CAREERS MEDIA: Li rises as Grey's first local GM

<p>Grey Worldwide has promoted its first local Chinese general </p><p>manager, Mr Josh Li, as head of its Beijing office, to replace Hong Kong </p><p>expatriate Ms Yvonne Lo, who left the agency after less than a year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Mr Li was until recently client services director and is believed to be </p><p>the first local general manager to head a 4As agency in China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He has extensive experience across a range of client categories, both </p><p>multinational and local, including pharmaceuticals (Smith Kline Beecham </p><p>Tianjin), auto (Volkswagen), tech (Founder Computers and Maibo Online) </p><p>and finance (Visa). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Grey Worldwide Asia-Pacific chairman and CEO Viveca Chan said the </p><p>promotion of home-grown talent was a crucial, but difficult task for 4As </p><p>agencies to achieve in China because local staff tended to job hop. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Yet, Grey clients like Volkswagen, which works with the agency on </p><p>strategic brand development, have underlined the importance of grooming </p><p>local talent for senior roles. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"For us, the most important factor in brand building in China is not </p><p>media budgets or importing foreign expertise. It is the expertise and </p><p>knowledge of highly-educated local people, who understand both, the </p><p>needs of the brand and the wishes of the Chinese consumer," said Mr </p><p>Christian Claussen, senior manager sales and marketing of Volkswagen </p><p>Group China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"It requires indepth knowledge of the market to be able to do a </p><p>meaningful customer segmentation, product analysis and positioning, as </p><p>well as coming up with strong communication messages," Mr Claussen said, </p><p>pointing to Mr Li as one of the few local talents who fulfilled these </p><p>requirements. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Since joining Grey in 1994 as a junior level account executive, Mr Li </p><p>proved to be an exception to the job hopping problem afflicting agencies </p><p>in China. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He said he regularly turned down offers from rival agencies and dotcom </p><p>companies because these companies lacked the "opportunities and </p><p>environment that Grey provided". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"Grey does not have a strict bureaucratic reporting system - here, an </p><p>account manager is expected to work as account director (AD) and the AD </p><p>is pushed to think as a group account director," said Mr Li. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The company has always made sure staff knew the things they had not yet </p><p>achieved and the target it wanted us to meet. This way, I could see the </p><p>career path they had laid out for me." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>As part of grooming Mr Li for senior responsibilities, Ms Chan said the </p><p>agency signed him for executive development programme at an American </p><p>university and offered stints throughout its US office network. During a </p><p>three-month stint at Grey's New York headquarters, Mr Li worked on </p><p>Procter & Gamble's Pantene business. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Having risen to the top, Mr Li said one of his priorities will be to </p><p>plug gaps in senior level leadership by grooming its pool of middle </p><p>managerial staff. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>