Building an Effective China Negotiating Team

Building Your China
Negotiating Team
Part 1: Planning
ChinaSolved
Spring 2013

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Steps to Building Your
China Negotiating Team
1. Planning
2. Training
3. Managing
Property of ChinaSolved. All Rights
Reserved. Copyright @2013
4

Plan for China
• China success won’t fit into your
existing plans.
• You need a new set of Best
Practices.
5

Train For China
• Train up for China.
– Multiple variables.
– Quality, Security
• Front line negotiators (sales, purchasing,
admin) need power to build relationships
– and to hit the brakes.
6

Manage the China Deal Process
Manage the process and your
team.
• Delegate AND control.
• Don’t set your side up to fail.
• They need power and limits.
7

Characteristics of a
China-Ready
Negotiating Machine.
8

Characteristics
1. Strategic China Orientation
2. Team approach
3. Two Way Data Flows
9

China Requires New Strategy
• Don’t try to fit China into your existing
management framework.
– Start with a China goal system
– Audit your existing resources and capabilities.
– Develop a plan for bridging the gap.
Hint: Don’t treat China like “just another”
source or market.
10

China Goal System
• You need to develop a specific set of
goals for your China deal or
negotiation.
–Don’t use cookie-cutter business plans
–Don’t let Chinese sources, partners or
staff set your goals.
11

China Goal System
• SMART goals
– Specific
– Measurable
– Actionable
– Realistic
– Timely / Time Bound
12

Audit Your Resources
What resources will you allocate to China?
• Manpower (including YOU)
• Funds
• Time
• Bandwidth/Sanity
Budget for the BUSINESS and the
NEGOTIATION.
13

Goals – Resources =
Negotiation Variables
• The objective of your negotiating is to
bridge the gap between what you want to
end up with and what you have now is.
• Cost is not the only variable.
14

Prepare for the China Marathon,
not a NY-Style Sprint.
• Eyes on the prize – not the finish line.
– Deadlines are dead ends in China.
• The Chinese Side will work the clock to
pressure front line negotiators into bad
agreements.
– They know the boss is waiting for the contract.
15

End of Part 1.
Next Week: It Takes a Team
16

Building Your China
Negotiating Team
Part 2: Teamwork
ChinaSolved
Spring 2013

Team Approach
• China will require a matrix approach.
• Purchasing, sales and/or management at
varying levels.
• Support & Admin must be part of the mix
from the start.
18

A Matrix Approach
Admin* Finance Tech Legal
High X X
Middle X X X X
Front Line X X
* Includes Sales, Purchasing and/or
Supervisors, depending on the situation.
19

China Team Challenges
• Preparation
• Project management
• Information Flows
20

Negotiation Prep
• Agenda Setting
– Explicit
– Planned
– Negotiated
• Internally
• Externally
21

5 Internal Prep Questions
1. What do you want from this negotiation in the
short term?
2. What do you want in the longer term?
3. Does everyone (your team and theirs) have the
same idea of what “long term” and “short term”
means?
4. What does success look like?
5. What can go wrong?
22

Set Benchmarks in Advance
• Benchmarks
– Quality
• What objective measurements will you use?
• Who will check?
• When and where?
• What will happen if quality if unacceptable.
– IP Protection
• Who owns the China IP?
• What will be transferred?
• Who, What, When, How?
• Why? Because that’s what they really want from you.
23

Two Way Information Flows
• Be very realistic about the flow of information
within your organization.
• Develop ways of getting qualitative as well as
quantitative information from the front lines of
China negotiation.
• This is something managers lie to themselves
about at home.
– Expensive blunder to make in China.
– Stats, sales figures and quantitative data aren’t
enough.
24

China Negotiating Best Practices
• Multi-level, multi-departmental
teams.
• Send teams with proper authority.
– Monitor & get feedback from front lines.
• New rules – one-size-fits-all policies
often fail in China.
25

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26

About Andrew Hupert - Author
• 10+ years in China,
– 3 in Taiwan & HK
• Principal at Best Practices China ltd
– Specialist in US-China Negotiation
– Corporate training, consulting, and
project management
• Publisher of ChinaSolved.com and
ChineseNegotiation.com
• Author – Guanxi for the Busy
American and The Fragile Bridge
Full list of publications and
slideshows available on
www.AndrewHupert.com
27

Guanxi for the Busy American
• A professional’s guide to
building relationships in
China.
• Written for the Western
negotiator who needs
to transact and execute.
• Available on Kindle,
iBook and all major e-
formats.
28

The Fragile Bridge
• Conflict Management in
Chinese Business .
• Building relationships is
easy – maintaining
them is hard. Learn to
do it right.
• Available on Kindle,
iBook and all major e-
formats.
29

Thank You
30

Contact
www.ChinaSolved.com
www.ChineseNegotiation.com
Linkedin: ChinaSolved
YouTube Channel:
www.youtube.com/Chinasolved
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Building an Effective China Negotiating Team

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