Chinese firms going int'l can draw on U.S., Japan experiencein grooming talent: expert( Xinhua) 19:15, September 11, 2013 Leaders of Chinese companies going international can draw on the experience of Americanand Japanese multinationals in developing the right talent for a foreign market, an expertsaid on Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Singapore Human Capital Summit, Kwan Chee Wei, chiefexecutive officer of the Human Leadership Institute, said that many Asian firms, includingsome of the Chinese firms, are following the "traditional American model" to ship their bestmanagers from the home country to foreign markets as they expand overseas.
However, many of these firms are doing this "without making efforts to make sure that heor she has the right competencies to lead outside the home country," he said.
Some of the Chinese firms, too, are sending their best managers overseas without spendingenough time to make sure that the right types of leadership skills can be applicable to adifferent market.
He said the solution has to be two-fold. On the one hand, it involves efforts to give themanagers from the home market the training for them to understand the local culture andhave the ability to lead a local team.
It is necessary for them to understand the cultural complexity and that the way of doingbusiness is not the same as doing business in China. They should also understand how tomanage a local workforce, which is often quite different from managing a group of localChinese employees.
On the other hand, it also involves efforts to groom local talent that understands theChinese culture and values as well as the culture of the Chinese company.
Some of the Chinese firms, like personal computer maker Lenovo, have been doingexcellent in this respect and are now reaping the benefit of their efforts and having fastergrowth, Kwan said.
Chinese companies can draw on the experiences of Japanese firms and U.S. firms, Kwansaid.
The Japanese firms are widely seen as having encountered cultural challenges when theywent international. The U.S. firms once also tried to ship their best managers outside toforeign markets, but many of them had also adapted to the challenges by grooming localtalent.
（Editor：WangXin、Hongyu） Related reading
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