My relatives were exporting goods from China for whole sale distribution in Vietnam

Richard Lee, Chairman MarketLink2Vietnam Corp.
Company website: www.marketlink2vietnam.com

Profile:
Who are your clients? foreign investors doing business in Vietnam
What is your mission? getting the best possible investment deals or limit the risks our clients are exposed to
What problem do you resolve? business matching, getting to know your partners, facilitate and support in negotiation, setting up business, applying for business license, risk mitigation, etc

What kind of problems between Western companies and Chinese manufacturers do you see?

Language barrier, different culture, different way of doing business, different expectation from business partners, difficult to control and mitigate risks

How a Western company can find a reliable Chinese supplier?

Doing a good research on the market, hiring a reliable provider of business intelligence, doing a careful search and check for reputation and red flags from current and former customers, etc

What is necessary for TOP managers of western companies for start-up business with China?

• learning from failure of the others, getting to know the partners, the competitors, the market supply and demand, the work force, the laws and regulations,
• take all potential risks into consideration, expect fierce competition from local businesses,

What are the risks while working with a Chinese manufacturers and with what they are related?

• others may mimic and infringe with copy right and intellectuals and produce similar products at much lower prices — so your joint venture may have to compete for market share at your export destination against buddy of your good biz partner
• the same producer can offer same products with different brand to different competitors in the same country for different prices, thus expect other agents to follow your suit and compete against you
• other risk may be vary with size and frequency of orders as well as currency fluctuation

What kind of advice could you give to Western companies: how to effectively sell Chinese products?

China is the production line for the world, many of the made — in — China goods is gaining more on quality and acceptance by international buyers with low budget.
Finding the right products for the right market niche is important.
Suppliers from other country cannot match them at variety and instant update of design and low pricing, if one can find the right supplier.

How usually do you prefer to conduct negotiations?

Language barrier may make it difficult especially when going for producers of lower pricing goods from smaller cities, meeting face to face, visiting production lines and bargain hard
International sale manager is good enough, but knowing directors and contacting them may also help.

Could you tell us a short interesting story from your experience, which shows difference of the Chinese and Western business culture?

Western companies stick to their rules and their country’s regulations.

Chinese partners can compete better because of the economy of scale.

Chinese partners take risk and are much more flexible in pleasing their customers.

But Chinese partners may also help your competitors knowingly or not.

What would you like to tell to our audience?

Do a good due diligence work to find the right partner. Having good legal binding agreement to minimize the risk being exposed to. Having plan for action in place to make sure your intellectual property is safeguarded.

What are you think about it? Please  leave a response in comment….