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Wal-Mart In China. What Does That Tell Us?
Read this amazing article entitled, How Wal-Mart Made Its Crumbling China Business Look So Good for So Long. Then please answer some or all of the following questions:
1. Is this a China issue?
2. To what extent is this Wal-Mart’s fault and to what extent was it unpreventable?
3. Are the issues Wal-Mart faced here similar to those faced by OSI Group earlier this year relating to the meat it supplied to McDonald’s in China?
3. Can Western companies succeed in China retail beyond a really small scale?
4. What Western companies have succeeded in China retail beyond a really small scale? Please name names.
I can tell you that from my vantage point and that of my firm’s China lawyers, American companies’ succeeding in China retail by having stores and locations in China are few and far between. Starbucks, KFC, Carrefour, and Pizza Hut immediately spring to mind. How do these companies succeed and why do so many others fail?
There is a story co-blogger Steve Dickinson loves to tell. He had an Australian friend who managed a high end health club in Shanghai. This friend would constantly complain to Steve about how he could not get the Chinese employees to provide even middling customer service to health club members. One day, Steve was at the club and his friend was instructing an employee not to answer her cell phone in front of a guest waiting to check in (live). Seconds after he explained that to her, a guest came in and she answered her phone. Steve’s friend quit on the spot and went back to Australia. Is this story even relevant to the above? Why or why not? Do you know people who spent years doing business in China who are now convinced that it is “impossible?” Did they just burn out or is there some wisdom there?
I am asking these questions because I would love to see a discussion on the above because I think it important. Do you?
We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.
Source: http://www.chinalawblog.com/2014/12/wal-mart-in-china-what-does-that-tell-us.html
