{"id":10655,"date":"2022-07-22T07:30:46","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T07:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=10655"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:38:15","slug":"how-to-navigate-business-relationships-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/how-to-navigate-business-relationships-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"How to navigate business relationships in China"},"content":{"rendered":"

China sees the world through the lens of relationships and nowhere is this more true than in business. So how can British businesses balance the Chinese and Western approaches to relationships to get better results in China?<\/h2>\n

Joan Turley began her career as an academic specialising in modern languages. In The Business of Relationships: Creating Enterprise Success With China<\/em> (Business Expert Press, 2022) Turley offers clear signposts and insights aimed at helping those working with China better understand the value of relationships in this unique and challenging business culture. Paul French spoke to Turley about the crucial role of relationships in Sino-foreign ventures.<\/p>\n

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In your introduction, you note that China\u2019s social relationship-centric framework extends into the business world. Can you explain what you mean by a \u2018relationship-centric framework\u2019?<\/h4>\n

China sees the world through the lens of relationships. An individual is defined by his or her part in the collective. Relationships, underpinned by public image and reputation, are pure social capital and as such, they act as the drivers behind all success. All systems of governance, success creation, thought leadership and influencing are created around relationships and effective self\/other integration skills are taught from infancy. The unparalleled importance of relationships in the business and professional world in China means that they represent tangible business collateral, one that drives deals forward, powers negotiation and helps to elect the most senior and respected CEOs, leaders, and influencers.<\/p>\n

A prominent Chinese CEO is reported as saying that if he wanted to proceed with a deal potentially worth millions of dollars, he would have the agency to do so, but if he wished to fire the humblest caretaker in his organisation, it would require convening the board members (in his case, family members) and gaining permission from stakeholders.<\/p>\n

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You suggest we need to work harder to harmonise the Chinese and Western approaches to business skills. How do we practically do this to get the balance right? Do we not, perhaps, risk important values and assets if we over-emphasise relationships that then collapse?<\/h4>\n

We should begin with an attitudinal shift and with some honest self-examination. Do we value relationships as the primary driver and core of our business model and success? If the answer is no, then would we be willing to embrace an attitudinal shift that allows us to place relationships at the very heart of our vision and strategy?<\/p>\n

If the answer to both these questions is no, then we may prefer to eschew trade with China in favour of a more process-driven and transactional business model and culture. If, however, you feel drawn to this model, it may help to have a few incentives to encourage you to make the attitudinal shift necessary for success creation with China.<\/p>\n

It is us in the West who could become the fortunate beneficiaries of Chinese companies\u2019 ever-growing inventiveness, creativity and expanding knowledge stores<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One of the key incentives is the protection that well-made relationships offer, within this business culture, in terms of our cherished intellectual property. In most cases of serious infringement of intellectual property in China, there has been a breakdown of, or under-investment in, the relationship prior to the infringement occurring. In such cases, no true partnerships had been created, and no public record of joint interests was established. Where reputation has been correctly built and relationships robustly and sincerely developed, the Chinese would consider it an act of unenlightened self-harm to engage in IP theft. It would, effectively, be stealing from themselves, whilst harming their most precious business assets: relationship networks (guanxi<\/em>) and face, or reputational collateral (mianzi<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Moreover, well-made relationships allow the Chinese to be more open within the safety of well-made partnerships, in respect of knowledge share from their end. Given the speed and mushrooming growth in China\u2019s rate of issuing new patents, rather than seeing them as predators to Western intellectual property, we might consider the possibility that it is us in the West who could become the fortunate beneficiaries of Chinese companies\u2019 ever-growing inventiveness, creativity and expanding knowledge stores. Such very real possibilities of exchange and mutual benefit depend, however, upon the ability to build our business and professional relationships with China in a way that engenders real trust and signals levels of commitment on our part, which transcend the shallow and the transactional.<\/p>\n