ASSOCIATED VOLUNTEER experts

Royal Home, a retail store chain, is selling interior design products

Originally, it offered essentially textile products, bedspreads, pillows, sofa or armchair covers.

This company operates as a wholesaler having as customers its own chain stores and gradually franchised stores. The incredible dynamism of entrepreneurs made possible a rapid development in the number of stores, expanding in concentric circles from the central organization established in Zhuzhou (Hunan) towards neighboring Hunan provinces.

The central organization takes care of the chain’s purchases.

It counts with a warehouse to centralize goods, a development department and an administrative section. Special attention to an upmarket move was made possible by the presence of a female stylist for selecting products and defining stores fittings.

In this way, products range was progressively extended

with a few innovations with original products, partly manufactured or assembled in workshops owned by the company.

Almost without realizing it, the company is shifting from a traditional trade in a regional economy (such as integrated trade) to a “National Brand” economy.

Stakeholders’ ambition is presently purely national, but global Chinese market offers very great opportunities in the coming decade.

To reach this objective,

The company, still with a craftsman’s business structure, needs to transition to a large scale company structure, better organized on the marketing, legal, financial, commercial, management plans. All this must be carried out in a national Chinese environment imposing of course its own operating constraints.

Company’s owners are people with a very open-minded and pragmatic spirit.

They can’t afford consulting services by large strategic consultancies but are quite receptive to experience and proposal capabilities some of us, AVe members, can provide. Already two of us, Jean-Pierre Touya and myself, have already intervened at various stages of their evolution.

Whether this experience is duplicable or not, I can’t say;

our assistance must not be subject to any soul-searching, as the market is purely local, at least for much longer; therefore our transmission of know-how won’t adversely affect the European economy. Moreover, we are dealing with absolutely charming people, respectful of our white hair, exuding dynamism, listening attentively to us, never asking more from us but knowing how to welcome and thank us.

A large part of this success was due to the choice of the external interpreter they suggested,

a person not only gifted with a technical knowledge of English and of legal terminology, but also with an exceptional tact during conversations sometimes difficult considering cultural differences.

Yves Portrat, AVe expert