Challenge:

I work in a business school in Europe and I am the manager of an annual event that  consists in awarding Chinese business people that through the internationalization of  their companies have contributed to the economic and social development not only of  their country, but of the world.

This award is the counterparty of an award of the Chinese government the “Friendship  Award” that is granted to those foreigners that have contributed to China’s development.  The Friendship Award was granted to one of the most important professors of the  business school I work in. This professor felt very grateful for the honor he received and  thought of doing something in return. That’s how the idea of the event I manage came  up.

Most probably China will be one of the first countries in getting past the Coronavirus  crisis. Also, in a few years China could be the first economy in the world. So, I believe this  event has a lot of potential that can be developed: more Chinese companies will establish  in Europe and, as a business school, we have a lot to offer to them. We need to attract  these companies and this event is a good resource: it usually has a lot of media coverage  (the Queen of our country presides the ceremony) and contributes to the image of  prestige and quality of our school.

I would like to create a “China Forum” addressed to Chinese companies established in  Spain that could be celebrated the same as the award granting event, with conferences  and networking activities in order to attract these companies to our school. This “China  Forum” could also have a continuity though the year with some other small events, both  online and face-to-face.

Selection:

After studying the evolution of Chinese investments in our country, contacting several  organizations related to China and a lot of brainstorming, we selected the learning launch  tool, to make a pilot of the “China forum” after the event awarding ceremony.

Application:

The award granting ceremony would take place in the morning. We planned to have the  “China Forum” in the afternoon.

We believed that contacts and networking were key to the success of these initiative. So,  we established contacts with:

-  The Chinese Embassy in our country.

-  Chinese Chambers of Commerce in our country.

-  Relevant Chinese companies established in our country.

-  Business associations related to China.

-  Scientific organizations focused on Chinese economy, society and culture.

We also invited the CEOs of some Chinese companies as speakers.

We also had some cross-divisional meetings with staff of our school in order to discuss  which would be the needs of these Chinese companies that will eventually come to our  country and which should be our offer to them. We draw some insights, but we  concluded that the most important thing was to network and interact with them, using  this first “China forum” to get an overview of this new client.

Insight:

The first “China Forum” was a good experience. Compared with the award granting event,  it had a smaller audience and less media coverage, but it was well-attended and the  participants gave good feedback.

We observed that Chinese business people tend to be more “shy” than Europeans and  so the networking was not as fluid as we expected. Language was also a barrier: although  many of them understood our language, they were not fluid orally, and this was an  obstacle for communication. We had simultaneous translation during the conferences,  but during coffee breaks it was difficult to establish conversations.

During the Q&A, we observed that many people talked about the different ways of  approaching business and the degree of commitment in partnerships with European  companies.

Approach:

I believe that this pilot of the “China Forum” was a good experience. The main conclusions  we had were:

-  We should interact more with Chinese associations and organizations in our  country. We need to continue getting to know them and let them know us. We  should establish academic collaborations and partnerships with companies.

-  Language is important. We need to have more Chinese speaking staff.

-  For the next edition, we should contact earlier the companies and organizations  that we want to invite, and also expand the contacts to European companies that  want to establish a base in China.

