A slowdown in China is forcing multinational companies to treat the world's second-biggest economy more like a developed market, turning away from a headlong dash for growth to focus on premium businesses, or improving productivity by investing in staff.
As the main driver of global growth for much of the past decade, China has been a godsend to big international firms looking to boost profits as economies elsewhere struggled.
Now, though Beijing is attempting to rebalance its economy to a more sustainable rate of expansion dubbed the "new normal" by President Xi Jinping, and with growth at its slowest in a generation, the current quarter has seen a slew of companies citing China as a reason for underwhelming earnings.
"We've entered the new phase, a new normal with slower growth, and that changes the business dynamic, and it changes the outlook," said John Lawler, Ford China CEO, at a recent conference for US businesses in Shanghai.
In recent weeks, weakness in Chinese demand has been blamed for soft sales and trimmed forecasts from companies ranging from luxury fashion retailer Burberry to KFC owner Yum Brands to US' computer hardware & consulting firm IBM and Japanese robot maker Yaskawa Electric Corp.
Economic data released in October also showed export growth slowing sharply in Japan, while South Korean exports fell -- both blamed on the slowdown in their giant neighbor.
The companies in sectors such as construction and mining have felt the biggest pinch. Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar has outlined plans to slash capital spending and cut about 10,000 jobs, while industrial conglomerate United Technologies Corp said its business in China could drop as much as 15% next year.
And, the days of double-digit growth that had foreign companies scrambling to enter China in the first decade of the millennium may not be coming back. Growth would remain around 7% level for the next five years, President Xi said on Tuesday.
As Beijing tries to steer the economy away from the export and investment-led growth model that fueled China's rise, companies have to re-evaluate their strategy.
"Generally, it has probably moved from 'go, go, go, growth, growth, growth,' to 'things are getting complicated'," said Abinta Malik, general manger for Gap Inc in Greater China, when asked at the Shanghai conference how the message from head office had changed.
In response, some firms are investing more in the development to cater to Chinese consumers' growing sophistication.
"We have reformulated our products, we have invested in innovation and renovation very much like we do in Europe," Nestle Chief Executive Paul Bulcke told reporters after the world's biggest packaged food firm warned in mid-October it would miss its long-term growth target this year.
Beijing's policymakers estimated consumption in China's vast market was still only half its capacity. The problem is that the consumers are not yet picking up the slack from falling industrial demand, China's Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.
"The rapidly rising consumer-spending has yet to offset the decline in traditional industrial investments," said Ulrich Spiesshofer, chief executive of Swiss engineering group ABB, after reporting a fall in net profit and revenues for the third quarter last week.
