Research

Let me tell you how expensive and dangerous that is. I spent 27 months, over two thousand hours and over $325,000 in opportunity cost to compile information to save my clients months of headaches, save tons of cash, and generate hundreds of millions more in repeat sales.

The original content for what is now my Asia Mastery Program was written at the request of Siemens VDO’s Motor Division in Germany in 2003. With the emergence of China as an economic force, and with customers and suppliers in Japan and Korea, it became apparent that their directors, managers and engineers needed guidance as to how to communicate and navigate relationships across the cultural divide.

Problem was, there was nothing on the shelves, and nothing on the Internet that would meet my client’s needs. So they agreed to open doors for me to interview their people in far-flung places. Clients are often surprised to hear that, had I known the cost in time and income, I would never have started the process. But, no regrets. Without this research, I would never be in the position to help my clients make such huge returns on their investment. These are the comments I hear on a regular basis:

"One idea alone triggered tens of millions of dollars in revenues for my firm."
 

"That first contract, worth just under $15 million mushroomed within 17 months to over $100 million. You're my hero."

"And if we had worked with you three months earlier, we would have saved the extra $5 million that it cost us to renegotiate the (Joint Venture) deal."

My in-depth research included over two thousand hours of interviews with people from China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, Australia, Europe, Britain, and various points in North America. The groups included senior executives and mid-level management people, venture partners, engineers, purchasers, quality control people, salespeople, financial people, customer service staff, global consultants and entrepreneurs.

This was my process . . .

First I interviewed westerners to find out what they felt they were doing right in their Asia operations. Then I interviewed their Asian colleagues to discover how they truly felt about their western colleagues' actions. What they could be doing better? How could they be more effective, save time, increase productivity, motivate staff or assure repeat business?

They trusted me enough to reveal the errors that were being made. Now you can get inside the mind of the Asian to understand how we are perceived, and what it takes to gain full cooperation.

Scientific Method?

Asians insist I had a "scientific method." Well, that’s nice. But what I really did was go into every interview with a genuine interest in understanding the cultural gap, without prior expectations, and with nothing to prove. (I have a colleague who calls this the naïve new person interview style.)

It worked. Asians revealed to me information they never reveal to their western colleagues, clients and suppliers. That is why most of the information in my program is information you will not find anywhere else, at any price.

We don't know what we don't know

After 2000 hours of international business research, do you know the saddest thing I see? It’s missed opportunity. It's the fact that we don't know what we don't know, and that costs us the big bucks in Asia. Western companies that do business with Asian customers, suppliers (and even their staff) have no idea how much money they are leaving on the table by doing some small things wrong.

All my research revealed that westerners do many things that get in the way, result in poor communication, trigger passive resistance, and cause loss of productivity. I am not just talking about the people who spearhead projects. (Certainly, a lot of costly mistakes are made in that area.)

I’m also talking about what happens after the contract has been signed. When those who interact with the customer have not been trained in cross-cultural competencies, seemingly minor faux pas can have major repercussions.

Whole New Game

I became intimately aware of my clients’ challenges through working closely with executive groups in retreat settings.

Typically, at the start, they have no idea what is required to apply the skills that are necessary to their success in Asia. They are well-educated people – quick studies – who operate at a high level of competence in their respective fields. But this is a whole new ball game. A whole different level of learning. We need to start at the lower levels of competence. After our work together, they begin to think of themselves as babes in the woods.

I spend enormous amounts of time on continuous research and discovery. My clients tell me what works. My Asian contacts tell me. We all believe in my Asia Mastery Program because it continues to bring results month over month.

“You don’t just listen, you grasp the concept of what is being communicated. How quickly can anyone assess what is being said in such a short time? You ask the right questions, then you have the exceptional ability to assess the information, no matter how complex, to digest it and incorporate the concept.”
~ Nate Iikubo, Advance Purchasing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Climate Control, Inc.
  (Detroit, Michigan, USA)