In our last podcast, we talked about a really, really bad idea I heard about during a conversation with a guy on airplane. To review, he was hell-bent on totally destroying his company by entering the China market by doing a really stupid deal with a Chinese company that he knew NOTHING about. So I told him so.

At Technomic Asia, we do a lot of China alliance and acquistion, or "a & a," work. We use a rigorous but flexible three-step process for helping companies determine and capitalize on their opportunities.

We start by assessing the company's market opportunity and developing an ideal entry strategy. Step 2, which we'll cover in this podcast, involves identifying potential partner targets and qualifying them by passing them through a series of filters based on the company's needs and desires. The final step involves cultivating the business relationship with potential partner and, of course, closing the deal.

Nothing beats the value of objective, systematic research before jumping head-first into China. We call it - creatively - strategy before structure. Listen here to learn more.