Wisconsin CEO: China’s Business Culture Far Afield From America’s

Governor Scott Walker is scheduled to spend part of today meeting with businesses in Tianjin, China. The head of a Wisconsin company with offices there says it is a completely different business culture than America’s.

Dan Paulson’s company InVision has offices in Madison and Tianjin, population 12 million, where it helps growing businesses evaluate what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. He says part of that involves knowing how the Chinese think.

“There’s a difference between the way Chinese do business and the way we do business. And if you don’t understand that disconnect, it can be rather expensive if you go over there expecting you’re going to do things the same way you do them over here.”

For example, in manufacturing, he says frontline staff would be reluctant to report a problem for fear of making their bosses look bad.

“In China it’s all about saving face, so if you don’t want to make your boss look bad for fear that it’s going to be retribution on you, you tend not to say anything. So everyone kind of holds their breath or waits until somebody in upper management discovers there’s a problem and fixes it then breathes a sigh of relief that finally somebody took care of the issue.”

Paulson says part of any trade mission to China is building relationships, which he says is important. China is currently Wisconsin’s third largest export market. As wages and disposable income grow, Paulson says Wisconsin could do more business there.

“We’re seeing international brands come into the marketplace. People are willing to spend money on that; they want a sense of status about them.”

Paulson says Wisconsin could also learn from the aggressive approach of the Chinese, who set up specialized districts for different kinds of businesses, from information technology to agriculture. He says the United States tends to be much more cautious.