You enter China fully equipped, at least you thought so. You are armed with well defined growth strategies, localization processes, topnotch expats, and elite local talent. At the end of the day, if you do not achieve sales goals in this hot market, you ask yourself: “what did I do wrong and where should I start to rethink my growth strategy?”
Let’s ask ourselves the following questions:
- Is the growth strategy by, from, for this market?
- Are we failing to address any key components in the local value chain, such as government entities?
- Have we built a winning team united behind the management and is this team performing its A game?
- Have we done enough internal communication to put everyone on the same page of the objectives, goals, strategies, and performance measures?
If you are not confident enough to give all positive answers, you need to rethink the strategy.
“Think local, act local” or “think global, act local” are becoming clichés in global business. Pasting country names into business plan does not mean localizing your strategy. How many of us are truly willing to change the fundamental way of thinking and the processes with which we have lived comfortably with for years?
To understand what locals think is not difficult if you are willing to try a few things after you check into your five star hotel:
- Go visit your customers/ consumers. If you have done it before with your local team, you probably saw the side they arranged you to see. The advice is to go with a third party.
- Get involved in-person, not just dial onto global conference calls. It is especially critical that you are there on the ground during the initial assessment stage of any projects, learning firsthand, and building relations with your customers and consumers.
- Build up a team that includes expats, and local grown managers (they could be oversea trained returnees) and expand local managers’ responsibilities to perform as corporate ambassadors. They know your global operation and corporate culture. They not only work with your local team and bridge local and headquarters, but also lead as role models to guide and train lower tier managers. They can influence the local company culture to ensure growth in a fiercely competitive market.
Changing our way of thinking is a challenge. You need profound understanding of the local culture, and have ultimate alignment of your global strategy and local needs.
By iProTeam, All Rights Reserved. www.imipro.com