Specialist project services

While central, our counsel to top management is not enough for delivering a successful China investment. To maximise our leverage in ensuring such a delivery, we also provide a comprehensive range of resources and tools that support our core service 2W China Core through our specialists/trainers in their special disciplines. Of course, these support services can also be provided on a standalone basis to best suit our clients’ particular circumstances.

Depending on the nature of the work, these projects can be undertaken either on a commissioned basis or through the joint effort with our client.

2W Market Research: The market potential of China is represented by its 1.3 billion people, but because of factors including significant regional differences and rapid pace of change, the China market is arguably the most difficult to read in the world. 2W Market Research consists of experts who have been immersed in the China market for years and can combine Western systematic, in-depth, analytical approaches with Chinese holistic, hands-on, intuitive approaches to help our clients meet the challenge of correctly reading the dynamics of their target market, with their reporting aiming to be fearless, honest, impartial, accurate, and timely.

2W Business Proposition: This service is delivered by our experienced business development professionals. Their work typically involves collecting both quantitative and qualitative information, helping identify and assess any potential partners, and assisting our clients in putting together a promising business proposition. But the real value of their work lies in seeking “inside” intelligence, discovering hidden agendas and motives, and challenging our clients’ typically Western commercial thinking with the end to conceive a business proposition that will provide a sound foundation for both successful results and harmonious relationships.

2W Negotiation Bridge: Many Sino-Western business negotiations get stalled or even broken down because of different expectations and perspectives. 2W Negotiation Bridge is delivered by our experienced consultants who have been at the core of Sino-Western business negotiations for years and can therefore understand and bridge such differences. In particular, because of emotional detachment, our consultants can separate the people from the problem, get the message cross while preserving “face”, argue in the interests of the joint business, insist on objective criteria and help create solutions for mutual gain.

2W Relationship Building: One of the unique assets in the China business environment is a network of relationships that can provide information, overcome any obstacles and help get things done. But relationship building is not equal to holding endless banquets or giving out generous gifts. Instead, it calls for a subtle ability to accurately understand human nature and to emotionally connect with people. 2W Relationship Building consists of influential Chinese, such as former governmental officials, enterprise directors and university professors, who can ensure that our clients’ relationship asset in China grows in value over time.

2W Change Agents: To meet management needs, change is often required on the part of things Chinese, such as inefficient operating procedures and out-of-date management structures. Yet, due to the emotions attached and the Chinese value for “face”, it is not always the best idea for our clients’ line managers to directly undertake a change programme. 2W Change Agents is designed to help our clients preserve the all-important human relationships while introducing the necessary changes through making use of our experienced change agents - who also have years of experience as business managers - to do the sensitive “dirty” work.

2W Interpretation & Translation: Interpreting to and from Chinese is one of the most difficult of all arts. Yet, all too often, Western business people use unknown or incompetent interpreters without realising how damning misinterpretations can be to their case. Equally challenging is the accurate translation of important business documents, such as a contract. 2W Interpretation & Translation service is delivered by our experienced communication consultants who can ensure the professional communication of messages as a result of their good understanding of both Western and Chinese business practices.

Past experiences

We have first-hand experiences in the whole and complete process of making multimillion-dollar investments in China, including studying and identifying a market opportunity, assessing and selecting a local partner, negotiating and structuring a business proposition, gaining approval for and starting up a business venture, undertaking post-contract negotiation and bridging communication gaps, training and developing local staff, building and leading local coalitions, and top-level corporate governance through recognising and meeting the different needs of a wide variety of stakeholders. The following are a few example projects we have undertaken:

Case 1: strategic study of maize supply in China

The Chairman and CEO of a European agribusiness with annual turnover of about £4 billion decided to invest in the processing of maize to produce industrial feed stocks. But Lester Brown, director of the Worldwatch Institute has made the dire prediction that China will need as much as 300 million tonnes of grain from world markets by 2030 - demand that would be far greater than all the global stocks now available for worldwide export. Charged with the task of strategically examining whether any invested processing facility would have a secure supply of maize raw material, we set up, on the basis of our extensive connections including a former European-based Chinese diplomat, and undertook a three-week, on-the-ground study programme consisting of visits to past and present officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, officials at agricultural and grain bureaus in major maize-producing provinces (e.g., Shandong, Hebei and the Northeast), managers at Zhengzhou Grain Exchange and Wholesale Market in Henan, directors and supply managers of some existing Chinese maize-processing plants, and even farmers working in their farmland. Our report containing both hard data and first-hand intuition concluded that Brown's prediction was over-pessimistic, and that the European agribusiness' investment in China would have a secure supply of maize, which was subsequently proven to be the case following the making of the actual investment.

Case 2: China market study of starch-based adhesives

A small British-based starch derivatives producer with annual turnover of about £35 million and employing around 100 people, decided to assess whether there were any investment opportunities in China. We organised a three-week programme to research starch applications in the China corrugating industry, involving visits to the China Packaging Technology Association and some of the largest corrugating factories in Beijing and Shanghai, and also contributed through providing interpretation, participating in discussions and jointly writing up the study report. The study helped it develop an understanding of the current status of the China corrugating industry, including the total number of corrugating factories, starch consumption in corrugated board production, the types of corrugating machines, the quality of packaging papers, and the associated use of starch adhesives. Our conclusion was that although Western/Japanese companies were behind the growing demand for quality packaging boxes, the high quality domestic market sectors were still too small to justify any investment in a manufacturing facility in China, and that the best course of action was to monitor the developments in the market. Its board subsequently decided to set up a sales office in Hong Kong to test the market by supplying starch adhesives from  the UK to high-tech corrugating companies in China, which later events proved to be the most appropriate decision.

Case 3: Establishing and operating a joint venture in Southern China

One of the lengthiest projects we have undertaken was to help a multinational - one of the largest global sugar producers - form and run a sugar joint venture in Southern China involving a total investment of about US$ 20 million. It took over a year for us to complete a whole range of activities, including assessing the suitability of the potential local partner, conducting a joint feasibility study, negotiating the joint venture contract and the articles of association, seeking approvals and starting up the joint venture business, and providing operating procedures and managerial development. But our unique contributions, grounded in our "3Bi" core competence, have been to effectively co-ordinate the joint feasibility study and speedily obtain the provincial approval (including work with officials at various government levels, in particular, director of the provincial planning commission), negotiating and settling on behalf of the multinational the long-held dispute in the valuation of the local partner's materials warehouse (including physically checking the quantities of certain items against the book), working with the local partner and local government officials to complete land-use right transfer to the joint venture, and steering managerial development in the former state-owned enterprise, with modern management structure and operating procedures successfully established leading to marked improvement of performance in purchase, stock and sales functions.