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TUESDAY 2 OCTOBER 2007
How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition
Speakers:
Organised by Asia-Pacific Technology Network
Location: Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London, W1G 7LP
Nearest tube stations: Oxford Circus, Great Portland St
Timing: 17.30 - 19.00
Peter Williamson is one of the world's leading authorities on corporate strategies in Asia. At the time of writing his most recent book, Dragons at Your Door: How Chinese Cost Innovation Is Disrupting Global Competition, he was a Professor with INSEAD, but has just joined the Judge Institute at Cambridge. In this seminar, he will introduce his arguments that a significant number of Chinese companies have built on their cheap labour cost advantage to identify market segments which western competitors are unable or unwilling to defend. He will argue that western companies which decide to re-focus on high-margin, specialist sectors are leaving themselves open to devastating attacks from Chinese competitors who are proving fully capable of innovating to attack the "loose bricks" which the established competition leaves behind.
Dragons at Your Door is an excellent book. It convincingly demonstrates how some Chinese companies are moving steadily up the technological food-chain - and Huawei is an excellent example of this. However, it avoids the trap that many other books about China fall into, in that it does not argue that these success stories are necessarily typical of what is happening throughout the Chinese economy. What it does do, though, is pose the question: how much weight should we put on the fact that a number of Chinese companies have moved to the global forefront of their industries?
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