|
» China-Business >> View Article
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
| Hints And Tips for Doing Business In China |
By:
9SPACES: Dave Parker and Karl Weaver Interview |
|
Dave Parker: The person we’re interviewing today, and our expert, is a gentleman named Karl Weaver. And Karl runs a company called Newport Technology. It can be found at http://www.NewportTechnologies.biz.
...
By way of background, I think, Karl, it’d be useful for our audience to get a little bit
of – kind of a snapshot of your background.
Karl Weaver: Yes, as a very young man, when people said, “Go east, young man,” I went all the way to the Far East. So (Chuckles) I studied my language training for three years in Taiwan and worked in the Taiwanese microcomputer industry from 85 until 93, 92, came back to America and essentially – well, from Asia, I was selling into all of Asia, including a little bit in China, India and Europe.
In the 90s, I came back to America, and I transformed myself into a wireless industry specialist. And since 93, I’ve worked for four major co’s in the northwest and one out of the northwest to really help them take their wireless and telecom technologies – hardware and software technologies – into Asia, greater China and India in markets and actually sell these technologies, help them to strategically sell the technologies. So, for me, it’s a 20-plus year career combining language and customs and culture. I’ve been linguistically and culturally trained to interface with Asian cultures and
especially the greater Chinese marketplaces.
Dave Parker: That’s great. That’s great by way of feedback. I can tell from the, both, previous conversations and just what you alluded to in the wireless market, that we’ve got a future interview around the topic of wireless industry in China. And I’m sure that we’ll get to that one as well ‘cause that’s a hot topic in the market today in the US is from the wireless industry growth. If you just look at the number of customers alone in China for wireless, it makes it a huge and compelling market at any level
by which you cut the market.
Karl Weaver: Absolutely. It’s the largest – actually, China’s the largest mobile subscriber market in the world with 400 million subscribers and growing. And it is, basically, when the Chinese roll out their 3G technologies, which is eagerly being awaited by almost every manufacturer that manufactures wireless communications
technologies in the world today – when they finally do roll out 3G, it will be a
fantastic revenue opportunity for domestic as well as many international
companies to sell into China.
Dave Parker: A lot of content providers, I’m sure, interested in that one.
Well, thanks for the – by way of background. For the audience today, what we’re
gonna be talking about, given your 20-plus years, 23 years of experience in doing
business cross-border and with China in between the US is the idea of the top
three mistakes that companies make in doing business in China. And I know that
there’s clearly more than three that you’ve seen and probably a scads more than
we have time for today. But I wanted you to just pick three top mistakes that you
see very consistently across companies or across industry segments. So given
that as a precursor, what do you think the number one thing is that you see that
people make mistakes at?
Karl Weaver: Well, yes, first, yes, there are more than three. But in terms of the first one, I experience this, have experienced this, and I’m sure I will continue to experience this when dealing with Western companies – and I won’t say just American companies; I’ll say Western companies – the key is that there’s a tremendous expectation that deals can be made very quickly in greater China, and this actually is very, very incorrect.
And, quite honestly, when the Chinese companies see these smaller American companies who haven’t quite figured out how to brand themselves in the Chinese market – in essence, no Chinese business cards, no literature in Chinese, no information in Chinese on their website, etcetera, etcetera. When they see these companies coming, they’re quite used to these companies. And many of these companies come in, and they expect, and they actually are hoping that they can cut a quick deal with the Chinese and sell their technology.
They essentially go into China, put their product on the table and say, “There it is. What do you think? Why don’t you buy it?” It’s sort of the used car approach – used car salesman approach, and it doesn’t work in the Chinese world because, you know, the Chinese are forming impressions and actually negotiating tactics with your company.
First of all, you probably would not even get an interview with a company in China
unless they felt that there is some slight opportunity to use, employ or use the
technology that you’re selling. But when you do get the interview, incredible
amounts of things that need to be done ever before you get in there. But a lot of
Western companies very naively think that the business deal is going to be cut...
Want to read more of this interview?
Please continue reading at:
http://www.9spaces.com/sp/en/pub/detail.jsp?id=5&gclid=CM65--vo2ocCFQI1UAodhntWpw
Other articles on China topics:
http://www.9spaces.com/sp/en/pub/publishList.jsp?start=t&searchType=topic |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Check Out Discount Hotel Prices In China:
|
