Doing Business In China: Risks And Rewards
Three high-level managers from Central Massachusetts manufacturing companies told an audience in Westborough this morning that there are significant challenges and risks to doing business in China, but also significant rewards.
The panelists spoke at the Worcester Business Journal's Doing Business In China event.
Major challenges include intellectual property theft, finding the right personnel to closely oversee operations and finding the right location with an available labor force that suits a company's needs.
Gabriel Royo, vice president of Worcester-based Metals Technology Services, a Siemens company, said his firm learned the hard way about giving away too much information to a licensee in China.
That licensee eventually became one of the company's most significant competitors in the country.
"That was a mistake," Royo said. "We set them up in business."
But if risks can be properly managed, profits and growth are the rewards, said Joel Schwartz, a global business development vice president for Hopkinton-based EMC Corp., which has expanded into China over the past 15 years.
EMC does $400 million, or 2 percent, of its business each year in China. Schwartz said that number has been growing by more than 30 percent each year for the past five years.
Schwartz said he originally felt guilty about moving some operations to different countries instead of staying within U.S. borders, but he said he has come to terms with it.
"I know the facts, and the fact is that being a global company is going to make your company successful, he said.
Check out live tweets from the WBJ Doing Business in China event [here.]
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