Chinese companies make a mark in Europe by building trust and confidence among employees

Moon Ali-Choudhrey, a 25-year-old graduate from Plymouth University in the UK, is one of lucky young professionals in Europe who can boast of having lunch with his managing director daily and playing golf with him on Sundays.

But it is not the food and entertainment options that prompted Ali-Choudhrey to join Chinese telecommunications equipment maker TP-Link, but rather the respect and appreciation provided by the company to individual talent.

"I've blended well with other team members, including the managing director. I can simply knock on his door and say 'Hi, how are you doing'. In normal corporate culture, you'd have to make an appointment via email," he says.

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Ali-Choudhrey is one of several local hires at TP-Link's UK subsidiary established in 2010 with more than 20 employees. But his experiences are common to a wider group of local employees at the overseas offices of many Chinese businesses.

Fighting at the forefront of a new wave of Chinese investment in mature Western markets, these companies are often industry leaders in China. Determined to succeed in foreign waters by adapting international management practices, they often treat local employees with respect, hands-on support and family-like care above and beyond the practices in China.

These Chinese companies' unprecedented pace of overseas expansion has also created abundant opportunities for local employees to showcase and develop their skills.

In turn, the local employees' first-hand experiences of helping a Chinese company grow from a new entrant in a mature Western market to a competitive player also helps foster a loyalty and sense of belonging.

One achievement Ali-Choudhrey feels proud of is the marketing campaign he led for a TP-Link wireless nano router, which boosted monthly sales from about 10-20 units to more than 1,000 units in a few months.

With multiple functions including transferring wired Internet access to wireless and reinforcing the existing wireless signal, the TP-Link router is different from most other routers available on the British market. But its convenience was not well understood by most British customers when it was launched.

"Coming from a British background, I realized the problem. So I took the router home and did a few tests to see how it would work in an average British person's life," Ali-Choudhrey recalls.

One thing he noticed is that most British users of high definition television did not understand how to connect their television to the Internet. He then realized that the TP-Link router could achieve this by connecting to the HD television boxes through an Ethernet core and act as an adapter to receive wireless signals.

"We came up with a new marketing strategy based on the concept of 'five in one solution' to make the router more relevant to our target customers' daily lives, and we re-launched the product," he says.

Ali-Choudhrey's hard work did not go unnoticed. Six months into his job at TP-Link, he has already been promoted from sales executive to account manager.

But Ali-Choudhrey can only take part of the credit, as his career progression is inseparable from TP-Link's rapid overseas expansion. In the British market alone, sales revenue increased from $4.5 million (3.48 million euros) in 2010 to an estimated $24 million this year, according to the company.

The pride Ali-Choudhrey shows in witnessing his company grow is shared by Mel Lawley, 25, a senior internal sales employee at the Chinese lighting company NVC's UK subsidiary.

When Lawley joined NVC in March 2009, NVC UK Ltd was processing just 16,000 pounds ($25,600; 19,800 euros) of orders a day. But today, the average daily order has grown to 150,000 pounds. "The growth has been unbelievable," she says.

Lawley says that NVC has been the best job in her career because she got extensive support from her managers. Coming to NVC with no prior experience in the lighting industry, she was given training for a few hours every day for about eight weeks by her managers.

Entering the British market in 2007, NVC the Chinese newcomer competed head-to-head with Britain's 84-year-old Thorn Lighting and 34-year-old Dextra Lighting, and now already ships supplies to about 1,500 of the more than 3,500 electrical wholesalers in the UK.

Alongside the sales growth, the company's staff also rose to about 90 workers. Having proven her abilities, Lawley was then given the new challenge of managing a team of three sales employees, enabling her to share her own experiences with the more junior team members of the company.

The opportunities for personal development that Lawley got are more or less similar to what Paula Moffatt, 41, merchandising director of Chinese fashion brand Bosideng's UK subsidiary got.

Despite having 20 years of merchandising experience in Britain's fashion industry, Moffatt says she constantly encounters fresh challenges at Bosideng. For example, Moffatt's team of five employees is currently working on the launch of Bosideng's retail website, taking care of aspects like design, photos and technical details.

"It has allowed me as an individual to get into areas where I might not have the expertise. But because I have planning skills, I am doing it well, which is fantastic. In a lot of rigid and structured companies, we don't have such opportunities," she says.

On a day-to-day basis, Moffatt is in touch with Bosideng's designers and suppliers to make sure the right products arrive in store in the right quantity. She also collects and analyzes feedback on the popularity of each design.

"The hardest thing about merchandising for Bosideng is, there is no sales history. So we have to watch the sales closely, and make sure we don't continue to buy the designs that don't sell well," Moffatt says.

"This is a new lesson for me because for all the brands I've worked at previously, there was always a sales history. So if you had a green jacket last season that sold well, you can expect the green jacket this season to sell."

Opened in July, Bosideng's 35 million pound flagship store in central London has been a significant investment in Britain's depressed retail market.

Comparing Bosideng with her previous British employers, Moffatt says a key difference is the amount of trust Bosideng's senior managers place in her as the local expert to make the right decisions.

She recalls an instance when decisions had to be made in one week to stock a store before its opening. Instead of allowing representatives from all departments to oversee the logistics operations, like any British company would do, Bosideng asked Moffatt to make the decisions.

At Bosideng, Moffatt typically works about 13-14 hours each day, which includes about two hours of commuting time. "It's not because I have to, but I do it because I love my job. Every day there is excitement, because I never know what areas of responsibility might come in next for me."

The trust and pride that Ali-Choudhrey, Lawley and Moffatt express for their employers is a fitting demonstration that Chinese companies are responsible employers on their road to internationalization.

Their enthusiasm to work in a Chinese company reflects the rapid growth made by Chinese companies and affirms the quality of Chinese products in the global market.

cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/07/2012 page6)