Recognising that Western clients are very different from Chinese clients is key for every consultant in China. Although my work experience in the West is limited, the following story should outline what I mean:
I was once working on a project for an important client and as part of the project the client had asked us to source a further firm required for the project, as they said they weren't happy with the performance of the firm they had worked together in previous years. We spend a substantial amount of time finding adequate firms, as well as selecting the most suitable one with the client. Once the selection phase was virtually finished and the potential new partner had provided concepts and put in a lot of free of charge effort, our client told us to stop working with them and to get the original partner on-board instead.
Why did they change their minds? All managers involved in the process were key decision makers, so it was not a decision forced down on them. The potential new partner was also offering a better performance at the same price.
The only plausible explanation for the shift are thus cultural aspects. The client had obviously arrived at the conclusion that maintaining a long term relationship, as well as showing benevolence to a much smaller firm was more important than the other immediate financial and performance related factors.
In fact I wonder whether this decision was not the smarter one anyway, since the old partner may not be only more reliable in the future, but also owes our client. What are your thoughts on this?
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