By Jack Perkowski

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 play the China card.

Filling China’s Gaps: China is a $3.8 trillion economy, which ranks it third in the world after the United States and Japan. However, it is also an embryonic economy that has many product, technology and service “gaps” that need to be filled. As China continues to develop, a continual stream of new gaps will surface and create opportunities to start exciting, new companies.

Therefore, a good way to approach the China opportunity is to come to China, identify one of those gaps, and then put in place a strategy to fill it. I did it in components, and I mentioned two other examples in my book, Managing the Dragon. Read the rest of “Playing the China Card” or post a comment

“I have a patent in the UK. Can’t I use that to stop infringers in China?”

As in most jurisdictions, registered IP (trademark and patent) protection is territorial – if you do not register in China with the appropriate Chinese authorities you have no rights there. Failing to register may make it difficult, if not impossible to seek administrative or judicial assistance should problems occur.

Read the rest of “Changing attitudes to IP and product quality issues in China – Part 2” or post a comment >>

By David Dayton

Opportunities in China

Like I said in the introduction, it’s not all bad news here. Factories want orders!! Of course, everyone wants them, but factories that are still in business have employees and need to pay for them so they are aggressively looking for new orders. This means that buyers with cash are in a great position. Indeed, if your own financial house is in order, this recession can be a gold mine.

First, factories are willing to do projects with much more creative terms than they would have even considered before. The key is to remember that they don’t necessarily trust you. But as long as they have some guarantees they can be surprisingly flexible. Security for your supplier in China is key to getting what you want at the best possible prices.

Second, lower MOQ’s are available for just about any order. Factories that wouldn’t talk with us last year are calling back and asking to meet and talk about projects (long since completed elsewhere) and future opportunities. We’re hearing from scores of former suppliers interested in projects they rejected outright before. We’re doing projects for a couple of clients now with qtty’s that are almost ½ what we were originally told were the MOQ’s. Read the rest of “China: Sourcing in Bad Economic Times – Part 2″ or post a comment

By Diana Wang

Exhibitions are normally considered as a one-stop approach for buyers to meet suppliers. However, many people experience limited outcomes from attending an exhibition in China because of insufficient communications with suppliers (if the exhibition is too crowded, for example); absence of senior management at the booths; language barriers; limited product displays, etc. Yet to achieve good results from an exhibition is not difficult as long as you: 1) choose the right exhibition; 2) do sufficient preparation; and 3) follow up well afterwards.

In the next several postings, we will discuss this in more details, according to my experience in assisting clients with exhibitions in China.

Choose the right exhibition

After you have done your needs analysis and figured out the product list that you would like to source from China, you may find that attending exhibitions is one way to meet a group of Chinese suppliers within 3-4 days. Then you can start to collect the exhibition information and list them together for comparison later. Read the rest of “Achieve Good Results From Sourcing Exhibitions in China – Part 1″ or post a comment

By Frank Elzinga

A new approach to management…

Although China’s economy is still growing, slowly but gradually the traces of the economic downturn are reaching the Chinese surface too: MNC’s are slowing down their investment, companies relying on export see their sales volumes go down and even the foreign invested companies that have been on the ground in China for a long time are feeling the heat.

These days, more creative approaches are needed in order to lead companies in times of economic turmoil and to make sure the company will stay afloat until the tides have turned. The current global recession asks for solid China knowledge and experienced managers who have what it takes to change a company around.

Interim Management Solutions

In times of economic downturn we see more and more needs with our clients to employ people who ‘think out of the box’, dealt with restructuring before or a need for managers who can still drive sales in times of ever increasing competition and reduced margins. Read the rest of “Interim Management in China: A Solution During The Economic Downturn” or post a comment