The contextual definition of networking and business relationships...
“Try to stay away from alcohol, especially beer, while networking. You really don’t want to beer burp in front of a potential recruiter”, is what I was instructed back in b-school. “If you must, stick to one glass of wine the entire night.”
A few years later, I was catching up with an old friend at a rooftop bar in Shanghai and what he told me went completely against my formal education on networking matters. He told me how his company had won a certain contract in a certain part of Asia because the client liked dealing with him for his openness to enjoy karaoke and drink (possibly, even beer burp) with them. “They want to see that you’re a normal guy, enjoy wine and karaoke, and most importantly, have a vulnerable (nice) human side”, he said.
This got me thinking, is there a universally acceptable definition of networking? More importantly, I needed an answer to the important question of ‘to drink or not to drink?’!
On pondering further, I realised that, forget globally, coming up with even a pan-Asian definition is extremely difficult. However, for sheer academic/convenience purposes, if one were to attempt this, it would mean roughly dividing Asia into two parts using the longitude passing through Singapore as the line. For several geo-socio-economic reasons, I’d name the two groups: India-like, and China-like. Nonetheless, it is important to note that, even within these groups, it is difficult to generalise and there exist several differences in practice.
China-like want ‘face’ while the India-like differentiate business & social affairs
With the advent of Chinese businesses on the global forefront, the term ‘guanxi’ finds itself commonly used (and abused) in articles and business school essays that I’ve helped review. While most people in the West would believe that guanxi would simply mean ‘connection’ or ‘network’, the implication of the word is far deeper than that. Guanxi can be broken into two words, guan (关): connected, and xi (系): tied. Together, they mean: relationship. The term embodies elements of depth in relationship, societal/hierarchical order, and ability to influence — the quintessential concept of giving ‘face’ to a relationship. This is applicable not just in China but also in Korea and Japan. Here, business and social matters tend to converge.
On the other hand, having a relatively more heterogeneous cultural fabric, countries in the India-like group tend to maintain a distance between business and social affairs; the concept of ‘face’ assuming slightly lesser importance. A brief look into the colonial past of the region would also explain as to why business practices are comparatively more West-like. Although, having said that, there are several invisible lines of influence that you’d only see with time.
Both environments are difficult for ‘third-party foreigners’ to navigate
The reason I mentioned ‘third-party foreigners’ is because in Asia there is a tendency to divide foreigners into two categories: 1) foreign-educated/-dwelling returnees (and their children), and 2) ‘third-party’ foreigners who have no family ties with the country. Depending on the country group, the ease of operating for the two foreigner types differs. While returnees (and actual foreigners) have mostly been accepted in the India-like group, it is only in the recent times that the China-like group [(particularly Vietnam, and Japan (historically)] has become more open in dealing with them. A friend shared a rather interesting perspective, “In certain states, there was previously this notion that the returnees had left the country in the moment of need, post-war(s), and were now coming back to reap the benefits of a rapidly flourishing economy.”
While the boundary between the two groups is getting blurred when it comes to dealing with returnees, it goes without saying that foreigners continue to find navigating the Asian business environments a bit challenging.
Trends such as globalisation, two-way (including reverse) immigration, and the growing importance of Asian economies are expected to merge business practices further. Until then, my advice is to keep the two groups in mind when conducting business in Asia. Happy networking!!
P.S. The answer: if unsure, or if you have issues handling it, stay away from it. The folks at b-school were (almost) right.
