Financial Post China Series - Great Reading

Very insightful and good primer on China market and doing business on the mainland can be found in the National Post financial section here.

More Coverage on Weinstein Asian Fund

More information on the Weinstein Company Asian Film Fund previously mentioned here. More details surfaced on specific business operations and projects. What quality of films can we expect to see out of this new endeavor?

The Return of Bob Nardelli

The return of Bob Nardelli

Bob Nardelli is back in the CEO slot. Chrysler elected Nardelli as Chairman and CEO recently. It was only back in January that Nardelli resigned at CEO of Home Depot after a scandal over his pay package and sagging Home Depot performace.

Nardelli certainly is not back for the money. But this will be a great opportunity for him to restore and prove his reputation. Nardelli comes from a highly respected background as he was previously a top executive at GE. He was even a finalist for the CEO spot at GE when Jack Welch was looking for a successor.

I believe Nardelli has the ability and proper motivation to make impact at Chrysler. I’ll be watching closely to see how this works out.

Link to AP article.

Children of the Web

This is where web 2.0, globalization, and youth culture collide. Businessweek’s recent article on marketing to the global youth culture highlights the importance and advantages of using the web to bring products to younger consumers. Case studies include Axe deodorant spray. I must be older than the target demographic. I thought Axe was a pretty cheesy product judging from their product package and their scent names. But now reading their commanding and growing global market share, they are clearly doing something right.

The most interesting thing I find about this article is that the web is finally starting to show promises of the early hype of global connectivity. We are starting to see it happen. A new product or movement is introduced and within minutes it can be spread globally. We no longer need to rely on TV. Teenagers all over the world can share the same clips via Youtube and share party pictures via Facebook. The world is so much smaller. We can make friends and stay in touch with people all over the world. Cultures are shared and experienced much more easily across geographic boundaries. These are exciting times. Marketers are embracing this knowledge and coming up with some lucrative results. Teenagers are leading this charge but the connections will spread to all age brackets; just a matter of time.

Of all the companies profiled in this article, I find the FRIDAY CLUB the most interesting and personally relevant.

“The target customer for major brands is someone like Malini Agarwal, a 30-year-old radio deejay in Mumbai. After growing up all over as the daughter of an Indian diplomat, Agarwal settled down in the city and two years ago launched Friday Club, which organizes social gatherings and now has branches in four Indian cities plus Hong Kong, London, New York, and Toronto. The club's multinational members make plans, keep in touch, and share photos via social networking sites. "It's a global family," Agarwal says.”

I’ve thought about starting something like this for the Chinese set recently. I need to get off my butt and just do it. Less thinking, more action. It’s something that would work incredibly well in China and for Chinese all over the world.

H-P: The PC is not a commodity.

The PC is not a commodity. Realize your competitive advantage, maximize it, and gain the market share lead. Sounds simple, no? As reported by WSJ, that's the lesson we learn from H-P as it realized a better way to take on Dell.

Apple has definitely proved that personal computers do not necessarily have to be a commodity item. Just look at the waves of fanatics that Apple has cultivated to its brand of iMacs, Macbooks, ipods, iphones, iTV, etc.

Companies like H-P and Dell need to continue to innovate and find strategic partners (Best Buys, Circuit City, etc) to come up with more innovative ways to retail their products in order to be more in tune with consumer taste and trends.

The General Electric Company

I’m a big fan of the General Electric (GE) company. I admire the new innovative products that it’s pushing out to market. I respect its management and I agree with the company’s general direction under the leadership of Jeffrey Immelt. I read that NBC (GE is the parent company) is able to bid so much money for the rights to the Olympics games because once it secures the bid; it becomes a prominent and strong partner to the host city. GE is the able to secure high-rating programming and able to leverage its other business divisions to help the host city build the infrastructure, and thereby recoup the investment. GE can provide capital/financial solutions, infrastructure building products, healthcare and security components and a host of other products. For the Olympic Games, GE is really able to throw the advantages of being a diversified conglomerate.

This NY Times article nicely summarizes Jeffrey Immelt’s first five years on the job.