Thanks to our servicemen and women for their commitment to our country.  However, a sincere thanks for their hospitality, too, in hosting us at the DMZ for a half-day tour.  It will clearly be one of the true highlights of this year's trip.  Please see the two photos below.

We've just completed our first full day in Seoul. We had two fantastic company visits and a wonderful alumni event.  Click on each photo and see captions, as well. Enjoy!

John Murphy, Alessandra De Vaca and Matthew Bellows were on the TV Show this morning as we filmed Episode #4 from the Language of Business. Click on their links for their respective backgrounds and below are new photos from the set. They were all terrific and this episode on the Business Plan's Organizational Plan should air in the next month, or so.  The Show is now broadcast on over 10 stations with hopefully more to come. It's been extremely helpful, to date, achieving our primary objective to generate project leads for our Boston College Consulting and Business Plan courses. Thanks to Professor Larry Meile for visiting the set and providing the photos, and please read the captions below.

Shaun Rein, author of "End of Cheap China," responded to Samir Jaluria's recent Language of Business article this morning. He wrote:


My name is Shaun Rein. I just read the review Samir Jaluria put on your site for my book.  I do appreciate the kind feedback as well as the constructive criticism on how I can improve my book / where he disagrees.

It is wonderful for me as an author to be able to hear such strong analysis of my book and how that fits into your own experiences in China in 2010 when you visited factories in southern China.


We're hoping to get Shaun to post something to this Blog, too.  In the interim, here's a recent interview he completed with Shanghaiist.

Greg

Here's the latest Radio Entrepreneurs interview on our upcoming trip to Asia. This year we'll be visiting South Korea, China, Thailand and Japan.

Information on the International Management Experience (IME) Program is here and please "like" us on Facebook by clicking here.

Many thanks to the producers at Radio Entrepreneurs.  Check out their new web site, too.

Enjoy,

Greg

I recently had the opportunity to read Shaun Rein’s The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt The World. It is a fascinating and incisive book highlighting some of the misconceptions that Westerners have about China, why certain things occur the way they do in China, the changes that are occurring there, and how those very changes will affect China and the rest of the world over the coming years. It is a must-read for anyone interested in doing business in China.

Rein, who is based in Shanghai and founded and manages China Market Research Group, discusses many key trends/themes and take-aways (including “Do’s” and “Do Not’s”) that are important for anyone conducting business in China to learn about. To me, the most important are: Many Chinese often prefer American-made products—especially food (even KFC!)—because they believe in the integrity of the American supply chain system; the Chinese government is not monolithic and there is a huge chasm between the Central government, which Rein believes is sincere in law enforcement and citizens’ rights, and local governments, which often do not enforce national laws and can be very corrupt; a small—but integral--part of being successful in China is having guanxi, which Rein defines as a “circle of trust” at all levels of government; as costs (especially labor and real estate) rise in China, companies will look to relocate production to other lower-cost countries such as Vietnam; as China becomes more developed and technically sophisticated, it will start producing many of the products that it currently buys from Western companies, reducing their market share in China; and, as Chinese consumption continues to rise (especially for many commodities), friction with other countries will inevitably occur as they will all compete for a finite supply of resources—and the Chinese government will try its best to put its own economic interests first.

I myself learnt a tremendous amount from this book and have seen in-person some of the themes Rein highlights. For example, when I visited two factories in Southern China in 2010, the owners were lamenting how the upwards pressure on wages was causing many American factories to think about shifting production away from their factories to cheaper places such as Vietnam or Bangladesh.

The book does have a few downsides. For one thing, it is unabashedly pro-China and Rein excuses many episodes such as the failure to enforce US copyright law as just poor enforcement of national law at the local level. He also believes that many Americans (including some members of the media) harbor some sort of anti-China sentiment, which I think is off the mark. I firmly believe that many Americans actually want China to be successful as that will help lift millions more out of poverty and that they are really opposed to certain actions that China is committing, such as engaging in friendly overtures with Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, a known despotic country.

Overall, it’s a great book and worth reading for anyone interested in furthering their knowledge about the Chinese business culture. Rein’s anecdotes do an excellent job of illuminating his themes.

Episode #2 on the Language of Business has now been completed! 

Our first guest, John Francis, is a strategy consultant and multi-time entrepreneur.  He has consulted for tech leaders like Red Hat and CA as well as a variety of early stage start-up firms.  He guest lectures at both the Graduate School of Business at BC and Babson College and assists in the UCONN Innovation Quest program.  John blogs at www.platformconsulting.com and www.ontios.com. His link on the Show is here. 

Patricia Gray's 10-minute segment is on this link. She provides on-call general counsel legal services to move companies forward through all stages of growth and transition.  Leveraging over 15 years as an executive and general counsel and 30 years of corporate law experience, she delivers business-focused legal advice, tailored to the business strategy, bottom line and risk mitigation goals of her clients.  Her web site is here. 

Leo Brea is our Entrepreneur on Episode #2 of the Show.  His company, Veconinter, was established in Venezuela in 1988 with the purpose of serving Shipping Lines and NVOCCs (freight forwarders) as a Billing and Collection Agent for Container Demurrage and Damage caused to intermodal equipment.  Its goal is to optimize profitability and minimize the turn-around time of containers. This is his LinkedIn profile and then check out his TV interview here. 

The full, 30 minute broadcast is viewable here. 

Enjoy, and thanks for your support. We're now being broadcast on over 10 stations!

Please have prospective entrepreneurs check out the Business Plan course web site and contact me directly. 

Greg

Amanda Giles was interviewed on Radio Entrepreneurs today discussing the industry, her career and a behind-the-scenes look at a professional radio station. Working her way up from an intern, she became the morning co-host at Magic 106.7. Her Mentor, Don Kelley, brought the station to be #1  in Boston for several years running, and over a 20+ year tenure, and is a huge help to the Language of Business.  I have written a case study about Don and he's appeared in my MBA Entrepreneurial Finance course for two years as a guest speaker, too.

Listen to Amanda's interview here and we wish her luck in her next media opportunity.  Here's her Facebook page & Twitter handle. Great Vimeo promo here, too.