In a recent featured article in the China Daily newspaper, CKGSB Guest Lecturer Edwin Keh talks about how the supply chain holds a key role in the transition to a consumer demand driven-economy in China.
The supply chain overview used to be very simple – manufacture in China, consume in the West – but as China has taken steps to rebalance its economy, with domestic consumption a key pillar in the new model, the supply chain has had to be overhauled.
That transition will see more imports into China, as well as increased competition in the management of the supply chain, according to Edwin Keh, a former COO and senior vice-president of Wal-Mart global procurement, who is a regular guest lecturer at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, and spoke to the China Daily on his most recent appearance in Beijing:
With the growing weight of the Chinese market, the global supply chain is no longer the same. The key in supply chain management is increasingly how to serve the market – the market just anywhere.
One feature of the change is the direct connection with the consumer, as the traditional business-to-business focus shifts to the business-to-consumer type. Selling products directly to customers, especially the ubiquitous “e-customers”, has become vital, Keh said. The global marketplace requires “multi-country and multi-market capabilities”, he said, to make anywhere and sell everywhere.
Nowhere is that more evident than in China, where e-commerce giant Alibaba has just made history with its IPO in the US, showing that Chinese companies are not just ready to compete on the global stage, they are ready to dominate.
Please read the full story, Supply chain to hold key role in transition to a consumer demand driven-economy, on the China Daily website.
