Home Depot loses, IKEA wins; why? - Helen Wang

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Home Depot announced the closure of outlets, a stiff reminder that life can be tough, even in a fast growing Chinese market. But what is IKEA doing better, wonders Helen Wang in Forbes, as they are opening more outlets. What lessons can be learned?

In the last fifteen years, home ownership has gone from practically zero to about 70 percent. However, many people have little sense of how to furnish or decorate a home. They are very eager to learn from the West. This is one of the reasons that IKEA is very popular in China. Their Western-style showrooms provide model bedrooms, dining rooms, and family rooms showing how to furnish them. Their stylish and functional modern furniture is particularly appealing to young couples...

Three lessons Helen Wang has:

Helen Wang via Flickr
• Chinese consumers need to be educated as they have no role models. They are eager to learn but they need guidance. Companies that invest in educating the market can expect to reap handsome rewards.
• Pay attention to local customers’ preferences. For example, the kitchen is usually small and considered secondary in a Chinese home. Chinese cooking usually blackens the kitchen with soot and grease and is the domain of an ayi, or household helper, who cooks for the family.
• Most Chinese homeowners live in condominiums rather single family homes. They do not have a garage that can store tools and ladders. A more appealing package would be pre-designed interiors with installation included.

More in Forbes.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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1001 American questions on China - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Will the Chinese middle class pull America out of recessions? Will China become a democracy? Helen Wang faces a stream of American questions on US media, and does a good job. On her media page an overview of the recent radio boardcast that hosted her, after releasing het book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You.
Will China explode any time soon, asks Tommy Schnurmacher at Astral Radio. And will China's poor accept that others do better?
Helen Wang's missonary work in explaining China to America seems long overdue.
Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Fan mail for the Chinese Dream - Helen Wang

Helen Wang

Helen Wang's book The Chinese Dream got some solid fan mail in the Mercury News from Mike Cassidy. "Our best bet is to listen to people like Wang, who've identified the upside, and then get to work on taking full advantage of it."

Let's just say I'm her target audience. The truth is we've all seen amazing changes in China in the two decades since Wang left. And I'm thinking that some of those changes include the shift of jobs from the U.S. to China, serious concerns about the theft of U.S.-generated intellectual property, stiff competition from China for resources like construction material and oil and a move to a U.S. fiscal model that relies on China to be the country's key banker. And I'm thinking of one thing that hasn't changed fast enough: China continues to be a repressive government with minimal regard for human rights.

Wang argues that I'm focused on the wrong changes. That kind of thinking, she says, misses the big upside to the rise of China. Consider instead, she argues, the explosion in opportunities for the Chinese people, the chance now for those who work hard to start businesses or to go to work for multinationals doing business in China and other countries.

"They have a lot more opportunities," Wang says. "Many of my American friends are going to China because of the tremendous opportunities there."

And what is more: Helen Wang convinces Cassidy.
More in the Mercury News.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Can America and China trust each other? - Helen Wang

Wikipedia Hu Jintao and wife

After Hu Jintao's state visit to the US, celebrity author Helen Wang addresses key questions about the relations between both countries in her weblog:

Although there are notable differences between the two countries, the leaders of both recognize that the U.S. and China have a lot to gain by working together. One of the concrete results of the visit is the $45 billion agreement allowing U.S. exports into China, which will create 235,000 jobs in America.

Author Helen Wang says, “In the long run, there will still be issues in currency, human rights, and intellectual property, etc., and there will be ups and downs, but I don’t think the U.S.-China relations will turn into a cold-war kind of confrontation. It will be a work-in-progress relationship.”

Some of the questions Helen Wang can answer:

• Is China America’s worst enemy or best friend?
• Will China’s growing middle class be a saving grace for America’s economic woes?
• What are the secrets for U. S. companies to succeed in China?
• Is it a myth that China is a global manufacturing power?
• Why should every American student start learning Chinese?

More in her weblog.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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China: US opportunity to reinvent itself - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

Many Americans fear the rise of China, Helen Wang discovered in many media appearances, she writes in her weblog. Wrong, "I’d like to focus on what makes America a great country to begin with."

The United States of America is founded on the principle that all men are created equal. It is based on the idea that regardless of one’s background, with determination and hard work, one can achieve whatever one aspires to in life.

This very core of the American Dream has continued to unleash enormous amounts of human potential and creativity, and is still attracting top talent from around the world. I have talked to many Chinese young people, and many of them expressed the desire to come to America and obtain a green card...

For example, a growing Chinese middle class will not only help the Chinese economy to rebalance from its current excessive-saving syndrome, but it will also create markets for American companies to sell into China and therefore alleviate the pain of America’s overconsumption. When the two major economies with opposite strengths and weaknesses can rectify and fortify each other, the world will be able to thrive on a virtuous cycle of globalization without being vulnerable to an American recession.

Most importantly, in order for America to live up to the challenges of the 21st century, it needs to move away from “the global dominance” mentality as stated in Rachman’s article. That is precisely the mentality that led to America’s arrogance in world affairs and caused anti-American sentiment in some parts of the world.

More in Helen Wang's article.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Explaining the Chinese dream - Helen Wang

Helen Wang via Flickr

Celebrity author Helen Wang of The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You tells Forbes' Beijing chief Edy Gapstein during her book launch how she defines the 'middle class' and explains why Ebay lost their battle against Jack Ma's Alibaba.

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Young Chinese less romantic about the US - Helen Wang

Helen Wang via Flickr

Helen Wang answers questions from ATimes, on the day of the official launch of her book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You. How do young Chinese look at the US?

Twenty years ago, when I first came to the US, China was just opening. Chinese had very little information on the world. After all, during the Cold War we were adversaries. Once China opened, we began to see that the world was very different than we had been raised to think. And once we could, we all wanted to go to America. I viewed America as a place for the impossible, a romantic version of what the world was not - a dream come true. 

Even now, young people in China still look up to the US, but that has begun to change over the last couple of years. Largely because of the financial crisis, some say: "See, maybe they don't know what they are doing." Also, as a Chinese living in America, I felt that up until about two or three years ago, American news coming out of China was very biased - not very right on - but that has changed recently. I feel the coverage now by American media outlets is actually quite fair and balanced on China. I think a lot of American media has done a better job recently of focusing on getting first-hand information in China, less surface stories, and less American-centric... 

When I left China twenty years ago, there was no Chinese dream. But now there is: now people in China can start a business, they can own homes, they can drive new cars, and they can send their children to college. In many ways, Chinese see how Americans live and they want more of the same thing. The difference is that Chinese are very much focused on their own economics - they feel that as long as they stay out of politics they can have a good life.

More at Atimes.

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Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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Defining China's middle class - Helen Wang

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

In her newly released book The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You, Helen Wang gives names and faces to the hundreds of millions Chinese who have been shaking off poverty in the past decades. In Forbes she kicks off a discussion that has already been heated in the past: how to define China's middle class?

Since “middle class” is a Western concept, to a certain degree, it contains mythical elements for many Chinese. For example, they think middle class Westerners all own homes, drive cars, and travel for vacations. In addition, Chinese believe middle class people should have good manners and a tasteful lifestyle. They do not consider less-skilled professions such as waiting tables as middle class. In China, rural migrants who earn very low salaries mostly fill those jobs.

In The Chinese Dream, I use a combination of these definitions: urban professionals and entrepreneurs from all walks of life, who have college degrees and earn an annual income from $10,000 to $60,000. Over three hundred million people, or about 25 percent of China’s population, met these criteria in 2010. 

Please let me know whether you agree with these criteria. How would you define it?

More in Forbes.
More on her book here.

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Helen Wang will be on Fox News 1270 Am talking about the Chinese middle class 9am Dec. 7th. She is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. when you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.

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The Chinese dream - review

Helen Wang via Flickr

One of the more amazing shifts China has undergone in the past decades is its ability to create wealth for its citizens, and lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. The mental picture many outsiders still have of China, enforced when they see the PLA marching on Tiananmen Square, is a country dressed in green and displaying an image of equality.
Connecting real names and faces to the all-too-often abstract growth figures we all know is a daunting task, Helen Wang has taken on in an excellent way in her book “THE CHINESE DREAM: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You”. Mostly, journalists are looking for the extremes to illustrate their stories: the very poor, or the very rich. Easily we forget that China has hundreds of millions between those extremes and - more than those extremes - they tell us how a country is really doing. Their stories about what they want from life, their future and their government is what really matters.
That rising middle class, trying to achieve their dreams, comes to live in over one hundred interviews and stories where individuals tell about their ambitions. Helen Wang has to strike a tricky balance, between first putting hundreds of millions together in one group, the middle class, and still describing them like individuals with - often contrasting - ideas and targets. That mosaic of human stories and ambitions makes the book also a very accessible and recognizable picture for the world outside China.
Whether the Chinese would call themselves “middle class”, like the Americans do, will be a debate in the years to come, as it was in the recent past. Helen Wang has set first valuable steps on a road where we can discover what we have in common and where we differ and - following the Stanford mantra - how we can make a difference.

The official launch of the book will take place at December 10 in Palo Alto, California between 6 and 9 PM. More details and reservation is possible here.

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The Chinese Dream - Helen Wang

Helen Wang via Flickr

The long-awaited book by Helen H. Wang The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You is now available at Amazon. The book is endorsed by some of the bigger names in the China debate:
James Fallows of The Atlantic: "A fascinating look at one of the most dynamic forces shaping our world today"
Gady Epstein, Beijing Bureau chief of Forbes: "A truly valuable read for anyone who wants to do business in China.”
John Quelch, professor at Harvard Business School: " An unusual book, very readable and full of insight.”
Shaun Rein, managing director China Market Research Group: "A must-read for businesses that want to tap into this enormous market."

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Democracy, a matter of the Party - Helen Wang

Helen Wang via Flickr

Helen Wang looks at the prospects of democracy in China, inside and outside the Communist Party. Both options do not look very viable, she writes in Forbes.
The Communist Party has picked up the best and the brightest, also from those returning from overseas.
Helen Wang:

In a trip to Shenzhen in August, Wen Jiaobao surprised many China watchers by saying that without political reform China may lose what it has already achieved economically. That view was reconfirmed in an interview with CNN on September 23, when Wen told Fareed Zakaria that “the people’s wishes for and needs for democracy and freedom are irresistible.” I was particularly struck by his ending line: “I will not fall in spite of strong wind and harsh rain, and I will not yield till the last day of my life.”

But the leadership in Beijing was divided and Wen's efforts were shelved for the time being. Still, there is only one option for those who are looking for a change, as Wang concedes:

While the most competitive young people in America went into business, or even, in recent years, nonprofits, some of the brightest young people in China went into the government and joined the Communist Party. They recognized that the party is the only game in town and that party membership has significant advantages, such as career advancement, social status, or personal connections.

More in Forbes.

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Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

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Most-sought speakers for October 2010

Hurun by Fantake via Flickr

It's October and it might not come as a surprise that Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun has appeared as the largest mover in our most-sought speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. This years' Hurun rich list attracted much attention, as it showed how Chinese women are conquering top positions, how retail is becoming more important and real estate tycoons are losing their financial leverage - although still important.
Rupert Hoogewerf replaced Kaiser Kuo on the third place, as Kuo is now working more behind the scenes of China's largest search engine, Baidu.com.
Not quiet have been our numbers one and two. Shaun Rein was already our most-quoted speaker, but is now appearing in mainstream media at least twice a week. This month he blamed Apple's Steve Jobs for being too US-centric and was caught predicting two, three decades of solid growth for China. Paul French is not that much quoted, but very busy on this book tour, promoting his latest book Fat China. Obvious, with good results.
Worth mentioning is also the staying power of two relative newcomers, Helen Wang and Wendell Minnick. Often, new speakers on our roster are in danger of slipping away into the dark corners of our databases, but both are able to attract enough attention to say in our top ten.
Now, the official top-10 of most-sought speakers for October (September between brackets

1. Shaun Rein (1)
2. Paul French (2)
3. Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun (-)
4. Kaiser Kuo (3)
5. Arthur Kroeber (7)
6. Tom Doctoroff (5)
7. Helen Wang (7)
8. William Overholt (8)
9. William Bao Bean (9)
10. Wendell Minnick (10)

.

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"Build Your Dreams" in BYD - Helen Wang

Warren Buffett via Wikipedia

Warren Buffett visited this week China's electric car maker BYD in Shenzhen, where he invested 230 million US dollar to buy ten percent of the company. BYD stands for "Build Your Dream", recalls Helen Wang on her weblog, one of many dreams in China.
Helen Wang:

It does not take much research to discover that BYD are the initials of the Chinese charactersBi Ya Di, which does not mean anything but sounds foreign or Western. Many Chinese companies use Western-sounding names to make their companies or product brands sound modern, or to imply their businesses have Western connections.

Despite some nationalistic tendencies among Chinese youths, most of China’s upwardly mobile middle class consumers favor Western brands because of their quality and reputation. A recent article in Harvard Business Review reveals that only 45 percent of Chinese consumers prefer local brands, down from 57 percent three years before.

More at Helen Wang's weblog.

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Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch.

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

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'Fat China' scores in most-sought speakers for September 2010

Paul French by Fantake via Flickr

Some remarkable changes in our monthly top-10 of most-sought speakers. While most of the listed speakers hold on to their position in the list, Paul French has entered the triumvirate of top-3 speakers at number 2, clearly a success related to his latest book Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation, where he identifies obesity as a new key problem China has to face in the decades to come. For China's health care yet another Gargantuan dilemma, caused by the advertisement industry, claims French.
Many other thought-leaders on China seem to prefer to stick other - undeniable giant - challenges has to face, but setting the agenda by re-framing China's challenges in such a way certainly seems to appeal to clients.
Shaun Rein, as usual, has been extremely active in the mainstream media in debating China-related issues, so he still remains very much at the top.
Good news is also the appearance of a new speaker, Helen Wang, who entered the first ranking right away at the 8th position. Her book, The Chinese Dream, on China's middle class is not yet available, so we have good expectations she might hang on to a top position in the months to come. All too often, when new speakers do not trigger off enough response among mainstream media., clients or otherwise, they often leave this top-10 as fast as they came in.
Wendell Minnick, with his special focus on China's military might, did not face that fate. As the military tensions increase in Asia, the Bureau Chief of Defense News in Taiwan solidly hangs on to the 9th position.
Without further delay, let's turn to the full top-10 of most-sought speakers of September 2010. (August 2010 in brackets).

Helen Wang by Fantake via Flickr

1. Shaun Rein (1)
2. Paul French  (7)
3. Kaiser Kuo (2)
4. William Bao Bean (-)
5. Tom Doctoroff (4)
6. William Overholt (6)
7. Arthur Kroeber (3)
8. Helen Wang (-)
9. Wendell Minnick (8)
10. Jasper Becker (9)

Are you looking for these or other speakers on China-related issues? Do get in touch.

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How Ebay failed in China - Helen Wang

Jack Ma of Alibaba

In the slipstream of the most recent Yahoo-Alibaba brawl Helen Wang recalls the long-standing tradition of failure Yahoo's ecommerce site Ebay had in China. From an excerpt of her upcoming book "The Chinese Dream" in Forbes.
The struggle started in 2004:

In 2004, I visited Alibaba at its headquarters in Hangzhou. It is located on a campus of three ten-story buildings in the northeastern part of Hangzhou, about a ten-minute taxi drive from West Lake. In the lobby, a flat panel TV was streaming video clips of Jack Ma speaking at various public events where his admirers, most of them in their twenties, were cheering him like a rock star. While visiting Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, I felt the same “insanely great” energy of entrepreneurship as I felt in Silicon Valley. When I asked a senior manager at Alibaba whether the company was worried that it would be bought by eBay, I was blown away by the answer: “We will buy eBay!”

As we know now, Ebay failed that epic struggle, that is still going on. Helen Wang:

First, eBay failed to recognize that the Chinese market and the business environment are very different from that of the West. EBay sent a German manager to lead the China operation and brought in a chief technology officer from the United States. Neither one spoke Chinese or understood the local market. It was eBay’s biggest mistake. Second, because the top management team didn’t understand the local market, they spent a lot of money doing the wrong things, such as advertising on the Internet in a country where small businesses didn’t use the Internet. The fact that eBay had a strong brand in the United States didn’t mean it would be a strong brand in China. Third, rather than adapt products and services to local customers, eBay stuck to its “global platform,” which again did not fit local customers’ tastes and preferences.

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Image by Fantake via Flickr

Helen Wang

Helen Wang is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her insights at your meeting of conference, do get in touch.

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