A Quick Clarification On My Comments About New Deals

Well, it's not surprising that once in a while the ambiguities of email, 12 time zones and 7500 miles of distance might create a bit of confusion. Thankfully, we can use tools like these to be clearer.

I responded to some questions from the IBJ yesterday about our trip, and the IBJ was kind enough to cover those remarks in its IBJ Daily. I'm a bit concerned that the first paragraph of the story conveys a broader view about our trip that I didn't intend to convey -- specifically, that I didn't think people should expect to see any deals or announcements to be made at any point in our journey, including in Japan.

Well, here's the confusion: my mental state was focused solely on China, but my written comments might have been broader than that. The other thing I want to be crystal clear about is that I never intended to leave the impression that I was speaking on behalf of the entire delegation or on behalf of Governor Daniels.

Here's what I meant to convey. The IBJ asked:

What do you hope to accomplish as a result of this trip? (any tangible ROI in mind?)

Here's my reply:

We decided to invest in this trip so we could begin building relationships in those Chinese business sectors that are on the verge of making significant investments in the United States -- sectors such as advanced automotive and life sciences, for example. Chinese companies will begin investing in the U.S. for one of three reasons: access to technologies and innovation; access to customer markets; and access to a better platform for global marketing (in other words, "Made in the USA" carries more brand value than "Made in China.")

In China, business opportunities are driven by "guanxi" -- that is, relationships. If there's no guanxi, there's no deal. So we see this as a long-term investment. People have asked me if we're going to bring any new deals home, or have any new business announcements from this trip. As much as we wish that the world worked that way, frankly, that's just wishful thinking. Deals don't happen from one-time visits in the States, and they certainly don't happen that way in China. This is a long-term strategy, not unlike the successful strategy that the state has followed in attracting Japanese investment. Contacts originally made back in the 1980's have borne recent fruit; and we plan to cultivate long term relationships that we hope will eventually lead to a series of "overnight" successes.

Our specific strategy is to create a network of business and government contacts in these key sectors; keep those business advisors, officials and other "influencers" well-informed about the opportunities in the Indianapolis region; and invite Chinese business leaders to visit our community to experience its assets first hand.

I was just focusing on China in my answer, but in hindsight, I can see how it might have been seen as a broader comment on the trip to Japan as well.

One other thing: I'm certainly not the spokesman for the delegation, and there might be other deals in the works that I don't know about. We have business people from all over the state on this trip, and many of them have extensive experience in both countries. So if it appeared that I was speaking on behalf of the whole team, I'm sorry that this confusion occurred. I was only speaking for the Indy Partnership.

And to emphasize the point, I'm certainly not speaking for the Governor, and I'm not privy to the subjects of the private business meetings that he has scheduled in Japan. It's worth noting that our relationship with Japan is years ahead of that with China as it relates to the cultivation and timing of new investments in the U.S. Again, I don't have any insider info on this, but if the Governor's past trips to Japan are any guide to the future, I wouldn't be surprised at all if we saw some significant and interesting outcomes from those meetings with Japanese business leaders.

Thanks; I just wanted to clarify this post. Hope it doesn't seem too defensive or critical of the IBJ -- that's not my intent.

One of the great things about living in the future (as we joke about in our blog title) is the chance to make things clearer, almost before they happen!

Thanks for reading.