(This article was written by Franklin Yao, Managing Partner of SmithStreet.)
I am writing this message from Chicago O’Hare Airport which is the busiest airport in the world. In the last month I have been traveling a lot: I have been to Shanghai three times, New York three times, and was in Beijing, Stockholm, London, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Milan, and Paris. Why am I traveling so much? First, our multinational clients are all around the world and second, most of the important China decisions for our clients are still made outside of China. If China is changing so fast, and is so complicated, why aren’t multinationals trusting local Chinese executives to make more decisions? There may be many reasons for this, but I want to focus in on the issue of trust.
Trust in this case means two things: do you think that a local executive will make a decision that is free of his or her personal agenda and for the best interests of the company? Do you think that that executive is armed with all the right analytical tools to make the right strategic decisions? Removing self-interest and treating business as a science are the essence of what we do as a consultants. It is our goal at SmithStreet to further the practice of these skills in China. China needs more consultants, we would like to produce them.
The other reason I am traveling so much is that you can’t “sell” consulting services, the client has to want to “buy” our services. And when they want to buy we have to be right there for them. We have to work really hard, there are a lot of disadvantages that we face: when they meet us we don’t have a Bain or BCG business card with our names on it; we are young, I don’t have much grey hair yet, how can we be any good? I used to be able to say that we are cheaper than McKinsey, and while that may still be true, our price is no longer the advantage it once was. Besides, for the problems we are looking to solve, saving money on consulting is not as important for the client.
So how can we win if we can’t be cheaper? We have to be better. Does better mean working harder? Yes it does. If you join SmithStreet, you are going to be in for a lot of hard work. But it mostly means we need to have better ideas. When you present a great idea to an open-minded client, you will see a light-bulb go off in his or her head. That then gives you a window to prove to the client that you can execute the idea that you proposed. What ideas do we have? We have something we call the Product Experience Curve, we solve retail problems through real estate analytics, and we believe that WeChat is changing everything for businesses and consumers. We are so far away from where McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are but we will have to compete with ideas.
We are going to keep pushing on these fronts: it is going to take a lot of hard work, it is going to take sacrifice without seeing immediate rewards, and it is going to take creativity. These are things that people tell me the Post-90s generation is not capable of in China. I struggle to believe this. We are not a prestigious or safe career choice; we are just a small firm with big ambitions. Your parents may not support you joining SmithStreet, will you do it anyway?
We still have a lot of places to go, will you join me on this journey? |
发表于 2014-10-20 18:32:23