How old-economy firm Haier succeeded without Western-style razzmatazz

How old-economy firm succeeded without Western-style razzmatazz

Created: 2013-6-18

Author:Bill Fischer, Umberto Lago, and Fang Liu

LESS than 30 years from near-bankruptcy to global leadership; reinvention at least three times; trusting nearly 80,000 people to accept leadership roles in self-organizing, autonomous work units. Is it yet another new economy, Silicon Valley razzamatazz success story? Not at all.  This is about a Chinese company making home appliances, and it’s an incredible story about what is possible in old-economy, commodity markets.
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Online financial services threaten China’s traditional banks

Online financial services threaten China’s traditional banks

Kung Chun-jung and Staff Reporter

2013-06-16

The rapid emergence of the internet industry in China, which provides a broad range of online financial services, has posed a severe threat to the traditional banking and financial sectors, the money page of Chinese internet portal NetEase reports.

The emerging trend of online third-party payments, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and P2P microfinance services has significantly eaten into the benefits offered by the established financial sector, the report said. Read more of this post

Foreign fast food chains in China experiencing confidence crisis

Foreign fast food chains in China experiencing confidence crisis

Staff Reporter

2013-06-18

Foreign fast food chains are facing a series of challenges that have hit their sales in China, which has become a key market after the companies’ rapid expansion in the country, the financial site of Chinese portal Tencent reported.

Yum Brands, which owns chains including KFC and Pizza Hut and controls 0.2% of the fast food market in China, posted a 13% drop in same-store sales at its over 5,200 outlets across the country in March, and forecast a further fall of 29% in April. Read more of this post

Chinese regulators seek to increase the public’s role in rooting out IPO fraud

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Chinese regulators seek to increase the public’s role in rooting out IPO fraud

China likes to keep its business to itself, often going so far as to label some corporate finances as state secrets. Few places have been more secretive than the securities market, where the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) passes opaque judgments on which firms get to IPO, and when.

After years of poor performance of mainland exchanges, where companies are frequently found to be ridden with fraud, China’s top securities regulator has finally deigned to give the public a glimpse of the companies they could buy into.  Read more of this post

Canada has more Subway stores per capita than it does in the United States and store traffic in Canada is higher than at U.S. outlets

Subway thrives in Canada while avoiding beverage wars

Hollie Shaw | 13/06/17 | Last Updated: 13/06/17 5:29 PM ET

Peter J. Thompson/National PostFred DeLuca, president and co-founder of Subway at the franchise’s 127 Bremner Boulevard Toronto location. Mr. DeLuca borrowed US$1,000 to start the business with a friend in 1965.

TORONTO • Subway Restaurants keeps growing steadily in Canada even though the fast-food sandwich purveyor has not followed rivals McDonald’s and Tim Hortons in appealing to coffee-loving Canadians. Read more of this post

Case study: Li-Ning lost out to foreign rivals in China

June 17, 2013 4:56 pm

Case study: Li-Ning lost out to foreign rivals in China

By Hellmut Schütte, Sumelika Bhattacharyya and Jocelyn Probert

The story

Gymnast Li Ning became a Chinese hero in 1984 when he won six medals at the Los Angeles Olympics, the country’s first appearance at a summer games in 32 years. By 1990 he had set up his own sportswear company, Li-Ning. It was an immediate hit, and in 1999 the company’s revenues in China reached Rmb700m, more than twice Nike’s Rmb300m and Adidas’s Rmb100m.

The challenge

The growing spending power of China’s middle-class consumers and their appetite for foreign brands, combined with the surging popularity of basketball and football – with which Nike and Adidas were associated – helped the two overseas companies win more sales in China than Li-Ning. Read more of this post

Myanmar’s old friend China is left wondering where it went wrong; President Thein Sein said he personally despises Beijing’s influence over its smaller, poorer neighbour

June 17, 2013 1:04 pm

Myanmar’s old friend China is left wondering where it went wrong

By Jamil Anderlini in Naypyidaw

In the surreal Burmese capital Naypyidawit’s hard to miss the gleaming convention centre built by a Chinese state-owned construction company and donated to the military junta a few years ago in a gesture of bilateral amity.

But earlier this month, as more than 900 executives from across the globe gathered in the complex for Burma’s first ever World Economic Forum, the Chinese presence was conspicuously absent. According to the official WEF list, only 16 participants were from mainland China.

For decades after the founding of the People’s Republic, American foreign policy was obsessed by the question of “who lost China?” Read more of this post

Samsung’s Kitchen ambition; Can the Korean electronics giant pull a smartphone-like win in the home?

Samsung’s Kitchen ambition

June 17, 2013: 10:25 AM ET

Can the Korean electronics giant pull a smartphone-like win in the home? 

By Stephanie N. Mehta, deputy managing editor

FORTUNE — Can Samsung Electronics conquer kitchen appliances in the same way it has conquered televisions and smartphones?

The Korean tech conglomerate, already the market leader in sales of TVs and mobile phones with advanced computing capabilities, says it also aims to be the world’s No. 1 purveyor of home appliances by 2015. That’s a lofty goal considering that today it is the No. 5 player in refrigerators and automatic washer/dryers, according to market share data from Euromonitor International, and isn’t in Euromonitor’s top 5 in dishwashers, ovens or microwaves.

But Boo-Keun Yoon, co-CEO of Samsung Electronics, believes the company can win over global consumers by bringing innovation and a high-tech approach to refrigerators, ovens, air conditioners, and washing machines. “These are products that consumers are very emotional about, but there’s a lot of room for innovation in home appliances.” Yoon says. Read more of this post

How big companies can beat the patent chaos of India

How big companies can beat the patent chaos of India

June 17, 2013: 1:59 PM ET

There are several companies that are doing well in India by adapting to the market instead of the other way around.

By Ravi Venkatesan

FORTUNE — Multinational pharmaceutical companies agree on one thing — that India is one of the hardest places in the world for Big Pharma to compete thanks to price controls, compulsory licensing of drugs, poor intellectual property protection, and a host of capable generic competitors.

The recent decision by India’s Supreme Court to deny patent protection to Novartis (NVS) for a reformulated version of an anticancer drug has just added more fuel to the fire, provoking drug companies and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to unleash angry warnings that it would cut off investment to the world’s most populous democracy and ultimately limit access to lifesaving medications. The judgment adds to a growing list of trade tensions between India, the U.S., and Europe at a time when India desperately needs more foreign investment to restart its slowing economy. Read more of this post

Korea rising: From rags to riches

2013-06-17 20:33

Korea rising: From rags to riches

This is the final of a 10-part series of Korean history from its mythological, ancient beginning until the present day. This project is sponsored by several companies and public agencies including Merck Korea, eBay Korea, Daewoo Securities and Korea Post. ― ED.

By Kim Tae-gyu and Kevin N. Cawley
The end of World War II on Aug. 15, 1945 brought about the independence of Korea after 35 years of brutal Japanese colonial rule. However, the initial euphoria of the people did not last long.

Against the will of the Korean people who sought to have their own government ruling the entire Korean Peninsula, a United Nations arrangement led to its division along the 38th parallel ― a demarcation that lasts until today. Read more of this post

Abenomics for Women Undermined by Men Dominating in Japan

Abenomics for Women Undermined by Men Dominating in Japan

By Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa – Jun 17, 2013

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to elevate the role of women in the world’s third-largest economy. He might start with his own party.

Abe called for women filling 30 percent of senior positions in all parts of society by 2020, in an April 19 speech showcasing his growth strategy. Now, his Liberal Democratic Party is fielding nine female candidates out of 79 for next month’s election to the upper house of parliament — about 11 percent. Read more of this post

Spain’s high-speed trains and abandoned stations

Published: Tuesday June 18, 2013 MYT 8:47:00 AM

Spain’s high-speed trains and abandoned stations

ONBOARD MADRID-ALICANTE HIGH-SPEED TRAIN: A one-track dirt road used by local farmers is the main access to a magnificent glass-and-steel train station in the small city of Villena, on Spain’s latest high-speed rail route.

It is a spanking new 4,500 square meter building – essentially in the middle of nowhere.

The central government financed the rail route, inaugurated on Monday, between Madrid and Alicante on the Costa Blanca. The Valencia regional government was supposed to fund works to connect it to the nearby motorway and Villena, home to 35,000.

But it ran out of money, leaving the station high and dry. Read more of this post

Bond stampede fear spurs race for reform

June 17, 2013 5:53 pm

Bond stampede fear spurs race for reform

By Stephen Foley, Vivianne Rodrigues and Tracy Alloway in New York

If there is one thing that keeps bond investors awake at night, it is the fear of a stampede for the exit. And for good reason: there could be a pile-up in the doorway, leading to extreme market swings. After the scares of the past month, the race is on to find ways to improve liquidity in the bond market, where, unlike stocks, it can often be tricky to find buyers and sellers. Ben Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman, is expected this week to try to undo some of the concerns about a disorderly rise in interest rates, which he triggered in May with talk that the US central bank may begin to taper its monetary stimulus. That led to a run-up in market rates and record weekly outflows from fixed-income funds. Read more of this post