China is so over looking to US, other foreign countries for business advice, Oliver Wyman CEO says
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Chinese companies have little interest in learning from overseas businesses, as the domestic market matures and nationalism kicks in, according to the head of a leading global management consultancy firm.
New York-headquartered Oliver Wyman entered China 15 years ago and for the first 10 years “most of our work was around best practices, bringing global best practices into the Chinese market,” said Scott McDonald, president and CEO of Oliver Wyman Group. “There was a lot of curiosity about what was going on in other places and how it was done, how firms ran, were organised.”
“Now there is very little interest in that,” he said. “There is far more interest in what else is happening in China, and very specific strategic questions, which are more domestic focused.”
In the late 1970s, then leader of China, Deng Xiaoping, started to open up China’s economy and the country looked abroad for guidance on how to modernise.
In contrast, Chinese President Xi Jinping has largely been seen as promoting nationalism since taking his position in 2013, from encouraging China to upgrade its economy through initiatives like “Made in China 2025,” to calling for youth to maintain self-reliance.