1. Multi-national oil & gas product and services companyexpansion into China
6 Group Perth, Australia works with many clients throughout the APAC region, including
Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. We recently had an amazing opportunity to
work with one of our global clients looking to expand into the China market.
Our Client’s Regional Sales Manager was located in Singapore and was travelling frequently
into China to try and establish relationships with clients there. However, his regional focus
did not allow him to be there permanently and they found themselves disadvantaged
compared to companies that had already established a presence in China. Business
Development can be a long process in China, building relationships and trust with potential
clients through regular contact and face-to-face meetings is very important. With its unique
culture, it was recognised having someone permanently on the ground in China was critical to
the success of the China office.
Our client needed a local Chinese candidate with sound knowledge of large industrial
filtration solutions for onshore oil & gas plants, offshore platforms and heavy equipment such
as gas turbines. A familiarity with the local clients and someone that had been conducting
similar business in the region that already had a foot in the door was going to be an ideal
scenario.
The challenges of this role were great. We needed to locate a local Chinese candidate with
both sales management and business development experience, along with start-up experience
in the heavy industry filtration equipment sector in an environment with limited local
processes and procedures to work within. This person also needed to have excellent verbal
and written English and Chinese capabilities.
Our search approach was to conduct detailed company mapping and then identify individual
candidates within these target companies. We approached all of the target candidates
verbally to assess their English capabilities. The added challenge was the language and
cultural barriers when making initial contact. Many candidates had a strong sense of loyalty
and treated some of the approaches with a heavy dose of scepticism. It also proved difficult to
speak with candidates during work hours. We overcame this through our detailed candidate
briefing documents and ability to be flexible with the time we could hold conversations with
target candidates.
Despite these challenges, we were able to successfully source a strong shortlist of candidates
that met our client’s skills/experience and behavioural requirements that had divisional start-
up experience. The position was successfully filled with a Chinese National and we look
forward to working with them again when they expand this office further.
If you would like more information about how we can help source both local and
international candidates for your APAC requirements, please contact:
Karen Hudman
Senior Consultant – Australasia
+61 8 9476 3604
karenhudman@6-group.com