The case study that I read about was dealing with a wallpaper printing equipment manufacturer. The name of this company was called Canwall and its located in Canada. Two guys from this company were sent over to a town north of Shanghai in the province of Jiangsu, China. The two guys that went over there were, Charlie Burton, who was the president of Canwall and Phil Raines, who was the marketing director. They were going to China to negotiate a sale to a new wallpaper production company. The Canadian company has never sold its equipment outside of its country and this was going to be it's first time. The two companies have been talking before they met for the first time. The manager of the Chinese company, Mr. Li, has been to the company in Canada and also one of Canwall's trade representatives has been over to China. When Burton and Raines got to China they had a warm welcome and were met by MR. Li and a chauffer. They were taken to their hotel and had a banquet later on that night. After getting the red-carpet treatment they had a good feeling ab
out the sale. The second day they were taken to see the sights nearby and when they came back in the afternoon one of the managers came up to them to tell them that they were going to a dance performance. Finally on the third day they started to talk about the sale. Then at the end of the day they went back to their room thinking they have the equipment sold. The next day they were asked again to explain what they said the day before in front of some new faces. Then after their farewell banquet they went home with a lot of issues unresolved and they ended up losing the sale to a company in Japan.
I think if they had better communication on both sides of the companies there would be better understanding between the two. They should have been able to have interpreters that know everything that everyone says. The Chinese interpreter didn't know all the terms and this could of lost them this sale. The interpreters should be able to sit down with the people they're interpreting for so they will be ready to speak what they say and know the words so they