Multinationals have committed huge resources glad-handing Asian politicians, bureaucrats and company bosses. Managers quickly grasped the idea that business in Asia is about relationships. Yet, despite the banqueting and back-slapping the game remains a mystery for many.
Plenty of firms have done their due diligence, spent hours negotiating, and flown in the chief executive for kudos, only to be turned down in favour of an apparently less-qualified competitor. The issue is particularly relevant in China, where the world's biggest companies have prostrated themselves at the dragon's door.
Endless column centimetres have been devoted to the chance of foreigners ever making proper money on the mainland. For now, China is the hottest financial investment theme going. Next year the story may have soured, but despite the fickle whims of international investors, some ventures will work.
Most of the overseas capital sunk into China has come from the overseas diaspora centred in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The likes of Li Ka-shing, Robert Kuok and Singaporean Oei Hong Leong have famously built a network of relationships across the region defining their business.
How did they do it? After all, even for workaholic tycoons it can't be possible to meet every decision-maker of consequence in Beijing, much less make a friend of them. Moreover, what are the lessons for foreign multinationals seeking to replicate the success of the overseas Chinese? China can force foreigners to do business on its terms because it is the world's most populous nation, growing at a furious rate, while foreign multinationals are many and desperate for business.
'Sincerity' is a phrase tossed around with happy abandon in the Asian political context, but Western managers crucially fail in building relationships by focusing on only those relating to the project in hand, argues the McKinsey management consultancy.
Asian players have invested in complex webs of relationships without expectation of imminent profit. By contrast, Western firms typically see relationships as a 'derivative strategy' of the project in hand rather than an end in itself, says McKinsey.