This week saw the work start in earnest, a week when I could have been in any big city meeting with the former CEO of Apple & Pepsi, attending my first Rotary club meeting and flying to Phuket to present my thoughts on marketing satellite mobile communications. The main tangible difference between the Big Apple and the Big Choke has been the futile search for effective deodorant as the temperatures climb to that of tropical climes. 
“Correctly define the problem, that is the essence of any business,” extolled veteran CEO and Venture Fund investor, John Sculley. Mr Sculley was the guest of the China Entrepreneurs on Monday 12th which was founded by Eric Schmidt (far left) and Ori Elraviv. I got involved in the marketing for this event to help Eric and Ori who are such nice chaps, and also with the motivation of starting to build the EASTWEST brand. I arranged, with Judy’s help, interviews with the ‘China Daily’ and CCTV9 television station; a far cry from the mass media attention Sculley once commanded. China has brought everyone, from the high and mighty, to the once high and mighty, to have a look and see what opportunities are here. “Businesses move from novelty to ubiquitous to maturity”, continued Sculley, and I sense that China is still in the novelty phase especially for western business people. I should not have been alarmed at his lack of exposure to China, but couldn’t help thinking that if someone with this level of resource was unaware, how much have other people in the USA ‘correctly defined’ the challenges being raised by China. On Tuesday I was invited to the Rotary club of Beijing, where wealthy expatriates spoke of China’s problems and Africa’s opportunities. A Rotary sponsored trip had travelled from America to Rima, a western province that is claimed both by China and Tibet, to administer healthcare. After a well presented lunch at the Sheraton Great Wall we heard of mortality rates of 1 in 10 women during childbirth, the impact of motorcycles taking people from the grasslands to cities, and women left behind to fend for the communities. Ironically the new fangled machinery and detergents being bought with the money earnt in the towns are polluting the water and breaking down the fragile ecosystem. As dessert was served, a second speaker from Action Aid posted slides illustrating that some 23,650,000 Chinese live on an income of less than 700RMB per year (US$90). Sitting on my right was Ben Rugangazi, Ambassador to Rwanda, and obviously used to significantly greater calamities, and more interested in explaining the new tax free incentives for IT and telecommunications initiatives in the west African country. Recovering from the atrocities is now the main goal for Rwanda, the Ambassador told me, and he is looking for low cost mobile phones for people in a country where the average income is US$206. Having heard John Sculley talk of Chinese companies setting new ‘user experiences to create differentiation’ and having the potential to ultimately ‘control the ecosystem,’ it occurred to me that China holds hope for both wealthy and poor nations; with it’s huge potential markets the jewel for 1st world countries and a swathe of the population poor enough to have socio-economic systems that parallel 3rd world nations. The leadership of China truly has a challenge to balance these conflicting demands. One of my small demands this week was for deodorant, chuchouji ???, to combat the increasingly sticky weather. There are conservatively some 2 billion armpits in China and yet try as I might I haven’t been able to find Gillette Stick or roll on. Shop assistants have all met my arm lifting and imitation of spraying with a quizzical look. Instead, I have had to purchase Chinese blue syrup with a label containing a fetching lady in a broad brimmed hat (no this was the male one, the lady version was a yellow liquid with a swim suited scented figure) and a Japanese brand called Gatsby ‘Rod’ roll on in fresh Chypre. For some reason Asian deodorants are akin to spreading strawberry jam under your arms, sweet smelling at first but inevitably restricting both arm movement and social interaction. Confirming my suspicion is the figure of RMB104 million(US13m) , the value of the Chinese deodorant market, not even 5% of the UK market which contains 10% of the armpits and only has weather to warrant anti-perspirants for approximately 4 days in August. Armed with deodorant kindly flown into Beijing by Jerry, my brother in law, I flew to Phuket for a conference for a satellite communications client, Inmarsat. The plane ride is 2051 miles, and the plane was full of mainland Chinese travelling to this Thai island. The Chinese are venturing abroad more and more, but still treat travelling on planes like buses; ignoring the seat belt signs and turning on their phones as soon as the wheels touch the tarmac. As if fearing that they won’t be let out at all unless first to reach the cabin door, they leap up as the wheels touch ground and open the overhead lockers in spite of the admonishment of the disbelieving cabin crew, jostling with bags and kids until reaching an uneasy calm, half an eye to see the first crack of light and the other to ensure no one sneaks past them in the aisle. There is an interesting tension between the desire for individual self-preservation and absolute loyalty to the group, which leads to everyone desperate to be first to the passport counter but waiting for the others at customs, knowing that a tour bus will take them to their group hotel for a group meal. A week in the sun and fresh air was welcome, and it appeared that my suggestion that our client apply some consistency and co-ordination to their regional campaign was ‘correctly defining the problem.’ I wondered what the main land Chinese had made of the scantily clad girls offering massages in Phuket, or if they noticed the Tsunami safe zones along the beach or Katoys (men who have sex changes to become women), a phenomenon that must seem strange to a people from a country where there are still whispers of female infanticide. News in the paper returning home to Beijing is that there is now a lesbian hotline in Shanghai and Guangzhou, two cities where ‘social change outpaces the rest of China,’ and presumably where officials are also attempting to ‘correctly define the problem.’ Footnotes China Entrepreneurs According to sources interviewed by China Development Brief the maternal mortality rate for the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as a whole (population 270,000) is 400 per 10,000. Infant mortality is 38.1 per thousand and under-5 mortality 52.21 per thousand. This is significantly less than 1 in 10, with perhaps anecdotal numbers and ‘official’ numbers at both ends of the truth. www.actionaid.org/china From April to July, 1994, the people of Rwanda suffered the most horrible of human tragedies, a genocide which claimed the lives of close to 1 million people. Source: 2004 wwww.state.gov This unknown but magic ingredient reminded me of the Billy Connelly sketch regarding Jojoba shampoo. What is Chypre, and who on earth thought of putting it into deodorant? Source: As a relatively underdeveloped product area, deodorant experienced stable current value growth of almost 6% in 2004 to reach sales of RMB104 million. The growth is mainly driven by the leading brand represented by Fa, which grew by 8% in current terms, and Bodyice which grew by 60% from a much smaller base. By comparison the UK market (100 million armpits) was RMB7.45bn (£497 million)
“Correctly define the problem, that is the essence of any business,” extolled veteran CEO and Venture Fund investor, John Sculley. Mr Sculley was the guest of the China Entrepreneurs on Monday 12th which was founded by Eric Schmidt (far left) and Ori Elraviv. I got involved in the marketing for this event to help Eric and Ori who are such nice chaps, and also with the motivation of starting to build the EASTWEST brand. I arranged, with Judy’s help, interviews with the ‘China Daily’ and CCTV9 television station; a far cry from the mass media attention Sculley once commanded. China has brought everyone, from the high and mighty, to the once high and mighty, to have a look and see what opportunities are here. “Businesses move from novelty to ubiquitous to maturity”, continued Sculley, and I sense that China is still in the novelty phase especially for western business people. I should not have been alarmed at his lack of exposure to China, but couldn’t help thinking that if someone with this level of resource was unaware, how much have other people in the USA ‘correctly defined’ the challenges being raised by China. On Tuesday I was invited to the Rotary club of Beijing, where wealthy expatriates spoke of China’s problems and Africa’s opportunities. A Rotary sponsored trip had travelled from America to Rima, a western province that is claimed both by China and Tibet, to administer healthcare. After a well presented lunch at the Sheraton Great Wall we heard of mortality rates of 1 in 10 women during childbirth, the impact of motorcycles taking people from the grasslands to cities, and women left behind to fend for the communities. Ironically the new fangled machinery and detergents being bought with the money earnt in the towns are polluting the water and breaking down the fragile ecosystem. As dessert was served, a second speaker from Action Aid posted slides illustrating that some 23,650,000 Chinese live on an income of less than 700RMB per year (US$90). Sitting on my right was Ben Rugangazi, Ambassador to Rwanda, and obviously used to significantly greater calamities, and more interested in explaining the new tax free incentives for IT and telecommunications initiatives in the west African country. Recovering from the atrocities is now the main goal for Rwanda, the Ambassador told me, and he is looking for low cost mobile phones for people in a country where the average income is US$206. Having heard John Sculley talk of Chinese companies setting new ‘user experiences to create differentiation’ and having the potential to ultimately ‘control the ecosystem,’ it occurred to me that China holds hope for both wealthy and poor nations; with it’s huge potential markets the jewel for 1st world countries and a swathe of the population poor enough to have socio-economic systems that parallel 3rd world nations. The leadership of China truly has a challenge to balance these conflicting demands. One of my small demands this week was for deodorant, chuchouji ???, to combat the increasingly sticky weather. There are conservatively some 2 billion armpits in China and yet try as I might I haven’t been able to find Gillette Stick or roll on. Shop assistants have all met my arm lifting and imitation of spraying with a quizzical look. Instead, I have had to purchase Chinese blue syrup with a label containing a fetching lady in a broad brimmed hat (no this was the male one, the lady version was a yellow liquid with a swim suited scented figure) and a Japanese brand called Gatsby ‘Rod’ roll on in fresh Chypre. For some reason Asian deodorants are akin to spreading strawberry jam under your arms, sweet smelling at first but inevitably restricting both arm movement and social interaction. Confirming my suspicion is the figure of RMB104 million(US13m) , the value of the Chinese deodorant market, not even 5% of the UK market which contains 10% of the armpits and only has weather to warrant anti-perspirants for approximately 4 days in August. Armed with deodorant kindly flown into Beijing by Jerry, my brother in law, I flew to Phuket for a conference for a satellite communications client, Inmarsat. The plane ride is 2051 miles, and the plane was full of mainland Chinese travelling to this Thai island. The Chinese are venturing abroad more and more, but still treat travelling on planes like buses; ignoring the seat belt signs and turning on their phones as soon as the wheels touch the tarmac. As if fearing that they won’t be let out at all unless first to reach the cabin door, they leap up as the wheels touch ground and open the overhead lockers in spite of the admonishment of the disbelieving cabin crew, jostling with bags and kids until reaching an uneasy calm, half an eye to see the first crack of light and the other to ensure no one sneaks past them in the aisle. There is an interesting tension between the desire for individual self-preservation and absolute loyalty to the group, which leads to everyone desperate to be first to the passport counter but waiting for the others at customs, knowing that a tour bus will take them to their group hotel for a group meal. A week in the sun and fresh air was welcome, and it appeared that my suggestion that our client apply some consistency and co-ordination to their regional campaign was ‘correctly defining the problem.’ I wondered what the main land Chinese had made of the scantily clad girls offering massages in Phuket, or if they noticed the Tsunami safe zones along the beach or Katoys (men who have sex changes to become women), a phenomenon that must seem strange to a people from a country where there are still whispers of female infanticide. News in the paper returning home to Beijing is that there is now a lesbian hotline in Shanghai and Guangzhou, two cities where ‘social change outpaces the rest of China,’ and presumably where officials are also attempting to ‘correctly define the problem.’ Footnotes China Entrepreneurs According to sources interviewed by China Development Brief the maternal mortality rate for the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture as a whole (population 270,000) is 400 per 10,000. Infant mortality is 38.1 per thousand and under-5 mortality 52.21 per thousand. This is significantly less than 1 in 10, with perhaps anecdotal numbers and ‘official’ numbers at both ends of the truth. www.actionaid.org/china From April to July, 1994, the people of Rwanda suffered the most horrible of human tragedies, a genocide which claimed the lives of close to 1 million people. Source: 2004 wwww.state.gov This unknown but magic ingredient reminded me of the Billy Connelly sketch regarding Jojoba shampoo. What is Chypre, and who on earth thought of putting it into deodorant? Source: As a relatively underdeveloped product area, deodorant experienced stable current value growth of almost 6% in 2004 to reach sales of RMB104 million. The growth is mainly driven by the leading brand represented by Fa, which grew by 8% in current terms, and Bodyice which grew by 60% from a much smaller base. By comparison the UK market (100 million armpits) was RMB7.45bn (£497 million)