Tag: Baidu

Up the value chain

China is dreaming up its own Silicon Valley.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127742250&ft=1&f=1017

Its young are flocking NE universities in the summer, learning about American culture and history.

While in San Jose, they visit Tech Museum.

Are ideas and innovation moving offshore?

I was told to “follow the money”.

Does anyone know what time it is? Doesn’t anyone even care? (Chicago).

Actually, they have been nickel-and-dime, with rising costs (of wages, inflation pressure etc…).

Either they move South to Vietnam, Cambodia etc… or up the value chain.

Moving of the mind instead of moving the factories.

In crisis, there is opportunity. (Inida after 4 decades of leapfrogging the manufacturing step, end up with inflation).

30 years ago, China did it, out of necessity (with obvious consequences such as wage pressures and pollution).

This time, it is forced to go beyond dorm-room refrigerators to solar panel and software development.

Already we saw Baidu. And cities which offer high rebates for film makers (free extras). Watch out Bollywood!

If history taught us anything, it is this: China made a huge mistake by burning its world-class vessels back in the 16th century.

It drifted away and distracted itself  with opium and orthodoxy. Now China wakes up, moves fast and away from its progress-resistant mode. It has no time to eat or spend its money.

Money and success feed themselves. And each Chinese is moving up the Maslow scale. So is the interior country (with each province’s RFP and coordinated initiatives),

to catch up with Coastal cities such as Shanghai. The latter have been on steroid, while the former adrenaline.

Turns out, China is doing what exactly anyone in its place would: follow the money because its leader said “to get rich is glorious”, in this case, optimizing the value chain and use all its resources (which means it will soon have to outsource, offshore and build Tech museum as well). The force of nature favors survival of the busiest. And China is busy building its own Silicon Valley.

It’s a good IKEA

A billion+  prospects. Wow!

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-china-ikea25-2009aug25,0,3900096,full.story

IKEA in China. More  a  theme park then a show room.

They try, they buy.

Today it’s the A/C and ambience.

Tomorrow, it will be CHIKEA everywhere (not only the font, but spelling change as well!).

One thing China does well is to mass-produce these household items on the scale hard to compete with.

But IKEA will keep reinventing itself, tossing in a satin pillow here and a straw basket there to create the right look and feel for the place. After all the construction “bad” loans comes interior decoration.

China, a hyper power of consumerism. The force of the unleashing wallet.

By 2020, we can expect a new generation of male child, mostly over fed and under exercised (due to the proliferation of automobiles and computer gaming) all want to start their own Alibaba or Baidu.

IKEA would then have to move up the value chain to accommodate Hummer drivers and Lenovo users (or suffer the fate of Sears, whose catalogue was first, just as IKEA’s now the most printed).

It made so much sense to see the Chinese bid for Unoco 76 gas and once failed, they hit the Safari trail in search for oil.

Young overseas Chinese workers will come home with a wealth of knowledge, having been exposed to the latest and greatest from abroad. While at home, their counterparts are still seen napping at the IKEA’s A/C theme parks.

Either the world is coming to China, or China will go out to the world. The Olympic is just a start. Central Casting is on a

look out for a new bad guy to play the role of   X as  “made in X” .

Back in the late 70’s, we used to laugh at “made in Japan” automobiles (remember the Datsun?)

I vote for the Made-in-China solar panels though.

They are quick to smell money-making opportunities. Either that or they will have to ship their workers overseas, as they did with trucks and cars during the pre-Olympic months to “clear out” the smog in Beijing.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention. Solar panel, at this time, is a good IKEA.