Tim Clissold lives in infamy as author of Mr. China, a tale of foreign investment gone horribly – but humorously – wrong.

James McGregor is renowned as the Wall Street Journal’s former China bureau chief following certain notorious events – say – in the late 1980s.

The two traded China business blows, and 20/20 hindsight, at the Beijing Bookworm last night.

Listen to our Powwow podcast of their provocative dialogue, or just check a few bullets of wisdom from their veteran China years:

• Read the Five Year Plan. The government gives you “a diagram every five years on what they care about,” Mr. McGregor said. “This five years we’re going to develop energy and do it this way, that five years we’re going to do that. Figure out how the argument for your business at least pretends to follow that [plan].”
• The joint venture is fundamentally flawed, Mr. Clissold said. If Daimler and Chrysler, and even Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter have a hard time merging, you can be sure you’ll have problems with a China partner.
• Don’t be an evangelical jackass. “The thing that is tremendously important about being successful in china is accepting it for what it is,” Mr. Clissold said.
• Chinese are not so mysterious, Mr. McGregor said. Ask yourself, who really is the person you’re negotiating with and what motivates them? It could be politics. It could be very personal. It’s all related to human nature.
• Making money isn’t a good enough reason to be here, Mr. McGregor said. You have to contribute to the development of China if you really want to succeed.
• Think small and medium-sized enterprise has it bad? Multinationals learn the hardest lessons. They often go through “three brick walls and have to start over again,” Mr. McGregor said.

    Channel: Local Wisdom     |