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The 3 Things To Keep In Mind On Your First Business Trip To China

Janet Carmosky, President of China Prospects Inc gives 3 important tips on making the most of your first business trip to China.

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This China business podcast was brought to you by The China Business Show and wsRadio.com.

About Janet Carmosky

Janet is a career China business specialist who brings China executional competency and strategic counsel to foreign invested businesses, and similarly advises Chinese government organizations on effective international communications and growth strategies.

After earning a degree in Chinese studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985, Janet moved to Xi’an, married a Chinese man and spent the next 18 years - as Janet Zhang - living and doing business in China. During this time, spent mainly in Xi’an, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, with sabbaticals in Washington D.C. and Silicon Valley, she developed her extensive knowledge of China’s commercial landscape and the patterns of the US-China economic relationship.

Fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, she spent the 1980’s in trading, sourcing and buying agency projects before moving into strategy consulting with Coopers & Lybrand in Shanghai. Moving for the next 15 years between operations - mainly in China’s retail sector - and consulting, Janet held senior management positions in private equity (VP of Richina Capital), systems integration (COO, Web Connection/Chinadotcom Shanghai) and public relations (Director, Burson-Marsteller Shanghai) before moving back to the United States in 2003 to help integrate PR Newswire’s China operations into their USA base.

She has written for Economist publications, authored an award-winning case for IMD and the Chinese language Harvard Business Review, and written essays for travel publisher Odyssey Guides. She speaks often - particularly to organizations new to the US-China business - on how to understand and align with, rather than struggle against, the cultural and economic forces that typically frustrate executives on both sides of the divide.

Below please find the transcribed interview:

Welcome Back to Entrepreneur Magazine’s the China Business Show; Secrets of doing business in China.

CHRISTINE LU: Hi, I’m Christine Lu, a recurring piece of advice, our guests emphasize on this show is the need to spend some time on the ground in China if you are serious about doing business there. In our weekly reading between the line segments, we’ve got Janet Carmosky back, President of China Prospects Incorporated to talk about planning your first business trip to China. Janet welcome back!

JANET CARMOSKY: Always great to be here!

CHRISTINE LU: We’ve got a number of airlines, I was saying these days, with daily non- stop to Shanghai and Beijing so hopping on the actual flight to China doesn’t take much planning, but I think it is more about how to make the most of that first trip out there. For those listening, what are some key points you could touch upon?

JANET CARMOSKY: Well, I’ve been thinking about this (and I have been thinking about this) because it is an issue doesn’t change. If you are interested in China, there is no replacement for physically experiencing the country, you have to go. So, I have distilled it down to three points, but I have a preface to all of that. Number one: you do need a Visa, and Number two: You need to get your shots.

CHRISTINE LU: It is very important (leave it up to you to be candid about that). They’ll find out the hard way otherwise… But thanks for letting us know.

JANET CARMOSKY: Get a Visa, I’m taking off to China myself in a couple of weeks. I’ll be running down to the Chinese Consulate in New York If you get your Visa in person, it’s pretty fun because you’ll get an experience of (what at least the Chinese Consult in New York is like), it’s like being in China. The way the qs are met.

CHRISTINE LU: Right, you have a little taste of it

JANET CARMOSKY: Yeah and everyone is speaking Chinese around you it’s great. Beyond the Visa and the shots, you have to get your Hep shot for sure and a couple other things. It comes down to basically three things: Do your homework, and we have the internet and there are lots of resources, and I’d like to put a list of resources up onto the website.

CHRISTINE LU: Okay, great. Thechinabusinessshow.com for people who don’t know. We’ll have that on after the show. My number one would be do the research.

JANET CARMOSKY: Do the homework. I would primarily emphasize, two areas that I think are particularly critical to nail down before you go too far in your planning. Number one: Get a grip of China’s geography. I think in the American mind, we know Beijing, we know Shanghai. People don’t usually know beyond that, quite honestly, so having some ability to look at the whole country, understand that there are these two top, top tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, (China’s third city) fits in there, and then there is a kind of another category we put in Chongquing an Shenzhen do, but China really has about 100 cities with a population of more then a million. China is largely a rural society, and I think if you want to understand the way China as a country moves, you have to get beyond the cities. Frankly you’ll end up doing most of your business in Beijing Shanghai or Guangzhou. That would be like planning a trip to the United States and only going to New York City.

CHRISTINE LU: Got it… So what’s number two?

JANET CARMOSKY: Number two is go with a Chinese capable person if you can. I m not sure because people like you and me we know lots of Chinese capable people, and business people tend to hire consultants, someone to go with me, show me the ropes, make sure I don’t get lost, make sure I get the most out of it. This is the short cut of all shortcuts.

CHRISTINE LU: And again this is actually different from – anyone can sign up for those tours, but they can spend six days in Shanghai and still not know what it’s like to do business there. So you are saying find them a Chinese capable person who can show them the non-tourism side of Shanghai… Got it…

JANET CARMOSKY: If at all possible, go independently and go with somebody who is going to take you around, preferably. That’s all I can say, you’ll get so much more out of it if you have someone who is Chinese language capable and who spent some time in the country.

CHRISTINE LU: Thirty seconds left. What’s number three?

JANET CARMOSKY: Manage your expectations, be willing to explore. Really be willing to open your eyes and listen. Take your camera, take a voice recorder. Record your impressions, being there. Because it is going to open up your eyes and you’ll want to hold on to those memories.

CHRISTINE LU: Yea, and that’s for the first trip, because by the time you get there there’s going to be a trip number two you’ll already be planning in your mind.

JANET CARMOSKY: Yeah, and it’s very critical, we all have our ideas about what China is going to be like, and it’s instructional to go back and listen to your voice recorder six to eight months later.

CHRISTINE LU: Thank you again and we’ll see you next week with us Janet.

JANET CARMOSKY: Bye!

CHRISTINE LU: If you have a China related question for Janet, just click the contact us button at the China Business Show.com and we’ll be happy to have her answer it on a future segment. Join us together next week, I’m Christine Lu.

About Janet Carmosky

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