Topic > Focus on the deal vs. Relationship Focus - 878

Based on Richard R. Gesteland's book, Affair Focus vs. Relationship focus is one of the four patterns in cross-cultural business behavior. More than a few divergences between agreement focus and relationship focus cause both to complain while working together. Business-focused people will go straight to the business part. Business-focused people can be seen as aggressive, rude, and assertive. In contrast, relationship-focused people will focus on building strong relationships before moving on to the work part. Additionally, relationship-focused people are calmer and more flexible in doing business. Examples of countries with a deal-focused culture are Australia, New Zealand, Northern Europe, and North America. As for the focus on relationships, Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan are the examples. Furthermore, there will be several explanations, analyzes and recommendations related to the case “Export to Taiwan: Guanxi in Action”. Taiwan is an example of a country that applies focus on relationships in business. Relationship-focused people tend to do business with someone they are familiar with. Relationship-focused people avoid doing business with a stranger. Therefore most business in Taiwan takes place between friends, family or friends of friends. The connections or relationships they have to manage first do some business with Taiwan called Guanxi (pronounced like gwan-shee). For this reason, Guanxi is an important key to having successful business in Taiwan and China. Guanxi is a collection of connections of different societies that lend a hand and support each other. Guanxi plays a vital role in Taiwan and China affairs. When doing business with Taiwan or China, the first thing to do is get the guanxi right. Who...... in the center of the card ...... put several testimonials from other customers with the aim of increasing the trust of the inhabitants of Taiwan. Next, I will present several advantages of doing business with Glorious Paints regarding distribution system, product awareness and pricing strategy. Glorious Paints must provide a simple and fast distribution system and also offer competitive prices to customers in Taiwan. At some point Glorious Paints may also offer special offers such as free paint or big discounts in Taiwan special event. In summary, cross-cultural business will require business people to learn different cultures to be successful in business. Glorious Paints can start with learning Taiwanese culture to expand the market in Taiwan. Don't forget to join Guanxi to minimize your business risks. After Glorious Paints gets the right guanxi, the other barriers will decrease one by one.