China Cultural Awareness Training

China Cultural Awareness Training

As China’s economy has boomed over the past few decades, interest in doing business with China has soared. People recognise that successful business relations with China demand an understanding of the unique business cultural landscape which has been fashioned over millennia and evolved into its current mix of traditional thinking fused with modern processes and approaches.

Global Business Culture runs China cultural awareness training programmes for clients from a wide range of sectors who have varying business interests in China but who all share a need for greater understanding and cultural dexterity. We run these courses at all levels within client organisations and in multiple global locations – including China.

Our clients tend to fall into a number of different categories, driven by differing interests and relationships with China:

Clients who have been acquired by a Chinese parent company

We find that companies who have been acquired by a Chinese parent company want to develop a greater level of understanding of the key business drivers of their contacts back at the new HQ. They want to be able to persuade and influence their parent company to allow them to continue to develop their business in the way they feel is best for the business – they don’t want to be guided by people they feel might not understand their market fully.

Clients with supply chain interests in China

More and more businesses rely heavily on supply chains which are embedded in China. The China relationship therefore becomes critical for their operational effectiveness and people realise that a good understanding of the Chinese approach to business can reap immediate rewards in terms of helping improve communication and interpersonal relations.

Clients with subsidiaries in China

There is an active war for talent taking place in China and this situation is unlikely to improve quickly given the demographics of China’s ageing population. Many good potential Chinese candidates are opting to work for local Chinese companies and turning their backs on opportunities with foreign capital companies. Therefore, understanding your current Chinese colleagues and having the cultural fluency to recruit well in China become of increasing importance. Recruitment and retention are vital in a China context.

Clients looking to develop China as a market for their goods or services

The potential of the China market is almost limitless. Make it big in China and it could be a game-changer for your organisation. But China is hard – someone once said: ‘In China everything is possible; but nothing is easy.’ If you want to succeed in China, you need to understand the local environment and you need to understand the Chinese approach to business. Going to China without doing your cultural homework could prove very costly.