THE PALIO GROUP
Your China isn’t the business it used to be — but it’s still a business worth winning.
For decades, China rewarded scale,
patience, and tolerance for friction.
Growth covered mistakes.
Margins absorbed inefficiency.
Volume did the heavy lifting.
That version of China is over.
Domestic competitors have changed the game.
They don’t just copy anymore.
They out-think, out-innovate, out-engineer, out-ship, and out-scale.
What used to be “good enough and cheaper” has become faster, sharper, and harder to beat — often on quality, speed, and price at the same time.
Foreign companies can still succeed in China.
But not by relying on outdated playbooks.
They fail by applying a formula that no longer works.
If your search starts with a generic China “super-profile” — someone who looks impressive, has been around, and seems broadly applicable — you’re already in trouble.
In an era when China was an all-boats-rising market, you could get away with that.
In today’s morphing bloodpit, it will kill you.
The market has splintered. Competitive dynamics shift at light speed. Old advantages turn into liabilities overnight.
What matters now isn’t who looks strong in the abstract. It’s whether the leader you hire is matched to the exact work that you need doing, right now, under the conditions you are facing.
Your search starts by defining the work.
Searches fail when candidates are discussed before anyone has agreed on what the role must actually deliver.
Titles don’t help. Job descriptions don’t help. Long experience lists don’t help.
What matters is the work.
Before a single candidate is approached, what must be delivered over the next twelve months — commercially, operationally, and organisationally — has to be defined against the situation you are facing.
Those deliverables are then translated into outcomes, KPIs, priorities, and deadlines.
Without this discipline, the discussion drifts toward personalities instead of results.
Only candidates who have done comparable work are considered.
Once your requirements are fixed, the search becomes simpler — and harder.
The focus narrows to executives who have already delivered similar outcomes under comparable pressure, and whose judgment and character hold up when conditions turn against them.
Strong résumés without relevant delivery histories drop out quickly.
So do executives whose apparent strengths in one context become liabilities in another.
Shortlists get smaller. They also get more defensible.
The risk profile of the hire changes early.
Problems don’t disappear — but they surface sooner, when they are cheaper to deal with.
Decisions become easier to justify. Trade-offs are explicit. Surprises reduce.
You notice one thing first: you stop compensating for the role.
China starts behaving like a business again, not a constant exception.
Michael Whelan
I’ve worked across Greater China and Asia for four decades and have advised CEOs, Presidents, and APAC leadership teams on senior hiring in the region for nearly thirty years.
My work focuses on mid-sized Western industrial and advanced manufacturing companies where China leadership decisions materially affect global performance.
Every engagement is delivered personally.
There is no delegation and no junior execution.
How I work.
I work directly with CEOs and senior leaders who are recalibrating China.
I don’t delegate searches.
I don’t recycle shortlists.
And I don’t run volume processes.
Every engagement is personal, situation-specific, and outcome-driven.
If China is still strategic for you, this is worth a conversation.
A short, practical discussion is usually enough to see whether this approach fits your situation.
Michael Whelan
Founder | CEO
The Palio Group
✉️ michael.whelan@thepaliogroupsa.com
🔗 linkedin.com/in/michaelwhelanchinaapac