Chinese Recruit Top Executives Trained Abroad
When Dominic Leung moved to China this year as chairman of the country's second-largest life insurer, the Hong Kong executive startled his senior managers with a blunt message: Skip the formalities.
On his first outing to a branch office, the staff formed a welcoming line that snaked from the elevator lobby down a long corridor to the reception counter -- the kind of over-the-top gesture that strokes the egos of many Chinese corporate VIPs. But Mr. Leung was embarrassed, and annoyed. "I said to the general manager: 'You never do that again,' " he recalls. " 'I don't need that.' "
Mr. Leung, who worked previously for American International Group and the United Kingdom's Prudential PLC, says he is now trying to persuade managers at Ping An Life Insurance not to greet him personally at the airport. "To me it's wasting time -- they should be working in the office," he says.
Mr. Leung, a 56-year-old insurance-industry veteran, is part of a new wave of "overseas Chinese" being recruited to fill top slots in Chinese companies. These executives -- from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and other locales where Chinese have settled -- have long been wooed by multinationals to run their China operations. Now, some of the brightest are jumping to Chinese companies instead.
In some ways, the trend points to the relative fortunes of Chinese companies in China's vast domestic economy, where local businesses have proved to be at least the equal of multinationals in the battle for market share. Increasingly, Chinese companies are seen as a springboard for the ambitions of overseas Chinese with U.S. and European graduate degrees in business. Some who have made the leap say they were prompted by a glass ceiling at multinationals for ethnic Chinese employees.
Once the new recruits get over initial culture shock, they report few regrets. Middle-ranking managers who once reported up a chain of command to New York or Frankfurt suddenly find themselves controlling companies that are emerging as national leaders in the world's fastest-growing major economy.
In a multinational company, "headquarters calls all the shots. But if you work for a Chinese company, you call the shots," says Zheng Xue-cheng, a corporate search executive with Egon Zehnder International, which recruits high-level talent for Ping An and other Chinese companies.
Corporate perks may be meager in Chinese firms, but pay is competitive and stock options can be generous -- in rare cases, sensational. After quitting his job running Microsoft China, Tang Jun, a naturalized U.S. citizen, joined Chinese online gaming company Shanda Interactive Entertainment and picked up 2.6 million stock options now valued at more than $90 million. (The company was listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market this year.)
Tan Wee-Seng, an ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, gave up housing, education and car allowances when he left a senior business role at Reuters news service last year to join Li-Ning Sports, a sportswear company run by a former Chinese Olympic gymnast. "But the options are better," says Mr. Tan, Li-Ning's chief financial officer who steered the company through a Hong Kong listing this year.
Another lure: the chance to "help and transform this country," says Mr. Tan. Ping An's Mr. Leung says moving to the company gives him a feeling of belonging in China. Working for a multinational "I was an outsider, maybe even a foreigner," he says. "Now I'm one of them."
Chinese companies are more open-minded about international recruitment than their counterparts elsewhere in Asia. In part, the openness is driven by necessity: Chinese companies planning to raise capital overseas often lack financial managers with the skills to navigate complex international regulatory and compliance issues.
In some industries, like banking and insurance, Chinese companies face an onslaught of foreign competition as domestic markets open, and they need managers who can implement smart sales and marketing strategies and internal restructuring.
China Construction Bank, one of the country's Big Four lenders, planning to issue shares next year, has invited a leading Japanese banker to sit on its board of directors -- a first for the bank. The Bank of China, also in line to list, is searching overseas to fill positions up to the level of vice president.
Ping An Group, parent of Ping An Life Insurance, has gone further than perhaps any major Chinese company in opening its staff ranks: Half of its top 50 managers come from outside the Chinese mainland, says Sun Jian Yi, the group's deputy chief executive officer. As a start-up in 1988, Ping An was up against an established state monopoly, the People's Insurance Co. of China. To compete, it had to look as different from PICC as possible. "We said we wanted to follow the international market," says Mr. Sun. "We needed overseas money, overseas systems, overseas talent."
Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley came in as early private-equity investors. The Shenzhen-based company, which listed just across the border in Hong Kong this year, hired the McKinsey & Co. consultant who drew up the company's long-term strategy, Louis Cheung.
Mr. Cheung, a 40-year-old Cambridge-educated Hong Kong native, joined Ping An after turning down offers from an international investment bank and a dot-com. Mr. Cheung, 36 when he joined Ping An, says he wanted a company offering super-charged growth, and "China is the only country where you can get that kind of growth." Now Ping An's chief operating officer, he shuttles between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, where his wife, a Singaporean investment banker, lives.
For Ping An and other Chinese companies, overseas Chinese are an easier fit than other outsiders. For a start, they can speed-read office memos in Chinese handwriting. But the high-paid recruits can also spark resentments. Ping An runs a two-track pay system. "At first people asked: 'Why are you paying so much?' " says Mr. Sun, who happily admits he earns less than some of the overseas Chinese who work under him. "We had to educate our work force."
And imported management methods don't always go down well. Staff at Ping An headquarters are fuming over a new electronic card system at the main door. Employees who leave the building for longer than 30 minutes must explain their absence to a supervisor. "Not even a mosquito can get out of this place without permission," grumbles a junior manager.
Alan Ku, Ping An's Taiwan human-resources manager formerly with Unilever, says the system is now being reviewed.
中国本土企业吸引“海归派”回流
梁家驹(Dominic Leung)今年刚担任平安人寿(Ping An Life Insurance)董事长的时候，这位香港职业经理人的不拘俗套让公司的高级经理们大吃一惊。平安人寿是中国第二大寿险公司。
他第一次去平安人寿分支机构巡访时，受到人们的列队欢迎，队伍从大堂电梯，穿过一条长长的走廊，一直排到公司前台。很多中国公司的高层领导都喜欢这种方式。但梁家驹感到非常尴尬，甚至生气。“我对那儿的总经理说：'以后别再这样做了'”，他回想道，“我不需要这个”。
今年56岁的梁家驹表示，他正在劝说平安人寿的经理们不要到机场去接他。“这是在浪费时间 -- 他们应当在办公室里工作”，他说。
中国大陆公司正时兴聘请“海归派”担任高管职位，在保险业历练多年的梁家驹是这一潮流的一员。香港、台湾、新加坡和其他华人地区的高级管理人士长期以来经常被跨国公司聘请来运营中国业务。如今，这些人中的一部分开始跳槽到中国企业。
从某种意义上说，这种趋势显示了本地公司在中国庞大经济中日益壮大－－在争夺市场占有率方面，这些中国公司毫不逊色于跨国企业。中国公司还日益成为很多具有雄心壮志、从海外学成回国的美国和欧洲MBA学生发展事业的跳板。他们中的一些人说，他们在跨国公司的发展由于华人身份遭遇到了“玻璃天花板”。
在克服了最初的文化差异后，几乎没有人称这份经历是令他们遗憾的。以前需要向纽约或法兰克福的上级层层汇报工作的中层经理，现在可以完全控制一家在这个世界增长最快的经济体中居于领导地位的公司。
跨国公司的“总部指挥所有下级的工作”，可如果在中国公司工作，就是你去指挥别人了，猎头公司Egon Zehnder International的郑学成（音译）说。该公司为中国企业寻找高级人才，平安保险也是其客户之一。
中国公司的额外津贴比较少，但薪水一点都不低，而且股票期权的数量也相当慷慨，甚至偶尔达到让人激动的地步。从微软中国(Microsoft China)辞职不干的唐峻加入了中国网络游戏公司盛大互动娱乐有限公司(Shanda Interactive Entertainment)，他获得了260万股股票期权。后来该公司在美国那斯达克市场(Nasdaq Stock Market)上市，唐峻的期权价值超过9,000万美元。
此外，还有民族情感的原因。几代在海外受教育的华人总能感到祖国的召唤，希望能为建设“新中国”添砖加瓦。但一次又一次的政治运动使前几代“海归”们的命运十分坎坷。新一代“海归”尽管已经不再那么理想主义，但中国人的骄傲依然在他们胸中燃烧。
马来西亚华人陈伟成去年放弃了在路透(Reuters )担任高管的各种住房、教育和汽车补贴，加入了由中国奥运冠军李宁创立的李宁体育用品公司(Li-Ning Sports)。“尽管其他选择可能更好”，但陈伟成说，他“更愿意帮助和改变这个国家”。身为首席财务长的他成功的将李宁公司在香港上市。
令人吃惊的是，尽管中国经济从上个世纪70年代末才开始逐渐开放，中国企业在招聘各种国际人才方面却比其他亚洲企业更开明。“韩国现在都没有像中国这样”，麦肯锡(McKinsey)的鲍达民(Dominic Barton)说，“猎头在中国更能被接受”。
这种开明一定程度上是源于对人才的饥渴：计划到海外筹集资金的中国企业很缺乏专业的财务人士，帮助他们解决如何遵循各种复杂的国际监管规则的问题。在有些行业，如银行和保险业，中国的银行将随著国内市场的开放面临外国同行残酷的竞争，它们需要能够贯彻明智的销售和营销战略，并且能进行内部优化重组的经理人。
中国四大国有银行之一的中国建设银行(China Construction Bank)计划明年进行首次公开募股，它已经聘请了一名资深的日本银行家参与董事会，这可是前所未有的事情。同样也在准备上市的中国银行(Bank of China)正在海外寻找一位能够担当副总裁级别的高级管理人员。
在招揽海外人才方面，平安人寿的母公司中国平安保险（集团）股份有限公司(Ping An Group, 简称：平安)可以说是中国大型企业中走得最远的。公司50名经理人有一半是海归华人，平安常务副总孙建一如是说。
平安是1988年才创立的，它的竞争对手是处于国有垄断地位的中国人民保险公司(People's Insurance Company of China, 简称：中国人保)。平安尽力将自己与中国人保区别开来。“我们说过我们要紧跟国际市场”，孙建一说，“我们需要海外资金，海外管理体系和海外人才”。
高盛(Goldman Sachs)和摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)是平安成长初期的私募股权投资者。平安非常欣赏麦肯锡的建议，甚至雇佣了为其制定长期发展战略的麦肯锡顾问张子欣(Louis Cheung)。张子欣是一位毕业于剑桥(Cambridge)的香港人。平安总部在深圳，今年刚在香港完成上市。
“做出这样的选择并不难”，张子欣在解释为何拒绝一家投行和一家互联网公司的高薪聘请而来到平安时说。他希望加盟一家超速发展的公司，而“中国是唯一能够提供这种超速度的国家”。张子欣现在是平安的首席营运长，他的家在香港，妻子是一位从事投行业务的新加坡人，他平日就在香港和深圳两地之间奔波。他们在新加坡还有第三个家，度假时会到新加坡看望家人，打打高尔夫球。
对于平安及其他中国公司而言，“海归派”比纯粹的外国人才更能适应它们的环境。一开始，他们就能快速处理中文办公文件。不过，高薪聘用“海归”人士也引起了本地雇员的不满，而且虽然同是中国人，“海归”们也可能会犯一些文化上的错误。
平安实行双轨薪酬制度。孙建一说，“最初人们会问，'你为什么给他们这么高的工资'？”孙建一本人很高兴的坦诚自己挣得钱比手下的“海归”们少。“我们必须培训我们的员工”。
不过，从外部引进管理人才也并不是什么问题都没有，平安总部的员工对在大门上安装电子卡系统怨声载道。所有人员离开大楼超过30分钟都必须向上司说明原因。“没有许可连一只蚊子都别想从这楼里飞出去”，一位职位较低的中国经理抱怨说。公司的人事经理Alan Ku是一位曾经在联合利华(Unilever)工作的台湾人，他说，目前正在对该系统进行评估。
在美国国际集团(American International Group Inc.)和英国保诚保险(Prudential PLC)工作多年、现任平安人手董事长的梁家驹说，他在这里得到一种回归祖国的满足感。为一家跨国公司工作时，“我觉得我是局外人，甚至是外国人”，“但现在我是一家人中的一员”。
