A phone call from a Chinese national in November 2012 led to Leffler Simes Architects expanding into China. They met with a potential client who owned a large development company in northern China. Despite initial doubts, the architects visited China and returned with two large project deals. Since then, they have established an office in Beijing, secured additional work through Chinese partners and government support, and continued growing their presence in China through numerous visits and a dedicated Chinese marketing team.

1. What started with a
simple phone call
out of the blue one No-
vember morning 2012,
turned quickly into a
Chinese expansion of
Leffler Simes Architects.
How is that possible?
But yes, one simple
call has changed this
company in all sorts of
amazing, challenging
and yet slightly scary
ways.
Sitting here in Mel-
bourne, a call comes through from a
young Chinese National wandering
around one of Leffler’s Shopping Cen-
tres, The IKEA / Springvale Homemak-
er Centre here in Melbourne. He had
discovered the Architects and hence the
call.
Three hours into a meeting with Dr Liu
that afternoon, it is obvious that life was
about to change for LSA.
Dr Liu’s Father in Law owns a Property
Development / Construction Company
called Jiuxing Real Estate Development
Co Ltd. They were into their fourth
large development in Anshan, Liaoning,
Northern China and had no real confi-
dence in their local Architects.
We were asked if we would like to help
them out. !
Is this really happening, I ask myself
that November morning.
November 2012 to February 2013
A few months of general email chit
chat between myself and Zhen ( we
are well and truly friends by this stage),
exchanging ideas and ways to move
forward.
February 2013
A single call to Managing Director, Chris
Goodman in February 2013, to convince
him that this is worth exploring.
Well if you know Chris, his excitement
is infectious and you now that he is
already booking flights and hotels before
you put the phone down. Two words
spring to mind. “wing it “. Which is exact-
ly what we did. Rocking up to Anshan, a
city of some 4 Million people, very close
to the North Korean Border to meet our
potential Clients.
An amazing experience for two Archi-
tects from Australia, who had always
thought about the possibilities of Chi-
na, but just hadn’t had the chance to
explore to date.
We arrive back in Australia a week later
with two large projects to design. !!
Way more than we had hoped for.
February 2013 to Present
What can only be described as a wild
ride of numerous China visits, the ex-
citement of designing our first Chinese
Projects, being overwhelmed by the po-
tential that is China, and making some
incredible friends in the process.
With our great team here at Leffler
Simes, all very enthusiastic and eager
to make it work, we immediately altered
our business, a dedicated Chinese LSA
Magazine, Chinese Business Cards,
Chinese Marketing Materials, Voiceo-
vers in Mandarin, etc.
Our drawings were leaving the office
bilingual, with the assistance of our
many Chinese speakers already in the
company.
How amazing was that to see, the whole
office all working together to make this
happen.
We were slowly being introduced to
new Clients in Anshan, through our very
positive existing Clients and before you
know it, we are designing two very large
local Kindergartens and a Music School.
To get our ducks aligned 2014 saw us
apply for a Chinese Business Entity A
Wholly Owned Foreign
Enterprise (WOFE )
which was approved
Nov 2014, after what
can only be described
as a mountain of
Chinese Paperwork.
Who knows what we
signed…! But with the
assistance of our Local
Accountants Lehman
Brown International,
Leffler Architects Beijing
Pty Ltd was born.
Our next step is to
secure further work
and that’s where we have been concen-
trating our Marketing, making sure we
access all the available resources.
We truly can’t believe the assistance
from so many people, all of whom are
making this exploration into China pos-
sible.
AUSTRADE. Through the Federal Gov-
ernment, with direct contacts through
the Australian Embassy in Beijing and
the Austrade Shenyang Office. I can’t
thank enough Roger Yuan and Fiona Yu
for all their help.
The Victorian Government with direct
contacts through the office in Beijing.
Huge thanks to Song Lei and his team
in Beijing for the many introductions that
they have made for us.
The Melbourne City Council, with their
Sister City arrangement with Tianjin. A
huge thank you to Dr Chaoyi Wei and
Bonnie Shao in Tianjin and also Stella
Zhang here in Melbourne.
AustCham. The Australian Business
Chamber in Beijing. A huge thanks
to Nick Coyle, Matt Contuzzi, Tash
Jamieson and Andrew Britz for all their
assistance.
ACBC. The Australian Chinese Busi-
ness Council here in Victoria. A huge
thank you to all in the Council who have
given us such solid assistance through-
out this last two years.
What an experience to date. All from a
single phone call out of the blue on that
November morning.
Stephen Evans
Director
Leffler Simes Architects PTY. LTD.
Leffler Architects Beijing PTY. LTD.
CALLFROMWHO…!LefflerSimesembracesChina
LEFFLER SIMES ARCHITECTS
MELBOURNE SYDNEY BRISBANE BEIJING
November morning 2012