Danelle Post #1

I found the videos to be highly entertaining and had several thoughts relating to the business environments depicted, however one thought nagged at me throughout. It seemed as though the Brits were undermining themselves by exposing their business ideas to the Chinese businessmen with no strict copyright and trademark laws to protect them. Without these laws in place, the Brits are taking an enormous risk by sharing their business ideas with the Chinese businessmen who could easily steal these ideas so they can sell these products on their own for a larger profit. While this is a risk of doing business in that environment, I find it shocking that so many people would think it is worth the risk to acquire the cheaper labor/materials.
Another interesting element of the business culture that I noticed was that there was very little said by either Vance or Tony about the quality of the goods and labor they were securing by outsourcing all of their production to China. In recent years with the scare over lead paint on toys and other health and hazard issues coming out of China, it seems as though the world is forfeiting quality for accessibility with regards to outsourcing manufacturing. It stands to reason that as China becomes even more of a world power and faces issues created by its own rising middle class, the quality of goods produced there will come under scrutiny from within as well. In such an environment I am certain we will see labor and material costs rising in China.
It was interesting how Peter was forced to adapt his approach and take on Cecil, a relatively unknown quantity, as his business partner. Peter's story was drastically different from the other two in that he was focused not on securing labor and materials FROM the Chinese, rather he was actively selling TO the Chinese. His attempt to do so raised some issues that foreign companies will no doubt continue to face as they attempt to take advantage of China's growing consumer population. One of these issues was the need to tweak their business approach to fit the environment from a language standpoint. The need to incorporate the many Chinese dialects one encounters if one is to sell TO the Chinese is quite an obstacle that will require companies to hire many Chinese workers simply to account for language differences withing China itself. As a marketing major, the thing that interested me the most was Peter's story. Looking toward the future, the Chinese middle class will continue to grow and with that growth will come expectations for their quality of life. They will then likely look to luxury items produced overseas as a mark of prestige (as most cultures do as they enter the first world). There is already a huge market opportunity for the companies that are willing to take the risk, and social trends will likely only increase that opportunity in the short term. Overall, the experiences of the British businessmen in this film are great examples of the drawbacks of the international supply chain as well as how successful it can be.

January 15, 2010 8:49 PM

Danelle said...

Based on this video, I think it will be interesting to see first hand how companies are positioning themselves to sell to the Chinese.