To sell in China, software companies should be aware of Bing-Fa.

Thinking about how to help Chinese companies improve their prosperity in the battlefield of the global marketplace will go a long way in winning business (as long as you execute with local professionals and partners.)

China is the world’s oldest civilization and has survived when other civilizations have vanished. The Chinese have been admired for their virtue in, and love of, strategic thinking. Companies all around the globe, to some degree, study some Bing-Fa (a form of strategic thinking first applied to military strategy and which has since been applied to almost all human interactions), especially the most complete and one of the most popular Bing-Fa texts, that of Sun Tzu which written in the fourth century. Commonly referred to as Sun Tzu, The Art of War as it applies to business is on many global business leaders must read list.

As Sun Tzu said “victory is determined before the battle begins” and “the highest form of victory is to conquer with the right strategy.” But we must not lose sight of the fact that strategy without execution (even if execution simply means to reveal the strategy) is hallucination. In today’s global economy, execution of the right channel strategy with the right timing is becoming more important than ever, and can seem more complicated than ever. Also, execution of the right business strategy for your customers is more important than ever. The good news however is that many of you have systems today capable of helping companies to harmonize and formalize their strategies to meet the cycles of complex foreign and domestic policies and companies allowing them to adapt the ever-changing needs of a highly demanding world. These systems help companies prepare to seize favorable opportunities. I like the definition good luck which says it is that place where preparation meets opportunity. Without strategy, preparation and the ability to execute swiftly and decisively, opportunity is lost. Your solutions can help companies seize strategic opportunities and your approach may be best served by focusing your messaging around that.

It is not always the most intelligent, strongest, nor the least expensive who will enjoy the most prosperity in this highly competitive world in which companies compete. Rather it is the ones most responsive to change. It is the companies who are able to deploy the right strategies for the moment. Companies who are prepared to take advantage of situations as they change and who can react with the right timing.

Companies globally, recognizes the low labor cost advantage which companies in some regions, including China, have are becoming less of an advantage and competitors are reacting by becoming more effective and efficient through the implementation of adaptable systems. These systems are helping them improve their position relative to the Chinese low labor cost advantage therefore, over time, Chinese companies will also need to become more effective and efficient. Chinese companies will need systems capable of helping them deploy flexible strategies in order to remain competitive and in order to maximize their prosperity.

Demands made by the market must be seen as opportunities. In order to be most effective the systems companies use must be capable of handling highly sophisticated management and optimization strategies in a straightforward way. The complex must be made simple. Communication of new strategies must be automatic so that everyone in the company is organized with the discipline to execute the new strategies immediately and with unity. The systems must also be capable of communication over multiple sites, in multiple regions all across the globe. Everyone can be aligned with the same purpose while at the same time having the fear of doing the wrong thing reduced or eliminated by having the formal system directing what to do and how to execute on documented strategies.

There is an old story I once read about from China, of a person who had been hit with an arrow and sought help from an outer practice doctor (there are also inner practice doctors.) The doctor sawed off the arrow and told him he was finished and that the man was free to go. This doctor’s job was done but the cure was not complete. Integrated, adaptable, real-time systems can also eliminate the “saw off the arrow” syndrome by communicating the entire cure through holistic optimization strategy.

Leadership, as well as all others within the company must also have complete ability to see what is occurring continuously. They should be able to have formalized key performance indicators (KPI’s) as to how the company is executing vs the strategy. This should be done at an executive level, a management level and an operational level that are all aligned to a common set of objectives and goals. These KPI’s codify the relationships amongst people within the company and delineate their respective duties and responsibilities in the form of clear measures. Through continuous analysis, multi-dimensional visual representation, and alerts, all the insights necessary to carry out the strategies and identify areas for improvement are revealed. The alerts, which are triggered on events, are certain to be sent to the right person at the right time to facilitate the right action to keep the strategies on track. A system so designed, is a way for the leadership of the company to communicate at all times with every single person, ensuring unity of purpose. This is simply not possible with out technology. Without technology such as this, and to quote a Chinese maxim, “the Heaven is high, and the Emperor is far away” meaning that despite whatever policy or rules exist, people end up just doing whatever they please within their own sphere of influence.

Companies facing death at the hands of fierce competition have given birth to new idea and actions to help them survive. Resulting from this are new systems capable of allowing companies to define definite sets of basic rules the ability to combine basic rules into strategies for deployment. In music there are 8 basic note from which an infinite number of musical tunes can be created. It is the same with modern adaptable systems. These systems allow them also to define, ahead of time, events that trigger those strategies as well as the adaptable workflows that should result. Some systems are even capable of triggering actions from insights gained by real time analysis of actual performance and conformance to the strategies.

There will always only be 24 hours in the day. Companies need to make best use of those 24 hours. Brute force by labor alone and by stocking a lot of inventory, will not be enough for long term competitive advantage.

The essence of successful warfare strategy is deception and surprise. It is also to put yourself in the position of your competitor, anticipating what efficiencies they are working on in order to disarm their opposition. Develop your own long-term strategies to seize even the smallest of advantages. While companies may be flocking to China to take advantage of low labor costs today, Chinese companies must prepare for the competition yet to come, and implement new ways to optimize labor, inventory, space and assets now in order to make themselves secure against defeat later. Hope that the competition will not catch up is not a strategy. Eventually they awake. Adaptable systems allow for continuous improvement as underlying cause for problems are found and strategies are formed to resolve them. Continuous improvement is happening all over the world, and competition is heating up at an ever-increasing rate. Taking proactive measures now to ensure adaptability, by implementing systems capable of helping you define and execute a sophisticated and ever-evolving set of strategies, is the only effective long-term path to defending and improving prosperity.

Every second of every day, the bar is being raised for performance of your customers and prospects. To win new business, you must have systems that respond to those demands, now and in the future.

Managing the challenges of a global economy gets tougher and more complicated every day. Adding to the problem is the fact that the pace of change is accelerating exponentially. Now, more than ever, brute force solutions erode margins.

The way to penetrate China, is to think globally & strategically, and then to execute locally.