Study trip balance

 

The days in Shangai went by really quick; the positive things I can rescue are the classes given in Jiao Tong University with professionalism, lots of useful data from the culture and way of negotiating in China were given.

I stay mostly with the idea of the business potential that represents the internal Chinese market and what it offers to the world.

Although the Chinese market presents difficulties for having suppressed consumption levels for low salary incomes, the financial market intervention and capital controls and its legal framework China is the world’s second largest economy, the main source of labor and the leading exporter with an average growth of 10%.

We should imitate Chinese society, in its long-term vision they have for doing things, many of our countries only think about today and hope that the next government is the one who solves our underlying problems; we must commit with our people and be able to have that incredible level of adaptation of the Chinese

And because not everything is going to be perfect, there were some organizational issues of the study trip that should improve for the future, especially in relation to the company tours in the afternoon, which should be more suited to the business environment in which you can show production processes and discuss their business strategies, challenges and opportunities that gives the Chinese market

As a bottom line, I believe this study trip offers to my professional life, macro view of business that can offer the economy of a country for visionary entrepreneurs.

Comentarios desactivados en Study trip balance / 10 Mar 2013 por Isabel Bereniz Terrones Levano
MBAftmad /

Día

The last day we had a conference with the manager of Dia company and he told us that Dia is the Leader in Hard Discount in China. They has 6833 stores and 47,557 employees. The key to success of this supermarket is the offer of good value to lowest Price.

In this conference we heard some interesting things, such as .the core business is to dominate the value chain of distribution, as well as being specialists in finding and negotiating with suppliers. His whole system is designed in productivity that is why their stores are not very showy. Besides they have three barcodes, that are use in the  products to make it easier their identification.

When Dia entered in the Chinese Market had 5 difficulties:
The first one  was the brand itself: here we saw that there was a perception problem, as the Chinese do not believe in the brand.
The second was to have supermarkets in urban areas.
The third was the difference in cost structure in Europe, this was not favorable for the discount.
In Europe 7% are labor cost and rental cost 4%, while in China is 5% and 8% labor cost of rental cost. This makes China more expensive and has a future with the raise is more damaging.
As the fourth difficulty was found very Fragmented Market. They founded Difficulty top lay Synergies. The logistics are very complex abd opperation Local suppliers and still are very regional.

Comentarios desactivados en Día / 10 Mar 2013 por Carolina Marianela Giannoni Melosevich
MBAftmad /

Last day in Shangai

 

Finally the last day arrived of our study trip, around noon we proceeded to the delivery of certificates of Jiao Tong University to the students of EOI, in the afternoon to close with golden flourish, the CEO of Day in China, gave us a conference about the distribution process Day group in China, where he told us his strategies, the difficulties they had when arrived to China, its business model and growth expectations they have. A really useful talk, to see from first hand how a foreign company can establish itself in a foreign market like China.

Comentarios desactivados en Last day in Shangai / 10 Mar 2013 por Isabel Bereniz Terrones Levano
MBAftmad /

Half journey

 

Today we visited Ningbo, which is an important industrial city and one of the biggest ports in china. It´s growth enhancement is given by the bridge over Hangzhou Bay, with its 33km; becomes the third longest bridge in the world and can reduce the travel time from Shanghai to two hours

Ningbo is strategically located, because it’s a port area and has airports, allowing Chinese exports being relevant.

It is an industrial area with a significant growth potential, as witness in the visit to Ningbo European Industrial Park, where we could saw the products that are manufactured in there as shower floors and doors, building anchors and solar panels.

Comentarios desactivados en Half journey / 10 Mar 2013 por Isabel Bereniz Terrones Levano
MBAftmad /

DIFFERENT OPINIONS

One of the most enriching experiences of the Study Trip has been listening to the different opinions and perceptions of teachers, entrepreneurs and managers during our stay in Shanghai.

 

We’ve had pretty interesting points of view, some of them really put up China as the biggest deal, some as an interesting opportunity but not the only one, and some as a place we shouldn’t go for our own sake.

 

I believe that China is an opportunity especially for big companies, first of all because they sell almost worldwide and China is a huge market, and secondly because their name and position make it easier in order to establish Chinese partners.

For medium and/or small businesses, there are more than 100 options (countries) to check before deciding without any research if China is the next step.

 

We received many messages about going to China, I would like to name a few:

– Don’t go to China or anywhere without a plan.

– Don’t go to China if you are not thinking about long-term relations.

– ¿Is it China for me? – please be honest about this answer.

– A written contract doesn’t mean things will keep that way.

– They can copy anything.

– The world’s greatest competitors are here.

– Don’t hurry, a lot of people have made huge mistakes because “they had to be in China yesterday”.

 

If you have an idea and after doing a good research, establishing a plan and -most important- being honest with yourself the result is China then ¡GO!

It’s a huge market with huge opportunities, but also a really tough one.

 

All in all it has been amazing to listen to people who can say “been there, done that”. Some of these messages aren’t only related to doing business in China, but to doing business anywhere.

 

Comentarios desactivados en DIFFERENT OPINIONS / 09 Mar 2013 por Erick Eduardo Arevalo Abello
MBAftmad /

CHINESE QUALITY

China has been growing faster than anyone had expected, one of the main reasons has been the low costs of manufacturing.

 

This amazing growth has been mainly supported by exports of manufactured goods, generating inequality in wages that in one hand permits low costs of manufacturing but in the other blocks the internal consumption of China’s middle class.

The situation will likely become unsustainable and operative wages will inevitably have to increase, along with benefits for the employees.

 

Chinese entrepreneurs won’t be able to rely only on price as their main strength or advantage, especially if they really want to reduce the current social gap. I bring this to the table since price is the argument managers and owners have given us in almost every company visit we have made.

It’s true that China has an amazing advantage in prices compared to developed countries, but some emerging countries are competitive enough to the point where formerly China-based companies are moving to those countries.

 

Taking all the above into account, I think China and its entrepreneurs should start focusing on two different points than just the price: Capacity (1,3 billion people) and Quality.

 

¿Quality? Yes, you read it right.

Since China opened up to the western world many companies with excellent procedures and cutting-edge technologies have established subsidiaries and even headquarters in this country.

 

¿The Result? They have learned.

Even when a lot of Chinese products are still price oriented and with poor quality standards, some are as good as western products.

China should make important efforts in order to give this message to the whole world. Nevertheless, if they do, they will have to back it up.

 

Comentarios desactivados en CHINESE QUALITY / 09 Mar 2013 por Erick Eduardo Arevalo Abello
MBAftmad /

Abstract of my study trip to China

Now, I must say ‘¡Hola!’ instead of ‘Ni hao!’ because I’m writing the final post from Toledo, Spain. It was a very interesting study trip which undoubtedly I would repeat it. This trip has allowed us to know how we could deal with Chinese people, what we have to do if we want to start up a business there, which are the main issues you can not speak about and how is the body language you should use when you are dealing with them, which is the future of this country and how they are going to grow in the next years. Furthermore, it is said China will become in the first world power in a few years, so I think it is very important to be prepared for it and to know how they are working for getting it.

So, the Jiao Tong lectures have been so useful and I think the quality of the teachers have been insuperable. They have taught us all the knowledge we must know about China and the businesses in this country.

This trip also allows us to visit Shanghai and Hangzhou, although there are some people who have visited Beijing as well. They are a society who has a great richness of architecture, gastronomy and history, and I can say you I have check it during the trip day by day. China is a very special country which everyone should visit once in life.

I want to close this post with a little analysis about a impressive sentence said by one of the lecturers speaking about Chinese people which was reminded one night at the hall of the hotel by Erick Arévalo, a good friend of mine: “They are killing themselves and they don’t care“. This sentence, I believe, does reference about the quick growth of this country in many terms which it involves a continue growth of the concentrated pollution in cities, the increase of the differences among social classes, and quite different impacts in the Chinese society, economy and policy.

Shanghai, I’m going to miss you! Farewell! 永別了!

Comentarios desactivados en Abstract of my study trip to China / 09 Mar 2013 por Agustin Agudo Garcia
MBAftmad /

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WEB AND RELATIONSHIPS IN CHINA

Yesterday I attended a lecture and it was really worth getting up so early. A Spaniard boy, Oscar Ramos, taught us really interesting things about entrepreneurs. We learnt about some tools to do business in today´s China. Here we can read about 400 000 000 micro blogs so these figures make us think that it works better than twitter. There are about 1,104 million of mobile´s suscriptors in China. In addition, there has been a 778% of growth of advertisement video and 314,000 million $ shopping on line. And about 96% of the traffic, visits of Chinese users are made in Chinese webs. Therefore, it is important to have a good web profile as a company to do business in China.

The next lecture was about relationship and recognition in order to retain the talent. Around a 90% of Chinese students are not prepared for working in a multinational company. In addition to this luck of prepared workers foreign companies have to compete with globalizing Chinese companies and deal with behavioral differences. For instance, Chinese people are good in learning, practical, conservative and disciplined. On the other hand, foreigners are willing to take challenges, creative, independent and passionate. One thing that makes me think how difficult can be for a company to set up in China is that you have to ask the right question until you get the right information. And if you as an employer want to engage your talent you are supposed to spend at least 5 hours a week for each of your employees and they want you a good feedback to encourage effective behavior.

Later in the afternoon, we went to visit Dibal China Division. We could see the whole process of how rolled steel coil is created.

I am looking forward to telling you such interesting things on my next post!

Comentarios desactivados en THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WEB AND RELATIONSHIPS IN CHINA / 09 Mar 2013 por Ángela Pérez Báscones
MBAftmad /

Back in Spain!!!!!

After ten days in Shanghai, we arrived to Madrid on Wednesday, with a huge jet lag (we spent about thirty hours travelling from airport to airport), but we have lived an amazing experience (in which I only would change the food)

We certainly took advantage of our last days in China, we did some tours in the city, and during the week we always arrived very tired at the hotel because of the classes and the visits…

In the Saturday we went to the Longhua Temple. It was amazing to see such a nice, quiet and ancient place in the middle of a big and modern city like Shanghai.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, if we thought we had seen everything, we were wrong. We visited the Yu Yuan Gardens and they were wonderful too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s obligatory to visit the Bund and also the Pudong, and the best form to do it is at night, in a ferry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went to visit Hangzhou, one of the most famous cities in China. It is surrounded by nature and it’s described by the Chinese people as a paradise on earth.

We also visited the west lake, the Feilai Feng caves, the Lingyin Temple and Hefang Jie, which is a long street where the oldest pharmacy in China is located.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This study trip has been such a great experience that I’m sure we will always remember it.

 

Comentarios desactivados en Back in Spain!!!!! / 09 Mar 2013 por Paula Tejero Lafuente
MBAftmad /

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WEB AND RELATIONSHIPS IN CHINA

Yesterday I attended a lecture and it was really worth getting up so early. A Spaniard boy, Oscar Ramos, taught us really interesting things about entrepreneurs. We learnt about some tools to do business in today´s China. Here we can read about 400 000 000 micro blogs so these figures make us think that it works better than twitter. There are about 1,104 million of mobile´s suscriptors in China. In addition, there has been a 778% of growth of advertisement video and 314,000 million $ shopping on line. And about 96% of the traffic, visits of Chinese users are made in Chinese webs. Therefore, it is important to have a good web profile as a company to do business in China.

Next lecture was about relationship and recognition in order to retain the talent. Around a 90% of Chinese students are not prepared for working in a multinational company. In addition to this luck of prepared workers foreign companies have to compete with globalizing Chinese companies and deal with behavioral differences. For instance, Chinese people are good in learning, practical, conservative and disciplined. On the other hand, foreigners are willing to take challenges, creative, independent and passionate. One thing that makes me think how difficult can be for a company to set up in China is that you have to ask the right question until you get the right information. And if you as an employer want to engage your talent you are supposed to spend at least 5 hours a week for each of your employees and they want you a good feedback to encourage effective behavior.

Later in the afternoon, we went to visit Dibal China Division. We could see the whole process of how rolled steel coil is created.

I am looking forward to telling you such interesting things on my next post!

 

Comentarios desactivados en THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WEB AND RELATIONSHIPS IN CHINA / 09 Mar 2013 por Ángela Pérez Báscones
MBAftmad /