Oct 26 2007
The Money Honey
In Facetime (Bizwk 11/5/07), Bartiromo interviewed Victor Chu, who is teaming up with Sir Branson bidding for Northern Rock:
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MB: By all accounts, you are a master of guanzi, those personal connections so vital to doing business in China. Can outsiders ever hope to establish such relationships?
VC: Maria, I think this is a worldwide phenmonon - not uniquely Chinese or Asian. All things being equal, you like to deal with people you know and can rely on. It’s human nature.
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I have talked about this fascination of quanxi by the West. Frankly I don’t find it amusing after all those years, being taunted in the media. Ya, guanxi plays an important roll in China, but point me to a country or region where it isn’t? The West hasn’t really made huge return on their investment in China, so far. So they blame they don’t have guanxi. That’s laughable. They don’t bother to learn the making of Chinese society, its culture. Actually they have far more sway or advantage than many local, in the beginning anyway.
Maria, on the surface, I would think she’s smart enough not to repeat such dumb question - so conformality exist in the cut-throat media business too? Don’t you want to be daring and smart to ask unique and to the point question, rather than replicate what million others has asked before you? Todd Thomason got his butt kicked over this?