REFLECTION – VISUALIZATION

Challenge selection

Visualization is the tool I have been using the last year to achieve a share under-

standing with some of my clients.

I work in a representative office of a Spanish law firm in Shanghai as a Spanish

tax lawyer. Although in China I advise on many Spanish tax related issues my

expertise is international taxation on intangible assets cross border transactions.

One of the first things I realized when I started this professional adventure was

that the players involved in my daily work life changed. In Spain, I used to work

together with in-house lawyers but in China I work with the engineers who cre-

ate/develop/use the intangibles.

After a couple of meetings I became aware of the following reality: lawyers have

our own way of thinking and talking, and no one understand us. Therefore, I

started using visualization to communicate with the engineers.

Symbols, colors and numbers in PPTs and blackboards are, nowadays, my best

allies to communicate with some of my clients.

Application

I usually start the process by understanding the intangible asset and so no one

better than the engineers can help me. This approach usually involves a guided

visit to my client´s labs and/or production plants and meetings with the engineers.

When these meetings take place, I ask them to explain the intangible as well as

its development process with three objectives: (i) start using visualization –they

need to be creative and patient to explain an intangible asset without using a non-

technical approach; (ii) loose the fear to ask –since I ask many questions that are

evident for them but not for me they do not feel fear to later ask me about taxation;

and (iii) show up that lawyers and engineers talk a different language and, as a

consequence, we need a language we both understand.

Before drafting any contract or endless memorandum, I prepare a PPT with sym-

bols, colors and numbers showing what I understood about the intangible and the

main tax issues connected with the transaction. The main purpose of the PPT is

to explain international taxation in a way that it can be easily understood by an

engineer so the team understand what I need from their side and we can work

together in the “design” of a structure or a strategy. After the PPT delivery, we

sometimes meet and discuss not only taking into account the intangible but also

its taxation.

Insight & approach

What I have learned by using this tool is that work is much easier when all players

understand all the issues involved and that the “visualization effort” is well re-

ceived by all the players. Engineers are more proactive and are happy to further

explain the intangible or its creation process because they understand the reasons

why this information is key for tax purposes.

Since I discovered that a common language help to share insights, I am working

on presentations and guides that show legal and tax concepts in a non-technical

way because not all our clients are lawyers and our services should be more cus-

tomer focus. My idea is not only provide them with these presentations and guides

but also have a training session in which the Q&A would be the main element.

