China Gateway? Not Hong Kong

...North America, they sometimes fall prey to the trap of viewing Hong Kong as the gateway to China. Thus, they hire Hong Kong professionals to live and work in mainland China. After all, Hong Kong has a mature facility-management industry with knowledge and experience.

But what happens is that Hong Kong facility-management professionals are put into a difficult position of having to meet high expectations of growth and profits while trying to figure out a foreign culture, country and sometimes hostile natives.

They are little or no better off than a facility-management professional from Des Moines.

A rule of thumb concerning a profession like facility management is if you can’t manage the process of details and workflow, you cannot operate effectively or efficiently and you will fail.

The dilemma appears when you put a person in place as a facility-management professional, thinking they have the soft skills necessary to conduct operations. You get facility-management professionals closing deals and getting the numbers that must be reported to the head office.

But the actual work that is done is not at the quality level the client expects, and the extra money left out of the reporting may be going somewhere other than to headquarters.

And the excuse? What goes on in China is only what is reported. The dissatisfied clients? For every cancelled contract, there are five more about to sign due to the speed of growth in China.

A new threshold of change and maturity has been broached over the past year or so. Organizations like the International Facility Management Association and Building Owners and Managers Association International are conducting the proper due diligence for success in the People’s Republic of China.

These changes bring to the Chinese market a sorely needed level of facility management education, training and quality metrics that will begin the process of unraveling the old ways of doing business in China.

Indeed, who moved my cheese?

The gap in the market for supplying quality services and products at a fair price is not being met at the speed demanded by the market.

So if your business can assist in filling this gap, find the gateway that is best for you. Just know, you do not have to come in through Hong Kong.

Based in China, Paul Doherty is a registered architect and the managing director of the Digit Group, a management consulting and information-technology services company. He can be reached at pdoherty@pipelne.com.