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Getting "China Ready"What's driving your interest in China? Often, the answer that we hear when we ask this question is:
There are consistent "drivers" we hear inside these two answers. Both are driven by external forces, both are tactical and in both cases the underlying emotion is reluctance, or sometimes even fear, not enthusiasm. If you are "reluctantly" looking at China, if you are being "pushed" to China, or if you are just uncomfortable with doing business in China, you are not "China Ready". What do we mean by getting "China Ready"? There are some basic prerequisites that actually have nothing to do with doing business in China, because they are more fundamental. A "China Ready" Western business approaches business opportunities in China with a clear understanding of its own business objectives. It is committed to a strategic business plan. It can articulate its Mission and has a plan in place to accomplish that mission. If your company does not have its overall strategy defined and in place, it needs to do that before it starts thinking about doing business in China. Heading to China with hazy or poorly defined objectives is a recipe for wasted time, effort and money. Assuming your company has a well communicated Mission and Strategic Plan, but you are not sure how business opportunities in China figure in, how do you move to being "China Ready"? Starting with your Strategic Plan, you need to develop a business plan of specific objectives to accomplish in China, and from that, and a list of tactical activities that will lead to success in achieving the plan. You do this by overlaying conditions and business opportunities in China onto your strategic plan. For example, let's say your corporate strategic plan calls for growing revenues by expanding your customer base. But, your interest in China is currently concentrated on cost reduction by finding new sources for some expensive and critical components you are currently buying from a long-time supplier. Observation: your China tactics are not consistent with your strategic plan. Your interest in China is probably going to result in a lot of wasted time, effort and money because it is not aligned with one of your strategic objectives. It may or may not be worth doing from a tactical perspective, but it will almost certainly cost your company more than it is worth. And, while you are spending precious executive time, effort and talent on achieving this tactical benefit, you totally miss an opportunity to find new customers in China. "China Ready" companies will not make this kind of mistake. On the other hand, if your strategic plan calls for cost reductions at the production level of your product, trying to out-source individual products may still be a wrong tactic. "Reluctantly" looking for individual Chinese suppliers may or may not result in line item cost-savings. A company with a strong procurement capability including effective purchasing, quality control, logistics, and long supply chain management will do better. A company with these capabilities and a strategic plan focused on cost reduction will do better still. So, how will Chinafacturing Solutions help a company get "China Ready"? Here's what we won't do. We will not approach you with a list of packaged "been there-done that" solutions. Rather, we will:
Have a committed strategic business plan? Have an interest in doing business in China? Contact Chinafacturing Solutions to become China Ready. Chinafacturing Solutions will invest time to understand your corporate objectives. Chinafacturing Solutions will confirm an understanding of your business needs. Chinafacturing Solutions will develop and present a plan to you. Chinafacturing Solutions will help you implement the corporate strategy and you will be China Ready. |
