Sourcing & Import from China Tips and Guide

If you are doing preaching here, you must be careful since the Chinese government doesn’t allow foreigners to do so. So you need to do it ‘underground’ and keep your bible and spiritual things in bag and with cover. Don’t just put them on the table in the hotel while you are away.

Chinese Bible Study

liveried christian mission in rural area of China

God saw china

By David Foo

Generally speaking, Chinese had a very strong family mindset in their line of thought; “blood is always thicker than water” is a common phrase businessman used to justified for theirs actions. In fact, one of the many bottlenecks and obstacles hindering Chinese industry to soar even higher are the many small to medium family operated enterprises which form the backbone of the business community.

Almost all businessman in China are dedicated and committed to prosper for more than 3 generations, true entrepreneurs are often limited as compared to the western world, majority of the operations are still of smaller scale. There were many reasons, strong family connections was one of them. Chinese prefer to engage someone who is actually blood related in their setup in the key positions, it is rather difficult for them to trust someone who are outside of the family circle.

There are historical background why Chinese businessman acted they way they behaved. Chinese stress heavily on personal perspective, most inspired to do well for themselves and their off-springs, they work hard to accumulate wealth for their family and the next generations and had high fear of losing one controls which may affected not themselves but also their offspring which to them could be a big disgrace to their ancestors. Good things are kept to themselves rather than share it out to benefit other unrelated people. Frankly speaking, they are rather selfish and would not stop any opportunities to take advantages on others for their own gains and benefits. Most can easily justified their actions by defending themselves saying that “If I do not take care of my family and next generations, I couldn’t face my ancestor”.

For example, Chinese traditional medicines which had many effective cures which are very precious in nature accumulated from thousand of years of application, those who own the formula would not easily share it to the mass public for the general mankind benefits but try all means to keep the benefits within the family, even if they are to pass it on, only few limited who they favored will be benefited, and more often than not, it restricted to their male heir. “Got to keep my blood line strong and well of” most will quote to you. Another example are the many martial art skill sets which were originated from
China were loss in some point of time due to this mindset. The skills which were transferred out of
China at the beginning were then fully valued and developed there.

The same logic are inevitably apply to business operation, to use family members in key positions as it carries a perception of higher trust levels are common practice, however, if this is indeed the case or not , there weren’t straight answers. For thousand of years in history, Chinese authority emphasized a lot more on people than the system, as a results, system were not valued and improved over time. Many dynasty boom and doom along with the rulers, one distinctive advantage of system is consistencies and fairness. Many times, Chinese judge their future prospect in a rather negative manner, as a result, many matters are evaluated from people perspective rather than on the system. Naturally, many key positions are all filled by family members rather than someone else who is proven capable.

In fact, for small scale operation where everything can be monitored closely, it is ideal for a family operated business model, however, once the business get expanded problems will start to appear. Since the system can not be implemented at the beginning, how reliable and dependable of the family members become an even more serious issue. Another even bigger concern is the message it convey to outsiders, even for those employee who are capable (if they somehow manage to get in the company), they will not deliver their best services as they know their places, no matter how capable, one wouldn’t get far in the organization, many will put their own interests upfront first instead of the company. Companies which are operated in similar fashion are very common in
China. It was already in this manner for the past thousand of years, it will most likely stay the same for the next couple of hundred years.

Chinese worship family relationship and clanship (belong to same family tree) more than anything else, concept of one nation was rather weak, many even willing to sacrifice their life to resolve conflicts within clanship, unlike Japanese and Korean who are homogenous, during almost every major conflict in China, one can find a traitor easily to betray his or her clan for their own interests (well, same justification applies, “I got to take care of my own family first”). None willing to sacrifice for the greater nation, the unity of Chinese was weak from a point of view of one greater nation. (Die for the family? Yes, die for the ancestors and clanship? Yes, die for the country? Eh…let me think about it first…)

A strong nation need thousand or million of people to work hard and smart not in short term but in a time scale of 15 to 20 years before bearing fruits, Chinese need to develop and cultivate the strong nationhood rather then limited to only within the family or clans. Most would think they had already achieved maximum results by bringing honor to their families rather than to their country. (There are over 50 ethnic groups in
China alone)

In summary, many dynasty rise and fall in the past thousand of years, lately China was on the full steam ahead as in typical cycle of life, the maximum prosperity had yet to achieve, it is like a gigantic pendulum swing, it was swung to the extreme negative direction for the past 50 years during the recent Chinese revolution follow by the communist regime, the ball had now reverse it’s direction ever since China open her door in the 1980s. The swing could easily last 50 to 100 year in the right direction.

So, As a trader like yourself who might want source and procure products from China to auction on internet commercial platform or other distribution channels, one must always understand the background of the average Chinese businessman, why do they react the way they did and how to take advantages of it to achieve lowest cost and best quality merchandizes for yourself through skillful negotiation with the Chinese suppliers and manufacturers.

Following are the 7 ways to take advantage of the Chinese Family Business operation; it could be Factories, Suppliers, and Distributors and so on.

1) Who is the real boss? When engaging business negotiation and dealing, dig out as many information on the organization chart, who can make the final decision, how is the salesman related to him or her, ask the following questions;

1. Who do you report to? How long had you been working in this company? Please refer me to your immediate superiors.

2) Always show genuine respect on the senior member of the organizations, demonstrate you have the same respects to your own family as well as superiors. Convey the following messages to their mindsets, the impression of “reliable, strong family mindset, dependable” had to be imprint on their mind. So you can be closer to becoming their family member (although it is neat impossible)

1. I understand the absolute respects we must have for our elders and seniors.
2. I value my family relationship more than anything else
3. I take full responsibilities on my filial duties

3) Quote example of strong understandings how Chinese family business operate their organization, this will more or less increase the “trust level” between you and the suppliers. (of course, you need to make sure the one you engaging is in the family circle of the company you dealing with)

1. I had dealt with Company a 2 years back, I met the owner, Mr. B and had dinner together, he treated me like his brother and we are still in touch on and off.

1. Last time, when I had meeting with the senior Manager, Mr. C, we had long discussion on
   China politics and he became a good friend of mine. He had some issue with his brother on running the business, but they resolved it. Hey, I know how difficult it is for you to give me the 5% discount on my orders. Mr. C had the same issues.

4) Once you know you are talking to the right guy who is one of the key people in the family circle, you need to establish some common interests, put aside the negotiation first and develop the relationship. You can always start from 3 common topics; Money, Job, and Family…..

5) Always remember, the best speaker is the one who always listen, ask general personal questions like holiday plan, children education, investment tips…….

6) Provide some intangible benefits, like an interesting websites, a jokes, chat casually using all the latest online tools, like Msn, Yahoo and Skype. Building a trust level take times, usually 5 to 10 weeks will do the job, imagine, you are depositing money into his/her emotional bank account, you have a plan to withdraw it one day with interests.

7) Demonstrate you admired Chinese cultures although you think there are some aspect can be improve, be humble and in no times you will get the best attractive deals you ever imagined possible

Good luck

David Foo

David is a professional Engineer; he has this opportunity to extract the practical hands on experiences with proven track records from Kelvin and together with his unique experiences, put up this e-guide to bring you one level deeper into the effective sourcing techniques and approaches in china.

http://www.china-import-guide.com