Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
EP 38: Cooking up ideas in Fuzhou: Alexandra's story at Mercedes-Benz
45 Plays20 days ago
Alexandra Strassburger joins John Stech, host of The Auto Ethnographer podcast, with a story that transcends borders, industries, and expectations. Her 11 years living and working in China as a German citizen shaped not only her worldview but also her leadership style, family life, and strategic contributions to one of the world’s most iconic automotive brands. In this episode, Alexandra shares how deep cultural immersion—from language learning to Chinese cooking clubs—became the foundation for both personal growth and professional innovation.
Currently Head of IT for Global Sales and Marketing at Mercedes-Benz Cars, Alexandra leads diverse teams across Stuttgart and beyond in shaping the future of digitized, standardized automotive sales. Her career at Mercedes-Benz spans over two decades, with pivotal roles in sales, marketing, R&D, and strategy. But it’s her intercultural fluency—honed through years of on-the-ground experience in China—that sets her apart as a global leader.
On the personal side, Alexandra recounts how her early exposure to Chinese culture began at age five, when her father hosted Chinese business partners at their family home. Later, she and her husband made the bold decision to raise their children in a fully local Chinese environment, complete with traditional medicine, Mandarin-speaking caregivers, and dumpling-filled Chinese New Year celebrations. “If you ask me where my home is,” she says, “it’s in Chaoyang, Beilu in Beijing.”
Professionally, Alexandra’s time in China was transformative. She helped establish product management in Beijing, built the China Insights division, and led teams through the complexities of a rapidly evolving market. Her leadership journey began with a steep learning curve - “I was very German and very controlling,” she admits - but evolved into a hybrid approach that blended German thoroughness with Chinese pragmatism. “That was the magic key,” she reflects.
The episode also explores how Alexandra’s return to Germany revealed a more international and diverse workplace than the one she had left. She brought back a new mindset - one that values closeness with team members and embraces cultural overlap. “All the fears I brought from Germany were completely useless,” she says. “I could just avoid them and learned a lot. I grew a lot there.”
Whether you’re curious about cross-cultural leadership, global mobility, or the human side of automotive strategy, this conversation offers rich insights and heartfelt reflections. As Alexandra puts it, “We didn’t just live in China—we became part of it.”
To learn more about The Auto Ethnographer, visit the homepage at https://www.auto-ethnographer.com .
Also follow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
FB page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567929329364
IG page: https://www.instagram.com/auto.ethnographer/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtrD6CPH0KXdKrIRBnTHpuQ
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-auto-ethnographer
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to The Auto Ethnographer
00:00:00
Speaker
Actually, the whole automotive insights and strategy is based, and this is now, it sounds very funny, and a Chinese cooking club. Hello and welcome to The Auto Ethnographer. I'm John Steck, your host on this journey.
00:00:11
Speaker
We travel the globe to bring you stories about culture and the global automotive industry. Fasten your seatbelt and let's get started.
Career Highlight: Alexandra Strasburger from Mercedes-Benz
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello and welcome to this week's edition of The Auto Ethnographer.
00:00:25
Speaker
Today i have a guest that brings a truly global lens to the automotive world. Alexandra Strasburger is currently the head of IT for global sales and marketing at Mercedes-Benz Cars, where she leads diverse teams across Stuttgart and the globe in shaping the future of digitized standardized sales.
00:00:46
Speaker
With a career spanning over two decades at Mercedes-Benz, Alexander has held pivotal roles in sales, marketing, R&D, and strategy. But what sets her apart is a deep intercultural fluency, honed through 11 transformative years living and working in China as a German citizen.
00:01:08
Speaker
From setting up product management in Beijing to making sure that Mercedes-Benz as an organization understands China by building the China Insights division, she's helped define the Mercedes-Benz portfolio for one of the world's most dynamic markets and indeed the world's largest automotive market.
00:01:26
Speaker
Alexandra's journey is an example in navigating cultural nuance and organizational complexity. Whether leading teams in China or pioneering data-driven marketing strategies back in Germany, she's consistently bridged East and West with empathy, precision, and clarity.
Life and Career in China
00:01:43
Speaker
Their experience offers rare insight into how cultural context shapes consumer behavior, brand perception, and strategic decision-making in the auto industry. With that, i'd like to introduce Alexandra to the program.
00:01:57
Speaker
Hi Alexandra, welcome. Hi John, super happy to be here. Well, you have a very interesting story, Alexandra. you You moved to China and ended up living there for 11 years. I'd love to talk first about just the the personal side of the journey and and your cultural experience. You moved there, let's say young, not having a family, um and just settling it into China in at the beginning.
00:02:27
Speaker
what motivated that move and and how did your family act going over to China back at a time when it wasn't even that much on the, on the radar? Absolutely. I mean, the story is really a long story. It starts when I was five. My dad actually had huge exchange programs with the Carl Duisburg Gesellschaft. He himself worked in the cooling industry. um And he,
00:02:53
Speaker
he always had Chinese groups at my house. So since I'm five, I was exposed to intercultural exchanges where Chinese business partners were sitting at our home table and wanted to experience a German family. And we were singing Auf der Schwebschen Eisenbahn, which is the traditional German song. So that was my first exposure to China.
00:03:11
Speaker
And somehow this stayed in my studies. I had Chinese friends, I always got connected. And actually Mercedes-Benz was so kind during my studies, I was part of their career program to send me over for six months. And then I was hooked, literally hooked on China. And when the opportunity came and the call came,
00:03:34
Speaker
do you want to come to us to China? And as you said, it was not the place to go at that time. My then boyfriend, I said, hey, do you want to come with me? said, I'll i'll have to stay.
00:03:44
Speaker
and then he married me a month before i left. So I couldn't run away. but We're still married. and um And actually, that's how it all started. And it was really a matter of curiosity, the possibility to to grow and have an adventure.
00:04:01
Speaker
I was 27 when I left. I was super young. Come on. What do you have to lose? Just go and run. And come on, Chinese food. kumbao chiing I would always go for that.
00:04:13
Speaker
Well, it sounds like you had a similar um getting married for a visa type of situation. i was also married just ah before I went to Vietnam so that my wife could come along and be supported with a visa.
00:04:29
Speaker
The funny story is actually he didn't come along. He stayed in Stuttgart for at least one and a half years until he said, wow, that's so much fun. It's so interesting.
00:04:40
Speaker
And he actually then moved to South China where we had a Vandroid venture because he also works for Mercedes. And that's how we then had Beijing Fuzhou for a while. So we really made the most out of it.
00:04:53
Speaker
Wow, that that's actually adds a whole other dimension to to the story.
Learning and Adapting in China
00:04:57
Speaker
um you You land there alone, basically. and And did you speak Chinese already by the time you arrived from the university days or or not?
00:05:08
Speaker
I had a little bit of ni hao and stuff, really basics. And I did not make enough time during my internship there to really learn Chinese. So I made a huge effort when I arrived to at 7 a.m. in the morning take Chinese classes.
00:05:23
Speaker
But this was really tough because it was a new role, a new leadership role. I was totally overwhelmed at the beginning, alone, you know. And so how I learned Chinese is actually, I was in luxury of having a Chinese drivers because I wasn't allowed to drive there at the beginning.
00:05:40
Speaker
And he was my Chinese teacher. That's how I started really picking up. And that's how I learned Chinese. Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. so I'm sure you probably also learned some, some great phrases and some of the local slang as well when you learned in that particular, in that particular way.
00:05:57
Speaker
Yeah, you know, i mean, the Beijing choir is like mer, bur. It's a lot of um deep sounds. And that's how how my Chinese grew. But it became very southern when we moved eventually down to the south. And a lot of people nowadays are saying you have a very southern accent. It's really funny.
00:06:15
Speaker
That's great that you can pick it out. So so you then went on to to learn in in a more formalized way. Yes, I actually, am my whole learning experience was a very pragmatic one. I i had had a teacher, but I had a lot of, it just started talking.
00:06:31
Speaker
Whenever I had an opportunity, i took the opportunity and spoke to these people in my broken Chinese. And that's how I improved it. It was very, very, I always said it's it's a road road-based learning. So whenever I, on the weekend, I went out, I wanted to understand Beijing. I wanted to sit down with the people.
00:06:47
Speaker
And in Beijing, if you talk to people, they speak, ah For sure, not English. They speak Chinese. And that's how I learned it. I had also books. I had a teacher, but the teacher was not long with me because I realized I'm going to do it like this. But we had a good competition in the team.
00:07:03
Speaker
I had a lovely ah colleague from France and she she was very good in Chinese. And so she was like pushing me to really get on the same level because she was fluent and I wanted to be on the same level as her. Absolutely. Absolutely.
00:07:17
Speaker
And the language is one thing. um What about the kind of the social etiquette or the the work culture? So you've you've you've come in from Stuttgart and Stuttgart, of course, is, I know personally, very different from from Asia. So how did you adapt to that? were Were there any kind of shocks, things that you had to adapt yourself to very quickly?
00:07:38
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I mean, the first year, and I apologize already to the team, it was my first leadership role. And it was very German, right? You write meeting minutes, they have to be in a certain format, blah, blah, blah. And I was very, very adamant about bringing the German standard to China.
00:07:54
Speaker
And my poor team, I really, i felt now retrospectively, I really feel sorry ah because I was very German and very controlling. And this first year, it was very painful because I realized somehow it's not working. Somehow it's not, you know, it's not clicking.
00:08:09
Speaker
And when I realized that I have to adapt, that I have to change, and that I have to really change also my way of working. Then it worked wonders and we had the most fun. But to I had to come through this year to understand that everything I grew up with, you know the German way of working, won't work.
00:08:28
Speaker
And then I was matching out of both worlds. What the Chinese do well, being pragmatic, finding solutions, a can-do attitude to, hey, but really think it through,
00:08:38
Speaker
make it really thorough the German, German, I think, skills and and strength and combining them. This was, that was for me, the magic key. what What did you have to drop as a, as a German?
00:08:52
Speaker
what What were some of the things you had to drop? and Being black and white and, and being, um being very,
00:09:03
Speaker
being very detailed in what I want from people. At the beginning, I had tasks list and I had tracked them. And this didn't work. And I also, don't forget that we were really just opening up the Beijing office. They were not automotive people on the market. I could not hire product managers off the market. So he really had to take all sort time to train them. and Most of them had studied English as a language. That's that why they were with us.
00:09:28
Speaker
But they had no um capability or skill in the automotive world. And my I had to drop my expectation towards qualification on automotive skills.
00:09:39
Speaker
I could not expect that. And when I dropped that and opened my heart for, hey, come on, we're in in this together. I'm going to grow this together. that was That was super. And then it really was a lot of fun. I just met one of my my former teammates because she's still with us.
00:09:55
Speaker
and And to reflect on that and say, hey, we went through this together and we both grew it was really cool.
Cultural Integration and Family Life
00:10:01
Speaker
How about the ah like working relationships? um I remember when I was working for Mercedes a number of years ago, of course, you you could go for 20 years sitting next to somebody in the same room and call them Herr Schmidt or Frau Schmidt and never really get to know them. How how was it in in China? Was there more of a porous wall between personal and work or were there also walls like there were in well in Germany, although I know that's changing?
00:10:30
Speaker
Oh, you know, when you say that, actually, this was one of the things I had to learn very fast. I came from exactly that what you're describing schnapps is schnapps and beer is beer, right? So you really separate work and and and private life.
00:10:45
Speaker
And first of all, when I moved there, I really also tried not to hang out with the expat community because they were all work buddies, right? and also not for work buddies ah with any Chinese work buddies. I just tried to be like separate. But as an expat, you die. You die of aloneness and loneliness and not having anybody around you.
00:11:05
Speaker
ah So I had to learn that it's okay to hang out in private life with your work people. And what I actually took from China to Germany is the closeness with my team members.
00:11:16
Speaker
And if I look into all my team relations over the 11 years in China, I was always super close. I know their families. I know what's going on in their lives. They know about my life. I was, i am and was very open about what's happening in my life.
00:11:32
Speaker
And if I imagine, you know, when my first son was then born in Beijing, the work guys were the first ones to see him. that's that's That's how it was, right? And we really also weekends were not so harsh as in Stuttgart. You know, it's very, very different. You hang out at night, you go for dinner, you do private stuff together. Also, as a company, you are very much investing into social activities for the the team members.
00:12:00
Speaker
Something where the Stuttgart would say, hey, come on, it's a Wochenende, leave me alone. I want to have a weekend. Don't bother me. right And where the Chinese are very, very happy to have a family day and have these activities, which I really, really enjoy. And I think they're important to build closeness to the company.
00:12:18
Speaker
Now, I did notice that, yes, also there seems to be that that overlap, um that that kind of an openness. um it And it varies massively. even Even in different Asian countries, you have different degrees of that that type of an openness. Yeah.
00:12:33
Speaker
but and In China, it was really fun because um i at first thought it's difficult to separate. You know, if i mean, sometimes at work, you have to take funny decisions, right, or hard decisions that are not fun. And I was at beginning worried, will this cause an issue to my, you know, acceptance as a decision maker, as a leader?
00:12:51
Speaker
But it was not at all. Actually, it increased my acceptance. And I feel this today, even in Stuttgart, that this builds trust. People know why I do things that can relate to this. And then they're usually much more supportive in my decisions. So all the fears I brought from Germany were completely useless. I could just avoid them and learned a lot. I grew a lot there.
00:13:11
Speaker
Now, that was going to be a question I want to ask you, um what what you brought back. But but you really answered it. you You brought back a different mindset on on how to lead, which I think is really important. I i would imagine you were there for 11 years. um Did you find that that Germany changed in the 11 years that you were gone? Because I find that it's changed quite a bit in the almost, I would say, roughly 20 years since i worked directly with Mercedes-Benz.
00:13:39
Speaker
It has changed, yes. But what was for us very interesting and super surprising when we came back, because everybody told us, Alexandra, it's going to be horrible.
00:13:49
Speaker
You will not like to be coming from an expat life into this typical German life. And actually, it was not at all like this, because for us, we left as an one month married couple or I left, you know, and then we came back as a family of four.
00:14:08
Speaker
Our two sons were born in Beijing. So our life had significantly changed. But what i what I really observed is Germany has become much more international, much more diverse, something which was not the case when I left.
00:14:23
Speaker
And I think that's something which I really, really observed. And then, of course, and ever but this is something which my husband I always loved when we came back. that it was so different. You know, there's Wertstoffhof, which is basically on the weekends, you have to bring your separated garbage to a certain place to recycle it, right? That's a thing something you don't do necessarily in China. You have usually people doing that for you.
00:14:49
Speaker
But also these things we embraced, right? It was just another adventure that we went on. And it was nice to have family back again because usually they were super far away. so that was, we loved every piece of it.
00:15:03
Speaker
Yeah, i personally found and I had a previous podcast episode about it. It was actually for me, the most difficult part was going home. um All of these adventures that I had, you know, back back in home, in in my home country, nobody seemed to somehow appreciate that. They lived their normal lives in the eight years that I was gone. And then when I came back, they asked a few questions. And that was it. It was for me, that was the most challenging part.
00:15:31
Speaker
But that's interesting because for us, it was it's maybe I mean, we made always sure during the 11 years that everybody stayed on top of what we're doing. So I really made sure that we really share extensively on videos and photos and making sure they know.
00:15:47
Speaker
I also brought back Chinese cooking events to my family. um i do China community events at Mercedes-Benz. So I really integrated this Chinese-ness of myself into my daily life. So people can't escape, actually. We do every year on Chinese New Year a huge party at our house to commemorate the most important festival for us as a German-Chinese family.
00:16:12
Speaker
so we really, really... without asking them, just integrated them into our culture. We made sure they're part of what we do. And actually, funny enough, now that Chinese New Year is the event in our circle of friends where all the kids are waiting for, oh, let's do Chinese year New Year again. Let's do chiaozi, let's do the dumplings. Let's really make sure we're doing this.
00:16:35
Speaker
So you know what? Maybe, John, we were super just overwhelming for them and integrating them. i i I love that. I love that you went and and and took it to that degree.
00:16:47
Speaker
You and I had spoken once before, and you also shared with me that you took a pretty unconventional decision about the education of your kids in China. Can you talk about that one a little bit?
00:16:59
Speaker
Yes. So basically when the kids were born, the decision of my husband and myself was we don't want to put them into the German schooling system. For us, it was extremely important that they are raised in a local mindset. What does it mean?
00:17:14
Speaker
We were super lucky. ah We had um a nanny, which I would call my my sister, Hua. We actually visited her this year again. We had vacation time in China again with the family.
00:17:25
Speaker
We flew home, so to say. And basically... Bihua made sure she lived with us for seven years, the whole time the kids were born, when we were in China. And she made sure that we are integrated.
00:17:37
Speaker
She made sure that we speak Chinese at home, that we eat Chinese, that we live by Chinese traditional medicine. So if you're coughing, you don't eat yogurt and muesli in the morning. You have then nothing fried in the morning. You make sure that you eat according to traditional Chinese medicine, anything that doesn't bring heat into your body.
00:17:55
Speaker
So that was our reality. That was the first unconventional decision, I guess. We were really integrated into China. The other element was we were um choosing um and a kindergarten where Chinese was part of the language curriculum. They had ah bits and pieces of German, but it was Chinese, English, and then only a bit of German.
00:18:15
Speaker
And that was then a choice that made it for us local and and and relatable. And and when Malte then had to go to an international school, went for the British school, because we just didn't want to go.
00:18:29
Speaker
We didn't want to go into the German system. We just felt like when we're here, let let us be fully here and let us be fully immersed and let us really take every snippet of it to be in it.
00:18:43
Speaker
So if if I were to ask your kids, Are they German? Are they Chinese? Are they international? What are they? Oh, that's a very good question.
00:18:54
Speaker
If you would have asked them three years after return, they would have told you they're Chinese and they want to go home.
Cultural Insights and Career Impact
00:19:02
Speaker
It was for three years every morning. Mom, we want to go home.
00:19:06
Speaker
um They now are back seven, eight years And they would say they're German. I think we we made that we made that move and mindset shift. Yet, when we just flew back now this year, they said it feels very much home because that's the smells they're used to. It's very deeply rooted. And even I myself, and this is now super weird and it's hard to understand, but if you ask me where my home is, it's in Chaoyang, Beilu in Beijing.
00:19:34
Speaker
That's when I arrive, I feel at home. And it's super weird and it's hard to relate. But these were my defining years. 27 to 38, my kids are born there.
00:19:45
Speaker
For me, Beijing feels very much like home. it' It's wonderful when something like that happens. it's It's kind of rare in life. Sometimes you find that place that feels like home in your country, your home country. But sometimes you find it somewhere else, which which is even more surprising that, you know, you you it's different. It has a different language, different you know social ah fabric and so on. But you just feel somehow perfectly at home.
00:20:14
Speaker
it's It's great when you find that. yeah They still practice their their Chinese? Yeah, of course. Oh, for sure. First of all, when we're in public and I need to tell them something that not everybody should hear, we do it all in Chinese.
00:20:27
Speaker
because then we have our secret language it's very convenient the other thing at home also you know just on sunday this sunday we played mahjong and did chinese tea ceremony so that's something we do as a we're just that's us and then of course they have every week and then we speak chinese when we do that um and then we also um have um a chinese class a chinese teacher who teaches them every week yeah And they do Duolingo.
00:20:53
Speaker
You know, they're having their strike. They have to keep their strike in Chinese. I love that. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. I went through the same when I was younger. I immigrated to the U.S. from Germany. And so I had years and years and years of of German classes after school or on the weekends. And And i did not appreciate it at the time as a kid. i wanted to play with my friends. But I have to say in my adulthood, I appreciate it. And I'm sure that that that your children will as well.
00:21:23
Speaker
You know what is funny? It was always a fight to do Chinese classes.
00:21:29
Speaker
But when we now this summer were back home, it clicked with them. So they're very adamant now about making sure they can attend Chinese class.
00:21:40
Speaker
And if schedules are moving, they make sure that they have their Chinese class. It's very interesting to see. They're 13 and 15 now. you know Probably some sense comes up. Well, there is that time of your life as a young teen where you want to be just like all of your friends. You don't want to be different.
00:21:59
Speaker
And, but there is also that moment when there's like a click in your mind where you realize, Hey, I have something special. And, and it sounds like they've found that, that moment of of illumination.
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:15
Speaker
So Alexandra, you've, you've gone through and you you've explained in great detail how, how you and your family really integrated. far beyond what what many other expats do when they live abroad for for some years.
00:22:28
Speaker
So how did that end up impacting your work style? you know how did How did your personal and and full acclimation to China translate into success in the workplace? and And let's talk a little bit about what you also did for Mercedes Benz there because you contribut contributed something quite valuable.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, and it's it's a very uncommon story. And I often tell it to people who ask for career advice, because they always think you have to plan it out. And actually, my, my biggest learning in my career was because it's it's going to take a bit longer to explain it, but it gives the context. So basically, I i was pregnant with Malte, and we moved to Fuzhou because my husband was living in Fuzhou.
00:23:15
Speaker
And I was sitting there bored out with a little baby, not knowing what to do because there was no no job to be to be done, right? And I realized, that the the community there was very distant from China.
00:23:28
Speaker
And as I was used to something else, I thought, hey, let's walk the city and see what's going on there. And I spoke Chinese, right? So I started doing that and out of it grew an initiative that was called Fuzhou Culture Club, where we actually started doing cultural tours and cooking sessions and learning about traditional Chinese medicine and how the social system works and how schooling works and so on.
00:23:52
Speaker
And interesting enough, all of that, that sounds so not automotive at the end ended up in Mercedes-Benz cars, all this knowledge. Some years later, when I then, when we went back to Beijing and then when I got the opportunity to start in research and development, actually all the insights I had from traditional Chinese medicine,
00:24:15
Speaker
from how societies work, how family structures work, they were then put into translating what Chinese customers want and what Chinese cars need. So my advice always to the young people is don't underestimate these side gigs because they could lead really to impact fall impactful things in your workplace. And that's what happened with me, actually.
00:24:39
Speaker
that That's really cool, I have to say. i love that you had this, well, side gig, as you called it. um It's an amazing way just to to learn. i actually recommended recently to someone else that, for example, like a cooking class is one of the greatest ways to learn a culture since food is is what everybody knows about different cultures. And then as you learn what's behind it, you you get those nuanced layers.
00:25:07
Speaker
Nobody thinks this is something. Everybody thinks, yeah, they're cooking. These ladies doing cooking classes. Yeah. But it became important. Well, it it what you described before, that having a cold muesli and yogurt in the morning or if something wasn't what you have, you have something more traditional. And and if you understand that about about the local culture, that that takes you to another another level.
00:25:36
Speaker
but's Let's talk about what you were doing there at Mercedes-Benz. You were responsible for product strategy and you had to pretty much by definition understand the consumer. So how did you start to roll all this type of knowledge about the consumer, ah about the culture into your work? How did that how did that take root?
00:25:57
Speaker
It was actually in a two-step thing. i was very lucky that the van department put me back into product management at that time for a year before my second son was born in Fuzhou. And that was the first time with my Chinese insights that I had from this Fuzhou culture club that I understood, okay, somehow the cars are not yet fitting.
00:26:18
Speaker
In this case, the Sprinter and the V-Class. i was like, hmm, why is that? And then i I circled back to everything I had learned in these cooking classes and in all these ah cultural seminars that we offered that I realized, ah, they there is something different. And I realized, for example, out of traditional Chinese medicine, that air conditions should not be blown to the qigai, to the joints, because that's something where then the the cold could come into the body.
00:26:46
Speaker
And if you understand these things, you suddenly realize, aha, we have to do things different. And that's we did what we learned for the vans, where we translated this into the cars and said, ah, there we have to really adjust.
00:26:59
Speaker
People are of different height. We had to adjust seat height and stuff, small things that had to be done because we realized them, ah, it's different. So that's where it started. This was my first tickling. But when we then moved to Beijing and I got ah hired into RD, um,
00:27:17
Speaker
And they actually wanted me to do and run the insights team. There was Extra in China insights team founded at the time in RD. I could really indulge myself this. And from first ickling and inches of, I have i have a hunch, to solidifying it with data,
00:27:37
Speaker
doing trend research and understanding really fact-based, going away from a hunch what China is and how it's being built off. And I think a pivotal moment was that my then RD head made a very important statement. He said, Alexandra, don't explain the engineer the problem, ah the solution.
00:27:58
Speaker
Explain to them the problem. You have to explain to them the problem then they can help you with a solution. And I think this was very, very important to understand that I don't come with, listen, this is what Chinese need and paint it down.
00:28:11
Speaker
But you really utilize this amazing force of Mercedes-Benz engineering team to tell them, look, that's who we are as China. These are our problems. And if you move a car from the Black Forest from Germany to China, that's what has to change.
00:28:28
Speaker
And this was, I think, vital for the way I could then work and how we then as a team worked. So in the in the United States with Mercedes-Benz, and I had a guest on the third episode, ah Dr. Helmut Grusso, who explained that the magic secret to the US market was the cup holder.
00:28:48
Speaker
What was the what was the the magic secret for China? Something that that you influenced and and helped to bring into the vehicles that that you believe was ah of great critical cultural acceptance?
00:29:03
Speaker
I think there's so many things. I mean, the long cars was something that was already there. That's nothing that comes from me. But this this whole idea of that there are people sitting in the second row, and this dedication to the rear, that there is a grandmother in the family structure who sits there, that the the culture is very um generous with regards to taking care of you know relationships and that you pick up people, you have a separate race in the restaurant,
00:29:29
Speaker
that this has to be taken care of, that then these grandmothers are having phones, they need to charge them, that you have a you know a storage unit, and stuff like that was extremely vital for us to say, ah, let's make sure that their customer feels comfortable. And that's different from Germany because they're usually a sports bag or a dog is sitting. If you look into numbers, yes, there are also kids, but it's a very different kind of environment.
00:29:55
Speaker
Um, US soccer mom versus a Chinese hosting environment.
00:30:02
Speaker
No, that's um ah certainly ah ah difference in the use case of of the vehicles and even just how many people ride in ah in a car on average. right it's ah it's It's very different. um My understanding is that that you ultimately then developed a ah kind of a system to to help gather information and um to to help funnel that to engineering. You already touched on that, you know not to give the engineers the solutions, but but to explain the problem to them. Can you explain a little bit how you gathered information, you know field research or data or or local partnerships or things like that?
00:30:42
Speaker
it was It was such an interesting journey because we were sitting there as a China team. And again, you know China was just in a growing. It was 2006. Don't forget, it's a long time ago, right? So we're in 2000, not 2006. When was it back? 2012, right? Roughly that area. So it's a long time ago. And then we were like, how can we make sure, you know because Mercedes a big organization, how can we make sure that everybody and understands it quick?
00:31:06
Speaker
And instead of you know writing solutions, how can we develop a logic again, German logic, that people understand what are the buckets they have to feed into, that they can then work and they we really utilize the energy of everybody and the creativity and the engineering power.
00:31:27
Speaker
And basically what we did is And this is also, I guess, so out of this world that you know we went in and collected research on how how do families develop. I looked into how hand size develop, how body limbs are developing. We really looked into all the data in detail. We we looked into what what do people do daily?
00:31:51
Speaker
everyday life. We really did a lot of studies on how people use cars. And this was me super interesting because we got really into in touch again with the people, how they're, how they're, how they're living their car life to really understand it.
00:32:09
Speaker
And then what we did with this data, I could convince the engineers or describe to the engineers how the situation is. And can you imagine I go into an engineering meeting and talk not about seat cushion size or anything like that, but about how social structures in China work.
00:32:28
Speaker
So I explained to them you know how a family works, how the social security system is working or not compared to Germany, um how these Guangxi, the relationships are so important,
00:32:42
Speaker
And that's why we need to go, you know for example, for a different kind of hosting environment inside of a Mercedes-Benz. And this, I think, sounds super odd, but that was the input for the engineering team on how lives are happening.
00:32:57
Speaker
So they could do their best to really develop the cars then to the best the best way the Chinese actually loved it then and wanted it. In a microcosm, you've actually just really used the the the more Chinese way of communicating, right? Because you've explained all of the nuances around, ah gone around the whole tree without necessarily describing exactly the tree.
00:33:23
Speaker
right you Exactly. but But that was vital because what we realized, that was one of my my earlier observations is we all spoke English with each other and we all understood the words. But what I then realized, and I use this very often in the organization, even when I was back, I was once in a while invited and say, ah, can you explain this again to us?
00:33:46
Speaker
but When we say, and I always use this one term, when you say breakfast, As a German, I think about a roll, a coffee cup, a muesli. But if you say breakfast in Chinese, you also say breakfast in English. But the picture that is associated with this is very, very different. You have a Zhou, you have a Yu-Tiao. Zhou is a rice soup. The Yu-Tiao is like a breadstick.
00:34:09
Speaker
That's what you have for breakfast. So we talk about breakfast, but the pictures we associate are super different. And I said, guys, whenever we are having conversations, we need to understand the context. We and need to understand the environment we're in so we can talk to each other. Because that was at the beginning of prom. We thought, hey, we had a conversation. Didn't this then't they understand what we need? and It was very frustrating at the beginning.
00:34:32
Speaker
But when we realized, aha, now we really have to tell them about how it is, what the problem is. And again, i come back to my my head of engineering. He was so smart.
00:34:43
Speaker
He said, Alex, don't describe to them the solution. Describe the problem. And this worked magic for the organization. And the whole, you know, also top management, everybody supported it. Everybody bought into this.
00:34:54
Speaker
This was fantastic. It was really, really fantastic. where at that At that point in time, where was the engineering located? Was it in China already or was it still back in Chicago? We had parts in China. Yeah, yeah absolutely. we were just we were just having we had engineering center. That's why I was hired in. Yeah.
00:35:12
Speaker
Yeah. Okay.
00:35:15
Speaker
What was, ah if you think back, um maybe the the biggest or surprising use case difference in how the Chinese use their cars on a daily basis?
Reflections on Cultural Differences
00:35:26
Speaker
I mean, I can i can explain to you how Americans are different from Germans, but how are Chinese different from from Germans, for example, and in the use of their cars? i I think the biggest...
00:35:39
Speaker
surprising probably element is was when we did the interior study on how much things Chinese have additionally in the car as decoration, you know, the tissue boxes always there.
00:35:53
Speaker
There is a lot of things in the car that are added to the car. May it be seat covers that are very, um at that time, were super expressive, which was very surprising to us.
00:36:08
Speaker
um And also, like yeah again, the the tissue box, ah air refreshers. There was a lot of stuff in the car compared to European cars. So this is something in a very detailed how they stored stuff was really, really different, what we knew.
00:36:23
Speaker
Yeah. and And what would you say was, just as an example, your biggest contribution? um Like what's what's the one thing you can point to in a particular car where you could say, you know hey, I did that.
00:36:39
Speaker
Oh, I guess the air quality the air quality ah element that we have in every car worldwide, by the way, and because we we realized at that time Chinese air was really, really polluted and allergies were on the move and in global, right? That we said, hey, we have to do something about that. And I think that's something where it not me as a person, I would never say me alone because one thing was vital in this whole thing.
00:37:04
Speaker
It was a China team. We stood there as a community and we stood there as a team, no matter whether we were RD, sales, finance, it was the China team.
00:37:16
Speaker
And that what made us very strong because we were together having one voice on what we needed. And I think this is something that we we really did, that we made sure that you could read, you know, how is the air quality outside? How is it inside? We had enough filters and integrated into the car. And I think that's something at that time, but what you could really say, ah, that was that was from us, ah amongst many other things, but this is something very known until today.
00:37:43
Speaker
That's really big. I mean, that's really big. I live in ah in a city as well in Bangkok, which has a very high AQI, um the PM 2.5. And so if this is something that was developed in China and then made its way around the world, mean, that's ah that's a really big contribution.
00:38:01
Speaker
Yeah, we were quite pleased with that. And it really fixed the problem because when my kids were raised in Beijing, I always said they're house cats because they had to be inside. The air quality was terrible. When we moved back up in 2012, it was above a thousand AQI.
00:38:17
Speaker
We couldn't get out. We had to wear you know ah face masks. It was not corona, it was air quality. And that's why it triggered it. We had air purifier everywhere.
00:38:29
Speaker
I'm sure that's something that you you don't miss now that you're back in Stuttgart. Although I have to say, I think the Chinese air quality has improved dramatically. It's fantastic.
00:38:41
Speaker
in that but We were swimming in the Liangmar River in summer. I mean, this is what China did is amazing. Air quality is great in Beijing. The river where when I was an intern was green with algae.
00:38:55
Speaker
Now when canoeing, people were swimming in it. And that's a dramatic change. I mean, it it has improved drastically, but now allergies are coming in. So you need to make sure to keep the allergies out.
00:39:06
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. So now that you are back in Stuttgart for quite some years already, um what do you miss most? what What do you miss most about China? You've already talked about having the the holiday for the Chinese New Year. yeah What else do you miss?
00:39:24
Speaker
I miss, ah for sure, food. That's why we cook a lot ah Chinese foods till today. Actually, this to coming Sunday, my whole family will come again. We're going to cook Chinese food again for everyone.
00:39:36
Speaker
um What I also miss, um and it was it was also part of the time when I was there, there's this gross, let's do it pragmatism.
00:39:48
Speaker
um I mean, it was a very, very strong growth period these 11 years when I was there. The market was literally growing. And so this was really fun. That's something I miss, but I know reality has changed. um And what i I think is still there in China is pragmatism.
00:40:04
Speaker
Get things done. Try things out. Being super open for digitization. amazed me then, amazes me now how people of all ages are glued to their phone. Everything goes via WeChat. That's impressive.
00:40:20
Speaker
And that's something I miss.
00:40:23
Speaker
it's It's interesting on a previous podcast, I'm actually releasing one on Wednesday, tomorrow. It's about the comparison of China to Europe by a Chinese person who went to Europe for the first time. And and she describes exactly the same about the being glued to the telephone versus enjoying life without the telephone in hand.
00:40:45
Speaker
And and it it has its pros and cons, right? And it has its pros and cons. So I really, again, we're super happy to be back. ah But we miss China nevertheless, because it has both sides have have have it have its advantage. And um being glued to the phone is not necessarily always very communicative, right? When you're having dinner.
00:41:05
Speaker
So. Very true, very true. I remember one time sitting in a restaurant, my my children were playing so something on their phones, and I actually sent them an SMS to choose from the menu what they wanted to eat. And that was the only way to get them to come from their phones.
00:41:26
Speaker
and And that's something, it's also very strong in Europe, but it's not through all generations. Because something that I observed, I was there on a business trip last year. i was one of in one of these classic hutong old restaurants, Lao Beijing ah Kitchen.
00:41:43
Speaker
And it was super quiet when I had lunch. And I looked around, i was like, why is it so quiet? Because, you know, in Beijing restaurants, it's usually super loud and everybody talks. And I realized that now also the older generation the 80 years old who are on their phone and not talking to each other anymore. And that's something which I observed, I found very interesting to see.
00:42:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think unfortunately in a way that's becoming pervasive around the around the globe, being glued to the phone screen. yeah I think you alluded to this earlier.
00:42:15
Speaker
um What experience you know that you had there do you continue to to to like practice or or what influences you even today and that changed you? You alluded a little bit to to kind of this openness in the communication. is there Is there something else that you still practice today that makes you a better leader at at Mercedes in Stuttgart?
Women in Chinese Workplaces and Leadership Style
00:42:38
Speaker
I think one thing that is was extremely vital for me um in China was that women were leading. It was very common that women are making a career.
00:42:49
Speaker
And I think that's something if you come from a Schwabian background, right? um I was supposed to, you know, as soon as the kids are there, go back, ah take time off and be at home.
00:43:01
Speaker
And that was not even a conversation in China. um When I brought it up with our nanny, she looked at me and said, uh-huh. How does why I'm here?
00:43:12
Speaker
Don't worry. Right. ah yeah And so this conversation was really interesting because she was the one actually when I whenever I i started to to become like, ah should I stay more at home? And, you know, she was like, no, you go, girl.
00:43:26
Speaker
Let's rock it. Right. Because that was very common in China that women make their career and that it was not a conversation. If I can. And that was something and is something that is that that that really shaped me. and And I had to learn in the conversations with female leaders here to understand their problems because I didn't have them. I didn't have these limitations of no childcare. I didn't have these limitations of a family looking on me.
00:43:54
Speaker
my mom was very far away, right? So there was nobody who could say, no. Alexandra, why are you why are you working? Of course, I have a ah ah a schvabahe of Swabian family in my background. And of course, ah they have their way of of of thinking.
00:44:14
Speaker
But in China, this was so far away. That's a pretty pretty dramatic example. and I think it's it shows just how divergent the the cultures really are and they're in their mindset. and One of my previous podcast guests also pointed out that that important role of women in the workplace in in China, especially as leaders.
00:44:33
Speaker
And it's it's very common, very normal. A lot of my Chinese friends are ah really, i mean, they're amazing CEOs. They're running these huge companies and they have their kids and they're just doing it. And I'm so impressed all the time. I just, they're really...
00:44:49
Speaker
They're really great role models, how they run it and how they do it. And again, the system supports it. Here we have structural issues that are not supporting it. So I totally understand. I'm not blaming any German woman who can't do it because there are framework conditions that are different. I was really, really lucky to be in China when the kids were small.
00:45:09
Speaker
That was really, really helpful. Yeah. So you've your career has really spanned at Mercedes from... really an internship to being a a leader today in in IT t for sales and marketing.
00:45:26
Speaker
If you could go back to your younger self and give some advice to ah to a younger Alexandra or and a professional just getting into the business, what advice would you give to somebody today?
Career Advice and Closing Thoughts
00:45:41
Speaker
i think what was really decisive for me is to not follow the classic career rules. because what I was always confronted with, 11 years in China, everybody told me, you're not gonna do a big career.
00:45:54
Speaker
you You kill your career with this. Come back to headquarters. You have to come back to headquarters. I didn't because for us as a family, it felt right. It felt good to be out there and it was for us the right decision.
00:46:06
Speaker
And I think, Don't be intimidated by these rules on how career works. Really make sure that you define it for yourself. It's your life at the end.
00:46:18
Speaker
It's your life. And you have to decide what is important for you. But don't get intimidated that, oh, then your career ends. It didn't.
00:46:29
Speaker
So I think, right? right I think that's great advice um for somebody to really follow their heart and and to do what's what's right for them. And look at the this Fuzhou Cooking Club.
00:46:43
Speaker
Again, i follow my heart. I did it because I loved it. I had fun. i This Fuzhou Culture Club, i wanted to do it because I enjoyed it. And I think that's another thing. Put your all in. Own it to the last bit of peace. Do it with passion or not at all.
00:47:00
Speaker
just Go in. Even better advice. Before we close down the episode, are there any other kind of closing words from from your side? um Anything that jumped into into mind?
00:47:17
Speaker
i think for especially, you know, a lot of people are always asking me should I go abroad? And without a blink of an eye, I say, if you have the opportunity, run, go do it.
00:47:28
Speaker
ah Do it. Please do it. And um a lot of people that came to me and asked me this question, they went and they were so happy. And I have never met anyone who went abroad, no matter what country, and regretted it.
00:47:45
Speaker
And if somebody has, please call me, but I don't remember anyone because i everybody sees this as an enrichment and it's not always easy. It's not always a walk in a park. It was not always the the straight line, but it's so enriching and your life is so much more colorful afterwards.
00:48:03
Speaker
So I think go for it. Yeah. I fully agree. That's why I built an entire podcast around that theme of working abroad and and blending cultures and working together. Yeah.
00:48:15
Speaker
d Well, alex Alexander, I do want to thank you very much for um joining me on the on the podcast today. i do want to point out ah that in Stuttgart, there is a ah moment of sunshine in the background there is yes in November, which is which is very unusual. So thank you for you know using some of that sunshiny day to to join me in a room with the blinds down on the camera on and on the podcast. Exactly.
00:48:44
Speaker
Thank you, Joan. Thanks for the talk. It was a lot of fun looking back. i'm I'm glad you enjoyed that. So with that, I'd like to close down the episode and thank the listeners for joining in this week.
00:48:57
Speaker
Until next week, keep on driving.
00:49:01
Speaker
Thank you for joining us on today's journey. Please remember to like and subscribe to The Auto Ethnographer and leave us a rating or comment. For more information, visit our website at auto-ethnographer.com.
00:49:13
Speaker
You can also follow on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.