ON TOP OF MY AGENDA Cathy Huang is the president of CBi China Bridge. Her objective is to help multinational companies understand Chinese customers. She says that in order to succeed, you need to do your homework.
MISTAKES. Foreign companies often fail to consider the local culture and consumer behavior. Too often they simply assume locals are eager to try foreign goods. Also, China is a large and versatile country that should not be perceived as one entity. There are great differences within China in terms of weather, customs and socio-economic situations. Therefore, you should not make any assumptions other than that there is a lot of variation in the services and products Chinese consumers are looking for. Finally, you should remember that the Chinese move at a very fast pace when doing business and often wonder why Europeans do not seem to follow along.
What have you learned about
Doing business in a global environment, Göran Roos? WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES IN WORKING FROM A GLOBAL BASE? The need to gather information continuously for each of the countries I associate with so that I do not get out of touch with the political, economical and industrial environment. To learn to get by in different linguistic and cultural contexts, and the need for perfect mastery of the English language. Also, to attract and retain talent, you must build a strong culture where the obligation of the firm is to make the employee more employable, while the employee should make the firm more successful. The reward is that you get an excellent global perspective and see the way the world works in different places and as a whole.
GÖRAN ROOS – Professor, academic, entrepreneur and pioneer in intangibles – currently works for the South Australian premier’s office as Thinker in Residence in the “Manufacturing for the Future” venture.
WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BIGGEST LESSONS FOR YOU IN WORKING ABROAD? Never to impose my own views and value systems on others and never to use the words right, wrong, good or bad. To listen for a long time before you talk and never to assume that you fully understand any context. To realize that no matter how different the culture is, business is fundamentally the same, and with enough determination and a little bit of luck you can succeed anywhere.
WHAT CAN BE GAINED FROM BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER TO WORK FROM AROUND THE WORLD? Being an engineer, I like to refer to Ashby’s Law: control can only be obtained if the internal regulatory mechanism of a system is as diverse as the environment with which it interacts. The key word is “requisite.” If the control system is too complex, the system will not operate efficiently. But if it lacks sufficient internal differentiation, it might not be able to cope with variable demand, or it might fail entirely. In simple terms, for success, the dynamics of the environment must be matched with the diversity of the team. In an increasingly dynamic environment, increasing the diversity of the team will increase the probability of success for the organization embodying the team. 6