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.”
More at the South China Morning Post.
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