Why a US crisis is good for China - Paul French

Paul French

Never short of a provocative statement, our Chinabiz Speaker Paul French argues in his Access Asia Weekly update why a possible economic collapse of the US economy would be good for China, despite having a trillion or so in US dollars and other paper assets.

The other week, we made the argument (which apparently surprised a few of you) that the current vocal crop of China nay-sayers were ignoring a raft of economic evidence and that the economy is in pretty good shape, and holding up well, despite exaggerated consumption numbers. But, said a lot of you, what about the coming American recession? Won’t that throw one almighty spanner in the works? Well, by way of an answer, we say no, and we have one word for you if you think American’s cutting back on spending will cause the roof to fall in here – Japan.
Why Japan? Well, quite frankly, we are old enough, and very long in what is left of our teeth, and we remember when you could shop all day in a booming Tokyo and never see a Chinese made product. Japan boomed and China didn’t get much of the action. When Japan went pop, consumers traded down, ¥1,000 stores and discounters boomed, cheap-and-cheerful chains such as UNIQLO flourished and stores filled up with made-in-China goods. Put simply, the Japanese recession was good news for Chinese manufacturers.

His argument: a crisis in the US will have similar benefits for China's manufacturers.

Why not to invite the minister of justice as a speaker

Wu Aiying

At our speakers' bureau we try to advise clients as good as possible who to invite for a key note speech, seminar or otherwise. Here I want to discuss a recent case, since it points at some wrong perceptions when foreign clients look at China.
When one of our clients at Chinabiz Speakers told me recently he had invited the Chinese minister of justice Wu Aiying for a key note speech, at least three alarm bells started to go off. It was not only because I had never heard her name before, but because our foreign clients often are not familiar with the huge differences between their and Chinese administrations.
Already before he had ended his explanation, one of my worries was confirmed. Madame Wu had politely refused to give a key note speech. There are some good sites, like China Vitae, to check the backgrounds of the higher cadres. When they would have done so, they would have noticed that since she got her post, Madame Wu has nowhere been seen, not outside China, not inside China. The chances of getting such an official for a key note speech seemed pretty slim. Also, I could not find her back in any of the major Chinese media.
There were other reasons too. In most European countries ministers a relatively high officials, often directly involved in governing their country, sometimes even in charge of police forces. In China ministers - a bit depending on what ministry they head - operate on a much lower level. The real administration is done by the State Council and ministers are often care takers who are not supposed to take on a really high profile. There are exceptions, but the ministry of justice - although important - cannot be compared with similar ministries in Europe.
In the unlikely case a minister would accept an invitation for a key note speech, the chances of them really making statements or adding to an ongoing discussion is rather slim. Partly because their position in the administration is rather low, compared to their foreign colleagues, it would be unlikely they would say anything remotely interesting.
Picking a good speaker is not an easy job. When you get in touch with us on a timely basis, we are happy to provide you with good advise.

A not-so harmonious society - a book plan

When I finished some years ago my book on "The wild East. 15 misunderstandings on China and the Chinese" (only in Dutch and German, you see here the German cover) I vowed I would never write a book again. Not only did I find writing a book a gruesome lonely boring process that did not fit my character, it seemingly offered little advantages. Unless you have a Harry Potter it is certainly not a way to make a living and getting that little bit of money actually paid by European publishers is tougher than getting money out of a Chinese company.

The number of people that actually buy your book is, compared to the impact of activities like this weblog, very low.

What is nice is that in a book you can actually build up an argument, make a point, often better than in short internet entries. And there is of course the vanity factor: publishers know that people love to have a book on their name, even if it does not pay the bills. Some publishing houses actually let authors paid to make maximum use of this vanity factor.

Of course, vanity is no issue for me :-). But this week I had two conversations with publishers who gently pushed me to give the idea of a book a thought. And then without wanting it, the thought-process was triggered off.

Now, by accident I have also been writing a proposal to write a client report for an HR-company on labor issues and these two lines came together this week. The famous labor contract law and the trade union activities at Wal-Mart are both part of Hu Jintao's "Harmonious Society" and so I thought, tying up other elements of Hu's drive for this harmonious society might actually be a good concept for a book. When this client-report works out, I might already have a nice basis.

What is helping too is my current work at Chinabiz Speakers. Maybe few authors can make a living by writing books, but when you can be linked up with a professional speaking circuit, that does make a difference. Selling speakers who have some books on their name proves also to be easier.

Let's ponder a bit.

How an academic gets himself in trouble

Always on the outlook for interesting Chinese speakers for Chinabiz Speakers on hot topics like the environment, I stumbled upon this dispatch by Beijing Newspeak. It found an article in the unlinkable South China Morning Post quoting Zheng Binghui, director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Zheng spoke in English at an international meeting in Wuhan and details how strongly polluted China's water resources are. The SCMP:

Dr Zheng said nearly half of all urban drinking water sources failed to meet national standards in 1981, and, in 1998, the failure rate was more than 83 per cent, according to studies carried out by his institute.
Their latest survey suggests more than 450 drinking water sources in key national environmental protection cities could not meet the standards, a number six times higher than the official figure. But these results have not been made available to the mainland public.
“If we release these figures to the public, there will be total havoc … The figures we reported to the central government are classified,” he said. “There is only one correct figure you and Xinhua can report, and that is the official figure.”

That is the kind of speakers we want to have, but something tells me that Zheng might not be available for a while.

Getting Rich First - Duncan Hewitt

Newsweek journalist Duncan Hewitt gave this afternoon a presentation from his new book Getting Rich First: Life in a Changing China. Most books about China focus on the political or business stories, often forgetting that for at least a part of the Chinese the past decade has been nothing short of amazing.
"It took China a decade to realize what European countries did in forty years after the second world war," Hewitt said. The effect of those changes has been carefully documented in his book with beautiful anecdotes from real people.
Duncan Hewett today also kindly accepted our earlier invitation to join our speakers' bureau at Chinabiz Speakers.

Chinabiz Speakers affiliate program

I must have mentioned how much I enjoy dealing with great speakers, who come with great ideas to support our project. But the rest of our network is also quite ok. Take Christine Lu of the China Business Network.

Not only is she going to interview me next week for her new website, she suggested also that Chinabiz Speakers should set up an affiliate network.

Of course we have discussed the issue of third parties bringing in leads and of course we are planning to share a part of the revenue with whoever brings in that lead. But by bringing this a level higher and develop an affiliate program, we effect might be much bigger and for websites like the China Business Network easier to promote.

Do not ask for details or banners yet, since we still have to get this beyond a brilliant idea, but if you are interested to join in the future, do drop me an email. Do mention in the subject line CBS affiliate, so I might be able to effectively find your email back when we start this service.

Redirecting to ChinaBiz Speakers

A very nasty cold (unfortunately) and an increasing workload at ChinaBiz Speakers (very fortunately) have caused an ongoing reduction in my postings here. While the cold is over - thank you for asking - the work at our speakers' bureau is slowing asking a higher toll. I will continue to write here, I would not be able to stop, but I see that I'm increasingly missing bigger trends.
Anyway, I'm redirecting some of my communication tools. I was already very reluctant to switch on my personal Skype-connection, because of the increasing load of nice but often irrelevant chatter. Now, in the future, I can also ask one of my colleagues to take the Skype beat. That will be nice.
For more corporate propaganda, visit my other weblog.

"The rich are changing" - Hurun

Rupert Hoogewerf

China's rich are not only becoming experts in for example wine tasting, but have in general a more globalized outlook, says Rupert Hoogewerf, in China better known as Hurun, in an article in the Chinese media.
Hurun, also a speaker at Chinabiz Speakers, is making the so-called "China Rich List", a project that has given him access to many of the new rich in China.

When Rupert travelled to Chengdu, a local Chinese millionaire also discussed wines with him. They drank an expensive red wine which might be sold at 9,000 yuan a bottle), and smoked some fine cigars. Even more surprisingly, when the clock struck twelve at midnight and they both felt a little bit hungry, the rich man asked him whether he would like to have some Spanish ham.

It is a difference from a few year ago when I asked Rupert for help in identifying a speaker from his list for a combined meeting of Amcham Shanghai and the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club. There was only one condition: this person should be able to talk English. That was not easy, I remember.

Who are we still missing at Chinabiz Speakers?

William Overholt

Every day we are adding a few more speakers to our database, although not all of them will make it also to our website, for a wide range of reasons.
William Overholt, one of the opinion leaders on China, is certainly going to be on it. While working on his profile, I realized that I did not start mobilizing the collective wisdom of my readers here.
I have still dozens of potential speakers to go after in the months to come, but possibly you have also an idea of who should be on our speakers' list. Please let me know, of you have some suggestions. Any input is appreciated.

New propaganda material

Available in different formats.

First speakers bureau in China ready to roll

- For Immediate Release-

August 15th marks the official start of China's first professional speakers bureau, ChinaBiz Speakers Ltd (www.chinabizspeakers.com), a subsidiary of the business information center ChinaBiz Ltd.
ChinaBiz Speakers offers one-stop solutions for companies, industry associations, business chambers and other event organizers looking for professional speakers on China. It provides direct access to distinguished economists, influential business and management experts, dynamic motivational speakers and media personalities, and manages travel and event logistics for their speakers so customers don’t have to.

At its start Chinabiz Speakers has a database of two-hundred speakers and its website lists close to thirty of them. Both numbers are likely to rise fast after the official start. The speakers include Rupert Hoogewerf of the Hurun China Rich list, former Alcatel China CEO Dominique de Boisseson, economist Wen Tiejun, J.Walter Thompson Greater China CEO Tom Doctoroff and many other opinion leaders.
"We have seen a very positive response from the market during our preparations," says ChinaBiz Speakers Managing Partner Scott Shi. "Not only speakers react enthusiastically, we got already quite a number of requests for speakers before our official launch. We are a high-end service provider and we feel that China is now ready for this kind of services."
Chinabiz Speakers has already been providing speakers at board meetings of international companies, factory openings, internal company conferences and for classes of visiting international business schools.

ChinaBiz Speakers starts operation officially on August 15 in Shanghai, contact details are as follows:
ChinaBiz Speakers Ltd
Phone: 0086-21-53510689 Fax: 0086-21-53515517
Address: Room 2701, Huai Hai Zhong Road No.1, Shanghai 200021, China
Email: cbs@chinabizspeakers.com
Web: http://www.chinabizspeakers.com/

Media Contact
Fons Tuinstra
Director, Marketing and Speaker Relations
ChinaBiz Speakers Ltd
+ 86 21 53515689
Fons.Tuinstra@ChinaBizSpeakers.com

Mark Schaub's book now at Amazon

It took a while before the publisher of Mark Schaub, one of our speakers at Chinabiz Speakers Ltd, took his successful book to Amazon, so it was not easy available for many potential readers. Publishers have to dive Amazon a discount of 30 percent and that does not make them happy, but in the end is this online quasi-monopolist hard to avoid if you want to sell books.
I have praised his China: The Art of Law already enough. Stern warnings like Mark Schaub gives about doing business in China are very much needed in a time when foreign investors keep on running into this country, and often into problems that could have been avoided.
Yesterday I helped him to move into his new and beautiful located house in the French Concession in Shanghai. No, I'm not developing a new line of business, but Mark is also a good friend, so do not call me if you have to move too.
His Spanish style house in a quiet compound in the middle of the old city is also on our books as an informal meeting place for meetings for five to fifteen people, organized by through our Speakers Bureau. Together with Mark and possibly other speakers it creates a much nicer atmosphere for informal discussions than even the best hotels in town can create. More details are here.

China: The Art of Law - Chronicling Deals, Disasters, Greed, Stupidity and Occasional Success in the New China

Preparing for some corporate blogging

The planning for the launch of our speakers bureau is going well ahead, although we did encounters some delays. Rather than June 1, June 15 seems a more realistic launching date, although we cannot launch much later because of the upcoming holidays for the foreign business community - one of our major constituencies.
One of my colleagues brought up the issue of setting up a corporate weblog that would go along with the new website: I was already happy I would not have to push the issue myself. So, from day one we will have a weblog on our speakers bureau in China, both in English and Chinese. While our website will have two identical sections, we wondered how to synchronize a bilingual weblog.
We decided we actually do not have to. While the announcements and reports might be similar, much depends also on the conversation that emerges with the visitors. That will make both weblogs different, anyway.
Corporate blogging has not yet taken off in the same degree in China as it has in the US. But there is no reason to exclude this tool from our communication kit.

"Government will not meddle with stock market" - Fan Gang

Fan Gang

The government will not meddle in the stock market, according to Fan Gang, a famous economist and member of the policy committee of the central bank, according to AFP. Rumors about the bank's involvement appeared on Friday as a set of measures were taken to cool down the sizzling economy.
According to Fan Gang the measure were not targeting the stock market at all, and were also ignored by the investors on Monday.

"The government will not issue policies to support the market or intervene in the market... The market must bear its risks on it own," Fan was quoted as saying. "The market is becoming mature and so is the government."

Fan Gang is also part of our China Speakers Bureau. When you are interested in having him as a speaker, do drop me a line.

Wanted: A motivational speaker in Cantonese

For our China Speakers Bureau we get every now and then an assignment in with a special challenge. Today we got a call from a financial company who have an annual event next month in Shanghai and were looking for a motivational speaker who can give a three-hour training session.
That sounds easy enough and when those would be the only conditions, we would have abundant suggestions. But this speakers has to speak Cantonese. So, if you know somebody who can help us out, do drop me a line.

Raving reviews for Schaub's book

Mark Schaub

"Again a raving review," yelled my friend, author and lawyer Mark Schaub on the phone earlier this evening. "In the Far Eastern Economic Review by Gordon Chang." Unfortunately, this formerly great magazine is not online, so you have to believe me that I have seen a scanned copy of this combination of dead wood and ink. Since the book makes at least twice fun about Mr. Chang's book, the Upcoming Collapse of China, Mark was pretty relieved most of the review was indeed raving.
Gordon Chang clearly was a bit annoyed ("One day I will have to get even."), but then, it is very hard not to make fun about a book that tells us in 2001 China will collapse within five years, when we are living in 2007 and a collapse looks futher away than ever.
Anyway, I noted many more positive reviews and since Mark Schaub sees because of lack of online activity his own website sinks away in the search engines, I have to show him the power of linking.
Eurobiz of the European Chamber asked Mark himself to write a review. That shows bad judgment on the part of the editors.
Cosmos books calls the book "lively and entertaining", but I seriously doubt whether they have read the book. Also The Beijing Review calls the book "lively and entertaining," so at least it is a spin the media liked. And the Law Librarians Blog call the book, surprisingly, "lively and entertaining".
There is still room for improvement: not too many reviews are online.
Of course I should mention here that Mark Schaub is one of the distinguished speakers in our upcoming China Speakers Bureau. I can assure you from personal observations that his speeches are even more lively entertaining than his book. Do drop me a line, if you have an interest.

Planning the launch of our spreakers' bureau

Apologies for being a bit slow on posting here these days, but activities on the upcoming launch of our China speakers bureau are heating up in a serious way. The deal with our upcoming US partners is in place and signing of the contracts a formality. We have set June 1 as our preliminary launching data and since that is very close, I'm terribly busy writing a launching plan.
Website, mailing lists, business cards, press releases: all that has to be ready by that date and tomorrow - with my plan as a tool - we have to decide on its feasibility.
In the past, the 1990s before I came to China, I used to do this more often. I was then a reporter for the Dutch trade union magazine, but I was also the back-up for the spokesman of the Transport workers union, officially one of my bosses. I thought this would be a politically incorrect but anyway minor part of my work as a journalist.
How wrong was I. Every time when he left the office for more than a day a major crisis would emerge and I found myself back running the publicity side of national railway strikes. And what was worse: I loved it.
This launch is going to be a minor thing compared to a national railway strike, but the excitement feels similar. Also, this is going to be a test for my new media skills, something unheard of in the 1990s. Much of our marketing will be viral, online. Even in our starting phase I have done some virtual guerrilla marketing, for exampling by mentioning our upcoming China Speakers Bureau every now and then in this weblog: that has worked excellent and in search engine searches on Google in some categories like "China professional speakers" I'm only beaten by the electronics of Alibaba. It has brought us already two major clients.
I will keep following the news, but give you also now and then an update on developments on the corporate front.

Twittering between the dinosaurs - the WTO-column

(Written for Chinabiz)

You might have noticed that the on-going media revolution is one of my major fields of interest. The way how people get their information and deal with that knowledge is changing very fast, and changing in China faster than in the rest of the world. China's media have done a particular bad service to both the Chinese citizens and its foreign visitors, explaining why - when they get the chance - people turn to the internet in stead of the traditional media. That has dramatic consequences for the former guardians of the news, be it journalists or censors, because their positions are eroding as the audiences increasingly ignore them. Communication has become - more than ever - a conversation between peers in stead of a top-down relationship.

I had to laugh a bit when I got this week an invitation of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club for their annual meeting carrying a motion to censor their mailing list and leave it up to the board to decide what emails are appropriate or not. "The dinosaurs," I thought and reported it to my digitally more advanced friends at Twitter, one of the latest tools of the online vanguard.

In these days you should foster conversations, not kill them. A conversation means you are alive, even if you might not like the way how others express themselves, you cannot tell them to shut up. Well, you can tell them, but you cannot really stop them anyway.

Already when we decided to formally set up the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club at the beginning of this century, we knew (at least I knew) times were changing for the media and the position of the foreign correspondents. We looked with envy at the established clubs in Hong Kong and Tokyo, but we realized that we could never match those sophisticated organizations with their history of decades and nice facilities. We have been looking at some buildings in Shanghai too, but you did not need to be a good accountant to tell that even the turnover of a bar each night packed with journalists could never make up for the costs. We had to set a rather low membership fee, since media organizations would no longer reimburse the hefty fees of the old clubs. The clubs in Hong Kong and Tokyo are still packed, although the foreign correspondents have gradually been replaced by bankers, diplomats and others.

There is still a decreasing layer of classic correspondents belonging to a small number of publications that will survive: The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Financial Times, perhaps AP. They might survive, all right, maybe Dow Jones too when they play their cards right. Another group of surviving foreign correspondents covers subjects in a vertical way: they go for plastic, insurances, automotive industry of payment systems. They might too survive although in a less romantic environment than the classic foreign correspondent.

I'm not sure what is going to happen to most newswires: they have already been changed in sweatshops to remain competitive and might not survive in the long run.

The few remaining foreign correspondents are mostly too busy to join social clubs and for their work they actually do not need them anymore. They can get their information easy enough outside the clubs. The clubs were in the past places you could not ignore, because they offered you access to information that was otherwise hard to get.

Shanghai and Beijing have been going strong in numbers of foreign correspondents, because they are cheaper than Tokyo and Hong kong and the China story appeals more. But many existing jobs for foreign correspondents have disappeared or saw their compensation and working conditions deteriorate. Newcomers in Shanghai do not find jobs in journalism, but they teach English and write for 0.1 US cent per word for local publications, hoping for a return of a tide that will never return.

So, what is this twittering dinosaur now doing, you might wonder. As a compulsory writer I will show up here every now and then, but very soon you might see here more and different names too. We are very close in signing a partnership that will allow us to set up a China Speaker Bureau on an international footing. A speakers bureau organizes professional speakers in exchange for a percentage of the speakers' fee. We think China is ready for such a service and by organizing an international alliance we do have an advantage other cannot offer that easy.

My main task will be organizing a domestic stable of professional speakers, an activity that allows me to reuse skills and networks I have developed in the past as a foreign correspondent.

Now, some of you might think this is funny, since getting people physically into a hall or meeting room and talk to them might actually be very 19th century. That is true. but some people are still reading books, listing to the radio or watching are TV. Some of those tools might change in character, importance, but I do not see them really disappear. There is enough room in China for professional speakers. I think.

Fons Tuinstra

PS: If you are interesting for one reason or another in our upcoming speakers' bureau, do drop me a line or even better, send me a message over twitter.

Wanted: China speakers for Hawaii

The little bit of virtual guerrilla marketing I have done for our upcoming China Speakers' Bureau (yes, we are almost there :-)) is have some effect. Not only did we get our Greenspan connection in like that, last week the AACSB, the oldest accreditation institute for business schools, asked for our help after a key note speaker for their conference in Beijing this month had to cancel.
Now, in the end they were able to solve their problems themselves, but they were rather pleased with the group of speakers we proposed to them, they want to continue the discussion for their upcoming annual meeting in Hawaii. Now, I know worse places to attend a conference.
While providing China speakers to events outside China is not our first priority, it is certainly on the agenda. And of course, that will make our speakers' bureau also rather attractive for professional speakers.

The professional speakers' business

Yes, yes, we might have a deal before the May holiday and even if that does not work out, the lift-off of our Speakers' Bureau is near. A speakers' bureau organizes professional speakers against a percentage of their speakers' fee. That is a pretty simple business model, and so we thought it was necessary to link up with an solid international network that cannot be copied that easy.
Many people have already called me (or got in touch through digitally more advanced methods) and asked me how they can get into this business as a speaker. Since I will be in charge of the speakers' side of the new company I'm happy to explain the procedure a bit. In principle we are looking for professional speakers, so we follow the principle "Don't call us, we call you". If we have not noticed you speaking, there is something wrong.
That could be us. In Shanghai, our network is pretty ok, but we might still miss good speakers in Beijing and other parts of China. If you think we have missed you wrongly (or if you want to speak up for somebody else), do invite us for your speeches. Drop me an email, and I or one of my colleagues will come, since we love to see good speakers in action. We have to recommend speakers to our future clients, so when we have seen you, that works better. In the end, you do not have to convince us, but we have to convince our clients. Also, when you have more questions, let me know.
Becoming a member of the Professional Speakers Association (PSA) is an excellent idea and we will be teaming up with the China chapter of the PSA soon. They are now in an accreditation procedure for the international organization, so we a both in the same boat.
Being a professional speaker is not enough though, you also need the background and expertise that might be wanted by our future customers. In short: it helps if you have something to say and are an authority in that field. We cannot be all Alan Greenspan, but people do have to be desperate in need of your presence. Very soon, we will publish the list of people we have been signing up already.
This in short, more will follow very soon.

Books on China not to buy

Are you looking for something to read in the upcoming May holidays? Access Asia breaks with a tradition in reviewing books and lists in this week's newsletter three that are actually so bad, you should not buy them. So in AA's great tradition of not being afraid to piss people off, you should not buy:
By Will Hutton: The Writing on the Wall: Why We Must Embrace China as a Partner or Face It as an Enemy.

The Windbag of the Third Way displays a profound and deep lack of knowledge of (or even passing acquaintance with) China, but still manages to stuff his bank account with royalties anyway.

By Sid Smith:China Dreams.

We can only assume that Sid Smith is a fake name for a teenager somewhere in Wimbledon who’s turning in these manuscripts to his uncle’s publishing company. Nothing to do with China, or anything much else for that matter, except some lunatic dreams that make no sense whatsoever – the only good news is that it’s less than 200 pages long.

By Guy Delisle: Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China.

Another in the “oh I’m a foreigner and China’s really weird” school of books. For 150 pages! As bad as a language student’s blog (and they are all really bad) covering strange food, funny accents, they’re not really like us at all, and on and on and on.

More at the Access Asia Website.
The reviews all bear the hallmarks of our celebrity speaker Paul French, who is working through our Speakers Bureau. Are you interested to hear his critical view directly, do not hesitate to drop me a line.

Ethical dilemma's in signing up speakers

Rupert Hoogewerf

Today we are signing up a few new speakers for our upcoming speakers bureau. Yes, we can now include Rupert Hoogewerf, the founder of the China Rich List, on our list.

We already knew that we could not include any politicians that are still in office, and since Chinese politicians very seldom leave office, that pool will be rather small for the time being. But for our first "big name" assignment we had also listed some really famous business people (no, I cannot give names here), but they also seem to have a problem in earning money as a professional speaker. They cannot do that for ethical reasons.

While I see the logic here, I had never any misgivings as a journalist to take money for my speeches (although in those days I did sell my soul for fairly little money). University professors, TV-anchors, lawyers and other consultants do not have a problem to sign up. Maybe because in those occupations doing speaking assignments is anyway considered to be part of the business.

The only way out is perhaps that of Bill Clinton: he makes an average of US$200,000 per speech, but passes 80 percent on to his own charity foundation. The other 20 percent goes of course to his speaking bureau, we have to make a living too.

The ultimate China expert

Dan Harris at the China Law Blog has a look at 'the' China expert. Of course this person does not exist apart from in the mind of people who think that China is a very simple country. You would also not ask for a Europe-expert.
It made me recall a nice one-line by one of our China consultant Paul French yesterday. Paul focuses on market entry of food products and admitted yesterday: "Most of the products we help to enter the Chinese market fail. We of course blame the products for that."

Cheese that tastes like chocolate

Paul French gave today a closing speech at the opening of a food additive company of DSM in Shanghai and did a great job. After a day with the usual overload, Paul added a lighter note with a whole row of anecdotes. The enthusiastic audience will certainly remember some of the business battle stories Paul told.
I found his story about the cheese best. While a part of the Chinese have started to drink coffee, cheese has not yet conquered a place in the Chinese menu. So, he was working with a European cheese market who came up with this brilliant idea of making cheese that tastes like chocolate.
"Why you do not make chocolate, if you want to sell something that tastes like chocolate," Paul suggested. But he could not convince his client. We all thought this product is not going to make it.
When DSM asked us for a food expert to speak at the opening of their plant, we thought it would be a pretty tough assignment for our speakers' bureau, but it went down pretty ok. Mostly somebody of our sales department joins at the speeches, but this is a great way to see how things work out in real life.

Wanted: A young Chinese entrepreneur with presentation skills

And of course fluent in English. We are looking for this combination of talents to speak about innovation.
Do you know somebody who matches those criteria? Please let me know. Do you think you are one yourself? Well, that is of course very suspicious, but do drop me a line. We have already some candidates, but are looking to enlarge our pool of talented speakers.

The booming speakers' business

Really, the official launch of our China Speakers' Bureau is not far off now. One of the reasons things go pretty slow, is because we are already pretty busy in placing speakers. This morning professor Zhang Jun of Fudan spoke for a group of Brazilian EMBA-students from Insead and tomorrow afternoon Paul French of Access Asia speaks at the opening of a chemical factory.
This morning I got a briefing on a corporate conference taking place in June for the 100+ top managers of a company in China, and they were looking for two speakers, one famous one for the opening of the conference.
The pattern is more or less similar: what they - mostly - want is a Chinese speaker, fluent in English with an international outlook. What a pity for all my non-Chinese friends.

Mark Schaub

"Headquarters should be more involved in their China-operation"

Lawyer and author Mark Schaub spoke this evening in Shanghai at the Garden Bookstore at Changle Lu during the presentation of his recently published book, China - the Art of law. His message of this evening: headquarters should not abandon their China operation after they signed a contract.
Schaub: "Ninety percent of the effort and financial resources is spend to set up the operation. They hire PWC, McKinsey and a law firm to help them to make things right. Then they hire a general manager, often a new kid at the block, and everybody goes home. That is not right. The headquarters back home should be involved in their China operation."
Mark Schaub is one of the prominent speakers we engaged for our upcoming China Speakers Bureau. If you are interested in Mark Schaub as a speaker, please get in touch.

Shen Aiqin

NPC delegate calls for nationwide CSR-criteria

NPC-delegate Shen Aiqin has called for a nationwide system of criteria for Corporate Social Responsibility, reports China CSR. She is the chairperson of the board of the Wensli Group, a silk company in Zhejiang Province and one of the more wealthy women in China.

Corporate social responsibility has become a key topic for the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference this year. Shen Aiqin says that many problems in China are related to corporate behavior such as tax dodging, environmental destruction, loan defaults and food safety accidents. One of the key elements for these problems is the lack of a unified criterion for corporations to fulfill their social responsibility.

We are just in the middle of discussions of who to focus on inthe our upcoming Speakers' Bureau. This is the kind of people I would love to have on board.