I just a attended a business leaders meeting in Beijing as part of a Chamber of Commerce trip to China. Actually, in our meeting were several Chamber groups from California. The trip was aimed at showing off China’s economic engine. Capitalism is on fire there. Everyone is selling something. And American’s are welcomed with open arms to receive both our money and good will.

For me, it was the trip of a lifetime — a chance to get a first hand look at the new China in action. I can’t tell you how much I learned. I came away with a very positive attitude about China and the people.

As for business meetings, designed to bring American and China business partners together to do business, they haven’t seemed to figure it out. Our delegation had submitted our requests ahead of time to meet with potential suppliers or business partners so they would be in the room when we arrived.

Instead, the organizers welcomed us and then said “enjoy your meeting” with no individual introductions.

There was no organization to it. Ultimately, I persuaded an interpreter to introduce our people at the microphone to determine if their were Chinese counterparts in the room. For the most part, there weren’t. Ultimately, however, the organizers met with members of our delegation and said they could facilitate contacts with suppliers, etc.

My headline suggests the Chinese don’t understand business. They certainly do. But based on our experience, not in the nitty gritty meet-and-greet fashion — the tried and true mixer — that is the staple of business interactions, at least locally, across the U.S.

Based on our short visit, this small problem will be remedied soon. The Chinese are moving at light speed as they increasingly dominate world markets in so many areas.

One insight: we should be teaching our kids mandarin at a young age — the same way they teach Chinese kids English — to put us on a solid business footing in the future. While everything in China seems to be in both Chinese and English and many people speak English, business interactions will be improved if Americans can speak and understand the language and culture.

Big and small businesses are constantly the target of charity giving requests. While it’s good to give, it also can be good for business.

I believe in giving as both an individual and as a corporate responsibility. When I was PR Manager of McKesson Corporation President Tom Drohan and Chairman Neil Harlan launched an initiative in San Francisco to create a 2 per cent club, giving 2 per cent of pre-tax profits to charitable causes. We did a lot of good. I think our focus was “cultural.” Among other causes, McKesson funded an 11-city tour for the San Francisco Symphony.

Companies big and small — and I’m including consultants — are getting better at creating giving programs that match their business focus, i.e. they may be aimed at healthcare, children, safe water or the environment.

By tying giving to business goals, you can advance the quality of life in the community as well as advance your own business interests.

One of our clients, Redwood Investments of Wachovia Securities in Fort Bragg, California, gave generously and frequently to a wide variety of causes. They rarely got much “press” and the giving wasn’t aimed at their target audience. And that was getting to be a problem. For example, they gave $10,000 for a high school stadium sign. After more than a year, their names still were not on the sign, which means their community investment has gotten no recognition. And the parents of the kids who are going to benefit are not Redwood Investments’ target, i.e. they have little investment money. While you can argue that these are the investors and clients of the future it that doesn’t help meet current business goals.

To help the Redwood Investments partners get control of their giving so that it does reach target clients, as well as helping managing donation requests (which inundated the partners), we created the Redwood Investments Community Grant Program and blog.

To apply for a grant, you must visit their website blog (another business goal was to get people to come see their services). The application is very short and allows requests for grants of up to $750. Grants total about $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year, versus up to twice that much in the past. However, this new managed program makes a bigger impact on the community and business by matching grants to potential client groups.

Our internal rules are this:

•Grants must be to major target audiences (to generate new business).
•Grantees must allow a Redwood Investments partner present the grant check in person (puts them in front of potential clients).
•Grants must issue a news release to the local press, which we write and they approve. It’s just two paragraphs with a quote about who benefits (less self-serving than if it comes from Redwood Investments.

The first two months, Redwood Investments received 10 grant requests and made five grants ranging from $250 to $800. Recipients have been very please. One organization that didn’t get a grant praised Redwood Investments for making a good choice — an unexpected positive.

So far, the program is working well and Redwood Investments is doing good, while doing well.

A side benefit: when asked to make a contribution, they are off the hook: they can honestly say they have a grant program, direct people to the website where they can apply. No one is put off and their appear to be white knights for creating the program.

They say public relations can be hard to measure. Often that’s true. But with Mike’s AutoHound, the name and brand we created for an auto dealership in Northern California, measurement is reflected by profits directly attributed to the car finding service: while other dealers the same size as our client are losing an average of $10,000 a month, their dealership is profitable. The partners attributes it to Mike’s Auto Hound. And the business is growing rapidly.

These days, the talk 24/7 is marketing on the web. Yet, many businesses actually have storefronts — places you can go, meet people in person and buy their products and services.

Sign of the Times
How often have you seen a business with a cracked, broken or faded sign? Or signs with missing letters? I don’t know about you, but to me it’s a signal you’re likely to get the same shabby treatment as their business. Poor signs and poor business practices don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, but often do.

I recently had a transmission repair at a local shop. They had a freshly painted sign, even though they have been in business many years. The floors in the service bays were clean enough to eat off. The mechanics used their tools, then cleaned and replaced them in their tool chests. The office was neat and clean. Service was outstanding, delivering my repair on budget and ahead of the promised date of completion.

Dump Faded Flowers
If you’re a small business looking for ways to improve business and your reputation, clean up your place of business, freshen your signs, replace faded plastic flowers in the window and get rid of broken window blinds. Wash the windows. Keep the outside paint looking fresh and new.

It will pay off with more customers and increased profits.

Having worked both the corporate and agency sides of the public relations aisle, I’ve seen a tendency for agencies to use a sledge hammer when a screw driver would work just fine. They view new business as a revenue booster rather than a communications challenge. Do PR consultants these days ever ask themselves if the best solution for the client is also the least expensive? Is more always better? Does the organization have the staff necessary to carry out the plan? Is is possible that the client may actually be doing some things right?

Gary Summers and I have held senior communications positions at Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest HMO’s with a very sophisticated healthcare public relations program. Kaiser, like most providers these days, focuses on prevention. Using Kaiser as a yard stick of good medicine, last year we evaluated the internal and external communications program at rural Mendocino Coast District Hospital in Fort Bragg, Calif. (You’re thinking: Kaiser as a yard stick, you must be talking big money. But read on).

Many of Coast Hospital’s communications activities were on track and appropriate for a small community hospital. The Update newsletter, however, needed a makeover.

Mailed only two or three times a year to 15,000 people in the local community, whole issues of Update were devoted to volunteer activities and plant maintenance or the “clean, well run” cafeteria. A few health classes appeared on page 8. Otherwise, prevention advise was largely absent.

We revamped it: cut the size from tabloid to 8 1/2 by 11 (easier to handle and cheaper to mail); moved from two-color to four (we live in a four-color world); created a new look and feel (new logo, type and layout), and based content on pr goals set by the organization with emphasis on prevention and quality of care. We also suggested printing it six times a year. Ultimately, quarterly was the most the organization could afford.

All these changes resulted in a more attractive, focused publication better serving the community at literally the same cost. Reducing the content and simplifying the design also allowed the internal public relations manager to eliminate outside writers and coordinators (us). That’s okay. It means we did our job successfully.

Lessons: less is more. Be guided by a pr plan. Revamp communications according to resources available (including money and staff).

Our client Sport Chrysler Jeep Dodge is a small, but successful car dealership in Fort Bragg, California, a city of 6,000 on the Mendocino Coast. A few months back, the owners, three local families, asked Lewis & Summers to look at their promotion activities and suggest new ways to boost sales and service business.

We knew nothing about the auto industry, but quickly learned the basics from co-owner Mike Slaughter, a man with 30 years car sales experience.

We learned during our first meeting that the sale of used cars is an important part of dealership revenues. For years, Mike has been finding used cars — Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, Fords, etc. — across the country and delivering them to coast residents, but it still was a little known service locally. When you drive by the dealership, you see Chrysler and think they only sell and service Chrysler products. Not so.

Getting Online
Sport Chrysler at the same time was creating its first website. It occurred to us that Mike and his team are “hounds” out tracking down cars for people. We suggested he “brand” the service by getting the domain MikesAutoHound.Com and trademarking the service.

Within a month, Slaughter established a Mike’s AutoHound logo and website and was advertising the service: “When you’re looking for your dream car — new or used, any make, any model — why leave the Coast? We can find and bring it to you!” Ads have also appeared on Cox cable TV, the local movie theatre, in newspaper advertorial and on postcard mailers.

Results
Calls have poured in and the AutoHound staff is busier than ever with Mike’s national network expanding rapidly.

Lesson: fresh eyes can lead to fresh ideas.

What PR pros already know: branding a little known product or service can be a powerful marketing tool. A cute logo can’t hurt.