ZTE CORPORATION
people who don ’ t have enough competence . To rectify this problem we are training people to be good .”
Culture shift But what does an overhaul of supply chain mean for the wider culture and ethos of ZTE ? Jeff Chen , HR President for the ZTE Group , told us that being a majority Chinese company , having Swedish Anders leading the transformation was not without initial concern .
“ Anders is the only non- Chinese person in the senior-level management and at the beginning I was a little bit worried about the communication and cooperation , but so far it ’ s good because he is familiar with Chinese management culture as well as Western culture and management so he can understand both sides . He can communicate
with everyone very well and he has rich experience in the industry which gave me more confidence about having an overseas manager .”
Taking on fresh young talent from universities in China and now the US has injected diversity into ZTE . Anders insists flexibility and maintaining a positive , cultural harmony is key to predicting where they will be in five years .
“ I have a different culture compared to the ZTE staff and we need to show respect to each other regardless of who we are and where we come from . I have four idioms in the way I manage - lead by example , contribute every day , know your numbers and , finally , show respect to each other ’ s culture . I know my thing and they probably know other things and together we can be strong .” 46 January 2017