Me and my colleague have been traveling from China to India and and India to China. Lot of them approach us to know the areas of business which can fetch them instant or say regular business. I am always tempted or land up telling them, first understand the psyche of the people from these countries. Indians were a close economy before 1991, with a lot of trade barriers. Lot of Government approvals, licenses to be obtained for doing business.

Scenarios changed since the liberlisation which was initiated by the present Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh (he was Finance Minister that time) in 1991. India has a scorching growth rate of 7.5% in these troubled times. Second only to its rival and next door neighbour China, which is galloping at almost 9% growth rate. Does it not make sense to cooperate and co exist, rather than compete? Views may differ, only to agree that it makes a lot of sense to work together. There are innumerable opportunities to cooperate.

1. There is a lot of similarities between the people from both the countries. Both are family loving. Though in bigger cities the families are shrinking and/or may be vanishing.
2. Indians by nature take a lot of time to open up. Chinese have more international exposure now and are more open. However, they are fun loving.
3. Chinese love night life. Most Indians do not. Try to do business in day time with Indians.
4. Chinese do most of the business over meals and like to exchange gifts- an integral part of there culture now. Adopt it.
5. Indians like to talk about family. Do make polite conversation on the topic.
6. Chinese like to bargain. Price your product accordingly. Indians too are price conscious. Do your home work accordingly. Take it with a pinch of salt.
7. Chinese are great hosts and would go to a great length to make their prospective partner happy. Indians have their own lower threshold limit.
8. Thinking differs region to region in India. North is more open. Mumbai is more professional. South is straight forward and so on. Chinese on the other hand have a hard core business thinking. Would go to great length to fetch the business.

Only a few do's and dont's. Shall write more in the next.

Best regards,