Newsletter Week 37 2007

Dear Reader,

Here is this week's edition. Covering:

- American dream in China
- Doing business in China | Chinese Social and Business Culture
- Assess Your Risk, Plan, and THEN Outsource to China
- Understanding China
- China’s Mandatory Welfare and Insurance Payment System

We hope you will enjoy reading this edition!

All of us at China Success Stories

American Dream in China

Sam Flemming’s first experience with China is with a sino-American software company, where he trains Chinese employees for a life in the United States. A few years later Flemming, totally at ease in public relations and corporate communication, starts his own company: Internet Research for American companies. His source of inspiration? The unprecedented publicity that companies and their products enjoy on Internet forums and blogs. "This is a big thing. It's not just thousands of messages, it's tens of millions.. Written by real people, sharing real experiences about real brands, products and services." Together with his Chinese co-founder and a team of what he prefers to call ‘Internet Word of Mouth Analysts’, Flemming now runs CIC, a company specialized in providing research and consulting based on consumer talk on BBSs and blogs. We're eager to ask for his experiences.

Doing business in China | Chinese Social and Business Culture

The most populous country in the world, The People's Republic of China is today emerging as one of the major global economies. China is infamously known as a country of etiquette and ceremonies. The unique character of the Chinese is built on a strong sense of pride in their ancient history and culture. Understanding the basic Chinese cultural, ethical and business values is paramount to any organisation wanting to conduct business in today's rapidly progressing China. 

Assess Your Risk, Plan, and THEN Outsource to China

Recently I have been spending a lot of time on the responsibility companies have when they outsource to ensure the integrity of their supply chain by investing in a solid quality control process, and recently this resulted in an editorial writer from the Wall Street Journal sent me an email as for my comments on the following:

"Most, if not all, coverage I’ve seen has focused on the role regulators in Beijing and Washington need to play to clean things up. But I suspect that’s missing the big role for the private sector."

"After all, don’t a lot of western companies sourcing in China have a major financial incentive to enforce quality standards independent of regulators? They have to defend their...

Read the rest or post a comment >> 

Understanding China

One of the most ordinary mistakes that Westerners tend to make in interacting with the Chinese is to not prepare enough ahead of time. This is a fatal mistake, as thorough preparation is key. In the very own words of Sun Tzu:

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

It is quite basic really, yet so easy to neglect. To succeed in your business relations with the Chinese it is paramount to learn the ancient cultural forces and traditions that have affected the Chinese mind for thousands of years, and still does today. In fact, there is an emergent need, in general, for a developed understanding of intercultural interactions in today’s dynamic world. We require tools to reduce cultural gaps and to enhance our understanding toward each other.

To avoid mundane pitfalls, we need to...

Read the rest or post a comment >>

---

China Expert Guest Blog

China’s Mandatory Welfare and Insurance Payment System

In China, there are three different social benefit schemes and their application depends on the employee’s “hukou”.