The Overseas Struggle of Five Country Managers | WAVE *Note: "暗涌看世界" is a column/series name from 36Kr (36氪). "暗涌" translates literally as "undercurrent" but the publication uses "WAVE" as the English brand for this series. The vertical bar "｜" is used as a separator in Chinese headlines; in English, a pipe "|" or colon works, though keeping the original separator style is also acceptable.*

By Qian Ren

Edited by Jing Liu

Three weeks ago, Waves published "The Precarious Lives of Overseas Country Managers", sparking considerable discussion in the going-global community. The resonance it struck went beyond the gaps in value perception, authority allocation, and incentive structures between individuals and companies — the most difficult aspects of the overseas manager role to reconcile. Perhaps more frustrating was the pervasive uncertainty these managers face throughout their overseas careers. In the comments section, managers from every corner of the globe jokingly called themselves "professional pioneers," "rescue squad captains." "Once the land is cleared, the company will discard you like a spent arrow. If you're truly capable of pioneering, you've got to force yourself to go independent within three years and become the Bull Demon King," said one reader who had served as a country manager in Europe.

Chinese country managers stationed overseas serve first as outposts and watchtowers for going-global efforts. Many carry the prestige of top-10 industry companies and Fortune 500 enterprises on their resumes, with careers spanning multiple continents — simultaneously pioneers and versatile generalists.

Recently, Waves conducted interviews that uncovered overseas managers with distinctive styles, focusing on five individuals' stories. These five are stationed in what are currently the hottest regions: the Middle East, Europe, North America, and Latin America. Their industries vary widely, encompassing traditional manufacturing, IT, consumer electronics, and even second-career paths in cross-cultural research and consulting services.

Through these five professional narratives, we aim to offer a more multifaceted look at the daily reality of "going-global professionals" and how they understand their professional identity.

For instance, "cross-cultural leadership" is a term nearly everyone mentioned. At the same time, the complexity of overseas markets means longer time horizons to prove strategic success, so it's not enough to have strong business capabilities — emotional intelligence is equally essential: sharp perceptiveness, team leadership, and persuasiveness are all indispensable.

As the year draws to a close, these five overseas managers also shared their reflections on 2024 with us: one was happy about just having bought plane tickets home for the New Year; another is preparing to sell their house in the UK to "lie flat" on a small island in Portugal; but one also sighed that going overseas is a road of no return — "Looking back at the bleak passage I've traveled, returning home — no rain, no shine."

"Waves Worldview" is a new column from Waves. Over the past three years, we have gradually rolled out a series of globalization-focused content, and we are now systematically producing serial coverage. The following first-person accounts have been edited by Waves.

Talent Going Global Can't Keep Pace with Companies Going Global

> Speaker: Yafei, 20 years working overseas

My overseas story began in 2001. I was a young student then, carrying dreams of mathematics and economic engineering, arriving in Germany. I still remember that early spring morning, the streets suffused with rich coffee aromas.

After graduation, I joined German industrial giant Schaeffler Group, where I spent 13 years. As one of Schaeffler China's first management trainees, I successfully entered the multinational's executive "career marathon" cultivation model of "2+2+2." This experience opened a door to globalized management for me, and taught me how to find balance points across different cultures and work environments.

In 2017, I decided to leave the big corporate world and start my own business. This was my first foray, with the goal of helping Chinese companies establish themselves in Germany. However, "going global" proved far more complex than imagined: language, regulations, cultural conflicts — every step was fraught with challenges.

Once, I was helping a manufacturing enterprise register a company in Germany. Just as the project was nearing completion, we discovered the company was virtually ignorant of Germany's strict labor regulations, and some non-compliant operations nearly resulted in hefty fines.

I immediately assembled a cross-cultural team, from translating regulations to inviting lawyers for training, clearing obstacles for the client. This experience made me realize: corporate globalization requires not just strategic planning, but deep insight into local markets.

I also joined Lead Intelligent Equipment in 2021 as overseas operations head. At the time, the company's overseas business was limited to the Sweden region, and it was encountering compliance and management difficulties in multi-country business expansion and project delivery. My task was to solve these problems while achieving the goal of localized overseas delivery.

The challenges Chinese enterprises face in overseas markets are multifaceted, from short-sighted market strategies to overlooking cultural differences, to talent recruitment and business network building — every link requires greater resource and energy investment.

Choosing the right navigator is crucial. Typically, only manager candidates who combine strategic vision, deep industry background, multi-domain experience, and strong communication and stress-resistance capabilities can fill this role. Such people are extremely rare, and are the key to successful corporate globalization.

But one practical problem is this: cultivating a professional manager with compound capabilities requires at least ten years of internationalization experience, and the pace of Chinese enterprises going global often exceeds the speed of talent cultivation.

From the corporate perspective, bosses hope to find an overseas manager who can "plug and play" at lower cost, while struggling to truly understand the complexity of this position. Professional managers, meanwhile, want greater decision-making authority and clear incentive mechanisms. In many Chinese enterprises, this trust and support is lacking, causing frequent friction in actual collaboration.

I remember once, a client approached me with very high performance expectations, but offered salary and resources far below market standards. I spent considerable time in communication. Although we eventually worked together, the disagreements during the process made me realize this perception gap is actually an industry-wide phenomenon.

But change is happening. More and more companies are soberly recognizing that going global is a complex process, and that truly experienced professional managers can help enterprises avoid detours and costly lessons. For example, some of my clients recruiting sales directors in the European market have raised base salaries from around €100,000 five years ago to roughly €150,000 now, with additional performance bonuses.

Today, I'm running a new consulting firm focused on providing one-stop services for Chinese enterprises, from company registration to business expansion. We understand that every going-global enterprise is like an "explorer" — needing not just a map, but an experienced guide.

Cross-Cultural Communication Is the Most Important Discipline for Going Global

> Speaker: Steven, from practitioner to academic researcher

In 2017, through various coincidences, I joined OPPO's Middle East and Africa team, mainly responsible for brand marketing management in Morocco. Serving as country CMO for OPPO Morocco was my longest overseas position, and those five years witnessed the dramatic rise and fall of China's smartphone industry expanding overseas.

In June 2022, based on long-term career planning considerations, I decided to abandon the path of continuing as a corporate professional manager and instead pursue further studies in the UK. This career transition had been under consideration for a long time. Combining my personal overseas work experience and research interests, I defined my research direction as cross-cultural leadership, focusing on the cross-cultural challenges and coping strategies Chinese enterprises encounter in managing overseas operations.

Why research this? In my observation, the managers who can truly stabilize themselves in the top overseas leadership position share certain common traits across universality, individuality, and scarcity. And in terms of universality, cross-cultural leadership stands out most prominently.

Typically, overseas country managers possessing this capability can fully understand and respect different cultural backgrounds, effectively communicate and collaborate with local teams, and make market-appropriate decisions in multicultural environments.

In my personal overseas experience, the differences between mature and emerging markets were quite substantial, particularly from a cross-cultural perspective — these differences manifested prominently in marketing environment, consumer behavior, channel management, communication style, and work approach.

Take consumers, for example. In mature markets represented by the UK, characteristics include well-established rules and fierce competition. British consumers show high brand loyalty, with very rational judgments about product quality, service, and brand value. In such market environments, overseas managers need to focus on refined management and brand maintenance.

By contrast, emerging market consumers represented by Morocco may prioritize price and basic product functionality more, with less emotional connection to brands. This requires managers to possess more pioneering spirit and rapid adaptability, with marketing strategies that emphasize product cost-performance ratio and market penetration.

In channel management, mature markets mainly involve cooperation with large retailers and distributors, requiring managers to have strong negotiation capabilities and resource integration skills. Emerging markets, however, may have more individual operators and small distributors, requiring rapid establishment and maintenance of extensive channel relationships.

In my research observations, demand for going-global talent is undergoing several notable shifts: cultural intelligence, digital capabilities, and local insight.

My overall feeling about 2024 is that everyone is under considerable pressure, and overseas work has begun to resemble domestic work in its intensity. I've noticed that everyone in my circle seems to be trying to "seek stability." People are no longer as eager to pursue expansion or take risks as before, but rather focus more on how to maintain stable performance in the current market environment.

Going Global Is One of the Best Industries for Ordinary People to Overtake on the Curve

> Speaker: Sean, from investment failure to eating canned goods in Dubai, now North America head at a company

My experience is quite complex — I've worked at Taiwanese-funded, foreign-funded, private, and state-owned enterprises. I majored in English, graduated from Northeast Electric Power University, which you've probably never heard of. I originally wanted to study accounting, but ended up being reassigned to the English major. Looking back now, that wasn't such a bad outcome.

My overseas experience has been full of dramatic ups and downs. I come from a rural family, and when I first graduated I had no resources or connections, just figuring things out on my own. I remember my first two overseas assignments were in Bangladesh and India. Back then I had beautiful fantasies about foreign countries, but once I arrived, they shattered my limited understanding.

Later I went to Dubai, looking for more opportunities. I also tried investing in a friend's fresh produce business, but for various reasons, years of savings evaporated, leaving me in extremely difficult circumstances. Misfortunes never come singly — the European fast-moving consumer goods company I was working for at the time, due to depressed domestic market conditions during the pandemic, laid off all its Chinese employees, and I was among them.

Everyone says Dubai is paved with gold, but in reality it's a completely competitive market. Arab money isn't so easy to earn — their prophet ancestor was in business, so it's not always clear who's outsmarting whom. Moreover, the cost of living in the Middle East is very high. On the surface many industries look profitable, but once you dig in, the tricks run deep.

Fortunately, I got through the hardest times. Later I went to a Guangxi state-owned enterprise responsible for business across the entire Arabian Peninsula. Half a year ago, due to family reasons, I switched to my current company — Qingdao Haojiang — responsible for sales development of smart home seating drive products in the US market.

How can an ordinary person find their place in the globalized market?

First, market research is the first and most critical step in business development. You need deep understanding of your target market, including local culture, consumer habits, competitive landscape, even policy environment. I typically spend substantial time gathering information, including reading industry reports, attending local business events, even directly communicating with potential customers.

Next comes breaking through. In a new market, especially a competitive one, finding your entry point is key. My experience is to start small, finding overlooked niche markets or weak points in competitors' armor. By providing differentiated products or services, you gradually build your market position. At the same time, I leverage my network resources, such as finding opportunities through partners or industry contacts.

As for customer development, I believe building trust is paramount. In overseas markets, especially when dealing with clients who have long-term partners, you need to demonstrate professionalism and reliability. I spend time understanding client needs, then provide customized solutions. I also follow up regularly to ensure client satisfaction, so they're willing to cooperate long-term.

Another point is continuous learning and adaptation. Markets constantly change, and you need to update your knowledge and strategies at all times. In short, business development is a systematic project requiring patience, strategy, and execution. As long as you're willing to invest time and energy, there will always be rewards.

Working across different cultural backgrounds, every time is a fresh challenge, and I've learned quite a bit.

For example, doing business with Arabs is truly a test. Arabs are a typical commercial culture people, extremely focused on interests. I remember once, I had already signed an agency agreement with a Saudi distributor. Right before placing the first stocking order, they suddenly reneged, wanting a longer cooperation term and refusing to accept exit mechanisms. This kind of thing is not uncommon in the Arab world.

Doing business with Westerners is a completely different scene. Western clients value long-term cooperation and stability more. They have very high requirements for suppliers, but once a cooperative relationship is established, it can usually be maintained for a relatively long time. They prioritize product quality and supply reliability more. However, the initial contact and market penetration period is not easy either. No matter where you work, understanding and respecting the other party's culture is the foundation for building successful business relationships.

I believe the career path of overseas managers is a topic worth deep consideration. From my personal experience, it's not a straight line, but full of various possibilities and choices — overseas is a road of no return. Some overseas managers do have opportunities to return to headquarters for higher-level positions after several years abroad. But such transfers are not common; many companies prefer to have them continue developing markets and managing business overseas, or simply replace them.

Over more than ten years of overseas experience across multiple industries, ups and downs, satisfaction and disappointment — but it's precisely these cross-national, cross-cultural experiences that have helped me understand more deeply the profundity of life and human nature.

Knowing contentment is too difficult. Happiness = what you have / what you want. This formula works well — the larger the remainder, the higher the happiness. This year's New Year comes early, and my hometown in Shandong hasn't seen proper snowfall yet. I hope for snow before the new year, to erase some of 2024's unpleasantness. I also wish you and me both a good mood — when work and life get stressful, think about my days eating canned goods and working restaurant jobs in Dubai, and it all passes.

Going-Global Professionals Should Carefully Evaluate Which Regions Suit Them

Speaker: Kai Feng, who once misjudged a region

I was in Singapore from 2010 to 2018 — four years of undergraduate study plus four years of work. I studied computer science, and initially worked at a major European IT company in Singapore. Honestly, I wasn't thinking much then, and didn't accomplish anything particularly notable.

Later, through coincidence, I entered the real estate industry. At the time, I felt Singapore's tech industry was hopeless (in retrospect, a misjudgment), and that China's real estate industry was booming (in retrospect, also a misjudgment), so I returned to China to work in real estate. First at a large institution, then independently running a fund. Later when real estate declined, I briefly circled through VC, finding it still very difficult.

The Singapore government had vigorously promoted IT industry development for 10 years without much breakthrough. I worked there in a daze for several years, never feeling much confidence, and took a good opportunity to return to China. In my second year back, as China's internet industry growth decelerated and the going-global process accelerated, TikTok, Tencent, and Alibaba simultaneously expanded in Southeast Asia with Singapore as headquarters in 2019, and the tech industry rapidly took off.

At that time, several major companies were simultaneously seeking Chinese people with computer science backgrounds and certain work experience locally. And Singapore only has three universities, with only so many Chinese computer science students — so everyone's "value" suddenly rose. The same thing happened again in 2021 when the Web3 industry flooded from China to Singapore.

Behind this coincidence lies inevitability: first, the bottleneck in domestic internet growth was foreseeable; second, Southeast Asian markets' deep connection with Chinese markets meant Southeast Asia as the first stop of going global was foreseeable; third, Singapore as Southeast Asia's only gateway meant entering Southeast Asia necessarily meant entering Singapore first was foreseeable.

Lacking this thinking back then led to my misjudgment. Before coming to Saudi Arabia this time, I used this framework for another review.

First, whether another inflection point of accelerated going global had arrived. This I was most certain about. In the short term, the opportunity cost of staying domestically is increasingly low, even negative, so another wave of accelerated going global is underway.

Second, the Middle East's position in this wave of going global. We keep saying going global, but what's on the other side of the sea? Southeast Asia, East Asia, Russia, Europe and America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East. Southeast Asia was the first; is the Middle East the second? I think it's 50-60% likely. If 50-60% of enterprises focus on the Middle East, that's sufficient.

Third, whether Saudi Arabia is the gateway to the Middle East for going global. I often make a rather unrigorous analogy: today's Saudi Arabia is 1990s Shenzhen, while the UAE is 1990s Hong Kong. Statically viewed, Hong Kong has higher capital concentration, but if your focus is the entire China market, Shenzhen is the key. If your focus is the 500 million Middle East-North Africa or even 1.9 billion Muslim market, Saudi Arabia is more like that key.

I believe this is a market I can deconstruct with my past experience and thinking patterns, an opportunity I have confidence in and must seize. Saudi Arabia is my "second Singapore."

Then comes individual and corporate strategy in the market. In a market like Saudi Arabia where Chinese people account for only a few per mille, your client side is definitely local clients. Doing business only with Chinese people, even opening a milk tea shop, is unsustainable. But on the supplier side, although Saudi "tycoons'" work efficiency isn't quite as exaggerated as the notorious "I work very hard, until 2 PM every day," there is indeed a significant gap compared with Chinese companies. So maintaining a strong Chinese supplier database is also necessary.

I currently lead local market operations at a software company with Saudi majority ownership and Chinese minority participation. Based on my understanding of this environment, I'm making noise in the Chinese business circle, building personal IP, planting my flag, gaining support and trust from compatriots. On the other end, I'm penetrating Saudi circles from multiple angles. Trust in cooperative projects hasn't been established in the short term, so I'm building friendship through eating, drinking, and entertainment.

Saudi Arabia grew from tribal culture, with relatively distinct social hierarchies, meaning the upper leisure and entertainment circles overlap considerably with major family enterprises and important government and SOE leaders. Those "grand family banquets" and "major family weddings" you attend are all important channels for building social relationships that may eventually translate into career assistance.

The hardest alignment between domestic headquarters and frontline teams is market expectations and room for error.

Take Saudi Arabia, a typical high-barrier, high-return market. Headquarters sees high returns, while frontline personnel experience high barriers daily. Market gross margins are very high — once you break in, life becomes relatively comfortable. But how long does breaking in actually take? An extreme example: Huawei arrived in 2003 and first turned profitable around 2020, taking 17 years. And once profitable, it rapidly became one of its most profitable global markets. So as employee number one entering this market, how many years of losses can headquarters tolerate? Domestically, Saudi Arabia is hyped as paved with gold, which makes frontline personnel suffer the most.

Currently the Saudi market has formed three major characteristics: high returns and high barriers, government spending as absolute main force, and missing niche supply under incomplete rules. Therefore, I believe Saudi Arabia suits two types of enterprises — giants with determination and capital to make bold, heavy investments, and small, flexible, agile entrepreneurs. It's less friendly to mid-tier enterprises that actually constitute the industry majority. Bold, heavy investment is a necessary condition to break through high barriers and obtain high returns, and also important confidence for gaining competitive advantage from the government side. Small entrepreneurs can exploit incomplete rules, boldly adopting a "what's not prohibited is permitted" posture to cut into niche demands, thereby bypassing barriers to obtain high returns. But mid-tier enterprises often get painfully squeezed by market barriers.

We have a small group in Saudi Arabia, self-styled the "Saudi IT Mafia." Mainly country managers from tech and construction industries, we have fixed weekly Friday gatherings for drinking, barbecue, cigars, and KTV. In conversation, I've found that the number of enterprises coming to Saudi Arabia is growing very fast, but most enterprises that have already been here for some time haven't yet crossed this high barrier — so newcomers are excited, veterans are worried. But everyone remains full of confidence about this country's future.

Post-95s and Gen Z Should Become the Main Force of Going Global

> Speaker: Aldo Gao, language major who accidentally hit the wave

More of my overseas path migration happened during my student years. My undergraduate major was Italian. In 2017, I went to Rome as an exchange student for half a year; my graduate studies were in tax law in Italy.

I only learned near graduation that this school's tax law program ranked first in Italy, and I was the first Chinese student in this major since its establishment — and still the only one to date. How does a language major cross over to study tax law?

I enrolled in the school's internal dual-major program in my first undergraduate semester. It was precisely this two-and-a-half years of additional coursework that gave me economics course grades, which enabled me to obtain the opportunity for interdisciplinary study in Italy and receive an offer. However, I chose a gap year after university graduation, using that year in Italy to help my high school classmate start a business, assisting with supplier对接, logistics, banking, tax bureau, accountants, lawyers, and so on — during which I discovered some opportunities.

As is well known, Italy has a large Chinese population. I encountered many Chinese accountants and lawyers, but almost never heard of Chinese people practicing in tax law. This made me resolutely choose tax law when applying for my new major the following year. After graduation, unlike most classmates who went to work at firms, I chose to return to China. My thinking at the time was that the tax route's development was too四平八稳, plus Europe's slow social pace — I wanted to return to China to seize the changes and opportunities brought by rapid development.

I currently serve as Vice President at Jilian Group. Founded in 2014, the company's two major business segments are going-global enterprise services and overseas engineering construction —通俗来讲, providing one-stop落地 services for enterprises overseas.

I was born in 1996, with a relatively冷门 major, and happened to hit the wave of Chinese enterprises going global. Combined with many relatives and friends working in the engineering industry, giving me耳濡目染 accumulation, various factors mixed together to produce a positive reaction.

But most importantly, our chairman is bold enough in用人, daring to break through age constraints, so I could have this opportunity. I think young people's greatest advantage is having no baggage, or rather the fearlessness of the newborn calf. My thinking has always been relatively前卫, and the company provides support, though not every attempt succeeds.

I remember during the 2022 pandemic period, when I hadn't yet become Vice President, the company had an urgent project in Indonesia short of people. I grabbed a suitcase and backpack and flew to Indonesia — the suitcase contained a hard hat, safety shoes, and reflective vest. I was the only Chinese person from the company in Indonesia at the time, serving as project负责人, mobilizing local project managers, technical engineers, various workers and equipment on site, while also interfacing with the甲方 to ensure the project met requirements.

Ultimately, the project was delivered on time, and we became one of the few engineering service providers for that giant company in Indonesia capable of completing projects without delay. To this day, our company's honor wall still displays the commendation letter from the project's甲方.

In my view, what overseas leaders most need is the mentality of "not treating job responsibilities merely as work." Overseas leadership sounds glamorous, but not every company with overseas business has already established systematic, structured going-global operations. In reality, anyone who has held this position knows that more often you're going overseas alone, single-handedly leading team building, channel construction, client development, and project delivery — mostly isolated and without support.

For already-structured overseas teams, parachuting in as country manager is actually more challenging, which can be summarized as "cost reduction and efficiency improvement." Cost reduction mainly targets overseas material and operational costs. These issues aren't easy to solve domestically, let alone in overseas environments with different cultures and economies — the challenges are immense.

Some might wonder: isn't growth the biggest challenge? I believe growth is actually the easiest goal to achieve. Although overseas market competition in 2024 is fiercer than in previous years, growth still has certain sustainability for the coming years. But enterprises with long-term operational vision absolutely cannot wait until growth begins slowing in a year or two before starting so-called "cost reduction and efficiency improvement."

So going-global talent is evolving from单一性 toward comprehensive management capability application. This is also what the current stage of going-global development requires: Chinese enterprises establishing localized teams overseas, with Chinese employees serving as key nodes. These nodes are not merely task transmission nodes, but cultural nodes — requiring Chinese personnel to continuously convey and渗透 Chinese management methods, Chinese-style thinking, even Chinese culture, allowing local employees to gradually understand and accept them.

Intern Hongyu Liu also contributed to this article.

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