Smith’s Restructured Asian Management Team Pushes Growth in this Key Region

Summer 2016 was a time of dramatic movement and growth for Smith’s Asian offices. While the newest update is August’s relocation of our Hong Kong hub, early summer saw exciting changes kick into gear that set the tone for the season. In July, Smith restructured the management in three of our key Asian sales offices, and these managers have since settled in and hit their stride working with their new teams in their new home cities.

The office managers of Smith’s Shanghai, Taiwan, and Shenzhen locations were the leaders who pulled up their roots and got ready for new undertakings with new teams. There were a number of factors for the shift – from strategizing for better customer support to giving one manager the chance to return to his hometown again. The motivations for this reorganization were varied, but one great outcome has been the same for all three offices: a flurry of new business opportunities spurred by the years of fresh regional expertise and deep experience these managers brought to their new trading teams.

Gordon Qiu, who used to be the General Manager of Smith’s Shenzhen office, got the chance to return to the city where he grew up when he relocated to our Shanghai office to lead as GM there. He stepped into the role in place of Alan Han, who began a new role as General Manager of our Taiwan office. Alan succeeded Henry Wong, who is now managing Smith’s Shenzhen office in Gordon’s stead.

In Shenzhen, Henry has undertaken a specific goal with the help of Claudio Chan, Smith’s former PPV Team Manager for Asia, who has now taken on the role of Shenzhen’s Assistant Trading Manager under Henry. The two are collaborating on an initiative to strengthen Smith Shenzhen’s PPV sales and the cost savings support this office provides customers. Smith’s PPV front has been strong in North America for the past few years since we formed a specialized team of market experts at our Houston headquarters to dedicate to the program. This new initiative at our Shenzhen office is helping to expand these efforts to our Asian offices, too, so that we can offer customers in this region the same great cost savings support with a more localized focus.

This initiative – and the efforts of all three offices in general – kicked off to a fast start this summer, with the teams learning the ropes and working with their managers to discover their new strengths and resources. Our employees in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Taiwan have all been given access to broadened training at the hands of their managers, who have brought different regional perspectives and experiences with them to inform and guide their teams. And it hasn’t just been these offices that have benefitted – all of our Asian offices have grown more tightly knit with this sharing of people and ideas, boosting their ability to collaborate and provide our customers seamless, peerless support.

This summer was the start of great things for Smith Asia. We’re excited to see how they’ll continue to grow – and how this will benefit the local customers who rely on them.

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