"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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Zong Qinghou, richest man in China - Rupert Hoogewerf

  Hurun by Fantake via Flickr

Zong Qinghou, founder of China's largest soft drink producer Wahaha, has become the richest man of China in 2010, announced Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun, maker of the China Rich List today, according to AFP. Zong not only gained financial, but also politically by taking on the French former partner Danone.
The announcement comes as China's rich gather at a dinner by US-billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in Beijing for their Chinese equals. Zong will be one of them.
According to AFP:

Zong, 65, leapt 11 places to top the Hurun Rich List, said Rupert Hoogewerf, founder of the Shanghai-based Hurun Report, which publishes the annual list of the richest Chinese with personal wealth of at least 150 million dollars.

Zong's climb up the rankings comes a year after French food giant Danone ended its long-standing feud with Wahaha, by agreeing to sell its 51 percent stake in their joint ventures.

Danone had accused Zong of breaching an agreement after he set up an entire production and distribution network in parallel to the French firm's joint ventures with Wahaha.

The whole list will only be published in October.

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Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun 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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China's rich give differently - Rupert Hoogewerf

Rupert Hoogewerf via Flickr

China's rich give also part of their wealth away, says Rupert Hoogewerf of the China's rich list at the eve before Bill Gates and Warren Buffet hit the stage in Beijing in the New York Times. But they do it in a different way.
While the rich in the US have been increasingly vocal on how they give their increasing fortunes to charity. China's rich have been fairly silent on the initiative to get more millionaires behind the Gates-Buffet initiative. But that does not mean China's wealthy are sitting on their capital, says Rupert Hoogewerf or Hurun of the China Rich List.

“The Chinese have been very generous for a long period of time,” Rupert Hoogewerf, who publishes Hurun Report, said by telephone. “The difference has been that they do it between families, and don’t publicize it. What we’re seeing now is a new era of transparency.”

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Rupert Hoogewerf 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 dramatic fall of Tang Jun - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff Fantake via Flickr

“Losers cheat some people and get caught. Winners cheat the whole world all the time.” Tom Doctoroff quotes Tang Jun, a former corporate celebrity in China who recently fall from his pedestal. Has the Warren Buffet of China become its Bernie Madoff?

In the Huffington Post

Is Tang Jun without moral scruples? To westerners, the answer is, of course, yes. He built his reputation on, at best, half truths and, at worse, outright deceit. Further, former colleagues at Microsoft and Shanda describe Mr. Tang as a pseudo-leader, perpetually detached, more interested in managing his image amongst foreign bosses and investors than generating lasting shareholder value.

Interestingly, however, the post-scandal reaction of many ordinary Chinese was far more ambiguous, sometimes sympathetic. Although this case unleashed a tidal wave ofschadenfreude, the masses were more titillated than up in arms. According to one 35-year-old professional, “He was only doing what anyone in his position would do.” And another: “Tang Jun got caught. He pushed it too far. But, today, it’s so competitive. We have no choice but to play the damn game. Face is everything.”

More about Tang Jun's moral dilemma's here.

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Tom Doctoroff 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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