I was born and raised in Canada, but less than a month after I graduated from university, hungry for adventure, I packed my things and moved to Asia. At the time, I thought I’d go for a year, but one year soon turned to twenty.

Most of that time (nearly 15 years) was spent in China, split between roles in project management and marketing communications (including leading the international marcom team at one of the top business schools in the world).

It has been almost two years since I moved back to Canada to be closer to my family. When I arrived in Toronto, I thought it would take two, maybe three months, to find a job. Instead, what I found was a brutal job market where competition was fierce and local experience (of which I had little) was highly valued.

In part because of the need to stand out in the job market, I started reflecting on how the things I learned during my time in China are transferrable to roles in Canada and how they have made me both a better marketer and a better person.

The need for empathy

If you really want to learn the art of empathy, move to China (or another foreign country of your choosing). On a daily basis, you will meet people who are different than you, who have different opinions, beliefs and ways of doing things. And you will have to get your head around it.

For marketers, empathy is a valuable skill to have when you are trying to get into the minds and hearts of your customers.

The ability to adapt

The scale and speed at which China moves means you have to constantly adapt. Now add a foreign culture, a foreign language and the COVID pandemic to that. If you don’t adapt, you won’t last. It’s that simple.

The ability to adapt as a marketer is crucial to your survival. Look no further than the current AI revolution.

The value of admitting you don’t know

China is so big and so complex that it is, in some sense, unknowable. It is really impossible to get one’s head around it completely. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

As a marketer, the sooner you admit you don’t know something about your business, your market or your customers, the sooner you can start getting the answers you need to make better decisions.

The importance of clarifying objectives and audience

Of course, marketers know all about objectives and target audiences. When you work in a cross-cultural environment, however, it is even more crucial to remember that people from different backgrounds may not have the same understanding of the task at hand.

Clarifying objectives and audience won’t solve all your problems, but it can still go a long way in avoiding misunderstandings and conflicts. Sometimes, it is as simple as asking your colleagues, “What do you think the objective is that we’re trying to achieve?” or “Who do you think the audience for this is?”

The primacy of people

As a foreigner in China, I can say without a doubt that I was treated far better than the average foreigner would be traveling in my country (sorry Canada, we’ve got a lot of work to do). Moreover, my experience in China taught me a great deal about caring for others and putting people first.

As marketers, it is crucial to remember that your customers are, first and foremost, people. Moreover, those people should be at the center of everything you do.

The power of the collective

As the saying goes, “Marketing is a team sport.” Working in a collective culture, where doing things as a group is highly valued, is a great way to see this at work.

In marketing (and most other things), you will go a lot further when you learn to make use of everyone’s strengths and do things together.

The influence of context

In a high-context culture like China’s, people often don’t say what they mean and the same words can have vastly different meanings depending on who uses them (and when and where).

Awareness of context is a crucial skill for marketers to have, especially when it comes to deciding which messages to push out at which times on which channels to which audiences.

The benefits of working in different ways

Prior to moving to China, I was firmly in the camp of getting everything perfect before pushing it out the door. What I learned in China was that there is a lot to gain from sharing something less-than-perfect, collecting feedback and revising it to make it better.

In the world of marketing, there is always room for improvement and taking an iterative approach will help you (and your brand) continue to learn and grow.

Finally, the role of harmony

While it sounds like a very Eastern philosophical concept, harmony is really about little more than finding a common or shared understanding. And, when you think about it, it isn’t that foreign an idea.

In marketing, developing that shared understanding (e.g. about what your brand is, what it stands for and what it offers) plays a big role in setting customer, employee and stakeholder expectations, which in turn is an important factor in building trust.