Linda Stanley
Sometimes lessons learned in the business realm are transferable to the church realm. Consider the case of Dynamic Marketing Group founded by Dan Mintz, a New Yorker, doing business quite successfully in China today. DMG is rapidly becoming one of the fastest growing, most well connected and influential advertising agencies in China. Last year, the company billed an estimated $10.4 billion; in 2007, billings are expected to reach $14 billion. DMG revenues are projected to rise in tandem with China’s rise as the world’s second largest economy by 2020 and the likelihood of China becoming the world’s second largest media market by 2014. Furthermore, a local Chinese partner is no longer required to obtain a license to operate in the ad industry. However, two critically important things are required to successfully do business in China – guanxi and shi li.
Guanxi (pronounced gwan-she) translated means “relationship building.” Practical application entails “carefully cultivating clout, a culturally calibrated measure of respect, influence and honor. It is a personal as well as political form of capital.” Dan Mintz has had twelve years to learn this lesson since he first arrived in China as a freelance commercial director with no contacts, no advertising experience and no Mandarin language skills. Mintz insists that guanxi is one key to navigating Chinese business and political landscape.
In the early years of DMG’s presence in China, Mintz shuttled back and forth between New York and Beijing trying to figure out how to do business in China. He soon realized that the only way to firmly establish and develop the business was to relocate to Beijing, which he did in 1993. With the help of a local producer and a few thousand dollars, Mintz set up shop in a Beijing apartment complex reserved for Westerners. In those days, there were few local producers that could compete with Mintz’s production skills. Early on, he was able to entice the likes of Budweiser, Unilever, Sony, Nabisco, Audi, Kraft along with scores of Chinese brands to allow him to create ad spots. As DMG’s reputation grew, it was able to grow its Beijing presence and expand into Shanghai, China’s business hub.
DMG’s rise to ad agency prominence came about with the success of its 2004 Volkswagen brand campaign, occurring in the same year that China became Volkswagen’s second largest market. Mintz parlayed his “Chinese immersion experience” into commercial success by successfully marrying indigenous ideas relating to Chinese “heart” virtues to Volkswagen’s slogan, “for the love of automobiles.” To further reinforce the emotional tone and message, DMG secured the rights to a popular Hanson ballad that became a standard at Chinese weddings to use as the soundtrack for the ads.
The accompanying back story to DMG’s Volkswagen campaign success includes Mintz’s key relationships with a young Chinese commercial film and video producer and a local financial whiz (both now partners in DMG) and the significant leverage these relationships brought to the table as DMG navigated choppy political and commercial waters. Both Chinese partners had high level government and military connections that facilitated access to and ultimately permission from China’s highest governmental officials to fully execute DMG’s politically dicey Volkswagen ad strategy. Mintz admits success hinged on carefully finessing the ad campaign while levering his Chinese partners’ relational connections with highly placed government and military officials rather than reliance on the standard American approach of walking in cold with a strong sales presentation. The underlying genius of Mintz’s approach was in finding a way to serve everyone’s interests. This brings us to shi li – the ability to do good work. DMG was able to do good work in China because of its supreme relationship building and due diligence on the front end of its ad campaigns. Without the relationships, there would be no opportunity to do the work.
Success in China, as well as other regions in the world, whether one engages in corporate business building or Kingdom business building, will require both guanxi and shi li. Recently I have spoken with a few U.S. based churches that tell me that a new chapter is being written today in Kingdom building as it relates to global ministry initiatives in various locations around the globe. New ways of doing Kingdom business building are being developed that involve new ways of “relationship building” and “the ability to do good work.” More about those conversations in a later writing for another time.
Dan Mintz explained DMG’s success as not so much about importing an American business as it was about growing a Chinese business. Almost every employee in DMG’s Chinese locations is mainland Chinese. The culture and approach are distinctly local. Another key factor – the entire Chinese system operates with a long term perspective. Chinese want to know that foreigners are in it for the long term. Chinese leaders want to be sure before they trust and develop foreigners that they understand two things: 1) how to build relationships in China, because it is done differently in China, and 2) that foreigners have the strength, the contacts and the understanding to withstand the test of time.
Guanxi and shi li - sometimes lessons learned in the business realm are transferable to the church realm.
To read the entire article about Dan Mintz and DMG, check the April 2006 issue of Fast Company – The Mintz Dynasty.
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