Sam 
Originally from Texas, USA Sam Ritter has spent the last 16-years in Asia, first in Japan and, since 1997 in Shanghai. Having started in Japan in 1991 he decided to quit the country in 1997 in search of new opportunities in China. He initially came out here to simply have a look at the country, at a time when too many, it remained an unknown quantity. Ten years later, settled here with a family and thriving IT outsourcing company (www.ssbg.com.cn) which has been developed without any external financing, it has been an eventful journey.
On arriving in Shanghai in 1997 the expectation was to find a country similar to Mexico in terms of its development and interaction with external economies. The surprise was that it was far less developed at that time ¨C particularly in terms of people¡¯s outlook and knowledge of external affairs and economies, than he had expected. With a background in Corporate Finance and having sold medical equipment in Japan, Sam started working in China as a business trainer for multinational companies looking to improve the skills of their local managers. Once he decided to stay in China for more than just a long visit, he accepted a position as Operations Manager for a local training company, with a remit to develop their business and computer training. From 1998 to 2001 he oversaw growth of the operations from 3 offices to 14 in the Shanghai region.
While still working as a full-time operations manager, in 1999 Sam founded SSBG as a buyer and re-seller of used hardware. The company was established as a local legal entity along with another partner who was then working at one of the major international consulting companies. The initial business plan was simple, it involved purchasing old hardware from large multinationals, recycling and reconditioning it, then selling it on to local distributors. This was a low margin, high volume business, but provided an initial entry into the infant China IT market.
The I Team
By mid 2001 it became clear that, in addition to hardware trading, the provision of IT support services to foreign companies offered opportunities to expand the business. It was at this stage Sam finally left his employer and devoted his energies full-time to the expansion of SSBG. As of 2007 the company now has some 40 full-time employees and focuses mainly on the provision of IT services to foreign operators in Shanghai and, increasingly across China. These include the specification, procurement and setup of hardware & software for offices with ongoing IT service support contracts. And it is in the quality and response times of the latter, with which the company has sought to define itself against competitors.
Human resource (HR) issues have formed one of the biggest challenges to the growth of SSBG. Historically, this was because as a self-funded company, they simply couldn¡¯t afford to pay the type of salaries associated with the level of employees initially required. The company therefore relied heavily on in-house training of less experienced staff. The upside of this was an ability to train staff to fit the company culture and mode of operating. The downside, was the large amount of management time required to do this and, the risk of staff losses amplifying the effect on the company. Many of the new staff came from the popular HR recruitment services www.51job.com and www.zhaopin.com with some from print advertisements. Interestingly, it was found over time that 51job were stronger for finance and administration staff while zhaopin tended to provide better technical applicants.
Maturity of the company has in part been marked by a more systematic approach to its HR management. This is characterized by a number of aspects which include a separation of the customer service, technical and business development departments and more focus on staff development. One example of this was a move by the company to write a job requirement for each position already filled within the company and additional profile requirements for those positions needed to meet planned growth. This helped clarify what was expected of each employee and provided a more systematic basis by which to assess performance. In addition, the company instigated a ¡®rolling hire¡¯ policy. Based on the assumption there would be turnover in positions, the department managers now interview a number of candidates each month to ensure if a vacancy does come up, they are better placed to rapidly fill it. The added benefit of this is to keep managers up to date on the costs of and type of personnel in the market as well as keeping the employees on their toes.
While staff training is important, the company also now takes the position that with HR you have to expect less and give more. It is also important to ensure the people you have identified to fill positions actually have the ability to reach these goals.? Helping each member of staff understand the goals they should strive to obtain and then formulating this into a clear progression within the company, has been vital in reducing staff turnover. An example of this was with the technical department, where the company drew up an exhaustive list of the skills each technician should ideally have at each level ¨C Jr./ Std. / Sr. / Consultant. The skills they already had were first confirmed in-house, and then it was agreed which additional skills the employee would look to develop and a time frame for these, so they could make the next step up within the group. Ultimately, the employee would be aiming to acquire all skill sets on the list and thus be eligible for higher pay grades due to their experience and skill level.
Growth of the company has been driven by an expansion of office setups, consulting and service contracts. However, SSBG has to date, taken the strategic decision not to pitch itself directly at the local Shanghai IT services and hardware supply market, the latter being particularly dependent on local relationships and the former still fraught with pricing issues. For now, their focus remains firmly on firms establishing or growing in China with international service and support requirements.
And, after an initial foray into the Beijing market, it was decided geographic expansion would be better pursued through the provision of remotely delivered services and phone support combined with local partners to manage the more routine hardware sourcing issues. As the key multinational clients expand outside their Shanghai offices, SSBG believe they are well placed to initiate and set up the remote infrastructure required to streamline their IT services across China and SE Asia through a centralized support and contact point.
Belfrey Partners has continued to provide office leasing support to SSBG since 2004, securing their current office space in Xiangyang Mansion, Xiangyang Rd., Shanghai.
If you would like to contact Sam Ritter please do so via the SSBG website at www.ssbg.com.cn
Author: Jerome H Vaughan
Belfrey Partners
