At Zensar Technologies in Pune, a Centre of Excellence is being readied for overseas visitors. These are birds of an unusual feather. Some 1,000 Chinese software project managers will be here very soon for a variety of training courses. According to Shenzhen Software Park administrative director Zeng Guozhong, the course will also cover etiquette, communication and negotiation skills.

Indian software training firm NIIT is setting up educational centres at a furious pace in China. It has joined up with 10 leading universities. Among its offerings are an English capsule and cultural subjects.

As China steps out into the world ? nothing could be more dramatic than the takeover of IBM?s PC business by Lenovo ? India is helping the country find its feet. The dragon is no longer enemy No 1.

But this phase of cooperation will give way to a far more intense engagement. Some Chinese companies ?Haier, ZTE Kangxun, Huawei ? have already set up base here. More than 50 Indian companies have operations there. Inevitably, whether in India or China, people will have to learn to work with Chinese colleagues and Chinese bosses.

QUICK TAKE

Some cultural considerations in China

• Don’t move things around in a home or office. They may have been placed there auspiciously. • Chicken heads are often kept at the business banquet table facing the host. (If the head points to anyone else at the table, it is a symbol that they will be fired). • At the banquet table, never stick your chopsticks into the rice standing up (a symbol used at funerals). • Never serve yourself a drink at the banquet table, always fill your neighbour’s glass. This is his cue to fill yours.

Source: The Global Etiquette Guide: China

?LG (from Korea) and Maruti (Japan) have shown that it takes time to adjust to another country?s workplace cultures,? says Mumbai-based HR consultant D. Singh. ?Huge numbers of Chinese are making efforts to learn English,? continues Singh. ?But where are the Indians learning Chinese?? Confucius Institutes, along the lines of Alliance Fran?aise of France, are being set up all over the world. But nobody in India seems interested.

?Tomorrow, even if you are not working for a Chinese company, you will need to know how to conduct yourself with them because they will be somewhere along the food chain,? adds HR consultant Shashi Rao. ?Bone up on their culture; it will give you a distinct edge in the marketplace.?

The subject is, of course, too vast to discuss in a few words. One thing you need to know, however, is the concept of guanxi. This essentially means the relationship between two business parties, but it has a wider connotation. It stands for the entire network and the attitude ?You scratch my back, I?ll scratch yours?.

Today, Indian companies operating in China have learnt that. But Indian companies at home will have to do so too. The reverse flow has not been as large, thanks mainly to the Indian government?s security fears. But the tsunami is coming. Adequately warned, you can take precautions. Otherwise you will be swamped.

There are several cultural issues in working with the Chinese (see box). But almost everybody agrees that a knowledge of the language is a must.

Secondly, many of the common perceptions about the Chinese may not be correct. There is an impression, for instance, that the Chinese specialise in cheap products of uncertain quality. But a Hill & Knowlton survey says that corporate reputation is high on the agenda of Chinese CEOs. They feel that brand building is the most important component (chosen by 75 per cent of the sample).

Rao, however, says you can?t pin the Chinese down to numbers. ?The fact is that we have to do much more business with them. Learn the ground rules. But remember that every case is different,? she says. All the stories of the Inscrutable Orient are mainly because of the Inscrutable Chinese.