How much influence has China over Burma?

William Overholt

Very little, says William Overholt, director of the Rand 's center for Asian Pacific policy and Chinabiz Speaker in the Los Angeles Times.

"They actually have very limited leverage, as all foreigners do," said William Overholt, who advised the pro-democracy coalition of 21 tribal groups that created the Provisional Revolutionary Government in Burma in 1989 and is now director of Rand's Center for Asia Pacific Policy. "The whole theory of this government is to cut itself off from the world so no one can influence it."

More in the LA Times. For those who have been following the conflict in North-Korea, the argument must not come as a surprise. Initially, China was also assumed to be in a position to change North-Korea's policies, politely or with economic sanctions. But its leverage proved to be much less than the US, as North-Korea was mainly eager to get the United States as a player in the talks. Also here it took a while before the China-experts could really made themselves heard in the political drumbeating.

Why a US crisis is good for China - Paul French

Paul French

Never short of a provocative statement, our Chinabiz Speaker Paul French argues in his Access Asia Weekly update why a possible economic collapse of the US economy would be good for China, despite having a trillion or so in US dollars and other paper assets.

The other week, we made the argument (which apparently surprised a few of you) that the current vocal crop of China nay-sayers were ignoring a raft of economic evidence and that the economy is in pretty good shape, and holding up well, despite exaggerated consumption numbers. But, said a lot of you, what about the coming American recession? Won’t that throw one almighty spanner in the works? Well, by way of an answer, we say no, and we have one word for you if you think American’s cutting back on spending will cause the roof to fall in here – Japan.
Why Japan? Well, quite frankly, we are old enough, and very long in what is left of our teeth, and we remember when you could shop all day in a booming Tokyo and never see a Chinese made product. Japan boomed and China didn’t get much of the action. When Japan went pop, consumers traded down, ¥1,000 stores and discounters boomed, cheap-and-cheerful chains such as UNIQLO flourished and stores filled up with made-in-China goods. Put simply, the Japanese recession was good news for Chinese manufacturers.

His argument: a crisis in the US will have similar benefits for China's manufacturers.

Why not to invite the minister of justice as a speaker

Wu Aiying

At our speakers' bureau we try to advise clients as good as possible who to invite for a key note speech, seminar or otherwise. Here I want to discuss a recent case, since it points at some wrong perceptions when foreign clients look at China.
When one of our clients at Chinabiz Speakers told me recently he had invited the Chinese minister of justice Wu Aiying for a key note speech, at least three alarm bells started to go off. It was not only because I had never heard her name before, but because our foreign clients often are not familiar with the huge differences between their and Chinese administrations.
Already before he had ended his explanation, one of my worries was confirmed. Madame Wu had politely refused to give a key note speech. There are some good sites, like China Vitae, to check the backgrounds of the higher cadres. When they would have done so, they would have noticed that since she got her post, Madame Wu has nowhere been seen, not outside China, not inside China. The chances of getting such an official for a key note speech seemed pretty slim. Also, I could not find her back in any of the major Chinese media.
There were other reasons too. In most European countries ministers a relatively high officials, often directly involved in governing their country, sometimes even in charge of police forces. In China ministers - a bit depending on what ministry they head - operate on a much lower level. The real administration is done by the State Council and ministers are often care takers who are not supposed to take on a really high profile. There are exceptions, but the ministry of justice - although important - cannot be compared with similar ministries in Europe.
In the unlikely case a minister would accept an invitation for a key note speech, the chances of them really making statements or adding to an ongoing discussion is rather slim. Partly because their position in the administration is rather low, compared to their foreign colleagues, it would be unlikely they would say anything remotely interesting.
Picking a good speaker is not an easy job. When you get in touch with us on a timely basis, we are happy to provide you with good advise.

On the future of advertising - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger

Our speaker Paul Denlinger takes at his weblog Chinavortex on the divide between the Googlians and the traditional advertisers:

First of all, advertising has been divided into roughly two camps; the “Google is going to own the industry” camp, and a more traditional advertising camp, which says that traditional advertising (TV, radio, print) are going to survive and prosper, albeit in a very different form. I must confess that for a long time I have leaned in favor of the former, or Google camp.
But having thought things through on a deeper level, I think that it might not be so simple. Here’s why.

More at the Chinavortex.

Meet Bill IPR Thompson

Bill Thompson

Today was a great day to meet people at Sasha's in Shanghai and just when I had decided to leave the place, a tall guy called Bill Thompson walked in together with a more stern looking guy from Gucci looking for fake bags. Bill is an old friend I had not seen forever and he was on my list as a potential speakers too.

Bill Thompson has been in the forefront of the struggle against fake goods in China like nobody else, organizing and supervising thousands of raids at factories all over China. For my previous book I have been interviewing him extensively. He is a good story teller and very knowledgeable when it comes to (local) government relations and putting the struggle for intellectual property in a good perspective.

There was on problem, I thought when we set off Chinabiz Speakers, since he was working for the Pinkerton's Asia, who started their career in protecting the expansion of the railways in the US, prosecuted the Jesse James's of those days, moved on as strike breakers and are now a well-established detective agency. In Asia they have been mostly in charge of actions to protect intellectual property rights. I was pretty sure they would have a policy in place preventing their employees from giving paid speeches.

But tonight I discover Bill had started his own agency three years ago and that means he is a - relatively - free man. We will have lunch soon and expect him as a speaker here soon.

Past the China hype - Paul Denlinger

Paul Denlinger

"Do your home work before you enter the China market." It sounds very easy when our Chinabiz Speaker Paul Denlinger tells Christine Lu on the China Business Network what to do to prevent your company fails in China, like so many other companies.

Paul Denlinger's bio reads like a who is who in de China business and he is advising US and European companies coming to China, and Chinese companies going global.

What's hot, what's not in Chinese stocks - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

Our Chinabiz speaker Shaun Rein of the China Market Research Group was interviewed by Christine Lu at the China Business Network joining on what Chinese stocks to buy and what not to buy. Why to buy Ctrip, Netease and China Mobile.

Lost a nice assignment

Long Yongtu

People who know me will realize that this weblog is not only going to be a good news show. We are learning fast at Chinabiz Speakers and by sharing our learning curve with our network, we hope it all makes us wiser.

Most assignments have a lead time of two, three months and when it involves celebrities even longer. But at the beginning of this project we have already gotten a few panic-assignments. Promised speakers call off or after arriving in China, business delegations discover nasty holes in their program.

One of those "help us fast" assignments failed today. An European conference organizer was trying to find a celebrity speaker for the beginning of December. At the end of August I talked to them and realized that former WTO-negotiator Long Yongtu would be an ideal match for this client. We had been talking to his office before about his speaking engagements and knew how to work with them. To our surprise, Mr. Long was still available for a key note speech at such a relative short notice. But the client, used to free speakers, was taken away by the price and took more than two weeks to come back to us, reluctantly agreeing. We got in touch with Mr. Long's office again, but now we learned he was fully booked till the end of 2007.

In August, we did not want to look to pushy, but we should at least have made very clear that any delay could mean that we could not close the deal anymore. It is very hard to find a good balance between not looking too aggressive, while still getting this kind of fast deals done.

The dilemma of famous foreign speakers in China

Edward de Bono

Say, you are a famous speaker in the US or in one of Europe's countries. Of course, you want to expand your reach to the rest of the world and especially China enjoys an ongoing flow of celebrity speakers from elsewhere.

There is one big, and some smaller problems here. No matter how much of a famous and acknowledged speaker you might be back home, here nobody here knows you. That happened at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s with famous Western brands. They entered the Chinese market and discovered they had to build up their brand from scratch, to the shock of some of their managers. In the speakers business that experience is still developing.

This week I had to deal with this feature in three different occasions. Most famous of those speakers is Edward de Bono, who will speak this week in both Beijing and Shanghai. A few weeks ago I met one of the sponsors of this trip and he was not really hopeful it would be worth there investment. Similar visits they cancelled because of the lack of interest, but this time they wanted to move forward.

I do believe there is a market for famous foreign speakers. When you name is Bill Clinton or Allan Greenspan, Chinese companies are willing to dig deep into their pockets. But if you go down in this food chain, even a little bit, the Chinese audiences will not know you and are certainly not willing to pay the surcharge for such a foreign speaker.

"Where were the guys at Mattel?" - Bill Fischer

Bill Fischer

Blaming China for anything that goes wrong has become fashionable, writes IMD-professor and Chinabiz Speaker Bill Fischer in his latest column for Chinabiz.

... where were the guys at Mattel or the dog food companies when these products were being accepted for sales in foreign markets? Were they asleep? Are they not getting paid for doing a job that they didn't do? If you want to outsource anywhere, you need to be vigilant in ways and places that you didn't have to be before. And, if you can't do that, then it's not China's fault, it's yours!

Why democracy does not work - Tom Doctoroff

Tom Doctoroff

One of our top-speakers at Chinabiz Speakers, Tom Doctoroff of JWT, explains in his column in Chinabiz why democracy will not work in China.

Therefore, the middle class, perhaps 10% of the total population, is not itching for democratic reform. Yes, they demand protection of financial interests. They rail against corruption, particularly at the provincial and municipal levels. They might even stage a protest or two. However, in Han eyes, any weakening of central command militates against stable economic advancement. Indeed, the majority of young, educated mainlanders endorse President Hu Jintao's technocratic savvy and support his government's authoritarianism.

The column was earlier published in the Shanghai Daily, but in a watered down edition.

More at Chinabiz.

Helping a visiting delegation in need

This week we have our first speakers for Chinabiz Speakers lined up for speaking engagement, already in our fifth week of operations, much faster than we anticipated. Lead times of two, three months are not unusual, as visiting delegations have to prepare their trips. But we can do it fast too.

Last week one of our partners identified a European business delegation who had big holes in their agenda to China this week. They wrongly assumed the diplomatic missions of their country would help them out. This week they will listen to two of our speakers, Sam Crispin will speak on real estate in China and Ari van der Steenhoven, former CEO of the Dutch chemical company DSM will address the chemical industry in China. Nice to see our project moving.

Representing Mark Schaub exclusively

Mark Schaub

Chinabiz Speakers will be representing the Shanghai-based lawyer Mark Schaub as its first exclusive speaker. We expected this to happen down the road, as we can help our speakers to manage their engagements. But we are only one month in action and did not expect this to happen so soon.
Mark Schaub works for King&Wood, China's largest law firm and was the first foreign lawyer to join a Chinese firm, where he is now a senior partner. He recently wrote his first book
China: The Art of Law - Chronicling Deals, Disasters, Greed, Stupidity and Occasional Success in the New China. "You hear the stories about mistakes being made in China very seldom," he says, "while mistakes are often more instructive than successes and certainly more funny to talk about."

How an academic gets himself in trouble

Always on the outlook for interesting Chinese speakers for Chinabiz Speakers on hot topics like the environment, I stumbled upon this dispatch by Beijing Newspeak. It found an article in the unlinkable South China Morning Post quoting Zheng Binghui, director of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.
Zheng spoke in English at an international meeting in Wuhan and details how strongly polluted China's water resources are. The SCMP:

Dr Zheng said nearly half of all urban drinking water sources failed to meet national standards in 1981, and, in 1998, the failure rate was more than 83 per cent, according to studies carried out by his institute.
Their latest survey suggests more than 450 drinking water sources in key national environmental protection cities could not meet the standards, a number six times higher than the official figure. But these results have not been made available to the
mainland public.
“If we release these figures to the public, there will be total havoc … The figures we reported to the central government are classified,” he said. “There is only one correct figure you and Xinhua can report, and that is the official figure.”

That is the kind of speakers we want to have, but something tells me that Zheng might not be available for a while.

Chinabiz Speakers' expanding network

Christine Lu

Earlier this week I gave an interview to Christine Lu of the China Business Network and as you might expect, it gives a nice overview of how our network has expanded over the past month and what kind of hurdles we had to overcome.

Of course, the vast expanding network of Christine is a very welcome addition in the US to what we already have here in China. You can listen to the interview here and very soon we will have our own corner at her website.

Digging for gold

Our top-speaker Shaun Rein made it into Finance Asia with a full portrait.

Thirty-year-old Shaun Rein has just come from the doctor, who informed him that his health is that of a 60-year-old man. Looking after a new baby and maintaining a frenetic work schedule – which has him rising at 5am and working through till the early hours dealing with investor calls from the US – are taking their toll.

Getting Rich First - Duncan Hewitt

Newsweek journalist Duncan Hewitt gave this afternoon a presentation from his new book Getting Rich First: Life in a Changing China. Most books about China focus on the political or business stories, often forgetting that for at least a part of the Chinese the past decade has been nothing short of amazing.
"It took China a decade to realize what European countries did in forty years after the second world war," Hewitt said. The effect of those changes has been carefully documented in his book with beautiful anecdotes from real people.
Duncan Hewett today also kindly accepted our earlier invitation to join our speakers' bureau at Chinabiz Speakers.

Slowing down the uptake of new speakers

The past month has been pretty booming for our young venture and it is time to take some steam back. We have now a database of close to 250 speakers, of whom fifty are really active. Since also assignments are coming in on a regular basis, we have decided to put for the coming weeks the emphasis on those assignments ans slow down the uptake of new speakers.
Because of the high number of activities, getting in touch with new speakers, checking them out, making profiles and putting them online was already putting a heavy strain on our resources. For the coming weeks we will focus on getting more of the existing speakers into speaking assignments and develop sales channels, in stead of expanding our speakers base.

First speaker's deal done

Mark Schaub

Again a first time: we got our first deal done. It is only for a speaking opportunity in April, and of course, very soon this is going to be a daily routine. But still happy I could congratulate my colleagues on the first real deal done with one of China's most famous foreign lawyers, Mark Schaub.

Chinabiz Speakers affiliate network

I must have mentioned how much I enjoy dealing with great speakers, who come with great ideas to support our project. But the rest of our network is also quite ok. Take Christine Lu of the China Business Network.

Not only is she going to interview me next week for her new website, she suggested also that Chinabiz Speakers should set up an affiliate network.

Of course we have discussed the issue of third parties bringing in leads and of course we are planning to share a part of the revenue with whoever brings in that lead. But by bringing this a level higher and develop an affiliate program, we effect might be much bigger and for websites like the China Business Network easier to promote.

Do not ask for details or banners yet, since we still have to get this beyond a brilliant idea, but if you are interested to join in the future, do drop me an email. Do mention in the subject line CBS affiliate, so I might be able to effectively find your email back when we start this service.

Some speakers do not make the grade

In our growing database of speakers, there is a big group that is still waiting to make the grade. While we are happy to add everybody with a good speaking record and good references, what is really needed is that one of us goes out and sees a speaker in action. That is often an exciting moment, as we can upgrade another great speaker into active duty. But sometimes they do not make the grade.
This evening I went to a meeting of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club who had a renowned speaker on consumer rights - a hot topic now consumers in the rest of the world also get upset about Chinese products. Unfortunately, the speaker did not get me excited.
It was a Chinese speaker who needed translation, so that was a handicap, and much of the potential fire with a Chinese audience was not ignited for this international audience.
He started his presentation with a list of problems China had in terms of consumer rights. At problem number 13 and two unsuccessful interventions by the moderator, I decided to leave with a few others. Alright, you do not expect only uplifting experiences here, but when somebody takes so much time and energy to explain why things do not work out, I see no reason to continue listening.
He cannot have noted I left, since he ignored not only the moderator, he just did not look at the audience.
Did I tell he was almost an hour late? The poor guy could not find a taxi because it was raining. When you know it is raining, you know it is tough to get a taxi and you should leave on time. No way we can keep him on our list.

Checking in with the Chambers of Commerce

Two weeks ago, when this venture took officially off, we made a list of people and organizations we wanted to inform about Chinabiz Speakers. We decided to leave out the many chambers of commerce in China, because those are membership organizations who mostly rely on free speeches of their members or company introductions. And that simply is not our market, since we are living from the speakers' fee.
What we now have learned is that those chambers often get requests for assistance, from visiting delegations, especially now diplomatic missions increasingly cannot cope with the workload of ever more companies coming to China. Already twice we got emails from those chambers who sounded between the lines rather desperate when they get these requests. They do not want to say 'no', but are actually also unable to help those delegations. We possibly can, so we are now going to inform those chambers about our project.
Otherwise, we are working behind the scenes hard to beef up our organization. Over the past few days two famous economists agreed to join our speakers: Fan Gang from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Wang Jianmao, associate dean of China's business school CEIBS. More when the profiles of both gentlemen are ready to be published.

Home Depot's unlikely road to fast profits

Paul French

Home Depot started this week its operation in China, US media report, after revamping a Chinese chain Home Way they bought last year. Unlike the common practise during this kind of presentations, the media report of the Washington Post actually played down the likability Home Depot would be making a profit soon in this very competitive market. The operation counts now 12 stores.

The media actually asked retail expert Paul French, one of our speakers at Chinabiz Speakers, to play down the expectations even more.

"With the number of people moving into apartments in China over the past few years, [home-improvement stores] should have made fortunes, but nobody has because of the low, low prices and the lack of profit margins," said Paul French, a Shanghai economist with Access Asia, a consulting firm.
Although B&Q, a home-improvement chain that is a subsidiary of Britain's Kingfisher
Group, entered China in 1999, "they have only begun to see a dribble of profits over the last 18 months," Mr. French said.

Looking for more speakers on the environment

Is the central government winning its battle to turn around China's fast degrading environment or is local greed - as so often before - an effective barrier against real change?

That is an important debate with no clear winner yet, mainly losers as we see the media.

When we started Chinabiz Speakers we knew there would be demand for some speakers on this issue and we do have now have a dozen qualified speakers on this issue. But, every good speaker on this issue is welcome, so if you have more suggestions, do not hold back.

In miscellaneous: This week we start discussion with the larger PR-firm in China on our service and we will be putting a new batch of speakers online.

Taking apart Thurow's nonsense

Bill Fischer

Sometimes you are looking at a piece, and have to read it again because you cannot believe what it says. That happened to me when MIT professor Lester Thurow tried to explain why he thinks China's economic growth is six percent at most and possibly lower in the New York Times.
Fortunately, IMD professor Bill Fischer, and a speaker at Chinabiz Speakers, found the time to explain at his weblog why Thurow is thoroughly wrong.

Professor Thurow, you’ve missed the entire point! Over the past thirty years, China has moved roughly 20% of the world’s population from the 19th century to at least the late 20th; and in some places the 21st. Chinese people are better fed, better read, and better off than possibly at any point in the 7000+ years of Chinese civilization. Chinese workers take holidays! Chinese basketball players play in the NBA. Chinese peasants take foreign tours! A Chinese automobile manufacturer has reached 1 million units, while a Chinese computer company now bears the “think-pad” brand. Chinese cosomonauts are planning to walk on the moon. Chinese movies are in our theatres. And, China is no longer irrelevant to the global economy, as it was just three decades ago.

Invite Paul for your next event

See: our banner for Paul Denlinger in action. Looks pretty cool, isn't it? You can see it live at his weblog. I'm quite sure we will see more of these for other speakers too.

Crushing the online conversation - Sam Flemming

Sam Flemming

Life at the internet in China has always been rather rough. With annually millions of youngster smelling the freedom of being able to say whatever they want, triggers off - next to very beautiful things - a lot of aggression too.

Originally they were called the "chatroom warriors", angry young men denouncing almost anything they would meet online, often becoming a nuisance for the more experienced users, looking for a decent discussions.

Sam Flemming now focuses in his latest entry at a the latest technological move of the chatroom warriers of today, the "Baidu Post Bar Crushing Machines". China's leading search engine Baidu has developed a tool that makes it really easy to start online discussions, but the latest technology has now developed a tool to crunch those discussions.

"Forum Crushing" refers to netizens using "Forum Crushing Machine" (爆吧机), a software designed to let users continuously post content with different IP address until the forum is overloaded and "crushed."

Sam Flemming warns:

For now, such "crushing machines" target mostly fan clubs sites. But don't be surprised if in the future it is brand related forums which are targeted. (Baidu Post Bar is filled with forums dedicated to such as this one for McDonald's. In this age, engaging consumers could result in a black eye.

Sam Flemming is also a speaker at Chinabiz Speakers. If you want to invite him for a speech, do let us know.

Our new brochure

We just finished some more corporate support. Do feel free to distribute this brochure among your neigbhors or whoever might be interested in our speakers bureau.

"The rich are changing" - Hurun

Rupert Hoogewerf

China's rich are not only becoming experts in for example wine tasting, but have in general a more globalized outlook, says Rupert Hoogewerf, in China better known as Hurun, in an article in the Chinese media.
Hurun, also a speaker at Chinabiz Speakers, is making the so-called "China Rich List", a project that has given him access to many of the new rich in China.

When Rupert travelled to Chengdu, a local Chinese millionaire also discussed wines with him. They drank an expensive red wine which might be sold at 9,000 yuan a bottle), and smoked some fine cigars. Even more surprisingly, when the clock struck twelve at midnight and they both felt a little bit hungry, the rich man asked him whether he would like to have some Spanish ham.

It is a difference from a few year ago when I asked Rupert for help in identifying a speaker from his list for a combined meeting of Amcham Shanghai and the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club. There was only one condition: this person should be able to talk English. That was not easy, I remember.

Getting help from Zhongshan University

Lonnie B. Hodge

We are getting much help from all kind of different people, but today I want to mention especially Lonnie B. Hodge, professor at the Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou and president of the International SEO Roundtable.
His profile is not yet online, but he is already a valuable part of the Chinabiz Speakers community.
Today he helped us out in improving out metatags, so search engines can find us better from tomorrow. You might actually have gotten here because of his help.
He did some other suggestions, but we are short of resources, still have to set up Google Analytics, Google Adwords and the whole Chinese edition of the site.
He offered that a group of his qualified students could do just that for us.
A great help, Lonnie.
Lonnie Hodge blogs at onemanbandwidth.com and a few other sites.

New banner for our speakers' weblogs

Paul Denlinger came up with the idea: he did not like the idea of getting our banner on his weblog, but he did not mind a banner for all those who want him as a speaker. One of a whole set of nice ideas from our speakers.
We will make similar banners available for other speakers who want such a banner on their website or weblog.

Great ideas by great speakers

We are less than one week in business and I love it. One of the great things I'm doing now is sitting in the corner of this fast-expanding web of networks, watching many great ideas passing by. I only have to recognize them as great ideas and make sure they get done.
A few are already available on our website and there are more ideas from my network being developed. I will start a new category here, called "ideas" to illustrate why I'm so enthusiastic about this project.

Why not all our speakers are on this website

We have a database of now well over two hundred speakers and if you count well, you will see that we list only thirty or so on this website. That has raised some misunderstandings both with our speakers (who thought they would get an automatic listing on this website) and with potential customers who also thought we would list all our speakers here.
Although we love the internet and use almost any tool to promote our service, we thought giving away all our goodies would not benefit our service in the long run. So, the website gives an overview of some of our speakers.
How do we make our pick? First, speakers have to go through a rather rigid internal screening procedure. A speaker might do a marvellous job on one assignment, but they might not match another one. Our work is to make the best possible match. Before we assign a speech to a speaker, mostly one of us has seen him or her in action and can give a reasonable assessment. When we have not seen a speaker, we rely on information from other third parties, but might still be reluctant to work with him or her.
When we start working with a speaker, we ask if they want to be listed here, and some of our celebrity speakers prefer not to. Others well-known speakers are out for more profane reasons, like we still do not have a good picture of them. Sometmes we are still working on profiles.
Further, we have a wide range of expert speakers, who would focus on a rather narrow interest: mobile marketing, security systems at the stock market, sourcing, city planning, HR-management, China's internet censorship, you name it and we come up with a solution. They would do very well when your meeting focuses by accident on those subjects, but we have decided in most cases to keep those experts in our database and not on our website.
There is much more to say about this, but since a few of you have asked, I though I should explain a bit about the background. Do let me know if you have more questions.

Who are we still missing at Chinabiz Speakers?

William Overholt

Every day we are adding a few more speakers to our database, although not all of them will make it also to our website, for a wide range of reasons.
William Overholt, one of the opinion leaders on China, is certainly going to be on it. While working on his profile, I realized that I did not start mobilizing the collective wisdom of my readers here.
I have still dozens of potential speakers to go after in the months to come, but possibly you have also an idea of who should be on our speakers' list. Please let me know, of you have some suggestions. Any input is appreciated.

Update: Dr. Overholt's profile is now online here.

Why most US market entries fail

Paul Denlinger is not only a freshly enlisted speakers at Chinabiz Speakers but is also developing as a prolific columnist at his weblog. Today he addresses the failure of most US companies to enter the China market, for sure an interesting topic.

My experience is that there are errors which are repeated over and over again. It gets like being condemned to watch a single Broadway show, over and over again, where the only things which change are the sets and the actors; the lines are the same.

His focus in mainly on IT and media companies, but the message is clear for all: a failing strategy leads to internal warfare and failure:

This puts the China office in a continuous battle with the US headquarters for resources; the Chinese local competitor has no such restrictions on what it can do, and the Chinese company surges ahead in capturing market share, and eventually, revenue. The American company then organizes what can best be called a “strategic withdrawal”, as did eBay.

More at Chinavortex. Later today Paul will also have an article at Chinabiz.

First speakers bureau in China ready to roll

- For Immediate Release

August 15th marks the official start of China's first professional speakers bureau, ChinaBiz Speakers Ltd (www.chinabizspeakers.com), a subsidiary of the business information center ChinaBiz Ltd.
ChinaBiz Speakers offers one-stop solutions for companies, industry associations, business chambers and other event organizers looking for professional speakers on China. It provides direct access to distinguished economists, influential business and management experts, dynamic motivational speakers and media personalities, and manages travel and event logistics for their speakers so customers don’t have to.

At its start Chinabiz Speakers has a database of two-hundred speakers and its website lists close to thirty of them. Both numbers a