Weblog with daily updates of the news on a frugal, fair and beautiful China, from the perspective of internet entrepreneur, new media advisor and president of the China Speakers Bureau Fons Tuinstra
Why business will never be the same in China again, tells consultant Gabor Holch in a wide-ranging overview of how business in China has changed after the pandemic, and how Western businesses can face those changes.
Bridging cultures between Chinese and international companies is harder, now the golden age of foreign companies in China is over, says international coach Gabor Holch in an interview with marketing guru Ashley Dudarenok.
Foreigners have left China in large numbers, but the most important reasons were other than COVID-19, argues intercultural coach and consultant Gabor Holch in his video. Already before the coronacrisis, the exodus was taking place because economic growth was dropping, career opportunities for expats were diminishing and the expat community was already severely hit before the lockdowns, he argues.
China is taking a stricter line when it comes to national security and spying when it comes to foreign companies, including raids of the consultancies Bain and Capvision offices in China. Intercultural leadership coach Gabor Holch guides those foreign firms through the intercultural minefield, he tells in the South China Morning Post, in an article about the last warnings,
The South China Morning Post:
Gabor Holch, an intercultural leadership consultant in Shanghai, said steering round sensitive issues had been part of doing business in China since the early 2000s.
“I personally helped many corporate leaders navigate this minefield, from obvious political taboos to minute references such as country lists and images in brochures,” said Holch, who is also an author of a forthcoming book on foreign managers in China.
“In past decades, definitions of strictly off-limits topics became clearer and embedded in published laws, something that was missing in the early days.”
He said that nowadays executives had to be more “vigilant than before to avoid sensitive issues that can put their firms in jeopardy”…
Holch said: “Foreign firms must make sure to appoint politically able and well-informed, preferably Mandarin-speaking, executives to their [Chinese] businesses as opposed to technical problem-solvers typical a decade ago.
“Most importantly, China’s restrictive information environment demands that foreign and local managers at multinationals share information and keep their firms agile but legally compliant.”
