In Part 2 of his conversation with The Negotiation, Zak Dychtwald, founder and CEO of BridgeWorks Global, shifts from diagnosing the hidden tax on global business to addressing what it means for companies operating in or competing against China. Zak regularly briefs executives from Qualcomm, Microsoft, Google, and Walmart when they come through the region, and he shares the framework he uses with them: what to borrow from China’s competitive environment, what to leverage, and what to prepare to defend against.

He then turns to Chinese companies going global, and why their challenges differ from those of Western multinationals operating in China. The people problem facing Chinese companies as they expand is distinct and underappreciated — and it intersects directly with the global collaboration framework Zak laid out in Part 1.

Zak closes with one of his most provocative arguments: today is likely the least competitive Chinese companies will ever be globally, and Western businesses operating in the region should take that seriously as they build their own strategy. He also shares what global companies most consistently get wrong after years of running the Global Collaboration Index — and what actually fixing it looks like.