Foreign companies "40-year-old curse" difficult to avoid: layoffs from the day to the start of a new life

It seems that the glorious era of IT companies in China is over. In the last one months, Microsoft, Nokia, Cisco, IBM, Oracle, and so on have been different degrees of layoffs. The sudden layoffs were like a bomb thrown at innocent employees. The news is really sad, but not surprising. Over the years, job cuts in High-tech industries, like barbecues, pools and relaxation, have always been accompanied by vacations, and will be standard and traditional for reasons such as performance, strategic adjustment, and so on.

Naturally, for foreign employees who are keen to enjoy the high salaries and ease of foreign companies, they are generally left only when they are downsized for strategic adjustments. Whether it was Google's takeover of Motorola or the takeover of Nokia by Microsoft, a large number of Chinese employees were clinging to the last minute, even protesting to express their dissatisfaction, but most of them eventually received compensation and then seek a new way out. Even if the performance to the good, "foreign companies 40 years old" under the spell, the risk of being cut and promotion of the ceiling has been. Perhaps unwilling to spend the years, or predict the outcome in advance, some people take the initiative in life at the best time to choose to leave foreign companies, entrepreneurship or in private enterprises.

They or their own choice to start a business, and even has achieved a phased success, such as Gege and Liu Mountains from Dell to do a shop, there are hard road to start a business, such as the SAP China Sales Director Shianze quit to do CRM Sales software "easy to sell." Some have been tossing and going, and have not succeeded, for example, Cisco China's strategic director Zhang Yi, a major customer, is restarting his business. Also some people after years of foreign business career, as a result of rich experience into private enterprises, such as South Beauty senior Sales Director Zhao Xigang, is using the Internet O2O way way to let this traditional Chinese chain enterprises become more Internet.

When the protective shell is lost, the sense of superiority fades, the brutal reality is in front, leaving the orderly life and following order to reconstruct nature is a difficult decision and process: it requires good reason, great direction and opportunity, and the right timing, and may even require some luck and courage.

Once

Zhao Xigang with "unforgettable" to describe his working life in a foreign company.

In most people's view, "foreign companies" are mainly the headquarters in Europe and the United States, the strength of the world's top 500 enterprises. They have a long history, generous pay and benefits and perfect Western management. The people who work in foreign companies are usually in a superior environment, with a great salary, a fine life, a good professional quality.

2003-2004, Zhao Xigang was assigned to work at HP headquarters in the United States. He found that at Headquarters in the United States, bosses ' personalities, working styles and management styles are similar to those of private-sector bosses in China, which are often "a matter of the word" of the boss, and that decisions are highly liberal within the American legal system.

But these enterprises in China, it is completely changed. As a branch of it foreign companies, China is mainly responsible for service, sales function and strategy implementation, and more important research and development and strategic decisions are carried out at Headquarters. Although these foreign companies have repeatedly tried to localize, China's power from top to bottom is still very small, each individual's function is very thin. In order to ensure China's operation in line with Chinese laws and regulations, foreign enterprises in China management is very accurate norms.

This operating mechanism has created two kinds of phenomena: Chinese employees are difficult to familiarize themselves with the strategic trajectory of the headquarters, often received e-mail to know the headquarters strategy, and few people familiar with the operation of the entire company, similar to elephant. The other side is, repeat in their own responsibilities and ability to do some work, relaxed and stable, but the so-called stability, is only an illusion. Even that is the case with foreign companies.

As a result, many people describe the work of foreign companies: "repeatability", "screws" and "Comprador life".

Leave

Because China's regional authority and overall strategy enforcement issues, China's leaders tend to be foreign executives, the promotion of middle managers in China has become very difficult.

Six or seven years ago, Zhang Yi in Cisco's China district, where he has been a success in Cisco China. After doing middle-level management, he found that it was already very difficult to move up to the rank of vice president of China, as the "Earth Cannon" in the Chinese context. Around 2007, Cisco China has more than a few people to claim vice president, and now Cisco has more employees in China, and it is only about 20 people who can claim vice president.

After 8 years in Cisco China, he plunged into the mobile internet lbs business with his years of savings. 2011, he made a location-based mobile internet products "around", at that time, the street, such as lbs sign products or disappear, or seek transformation, around as a new product more lack of competitiveness, due to funds, operations and other issues, in August 2012, he had to suspend operations "side." In the past two years, he and his friends to do some cloud computing agent business, while thinking about how to do lbs products. Recently, he told Tencent technology, he found that lbs local services have some opportunities, is preparing to start a new business.

In addition to the professional ceiling of foreign companies, the Shianze choice to leave the foreign company is a greater factor in the business itself pain points.

Prior to his venture, he was a sales director for SAP China. This is a company that specializes in enterprise software, but Shianze found that SAP sales people don't like to use their own CRM software. This makes him very depressed, the study of the reasons found that the traditional CRM software purchase is the boss feel can buy, to the grassroots sales staff is not suitable for consideration is very little. Grass-roots workers are on the run all day, and mobile internet apps are more appropriate for them. 2011, he chose to quit his business. By this year, he has been in business for two years, has been to the Sequoia capital of the B-round investment. Recently, his former colleague at Dell, EMC China Telecom Sales Director Dengxiang, joined the sale and helped him share some of the sales work, and he felt much more relaxed than before.

Compared to the two entrepreneurial "hardship" life, Zhao Xigang chose to join Qiao Jiangnan as a senior executive. Prior to joining the South, he worked at HP and Ernst accounting firms. Familiar with capital operation, he was the main trader in the process of seeking a listing and equity change in South Beauty. Now, in the daily operation of South Beauty, he now thinking, how to use the Internet to bring new revenue to South beauty.