code, and defense issues covered.
• China business consultants: at least 500,000 people in 350,000 consulting practices, all ready to help out with some kind of China business issue, from garments to hedge funds; real estate to sports marketing; agriculture to aerospace; tropics to tundra; each according to his or her own experience. After all, China has been open to the west for business for 30 years. And since everyone who has ever done business with China knows that it is not a game for novices, it follows that most everyone who isn’t a novice, whether 2 years or two decades on the learning curve, tends to be for hire.
The problem is, Americans are attached to the idea that culture doesn’t really matter. America, more than any other nation is more of an engineered society (based on principles, ideas, institutions and processes) and less of a culture (a shared response to the limits of geography and the tolerance of neighbors). In America, the Smart people work in finance, IP law, strategy consulting, VC, etc. So even though the 500,000 China consultants; or any speaker at any function of those 150+ orgs; or any author of those 200 books knows that being able to function above the barrier is critical, since Americans by and large don’t think culture is important enough to pay to learn, only people who are more obsessed with waste and ignorance per se, than with business in specific, are crazy enough to try to make a living teaching it. Yes. That would be me.
