Building Relationships in China: Accenture’s 2006 Global Convergence Forum

With the growing importance of Asia in the global economic marketplace, Accenture knew that it needed to grow its presence in the region—particularly in China. In 2003, the company provided formal Chinese cultural training to all its Communications & High Technology marketing professionals. In 2004 and 2005, it held Executive Advisory Committee meetings in Shanghai.

But it was Accentures decision to hold its 2006 Global Convergence Forum (GCF)—its largest and most important customer-facing event of the year—in Beijing that truly marked the company’s strategic move into the Chinese marketplace. The 2006 GCF provided Accenture with a unique opportunity to define a new geographic customer segment and target the program to meet these customers’ needs. At the same time, the company also strengthened relationships with current customers who were interested in exploring the effect of globalization and who wanted an inside glimpse of what is required to do business in China.

Gaining “Guanxi”

In the Chinese business world, the concept of “guanxi”—a network of relationships that are strong on both a business and personal level—is extremely important. According to The Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center, “this reliance on relationships means that western companies have to make themselves known to the Chinese before any business can take place.”

As a vehicle to grow its presence in China, Accenture made every effort to build the proper foundations for the 2006 GCF. In China, there is a law that states that if a non-Chinese company wants to bring more than 150 foreign nationals into the country for an event, that event must be sponsored by a Chinese company or “host.” There are many paid hosting organizations in China, but for the long-term benefit of Accenture in China, the GCF team quickly realized that they needed to increase their “guanxi” and find the right host.

“Finding the right host was the most difficult, time-consuming, and personally demanding challenge we faced,” said Michele Ruane, a senior manager within Accenture’s Communications & High Tech marketing group. To accomplish the task, she said, the company launched an extensive campaign to build relationships with the Chinese government, with Accenture’s CEO taking personal responsibility to ensure success. The team dedicated itself to understanding the protocol and complexity of doing business in China and undertook great efforts to follow the guidance of advisors and Accenture’s Chinese executives, eventually gaining the endorsement and sponsorship of a key Chinese government agency: the Ministry of Information Industry. In total, it took 18 months to resolve the hosting issue.

Executing the Event

The 2006 GCF provided Accenture with a unique opportunity to define a new geographic customer segment and target the GCF program to meet these customers’ needs. To do this, Accenture worked with its host organizations to leverage their market knowledge and contacts, relocating a marketing manager from Accenture’s Atlanta office to Beijing in October 2005 to help with the effort. The end result was the development of a client database with 350 new Chinese contacts. In addition, the effort helped the company fill in the gaps in its staffing in China and bring in additional people to answer this market segment’s needs.

The execution of the event required a large dedication of resources from within the company. Particularly significant were the development and execution of a comprehensive marketing plan for Accenture and the 2006 GCF in China. This plan included:

• The purchase of the Accenture.cn domain name and new Chinese language content
• Accenture’s first online marketing program in China
• The creation of hard- and soft-copy collateral in three languages: English, Chinese, and Japanese
• Advertising campaigns in Chinese publications
• PR and media campaigns resulting in six articles published about GCF prior to the event
• An internal communications and cultural education campaign, including over 60 separate mailings between June 2005 and May 2006 and culminating in onsite cultural training for both clients and Accenture executives

At the event itself, Accenture offered a number of networking opportunities (in addition to the plenary, breakout, and other GCF sessions) that allowed attendees to experience Beijing’s historical and cultural landmarks, including a dinner event at the Great Wall of China, tours of Beijing’s landmarks, and a dinner event at the Forbidden City. Several of these events required special government permission to access the cultural sites. Thus, attendees were treated to many impressive once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

Results

The 2006 GCF set records for attendance, delegate feedback ratings, media participation, and anticipated new business; 337 senior client executives attended the event, exceeding expectations by roughly 25%. One hundred percent of the attendees found the conference a valuable use of their time, and 96% of them indicated that the theme of the 2006 GCF was relevant to their business needs.

The 2006 GCF provided not only additional business but unquantifiable opportunities to build and strengthen relationships with Accenture targets and clients. Perhaps most important, the success of the program put Accenture on the map in China and established it as a company with the resources, dedication, professionalism, and services to get the job done.

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