China is a tremendous place for business, entrepreneur says

Alexander Kocsis pictured during the talk

Seasoned corporate and legal professional Alexander Kocsis, who has been Chief Executive Officer of several multimillion-dollar corporations, believes that China is a land of business opportunities.

Kocsis was the keynote speaker at this week’s France Macau Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting, which focused on the topic of “Doing Business in China.”

Kocsis, who resides in southern China, is a keen observer of China’s dramatic rise to superpower status, as well as its strategic implications. He is the only foreigner to have been appointed as an adjunct Professor of Law at Beijing Normal University.

“I think China is a tremendous place for opportunity. Things are changing; the economy is changing so rapidly. Xi Jinping’s plan to eliminate poverty is really such a positive move,” he told the Times.

“There are tremendous opportunities. However, if you want to be successful, I think for a foreign company, you have to combine the identification of opportunities with some intelligence of what’s going on in the market – what the political system looks like, how is business actually transacted, who are the key players, how are you able to move money back and forth?”

“In a western country, you don’t really think of those things. In China, you really have to spend effort educating yourself on these points first. So identifying the opportunity [while learning] the market, this is the key crucial point. Just jumping in, I think, will result in trouble.” 

The law professor also believes that China’s local talent is capable of managing the business operations of foreign companies.

“Without a doubt, there [are] good people in China, but I think the problem is that many western companies are a little bit arrogant. They know they can do it because they are successful in the United States or Canada. The trouble is that success does not translate well into China but because, in their mind, they know they can do it, they just enter without thinking. This is the real problem. So finding good people is not a problem – of course, it’s an issue everywhere, but there is no shortage of good people,” said Kocsis.

Kocsis also believes that Chinese consumers’ confidence in foreign products could help foreign businesses in China, as “the belief that foreign companies have higher quality, better manufacturing standards […] things like these all lead to the idea that a foreign product is better.”

“I think a lot of Chinese products are now catching up, or trying to catch up but for sure, western companies have an advantage.”

China is well known for its networking-heavy approach to business, which requires people to possess extensive social connections in order to achieve their goals.

When asked how a foreign company should build connections in China, Kocsis had no answer.

“I really don’t know. I think it’s a process of making friends,” he mused.

One audience member asked whether Macau and Hong Kong could bridge the gap between China and foreign companies, to which Kocsis replied, “this could be the bridge, but it’s not.”