Awareness Training at bpost International

The Belgian postal service bpost International will be setting up a logistic platform with a Chinese partner in China for the very first time. The Confucius Instiute at Group T provided a tailored China Business Awareness Training; as it happens, also a first for the institute. The project came about in collaboration with the Living Stone Centre for Intercultural Entrepreneurship (www.lscoop.com).

Twenty participants spent a day being introduced to the People's Republic. The audience consisted mainly of 'China beginners', but a number of employees with some China experience and even the Chinese general manager for China and her Chinese colleague from Marketing participated.

The morning session focused on the obvious differences between Belgium and China, such as the countries' geography, history, and socio-economic reality. The participants also got to know the structure of Chinese and each of them received a meticulously chosen Chinese name.

The afternoon session tackled the abstract differences between both countries. Case studies were used to familiarize the participants with, amongst others, the importance of Chinese hierarchy, indirect communication, conversational topics, and topics that are best avoided. The final part of the training, and a crucial one, was an analysis of guanxi, Chinese networking.

The Confucius Institute training expects its attendants to participate actively, and this succeeded very well at bpost International. The beginners were interested, the 'false beginners' shared their experiences and compared these to the content of the training. The presence of Chinese employees was an added plus; they translated the trainer's input to the company context and provided first-hand back-up.