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| Tom Doctoroff |
. The current lack of political reform is draining the country's creative resources, Tom Doctoroff argues.Tom Doctoroff
They understand what innovation is and they admire it tremendously. Steve Jobs is a hero because of the fact [that] he had a different vision and he pursued it and won big. The problem is that the economic and social structures don’t encourage it. So will we ever see a Chinese entrepreneur that is truly innovative or a Chinese company known for innovation? I don’t want to say never, but I don’t see how this can happen on a broad basis unless you have significant political reform. You need a government that is impartial and has the mechanisms to protect individuals’ interests involving everything from judiciary to corporate governance to how banking loans are determined to transparency in bookkeeping to a more rational tax regime.
Why are we not seeing more of the development of a service sector in China?
Two reasons—one is macro, the other is human. The macro reason is that any time an industry affects the broad masses, it will be controlled by the state. So anything having to do with financial services, travel, even tourism is subject to the inherently noncompetitive commercial ethos the state advances. The second is bottom up and the comfort people have with paradigms and scripts and their fear of challenging conventional wisdom. A stewardess or hotel attendant would have to have the confidence to go off script, to really probe into what their customers’ needs are and give a solution even if it might not be on the approved checklist of solutions.More in Adweek.
Tom Doctoroff is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting of conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form
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1 comment:
I completely agree with Tom on this issue. China's structure has politicized commerce and made businessmen and entrepreneurs deal with the mechanisms of party politics first at the expense of entreprenuerialism. 90% of China's largest companies for example are State Owned, and you need to play politics to get ahead. It's not a meritocracy, and Chinese businessmen hit a glass ceiling as a result, they're not globally savvy. Compare that to India, where 90% of their largest companies are run by entrepreneurs, and where they have far more advanced global businessmen then China does. China is in danger of its companies remaining, apart from commodities buyers, localized, leaving Indian MNC's instead to develop as the next wave of global giants. - Chris
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