China as the woman of your dreams... but is the feeling mutual?

“students never really cognitively understand something until they can create a personal metaphor or model”To help students understand how a business can overcome the many barriers to success in China, we used the metaphor of trying to gain the affections of a beautiful, foreign (but very high-maintenance) woman… called China! The analogy worked surprisingly well and we compiled the pros and cons on the attached PowerPoint.To summarise, everybody loves China because…She’s beautifulShe’s popularShe’s rich (14% of global GDP in 2010)She has over 1 billion “things” to offer youHowever, the problems are that…She’s very picky and discerning (48% of foreign businesses have failed within 2 years - WeberShandwick)She likes designer goods (“will purchase 20% of world’s luxury goods by 2015” - McKinsey)You don’t speak her language or know what she wantsThere are a lot of locals who do (35% of businesses feel comp from local is the 2nd biggest threat - The Economist )Her parents are strict and probably won’t like you (Hostile government - 32% see the Chinese government as the 3rd biggest threat)Her parents seem to prefer the locals (Protectionist approach – local businesses nurtured with fiscal and financial help)So what do you do to succeed? The answer seems simple; learn why so many have failed, make sure you’re better than the rest, learn the language, culture and habits, give her what she wants and keep the parents happy!This then led to application to businesses such as JLR, LinkedIn, KFC and Starbucks and what they did to build strong long-term relationships with the beautiful China.