Tu0104 PDF Eng

Cheetah Mobile
Jing Qian, Hao Chen, Ziqian Zhao, and Yi Qu Version Date: 2018-6-15
Product No.: TU0104
Cheetah Mobile: Cross-Cultural Clashes

Within a Technology Company Born Global
On a Friday night in April 2017, the headquarters of Cheetah Mobile was still brightly lit at
10 p.m. Wang Lei, who was in charge of the international advertising and sales team, had just
held an exhausting video conference with Vincent, a native French regional sales manager in
Bordeaux, France.
On the other side of the screen, Vincent and his colleagues had just finished their relaxing
lunch, as part of the French “art of living.” Not long ago, based on the outstanding performance
of the European team, Wang Lei had raised the performance target by a modest amount. However,
this seemingly routine management practice had aroused foreign employees’ strong opposition.
To seize market opportunities, Wang Lei tried to convince Vincent to make the team work
overtime for the early completion of tasks. Wang Lei could clearly see the awkward expression on
Vincent’s face, who explained that in some European countries, it was even illegal for a company
to abruptly make unilateral adjustments to periodic performance objectives, as this would
inevitably arouse objections from employees. “If we turn a blind eye to their concerns, we may be
sanctioned for breach of relevant laws and regulations.” he said.
Feeling helpless, Wang Lei had to figure out a way to achieve the best of both worlds, in
which he would not violate the local employment laws and regulations and could successfully
achieve performance goals at the same time.
Born Global
Cheetah Mobile, formerly known as Kingsoft Network, was founded through the
amalgamation of Kingsoft Security (a company providing antivirus software and services) and
Conew Image (a company providing online graphics and video-editing products and services) in
This case was prepared by Jing Qian of Beijing Normal University, Hao Chen and Ziqian Zhao
of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, and Yi Qu of Beijing Normal
University as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective of an
administrative situation.
Copyright © Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. No part of this
publication may be duplicated, transmitted or used in any form or by any means without the
permission of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management.
This document is authorized for use only in Juan Manuel Huamancayo Pierrend's Gerencia Comercial Multinacional (2020-II) at Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) from Sep
2020 to Nov 2020.
Cheetah Mobile
October 2010. Based on Kingsoft Security’s accumulation of antivirus safety technologies and the
Internet gene of Conew, Cheetah Mobile was committed to providing a faster, simpler, and safer
mobile Internet experience for mobile users worldwide, and was engaged in active development
and exploration in artificial intelligence (AI) and other areas of innovation. Now it is the
third-largest mobile app developer on the Google Play global non-gaming app list.
As a born-global firm, Cheetah Mobile (CM) moved forward along the path of
internationalization and achieved success in international markets soon after its establishment. In
2012, the Android system was expanding widely around the world, leading to a significant
increase in the number of smart mobile phone users. In the same year, the company officially
started to implement its “overseas + mobile” strategy and, in September it launched a flagship
mobile app, the Clean Master.
Without any overseas office and team, CM succeeded in “sending products overseas” by
developing products with local teams and putting software on platforms such as Google Play 1
and other overseas platforms. CM’s Clean Master soon became a useful system cleaner and
booster for Android users. This “single breakthrough point” paved its way for penetration into
international markets. The company was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE) on May 8, 2014. Currently, in addition to its headquarters in Beijing, CM has branches in
over 15 countries and regions around the world, and has established its second global
headquarters in Silicon Valley, California (see Exhibit 1). Currently, it has more than 3,000
employees worldwide.
Having a series of mobile terminal tools and security apps as core products, CM had
developed its mobile Internet-centered product matrix by 2018 (see Exhibit 2). On February 6,
2018, Google and WPP released the 2018 Report on Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders in
which CM ranked 10th for its outstanding performance and influence in global markets.
The unique strength of this Internet firm along with its globalization experience in the early
stage allowed it to possess a distinctive corporate culture of customer orientation, results
orientation, self-discipline, simplicity, and perfection (see Exhibit 3).
With its development in international business, CM has made remarkable achievements

since 2012 (see Exhibit 4). As a benchmark to other Chinese global Internet corporations, CM
has been dedicated to serving as an international mobile Internet platform, continuously
strengthening big data development, and constantly improving its mobile advertising platform
and direct sales system. Through its cooperation with Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Tencent and
1 Google Play was an online app store developed by Google for Android devices. An app known as “Play Store” would
be pre-installed on Google Play-enabled mobile phones to allow users’ browsing, downloading, and purchasing of
third-party apps on Google Play.
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other giants, CM has placed itself in the global business ecosystem, becoming an important
variable in co-competition.
Steps towards Internationalization

To further facilitate its globalization strategy, CM focused on the localization of its products
and talents after the initial success in “products going out.” In 2014, CM formally began its
internationalization process at the enterprise level, with Taiwan as the starting point.
Taiwan: the activation of the“Small Pleasures Attitude” by Wolf Spirit
Taiwan has a special position in the market landscape of mainland Chinese Internet
corporations. On one hand, the island’s Internet market enjoyed huge growth potential given its
slow development. On the other hand, although Mandarin Chinese is the most widely spoken
language in Taiwan today, there were few Internet corporations from the mainland that could
eventually succeed in Taiwan. Alibaba, Tencent, 360, and some other mainland Internet giants
have all once made great efforts in product promotion in Taiwan, which all turned out to be in
vain.
As the first destination in its globalization process, Taiwan was deemed to be the bridge to
the outside world by CM. Due to Taiwan’s local policy, CM couldn’t register a branch in Taiwan
directly. Therefore, CM established in-depth cooperation with Leopard Mobile, an agency
founded in 2014 by the Taiwanese Wu Dewei. Leopard Mobile was then in charge of CM’s
business in Taiwan.
Wu Dewei had worked for the branch of HP in Taiwan for a dozen years. It took him a long
adaptation period to get used to CM’s flat and streamlined management structure. Compared with
Internet companies from the mainland, having a fully localized team and products was perceived
as a disadvantage for Leopard Mobile. CM believed that competitors could gain brand awareness
through costly promotions in a short time, but it was the product that users eventually paid for.
Therefore, CM pursued localization strategies in the Taiwan market, including recruiting locals
and meeting the demands of local users. All employees of the Leopard Mobile team were young
people from Taiwan, and the average age of managers was under 30. They understood the
interests and demands of users in Taiwan, particularly those of the young generation. At the same
time, CM sent its product team from Beijing to Taiwan for communication and guidance, which
enabled the localization of product improvements in a short period of time.
In addition to differences in management concepts, conflicts of values between the

management and local employees were acute. “Small Pleasures” was a common attitude in
people’s lives and careers in Taiwan. This allowed employees to easily feel those moments of
small and real happiness and satisfaction in daily life, thus leading to a more harmonious
interpersonal relationship and working environment. However, if employees limited themselves
to those simple pleasures, they would stay in their “comfort zone” and refuse to make extra
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efforts. Meanwhile, the education system of Taiwan paid special attention to the continuity of
traditional Chinese culture, and the pursuit of harmony and simplicity was in conflict with the
“wolf spirit” of mainland Internet enterprises, which resulted in doubts and resistance. Terms like
“wild”, “cruel”, “law of the jungle”, and “survival of the fittest” seemed strange and radical to
them.
On one hand, Leopard Mobile adopted the principle of respecting differences in values—not
brainwashing—to reduce the discomfort caused by cultural differences and to avoid mass
resentment and negative behaviors. On the other hand, it encouraged result-oriented performance
to fully develop employees’ potential. Leopard Mobile also selected and hired excellent local
leaders who identified with the culture of Internet corporations, and they were able to change
employees’ behaviors and think in a subtle way during routine management practices. To further
build a corporate culture of diligence and perseverance, the management also organized various
team-building activities with a focus on spreading Internet entrepreneurship. Mainland legendary
business figures and their business stories became the best mediums to propagate CM’s spirit (see
Exhibit 5).
Through the aforesaid approaches, the ability of Leopard Mobile’s team had been fully
activated, and many outstanding Internet entrepreneurs had emerged. Since its official release on
Google Play at the beginning of 2014, the Leopard Mobile team had spent less than half a year
from being unknown to being well-known in Taiwan, and it had spent a year making its way to
the top of the list of tools in the Taiwan app download market — a spot it had held for a long time.
All of this allowed Leopard Mobile to establish its foothold in Taiwan. Since 2015, the company’s
workforce had expanded from 20 employees at the beginning to more than 170 afterwards. It
went from being only a promotion team to an independent product team.
From Taiwan to the U.S.A.
As a Taiwan-based team, Leopard Mobile took advantage of strong cultural inclusiveness

and strong English communication skills, all of which were crucial for further overseas expansion.
When CM began to set foot in North American and Southeast Asian markets in 2015, the Leopard
Mobile team became the frontline force.
Based on the localization experience in the Taiwan market, the Leopard Mobile team also
adopted “local” approaches in the North American market, which made its products gain a strong
reputation in online communities. The team chose Americans’ favorite social
platforms—Facebook and Twitter—to accumulate fans, and organized parties for celebrities on
social media for product promotion.
India: From Eloquence to Practice
CM, which had benefited from internationalization, launched a global mobile advertising
platform in 2015, accelerating its expansion into overseas markets as well as entering the Indian
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Internet advertising market. Throughout the world, only the United States, China, and India had
over 250 million Internet users. India had seen rapid development in economy for the past few
years, which guaranteed its great market potential. Just like China a few years ago, the Indian
mobile Internet market was a land full of opportunities.
Wang Lei used to be responsible for the domestic advertising business and then was assigned
to take charge of the international advertising business because of his outstanding performance.
Previously, his stereotype of Indians was that they were talkative, which made them look like
“chatterboxes” and “bigheads”, and they had no concept of time and efficiency, which made them
“procrastinators”. After taking office, Wang Lei’s preconceptions were totally changed through
field investigations and several visits to clients with local Indian employees. In his eyes, Indians
were passionate and eloquent in the workplace, and were able to present their ideas to superiors,
colleagues, and customers with great confidence.
The aforesaid situations made him consider the fact that the number of Indian CEOs in
international businesses had been increasing in recent years (see Exhibit 6). In his opinion, the
success of Indian managers could be greatly due to their high profiles, attention to relationships,
excellent leadership, and strong communication skills, which were quite the contrary of “silence
is golden” and “true gentlemen’s friendship” in Chinese culture.
However, Wang Lei did find that Indian managers’ work competence and management
capacity had not yet reached the ideal level, and that they still needed improvement in terms of
strategy, professional proficiency and execution. This was needed because the rapidly growing
Indian mobile advertising market would soon change from a blue ocean to a red ocean. In that
case, execution efficiency and many other abilities were of great importance.
According to the experience of the Taiwan team, the CM headquarters did not directly
intervene in the day-to-day work of the Indian team. Instead, it selected outstanding local Indian
leaders to manage the team and paid more attention to the final results. The company was fully
committed to protecting and harnessing the passion and abilities of Indian employees, while
embedding the concept of efficiency and time management into employees’ mind and behavior
through sincere communication and training programs.
Europe: Chinese Management Model vs. Western Management Model
Its first experience with the globalization of products allowed CM to gain numerous global
users at the very beginning, and more than 20% of the users were from developed countries in
Europe and America. To provide better service for users and advertisers, localization had become
an inevitable choice. Subsequently, CM established branches in Europe in 2015.
Compared with developing countries, the sound, mature legal system and recruitment market
of European countries brought both benefits and drawbacks to CM. In Europe, employees are
well protected by the EU employment law, covering a range of areas such as working time,
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overtime, breaks, the protection from discrimination, the protection of pregnant workers, and
equal pay rights, informing and consulting workers on workplace issues, and the protection of
data privacy. The company encountered tricky cultural conflicts and management difficulties in
Europe, especially in France and the Netherlands, where there was better legal protection for
labors and a higher welfare standard than China. In addition, European employees had strong
awareness of protecting their rights. In contrast to Chinese employees’ indirect and implicit
expression of their demands, European employees tended to directly express their opinions.
In addition, European employees prefer a relaxed way of doing things. They need ample
time for participative decision-making, digestion of ideas, reflection, and sense-making. They
believe that this will lead to better results. And they have a different philosophy of work-life
balance –most of them refuse to work long hours. They believe that “fewer hours, more
productive.”More importantly, the EU explicitly forbids an employer to hire workers for a
regular workweek of more than 48 hours. There is no equivalent restriction in China.
CM’s management expeditiously perceived this difference, and had been continuously
optimizing managerial practice and developing explicit communication channels and plans on
important issues for employees to voice up their concerns in order to reduce their sense of
insecurity and distrust. Taking compensation as an example, CM had an overseas compensation
and benefits director, who was responsible for the management of European company’s
compensation and welfare, the relevant legal issues and for the design of a ranking system.
Localization of Talent: CM’s Cross-Cultural Management Idea

In the practice process of CM’s globalization, different cultures from various countries and
regions led to different kinds of cultural conflicts and integrations. The idea of the “localization of
talent” was not only the experience and common characteristic derived from CM’s globalization
process, but also its cross-cultural management secret for the realization of conflict resolution and
cultural integration.
Talent Recruitment: High Salary Package Strategy
The first step in CM’s localization process in various countries and regions was to hire locals
to build teams, which not only referred to frontline employees, but also managers, sales
representatives, and business cadres.
Firstly, although Chinese employees of the parent company were more acquainted with the
company’s businesses, most customers still preferred, recognized, and trusted employees of the
same ethnicity, which was crucial to sales, customer service, and other positions associated with
customers. Secondly, local employees may have more clearer insights into the demands of
consumers,so they could offer valuable advice to improve products and services. Finally, the
corporation could save on training, traveling, settlement, and expatriates’ welfare expenditures,
which could partially offset extra management costs for hiring local employees and thus relieve
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financial stress.
CM’s overseas recruitment was conducted mainly by two means and one of them was
campus recruitment, which was also used by other local Internet enterprises. For instance, to
recruit local high-quality talents in the United States, CM had established contacts with local
university students by organizing various visits, lectures, and seminars (see Exhibit 7) and by
cooperating directly with local universities. CM also provided scholarships and direct internship
opportunities for local students in an attempt to accurately recruit and attract outstanding talent.
Another method was the high-salary recruitment scheme. High salaries and benefits were the
most essential and obvious conditions for CM to attract local employees. CM’s executives firmly
believed that although they suffered from challenges of international collaboration, the turnover
rate of local employees could be even far lower than that in China if employees received a higher
salary than the local industry average.
Talent Development: Full Empowerment
At the early stage of entry into the European market, many employees complained that
management was secretive about major decisions, which made everything “confidential” and
unpredictable. CM possessed teams all over the world, and teams from different areas needed
leaders to provide explicit directions and eliminate ambiguities in work. However, when dealing
with employees from different areas, CM’s management realized that it was difficult for a
subsidiary company’s employees to accept the management ideas of the parent company. In
consideration of this situation, CM’s approach was to recruit talented local managers who
identified with the company’s culture and let them engage in internal conflict resolution and help
the team accomplish performance objectives set by the headquarters. CM, taking results
orientation as an important part of the corporate culture, would not interfere too much in the
operations of local managers. However, this required managers to take account of responsibility
and deliver results.
Talent Use: Communication and Respect
Due to full delegation and results orientation, CM had to effectively control teams around
the world with a high degree of regional autonomy. The headquarters of CM strengthened its
supervision through frequent communication and exchanges. Taking the international advertising
sales team as an example, although GM Wang Lei worked at the headquarters, he held at least one
video conference with managers of branches on a weekly basis to fill the gap in visual
communication, because team members mostly relied on emails and phone calls for
communication. He also tried to understand and respect the cultural background of each member
during limited exchanges, and encouraged open discussions in order to reach consensus. For
instance, in order to improve relationships, he would pay full respect to others’ privacy, never
overstep the boundaries during communication with people of different cultures, and never ignore
the huge cultural differences between two sides.
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Meanwhile, CM focused on building an excellent working environment without

discrimination worldwide. As a supporter of human-based management, CM strongly opposed
nationality, race, gender, and age discrimination in employment with a company value of the
diversity in the workforce (see Exhibit 8), and encouraged employees to engage in public
activities that were designed to eliminate discrimination in the workplace and promote fairness
and equality (see Exhibit 9). As for local talent, CM had been implementing a policy of “equal
treatment,” which allowed local and native talent at the same level in a branch to be treated
equally in terms of salary, benefits, promotion opportunities, and career development, which
created a flexible and comfortable environment for talent to show their ability.
Talent Retention: Diversified Benefits
A certain turnover rate of talent could maintain the vitality of employees and retain those
highly competent employees who identified with the company’s value. This would contribute to
strengthen corporate vitality and optimize the employee structure.
CM believed that excessive loss of talent, particularly loss of executives and key technical
personnel, would incur immeasurable losses. According to CM’s judgment, a high salary alone
was not enough to retain talent, and employees’ initiatives could only be motivated at a higher
level through the integration of material incentives and other types of motivation. As a result, the
company provided diversified employee benefits (see Exhibit 10). CM’s workplace had it all--
library, coffee shops, gym, cinema, and even KTV. The CM academy for employee training and
development, hackathon, weekly executive meetings, and other events provided its employees
with accessible and helpful learning resources, and fully satisfied their needs for self-development.
In addition, CM organized celebrations for different sporting events as well as culture-themed
parties for family days and Chinese and Western holidays every year. A basketball club, a
badminton club, a mountain climbing club, a public welfare club, and other creative clubs
organized activities to enrich employees’ daily lives, and all of these promoted the value of “work
hard, play hard.”
Besides this, a free shuttle bus, reimbursement for taxis called after overtime, an annual
physical examination, birthday presents, wedding gifts, holiday care, supplementary commercial
insurance, and other benefits allowed local employees to feel real care and a sense of belonging,
and reduced their worries about working for a foreign company.
Wang Lei’s Problem: Dispute over Performance Objectives

The Optimistic Market Expectation
Wang Lei had previously worked for the Chinese Internet giant Tencent and CBSI, the
world’s largest professional interactive content network, which gave him extensive experience in
advertising and marketing. As an insider and pioneer in the Internet industry in China, he had
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accumulated many core resources in the Internet, computer, communication, automobile, and
fast-moving consumer goods industries, and he had always maintained an entrepreneurial and
competitive spirit. Being formerly responsible for undertaking domestic advertising business,
Wang Lei was assigned to a position in charge of international advertising in 2018 due to his
excellent performance and rich experience.
Based on the experience he had garnered from colleagues in charge of international business,
communication with overseas executives, and his own management skills, Wang Lei adapted to
the work environment and content of the new position in a short time. With reference to the
annual objectives of the headquarters as well as the team’s previous performance and regional
market expectations, Wang Lei set the current performance objectives for overseas teams in line
with the principle of “achievable with little difficulty.” He considered that it was unwise to push
employees too hard because he had just taken office, and it would hurt the team’s initiative and
threaten his authority if they failed to achieve objectives. Besides, it required time for a new team
to work smoothly.
With the assistance of a mature team and management system, Wang Lei’s international
marketing team continued to run smoothly, and there was no confusion and conflict due to
personnel change. This made Wang Lei feel relieved. One morning, Wang Lei received a
summary report from the European team after turning on his computer. To his surprise, the team’s
progress had surpassed his expectations, and CM’s holistic digital marketing service would
become more attractive given the huge traffic generated by content products and the optimization
of the global mobile advertising platform, which also led to the team’s optimistic future market
expectations.
Immersed in the joy of success, Wang Lei immediately expressed his congratulations and
praise to the whole team. He also conveyed the decision to moderately raise the performance
objectives and reward outstanding performance, and he encouraged them to keep up the good
work and pursue even higher goals.
The Unexpected Conflict
One afternoon, Wang Lei, who was then concentrating on work, received a video phone call
from Vincent, the regional manager in Europe. Due to the time difference, the European office
had just opened, which made Wang Lei believe that Vincent was for credit. However, his smile
faded after seeing Vincent’s worried face. Vincent reported an emergency situation to Wang Lei,
because his small performance adjustment had accidentally given rise to unexpected trouble on
the other side of the globe.
Because they didn’t have the habit of sending or checking work-related emails during off
hours, European employees had not seen Wang Lei’s email until they turned on their computers at
work, and the decision about the adjustment of performance objectives had caused confusion. Just
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a moment later, a “delegation” comprised of employee group leaders had stormed into Vincent’s
office and frankly expressed their dissatisfaction.
Vincent told Wang Lei that he was not surprised by this reaction and reiterated that in some
European countries, it was illegal for a company to abruptly make unilateral adjustments to
periodic performance objectives, as this could inevitably arouse objections from employees.
Vincent explained that the perception of the laziness and leisure of European employees was just
how they appeared and that by working efficiently within a short period of time, they could fully
enjoy their personal time. For instance, although they might leave immediately after work, they
rarely committed to things irrelevant to work during working hours. Upward adjustment of
objectives due to strong performance was like a “punishment” for diligent work to them, and
because the salary provided by CM was adequate, they were indifferent to more material
incentives. What they cherished most was their leisure time.
With his eyes wide open, Wang Lei couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Timely
adjustment of sales targets was very common in China, particularly for an advertising division in
the rapidly changing Internet industry, and it was even a common management approach to
motivate employees. Such adjustments might need greater incentives, but one rarely needed to
talk them over extensively, and it definitely wouldn’t lead to a labor dispute or even to a violation
of laws. He was used to consistently setting higher “small targets” and energetically leading his
team to achieve higher results, and it was very common for his team members to work overtime
for better performance. This sudden conflict really went beyond Wang Lei’s previous experience
and caught him off-guard.
Cultural and Institutional Gap
Taken aback, Wang Lei had to think about how to reassure the European employees. He
needed to learn necessary laws and regulations through communicating with the leader of the
European team, which would make his management practices more reasonable and more
acceptable to European employees.
During his communications with Vincent, Wang Lei learned that Europe had very sound
labor laws and regulations; employees enjoyed comprehensive and well-protected legal rights;
laws were thoroughly enforced; employees had strong awareness of rights protections, and the
cost for touching these “minefields” would be many times higher than that in China. In virtually
all local European enterprises, employees expected companies to have explicit rules and
regulations for them to follow in terms of recruitment, training, performance assessment, and
even the ambiguous area of salary increases and promotions. This would convince them of the
fairness and legality of the company’s decisions. Besides this, the employee representative, trade
union, and industry association were also very influential to the company’s management decisions,
which made them an important and decisive factor for the development and execution of
management policies.
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European employees’ rights were well protected. Taking dismissal as an example, it was not
easy to make “problem employees” go away. Firstly, the company needed explicit dismissal
criteria and had to give justifications. Secondly, dismissal by an employer needed trade unions’
consent in many European countries. Thirdly, early consultation should be conducted, notice
should be given in advance to employees being dismissed, and minimum economic compensation
for dismissal should be given. This led to a high cost and complex procedures as well as a long
duration and increased management difficulty. In terms of benefit standards, women could enjoy
three years’ maternity leave, and during this time the firm was not allowed to dismiss them
according to provisions of European legislation, which was a relatively high cost to enterprises.
The Dilemma
Wang Lei felt that his decision was not well-considered and was based on his own
assumptions, and that he should indeed reduce employees’ feeling of insecurity and distrust of
their employer by paying respect to the local culture, listening to employees’ opinions, and setting
more explicit rules.
However, he still had some concerns. As an Internet company, CM would definitely have a
lot of flexible arrangements for employees to comply with and execute, and it would be very
difficult for CM to have a sound framework in every respect. He strongly hoped that European
and American employees could understand and follow the flexible arrangements. How could he
strike a balance between the two forces and integrate the two cultures?
He was not so sure about the way to solve this specific conflict over performance objectives.
A change of performance objectives by force would be in conflict with European performance
culture, and would lose some employees’ loyalty, damage long-term management, and risk
violating rigorous labor laws and regulations. On the other hand, the cancellation of the
performance adjustments would bring challenges to his authority, make employees too
comfortable with the status quo, and lose CM an excellent opportunity for market expansion…
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Exhibit 1: CM’s Global Office
Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019,

https://www.cmcm.com/zh-cn/contact/#Contact_GlobalOffice.
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Exhibit 2: CM’s Product Matrix

Clean Master, Security Master, CM Keyboard,
Tool apps
PhotoGrid and CM Launcher
Content Live streaming Live.me
products Piano Tiles 2, Rolling Sky, Arrow.io,
Game
and games SkidStorm and Dancing Line
Xiaobao AI speaker, reception robot of
Baoxiaomi, robot arm of Baokafei, child
AI hardware
companion robot of Baobaolong, retailing
AI products robot of Baoxiaofan and Xiaobao translator
Orion OS, Orion robot platform, Orion
AI platform navigation system, and Orion robot arm
platform
Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019, adapted by authors,

https://www.cmcm.com/product.
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Exhibit 3: CM’s Corporate Culture
 Customer orientation: Take the product as the core, achieve mutual trust, and create
value with users.
 Results orientation: Assume responsibilities, be liable for results, do not find excuses,
and begin with the end in mind.
 Self-discipline: Have clear objectives and a view of the overall situation, and support
changes, long-life learning, and continuous growth.
 Simplicity: Pursue simplicity in life, things, and objectives.
 Perfection: Make the impossible possible through in-depth thinking and efficient
execution.
Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019, https://www.cmcm.com/about#category-120.
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Exhibit 4: CM’s Major Events

2017 July Its subsidiary AI company OrionStar won the MS-Celeb-1M championship.
June Its subsidiary AI company OrionStar released the Xiaoya speaker with
Himalaya to provide a full-link far-field speech interaction system.
May Its social live-streaming subsidiary LiveMe received US$60 million in
financing.
2016 November Its social live-streaming product LiveMe became one of the most popular
social products among fashionable young Americans.
January Formal announcement of Cheetah Global Lab.
2015 November Piano Tiles 2 became the game product with the highest global downloads
June both on the App Store and Google Play.
Launch of China’s first global mobile advertising platform, Cheetah Ad
Platform.
2014 December Became the second-largest app developer of Google Play throughout the
world, only next to Facebook.
August Officially listed on the NYSE with transaction code CMCM.
March Kingsoft Network changed its name to Cheetah Mobile.
2013 December Number of global downloads of Clean Master exceeded 100 million, and the
number DAU exceeded 50 million.
August Number of global downloads of Kingsoft Battery Doctor exceeded 100
July million.
Release of Chinese version of Clean Master.
2012 September Introduction of professional mobile phone cleaning app Clean Master for
Android system Clean Master.
June Release of China’s first dual-core secure browser, Cheetah Browser.
2011 August Number of security software clients exceeded 100 million.
July Receipt of US$20 million in strategic investment from Tencent.
2010 November Establishment of Kingsoft Network through the amalgamation of Kingsoft
Security and Conew (predecessor of CM).
Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June, 2019, https://www.cmcm.com/about#category-119.
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Exhibit 5: Open Day of Practical Experience of 100 Chinese Tech

Leaders in Taiwan
Around 100 Chinese technical leaders in Taiwan gathered together on the Open Day of
Practical Experience for 100 Chinese Tech Leaders in Taiwan, which was organized by CM so
they could share their practical experiences in the Internet industry.
Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed, June 15, 2019,

https://m.facebook.com/cmcmglobal/photos/a.602612679850025/900862723358351?type=3&sfn
s=mo.
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Exhibit 6: Indian CEOs Capture Silicon Valley

Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi (took office in 2006, and was ranked third on the list of the Most
Powerful Women in Business by Fortune); Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard (took office in 2010);
Rakesh Kapoor, CEO of the 200-year-old consumer goods giant Reckitt Benckiser; Ivan Menezes,
CEO of U.K. spirits giant Diageo (took office in 2013); Dinesh Paliwal, CEO of Harman
International, the global leader in audio systems and Piyush Gupta, Global CEO of DBS, Indian
CEOs have become a beautiful sight in multinationals. Those are only current CEOs; if you take
into account Anshu Jain, former CEO of Deutsche Bank (took office in 2012 and left in July of
this year), Deven Sharma, former president of Standard & Poor’s (held the position between 2007
and 2011), Manvinder Banga, former CEO of Unilever (big brother of Ajay Banga), and Arun
Sarin, former CEO of U.K. mobile operator Vodafone (held the position between 2003 and 2008),
this group would be even more spectacular. No wonder the U.S. magazine Time said that CEOs
had become the No.1 “output” of India, and described India as “the ideal training ground for
bosses.”
Source: “Indian CEO Captures Silicon Valley,” From Geek, August 17, 2015, accessed January 27,
2019, www.fromgeek.com/news/24640.html.
Exhibit 7: Chatham University Students’ Visit to CM

Students from Chatham University visited CM’s office space in the United States on May 4,
2016. They had a pleasant tour, tried on the Cheetah mascot outfit, and had lively discussions on
the experience of working at an international Internet company.
Source:Cheetah Mobile, accessed, June 15, 2019,

https://m.facebook.com/cmcmglobal/photos/a.906193899491900/906193922825231/?type=3&so
urce=54.
-17-
2020 to Nov 2020.
Cheetah Mobile
Exhibit 8: Diverse Workforce
Source:Cheetah Mobile, accessed, June 15, 2019,

https://m.facebook.com/cmcmglobal/photos/a.602612679850025/999958846782071?type=3&sfn
s=mo.
Exhibit 9: CM Delegation at San Francisco Pride Parade

Source: Cheetah Mobile, June 15, 2019,
https://m.facebook.com/cmcmglobal/photos/a.602612679850025/1287524788025474/?type=3&s
ource=54, accessed.
-18-
2020 to Nov 2020.
Cheetah Mobile
Exhibit 10: Diversified Employee Benefits
A: Climbing wall decorated with

B: Annual cruise meeting
Christmas trees
C: Cheetah Public Welfare Club

visiting disabled children at Shepherd’s D: Fun games on family day
Field Children’s Village
Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019, https://www.cmcm.com/about#category-74.
-19-
2020 to Nov 2020.

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Cheetah Mobile

Cheetah Mobile: Cross-Cultural Clashes

With its development in international business, CM has made remarkable achievements

Steps towards Internationalization

Taiwan: the activation of the“Small Pleasures Attitude” by Wolf Spirit

In addition to differences in management concepts, conflicts of values between the

From Taiwan to the U.S.A.

As a Taiwan-based team, Leopard Mobile took advantage of strong cultural inclusiveness

India: From Eloquence to Practice

Europe: Chinese Management Model vs. Western Management Model

Localization of Talent: CM’s Cross-Cultural Management Idea

Talent Recruitment: High Salary Package Strategy

Talent Development: Full Empowerment

Talent Use: Communication and Respect

Meanwhile, CM focused on building an excellent working environment without

Talent Retention: Diversified Benefits

Wang Lei’s Problem: Dispute over Performance Objectives

The Unexpected Conflict

Cultural and Institutional Gap

Exhibit 1: CM’s Global Office

Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019,

Exhibit 2: CM’s Product Matrix

Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019, adapted by authors,

Exhibit 3: CM’s Corporate Culture

 Simplicity: Pursue simplicity in life, things, and objectives.

Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019, https://www.cmcm.com/about#category-120.

Exhibit 4: CM’s Major Events

Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June, 2019, https://www.cmcm.com/about#category-119.

Exhibit 5: Open Day of Practical Experience of 100 Chinese Tech

Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed, June 15, 2019,

Exhibit 6: Indian CEOs Capture Silicon Valley

Exhibit 7: Chatham University Students’ Visit to CM

Source:Cheetah Mobile, accessed, June 15, 2019,

Exhibit 8: Diverse Workforce

Source:Cheetah Mobile, accessed, June 15, 2019,

Exhibit 9: CM Delegation at San Francisco Pride Parade

Exhibit 10: Diversified Employee Benefits

A: Climbing wall decorated with

C: Cheetah Public Welfare Club

Source: Cheetah Mobile, accessed June 15, 2019, https://www.cmcm.com/about#category-74.

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