Why do you need your own team in China?
Handling operations by yourself from across the ocean while dealing with culture, language gaps, and time zones is not very easy. It can be difficult to verify that the information you receive is reliable and coming to you in real time. For customers, being able to trust this information brings peace of mind.
It’s not possible to make sense of the information you hear and see remotely without relying on a trustworthy agent that will convey your questions and push for acceptable answers.
Sending your own people is not always possible every time you need to, and Chinese team building is something that requires skills and know-how. You need to know that support is trustworthy and available when you need it. All these are extremely difficult when you don’t have a person or a team in China whose interests are aligned with yours.
What are the most used solutions?
Some companies commit very little resources towards operating businesses in China. Their managers can afford to fly once or twice a year, spend a week or two traveling between factories, and verify the operation’s success for themselves. Other companies have an extensive amount of business in China that makes opening a company and hiring a dedicated full-time team specializing in China business services a viable economic solution. These companies must ensure that they are fully considering the Chinese team building process before hiring personnel and that they have all the necessary skills in-house.
The magnitude of most businesses places them somewhere between the two sizes mentioned above. On one hand, two trips to China are not enough to cover all of a business’ needs. Continuous trips are very expensive, degrade the inspection teams frequenting China, and impedes their progress in completing home office projects. On the other hand, setting up a company in China and hiring a dedicated team can get very expensive. Chinese team building requires both money and time, resources that should be considered when managing a team from another culture thousands of miles away.
The challenges involved in managing an offshore company is a whole different topic. For now, let us just say that out of control costs, keeping a low turnover, and maintaining morale and motivation are just a few of those challenges. Not to mention there is a risk of hiring non-loyal and unethical employees that become foes instead of indispensable resources.
Managing a team in China: Challenges
Managing a team that comes from a completely different culture, is a big challenge
Foreign companies operating in China, have a few approaches for operating their business in China. Some choose to frequently fly teams of people to China; others make an effort to open a very small office with a very small team in China.
A third approach to dealing with these challenges is outsourcing your company’s presence in China to a third party China business services provider you trust due to their capabilities and their ethics. Some organizations outsource very specific tasks like quality control and factory auditing. Others pay manufacturing agents a monthly fee to follow up their orders and coordinate shipments. No matter which approach your business takes, trust is a key component.
If you fly in your own employees, you must trust them to not only diligently perform their duties but also know their way around China. This requires the capability to communicate effectively with their Chinese counterparts and correctly decipher what they see and hear despite culture and language gaps. If you open your own company, you have to trust your local team to be ethical, guard your resources, and send you reliable reports. And if you choose to work with third party China business service providers, you have to trust them to put their knowledge and skills to work to your advantage in order that you receive maximum value at minimum cost and time.
Managing a team that comes from a different culture, in their home country is very challenging. codes of behavior and etiquette are different.
Without the right experience, red flags can go unnoticed.
If these skills, experience, local knowledge are many times the difference between a motivated team to high turnover and ongoing bitterness
The Secret Sauce:
Have a capable and ethical team in China
Whose agenda is aligned with yours
So how will you know which option is the best for you?
Your solution must meet 4 criteria:
There are many non-Chinese professionals who have worked in China for many years and know it like that back of their hands. Other highly technical people who know nothing about Chinese culture, cannot communicate effectively with people within your manufacturer's organization. They will definitely be able to let you know what is wrong with the production process, but at times they may not be able to convince the factory to make changes and improve product quality because they don’t know how things work in China.
Your full-time local employees may have valuable local industry knowledge and relevant China experience, but sustaining the infrastructure needed to enable them to work for you (registered company, company admin, office space, employee benefits) can get very expensive, and could require a lot of your time and attention.
If your people back home have limited China experience and frequently flying them to China costs too much; if hiring a full time China team and the necessary infrastructure required to allow them to work legally for you is too expensive; and if working directly with your factories and getting net factory prices are things you feel you can’t compromise on, then you should consider finding an experienced China-based service provider. You should consider finding a service provider that is able to execute tasks on your behalf, is reputable and has the kind of references that will make you feel comfortable.
CSO is uniquely formatted to act as your team in China; your extension on the ground. Our business model aligns our interests with those of our clients. We do not take commissions, not from you and definitely not from your suppliers. We do not add any components to the factory’s price and do not prevent you from speaking to the manufacturer directly. On the contrary, we encourage you to deal with your factory directly and become as independent as possible in China within the shortest time frame.
Who is this service for?
This service is designed for non-Chinese companies who are currently producing or are planning on manufacturing their product in China
It is for companies in search of factories with the ability to manufacture a great quality product at a competitive price.
It is also designed for companies that meet the following criteria:
We realize that our customers have dynamic businesses prone to changing over time. This is why they need a dynamic and flexible team to work with them. We designed this service for SME’s that have a small or no office in China. We will provide your business with a professional and experienced multifunctional team with extensive local knowledge capable of supporting your company with a wide array of changing tasks. Our team will quickly learn and adhere to your preferred working style; you can take comfort knowing that your company won’t have to repeatedly reteach your operational methods.
Here at CSO, we let you focus on the big picture of growing your business, by managing the stress and time you have to invest in the nuts and bolts of operating in China. We designed this service keeping in mind, that for the vast majority of our clients, the manufacturing of their products is a very important issue; but it cannot take up too many resources, and it has to be managed in a way that lets our customers focus on growing their business.
This service is also suitable for bigger companies, with a large team in China that is dedicated to nonoperational tasks, such as sales and marketing.
Service Packages
We offer two service packages to give you full control over YOUR costs
CLICK ON THE SERVICE NAME TO LEARN MORE
This service package is designed for companies who need our support for a specific task from beginning to end.
Our assistance can be rendered from either the office or a location of your choice inside China.
This service package is designed for companies who need support handling routine needs a few days every month.
Just like the project package, our assistance can be provided by the office or at an assigned location inside China.
- Tailor made supply-chain services
- Direct contact with your manufacturer
- A defined beginning and and end
- Weekly progress reports
- 30 days advanced notice
- Minimum 3 months
PROJECT
Min $2000
- Tailor made supply-chain services
- Direct contact with your manufacturer
- A defined beginning and and end
- Weekly progress reports
- 30 days advanced notice
- Minimum 3 months
ONGOING
Min $1500/M
- Tailor made supply-chain services
- Direct contact with your manufacturer
- A defined beginning and and end
- Weekly progress reports
- 30 days advanced notice
- Minimum 3 months
We Have Enjoyed Helping These Clients
Like always, we keep things simple
How It Works
Fill out the “Your Team In China” form. Please be as detailed as possible
Indicate on the form if you are interested in the "Project" or "Ongoing" service
Send us the form.
We may ask you a few questions if the need arises
If you are interested in the Project service only, we will follow this process:
If you are interested in the Ongoing service, we will follow this process:
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