GRS Blog

China Evening: Cambridge 100 Club Dinner

20/2/2012

The Directors of Global Regulatory Services (GRS) were invited by Professor Alan Barrell to join him at the Cambridge 100 Club’s third quarterly dinner of the 2011/12 season held at Jesus College in Cambridge on Thursday 16^th February

 

From left to right: Greer Deal (GRS), Professor Alan Barrell, Bobby Deal (GRS).  Photograph provided courtesy of Mike Crow.

 

The focus of the evening was on the opportunities and travails of doing business in and with China.

Professor Barrell’s interest in China, its history, people and culture are a major part of his life and work: he is Distinguished Guest Professor at Xiamen University; Visiting Professor at Shanghai College of Science and Technology and at the Fujian International School of Economics and Business, Fuzhou; and acts as Consultant to the China (Shanghai) Public Practicing Base for Entrepreneurs.  His speech focused on the many positive aspects China has to offer and he referred to the two Chinese characters ‘wei-chi’ which represent ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity’.  Alan’s message was that, yes, China does have issues which need to be resolved but that there is amazing opportunity.  Every time he visits China, he only hears people speak of opportunity whereas here in Europe we are bombarded every day with news that the Eurozone is in crisis.

 

wei-chi = crisis-opportunity

 

‘Crisis’ and ‘opportunity’ are also referred to in the Simpsons episode "Fear Of Flying" (Episode 2F08, 12/18/94) where Lisa Simpson tries to encourage Homer by saying that the Chinese use the same word for crisis and opportunity.  Homer then responds, "Ah, yes, crisitunity!"  May be this should be a new word for the West?

 

Some interesting facts about China:

• It is currently the No. 2 economy in the World and soon to be No. 1.
• In 8000 BC they were farming.
• In 7000 BC they were carving jade.
• In 4000 BC they were working with silk.
• In 3000 BC they were practising acupuncture.
• In the last few years, 450 million Chinese people have been moved out of poverty.
• It is moving from a manufacturing economy to an innovation economy and Research and Development.
• Five times more people than the population of the UK learn English in China

 

To illustrate the speed at which China has progressed, Alan relayed a story about Edward Heath’s visit to China when he was Prime Minister.  When Mr Heath visited China, the Chinese Government made it clear that they wanted to develop relations with the UK and they asked how China could help the UK.  Mr Heath’s response was that the UK didn’t have a Panda in London’s zoo.  The Chinese Premier gave the UK a Panda. 

 

A couple of years later, the UK Prime Minister returned to China.  The Chinese Premier asked how things were going. The response was “good but the Panda is a bit lonely so we’d like another one”.  The Chinese Premier said “yes you can have another one for $1 million”.  “But the last one was free” said the UK prime minister.  The response was “yes and now we’ve developed into state capitalism”!!

 

Brian Cox of Shelford Business Consultants Limited was the second after dinner speaker.  He has worked for several years running a manufacturing company in China, as well as a number of Chinese business owners and facilitators.  He provided an insider’s viewpoint of manufacturing in China including the pitfalls and the benefits.  In his opinion, China offers two distinct business opportunities:

• As one of the biggest and growing markets in the world for many products
• As a supply and manufacturing base

 

The very strong take home message from both speakers was that for anyone who is interested in working in or with China they must understand the culture and really get to know and understand the people.

 

Comment by Greer Deal, Director of Global Regulatory Services (GRS)