http://www.engagingchina.com/blog Understanding China's new economy and its impact on western businesses en-us Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:55:43 +0200 strategy Blogware Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250039.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250039.html Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:32:00 +0200 Dell's once ground-breaking direct sales model, which spurns dealers and distributors in favour of internet orders, has been found wanting in the west. Now, the US PC giant has decided that Chinese customers also prefer a face-to-face relationship and so it has struck a deal with Gome, the country's largest retailer... hi-tech strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250232.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/9/24/3250232.html Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:16:00 +0200 A sign of the times. The new boss of Chrysler's Asia operations comes from SAIC, China's largest car maker. Philip Murtaugh was recently named as CEO for Chrysler's all-important Asian business, which includes the high-growth mass markets of Indian and China... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/24/3156090.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/24/3156090.html Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:00:00 +0200 Giant LED screens are a familiar sight in China's cities but these Made in China screens are now turning up in some unexpected places -- like Ethiopia. Unnamed Chinese manufacturers have signed a deal to supply 16 of the hi-tech LED screens for Ethiopia's millennium celebrations next month... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/22/3150547.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/22/3150547.html Wed, 22 Aug 2007 10:00:00 +0200 Many people in the west would be hard-pressed to name a successful Chinese exporter, as few Chinese companies have invested in building a brand. Now they are being urged to move away from the "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" image and instead focus on making their own branded products... manufacturing strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/14/3148475.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/8/14/3148475.html Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:00:00 +0200 FAW VW was the top carmaker in July and VW's Jetta was also the best-selling model. Volkswagen has been very successful in China but it faces new challenges, such as the competiton that has recently broken out between its two Chinese joint ventures for the hotly-contested mid-range segment... manufacturing strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/16/3096811.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/16/3096811.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:54:00 +0200 Danone's increasingly bitter dispute with its Chinese partner, Wahaha, is likely to have an "unfavourable impact" on future sales of the French food group. In an ideal world, the two companies would have gone their separate ways long ago. But Danone wants to continue selling water under the market-leading Wahaha brand and it needs Wahaha's sales and distribution network in China... legal strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/16/3090598.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/16/3090598.html Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:00:00 +0200 [INTERVIEW] The UK trade deficit with China has ballooned from £3.8bn to £9.4bn over the past five years. Can anything be done to reverse the trend? Eugene Chang, an adviser to the China-Britain Business Council discusses practical measures to help British firms engage more with China and is particularly keen to encourage the country's 4.3m SMEs... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/12/3087577.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/12/3087577.html Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:33:00 +0200 One of the biggest challenges for westerners looking to engage with China is of course the language issue. EngagingChina was thus heartened to read about an ambitious initiative by Michigan's Oakland County, to become the first county in the US to offer Mandarin in all its its schools... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/9/3080650.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/9/3080650.html Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:17:00 +0200 It took Microsoft over a decade and billions of dollars of lost revenue to learn how to do business in China. And it could it another decade before China takes its rightful place as Microsoft's biggest software market. However, Microsoft's China strategy seems to be paying off, at least if measured by the number of new customers it gets each year in China... hi-tech strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/6/3075105.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/7/6/3075105.html Fri, 06 Jul 2007 18:35:00 +0200 A taskforce has been set up by the UK government to help British design businesses succeed in China's booming £3bn design market. The design-based industries are an area where the west has much to offer to China but many design businesses are small and so the prospect of engaging with China can be daunting... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/29/3056425.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/29/3056425.html Fri, 29 Jun 2007 10:21:00 +0200 Beijing made a rare official response to the concerns about Chinese seafood, the latest in a lengthening list of defective Made in China products that includes tyres, toothpaste and petfood. Instead of sitting back and exhorting others to clean up their act, western retailers and brand-name manufacturers can exploit these consumer concerns to their advantage... consumer strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/28/3052851.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/28/3052851.html Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:21:00 +0200 Talent management has emerged as one of the biggest challenges for multinationals operating in China so its good to see that western firms are now taking this problem a lot more seriously. PwC, the professional services firm, is the classic "people" business and so it knows more than most about the problems of recruiting and retaining top staff... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/27/3050527.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/27/3050527.html Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:31:00 +0200 EngagingChina has long believed that great opportunities lie in China for western providers of testing and quality assurance services. So its good to see this thesis confirmed by the latest trading update from Intertek, a UK-listed provider of quality and safety services... consumer strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/25/3046122.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/25/3046122.html Mon, 25 Jun 2007 18:43:00 +0200 We've all laughed over badly translated English menus and signage in China but the message usually gets through. It can be more of a challenge trying to understand the fractured English of instruction manuals. But sometimes the quality of the translation is so poor that it can cause more serious problems... strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/18/3030294.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/6/18/3030294.html Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:02:00 +0200 What can be done to help Europe's smaller enterprises that want to engage with China but lack the contacts and do not know how to start? Europe-based Viadeo and China's Tianji have teamed up to create a new online networking platform, Euro China Link that seeks to bridge the distance -- and the culture gap -- that separate the two business worlds... hi-tech strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/31/2987662.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/31/2987662.html Thu, 31 May 2007 15:46:00 +0200 French food giant Danone has had a shipment of Evian mineral water seized by Chinese customs officials who found excessive levels of bacteria. It is hard not to see this as a retaliatory move following the recent outcry in the west about adulterated food and drugs exported from China... legal strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/30/2984490.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/30/2984490.html Wed, 30 May 2007 11:45:00 +0200 Every advertiser likes a captive audience. What better way to grab their attention than on one of China's epic train journeys? More than 120 train routes in China have been fitted with the Railway Motion Media system, developed by Chinese company Epinmedia. It allows bored railway travellers to enjoy TV content, check out web information or play online games, among other activities... consumer strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/25/2975107.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/25/2975107.html Fri, 25 May 2007 19:09:00 +0200 Monstermob, the UK-listed company that set out to conquer the once booming Chinese market for mobile phone ring-tones, is now considering throwing in the towel on China. Monstermob was particularly hard hit by China Mobile's recent clampdown on mobile phone services as the company had become heavily dependent on the Chinese market for growth and had made a string of local acquisitions. hi-tech strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/22/2967680.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/22/2967680.html Tue, 22 May 2007 19:00:00 +0200 At an international product safety conference, being held appropriately enough in Beijing, western experts urged China to improve its act and reduce the number of product recalls. Alarm bells are ringing following a growing number of incidents involving counterfeit drugs and sub-standard agricultural goods imported from China... economy strategy Geoff Nairn http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/17/2956455.html http://www.engagingchina.com/blog/_archives/2007/5/17/2956455.html Thu, 17 May 2007 19:00:00 +0200 Could China's supremacy in mobile phone manufacturing be challenged? Not any time soon, you may think. That's why we were intrigued to read that Korean phone giant Samsung may be planning to move its key production line for mobile handsets to Vietnam to reduce production costs as global competition intensifies... Main Page hi-tech manufacturing strategy