How should China enterprises operate overseas?

After China's entry into WTO, China enterprises will inevitably face more intense domestic market competition. At the same time, with the gradual elimination of global trade barriers and tariffs, China enterprises will have unprecedented opportunities to obtain resources and distribution channels in overseas markets. Although China is still the fastest growing market with the greatest potential in many fields of goods and services, China enterprises should not stick to the domestic market, but should look further, participate in international competition and allocate resources on a global scale. At present, the new situation of economic globalization and new economic development also requires us not only to "please come in" but also to "go out". "Going out" and "Please come in" are two complementary aspects of China's opening-up policy. With the increasing dependence of a country's economy on the world economy, it has become a trend for enterprises in various countries to carry out transnational operations. Only when China conforms to this trend, breaks through the limitation of national boundaries, expands its vision and goals from domestic to global, and establishes an economic system that can also be successful in a globalized environment, can it ensure the realization of China's modernization goal and long-term sustainable development. At this stage, the characteristics of China enterprises' overseas operation: China already has a number of world-renowned large companies, such as Bank of China, China Petroleum, China Petrochemical and COSCO Group. At present, many dynamic China enterprises, such as Haier and TCL, have shown their talents in the international market. In 2002 alone, their products exported to the international market reached billions of dollars, accounting for an increasing share of their total turnover. With the rapid development of China's economy, there will be more large multinational companies in China. However, the transnational operation of Chinese enterprises has developed vigorously after the reform and opening up of China's economic system, which has obvious characteristics of the initial stage of internationalization of enterprises in developing countries. For example, the investment scale is small, and the way to enter foreign markets is mainly joint ventures. Overseas operations are concentrated in the fields of project contracting, labor cooperation and trade, and the technical level of overseas investment is low. The geographical choice of transnational operations is mainly neighboring developing countries and regions. At present, there are several characteristics and problems in the overseas operation of China enterprises: 1, the core competitiveness of enterprises is not strong, the level of competition is low, and they mainly compete for markets and resources. Overseas competition has gone through the stages of resource competition, production and marketing competition, capital strength competition, technological innovation competition and human resources competition. Among them, resource competition and production and marketing competition belong to the primary level of international competition, capital strength belongs to the intermediate level of international competition, and technological innovation and financial innovation belong to the advanced level of competition. In the process of resource competition and production and marketing competition, the competition targets are mainly resources, material goods and markets, while in the process of capital competition and technological innovation competition, the competition targets are not only material goods and markets, but also human resources. Compared with developed countries' direct investment in China and China's foreign direct investment, the former is mainly in the process of capital competition and technological innovation competition, while China enterprises' foreign direct investment is still in the primary stage of resource competition and production and marketing competition. According to the survey, the overseas operation of China enterprises mainly has the following purposes: (1) opening up the market; (2) acquiring advanced technology and brand assets; (3) ensure the supply of resources; (4) others. Among them, 56% enterprises explore the market, 20% enterprises ensure resources, and only 8% enterprises obtain advanced technology and brand assets. 2. Location selection and industry selection are too concentrated, and the ability to capture overseas business opportunities is not high. The basic principles of location and industrial selection for overseas operations are: location advantages and industrial advantages should be compatible or complementary, so as to strengthen the comparative advantages of the main body and transform the comparative advantages or potential comparative advantages of the host country and investors into realistic comparative advantages or international competitiveness. It is embodied in market capacity, economic growth, trade relations and intra-industry trade volume, factor endowment, financial environment, preferential policies, industrial correlation, regional distance and so on. In 2004, overseas enterprises in China were distributed in 149 countries and regions, accounting for 7 1% of the global countries (regions). Among them, the investment coverage rate in Europe is the highest, reaching over 9 1%. In terms of agglomeration degree, China, Hong Kong, the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany and Australia have the highest agglomeration degree, accounting for 43% of overseas enterprises; China and Hongkong account for 17%. As far as investment is concerned, although China enterprises are located in the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, there are 4,476 service trade enterprises, accounting for 69.5% of all foreign-invested enterprises, and the Chinese capital in the agreement is 4.45 billion US dollars, accounting for 57%; There are 1580 production and processing enterprises, accounting for 24.5% of the total number of foreign-invested enterprises, and the agreed Chinese capital is1.67 billion USD, accounting for 2 1.5%. There are more trading enterprises engaged in commodity circulation, and fewer production, finance and service enterprises; Too much emphasis on investment in primary product industries and insufficient investment in technology-intensive industries and service industries; Focus on investing in industries with weak domestic chain effect, while ignoring investing in industries with strong domestic chain effect. We know that the ultimate goal of an enterprise is profit, and capturing overseas business opportunities is the guarantee for the profit of an enterprise's foreign investment. Overseas business opportunities can be divided into political business opportunities and market business opportunities. For example, China's clothing directly exported to developed countries such as the United States, Europe and Japan requires quotas. However, the United Nations stipulates that for some extremely poor countries and some countries that have just resumed reconstruction after the war, they are duty-free and quota-free. This is a political business opportunity. It is also a skill to invest in such a country and then explore the international market more conveniently. It is difficult to define market opportunities. For example, if Hisense TV Machine Factory invests in South Africa, there will be few TVs in that country and it will be successful. However, there are many poor countries around South Africa, and black and white TV sets are not yet popular. Hisense Group shipped the black-and-white TV production line eliminated in China to South Africa for assembly. In this way, tariffs and quotas are exempted and transportation costs are saved. This is the market opportunity. However, at present, China enterprises do not have enough investigation and segmentation of the market, or the disclosure of business information is not enough, or entrepreneurs have low confidence, and they do not position their enterprises as China enterprises and world enterprises, and are unwilling to take the initiative to seize business opportunities from the world market. 3. Not paying enough attention to the cultivation and introduction of international management talents. Cultivating and introducing managers with strong business skills and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures is the key to the success of overseas operations of China enterprises. For a long time, China enterprises have not paid enough attention to the training of overseas business personnel. Practice has proved that managers' professional skills and familiarity with foreign languages and cultures are the key factors affecting enterprises' overseas operations. In this regard, China enterprises have the following problems: (1) Rigid internal salary system and personnel selection practices make it difficult for enterprises to obtain or be unwilling to select senior managers locally; (2) Too frequent personnel transfer is not conducive to the growth of talents, but also affects the development of enterprises; (3) The proportion of senior personnel with rich international experience is small, and the proportion of foreign experts as consultants is small. Reflections on the overseas operation and development of China enterprises. Pay attention to the cultivation of enterprise's core competitiveness and make clear enterprise's competitive strategy. In order to compete in the risky international arena, China enterprises must strive to enhance their core competitiveness. First of all, enterprises should analyze their own resources, knowledge and ability, and then choose and give full play to one or several advantages. Not necessarily limited to the market or resources. As for what to compete for, it should be based on the characteristics of the enterprise itself. China enterprises should also strive to improve their market analysis ability and accurately locate their core competitiveness. The extensive growth model that works well in China market may suffer a fiasco in overseas markets. When considering the location, time and mode of overseas operation, decision makers must have a keen vision, foresee the future development direction of the industry as soon as possible, invest resources as soon as possible, cultivate new competitiveness and gain new competitive advantages. Therefore, China enterprises should reasonably conceive the future industrial system and cultivate new core competitiveness according to the changes in people's needs, technological development and the forward-looking prediction of the general trend of domestic and international market development. In addition, the clarity of competitive strategy is also very important. From the international market, China enterprises will face brand-new competition with their foreign counterparts in an unfamiliar environment. No matter from the scale, technology or management, the gap between China enterprises and international multinational companies is still quite large. Therefore, you should have a very clear understanding of your competitive position before going abroad. Most enterprises should choose a more targeted transnational market strategy when implementing overseas operations. In the future, with the continuous improvement of enterprise competitiveness and the deepening of overseas business participation, it will gradually transition to the global market strategy. In other words, the expansion of overseas business should be carried out in a gradual way. 2. The choice of industries and regions should be guided by theory, but more importantly, it should be guided by market opportunities. There are many theories about the choice of industries and regions operating overseas. In the market economy, the choice of enterprises should be more market-oriented business opportunities. Therefore, it is very important to capture business opportunities. How to capture overseas business opportunities? There should be two aspects: (1) Entrepreneurs should have the mentality of operating overseas. Entrepreneurs must have the ambition to position their enterprises as China enterprises and world enterprises. An enterprise's products cannot be said to be integrated into the world market if its exports account for less than 30%. (2) Government agencies, news organizations and research institutions should transmit and amplify the information of finding overseas business opportunities, and dredge the business information channels of China embassies abroad, so that domestic people can basically make preliminary judgments on overseas investment and development without going abroad. Among them, the government's business diplomacy is very important, and the state should strengthen business diplomacy. Furthermore, it is necessary for various enterprises in China to establish direct contact with China's embassies, consulates and commercial offices abroad, so as to obtain the business information of the host country in time. 3. Pay attention to the cultivation of business talents at home and abroad, and pay more attention to the utilization of new business resources in China. According to statistics, in the past 20 years, more than 70% of China's foreign investment came from or through international Chinese businessmen. More than 20 years have passed, and a new generation of Chinese businessmen have begun to show their talents internationally. Enterprises in China need to pay more attention to and make good use of the resources of new Chinese businessmen if they want to operate internationally better. There are currently 50 million Chinese in the world, which is a huge network. Among them, the new generation, with a good education, has the concept of internationalization, is familiar with market economy and new economy, understands enterprise management and foreign languages, and has a good foundation abroad, which can become a bridge and link for China enterprises to go global. In addition, according to statistics, there are currently 600,000 overseas students in China, plus China people who have emigrated in recent years. At present, there are millions of overseas Chinese who are familiar with Chinese mainland. These talents are valuable assets for China enterprises to go global. If China enterprises attach importance to and give full play to the role of Xinhua Merchants, a large number of international talents, China enterprises will certainly gain more in the value chain of transnational operations. Of course, the transnational operation of China enterprises also needs government policy support.