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Guanxi and Doing Business in China
By Mark L. Casey | January 22, 2008
I am a regular reader of Stratfor’s free newsletters and always find them to be well written, interesting, and relevant to my world. Fred Burton and Scott Stewart wrote an outstanding article on January 16, 2008 entitled “China: Guanxi and Corporate Security.”
Sourcing manufacturing from China has become both a necessity and an enigma for many companies. As with any interpersonal or interorganizational relationship, misunderstanding can occur if both parties do not make an effort to understand the background listening of the other party. When OEMs are considering outsourcing their manufacturing to China or any other region of the world, it is vital they educate themselves on the culture of that country and of the specific manufacturer, to the extent that is possible.
The cultural practice of guanxi (“gwan-shee”) is hard for the Western mind to grasp, which does not in any way change the reality of guanxi. Companies that do business in China ignore the reality of guanxi at their own peril.
A little more about one of the co-authors of the article — Fred Burton is a counterterrorism expert who has a fascinating new book hitting the bookstores entitled Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent.
Topics: China, Global Sourcing | 1 Comment »
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June 4th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
[...] Burton is a counterterrorism expert at http://www.stratfor.com. A link to one of his articles has already appeared on Artful Sourcing. He has a terrific new book hitting the bookstores entitled [...]