'Guanxi' crucial in kindergartens' forays into mainland China
Overseas education groups, like EtonHouse, have learned that business success across the border is determined by the concept of guanxi
On the mainland, guanxi - simply put, one's connections - determines the success or failure of a business, going by the experiences of two Singapore-based education groups.
"In Singapore, we tend to schedule a meeting before everything else, but in mainland China … we paid a lot of tuition fees [to learn the ropes]," said Ng Gim Choo, founder of the EtonHouse International Education Group.
Ng was speaking to Hong Kong media for the first time since the group started the city's first branch in Tai Tam in January. But before Hong Kong, the group had set up 11 kindergartens across the mainland, starting out in Suzhou , Jiangsu province, in 2003.
With support from its government, EtonHouse was the first Singapore-based education provider to expand onto the mainland. Ng also attributes the group's success to recruiting its administrators locally. It meant the staff knew how to deal with their own authorities.
"Doing business in Singapore is very transparent, but in mainland China, there is no standard way of doing things," Ng said. "Different people will give you different answers to one question, which makes things much more complicated."
She said Hong Kong was more akin to Singapore in terms of efficiency and transparency.