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Analyze the 2013 China market, interview issues

and suggestions

Research and analyse by Marc Chien

marchient@gmail.com

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Aim:

To achieve strategic telephone interview research, make a new view and strategy of China

market.

Purpose:

A whole picture of the China market from the interviews has been achieved in 2013. The

China team needs more support and seek good ideas for 2014. By analysing different

responses form firms’ owner type background, also have evidence to help the team to

understand the issues and solve them.

Analysing respond samples of ‘owner type’ can help the team better understand what kind

of business culture we are dealing with. China has it own unique economic structure; what

can the team do? What kinds of new samples do we need? What can we do to create a

better situation?

This analysis report takes business owner types as main centre focus to investigate how this

impacts on our interviews. In the future, how much and how far we can approach the legal

GC/manager/decision maker, because of the unique market structure.

Analysis

The analysis points from samples:

The firms’ owner types

Owner types vs. phone call result

Owner types vs. success interview

Owner types vs. refused interview

Owner types vs. unfinished- appointment interview

Compare the response in different type firms

Analyze the China top25 research firms

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WIPO HC&HW Mix PO SO

91

32 31

189

492

The China samples - owner types

Category Quantities

WIPO( west investment - privately owned) 91

HC&HW(half state & half west investment ) 32

Mix (State + other Asia countries ) 31

PO(Privately owned) 189

SO(state-owned) 492

Figure 1 The China sample owner types over view

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8 5 5

22

42

15 7 10

43

108

53

12 10

65

141

WIPO HC&HW Mix PO SO

Compare the response in different types firms

I R UF

Category stats

I (interviewed) R (refused) UF(unfinished -Appointment)

WIPO( west investment - privately owned) 8 15 53

HC&HW(half state & half west investment ) 5 7 12

Mix (State + other Asia countries ) 5 10 10

PO(Privately owned) 22 43 65

SO(state-owned) 42 108 141

Figure2 The response status in different types firms

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WIPO HC&HW Mix PO SO

Success % 10% 20% 20% 16% 14%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Success %

Category stats total Success %

I (interviewed) R (refused) UF(unfinished -appointment)

WIPO 8 15 53 76 8/76 - 0.1 10%

HC&HW 5 7 12 24 5/24 - 0.2 20%

Mix 5 10 10 25 5/25 - 0.2 20%

PO 22 43 65 130 22/130 - 0.16 16%

SO 42 108 141 291 42/291 - 0.14 14%

Success %

WIPO( west investment - privately owned) 10%

HC&HW(half state & half west investment ) 20%

Mix (State + other Asia countries ) 20%

PO(Privately owned) 16%

SO(state-owned) 14%

Figure 4 The successful interview firms' type in China

Figure 2 The response status in different types firms

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WIPO HC&HW Mix PO SO

Refused % 19% 29% 40% 33% 37%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Refused %

Category stats total Refused %

I (interviewed) R (refused) UF(unfinished -appointment)

WIPO 8 15 53 76 15/76 - 0.19 19%

HC&HW 5 7 12 24 7/24 - 0.29 29%

Mix 5 10 10 25 10/25 - 0.4 40%

PO 22 43 65 130 43/130 - 0.33 33%

SO 42 108 141 291 108/291 - 0.37 37%

Refused %

WIPO( west investment - privately owned) 19%

HC&HW(half state & half west investment ) 29%

Mix (State + other Asia countries ) 40%

PO(Privately owned) 33%

SO(state-owned) 37%

Figure 5 The refused interview firms' type in China

Figure 2 The response status in different types firms

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WIPO HC&HW Mix PO SO

UF(unfinished -appointment) % 70% 50% 40% 50% 48%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

UF(unfinished -appointment) %

Category stats total UF(unfinished -appointment) %

I (interviewed) R (refused) UF(unfinished -appointment)

WIPO 8 15 53 76 53/76 - 0.70 70%

HC&HW 5 7 12 24 12/24 - 0.5 50%

Mix 5 10 10 25 10/25 - 0.4 40%

PO 22 43 65 130 65/130 - 0.5 50%

SO 42 108 141 291 141/291 - 0.48 48%

UF(unfinished -appointment) %

WIPO( west investment - privately owned) 70%

HC&HW(half state & half west investment ) 50%

Mix (State + other Asia countries ) 40%

PO(Privately owned) 50%

SO(state-owned) 48%

Figure 6 The unfinished appointment in China

Figure 2 The response status in different types firms

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State-own firms

Figure1 is an overview about the business firms’ ownership structure in China. The Chinese market

has a very special economy type. The biggest of domestic business Shareholder is the government,

especially on transportation, banking, financial service, medicine, natural resources, telecoms, and

car manufacturing. State-owned business have 59% in the Chinese sample, however we only got a

14% interview success rate (Figure 4), 37% of the refused category is the second highest figure in the

China sample (Figure 5), the second lowest position on 48% (Figure 6) unfinished appointment,

which also means it is the second highest chance to approach state-owned legal department .

Of The top 500 firms in China, a large percentage are owned by the government (local /centre), and

a lot of these companies have a one $billion revenue on “Sharplegal” target. There are two main

types of business focus in state-own firms, focus 1, China/ local only; focus 2, attempt to become

an international and global firm, the reason for this is because the ownership type has an affect on

our interview results.

What is the impact? The focus 1(China/local only), most of them only use an In-house legal

department, the legal matters have to be done by very high level security, because they are state-

own business, and also the government has the highest legal authority; they can deal with legal

matters by department to department; sometimes they do not need any legal counsels. There are

some cases our interview has been refused, because they do not hire an external legal firm or do not

have a legal department.

Are there any other reasons why the Chinese interview team did not get more interviews from

states-owned firms? Yes, there is one more main reason, also shared with focus 2 (international and

global); it is about Acritas’s reputation, they did not know who Acritas is, many of them only have

limited English ability, and also do not have the time to read all the information from Acritas website.

The Chinese government has very powerful authority to make state-owned firms’ staff to be very

careful about opinions on company matters. They ask us to send a traditional mail or fax to

introduce Acritas and Sharplegal project. They do not usually fully understand who we are and what

we want for them, just by reading the Email or fax we send to them. When we present Acritas by

talking on the phone, they can get better understanding of us, better than Email or fax; however we

only can get a short window time talk to them, sometimes having to call back do it again and again.

There is also an issue, some of the firms do not use company’s personal Email or only provide a

general Email. They did not know about Acritas, they can’t trust us; because of the freedom of

speech is still very limited in these types of firms. If this project can be approved by any government

department/legal organization/ government owned organization, it will be a great bridge to our

project.

The focus 2 (international and global); these companies hire external legal firms; we also got a good

number to agree to our interviews. However, some of them already had been interviewed in the

past two years; they did not want to do it again. In the past the free report was only in English, we

did not receive too much positive feedback. When we had conversation with them, some of them

did not get free report Email, or some of them are too busy to read it or click the link and the

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content of report did not fully satisfy. A few responders mentioned, they would be willing to buy the

report when they need it.

Privately-owned firms

Figure1, Privately-owned firms is the second largest number in the China sample, it has 23%. These

samples only achieved a 16% as second lowest success interview, 33% refused (Figure 5), and 50%

(Figure 6) as second highest unfinished appointment in 2013. This category still has a high number

of refused and unfinished appointments; successful interview figures are located in the middle of

figure1. In general over view of privately-owned firms, there is a 49% (16% success +33% refused)

chance of talking to the legal department, this is very close to the state-owned firms at 51% (14%

success +37% refused), the reach responders percentage was around 50% ,however successful

interviews (State-own / Privately-owned )was only 15% each. In this case, can any similar issues be

improved by combining them together?

According to the conversations with responses, about 50% of them were not really sure if it will be a

safe interview or not and would not make a decision immediately; they will say “call me back when I

get free time, then I will do it”, this could take months to get the final answer from them. Some of

them are curious about an overseas interview and free report and not fully convinced by who Acritas

is. The interview team deliver all the information and show the resource which we can get from

Acritas to responders, it still is not enough for them to trust us; it will then become a chasing game

without guarantee of an interview.

On the other hand, there is additional support information available online for the responder about

Acritas; there are some websites still not legal in China; for example: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google.

They can’t use these sites legally; they can only use a backdoor program to go on them sometimes.

The freedom of media is still very limited when related to news, social media groups and external

internet channels.

In China, when the legal matters decisions relate to money and authority In China, when the legal

matters decisions relate to money and authority, the final answer will come from a very high level of

authority (owner/ big shareholder). Sometimes even legal GC/manager can’t make a final decision; if

you can have a relationship with the high authority then you will get a better chance to win the deals.

“The relationship” is a very important weapon which can make a business deal become much easier

and get better results. If there was a relationship between Acritas and government/ association/

academia, it will become much easier to convince and good support points to get ‘a foot in the door’,

to approach the decision maker.

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8 5 5

22

42

15 7 10

43

108

53

12 10

65

141

WIPO HC&HW Mix PO SO

Compare the response in different types firms

I R UF

Category stats

I (interviewed) R (refused) UF(unfinished - Figure 2 The response status in different types firms

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Analyze the China top 25 research firms

Top 25 main research companies in China, 2013

1. Ipsos (益普索) , location: Beijing http://www.ipsos.com.cn/en

2. TNS ,location: Beijing (Kantar group 北京特恩斯) http://www.tns-global.com.cn/

3. CVSC-TNSRESEARCH , location: Beijing (央视市场研究股份有限公司 CTR) http://www.tns-

global.com.cn/

4. AC-Nielsen ,location: Shanghai (AC 尼尔森中国) http://cn.en.nielsen.com/site/index.shtml

5. Horizon Research Consultancy Group ,location: Beijing (零点研究咨询集团) http://www.horizon-

china.com/?l=us-en

6. iResearch ,location: Shanghai (艾瑞咨询集团) http://www.iresearchchina.com/

7. HuiCong Research, location: Beijing (慧聪研究) http://www.hcr.com.cn/english/index.html

8. Dmworld ,location: Guangzhou (达闻通用市场研究有限公司)

http://www.dmworld.com.cn/eng/index.asp

9. GfK Group ,location: Beijing (捷孚凯市场咨询（中国）有限公司)

http://www.gfk.com/us/Industries/Pages/default.aspx

10. Intage China Inc ,location: Shanghai (INTAGE Group 英德知聯恒市场咨询（上海）有限公司) http://www.intage-china.com/yingwenban/

11. Sinomonitor International ,location: Beijing (北京新生代市场监测机构有限公司) http://www.sinomonitor.com/sinomonitor_en/

Appointment)

WIPO( west investment - privately owned) 8 15 53

HC&HW(half state & half west investment ) 5 7 12

Mix (State + other Asia countries ) 5 10 10

PO(Privately owned) 22 43 65

SO(state-owned) 42 108 141

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12. Sino market research Ltd. ,location: Beijing ( 赛诺市场研究公司) http://www.sino-mr.com/cn/

13. Beijing Pan- Asia Market Research Institute (PAMRI) ,location: Beijing (北京环亚市场研究社)

http://www.pamri.com/English/index.asp

14. United Research China ( URC), location: Guangzhou (广州市致联市场研究有限公司) http://www.china-urc.com/en/

15. Diagaid marketing research , ,location: Shanghai ( 上海大正市场研究有限公司) http://www.diagaid.com/emain.php

16. DATA100 ,location: Beijing (北京数字 100 市场咨询有限公司) http://en.data100.com.cn/

17. Selection market research group (SMR) ,location: Guangzhou (赛立信研究集团) http://www.smr.com.cn/enindex.asp

18. All China Marketing Research Co. Ltd. ,location: Beijing (ACMR) (北京华通人商用信息有限公司)

http://www.acmr.com.cn/en/Advantages/About_us.html

19. Chear Mirror marketing research & consulting company Ltd. ,location: Guangzhou (广州明镜市场

研究咨询有限公司)http://www.cmmrchina.com/

20. OpenBook , location: Beijing (北京开卷信息技术有限公司) http://www.openbook.com.cn/EN/

21. Consumer behaviour research (CBR) , location: Shanghai (简博市场研究有限公司) http://www.cbr.com.cn/english/

22. Loya international, location: Guangzhou (诚予国际市场研究有限公司)http://www.dgchina.com/

23. Ims consulting group ,location: Shanghai (艾美仕市场调研咨询（上海）有限公司)

http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/ims/

24. Datasea marketing research ,location: Beijing (北京勺海市场调查有限责任公司)

http://www.datasea.com.cn

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In this analysis, it’s clear to see, there is a big space for professional legal research ,however some

media and legal associations have been doing small projects in the industry. (More detail can see

from “Sharplegal Project in the Chinese Market-It is time to make another move” by Ivy - Jing Qu)

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Suggestion A

Acritas legal market service study co-seminar (China)

Aim: Support sharplegal interview team and build up company reputation within the

Chinese legal industry.

Purpose (Acritas):

In the Chinese sample, it is getting harder and harder to find the legal contact’s name and

phone number in order to reach them and do the interview. The companies’ switchboards

always ask us for the legal managers full name before they will transfer our call, or they

can’t transfer the call because their legal department have own direct phone-line and can’t

be transferred by the switchboard, we have to talk them directly. Most of time, we can’t

find any direct line from our online resources, some of the companies phone numbers are

incorrect on their own official website. Team China needs more accurate data. Team China

is seeking a new solution to improve the situation.

In general, In Chinese business culture and if the firm has a strong brand image, it will help

to open the door for future business. Because of the political culture, the state-owned

business or half western investment, the decision makers usually come from high level of

government management, it is very hard to approach them; the communication channel

usually is closed. If Acritas could build up a relationship with local Chinese

organization/media/ university, it could have some positive benefit to the shaplegal project.

The purpose of the seminar (enterprise & education sectors):

There are an increased number of Chinese companies expanding their business

internationally. At same time, they are also involved in wider legal matters which are related

to “Stock Listing”, “M&A”, “abroad law and norm”, “Intellectual property” and “commercial

contracts”. It starts from local to national then expands to International. To face the fast

moving business needs, how an in-house legal Department leader leads the team to become

stronger and improve efficiency.

There are more and more Chinese firms moving towards internationalization, whether it is a

domestic cooperation or overseas local matters; there is one main key point, which is the

cross culture communication, in-house legal counsels need some help to face overseas legal

matters and understand the legal cultural difference.

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How about external law firms? What can they do to improve themselves to provide a better

Chinese legal market service? Such as satisfaction of expectations, a reasonable fee,

accuracy of the legal message, to have good knowledge related to clients’ industry matters

and provide high quality service. The legal department decision makers are looking forward

to having a good quality service from those law firms.

The purpose of this seminar can benefit legal sectors experience exchange. Whether the

legal cases are in China or worldwide, it could really help those firms’ needs in the future.

On the other side, international law firms can have a better understanding of the Chinese

legal market; the education sector can also take it into a study which is the future legal

market service, to help law students increase competitiveness.

Benefit (Acritas):

1) This co-seminar can hopefully help the interview team to get more accurate data,

also have a better project finishing time for 2014 shaplegal project (China).

2) Start to build up reputation and relationship with local firms in China.

3) To open potential new markets and clients in China.

4) New project for legal firms (international).

5) Take a market position(China)

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Seminar (online conference video meeting)

Topic: The legal service market future trends and needs in future five years in China.

(Suggestion)

Hosting: Acritas, organization/media/ university in China

Location: UK. Acritas & China

Invited guests: Legal Dept. GC/ manager/decision maker

Consultants:

Legal service: International law firm/ senior legal consult

Education sector: university (UK/China)

Legal Dept. (firms): international firms’ GC

Process:

First stage: one to one telephone interview

Purpose: collect new data (shaplegal 2014+ seminar focus area) and analyze

centre questions

Interviewer: Acritas

Support partner: education sectors (send traditional invitation mails to the

enterprises)

Invited responder: The legal department decision maker (100 people)

Second stage: seminar meeting

Option one: Twenty (responders) as one group

The groups can divide by

“State-owned enterprises”,

“State-owned + western investment enterprises”

“Western investment enterprises”

Option two: One hundred (responders)

Location: UK vs. China or China

Meeting style: Video conferencing or face to face conferencing

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Acritas

1. Accurate contact data

2. Reputation in China

3. Build up local relationship in China

4. Approach potential clients

5. Take a market position

1. Exchange experience with other

GC/manager

2. Exchange knowledge on

international legal matters

3. A across culture communication

in the international business

sectors.

There is an exclusive depth special

report on the media channel.

1. Study international and

national legal market needs.

2. Study a across culture legal

communication.

3. Support China legal industry, it

has good knowledge and global

connection to the market.

1. They could meet up with

potential clients.

2. Better understand what the

China legal market needs.

3. Build up local relationship in

China

Semina

University Media

International law firms Enterprises’ GC/ manager

Receive

Receive

Receive Receive

Receive

Telephone interview

Shaplegal interview

Co- host Co- host

Acritas

Education sectors International legal firms

Host

1. Mail Invitation (local)

2. Provide/ search more

local contacts

Sponsor

Co-partnership

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Project role:

Acritas:

1. main host for the project

2. Propose the project to potential sponsor

3. Coordinate project

4. Telephone interview

International law firm:

1. Consultant in the seminar 2. Sponsor

Education sector:

1. Co-host project

2. Sending tradition mail, help to invite legal GC /decision maker

3. Local main host for the seminar (seminar location )

Media:

1. Support local commutation

2. Exclusive report

.