Chinese connections enrich look at Boeing

"No business in China gets very far without strong personal relationships or 'guanxi.' "

— Kristi Heim

Seattle Times business reporter Kristi Heim wouldn't have gotten today's special report on Boeing in China without "guanxi," either.

"Kristi writes that 'guanxi' are crucial for doing business in China, and that was a key to her reporting as well," said Rami Grunbaum, deputy business editor. It also helped that Heim speaks Mandarin and has lived in China.

"With little help from Boeing, she made personal connections there with airline executives and aviation experts who responded to her interest in getting the Chinese view. Each of those people led her to others, and along the way she was able to visit the Chinese-Boeing joint-venture factory and talk to its employees," Grunbaum said.

"These people offer a perspective we haven't previously heard when talking about the China market — not just a waking giant of a nation that plays politics with airplane deals, but business executives who want service, attention, training as well as the best possible deal," he added.

In a series that runs through Tuesday in The Times, Heim offers fascinating insights into Boeing's early success and more recent struggles in China. Her reporting indicates that some factors were out of Boeing's control, but others resulted from Boeing mistakes, including "missed opportunities, arrogance and complacency."

On the other hand, she told me, "The Chinese never complained about the quality of Boeing planes. Plenty of people think the product is great."

Heim has an international-studies graduate degree from the University of Washington, with an emphasis on China. She lived there for six years as student, teacher and journalist.

"The way of doing business there is very different. Without knowing someone, it's very difficult to knock on a door and get any response," she said. "If all other things are equal, people will choose someone they like and trust to do business with.

"Chinese people go out of their way to help someone who has taken the time to learn their language," she added. "Using Mandarin was the only way I could do many of the interviews."

Speaking directly with people helped put them at ease, which is one reason they were willing to share personal glimpses into corporate competitiveness. Much of her reporting was over meals, where the custom is to talk, relax and get to know each other.

She confessed to being somewhat nonplussed when one meal included sautéed duck tongues. "It just illustrates how you have to be game for anything. You have to plunge in," she said. It's a matter of "immersing yourself in the environment in order to be the best journalist you can."

Before this assignment, Heim was last in China two years ago. Now the Chinese seem even more sure about the strength of their country and economy. "Most people seem optimistic about their own futures and about the future of the country," she said.

The streets of China's major cities are full of people from all over the world, and more of them are speaking Chinese

"Every major brand has its logo on a building in Beijing," Heim said. "China is the focal point of the world's money and attention. I think it is the most dynamic place in the world right now."

One important observation she makes is, "Chinese people understand us much better than we understand them." She sees her work as opening a window to help readers understand the connections between the countries.

"That's the real fun of being a journalist in an age when business is international."

The lesson taken from exploring Boeing in China? "Maybe it's that you have to stay on your toes and figure out how globalization is going to change the nature of how you compete. If the world is different, you can't do things as you've always done them and expect to be successful."

Northwest 100

We are proud to publish the 14th annual Northwest 100 today.

"Trying to keep content fresh and interesting can be challenging when it comes to annual features, such as the Northwest 100. For the last 13 years, the Business staff has examined all of the publicly traded companies based in Washington, Oregon and Idaho," said Business Editor Becky Bisbee.

"We have always used a proprietary formula to rank the companies. We wanted to highlight companies with staying power as well as growth in areas such as revenue, number of employees and profits," she said.

This year, we substituted operating income for market value in our formula, and looked at sales per employee instead of mere employee growth. The idea, business reporter Drew DeSilver said, was to better gauge a company's true performance for its investors.

"We wanted to try to measure performance and efficiency at each stage of the game, from bringing in revenue to turning a profit to rewarding shareholders," DeSilver said. "The idea is, to score high you have to be pretty good at everything."

DeSilver and lead news assistant Gary Dougherty crunched the numbers. Designer Paul Morgan and Special Sections Editor Carey Gelernter designed the section.

Although the Northwest 100 is aimed at investors, Gelernter said, "there's also a good reason for nonbusiness types to read it. To understand a region, you need to know who the business players are — who's up, who's down, and why. It's part of understanding one's community and what makes it tick."

Inside The Times appears in the Sunday Seattle Times. If you have a comment on news coverage, write to Michael R. Fancher, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111, call 206-464-3310 or send e-mail to mfancher@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists