How to Live & Do Business in China: Eight Lessons I Learned from the Communists

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Dan Mintz and Wu Bing who had the faith to bring me to China to execute an important next phase of their China business.

They were unstinting with their support, encouragement, coaching and patience as I learned from them the Chinese way of doing business (often as a slow learner).

Their generosity and love for me and my wife, Lovy, transformed a business deal into a family relationship that also included a learning, cultural and spiritual aspect.

My life is forever changed by the opportunity they gave me to live and learn in China.

Thank you, Wu Bing and Dan!

Testimonials

Dan Mintz, founder and chief creative officer,

DYNAMIC MARKETING GROUP

www.dmgmedia.com

"Ernie Tadla: Motivator, magician and spiritual guide. Ernie has kept us on track as both our business and corporate culture/conscience.

His fair and open approach has allowed our group of companies to grow and prosper in what could be a very complicated international environment. A grower of businesses and a farmer of people, he always makes sure his crops have enough sunlight, water and TLC. He brought a sense of purpose and value/meaning to our organizations. His 25+ years of international business experience and wisdom have been a powerful positive influence on our management, staff and clients.

Daniel Ding, Group Account Director,

ASATSU-DK ADVERTISING CO. LTD.

For almost five years, Ernie has always been one of my first choices for both business and friendship. His wisdom has contributed largely to my business success, ever since I started talking with him when I was at 3M, then later at GM. Every meeting with him was a meeting of the minds…..

Irv Beiman, PhD, Chairman,

eGate Consulting Shanghai, Ltd.

Ernie Tadla is a professional who has achieved a unique balance of business knowledge, China experience, life wisdom and individual character. You can trust Ernie to tell you the truth, to give you excellent advice, to work for your optimum benefit, and to help you uncover those blind spots that pose a risk for your business and individual goals.

Michael C.R. Dong, Marketing Director,

Nanjing Iveco (FIAT) Motor Company Ltd.

In China, more than in anywhere else, before doing any serious business together, you have to build up guanxi. Unlike most Westerners I’ve met, Ernie has the right human touch to deal with Chinese people that most others, who no matter how good they are and how long they’ve stayed in this country, just don’t get.

Luca Mignini, Vice President,

SC Johnson Greater China Cluster

"People who come to work in China quickly realize that this country is more like a continent than a nation. When I landed in Shanghai, I was puzzled by Ernie’s depth, knowledge and variety of China’s cultural traditions, which are not always obvious to a foreigner.

"Having the need of focusing first on what was happening inside my company, I looked outside for a senior executive coach who could help me in understanding the Chinese people, Chinese business, someone who had gone through the same adjustment I was going through.

"I met Ernie for the first time over three years ago and our regular meetings are always a unique opening on human nature, business and operational decisions and also, the pleasure of spending some quality time with a special person.

To get better at whatever we are doing is a journey. This process itself may be as rewarding as achieving a specific goal. I have found Ernie to be an excellent companion and stimulator that makes that an even more interesting quest.

Acknowledgments

There would be no China story, and no book, without the unconditional love, guidance, and patience of my high-school sweetheart wife of forty-three years, Lovy, who passed away March 2002 from cancer after three of the best years of our lives in Shanghai. She peeled the scales from my prejudiced eyes to see the Chinese people as they really are.

This book would not have been written without the encouragement, inspiration, support, coaching and gentle caring and kindness of Cora Meeks, who came into my life October 2005.

Ross Freake, my editor, guided me through a wonderful transformative process that enabled me to more fully express my thoughts in a much clearer and proper way. Thank you, Ross.

Contents

Dedication

Testimonials

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Part I:

Background & Preparation

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Apprehension and trepidation

Chapter Three

First impressions

Chapter Four

About Lovy

Chapter Five

Beggar on the Street

Chapter Six

Chinese Medicine

Chapter Seven

Dining in China

Chapter Eight

Sex in Shanghai

Part II:

The Lessons

Lesson One

Open your mind, change your paradigm

Lesson Two

Communists get things done, too

Lesson Three

China: godless, but not heathen!

Lesson Four

It is all about respect.

Lesson Five

GUANXI: Trust me

Lesson Six

It’s about time

Lesson Seven

Communication Chinese Style

Lesson Eight

The two things it takes do successful business in China

Part III:

Case Studies

A China Success Story

Dan Mintz and DMG

An Outstanding Successful Advertising Executive In North America, Not In China

Microsoft In China

Wal-Mart In China

A Summary: Doing Business In China

It consists of understanding, accepting, adapting, adopting, and changing your attitude and behavior policies to encompass these facts:

Epilogue

Coming Next From Ernie Tadla

One Man’s Spiritual Odyssey.

Foreword

Ernie Tadla is a wonderful human being with a story to tell. Actually, he has many stories to tell, and he weaves them together into a tapestry that briefly illuminates the rich complexity of a culture with 5,000 years of history. Ernie is a veteran of China. Those who have achieved such status know what that means. He’s more than a survivor; he used the challenges as a springboard for a richer, more meaningful and aware life. Why should that interest us, or you, the reader? Because we learn from the stories that Ernie tells.

I have lived and worked in this fascinating land for almost 15 years. Every story from Ernie rings true to me. They are valid representations of life and work in China. Ernie has, however, gone further than that. He has peered beneath the veil and found depth that few foreigners see or understand. He reports on that depth in a meaningful way, with a good heart, honest intention and a twinkle in his eye.

Ernie tells us of sorrow, of success, of charity, and of Great Learning. I call it Great Learning because it is of a dimension beyond what we normally consider to be learning. This is learning that the businessman with a soul might occasionally experience. Ernie brought his soul to China, and became a better man for it. He tells us of his business, his organization, his family, friends, wives, everything about his journey.

We learn with Ernie as he writes.

Read this book if you want a glimpse behind the veil of what is presented on television and in the print media about China. Read this book if you are considering coming to China. Read this book if you are in China.

It will illuminate your journey!

Irv Beiman, PhD

Chairman, eGate Consulting Shanghai, Ltd.

Part I:

Background & Preparation

Chapter One

What happened to me while I was writing this book

"Oh, East is East, and West is West,

and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at

God’s great Judgment Seat;

But there is neither East nor West,

border, nor breed, nor birth,

When two strong men stand face to face,

though they come from the ends of the earth!"

Rudyard Kipling, 1889

When I went to China, I had a negative, self-righteous view of all things Chinese. It was a communistic, godless dictatorship. We, on the other hand, were a capitalistic, democratic, Christian society.

So after seven years and several major epiphanies, I changed my paradigm and discovered many positive things about the Chinese way.

I returned to Canada and wrote this book from my fresh, new Chinese perspective. My editor, Ross Freake, brought to my attention that I was now bashing the Western way as I had earlier bashed the Chinese way. I had been infected with the Stockholm syndrome. You are now reading a complete revision and change in attitude and paradigm, but not back to what it was before; there would be no gain in that.

Through synchronicity, I received another epiphany.

It is the concept of whole-brain integration.

I came across a book, PSYCH-K: The Missing Peace in Your Life! by Robert Williams. On page 41, in the chapter on whole-brain integration he charts some differences between the two brain hemispheres.

The left hemisphere            The right hemisphere

* uses logic/reason            *            uses intuition/emotions

* thinks in words            *            thinks in pictures

* deals in parts/specifics            *            deals in wholes/relationships

* will analyze/break apart            *            will synthesize/put together

* thinks sequentially            *            thinks holistically

* is time bound            *            is time free

* is extroverted            *            is introverted

* is characterized as male            *            is characterized as female

* identifies with the individual            *            identifies with the group

* is ordered/controlled            *            is spontaneous/free

Later on page 43, he cites clinical psychologist Ernest Rossi expressing the importance of learning how to create balance with both sides of the brain and he uses a comparison chart.

analysis vs. synthesis

reasoning vs. intuition

extroversion vs. introversion

outer vs. inner

male vs. female

friend vs. enemy

capitalism