Tag Archives: Market Entry

STORIES FROM CHINA

SeekPanda: Revolutionizing the Chinese Interpretation Market

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SeekPanda can help you succeed in China!In March 2015, I sat down with Matt Conger and Phil Kohn, two young China entrepreneurs from the United States who are pursuing their China dream in Beijing. Matt and Phil are the co-founders of SeekPanda, which aims to revolutionize China’s interpretation market by providing Western businesspeople with easy-to-find, top-quality interpreters who can truly help their clients bridge the China-West cultural divide. In this interview, I speak with Matt and Phil about the SeekPanda business model and their experiences in China thus far.

China Culture Corner: So, in a nutshell, what is SeekPanda?

SeekPanda: SeekPanda is China’s top curated marketplace for on-demand, professional interpreters and translators. Founded in 2014, we have served 200+ customers, including government delegations such as U.S Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, in over 1,000 meetings, including several of the world’s leading expert networks. Our management team is based in Beijing and Seattle, and has previous work experience at Credit Suisse, Bain & Company, and other major professional services firms.

China Culture Corner:  When we first spoke, you mentioned the interpretation market in China was broken. Can you tell me more about the specifics? How and when did you first discover this?

Seek Panda was founded to help Westerners do business in China
SeekPanda founders, Matt Conger and Phil Kohn

SeekPanda: In general, unless you use an interpretation agency it is very hard for first-time business travelers to find trusted freelance interpreters. At the same time, it is hard for these interpreters to find good clients. In addition, the world of agencies is full of unfavorable circumstances, including:

  • Agencies price discriminate and lack price transparency
  • Agencies keep much of what the client pays, often well over 50%, and sometimes up to 70%
  • Agencies “bait and switch,” meaning they show a client the CV of one interpreter but then assign a different interpreter to do the job.

As we were forming SeekPanda, we also discovered through LinkedIn that even if an interpreter looks reliable on paper, they might not have adequate IQ [traditional intelligence] and EQ [emotional intelligence] to succeed as a business interpreter.

China Culture Corner: What made you decide that revolutionizing the current interpretation business model was the way to go? Do you feel there is a lot of room for growth?

SeekPanda: At the end of the day, we are committed to helping people succeed in doing business in China, and very early on, we sensed the difficulty of this in the pre-SeekPanda world. This realization, coupled with the agency issue, made it clear that this market is ripe for innovation and needed to change. In terms of growth, we believe that once we master the Chinese market, we can apply this business model to other countries that have similar language and cultural barriers, such as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and others.

A skilled Chinese interpreter equals effective meetings in China
A good interpreter makes a “noticeable” difference

China Culture Corner: Are you worried about other businesses copying your model? Could a local Chinese company come in and be a second SeekPanda at a lower cost?

SeekPanda: There will definitely be SeekPanda copycats and people can certainly copy the basics of our model. However, we hold three key competitive advantages:

  • First, we’ve established strong relationships, not just with interpreters themselves, but also with the institutions they’ve graduated from – basically we have a strong control over the supply.
  • Second, we are building a powerful matching algorithm and tech solutions.
  • Third, our management team has a unique combination of business education, job experience, China work experience, and Chinese language skills.

China Culture Corner: Can you tell me more about SeekPanda’s interpreters? How are they different from those you would find through agencies, or are they?

SeekPanda: To begin with, they are exclusively either graduates from the world’s top masters in interpretation programs (e.g. MIIS, the University of Bath, Shanghai International Studies University, Beijing Foreign Studies University), or seasoned industry experts, such as someone who worked on a wind farm in the USA for seven years. Beyond that, we vet each interpreter for their “people skills” to make sure they have the proper EQ needed to be successful.

How are interpreters and translators different?
The difference between interpreters and translators

China Culture Corner: Based on your experience, what makes a good interpreter versus a bad interpreter? What about a good versus bad interpretation experience for a Western businessperson?

SeekPanda: A good interpreter is much more than just a walking dictionary. They have EQ, not just IQ. They can manage the mood of the meeting and help the client relate to what is really being said, not just a literal interpretation.

A great example that we like to refer to is as follows: consider a situation where a customer has flown all the way to China for a highly anticipated and important meeting with a government official that has been cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled, and then finally rescheduled again. The customer is in the middle of the meeting with this high level government official, when suddenly the government official gets a phone call and blurts out “不好意思我有急事” [literal translation: I’m sorry, I have an important matter] and immediately leaves the room.

Only an interpreter with high EQ will succeed in this situation. “I’m sorry I have an emergency” is the low-EQ answer. It may be factually accurate, but could alarm the client. “I’m sorry but something has come up” is also accurate, but implies disrespect to the visitor who has waited so long for the meeting. A good interpreter would pay attention to the mood throughout the meeting, such as whether the official was looking for an excuse to end the meeting, and then make a judgment call for how to convey the message to the client. Perhaps the message to the client would be “he had something to take care of quickly. It’s not clear what has happened but let’s just wait and see. Don’t worry.”

A good interpreter can help bridge the China-West divide
A SeekPanda interpreter with U.S Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker

China Culture Corner: I understand SeekPanda’s interpreters receive a much larger cut of the interpretation fee than they would from an agency. Does that also mean that SeekPanda’s total fees are higher too?

SeekPanda: No, the total pie is still 100% – we just allow the interpreter to keep more of it. And, we can afford to do this because we have a much lower cost, highly efficient operation.

China Culture Corner: What advice would you give to a Westerner who is coming to China for the first time and is in need of an interpreter? What are the key things they need to know?

SeekPanda: Don’t assume that being bilingual in English and Chinese is synonymous with a good interpreter. Many companies choose to bring their bilingual analyst or associate from their law firm along to meetings to translate. These individuals lack the extensive training that interpreters go through during their two to three years of graduate school. Interpreters learn special methods of note-taking, etiquette, and concentration skills that even the most fluent bilingual speakers lack.

China Culture Corner: What originally drew you to China? Was it the culture? The language? Or mainly business opportunities?

SeekPanda: For Matt, it was a combination of language and business opportunities. For Phil, it was a combination of the language and culture. This is part of what makes us such a powerful team.

China Culture Corner: Do you have any interesting China stories you can share? What really surprised or shocked you after you arrived in China for the first time?

SeekPanda was launched in 2014 in Beijing, China
The SeekPanda launch party at a traditional Beijing Courtyard

Phil: During one of my initial business visits to China I went to Hainan for a day of meetings. I arrived in the meeting room, sat down at my assigned seat, which had a name-card that read 孔菲尔 [kǒng fēi’ěr, a Chinese transliteration of Phil Kohn], which I figured was a really cool name at that time. There was also a plate of fruit, tea and a coconut. What a cool meeting setup in tropical southern China! That night I remember eating sand worms, which was a truly unique delicacy.

Matt: I was on an investor roadshow and we were pitching to three to four companies a day. The most prestigious company on the list, whose founder was one of China’s richest men at the time, had us pitch at 8pm on a Saturday evening. It was the first time I had encountered the famous Chinese work ethic so obviously, this time coming from a 金领 [jīn lǐng: a gold collar worker, a highly paid professional or executive] and not a 蓝领! [lán lǐng: a blue collar worker]

China Culture Corner: What words or expressions would you say best sum up your China experience thus far?

SeekPanda: Full of excitement, surprises, challenges, twists and turns, and new experiences.

Thanks for reading!

If you would like to learn more about SeekPanda, please feel free to visit their website at http://www.seekpanda.com. If you have any thoughts or questions on the interview, or on the interpretation market in China, please feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section below.

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CHINESE WISDOM

Beating the Grass and Startling the Snake – IPR in China

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The Chinese idiom “beating the grass and startling the snake” tells of a county magistrate in ancient China who was greedy and practiced bribery and graft  to further his own wealth and power. However, one day a man who lived in the county governed by the magistrate became aware of the ongoing crimes (though he remained unaware of the actual perpetrator), and sent a petition to alert the magistrate. Realizing that he was in danger of discovery, the magistrate remarked “he has beaten the grass and startled the snake.” Afterwards, the magistrate sent his men to seek out the citizen in question and make sure he would cause no further trouble.

This idiom in Chinese: 打草惊蛇, dǎ cǎo jīng shé

The moral of this idiom is to avoid acting prematurely or incautiously and alerting others to your plans  – if the citizen in the story had taken more time to investigate before acting, he likely could have avoided an untimely end.

IPR Concerns in China

While the Chinese market is still undeveloped and holds many opportunities for Western companies and businessmen, IPR is still a prominent cause for concern.

First, similar to the US during its own early development, China is much laxer on its enforcement of IPR laws than more developed countries. Many Chinese companies have taken advantage of this to copy western designs and ideas. If a Western product or design makes a big splash in China, such as the iPhone, it is likely that local copycats will soon be popping up left and right.

Second, even when IPR laws are enforced in China, brands and trademarks must be registered locally first. When Western companies have patents and copyrights in other countries, they still must be registered for a second time in China. And if a Western brand has not been registered in China, a local competitor can at any time apply for the rights to use (and own) it.

Third, local Chinese competitors usually have a stronger knowledge of Chinese consumers, and can gain and share information faster through local relationship networks. Therefore, Western companies with plans to enter the Chinese market are advised to guard their plans closely and conduct all necessary preparations as discretely as possible.

For more news on issues relating to Chinese companies hijacking the IPR of foreign companies and brands, please click HERE.

Thanks for reading!

Do you have any thoughts or questions on IPR issues in China? Do you know any other useful Chinese idioms that are similar to the one above? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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CHINESE WISDOM

Building a Cart Behind Closed Doors – What Costco Did Wrong in China

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The Chinese idiom “Building a Chariot Behind Closed Doors”  comes from the story of a man in ancient China who was planning to build a horse-drawn cart. As it turns out this man did not actually know how to build a cart. But instead of consulting with other carpenters and learning how to build one, he went into his workshop, closed the doors, and went about building his cart according to his own fancies. Needless to say, when the cart was finally completed, it did not work nearly as well as the man had intended.

The moral of this story is that when one sets out to accomplish something, especially something one has never done before, it is vitally important to first learn the correct method before acting.  And while this would seem to be obvious to most, within the arena of international business, which is composed of many different countries and cultures, it is often quite easy to make similar mistakes.

This idiom in Chinese: 闭门造车, bì mén zào chē

In the Chinese market, it is all too common for Western businesses to make errors based on existing experiences from their home countries. And while these errors may begin small, they can eventually snowball into a business model or product that is completely unsuited to the actual needs of Chinese consumers or businesses. In order to effectively enter the Chinese market, it is essential for Western companies to first understand the ACTUAL on-the-ground situation in China regarding their target market, consumers, potential competitors, and the relevant laws and regulations. No matter how good a company’s product or service is, doing one’s homework first can save a lot of time, effort and money. Below is an example on how a China market entry can go very wrong:

“Home Depot” in China

Home Depot, a US Big-box retailer catering the “Do It Yourself (DIY)” home design market, is more or less a household name in the United States. Home Depot aimed to repeat their success in China when it entered the market in 2006. However, in 2012 Home Depot admitted failure and made the decision to close all its China based stores while it reconsidered its approach in the Chinese market. And while many cultural and business factors have been cited by experts in the examination of this market entry failure, it might be most helpful to consider the following two points.

First, Chinese consumers (and home owners) by and large do not place a high value on manual labor, and may look down on those who perform it (e.g. in big Chinese cities, the term “farmer” is often an insult). Second, when Chinese consumers do need something constructed or repaired in their homes, they almost always outsource to a cheap contractors available in many suburban and urban areas – they don’t repair their homes themselves. And so, despite the fact that there was an obvious red flag, Home Depot still decided to enter the Chinese market and sell a DIY concept to consumers that don’t buy DIY.

This example just goes to show how easy it can be to get things wrong in China if one doesn’t take the time to look closely at the actual characteristics of the market. So when building your business model for China, don’t do it behind closed doors, because a “Western Cart” just may not roll the right way in China. Go to China and see things for yourself first.

Thanks for reading!

Do you have any additional thoughts or questions on market entry pitfalls and failures in China? Do you know any other useful Chinese idioms that are similar to the one above? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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