DISCOURSE
certain things (your partner) can do, or
there are certain things you can do that
China doesn’t have. So we have to be
flexible in a way. … So the flexibility of
how to make the economics work is very
important. And, thirdly, choosing the
right people for the team: It’s all about
people. … I always want to make sure
that you’re getting the right advice from
the right people and using the right
team, because that can be a barrier, or it
can be an opportunity.
You regularly take California-based
business executives on tours of China.
What do you show them, and what do
you want them to take away from the
visit?
These delegations are important to
show what China is today. From the
government side (and) viewing the
cities, you get a very good perspective
of China as moving very fast and very
interested in doing business with the
United States and California. Some-
times there are agreements being signed
and connecting with these people. …
I’m constantly pushing the reality of
practical business, the reality of on-the-
ground knowledge, the reality of how to
make a deal.
Can you give me examples of some
California Center programs?
CIA is one of them — the Culinary Insti-
tute of America. They’ve been wanting
to go to the China market for the last
10 years, and they had not been able to
find the right partners that know U.S.
and China. Academically, they are very
strong, but they are also very active in
industry. … China is such a low-hanging
fruit. There’s no doubt they need profes-
sional training because of the demand
… and the (need for) hospitality train-
ing. So what I’m saying is when you see
an opportunity that is lacking but there’s
a demand, that’s where you jump in. We
signed a contract with (CIA) last year.
We have a lot of programs we’re putting
on, and (we’re) also bringing students
from China. (Another) program we have
is in sports. We’re starting on e-gaming.
E-gaming is becoming so popular — in
China, there are like millions of people
playing e-game sports. Our idea is to do
it international, college to college. Say a
college student from China and a college
student from here can compete. This is
a program that we’re incubating, and
we’re very lucky the Kings are already
supporting us.
We (also) do wine. We have our own
vineyard in Napa — I bought a vineyard.
We’re exporting a lot of wine to China.
We want to tell a story about the wine.
Then this year, we’re going to have at
least a half a dozen groups coming from
China to Napa; we want to brand Napa
to be a place for them to visit so when
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