{"id":10430,"date":"2022-06-17T07:30:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T07:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/?p=10430"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:39:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:39:47","slug":"what-chinese-entrepreneurs-can-teach-us-about-thriving-in-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focus.cbbc.org\/what-chinese-entrepreneurs-can-teach-us-about-thriving-in-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"What Chinese entrepreneurs can teach us about thriving in uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new book explores how Chinese entrepreneurs have developed strategies to lead their businesses in uncertain times. Paul French<\/strong> speaks to the authors to find out what international businesses can learn from them<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s face it, it\u2019s a tough time to be doing business in China. But Sandrine Zerbib and Aldo Spaanjaars have seen tough times before. The two veterans of China business have now distilled their experiences into a new book that is particularly timely: Dragon Tactics: How Chinese Entrepreneurs Thrive in Uncertainty<\/em> (BIS Publishers).<\/p>\n

Back in the mid-1990s, Zerbib was President of Adidas Greater China. She later became the CEO of the Chinese consumer brand aggregator Dongxiang, which gave her a perfect observation post to understand Chinese entrepreneurial management. Today she runs her own e-commerce operation, Fulljet.<\/p>\n

Spaanjaars is a former CEO of Lacoste Greater China and a co-founder of J. Walter Thompson Beijing (an advertising agency). Most recently, he has started working for Fosun International, one of China\u2019s largest private equity firms.<\/p>\n

Paul French chatted with Zerbib and Spaanjaars to try and understand their key \u201cDragon Tactics\u201d and just how the last couple of years have upended the China business world.<\/p>\n

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Your book revolves around five Dragon Tactics. The first you discuss is wolf culture, personified, you argue, by Huawei\u2019s founder Ren Zhengfei. Can you explain this term a little, please?<\/h4>\n

Wolf Culture is probably best described as a survival culture,<\/u> shaped by the earliest business leaders in China who, when growing up, personally suffered through decades of hardship in the 70s and 80s. Huawei\u2019s founder Ren Zhengfei is recognised as the main representative of \u2018wolf culture\u2019; at Huawei, the term was written into their company culture and Ren Zhengfei has spoken about it publicly many times. However, many others follow a similar line of thinking and demonstrate similar behaviour.<\/p>\n

Wolf culture is driven by a \u201ctomorrow could be our last day\u201d attitude, and survival thinking is at the heart of who they are and how they behave. A wolf has a very keen sense of smell for opportunities, an indomitable, relentless offensive spirit, a real devotion to the collective, and sees absolute loyalty as more important than ability. This wolf behaviour makes companies very different from companies managed in a non-wolf culture environment. This survival mindset has a real impact on how they perceive and deal with risks, encourage opportunistic behaviour, are razor sharply consumer-focused, value opportunities over efficiencies and determine which people they hire and keep.<\/p>\n