Tale of a dragon Friday, 9 May, 2008

Dealing with international business is never easy. If I needed confirmation that cultural differences do matter, here’s what happened today.

I decided to contact someone (anyone) at a Chinese Government Agency for a business enquiry I had. Having identified a number of agencies based in the U.K. I checked their sites for relevant details.

Agency One: sorry can’t help. OK.

Agency Two: sorry not available right now. Fine.

Agency Three: a list of relevant contacts/emails. Oh good. Off I go, sending that email. Apparently I had to contact Mr Y. He replied he couldn’t help, but would I try his colleague? Email again. Same outcome. This went on for about all the names listed on their site.

So, being so clever, I contacted their U.K. equivalent.

‘Oh yes, we can help‘ [nice English lady on the phone]; ‘You need to send an email to Mr Y’

Fulgora: ‘No, I am sorry, he said he can’t help me’

Lady: ‘Oh but he is our contact, if he can’t help, we can’t neither; I suggest you call him and try again; he is the right person for your query’

Very well. I called Mr Y. ‘Hello, my name is etc etc, my business etc etc, my query etc etc’

Mr Y: ‘Ah yes, you emailed me. Yes, I can help. I’ll pass you over to my secretary’

Fulgora is a bit confused.

Secretary: ‘Hello, I am Mr Y’s secretary, I can help’ [Dear God, she can help]

‘Hello, yes, I was talking to Mr Y about etc etc’

5 minutes later, the secretary:

‘Yes, I understand. Good, very good, yes we can help. But Mr Y is very busy at the moment, give me your telephone number and I ask him to call you back.’

I must admit, at this stage, I don’t have high hopes that Mr Y will ever call me. Don’t know why, instint I suppose.