Cultivating Guanxi as a foreign investor strategy

Many Western companies are eager to enter China, the most populous market on earth, with 1.2 billion citizens. But doing business in China is complicated by the profound differences between Western and Chinese cultures. Success requires an understanding of China's unique business environment. Its most striking feature and the one that is most likely to undermine the efforts of foreign managers is guanxi. Developing and maintaining guanxi goes beyond gift-giving and favor exchanges. It requires building long-term mutual benefits, friendships and trust.