Conversation360 Podcast

Here is your “China Survey Course 101” covering what we can expect from today’s China and what that means for the West, taught by a global expert who puts it into the historical perspective you need to make sense of it all.  Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Mellichamp Professor of Global Studies and Sociology in the Global & International Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is a big thinker.  He specializes in globalization, development studies and cultural studies and he knows China like no one else with whom I’ve spoken.  Born in Amsterdam, Jan speaks Dutch, English, French, German, and Italian and is a prolific author, with four (!) more books, all related to China and Asia, coming out this year.   In this podcast, Jan shares his kaleidoscopic takes on China from the standpoint of “empire” which he traces back to the classical empires, then to the Crusades, to the new imperialism and contemporary hegemony.  And he gives us his perspective on how America’s current leadership could be affected by China’s actions.  Best of all, he gives us his prognosis for what our near future could look like from a global perspective, and the role China will play in shaping it. If you are interested in placing China and contemporary America into a meaningful future context from an informed global perspective, listen to this podcast.  I know you will find it informative, provocative and challenging.

Ronnie Chan is the quintessential Global Citizen. He chairs the Hang Lung Group, a leader in Hong Kong’s property markets for 40+ years, with mega-developments that now span Mainland China’s geography as well.  Another company, Morningside, owns companies in manufacturing, public transport operations, outdoor advertising, media, healthcare, online game operators, high tech and biotech investments in mainland China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.    In this episode, you’ll hear his views on many things including why in ten years the wealthiest in China will never have been to the West, how we should think of China and the U.S. as two tall men, neither of whom can be slapped around by the other; why Hong Kong’s importance will diminish over time and why that’s a good thing; and much more.

Christine Yan says the growth in China must be experienced—not just “visited”—to be appreciated.  Trained as a mechanical engineer with an MBA, she runs the Asian business for Stanley Black & Decker, a Western-based multi-national Fortune 500 company that sells nuts, bolts, tools and all that goes with them (in fact. Christine holds patents on tools she developed for the company years ago).   She’s got myriad examples of Chinese innovation that go beyond Western aspirations, much of it is driven by the strongly held belief by many Chinese that everyone can get rich by working hard and being willing to fail. Despite a slowdown in the economy, Christine says it is full steam ahead.  Possible monkey wrench in this rosy picture? Uncertainty, and its chilling effect on the global economy.  On this podcast you’ll hear how a Western business leader headquartered in Shanghai weights the challenges and opportunities.

Amish Shah is a perfect example of a successful entrepreneur who has ridden the Chinese wave of consumerism.  He stepped into China ten years ago, seeing it primarily as a manufacturing source for his company’s jewelry products sold elsewhere in the world.  A decade later, China itself has become a major market for his jewelry, including its lab grown diamonds, spurring his business growth at amazing speed in response to demand from China’s new middle class consumer.   Amish shares his deep knowledge of how countries across Asia are responding to fundamental changes in the global ecoomy and consumer demand.  And he’ll explain how a business can grow so dramatically —especially in China—as a result.

Eva Chan is a long-time Hong Kong resident with a global investment business and deep experience throughout Mainland China. She has strong views about Westerners’ misconception of China and invites everyone to come experience this amazing country first-hand, suggesting they’ll be surprised to find that Shanghai and Beijing are as vibrantly exciting as London and New York. Eva says the slowdown in the Chinese economy is normal, to be expected of a country restructuring its economic model. As for innovation, she says it’s not so critical as some would assume, at least for well managed Chinese companies. You’ll hear her views on these topics and more in this episode of Asia and the West.

World culture-savvy Heather Payne sees lots to like in China’s ability to focus on keeping things in harmony. Meanwhile, the global brands she advises feel pressure to succeed in China where their competition no longer comes just from other multi-nationals but increasingly from China’s own home-grown brands. Questions remain about the millennials and their younger siblings and the China they envision inheriting for themselves. We’re explore these issues and much more in this podcast episode.

Axel Herzhauser is a supply chain guru with tech expertise who  leads the commercial business in Asia for Teleplan, a Netherlands-based company I the after-market business of consumer electronics.  Axel has spent over 16 years determining how organizations, people, activities, information and resources can be deployed most efficiently to get things made and distributed.  Ten of those years have been in Asia so he has an ear to the ground regarding the way business works between Asia and the West.  In this podcast he tells us what we should know about the new China, especially its youth who are unlike any other generation of young people China has reared. He now lives and works out of Singapore so he shares perspectives on Singapore as well.   In this episode we talk of the challenge of China’s aging population, how Singapore is a significant player in med tech advances, how the Chinese feel about privacy, their willingness to speak up in private about their government, and much more.

Hsaio Liu is a Chinese American, born in America, who thought she could easily adapt to life in Shanghai and the cultural challenges she faced when she moved there as a pharma executive. She wasn’t prepared for the rapidity of change, but soon learned to cope with “the System”, and found that what used to be a matter of helping Westerners bring their products and services to Asia quickly switched to helping Asians bring their wares and expertise to the West. Back in the US now, Hsaio says much has changed in the last decade. Asian millennials who come to school in the West these days are excited about returning to China and exploiting their newly learned entrepreneurial skills there. In fact, they’ve changed the ways Chinese companies and their employees deal with job success and promotion, and are driving much of China’s “home grown” innovation. She talks of these topics and what’s happening in the development of medicines and how China fits into the pharma scenario on the global stage, as well as the challenges that threaten China’s continued growth.

Highly regarded in the world of global executive search, Christine Houston shares her strongly held opinions on developments in Asia, from the recruitment and hiring of young people, to the shift in the buying habits of wealthy millennials (handbags no longer top the list) and the impact that has had on retailers.  You’ll hear her provocative views on issues that could cause unrest in China, how Beijing’s censorship of media has tightened, why people throughout Asia are nervous about developments in American politics with a tweeting President, challenges to educational systems in the West, and the potential negative impact all of this can have on business.  Join us for a wide-ranging episode on today’s China.

If you’re looking for the scoop on what’s happening in Asia— especially China— from an investment perspective, this episode is for you. John White, Managing Director and Lead Portfolio Manager in Heitman's Asia-Pacific Public Real Estate Securities group, lays out the investment landscape and covers what he calls the three major –and different—economies in Mainland China. And he tells us why the real estate “bubble” is confined to major cities where prices and high and inventory nearly non-existent, while other parts of China have empty high rises and construction of even more buildings continues. John explains the implications of China’s swift move from an agrarian economy to a manufacturing powerhouse to current efforts to structurally reform so that it can increase internal consumption rather than rely on exports. He’ll fill you in on shopping habits of the Chinese and how the growing middle class has become a market in itself while changing all the old rules of spending habits. All this and more awaits in this episode of China’s financial picture.