The art of negotiating当功夫茶遇到速溶咖啡
By David Powell

不同的文化塑造不同的民族心理, 并折射于生活的方方面面. 生意场上的中国人和老外便各有一套截然不同的生意经. 中国人擅长于慢慢地品茶论酒之际暗自精打细算, 含蓄儒雅, 钱挣得不漏痕迹；而老外则直截了当, 如速溶咖啡, 干脆利落. 而当茶遇到咖啡会是一番什么情景?

Kung Fu tea is a fascinating, if initially mysterious process, for the westerner, with its fluid hand motions, stylized rituals and deep respect for the tea. Just as China has developed tea drinking into an art, so too have business negotiations become an art form. For westerners, it can be a disorienting process. A non-Chinese person will find herself thinking: "What are they doing?" and "When do we begin to actually negotiate?" In fact, the negotiations have already begun! What westerners think of as

small talk - the stories, the vague generalities, the avoidance of fine detail in exchange for "big picture" discussion - is actually an important part of the negotiating process.

A Chinese business person will focus on how much knowledge can be protected, how much can not be revealed to the other party. This is a key priority not fully understood or respected by some international partners.

A western negotiator tries to gain as much knowledge as possible. They believe that by sharing details and exploring the grounds of discussion, they will get the best possible deal.

Truly, both parties do want the same thing: the best deal. They want to work together, to make money or further their company goals and to develop a lasting relationship that will make future deals easier and more profitable.

Too often, however, the different methods - pushing for knowledge and protecting privileged information - clash and create an atmosphere of apprehension or mistrust. Westerners may feel denied the information to judge a deal accurately. Worse, they may feel they are treated unprofessionally, or without personal respect.

On the Chinese side, similar emotions can arise. A Chinese person may feel their western partner lacks respect for the Chinese business culture. They may feel the other party pushes too hard, crossing the line of what is appropriate.

These dangers cannot be avoided, but they can be minimized. A western business person can give more time for negotiations, to recognize the process began when he walked in the door, and to treat it as an extended dance, not a specific, time-limited event.

Westerners can add patience to persistence: push for necessary details, but realize that they come slowly and as a result of persuasion, rather than a "brute force" negotiating style.

A focus on both means and ends is necessary if the western person is to come away from the table satisfied with both process and result.

For the Chinese business person, an increased focus on providing rather than withholding knowledge greatly improves the negotiating atmosphere. Protect what must be protected, but be as specific as possible, don't shy away from the "nuts and bolts."

Inevitably, problems will arise in negotiations between international parties. Treat that as natural and acceptable; the solution is to be flexible, to expect and allow for mistakes and misunderstanding. The key is not to be error-free, but to learn from misunderstandings and reduce their frequency.

It really is like Kung Fu tea - the spilt water, the stray bit of tea, the too cool pot - all are part of the journey. At the end of the day, it's not about the individual cup of tea. Drinking tea and negotiating, when successful, focus on the relationship, on the knowledge that this is a person to drink tea with, to do business with, again and again, and happily so!

 

 

8 is the magic number奢侈有理
By Stephen Nessen

Most of us would agree that RMB 80,000 is too much to pay for a license plate, even one chock full of the auspicious number 8 (ba, rhymes with fa, which is to get rich) and completely absent of the dreaded digit 4 (si, similar pronunciation to "death"). But at a public auction

中国的中产白领们开始越来越"奢侈"了, 他们开始舍得花80000大洋买块车牌号, 舍得花几十倍于普通女包的价格买LV了. 对此"奢侈", 冷眼哧鼻者有之, 颔首认同者也有之, 各有各的理由. 您认为呢?

in Guangzhou recently, 200 license plates with China's traditional lucky numbers sold for a total of RMB 2,932,000. And why not? Why shouldn't China's new Jaguar, Hummer, and Mercedes driving elite use their money to show off? Most of us do this everyday and instead of being criticized or thought to be wasteful, we are said to have good taste. As China's new upper class settles into the comforts of wealth, they are doing it on their own terms, creating their own status symbols, or ways to conspicuously consume.

You might ask what are they getting for their money? They could buy two new cars for the same price. It is, after all, just a license plate; vehicle identification with mechanically punched, random embossed digits on a piece of white tin. It has no practical use except as a way to keep a record of which vehicles are on the road and to fill up that space below the fender? But that is exactly the point. There is absolutely nothing you can use the plates for, but just knowing that a great amount of money was spent on them increases the owners' social status. In the long tradition of showing wealth off publicly (conspicuous consumption) the less you can use your purchased item for any practical purpose, the greater the value it has as a status symbol.

Let me give you an example from the fashion world that cuts across international boundaries to illustrate my point. A handbag is an accessory used by women to carry their keys, cellphones, etc., when there are no available pockets. And they come in a variety of colors, shapes, sizes, and prices. But why does the handbag with the letters L and V patterned across it cost thirty times more than say a similar looking handbag sold on the street? Is the Louis Vuitton bag more useful than others? Of course not, it's because when you are seen carrying that bag people recognize that that bag is as an expensive item, a luxury item that you can afford, but most importantly, it is of minimal practical use. In addition to that, the smaller the handbag, the less useful it is, and the more expensive it is, thus the higher the social status the owner is thought to have. What some people would call a "waste of money," others describe as "enjoyable luxuries." And as China develops with its own unique brand of capitalism, why shouldn't the upper class create their own forms of conspicuous consumption? Every culture has its own symbols of wealth, so in this way the new China elite are not unique with their great waste of money, just unique in the form that their symbols take: a lucky license plate.

Vocabulary
stylize 使抽象化
disorienting 迷惑人的
elite 精英
conspicuously 显著地
illustrate 阐明
accessory 饰物

 

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