Clearly there’s a great deal of money to be made in Asia Pacific.

But do you know how many companies fail in Asia markets because they can’t interpret or relate to the culture in which they want to operate?

It’s astounding just how many — even the biggest name companies — make this elementary mistake.

And it’s a mistake that’s even more surprising because it only requires a moderate amount of awareness, commitment to the market and passion to put it right.

POOR MARKET FOCUS

Companies from Google to Walmart, Tesco to e-bay have failed in China for complex reasons, but principal among them has been inability to adapt to local needs and know the local culture.

Walmart’s “everyday low prices” is not a message likely to resonate with increasingly status-conscious Chinese middle class consumers.

The inability of e-bay to provide instant messaging like its rival Taobao was crucial in ensuring its demise in China’s extremely personal and relationships-based consumer world.

Home Depot attempted to bring the concept of DIY to a culture where labour was so cheap a handyman could easily be hired. And so on.

All over Asia, there are cultural, local knowledge and consumer tastes to take into consideration. Would you sell a food product in mixed-culture Singapore in the same way you would sell it in largely Chinese Taiwan, for example?

Almost certainly not.

Culture is about much more than whether to use chopsticks or not or how to present your business card correctly. It’s about how people see themselves and their world.

If you as a business can’t get inside this mindset – and into a more emotional way of thinking — your brand and products will simply not sell in Asia.

‘CONNECTED TO THE GROUND’

Earlier this year I was at the Asia Financial Forum in Hong Kong, where Robin Li, the Chairman of Chinese search engine Baidu, was talking about the failure of Google in China.

Rather than dwell on the complex nature of Google’s fall from grace and relations with the Chinese government, he focused on the cultural mistakes Google made when entering the China market.

He pointed out that foreign internet companies had not done well in China because they did not study China as an independent market. To be competitive, he said, it was vital to understand the local culture.

Even more relevant, he added, was what he called “being connected to the ground”. If you don’t understand local circumstances and localize, it’s almost impossible to survive in the very competitive markets of Asia.

SONG OF THE HARVEST

More than a decade ago there was a website called “Duo Lai Mi” in China, meaning roughly “more rice to come”, which was the name chosen by a certain foreign company for its operations China because the country was considered to be still agricultural. They thought it would be a relevant and attractive catchword.

At that time there were only 10-20 million netizens in China. However, they were far from starving and they felt no connection at all to the name! In fact, they felt insulted by the marketing message: “I am not a farmer!” they thought. “Why would this foreigner think I am or that more rice to come was my aspiration?’

In 2005, Google made exactly the same mistake. The Chinese name chosen for Google is “Gu-Ge”, which can still be searched on Baidu. “Gu” means grain, and “Ge’ means a song. So taken together the words mean “song of the harvest”.

In other words, Google felt people would be happy to be promised a good harvest. But by that time the netizens of China couldn’t care less about the harvest. They felt far removed from agriculture.

So the founder of Baidu’s conclusion was clear: if you just assume things about doing business in China, the likelihood of failure is very high. And he might have added, it’s also very high across the whole of Asia.

That is why US and European business schools are now placing greater emphasis on educating future executives about Asian business culture and on good information about Asia.

Misnamin[...]

We all have a fear of making mistakes in public, especially at a business occasion like a dinner or a reception.

Social and cultural faux pas can niggle with us long after the event. ‘Why didn’t we get that right?’ we say to ourselves. ‘Did I look bad?’

If that’s true in our own societies, how much truer it is in cultures that we don’t know very well. Fear of giving the wrong impression, not understanding quite what’s going on, worry about giving offence can seize us up.

Or it can make us absurdly over-compensate by trying to do EVERYTHING right.

A SOCIAL MINEFIELD 

In most of Asia’s business cultures, there are formal rules of etiquette, hierarchy (who enters the room first at a business meeting?), and there is an emphasis on the communal and harmonious – not sticking out as too individual or demanding, not being overtly critical, not insisting on an immediate yes or no, and so on.

There are also a lot of pleasant and gracious traditions that can freak us out. What do you do when someone bows as in Japan and Korea, or inclines the head respectfully in China, or gives us the Buddhist folded hands greeting in Thailand.

Sometimes it seems to the newcomer (or the old Asia hand) that Asia is a minefield of challenges that conspire to make us feel out of our depth. But what we really want to do as businesspeople is be accepted, merge in, show respect and build trusting relationships.

Or at least that’s what we should be doing.

The truth is that if you want to succeed in business in Asia, you have to be ready to make mistakes.

In fact, making mistakes is good because you learn from them and YOU EARN RESPECT (even affection) from trying to fit in.

TRYING TOO HARD

I was recently in a hotel lobby in Bangkok and observed a newly arriving Western businessman being greeted by the Manager at the check-in counter.

The usual greeting in many Thai quality hotels is for the new arrival to receive a garland of orchids around the neck presented by a gracious female member of staff in traditional dress.

On this occasion, the VIP businessman became slightly flustered but mindful of the right etiquette he attempted to accept the garland while at the same presenting his business card in the right way to the Manager.

Perhaps he had just arrived from Japan but he added to the formalities a rather low bow that he must have recently learned.

The result was that he keeled over right there in the lobby like Mr. Bean and landed flat on his face. He was terribly embarrassed but he was quickly picked up by the smiling staff.

They rearranged his garland and took his briefcase, and the Manager ordered him a welcome cocktail.

I later noticed that he was given special treatment by the staff and management. They clearly admired the way he had tried to observe all the etiquette and traditions at the same time!

The lesson is simple. The attempt to join in Asian cultures is much admired. Make all the mistakes you want. You will learn from them – and above all you will be much appreciated for your efforts to show respect and fit in.

PODCAST VIDEO

The post Making Mistakes In Asia Is Good appeared first on David Clive Price.

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What’s the difference between saving face in the Asian style and our more Western idea of simply being polite?

I was thinking about this recently when I was at an event, which I co-sponsored, at London’s Asia House.

It was an evening event on ‘South Korea’s Economy in Transition’ and my new book on South Korea – Phoenix Rising: A Journey Through South Korea – was featured at the end of the discussion, which included an address by the Korean ambassador, a keynote speaker, and a panel of distinguished experts.

I am a great admirer of Asia House and all it does to promote economic, social and cultural links between Asia and the UK. It is a magnificent institution with a great team.

But one part of an otherwise highly successful and informative evening made me slightly uncomfortable. One of the panelists from a renowned bank with deep roots in Asia took the opportunity to launch into a lengthy critique of the financial sector and regulation in South Korea.

This was of course his right, and indeed his job as an expert on the issue. However, it was the way the critique was delivered that made me feel uncomfortable, and about halfway through his lengthy comments I realized why.

THE ASIAN WAY

Perhaps I have been in Asia too long and have become ‘Asianised’ but the room was half-full of Asian guests, and a sizeable contingent from the South Korean embassy was present, including the commercial attaché. They were there to celebrate UK-Korea links as well as to hear the discussion.

As the critical comments continued, I looked round to see how they were reacting. They didn’t show any perceptible emotion, so perhaps I was simply being over-sensitive. But deep down I knew that I wasn’t.

Direct critiques are not usual in public settings in Asia and are definitely not popular.

The notion of ‘saving face’ and not ‘losing face’ is so instinctive and ingrained in the Asia Pacific region that it governs almost all aspects of relationships, particularly business relationships.

And because business is so personal, and not based immediately on transactions, contracts, the bottom line and so on, it is vital that Western business people understand this notion of face.

HOW TO SAVE FACE

Being super-direct and to the point, making a clear and decisive statement, demanding a quick yes or no as we are prone to do in our immediate results culture, is often counter-productive in Asia.

And so too is breaking up the surface harmony of things. Of course, it is important to make your point but it’s always better to go ‘round to work’ (as Polonius said), simply because the nature of Asia cultures is to be indirect and oblique, especially in public settings.

My own Asianised way of making the panelist’s point may have been to draw parallels with regulation in different parts of the world, make appreciative points about my bank’s welcome in South Korea and the strength and skills of the Korean workforce.

I might then have added some questions to debate for Western banks in Korea (or in other parts of Asia).

NOT KNOWING IT ALL

This would have been a typically Asian way of raising the subject without making your counterparts lose face. Because if they do lose face, relationships can easily be damaged, deals can fall through – which seemed to be the case of the bank in question – and good relations are compromised.

Most of all, observing the conventions of face avoids the Westerner, expatriate or foreigner coming over as knowing it all, coming from a more sophisticated or ‘global’ business background, or even looking down on their Asian counterparts as not being up to the job, or fast enough, or organized enough.

You see what a quicksand face is? It’s not politeness in our sense, or even discretion. It’s respect for your potential partner, and a readiness to accept that other rules and ways of doing business are possible and you are ready to learn them.

I finished off the evening feeling glad that it had all gone so well, and that the Korean guests we[...]

I was recently back in Seoul after publishing Phoenix Rising: A Journey Through South Korea and like all authors after publishing a book, I wanted to find out if what I had discovered and written about almost a year ago still held true.

Was This Really Seoul?

I stayed in a 4-star hotel in Myeongdong, near the Cathedral where all the riots and protests against the military government took place in the 1980’s but also very close to the largely middle class shopping district.

The middle-class atmosphere of the shopping avenues hadn’t changed much, except perhaps the district looked even more like an upscale shopping quarter in any country of the world: designer shops, boutiques, Starbucks, international labels, department stores. What seemed to be missing was the feel of the traditional, rather eccentric, do-it-yourself Seoul I knew when I first lived there – and on many subsequent visits.

It was the same in the hotel. A sort of international, airport-style architecture and design had taken over. The tourist services were in place but they were perfunctory and utilitarian.

There was a distinct lack of character in the business lounge or hotel lobby and much less of the rather nutty, barely English speaking character of the Koreans I used to know in my traditional inns (yogwan) of the past with their bedding on the heated floor and their often uproarious maids and tipsy male porters.

To sum up, this area of Seoul had become not so much cutting edge (the Seoul portrayed in many Korean movies and TV dramas) as boring. There was an old-fashioned theatre, yes, offering a Korean ‘entertainment’ show for tourists in English. There were Korean-style barbecue restaurants. But the prices were very high for food that looked, frankly, like barbecued meat anywhere in the world.

Searching For The Authentic Korea

On that first day I wandered around the area looking for something authentically Korean – a real hot springs/spa and massage place, for example, of the kind I used to frequent or perhaps a lively local bar offering soju (potato liquor), makkolli (cloudy rice wine) and leek pancakes (jon), or a Buddhist-type restaurant with vegetarian side dishes (namul) and kimchi.

But I drew a blank. And so I took a deep breath and did what I always do in similar situations. I went on a hunt for the authentic.

And thank goodness it was still there!

Not very far away from the dull hotel and sleek avenues of Myeongdong with its perfectly turned out, white suit wearing shoppers and moisturized young people with their cosmetically enhanced faces, we found the traditional Korea-style street market of Namdaemun (South Gate).

All sorts of useful things for personal health or home use were on sale at Namdaemun. I bought a shopping trolley and a wooden back pounder with spikes from a very friendly, amused woman who showed me how to use it on various parts of my body to increase circulation.

I bought T-shirts and cheap jeans. I ate Korean street snacks sitting on a low stool at a table in the middle of the road. I found a wonderful Korean medicinal shop with reasonably priced Korean red ginseng paste to take home.

Beneath The Surface

Later, I went to one of Seoul’s most famous Buddhist restaurants hidden in a back street near the Insadong arts and crafts center. Here I was served twenty-eight vegetarian dishes in a traditional inn stuffed with historical and artistic Koreana (and a bit of Myanmarana in the shape of Burmese puppets!). The dishes were exquisite and included my favorite spicy todok root – like marinated ginseng – and a sour plum wine that I ordered twice.

Continuing on my Buddhist way, I found the main Chogye temple of Seoul in its dusty courtyard where I went and prostrated myself many times in front of the golden shining face of Buddha – alongside many female supplicants.

They didn’t bat an eyelid at the presence of a white foreigner in their midst. They made smiling room for me on the matted floor as the priest intoned the sutras an[...]

There is no doubt that China is currently undergoing social and economic changes that will have a profound effect on both China and the world. Information sharing is one of the most far-reaching of these changes. Some sources estimate that the number of Chinese citizens using social media exceeds 600 million: that is half the population of the country.

Even though most of these social media users were prevented by censorship from reading about the recent Hong Kong democracy protests, the more tech-minded were able to circumvent the system by using Virtual Private Networks. They belong to an increasingly sophisticated army of users of technology in this huge country.

INFORMATION SHARING

Despite autocratic-style rule from Beijing, an educated, enquiring and restless middle class is emerging in China. For example, there is strong growth in citizen journalism, and more widely ‘information sharing’ – a tool with enormous capacity for influence and change. China is also emerging as a global leader in mobile services and devices.

Ten Cent (owners of WeChat), Alibaba, Baidu and Weibo are just some of the major Chinese players in the digital world. This robust and very powerful network of mobile technology and social media providers is influencing what consumers are talking about, how they get information, how they find entertainment, socialise, connect and shop. Such market competitive or cultural intelligence trends are all connected and present an extraordinary new challenge, as well as a tremendous opportunity for foreign firms.

Gone are the days all that was enough to succeed in China business was to understand the guanxi (relationship) system and show patience and commitment. These values remain highly important, especially in more traditional forms of business and for the middle-aged and older generation. However, the new challenge – and opportunity – for Western businesses is to discover which companies are making the most of this space, what consumers are really talking about and needing.

China is experiencing tremendous growth in citizen journalism, and more broadly ‘information sharing’ – a tool with enormous capacity for influence and change, which must be more fully understood if it is to be successfully harnessed.

FROM INVENTION TO COPYING TO INNOVATION

Thousands of years ago, China was a center of invention and innovation – paper, gunpowder, the compass – but since opening up in the 1980’s, China has built a reputation rather like that of Japan in those pre-boom years: as an imitator, stealer and integrator of Western intellectual property. Japan lost this reputation through genuine innovation. So far China has not.

Until recently, that is. According to veteran China business expert Shaun Rein in his upcoming book, “The End of Copycat China”, most of the innovation is fairly incremental, or what he calls Stage 2 along the innovation curve. Chinese firms, he says, are innovating for China specifically and focusing on business model innovation rather than invention. But this is changing as real profits are to be made by focusing on innovation and as the legal climate gradually improves.

Rein points out that Steve Jobs at Apple did not really invent much — there were mobile phones and MP3 players long before the iPod and iPhone — but what made Jobs brilliant was his ability to improve on current offerings to meet unmet market demands. That, he says, is innovation at its finest and that is what Chinese firms are becoming good at.

Like Japan in the 1990’s, Chinese entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have woken up to the fact that in order to grow and compete globally, they can no longer simply rely on copying Western countries’ technologies and business models. Instead, they have to build their own innovative products for the Chinese market, and eventually innovate for the global market.

THE NEW CHALLENGE

If you transpose this ‘awakening’ to the social and political sphere, it is hard not to think that China’s growing[...]

As the Hong Kong protests for ‘true democracy’ (as opposed to the ‘nonimatory democracy’ the community has been offered) drag on towards an uneasy end, what can businesses learn from this experience of folly and stubbornness in one of the world’s leading financial centers?

First, that sticking to a plan and ignoring the facts on the ground – as the Chinese and Hong Kong governments have done persistently for years by ignoring quality of life issues in preference for promoting the interests of a narrow business élite closely connected to Beijing – will create irreconcilable differences that lead to possibly permanent political, social and economic instability.

Foreign businesses in Asia should always be aware of potential political and social volatility. Many Asian countries and their citizens are passionate about affronts to national identity, any perception of foreign economic exploitation (the flip side of globalization), and ongoing collusion between government and business interests that ignores the interests of ordinary people.

Political and Business Risks Are Closely Related

This need for social and political awareness on the part of Western companies is in addition to measures that should be taken to protect a company, SME or entrepreneur from legal, intellectual property and corruption risks. However, it should be underlined that these political and business risks are strongly related.

Asian countries that have the rule of law, strong governance, a relatively low level of corruption and transparent procedures for government contracts tend to attract the highest levels of foreign investment, business and entrepreneurial activity.

Strong governance mitigates the effects of the inevitable clash of cultures between Western and Asian ways of doing business. Immersing a Western company and its management in the local culture is much more likely to succeed when all the other guarantees of impartial business operations are there.

The March of Folly

The Hong Kong protests demonstrate what happens when governments – with the support of business – persist in an illogical strategy that has been decided beforehand and that actively damages their own self-interest.

An excellent article in the South China Morning Post by Peter Guy, a financial writer and former international banker, draws attention to this phenomenon of willful (and preventable) blindness by quoting Barbara Tuchman’s The March of Folly. This book examines why humans, especially governments, persist in doing such irrational and foolish things.

Ambition, she suggests, makes powerful people unwilling to change course, appear weak (the Hong Kong standoff between government and protestors/students is all about ‘face’) or support the greater good for their own benefit. As opposition mounts up, the wrong direction taken earlier is reinforced and codified because those in power don’t want to be seen to “lose”.

As evidence continues to grow that they have taken the wrong path, they are less and less wiling to admit defeat, which ultimately leads to much higher costs and eventual huge loss of face.

Rule of Law or Rule By Law?

As I watched the Hong Kong protests, this head-in-the-sand mentality seemed to be paramount. No one in power appeared to be considering the benefits of good governance allied to full representation. Yes, democracy breeds critics and messy, loud expressions of dissatisfaction of governments but it also produces the lifeblood of dignity, mutual tolerance and respect for institutions and the law that is vital for a flourishing financial and business centre.

It was revealing that the supremacy of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong came under threat in the latest edicts from China’s Communist Party (August 2014 White Paper) regarding Hong Kong’s governance.

No one who protested in Hong Kong in support of full democracy was challenging China’s sovereignty. They simply wanted to be governed by ministers of their own choosing, to have a robust and impartial jud[...]

Never mind the Chinese and Japanese, what’s it like doing business with the South Koreans? In some way, the inhabitants of South Korea are a bit of a mystery for Westerners.

For example, unlike other ‘Confucian’ societies in Asia, they are not oblique and indirect in their manner. They look you straight in the eye and at first sight seem rather stern (see Chapter 1 of my new book Phoenix Rising: A Journey Through South Korea).

However, under that forbidding exterior, South Koreans tend to be warm, amusing, tolerant and respectful. Yes, they are a bit formal with their bowing and their honorary titles, but one look at Korean TV and movies and pop music – and Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ – will tell you that they are far from conservative.

Their history of national suffering and survival has made them extremely straightforward and tough in their business dealings.

PANSORI AND FAMILY LIFE

One of the best examples of this aspect of their psyche is the historical form of storytelling called pansori. This form of sung narrative, usually by a woman holding a fan, is accompanied by a drummer and can last up to eight hours.

The whole performance consists of highly emotional outpourings of romance, separation and survival stories. The keening, yearning tone and determination to overcome life’s challenges are very much part of the Korean psyche – including their way of doing business.

And at the root of it all is the family. The family still dominates Korean social and business life. Many large Korean conglomerates as well as SMEs are family-run and -owned. Sometimes several generations live together under the same roof or nearby. Koreans have an inbred respect for their elders and ancestors.

They also have a very strong work ethic, averaging almost 2,200 working hours annually, which is among the very highest work rates in OECD membership countries.

DEVELOPING LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS

Successful foreign companies in Korea, including multi-nationals (MNCs), know the importance of establishing a local presence in the Korean market rather than relying on distributors or trying to simply transpose their products and brands to South Korea without tailoring them to the local culture, market needs and expectations.

This means that personal relationships in Korea are highly valued both socially and in business. A well-prepared MNC or SME or entrepreneur with a good guide at their side can achieve dynamic revenue growth by establishing a local presence in Korea, cultivating local partnerships and tailoring their brands to the individual Korean segments and markets.

This process of ‘glocalization’ – localizing global operations based on a country’s specific culture – is two-way. Some of the larger Korean companies, particularly those operating overseas, are adopting the Western style of doing business: becoming less ‘Confucian’ in hierarchy, using western position titles, offering an increasing role to women, recruiting more foreign industry experts.

BUSINESS KOREAN STYLE

However, in order to achieve success in the Korean market, Western companies need to develop Korean interpersonal skills and accept that Korean business decisions are not ultimately based on contracts and documents but rather on the relationships they have developed with their Korean counterparts.

For this, they need to know the business and social culture of Korea, its history of invasions and survival, its religions and traditions. These are the ‘psychological driver’ of Korea’s remarkable economic transformation from one of the poorest countries in the world in the 1960s to one of the richest and most dynamic now.

What are Korea’s major cultural traits? Oddly enough, modesty is a value that is highly revered and appreciated in Korean culture. Age and wisdom (the Confucian scholar tradition) are valued over hands-on experience. A well-coached Western executive will recognise that cultural flexibility has to be shown in business dealings as well as business common sense.

Many Weste[...]

The best way to approach the export of goods to China and to set up a profitable business there is to do your homework. This may sound obvious but it’s amazing how many foreign companies don’t take this essential first step.

Get quotes from a wide range of sources. I’m eternally advising clients to find an international freight forwarder that has offices in their city because one day they may need to go into that office and do some very hard banging on the table. With a partner in a distant city, you can easily lose that essential face-to-face, personal contact that makes a failing business into a successful one.

PERSONAL CONTACT, PRESENCE AND COMMITMENT

Personal contact, presence and commitment — these are the other essentials for doing business in China. According to the government advisory panels and market entry specialists, international business is all about establishing (and mastering) processes and procedures.

However in the case of China, it’s much more about human emotions and people, and above all their cultural assumptions and habits of mind. In fact, you could say it’s ALL about people, and almost nothing about systems, although senior executives of multinationals might disagree.

For example, the price for inland freight in China can range wildly from £150 to £600 for exactly the same piece of freight moving from the same point of departure to the same final destination.

There are other variables too: whether to choose exporting by ship or by air, whether to use sea containers or cargo planes, whether to select smaller packaging sizes that are more cost-effective. And so on.

However, If you are lucky or determined, you can get advice on all these issues from your government advisory body or your country’s embassy experts in China.

THE HOLISTIC APPROACH

What you can’t get advice about, because it is not prioritized, is the holistic approach that focuses on the personal aspects of China business – building long-term partners and local government relationships in China, developing your own ‘guanxi’ system of networks of obligation and trust, mastering mindset and cultural issues that will affect almost every aspect of your export business.

And don’t think you can monitor all this personal stuff and export procedures from your home country or by just relying on a local partner or fax of videoconferencing software.

You need to build a team, a whole network of partners that do different jobs and provide checks and balances against each other, and you need to start building it with patience and commitment from Day One.

Because the one aspect of business in China foreign companies most fail at – and are most scared about – is the reliance on the personal in China business. They believe the personal encourages corruption, IP theft, weak corporate governance, and all kinds of other legal problems.

They should think again. For hundreds of years, people have tried to determine in their minds what China should be. But it never works. China is what it is, not what you think it should be.

So if you’re going to work with business partners in China (or Taiwan or Hong Kong), you must try as hard as you can to get into their mindset and attitudes.

REPLACE FEAR AND SUSPICION WITH EMPATHY

You should note that the Chinese educational system still uses a certain amount of shaming and this naturally results in people who have a great aversion to being embarrassed.

Often a personal visit and respectful probing one on one — possibly in a relaxed social situation — can be a better way to solving problems. It fact, it’s always better to bring solutions with you to possible corruption or IP issues, and to learn how to be firm in a way that shows personal and cultural respect.

The Chinese government is pledged to steadily strengthening the rule of law in China, particularly of commercial law, and the kind of conspicuous consumption that leads to high-level corruption in government and business circles is being steadily reduced.

Chi[...]

Singapore has made great strides since independence from Britain in 1965, both as an economy and as a nation. In terms of purchasing power parity, Singapore has the third highest per capita income in the world.

There are slightly over 5 million people in Singapore, of which almost 3 million were born locally. The population is highly diverse; the majority is Chinese, and Malays and Indians form significant minorities. Reflecting this diversity, the country has four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. For business and politics, English is the language of choice.

SECRET #1: SAVING OR LOSING FACE – TREAD CAREFULLY

Face is what makes Singaporeans strive for harmonious relationships in life and in doing business in Singapore. Face can extend to family, ethnic background, school, company, and the nation itself. Although there is tolerance and encouragement of ethnic and religious activities, any hint of ethnic divisions is feared and avoided.

The emphasis on the common language of English, and the education system combine to make Singaporeans think of themselves as Singaporean first and of their ethnic background second. Face also extends beyond personal behaviour to inappropriate comments such as jokes with a sexual or political meaning.

Comments on national politics or religious issues are particularly to be avoided, as is any complaint about the laws. Some of these are quite surprising for Westerners, such as those against chewing gum, littering, spitting or jaywalking. But Singaporeans believe they are responsible for the high standards of order and cleanliness in this island nation. Don’t criticize.

SECRET #2: GET THOSE MEETINGS AND NEGOTIATIONS RIGHT!

Always make an appointment and arrive on time. If you are unavoidably late, telephone the person you are meeting before the meeting is scheduled to start. The most senior person in your team should be introduced first to his or her counterpart in the Singaporean group, since rank and age are observed in a strict chain of command. The group (company or department) is viewed as more important than the individual.

Long-standing personal relationships or the proper introductions will eventually assure you are tied into the network, which is often based on educational or ethnic links or simply working for the same company. These relationships take time to develop; don’t be impatient or show frustration.

SECRET #3: LEARN PATIENCE AND READ NON-VERBAL

Once you are recognized as part of the group, you will be accepted and expected to obey the unwritten rules of the group. Decisions are taken at the very top of the company based on consensus, possibly not by anyone seated in the room with you.

They will be based on rationality and the amount of information your Singaporean counterparts have been given. However, since a straightforward ‘no’ will be avoided to save face, it will not be immediately apparent what those decisions may be.

Much communication is non-verbal. You will have to closely watch the facial expressions and body language of people you work with for any indications.

Remember that Singaporeans are tough negotiators on price and deadlines. Only through patience and asking indirect questions (perhaps over a period of time) can progress be monitored and possible agreement ratified.

Don’t try to fill the silence after a question or an awkward pause after a presentation. Such pauses may indicate careful thought! Singaporeans believe that Westerners’ haste to answer questions shows thoughtlessness or even rudeness.

The post 3 Inside Secrets for Doing Business in Singapore appeared first on David Clive Price.

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Asia business consultant and speaker, revenue growth expert, best-selling author and coach, David Clive Price, shares his inside secrets to creating lucrative partnerships and opportunities in Asia business. Tune in for podcasts with weekly inspirational tips and powerful strategies to attract more of your Asia customers and clients.