Why do things that work in one market not work in another?

Adapting to the culture of each country

Good Why did your trip to China teach you that what works in one country does not necessarily work in another?

Outlook and above all, humility.I think those are two things we're missing in a widespread manner throughout society.

Throughout my professional career, I have been very fortunate.to travel to many countries and do business on different continents.

What we were looking for in China was not manufacturing,but what we were looking for in China was to sell.

At that time, we were looking for strategic partners in China.to help us sell our products there.

I had a meeting with a Chinese businessman.in which I told him three things which, for me, were the added value we had, without a doubt, as a company.

First, I told him that we had 50 years of history,that our product was 100% manufactured in Spain,that our turnover at that time was 12 million euros,and that our facilities were huge and we had more than 25,000 square meters of facilities.

My focus for that talk was how my product is far superior than anything you could have found in China,so youhave no other choice than to buy it from me.

The good thing is that the Chinese businessman was a very polite person,very cultured and with much more life experience than I had at that moment.

And the first thing he said was, "Wow, well, congratulations." for being 50 years old.

The company.I'm surprised that in 50 years you've only managed to achieve this level of turnover.

Because my company is five years old and we already make 200 million euros a year.

The second thing he said to me was, "Wow, very good." with what you manufacture in Spain.

But do you really have anything against other countries?tha manufacture products such as China?" I had no idea how to answer that question.

And lastly, he congratulated me again for having a 25,000-square-meter factory,that his factory and businesses had more than 200,000 square meters.

It was a real lesson in humility.And it was also a lesson in how to approach such negotiations.Above all negotiations, but also those those cultural conversations.

What is big for one person may be small for another,what for one is huge figure in terms of turnover for another, may represent a deficiency.

If I could go back now,I would focus entirely on the fact that it was a company with important values of tradition, quality,with expertise cultivated over several generations that gave us added value versus other competitors in the textile sector and that we had always had growing turnover because we had always preferred to do quality things before growing in an uncontrolled fashion.

You told us this story about China.Do you have any others, for example in the United States, that you can tell us about?

Yes, the one in China was more about opening that mindset.

It's much more than just visualizing.At that time, I was at the peak of my career in that decade.or in the project I was leading after two long years I managed to land a meeting with the best department store in the United States,which is Neiman Marcus.

They invited to Dallas for a meeting and they asked me to bring some samples.

I could only take a few and I trusted myself.If I had to take samples to other countries I usually carried them in my suitcase and then went straight there,obviously, without any kind of documentation saying why I was entering the country temporarily with those samples.

In my case, I did the same, but I didn't consider that the country I was going to was the United States.

I arrived at customs and they took my samples because I didn't have the paperwork because I didn't know I needed it and then I had to face a situation that led to a meeting with Neiman Marcus executives in Dallas,without having any products to show them.

You have nothing to lose because you have already lost everything.and there you have to, very quickly put all of your negative thoughts aside and focus on "Okay, I'm here now." What can I am capable of doing?" So luckily we sorted that out and shortly afterwards they were already buying our products and were selling them in all of its department stores in the United States.