On Tuesday June 23 in Shanghai there will be an environmental business forum open to the public. For readers who are interested in cleantech, environmental policy, and sustainable development in China, several speakers, including Supertrends’ co-author Jason Inch, will discuss the latest research and government plans (see below for registration and fee information).

Jason will be speaking in the opening session, talking about the latest environmental business and policy trends in China, followed by Alexander Prautzsch of Ernst & Young and Linnet Kwok from WWF China. There will also be a speaker on environmental finance in China. Overall it looks to be an interesting and informative event. It is hosted by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, but is open to both members and non-members. Here are the event details:

Date: Tuesday, 2009-06-23
Time: 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Venue: European Chamber Shanghai Office  - Unit 2204, Shui on Plaza, 333 Huaihai Zhong Road, Luwan District, Shanghai 200021 (Next to the Taipingyang - Pacific Department Store at Huangpi S. Road subway station on Line 1)
Cost: Members: RMB 150, non-members: RMB 230
RSVP: Click here to register online

For a complete event rundown and agenda, please follow this link to the EUCCC’s website.

Categories: Announcements
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Possibly as a result of signs that China’s economy is recovering, the co-authors of Supertrends of Future China are frequently speaking on the topic at various public and private venues. Two events in the next two weeks are open to the public (see below for registration and fee information).

Jason Inch will be speaking on Thursday, April 23, at an event hosted by the Shanghai Canadian Chamber of Commerce. This event is open to all, including non-Canadians, for an entry of 75 RMB including one drink (50 RMB if you are a member). Jason will be talking about the recent indications of China’s economic recovery and what that implies for jobs and business expansion. Here is the complete event information:

Date: Thursday, 2009-04-23
Time: 6:30 - 8:30pm
Venue: VIP Room II, Level 3, Four Seasons Hotel Shanghai
Cost: CANCHAM Members: RMB50
Non-members: RMB75
RSVP: Fiona@cancham.sh.cn

On May 7, Jason will be speaking at the two-day Green Product & Business Forum in Shanghai. Chapter 9 of the Supertrends book focused on China’s environmental supertrend: The opportunities in cleantech, sustainable business, and energy efficiency in China. Jason will join a panel discussion on the first day of the event to talk about sustainable business in China. If you are with an NGO or non-profit, registration is 300 RMB, and for corporate attendees it is 1500 RMB. Given the huge opportunities in China’s environmental industries, this is an excellent opportunity to learn more.

Please let us know if you will be attending, it is great to meet blog readers in person.

Categories: Announcements, Events
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Part of the fun of being an author is the chance to interact with readers. To that end, we would like to announce some upcoming events for Supertrends’ blog readers to attend in person.

In collaboration with one of China’s best foreign book specialist booksellers, Garden Books, the co-authors of Supertrends of Future China will be speaking at two events in April for readers in Shanghai and Beijing:

The first event is this weekend, Sunday April 12 from 3-5 PM at the Shanghai outlet of Garden Books (located on 325 Changle Road nearby Shanxi South Road). At this event, both James Yuann and Jason Inch will be there to share their ideas about China’s immediate economic future and how this relates to careers in China, investing, and starting a business. Further information can be found about the event at City Weekend.

The second event will be held the following weekend in Beijing on Saturday April 18 from 3-5 PM at the Sequoia Cafe (44 Guanghua Road by 2nd Ring Road East). There Jason Inch will speak on the economic crisis’ effects in China, the timeline for recovery, and how this impacts expats and foreign companies doing business here. Further information about the event is at Garden Books and on City Weekend.

By the way, the book is already on sale at Garden Books for those readers in China. The book has been available worldwide for several months now but they are the first retailer that we know of to carry our book in China.  Thanks!

Categories: Announcements, Events, Uncategorized
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Recently James Yuann, co-author of Supertrends, was invited to speak about China’s science and technology trends at Spark09.

Spark09, held in Shanghai on March 28,  was the inaugural hosting of a TED-style symposium of  interesting speakers coming together to interact with audiences in the sharing of new ideas in humanities, environment, science, business. It was an extraordinary event that I also attended along with several hundred people to see some amazing presentations.

James was honored to attend as a speaker. For those could not make it to the event but would like to see his speech, a video should become available in a few days’ time on his bio page at the Spark website.

If you would like to have James or myself speak about China’s economy and trends at your upcoming event, please get in touch with us.

Categories: Announcements, Events
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On January 27 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced its 2008 statistics for patent filings. China moved up in the rankings, to number six globally, nearing tech leaders, such as Korea, and  surpassing the UK, Canada and other developed countries. At the same time, a Chinese company tops the ranking of corporate patent-filers for the first time, surpassing patent-mavens Panasonic, Philips and, well, everyone else because that is what it means to be number one.

That company, of course, is China’s bellwether Huawei Technologies - fuel to the fire for Huawei’s famed ‘wolf-culture‘ of hard work, passion, and ruthless competition.

I thought this news about Huawei was worth posting because it is a significant globally-recognized data point supporting the trend of China’s drive to be more innovative. In Supertrends of Future China, we noted China’s increased spending on R&D through its universities and research institutes (in various public and public-private partnerships), increased domestic patent filings, and relocation of multinational R&D centers to China (especially after new tax credits were introduced in 2007 / 2008’s revamping of corporate tax policy). All of these are indicators of a concerted effort to make China a more technology-intensive country, with two caveats.

First, it should be noted that WIPO patent filings are not an accurate reflection of domestic patent applications or patents granted overall. WIPO’s ranking refers to patents filed under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), in which a patent must be successfully filed in a signatory country or region before it is accepted under WIPO’s PCT for global protection. The PCT system enables the filing company to protect its intellectual property in 153 Contracting States with a single application, thereby significantly reducing costs and partially solving the problem of establishing and protecting IP in foreign territories.

Second, in terms of the individual company patent filings, Huawei coming in first for the first time does not necessarily indicate a broader trend of Chinese companies becoming more innovative. Filing under WIPO’s PCT could merely indicate how aggressively a company intends to defend patents abroad. WIPO’s PCT makes this much easier, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. Furthermore, a precipitous decline in patent filings in 2008 by Philips and Panasonic was more likely the true cause of Huawei’s placing first. With only one other Chinese company - ZTE - in the top 100, China’s strength in patenting versus that of global competitors is still negligible.

However, is there any additional evidence concerning patents that supports the contention that China is indeed becoming more innovative? For that, you could look to domestic applications and patents granted by the State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO). In this regard, China appears to be getting more innovative, with about 317,000 patents granted overall in 2008 (Jan - Nov 2008), up from about 301,000 patents granted in 2007 (Jan - Dec 2007). If you go back further, to 2006, less than 224,000 patents were granted. Globally, China ranks number three in patent-intensiveness, ahead of Germany and Korea (and behind world-leaders US and Japan).

All of the above figures, it should be stated, do not speak to the quality of the patents, and I have not provided a breakdown of patents by type (inventions vs. incremental improvements, for example), but an examination of the data on SIPO’s statistics page does show increases in invention and design patent categories that are slower than overall patent growth in China. Therefore one conclusion might be that China’s large number of patents filed owes more to brute force improvements rather than quality innovation.

Also, it will take China some time to reach the state of the art, but this is still a good indicator of progression on China’s long march up the global value-chain.

Chalk one more up for Huawei’s wolf-culture. At least for now, it is leader of the pack.

Categories: China Supertrends, Innovating
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Over the Chinese New Year, I noted an article about Haibao, the aquatically-ambiguous official mascot of the Shanghai World Expo 2010. The article, titled “Haibao Idea Born in a Cafe,” has the best explanation yet of how Haibao’s design was conceived.

According to the article, which profiled the creator Wu Yongjian, a professor of design,

Chinese culture needed to be the essential element to embody the spirit of World Expo 2010. “A large number of mascot designs to express Chinese culture were inspired by images of pandas, monkeys and dragons, etc,” says Wu. “What I did was try to find another way to interpret China, a more abstract way.”

Perhaps referring to the Olympic Fuwa as an example of the oft-overused panda design motif, Wu’s explanation of how Haibao was conceived answers some of the Netizen-led criticisms of it apparently being the figment of the designer’s TV-addled mind.

After several changes to the initial submission of the Haibao character were made, a design was finalized that incorporated the imagery of the Chinese character ren - 人 - in the color of ocean blue, perhaps connecting the mascot to the host city Shanghai (the character for Shanghai’s hai is also one of the characters in Hai bao). Indeed, the deeper meaning of the mascot was expressed in the article in this way:

Like an ocean, Haibao symbolically represents a city where all values and ideologies can coexist.

Ummm, ok. Back in September 2008 John Pasden of the Sinosplice blog discussed how the five Olympic Fuwa of Friendliness were finally fading into obscurity. Today only the echoes of their alliteration remain, signaling the impermanence of all things. To John’s dismay however, in Shanghai the Fuwa have been replaced by the emergence of Haibao. As of late, Haibao is indeed everywhere. (The charmingly creative installation pictured above was found bordering the Jing’an Sculpture Park).

But back to the subject of the Shanghai Daily article, Haibao’s origins, Wu Yongjian’s dilemma is this: From the release of Haibao back in 2007, the creator has been accused by Netizens of the Chinese blogosphere of, to put it kindly, being influenced by Growing Pains, the classic 80s TV show, which became one of China’s most popular TV imports.  Ask any 80s or 90s-generation Chinese and they’ll likely know Chengzheng de Fannao and might even remember how Ben Seaver’s room was decorated:

Western readers will recognize the character on Ben’s wall as Gumby, an American icon of rubbery fun, so it is perhaps more correct to say the designer was influenced by Gumby rather than Growing Pains, but Mr. Wu is not going to come out and say, “Yes, I copied it!” The Daily article gives a measured and authentic-sounding explanation for how Haibao evolved, but the true initial conception of Haibao may never be known except to Mr. Wu himself. I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, China has a large number of similar-looking logos and trademarks that could stand a bit of re-branding, in my opinion.

Although it is not exactly a Supertrend in and of itself, we put  the need for more brand development into our book’s chapter on the evolution of the service and retail sectors in China. I was also discussing this with a new friend who moved to Shanghai and set up shop as a brand consultant last year. Business is going well.  If you’re looking for a good brand-builder, drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch. I will also follow the topic of branding in a later post.

Happy Chinese New Year.

Categories: China Supertrends, Consuming
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