Tag Archives: Qualities

How Do You Bring Children into the Company? Seven Observations

Situation: The CEO of a company is looking at her succession plan. The preferred option, from a family standpoint, is to groom one of her children to eventually become the CEO. A concern is how current key employees will react to this plan. How do you bring children into the company?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • As preparation for a key role at the company, have your child gain experience at a company that has been where the business is today but has grown to a higher level. Learn from them what they went through and what they would change were they to do it again.
  • How did Peter the Great become the greatest leader of Russia? As young man, and son of a czar, he apprenticed in England and Holland – in ship building and other important arts that were scarce in Russia. He was able to leverage what he learned to help build the country when he became czar.
  • Have them develop the leadership qualities and maturity that they need to run this company in another company – where there is the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them. Bring this wisdom and experience back to the company. It will help gain the respect and loyalty of company employees.
  • Have them take on tasks which are not comfortable – for example, sales. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to visit a new customer. This is the key role of the principal of any company.
  • A parent/child relationship can be difficult in business. It can get tense when business, money, survival of the company and making payroll are on the line.
  • The son or daughter must be aware that in a new role one doesn’t start out in control. This may be achieved in the end, but it is not the starting point.
  • An option, once experience has been gained in another company, is to have the individual start a new branch of the company in a different location. This will provide a valuable learning experience and will demonstrate both capacity and success to company staff.

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What Are The Best Ways to Create a Presence in China? Six Suggestions

Situation: A company’s major customers are expanding their manufacturing in China. They want the company to be able to service their Chinese locations. If you don’t already have a presence in China, what are the best ways to create a presence in China? In addition, how do you get the cash produced by these operations out of China?

Advice from the CEOs:

  • Increasingly, multinational businesses with operations in China seek vendors who can seamlessly handle all of their domestic and international needs. In China, the objective is to be able to translate service output into English so that US managers can monitor the output and assure that Chinese operations are meeting the same or similar basic standards as their domestic and other foreign operations. If your company can’t do this large contracts are at risk.
  • Look for local partners, including partners located in Hong Kong or Japan who can deliver service in China to your standards. You want partners who you can risk-manage.
  • It is interesting to look at the Japanese approach to China. Japanese concerns known to CEOs around the table only transfer highly developed, late stage manufacturing projects to China.
  • As you look at partners who have capabilities in China there are a number of qualities that you want to investigate:
    • Competence and honesty.
    • Loyalty – a partner who will stick with your company and not just take the new knowledge and start to compete with you.
    • Absence of graft and record of compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices regulations.
  • If you work with Chinese partners, work with two of them. Do not give them exclusive agreements, and do not tell them about one-another. This is critical to protecting any IP that you will be using in China.
  • We’ve learned over the past year that taking cash from your Chinese operations out of China is difficult. The Chinese government imposes heavy fees and levies on companies exporting earned capital because they want this capital to remain in China. Given this, you must ask yourself whether this is important to you. [like]