Comments on: Rules for Success in China – blog discussion http://taikongren.net/blog/2010/03/11/rules-for-success-in-china-blog-discussion/ Fri, 22 Apr 2011 09:14:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2-alpha By: Jesse Covner http://taikongren.net/blog/2010/03/11/rules-for-success-in-china-blog-discussion/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Jesse Covner Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:39:56 +0000 http://taikongren.net/?p=78#comment-4 Wow Ja, you are the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Hooray! And thank you. To tell you the truth, I'm not really loyal to any company either. And that is because companies, generally speaking, have not been loyal to me. Only people have been loyal to me. But I don't go hopping around because I understand there may be more that I can gain from staying than just a salary. I don't really know what is the Western way to leverage employee development. But I think a big part of getting people to stay is succession planning and career coaching. Make people think that there is a way for more growth that does not involve someone suddenly dieing and leaving the position for you to take. Unfortunately, no one seems to do career coaching here in China. Wow Ja, you are the first person to leave a comment on my blog. Hooray! And thank you.

To tell you the truth, I’m not really loyal to any company either. And that is because companies, generally speaking, have not been loyal to me. Only people have been loyal to me. But I don’t go hopping around because I understand there may be more that I can gain from staying than just a salary.

I don’t really know what is the Western way to leverage employee development. But I think a big part of getting people to stay is succession planning and career coaching. Make people think that there is a way for more growth that does not involve someone suddenly dieing and leaving the position for you to take. Unfortunately, no one seems to do career coaching here in China.

]]> By: ja http://taikongren.net/blog/2010/03/11/rules-for-success-in-china-blog-discussion/comment-page-1/#comment-3 ja Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:41:14 +0000 http://taikongren.net/?p=78#comment-3 Great post. I can see two major obstacles to the desire for Western Companies in particular to forgo a lot of employee development of local hires. Both have to do with loyalty. Often Western managers are suspicious that once taught and trained, there's not a lot of incentive for local employees to stick around and not work for a competing Chinese company. When I was working in the US and as long as working for my employer didn't suck, the very fact that they invested time and money in assuring that my skills and knowledge were advancing, I showed my appreciation by not entertaining offers from competing companies. Many Chinese engineers would, were they in my position, see that as now their own competitive advantage. The other is the dream that many Chinese have of going into business for themselves. It does not necessarily matter if their business is related to the skill set or not. My husband has had an employee leave to start a blue jeans export company, for instance. From automotive supplier to blue jeans--quite a leap, but importantly for her, it was her own company. I do believe also that it is more common that, as you wrote, expat managers don't care about or don't understand their local hires. However, the Western way of leveraging employee development to keep employees loyal doesn't seem to work as well here, so it is hard for a foreign company to get the pay-back for the investment. My husband has somehow defied that with several engineers that used to work for him at one company and followed him (or Skype him once a month to ask if they can follow) to his current employer. But that really only means he's been able to develop personal loyalty, which he then uses for the sake of his employer. Great post. I can see two major obstacles to the desire for Western Companies in particular to forgo a lot of employee development of local hires. Both have to do with loyalty. Often Western managers are suspicious that once taught and trained, there’s not a lot of incentive for local employees to stick around and not work for a competing Chinese company. When I was working in the US and as long as working for my employer didn’t suck, the very fact that they invested time and money in assuring that my skills and knowledge were advancing, I showed my appreciation by not entertaining offers from competing companies. Many Chinese engineers would, were they in my position, see that as now their own competitive advantage.
The other is the dream that many Chinese have of going into business for themselves. It does not necessarily matter if their business is related to the skill set or not. My husband has had an employee leave to start a blue jeans export company, for instance. From automotive supplier to blue jeans–quite a leap, but importantly for her, it was her own company.

I do believe also that it is more common that, as you wrote, expat managers don’t care about or don’t understand their local hires. However, the Western way of leveraging employee development to keep employees loyal doesn’t seem to work as well here, so it is hard for a foreign company to get the pay-back for the investment. My husband has somehow defied that with several engineers that used to work for him at one company and followed him (or Skype him once a month to ask if they can follow) to his current employer. But that really only means he’s been able to develop personal loyalty, which he then uses for the sake of his employer.

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