China Business Blog and Podcast

The world is ga-ga over Barack Obama ascending the presidency of the United States this week. Well, at least America is ga-ga and, given our myopic tendency to think our business the world’s only business, that means the rest of you are ga-ga too. While Mr. Obama’s governing abilities are, as yet unproven, hands-down he seems to have his predecessor beat on pretty much every indicator, from oratory skills to abs-of-steel. Heck, he has us ALL beat.

The personal trait that seems to be most admired – besides his three-point shot and Blackberry typing skills – is his intellectual curiosity, his interest in getting tons of opinions to inform his own decision. Whether or not this personal trait can translate into governing style remains to be seen; however, for the moment, I think many are at least impressed with how impressed everyone seems to be!

The one thing I can attest to, however, is that this decision making based on intellectual curiosity style does work well in China. In fact, it might be absolutely necessary to a foreign company’s success here.

Curiosity is the key to even beginning to understand China (not that “complete understanding” is a destination on the China cognitive map). Unfortunately, the average Westerner’s curiosity extends to the end of their first week of their first trip here. Then they know everything. They are experts. They go on talk shows. They write books. They certainly don’t continue to ask questions. For the Omniscient China Expert with the Executed Single Entry Visa, asking questions is a waste of good breath that is better spend expounding on their own omniscience.

But there are those who know that their first step into China begins a journey of a thousand steps that lead, inevitably to migraine headaches and a healthy starter-ulcer. For these lucky few, the questioning never stops. As a consultant and professional China Know-It-All, it is (supposedly) my job to provide answers to my clients; to (ostensibly) give deep insight into the China market miasma that will (oh-my-gosh-I-hope-so) unlock its secrets and bring untold riches to them. And you know what, to be brutally honest, I think we are really good at what we do … some of the best out there.

But the reason we are good is not only that we provide good answers – it’s that we have people who go out to the market who ask really insightful questions. Lest this post descend into a Confucian couplet worthy of its own fortune cookie, let’s bring it back to what it might mean for you, dear reader. It means this: NEVER STOP ASKING QUESTIONS! If you are blessed with good advisers – consultants, lawyers, accountants, mothers – and are getting good China advice from them, consider yourself lucky. But don’t stop there. Take in what they say…and then challenge it. Get a second, third and fourth opinion. Be like a three-year old in China: ask “why” and keep on asking until someone wants to give you a cookie to shut you up. Then take the cookie and ask why again!

Because somewhere in China, your strategy-of-choice is going to work. Somewhere it is going to NOT work. Just because someone succeeded (or failed) in their joint venture, doesn’t guarantee you will be on the same track. When one case study proves that XYZ is the “only” legal agreement to execute with a distributor, another will prove even more convincingly that and ABC agreement is best. China is a big place; big enough to both accept and reject a frustratingly large number of really good ideas.

The Chinese use a phrase to describe foreigners who supposedly understand China so well: 中国通 (zhong-guo tong) or “China Expert”. Too many foreigners take it as a compliment – I have learned to interpret it as thinly-veiled, tongue-in-cheek name calling, like “Nice move, Brainiac!” It is the only ironic thing that I have heard Chinese say … because no one – not even natural born citizens – are experts here.

I am encouraged because my next president seems like a guy who doesn’t hazard and answer until he asks tons of questions. Who knows, if this whole Ruler of the Free World thing doesn’t work out for him, there might be a role for Mr. Obama in our company. Seems like he’d fit right in. Besides, Team Technomic is in dire need of a good shooting guard.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 9:13 am and is filed under China, communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.