In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy infamously observed that “I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”. The same observation applies to people visiting China for the first time.

For the first-time visitor, be it for business or pleasure, China is radically different from the images portrayed in the media. Visitors are accustomed to media coverage of high-tech clean cities, but it’s not until they are on the ground that the extent of this can be fully appreciated.

They encounter railway stations that are as appealing and efficient as terminal 3 at Changi airport in Singapore. Visitors find silent cities, such as Shanghai, where traffic noise has been largely replaced by the silent hum of electric vehicles.

They cannot help but stare at fully articulated humanoid robots walking the street, or smaller versions delivering food to their hotel room. They are surprised to use facial recognition to open their hotel room door, or at people smiling at an ATM machine so they can withdraw cash.

But, and it’s an important but, from a business perspective this doesn’t stop the visitor telling his Chinese partners that “back home we do it differently”. It’s not a problem limited to the first operational meeting. The attitude can persist for a long period until finally, as a result, the business co-operation collapses.

This is not something that is restricted to smaller businesses. It’s a problem that can bedevil even the largest of international corporates and government departments. Many would argue that they are the worst offenders because their size means they carry an arrogance with them.

Consider Google as an example. Confident of its model, they entered the China market. Like the wicked sisters in Cinderella, they tried to make the shoe fit. They insisted that they had the solution because “back home we did it differently.”

Baidu, Google’s Chinese competitor, succeeded because it offered services Google would not offer. Google made much of censorship issues but these complaints appealed more to Western perceptions than it did to the bulk of potential users in China. Chinese users felt more comfortable with a service constructed in their local language (rather than a poor Chinese translation) that was fully linked up with Chinese websites. Google failed to offer services its users wanted.

“Back home” Google did it different, but “home” was not China.

Decades ago, a Singapore retail property developer Capitalland, replicated their successful model of retail and food and beverage outlets clustered immediately around the MRT stations in Singapore. They reasoned that if the model worked in the City Hall and Raffles MRT stations then it should work in Beijing.

They built three office towers above one of the major subway inter-changes with retail outlets on the ground level. The concept worked “back home” but “home” was not China. The concept did not fail, but nor did it succeed and this showed up in the share price.

It was not just a lesson for Capitalland. Seeing the similarities, but not the differences, my investment in Capitalland stock delivered the same lacklustre returns.

Seeing similarities, but not differences, I also approached my first speaking engagements in China with confidence borne from my work with Singapore audiences. The China speaking invitations were extended on the back of my well-established international reputation in financial markets.

Feedback from organisers and attendees in Australia, the US and South-East Asia told me that I was very good at what I was doing, both in content and presentation style. My services were in high demand so I assumed that these “back home” skills would carry directly into the China market.

They didn’t.

Like the Capitalland experience in China, my first round of conference speaking engagements were not a failure, but nor were they a success. I was told my translators were good so the lack of success was not because of language difficulties.

I had a choice. I could either conclude that the way I did things “back home” was the best and only way to do conference events, or I could adjust my presentation methods.

I chose the second option and went out of my way to understand what the China audience expected, what they detested, and what they appreciated. The content remained the same, but the way it was presented and the way I engaged with the audience was very different to the way I worked in Singapore, Malaysia or Australia.

In listening to China feedback I made a conscious decision not to use the phrase “back home we do it differently”. It is more challenging to put aside some of your experience and listen so you can adapt to the business environment that looks similar, but which operates under different cultural rules.

The result was continued invitations to speak at financial business and trade forums in China, the most recent being at the APEC Asia-Pacific Media forum in Shenzhen.

When you are working in China you are definitely “not in Kansas anymore”, so ban the phrase “back home we do it differently”. It’s not a guarantee of success, but it is a step in the right direction. TQ