Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Boycotting United might be tough - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
United Airlines caused an uproar among its customers in China by forcefully removing a Chinese-American doctor. But calls for a boycott be understandable, but hard to execute, says business analyst Shaun Rein to BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed:
Access to the Chinese market is important to United, which says it runs more nonstop flights to Chinese cities than any other US airline, including routes from Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Xi’an, and Hangzhou to all over the US. The airline also has a code-sharing deal with Air China on certain routes. 
“It’s clear that Chinese partners like Air China will say to them, ‘What’s going on, this is unacceptable,’ and will want them to make it clear that it’s not a racist statement against the Chinese,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, who said he regularly works with multinational companies concerned about attacks from the Chinese government and consumers. 
Rein added, however, that there are relatively few options for air travel between China and the US, so the airline may not face much impact from cost-conscious consumers in the end.
More in BuzzFeed.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Business in China: hard but doable - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff
Marketing guru Tom Doctoroff left China after two decades. For Mumbrella Asia he explains how doing business with China and the Chinese is different. "China marches to the beat of a very different drum," he says.

Mumbrella Asia:
In terms of collaboration though, just how easy is it for global brands to penetrate and work with local brands? And how will the current political climate affect, for example Trump’s relationship with China? 
“The Chinese do not play favourites; they will deal with different types of companies fairly. And they are pragmatists. When it comes to doing business, politics doesn’t make a huge difference. The Chinese are always looking to occupy their own piece of the sky. But they are not aggressive; China does not want to take over or conquer. It wants to stand tall on the world stage, shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States. 
“But they are focused on their own people, elevating living standards and securing stability. It’s not an expansionist power. So when you look at how commerce and politics intersect, for example the relations between China and Korea, the effects are going to be minimal except in a few specific industries – like travel for example. But Korean brands will remain just fine as the Chinese consumers are pragmatists. Plus Chinese brands are not as cool as Korean brands.” 
Given this pragmatism and China’s positioning as major player on the global stage, do you anticipate things becoming easier for businesses to set up in China in the near future? 
“It will not become easier because China has a different worldview. It marches to the beat of a very different drum. The relationship between the individual and society is fundamentally different from the West and it impacts everything from the role that brands play in life, the hierarchy of corporations and the way trust is established – which affects contract development and negotiation. 
“All these things are challenging for someone who does not open up to a different way of viewing things. If you do not bring your operations, your mentality and your brand into alignment with this worldview then you make many major mistakes, from pricing to rent negotiation. But the Chinese are extremely adept at establishing a strong negotiating position. Although unless people become more open to understanding [China] then it will not get easier than it is today.”
More in Mumbrella Asia.

Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more consumer experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.      

Distribution: key for the entertainment industry - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson
Tencent, Alibaba and Wanda are trying to gain dominance in the entertainment sector. Getting hold of the distribution is one of the key points the winner needs to get right, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson on his weblog.

Jeffrey Towson:
Today in China, we can see a lot of players scrambling for dominance in distribution on a changing landscape. This is the clearer path. Broadcast TV is a focus but few licenses are available and this is State controlled. There are certainly lots of DVDs on street corners and pirated downloads, but nobody really controls any of this. 
So much of the focus has been on achieving dominance in cinemas (thus far) – and the release windows for films within these cinemas. Wanda has taken this approach the most aggressively – including internationally with their purchases of AMC Theaters in the USA, Odeon-UCI in Europe and now Nordic Cinema Group in Scandinavia. Wanda Chairman Wang Jianlin has said his goal is to own 20% of the world’s movie screens. 
Outside of cinemas, much of the focus in China is now on online video and streaming. It’s an emerging area where Alibaba, Tencent and a few others are doing an aggressive push into a still grey regulatory area. Note: typically what happens is the regulations are eventually clarified and the market leaders are grandfathered in. But online video and streaming is really the area to watch in 2017.
Much more on Jeffrey Towson's weblog.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more strategy experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Moutai beats Johnny Walker on value - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
Kweichow Moutai, China's favorite booze, passed on Friday with US$71.5 billion Johnny Walker owner Diageo as the world's most valuable drink despite its dependency on the China market. They have made all the right moves, tells business analyst Shaun Rein to CNN, despite president Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive.

CNN:
To this day, Moutai is considered the gift to give and the drink of choice to toast with on special occasions, especially big business deals. That's made it a staple at lavish banquets, the very ones discouraged by Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign. 
As the campaign got under way in 2012, Moutai sales took an initial hit, but that didn't last long. 
"They got smart," said Shaun Rein, the founder of China Market Research in Shanghai. Moutai cut prices to make its baijiu more affordable and broadened distribution to make it more accessible, according to Rein. 
The drinks maker turned its attention to a wider, younger consumer base rather than the government officials to whom it had traditionally appealed. 
For the moment, that approach seems to be working. But Moutai has a huge dependency on the Chinese market, which accounts for 95% of its sales. 
It has made some efforts to expand outside of the country, but without much success. Rein says there's still potential at home, with more young people now able to afford the punchy price tag -- a 500 ml bottle (about one pint) can set you back as much as $580 -- and a slow but steady increase in luxury purchases. 
Perhaps most important, Moutai's brand is so strong in China, Rein says, that "they just don't have any real competitors."
More in CNN.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more financial experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Monday, April 10, 2017

Boycott: standard treatment for opponents - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
South-Korea was the latest country to suffer from economic boycott measures from China after it deployed THAAD missiles on its soil. Tourism backed out and Korean factories suffered surprise inspections. A standard procedure, says business analyst Shaun Rein to CBS. Norway, France, Japan, Taiwan and other suffered from similar boycotts.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more strategy experts to manage your China risk at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

The complex face of religion in China - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson
The Guardian praises Ian Johnson's book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao and his well-documented tour along Taoist musicians, rebel Christians and celebrity Zen Buddhists, and where the CCP is still firmly in charge.

The Guardian:
Xi’s remarks exemplified the fierce tensions that surround the past and present role of religion in communist China. While the party acknowledges and accepts the resurgence of religious belief made possible by the post-Mao thaw, it retains an ongoing compulsion to regulate faith – a compulsion that has resulted in violent suppressions of spiritual movements such as Falun Gong
In his fascinating odyssey through contemporary Chinese religion, Ian Johnson uncovers the roots of these tensions, and the contradictory, complex face of religion in China today. He begins by describing the interlocking relations in pre-20th-century China between politics, society and multiple faiths. In the west, he argues, we are accustomed to thinking “in exclusive terms: this person is Catholic, that person is Jewish, another is Muslim. 
These faiths have … set places of worship, a holy book and, quite often, a clergy.” In pre-modern China, religious attachment lacked this absoluteness: believers veered between the “three teachings” (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism) according to social and ritual need. 
Religion blurred ubiquitously into political power. Control of local temples and religious practices gave local bigwigs community clout; religious authority constituted the “lifeblood” of imperial rule. “The emperor was the ‘Son of Heaven’, who presided over elaborate rituals that underscored his semi-divine nature.” 
Religion’s saturation of political life made it an obvious target for reformers and revolutionaries discontented with a China torn apart by foreign enemies and domestic rebels. In searching for the roots of the country’s crises, many early 20th-century radicals blamed religious tradition – particularly but not only Confucianism – for holding China back from becoming a cohesive, modern state populated by rational, dynamic citizens. This antagonism towards religious tradition peaked during the Mao years (1949-76): temples and monasteries were destroyed; clergy were beaten, imprisoned and killed; Christians were automatically suspect as adherents of a “western” faith. (The religious impulse, of course, did not disappear through these decades: especially from the 1960s onwards, Mao was worshipped as an infallible deity.)
Much more in the Guardian.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.
Are you interested in more stories by Ian Johnson? Do check out this list.

Friday, April 07, 2017

Xi-Trump talks: a start at best - Tom Manning

Tom Manning
US companies profit already a lot from the trade relations with China, says China veteran Tom Manning to CNBC and the country is already liberalizing its economy. Those will be the two arguments China's Xi Jinping will bring into the meeting between presidents Trump and Xi Jinping, Manning says. This meeting will be only a start of a relationship at best.


Tom Manning is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Warren Buffett sells better than sport heroes - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
Superinvestor Warren Buffett made a surprise appearance on CoCa-Cola's Cherry Coke's can during their China launch. A good move, says business analyst Shaun Rein to AP. Business leaders like him are more popular than sport starts.
AP:
The Atlanta company says it decided to feature a drawing of the billionaire investor on cans for the launch of Cherry Coke in the country. Buffett is a known fan of Cherry Coke, and his Berkshire Hathaway is Coke's largest single shareholder. 
Shaun Rein, founder of the China Market Research Group, said business leaders in China tend to have an "outsized" following, in some case more than sports stars. Buffett is also seen as "a non-corrupt, down-to-earth" person in the country, Rein said. 
Coke began selling Cherry Coke in China on March 10. The special edition Buffett cans will remain on shelves for a limited time.
More at AP.

 

  Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China consumer: pickier than ever - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender
Pleasing the China consumer has always been a challenge, but - as Tsingtao and Wanda discovered - consumers have become harder to get. Retail expert Ben Cavender nevertheless sees a lot of room for growth, he tells Reuters.

Reuters:
Official numbers may suggest a rosier 2017 for China, but the bottom lines of the country’s top consumer firms – from brewers to noodle makers and cinema chains – paint a patchy picture of spending in the world’s second-largest economy. Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd, China’s number two brewer, posted its steepest drop in net profit in 20 years last week, blaming tough competition and weak demand. Noodle maker Tingyi saw profits drop by a third. 
China’s top cinema operator Wanda Cinema Line saw 2016 profits rise 15.2 per cent – down from growth of nearly 50 per cent the year before, as broader box office sales stalled. Imax China’s profit tumbled, too. 
“There’s still a tonne of room for growth, but these markets are much more competitive now and even bigger brands are starting to struggle,” said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group. 
“Consumers are becoming more cagey about how they’re spending their money, (from) food to clothing and movies.”
More in Reuters.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on Chinese consumers at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.  

Tuesday, April 04, 2017

A new approach for shadow banking? - Sara Hsu


Sara Hsu
The appointment of Guo Shuqing as chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) raises expectation of a new approach of the shadow banking sector, says financial expert Sara Hsu in the East Asia Forum. 

Sara Hsu:
Guo’s appointment indicates that China’s leadership is acutely aware of the financial risks that are building in the economy because of mounting debt and an increasingly unwieldy shadow banking sector. Real estate property bubbles, overcapacity in some sectors and supply-side reform are just a few of the challenges the government needs to tackle. As Guo stated on 2 March, ‘we will put priority on financial risk control to make sure there won’t be any systemic financial risks’. Guo also noted that the banking sector controls business risks and it should ‘strengthen the sense of responsibility’ toward these risks. 
What is not yet clear is how Guo will balance the need for growth with financial risks. But it is comforting to know that he has ample experience in implementing market-oriented financial reforms that dampen risk while creating room for economic activity. Still, the challenges are immense and only time will tell how Guo will balance these contradictions.
More in the East Asia Forum.

Sara Hsu is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Monday, April 03, 2017

China's return to soul-searching - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson
China's emerging religious experiences have often been misunderstood by the West, says author Ian Johnson of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in an interview with the New York Times. "I think the government is happy to see these things grow—almost as a form of stability."

The New York Times:
What are some of the ways faith in China is misunderstood? 
In polls, if you say, What zongjiao (religion) do you believe in? people still think it’s an odd question. The word zongjiao has been heavily politicized under the Communists. It’s better to ask people what they do rather than about labels. There was a very good study done that found something like 25% of respondents said that a god or a spirit or—I think they used a word like “Buddha”—had influenced their life in the past 12 months. That’s much higher than if you say, do you believe in zongjiao, when you get like a 10% rate [of people saying yes]. For most people there was no contradiction between, say, reading Confucian books on morality and going to a Taoist temple and then inviting Buddhist monks over to perform a funeral ceremony for your granny. It was all part of the same thing. They were not discrete organized religions in opposition to each other the way we think of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. 
You write that President Xi has helped boost Buddhism and traditional religions in China. 
Xi has strongly ramped up support for traditional Chinese ideas, including religion. A lot of guoxue (the study of traditional Chinese culture) now being taught in schools are essentially religious texts—a lot of Confucianism, but they’re reading the [the Taoist classic text] “Dao De Jing” and Buddhist texts as well. There’s been increased support for this idea of intangible cultural heritage, which includes formerly banned religious practices or things that were considered [superstition]. They’ll call it music or theater but it’s religious music and religious theater. They’ve given tons of money to these groups. You also see it in the incredible number of temples under construction. Look at Beijing, which used to have one to two Taoist temples and now there’s over 20. 
There’s a redefining of all this as culture. At one temple in Beijing, I asked a guy, “Is this religion?” And the guy shrank back, saying, “No, this isn’t religion.” And I was like, “But they’re kowtowing.” And he said, “No, it’s culture.” If you’re just a cultural-activities thing or a moneymaking tourist site, it’s more relaxed, you can do what you want. You can have a temple fair and say it’s intangible cultural heritage. 
What’s underpinning official support?
I think the government is happy to see these things grow—almost as a form of stability. If you wanted to be cynical, it’s almost as if the government buys into religion being the opiate of the masses: Let it be an opiate, because we need people to believe in something.
More in the New York Times.

Ian Johnson is a speaker of the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

  Are you interested in more stories by Ian Johnson? Do check out this list.

Doing business with China - Zhang Ying

Zhang Ying
Chinese investors are moving into the world, including Europe, and doing business has become easier, says RSM professor Zhang Ying. Often they know each other already from the past investments into China, and communication has become much easier, she tells a website of the Spanish government.  

Zhang Ying is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

She started March 2017 a partnership between Huawei and RSM on digital education.

Are you looking for more experts on China's outbound investments at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.

The little people, and their religious believes - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia
Journalist Zhang Lijia's book Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China hides nice jewels in different corners. Sex workers often held very strong religious believes, she tells Karen Ma in AsianCha."I believe it is their way of cleansing themselves, but also because they feel the deities won't judge them."

AsianCha:
KM: In the novel, I found Lotus' strong belief in Buddhism fascinating. In your research, did you find many working girls were very religious?
LZ: Yes, many sex workers are very religious. One woman I interviewed told me about a dream, which I borrowed for the novel. She dreamt that she died—in fact, at one point she was obsessed with the idea of death, and often thought she was going to die. So she wrote down her bank details for her mother, in case she died and no one knew where to find the money she had in various banks. In this dream, she was dead. Her whole family—parents, sisters and daughter—came to say goodbye in front of her tomb. They laid down a bunch of white flowers. From death, she watched them, as if in a film. On closer examination, she saw the flowers were made of toilet paper.
It seems to me a high percentage of working girls have some kind of religious belief, either Buddhism or Christianity. I believe it is their way of cleansing themselves, but also because they feel the deities won't judge them. 
KM: Would you say your strong interest in writing about characters/people on the fringe has something to do with your own background?
LZ: Yes, absolutely. Because of my poor family, I've always taken an interest in the "little people"—xiao ren wu, those who struggle at the bottom of society. Artists tend to be attracted to those living on the fringe. Also I believe how these people are treated is the true measure of a society.
More in AsianCha.

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Why Airbnb has a chance in China - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson
China's markets are littered with failures by US firms, but Airbnb might actually have a chance, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson in the Guardian. Domestic competition is not strong, and Airbnb has opportunities in international travel by Chinese.

The Guardian:
The home-sharing market in China is still in its infancy, so, although Airbnb only has 80,000 listings there so far, its domestic competitors are not that far ahead. Xiaozhu, its most direct equivalent, has more than 100,000 listings, while Tujia, which is more of a holiday rental site and oversees the management of its properties, claims to have 450,000 listings. 
“It doesn’t strike me that anybody’s got this market yet. It looks like an open playing field,” says Jeffrey Towson, a professor of investment at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. By comparison, he says, when Uber entered China, its domestic competitors, Didi and Kuaidi, were firmly established. After a costly battle, Uber was forced to bow out. 
Airbnb’s other advantage is its global platform. As more young Chinese travel abroad and stay in Airbnb properties, the more likely they are to use it when they go home. 
“[Airbnb] should try to dominate outbound Chinese tourism immediately,” Towson says, putting the number of these trips at around 110m a year. “Go after all of them. The Chinese competitors, are they going to start finding listings in Brazil? They can’t do that.”
More in the Guardian.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Convenience stores keep on growing - Ben Cavender

Ben Cavender
Department stores in China are losing their shine, but convenience stores keep on doing well. Convenience stores offer consumers better what they need compared to department stores, says retail analyst Ben Cavender to the China Daily.

The China Daily:
Qi Xiaozhai, director of the Shanghai Commercial Economic Research Center, said that nearly all the goods supplied at convenience stores are daily necessities so the demand is hardly affected by other modes of shopping. 
Ben Cavender, principal of China Market Research Group, echoed this point. 
"Convenience stores continue to see strong growth in China because consumers need fast access to pre-prepared meals, snacks and beverages. When they cannot find affordable restaurants or supermarkets, the convenience store is a natural choice," said Cavender. 
"Department stores haven't done well because they are not really providing a unique, compelling product or experience to consumers, so consumers have no reason to go. But convenience stores right now are often the only choice to buy cheap food that consumers are familiar with, such as mantou, or baozi (steamed buns), especially as a lot of street food sellers are no longer operating."
More in the China Daily.

Ben Cavender is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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My picks for religious developments - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson
Journalist Ian Johnson provides in The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao an unprecedented view on how religion has been developing in China over de past years. In an interview with the author for the LA Review of Books Ting Guo argues Johnson did miss important developments. Ian Johnson disagrees.

LA Review of Books:
You provide readers with a religious landscape of China, taking them by turns to different regions. But some important places are missing from your map. As a Southerner, for instance, I felt that Jiangnan — a region with major cosmopolitan cities like Shanghai and home to Zhejiang province, a place that has seen a religious boom — was skipped over. 
I don’t exactly agree. I specifically put in a large section on Jiangnan. The Master Nan chapter is set there, as are key parts of the chapters on internal cultivation. But I take your point — there isn’t much on areas like Fujian or Guangzhou, which have important and vibrant religious traditions. I was faced with a quandary: a book about a huge country has to be selective in order to be coherent. A survey of China would be a different kind of book. 
Any book involves a series of choices and this was no different. When it comes to books about religion in China, many people in the West would expect to see chapters on Tibet and Xinjiang, but I focus on Han Chinese. This explains why I don’t include deal with Islam, despite a strong interest in that religion that shows through in my other writings, from a previous book, A Mosque in Munich, to interviews I’ve published with scholars working on Chinese Muslims, such as Matthew Erie, and pieces I’ve done on recent books about Xinjiang. I also selected aspects of religions that I thought were more indicative of China’s future development. So I don’t write too much about Wenzhou and “boss Christians,” who are successful business people with large churches, because I think they are specific to a region and a model that is dying out.
More in the LA Review of Books.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

In March he won the prestigous Shorenstein Journalism Award. Are you looking for more stories by Ian Johnson? Do check out this list.

Friday, March 31, 2017

Chinese management reform: shunned by the West - Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer
When Western companies discovered new management systems in Japan like Just-In-Time in the 1980s, they applied it fast,despite initial misgivings.But when they see now new ways of decentralizing corporate structures in Tencent and Haier, they are reluctant to take it serious, says Haier-watcher and IMD professor Bill Fischer, co-author of Reinventing Giants: How Chinese Global Competitor Haier Has Changed the Way Big Companies Transform at AP.

AP:
Haier has tried to speed up product development by using the internet to ask potential customers for suggestions and feedback, an approach taken by Chinese smartphone brands. The company says a new appliance can go from drawing board to market in as little as one year, down from more than three. 
Zhang (Ruimin)'s management changes "are more impressive than we see anywhere," said William A. Fischer, a professor at the IMD business school in Switzerland who has followed the company for a decade. He co-wrote the 2013 book, "Reinventing Giants: How Chinese Global Competitor Haier Has Changed the Way Big Companies Transform." 
"He trusts his employees to play more of a leadership role," said Fischer. 
Fischer said a group of European executives he took to Haier headquarters two years ago refused to believe its decentralized style could work. 
"I was struck by how daring Haier was in their thinking. And the people I was working with were hostages to very traditional ways of working," said Fischer. 
The strategy appears to be paying off. Last year's profit rose 12.8 percent from 2015 to 20.3 billion yuan ($2.9 billion) on revenue that increased 6. 8 percent to 201.6 billion yuan ($29.3 billion). Transaction volume on its business-to-business and consumer-oriented internet platforms rose 73 percent to 272.7 billion yuan ($39.6 billion).
More on Haier at AP.

Bill Fischer is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Three China consumer predictions for 2017 - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson
Chinese consumers are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Often erratic, but massive because of their size, says business professor Jeffrey Towson on this first #ConsumerChina vlog. Three predictions on where to watch this force of the future on hyperadoption and mobile.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts on China's consumers? Do check out this list.  

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

How the internet became China's public sphere - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo
The internet in China has become the country's public sphere, says China watcher Kaiser Kuo, former Baidu communication director, at the Paulson Institute. Despite blocked websites and government control, it is the place where netizens express their opinions and discuss.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more internet experts at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.


Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Saudi's search for China investments tough - Jeffrey Towson

Jeffrey Towson
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud met with Chinese President Xi Jinping seeking investments to move his country away from its oil addiction. But that might be tough, says Beida business professor Jeffrey Towson, and former employee of Prince Alwaleed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA), on his weblog. He lists three reasons, and this is one.

Jeffrey Towson:
So why aren’t such deals happening? I argue it is mostly not because of any of the commonly cited reasons, such as language barriers (both Saudis and Chinese speak English), inconvenient flights or visas, security issues (such as Yemen), or a lack of opportunities. 
My experience has been that it is a lack of trust and necessity. Private deals are face-to-face, relationship-based and long-term. And Chinese and Saudi business people just don’t trust each other very much. There is no history of working together. There are few close friendships. There is no history of going to university together. And the deals thus far have been prone to problems. There just isn’t a lot of trust or comfort. And when you are operating in environments without clear rule of law and easily enforceable contracts(such as in both China and Saudi), you rely on close relationships far more. 
The other problem is necessity .There actually is no need to do private China-KSA deals. Chinese companies can make investments in lots of places. And Saudis can continue to work with Western companies, just like they have for decades. China-Africa have the same trust issues but the deals happen because there is a real need for resources. China-Germany deals happen because there is a need for technology (by China) and market access (for Germany). But there is no such need for KSA and China. And absent a compelling need, the lack of trust is not overcome. 
So the Chinese and Saudi groups meet, drink tea, take photos and express interest in working together. Maybe they even sign an MOU. But then, outside of basic trade, not much happens. Ultimately, nobody writes big checks or makes long-term commitments. So we have not and I do not think we are going to see hundreds of private deals between Saudi and Chinese private companies in the near future.
Much more at Jeffrey Towson's weblog.

Jeffrey Towson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

Are you looking for more experts at China's outbound investments at the China Speakers Bureau? Do check out this list.