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23 Feb 09
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The Art of Guanxi, Final Chapter: On Guanxi Going Global By Valerie Sartor
Chinese people are no strangers to the concept of networks and networking.
For thousands of years, Confucian ethics have promoted strong bonds of loyalty, affection and obligation between people. The terms renqing (literally, human... |
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18 Feb 09
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The Art of Guanxi, Part V: The Graceful and the Seedy By Valerie Sartor
Guanxi is not universally distributed across Chinese society.
Different types of people, different social classes and even different genders employ guanxi uniquely. Nevertheless, guanxi tactics are prevalent and common in everyday life... |
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16 Feb 09
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The Art of Guanxi, Part IV: Politicizing Relationships By Valerie Sartor
Although popular culture in China often denounces guanxi, it also encourages and teaches guanxi tactics.
Everyone does it, so one must not be left out.
Moreover, guanxi has the power to superimpose upon officials and authorities a... |
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12 Feb 09
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The Art of Guanxi, Part III: Relationships in So Many Words By Valerie Sartor
Guanxi vocabulary contains both semantic meaning and moral connotations.
For example, a guanxiwang is a person’s guanxi network; it can be large or small, among friends in various social classes and jobs, and it can exist simultaneous... |
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11 Feb 09
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The Art of Guanxi, Part II: Understanding Relationships By Valerie Sartor
No single definition for the complex notion of guanxi exists.
Even among the Chinese, guanxi can be ambiguous as a social phenomenon. Historical circumstances, class, gender and ethnicity all affect how guanxi is perceived and used in... |
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10 Feb 09
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The Art of Guanxi, Part I: The Making of Modern Chinese Relationships By Valerie Sartor
Guanxi – the art of social relationships - is a unique Chinese phenomenon that dates back to ancient times, but still is in full force in modern China.
Foreigners often misunderstand this behavior, interpreting it as bribery, corrupti... |
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05 Feb 09
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How & Why Chinese Willingly Spend Their Whole Salaries Yu Chunyi is just about the luckiest person in the China – according to her.
The 24-year-old teacher has a job “financed by the central budget,” she told Beijing Review.
In other words, she has a secure job.
“It’s less challenging and ful... |
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03 Feb 09
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Laptop Battery Tips for Globetrotters Travelling to the West from Asia and back certainly can be draining.
But it also can be time very well spent.
Have you ever noticed how much of a good book you get done? Or how many magazines you tear through? Or even how much of the – forget day’... |
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31 Jan 09
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Cigarette Shop, Tea Shop…Atmosphere Water Shop? Cigarette shop, tea shop, shoe shop, cigarette shop, tea shop, shoe shop, cigarette shop, tea shop, shoe shop.
Walk down most streets in China, and you can’t help but be struck by déjà vu, over and over again.
The sameness of products and lac... |
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28 Jan 09
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Ixnay On India, Vietnam, but Not the Philippines, OKWAY? Last year when I was considering various third parties for website troubleshooting help, a company based in the Philippines turned up in a Google search.
Based in China, was I loco to consider outsourcing an IT position to the Philippines?
As it turns... |
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26 Jan 09
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Top 10 Signs Your China Business Is Ok - Or Not As the Year of the Ox begins, those in China business are understandably jittery about business prospects given the global financial crisis.
Although reading China’s tea leaves may help set you on the right path, we believe you don’t have to look fa... |
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23 Jan 09
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The 11 Lemonade-Making Commandments Yeah, you’ve heard the phrase: When life hands you lemons…
But it’s true that all of us have to do it at one time or another: make lemonade.
Whether we’re big into China business or small, lemons hit us all.
They recently hit China Mobile – t... |
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21 Jan 09
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Financial Picture Not Pretty, Unless It’s Art Given the global financial crisis, you’re probably putting your vacation to the more picturesque parts of Asia on hold.
Why not frame it instead?
Hanging a painting of what you otherwise would have spent a small fortune on to see in person could ha... |
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20 Jan 09
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Chinese Vs. Western Journalism: A Global View By Valerie Sartor
Oliver Irwin refuses to stop working even though he is comfortably well off and no longer a spring chicken.
Slender, quiet and alert, this distinguished silver-haired man arrived in China in September 2005, having accepted an offer from... |
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16 Jan 09
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Let’s Mince Words By Valerie Sartor
Even if a foreigner is fluent in Chinese, or if a Chinese is fluent in English, miscommunication and misunderstandings still are common.
In our global age, miscommunication occurs everywhere, all the time, among people of dissimilar... |
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14 Jan 09
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How to Be an Entrepreneur When Your Blood Creativity Level Is at 0% How do you become a China entrepreneur without anything of your own to sell?
Easy: You sell someone else’s stuff, and sell it well.
“I’m not the creative type of person,” said Mike Murphy, CEO of the IQAir Store and Villa Lifestyles, which have... |
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13 Jan 09
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Is the Foreign Insurance Industry Cursed? For older Chinese, buying health insurance is like cursing yourself.
“If I take out insurance then something bad is going to happen to me,” is what they think, according to Alastair White, a Beijing-based partner of insurance brokerage house Aba... |
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09 Jan 09
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Understanding the Politics of Associations Anyone who has ever had to deal with an association – be it a non-profit or chamber of commerce – knows the muddiest, most inane government politics involving a run for county janitor just can’t compare.
Associations can be petty, but still f... |
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08 Jan 09
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Affirmative Action Starts with Business, Women It may be difficult to imagine that a country with an international human rights record as bad as China’s is entertaining the concept of affirmative action.
The Politburo may not be, but the business community is along with some women leaders within it... |
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07 Jan 09
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2009: The Year of Meetings Meetings are great, especially in China.
Drink some disgusting alcohol, eat some disgusting food, and meet a few more times before you close the deal.
Back in the West, meetings aren’t much better. I once had to attend mandatory office meetings to wat... |
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06 Jan 09
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Reality Check: 1.3 Million Middle-Class Consumers Would Be Great Having contributed articles about sight and vision to EyeWorld magazine since 2003, I understand how much more informative the trade press can be for industry practitioners than what you pick up on the newsstand.
But even the industry magazines have... |
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31 Dec 08
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Looking at Sourcing from China’s Neighbors, Again When inflation, a strong RMB, and new labor laws were in-vogue complaints for the bitching foreign businessman, many China business pundits said stay the course. Remain faithful to China. Tier 3 is open for business. And logistics are better here than... |
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29 Dec 08
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How to Fire Ladyboys and Others Legitimately China is getting fired up for massive layoffs, and while the country isn’t known to be the most politically or legally correct of nations, the following scenario isn’t advisable:
Boss Bob: You’re fired.
Worker Chris Zhou: What, why?
Boss Bob: B... |
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23 Dec 08
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No Blood for Exports We’ve all heard the term “No Blood For Oil” – a popular protest slogan carried during the 2003 anti-Iraq war demonstrations.
I’m afraid the next one could very well be “No Blood For Exports,” and carried in the streets of Washington ... |
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22 Dec 08
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Counting Your Blessings: As Easy As 1, 2, 3… As 2008 draws to a close, so many of us in China business can safely say the following: Thank God.
But have we said it wisely?
Business has not been good. Even in the fastest-growing economy in the world, friends have lost jobs and businesses have gone... |
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18 Dec 08
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Everyone Might Be an Investigative Reporter Back in the 1950s in Texas, it was easy to get information out of the police.
Phil Record, then a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, urged his new colleague Bob Schieffer – later anchor of the CBS Evening News – to buy a snap-brim hat. ... |
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17 Dec 08
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Can You Be 10% Ethical in China? Harvard Business Publishing (HBP) has a new article out entitled, “Can You Be 80% Ethical?”
The report was based on a business survey conducted across 12 Indian cities, but questions centered around the stuff of white lies.
“Nearly half of respo... |
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16 Dec 08
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International Experience ≈ Senior Management (Back Home) These days, it seems every company wants someone with international experience.
But as we found with our recent salary survey, it doesn’t necessarily pay in China to have international experience – at least not by Western standards.
After eyeing a ... |
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12 Dec 08
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7 Easy Steps to Becoming a Private Equity Idiot Performing due diligence continues to be a vast challenge for foreign business in China.
Many investors, however, assume that China is the problem. In fact, they themselves often appear to be mentally disabled.
Taizinai dairy – which received more th... |
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11 Dec 08
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Chicken$#!% Soup for the Chinese Government Worker Soul Below is a list of 25 golden rules for the foreign expert uninitiated.
The mind-numbing danwei hazing, no doubt, will begin soon during your new Chinese government job. But if you follow these rules, you at least have a slim chance of fighting catatonia.... |
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09 Dec 08
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The Real Slim, Shady Expat Wages Stand Up May I have your attention please?
Will the real slim, shady expat wage please stand up?
I repeat, will the real slim, shady expat wage please stand up?
We’re not gonna have a problem here.
I’ve been polling China’s expat workers as part of a re... |
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08 Dec 08
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How to Convince Your Wife to Support China-Related Business Imagine being the guy that came up with the idea of selling moonshine in China.
Imagine the bragging rights, even if the eventual business went belly up.
Yep, Tong Li thought he had it made when he realized the U.S. had “baijiu,” and he was goin... |
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05 Dec 08
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Why We’re All Homesick for Egg Foo Young If there’s one thing a person quickly understands about Chinese culture, it’s this: Unless you’re Chinese, you’re probably not going to like the food.
I’m not going to be politically correct about this, as Alan Paul was recently in his art... |
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04 Dec 08
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Whatcha Gonna Do With All That Junk? Get ready for business-to-business promotional “junk” that surfaces around holiday times.
Then again, if you think of that junk in a “green” context, your promotional “gift” may wind up on an actual desk rather than in the trash.
With... |
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02 Dec 08
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Take Our Reader Survey, Pretty Please, and Win “Sims 2: Open for Business” Dear Reader,
Who exactly are you?
We at bizCult have been working hard to bring you entertaining, informative articles about doing better China business.
But we’d like to know more about you so that we can write better articles that will suit yo... |
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01 Dec 08
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So You Wanna Be a China Businessman in the Black? Be an MIB There has never been one ‘right’ way in and out of China. Come in the front door, and the officials have no problem showing you out the back door when your time is up. Flash some bills, and maybe you’ll find a side entrance, but we all know that rev... |
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28 Nov 08
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You Don’t Have to Act Terminally Ill When Stuck at an Airport Terminal Tom Hanks in The Terminal was inspirational in how to survive airport hell.
And so that’s who I was thinking of yesterday, on Thanksgiving, when waiting from morning through evening at Terminal 3 in Beijing.
I was awaiting news whether or not my delay... |
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26 Nov 08
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The Nuclear Family Fallout of Globalization Miguel Angel Maya Lima lives and works in Beijing as HR director for Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican company.
In our recent Cool Aid podcast, Mr. Maya Lima did an excellent job supporting Mexican and also Bimbo values in the China workplace – that is, valuing t... |
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25 Nov 08
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When the Sky Is Falling, Find a Good Roof The sky may be falling everywhere, financially speaking, but there are still plenty of roofs out there to hide under.
In fact, soon might not be a bad time to buy a house, and if not in China, then someplace where something is hitting the proverbial fan... |
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21 Nov 08
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Trickle Down CSR How do you get China suppliers to clean up their acts to prevent melamine or other toxic substances from finding their way into your products?
Plenty of expert advice centers on developing an iron-clad contract, where clauses about quality spell out what... |
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20 Nov 08
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Earth to Earth: We Have a Problem Michael Pettis knows economics – and more specifically, China economics – very, very well.
He’s the perfect blend of an East meets West economist, as although he’s currently a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, sp... |
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18 Nov 08
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How to Buy Better than Just Handing Over Kuai ($$$) By Steven Chow
I have been approached frequently by buyers ripped off by Chinese suppliers.
Oftentimes when I ask them to send me the purchase contract they signed with the suppliers, some of them will send me a pro forma invoice (PI), and some will say,... |
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17 Nov 08
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Prepare for Protests By most accounts, China’s economy is verging on serious trouble.
Factory activity is way down, fears abound about the housing market crashing, and GDP forecasts for next year continue to be revised downward.
There is another, much scarier factor th... |
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14 Nov 08
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We Can See Through Stereotypes; We Should The Englishman dresses in tweeds or a three-piece pin-stripped suit and a Burberry raincoat on rainy days. He wears a bowler hat, carries a tightly furled, black umbrella with a cane handle and has a pink newspaper tucked under his left armpit. He goes to... |
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12 Nov 08
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Don’t Make Things More Complicated Now More.
It’s a generally accepted principle that more is better.
For example.
Less.
That sounds worse, doesn’t it?
But more isn’t necessarily better in an economic downturn. More suppliers, more factories, more products, more variations…thes... |
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11 Nov 08
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Old School Lessons for China Business Old school.
There’s nothing like it.
Finding an old school jacket in the attic that still fits. Grooving to the old school 8 track with a hot date on a rainy day. Getting out the old school playbook and kicking the opposing team’s butt with it.
W... |
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10 Nov 08
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Managing Very Local Management Traditionally, inner China has appealed to multinational executives for its cheap manufacturing labor pool. Direct management of local employees was unnecessary as there were no employees, or at least very few. Jobs simply were outsourced to third party... |
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06 Nov 08
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How to Git that Gosh Durn Howse You’ve heard of Tales from the Crypt.
Tales from the crib are a lot scarier if you don’t have one yourself in China.
You might have caught a glimpse of some rockstar pads on MTV Cribs. Serious envy might have entered your mind.
But when your c... |
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05 Nov 08
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Jack is Back to Tell Us Why We Need Shanxi Now Jack Perkowski is a man who knows China’s interior.
As founder and chairman of ASIMCO Technologies, he is near infamous for his “nine-month, 40-city tour of 100 factories, the same black-scorpion, duck-tongue-eating odyssey in 1993 that rolled thr... |
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04 Nov 08
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How to Spell a Four Letter Word with Six: Layoff Don’t use the word “layoff” around Asia.
In tight economic times, it may be better to have a bloated staff than sacrifice members of the danwei – or work unit – and that could be a good business thing.
“In the Confucian mindset, the righ... |
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