B2B Digital Distribution: Finding the Missing Customer
E-commerce has blazed like a wildfire through China’s consumer landscape, seeding digital-first enterprises and pushing legacy businesses to adapt or die. Chinese consumers’ fast adoption of all things digital, from […]
When Will China’s Back Offices Catch Up?
Advances in financial technology have transformed how consumers buy goods in China. A few taps on the phone, and electronic payments are seamlessly transferred and recorded. But peer into any […]
Rising Complexity Clouds Asia’s Growth Prospects
The uncertain political and economic outlook for Asia in 2020 calls for management to devote more time to cope with rising complexity and expectations for cooler growth. The US-China and […]
China’s Ecosystems: Invest or Partner Your Way to Innovation
Following the example of China’s most successful private companies, many Western MNCs are working to participate more fully in their industry ecosystems in China. Companies, such as Alibaba and Tencent, […]
Compliance Redux: Vigilance is Essential in China
Seven years into China’s anti-corruption campaign, the pursuit of corporate malfeasance, conflicts of interest and fraud continues. After the 2014 GSK scandal, foreign firms were put on notice that a […]
Sustainability Matters to Business in Asia
Much of the economic success that Asia has experienced has fault lines in its development model. ‘Growth at all costs’ has created unintended consequences in Asia’s environment and society. Forty […]
MNCs are Restructuring Asia Pacific Operations (Again)
The push for innovation, the search for talent, and competitive pressures require that new entrants and long-established players rethink their Asia business strategies and organisation structure. Companies often restructure their […]
Driving Asia’s Growth with Innovation
Asia is emerging as a global powerhouse for innovation and becoming an increasingly important source of innovation. China has led this change and many MNCs have innovation centres in China […]
Powering Finance in China with Artificial Intelligence
In the next five years, experts predict CFOs in China will have a complete financial picture in real time on their phone. They will be able to scroll through the […]
China and the World: Scale, Integration and Influence
Forty-one years after Deng Xiaoping kicked off the ‘Reform and Opening’ movement, China remains relatively closed in a world that is more open (see China and the World: Open or […]
China and the World: Open or Closed?
China remains relatively closed in a world that is more open. Yet, opportunities still abound for those who have the data, understand the dynamics, and are willing to commit to […]
Optimise or Transform with New Technologies?
It can be tempting to integrate new technologies such as AI, big data and blockchain in response to the relentless hype around them. As one IMA Asia member put it, […]
MNCs Tapping China’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship
It’s no surprise, that global corporations are seeking fresh ways to engage with Chinese entrepreneurs and tap their innovative spirit. After all, Chinese start-ups have excelled at process and service […]
Turning Everyone into Top Performers in China
Does losing your top performers in China really make that much difference? An oft-cited study found top performers are up to 400% more productive than average employees. Given the highly […]
Segmenting China’s Market to Increase Profits
Foreign firms in China are reining in efforts to grab market share at all costs and are taking a hard look at their bottom line. In the past, growth businesses […]
How Blockchain Can Boost China’s Supply Chain
Blockchain payment systems are emerging as a possible solution for the lack of financing that plagues small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in China. It hurts MNCs when supply chain partners have […]
Capturing a Slice of Southeast Asia e-Commerce Growth
E-commerce in Southeast Asia is poised for a boom in sales over the next five years but companies capitalising on the growth face significant challenges. A recent report by Google […]
Are Chinese Companies Up for Sale?
Controlling shareholders of China’s private-owned enterprises (POEs) face an unprecedented level of indebtedness. This may be a unique opportunity for foreign firms to grow market share through acquisitions and partnering […]
B2B Distribution in China’s Digital World
The potential of digital technology to transform businesses is finally becoming a reality for B2B firms in China. Industrial players are increasingly entering the fray. They are testing new digital […]
Lifting Profits in China’s Ever More Demanding Market
When growth in China begins to sputter, executives often reflexively seek out new growth opportunities. For some premium industrial brands, this might mean making ‘good-enough’ products in order to chase […]