Showing posts with label Janet Carmosky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Janet Carmosky. Show all posts

Monday, October 28, 2013

China's dream with a stripe of green - Janet Carmosky

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+Janet Carmosky 
China's president Xi Jinping is following the Chinese dream, just like his predecessor Hu Jintao sought a harmonious society. China-veteran Janet Carmosky discovers a shade of green in this Chinese dream, she writes in Forbes. 

Janet Carmosky:
One of the deep affinities between the US and China, I have always thought, is the passion with which both nations celebrate big, fast, and futuristic things. One of the differences is the streak of naturalism in American culture: preservation is weighed against development, and sometimes wins out; trips to Vegas might detour to include a hike in the Grand Canyon; dream homes are built for mountain views and vacations are planned around lakes and beaches. 
While Chinese culture is not completely without naturalists and environmentalists – from Daoist Tang poet Li Bai to contemporary activists like Liang Congjie and Dai Ling - there’s no philosophy of reveling in the wilderness. Jack London, Theodore Roosevelt or Henry David Thoreau have no Chinese counterparts among the voices that shape the man-nature relationship.  One would think, however, that the people of a country where the airbone carcinogen levels  in certain major cities on certain days is numerous times the recommended limit, might be open to the idea that luxury can be simple.  That fresh oxygen on the skin and in the lungs is worth the annoyance of even sweat, bugs, and maybe even (gasp!) lake water.
More in Forbes.

Janet Carmosky 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.

China Weekly Hangout

How successful can president Xi Jinping be in rooting out corruption, the +China Weekly Hangout is going to ask on Thursday 31 October. How committed is the Xi/Li team to real change? You can read our announcement here, or register for the event here. 

In October last year the +China Weekly Hangout discussed the ability of China to innovate, with political scientist +G. E. Anderson and China consultant at-large Janet Carmosky. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.
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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Catching Chinese consumers illusive for many brands - Tom Doctoroff

Doctoroff
Tom Doctoroff
China's consumers might be high on the agenda of many global brands, getting them is a tough challenge, explains China's consumer guru Tom Doctoroff in the Business Times. "The difference is the depth of their ambition." 

The Business Times:
Foreign brands wanting to enter China's retail market to take a slice of the country's growing consumer dollar must understand the complex cultural make-up of its shoppers or risk packing their bags sooner than expected. 
In particular, international players have to realise that consumption in China is very much an outward show of status and for professional advancement, said Tom Doctoroff, the Asia-Pacific head of advertising giant J Walter Thomson (JWT) and an expert on Chinese consumerism. 
"The difference between Chinese consumers and others is the depth of their ambition - the desire to be emperor of their own corner. There is a dragon in the heart of every Chinese," said the Shanghai-based chief executive of JWT Asia-Pacific at a dialogue on China's retail sector organised by HSBC in Singapore last month.
E-commerce might be booming in China, but it also offers specific challenges, tells Tom Doctoroff;
"The key word is reassurance. It has become increasingly safe to buy from a broader range of categories online. Money is not handed over until customers can squeeze the product," said Tom Doctoroff, the Asia-Pacific CEO of advertising giant J Walter Thomson at the HSBC dialogue session last month.

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. 


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Sara Hsu

Are foreign firms having a hard time in China, asked the +China Weekly Hangout  earlier in August? Western journalists focus on Western firms in China, that might be fair, but they ignore China's real challenges, argue China veteran-at-large Janet Carmosky and sustainability expert +Richard Brubaker, moderated by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.  
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Monday, August 19, 2013

Demand for new houses continues to be strong - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein
Shaun Rein
The government has been trying to cool down the overheated real estate industry, but demand for new houses remain high, whatever the government does, tells Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein at the BBC.

The BBC:
Some analysts said the strict rules had resulted in a short supply of new homes, driving up prices. 
The new measures include higher transaction taxes, restrictions on purchases of multiple homes in some cities as well as higher down payments. 
"After the government unveiled the curbs in the residential market, many real estate developers shifted their focus on developing commercial projects," aid Shaun Rein managing director at China Market Research Group. 
"That has seen the supply of residential property slow down drastically. 
"But demand for new homes is still strong, especially from those looking to buy their first-home or upgrade to a bigger property," he added. 
New house prices in Guangzhou posted the biggest jump, up 17% from a year earlier, while Beijing and Shanghai saw prices rise by 14% from a year ago, according to data released by National Bureau of Statistics on Sunday.
More at the BBC.

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.  

China Weekly Hangout

Can China innovated, asked the +China Weekly Hangout on October 1, with political scientist +G. E. Anderson and China consultant at-large Janet Carmosky. Moderation by +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau.
Janet Carmosky
Janet Carmosky


 Are foreign firms having a hard time in China? That is the question the +China Weekly Hangout will address on Thursday 22 August, with as panelists China veteran-at-large Janet CarmoskyCEIBSbusiness professor Richard Brubaker and international lawyer Nathan Kaiser. You can read our announcement here, or register directly at our event page here.
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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Getting corporate noses in the US and China into the same direction - Janet Carmosky

Janet Carmosky
Janet Carmosky
The battle lines between HQ and the China team are the famous basis of many failures of US firms in China. China veteran Janet Carmosky explains in the China Business Review what can be done to get the noses of those teams and their HQ's into the same direction.

+Janet Carmosky :
Once China- and HQ-based team members have an open mind, there’s the potential to dismantle the battle lines for China strategy and operations. As simple as it sounds, the catalyst that allows joint action to proceed is agreement on what the issue is. While executives in China need to communicate openly with HQ peers to gain buy-in, HQ needs to help China operations align with overall regional and global priorities. Zakkour adds that the “China team has to have a clear line defining freedom to act autonomously,” which goes a long way to building trust. 
It’s all about seeing reality in similar terms, taking action together, and building a track record of collaboration that pays off.  It starts with acknowledging that polarized China competency and business competency, in silos, are no replacement for integrated China and business competency at different levels throughout the organization. It continues with practice that draws on the expertise of both internal and external specialists. They are, in Zakkour’s words, “the glue that holds the operation together and ensures that the two sides stay on course.”
More in the China Business Review.

Janet Carmosky 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.

China Weekly Hangout.
Why do foreign firms fail? The China Weekly Hangout discussed on January 30  with panelist +Richard Brubaker of Collective Responsibility and +Andrew Hupert, expert on conflict management in China. Moderation: +Fons Tuinstra of the China Speakers Bureau. Including references to Apple, Mediamarkt, Foxconn and many others.

The China Weekly Hangout is going to resume on Thursday with an open office session where you can participate to help to set the agenda. You can join by registering here, or read our initial announcement here.
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Integrity counts for Chinese firms - Janet Carmosky

Janet_-_023Should China put its hope on private companies, or rely on the old state-owned forces. For China veteran Janet Carmosky it is not important where a company gets its capital from, but integrity counts, she writes in Forbes. "Bankers never had the skills to evaluate commercial risk." 

China’s future is less about whether the enterprises who get capital are state owned or private enterprises. It’s about the integrity of the process through which they get that capital. 
To be sure, numerous distortions, waste and illogic are among the results of central policy-driven lending by China’s banks to State Owned Enterprises. Still, assuming those polices were all revoked tomorrow, what would remain in place would still fail to support innovation, environmental stewardship, ethical practices in business, employee security, investment in R&D.  Any of those warm fuzzy things people are supposed to think of when private enterprise is extolled. 
Why? Because the bankers who allocate capital have never had to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to evaluate commercial risk.  They do not know what level of expertise, analysis, or due diligence is needed to evaluate a loan application. Don’t let anyone tell you that lenders in China are doing deep and real commercial due diligence. That includes VC.  The reality is that the political alignment of an enterprise – whether it’s State Owned, or the pet private project of a Party princeling – is first among all criteria for taking an equity stake. 
Where patronage is the de facto criteria for lending, lenders and investors have no need or experience in identifying  that elusive, powerful quality that Li Junheng calls Innovation DNA.  China’s bankers and VC’s don’t have the right skill sets now. They could develop them. They could educate and hire and train people to have them. But until that happens, free market enthusiasts, don’t get too excited about big changes in China’s direction.
More in Forbes.

Janet Carmosky 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.


+China Weekly Hangout 

The China Weekly Hangout discusses trends in China and focus on May 24 on the changing labor for with +Dee Lee (Inno), of the NGO Inno in Guangzhou, running a workers' hotline, mainly funded by big brands who want to keep an eye on working conditions. +Heleen Mees, NYU professor in New York, +Sam Xu  and +Fons Tuinstra, of the China Speakers Bureau, ask him questions.

Chinese labor in Africa is the subject of the China Weekly Hangout on Thursday 13 June, following the story of over 124 Chinese gold miners, who got arrested in Ghana last week. Our expert panelist will be +Eric Olander of the China Africa Project, and you can read our announcement here. You can register for participation at our event page.
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Sunday, February 03, 2013

China: its own worst enemy - Janet Carmosky

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Janet Carmosky
The Chinese hacking efforts of the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other media has proved to be a disservice to China's international reputation, writes China veteran Janet Carmosky in Forbes. "China has a way of being its own worst enemy"   

Janet Carmosky:
What holds China back from sustainable prosperity and stability is not a lack of resources. The country is rich in human, financial, and technological capital. 
Nor is it a lack of skill in dealing with enemies. On the contrary, the obsession with enemies of the state reveals the deeper obstacle to China’s continued evolution: truly abysmal comprehension of the necessity of goodwill, the value of friends. And in the matter of making friends, China has a way of being its own worst enemy... 
The only way to be free of enemies is to do nothing and be nobody. Not an option for China. Since enemies are a given, friends are a necessary counter balance. Especially when China is often – as in the Chinese Media Hacker Ninja incident – its own worst enemy. Get some help. Really.
More in Forbes. 

Janet Carmosky 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.     

In our China Weekly Hangout of October 11, 2012 Janet Carmosky discussed, together with political scientist Greg Anderson and Fons Tuinstra, president of the China Speakers Bureau the ability of China to innovate.    
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Friday, January 11, 2013

The need for China hands - the HEMA case

Hema store front
Hema store front (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
China veteran Janet Carmosky pleaded earlier this week for rethinking the relationship between China hands and corporations. Corporations do not use the China expertise as well as they could, Janet Carmosky argued. Seldom you get a good illustration on what can go wrong, presented on your TV-screen in the same week, as happened to some of the China adventures of retailer HEMA.
Earlier today we already made fun of the company, who focuses on a retail concept where affordable commodities of a decent quality are sold to low-earning customers. That works pretty alright in the Netherlands and Belgium, where they have their largest operation. But they are owned by investment bank Lion Capital, and that means they have to grow, grow, grow, even if that kills the company.
My information is based on the documentary "The Secret of HEMA". Recordings took place during a whole years and that means the viewers do not have a complete picture. In fact, some of the rather stupid decisions could make sense, if you would know the whole picture.
According to my assessment their retail concept would not work in China, but pressure from the investment bankers might force the HEMA management to make decisions that are less than smart, as I discussed in the earlier post.
A shocking event in the documentary is a visit to one of their major suppliers. HEMA sources much of their textile and other commodities in China, so a visit to the larger supplier would make sense. The HEMA CEO Ronald van Zetten meets his Chinese counterpart, and he brings a box of cheap cookies from their store as a present. The lady, the translator/assistant, gets a similar box.
That is two mistakes in one: if you are going to meet the CEO of a large supplier, you can come up with something better than cheap Dutch cookies, he probably does not like anyway. And second, you do not give somebody lower in the hierarchy the same present. Those are small things, but easy to avoid.
Being an ignorant Dutch CEO gives you some leeway in China, but it looked pretty stupid. And that was only the start.
Van Zetten skips all the traditional pleasantries you need in China to break the ice. He starts the conversation by asking whether his supplier, since they have already a long-term trusted relationship, wants to become a partner in his planned retail operation.
There is not really an indication that the supplier has also experience in setting up a retail operation. Manufacturing is a different ball game than retail. What seems to happen - and that is all to common - is that business is offered to the first Chinese you trust.
The Chinese CEO does not look too surprised, but praises the plan as an excellent idea and offers his services. Expecting that he would have said differently - even when the idea is obviously heading for a failure - is a wrong idea. Chinese do not mind to tell you the truth, but not at your first visit to China.
Hey, I'm Dutch, and if somebody would propose such a plan, involving millions of investments, I would likely be on the conservative side telling the truth.
Even if the HEMA had assigned a decent due diligent research into the retail capabilities of their supplier, the idea seems less than smart. When you set up a retail operation with your supplier, you jeopardize both operations if one of them goes bad. Putting your eggs in different baskets is very important.
But the HEMA people leave the premises smiling, and think they have concluded a smart deal.
Later in the documentary, management has decided to leave their suppliers in China, and move their sourcing operation to Turkey. Middle management is unhappy, since they lose a trusted partner in China, they were very familiar with and offered good products and kept all the deals. The documentary maker here fails to ask what is happening to the retail operation, although that seems pretty important.
Again later in the documentary, supplies from Turkey do not meet the quality standards, and they cannot deliver the volume needed for a larger retailer like HEMA. The relationship with the Chinese suppliers already has been screwed up, before Turkey fails to deliver, so they now have to go back to China, at least for the near future.

Getting things right in corporate life is a challenge, and sometimes for obvious reasons stupid decisions have to be made. But I would have guessed HEMA would have been better off by listening to some China hands, and sometimes listening to them too.
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Thursday, January 10, 2013

The disconnect between China hands and corporate life - Janet Carmosky

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Janet Carmosky
China is here too stay, in corporate life, writes China hand Janet Carmosky in Forbes. But between the China hands and that corporate life there is a huge disconnect, that needs to be repaired, she argues. China hands are used as painkillers, not as part of a long term strategy.

Janet Carmosky:
My theory of China Business Competency for American business: given that business with China is in our lives, not going away, and getting harder to deal with, one would think business people with China skills would be valued players on the strategy team. 
What I see instead: a pattern of using China Business Problem Solvers (Painkillers), while keeping long term strategy as a separate process, and wishing fervently that China could just be easier... 
Human resources department, corporate leaders,  the way through this is to build an interface that connects China and HQ.  A safe, non-polarized interface that taps best thinking on both sides.  [Andrew] Hupert wants to train your teams to have that interface. And I guess, so do I.  So do a lot of of other people with China experience.  Let’s get rid of the Mob Wife, the Ugly American, and the Old China Hand. – the whole Figure Eight. Long live something more effective: a pretzel populated with New China Hands.
More in Forbes. (with a reference to Andrew Hupert.)

Janet Carmosky 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.

At the China Weekly Hangout in November, Janet Carmosky, Greg Anderson and Fons Tuinstra discussed how China is dealing with innovation.
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Thursday, January 03, 2013

Dealing with China is getting tougher, not easier - Janet Carmosky

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Janet Carmosky
Dealing with China has never been easy, but - writes China veteran Janet Carmosky in Forbes - things are becoming tougher in stead of easier as the country gets more organized. She summarizes 30 years of working in China by her friend Hank. 

Janet Carmosky:
30 years of working in US-China business has taken Hank into some fairly ugly situations. There was a time when the business landscape in China was nothing but regulatory gray area, and when business plans went well into execution phase before it became clear that they were based on massive misunderstandings. Someone had to figure out what went wrong; ask the questions no one asked before. Fire people, carefully, who were holding hostage the operations; renegotiate deals that took two years to negotiate the first time; track down the holders of fraudulent paper. Headquarters never wanted to know the details. I had to do some of those things. Hank did it more – chasing down bad joint venture partners, bad deals, bad loans. I got death threats once in a while, but I’m pretty sure Hank had bodyguards on speed dial... 
But hey, Happy 2013! It’s been three decades since people like Hank and I first arrived in China. Hasn’t it all become so much more civilized? Rising disposable incomes, full citizenship in global trade regimes, a growing Chinese middle class, more interaction with the west….freely available coffee, wine, sandwiches, cheese. Bigger houses. A stock market. All these things were supposed to make China’s business environment friendlier: more win-win, more give-and-take, less volatile, less hostileEveryone thought that modeling the structure of western capitalism would cause commercial behavior in China to evolve. We expected that Chinese would focus economic growth around the logic of The Firm, rather than the logic of The Nation. Hank thinks that the current unpleasantness – that where the giant household name multinational he works for, which has invested billions into China over decades, which employs many thousands of Chinese in many many Chinese cities, pays lot of Chinese taxes and etc. is getting worked over by Chinese regulators and partners – is “payback for America’s handling of ZTE and Huawei.” In other words, Chinese enterprises felt they were treated poorly in America, and turnabout is fair play.
More in Forbes.

Janet Carmosky 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.

In October in the China Weekly Hangout Janet Carmosky, together with Greg Anderson and Fons Tuinstra, discussed about innovation in China.
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