By Brian Fenerty

Building a talent pipeline is not easy in China and you will need all the help you can get.

Those who get to know you or to know about you through a third party grant you a higher level of confidence, credibility and loyalty. According to Dr. Robert Cialdini in his amazing book; Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, this is social proof in action.

This is precisely why the proper care of candidates is so important to your recruiting efforts. China is currently a high-volume type of place. Many of the recruiting systems in place here are based on the more-is-more philosophy. If you are not finding the candidates you need, get more! The problem with this approach is that it is often implemented at the expense of quality and in a candidate short market like this every candidate counts. Read the rest of “Competing for Candidates in China” or post a comment

By Shaun Rein
This commentary is based on an article appeared in Forbes 

While massive amounts of money is being spent on marketing in the run-up to the Olympics to capture China 250 million strong emerging middle class, unfortunately most marketing campaigns are failing to deliver the results that the sponsors like Coca-Cola or Adidas were hoping for. My latest piece looks at the effectiveness of Olympics sponsorship and whether or not it is helping companies win the hearts, minds, and wallets of China’s middle class. Some of the results were surprising:
 
1) the vast majority of respondents said that they did not care who the official sponsor was when trying to make a purchase and in most categories people had little idea who the official sponsor was. Instead, consumers were more concerned with the quality and safety of the product and how the brand image fit with their lifestyle. Read the rest of “Beijing Olympic Sponsorship’s A Waste” or post a comment

While Alfred Dunhill needs specialized service to handle its high value products, large manufacturers such as Haier Group need specialize strategies to handle their suppliers.

According to a Gartner Research study about on Why supplier relationship management matters, procurement costs account for about 50% of expenses. As profit margins in manufacturing tend to be slim, the incentive to save on purchasing costs is very high.

Read the rest of “China’s Supply Chain raises the bar: Part III” or post a comment >>

The subprime debacle has rattled retail sales in the U.S., forcing many companies to downgrade sales estimates as consumers shy away from checkout counters. Luxury retailers and credit-card companies in the U.S. have recently reported bearish projections for the coming quarters.

China, however, is a retail market on the rise. In 2007 China posted 17% growth in retail spending.

Read the rest of “China’s Rising Retail Market” or post a comment >>

MICROSOFT IN CHINA 

By Ernie Tadla

It took Bill Gates twelve years and billions of missed revenue, profit and market share opportunities to learn how to do business in China … the Chinese Way.

Microsoft came to China in 1992. Eleven years later, with global revenues of $35 billion US, in China the second largest PC market in the world, Microsoft-China revenue was $300 million, and it was operating at a loss.

Source: Newsweek, Asia edition. June 21/04

Several quotes from the article:
• “….. struggling to turn a profit, the brash American software giant is no longer trying to change China. Instead, China is changing the company.”

• “Microsoft started to heed the critics and to embrace China more fully. It is now broadly co-operating, even flying Chinese engineers to Redmond for training.”

• “CEO Steve Ballmer has credited his ‘very well-connected’ China CEO (pirated from Nortel) with Read the rest of “Microsoft and Wal-Mart in China” or post a comment