Shall we build a China City Marketing Consulting & Investment Company?
Dear friends,
It’s 3 am in China, but i am sleepless for some reasons, there is one idea coming up in my mind just now, since I am working on a Logistics Park development project plan for my hometown city, therefore, I believe that it’s great to set up a City Marketing Consulting & Investment Company to serve the Chinese provinces and cities. What’s your opinion?I am looking for some experts to consult in the following areas:
- City development experts of Europe (who have sound understanding of European culture, the history of European cities’ development, and etc. )
- City development experts of America (who have sound understanding of American culture, the history of American cities’ development, and etc. )
- City real estate development experts (Infrastrutures and commercial property development, and etc.)
- City Marketing experts
- Finance experts, who are focusing on serving governments (policy design, finance tools design, sound understanding of the finance relationship between the government and the market)
- Seasoned management consultants/advisors
- Experts in politics
- and etc..
Would you please share your thoughts and insightful inputs? Thank you in advance.
Best regards,
Kevin
July 9th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Hello Kevin,
From your post, I think your idea is to be some kind of bridge/consultant for Chinese entrepreneurs and businesses in various cities who are interested in doing business/investment into foreign markets (EU, UK, US,) etc. is that right>?
That has a lot of merit, if your focus is on 2nd-tier cities. This is already well established in Shanghai and Beijing - but not elsewhere. Many Chinese are looking to expand OUT of China, but just don’t know how to best do that.
Regards,
July 9th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Kevin - as an Englishman living in China for the past 5 years, I am interested in your thought process. What I would like to understand more are the specifics of your idea - what is the main advantage of what you are planning? Who are you looking to sell the service to? Why should they seek this type of advice? If you can let me have some more info, it would be interesting to pursue as we have a consultancy business in the US, which is all about helping US companies succeed in Asia so could be a useful starting point.
Let me have your thoughts and see how we can go from there.
Thanks - David
July 11th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Interested parties can also drop me an email at | FirstKevinWang@gmail.com
Clarification added 4 days ago:
What is the nature of the company?
The company is an business entity, which can be considered as a McKnsey & Company with an unique focus on serving Chinese government, i mean the county governments, city governments and etc.
What are goals?
The aim of the company should be dedicated to help the governments to do development for the local people and cities, which may include how to plan better, how bridge the governement and market, how operate the public projects in a market economy manner.
Main business:
- City branding. Each city needs an exceptional branding strategy as a product. (positioning, planning, proceeding, promotion)
- Think Tank for governements. Act as an independent advisor for the government on macro perspective and micro perspective with international broad view.
- Work as an investment bank to run some infrastructure projects
- Government Governance consulting. (As an independent advisor, it’s more convenient than the officals who are involved in daily operations to say something and to do something - Yes, of course, need to obtain support from the government seniors.)
- And etc.
Where is this company based?
If it’s possible to do this, I am thinking about put this company in Beijing or Shanghai. (Bridge finance, economy, trading, culture, human resources, and central government connections.)
Business model?
The business model can be presented in two ways.
One is that we can position our as a consulting company as commercial advisory firms, and the clientele is different level of governments;
The other one, we can also have some other indirect benefit from other business (however, dun go to “conflicts of interest” easily).
July 16th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Dear Kevin,
I think it is a great idea. One obvious impediment to this project is government contacts and Guanxi. Having said that, it is not that difficult to overcome the problem so long as you partner with someone who’s the relative of the decision maker. Then pitch your case with a clear understanding of how much money will be transfered under the table.
Most of the government contractors are relatives or close friends. This holds true for local, municipal based contracts. For SOE deals they usually go for the largest consultancies which sometimes create more problems than they solve but at least they have “face” whilst using the big names.
July 17th, 2008 at 5:04 am
I like your thinking. I’m in the process of moving to Chengdu (I’m Canadian and living in the U.S. right now), and I’ve had similar thoughts. I’d be happy to give you feedback when you have something new.
July 18th, 2008 at 5:30 am
Thanks for the kind reply.
Not all of the Chinese officials are working for money, if the work can help them to achieve some great ideas, I believe that you can get government support as well….. Corruption appeared anywhere along with power, thy are twins; just focus on how to do something which can create values.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I am Mr Emmanuel from Ivory Coast. I have been with you people for over one year sharing together with you people. Infact i believe this is the time for me to be in China and see things myself.
Thanks.
Emmanuel Ekeh
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Hi All,
I am very interested in participating in this opportunity. I currently live 50% in California and 50% in Tianjin. I am planning to move to China very soon for long term. I have spent many years in China for work, school, and family.
As we learn more about what we want to achieve out of this with some structure, goals/objectives, and timelines, I would like to contribute my skills and relationships both in the US and China (government sectors) to serve the efforts of this initiative as I really believe it is really needed.
I also have a close friend working on a number of real estate projects for his US firm in China and they continue to expand.
What are the next steps? (B.T.W. I will be in Tianjin within the next two weeks if folks would like to meet)
Best regards,
-Raj
Skype: gavenraj (ping me here)
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 am
Hi Kevin :
I can understand what do you think of your business.
It sames a good idea to do like that and have a good market .in fact ,there are lots of problem you will meet .
I am A Chinese people in South of China ,I should tell you the fact .Government is the Goverment in China . Every department is security. you can not contact with the authority as you want. Do you know the people’s congress in China ? it is a congress for the goverment consulting . Every department have their programm department to find out the way to to accomplish their task .
you can offer the sevice to bring more economy sources to China . there is a goverment department called Bureau of Investment Promotion .it is a department which specially in this field .
Thank you for bring more chance to China .
I would like to make friends of you .
would you ?
I am Lucy ,Caroline Lucy
email :caroline_lucy@163.com
or skype account :caroline_lucy
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:15 am
Dear All,
Thank you for your kind reply and some insightful input.
As an initiation stage, actually, I am not wisdom enough to give a very comprehensive/detailed plan for your reference.
Everything has a hard period at the very beginning, word-of-mouth is the best marketing strategy, which means that if we have a real expert/professional team and have done a successful job, then, some of the difficulties will disappear.
Who can be the leader to do this?
Who can be the member to do this?
How to do it from nothing to something?
……
If you only work for money, that will be quite difficult to partner with at the beginning, otherwise, you must have a long-term view of the future.
Whatever, thank all of you once again. Let me know your thoughts and wait for more participators.
Best regards,
Kevin
September 15th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Hey Kevin!!
I’m studying urban management and i’m very interested in city marketing and chinese culture.
I would be very proud in taking part of this project
Please let me know
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Hi all,
Hopefully ideas like this will continue to prosper - the real need to find pivotal people points who re in the position to do things and also want to do things.
I’m still looking forward to moving back to China as soon as possible. The need for knowledge and proper evolution of business is beyond thinking.
Chris
you can find me at my connected website or bluepocketfunkjazz - skype
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
kevin,
i am a marketing consultant with 17 years experience globally (UK, US, Phillipines, Mexico, Middle East, Japan, Latin America).
I would be extremely interested in partnering on this project and have a creative yet traditional brand building background. In the US I have worked with Nike, Levis, Dockers and much of my consulting work is with “Green” companies.
I know china has a great movement towards expanding tourism and changing their environmental perceptions with some very real programs i.e Shanghai to become the greenest city in China, the development on Hainan, the 5 planned eco-cities in conjunction with William McDonough. One is in the final stages of completion just outside Shanghai.
You can review my philosophy, consulting clients and some case studies at www.followyourpath.com.
I look forward to hearing from you on next steps.
kind regards
tanyia kandohla
tanyia@followyourpath.com
+1 415 425 2678
skype tanyiakandohla
October 6th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Hi all,
It sounds like a good idea. Kevin’s business goal is clear and have a good describe leads to the picture. However, being a business consultant serving Taiwan-China businessmen for years, I have some experiences to share.
There have been many cities/cultured towns try to change their looks to a new developed face. I have seen some project of them. Most of their eager is attract funds into their places. An example is a very cultured and beautiful old town. They says that they do emphasize the view of the town should be well kept in the using of capital, and the look of stores or building should be strict limited by approval of municipality for antique conservation reason. So we suggested we can introduce some real respected architects happening to stay in Beijing in that period for conference. But obviously the officers are not interested and says that they have no budget for the air ticket for these guests.
So I wonder if Kevin’s idea comes true, will there be enough cases inflow, and how long would the cash flow in.
I am willing to discuss the theme with you. It’s an interesting idea.
Alex Shen
skype: xelashen
October 6th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Dear alex and kevin,
The talent exists in China. There are extremely talented and creative individuals (local and expat) on the ground who can easily lend their services to projects like this. I personally know amazing eco-architects from Italy, currently based in Shenzhen but working on projects throughout China. Also Fuksas, an amazing architecture firm, are building the new Shenzhen airport and wanting to expand business in China.
I also have contacts in marketing, branding and design.
It seems that this project needs a leader with connection and a plan for a pilot project which can be used as a testing ground. The preservation in the hutong neighborhood in Beijing is a good example and has been a profitable one, albeit at the expense of the real culture of that area…and that is one of the issues.
The cash can also be raised by corporate funding and sponsorship/branding issues as well as era estate deals through the private sector. A great example of this is xin tandi in shanghai.
So i am happy to help and be involved if we have a clear of idea of next steps and contacts within government to whom we can present proposals.
Kind regards
Tanyia Kandohla
skype:tanyiakandohla
www.followyourpath.com
October 7th, 2008 at 3:44 am
Dear All,
Thank all of you so much.
Firstly, I am not running away after I have awaken you up.
I have met Raj and Tefifi, who are here and keeping the interest in this project; I also appreciate everyone’s participation here. To proceed this project, as I have thought over times, I would like to suggest as below:
1. Let’s find and select a leader to steer this project. - No head and no lead is the most dangerous thing to do a project, but unfortunately, it seems really over my HEAD, thus I should be frank to say that I am not capable to take this role;
2. Once we have find the Head and the Lead, then we need to form the team and the operation manner;
3. After the Head and the Team, most of the concrete problems and difficulties will come up, and then we just need to find solutions for the specific problems;
————
As Tanyia mentioned, Xintiandi project in Shanghai, which is an good example for city development, I also think we need to study the core operation in this case - one of the secret is that: Xintiandi cost a lot of money and suffered a lot of loss at the very beginning, however, the developer make money from the sorrounding real estate projects; up to date, Xintiandi is mature enough, and the company started to make money from Xintiandi directly now.
—-
Again, thank all of you and i must say sorry to those who haven’t got my response for the last month, since I was thinking about it and trying to get a solution.
Please feel free to contact me at: FirstKevinWang (at) Gmail (dot) COM
Thank you once again.
Best regards,
Kevin