中
国企业赴海外投资日益增多，在很多国家引发政治热议，尤其是美国。考虑到美中关系目前的大趋势，这一点或许可以理解，但一些特别有意思的问题却被忽视了，即这些中国企业在奔赴海外时，有着怎样的商业意识？它们是否正在成功转变为具有全球竞争力的公司？是否已经接近实现向全球竞争的转型？这项任务比人们想象中更艰难。外界看到的是资金实力雄厚的大公司，拥有充足的低成本制造经验，背后还有中国政府的鼎力支持。中国政府迫切希望国内的一流企业能够称雄世界。缺乏有效的品牌建设是中国企业存在的明显弱点。另外，还有一个不太显眼的问题是管理风格和结构。很多中国企业一味依赖集中式管理，对那些有志在全球各地、不同文化背景中经营业务的公司来说，这种方法并不合适。
这些问题并非不可逾越的障碍。想想日本和韩国企业的发展历程吧。这两个国家在二战后一开始都是以低成本制造业闻名，除此之外没什么别的长处。不过，在克服了种种与中国企业目前面临的问题类似的困难后，日本和韩国企业已在多个行业成为世界领导者。
在品牌建设方面，中国已经取得了一些明显成就。例如，海尔集团的前身是青岛电冰箱总厂，后者在名称上毫无创意，更名海尔集团后，其产品在上世纪90年代中期开始行销海外。在那之前，海尔一直安于为外国品牌进行贴牌生产。据市场研究公司欧睿信息咨询有限公司(Euromonitor International)的统计，海尔目前在全球大家电市场上占有最大份额。
1999年，海尔加大努力进军国际市场。它向美国和其它国家的在校大学生及葡萄酒窖销售诸如小冰箱等小众产品，并在当地成立制造厂，拉近生产中心和重点消费市场的距离。在努力打造全球品牌方面，海尔在中国企业当中显得卓尔不群。海尔利用美国职业篮球联赛(National Basketball Association)这个平台开展了一系列广告和营销活动，还为北京奥运会提供赞助，这一切都巩固了它在白色家电市场上占有的主导份额。此外，海尔还开发了一系列特别设计的产品，如不用洗涤剂的洗衣机，以及销往日本的清洗宠物衣物的小型洗衣机。
在消费者和中国品牌之间建立强有力的感情纽带仍是一项尚未完成的任务。或许可以利用与中国文化或传统相关的固有元素，这些元素包括优雅、传统、堂皇大气、手工技艺、生命力、活力以及对潜能的积极追求等等。创新和有创造力的设计是中国企业普遍缺乏的，这也在一定程度上说明了为什么全球消费者对中国品牌缺乏强烈的消费欲望。
除此之外，中国企业要成为全球巨头还面临其它多项挑战。其中一个有待改善的问题就是管理结构。中国企业倾向于进行集中式管理，主要决策都要由总部做出或批准。这种方法在企业走出国门之前一般是有效的。据麦肯锡公司(McKinsey & Company)的研究报告显示，电信设备制造商华为就是通过让产品或区域经理独立决策并自负盈亏，才在十年时间里实现了快速的全球扩张。海尔和其它中国公司已经可以利用召开电视会议等先进技术来提高内部协调，在不同国家的团队之间建立联系，营造团队合作精神。
在这方面，中国企业还有很多"功课"要做。例如，它们往往缺少具备全球经验、可在跨文化背景下处理员工或客户问题的公司高管，同时还缺少胸有成竹、训练有素、能在当地市场做决定的高管。要解决这个问题，就要进一步开放企业，招揽天下英才。有全球经验的公司高管具备专业知识，可使中国企业成为真正的跨国公司。
另外，中国公司还应在竞争激烈的海外市场中更好地理解客户需求。中国公司以前从不需要和零售客户打交道，而是把这个问题交给那些让它们进行贴牌生产的大品牌。但随着中国公司开始关注自己的品牌，它们也不得不建立有效机制，用多国语言处理客户的需求、投诉和反馈，这是一个要求很高且十分复杂的工作。华为研发的先进技术目前行销全球100多个国家，但它应该加强公司的基础设施建设，建立一套在产品销售地行之有效的全球客户服务系统。
最重要的是，中国公司应该采用更好的公司治理流程，尤其是应增加透明度。没有一家企业能在与外界隔绝的环境中运营，随着中国公司向海外市场进军，它们会和新市场中的新伙伴进行越来越多的合作，需要与之建立信任。最有效的一种办法是像那些发达经济体的公司一样行事，因为这些合作伙伴早已习惯了跟这些公司打交道。
中国企业最终会克服所有这些挑战，全世界的消费者会因中国品牌提供的产品而拥有更丰富的选择。但同样，谁都不应低估这项任务的难度，至少是所有中国高管不应如此。
(编者按：本文作者泰勒是英国电信(BT)亚太区总裁)
KEVIN TAYLOR
Chinese companies have generated a lot of political heat with their increasing investments overseas, especially in the U.S. Perhaps that's understandable given broader trends in U.S.-China relations at the moment, but it misses an especially interesting aspect of this story: how Chinese companies fare in a business sense when they head abroad. Are Chinese companies successfully transforming themselves into global players? Are they close to doing so?
The task is more challenging than people might think when they look at China's cash-rich big companies, replete with extensive low-cost manufacturing experience and enjoying the full backing of a government eager to see national champions become global titans. Effective brand-building is one obvious weakness. A less obvious problem is management style and structure: Many Chinese companies cling to centralized managerial methods that are ill-suited to businesses aspiring to operate across multiple time zones and cultures.
These hurdles are not insurmountable. Consider the experience of Japanese and South Korean companies. Both countries started the post-World War II period with reputations for low-cost manufacturing and not much else. Both are now world leaders in various industries, having overcome similar problems to those faced by Chinese companies today.
On the brand-building front, China already is racking up some notable successes. For instance, Haier, once prosaically known as the Qingdao Refrigerator Company, started selling products abroad under its own (new) name in the mid-1990s. Before then it had been content to slap foreign brand labels on some of the products it manufactured. Today it has the largest share of the world's market for major appliances, according to Euromonitor International.
Haier ramped up efforts to go global in 1999. It sold niche products such as small refrigerators to college students and wine cellars, and opened manufacturing plants in the U.S. and elsewhere to bring production centers closer to priority consumer markets. Haier has distinguished itself among Chinese companies in efforts to build a global brand. Its leading market share in white goods has been underpinned by advertising and marketing campaigns with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the U.S. and sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics. It has branched into specially designed products such as a detergent-free washing machine or a compact washing machine for pet clothing in Japan.
Building strong emotional bonds between consumers and Chinese brands remains a work in progress. One possibility would be to draw on innate elements associated with Chinese culture or heritage─from elegance, tradition, grandeur and craftsmanship to vitality, vibrancy and the energetic pursuit of the possible. Innovation and creative design have largely been missing, which partly explains the lack of strong consumer desire for Chinese brands internationally.
Meanwhile, other challenges remain. One area in need of improvement is management structure. Chinese companies tend to have a centralized approach to management with major decisions made or approved by headquarters. This tends to work until they venture abroad. Telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei achieved rapid international expansion over the course of a decade by allowing managers in charge of products or geographies to make decisions independently while making them responsible for profit and loss, according to a McKinsey & Company study. Haier and other companies have been able to build connections and team spirit across boundaries by deploying technologies such as videoconferencing to boost internal coordination.
Much work remains to be done in this regard. For instance, Chinese companies tend to lack executives with global experience who can deal with staff or customers in cross-cultural settings as well as possessing the confidence and training to make decisions in local markets. The solution is to further open up their organizations to international executives. Global executives possess the expertise to make Chinese companies global enterprises.
Chinese companies also need to do a better job understanding the demands of customers in highly competitive overseas markets. They have not traditionally had to deal with retail customers at all─they left that to the brands whose products they manufactured. But with their own brands now front and center, they have to build efficient systems to handle customer queries, complaints and feedback in many languages─a demanding and complex task. Huawei is selling advanced technology in more than 100 nations worldwide but needs to build the infrastructure for a global customer service system which is effective in local markets.
Most importantly, Chinese companies need to adopt better corporate governance processes, especially greater transparency. No company operates in a vacuum, and as Chinese companies move overseas they will increasingly have to work with new local partners in new markets, with whom they'll need to establish trust. The quickest way to do that is to act like the developed-economy companies with which those partners are already accustomed to dealing.
Chinese companies will ultimately overcome these challenges, and the world's consumers will be richer for the choice Chinese brands will offer. But by the same token, no one should underestimate the scale of the task, least of all Chinese executives themselves.
(Mr. Taylor is Asia-Pacific president of BT)
Chinese companies have generated a lot of political heat with their increasing investments overseas, especially in the U.S. Perhaps that's understandable given broader trends in U.S.-China relations at the moment, but it misses an especially interesting aspect of this story: how Chinese companies fare in a business sense when they head abroad. Are Chinese companies successfully transforming themselves into global players? Are they close to doing so?
The task is more challenging than people might think when they look at China's cash-rich big companies, replete with extensive low-cost manufacturing experience and enjoying the full backing of a government eager to see national champions become global titans. Effective brand-building is one obvious weakness. A less obvious problem is management style and structure: Many Chinese companies cling to centralized managerial methods that are ill-suited to businesses aspiring to operate across multiple time zones and cultures.
These hurdles are not insurmountable. Consider the experience of Japanese and South Korean companies. Both countries started the post-World War II period with reputations for low-cost manufacturing and not much else. Both are now world leaders in various industries, having overcome similar problems to those faced by Chinese companies today.
On the brand-building front, China already is racking up some notable successes. For instance, Haier, once prosaically known as the Qingdao Refrigerator Company, started selling products abroad under its own (new) name in the mid-1990s. Before then it had been content to slap foreign brand labels on some of the products it manufactured. Today it has the largest share of the world's market for major appliances, according to Euromonitor International.
Haier ramped up efforts to go global in 1999. It sold niche products such as small refrigerators to college students and wine cellars, and opened manufacturing plants in the U.S. and elsewhere to bring production centers closer to priority consumer markets. Haier has distinguished itself among Chinese companies in efforts to build a global brand. Its leading market share in white goods has been underpinned by advertising and marketing campaigns with the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the U.S. and sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics. It has branched into specially designed products such as a detergent-free washing machine or a compact washing machine for pet clothing in Japan.
Building strong emotional bonds between consumers and Chinese brands remains a work in progress. One possibility would be to draw on innate elements associated with Chinese culture or heritage─from elegance, tradition, grandeur and craftsmanship to vitality, vibrancy and the energetic pursuit of the possible. Innovation and creative design have largely been missing, which partly explains the lack of strong consumer desire for Chinese brands internationally.
Meanwhile, other challenges remain. One area in need of improvement is management structure. Chinese companies tend to have a centralized approach to management with major decisions made or approved by headquarters. This tends to work until they venture abroad. Telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei achieved rapid international expansion over the course of a decade by allowing managers in charge of products or geographies to make decisions independently while making them responsible for profit and loss, according to a McKinsey & Company study. Haier and other companies have been able to build connections and team spirit across boundaries by deploying technologies such as videoconferencing to boost internal coordination.
Much work remains to be done in this regard. For instance, Chinese companies tend to lack executives with global experience who can deal with staff or customers in cross-cultural settings as well as possessing the confidence and training to make decisions in local markets. The solution is to further open up their organizations to international executives. Global executives possess the expertise to make Chinese companies global enterprises.
Chinese companies also need to do a better job understanding the demands of customers in highly competitive overseas markets. They have not traditionally had to deal with retail customers at all─they left that to the brands whose products they manufactured. But with their own brands now front and center, they have to build efficient systems to handle customer queries, complaints and feedback in many languages─a demanding and complex task. Huawei is selling advanced technology in more than 100 nations worldwide but needs to build the infrastructure for a global customer service system which is effective in local markets.
Most importantly, Chinese companies need to adopt better corporate governance processes, especially greater transparency. No company operates in a vacuum, and as Chinese companies move overseas they will increasingly have to work with new local partners in new markets, with whom they'll need to establish trust. The quickest way to do that is to act like the developed-economy companies with which those partners are already accustomed to dealing.
Chinese companies will ultimately overcome these challenges, and the world's consumers will be richer for the choice Chinese brands will offer. But by the same token, no one should underestimate the scale of the task, least of all Chinese executives themselves.
(Mr. Taylor is Asia-Pacific president of BT)
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