Spotlight Interview: What FMCG Leaders Need to Unlearn About China

In an era of geopolitical shifts and market fragmentation, global business leaders face unprecedented challenges in aligning corporate strategy with local execution—nowhere more so than in China. In this interview, Jimmy Liang, a seasoned retail and FMCG strategist with over 20 years of experience at Nielsen, Unilever, and dunnhumby, dissects the growing divide between global mandates and local realities. He reveals how Chinese leaders can assert influence in multinational organizations, the pitfalls of misaligned decision-making, and actionable frameworks for building "glocal" leadership agility. Kevin Hong, Partner at LYC Partners, moderates with incisive questions on organizational resilience.

Kevin Hong (Partner, LYC Partners): Jimmy, your career spans global giants like Unilever and hyper-local retail transformations. Recently, you’ve spoken about the widening gap between how global HQs perceive China and on-the-ground realities. When did you first observe this disconnect?

Jimmy Liang: The inflection point was 2018–2020. Pre-COVID, Western executives regularly visited China, immersing themselves in our retail ecosystems. But as travel halted, reliance on secondhand reports grew. I’d hear global teams debate "Chinese pricing strategies" based on 2015 playbooks while our consumers were leapfrogging to live commerce and AI-driven personalization. The dissonance wasn’t just operational—it was cultural. For example, a European client insisted on desktop-first e-commerce features when 95% of our traffic came from mobile. Leadership wasn’t maliciously ignorant; they lacked mechanisms to unlearn outdated assumptions.

Kevin: What were the tangible business consequences?

Jimmy: Three clear impacts:

1. Speed-to-market erosion: Local teams wasted cycles re-educating HQ instead of executing. One beauty brand delayed a Tmall launch by six months debating "minimum viable product" standards—only to find rivals had already saturated the category.

2. Talent attrition: High-potential Chinese leaders left when their market insights were dismissed. At [Company X], we lost 40% of our local leadership team in 2021—not to competitors, but to domestic firms where their expertise carried weight.

3. Innovation paralysis: Global-mandated "best practices" often ignored China’s digital infrastructure. I’ve seen retailers reject WeChat mini-programs because "WhatsApp works globally," missing ¥100M+ in incremental sales.

   
   

Kevin: You argue local leaders must now "manage upward" to global stakeholders. How can they do this effectively without traditional expat buffers?

Jimmy: It’s about reframing influence. Early in my career, I believed flawless English equaled credibility. Now, I coach teams to focus on three levers:

1. Data as a universal language: When advocating for local SKUs, we paired sales forecasts with A/B tests showing a 23% lift in basket size—hard for global CFOs to ignore.

2. Preemptive storytelling: Before quarterly reviews, we’d send 1-page "China Context Briefs" explaining why trends like community group buying mattered. This reduced 60% of baseline skepticism.

3. Reverse mentorship: We invited global directors to shadow Douyin livestreams. Seeing a farmer sell ¥500K of cherries in two hours changed more minds than any slide deck.

   
   

Kevin: Yet some argue China’s market is becoming too unique for global frameworks. Where’s the balance?

Jimmy: The "70-30 rule": 70% of global strategy can be industrialized—think supply chain ethics or financial controls. The 30% requiring localization is where leaders must dig in. Take CRM: global wants a single customer view, but Chinese consumers expect separate identities across WeChat, Little Red Book, and offline memberships. The winning leaders I’ve seen pressure-test global tools. At dunnhumby, we adapted a UK loyalty algorithm by layering in social commerce touchpoints—lifting redemption rates by 18%.

Kevin: A provocative thought—is the expat leadership model obsolete in China?

Jimmy: Not obsolete, but redefined. The 2000s expat was a "bridge"; today’s must be a "amplifier." Successful ones now:

• Champion local insights upward (e.g., a British CMO who secured budget for Pinduoduo after seeing our team’s conversion metrics).

• Decode global intent (explaining why ESG targets aren’t bureaucracy but market access prerequisites). The fatal flaw? Expats who default to "this is how we do it in Germany"—China’s consumers won’t wait for HQ’s approval cycles.

Kevin: Final question: What’s your 3-step playbook for Chinese executives leading in this bifurcated world?

Jimmy:

1. Own the narrative: Publish a monthly "China Pulse" report—not just sales data, but consumer ethnography. One client’s video of Gen Z bargaining with AI chatbots convinced global to fast-track voice commerce.

2. Build coalitions: Identify allies in other emerging markets. Brazil’s and China’s shared struggles with hyperinflation created joint leverage to revise pricing policies.

3. Demand reciprocity: If global expects China to adopt their tools, insist they pilot our innovations. Our livestreaming playbook is now being tested in Mexico.

   
   

Kevin: Jimmy, your blend of pragmatism and vision is precisely why LYC Partners launched our Global Executive Alliance—to scale such insights across borders. Thank you.