Chinese Business Culture
Oct 18, 2009 Business Communication
I just experienced first-hand a glimpse of business culture in China.
Many people would have long heard that contracts and agreements in mainland China doesn’t hold much weight.
In fact, signing a contract only signifies the beginning of business negotiations. To a mainland Chinese, signing an agreement just means that they are ready and interested to deal with you. It says nothing that a deal has really been done.
In the western world and developed countries, signing an agreement SEALS the business deal and the details of the deal are specified in the agreement. I believe this is one of the major assumptions that has caused much grief for businesses trying to enter China.
I was recently asked to provide sponsorship for a magazine that a student organization, which I will not name here, wanted to publish. This publication is meant to inform new students of the university about the student organization and in turn, to attract them to join their activities in the years to come. In fact, other than monetary sponsorship, they asked for advice on how to improve the publication.
Since the student organization is of a career development nature which is in alignment with what I do, I agreed to the sponsorship and provide a fair amount of advice on how they can improve their publication to attract readership.
However, I wasn’t interested to just give (the money and advice) and forget. I know that if I do that, it’ll just be a once-off “donation” and the neither the student organization nor their members will receive any sustainable benefit. So, I decided that I’d like the student organization to do some “work” to ensure continuity of their value to the university student body. This culminated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was signed by myself and the President of the student organization.
Interestingly enough, after the money was sponsored and the magazine published (i.e. I have fulfilled my end of the bargain), I didn’t even get any regular updates on the progress of work agreed upon. I actually had to email them to ask about what’s happening.
Shortly after, I heard from the President’s Assistant. I guess the President is now too busy to deal with me. His assistant was apologetic about the lack of communication and proceeded to give some updates, citing problems and issues, blah blah blah…then, she asked me to introduce my company and to let them know what we do so that they can arrange the necessary cooperation work accordingly.
At that moment, I could feel a sense of anger rising up in my stomach. But I had to remind myself that I am dealing with students. It is at this moment that I was reminded of the Chinese business culture and the significance (or the lack of it) of an agreement.
I’ll now have to figure out how to deal effectively with them such that our MoU is honoured.
Tags: agreement, business culture, chinese
What’s the impact of the recession on employee communication?
Sep 27, 2009 Business Communication
Here’s a write-up this year reflecting three surveys that revealed how the economic downturn has effected employee communication, and what communicators predict for the industry in the coming 12 months.
Read it at http://www.internalcommshub.com/open/news/downturncomms09.shtml
Give your thoughts and comments back here.
Tags: communication, recession
Why can’t we communicate well?
Sep 24, 2009 Business Communication
Most of us are born able to listen, talk, gesture, as well as use various forms of expression.
However, does being able to talk or being able to type/write a message mean that we are able to communicate? And able to do so well? (What does it mean by communicating well, anyway?)
This sure doesn’t seem so because we still have lots of misunderstandings, miscommunications and conflicts today. This despite our so-called advancement in communication technology. This despite most of us being so “educated.”
So, what are the issues causes the problem? What can’t we communicate well? Is there a solution??
One major issue with the quality of our communication has to do with our ego.
Yup, pride gets in the way.
Most of us tend to treat ourselves as so important (in fact, more important than other people) that we often get hurt or offended easily by what others say or don’t say, do or don’t do. We often try to second-guess what others mean and try to read between the lines when there is none.
This particular “noise” in our communication environment is one of the most potent ones because it distorts the real situation and prevents us from being objective.
I believe that in order for us to start communicating effectively, we should take the first step to put our self-importance and emotions aside and ask ourselves, “What is the situation here? What are my objectives? How can I communicate better? What can I do to be of service to others involved?”
Tags: communication, ego, emotion, noise, pride, self-importance
