Fredmund Malik (center) has been a witness to－and an adviser of－the evolution of the management of Chinese government and companies. The Austrian expert conducts training programs for Chinese executives in St. Gallen, Switzerland.[Photo provided to China Daily]

In 1998, Malik was invited by a ministry to pay his first professional visit to China to give management lectures.

Malik, who naturally paid attention to things related to his own field, learned that China was very dependent on the United States in terms of its management consulting and education.

"I believed China should not follow exclusively the US way, not even the Western way, but should develop its own way of doing it," Malik says.

He says though he found his holistic management ideas resonate with philosophies in Chinese culture and history, the country's modern practices were very much influenced by the US management system.

Speaking of his motivation to strengthen ties with China, he says he encountered strong interest in his management theory.

"The requirement for adopting a different kind of management to master complexity and change, and make leadership effective, had just begun in China."

Many of his European clients with branches in China asked his center to provide training and consultancy in China, too.

That's how he decided to establish a branch in Beijing in 2010.

Malik now visits China regularly every year and stays about 10 days each time to deliver lectures and conduct training programs for Chinese executives.

He has been invited by the Chinese government to give lectures to executives of large State-owned enterprises and officials at different levels around the country.

He has provided consultancy to large Chinese enterprises and has delivered many lectures at important institutions, such as the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Tsinghua University. Malik has also published six books on his field in Chinese.

Recognized for his achievements, Malik has been appointed as a distinguished professor at several Chinese universities and as a consultant for governments in some Chinese cities. Over the years, Malik has also paid attention to development and reforms in China.