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Думайте глобальное, но…

24-ое апреля 2008 рассказами успеха дела Китая

Франк Mulligan

Корпоративная культура и штат в КитаеКогда компания устанавливает вверх деятельности в Китае они кажется, что посмотрены с 2 определенными выборами: `идя местно', или наводя доминантную культуру дела их организации.

Не будет легким выбором, и не будут четких ответов о которых трасса принесет вам самые лучшие результаты. В отсутствии определенного заключения может стать сражением волей для того чтобы увидеть которая культура выиграет.

Выберите местную культуру и вы находитесь в положении для того чтобы motivate местный штат эффективно, но очень деятельностей дела станет опаково к non-locals. Вещи получат сделанными но обязательно дорога штабы хочет их к. Вы приобретаете в эффективности, как определено местно, вы теряете в видимости.

Много компаний, с другой стороны, попытаются приблизитьсяу что будет совершенно хорошая культура в пределах их организации, одно которое служит они наилучшим образом на много лет в много стран, и что Китай никакие другими. Эти компании пытают принести каждое in line with эта культура. Они могут найти что поверхностное ровное reportage получает более лучше, и данными которые они получают находятся теперь в форме которую HQ понимает, только ем как раз не могли быть правые данные.

Или по крайней мере общ, котор держат стереотипии водят нас к этим 2 сценариям.

В реальном мире существует смешанная корпоративная культура совмещает subtlety местной культуры с ориентацией представления более традиционной многонациональной компании. Finding that blend is an eternal quest, and nobody I know thinks that they have achieved it. Many of these people are aiming for the sun but getting to the moon is good enough.

Retail Research

Then along comes Dr Jos Gamble of Royal Holloway, University of London. He has just conducted research on the retail industry in China, in conjunction with the ERSA. His conclusions are not the usual bromides about thinking globally, and acting locally. There is a welcome depth, and a plain-speaking tone.

He essentially says that China is much like any other market, and that adjustments should really only be made for institutional features, like the labor market. Other than that it is business as usual. You operate as you do overseas, except when there is a specific reason why you can’t, like a law or a deeply ingrained practice.

It’s a bit of a relief when someone just says it out like that.

In the retail sector, this approach equates to replicating exactly the store procedures, employment relations and customer service standards of the parent company. Dr. Gamble studied both Japanese and UK firms and found that they used the same processes, and looked for the same outcomes, in almost all cases. But for some issues, like better customer service, they used a different approach to achieve the same outcome.

Japanese companies operating in China were more prescriptive and detailed in their way of dealing with customers than the UK-owned stores, which encouraged workers to adapt behaviour they used in everyday life. Either approach seems like a good idea to reduce staff turnover. Control over the working environment is a major motivating factor in China.

Dr. Gamble concludes that: “Most of the world’s major global retail firms are desperate to grab a slice of the largest and most rapidly growing emerging market. All the evidence suggests that, whilst it may be necessary to adapt to some extent to local conditions, time-tested management practices actually translate well across cultures.” 

His research was based on interviews with management and staff in eight Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, as well as key players in the UK and Japan. He was interested in how global organisations transfer management practices and retail concepts to their overseas subsidiaries.

The retail environment is different from most others, for sure, but you could probably make the same conclusions for any industry in China. It may well be that Dr. Gamble’s advice is applicable only to stores and malls.

If it is not then it tells us that overseas companies operating in China should make all attempts to introduce their own culture to their operations here, except when there are specific barriers that cannot be overcome, such as law or a custom.

Now, that’s cleared things up a bit.

Frank Mulligan, Talent Software

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2 Responses to “Think Global, But …”

  1. Kathryn Buer Says:

    Frank -

    I love this topic! I had the opportunity to see the same cycle in Eastern Europe in the 90’s that I see in China now and it is interesting that the some of the same companies are making the same mistakes again.

  2. Greg Bissky Says:

    Hi Frank,

    I was one of the biggest proponents of “localization” (especially of the top position) in Taiwan and China in the late 80s and early 90s. Once again the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for …” proves true. Many old clients did install local bosses (expats are expensive after all) only to discover a few years down the road that their local operations had reverted to a traditional Chinese culture: no training, opaque finances and promotions/bonuses based on senority and relationships, not performance.

    It is easy for a Western firm to look at their “trained” local staff and their overall compliance in following HQ policies and think, “Great, we can move to the next step, to get rid of the expensive expats.” While I once supported this, I now think it is a mistake.

    The best companies at instilling their corporate culture onto the local operation have extremely strong commitments to training, plus they season future Chinese senior managers by sending them overseas as expats and/or posting them to HQ for a few years.

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