China Emerging_ 1978-2008 - Xiao-bo , Wu [38]
The world’s largest appliances company, Whirlpool, faced even tougher problems. In order to enter the China market quickly, Whirlpool adopted a mergers-and-acquisitions strategy. It found four companies with relatively good performance that made refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, and color televisions. However, the matter was not as easy as it looked. One employee later recalled that a tall, bearded American was appointed as the general manager of one joint venture. He shut himself up into an opaque glass-lined office, from which streams of English would emerge or occasion
Birth control has always been one of the most important tasks of county- and village-level governments in China. Slogans and banners to promote this policy papered towns throughout China.
ally a bizarre form of Chinese. It turned out that the employee’s task was to bring him coffee every once in a while. Consequently, a large company with 14% of the world market in its hand found that it was soon spending US$500 million in China, with nothing to show for it.
“The key to understanding the China market is patience!” Jack Welch, the world’s number one CEO, was heard saying, as though this were the ultimate answer.
Becoming One of the Fortune 500
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n May 1996, a book titled China Can Say No: The Political and Emotional Choices in a Post-cold War Erawas published. Fifty thousand copies were printed, and were sold out within twenty days. The book was written by five young college graduates, all under the age of thirty. It raised such strong
doubts about the superpower status of America that the American embassy in China soon invited the five to come for a talk. At that time, the Chinese
CCTV began to auction the advertising rights to its primetime slots in 1994; those who won were dubbed “King.” For the next five to six years, this became the fastest way to make a brand famous, which led to irrational behavior on the part of those wanting to be dubbed as “King.” This photo shows the Shandong Qinchi Alcoholic Beverages Factory winning the bid in 1995. Three years later, this “King” went bankrupt.
The return of Hong Kong and the economic revival brought a sense of patriotism to China. ChinaCanSay Nowas one of the bestselling books in the late 1990s.
public saw this as a symbolic event, as the tide of Chinese nationalism was running high.
A sense of radical optimism had been pervading the entire commercial world in China. People believed that miracles could happen—one could quickly create an empire. This was reflected in the bidding prices paid for prime-time advertising on CCTV. The head of a business that produced alcoholic beverages was full of confidence as he bid RMB 321,211,800 for the “king” position. When asked by a reporter how he had calculated this number, he replied happily, “I didn’t calculate at all. It is simply my telephone number.”
China had reason to be proud at this moment. Everything looked promising. The consumer market was flourishing, and local companies were full of vigor and passion. China’s gradual reforms appeared to be successful, in contrast to the rest of the globe. The Russian economy to the north was mired in serious problems. The shock therapy, promoted in that country since 1992, with its rapid privatizing reform, had led to severe inflation and a downward sliding economy. In order to support the Yeltsin government, Western countries provided US$10.2 billion as an emergency aid. Newsweek reported, “A strong China is emerging and the country is now having a shocking influence in virtually all fields. From the Straits of Taiwan to the shores of America, none of this could