Volume 2, Issue 9 - 2009
Technology Firms in Asia Hold the Line | Competition for Asia's Talent | Move to Leadership and Talent

Move to Leadership and Talent:

Chinese-owned companies become stiffer competitors

Aon Consulting and China Team International, a member of  Cornerstone International Group Worldwide, recently formed an alliance to offer a unique candidate screening service - specifically for the China market - Hire Right Selection. Hire Right enables you to quickly, cost-effectively and accurately assess candidates’ skills and attributes. It then pinpoints good-match candidates for in-person interviews. Click here to download a description of the service.

Simon Wan, the founder and President of China Team International, spoke with Asia Connect about the changing nature of the recruitment market in China and his experiences recruiting for Chinese-owned companies.

How is the recruitment market changing in China?

One of the things that I have seen change is cultural and linguistic fluency. Regardless of the company doing business in China, the time of the person who is not perfectly bilingual will be over soon. The old executive who could sit there and have a secretary who could translate everything still happens, but those people cannot survive much longer.

There is a good talent pool that soon will be seasoned. Many of those who have gone to the top schools in US then chose to take jobs there. Many have now come back and have started working in China. They bring a very powerful coupling of understanding the local culture with a good understanding of western business practices. It is pretty hard to compete against them now and I believe it will become harder over time. While there are some returnees who are quite impressive, as a whole this group still has not fully matured. However, they will mature quickly and they are the ones who will lead China.

Are you seeing any changes in the ability of Chinese companies to attract good people?

There have been a lot of changes, especially in the last 10 months. Western multinationals are cutting back on salaries and benefits of senior managers, even in Asia. The security of working for an MNC is not as strong as it was three years ago. I often find that Asian executives in Western multinationals think that their company is too interested in short-term results. They are sick and tired of being driven by quarterly results. Chinese companies are still results-focused but they look at a longer time span. So a lot of Western multinationals lose good people because the company is making decisions to achieve a quick short-term gain. Chinese and other Asian companies tend to look at things a bit more long term.

The second factor is that although politics is everywhere, in a large company, like a Fortune 500 company, there is different politics in every office and at global headquarters. In the Chinese or Asian multinational company there is also politics but there is only one politics - the owner’s. It is more predictable and you know what you are getting.

The last point is that in a Western multinational, age is not in your favor. When you are past 45 and you have not made it to the number one or number two spot in China, you know your days are numbered. In a Chinese company, age is a positive - they like people to be older and more experienced. They are more comfortable with older people in senior positions; older people are more valued.

What is different about working for a Chinese-owned company?

The job is the same whether you are working in a Western multinational or a Chinese-owned company. For senior positions, you have to deliver no matter how smart you look. But in Chinese companies, there is a family style of management. If you are the CEO or the COO of the company, the owner wants to involve you in family things, such as going to family lunches or dinners. You are expected to bring your children and friends. You have to be accepted into their family – it is not enough to just do your job. In Western multinationals this is not a requirement.

What types of positions do Chinese-owned companies want to fill?

There are three types of people that we primarily recruited. One is the COO. They bring in new ways of doing things more efficiently. Typically they are in their late 40s or early 50s and come from Western multinationals in a similar industry.

The second kind is CFOs. The stock market investors in China and Hong Kong look for seasoned executives in the management team. The company going for an IPO needs one to go into the prospectus. The CFO is a key person that we hire to help the company’s management team look stronger.

The last type of candidate we look for is Chief Marketing Officers or Business Directors. Export-oriented companies need to fill these positions in order to build their business in the China domestic market.  The market has pretty much dried up in the last year for the OEM business. So, these companies are now turning to the local market for growth. But since they were not brand conscious in the past, they now want to hire people who have brand management experience or China distribution experience.

What is the profile of people that Chinese-owned firms are looking for?

The owner or founder drives most of the large Chinese-owned companies. So, it depends on the character of the owner. The culture fit is whether you are able to fit with the chairman. CEOs who are self-made millionaires tend to be very fast talkers; they don’t want to listen. They feel that if you respond slowly, you don’t know what you are talking about. The ones that survive are those who are quick to respond yet are logical. They also know not to outshine the boss.

The sons and daughters of the founder are looking a different type of people. If the son came back from the US, then they look for US-trained Chinese managers or returnees. They know that their parents will be retiring in three-to-five years and so they are preparing for that day. They try to build a shadow team to work on new business or have their own people work under the function or unit heads to gain practical experience. Normally they hire like-minded people who are in their mid 30s.

One last point is about authority. In a Chinese organization the COO may not have all of the power. He still has to work through his network to make sure the sons, daughters and nephews are on board. For people who are mature or older it is easier to adapt to this environment. More western-trained or young executives have difficulty.

For more information on China Team International, please visit their website –
http://www.chinateam.com. To contact Aon Consulting to learn more about Hire Right Selection, please email Julia Cao at julia_cao@aon-asia.com.