I should be used after 8 years in China about the Chinese way of communication but sometimes also for me is getting difficult to understand completely this ancient culture, I’d like to share with you this post that may of interest if you’re dealing with the Asian culture.

For centuries Chinese, but this is common also in Korea and in all Asia, were meticulously programmed to avoid confrontations, ultimatums, and clear-cut commitments as a mean of ensuring harmony in society.

To achieve this goal, the people were conditioned to speak in vague terms that could be interpreted in a number of ways, or not to speak at all.

In a country’s hierarchically structured society where absolute rules defined inferior-superior relationship, speaking in clear, unambiguous terms, telling the truth, or making a critical comment could have seriously negative repercussions, and in worst-case scenario be life-threatening.

In this environment, Chinese learned to avoid saying ‘no’ and to divine the meaning and intent of others through cultural intuition. Saying NO was regarded as impolite, if not insulting.

When Western visit China encountered this kind of behaviour immediately assumed that Chinese were dishonest, devious, and could not be trusted.

One of the problems faced by Western when dealing with the Chinese is basic communication. For the western businessman ‘yes’ signals that the deal is done and the contracts can be signed, and if anything goes wrong, you can always sue on the contract.   Right?

Wrong…… at least in China.

In China ‘yes’ is the first word of negotiations, not the last. For the Chinese, ‘yes’ means let’s sit down and talk seriously.

When the Chinese respond during negotiation by saying :

• Ming bai , they mean that they understand whet you said.
• Ke yi, they mean that anything is possible
• Tong yi, they mean that they agree with the last point
• Dui, they mean OK, Yeah, Sure, Whay not, I see, etc. but doesn/t mean yes

Anything short then tong-yi means there is no deal.

Sometime during the negotiation I’m submitting all the documents to the Chinese party and after few minutes they go off of the room to read them.

I generally use this time to smoke a cigar and relax, when finished they’re not back and I decide to smoke a second cigar. After 1 hour I decide to call them by phone and their reply is generally: Mei you wen ti ( no problem )

With a very polite and calm voice I ask them, did you read all ? Everything Ok ? Shall we sign the contract ?

The answer in this case is generally : Ke Yi that means possible !!!

My reply is : shall we sign this fucking contract ? Are you going to sign it or not ?

The answer : Ying gai ke yi , that means most probably, maybe .

I you are still in a good mood with a calm voice you can try once again and ask the same question : are you going to sign or not ?

Answer : I’m not sure, I’d better to go back and ask my superior. Finish of the story here .

The social imperative for ambiguous speech has eroded significantly in contemporary China, especially among those who are involved in international business, but it continues to be an important cultural factor in business and politics, and must be taken into account.

One of the obvious ways to bring negotiations to a close and clear-cut commitments is to ask that they be put in official documents that are signed by the responsible people. If the documents are not forthcoming, the real situation is not clear.

Be patient and try again, again, again,

Bye then

Luciano GIOL

STOP COMPLAINING!!!   Complaining is not a strategy!!!

Post dedicated to all young people looking for a job or a better job.

I have met many of disaffected youth who complain constantly of their current situation. In many cases because they do not work or because the work they are doing does not suit them.

They complain, constantly, attributing always blame to external factors. The boss, the colleagues, the general environment, everywhere problems.

It’s true nowadays by reading the newspapers, TV, Facebook, we are bombarded with catastrophic news that bode ill for our quiet and peaceful co-existence in this world. The information now travels in real time and immediately a fact of chronicle happened anywhere in the world is immediately accessible to all.

Communication is now in real-time, FaceTime, Snapchat , Istagram , Whatsapp , WeChat , and a myriad of other applications are able to make us live in real time the ongoing tragedy.

All this negative events induce the feelings with negative emotions to all of us, as: fear, insecurity, disgust, anger, frustration, etc.

This is the reality today; I do not wan to justify the attitude of these young peoples who seek to move upon external factors their dissatisfaction.

Rarely the same thing happens for a positive event which also induces the reader the opposite feelings such as: security, confidence, happiness, enthusiasm, success, etc.

It ‘s true we are living in an era full of uncertainty!

As always in history, the greatest opportunities and decisive solutions to meet the most urgent needs of humanity comes from technological progress.

And thanks to the innovation and continuous research arriving the solution to the great existential problems of humanity.

Solutions that create better living conditions and alleviate most of the problems that beset us.

Internet has changed the world of communication; we have access to an endless amount of information that allows us to develop new innovative projects aimed at solving real problems.

Then how to do? What can we, each of us, do to help to create a better world?

I have given the following answer which I think might also be a stimulus to others!!

We’ve to cultivate the passion of curiosity, the desire to discover new things, to seek the beauty that surrounds us. But having said so maybe is not enough.

We’ve to begin to understand what actually we’d like, which passion pervades us and makes us feel good, and once identified expand it to infinity.

How to do it?

It’s very simple, we’ve to impose us to become the real expert in this specific subject.

Internet is available to us for free of charge to give endless information about this specific subject.

I do not remember who said the phrase: if you read one book a month on a specific topic after 10 years you will have read 120 books and you will become the absolute expert on this topic.

Well the world, the humanity now needs these kinds of experts, each in their own field of activity who has the desire to continue to research and innovate.

Certainly it takes a good dose of motivation and constant commitment, but as mentioned earlier, if you have chosen you to focus on a subject that you really like, I think dedication and commitment will not be a problem for you.

Socrates:

“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”

Years ago it was unthinkable, now only if you really want to do, with an internet connection, you can discover the world, you can receive free all the information you need on a specific topic, without traveling, but just sitting comfortably in front of your Tablet.

In the past weeks I met many young peoples who complain because they do not find a work or want a better job!!

The ritual question: But what do you really want to do?

The answer is really devastating 99% more or less answers are like this:

Well, I do not know exactly what I want, but what I don’t like what I’m doing now

Afterward they are starting telling me what they don’t want to do. So most of young people knows exactly what they do not want but they DO NOT know what they really wants.

This is a tragedy for our young peoples and I am referring primarily to my Italian fellows.

The situation improves when I put the same question in China, India, North America and North Europe, where a good 50% of fellows between 20 and 35 years old has already a very clear idea of what they do want in life.

When I started to work after the studies I had the same attitude of today’s youth.

It’s quite normal to start working from the bottom from the shitty jobs and definitely not rewarding. Obviously we complain at first, but if this complaint rather than blaming others opens new opportunity as growth stimulus, the situation definitely changes.

It ‘s always our mental attitude which affects our actions. For example if I think:

OK now I’m here, I do a job that allows me to earn something for living and this is positive, well, what can I do now to improve my condition ?

What do I really want to achieve?

In my time there was no Internet, that become popular only during late 90’, certainly I would have speed up and got results in less time

As written in my latest book: Search to become somebody in something!!

There are no more excuses now to continue to complain or to find excuses!!!

Get busy now !!! NO more excuses !!!

• Find a subject you like
• Try to learn as much as you can on this subject
• Read books, internet, seminars, etc.
• Try to expand and develop this subject. Dream it.
• Think global, understand all related to this subject around the world
• Open a blog and start to create your community
• Be visible on LinkedIn and create your community
• Exchange opinions and try to solve problems related to this subject
• Work hard with passion
• Be patient and stay focused
• Continue the research; stay tuned to only this subject.

Good ideas do not need any external recognition. You’ve already all what you need to start just now. Especially do not let your financial situation, your physical location on Earth or the lack of any resource type prevent you from getting what you dream.

Want to live in the future? Do it through innovation! It needs motivation and commitment and you can really change the future of your community.

There are many reasons to give up hope. But listen to me, do not give up. Do not give up hope. Today the technology is on our side.

Within soon you will be recognized an expert in this specific subject.

Then your life will change and I’m sure will change in better.

You’ll get new jobs opportunity; peoples around the world will ask you questions or propose new business chances. Open your eyes, now. The world is big and it depends only on you to catch your path for a better life.

Hope that this post will inspire you.

Bye then

I will begin this article by asking you one simple question: Why is that some companies succeed in business and others not? They get to penetrate the market so fast? And whatever they manufacture they sell it over night? Why people love and remain engaged to them?

What I came to see throughout my entire carreer is that general goes to particular and micro is same as macro. Same patterns, different sizes.

For example, look at the structure of our brain that has these 2 parts: the limbic, that manages the feelings or emotions and the cortex that involves functions like rational thinking and logic. Same as a business I may say. Core values or mission and organizational stuff or logical processes.

Not surprisingly, we are created in such manner that actually the limbic brain is the leader (that inspires) and the cortex leads (the authority, the power). An information (such as data, arguments, real facts) gets to our brain and is being processed by our cortex, the rational filter, and then gets to our limbic part, the emotional one. In this case we often see the reactions like, “I understand what you say, it’s logical and yet I just can’t do it. It doesn’t feel right.” We first rationalize it and then feel it. But we don’t manage to be driven to action by those words. The cortex’s ok with the info, the limbic’s not.

Unless…

The information that is presented has an emotional charge. This one gets straight to our limbic part of the brain! The very center of your core values, principles and beliefs! From here we get those wonderful feelings  that “I knew it” and “I can feel it in my guts”. The intuition. We feel it first and then rationalize it. Gut decisions.

Ok. So what is that these great companies do and manage success so fast, never failing?

They learned that in order to manipulate people you manage first their brain. Great marketing strategy and real NLP, I may say. They understood is not about the products you sell but is about the way you sell it to people. Emotion over thought, leader leads.

Great leaders think beginning with WHY. Why my company exists? What is my purpose, my cause, my belief, my values? And then they add the How and What.

Marketing, as we know it nowadays, goes like : “Look at us, we are great, we created this trendy wonderful product. You should have one, you need it because…”. They say WHAT is the product, HOW they manufactured it and then, CTA’s. Usually, all they get as a reaction from other people is “We don’t trust you, like you or even listen to you”.

But what if they put the WHY in the front, like Apple did, and they would say “Why are we here? Because we believe that we can face any challenge in this industry. We came here to reinvent it. We are different. And, as a result of our beliefs, we created this product. Wanna buy?”

These are the leaders that managed to set a set of beliefs that touch the limbic part of the brain. Because we are attracted to the ones who share same visions, creeds, motivation and values. These companies get high engagement from customers due to their trust in being one standout firm, driven by strong principles, not about to break or give up easily. They are authentic, different, genuine.People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it! They buy experiences. And you are one experience. Not a product. Not no mention your goal is to do business with others that share your vision, support, stand by you and not with those who only want what you have! This goes for hiring people in your company, making business and personal choices. Unconditionally support. Real motivation.

People act by belief not money. They believe in you and your company. Your vision, they share it and fulfill their dreams through you and your products. Talk about your beliefs and you’ll attract individuals like you. Find out their beliefs and you won the market. Why is this so important?

Because 2.5% are innovators, 13.5% are early adopters,34% are early majority, 34% are late majority and 16% laggards.

For a mass market success you need to penetrate the market between  15% -18%.The innovators and early adopters! They are the trend setters and the testers for the last 82% of the market.  What are their beliefs? “I am a leader, the first, I care the way people see me”. Make them believe in you and your marketing tactics are already on the move.

As a conclusion, you need to build your cause to be theirs. Give them the I have a dream speech not the I have a plan speech. They don’t care what you know or have until you show them you share it with them. And you should share the same vision.

Over the past few months, I’ve taken on the challenge of writing an Ebook and, friends, it’s now ready to share! I’ve done a lot of research and also reflected on my life and career, gathering funny and meaningful memories along the way. It was a tough but also very enjoyable project, and I hope you will find the book useful and a pleasure to read.
I thought it would be a good idea to summarize the text in eight points. Why eight? Because eight is the lucky number in China – and China has been my golden ticket to success. Eight in Chinese is pronounced as ba 八 and it’s very similar to the sound fa发of the word facai发财, which means “to become rich”. For this reason, a cellphone or a license plate number with many eights, or the eighth floor of a building are regarded as good omens. Often, when people set off fireworks, they are displayed in the shape of an eight. The opening of the Beijing  Olympics was held at 8.08 pm on 8^th August 2008. What a coincidence, no? That’s why I thought eight points would bring my Ebook good luck. So, very briefly, what are you going to read in the pages? I will give you my eight principles:

1. Marketing and Sales play on the same team for the same objective: some Western countries, like the US, Canada and Australia, are ahead in this journey, but in almost all other countries the marketing value for sales is not yet perceived.
2. We are in the age of the Customer. The salesperson must sell a Value; he/she is more consultative, collaborative and advisory.
3. The effective salesperson m
   ust be a Challenger who teaches customers, tailors the sales message effectively and takes control of the sales process.
4. Competition analysis and monitoring is at the core of each and every sales strategy: knowing the market is an essential skill.
5. Soft skills are critical to success, in particular cross-cultural communication. The new sales professional, who works on a international level, needs to dive into the new country where he/she is sent: he/she needs to be much more competent in terms of language, culture, customs, as well as laws and market rules.
6. The salesperson must invest in himself/herself. He/she works for a company, but success depends on the individual and the comp
   any can’t help but benefit from a person full of initiative and proactivity.
7. Being perceived as the specialist in a sector or a niche is the best thing a salesperson can work toward: a personal branding plan is a good way to achieve it.
8. The successful salesperson must always embrace innovation and change. Our world is fast (and furious!) and we have to keep pace with the times!

Have a nice reading, everyone! I would very much appreciate your comments, observations, and even criticism.

If you want to know more: Amazon

We are all aware that a company’s sales are in the hands of the salespeople, retailers, key accounts and dealers. These are the vital intermediaries who will build loyalty in seconds and have the power to attract and convert enthusiasts.

We all also know that repeat buyers are more profitable than acquiring new ones. They return a higher margin, are stronger recommenders, and require fewer pricing offers than the cost of acquiring new customers. The ‘physics’ of this equation remain unchanged for all kind of businesses. Any CEO will tell you that returnees and recommenders are the most valuable customers.

Customers have become more sophisticated, technologically adept and also price smart. They have now the world at their fingertips, are extremely savvy navigators and have no hesitation about consulting reviews, comparing prices and checking social media currency. And yet, clients’ attraction but mostly their loyalty have become harder to obtain.

Why? Because people like technology and profits but in the end, they only like other people. The more digital life becomes, the more people value being understood, being touched , involved by other people, not by machines and robots. People personify the world around them and can feel they have relationships with products, services, companies and countries, not just with other people.

In this matter, Daniel Kahneman, Psychologist and Nobel Economics laureate, shows how people are not rational decision makers, that the heart rules the head in decision-making, while Donald Calne, canadian neurologist,  states that “the essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.”

A 2015 study across seven different B2B industries indicated that only 14% of B2B buyers are willing to pay extra for a name, a brand. And it found that personal value (based around emotion) has twice as much impact as business value (based around logic/reason). Due to the level of personal risk B2B buyers feel, B2B buying is highly personal – even more so than B2C buying.

In business decision-making, human emotional factors are found to out do data-based rational or analytical drivers. In a study of 710 global business leaders, a majority of 62% of CEO’s say it is necessary to rely on intuition and soft factors such as company culture or its values.

Emotion seems to be the primary driver of closing business and salespeople must get to the nub of how people feel.

They need to understand that when a deep emotional connection is cultivated, attacks from competitors providing new features, deals and designs will not succeed to steal the client very fast.

There is a urgent need of customizing, personalizing, interacting with, and anticipating the needs and desires of clients but in a different manner as we know it. Now it’s essential to show our clients that each specific visit/business mattered and they continue to be important beyond the sale.

Research shows that people like business partners that bring human touch in their approach . It’s the moment we come now to realize that people around the world are placing more importance on experiences.

As we act to survive and thrive in this new consumer age we must understand that winning is not just about selling more. It’s also about selling for more. And our business approach must be real and personable. A salesperson may not be your soulmate, but can be your best friend, earning your trust, affection and enduring loyalty. As Oprah Winfrey said: “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

2016 has started with many complex dynamics all around the globe which contribute to increase the uncertainties about the future of new economy, work and more in general our life. We can read many different analysis that can lead to an exactly equal number of different conclusions.

It is clear is that the world as we knew is changing and technologies are contributing to it at a speed that doesn’t allow everyone to catch the interrelated dynamics involving everything. And here it comes Big Data, data analytic softwares about almost everything that are promising us to identify more clearly and in a shorter time, the relevant information we need to make accurate decision in such a complex world. When we are almost ready to breath and relax, here it comes Martin Lindstrom with “Small Data: the tiny clues that uncover huge trends” – nominated best seller at NewYork Times – which reminds us that actually “devil lies in the details”.

Not to forget the increasing impact of automation and IT technologies to a more connected and flexible working environment which requires employing people that in some cases do not exists yet – if we search them by following the traditional HR principles, too focused on hard skills and CVs’ texts. Terminologies like O2O (On line to Off Line), CDO (Chief Digital Officer) are just one example of how Human Resources should move from a mainly administrative function to a more strategic one. The first to be empowered with the need to understand what is going on out there are in fact the people involved in HR who need to lead the organization toward this change and adjustment to this dynamic and high-tech reality.

Pressure, responsibilities, deadlines, complexity and risk to make it wrong doesn’t help to move to this new level. Uncertain economic conditions and shrinking sales revenues, doesn’t allow to consider this recent future as a priority to invest in. Though, who will take the challenge to do it right now will definitely succeed.

Companies need to focus more on diversity, soft skills like complex problem solving, creativity, analysis and emotional intelligence. But the market and the education systems prepare us to competition, specialization and others skills that will be still useful though not as useful as others necessary for a more global, interconnected, technologically unpredictable and diverse economy. As an example: how many people know that emotions impact on human behaviour? How many  know that a conscious knowledge and management of emotions can have a positive impact on our life and work?

Let’s just accept complexity an change as new normal conditions. We should prepare well, analyze, but at certain point we must take decisions and be less risk-averse. If we’ll wait too long, things will change again and our analysis will be out of date. In conclusion, we should not consider our decisions as a final strategy but keep them as a first step on a path of continuous improvement to turn pure theory into a scientific law.

As mentioned by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder: “Trial error is freedom”.

If you have any comments, input or observations, feel free to share them here. I’d be happy to know your thoughts.

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Dear friend, in this article I will try to make an overview of the current business environment in Romania where I actually live and work. I hope to give you useful information for deciding to invest in this country or not.

Romania is the largest of the countries of south-eastern Europe and lies on an area of 238,391 km2. It’s bordered to the north by the Ukraine, by Hungary to the north-west, by Bulgaria and Serbia to the south and south-west,  the Republic of Moldova to the east and by the shores of the Black Sea to the north-west.

The current population of Romania is over 19.9 million inhabitants  with 1,883,400 inhabitants living in Bucharest, the capital city. The official language in Romania is Romanian and over 80% of the population claim that they belong to Romanian Orthodox Church.

It has become a member of various international organizations: the United Nations in 1955, the EBRD and OECD in 1991, the OSCE and OIF in 2003, NATO in 2004 and the European Union since January 1st, 2007. Romania’s main trading partners are members of the European Union, as well as China and Russia, with most exports going to Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, Hungary and the UK.

It’s a market with tremendous potential, a strategic location, and a business environment that offers opportunities. To successfully seize the business opportunities requires a careful evaluation of the market, persistance and dedication.

Romanian hospitality is very well known and they have a kind and friendly attitude towards visitors. They are reliable business partners who respect their contracts, deliver and prefer to conduct business with people who are down to earth and do not blow their own horns.

At business meetings, it is important to behave in a polite and appropriate manner, paying attention to good etiquette. Romanian business culture places great importance on courtesy and respect for senior people. Responsibilities and positions are clearly defined and those with authority command a higher level of respect.
Romania removed its communist dictator more than 20 years ago, but the Romanian government still plays a role in the economy in terms of influence on the business environment. Most income is paid in the local currency, the “leu”.

Romania’s membership in the EU is one of its most persuasive advantages. As a relatively new (2007) member, Romania offers a sizable domestic market and a comparatively low-cost foothold for accessing the EU market. Much of the foreign investment in retail and manufacturing has been based on these two elements. In addition to this larger market, its membership makes it eligible for billions of euro in EU grant funding. The set of financial supports are available to support investment in physical infrastructure and many other types of projects, and require a co-financing component from the recipient, in addition to the national government.

Romania’s investment attractiveness is fueled by the constant low cost of local labor, Romanian average labor cost is still being the lowest among European countries.

Among the most important investors in Romania are European countries. The first place in the FDI top is held by the Netherlands, with 20,7% of the total FDI, Austria with 17,8%, Germany – 12,2% and France – 8,3%. Besides multinational players, a new generation of local businesses started to emerge. As a result, between 2003 and 2009, Romania has been referred to as a “Tiger” due to its high growth rates and rapid development.

In addition, its location in Southeast Europe shortens the distance for export sales to Turkey, the Balkans, the Middle East and markets such as Ukraine and Russia. Several foreign manufacturers have moved into Romania for this reason. Romania’s powerful concentration of high-end software development and services is almost entirely export driven, serving the global market. Its stage of development and requirement to conform to the standards of the EU drive many of the business opportunities for foreign firms. The best prospects for sales are in sectors as agriculture, environmental and information technologies, energy and healthcare.

The EU has allocated approximately 27.5 billion euro to Romania for projects in areas ranging from transport and rural development, to energy and environment.

There are always more needs and projects than available funding in Romania. Foreign companies should examine the reliability of a buyer’s financing arrangements. One method for identifying business opportunities is to find where one of the best prospect sectors intersects with the buyer’s ability to access EU funding and arrange co-financing. Globally, Romania stands at 61 in the ranking of 189 economies on the ease of starting a business.

A local business presence is vital to success in the Romanian market, and this can take the form of a distributor agreement, subsidiary or acquisition. Businesses considering the Romanian market should research their specific prospects thoroughly, perform due diligence, and be ready to adapt their business models as needed. Retaining legal counsel with solid knowledge of Romanian law is extremely important, and relationships with banks and accountants can provide excellent value as well. Selling through a local Romanian partner is a standard element of most entry strategies. Therefore, a foreign company’s success can hinge on identifying, qualifying and selecting a partner with the resources and expertise to help accomplish its objectives.

In addition to its strategic position on the Black Sea, Romania has extensive natural resources, a productive agriculture sector, and the potential for strong growth in industry and tourism.

So, if you think to invest and create a NewCo or re-locate your actual production please do consider this excellent opportunity.  I’ve personally decided to invest in Romania for all the above reasons, easy to find qualified and relyble people with good skills in many differts areas. The banks are also helping a lot new investmentes, local administrations try to minimize all the burocratic issues.

Company income tax is 16% flat fro this year if you’d like to take the divident an additional 5% tax is applied.

If you need any help to settle down your NewCo , please do not hesitate to contact me.

If you have any comments, input or observations, feel free to share them here. I’d be happy to know your thoughts.

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At a certain point in your career path, you are expected to have a set of skills that allows you to continue to climb the career ladder. Generally, if you are at the higher steps, management and leadership skills are at the top of the qualifications list. Their meanings are likely interchangeable for the majority of us, but an enlightening piece by the Harvard Business Review explains how they are two very different concepts inside an organization.

To sum up:

• Management. All those practical tasks like budgeting, planning, defining strategies, directing and monitoring the work of a team, measuring performance and, ultimately, taking corrective action when necessary. This is a crucial role, especially if we talk about senior management.
• Leadership. Has more to do with attitude than with concrete duties. As the article says, “leadership is about vision”, which in the business arena especially means taking an organization into the future, by seizing opportunities and producing changes. Leadership is also connected to the concept of empowerment, which is essential in human resources. The stage in my professional life where I had to significantly grow and strengthen my leadership skills was when I joined Marcegaglia. I had a team to manage and coordinate and I needed to choose what kind of “boss” I wanted to be. I went for empowerment. In my experience, one of the key elements that make you a successful leader is guiding people through example. You empower them step-by-step: at first you work alongside them and you carry out tasks together, then you leave them to roll along on their own. Thus you help them develop their competencies and, at the same time, you earn authority and credibility.

One point I would like to add about leadership is that isn’t necessarily something you have in your DNA: nobody is self-taught. I’ve actually learned and developed the so-called “soft skills” through coaching and leadership courses, which I highly recommend for anyone aspiring to build a career and even for personal growth reasons. One of the lessons I especially put into practice every day is to, as a leader, draw pleasure and satisfaction when you see people around you grow and reach their goals.

If you have any comments, input or observations, feel free to share them here. I’d be happy to hear your thoughts.

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If you have any comments, input or observations, feel free to share them here. I’d be happy to know your thoughts.

Any time you want to make new moves in your business, from introducing a new product line to expanding into new markets, you need to evaluate the competition first. That’s obvious and I take it for granted that everyone reading this post right now is routinely keeping tabs of their competitors – I’m right, aren’t I?

What I wanted to do today is to look at some of the different ways to research the competition:

• Google search. This is the very first step in your competitive intelligence analysis and also the easiest and fastest. You don’t even have to leave your desk, you just need to do some Googling and you’ll come up with all sorts of information: Web pages, blogs, social media, feedback from customers, etc etc. Depending on the nature of your business, some of these channels might not apply, but what I’d suggest is to be ready to leave your comfort zone. I operate in an extremely technical industry but this is no reason I can’t have a blog and share ideas with business professionals worldwide.
• Customer inquiries. Now I’m used to dealing with the Internet, online marketing and blogs, but I come from an age where competitive intelligence was carried out through traditional approaches, like simply speaking to customers. If you gain a new customer, you can find out a lot of valuable information, from who they used before to why they switched suppliers. And the same applies if you lose a customer: ask why.
• Supplier inquiries. If you operate in a business where you and your competitors share the same suppliers, then you might take advantage of that. It’s trickier, because suppliers may not explicitly unveil your competitor’s orders or volume, but you might be able to infer additional information by asking different kinds of questions. Like I did when I was younger — see the next checkmark.
• Competitor on-site inquiries. I’m not sure how doable it is nowadays. but when I was appointed sales manager for the first time I did real on-site research on my competitors. I actually went in person to the plant, driving for miles by myself to reach the place and trying to collect first-hand information — by chatting with the employees, for instance. I would approach them in a coffee bar and ask questions like “How do you like working here?”, “Are you paid well?”, “How many of you are there?”, which could give me an idea of my competitor. As I said, this is not that easy today, but what I have learned is that getting to know your competition well means digging deep: just as in the past browsing a brochure wasn’t enough, so today the same applies with browsing the Internet. In my opinion, relationship-based and live research (for example, by attending a conference or trade fair) are still highly valuable in terms of competition monitoring.

If you have any comments, input or observations, feel free to share them here. I’d be happy to know your thoughts.

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Today I have the pleasure to publish an interesting article kindly written by Rosanna Terminio, a fantastic person and Managing Partner at AsecorpChina. I hope you’ll enjoy it!

“The environment in which companies are moving today is getting more complex, unpredictable and fast. In this new complexity human resources will become, more and more, a strategic asset of the company: Personal traits can make the difference; personal uniqueness can make the difference. In order to be ready to navigate this complexity, it will be necessary to rethink the priorities inside the company and the company organization.

Applying Darwin’s Theory of Evolution: those who adapt to the environment and evolve will survive. The increasing global interaction made accessible through telecommunication technologies, is already causing some conflicts inside the most ancient organizations. Employees of all ages holding a stable position in an organization since a long time could put the company in a dangerous position. Resistance to change is a heavy burden for a company that needs to be agile and flexible to adapt to an uncertain and volatile environment.

In this sense, I would like to make some considerations about the recent trend of reducing the number of expats in China. It is happening both by relocating the head quarters in other Asian countries, leaving the leadership of the China unit to local talent and just by substituting the expat management with local talent; as well by choosing a young foreign management with little experience but high level of Chinese. These options can bring evident benefits in the short term – especially in term of costs. In the long term, however, the mass of cumulated costs – and where they come from – can be what actually makes the difference on your China strategy success or failure.

Rising labor cost for the hiring and retention of Chinese talent, which more and more is looking for learning and career opportunities, together with the rising living costs and new social insurance law that affects the package for the expats; not last, the tightening on the rules related to residence Visas for the foreign talent, have caused an important number of expats to leave. This situation is contributed by the concerns of dated expats about environment pollution, food safety and Internet access.

Stated that, there is not such a person who is identical to the other, one of the main element that contribute to our individuality and uniqueness is culture. Not to mention about the education system of each culture. Professor Geert Hoftedes defines culture as “the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another”. Following this definition Richard D. Lewis developed his model for Personal Cultural Profile to be identified between these main three: linear-active (Anglo-Saxon and northern European), multi-active (Latin, Arabian and African) and reactive (Asian). Some cultures, or cultural profiles, can feel closer to each other in the communication patterns while others will have symmetrically opposite paradigms that can easily lead to misunderstanding and conflicts.

It is not my purpose here to make a resume of this insightful analysis by Richard D. Lewis, detailed in its book “When Cultures Collide: Leading across Cultures”. I would like instead to refer to this interesting point of view, using my own personal experience as an Italian born, employed first in the Spanish unit of a French multinational firm and as an expat and, later, entrepreneur in China. When facing challenges in my first employment I was told to “use my common sense”; which I was doing, but in some critical cases, was never the same of my boss. On an inter-cultural perspective, there is nothing less common than common sense since it is based on personal experience which, inevitably, is bounded by the cultural environment where the experience has happened.

Keeping the above in mind, is it really cheaper in the long terms to hire a local Chinese manager, probably with overseas studies? My answer will be: it depends. It depends on many factors since this Chinese talent, especially for SMEs which are the majority of European businesses, are expensive to keep and not easy to satisfy in their carrier ambitions. One of the main evaluations the foreign investor should make is: is it my structure in the HQ international-minded enough to accept, interact and communicate with a Chinese manager? If the answer is yes, the choice of a Chinese manager versus a foreign manager can be a matter of balance of priorities on the candidate itself. If the answer is not, do not doubt a second that you need an expat to run your China unit.

The highest difficulty an Expat manager has in China, especially if experienced in leading a Chinese team, it is actually to interact with the back office employees of his head quarters: accountants, export related staff, administration and, in the worst of cases, some management that hasn’t experienced working with other country colleagues and can get stressed when seeing some Chinese characters on a paper, forgets about time difference or provides technical drawings in a language which is not English nor Chinese.

How much time waste and how many potential mistakes can such a kind of company culture provoke with a Chinese management left alone leading its China unit? Time and mistakes leads obviously to increase in costs or in opportunities losses since “lead time” to complete tasks or actions significantly increases. Not to mention the effects on the company reputation in that market and its industry network. Expats can also bring fresh air at home, provided that the management is change-oriented, not reluctant to change.

In an unpredictable and volatile world such ours is getting now, what do you think will help the company to survive? In a diversified and complex world, diversity and complexity within the corporation should be welcomed, not avoided. Wouldn’t it be more profitable in a long term to make our whole company international, more colorful, than to reduce complexity? This can go in two senses: foreign management – or team – in China and internationally trained team in HQ. Individual preferences will make those resistant to change looking for a new environment that allows them to avoid change.

Your company will be more similar to the environment where it is moving into and will have access to more resources to find creative answers to new and unpredicted situations. A mixed and diversified team increases the openness to innovation and change providing more options through different ideas and focal angles of one problem as well as assures overall balance.

When it comes to brain storming, ideas, how to face the worldwide competition, different national culture will deal with the issue under a different perspective or goal. In the same way, each society has its own core value and belief that, inevitably will affect the leadership model and culture of the organization. Global interactions and cross-cultural exchanges are becoming a “new normal”. Having an international team can become a differentiating factor inside the organization increasing agility and broadening the opportunities.

A company as a social institution is, in the end, a small society. When composing such a team or in case of sending an expat to China as well as interacting with a Chinese manager, we should never forget that each culture has its own models and, in order to improve communication, interaction and, in the end, the company budget, we must know “the world of the others” that will participate to make our organization human environment.

Francis Fukuyama’s concept of “trust society” can be extended to the organization. The way in which the organization structures itself, appoints its leaders, define and provides clear systems to share and access the information at all level, can promote transparency and trust. The degree of knowledge within the organization about its human resources interaction, integration and trust between colleagues and toward the whole organization itself, can make the internationalization of that company part of its own identity. The alternative is a painful road that many times ends up in failure“.

Written by Rosanna Terminio.

If you wish to be advised on my next posts and to receive additional material and updates soon, please leave your email-address here.

FREE EXCLUSIVE REPORT

Discover the Secret Data about the Price War in the CYLINDER BUSINESS.

If you have any comments, input or observations, feel free to share them here. I’d be happy to know your thoughts.