Chinese Business Podcast

China Doll

As I mentioned in the last post I came across a terrific, no-nonsense podcast on doing business in China. Most successful non Chinese business people are way too timid to tell it like it really is out of eagerness not to offend their hosts and thus potentially losing the all important government favour.

James McGregor the author of the best selling 'One Billion Customers, Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China', seen by many as the defining book for new ventures in China is the exception to the rule. McGregor isn't frightened of being frank about the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese, but in a way which as he explains is both humorous and done with real affection for the people.

One of the major themes covered in this podcast is the cultural narrow mindedness of huge companies setting up in China such as ebay and Yahoo, and why they have failed so far in their efforts, usually through trying to impose the same business model from the U.S.

This relates to the 'Think global act local' issue, an idea I've long felt is misleading and misguided. It's also a a separate post in itself and one that I intend to cover which should, I guess be called, think local act local. In the mean time here is the podcast which gives me a chance to try out a new widget. Listen to James describe how Western arrogance ignored the intelligence of the maths champion of China when buying an internet business. This is how real people talk. Gorgeous stuff.

Podcast on Search Engine Marketing

wiccked

I'm currently going through a quite intense podcast (netcast) addiction. This means I get to listen to a lot of pabulum, and occasionally uncover pearls that I can now share, like this excellent podcast on search engine marketing. It is lucid, digestible and most importantly the equivalent of reading a small book on the subject in say the duration of the average Northern line commute. I'm probably fibbing there but the point is, if you're not yet comfortable with outlining the right blend of organic versus paid search for an optimal strategy in a digital communications meeting, or even how to benchmark it, then this is the podcast for you.

I originally came across it on the awesome IT Conversations which has easily another 40 or so shows that I've yet to consume to bring myself up to date. This show interviews Mike Moran who clearly knows his beans on digital search but also manages to explain in a way that someone with an interest should be able to access quite quickly. There's also a brilliant one I listened to today on doing business in China which probably wont interest many around here but I can't restrain myself from spreading the excellence that is abundant on the web. Also I haven't figured out how to put a media player in a post. I'm a bit mad on widgets at the moment so expect a few glitches till I've figured things out. Including formatting and links it's still a bit wobbly here on that stuff. I guess you've noticed.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it

I particularly like the music to this Youtube clip which is doing the rounds, and while ostensibly covering the same topic as the previous post, it somehow makes it so much more palatable, charming even. I believe this is further supporting evidence of "It's not what you say, but how you say" school of advertising that places tonality at the heart of communications.