Executive Interview
Executive Interviews
An Interview with
JB Deal
Avantagents Limited
Founder & CEO
Initially a negotiation consultancy, Avantagents is a Business Accelerator that manages comprehensive and tailor-made solutions offered to create value for its clients.
Based in Hong-Kong, Avantagents is the trusted partner of businesses and organizations around the globe to work on international projects involving China.
The company creates value thanks to a unique combination of attributes: language abilities, cultural awareness, negotiation skills, a strong network and a high level of integrity.
Thanks to a team of experts, the company is able to deliver value in projects involving procurement, sales and investment activities.
Publish Date:
1 September 2020
Hong Kong
Location:
Tell us about your background, and how you came to found your company?
With more than 15 years of experience in business development and negotiation with Chinese partners, Jean-Baptiste has represented the interests of many businesses of different cultures and nationalities.
Born in France in 1980, Jean-Baptiste became interested in foreign cultures while travelling abroad during his university studies. He showed a keen interest in Mandarin and began his adventure in China by learning Chinese at the Beijing Language and Culture University, he later completed an MBA degree at HKUST (Hong Kong).
After spending a few years in Beijing, Zhejiang and Guangdong, Jean-Baptiste moved to Hong Kong, where he has lived for more than a decade.
Passionate about negotiation, he completed several Programs On Negotiation at Harvard in the United States. He has exceptional language skills and a deep understanding of several cultures (and their differences).
During his career, he has worked and met people from very different backgrounds, both in terms of cultures and spoken languages. Jean Baptiste is proud to be the Founder & Director of Avantagents.
Ikigai: Avantagents was born as I was reflecting on this concept: focus on passions, focus on strengths, focus on what the world needs, and finally focus on what we can be paid for.
What is most important to you and your organization – mission, vision, or core values? Why?
Focus on value creation.
Beyond value creation, we are committed to the Nine Principles of ‘Consulting Excellence’ :
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
1. We are responsible and good citizens.
2. We conduct our business ethically.
3. We foster an ethical culture.
CLIENT SERVICE AND VALUE
4. We provide excellent consulting services which deliver the outcomes clients seek and need.
5. We are transparent with clients and respond to their concerns.
6. We always strive to improve the value we can deliver to our clients.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
7. We undertake training and professional development planning each year.
8. We promote strong core consulting capabilities and specialisms in our consultants and teams.
9. We support our employees’ career progression, professional development and welfare.
Can you explain briefly how your service(s)/product(s) works?
1- We listen.
2- We make proposals.
3- We deliver results.
We act as orchestra conductors and build a winning team adapted to each project we work on. we act as a very valuable piece of a puzzle that can complement our clients existing teams in place.
How has the industry been changing in recent years?
The Covid-19 had a serious impact on our activity, however while some projects were put on hold or cancelled, we were able to develop new ones. Some of the recent changes in our industry were led by: digitalization, rationalization, globalization. Focusing on our strengths and passions has clearly been a key factor of our success.
What makes you different from what’s currently available in the market?
We offer a unique combination attribute:
-Language skills: mastery of languages.
Cultural awareness: understanding the cultures their differences.
Negotiation: not a zero sum game. Focus on value creation. Differences create value. Build bridges and trade to maximize value out of every deal.
Network: most people have a very localized network, our network is cross border.
Integrity: we always do the right thing no matter the short term cost.
What does the future hold for your company?
We plan to expand with offices in different locations in Europe and Asia.