China Launchpad

In the past, Phillip Carmichael was the CEO & President for Haier in the Asia Pacific region. With over 20 years of China experience, he is the most senior western face at the venerable Chinese appliance maker. That's why we invited him to China Launchpad. But we soon realized that not only the founding history of Haier is very exciting, but also the business advice Phillip has collected in the past. Philip gives very interesting advice on how to hold your first business meeting. Where should you sit? What should you talk about? And more importantly, when should you talk about business? After hearing this episode, you will never forget the example of the Oval Table! 

Hello and welcome Chris Cui, Director of the Asia Program at Closed Loop Partners in New York. In this episode, we talk about the definition of the Circular Economy and what it means to live in a Linear Economy. Furthermore, we will also discuss the differences between the West and China - is this trend about waste management or about reducing resources? Chris gives a detailed insight into the current change and what impact the Circular Economy will have on our daily lives. We, at China Launchpad, find the topic of great relevance and hope that we will be able to educate more people about the Circular Economy and become aware of the current situation. If you would like more information about Closed Loop Partners, follow them here: https://www.closedlooppartners.com/.

Todays episode will focus on why China for Design. Together with Martin Rendel, who is a guest lecture at the Beijing institute of Technology and has a professional German design background, we will discuss the Chinese designing process and why the education system is playing a major role in this. Furthermore we will talk about the problems of design and how the different cultures think differently and therefore also approach the design process in different ways. 

Heute Mal auf Deutsch. Gemeinsam mit Carsten Senz, Head Of Corporate Communications bei Huawei Technologies Deutschland, werden wir Themen ansprechen, wie z.B. woher kommt Huawei? Was waren die Absichten des Gründers? Wie konnte Huawei die chinesischen Mitbewerber überholen? Warum hat sich Huawei von B2B bis hin zu B2C entwickelt? Zum Schluss: Konflikt mit den USA -  Fluch oder ein Segen? Außerdem möchte ich an dieser Stelle erwähnen, dass Huawei ein großartiges Programm für alle Studierenden hat, bei welchem man eingeladen wird die chinesische Tech-Szene zu besuchen. Ihr erfahrt mehr unter: https://www.huawei.com/de/deu/digitalseeds oder wenn ihr einen tieferen Einblick haben wollt, checkt Digitalseeds auf Insta: https://www.instagram.com/digital.seeds/ 

Between 2008 and 2018, China’s gaming market experienced a more-than-tenfold increase in revenue, rising from $2.7 billion to a whopping $37.9 billion, which accounted for about 28 percent of the global market and half the global mobile market that year. What are differences between China and the outside of it? Where will be the future of gaming? But also from where is the Chinese Gaming Market coming from? Together with an anonymous guest we will answer these questions. 

Did you know that Berlin opened its first foreign representation in Beijing. So why is China so important for Berlin, too? What are the first steps that you as a company should consider when moving to China. Which ideas and business models will pay off?To answer all these questions, I invited Sabine Yang and Yiran Li from the Berlin Senate, who actively support companies in entering the market. The discussion was particularly interesting because Yiran is currently in Bejiing, while Sabine is in Germany. So we had an interesting discussion with my points of view. Of course we also discussed how Covid 19 affects the economy and what to do best. As well as what you can learn from China on the subject of returning to normality. I had a lot of fun during this conversation and was able to gain even more insights!

WeChat had 1.08 B users in 2018 with a number of 620 million daily users, in other words, WeChat has a reach of 91% in China. So it is clear that you want to stand out from the competition. What special methods there are and how we learn in the field of marketing in China is explained to us by our special guest Olivia Plotnick, who is an expert in this field. She has gained a lot of insights in Chinese marketing through her approach to error and trial, which is why she shares these insights with Forbes and Jing Daily and with whom she also advises her clients.In today's episode, we will talk about the various trends and approaches to marketing positioning in China. As well as what it means to use WeChat with its mini programs and how to build a user centric marketing strategy. Enjoy!

Why is China so important for the global community, what are the different strategies of China like Made in China by 2025, where does this interest come from and why has China opened up more and more to the outside in the last years. Also, how are these plans now restricted by the corona virus? To answer all these questions I invited David Thomas, who is the CEO of Think Global Consulting and also an expert and keynote speaker on future trends and innovation regarding China. In our conversation we will not only focus on the global strategy but also talk about why every company should become China ready and which 8 points are important to achieve this.

Online dating has been a trend for quite some time now. Tinder alone has had over 20 billion matches since its founding. But it is definitely not only a topic in the west of the world, Asia and China is more and more caught up by this trend or is now setting the standard. For example, Baihe, which is a dating app in China, has over 80 million registered users since its launch. To talk about this trend and learn more about the current Chinese solutions, I invited Rahul, who has gained a deeper insight into this market through his work in several dating companies. In our episode, we will talk about the different dating culture of the West and China, as well as the current solutions and where the journey will take us.

The forecasts for the retail market show that the Chinese retail market will be on a par with the American market this year. This alone is the reason why China is so interesting for retail and especially e-commerce. That's why I invited retail-consultant Christina Richter to China Launchpad to give insights on the Chinese retail business in the mini series: Why China, where she shares insights on the Chinese market. Christina gives in-depth information about the latest Chinese e-commerce trends, as well as tricks and tips on how to approach Chinese consumers. But most of all how to position yourself as a western brand. Everyone who is involved in the retail market should learn more about China, because China is already a pioneer in this area.

This is the release episode of China Launchpad. It is also the first episode of the mini-series "Why China", in which I invite different people from different industries to tell us why China is so exciting for them. Together with Enrico Jakob, Partner at Awesome Capital, we will discuss why it is so interesting for a VC (venture capital, investors for start-ups) to go to China. We will also discuss the differences between Western and Chinese VC culture. To improve from the first episode on, it would be nice to hear your feedback, which you can give me at china-launchpad.com 

China Launchpad reports about the tech scene in China in a linear approach. We follow the process from a business idea to a big exit in several seasons. This episode is the foreword to the podcast. I'm going to talk about why China Launchpad is so important and how I got started. It is also the start of the first season where I will interview experts in various fields, why they think China is so special for their business and what we can learn from this country.