I get asked questions like "what's the difference between managing Chinese and Westerners" or "why is it so hard to get productivity out of Chinese workers"? And the short answer to both of these is the same: efficiency.
But what I want to cover in this article today is not managing lower level employees. I want to cover managing the managers.
The biggest problem with most companies (nevermind Chinese) is that they do not have a good training program. And when you couple that with the fact that most Chinese work hard to pass the probationary period then cruise the rest of the way, it becomes very problematic for any company. The key thing for newer companies or divisions is finding the "hungry" people. People who want to prove themselves and aren't happy with just settling. People who strive to be better. I've worked in and consulted for so many companies here in China in which you talk to the managers and they just don't seem to care. Part of that is the management's fault. Why would you want someone in your company that doesn't care? The other [greater] part is on the employee themselves.
I remember talking to a manager a few years ago when I asked about the problems in her department she told me that that was just the way it was. Not only was she unwilling to try and work with me to find a solution to the problem but she was completely complacent about it! Another part of her job was managing relationships with the vendors. So much so that this was one of the primaries in her JD. And yet when she was asked why everything was so slow, she defended the vendors instead of helping the company! One last bone of contention? When asked why the vendors were slacking more this year as compared to last year, the manager replied, "we told them our expected quota last year. Guess we forgot to do that this year..."
I asked another manager about how much access we had to a certain [main] product and the manager told me he didn't know. Now let me include this manager's title; product manager. The manager's excuse? He had been there for less than a year! That's right, a product manager who didn't know his own product and his excuse was he hadn't had the job for very long (8-11 months at the time)! Furthermore, a few weeks into product launch, this product manager took a vacation! That's right! He took a week off during the most hectic phase of a product launch cycle. To help with the absence? His temporary replacement, he admitted did not know enough about the product, and he hadn't trained her well enough to fill in during his holiday. One final kicker; before going on vacation, the manager hadn't even finished up the final touches on what needed to be done for the product launch!
Final example. I was once brought in to help another company launch a product. So I had a SWOT analysis done myself. I then went in and asked the managers and team leaders to do one themselves. While one of the team leaders took to the task like a fish to the water, the others couldn't see the point of it. In other words, the managers/team leaders couldn't understand why it was important to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (competitors) for a brand new product. Furthermore, when asked about the launch date of the product, main manager told me he didn't know. The manager had no idea when his own product launch date was. And the last crucial part; all the product designs and specs were handled by the American side, while the Chinese side had to work to localise it. But neither side communicated with the other so when pressed for a launch date, the dates were literally months apart!
The best solution to all of these problems that I have mentioned is first and foremost finding the right person for the role. The resume is NOT enough. You need to find someone who is not only smart and aggressive in their work, but also loyal to the company. You need to find someone who sees not only their goals but the company's as well. Also, if you hire someone for a manager role, make sure they have a manager's thinking. A manager needs to be able to think both in short term and long term goals. They need to be able to train those around them to one day fill their own position. And as stated before, a manager needs to think about what's best for the company.
The manager's thought process is very different from an ordinary employee. An employee can think about themselves and not worry about the company. The employee can focus and what's best and what they want. But a manager has to be able to see the broader scope of things. A manager has to be able to think "down the line". An employee is about hard skills, while a manager is about soft skills. A manager must think about short and long term goals and their actuation, risks and risk management, and ways to improve the current process. If a manager is complacent to "just doing his/her job" then that person shouldn't be a manager at all.
Business in China is...complicated to say the least. So finding the right people is absolutely crucial. When you are looking to people to help build your company. be willing to spend the money to find and hire the right people. Or else, you'll end up with the lackadaisical, selfish, complacent managers that will inevitably bring your company down.
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