James Bowman and Coopertree Capital in China Case Study

James Bowman and Coopertree Capital in China Case Study

        James Bowman was the founding partner and private equity fund manager of Coopertree Capital. His company funding area mainly focus on three different segments, which focus on manufacturing company that operates globally around United States region. Political connections and relationship with high profile people from different nations are critical in the funding process.

        His company has grown over the years and eventually led to the establishment of Coopertree II, which focus on China market as its top priorities. However, entering the Chinese market proves to be easier said than done, as it has its own challenges especially when concerning cultural background and communication issues.

        In my opinion, doing business in China is challenging, especially about communication issues. The challenge comes from how to convince and earn the Chinese people trust mutually with me as a foreigner. From this case study, the shady part begins from the moment that Bowman is going to cooperate with one of Chinese Investment Cooperation (CIC) which is notoriously private. Furthermore, the company also could not be contacted by phone or media and if I want to do business with them, I have to be introduced. This means that collusion factor play a very important part in doing business with the Chinese. I am fully aware that collusion do play some part in every business in the world, but collusion in China is well more advanced, for example there is no formal agreement in starting a partnership contract. To get things more complicated, there is also limited open information in China regarding the usage of internet. Thus, making it harder to do the decision making as there is no really convincing information about the company that I am going to work with for the foreseeable future.

        Another factor when doing business is that I also have to understand the different culture background that makes Chinese people who they are now. Every region has its own stereotype and it makes me harder to justify who I should work with. Even if using stereotype is not encouraged, but to relatively closed nation such as China, that would be the lead information that is going to affect my decision in doing business with the Chinese. In this case study, it could be seen that Laoshi is showing his point that he is indeed a very powerful man, especially if you own (or rent) the residential area near Houhai which is very close to the first ring in Beijing. Also by using limousine to pick Bowman up in the airport means that he wants to be seen as a very influential person, or it could be said that he is “marketing” himself throughout the process. For me at least, I would not be so impressed if I had to get picked up by limousine, as the result of the meeting would be more important than vehicle preferences. The chosen meeting places however, could impress me to some degree although I am not sure if he exaggerated it as the owner of that asset.