Jul 2014. Shenyang One of a change manager's most important tasks is to built trust with impacted stakeholders in a short period of time. I pay attention to this because everything fails if you cannot connect with people. For one of the change projects in 2014, I gave my key stakeholders small world cup trophies... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang This is the Kempinski Hotel in Shenyang, a five-star German luxury hotel. Sometimes some of our company's key events are held here. One day we had an important department event here which ended with a buffet dinner. The next day, many of our colleagues called in sick and it became clear that... Continue Reading →
Jul 2014. Shenyang I relocated from Shanghai to Shenyang to join BMW in Jan 2014. I faced personal changes on several fronts at that time. I was new to the company, new to the job (I was transitioning from corporate communications to a change management role) and I was new to the city. Six months... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. May 2014 I peered into an antique shop at the Shenyang Imperial Palace and realised that a sales negotiation was in progression over tea. I can only imagine what a complicated discussion that must be. The Chinese will never tell you things directly because they value harmonious relationships. You need to therefore know how... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. Jul 2014 My company's "Associate Social Responsibility" program or "ASR" for short was supporting various social causes in Shenyang. For example, it raised funds for kids' orphangaes, kids' eye surgeries and also helped families with the cost of living. They invited me to join them for one of their regular trips to visit their... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. Jul 2014 One of the things I liked about my new company is that it had an active social responsibility agenda. One of its social programs was called "Associate Social Responsibility" or "ASR" for short. By the way, BMW calls its employees "associates". They organised a charity event in our two plants to sell... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. Jul 2014 My first breakthrough in my new company came out of this large workshop I organised for all the human resource managers of the company. The objective of the workshop was to re-visit the company's continuous improvement goals and to enable the participants with the necessary tools to set-up various continuous improvement projects... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. Jan 2014 After working and living in Shanghai for five years, I moved to Shenyang in Jan 2014 to become a change manager for BMW Brilliance Automotive, the joint venture of the BMW Group in China. At that time the company had two plants in Shenyang, one in Tiexi and another in Datong and... Continue Reading →
Shenyang. May 2013 I had already worked for global German automotive OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) suppliers such as the ZF Group and the Schaeffler Groups for 14 years. Eventually I felt an eagerness to one day to work for an actual car manufacturer. That eagerness and search brought me to a little known Northeastern Chinese... Continue Reading →
Shanghai. Oct 2010 The Scheaffler Group holds a key product launch every our years in Germany. In 2010, it decided to have it in three places: Germany, Detroit and Shanghai. I was asked to organise a one-week long, five-star symposium for 500 Asia Pacific customers and key staff in Shanghai. It was a very ambitious,... Continue Reading →