Daniela Fehring

May I support you in handling challenges or conflicts in China / Asia?

With 35 years of work, facilitation and mediation experience in China and South East Asia, I am skilled at rapidly identifying the tension fields as well as showing ways to reduce their effects which fit your individual style. At the same time, I am REALLY GOOD at building bridges.

To clear the access to the Chinese / Asians.
To enable encounters on a new eye level.
To build self-supporting bridges between you and your crew in Asia / China.

Our target No 1:

• Do you truly face cross-cultural issues and different work patterns or do you rather fight with organisational, interpersonal or hierarchical problems?
• What are your most effective strengths to re-establish healthy relations to all involved persons and parties?

Our target No 2:

• To restore a meaningful dialogue and a constructive collaboration with your local employees, colleagues, external partners.
• To configure your Asian strengths pragmatically and systematically.
• To re-position yourself as a strong, human leader committed to the mutual cause.

Helping people help themselves is my credo, therefore I won’t "settle in with you".
The faster you are successful, the better! That’s a major difference in regard to most of my competitors. The sparrings normally last between 1 – 6 months with around 10 hours per month. 1 hour comes at Euro 400,– to 500,– depending on time and effort and intensity. 1 hour fee contains the preparation of the meeting (questionnaire, study material to better understand your situation) + the development of solutions / scenarios.

Example 1: A French takes over a vacant position as GM in Shanghai.

Two Chinese predecessors had left this position before the official end of their contracts.
In the first two weeks my client discovered that not only the books were sugarcoated, but that part of the production wasn’t according to contracts. Additionally he found out that relatives worked in different internal and external positions which led to contracts not in favour of the company. When he got threatened, my client panicked, which wasn’t really seen by his leaders.
I supported my client in

• clarifying and structuring the different situations,
• preparing a presentation, which strengthened his position in the international leader circle,
• developing specific strategies for each of the involved persons and parties at the Shanghai site as well as in Singapore, Germany and Japan.

Example 2: A Chinese corporation buys a German medium-sized company

To ensure the investment, a Chinese CFO was sent to Germany. He masters the English language, but not the German, and had to experience that many decisions were passing him. When the figures deteriorated, he searched for my advice. The key tasks were:

• Be a sparring partner for the CFO, and give him intercultural advice
• Moderating the management team meetings, and prepare a culture change
• Doing a corporate culture comparison in Germany and China
• Explaining the effects of the found differences in both countries to increase the understanding and improve the urgency as well as negotiation strategies

Example 3: Mediator after a strike in Shanghai

When the workers went on strike, the Shanghai Labour Daily published details of the work contracts and the leader of the worker’s council wanted to become CEO, the top management asked me to join as analyst, mediator and moderator.

• Translating the single interviews of all managers and the top management
• Single interviews with all employees in Chinese
• Dialogues with the Shanghai Labour Union
• A plan for the re-establishment of the plant and work procedures
• Moderating the process for three months

Example 4 (part 1): To save an M&A

When the integration of a Chinese family enterprise got difficult, the German management team asked me to analyse the hardened positions and to develop ideas to soften the Chinese positions. The management decided then to solve the case themselves.

Example 4 (part 2): To moderate a friendly divorce

A year later, the cooperation was completely stuck. The management invited me to act as a mediator / go-between to soften the positions to be able to moderate the discussions at a later stage. The mediation work included intercultural knowhow and deepening of understanding. With the opening of positions, the discussions re-started. But "the air was out", both parties not willing to compromise. Due to my moderation, the atmosphere stayed friendly and cooperative so that we were able to set up a divorce civilly.

Example 5: Facilitating the post merger integration of a German-Taiwanese-Chinese M&A

• Preparation of the German management team before signing
• Intercultural team-building workshops with all managers in Taiwan before closure
• Moderation of the kick-off
• Conflict mediation at the plant in China
• Sparring of the German managers

Example 6: Corporate Change in Malaysia

A Swiss company bought a Malaysian firm. The Swiss CEO notices that the local management team was full of conflicts, and that the differences between both company cultures led to difficulties in communication and collaboration.

• Detailed culture analysis of both company cultures
• Culture profiles of each manager in Malaysia and of the management team as a whole
• Sparring for the whole management team
• A Future Landscape Lab for the visioning of the corporate change
• Workshops for the concrete and detailed roadmap