Dmg-Shanghai

Summary New Yorker Dan Mintz moved to China as a freelance film director with no contacts, no advertising experience. DMG had emerged as one of China's fastest growing advertising agencies. Mintz attributes his success in part to what the Chinese call guanxi: Guanxi means relationship and through business setting it can be better understood as connection. Guanxi has its roots in the Confucian philosophy of valuing social hierarchy and reciprocal obligations. Confucian ideology has a 2,000-year-old history in China. Confucianism stresses the importance of relationships, both within the family and between master and servant. Confucian ideology teaches that people are not created equal. Today, Chinese will often cultivate a guanxiwang, or "relationship network," for help. Reciprocal obligations are the glue that holds such networks together. If those obligations are not met-if favors done are not paid back or reciprocated-the reputation of the transgressor is tarnished, and he or she will be less able to draw on his or her guanxiwang for help in the future. Guanxi is an important mechanism for building long-term business relationships and getting business done in China. There is a tacit acknowledgment that if you have the right guanxi, legal rules can be broken, or at least bent. Mintz established connections with two Chinese individuals with access to high ranking government officials. Who were Bing Wu and Peter Xiao. Bing Wu, who works on the production side of the business and Peter Xiao, comes from a military family with major political connections. Together, these three have been able to open doors that long-established Western advertising agencies have not. They have done it in large part by leveraging the contacts of Wu and Xiao, and by backing up their connections with what the Chinese call Shi li, the ability to do good work. The ads used traditional Chinese characters, which had been banned by Chairman Mao. To get permission to use the characters...

dmg Shangai CASE STUDY: DMG-SHANGAI Question 1: Closing Case: DMG-Shanghai-International Business chapter 3 1. Why do you think that it is so important to cultivate guanxi and guanxiwang in China? Guanxi and guanxiwang are essential to business in China. It is an important mechanism for building long-term business relationships and getting business done in China successfully. 2. What does the experience of DMG tell us about the way things work in China? What would likely happen to a business that obeyed all the rules Because China is a big country for mechanism. By establishing connections in relationships would help do a better job and mechanism; and the society of China lacks a strong rule-based legal tradition, thus guanxi and guangxiwang is becoming a necessary and regulations, rather than trying to find a way around them as Dan Mintz apparently does? As we look through the case of DMG in Shanghai, we recognize the influence of guanxi more apparently. Dan Mintz, the founder of DMG, had no prior experience in the fields of advertisement. He had no contact in China, even no Mandarin language. However, he had guanxi with two young Chinese who have connections with people of various levels. Making their connections as bedrock of the companys guanxiwang, they were able to emerge as one of the Chinas fastest growing advertising agencies. DMG shows us that culture is an important thing in China. Guanxi refers to the business connections that are so important to companies doing business in China. Guanxiwang refers to the relationship network that companies cultivate. Both of these are important to the Confucian ethics loyalty, reciprocal obligations, and honesty in dealing with others - that drives business in China. Dan Mintz believes that guanxi and guanxiwang are important because they help companies get around restrictions that limit the ability of companies to function. It also is very useful when you have a business that delivers a good job; they...

Closing Case: DMG-Shanghai-International Business chapter 3 1. Why do you think that it is so important to cultivate guanxi and guanxiwang in China? Because China is a big country for mechanism. By establishing connections in relationships would help do a better job and mechanism; and the society of China lacks a strong rule-based legal tradition, thus guanxi and guangxiwang is becoming a necessary and important mechanism for building longterm business relationships and getting business done in China successfully. 2. What does the experience of DMG tell us about the way things work in China? What would likely happen to a business that obeyed all the rules and regulations, rather than trying to find a way around them as Dan Mintz apparently does? The experience of DMG shows us that culture is an important thing in China. Guanxi, what means relationships or connections and guanxiwang, what means relationships network are a very important piece of there culture. They are also crucial to whom who are trying to start a successful business in China. Although you hold some obligations towards your superiors, they also have to reward you with something. This obligations helps them to get a good reputation and support for the future. In China when you have these relationships, it will help you work around the law and it can open doors for your business that normally can not be opened. It also is very useful when you have a business that delivers a good job, they bring the message over what gives you the opportunity to get good assignments from major companies. So a business in China without the relationships network is doomed to fail, because if you cant work around the law and have doors opened for you it is almost impossible to get a successful business. companies. 3. What are the ethical issues that might arise when drawing upon guanxiwang to get things done in China? What does this suggest about the limits of using guanxiwang for a Western business committed to high ethical standards? The ethical issues that might arise are that, as an reciprocal, you might be asked to do something which is highly illegal in your own country or is against your personal beliefs in order to get things done in China through guanxiwang. For a western business with high ethical standards this means that they can only use guanxiwang for very little favours, because if they ask a big favour and the reciprocal is something which is illegal and it all comes out the western business loses their good reputation and with that their customers.