The Trilinguals

In China, it is easy to find somebody who can read English, it is difficult to find people who can understand spoken English, and it is very difficult to get someone who can speak and communicate in English.

This is due to the education system. People in China learn English mainly through books. Very few have ever lived in an English speaking environment. So the candidate pool for bilinguals mostly ends up with two types of people: English majors and experienced employees working for multinational companies. Even for English majors, only a very small portion can really communicate well in English. For example, we interviewed over 10 English majors for a project in China, and ended up with only 3 that can meet the bare minimum requirements as an interpreter.

Now in this small bilingual pool, how many speak the language of supply chain? Even fewer. The education system China doesn't produce any at all. Universities overseas don't produce many either. For example, Arizona State University has at most 10 MBAs every year who can speak Chinese, so do Michigan State University and most other business schools in western countries. Then we'll have to rely on MNCs who are the biggest producers for trilingual professionals. In major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, there are quite some MNCs and relatively more trilinguals. How about the second or third tier cities? Employers have very limited choice. They have to train their own trilinguals. So you know how steep and how long the learning curve will be.

An alternative is to relocate a trilingual. MNC's used to hire people from places like Hong Kong and Singapore, and relocate them to China. This comes with a big price tag. For example, a European company was paying over $150,000 a year for such a senior materials manager, 3 to 4 times of the cost of a local candidate.

A less costly approach is to relocate someone from tier 1 to tier 2 or 3 cities in China. For example, we recently relocated a candidate from Shenzhen to a tier 2 city in North China with only half of what a typical expat from Hong Kong or Singapore would cost. This candidate is a typical trilingual: he got his MBA in supply chain from a premier business school in the U.S., has over ten years of work experience in both China and the U.S., and can communicate well in both Chinese and English. Now he is adding unique value to the project.

The key to this less costly alternative is finding such candidates. Trilinguals are a rare commodity in China. They are highly sought after and typically not on the job market. As a result, it is very difficult to reach them using standard recruiting practices. It is more effective to reach them through personal connections and referrals. This requires the recruiting firm to have broad connections not only in the Chinese community but also in the supply chain profession. This can take years to establish.

About the Author
Bob Liu, C.P.M., CPIM, is President of China Supply Chain Services (CSCS). He is stationed in Silicon Valley and travels frequently to Greater China to help clients build their local supply chain organizations. Bob got his MBA in supply chain management, and has been managing global supply chains for over 10 years in the U.S. and China. He can be reached at bob.liu#ChinaSCservices.com (substitute # with @).