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Fast Fashion in China: Revved Retail

ArticleJanuary 27, 2014

After years of extraordinary growth, has fast fashion peaked in China? In November, property consultancy CBRE reported that landlords in second-tier city retail properties were courting China’s main fast fashion brands to drive foot traffic, going so far as to waive a flat rent rate in exchange for a percentage of turnover to attract these […]

CHINA ROUND-UP: Workforce Shrinks Again; Lenovo Buys IBM Server; And Big Four Auditors Barred

ArticleJanuary 24, 2014

The week that was: China workforce declines two years in a row; trust product distributed by ICBC faces default; Lenovo strikes China’s biggest tech deal by buying an IBM branch; and the Big Four’s China affiliates are barred from US businesses. Lenovo buys another piece of IBM Nine years after the iconic brand of ThinkPad […]

Genetics Research: Decoding BGI’s Genes

ArticleJanuary 20, 2014

In just 14 years, BGI-Shenzhen has become the world’s largest gene sequencer and has executed a series of prestigious projects in genetics. How did it become so prominent? Question: What does a 700,000-year-old calcified horse bone found in Canada’s Yukon region have in common with a varied assortment of plants and animals including silkworms, potatoes, […]

China’s Movie Market: Screening for Gold

ArticleJanuary 14, 2014

What are foreign production companies up against in the race to win in China, the world’s second-largest movie market? When Iron Man 3 hit screens in China, audiences were rather unimpressed by the four minutes of extra footage that was added especially for the domestic market. While some deemed the inclusion of an extra scene […]

Rita Gunther McGrath on the End of Sustainable Competitive Advantage

ArticleDecember 16, 2013

Strategy expert Rita Gunther McGrath says that the days of sustainable competitive advantage are long gone. Instead, companies should focus on transient competitive advantages. In 1979, the high priest of management thinking Michael Porter laid out the building blocks of the idea of competitive advantage in a seminal Harvard Business Review article titled ‘How Competitive […]

Agricultural Productivity: Fields of Dreams?

ArticleNovember 26, 2013

As agricultural productivity grows, rural life continues to evolve. Factories, skyscrapers, airports–picture modernity and chances are you’ll think first of an urban landscape, or an industrial wasteland. As for the rural world, everyone knows that’s what modernity ruins: as Henry David Thoreau noted in his journal in 1852, “This winter they are cutting down our […]

China Revs up for The Internet of Things

ArticleNovember 21, 2013

The dawn of the Internet of Things (IOT) era may finally be upon us. For almost a decade, the concept has been hailed as the next game changing technological innovation, and while the principles behind this idea have always been sound, it has so far yet to manifest as a commercial reality. The concept remains […]

Philanthropy For Community Impact

ArticleNovember 12, 2013

Brian Gallagher, CEO of United Way Worldwide, on more meaningful philanthropy, and measuring the impact of and enforcing accountabilty in philanthropy projects. As a charitable organization, United Way Worldwide (UWW) enjoys two unique advantages: the benefit of scale, and the ability to organize and manage community impact projects locally. UWW, a 125-year-old institution now, is […]

End of the Road for China’s Exports?

ArticleNovember 6, 2013

An abrupt slump in China’s exports in the first half of 2013 raises questions over the role of exports as the country’s main economic growth driver. Business last year was the worst that Yang can remember since she began working for Yongli Suitcase in Wenzhou, a coastal city renowned for its freewheeling entrepreneurialism, eight years […]

The Rich and The Rest 2: The High Cost of Low Wages

ArticleOctober 31, 2013

Rapidly rising incomes at the top of the scale mean that inequality has grown enormously in the past three decades–and critics argue that mature market companies and society are paying a high price for low wages. Until the early 1970s, whenever productivity rose in the developed world, wages rose too, as in China today. Why […]

Foxconn Faces its Future

ArticleAugust 29, 2013

As one of the world’s largest employers and largest consumer electronics manufacturers, Foxconn has grown too big to fail, but it must address looming challenges if it wants to sustain its growth. Creating a successful company is far from easy, but keeping it successful may be an even greater challenge. Business history is filled with […]

Global E-Commerce: China’s Jingdong Steps Out

ArticleAugust 25, 2013

Jingdong, China’s second-largest business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce site, recently went global. It debuted its English-language global site in October 2012. The company ships to 35 countries across the world, including places in Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas. Shi Tao, Vice President (Retail), Jingdong, hopes that in 2-3 years, the company will clock yearly revenues […]

The Ascent: How China’s State-Owned Enterprises Can Stay Competitive

ArticleAugust 21, 2013

China’s state-owned enterprises are making progress in honing competitiveness, despite political burdens In 2008, the seaport city of Duluth, Minnesota was catapulted to the gravitational center of US politics and foreign affairs. The state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) announced plans for one of its subsidiaries to acquire Duluth-based general aircraft manufacturer, Cirrus. There […]

Key Faculty Hires Strengthen Marketing, Finance and Operations Departments at CKGSB

NewsAugust 16, 2013

Beijing, August 16, 2012 – Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business (CKGSB) has added four top professors who will bring their expertise to bolster the school’s research and teaching capacities. Dr. Xinlei (Jack) Chen and Dr. Rui (Juliet) Zhu will join the marketing department as full-time professors and co-directors of the new CKGSB Branding Center, a one-of-a-kind, China-focused research center for marketing and branding research. Dr. Zhang Jinfan will join as assistant professor of finance, while Dr. Chen Fangruo will serve as a visiting professor of operations management.

China puts a Freeze on IPOs

ArticleAugust 12, 2013

Regulators have suspended IPOs on China’s stock markets. What’s their strategy, and how will it affect Chinese companies? To a casual observer, the recent behavior of Chinaʼs financial supervisor might seem a bit odd. In June of last year a petition began circulating online that demanded the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) slow the pace […]

Brewing Sophistication: China’s Ancient Tea Culture

ArticleJuly 29, 2013

Legend has it that thousands of years ago a tea leaf supposedly fell into the legendary Chinese Emperor Shennongʼs cup of boiling water. The emperor was quite pleased with the result, giving birth to the rich tradition of tea drinking in China. Today, to say tea is the Chinese beverage of choice would be a […]

Smeared! Why Reputation Management Matters – Even to China’s Instant Noodle King

ArticleJuly 21, 2013

Smear campaigns are hurting businesses in China. Here’s how some smart reputation management can help. In China, the benevolent cartoon of Master Kong—pudgy, cheerful, topped with a white chefʼs toque—is the face of instant noodles, the ubiquitous logo that grins out from supermarket shelves. The brand has the largest market share in Chinaʼs instant noodle […]

What will Showrooming do to Brick and Mortar Retail in China?

ArticleMay 14, 2013

Will the rise of e-commerce and “showrooming” kill traditional retail? Brick and mortar retail once felt fairly brick-like. In mature markets, some of the department stores were more than 100 years old, and sometimes even looked a bit like castles. Later, malls and big box stores popped up, and created a whole new landscape, that […]

Yum! Brands in China: Colonel Sanders’ Recipe Gone Wrong

ArticleApril 2, 2013

Have Chinese consumers lost their appetite for Yum! Brands? The KFC in the food court at Shanghai’s New World Department store has seen better days. The yellow stuffing of a dingy vinyl booth has broken free of its casing, and someone has patched it with tape. A stool is minus its seat, and faded promotional […]

Taking Stock: Chinese Companies Navigate International Stock Exchanges

ArticleMarch 1, 2013

Chinese companies facing low valuations on US stock exchanges have some options left on the table When investors think a company’s market price is undervalued, they can buy the company’s shares. But when a company thinks itself to be undervalued by the market, it sometimes opts to buy out the investors. Such is the case […]

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