James Zhang and Vivek Raman, the two students who organized the “Asia Tomorrow” conference at Yale University several weeks ago, were very clear in what they wanted me to cover in my keynote speech. They wanted me to give my views as to how China and Asia would develop in the coming years, but they also wanted me to be very specific as to how Yale students might benefit from these megatrends.This is what I told the assembled Yalies about how they might…

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It is no secret that protecting intellectual property rights (‘IPR’) and maintaining good product quality in China is a challenge. Recent media coverage of controversies like tainted cough syrup, toxic pet food and lead poisoned toys has raised general concern about the Chinese legal system and its apparent inability to reduce problems with piracy and the maintenance of product quality. These recent controversies and the ever-present problem of…

Read the rest of “Changing Attitudes to IP and Product Quality Issues in China – Part 1” or post a comment >>

Do sufficient preparation

After you identify the right exhibition you want to attend in China, you will start with some preparation work. As far as I know, most companies will only prepare in terms of logistics, such as visa and accommodation arrangements. However, if you do a little bit more work on analyzing the targets of the trip, you will find it far more productive.

Read the rest of “Achieve Good Results From Sourcing Exhibitions in China – Part 3” or post a comment >>

By Diana Wang

• Exhibitors

If the exhibition has an official website, you may be able to examine a list of exhibitors who will attend the exhibition or who attended the exhibition in previous years. From this you will be able to judge whether the exhibition is suitable for you to find proper Chinese suppliers, and you can especially look out for the following:

1. Well-known international suppliers attending the exhibition: Nowadays, good Chinese exhibitions attract international exhibitors. Normally these exhibitions are in industries where China is relatively more advanced.
2. Chinese suppliers’ names: You may need to count how many Chinese suppliers are on the list. If you are familiar with China’s province or city names, you may be able to get a rough idea if the suppliers are local or from different provinces. As China is geographically large, it will cost suppliers from other provinces a lot of time and money to attend exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangdong. So if one exhibition in Beijing attracted many good suppliers from southern China, it is likely to be a good one as the suppliers consider it worthwhile to attend.
3. Key Chinese suppliers: If you already know several big Chinese suppliers in the related industry, you can judge if the exhibition is worthwhile or not by checking whether these suppliers are attending.

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By Richard Brubaker

Earlier this week while meeting with a friend about their expansion throughout China, and their need to find a logistics provider who could support them, it was clear that many of the same issue I was working with 5 years ago are still found in many ways.

At the very basic level, it is important to think about logistics not simply as the process by which goods are moved, but by which they are moved safely. It is the control of goods from one point to another, and while there may be a few stops in between, it is the role of a provider to ensure that the level and pricing of services match the market.

An equation that foreign and Chinese firms perform at vastly different levels.

For those firms who are operating within China, and are looking to expand beyond an export platform, the need to move from their global providers will enter. Read the rest of “China’s Logistics Zones” or post a comment