If you don't have it, hire a person or people who do. Next, recruit the right local employees, including those able to deal effectively with the local bureaucracy. Finally, be prepared for long hours and lots of frustration. In the case of the Sauer-Danfoss rep office, Koenig found good employees through guanxi , referrals from existing employees, recruiting agencies, and one via a newspaper employment ad. Li's experience is similar.
Cost management is critical.
Companies invested in the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park have a special problem in this respect. The government of Singapore poured large sums of dollars into developing the Suzhou Industrial Park, which now boasts first-rate but rather expensive facilities. Unfortunately, not enough deep-pocket large companies have set up there, so each of the park's investors has to pay an unexpectedly high share of the expenses. Right after the governments of China and Singapore had agreed on all the conditions of this joint venture, the local Shanghai authorities set up a competing industrial zone not far away. Motorola Inc. One Suzhou company faced with this challenge is Littelfuse OVS Co., headed by General Manager William Quan.