Hit the ground running in China 2.0.
In the old days, when China was rock-bottom cheap but terribly backwards – circa 2006 – newly arrived expats could afford to spend 6 months wandering around in a confused daze getting the lay of the land and tip-toeing around those cultural barriers. Multiple iterations of your business plan and half a dozen false starts were the rule and not the exception. Funny stories about receptionists negotiating long term leases and tax liabilities were considered appropriate for all occasions. We were all flying by the seat of our pants, but a white face and a good attitude were all you really needed to be a China expat expert.
Fast forward to 15 minutes ago. China is no place for the clueless any more. It’s expensive, competitive - and the flipside of growing profit potential is skyrocketing opportunity cost and loss of first mover advantage. Modern expats are expected to hit the ground running and start earning their keep from Day 1.
The new China business entry skill-set:
Forget about the language skills and the ‘year in the hutong’ street cred. Modern expats need to start proving their value immediately – and are expected to bring some unique advantages to the local branch. Today’s expat needs a whole new set of skills to make it in China.
Expats vs. Overseas Residents
China has become so expensive so quickly that we have to revisit the definition of ‘expat’. We now differentiate between Westerners who happen to live & work in China and ‘expats’ who are tasked with specific (and more highly paid) jobs that last a predetermined length of time. One of the trends Americans are learning from Europeans and Asians is that general management positions require 5+ years to be effective. The 24 month posting is only appropriate for engineers and technical specialists who begin training local replacements immediately.
UBU.
Be yourself – but that self had better enhance the China operation in some very real and measurable ways. You will never be Chinese but that’s not what you are being paid for so don’t bother trying. You bring unique strengths the table – and a whole lot of weird, potentially disruptive weaknesses. In the old days, inter-cultural training was about mitigating your weirdness and being more acceptable to the Chinese. No more. Big city locals are no longer surprised or impressed by your Western ways, so long as you aren’t coming across as a sociopath or buffoon. From now on expat managers are expected to be specialists at one of 2 things:
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Integrating the China operation with home office C-Suite strategy.
Technical specialties that can’t be sourced locally.
Planned obsolescence is the name of the game.
The faster expat managers can make their job function obsolete, the better they are doing. Don’t worry, though – China is big and changing quickly. If you can make one job obsolete, there’s plenty more for you to do. Ironically, if you can’t make yourself obsolete in China then you probably already are.
Middle path
You don’t want to colonize China – but you don’t want to surrender your company’s core values or culture either. Succeeding in China is about integrating the most profitable aspects of local culture with your home-office playbook. The successful multinationals have found ways to build a better machine – one that is simultaneously international and Chinese.
Valued Expat Functions:
- Team building.
To build a Chinese team you have to build Chinese leaders. This is the MNC version of wishing for more wishes. Forget the harmony & guanxi noise – leadership training and team-building are the Achilles Heel of most Chinese operations. This is particularly true in places like Shanghai and Shenzhen where migration and competing dialects have had a Tower of Babel effect.
Goal setting.
This is what will make you a star. Planning is a process, but Chinese leadership tends to come in two flavors: flash of inspiration or mechanistic repetition of what has been done before. If you can teach Chinese managers to trust their own instincts while reigning in their creative impulses, you will be a star. Hint – feedback loops are key.
Compensation and recognition.
Find a way to recognize and reward the things that work. Chinese managers are staying put longer these days, but there is still a strong trend toward jumping ship to improve their pay and position. The better you are at acknowledging and rewarding local managers, the stronger your teams will be.
Training & development
Chinese like training, but it can’t be an end unto itself. If you can’t train them, then you can’t lead them. In the past, senior expats have had mixed success tasking local HR managers with developing training strategy. Make sure your local development practices integrate with the global strategy.
Incorporate and integrate local ideas.
Forget that nonsense about the Chinese not being creative – just watch how resourceful and innovative they can be when it comes to undermining your plans. Successful expat managers are the ones who can draw on locals’ limitless store of knowledge and problem-solving abilities – and systematically integrating them into ongoing operations.
Goal-setting Part II – managing the home office.
Bad goals from the home office are a big source of problems. At the end of the day, the expat manager’s main value just might be his ability to get on the phone with the CEO and explain why HQ is wrong about something.
Next:
What’s your ex-pat raison d’etre
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