Journey Across Borders

In this article, Zhibo (Full-time MBA | Class  of 2024) shares how his MBA experience has made him more confident in building an international career. As a global marketer, he also provides professional insights on marketing and growing brands in international contexts.

Beginning his career with Huawei as an Integrated Marketing Manager in the Greater China region, Zhibo has progressed as a marketing professional and has had the opportunities to work at Huawei Device as the Marketing Head for Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman.

Continuing his career in Electronics and Technology after the one-year Full-time MBA with the HKU Business School, Zhibo now embarks on a new chapter with HONOR in France, where he will bring his experience to the growth of a premium market and testing new ideas.

From China to the Middle East – An International Marketer

My motivation for international career opportunities stems from the excitement generated by new experiences and new people. When it comes to career planning, I have always aspired to nurture global perspectives and to qualify myself for any type of market. Therefore, I deliberately seek new opportunities to sharpen my abilities and take on international roles.

Huawei is a significant platform for me to achieve such drive due to its diverse business scope and the success of globalisation. There are many opportunities within the company, and I was fortunate to find an opportunity that I wanted to explore, which I successfully secured after internal selection process, allowing me to make these location transitions.

I believe that building my focus and expertise in the marketing field has enhanced my competitive advantages to some extent. I still recall my very first campaign – a UGC (user-generated content) campaign for the Huawei nova 5 series targeting young consumers in China, for which we partnered with universities and social platforms, encouraging Gen Z to showcase themselves to a wider audience by sharing daily vlogs.

The campaign was quite successful and continued for several product generations. It was so memorable to me because it not only allowed me to contribute as a young marketer from Gen Z, sharing unique perspective and valuable insights, but also taught me how to collaborate with various departments and leverage all the resources.

From Hong Kong to France – The Value of My MBA Experience

When considering an MBA back then, I wanted to seek new ideas for my next career path, the possibilities to opportunities to transition into another industry or field, and to understand the lifestyles and philosophies of my classmates. However, during the MBA, I discovered that I still enjoyed marketing the most and jobs in other fields did not fascinate me as much as I had thought they would be. The MBA journey has given me more clarity about what I want to do.

The HKU MBA journey has also increased my confidence in what I can do. Before the MBA, although I worked in different countries, it was mainly with a Chinese enterprise. The MBA programme provided me with the opportunities to communicate my ideas with classmates from all over the world at HKU as well as the partnership school. Such experience has made me more certain about my ability to work globally and my competence in the marketing field.

The diverse course offerings were particularly helpful. After completed coursework in Hong Kong, I also studied at LBS for the partner track, during which I chose all marketing-related courses as my electives.

Communications and the ability to align marketing with the overall business strategy are two critical skills for a marketer. The MBA gave us the chance to listen to and share our opinions on many topics, and helped me to gain a broader perspective on business rather than solely focusing on what marketing can achieve.

From Local to Global – Marketing in a Global Context

Certainly, there are differences among each market. The Middle Eastern market continues to grow and is becoming increasingly important for many companies due to their goals of achieving economic transition through substantial capital accumulation from natural resources.

The Chinese market has gradually recovered from the COVID period, but it will take time to resolve the issues caused by certain industries, such as real estate, and to prosper again. I believe there is still much energy and potential in the Chinese economy if we remain open and innovative.

Europe is a relatively mature market; people here are generally more discerning and not easily persuaded to accept a new brand. For newcomers, it is more challenging to establish a foothold in consumers’ minds. However, being present in the European market, especially for consumer products, can be significant. Therefore, brands need to exercise patience, consistently doing the right things to achieve growth step by step.

The marketing strategy primarily depends on the overall business situation. When faced with different cultural nuances and consumer behaviours, what we can do is to choose the right selling points and the appropriate channels to communicate relevant information to consumers. This requires marketers to conduct consumer insights while maintaining brand consistency across regions when promoting the same product for a global brand.

When taking a brand global to enter a new market, companies need to understand who the consumers are, what they like, and which media channels they prefer. They should also create compelling products that may not necessarily be better than competitors in every aspect but are at least competitive and meet consumer needs. It is also important to hire the right talents with international business acumen and global mindset, who can develop plans that fit the product-market and efficiently execute while learning from the process.