She also convinced me to work with a diverse, multinational and creative team: the teaching and management at CDUT’s Business School, in partnership with Staffordshire University in the UK. The group includes cave spelunking instructors, tour guides, accountants, night club entertainers, brew masters, editors and writers at GoChengdoo.com as well as IELTS (International English Language Testing Systems) examiners. There’s even an enterprising Dutch fellow who is making, bottling and selling limoncello from scratch and finding an expanding market in Chengdu.

Following their examples, I’ve registered a creative corporation back home in Nova Scotia to share what I’ve learned from them, my teachers, my former classmates in the University of Wollongong, the Chinese exchange students I taught for six years, and the many global business communities I have experienced, such as South Korea and Dubai.

Even amid my travelling, I have been transforming a woodlot thicket of low value spruce in Baxter’s Harbour on the North Mountain into a diverse habitat for owls, rabbits, deer, maples, and vernal pools for more than fifteen years. I love Canada, so after studying the Chinese market for well over a decade and seeing  the opportunities here in Chengdu, I also want to help people back home in Canada connect to the Chengdu marketplace.

Chengdu: The middle class and media linkages for Chinese tourist engagement

Chengdu differs from coastal cities such as Shanghai in that local domestic-consumption and infrastructural projects in the last decade have increased import demand, rather than export growth exclusively. The middle classes in Chengdu are driving demand for retail locally and ‘value for money’ tourism growth abroad.

The opportunity for Canadian exporters and tourism marketers is that global multinationals have not taken up all of the competitive space here yet.

Flying into Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU), it’s difficult to miss the New Century Global Center, which opened in 2013. Chanel, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana: A quick moped or bicycle ride around downtown reveals the booming Chengdu high-end retail sector.

New luxury retailers are setting up weekly, and it’s difficult to keep up with the grand opening announcements. Cushman and Wakefield report that 500,000 sq. m. of new retail space will be available by the end of 2014.

Chunxi Road and Yanshikou are prime high-end retail shopping districts with several new malls. Gucci, Cartier and Ralph Lauren, for example, are now amongst the retailers lined up at Maison Mode Lessin.

Savills reports 5 million sq. m of new retail projects in the city from 2013 to 2016. Even Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is getting in on the action, with a Chengdu location scheduled to open in 2015. And Chengdu’s two metro lines, operational since 2010 and 2012 respectively, will be joined by lines three, four and five by the end of 2016.

“There will be a significant rise of the middle classes, generating an increase in demand for both business and leisure travel. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita in China is forecast to more than double between 2010 and 2015…” (Deloitte, Hospitality 2010)

Chengdu’s citizens are interested in experiencing new tastes, sights and sounds through imports, but also in exploring the rest of the world through travel.

Young middle-class consumers in the city increasingly use online travel websites in Putonghua and Mandarin, allowing for more independent travel planning. Their introductions to Canadian tourism are also frequently via the journals and online diaries of previous Chinese visitors to Canada as these are considered reliable sources and their English abilities are still improving.

Canadian tourism websites would thus be wise to include Chinese language descriptions to reach out to this potentially vast market, particularly positive testimonies and accounts from Chinese tourists. Canada’s brand in Chengdu for tourists could rely upon Chinese word-of-mouth, branding on, for example, nature, bicycling, hiking, walking trails and photogenic locations found “off the beaten track”.

Small-budget travel experiences are also more appealing to younger, independent Chinese travellers with moderate English-skills seeking unique travel-experiences abroad. Links between Canadian tourism sites and Chinese media such as Wechat may also be an economical way to tap into the conversation.

Opportunities abound  for Canadian businesses

All evidence suggests that Chengdu may provide Canadian exporters and tourism sectors with an opportunity to develop trading relationships in one of China’s fastest growing markets reliant upon domestic consumption.

For example, building a product and tourism market presence to Chengdu will require a relationship-building approach for exporters. Chinese importers and distributors respond best to human and face-to-face contacts prior to order commitment, pricing and discussion of shipping costs.

Reliable and trustworthy business partners exist in Chengdu for Canadian exporters and tourism operators who take the time to understand that relationships come first.

My company, Costello InterCreative Ltd., seeks to build tailored and personalized bridges between Canadian and Chengdu businesses to support growth in export and tourist trade. I’m taking direct pointers from Pernille Fischer Boulter at Kisserup International Trade Roots Inc. on what it takes to get Canadian products into the Chengdu domestic market: patience.

For example, several Canadian businesses already conduct trade in Sichuan. They operate, however, primarily in the natural resources sector. What this market demands is patient and trustworthy Canadian export trade and tourism partnerships. Chengdu can absorb more Canadian imports, says Rickey Qian, Manager, Trade Commissioner of Canadian Commercial Corporation, Chengdu Representative Office. He also felt that East Coast products might find a high-quality positioning in Chengdu because of their small volumes and a local lack of knowledge of Canada’s “other coast”.

Ricky expressed an interest in making introductions to the Canadian business network in Chengdu as well as local Chinese business organizations and convention updates.

My dream: let’s increase Canada’s exporters abroad, and start building links to Chengdu.

The post Why Chengdu is the perfect gateway for Canadian exporters and Canada’s tourism industry appeared first on Trade Ready.

Everyone was prepared to sign on the dotted line; Ted could see the balloons and champagne in the next room. But all of a sudden, one of the representatives mediating the contract came in abruptly.

“I’m sorry, we want 25 percent off your price,” he said.

Ted cast a look at his colleagues. With a nod to each other, they rose and gathered up their paperwork.

Testing the limits during international business negotiations

Ted turned to the rep. “Thank you very much, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you. We’re leaving tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock, if you want to discuss this further, that’s fine.”

Ted and his colleagues left.

An hour later, they got a frenzied phone call from the company retracting their statement; they wanted to sign the contract. Ted knew immediately what had happened; the Chinese businessmen had been testing him. They wanted to make sure that Ted wouldn’t sell for less than originally negotiated.

By refusing to budge, Ted had passed the test. Later, Ted’s team popped the bottle of champagne and all laughed about it.

It all started with a simple passion to work overseas

Ted Benson has over forty years of experience in international trade. He has learned through trial and error, time and again, the skills he needs to be successful in the industry.

In his spare time, he also marks course projects for the Forum for International Trade Training (FITT), and is helping compile an international business glossary for FITT.

 Participate in the International Competency Standards Project

After graduating with a degree in geology, Ted started his career as a pilot in the air force, and had the opportunity to do some international programs. Later on, he found his calling in negotiating contracts for the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), on behalf of Canadian companies.

Ted’s passion for Asian culture, coupled with his contracting experience, earned him a spot as a Trade Commissioner for the Foreign Service in Beijing. From there, he did exchange postings in Shanghai, Bangkok and Hanoi before returning to Canada and the CCC years later.

It was then that he saw the shortage in global trade skills.

Because I mark exams, I have to be current on my skills and knowledge. I see skills that are lacking, and incorrect impressions from those who currently work in this industry.

Learning from a ‘not so friendly’ pricing strategy

He recalls a Canadian company he worked with that would typically use penetration pricing as a way to enter a new market. The company was headstrong and their product had value. However, their Chinese counterparts had an expression: ‘Friendship Pricing’.

The Chinese company insisted that because they had such a large market, the Canadian company could give them a really good deal and the size of the market would more than make up for the lower margins the Canadian company might receive. The Canadian company, eager to tap into such a large market, agreed.

But because the Canadian company had agreed to the low ‘friendship price’ once, when they returned to do business in the future, the Chinese company made it a rule to start at that fixed price, and wager down from there.

Needless to say, it didn’t end well, and the Canadian company earned little to no profit.

Ted has specialized in large-scale sales in Asia for years, and through all his experience he has developed the skills to avoid such massive mistakes.

Attention to detail and cultural competencies are vital to success

Some years ago, a colleague of Ted’s worked with a Canadian company that had signed a contract with another company based in Shanghai— but the goods were late getting to China.

This kind of mistake could cost a company thousands of dollars. The Canadian company’s one reprieve? The company in Shanghai had forgotten to put a Liquidated Damages clause in their contract.

The Shanghai company argued that even though it wasn’t written in the contract, the intent of their agreement was a penalty for late delivery of the goods. Therefore, the Canadian company would have to pay the fee.

The Canadian company firmly stated that they operated on the basis of what was in the contract. The Shanghai company, enraged, argued all the way to the airport.

Ultimately, the contents of the contract were legally binding.

The Canadian company had been lucky, but many companies would have had to pay penalty fees.

You have to know every aspect of drafting a contract. You have to know that 70 percent of letters of credit are invalid in most cases, and that for every day you’re late delivering your goods to the buyer, a Liquidated Damages fee could be charged. Educate yourself on these terms; develop those skills.

But it isn’t just sales and negotiating competencies that can make or break your global trade deals. Culture and language skills are also crucial to success in foreign markets.

Years ago, Ted was enjoying his breakfast in a hotel in Beijing, and his competitors were sitting nearby. They hadn’t recognized him, as he was new, and they were speaking openly about their strategy in Chinese.

Ted listened carefully, and then raced back to his team to relay all the information he had gleaned. He knew how important his language skills were, right then. He currently speaks Mandarin, French, Thai, Spanish and a social amount of Vietnamese.

Skills development is key to building a global business career

While working in Vancouver for the CCC, Ted took the FITTskills courses and found that the comprehensive international trade skills he developed were essential to his job. He then went on to teach the FITT courses in British Columbia, and eventually became a project marker.

Ted believes that in addition to taking international trade courses to hone the skills needed for global business, the job profiles being developed through FITT’s ICS project will also be necessary to ensure global trade professionals are fully equipped to do their jobs.

The ICS job profiles will identify which skills are needed to do the jobs core to international trade. This will enable practitioners to build on their existing skills through professional development, and it will ensure students are learning the skills they need to begin their global business careers with the tools to succeed.

There is an absolute demand for these competency profiles. You can’t play tennis unless you know how to hold the racket, right? You have to have the skills.

What does Ted think is ultimately the key to success in global business?

“Enthusiasm is so important,” he says. “You have to enjoy the multi-cultural experience, be persistent, determined and focused on the objective.”

Are you interested in participating in our International Competency Standards Project? Join international trade experts from all over the world. Come be a part of setting world-class industry standards and defining exactly what it takes to compete in international business!

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The post Why skills development is vital to the growth of your global trade career appeared first on Trade Ready.