Selling to China

Increasingly, American businesses are turning to global markets for growth and profitability.  While China offers great business potential, its markets have typically been restricted to only the largest corporations, mostly because navigating China’s unique business environment demands expertise and resources beyond the reach of most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).  But seizing opportunities in China is not impossible for SMBs. In his updated and revised best-selling business book Selling to China: A Guide for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (Second Edition, September 24, 2018,) author Stanley Chao provides expert advice on entering China’s US$19 trillion economy.  The second edition reflects the major changes in China’s business landscape over the past decade, including the growth of the internet, the rise of China’s middle class, the recent US-China tariff wars, Beijing’s increasing openness to foreign businesses, and the Chinese consumers’ insatiable appetite for new products, cutting-edge technologies and services.  

Filled with clear, tangible steps and candid personal anecdotes, Selling to China bridges the gap between Western and Chinese cultures, languages, and histories to help businesses enter the Chinese marketplace. Ideal for companies just starting out on the path to doing business with China, or those that have already tried and are now facing problems or have failed, Chao’s book offers practical advice for the many common challenges that foreigners will face in China.  Readers will learn effective ways to deal with Chinese businesspeople and private and state-owned companies; determine whether certain products or services are viable for the Chinese market; understand the psyche of the "Mao Generation" Chinese who are now China's business owners, executives, and government leaders; understand both the long and short-term implications of the US-China tariff wars; and develop low-cost, market-entry strategies. Chao offers readers the wisdom he has acquired over years of experience in succinct chapters complete with easy-to-follow guidelines, debunked myths, and evidence-based predictions. 

"The author provides a surfeit of actionable counsel, including how to determine whether one’s business is a good fit for China, how to understand and make legal contracts, and how to negotiate effectively. Also, this second edition adds Chao’s prognostications regarding China’s future, which the author envisions as brimming with both considerable progress and social unrest. Chao’s rendering of China is cleareyed and relentlessly empirical, reporting from the inside the new way of doing business and the new opportunities consequently generated. --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

A Chinese American and son of Chinese immigrants who escaped from the Communist takeover of China in 1949, Stanley Chao grew up in California in a very traditional Chinese family: living with three generations under one roof, speaking only Chinese until grade school, and learning that anything less than an A grade was unacceptable, and that working hard was the only way to get ahead in life. Chao holds a BSEE degree from Columbia University, an MSEE from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Business. His professional career includes stints at Philips Lighting in California, and China; Kingston Technology in California and Japan; SoftBank in Japan; and Merrill Lynch in New York and Japan. He speaks fluent English, Mandarin, and Japanese and currently resides in Los Angeles.

Chao is the Managing Director of All In Consulting, a Los Angeles based consulting firm assisting Western companies in their Asia and China business developments. Chao's clients include: Intel, Emerson Electric, SPX, Kingston Technology, Baxter Healthcare, and dozens of small and medium-sized companies. Chao and his team have conducted over 200 projects in China covering more than 12 different vertical markets including the aviation, automotive, medical, information technology, manufacturing and environmental engineering industries.

To learn more, please visit Chao’s website http://www.allinconsult.com/