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| People power |
By LIU BAIJIA(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-12 06:46
What is the key to success in a rapidly growing market? It is about capital for some companies and product launch speed to others, but for many enterprises, it all comes down to people. It is about where to find the right people and train them in the fastest way. This is particularly true when an organization is expanding and will continue to develop quickly over the foreseeable future.
That's why Juergen Brokatzky-Geiger, global head of human resources with Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, in May set out on his second trip to China in just eight months. Many multinationals and domestic companies complain about the difficulty of finding large numbers of qualified people in China, but Brokatzky-Geiger is not buying it.
German electronics giant Siemens recruited 5,000 people in 2005, upping its roster to 36,000. US information technology firm HP will hire more than 1,000 employees this year.
Novartis also added 600 people last year, up from 1,800 by late 2004.
"China is one of the countries where the number of our associates will increase in the next few years, so we must find a fast way to build an internal talent pool of local people," says Brokatzky-Geiger.
Over the past six years, Novartis' average annual growth in China was about 30 per cent. Its staff base also grew rapidly.
Pharmaceutical sales throughout the country rose by 20 per cent year-on-year in 2005 to US$11.7 billion, compared to the global growth rate of 7 per cent, according to US pharmaceutical industry consultancy IMS Health.
In February, Novartis invested US$83 million in a new manufacturing facility in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province.
With this degree of expansion, finding qualified people to work in these new facilities is a major priority for the fourth largest drug maker in the world.
While some multinationals bring expatriate executives and managers to China, "steal" talent from competitors, or train recent graduates fresh out of college, Brokatzky-Geiger says Novartis' strategy is to mainly rely on local employees and training.
There will be more than four million college students graduating this year, so supply will not be a problem.
"The challenge is to find out how to develop and grow the best local talent," he says.
One thing that distinguishes the Swiss drug maker from many multinationals is that the overwhelming majority of Novartis' management in China is Chinese.
The Chinese team knows the local market and culture, and can more easily deal with government agencies, hospitals, and dealers.
But as Novartis continues expanding its business, it increasingly finds itself in need of more managers and executives who understand global business practices. Training these people is a top priority, so the company opened the Novartis China Leadership Development Centre last Septermber.
A core part of the initiative within the next five years is to send over 250 of its mid-level managers through a joint programme with the Beijing International Business School at Peking University, one of the best MBA programmes in China. Over 100 managers or 20 per cent of the total in China are already being trained at the university.
Brokatzky-Geiger says it is a unique programme that Novartis only conducts in China. The company usually either trains managers internally or sends them to business schools.
"This learning centre is the fastest way to train people and speed is what we need now," he says.
Besides mid-level managers, the business also sends its top three executives to participate in week-long general management course at Harvard Business School, to build a local team of leaders in the current and future Chinese market.
Another unique aspect of the pharmaceutical firm's talent system is a foundation Novartis established 12 years ago. Its purpose is to train employees, but it also serves a special function.
Brokatzky-Geiger explains that when a business experiences financial difficulties, one of the first expenditures to be cut is talent training. But with a specialized foundation in place, Novartis can enjoy a stable source of financing for training every year. This programme is always oriented toward the future, and protects the company from abrupt changes or shortages of available talent.
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