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Will China 2.0 Out-Innovate your company?

Mar-25-13 By Rowan Gibson
After thirty years as a “workshop for the world”, China is steadily and resolutely moving up the value chain. And this transition – from low-cost manufacturing to world-class innovation, design and marketing – will change the rules of competition everywhere on earth, including inside China. So take a good look at your company’s strategic priorities for 2013 and ask yourself if this question is on the list: “Are we gearing up for China 2.0?”

On a recent trip to Beijing, I was struck by how radically the focus of everyday business conversations has changed. And this has nothing to do with the global recession, which temporarily took some of the wind out of China’s sails. It has much more to do with the realization that China is entering a new and quite different era in its economic development, and that companies (both local and foreign) will have to act quickly and decisively if they are going to carve out a place in it.

Efficiency versus Value – The New Innovation Equation

Feb-25-13 By Rowan Gibson
When the economic barometer is pointing upward, all the talk in company boardrooms is about growth, innovation and value creation. When the global economy lingers in the doldrums, corporate strategy shifts inexorably back to the safe haven of operational efficiency. Now you might argue that this reaction is both inevitable and understandable, and I would accept that at some level. But remember this: something far deeper and more significant than these periodic upswings and downswings is the fact that we are now in a new kind of economic era. An era in which fanatical cost-cutting, downsizing, lean Six-Sigma, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain management, off shoring or outsourcing are no longer the basis for competitive advantage.