China Law Blog - Top Ten China Business Survival Tips - Comments http://www.chinalawblog.com/ China Law for Business en Copyright 2011 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:48:10 -0800 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:48:10 -0800 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss David Scott Lewis (Startech Global Corporation, Tsinghua University) I'll add one: You'll likely have much more success in using China as a manufacturing base than you'll have in making a splash in the China market.

Selling into China: In general, a bad idea. OK if you're Motorola, IBM, Nokia. And there are examples of Western SMEs making a splash here. But statistical outliers do not make for a good business strategy. When entering the China market, don't expect much. Better yet, expect the worse.

Even when it comes to manufacturing, China is really best at final assembly (but not testing). Again, there are exceptions to this. But as a general rule, China is specifically about final assembly. From there, move in various other directions. But my point: Start with final assembly. Chinese are a lot cheaper than robots -- and I'm a robot advocate, with over seven years in the robotics and factory automation sector.

I wouldn't want angioplasty devices built by humans, but I don't need robots to assemble my pens, either.

]]> http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/10/10_china_business_survival_tip.html#7991 http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/10/10_china_business_survival_tip.html#7991 China Business Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:18:25 -0800 Dan Alex All: I had to share this link with you from www.china-artoflaw.com/blog. (Note to CLB: Sorry guys your not my only law blog..) Half way through this .ppt there is a hilariously funny slide that has both Bamby, Donald Rumsfeld and Kim Jung IL as a pictorial way of demonstrating some "pitfalls" of doing business in China.

Have a look, overall it is an OK presentation (I DO NOT WORK FOR THEM) and worth the look just for the comedic value!

]]> http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/10/10_china_business_survival_tip.html#7992 http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/10/10_china_business_survival_tip.html#7992 China Business Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:18:25 -0800 Dan Don Warrington My family business was active in China in the early 1980's. It always amazes me that, after all this time, many advice lists such as this are what we learned back then.

I have put online an account of our dealings in the offshore oil business at

http://www.vulcanhammer.info/china/

I hope you and your readers find it interesting. (I've seen the name of at least one business associate from then on your site.)

]]> http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/10/10_china_business_survival_tip.html#7993 http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/10/10_china_business_survival_tip.html#7993 China Business Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:18:25 -0800 Dan