Establish an itinerary
Don’t let reports of frenetic wheelings and dealings in the Asian
market fool you. When you cross the Atlantic, Hill says things have
a way of slowing down. Meetings suddenly last twice as long. A 30-minute commute suddenly takes an hour or an hour and an half or
two hours. And lunch suddenly becomes an all-afternoon affair.
Whatever the reasons for this deceleration in the time continuum —
Hill cites cultural custom and overwhelmed infrastructure — the
important thing is to plan accordingly. With so little time to spare, it’s
imperative to devise your schedule before you even buy your plane
ticket.
“You need to really be organized in your thought process before
you go over there,” Hill says. “You need to have sat with your advisers and a team in your own business and have thought about what
you’re trying to accomplish, who you should be meeting with,
what meetings you need to set up in advance.”
If you run a law firm, for example, and are looking to establish a
beachhead office, set up meetings with leaders of similarly sized
firms in China to discuss options in various regions. If you’re looking to build a factory, review logistics before deciding what industrial zones to tour.
“What’s the highway system like?” Hill says. “What’s the rail system like? What incentives can the local industrial give you if you
build in their industrial zone?”
Obviously, such planning doesn’t guarantee definitive results.
You may have eight meetings with contacts in numerous office
buildings in Shanghai, only to find that your business is better suited for the political climate in Beijing.
The point is, have a solid plan ahead of time.
“Never go over there on an ad hoc basis,” Hill says. “That’s a huge
mistake. You should do some of that homework first.”
In a similar vein, you can’t expect to get everything done in your
first trip.
“This isn’t just one quick trip,” he says. “It’s not seven days and
you’re coming back.”
Overseas expansion is a long and tedious affair. The process
isn’t about finding the quick solution. It’s about finding the best
solution. If you practice due diligence on the front end and ask
for directions before you begin the journey, you should be able to
avoid a lot of the obstacles along the way.
“When people are over there and come back and say, ‘I don’t
know where to get started,’ the fact is that they should have had
a better road map before they went over there of what they
wanted to get done,” Hill says. “That’s a matter of meeting with
people who are very experienced in doing business in China and
doing that work, so when you go over there, your time is very
well spent.”
HOW TO REACH: Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP, (216) 363-4500 or www.bfca.com