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Chinese Charm School: Teaching Online Business Manners

Posted by TimSlavin at January 14, 2004

"For Mr. Chen, who hails from the city of Wenzhou in central China, the courses were a small revelation. No longer, he vowed, would his business e-mails consist only of a litany of prices and dates, and he promised to spend more time chitchatting with clients. "I will work hard to be nicer," says the 47-year-old Mr. Chen, whose small company makes machines that pack items such as sugar sachets.

The seminar is the brainchild of Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba.com, an Internet company begun here in 1999 that specializes in introducing Chinese manufacturers of everything from blue jeans to bed frames to global buyers. By working through the Alibaba Web site, customers from the U.S. and Europe, who previously had to scout for goods through layers of middlemen and trading companies, now go straight to the source.

But Mr. Ma, who named his company after Ali Baba of "The Thousand and One Nights" to connote riches, found that just linking buyer and seller wasn't enough. A large cultural chasm still loomed. Chinese factory owners have become adept at churning out massive quantities of goods at ever-cheaper prices. But when it comes to the basic protocol of international trade, many of them lack the manners, sophistication and experience to interact with customers halfway around the world." It's not enough to have a website to do business. A great idea for a website (Alibaba.com) realizes it has to expand into "Miss Manners" charm school for its customers then turn the courses into a sideline to expand its business. From the Wall Street Journal (paid registration required).

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