Doing a Foxconn - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Suicide in China has now been linked to the poor working condition at Apple supplier Foxconn. But, as China veteran Bill Dodson discovers at a plant a Suzhou, love might destroy also the lives of workers. From his weblog:

Bill Dodson:

The attempted suicide in his factory comes on the heels of two suicides just a couple weeks before at a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong province. 

“Boy trouble?” I asked. My friend nodded in agreement. “I think so. These young people just can’t cope with disappointment,” he observed. “Now we’re probably going to have to put up nets around the building and bar the windows, just like Foxconn,” he said despairingly.

I know the manager had prided himself on creating a working environment in whcih people for the most part enjoyed coming to work. Changes to prevent suicides would only create a prison-like atmosphere, of course. Still, managing suicides as commentary on the conditions of worker environments or their love lives seems a permanent fixture of doing business in China.

More at Bill Dodson's weblog.

Bill Dodson 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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Are China's authorities starting to listen to revolting workers? - Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

Apple, and its supplier Foxconn, are in the middle of revolts by workers in Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Wukan, who are standing up for their rights. Former factory worker Zhang Lijia supports their actions, and hope China's government will continue to support those workers, she writes in The Guardian.

Zhang Lijia

I  felt the pain of my fellow workers because I, too, slaved for 10 years at a factory and endured its strict rules. The restrictions at my state-owned factory, however, paled in comparison to those of cold-hearted capitalism. There is labour law that forbids a 16-hour working day, among other malpractices, but it is not forcefully implemented by the local authority. After all, the private or foreign-invested enterprises bring revenues. 

I was very pleased to see the migrant workers beginning to resist. Shortly after Foxconn's suicides, workers from several Japanese-owned Honda factories revolted. They went on strike until their demands for better pay and working conditions were met. In chatrooms on the internet, several Honda workers argued that it would be better to put up a fight than to take one's life. Compared with their fathers, the young workers are savvy about the internet, better educated, more worldly and far more aware of the law and their rights... 

I was relieved and delighted by the approach the authorities have taken in both the Wukan and Wuhan cases: they have clearly recognisednongmin's rising demands for rights and equality. But a soft approach alone isn't enough. I hope China's leaders will really listen to the farmers, opening up more channels for them to express their grievances, and allowing some kind of independent labour union or at least a collective bargaining mechanism to ease the conflicts. And ultimately, they'll have to grant the same rights to those who make gadgets such as the Xbox and iPhone as those who use them.

More in The Guardian.

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.

More on Zhang Lijia and China's moral crisis

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Apple is lagging behind Google's android - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Apple might look like the big technology winner, gaining unprecedented access to the Chinese consumer, but it is lagging as Google's Android moves ahead, tells business analyst Shaun Rein Bloomberg. Bloomberg:

The iPhone maker is only “scratching the surface” of Chinese demand after sales in the region surged six-fold to $3.8 billion last quarter, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said in July. Still, delays in store openings may give makers of smartphones and tablets equipped with Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software room to gain market share, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group. “In many ways they are still behind the curve, and they are opening stores too slowly,” said Rein, whose Shanghai-based company advises retailers and other clients about operating businesses in China. “Before, Apple had clear dominance in terms of technology, but now the gap is being lowered because of Android.” Apple is expanding distribution of its products including the iPhone and iPad in China as competition with Android device makers including Samsung Electronics Co. and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992) intensifies. Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman at Apple, declined to give the company’s latest target for store openings in China.

 More in Bloomberg Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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The Temple of Apple - Paul French

The Temple of Apple via Wikipedia

The Apple outlet in Pudong, Shanghai is getting mythical proportions and babtized by retail analyst Paul French the 'Temple of Apple'. In Mercury News he explains why Apple changed from a laggard into a winner in the booming China market, unlike other US brands.

While Apple currently captures only a sliver of China's consumers, the country's 300 million-member middle class includes many upwardly mobile consumers with money to burn.
"Apple's moment is here," said retail analyst Paul French of the Shanghai-based firm Access Asia. "There is now enough of an urban middle class with enough money to afford Apple products. Five years ago -- or even two or three years ago -- there weren't enough of those people."...

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

While many Chinese buy cheap knockoffs of Apple products, plenty of others are more than willing to pay top price for originals -- and the reliability and status that comes with them.
At the Pudong outlet -- a spacious store awash in natural light that French calls "the Temple of Apple" -- product adoration crossed a number of age groups one recent afternoon, from teens sipping milk tea to professionals getting assistance on Macintosh software. Young couples cuddled over iPads as music, from hip-hop beats to the Beatles, filled the air.
"They've got great products and they are doing this at a time when Chinese consumers are feeling bullish and have some money," French said.

More in Mercury News.

Paul French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Apple: A loser turns into a winner - Shaun Rein

Entrance Apple store Shanghai by randomwire via Flickr

A visit to Apple's store in Pudong, Shanghai leave no room for doubt: the company is doing very well. Shaun Rein analyzes in CNBC how the laggard from 2009 turned into a winner in 2011, where other retailers like BestBuy, Home Depot and Mattel's Barbie retreat.
When selling the iPhone, Apple was the victim of its own appeal. Shaun Rein:

Originally, Apple waited too long to get the iPhone into the market. By the time the iPhone officially sold there, early adopters had already bought around 2 million cracked versions smuggled in from the U.S. and Hong Kong.

So for the iPad, Apple used a different tack. Instead of waiting years as it did with the iPhone, Apple waited only months after it came out in the U.S. to launch the iPad in China. Consumers did not feel the need to travel abroad to shop when they knew products were coming to them soon.

When a brand does not release its new products on time in the Chinese market, the 50 million Chinese who travel abroad will pick up the products there, making a launch in China a guaranteed failure. Offering a high-standard store, not selling through dodgy retailers, did the trick for Apple's products:

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein

Like in other markets, Apple’s new stores are fun to shop in, have great service, and consumers trust that they are buying the real thing. Unlike with Best Buy, which sold too many of the same products at higher prices, Apple is differentiating both its service and its products from other retailers while keep a uniform pricing scheme in the country. There is a significantly wider gap in the quality of experience between shopping at an Apple Store and a reseller in a dingy electronics mall than between shopping at a Best Buy and a Gome, China's largest electronics superstore chain.

More at CNBC

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need him at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Bernanke, manipulating the US currency - Shaun Rein

Ben Bernanke via Wikipedia

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, is wrong in pumping 600 billion US dollar into his economy, writes Shaun Rein in Forbes. The dependence of the US economy on its addiction to debt in increasing its problems, not solving them. Bernanke is shifting the problems of the US to the rest of the world, including China, holding large amounts of US-dollar denominated bonds.

Global investors are rightly worried that with the U.S. money supply growing the value of the dollar will continue to drop. So what are they doing? Companies like Apple, General Electric  and Pepsi are investing in emerging markets like Brazil, India and China that are rebounding better from the crisis. The result is massive asset bubbles in those places that could create great volatility if they popped.

In other words, Bernanke is unleashing America's economic woes and bubbles on the rest of the world. America's closest allies like Germany and Brazil are protesting, sensibly, as are the Chinese. They don't want Bernanke to fob off America's problems onto them.

More in Forbes

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Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein is a speaker of the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Steve Jobs is too US-centric - Shaun Rein

Too America-centric via Wikipedia

Apple was able to cause some queues when their iPad hit its two stores in China, but according to Shaun Rein Steve Jobs is still too much focused on America, ignoring lucrative markets elsewhere, he tells the Mercury News.

"Apple has great products the whole world wants," said Rein, of China Market Research. "But Steve Jobs looks at America too much. The company is too Ameri-centric. This is a complaint you hear throughout the world."

For now, though, Chinese consumers are riveted with Apple's splashy presence in Beijing and Shanghai.

The average Chinese consumer might not have as much money to spend as the US baby boomers, but because they spend their income differently, they can still afford the expensive Apple products, Rein argues:

It's not uncommon for Chinese to spend two months' salary -- or more -- on an iPhone, which costs about $750 for a 16 gigabyte model without a China Unicom contract, though the relative scarcity of the devices has driven the price up among scalpers and resellers. Consumers can also get a 16GB iPhone 4 with a two-year contract that costs about $880. Some Chinese don't even use the device as a phone because it's too expensive for them to make calls; instead, it's used to send text messages, said Shaun Rein, managing director of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group.

"They use the iPhone as a status symbol to show their sophistication in the world, even though they can't afford it," he said.

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Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau and one of our specialists on marketing.

Shaun Rein by Fantake via Flickr

 Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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More in Mercury News.

iPad a winner for Apple in China - Shaun Rein

Image via Wikipedia

Apple's iPad has arrived today in China and, says Shaun Rein in the Wall Street Journal, that is a smart move of the US company, as customers are waiting eagerly.

Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, says the iPad could give Apple a boost. “I see the iPad as a major win for Apple in China,” he said. “There’s not much competition in the market” and consumers say “they can’t wait for it.”

Though there is significant interest in Apple products in China, the company’s release of the iPhone has been lackluster compared to its release in other markets, in part because it took so long to officially launch the device here. In the more than two years between the U.S. iPhone launch its official launch in China, the gray market for iPhones—including millions of iPhones that were hacked and packaged with pirated software—became well-established....

Apple launched the iPad in China “fairly quickly after launching it globally. It’s not like people have had years to go and jailbreak them,” Rein said.

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Image by Fantake via Flickr

Shaun Rein

r conference, do get in touch.

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Helen Wang joins China Speakers Bureau

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Author and consultant Helen Wang has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Born in Hangzhou and since twenty years living in the US, she has become a leading expert on China's middle class. Her book "The Chinese Dream" will be published shortly.
Her Chinese roots and American experience puts her into an excellent position to explain the rise of this new economic force in China, both its chances and its challenges.
Helen Wang has previously at a prestigious think tank, Institute for the Future, and consulted for Fortune 500 companies including Apple Computer, Oracle, and Bank of America.
Her book "The Chinese Dream" is expected next month.

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