Baba qu naer? (meaning “Where are we going, Dad?”) A Korean-style reality show about Chinese celebrity dads spending 72 hours with their young children in the countryside has become China’s latest television sensation. Not only has the show been leading the ratings, but its verified account on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, has also garnered more than a million followers and upwards of nine million comments. Its three episodes so far have attracted nearly five million views on the country’s biggest video-sharing website Tudou.[1]

This Korean-style show enjoys a huge success in China. Why can it achieve such huge success?

This is because Korean dramas and entertainment programmes don’t conflict with Chinese culture and values.

While searching for a potential market, culture and religion are really important elements. Dad, where are we going emphasize family, friendship, love especially fatherly love which often describe as heavy as a mountain in Asian culture. Fatherly love is always implicit in China so it cannot easily be found.

Helping people realize fatherly love is the main theme of the show and it is also the reason that it is so popular. Aiming at touching people’s heart, who can get rid of it once starts watching?

Video 1: Dad, where are we going

Music Video: Dad, where are we going MV

Reference: [1] China’s most popular reality shows come from South Korea

The Oriental Pearl Tower, Pudong, Shanghai, China

“What is today’s housing price?” This question is asked as frequently as “How are you?” in Shanghai, one of the biggest city in China. The housing price has always been a heated topic not only in Shanghai, but also in many other big cities in China such as Beijing and Guangzhou.

On October 7, my classmate Alice posted a blog about the ridiculous housing price in Shanghai. Based on the potential growth of Shanghai in ten years, she argued that residential property prices in shanghai will still increase dramatically.

However I disagree with Alice opinion. From my point of view, the housing price in Shanghai will increase in a declining rate and reach its peak based on two reasons.

1.The politic in China decides that housing market is not a free market but a government intervention one. This restricts the price of housing increase dramatically.

2.In real estate in China some of the economic boom appears attributable to a bubble. The housing price in Shanghai has already overwhelmed its real value. If the housing price keeps increasing in a increasing rate, it will lead to economic bubble burst and thus the housing price will then drop tremendously.

After studying in UBC for several months, one of my friend told me on WeChat (a social media similar as Facebook) that she finally decided what she want to do in the future. “An entrepreneur!” She sent this to me, with a big smiling emotion. In Comm101 class we talked about entrepreneurs. A lot of students think an entrepreneur is the person that can take his/her own idea into reality and he/she is the one that can somehow change the world. However my classmate Ha Pham’s point of view towards entrepreneurs attracts my attention and I really appreciate her way of looking at entrepreneurs. The example of Judy Estrin she uses in her blog is really inspiring.

From my point of view, entrepreneurs are not the ones that can do whatever they want; instead, the social responsibility that they have sometimes force them to give up their ideas.  As Spider-Man motto says: “With Great Power comes Great Responsibility” Is it that cool to become an entrepreneur? I don’t think so.

Toms is introducing an effort that helps other businesses with a social purpose, Toms Marketplace. The online store, which will be introduced Tuesday, will feature more than 200 products from about 30 companies and charities.

(The Globe And Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/sustainability/toms-launches-hub-for-socially-conscious-goods/article15261786/)

Toms started in 2006 with what was then a novel idea: for every pair of shoes it sold, it would donate a pair to a child living in poverty. Along with donating more than 10 million pairs to date, the company spurred a trend of “buy one, give one” companies. This idea helped Toms gain a lot of good social reputation. Now, Toms come up with another idea, which I consider it a really good idea, that is, posting other companies or charities goods on its website.

With careful choice, the goods that are sold on Toms website, such as Yellow Leaf Hammocks and Stone and Cloth etc. are all, considered to be complement of Toms shoes.

Helping others is helping themselves. Toms knows this principle really well. By carrying on this idea, Toms are sure to win more positive social reputation, which can actually be regarded as a point of difference when similar items are available on the shelf.

Also, according to Blake Mycoskie, the founder of Toms, the complement of this idea can also draw men to the site. From here we can know that though Toms claimed to “help” other business, they just help the ones that do “help” themselves.

IT IS impossible to shop in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital… The roads are terrible; the traffic is crazy; the city has only a handful of shopping malls between 20m people; and when you get to a mall many of the branded products on sale are fake. Rich people go to New York or London to shop. “They have no other option,” says Mr Hodara.

(blog post on the Economics: http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2013/11/shopping-nigeria)

Nigeria, a country in the South Africa, with a population of more than 170 million, has a big trouble when it turns to daily shopping. Customers face terrible traffic, while the supermarket suffer a lot from the supply shortage. This is an opportunity for online shopping.

Comparing to the existing retails, online shopping has its significant advantage.

1. Less investment. Running online shops cuts the cost of renting a store and hiring staffs, which is a good way to accumulate profit.

2. Reduce the risk of supply shortage. With greater capacity, shop owners can adjust selling orientation according to the change of supply in time.

3. Board customers segment. Nigeria has a rapidly-growing economy and a population of 170m, most of them young. Young people always appeal to online shopping. Also Rich people who were focused to go to New York or London to shop is another big customer group.

However, the main problem of opening a online shop are, on one hand, as the blog post on Economics mentioned, that the warehouse is difficult to find. On the other hand, the security of the assets is also a big problem for owners who want to rend a warehouse in South Africa.

(Just the day when I post my Episode 1, there were some latest news about Huawei, so I decided to write “Episode 2”)

The 2012 report is not the end of the story. Recently, Huawei introduced the first 4G TD-LTE network in Ghana and two new smart devices at the recent ITU Africa Regional Preparatory Meeting (RPM-AFR) for the WTDC-14 held in Accra, Ghana.[1]

After reading this news, I started thinking that although cost leadership contributes a lot to the success of intense competition, there are more factors that can lead Huawei to going so far.

According to my analysis, I came up with two reasons:

1. Differentiation. These years, Huawei is more and more focusing on producing “fablets” ( the word for the smart phone that almost as big as the tablet). Rather than copying iPhone, Huawei differentiated itself by producing bigger and better screen and better compatibility with different software (both Android and Windows).

2. Shareholders. As Ms Meng, the company’s chief financial officer said, most of the stake is held by the firm’s employees.[1] By providing the employees stake, employees are more willing to contribute more to the company, so that the co-operation becomes more efficient.

Lately, Huawei and Malaysian state investor Khazanah Nasional, will set up a data hosting and logistics center in southern Malaysia.[2] Facing this intense competition, Huawei responds actively. It’s building its own “Huawei Kingdom”.

References:

[1]Biztech, A. (2013, Oct 3). Huawei unveils 4g lte, devices at accra summit. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei

[2] KUALA, L. (2013, Oct 4). China’s huawei to set up data centre in malaysia. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/04/us-huawei-malaysia-idUSBRE9930VT20131004

(With a great curiosity of the cell phone market, this time, After Apple and Xiaomi, I want to focus on Huawei. I am so curious of what would happen next in this battle field with an intense competition.)

A report that Huawei sold more smartphones in the last quarter of 2012 than either Nokia, HTC or RIM (the company that has just renamed itself BlackBerry) raised people’s eyebrows this year[1]. Also in this year, Huawei overtook Sweden’s Ericsson to become the world’s largest telecoms-equipment-maker[2]

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is a Chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong. It is the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world.[3]

Why can Huawei develop so fast and operate so successfully?

After carefully analysis, I notice that the main reason is—Cost Leadership.

Huawei succeeded in cost leadership. Comparing to Apple, Samsung, Nokia etc. Huawei’s cell phones are rather cheap (the ones with big touch screen are around $400[4]). By locating its manufactory and its services company in China, Huawei enjoys the wide labor market and lower cost of nature resources in developing country. Those things play really important role in cutting the expenditure of the industry.

References:

[1]Huawei clear as mud. (2013, Feb 2). The Economics. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/business/21571180-chinese-company-sells-ever-more-smartphones-and-opens-up-little-clear-mud?zid=292&ah=165a5788fdb0726c01b1374d8e1ea285

[2]Chinese multinationals who’s afraid of huawei?. (2012, Aug 4). The Economics.Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/node/21559922

[3]Huawei. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huawei

[4] the price of the cell phone: http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-phones/index.htm

http://mob.org/phone/huawei/

Can you imagine what will happen if all the people living in Australia start to migrate on one particular day? That’s what happened to China. Chun Yun is the world’s largest regular migration of people. It occurs every year around the Chinese New Year. Chun Yun reached it top of 60,000 passengers per day in 2013.

From my perspective, Chun Yun is a really good example for studying operation.

Let me highlight the main “battle field” of Chun Yun– the Guangzhou Railway Station. What has the Station done?

1. Forecast. By comparing to the last several years, the station made the assumption of how many migrators this year. What’s more, they also figured out what might happen during the Chun Yun. Forecasting is not just about the mathematic number, but the whole picture and all the possibilities. Only after a careful forecast can the station come up with a better solution.

2. Inputs. After forecasting, the Guangzhou Railway Station came up with several ways to solve this problem, for example increasing in frequency (adding150 lines)

3. Coordination. As far as I am concerned, it is the coordination of both internal department and staff with external billions of passengers. By providing the in-time information, the station successfully built a connection between staff and passengers, and ensured everyone getting the most up-to-date information.

Maybe “operation” is a business concept, but the application of it is much wider than I thought.

Reference:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunyun

[2]http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/chun-yun-worlds-largest-yearly-human-migration-1995-2011.html

[3http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2013/01/chunyun-a-spring-migration/

(After talking about the latest iPhone, I want to understand more of the smart phone market, so this time I focus on one of its competitors – Xiaomi)

On September 5,2013 Xiaomi, launched the latest the Mi-3 handset, just 5 days before the launch of the newest iPhone 5s and 5c. Xiaomi is often compared to its giant American rival. “We have never compared ourselves to Apple—we are more like Amazon,” says Lin Bin, Xiaomi’s co-founder.

These years Xiaomi is growing rapidly. Its services revenues were 20m yuan in August, up from 10m yuan in April.

Why are they so successful?

1. their openness to user feedback
2. lower price comparing to other smart phone.

I want to highlight the second point. There’s no doubt that price is the main factor of influencing the customers’ willingness to buy the products. really impressed me. By selling phones direct to customers online, rather than via network operators or retail stores, Xiaomi keeps prices down.

This strategy reminds me of the success of Dell^[2]. Dell’s direct model(suppliers®manufacturers® customers) eliminates the time and the cost of third party distribution. Xiaomi and Dell did one same thing—cut down the extra cost of the third party and tried to low down their prices by simplifying the supply process.

Observing deep into the essence, we can find out the common which may provide some enlightenment and give us some guidance for our further career.

References:

[1]Smartphones in China—Taking a bite out of Apple  Sep 14th 2013, the economics

[2]Magretta, J., & Dell, M. (1998). The Power of Virtual Integration: An Interview

with Dell Computer’s Michael Dell. Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 72-84.

“Apple has unveiled two new handsets: the top-end iPhone 5S and a cheaper iPhone 5C at an event in California.

5S introduces a fingerprint sensor built into the phone’s main button to identify the user. 5C comes with a plastic back in a choice of colours.”

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24034507)

Having two mobile phone unveiled in the same time somehow lead to a heavier burden of the production line. However, as far as I am concerned, this is a worth-while trying.

1. The fancy color of new iPhone 5c must be the cup of tea of many teens, who are always the fans of Apple product.
2. The cheaper price of the 5c makes the iPhone product more competitive.
3. The unveiling of 5s guarantees the satisfaction of who have higher income and enjoy the high technical function of Apple.

What’s more, the propagandizing and popularizing of the smartphone is always the strength of Apple, which better ensure the sales volume of the new products.

However there are actually many similar products sold in the market now, such as Samsung Galaxy, Nokia etc. Only when Apple keeps owning the most advanced technology can it win this battle, because its strength is its most advanced technology!! This strength creates a lot of opportunity for Apple. But considering the external threats, Apple still has a long way to go.