"At B&Q I learnt the importance of being adaptable in the 21st century. And about the importance of building relationships, trust and confidence with people internal and external to the business. I learnt about the importance of learning another language to be successful in global business"

Fellows spent two weeks with B&Q in China. Below are some of their thoughts and experiences.

Jonathan

So on arrival in Shanghai, I decided that I didn’t just want to the see the tip of the cultural iceberg (the arts, food and architecture). No, I wanted to examine the psychology, behaviours and values of the Chinese people.

And my business placement with B&Q was the perfect opportunity for this... The most shocking statistic I heard when at B&Q was that around 50% of their revenue came from product installation and servicing. This was because people in China don’t like assembling their own purchases – nothing like in the UK where a man feels the need to conquer his wooden shelf or his new light bulb. We have a DIY policy – Do It Yourself! In China, they choose it themselves.

I remember walking into their store in Longyang to watch the morning briefing. I would have betted my spanking new uni accommodation that I wouldn’t end up

hula-hooping in front of around 60 staff as part of a morning competition. I did my best, but the show was stolen by Annie. I thought business was about numbers, expensive suits, people getting fired; not enjoying yourself at 8:30am on a Monday morning, hula-hooping and wearing wigs to kick-start the day. At this point, I had lost respect for some of the TV programmes I used to watch at home that present business only as a dog-eat-dog world where you have you have to be a bad-ass to succeed. These people were happy and they were earning quite a lot of dough as well.

The Corporate Social Responsibility section of B&Q and the CSR sections of other people's companies that I had heard about completely transformed my understanding on how (if) businesses help their local communities. In fact, Shanghai is better off with B&Q China.

Annie

A visit to a ceramics factory was nothing like I expected.  I suppose I had negative images in my mind of factories in China, so to find a very hygienic, safety conscious factory that had no child labour came (sadly) as a pleasant surprise to me!  Also I learned that for Chinese people speaking English is vital in the corporate world, and that ex-pats do very well out of China!

Fellows at B&Q China store