Possible issues with western trading
Businesses from the West can compliment businesses in the bamboo network, as long as the two can acknowledge their different operating styles and values. For example, trying to turn a Chinese company into a bureaucratic Western-style business is bound to fail; just the same as trying to remove the hierarchical structure in an American business will not work. Western businesses do have something to offer those in the bamboo network by way of technical expertise, consumer marketing skills and the ability to manage large-production operations.
The Chinese businesses have something to offer the West, in that typically businesses in the bamboo network have a low public profile, reducing the likelihood of becoming a target of public criticism or governmental action. Most of the companies serve as middlemen, making the product for someone else. The owners also tend to have connections in government, meaning they are privy to things that western companies are not. For example, Li Ka-shing’s son, Richard Li, started a company called PCCW. The company then won a controversial land deal, acquiring valuable waterfront real estate from the government without any public auction bids. Many in Hong Kong cried cronyism, as Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee Hwa gave away the land to his new high-tech residential and commercial venture called Cyberport. The bamboo network enterprises do not produce or market any major consumer product, however, so they have little experience in managing large manufacturing operations.