Anyone who has ever traveled during Spring Festival knows that even in the best of circumstances it is frustrating and difficult. Train tickets tend to sell out (often to hawkers who up the prices) and airports are crowded. Basically it’s like Thanksgiving in a country of nearly four times the population of the US.

This year’s blizzards have made a normally difficult situation nearly unbearable. Over at Managing the Dragon they do a good of conveying the problems the snows have caused for travel and potentially the economy, but for many Chinese the situation is more dangerous than simply making getting home tough. For people with not much money, living in places with rudimentary infrastructure, and often with no heat, this year’s blizzards have been nothing short of a disaster.

Hopefully you and your family are able to get out of town, if that’s where you are trying to head, or can stay warm if you are staying put. However, even if weather conditions are slowing you down or making you a little grumpy, please remember that AmCham members are fortunate to be a position where snow only inconveniences us, rather than putting us in severe peril.

If you would like to help out those in this country who are less fortunate than we are, please take a look at the list here of ways to donate.

Enjoy your holidays and stay safe and warm.

As founder and editor of Danwei.org, Jeremy Goldkorn is to English-language

China blogs what Sigmund Freud is to psychoanalysis. Father Goldkorn is not, however, known for his business acumen – even though he has it. Danwei.org started out as a hobby. It grew into a business eventually, but in a besieged Chinese industry: media. Mr. Goldkorn’s fluency not only in Chinese, but in structuring business arrangements, is what has enabled him to survive and thrive. Given his experience, it should come as no shock Mr. Goldkorn is moderating a session on partner management at China’s SME Challenge, sponsored by AmCham-China. The event takes place Friday, January 25, at China Resources Hotel. While he’ll be inclined to give his panelists the mic, here are some of this virtuoso’s thoughts on dealing with partners.

Lesson one: Avoid the joint venture It’s never easy working with someone else, especially in a joint venture. Mr. Goldkorn noted the cultural differences in play there. State-owned companies, or the many ones with similar cultures to them, easily clash with

U.S. and other foreign corporations.

That may be ok at the staff level, where leaders can help employees iron differences out, but partners at odds can spell disaster. In other words, the Danwei founder suggests avoiding the danwei, or Chinese work unit, at all costs. Lesson two: Court the WFOE Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprises (or WFOEs) are in Mr. Goldkorn’s mind the best foreign setups—when possible. In that case, there’s no answering to a Chinese partner. Not every industry, such as Mr. Goldkorn’s, can easily benefit from such investment vehicles. But if you get a WFOE opportunity, make it love at first sight. “I don’t see anything wrong with a WFOE,” Mr. Goldkorn said.

Lesson three: Find the workaround Get creative with your partnerships. Maybe you don’t need a company partner. Maybe you just need a good contract and can rely on another company to provide you with a needed service. “I have worked usually with contract relationships with Chinese companies,” Mr. Goldkorn said. Just make sure you own what you need to critically own. Mr. Goldkorn recalled one instance in which a foreign founder of a magazine was ousted by a Chinese partner.

Although the businessman started the magazine, he didn’t actually own it. He owned a consulting company, his wife owned an advertising company, and they were in contractual relationships with a Chinese company, which owned the magazine license, Mr. Goldkorn noted. That was a critical piece of property, however, and not having it eventually ended the businessman’s career with the magazine, according to Mr. Goldkorn.

 

Despite the horror stories, “In most industries you have to have workarounds to deal with inconvenient legislation, not just in the sensitive ones,” Mr. Goldkorn said.

 

 

AmCham Member Matt Young, editor & publisher, bizCult.com

This is the fourth post in a series discussing the upcoming China’s SME Challenge event

 

The American Chamber of Commerce in China held its third CEO forum of the year on November 1 at Beijing’s Swissotel. Richard Edelman, president and CEO of the award-winning PR firm Edelman, spoke about the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social engagement in the global marketplace.  As the top man at the world’s largest independent public relations firm, Edelman is well versed in the meaning and significance of CSR. He gave the fifty-person audience insights into ways of building reputations as good corporate citizens while achieving business goals.  

Edelman said that CSR is not about philanthropy. It is about business and being socially responsible helps to improve a brand’s reputation, which in turn improves its business. 

“You can’t buy your reputation. You have to act to build your reputation. Be it, don’t buy it,” says Edelman.¼br> He went on to talk about the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and how for-profit companies can work with them.  The discussion also surveyed changes in China’s international business climate including the growth in the number of NGOs and the Chinese government’s focus on social issues, such as environmental protection and conservation. ¼br> A lively Q&A session followed Edelman’s speech with many AmCham-China members offering examples from their own business dealings about ways of addressing the issue of CSR in China.¼/p>