Procuring Insights Into China’s Supply Chain
A Korean Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) told me something at the Procurement Leader’s Forum in Singaporelast week that surprised me. I had presented the keynote speech that day to set the tone for...
View ArticleCCTV English Language BizAsia News Show Highlights Green Shoots of Innovation...
The Powers that Be in China work in mysterious ways. Last week CCTV English Language BizAsia News anchor Zheng “Charles” Junfeng invited me up to Beijing to visit two Chinese start-ups that are...
View ArticleExpat Purgatory: Peking Between the World Wars
Sunday, October 14, 2012 2pm Julia Boyd comes to the Bookworm in Suzhou to regale attendees at the next session of the Royal Asiatic Society-Suzhou with tales of Peking’s foreign community...
View ArticleKai-Fu Gets It
I’ve found it interesting to gauge the responses to my second book on China – China Fast Forward– which is about the intersection between technology, industry and innovation in China. One (British)...
View ArticleChina Policy and Climate Change: Time to Stop Feeling the Stones
New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s about-face in supporting President Obama was certainly a shocker. But announcing the volte face in the same breath as Climate Change was earth-shaking, given how...
View ArticleAmerica’s Innovation Funk
An American radio journalist based in the States recently interviewed me on-air with genuine interest about the state of China innovation. The interviewer’s questions gave me a sense here in...
View ArticleForbes Innovation List Needs Rennovation
I just finished reading an article on the Insead (business school) website that simultaneously had me nodding assent and that irritated me with its conclusions. The article extols the virtues of a...
View ArticleIs the West Distorting China’s IP Infringement Story?
Reutersrecently reported China’s top official in charge of fighting copyright piracy claimed the Western media was out to get China on intellectual property rights (IPR) infringement. According to...
View ArticleWill Chinese Consumers Soon Be Shopping Online with “Little Black Bags”
I recently read an article in Wired Magazine that set me to thinking about what the next big thing may be in China’s e-commerce space. A 100-year old Japanese custom may just be made to order....
View ArticleWishful Thinking Fuels R&D Centers in China
During a recent gathering of Western senior engineering managers and executives in China I was surprised at the pessimism they expressed about China becoming an Innovation Nation on the back of its...
View ArticleBackshoring to the Future
Recent announcements by Apple and GE and the moves of a host of other American manufacturers would seem to suggest that China’s draw as a manufacturing platform for the world is being challenged....
View ArticleThe China Innovation Play
Andrew Sheng asks in his article for the South China Morning Postif the Chinese central government’s policy of innovation by fiat will once again make China an innovation leader. Sheng is president...
View ArticleChina Innovation Scorecard for Own Companies Downbeat
Xinhua, an official government mouthpiece, recently published findings of a survey about the state of innovation readiness of its private manufacturing firms. The report cited, “that of those...
View ArticleInnovative Approaches To Money Transfers Out of China
We’ve been having rather spirited and lengthy discussions on the LinkedIn Group I host, China Fast Forward. In one of the discussion threads I comment to points made by other participants: I don’t...
View ArticleThe Perils of Western Professors in China
One of the members of the China Fast Forward group on LinkedIn posted an insightful Economist Magazine articleon the realities Western academic institutions face in China. Rote learning, a...
View ArticleThe Great Leap of China Patents
Much has been made recently of the rapidly increasing number of patent applications in China. The central government’s policy to show the world it will be an innovation nation reminds me of the the...
View ArticleChina’s Risk-Averse Youth Shun Innovation
I recently overheard in an elevator in Suzhou a conversation between bank managers. The bank has a branch in the lobby of the office building and a couple of floors in the building for management...
View ArticleBloomberg’s Totally Useless Innovation Index (TUII)
February 5th, 2013 Bloomberg recently released its own version of a global innovation index, and it’s even less informed than others I’ve written about. Some of my favorite rankings in the...
View ArticleWhen China’s Solar Equipment Patents Flew Too Close to the Sun
I was surprised recently during a research project on the the patent application activity of the Mainland’s solar power equipment industry to find a countervailing trend: patent activity in the...
View ArticleHuawei: R&D Dominance at any Price?
Huawei has recently appeared in several high-profile articles in international newspapers the last several days. Huawei makes telecommunications equipment and mobile phones. While best known for its...
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