Mark Hayes left Drimnagh Castle CBS in 1989 and spent a week cycling around west Dublin looking for a car dealer willing to take him on as an apprentice mechanic. His perseverance paid off and Callow Gilmore in Bluebell employed him.

Hayes has worked in the motor industry ever since. He spent 14 years working his way up the ladder in the retail trade with the Windsor Motor Group before joining Gowan Distributors (distributors for Peugeot in Ireland) as after sales development manager in 2005.

“This was a completely new role within the motor industry at the time,” he says. “Up to then, the dealership business model was based on generating profit from new and used cars. After sales (service & parts) was not seen as contributing to the bottom line.

“I spent four years working with dealers to improve efficiencies in their after sales departments. When the economy crashed and the new car market collapsed, many dealers survived because they had invested in the after sales side of their operation.”

Hayes was appointed head of marketing for Peugeot in Ireland in 2008 and says that working through the recession taught him valuable lessons.

“Businesses relearned what value for money meant. Managers responsible for budgets questioned every quotation, every plan, every column inch. Supercilious suppliers who wouldn’t adjust to the new order were dropped and we emerged leaner and fitter,” he says.

In 2012, Hayes moved to Volkswagen Group Ireland as head of after sales for its Skoda brand. “Skoda is one of the oldest car brands in the world and its growth in Ireland has been phenomenal,” he says.

“Our aim was to build a team of committed, progressive dealers who understood how to provide the best customer experience, not just when someone buys a car, but in the intervening years until they buy again.

“In 2012 and 2013 we were awarded world after sales importer of the year by Skoda Auto – not a bad achievement for a small country on the edge of Europe.”

Clearly impressed by Hayes' achievements, Skoda Auto approached him in April of 2014 with a job offer in China.

Hayes has found the biggest change is getting to grips with the scale of things in China.

"China has a population of 1.4 billion people. Shanghai has 24 million people and Minhang, the district of Shanghai where we live, has three million people," he says.

“In 2015, the car market will be around 19 million units. Shanghai Volkswagen will sell roughly 1.4 million cars of which about 335,000 will be Skodas.

“There are already 1.1 million Skodas on the roads here. This year, we will add another 40 dealers bringing our network to 400 across China. Our joint venture manufacturing plants employ around 35,000 people.”

All senior positions within the Chinese operation have two managers, one VW and one local incumbent.

Management challenge

“It’s an interesting dynamic and one that tests every management, cultural and diplomatic skill you have,” Hayes says. “China still has a legacy of collectivism and, in an organisational setting, the biggest management challenge is the absence of initiative.

“In the West, we encourage people to be creative and find their own solutions but the steep hierarchical system in China demands respect and additional tasks must be approved so as not to be disrespectful.”

“New ideas are discussed and discussed again. Other departments must be consulted and consideration given to how something will affect everyone else. Decision-making is a very slow process.

“It takes about three months of banging your head against the wall until you realise that if you’re going to be successful here, you have to work with their methods.”

Hayes says that being Irish really helps. Most of the other VW managers are German, British or Czech. “Basically you’re an oddity,” he says. “Ireland? Never heard of it. Is it Iceland? Ah yes, I know Ireland, we love your Queen . . .

“Irish people don’t take themselves too seriously and neither do the Chinese. Chinese colleagues also . . . trust the expat manager and Irish people tend to dispense quickly with formality, roll up their sleeves and get stuck in.

“This collaborative approach is appreciated and reciprocated, and has proven to be very effective for me.”

Hayes says China is hungry for knowledge from more mature markets and this creates big opportunities for those with the right skills and experience. “The quid pro quo is working in the biggest market in the world in a business culture that is rapidly changing and incredibly stimulating,” he says.

“Shanghai is an amazing place and my family are very happy here. We use Facebook and Skype to stay in touch and almost everything from home is available albeit at twice the price. We’re from a small village called Robinstown in Co Meath. If I miss anything it’s jumping into the car with the dog and 10 minutes later you’re walking along the Boyne or in the woods.

“There’s nothing like that here unless we drive for two or three hours. My dog walked on a lead for the first time in China. Sometimes I catch him staring at me. I think he secretly hates me now.”