This is one of the reasons I enjoyed Chris Devonshire-Ellis’ The Story of a China Practice. His style is engaging, coming off more like a friendly conversation in a pub than a stilted business treatise or stale corporate history, making the account unusually readable. In 84 quick pages (including photos) Chris walks us through the first fifteen years of his experience as a professional services entrepreneur in China, and gives us a rare inside glimpse into what it takes to start and build a business in the PRC.

The account covers the creation and growth of Dezan Shira & Associates (Chris’ quasi-eponymous firm,) and while Chris occasionally lapses into his role of chief salesman, he manages to produce an account that is focuses far more on the challenges than the triumphs. And that is what makes this slim volume such a gem.

He walks us through an almost unending sequence of painful challenges, from spending 18 months finding his first client (which he finally landed over a pint with the owner of a Shekou expat bar), to finding decent staff, getting ripped-off by his bookkeeper, being shut down by the Public Security Bureau, the Asian Financial Crisis, SARS, and having to service clients amidst it all. By the time things start falling into place at Dezan Shira, you are almost relieved, and are prepared to forgive Chris for ten or so pages on the firm today.

Hard Lessons

The other aspect of The Story of a China Practice that I like is that Chris resists the temptation to turn the lessons he has learned from his experiences into pedantic aphorisms, instead allowing the reader to digest each episode and incident and draw his or her own conclusions. The one time Chris deviates from this formula (“Sometimes, the key to success in China is being able to just say ‘No’”) stands out as a naked exception.

Beyond the lessons from one can draw from each incident, there were three I pulled from the book as a work. There are more, but these resonated with me:

First, nothing significant is accomplished in China by an individual working alone. Dezan Shira is Chris’ baby and brainchild, yet the company began its prosperous growth when Chris began giving away credit – and equity – to his colleagues.

Second, morality and ethics in business are not relative, they are absolute, and acculturating yourself and your business in China does not mean abandoning your values. Regardless of the near-term opportunities offered by taking ethical shortcuts and the temptation to rationalize them by “doing in Rome as the Romans would,” long-term success as a company and as an employer in China depend on living by a coherent and explicit moral code.

Third, success in China comes at the nexus of local knowledge and ingenuity, not adherence to some set formula. If you show up in China looking for templates to follow, or worse, seeking to replicate an approach used elsewhere, you are walking into danger. Better to approach your challenges knowing that the right answer is there to be found, but it is going to take creativity, a cool head, and some China savvy to get you there.

Nothing particularly unique, perhaps, but then this book is not about coming up with new lessons – it is a demonstration that, if applied, those lessons can bring you some success.

The Story of a China Practice was published last year, but as of September Chris and Dezan Shira are making free electronic copies available to anyone who seeks to download one. The book is available on their China Briefing News site.

For anyone interested in starting a business or running a small- or medium-sized enterprise in China today – especially but by no means exclusively in professional services – I recommend giving the book a read.

I’m half way through the book. Best bits so far: The fake HMV store in Guangzhou and the arrest of the visiting urologist surgeon at Pudong airport for suspected sex toy smuggling which made me laugh so much I spilt my coffee all over my desk!

China Briefing is to the businessperson what the Lonely Planet is to the traveler.

Keep up the great work.

Jarrod Morley

The book can be downloaded by clicking on the small photo of the book at the bottom of the page.

Click on the photo and acrobat will download it for you. You can then either read it on your screen or print it off. If you don’t have acrobat installed, you get obtain a free download of the software here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Regards,

Best;

Ben
Homepride