Cisco China’s ‘management kindergarten’ aims to grow seasoned execs

China is a red hot market for Cisco, which saw its second-half sales in Hong Kong grow more than 35% from a year earlier, reports the South China Morning Post. But the country is suffering from a lack of experience managers to lead the hi-tech firms – including Cisco – that have set up facilities there.

Businessweek is reporting on Cisco’s answer to the problem – grow managers from within by instituting “management kindergarten” programs. Businessweek cites Cisco’s Shanghai research center, where the average age of workers is 27, as an example of a unit that is offering such a program.

Quoting Jan Gronski, managing director of the Shanghai facility, and her No. 2 Chris Dong, Businessweek writes:

Gronski and Dong have opened “Cisco Clubs” at three Chinese universities, giving students a chance to work with Cisco engineers. For those on staff, Gronski runs management seminars every Thursday. He schools young managers on everything from giving presentations and decision-making to speaking their minds.

Some readers of the article think that Cisco will still churn out inexperienced managers. But what’s the difference between this program and other “management trainee” programs offered by companies in the west?

HES Global Hospitality Executive Search Opens New China Office

HES Global Hospitality Executive Search has opened an office in Beijing to service the hospitality sector in China’s capital city.

The new office is located at the Wanda Plaza, in Chaoyang District, with view on some of the longest and most established hotels in Beijing, and currently at least four other five-star international hotels opening within a perimeter of 500 meters.

According to Rene J.M. Schillings, director for Greater China and Singapore of HES Global, this move is only the next logical step to further capture the market in China, which is needy for experienced Chinese hoteliers and China-experienced expatriates.

HES Global Greater China has an office in Hong Kong, from where it serves its clients outside of Greater China, and another outlet in Shenzhen.

All Eyes Are On Outsourcing Providers In China

Francisco Partners’ investment in DarwinSuzsoft and Sierra Atlantic’s acquisition of ArrAy highlight increasing focus on Chinese outsourcing capabilities.

Mark Botticelli has learned valuable lessons about China. For one, employees expect cash bonuses before important holidays, like the Chinese New Year. And horizontal organizations don’t work.

“Hierarchy is important,” says Botticelli, VP of engineering in the mobile solutions division at Trimble, which makes software for devices used by delivery people and other mobile workers. “The project manager needs to go home and tell his wife he has 14 people working for him.”

Trimble eased its way through these cultural challenges three years ago by hiring Chinese outsourcer Suzsoft to provide engineering services. This is a path more U.S. companies are likely to follow, making companies like Suzsoft–now DarwinSuzsoft since being acquired by Darwin Partners last year–increasingly popular.

As a measure of that popularity, private equity firm Francisco Partners last week said it would invest $48 million and take a majority stake in DarwinSuzsoft. The investment will be used for acquisitions and organic growth of the U.S. company, which employees 800 Chinese engineers. Also last week, Sierra Atlantic, a U.S. IT services firm with 1,100 developers in Hyderabad, India, said it’s acquiring ArrAy, a U.S. company with 200 engineers in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

It’s not just the small services providers gearing up: IBM, Tata Consultancy Services, and others have plans to hire thousands more engineers in China. Oracle late last month set up a second Chinese development center to support software partners and integrators, and introduced a computer science program for vocational schools in a deal with the Chinese government.

Companies doing offshore development in China say they’re paying salaries that are 25% to 40% lower than what they’d pay in India, without the high staff turnover rates in that country. Chet Gapinski,VP of engineering at Crossbeam Systems, a maker of security systems, steered his company to China last year after facing some of those problems in India. Crossbeam hired ArrAy for a “hybrid” approach that keeps project managers in the United States and engineers in China, with both sides making regular visits to the other country.

Crossbeam initially had difficulty getting U.S. visitors’ visas for Chinese engineers, a problem ArrAy smoothed over, Gapinski says. It also found that Chinese engineers can’t work on some security technologies deemed sensitive by the U.S. government. In China, experienced service providers also can prevent problems dealing with government, which is closely involved in business.

Trimble, which employs 30 of DarwinSuzsoft’s Chinese engineers, has expanded its relationship beyond developing custom apps for a Hong Kong customer to include maintenance for U.S. and Chinese customers and development work on Trimble products.

Botticelli initially was concerned about lax intellectual property protection in China but found Suzsoft’s security measures more than adequate. English skills aren’t nearly as good as in India, so Trimble requires its Chinese engineers to attend weekly English classes. One sign of success in China: Trimble plans to ramp up its team there to handle new products coming out next year.

Global tech players must rethink China strategy

Many multinational hi-tech firms in China are facing stagnation or even declining market share as Chinese competitors secure the emerging mid-range market for hi-tech goods.

McKinsey research shows that 30 to 75 percent of future growth in the global hi-tech industry will be in this mid-range segment, defined as products priced between 30 percent and 50 percent less than their premium counterparts.

Chinese hi-tech firms are quickly edging out global firms in capturing the emerging mid-range market. By defining innovation differently and looking for value throughout the business system, Chinese firms get more out of every R&D dollar spent, allowing them to launch goods cheaper and quicker than their global competitors.

Worryingly for global firms, enormous inefficiencies in their own R&D processes mean Chinese companies have a huge scope for productivity, cost and innovation gains. Many multinationals are aggressively hiring Chinese R&D managers and collaborating with global technical service partners to implement streamlined R&D processes.

Even more worryingly, as soon as Chinese manufacturers secure the global market for mid-range goods, they will gain the cost and scale advantages needed to move up the value chain into premium products. From there, it””s just a matter of time before they capture high-end share from foreign firms in China and, eventually, in more developed markets.

For global manufacturers, achieving competitiveness in the mid-range segment will not be easy. Years of cumulative R&D experience have been directed at hi-tech innovation and superior quality, and as a result, products are often over-engineered for Chinese customers.

One European supplier of industrial components, for example, rigorously tests its highly engineered products to ensure a 5- to 10-year lifespan, but sells to Chinese manufacturers whose products only last three years.

Global tech players need to completely rethink their R&D approach and rediscover the lost art of low-cost R&D. They must ask what kind of products customers are demanding, and then redesign their R&D processes to meet these lower specifications and cost points.

Perhaps the only truly effective way they can do this is to bring their R&D capabilities to China, much as they have already done with manufacturing.

In doing so, global companies need to avoid the temptation to bring in too many expatriate engineers who implement traditional R&D processes that are unsuitable in China.

Chinese engineers already have the required technical know-how, so firms only need to bring in a few foreign experts to hone specific skills, such as the ability to translate consumer needs into technical specifications, instilling standardized R&D processes, maintaining end-to-end oversight, and designing a local production solution that best balances cost, quality and stability.

Rather than building their own localized R&D teams from scratch, firms could also acquire a local competitor and take over the company”s R&D operations and processes. Its products could then be subsumed under the global brand, or retained as a sub-brand to avoid diluting the premium brand”s image.

Some companies have already succeeded at localizing R&D to tap into the low-cost approaches of its Chinese counterparts. One global medical equipment maker, for instance, increased its market share from 18 to 45 percent by localizing its R&D processes to better meet the needs – and budgets – of potential customers in China.

Motorola and Nokia quickly identified what Chinese consumers wanted and could afford, and now develop mobile phones that span the entire price range. Together, they now capture over 50 percent of all mobile phone sales in China.

Other global manufacturers hoping to follow in their footsteps must go under a major mindset shift to make the necessary transition from “Made in China” to “Designed in China, for China”.

Those companies who do not quickly take steps to produce the mid-range products currently in demand will be left behind in the world”s most important emerging market. From there, it will be much harder to defend global market share against the rising tide of Chinese hi-tech goods.

Ingo Beyer von Morgenstern is a Shanghai-based director at McKinsey & Company. Paul Gao is a partner at McKinsey”s Shanghai office

Source:China Daily

51job, Inc: Marketing Expenses and High Taxation Dent EPS Estimates

Ashish R. Thadhani (Gilford Securities) recently sent a note to clients on Chinese human resource recruitment company 51job, Inc. (JOBS). Excerpts follow:

• Investment Conclusion. Based on stepped-up S&M spending and the expiration of key tax benefits – tempered by print advertising and training/outsourcing revenue — we are reducing our estimates: 2007 GAAP EPADS to $0.50 on net revenue of $103 million (23% YoY growth) from $0.60 on net revenue of $100 million; and 2008 GAAP EPADS to $0.68 on net revenue of $125 million (22% YoY growth) from $0.80 on net revenue of $121 million. We are introducing a 2009 GAAP EPADS estimate of $0.90 on net revenue of $152 million (21% YoY growth). We are also lowering our target from $28 to $21.50. In 12-months, this would correspond to a $465 million enterprise value and 25-30x forward GAAP EPADS – in line with 26% compound EPS growth in 2006-09E and a discount to the current valuation (32x). We are disheartened by the aggressive emphasis on marketing initiatives at the expense of long overdue margin/EPS discipline. This represents the third investor setback in as many years, undermines claims of market domination and also raises questions about management alignment (see April 2006 agreement on page 2). Still, we believe that 25% upside potential justifies a Buy.

• 2Q07 Results. GAAP EPADS of $0.14 vs. $0.12 a year ago on net revenue of $26.2 million (28% YoY growth) fell short of our $0.16 estimate on net revenue of $25.1 million. EPADS was held back by $0.02 due to a high tax-rate. 51job posted a positive variance in revenue ($1.1 million primarily in print advertising and training/outsourcing) – offset by operating costs ($0.6 million), forex ($0.2 million) and taxes ($0.7 million). Revenue from online recruitment services advanced 36% YoY to 34% of the total. Operating income rose 54% YoY to $5.7 million (21.6% margin) and surpassed our $5.2 million estimate (20.8% margin). Results benefited from a longer post- Chinese New Year peak recruiting period in 2Q07 vs. a year ago. Metrics showed improving growth in print advertising page-count (+37% YoY) but lower average revenue per page (-15% YoY in dollar terms attributed to city-mix); and normal growth in the number of employers using online services (+32% YoY) with steady revenue per employer (+3% YoY). Net cash climbed to $126.0 million (or $4.45 per ADS) from $119.0 million on March 31.

• Investment Thesis. 51job is enviably placed to capitalize on the rapidly evolving market for HR services in China – by applying a proven business model across its vast labor force (5x U.S.). Compared with traditional job search channels such as referrals and fairs, pioneers like 51job offer significant reach and speed advantages. Favorable demographic drivers include GDP growth (~10% in recent years), Internet usage (ranked #2 behind the U.S.), an aging workforce and increasing private, urban and service sector employment. iResearch forecasts that the total recruitment market in China will increase from $568 million to $1.33 billion in 2005-10, implying 19% compound annual growth. During this period, the online recruitment segment is expected to advance from $99 million (17% of the total) to $604 million (45%), or 44% compound annual growth. Superior positioning includes: premium brand/pricing; a comprehensive online/offline offering; wide geographic presence (25 cities); large direct sales force (over 1,500 representatives); and unmatched job seeker database (access to more than 12 million resumes for professional, clerical, industrial and hourly jobs). EPS visibility stands to benefit from top-line and profitability drivers. Specifically, ramp-up of online subscriptions (from single-digit penetration of client budgets at present) and a scalable model offering 30%-plus operating margin (excluding share-based compensation).

• JOBS is suitable for aggressive investors. In our opinion, principal risks include the following:

– Deterioration of economic conditions in China, slowing of hiring activity or a “hard landing” scenario.
– Competition from ChinaHR.com and Internet portals could pressure future profitability by way of lower pricing and/or higher marketing expenses.
– Rapid online migration could result in cannibalization of offline revenue.
– 51job has an inconsistent execution record.
– Uncertainties in the PRC regulatory and legal system, particularly laws governing foreign ownership and licensing/operation of HR and Internet business entities. Note that 51job is incorporated as a holding company in the Cayman Islands.
– Disruptions such as spread of the H5N1 virus or a recurrence of SARS, political unrest, breakdown in relationship with a major publishing/distribution contractor, etc.
– Influence of Recruit Co. and current management over all matters requiring a shareholder vote.
– Correction in the U.S. markets.

Shenzhen eyes top overseas talent

The government of the southern boomtown of Shenzhen bordering Hong Kong plans to hold job fairs in North America, Europe and Australia next year to attract top professionals.

Although the move has not been well received by some residents, it has gained the support of overseas returned Chinese and human resources organizations.

“It’s very positive. It is a goodwill gesture by the government toward foreigners, especially Chinese people working or studying abroad. It will also help companies attract quality candidates,” Ouyang Hui, director of the talent research center of ChinaHR.com, told China Daily.

William Zheng, a special counsel with US law firm Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, said the government of Shenzhen has created a good opportunity for companies.

“A growing number of Chinese companies are setting up subsidiaries abroad or acquiring foreign companies. They are in great need of senior foreign executives who are not only good at business, but also know the local accounting rules and laws,” Zheng said.

The Chinese-American began working in China in 2003.

“Government-sponsored job fairs have more impact on foreign communities and attract top professionals, more so than individual companies,” he said.

According to the Shenzhen office for introducing foreign talents, the city has held job fairs in the United States, Canada, Europe and Hong Kong since 1992. It was the first Chinese mainland city to hold such fairs.

“The fairs have proved successful in attracting overseas professionals,” Yin Shaowen, deputy director of the office, said.

The number of overseas returned Chinese surpassed 10,000 in June this year, Yin said. Some of them have set up companies in the city with start-up funds from the government.

“To encourage these people, the government raised the start-up fund for a single project from 150,000 yuan ($20,000) to 300,000 yuan early this year,” Yin said.

According to official figures, the city has attracted more than 150,000 overseas technicians and executives in the past 20 years. In the past two years alone, 72,000 have settled in the city.

Mayor Xu Zongheng said the government would soon launch a series of campaigns to make the city a most attractive destination for foreign professionals.

Do China and India Produce A Million Engineers?

By Melinda Liu and Sudip Mazumdar
Newsweek International

Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue – Earlier this year, students would show up for class each day at the Jalpaiguri Engineering College in West Bengal—and find no teachers. The Department of Electronics, Computer Science and Information Technology had just one full-time teacher (it’s supposed to have 20). Finally, in May, the students—who faced impending exams despite having had no instruction—went into the streets to protest. Eventually, the government announced it would enlist teachers from other schools. But that proved easier said than done: when administrators went looking for recruits at one of India’s oldest educational institutions, the Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) in Kolkata, they found that it couldn’t spare any teachers—it didn’t have enough of its own.

Wait a second: this isn’t what the picture is supposed to look like. For years, pundits and the press have been warning that the millions of engineers and scientists India and China produce each year would soon challenge the United States’ technical superiority. Just a few months ago, the London-based think tank Demos warned in a report that “the center of gravity of innovation has started moving from the West to the East,” and that China could become a “scientific superpower” by 2050. Indeed, the raw numbers are impressive. China cranked out more than 600,000 engineers in 2005 alone, and India produces nearly 500,000 technical grads annually.

But these stats only tell half the story. Many of the graduates can’t find work, and corporate recruiters in both countries lament a dearth of qualified applicants. “Out of the huge number of engineering and science graduates that India produces, only 25 to 30 percent can be regarded as suitable,” says Kiran Karnik, head of the National Association of Software and Services Companies. The reason? Underfunding and a range of other factors have produced serious educational crises in India and China. These problems could soon wreak havoc on their economies. To sustain their breakneck growth, the countries will need lots of high-quality engineers and scientists. Yet neither have enough reliable universities to produce them. M.A. Pai, who taught at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, warns that the “lack of highly trained people at the Ph.D. level in both sciences and engineering will be a serious setback to India becoming a knowledge economy.”

For China, the problem can (at least in part) be traced back to the Cultural Revolution, when ultraradical Maoists paralyzed universities. Many students and instructors were shipped off to farms—if they didn’t wind up in “re-education” camps. Higher education started to rebound in the 1980s, and in the 1990s Beijing launched an ambitious program to expand college enrollment. But in the process, standards slipped. “Once you get in, it’s [too] easy to graduate,” says Prof. Mao Shoulong of Renmin University.

Experts also complain that Chinese schools emphasize rote memorization, which often “detracts from the quality of education,” says Mao, who believe China’s system fails to teach practical applications or to instill creativity. “That’s why students in the United States might not have good marks in class but can produce effective missile technology, while students in China enjoy good marks in class but might not be able to make sufficiently good missiles,” he says.

Chinese universities also face another common problem: poor funding. Many schools must now support themselves largely on tuitions. “This makes some of them lower their enrollment standards,” says Prof. Chu Shulong of Tsinghua University. And the model just doesn’t bring in enough cash. At U.S. universities, tuitions run into the tens of thousands. “But in China it might be one twelfth as much,” says Mao. Thus while many U.S. students enjoy comfortable dorms, students in China have to share cramped and poorly maintained facilities. Many colleges are also short on equipment, labs and classrooms.

India faces similar deficits. Pay for university teachers is pitiably low (it starts at about $400 a month), especially compared with what they could make in the private sector (more than $10,000 a month). As a result, says Madhusudan Datta, an economist at Kalyani University, “talent gets soaked up by lucrative offers from industry.” To make matters worse, India’s educational establishment (like China’s) is far too rigid. A recent example from BESU is revealing. A few years ago, science teachers there began keeping their labs open around the clock so enthusiastic pupils could drop in at any hour. Their students responded in droves and a more relaxed atmosphere began to prevail, with students sometimes showing up in shorts—a common sight in the West but comparatively rare here. After several years of this experiment, however, the administration abruptly ordered labs to return to their normal schedule and mandated that students must wear trousers, shirts and shoes on campus. “It seemed as if the dress code was more important than rigors of study,” says Biplab Kumar Sikdar, an assistant professor of computer science.

Adding to India’s problems is a conspicuous lack of vision amongst the bureaucracy and corruption at every level. “All this has affected the quality of our technical education,” says Sikdar. One result: despite the large number of new graduates India rolls out each year, it only produces about 50 Ph.D.s in computer science, about the same number as an average public university in the United States.

To meet their rapidly growing demands for trained manpower, more and more top companies in both states have begun taking matters into their own hands, creating in-house training programs. In China, the trend was kicked off by Microsoft years ago. And in India, Infosys leads the way with 16-week comprehensive training courses that cost the company nearly $5,000 per employee. “The biggest challenge for India today and going forward will be how to create a skilled work force,” says T.V. Mohandas Pai, an Infosys board member focused on human resources. “And the government is not waking up to this fact.”

In fact, Delhi and Beijing are slowly moving in the right direction. In India, industry and scholars recently persuaded the government to ask two state education bodies to recommend ways to improve the country’s high-tech and science programs. And in China, authorities have launched a drive to boost the reach and sophistication of technical training schools. Yet getting either country up to speed will be an enormous task. Which means the West can rest easy, at least for the moment—neither India nor China will leapfrog ahead anytime soon.

Legal Secretary to Partner

Company introduction: Our client is a foreign law firm which ranks among a handful of law firms with the breadth and caliber of practice to serve the complex needs of a discerning client base. With 18 offices in the business and political centers of Asia, Europe and North America, they offer a local understanding of business and the law combined with a unique global perspective.

Job Description:
Report To:Partner
Location: Shanghai
1. Perform a full range of professional legal secretarial and daily administrative support to 1-2 assigned Partners.
2. Maintain attorney’s daily schedule and client files.
3. Receive and screen incoming telephone calls and visitors.
4. Schedule and arrange meetings and conferences and notify appropriate parties.
5. Input attorney timesheet entries.
6. Draft and edit documents and correspondences.
7. Provide word processing in both Chinese and English. Be familiar with the format.
8. Prepare presentations (pitch materials).
9. Reserve firm-wide conference rooms for Partners’ travel arrangements and meetings.
10. Make domestic and international travel arrangements. Handle with attorneys’
11. Travel/miscellaneous expense reimbursement forms and reports in a careful manner.
12. Open new client/matter numbers, run conflict checks and relevant paperwork.
13. Prepare and process client bills.
14. Assist with corporate services work as assigned.
15. Provide other secretarial/administrative support as assigned.

Job Requirements:
1. Bachelor degree or above (major in English would be an advantage)
2. Minimum 4-5 years secretarial or administration experience in a multinational service company. (experience in a law firm would be an advantage)
3. Good written and oral English language capability
4. Proficiency with MS Word/Excel/Power-point and Windows system.
5. Strong communication skills
6. Good interpersonal and customer service skills
7. Good problem solving and organizational skills
8. Detail orientated, able to work under pressure

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English) to:
‘topjob_la016sh#dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)

Key Account Manager (mkt/204/sh

Company introduction: Our client is a leading global developer and producer of road safety products, system, service and solutions. They were founded in 1969 and became the world¡¯s No. 1 in traffic signal production fields and World¡¯s No.2 in glass bead production fields. Due to a dense network of cooperation partners, their quality solutions and products can be found in over 60 countries worldwide. Up till 2007, they have more than 1900 employees worldwide and with the turnover more 320M Euro.
With their progressive expansion in Asia, they are looking for Sales Manager in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangdong, Sichuan and Chongqing.

Job Description:
Report To: Asia GM
Location: Shanghai/Beijing/Sichuan/GD
1.Develop new customers with the objective of achieving the sales and earnings targets of the sales area;
2. Technical and commercial assistance to customers;
3. Conduct price and conditions negotiations within a framework specified by the Asia GM;
4. On site customer application training (in the building area not only at the customer headquarters but also on the customer¡¯s building sites);
5. Requisition of Application Engineer in complex cases;
6. Coordination of customer processing with Customer Accounts Administration, Key Account Manager and Telemarketing;
7. Acquisition of new customers;
8. Updating customers base incl. estimate of potential customer, customer specific reporting;
9. Establishing annual sales budget for own sales area (for all areas of operations in the division).
10. Collecting and forwarding market and application information.
11. Provide necessary documents for contracts (eg. QMV, Logistics) with customers and to bring about a decision.

Job Requirements:
1. Above 5 years working experience, with at least 3 years sales experience in electronics products
2. Technical knowledge with bachelor degree in electronics, or other related majors
3. High level of computer literacy (Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop preferred)
4. Good communication skills
5. Strong multi-tasking abilities
6. Team player
7. Sense of Urgency
8. Detail-oriented
9. Commitment to thorough follow-up on outstanding items

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English) to:
‘topjob_mkt204sh#dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)

Production & Engineering Manager

Company introduction: Our client is a leading global developer and producer of road safety products, system, service and solutions. They were founded in 1969 and became the world¡¯s No. 1 in traffic signal production fields and World¡¯s No.2 in glass bead production fields. Due to a dense network of cooperation partners, their quality solutions and products can be found in over 60 countries worldwide. Up till 2007, they have more than 1900 employees worldwide and with the turnover more 320M Euro.
With their progressive expansion in Asia, they are looking for Production & Engineering Manager in Shanghai.

Job Description:
Report To: Asia GM
Location: Shanghai
1.Be a member of the Asia Senior Management Team to manage an engineering team to customize traffic products to adapt them to the requirements of the Chinese market;
2. To manage and monitor the assembling process and test the products
3. To manage the outsourced production of printed circuit boards and other sub-assemblies for both the Chinese local operation and companies in Europe;
4. Planning and day-to day management of engineering;
5. Production and external suppliers to agreed time, cost and quality targets;
6. Regular communication between companies doing outsourced production and product companies in Europe (and possibly USA);
7. To develop local engineering skills and motivated the Engineering & Production Team
8. Enforce/improve Quality procedures and standards (ISO9000).

Job Requirements:
1. Above 30 years old, good degree in Electronics, computing or production degrees maybe considered
2. At least 5 years working experience in Electronics development, and 1 year in a printed circuit board production environment
3. Working experience in an international company is preferable
4. Any experience in traffic control is an advantage
5. Alternatively an understanding or experience in control equipment (production lines, process control etc)
6. Self motivated, leadership skills and good communication skills

* Please send us your complete resume (both in Chinese and in English) to:
‘topjob_eng065sh#dacare.com'(Please replace “#” with “@”)