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Success in China - Bayer's Road to Leadership
采访／林杰文 ( Jim Leininger )、蔡莉 ( Cathy Cai ) 文／蔡莉 ( Cathy Cai )
拜耳和中国的渊源要回溯至1882年，拜耳开始跨足中国市场。今天，拜耳在中国已经成为拥有21家子公司的集团企业，包括次集团的拜耳作物科学、拜耳医疗保健、拜耳材料科技，以及以提供服务为主的拜耳科技服务公司。其中，有10家公司拥有制程的生产设备或是正在规划建造生产设备，当地制造说明了销售比例正不断上升。借着目前的主要投资和收益，拜耳以作为中国成长的伙伴自许。
在与拜耳作物科学公司长达4年多的合作中，华信惠悦也见证了拜耳在中国的迅速发展。拜耳作物科学大中国区总经理祁鸿远在访谈中提到这几年拜耳中国所遇到的人才管理挑战，「在公司规模快速发展的阶段，必然会面临人才管理的课题。 我们遇到不少挑战，比如：中国地域广大，要使各个区域的管理者在不同地区同步进行，并一起完成公司的目标，实际操作起来是有一定难度的；还有如中、高阶管理者的能力培养问题都是我们所要面临解决的问题。」祁鸿远刚到拜耳中国公司时，当时人力资源部门并不是公司领导层的核心成员，为了改变人力资源部门的角色，祁鸿远鼓励人资人员走出去，与国内各个分支机构的核心人才沟通、交流；并做到知人善用，表明公司对他们个人职涯规划的重视，提供人才更多的发展机会，并尊重他们的选择。在了解人才的优势，做到人尽其才的基础上，公司尽量提供员工在职培训以及外派其它城市工作的机会。
当然，身为一跨国公司，除了要贯彻执行总公司全球统一的价值观、规章制度外，也要针对中国当地的国情、法规来制定公司的经营管理理念；而这就需要将两者有效结合，并依靠公司的领导团队持续、有力地将公司的价值观灌输给员工们。祁鸿远表示，在与华信惠悦长年的合作中，华信惠悦对拜耳领导团队的领导力建设贡献良多，不仅协助拜耳的领导团队设定了公司的共同愿景、价值观、使命，而且还设定了领导团队工作的标准和原则。除了让领导团队对公司的共同愿景、价值观、使命达成共识外，华信惠悦并协助领导团队与员工充分沟通、尊重员工的意见，使公司的理念、经营目标一点一滴地深入人心，激励员工为达成公司目标而努力，也因此，拜耳中国这几年业绩快速成长。「设定目标非常重要，更重要的是要脚踏实地，从领导团队做起，逐步地向目标前进；并且每年对所设定的目标进行评估，形成良性、进步的循环。 」
提到设定领导团队的工作标准和原则，就牵涉到日常工作能否顺利运行的关键：沟通。拜耳的员工来自世界各地，这样让祁鸿远感受到了沟通的重要性及东西 分沟通的文化差异。「西方人讲话比较直接，而东方人讲话比较含蓄。当然，无论东西方员工都希望自己对公司的贡献能得到同事的认可和尊重。而沟通的技巧都是一样的，就是要注意聆听，聆听是沟通的基础，其次是传递信息，真正将你所想表达的意思让对方充分理解，这才是有效的沟通，也是日常工作中非常重要的基础。拜耳是一个尊重员工，且重视沟通的企业。」
拜耳在中国成功的秘诀就在于领导团队效能的持续提升，他们彼此合作无间，并把公司的愿景、价值及目标与全组织成员分享。谈到拜耳这几年与华信惠悦的合作，之所以与华信惠悦一个项目接着一个项目地合作下去，祁鸿远提到：“其中一个重要原因就是华信惠悦在顾问咨询服务上的专业，顾问们的沟通能力和专业素养，对我们帮助很大。且他们可以站在另一个角度来分析我们公司领导力面向的问题，不仅为我们提供更多选择或是解决方案，而且成为我们领导团队的良师益友。”正如在前不久的一次华信惠悦为拜耳所做的领导力培训课程中，华信惠悦的顾问与拜耳的领导团队一起勾划了拜耳中国2008年的〝奥运〞目标，这幅大家共同彩绘的美丽蓝图，虽然还不能销售，但对拜耳人而言却是无价的：这幅画代表的是大家聚焦拜耳的核心价值与管理方针，不只是一个理想，而且是大家可以共同创造的美好未来。
Bayer's links with China go back to 1882, when the company first began marketing dyes on the Chinese market. Bayer is today represented in Greater China by 21 companies across the group, including the subgroups Bayer CropScience, Bayer HealthCare and Bayer MaterialScience as well as the service company Bayer Technology Services. Ten of these companies have production facilities on stream or are in the process of establishing production facilities. Local production now accounts for an increasing proportion of sales. With a number of major investments underway, and recent acquisitions, Bayer is positioned to remain a key partner in China's development.
In the four years of cooperation with Bayer CropScience, one of the four business units of Bayer Group and specialized in providing agri-chemical products and solution, Watson Wyatt has been fortunate to witness Bayer's booming business development in China. Dr. Chisholm, Head of Bayer CropScience Greater China, said in an interview, "As the company is in a stage of fast development, the problem of human resource management is inevitable. We have encountered many challenges. For example, our China operations cover a broad expanse of territory, so there are difficulties moving the managers in different regions towards the company goals at the same pace. The competency development for junior and senior executives is another challenge we are facing right now."
When Dr. Chisholm first came to China, the human resource function was not part of the core leadership team at Bayer CropScience. So, one of the first things that he did was to make the HR Director an executive position. Then, in order to kickoff improvement in the HR area, he encouraged the Human Resource staff to reach out and talk to key people at each of the business units, learning how HR needed to support the business. At the same time the company invested in development programs for staff, to demonstrate how it values their personal career plans, respects their choices, and is prepared to offer more development opportunities to committed employees. In addition to the principle of placing the right person in the right position, Bayer CropScience puts a high priority on providing its employees on-job training and job opportunities at remote locations.
Like most MNCs, Bayer CropScience China also needs to work at balancing the expectations of its mother company with the challenges of operating in China's dynamic local business environment. Of course, as a leading global company, Bayer CropScience China must implement values, systems and processes that are aligned with those at its headquarters. But, Bayer CropScience China must also have a management system that is tailored to the norms and legal requirements of China. Dr. Chisholm believes that one of the keys that allow Bayer CropScience to effectively integrate the two systems is a strong leadership team that can continuously and forcefully convey the company's values to the employees.
According to Dr. Chisholm, Bayer's long-term partnership with Watson Wyatt has contributed substantially to the establishment of Bayer CropScience leadership team. First, Watson Wyatt helped Bayer CropScience in creating the company's vision, values and management principles. This aligned the leadership team to a common future, and enabled the company to communicate in-depth with the employees about its direction for the future. The result was increased employee commitment and alignment towards those goals. In addition, Watson Wyatt worked with Bayer CropScience to brainstorm "breakthrough" goals, helping to determine key actions that have led to its amazing growth in China.
However, having good goals is not enough. As Dr. Chisholm said, "Though goal setting is very important, what's more important is to work pragmatically towards the goal and have a leadership team that really sets examples on how to reach those goals." Thus, Bayer CropScience has had Watson Wyatt work with Bayer CropScience's leadership team in increasing its effectiveness as a whole as well as strengthening the leadership capabilities of individual leadership team members. The increased effectiveness of the leadership team doubtlessly contributed to Bayer CropScience being able to maintain the growth and create a "positive and progressive cycle" of new goals, strategies and growth.
Based on the management philosophy of Dr. Chisholm, one of the key areas in the leadership development is communication. Dr. Chisholm's personal background includes work experience in Africa, the UK, Russia and Germany. The backgrounds of Bayer's leadership team in China mirrors his own diverse experiences, and he has thus continuously emphasized the importance of cultural awareness and understanding differences in how people communicate." Westerners speak more directly and people in the Orient tend to be more subtle. Of course, everyone Eastern or Western, seeks respect and recognition for what they have contributed to the company." When asked about the "secret" to positive communication, he responded simply, "listen." "Listening is the foundation of communication, which is then followed by the message conveyance, where you express yourself to the other party. This is effective communication and very important fundamental in daily work. Bayer is a company that respects its employees and values the culture of positive communication."
A contributor to Bayer CropScience's success in China is: increasing the effectiveness of the leadership team, both as individuals and as a team working together and then cascading the shared vision, values, and goals throughout the organization. When talking about their continuous partnership with Watson Wyatt in recent years, Dr. Chisholm said, "One of the major reasons we continue to work with Watson Wyatt is your professionalism in consultation. Watson Wyatt's consultants have good communication abilities and are highly professional. They have been tremendous help to us. Besides, they are able to identify our management issues from a different angle and provide us more choices or solutions to the problems. They have become the mentor of our management team." Not long ago, in a leadership training course Watson Wyatt organized for Bayer CropScience, Watson Wyatt consultants and Bayer CropScience's team together painted a canvass with a representation of Bayer CropScience's vision for their "Olympic Challenge" goals in 2008. Though the creative work of art only hangs in the Bayer CropScience office, and won't likely be sold at an art auction any time soon, its meaning to the Bayer CropScience leadership team is priceless: by focusing on our core values and management principles, we can not only dream of a wonderful future, together we can achieve it too.
