December 3, 2008

Local governments and companies are trying to blackmail the central government in compensating them for paying arrear wages for their unruly citizens, writes financial expert Victor Shih on his weblog, pushing "stability" as their main card.

December 3, 2008

The eminent author and journalist Jasper Becker from Beijing has today joined the China Speakers Bureau. Becker has been one of the leading voices on China's development and was up to recently the publisher of Asia Weekly.

December 2, 2008

Chinese companies are preparing to buy assets abroad to make use of the global financial crisis, writes Shaun Rein in Business Week. Qingdao-based Haier was the first to move, but many others are following, his research suggests many are following.

December 1, 2008

Market watchers cannot gauge at this stage what China's consumers are going to do, says Paul French, China analyst of the Access Asia research firm in the China Daily.

November 30, 2008

William Bao Bean and other marketing experts see in the online media for the first time a way to target emerging consumers among the now 300 million Chinese internet users.

November 29, 2008

Making it into the famous online encyclopedia Wikipedia is a benchmark for our writers. A few have crossed the line into fame and we are happy to report that Zhang Lijia has now her own entry.

November 28, 2008

Huang Guangyu, China's richest person and chairman of the Gome Holdings, has never been a public figure, says China-rich list compiler Rupert Hoogewerf after his arrest. Huang has topped his list of richest Chinese three times in a row.

November 27, 2008

When you say internet, you say community, argues CIC's Sam Flemming in his latest white paper on the Internet Word On Mouth (IWOM), depicting the fast changing way how China's internet users are communicating. Participation is the key word, and China's 253 million internet users mainly use domestic tools for their conversation.

November 26, 2008

China's planning authorities intend to push up to 400 billion Renminbi into the stock market, but analysts like Arthur Kroeber do not necessarily think that is a good idea. Kroeber explains why the move, expected early December, might not be a smart idea.

November 25, 2008

While China's growth might take a hit, its fundamentals are still in place, says economic analyst Arthur Kroeber.

November 24, 2008

China's consumers will reduce spending and certainly not offer a way out for US and European companies, says marketing guru Tom Doctoroff. But he is at loggerheads with other leading voices on the China market, like Shaun Rein, who sees problems for big ticket items like cars and real estate, but sees that 70 of the consumers keep on spending.

November 23, 2008

While India and Brazil display often ideological undertones in the message, China is "open to compromises and trade-offs". If China now claims a place at the table of the global financial institutions, it is because the country belongs there.

November 22, 2008

Four out of ten innovative companies are coming from Asia, says IMD-professor Bill Fischer and program director about a ground-breaking program on "driving strategic innovation". Fischer is expanding the program from Europe and North-America to Singapore, he tells.

November 21, 2008

Details on who gets what money are still scarce but state-owned companies - good for 30 percent of China's economy and employment - are in urgent need of recapitalization, writes Shih, using the city of Chongqing as an example.

November 20, 2008

Consumers in China are still going strong, Rein discovered from research. Seventy percent will go on spending, although both real estate and the automotive industry are excluded from this strong consumer demand.

November 19, 2008

While much of China's four trillion Renminbi rescue package is window dress, there is still a lot of new money available for the environment, hopes Charles McElwee on his weblog.

November 18, 2008

China's central TV has skipped major football matches from its programming, because of continued violence. Football expert Rowan Simons explains in AP why football is different from for example Olympic sports.

November 17, 2008

"From the rocket factory to the international media: a personal memoir of 30 years of reform and opening" is the theme of renowned author Zhang Lijia on 20 November at a meeting of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club.

November 15, 2008

A familiar pattern in how China tried to reform its electricity industry, but failed to do a decent job, describes Arthur Kroeber. In less than half a year China changed regular shortages into a glut: under influence of the current crisis, demand has gone down four percent in October.

November 14, 2008

Both the four trillion renminbi (450 billion euro) and the share rescue package of 930 billion Renminbi are not a way to spend China to economic safety, writes assistant-professor Victor Shih in his latest analysis of the country's financial policies.

November 13, 2008

Philanthropy is making headway into China, writes China-consultant Paul French in Ethical Corporation. China's rich are more confident and start to give more of their wealth to charity.

November 12, 2008

China's 450 billion euro package has been part of setting the stage ahead of the global financial meeting on Saturday in Washington, says Arthur Kroeber, managing director of the Beijing consultancy Dragonomic.

November 11, 2008

In the midst of many failures, KFC has been one of the best American companies moving into China, argues Shaun Rein, managing director of the China Market Research Group.

November 10, 2008

This is pretty major, says Arthur Kroeber of the consultancy firm Dragonomics about the four trillion Renminbi (euro 450 billion) investment China's central government into its economy.

November 9, 2008

A good intention only gets you so far, says Rowan Gibson in one of his recent key note speeches. "Intentions are not enough, you also need to get the systems in place, just as we did with quality."

November 8, 2008

"All bets are off now that the credit crisis is lapping at China's shores," says Kaiser Kuo, group director digital strategies of Ogilvy in Beijing in an interview with Adam Schokora.

November 7, 2008

Barack Obama's election has Africa still not put on the political agenda in Washington, writes former New York Times correspondent Howard French, but the continent is solidly on Beijing's roll call

November 6, 2008

Danwei's Jeremy Goldkorn explains to the International Herald Tribune why shopping in Beijing is such a delight, compared to other places in the world, well apart from Shanghai perhaps.

November 6, 2008

China consultant and prolific speakers Paul French checked China for signs of crisis and did not like what he saw. "China is looking increasingly stationary," he writes in the weekly Access Asia newsletter.

November 4, 2008

Once or twice per year serial entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs leaves his successful Chinese start-ups behind and goes for an always impressive physical challenge. Later this week he will join the trailwalker race.

November 3, 2008

The trend of individual consumers to organize themselves online for bargains got its corporate equivalent, writes Sam Flemming of CIC in his latest IWOM-update.

November 3, 2008

Xu Ping, senior partner at China's largest law firm King&Wood has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Ms Xu is one of China's most experienced corporate lawyers, representing both foreign and Chinese companies.

November 2, 2008

Our speaker hits the road around Beijing for the New York Times and explains some of its past by exploring the surrounds of China's capital.

November 1, 2008

Getting a thorough insight of what is happening in China's financial systems is becoming crucial as the financial crisis holds the global economy in its grip. Assistant professor Victor Shih of the Northwestern University is one of very few people who get beyond scratching on the surface and explaining the outside world what he sees.

November 1, 2008

David Chang, former CEO of Philips China, part of the Dutch manufacturing giant, has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Philips has developed over the past decades into a major player in China's electronics manufacturing industry.

October 31, 2008

Unlike popular believe China's GDP depends only for ten percent on export, not 40 percent, says Arthur Kroeber. The limits the country's exposure against failling export considerably.

October 30, 2008

Big ticket items like cars and apartments have a problem as Chinese consumers delay purchases, says Shanghai-based lawyer Amy Sommers in a podcast. But the central government is adjusting its policies to avert a full blown crisis like elsewhere in the world.

October 29, 2008

Tom Doctoroff, CEO, Greater China, of J. Walter Thompson, has a wide-ranging look at the China-branding trends hit by the milk melamine scandal, pushed by the Beijing Olympics, growth areas like services and the online trends.

October 28, 2008

Are you feeling the impact of the financial crisis? Leading innovator Rowan Gibson, global business strategist and bestselling author provides compelling and practical answers in his new series of keynote speeches and 2-day strategy meetings.

October 27, 2008

China is getting ready to spend its way out of the current financial crisis, says Shanghai-based attorney Amy Sommers in the LA Times.

October 26, 2008

While Chinese take their money out of the Citigroup banks into the Bank of China as a result of the financial unrest, trust for consumer goods is still high, Rein says based on own research.

October 23, 2008

Retail in China shows a healthy growth, suggesting the country might indeed wither the global financial crisis, writes Paul French in the weekly newsletter of Access Asia.

October 22, 2008

As everybody is still guessing how the global financial crisis and a possible recession would affect China, any glimpse of a recession would be new in China, says China consultant Paul French to Sky News. "We are off the map when that happens."

October 22, 2008

Kaiser Kuo gets a nice chance from uberblogger Shel Israel to explain the basic misconceptions of Western media (including bloggers) when it comes to China. Part of a lengthy interview

October 21, 2008

Social networking can also be a language tool, says William Bao Bean, director of italki.com from Shanghai, in a recent article in the South China Morning Post.

October 20, 2008

Fastest mover was Mark Schaub. What triggered off his rise might have been the podcast we did on the milk-melamine crisis: close to one hundred people listened to this podcast and while the others worked pretty well, Mark Schaub's podcast was leading.

October 19, 2008

I think that eventually the number of mobile internet users might surpass the users who go online on a computer, currently it's 80 million mobile internet users out of 260 million who go online in total.

October 18, 2008

China has its fair share of social problems, but none it getting out of control, says Arthur Kroeber. China is not heading for a social crisis, as some assume, he claims. "China has huge social problems, but they are not leading to a crisis. The political system is very stable."

October 17, 2008

Wealthy Chinese and international travelers make the hotel industry a bright spot in China, says Shaun Rein, as major hotel chains announced to expand their investments despite the ongoing financial crisis.

October 15, 2008

Where is the Letter of Credit (L/C), wonders Rich Kuslan at his weblog Asiabizblog. The freeze at the interbanking lending might bring trade with China to a standstill.

October 14, 2008

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace do not take off in China, because its internet users are already hooked on other systems, says Danwei-founder and media expert Jeremy Goldkorn in an interview with CCTV.

October 12, 2008

Real estate prices in China might have come down a bit, for a Chinese his home is still his castle, says real estate expert Sam Crispin in Newsweek.

October 11, 2008

Stock markets worldwide keep on dropping and the effects of the global crisis are stilling heading for China. William Bao Bean discusses the possible fallout of the global financial shake-up on China.

October 9, 2008

The China brand has suffered a severe set back through the milk melamine scandal, after the successful Olympics. Sixty thousand babies with kidney stones is cause tremendous damage, especially in China itself.

October 8, 2008

Only up to a certain degree foreign expats and Chinese are mixing in what has now become one of the largest expat societies in the world, Shanghai, says sociologist James Farrer of the Sophia University in Tokyo

October 6, 2008

China is not very well prepared for the structural economic changes it will face the next six months, argues consultant Paul Denlinger in a China Speakers Bureau podcast with Fons Tuinstra

October 5, 2008

"Avoid Shanghai and Beijing" is the first of a whole set of new investments rules for China, our speaker Paul Denlinger has written down. Very concise he summarizes some of the major changes that have been taking place in China's economic landscape.

September 30, 2008

Marc van der Chijs, co-founder of the successful Chinese video sharing host Tudou and CEO of the online gaming conglomerate Spil Asia is joining the China Speakers Bureau

September 29, 2008

Innovation in Asia is the core theme of the openWebAsia in South-Korea on 14 October. Our Sam Flemming will be one of the key speakers, together with representatives of Alibaba, Ebay Asia and many other online innovative companies.

September 28, 2008

Former CEIBS dean Bill Fischer has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Bill Fischer is a leading authority on business and China. Apart from being a gifted storyteller, he has real stories to tell.

September 27, 2008

The financial downturn in the US has interesting side-effects. Richard Kuslan, lawyer, blogger and speaker at the China Speakers Bureau has been invited by the insurer-in-problems AIG to explain their position in Asia.

September 26, 2008

He still drinks Chinese milk, says lawyer and author Mark Schaub on the ongoing milk melamine scandal in China. "The bigger companies were trusted too much and when it come to food security, you cannot trust anybody."

September 25, 2008

While China's melamine milk scandal has been covered pretty well by the media, we tend to forget Sanlu's foreign partner Fonterra, warns retail-expert Paul French

September 25, 2008

China's netizens are becoming less tolerant for manipulation of their online conversation, says CIC-founder Sam Flemming, a leading authority on the online buzz in China in a CSB podcast. The ongoing melamine milk crisis might be a watershed on how the internet in China works.

September 23, 2008

"These after-the-fact administrative measures miss the point. Regulatory regimes succeed when systemic incentives make market participants behave. These incentives can exist only after separation of the Government from control of prices, company management and information flows."

September 23, 2008

Following a trend in the US, major companies in China have been creating a new kind of job: the social media manager, said Sam Flemming of CIC last week at the Economist China Branding Roundtable. Three of CIC's clients have now hired those social media manager.

September 22, 2008

The success of KFC is not limited to beating the competition, says retired MBA-lecturer Warren Liu on his promotion tour for his book in an interview with state media, but it is also key for the revenue stream of the holding.

September 19, 2008

The eminent environmental lawyer Charles McElwee has brought an extensive knowledge and experience in the US environmental and energy law to China, when he moved to Shanghai a few years ago

September 18, 2008

"Enter the green dragon," was an AmCham Shanghai meeting last week on environmental business where Amy Sommers was the mistress of ceremony. She summarizes in this China Speakers Bureau podcast her findings and some are really stunning.

September 16, 2008

The financial meltdown in the US might have an effect on the China market, but Shaun Rein points at the mitigating effect. "China's economy is still very strong."

September 15, 2008

"With 3G coming and 600 million people on mobile phones it is going to be a very attractive market." VC-entrepreneur William Bao tells why the mobile telecom in China is an attractive market, despite regulatory challenges and risky carrier behavior.

September 13, 2008

Yes, there is nowadays too much in China anyway, says retail investigator Access Asia Director Paul French. No, says market researcher Shaun Rein of CMR, it is all a matter of having a smart strategy.

September 12, 2008

China's domestic online powerhouses have started a shoot-out, but Paul Denlinger says the official privacy argument to stop leading search engine Baidu is plain nonsense.

September 11, 2008

The license China's largest video hosting firm Tudou received today was paramount for getting seriously into the advertising business. After a two-month wait Tudou got its license from the regulatory body SARFT.

September 11, 2008

At the Foreign Correspondents Club in Shanghai, Warren Liu explains the success of KFC, outrunning McDonalds

September 10, 2008

The ultimate test, Rowan Simons calls the win or fail attitude towards China's soccer in the famous CCTV-9 program Dialogue.

September 9, 2008

Jeremy Goldkorn interviews Zhang Lijia for Danwei-tv about her autobiography Socialism is great!, about her life as a worker in a missile factory.

September 8, 2008

Paul Denlinger adds to one of his favorite stories as MySpace loses out in China, following a trend by a larger number of IT-companies from the US.

September 7, 2008

As the number of internet users in China is exploding, more intelligent online marketing is needed, says Shaun Rein, president of the market research company CMR

September 6, 2008

Innovation is a key subject on China's political and economic agenda, so the China Speakers Bureau is happy to represent also this leading business strategist as a speaker. Next to his speaking engagements, Rowan Gibson also conducts Innovation Masterclass events, which are usually one-, two- or three days in duration for both corporate, public and government organizations

September 5, 2008

The former Shanghai correspondent of the New York Times Howard French has joined the China Speakers Bureau as a participant. Currently French is associate professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

September 4, 2008

National debates on many issues are no exception in China, but now the China soccer team has touched a very raw nerve, as ChinaSmack summarizes. At this stage, disappointed fans seem to pick anything to go after their former Olympic heroes

September 4, 2008

Coca-Cola is coughing up USD 2.4 billion to acquire China's leading juice maker spending much more than the current value of the Chinese company,Analysts have mixed feelings about the purchage.

September 3, 2008

Beijing authorities have plans to keep on using the Olympics to attract tourists for later this year, writes the WSJ, but CMR's Shaun Rein only expects a rebound next year when visa-restrictions are expected to have been cleared

September 3, 2008

One of our most-sought celebrity speakers, Tom Doctoroff, CEO of Greater China, J. Walter Thompson, will be visiting New York from November 25 to 28, a great opportunity for clients in that region to get Tom as a speaker.

September 2, 2008

Paul Denlinger is at his best when he is a bit angry and he is mostly angry after meeting US investors in China. In his weblog he explains there is no China market.

September 1, 2008

Chinese overseas investments are more feared than those from Japan, says consultant Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics in an analysis on China's economic future.

August 31, 2008

In May three Chinese telecom companies started a race for the 3G-technology and according to Paul Denlinger China Telecom is going to defeat current market leader China Mobile.

August 29, 2008

The high expectation of Japanese media on the effects of the Beijing Olympics fell flat, writes sociologist James Farrer from Tokyo

August 27, 2008

Branding in China works differently than elsewhere in the world, marketing guru Tom Doctoroff says in the New York Times, looking back at the Beijing Olympics.

August 26, 2008

"We're going down from stupidly fast last year to really fast this year and just plain ordinary fast next year, which would be in the 8 to 9 percent range," says Arthur Kroeber of Dragonomics, a Beijing consultancy to Reuters.

August 24, 2008

Our best-seller author Zhang Lijia is going to tour Australia to promote her book "Socialism is Great!" and is treating the domestic media with some great interviews.

August 23, 2008

Moving from tactical online solution to strategic communication is the new challenge to reach online consumers, writes Sam Flemming.

August 22, 2008

Each year economists and policy makers watch IMD in Lausanne as his center announces the annual ranking of the competitiveness of countries in the world. Professor Garelli has top-positions as the adviser of both governments and major corporations.

August 21, 2008

At the first monthly ranking of most-sought speaker, Shaun Rein is a clear winner. Not surprisingly, looking as the successful way he has been getting tracking among the traditional media with his strong analysis on the Olympic sponsorship.

August 20, 2008

Sobbing Chinese have killed one global misconception about the country, the supposed lack of emotions they display, says Kaiser Kuo in an interview with Reuters.

August 18, 2008

Tom Doctoroff attended China's search for its soul at the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. In Adweek he explains how he enjoyed that, while the search is not yet complete.

August 17, 2008

Olympic sponsors have started to lick their wounds and the Financial Times asked our Tom Doctoroff to give their verdicts as marketing experts on a failed Beijing Olympics.

August 15, 2008

KFC in China grew from one to over 1,400 outlets in China, making it into the largest foreign fastfood chain. Retired MBA-lecturer Warren Liu took a step back and analyzed in his book why the eternal number two behind McDonalds took the top position in China.

August 14, 2008

Astroturfing, companies and governments pretending they are a grassroots online movement, is no issue in China, Sam Flemming contends in an issue of the leading Digital Media on the feature.

August 13, 2008

"Foreigners take a very biased view of China. They think that there is no freedom of speech in China. They think that everything is totally like the Cultural Revolution without any voice from the people. But it is not that simple." Danwei's Jeremy Goldkorn hits China's leading newspaper Southern Weekend that babtizes him the "fake foreigner".

August 11, 2008

Soccer in China is a government's game , analyzes our soccer specialist Rowan Simons in yet another review of his leading book on this sport. "It is all politics."

August 10, 2008

Lacking reliable data on China's online media is having a debilitating effect on the industry, argues Paul Denlinger in his latest column at China Vortex.

August 9, 2008

The world's most famous Chinese learning institute Chinesepod, set up by Ken Carroll, has developed its own fast track to fame: Olympic Chinese, and was noted by the New York Times.

August 7, 2008

Celebrity author Zhang Lijia expresses her amazement about the ignorance on China she noted when she was on a recent book tour in the United States, and tells why she support the Beijing Olympics

August 6, 2008

The Beijing Olympics will be the first one facing a full scale web2.0 exposure and Ogilviy's new media guru Kaiser Kuo looks at his weblog at the dilemma's.

August 5, 2008

China is ready for democracy, but its 'middle class' is opposing it, writes Arthur Kroeber in the Financial Times.That elite will only stop opposing democracy when it offers them stability in the long term, a guarantee they now get from the current regime.

August 4, 2008

Author Zhang Lijia remembers her youth and tells the world it is about time to stop criticising China. She documents the massive changes the world has been going through but who are not seen by many in the outside world.

August 3, 2008

Shadow companies, with appalling labor right infringements, are the real profit-makers behind state-of-the-arts show cases that should prove foreign buyers they comply with all standards.

August 2, 2008

China and the internet are hitting the international agenda yet again as the Beijing Olympics draw near. That is a good moment to listen to our own internet guru Kaiser Kuo, director digital strategy at Ogilvy in Beijing. Explaining how the internet is changing China in a dramatic way.

July 31, 2008

In another powerful argument Shaun Rein explains to Bloomberg why Olympic sponsoring is not helping the advertisers much in China this year. "Eighty percent of the Chinese does not care who the sponsor is."

July 30, 2008

Olympic advertising touched on specific Chinese sentiments, by using Chinese athletes' parents to get their message out, writes the Wall Street Journal, quoting JWT's Tom Doctoroff.

July 29, 2008

The production of Christmas presents is getting under heavy pressure because of the restrictions on visas for China, tells China-guru Paul French the Guardian. Because buyers, inspectors and others cannot enter China because of the restrictions, our presents might be late or very expensive.

July 28, 2008

Barbara Krug, professor at the leading business school in the Netherlands RSM has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Professor Krug is a leading authority in Europe on China's economic development, particularly its private entrepreneurs. She organizes the China program at RSM.

July 25, 2008

Sam Flemming of CIC explains to the China Business Network how the internet works for companies and organizations outside China. How to manage an online crisis, what is the power of the Chinese B BS's. Sam uses some of his most recent experience in working with corporate clients.

July 23, 2008

A highly respected expert and speaker on China and Asia, Dr. Overholt, senior research fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University has decided to join the China Speakers Bureau. In 2008 he published Asia, America, and the Transformation of Geopolitics . Dr. Overholt is the writer of the bestseller The Rise of China, one of the most compelling books on China's economic transformation in the 1990s.

July 22, 2008

When Paul Denlinger gets a chance to explain US internet companies how it really works in China, nobody can stop him. "there is a single greater trend, and that is toward greater openness which has been achieved through cheap and easy communications."

July 21, 2008

Amy L. Sommers, partner at Squire, Sandres & Dempsey in Shanghai, has joined the China Speakers Bureau. Ms Sommers is an award-winning speaker. In a conversational style she is able to explain complicated legal issues in China in both fluent English and Manderin to lay audiences. Ms. Sommers has a wealth of anecdotes to illustrate the points she want to make.

July 17, 2008

Private equity firms turn increasingly to China as their home markets in Europe and especially the US are dropping very fast, argues Shaun Rein, Managing director of China Market Research (CRM) today in Business Week.

July 15, 2008

Sam Flemming, one of our leading speakers on the Chinese internet, is quoted extensively at the website of CNN on China's online buzz. Flemming is guiding companies in the murky waters of China's internet and does get more and more recognition for his ground-breaking work.