A Chinese Steve Jobs? Also: SRI Speaking Schedule for Oct

First my speaking schedule for October.I will be speaking in HK and online 7 times in the next 4 weeks.  Most of the presentations will be at the Global Sources China Sourcing Fair held at the Hong Kong Asia-World Expo out by the Hong Kong Airport.First presentation: Buying from China: What new buyers need to know.Oct 12^th at the Global Sources Electronics ShowOct 20^th at the Gifts, Premiums and Home ShowOct 27^th at the Fashion, Garments and Accessories ShowSecond presentation: Improving your sourcing performance.Oct 14^th at the Global Sources Electronics ShowOct 22^nd at the Gifts, Premiums and Home ShowOct 28^th at the Fashion, Garments and Accessories ShowThe third presentation will be on online webinar hosted by China Business Webinars.  Nov 3^rd online, Preparing to work in China, what you need to know before you get here.  You can register here.____________Now for the good stuff!Why do you have manufacturing problems in China?  Why can’t “simple” changes be made on the fly?  Why can’t problems be discussed openly and directly in China?The Chinese interviewees in this article indirectly answer these questions while talking about why there isn’t a Steve Jobs from China (yet).

1. The economics of China inhibit innovation.
2. The politics of China inhibit innovation.
3. The educational system of China inhibits innovation.
4. The lack of a autonomous and effective legal system inhibits innovation.

Sad on so many levels.I would add another answer: China has only been able to even start asking questions like this in the last decade.  Give them 50 more years (assuming growth and progress can continue as have the last 30 years, a major assumption that I won’t make).I’ve been saying these same things for 10 years—Chinese are as smart and capable as anyone else and there is both great capacity and opportunity in China.  But there are social and structural barriers to innovation, problem solving, negotiations and intellectual protections.  Sure there are various levels of these same problems (and others) everywhere else too.  But in China, the point is, that you’ve got to be aware that even though “it sure looks like they’ve got a lot of money” and they use the same iPhones and even have better/newer/cooler office buildings than we do in much of the west, business is not understood or managed the same.  The goals and processes are not the same.  The legal/political/historical/social/cultural environments are completely different.  And that means that “business” is different.So what works?1. If you’re going to be manufacturing in China for China, then do the market adaptations in China.  Closely related to the reality of China knocking off everything on the planet is the fact that they are at the same time making the market specific adjustments necessary to be successful in China.2. If you’re manufacturing in China for export then stick to your guns on your product spec’s but allow for changes in the manufacturing process that will maximize the local advantages (labor or materials or weather, etc.)3.Make serious investments into you suppliers and their processes.  This will improve both the product/services you receive but will increase the quality of everything the supplier (and eventually the industry) produces.3A. Understand BEFORE you set deadlines that manufacturing in China will require more time, more rounds of pre-production samples and more QC during production than you’re probably used to budgeting for.  Pad your dates and plan for more full man-days of QC during production.4. Accept the fact that China is or soon will be the largest ________ on the planet . As such it will soon have an inordinate amount of influence in just about everything that goes on in business (if it already doesn’t). Learn to work with it instead of against it—for (a lack of) innovation, this means that much of your pre-production work will have to be done abroad.  This new reality isn't exclusively a good or bad thing, it just is.  There's some of both for sure.Other interesting items from the article.

1. The successful Chinese  are counted as “Chinese” regardless of where they were born/raised (all from Taiwan).  Mainland Chinese assume that anyone that is “ethnically” Chinese has a blood/cultural/inherent tie to “China” regardless of if that person has ever lived/studied about/can speak the language of/or even cared about the current PRC.  Once Chinese always Chinese.  Interesting implications of that for national security here.  This causes more than a few uncomfortable situations as groups of Chinese get together overseas.  Typically the mainlanders get a crash course in global politics at their first social setting--Chinese and (PR)China are not synonymous.
2. There are successful Chinese and Chinese companies, but the article notes that they are either group efforts in China or individuals outside of China.  Jack Ma (Alibaba) is raised as a notable exception.