The Rich Robinson Show: Recent Episodes
Rich Robinson
Candid and fun interviews with my amazing guests – entrepreneurs, operators, experts - that will help you unlock actionable insights around the Asia region and the entrepreneurial activity that defines it.
From the Dotcom Boom and Bust all the way to the global Olympic spotlight, Chris Reitermann, CEO of Oglivy and President of WPP, has lived the ultimate advertising dream in China.
In this captivating episode, this legendary adman takes us on a wild 25-year ride through China's economic ascent and the highs and lows of building Ogilvy into a marketing juggernaut in the Middle Kingdom and across Asia Pacific.
With self-deprecating wit and refreshing candor, Chris regales us with tales of pitching game-changing campaigns, mastering the art of "China Speed," and future-proofing creativity in the age of AI.
From forging Ogilvy's digital dominance in a carpet factory to crafting an iconic Olympic slogan overnight, his anecdotes offer a rare glimpse into the mad world of Chinese advertising. Whether you're an industry insider, a China-watcher, or simply crave an inspiring story of perseverance and vision, this is a must-listen odyssey with one of the true architects of Brand China.
Buckle up for a wild ride with Tiff Roberts, former Bloomberg Businessweek China correspondent and current Director of China Affairs at the University of Montana. We trace his journey from Montana to becoming a leading voice on China's economic rise.
Tiff shares insights from 25 years as a foreign correspondent on the Mainland, as well as from his book "The Myth of Chinese Capitalism" which covered income inequality and integrating rural populations in China. He then recounts adventures from his early China days in places like Ruili and also Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
We discuss the crucial need for U.S.-China cultural exchange and understanding as Tiff looks ahead to returning to the Mainland. All in all, an entertaining and insightful chat taking you "At the Speed of China" with the legendary Tiff Roberts.
In this episode, Olivia Plotnick, Founder of Wai Social, shares her journey from learning Mandarin in high school to launching her own agency helping foreign brands navigate China’s dynamic social media and e-commerce landscapes. She offers a unique insider lens, having witnessed the exponential growth of platforms like WeChat and local Chinese fitness apps firsthand.
Key takeaways: the lightning fast speed of China’s consumer tech innovation and why it’s critical for global brands to understand even if not entering China yet—trends like live streaming are already going global. We discuss case studies on community building tactics that engage digital-savvy Chinese consumers. Olivia stresses staying open to lessons from China’s tech and business ecosystems rather than fixating on politics as tapping into the pace of change happening daily offers competitive insights for brands worldwide.
Join Rich Robinson as he interviews his longtime friend Mitch Presnick about his decades-long journey as an American entrepreneur in China. Mitch shares how a family trip to China in the 1980’s inspired him to move there after college and start building business bridges between the US and China. He recounts wild stories from the early reform and opening-up period, including starting APCO's Beijing office in the 1990s and bringing brands like Budweiser to China.
Mitch then explains how he founded Super 8 hotels in China in the 2000’s, growing it to over 1,200 properties across the country. He discusses the challenges of franchising and standardization in China, and what it was like to witness the country's massive growth and development firsthand during that time. Mitch gives an inside look at his entrepreneurial exit from Super 8 and what he's been doing since. He also shares his perspective on how to build a constructive US-China relationship for the 21st century, including his new role researching this topic at Harvard.
Zak Dychtwald is one of the leading experts on youth in China. He founded the Young China Group and wrote a book called “Young China.”
In this episode, Zak Dychtwald discusses his China journey starting with Zak's fascination with science fiction which sparked his interest in China and influenced his decision to study abroad in China. He discusses how he became captivated by China's technological advancements and distinct cultural landscape and how his experiences in China challenged his Western perceptions and inspired him to acquire a deeper understanding of and fascination with the nation's evolving identity.
Zak also emphasized the significance of language acquisition in order to better understand China and develop relationships. Zak and Rich discuss their experiences in various Chinese cities, with an emphasis on Chengdu as a city that embraces both Chinese culture and global influences. The conversation examines China's growth, cultural shifts, as well as its human side, providing a relatable perspective on the emerging generation and their experiences.
Greg Pilarowski is the Founder of Pillar Legal, a boutique international law firm with offices in Shanghai and the San Francisco Bay Area providing legal services to technology, media, and entertainment companies with interests in China or the United States.
In this episode, Greg shares his fascinating and compelling experiences working as an English teacher in Sichuan and his trials, tribulations and ultimate triumphs.
Peter Winn founded and sold Talent Education Group, one of China's fastest-growing education enterprises. He previously founded and headed up EF Professional English (China), a part of EF Education, China's largest English-language teaching organization.
EF went from a startup to one of China's most recognized consumer brands with over 100,000 students and schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and hundreds of other locations during his tenure.
In this episode, Peter shares his unique journey of getting entangled with China and how he achieved success in the education space in the country.
Key Takeaways:
•Salt music and songs have an interwoven relationship with knowledge, education, and culture.
•During the 1970s and 1980s in North Miami, Spanish was the other language they used.
•There are 56,000 Chinese characters.
•Wharf Holding built Time Square in Huahai Road and Beijing wherein there strategy made an early wave.
•EF Education China is owned by Phillip Holt.
•EF Education China was a startup in China and became the largest English-language training company in China.
•WorldStrides bought Talent Academy
•The education market in China is incredibly large, fast-moving, and yet treacherous.
Best Moments:
-Peter shares how he got introduced to learning Chinese with music.
o"Well, you can go to a new type of classroom where they play great music and you can get drinks and you can go with friends and have a good time and you can learn Chinese that way." I would say, "Well, the hell with class signed me up." So, KTV became a way to do that. I didn't realize at the beginning. So it was a good opportunity. [00:02:00.2 – 00:25:25.7]
-Peter shares how he got into Chinese language.
oSo, I thought, "Well, why not take, why not look into Chinese?" And I also was looking at the most popular language in terms of what people wanna study, but the most number of people who speak that language. And I thought, "Oh, okay, Chinese." No alphabet. So, check the box there. That's a challenge. I had no idea what I was getting into. It is not like Spanish or French. [00:09:05.7 – 00:09:31.5]
-Peter shared how he asked his wife why there were so many Chinese characters.
oI was thinking about this the other day. In fact, said to my wife, and I said, "How are there so many Chinese characters?" [00:12:25.9 - 00:12:34.6]
-Peter shares how his first interview in Hong Kong went.
oAnd I remember going to interview because I thought, "Well, I'll just talk to the companies that interview at college. I'll just look up their branches here and start interviewing." So, I interviewed at all those companies, which were by nature multinational companies. And it had a lot of people wanted to work there. And so, the first thing they'd say is "Oh, okay Peter, I see on your resume you say you can speak Chinese. Okay, so we're gonna do this interview in Chinese and we're gonna do some case studies. And what's your feeling about the political situation, the economic trends in China." And I thought, "Well, two years in Chinese, I can tell you how to order some noodles." [00:19:10.7 – 00:19:51.3]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Joseph Constanty is the Global Strategy and Corporate Development Director at Niu, the largest smart-mobility firm in the world - leading the change to EV transportation. Joe is also the Co-Founder of NextStep Studio, UT.Lab, and Tangential Consulting.
In this episode, Joe Constanty talks about his interest in Southeast Asian countries and how he got to China. He also shared his story of how he went from working at a consulting business to launching a startup studio, a shoe brand, and an EV manufacturing firm.
Key Takeaways:
•Lab was the first business that Token and Joe founded together.
•NextStep started as an event for entrepreneurs in Shanghai before it became an accelerator for F&B in China.
•Niu started as sketches in 2014 and was founded in 2015.
•Niu is the top player in electric mopeds in China.
•Urban transportation is a bit broken globally.
•China is the breeding ground for the future of mobility devices.
•It's difficult to get a plate in China, but EVs get green plates.
•Asian and Chinese people were extremely entrepreneurial and hardworking.
•Circa 2010–2012, there was a proliferation of entrepreneurialism in China at a super rapid rate.
•In China, the birth of unicorn entrepreneurs occurred between 2011 and 2012.
•Beijing is the Silicon Valley of China.
Best Moments:
•Joe shares that he has had a hard time telling his mom about his profession.
oYeah, I'm really, to me it's a joke and I had to tell my mom, at different times, like at one point I was a miniature golf salesman. Next, I was selling flashcards, then I was selling coupons, then I was selling shoes, and now I'm selling scooters to the world. So it's... you have to have a bit of humility. [00:10:33.1-00:10:52.5]
• Joe explains to Rich that Niu is the baby of Tesla and Vespa.
oYeah, I think the best way to think about what we make right now, we started with an electric scooter, or some people know it as a "moped." The best way to understand what we do is imagine if Tesla and Vespa had a baby, that would be us. [00:14:51.6-00:15:05.4]
•Rich shares a great lesson with listeners.
oSo, lessons for you out in podcast land. Don't listen to people when they tell you not to ask, because I couldn't tell them not to ask a question once he's already in there. So, good for him. [00:20:22.5-00:20:30.5]
• Rich explains that it's a Chinese curse that it keeps blowing up everywhere.
oSort of, peace and pulse for better or worse. I mean, I had one guest on, in the EdTech space and he was saying, "A company like Duo Lingo, which went public recently. Like they had so much time to fully bake themselves into what they were. In some ways, it's a curse in China. Like, it's like, here, take this money now run," And it's just like, "What? What am I supposed to do?""Shut up and run."Right? And it's just like, what? And just there's things blowing up all over the place, right? [00:27:30.4-00:27:57.5]
• Rich shares that a scooter is a minivan in Bali.
oActually, a scooter here in Bali is a minivan. As well too, you can transport five and all the pets and pets three weeks worth of groceries on one scooter, on a 125 cc scooter. So that's one thing I learned through. [00:40:52.8-00:41:05.9]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Alvin Graylin Wang is the China President and Global VP of Corporate Dev at HTC. He has managed tech companies for over 20 years.
In this episode, Alvin Graylin Wang shares his incredible journey from growing up in China to migrating to the United States and pursuing a double degree at MIT.
Alvin also shares his career journey from working at Intel to his most recent career at HTC, innovating across the XR and VR spaces.
Key Takeaways:
•HTC is the number-one global leader in the VR/XR space.
•During 1994, all PCs were used at businesses or enterprises only at an expensive rate and not at home.
•HP, Compact, Dell, and IBM were the leading computer manufacturers during the 1990s.
•Genuine Intel Dealers were small businesses that sold low-end Intel motherboards.
•Lenovo was previously known as Legend, and it was China's seventh PC manufacturer.
•1994 was the boom time for web browsers.
•AWS is the biggest net margin contributor at Amazon.
•"mInfo" was built from 2005–2008 and became the de facto search engine for mobile on three different China carriers.
•Guangxi was China's only English-language search engine.
•Text messages were the number-one value-added service on Chinese carriers.
•80 to 90 percent of the rapid railways in the world are in China.
•HTC creates six-degree freedom in VR.
•During 2020, 10 to 20 million VR devices were sold.
•The first Android phone was made by HTC.
Best Moments:
•Rich tells Alvin that the Chinese don’t adopt words; instead, they create their own vocabulary.
oLike, in Japanese they'll do something like, "computero", right? They'll like, but like China's like, "Nope, we're gonna do electric brain and electric shadow for movies, and everything's got its own word,right? And then you have to all new vocabulary, right? [00:14:07.6-00:14:22.2]
• Alvin shares how he struggled to translate Pinying to English.
oYeah, so professional Chinese and kind of, regular conversational Chinese are very different. So having to understand that the wording as well is the phrasing and the formalities, it was definitely challenging. I remember I had to try to write down the keywords in Pinying of the speech that I was trying to speak, and I wrote in English, and then I would put in some of the Pinying words underneath of it. So I can remember what it was.So I was doing realtime translation. She had a realtime translation in reading the English and speaking the Chinese. So it took a little while. I remember. I'm sure people were like, "What the hell's wrong with this guy?" [00:14:22.3-00:14:56.6]
• Alvin shares how a past company he worked for still uses his contributions.
oThat 10 years later, I went back to the website they were still using the same names and the same product kind of positioning that I wrote when I was there, so at least I felt like I left a little mark there. [00:24:03.3-00:24:14.7]
• Alvin describes how people in 1994 regarded someone who used a mobile phone as a boss.
oI remember when I came to China in '94, my mobile phone cost a company like $10,000, right? $10,000 for that mobile phone. It was a Nokia... No, it was a Motorola Star Tech, yeah. I remember, and you sit down and you put your Star Tech on the table, you're like the boss, right? Like, everybody around like comparing who has the best phone, right? So, either you had the Ericson or the Star Tech, and if you had a Dagada you were like too old. You, this is like old folk. [00:27:52.5-00:28:20.9]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Serial entrepreneur, Peng Ong, is Co-Founder and Managing Partners of Monk's Hill Ventures. He was previously a Venture Partner at GSR Ventures in China with wins like Didi Chuxing, Eleme, and Qunar. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded a series of successful companies including Match.com, Interwoven and Encentuate.
He also happens to be one of the most generous and curious people I've ever met contributing to the startup community across Asia.
In this episode, Peng outlines the several businesses he has founded and subsequently sold, including Electric Classifieds, Match.com, and Interwoven; and shares some insightful advice that all start-ups can take to heart.
Key Takeaways:
•Electric Classifieds was built for classified properties.
•IBM Singapore Software Labs was started by Peng Ong’s team.
•Chinese don’t have “work, life, balance” but just “make it happen.”
•Geographic Innovation, is where another country copied another countries innovation by modifying and localizing it.
•Technification of Services is where tech is using information to do good things productively.
• China's service industry is the most productive in the globe.
Best Moments:
• Rich talks about why you should think twice before going to Bali.
oYes it's really hard hit, but I have to say it's pretty, pretty wonderful. I've said it on the pod before, like, if you're thinking of coming to Bali, think twice because it's not that great. Well, except for the nature, the culture, the weather, the people, the food, the price, but other than that, it's not so great [00:01:02.4-00:01:20.6]
•Peng explains that only engineers would consider constructing a dating website.
o I guess only engineers would think of this stuff, right? Yeah. How inefficient dating is, right?It's really inefficient if you think about it. Right? You go in a big room and you see like hundreds of people, and how do you know you are perfect man? [00:03:57.4-00:04:10.7]
• Rich shares that most people spend 10 to 15% of their time thinking.
oBut probably most people, it's 10 to 15% of the time that they're thinking. Just look at the US right now.Everybody's like, "I'm red, I'm blue." And they just feel, and they don't even, they don't even thinking about stuff, right? " I'm not getting a vaccination because I'm red."And it's like,"What are you even talking about?"Right? Yeah. But that's human beings, right? [00:14:43.2-00:15:00.0]
• Rich explains why he has such a soft spot for the Chinese people.
oLove it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have no genetic ties to China except through my two sons who are half Chinese. Because I figure, I gotta put some chlorine in my Irish gene pool. But I have such, warm feelings for Chinese people, right? I mean, that's why the whole kind of purpose of this book is that, I really think things are a lot more nuanced and I just love China and Chinese people. [00:17:44.3-00:18:04.7]
• Rich was enlightened by what Peng said about the "Technification of Services."
oOh no. You did. I love it. Yes. Yes, please. Oh, no, I, you got me all inspired. I didn't know it was called that though. That's, That's why I moved to Indonesia because the way you framed that was so beautiful. Please, please, share. Yes, yes, yes. [00:29:10.1-00:29:22.0]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Kaiser Kuo is the Host and Co-Founder of the Sinica Podcast, which talks about China’s current affairs. Kaiser was a professional rock guitarist for Tang Dynasty, a Mandarin metal band before he got involved with journalism, the Internet, and related industries.
In this episode, Kaiser shares his journey from America to the Middle Kingdom, and China's innovation and the differences between the US and Chinese governments.
Key Takeaways:
•"Free Fall" was the first rock and roll band Kaiser joined.
•"ChinaNow.com" was founded in 1996.
•Beijing is the Silicon Valley of China and Asia.
•Beijingers talk like pirates.
•"Sinica," the first podcast about the current affairs in China, was founded by Jeremy Goldkorn and Kaiser Kuo.
•SLLF ("State Legislative Leadership Foundation") is an official NGO that President Xi Jinping and Barrack Obama founded that tries to bridge the connection between state legislators and provincial leaders.
•China’s innovation keeps evolving day-to-day.
•The Chinese government is always willing to take action.
•Chinese society doesn’t proselytize religion.
•Being hardworking is part of Chinese culture.
•Dao Xaoping pursued a deliberate policy wherein technocrats moved into positions of power.
•Jiujang is the most economically important province in China.
Best Moments:
•Kaiser shares that the 1957 Mafia Convention took place in their town, and they always look for money in the cornfields.
So I had a really good childhood in upstate New York, all little town called "Appalachian," where the November 1957 Mafia Convention took place.Yeah, it's a pretty cool place. We used to go by on Mick Fall Road, where the horse ranch was, where that happened. And would say that these mobsters fled into the cornfields, throwing money. And so we'd always go look for the money. [00:02:06-00:02:24]
• Kaiser reveals that Time Magazine interviewed him in 2008.
In 2008, right on the eve of the Olympics, I think it was Time Magazine interviewed me about the city of Beijing and why there were so many people who just loved it. I said, "Look, the pollution and the traffic, it's a terrible place to live, but there's nowhere in the world I'd rather be, nowhere in the world I'd rather be." [00:08:43-00:09:00]
• Rich talks about how he has love and hate feelings for Beijing.
Oh, that is beautiful. I missed that line. Yes, It's a terrible place to live. There's no other place I'd rather be. Absolutely. I said, "I love Beijing in the same way that my wife loves me." People from outside are like, "Really?" And then, "But my wife often doesn't like me and I often don't like Beijing." And people are like, "Oh, I totally get that." [00:09:01-00:09:19]
• Rich recalls a memory of a Lao Ai who wants to put a tape on a Chinese mouth to shut it.
And what, and there was so many things to love about it. I loved it. One time there was one lao ai who spoke Chinese really well, and he's like telling the guy like, "Why don't you just put tape over their mouth?" And they're like, "Pà kǔ yè," and they're like, "Can we do that?" And he's like, "No, you can't do that." And like I've been on the wrong side of that many times too, just like my smart ass use of Chinese. But what I've really loved about it was the Chinese people were they're like, "Oh, right, I really like you a lot." And it's like, those guys like, "Let's come over my house and we'll shoot guns and we'll have Turkey." [00:30:02-00:30:30]
• Kaiser shares that he is a news junkie.
Because I had been reading about the coal bombing and about the Tanzania and Kenyan embassies. And we already knew this was this new group called "Alqaeda." And anyway, news junkie, right? I was dating a journalist, at that time. [00:40:39-00:40:51]
Kapil Kane is Director of Innovation for Intel in China. He also worked his way from being an intern at Apple to becoming a Product Design lead.
In this episode, Kapil talks about his entrepreneurial journey from Goa to Stanford and how he got into Apple and Intel. He also talks about some of Intel’s innovations that helped propel the company forward.
Key Takeaways:-Goa is a part of India that was colonized by the Portuguese.
-The word "arigato" is derived from the Portuguese word "obrigado," which means thank you.
-Uni Body Max was the previous name for the MacBook Air.
-Apple creates a clean room in which dust and lint are not trapped between the touch screen.
-Intel took the "one laptop for a child" idea and came up with the Classmate PC.
-Intel created RealSense, it’s a face authentication algorithm.
Best Moments:•Kapil shares that Stanford listed him as a PhD graduate even though he didn’t finish it.
oYeah. But, if you go to our alumni website, they list me as PhD. I don't know how, why? Like, there's like, PhD, yeah. It's like a PhD 2008 or something. They just assume I finished and I did it, you know? [00:08:26.9-00:08:40.5]
•Kapil shares that Steve Jobs sat with him in the Apple cafeteria.
oAnd yeah, he sat on the table and I'm like, "I'm just an intern." That's my first inner words that came out of my mouth. Like, "Don't ask me about the project."So he is like, "Oh I'm going to talk to all the interns in a couple of weeks." That was the tradition, that he would talk to all the interns. [00:16:09.2-00:16:14.7]
• Rich admires Apple's attention to detail.
oThat's microscopic attention to detail. Yes. Wow. Thanks for sharing those. Those are great anecdotes. [00:19:15.5-00:19:23.7]
•Kapil shares how he experienced culture shock with his transition from Apple to Intel.
oI was designing a tablet for emerging market, which is cost sensitive. Everything was like, how much is going to cost? And I'm like, "Hey, I have not even put pan on the paper and you want to know about the bomb cost," so that was a huge culture shock. And I was like, "What have I done? Where have I landed myself?" [00:25:44.4-00:26:01.7]
•Kapil shares one of Intel’s innovations for "homes for the aged residents.
o"No. Let's talk about some of the stories, right? I think let's say, for the first couple of years we worked on ideas which are like, drones flying in formation. Like, a service robot that is conversational, targeted towards healthcare where you put him in a old age home, and this robot goes to room, has a conversation with the not inmate the people who live there, oh, I don't know what they're called. [00:35:27.5-00:35:48.8]
.
•Rich corrected Kapil as he forgot the term for people who lives in home for the aged.
oWell, yeah, I mean, I have to say that I have a, some family members and friends who feel like inmates, so it's probably not too far, but the residents of the nursing home, I guess you could say. [00:35:48.8-00:35:58.6]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Andrew Collins is the Founder and CEO of Mailman, a company started in Shanghai that provides services to the top sports leagues and teams in the world to improve the fans' experience and grow their revenue. Mailman was fully acquired by global agency WME.
In this episode, Andrew also recounts his experiences building a startup in college, acquiring Mailman, and developing it into a platform that sports organizations can use to better connect with their fans and grow their companies all the way through to exit
Key Takeaways:
•Li Na is one of the greatest Chinese female tennis players and a two-time Grand Slam champion.
•Instagram was an exclusive Apple feature before.
•James Wolfensohn was an Australian who built an investment bank that serves the world’s billionaires and became the president of the World Bank.
•Initially, Mailman was a postcard advertising channel.
•American Airlines signed a $150,000-dollar deal with Mailman
•Instagram was originally known as BRBN, and it functioned similarly to Foursquare.
•2010–2015 was Mailman’s revival period.
•In 2014, Mailman decided to be involved in the sports industry, and their first client was the AFL.
•Mailman acquired $20 million from local investors in China.
•In 2016, President Xi Jinping stated that he wants sports to be a part of their culture.
Best Moments:
• Andrew shares his funny moment with Li Na, who was nervous to meet Kobe Bryant.
o Anyway, he's in the building, and I go to the exec floor to meet Li Na. I'll get there 15 minutes early, but she's already there sitting at just a table waiting with her manager, Kathy. And so I go up: "Oh, hey, Li Na, how you doing? You know, I'm Andrew, blah, blah, blah. Hěn gāoxìng rènshí nǐ." And then I had a chat with her. And she was like, "uber nervous" to meet him, and I was like, "Oh, you're nervous?" I said, "I think he's actually a little nervous to meet you too. He's like, you know, huge fan of yours." And she was telling me how nervous she was and I was, like, "Oh, this is actually quite funny because there's absolutely no reason for you to be nervous." (00:05:48.9-00:06:20.3)
• Rich recalls a time when he MCed at TechCrunch Singapore in 2014.
o I remember one thing from there, which was there was a woman who was selling or, you know, pitching her company that was doing fashion, right? So she was like, you know, and all the judges were guys, because it was still before they figured out like, "Yeah, maybe we, you know, since 15% of the world is female, we should really have 50%."And she's like, "You know what? When your wife asks you, how does my butt look in these pants?" And everybody was like, looking around, and I and fortunately it was like, "Oh, time is up." And you could see all the guys like, "Oh, thank Christ, that's so great. We gotta to dodge that." But then I said, "By the way, everybody, the answer to that question is 'amazing.' It's always amazing." (00:08:42.4-00:09:22.1)
• Andrew shares how he takes girls out and gives them perfume as part of his business.
o And it was sort of a cash business. It was actually a great little business. I always had cash on me. And I'd take girls out for a date and I'd always give them a bottle of like, J'adore for a date. And they're like, "You didn't need to go and spend 70 bucks. And I'm like, I spent 15." But, it was a great one. (00:13:40.4-00:13:55.3)
• Andrew shares a scene in which Liverpool's Robbie Fowler signs a contract in Chinese.
o He gets a Chinese document in front of him for a signing, and they ask him to sign and he looks at me and goes, "Do I sign?"
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Dhiren Amin is an Indian-national and former Asia CMO of the Shanghai-based Kraft Heinz.
In this episode, Dhiren talks about his path from advertising to the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMGC) industry, how innovation happens faster in China than in other countries, and how technology has taken over China.
Key Takeaways:
•Asia Trading, as used by Kraft Heinz, covers the FMCG of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, India, and a few other markets, with the exception of Japan and Korea.
•China had a “Business As Usual” period during COVID than most other countries.
•China bounced super quickly after hitting by the pandemic.
•Most of Southeast Asia's markets are served by Kraft Heinz.
•The GDP per capita in Indonesia is low, but it is growing quickly.
•India's FMCG market is very competitive and getting bigger every year.
•Indians are naturally competitive people.
•Innovation usually takes 12 to 18 months, but innovation in China is expected to take only 4 to 6 months.;.
•China can do everything digitally.
•China is a consumption driven culture.
Best Moments:
•Rich talks about how competitive India is.
oYeah. And there is this kind of like, forged by fire, like the competitiveness at the top levels. Like people are like, "Wow, you see how many kickass Indian executives there are in the US?" I'm like, "Have you ever been to India? You ever seen how like competitive and tough that place is?"
It's like, "Yes." It's like people come out of that environment and they're just like, "Rah, I'm like ready to like take Microsoft and Google, and you know, Pepsi, et cetera, et cetera, to the next summer," right? [00:10:54.2-00:11:20.0]
•Rich explains about how surprised he is that Dhiren said "a country mile."
oMany country but, but you said, "A country mile." Oh my God, that is like, I, that was one of my favorite expressions that nobody understands, but I guess maybe because Indians understand like "Miles," an imperial thing. It's like that's I just I'm delighted by that. I guess, I guess maybe you also as a marketer have to be a wordsmith. I stopped using "Country mile" because people were like couldn't understand that. But love it. It's a long way for people in the metric system. It's far, so that's great. [00:15:11.4-00:15:35.7]
•Rich shares how households patronize brands by generations and uses his family as an example.
oFantastic. Yeah, and I think there's probably, you know, at least in my household, in the US, like there's brands that my grandparents preferred that then they, you know, brought up my parents on, and my parents brought me up on those brands too, and they just become part of the fabric. Like, you're just, of course were going for that brand, right? And it's like, it's multi-generational and it's you know, it there's not many things like that in a, like we had a Motorola TV when I was growing up and then a Motorola phone and now wears Motorola, right? But you know, we still use the same brand of toothpaste. I still do, so. [00:26:04.6-00:26:39.0]
•Dhiren used a China gym as an example to demonstrate how quickly China's innovations compare to those of other countries.
oYeah, it is exactly that. Once you work out in a China gym it's like going from running 10 kmph on a treadmill in other parts of the world to suddenly being put on a treadmill that's running at 30 and to be able to do it for hour and hour. [00:35:06.8-00:35:19.4]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Pascal Coppens is an international keynote speaker, sinologist, and technology entrepreneur, who lived in China for almost 20 years. He is the author of both "China's New Normal" and the newly published "Can We Trust China?"
In this episode, Pascal talks about how his trip on the Trans-Siberian Express made him fall in love with China and China's fast pace of innovation.
Key Takeaways:
-On the trans-Siberian train, there is a sense of community among the Chinese passengers.
-Alcatel Telecommunications Company is strong in China and around the world.
-Alcatel helped China make the switch from analog communications to digital ones.
-The speed of China is faster than that of Silicon Valley.
-Back 30 years ago, China only cared about making the best product they could. They didn't care what the product could do.
-Xiaomi is Apple's biggest rival both in China and around the world.
Best Moments:
-Pascal shares how he got a 50% discount on a trip by using a fake student ID card.
oSo I got 50% discount on my travel from then on. So that means travel twice as far. And so I was really happy with that. But the interesting thing is that I just said, "Yes. Okay. So should I come back tomorrow? Or how does this work?" And he say "No, wait." And so 10 minutes later he was there. He took a picture, 10 minutes later I had my student card. And so I give him way too much money because-- Yeah, speed of China. 30 years ago. (00:02:49.3-00:03:14.2)
-Pascal shares his experience with America’s slow progress.
oThat was my first experience with the slowness of America. I'm joking here, but the reality was we were pretty frustrated because we went to Ikea to buy all the furniture that we already had because we had no bed, and no table, and know nothings. So we got that all in doubles afterwards. And then, when the container arrived, there was only three people to do this job. And every half an hour they just had a smoke and had a talked, and it took a whole day. And this was just about unpacking. So that's where the first speed difference between US and China actually became very vivid. (00:11:51.6-00:12:25.3)
-Pascal admits he considered rewriting his second book into a different book.
oAnd so that's why I started writing my second book, and then I said no. After one chapter. I said, I'm going to write a different book. And I started over again. (00:21:03.9-00:21:11.8 )
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Jeremy Goldkorn, a writer and editor, started Danwei and is now the Editor-in-Chief of SupChina. Along with Kaiser Kuo, he also hosts the Sinica podcast.
In this episode, Jeremy shares his career journey in China where he lived in a workers’ dormitory to starting to getting involved in Chinese media and the internet. He also shared some of his fun experiences such as riding a bicycle from Pakistan to China.
Key Takeaways:
• White South Africans had two years of compulsory military service.
• 1995 marked the beginning of the great return of foreign companies to China.
• Red Egg was a pirated version of Red Herring run by a Chinese media group.
• Baidu is a Chinese search company.
• SupChina acquires Sinica Podcast.
• Transsion is a mobile phone brand in South Africa owned by a Chinese company.
Best Moments:
- Jeremy talked about his first experience with culture shock.
o So, for a year I basically just had to speak Chinese and got to live in a very sort of Chinese way with a shared shower. The toilet was the first initial culture shock. Once I was over that, I couldn't fear anything because it was one of those-- it was like a huge room of long drop toilets with no walls between the stalls and everybody squatting and taking a dump, and smoking cigarettes, and reading the newspaper, and having a chat. Yeah. And I'm not a very inhibited person, but I come from a Anglo-Saxon Jewish cultural background, so this was rather shocking. 05:48.7-06:17.1
- Rich can’t believe that Jeremy had 20 cents when he showed up in China.
o You had 20 cents when you showed up. I wish. 23:57.1-24:00.1
- Jeremy shared that he was born the same year as Elon Musk and threw a funny question at Rich.
o Yeah. Yeah No, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Mr. Musk born in the same year as me, about a hundred miles away from where I was. But I don't really, actually, I shouldn't have said that. I don't like to be reminded of that fact. I mean, "Where's my fucking spaceship company, Rich?" 32:07.0-32:21.5
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Ben Hu is the Co-Founder of Liulishuo, an AI-powered English learning solution for Chinese people to learn English.
In this episode, Ben shares his journey from Shanghai to the US and back to his homeland including Liulishuo’s triumphs, trials, and tribulations along the way.
Key Takeaways:
• A computer science major in China wasn’t popular in 2002.
• To achieve a higher goal as a computer science major, you must get an advanced degree or Ph.D. from universities outside China.
• Peking University has a 2% acceptance rate around the world compared to other universities around the world.
• San Francisco was the center of innovation in 2010.
• Canva’s company rule during the pandemic was that you had to go to the office eight times a year.
• Shanghai is not China’s representative.
• For the past 30 years, China has experienced rapid growth.
• Reverse culture shock
• Liulishuo is an AI-powered mobile app to help Chinese learn better English.
• Duolingo has the same function as Liulishuo; to help the users learn English.
• IDG, DGV, and Cherubic were the three earliest investors in Liulishuo.
• In July 2016, Liulishuo started to monetize.
• 2018: Liuloshuo got listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
• K–12 online education companies raised 15 billion dollars in 2020.
Best Moments:
- Ben shares that an intern wrote a letter for leaving the company because the company is in tough times.
"And the intern joined us for a week or two in Huangzhou, and one day I woke up, he just disappeared, like, and I opened his computer. And that he wrote the notes, a digital notes on his computer, basically explained to us that, "Hey guys, I thought that there was too much pressure for the past week or so. I didn't think I can take this kind of work pace and sorry about that. I decided to leave this morning, and I just didn't feel like telling you guys. Straight, looking your eyes and tell you that, sorry about this." [ 00:32:50.8-00:33:24.7
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Shameen Prashantham is an Author and a well-known International Business Strategy Professor at CBEIS (China Europe International Business School).
In this episode, Shameen shares his journey in researching and teaching. He also shared some anecdotes from his published book, "Gorillas Can Dance."
Key Takeaway:
• Scotland has a large number of small entrepreneurial firms.
• CEIBS (China Europe International Business School) is a joint venture of the EU and Shanghai Corporation.
• BizSpark is a Microsoft program that provides Microsoft product software for free to startups.
• Shanghai is very interested in engaging with start-ups.
• Walmart China introduced the "Omega Eight Program" to Chinese startups to give them the opportunity to sell their products across Walmart’s 400 stores.
Best Moments:
• Shameen shares that his friends tease him that he has bad timing.
"And some of my friends in the UK were saying, "Mate, you got this timing completely wrong. You hung around here while we were suffering with the financial crisis, and you went there just in time for the slowdown." But what we know now, which I didn't know. Then, that was also the year WeChat was introduced?"
[00:09:33.9-00:09:50.8]
• Rich jokingly asked Shameen if they were talking about the book or Rich’s first marriage.
"Are we talking about my first marriage? Or are we talking about your book? I'm sorry" [00:18:58.6-00:19:01.7]
Post-production, transcript, and show notes by XCD Virtual Assistants
Nathan Siy is the founder and CEO of Evoke Electric Motorcycles which designs, manufactures, and leads development in smart mobility with safer, faster-charging, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly powertrains and components.
In this episode, Nathan shares his journey on how he sold his first start-up company to bootstrap and grow Evoke Electric Motorcycles.
Key takeaways:
•China doesn’t have the garage start up business stories
•Foxconn Precision Manufacturing is a multinational electronic manufacturer based in China.
•Chinese workers strictly follow the 996 working culture.
Best Moments:
- Nathan shares that the reason he was stuck in China was because of a girl.
oIt was like, "Hey, I got a one year contract, gonna do something completely unrelated to like, manufacturing right now," but supposed to be a one year stints, get some experience head back to HQ in Vancouver, and then kind of grow from there. But yeah, I'm sure you hear this all the time. It's a girl. It's a girl that gets you, that kind of loops you in here and you get stuck in a way. Yeah. Good, good. Stuck, not bad. Stuck, but stuck.
(00:04:11.3-00:04:31.6)
• Rich predicts a Chinese establishment owner's reaction as Nathan inquires about renting a small space for his start-up.
oWow. And he'd be like, Hey, get back behind your line. Your toes over the line.
(00:08:55.0-00:08:59.4)
- Nathan recalls how a businessperson on the other side abruptly ended a technical call to go home.
oObviously, we're facing like European time and China time, but there's times that I'm running through like a technical call or I'm helping, one of our teammates run through a technical call and they're like, okay, so this, you disassemble this section, take a couple screws out, and then what you wanna do is you wanna unplug this.
And he is like, oh, hold on. It's like five o'clock here. And I'm like, okay. And he is like, well, I'm gonna go home. I'm like, we're in the middle of like, yeah, we're like disassembling half your mic. And he is like, yeah, no problem. No problem. We'll pick it up tomorrow. And I'm like, how do you just leave? A bike, like half disassembled, like it's a customer's bike. Like, is he not gonna care? Is he not gonna like, want it done quickly? But he's like, no, that, that's how you do it in Europe. Like five o'clock on the dot, I'm clocked out, I'm going home.
(00:40:33.8-00:41:17.1)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Peter Loehr is a famous American film producer and executive who worked in China for most of his career. He also produced "The Great Wall," which earned a record-breaking $334,900,000 at the box office.
In this episode, Peter recounts how he stumbled into a career in the entertainment business in Japan, Taiwan, and China when he should have been studying law. He also talks about the great films he produced.
Key Takeaways:
• In 1997, the entertainment industry in China was not yet booming.
• IMAR which stands for "I Am A Rock" was the first founded independent film production company in China.
• Spicy Love Soup was the first film in China that targets the younger audiences
• CAA has done amazing work with Chinese entertainment.
• Legendary Entertainment was acquired by Wanda Group.
Best Moments:
- Peter Loehr was sent to Taiwan to manage Amuse in Taiwan.
o Well, again, after working in a music, I think for four years in Tokyo, where I sort of worked across different sections of the company, so I was in the international section and I worked on music and I got to work on films and I got to work on television, and after four years of sort of jack of all tradings things, I said to Mr. Osato, "I would love to work in film production." And he said, he would put a think on that. And he said, "No, actually, we're going to send you to Taiwan because the future of this company is Asian and we want you to open an office there and you should learn about another culture. Another language is going to make you ultimately a better executive. And that's what you're going to do." And at the beginning, it wasn't really what I wanted. And I went to Taiwan. We opened up a tiny office, and luckily the market there was booming in music and television, and we were able to do a lot of licensing work of Japanese TV shows into Taiwan and make the small office quite profitable pretty quickly.
o (00:07:47.50-00:08:40.00)
-
Peter shares how they approached actors to be a part of their film.
o And that got complicated, so there was a lot of discussions, and the film was so low-budget. And we were not shy about approaching really major actors and saying, "Please read our script, and we'd love to have you in the movie. And by the way, we have no money." And one actress said to me, "I think you guys were adorable. The fact that you would even say that number I should be insulted, but I think the fact that you'd even say it out loud. Sure."
o (00:16:02.50-00:16:26.00) -
Peter shares that his father brought 20 friends to fill up the theatre because he thought no one is going to watch the film
o And on Shower, that film got invited to the "New Directors Section" of the New York Film Festival, which is a huge honor because the New York Film Festival sort of selects films some other festivals around the world that they feel need to be curated and shown to a New York audience. So it's sort of like the best of the best get invited, and it was this amazing thing, and I told my dad and he thought, "Oh my God, my son's Chinese film is going to come to New York." Nobody's going to watch it. So he tried to bring like 20 friends to fill up the theater and when he got there, he realized it was sold out and they were going to have to leave a later showing. And it was this sort of shock that my son maybe is actually doing something semi-meaningful.
o (00:23:06.50-00:23:41.50)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Matt Sheehan is a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he studies the development of China's AI industry and its implications for the country's technological future.
In this episode, Matt describes how he went from being a tourist online journalist in China to working at the think tank Macropolo at the Paulson Institute, where he analyzes the economic rise of China.
Key Takeaways:
•1999 was when Palo Alto was at its peak.
•China's true speed began after the Olympics in 2008.
•China has never previously granted journalist visas to any online media publication.
•During 2016–2018, Chinese investment in Silicon Valley took off.
•Silicon Valley sees China as a copycat, a competitor, a resource, an inspiration, or a technology gone wrong.
Best Moments:
• Matt shares how the first video he shot on his smartphone went viral, resulting in negative press for Chinese Eastern Airlines.
oAnd this was literally, the first, it was 2012. I had finally given up and gotten a smartphone. This was the first video I ever took on my smartphone, was of this fight where a Chinese Eastern Airlines employee tries to throw a stool at the passengers. And I took the video. Eventually it went up on my friend's blog, and it basically like went viral in China, and became kind of like a big, like public relations scandal for Chinese Eastern Airlines.
(00:13:38.72-00:14:03.60)
• Matt shared that his boss had lied to him directly.
oBut you know, he was dutifully passing on the censorship orders. I said, why? "How can he just like lie to my face like that when we both know that he's lying?" My producer, like, he's like, "Well, if he's lying and you know that he's lying and he knows that, that he's lying. Isn't that kind of like telling the truth?" I'm just like, "Whoa." Galaxy. Brain. Like. Mind blown. And it was like, "It's a helpful thing because he is like, yeah, yeah. He's like, yeah, everybody knows what's going on. Like, "Why do you need him to state it?" Because if he states it, then it's he, he loses face and it becomes a thing.
(00:21:05.44-00:21:38.57)
-
Matt shares how he was issued a compromised version of J2 Visa.
o But in our case, HuffPost through some complicated stuff, did have Goaisi pretty good Goaisi, such that they wanted to actually give us a visa. But they felt they couldn't because of this; they don't want to open the door to online media. So they compromised their version. They gave me kind of a, what's called a "J2 Visa," which is like, theoretically, only for short-term, like, you go there to cover the Olympics or something like that. But they gave it to me, and they basically said, "Treat it like a J1 Visa. Treat it like a full journalism visa. We just can't officially, give you that because we don't want to open the door."
(00:26:32.73-00:27:02.12) -
Matt shares that he’s putting his Chinese side because of social stability.
oIt's a little harder to bootstrap yourself when you have so much regulatory requirement on top of you. But I do think that, it's like we're at a period of time when I would put the Chinese side, of me like, I prize social stability above many things. If we think that issues around data collection and data gathering might have contributed to some of the social and political instability that we've had in the US over the past few years, I'd take a haircut, I'd take a slight discount on exact performance of our AI algorithms, in order to say, "long term."
(00:51:59.02-00:52:29.09)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Bertrand Schmitt is a tech entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in technology in the US, Europe, and Asia. He is also a co-founder of App Annie, which provides an easy-to-use platform and tools for app analytics data.
In this episode, Bertrand talks about why he is so interested in "mobile solutions," which led him to be fascinated by China's booming entrepreneurial ecosystem. He also talks about App Annie's humble beginnings.
Key Takeaways:
-
Asia was the fastest-growing entrepreneurial place, especially China, during the early 2000s.
-
China is a very entrepreneurial-minded place.
-
China is a mobile-first society.
-
In the tech and mobile industries, China is ten years ahead of India.
-
China’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is mostly focused internally.
-
China’s venture capital is second to the US.
Best Moments:
- Bertrand went to China for the Olympic Games.
o I showed up. So, actually, I came for the Olympics in China. So I was travelling in a way for the fun. I was not officially based out of China for the Olympics. But I didn't want to miss that. I moved in January 2009 to Beijing.
(00:06:51.72-00:07:04.92)
- Bertrand shares about how the time zone affects his life and work.
o So part of the day on Chinese time zone working with my team, being in the office, and part of the day was being in the Boston time zone, so 12 hours difference. So that was kind of fun. I still remember when I had pop buzzer for calls, that were what that 3 AM on my time on Saturday morning, in Beijing. And I had to explain, "Guys, let's be careful, please. That's not okay. 3 AM. I can do it once, but not on regular business." So part of the bridge is adjusting people from every side to the different time zones, the different approach to business, but it's always I'm using for me is that how simple stuff, like time zone people don't get it immediately. You have to be extremely clear about the boundaries.
(00:09:09.75-00:09:50.15)
- Rich talks about how Bali fascinates him.
o And I think it's also like you made the move, and I became a pandemic refugee with my family here in Bali which is a pretty lovely place to be stuck. And, 2019 I was here with my wife. She was doing a sabbatical. I wasn't on a business trip. I wasn't on vacation. I just worked during the day, but I was exercising, hiking, and having dinner in the beach with her at night, and I was like, "Wow, this is really efficient." I might as well be at a WeWork office in Beijing or a cafe, or working from home at my back in Beijing and like, "Can we do this? Can we just move here and do nah. That's crazy. Like we were like, "That's crazy town." And our dreams and tans faded. We went back to Beijing, and then last year she did the same thing, longer sabbatical. I visited her again, and then the door closed behind me in Beijing, and we're in West Coast in Sanur, near the international school.
(00:42:10.26-00:43:02.91)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Porter Erisman is an award-winning filmmaker, e-commerce consultant, and entrepreneur who has lived in the Middle Kingdom for more than 20 years.
In this episode, Porter talks about how he found a way to travel back to Asia. He also talks about how he started from nothing in China and saw how Alibaba, China's biggest internet company, grew from small beginnings.
Key Takeaways:
-Hainan used to be called China's "Hawaii," but now it's called China's "Silicon Valley."
-China is much faster than the US in the rate of entrepreneurship.
-996 Culture is China’s working culture that is working from 9AM to 9PM, 6 days a week.
Best Moments:
-Porter shares that he went to business school in the US to get some money for backpacking.
oSo I went to business school in the US, just to get basically some backpacking money to go backpacking around. So I went to business school. I thought I'd worked for two years and then pay off my student loans and just backpacked around the world for a while. But right when, so my first job out of business school was working at a consumer products company, launching this children's candy into China. But it wasn't a good fit for me. And then I ended up at Ogilvy and Mather.
(00:04:40.90-00:05:07.06)
-Porter talks about how he told his boss by accident that his coworkers had broken a company rule.
oAnd so once in a company meeting, the big boss of the company at the time, they're in China, put me on the spot and said, "Porter, why don't you know this? Why don't you do it?" And I made the mistake of saying, "You know, everyone was talking Cantonese and not Mandarin." So I just didn't understand what they were talking about then. And all the sales team stared at me with these just deadly eyes. And what I didn't realize was they had a company policy that you were supposed to only speak Mandarin. And I had to betrayed them by, in front of the boss saying that they had all broken the rules
(00:07:46.28-00:08:22.21)
-Porter shares some Jack Ma’s quotation
oWhen I joined, the internet bubble had just burst, and I was jogging my memory of some of these speed-related references because I know you're interested in the topic of speed, and one of the first things I heard Jack Ma say was, "In the internet era, you have to be as fast as a rabbit and patient as a turtle."
(00:19:00.54-00:19:18.01)
-Rich shared that one of his guests at his event walked out.
oThe guy that I invited left, like, he's like, "Charlatan." And then he stormed out, and I felt bad because I was like, "Oh, don't go. I respect you." And like, oh, and of course, then Jack became the richest man in China. So who's laughing now? But . But back then, like, who knew?
(00:25:40.50-00:25:53.84)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Mark Tanner started one of China's best-known marketing, branding, research, and martech firms, China Skinny.
In this episode, Mark Tanner recalls his travels from Vancouver to Africa to his native New Zealand before deciding to uproot his family and start over in China. He also outlines how the Chinese market is constantly innovating.
Key Takeaway:
-Net Nanny is software for parents that blocks pornographic websites.
-270,000 new cars were sold in China in 2010.
-Chinese companies keep outsmarting big brands around them.
-Chinese internet leapfrogged rapidly and innovatively.
-China's market was influenced by a variety of factors.
Best Moments:
-Mark brought a green inflatable alien during his motorbike ride in Trans-Canada.
oAnd he's like, "What on earth where you're thinking bringing, like, inflatable aliens?" Because I like in the prairies, you have to have the inflatable alien and stuff. And I had like 70 tapes. This was the days before digital music. So, I had these tapes that ended up freezing up, and he is like, looking at all this stuff and bringing juggling balls and dozens of cans of stew and all this. He's like, "What are you doing?" Like, "I'm really quite worried about you. You really have no clue. But in the end, it was alright. It turned out okay,
(00:04:47.62-00:05:14.69)
-Mark shares one of his scary moments while traveling in Africa.
oI'm belting out this really poorly. I wouldn't be able to out run them now pretty quick. They're like the aqua plane across the top of the river. So I started singing, and then they started ducking under the water, and I'm like... this is usually when they strike. It was rainy season, so it was really murky. It looked like chocolate milk, and I'm like, "Oh golly, they're under the water." And I'm singing there and there's this long silence, everything but my noise, and I guess the music kind of put them off because I never saw them, thankfully, but I was quite kayaking myself. myself. was one of the scary moments.
(00:13:30.29-00:14:01.53)
-Rich shares how he had a little run with baboons at a game park in Tanzania.
oI had a little running with baboons at the end of Tanzania, a game park. And they were at the edge of the park, and they were very socialized because people were feeding them. And they kind of, I had a whole bunch of bananas hanging out the back of my bike. This taxi came by, and they kinda leaned out the side while I drafted behind them. And I had my pump. It was like a metal pump. It was like my baboon tenderizer. But you know, I could hear their claws scratching and they have like canine teeth, right? But they were still 10 meters back. But yeah, like that was my closest call that at least that I knew of.
(00:14:41.21-00:15:08.57)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
TianTian Zhang or Angela Zhang is one of the co-founders of Vue Smart Glasses which is a futuristic, indistinguishable-from-regular-eyewear.
In this episode, Angela shares her compelling journey on the front lines of a hardware startup in both Silicon Valley and Shenzhen.
Key Takeaways
-Chinese education is very competitive. Only 1 in 1,000 people get into Beihang, while only 5% of people get into Harvard.
-Gaokao is like the SAT in English-speaking countries.
- Competitiveness is the key to success in China.
-Most Chinese students are hard-working.
-Shenzhen is a fascinating city that is growing quickly and makes more than 40% of Indonesia's GDP.
Best Moments:
-Angela shares her fun experience volunteering at Beijing Olympics
oA closing ceremony. Yeah. So it was dancing while Jackie Chan was singing, "Beijing, Beijing." Yeah. That was a really fun, unforgettable experience. But in order to keep it, like", secretly we normally woke up at 11 or 1:00 AM and go to the next Niaochao to practice. Do all the rehearsals until seven to
(00:11:52.99-00:12:19.11)
-Angela talks about how she looked for the mother's coworker's daughter, who said she went to a great school.
oSo Chinese parents, they're very competitive. They would like to, compete their kids' performance, especially their academic performance. Like, "Even though I'm not as rich as you are, but my kids go to a better school than you, so my life is more successful." Anyway, my mom's school worker, her daughter she claimed that she went to CUP, so I was like, "Really?" So I went to the school dictionary and looked up her name. I didn't find it. I was like, "Really? How could I not find it?"
(00:18:17.07-00:18:50.06)
- Rich praising Angela for being a badass woman.
o Because you're a badass woman, right? You're like yawning before the Gaokao and showing up to grad school, all injured and, doing all kinds of other stuff that mere mortals, normal people can't do. But like that's not so accessible for somebody who's not really from China and has that sort of like, global perspective in a way too, right?
(00:01:02:05.54-00:01:02:17.06)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Shaun Rein is a renowned author, Founder and Managing Director of China Market Research (CMR), the world's foremost strategic market research business.
In this episode, Shaun shares how writing books gave him the ability to broaden his professional network and find new opportunities.
Key Takeaways:
-
Writing and publishing a book can help an entrepreneur gain access to new opportunities and a larger network.
-
In tech and space exploration, China is now ahead of the US.
-
China has now surpassed the US in technology and space exploration.
-
The Chinese people are optimistic about their lives and their government.
-
Working together is what makes it possible to win 80% of the time when going up against a large management firm.
-
China's patriotism has also increased over time.
-
Everything in China is focused on mobile first.
Best Moments:
- Rich admits that he hasn't read any of Shaun's books.
o Oh, I'm sorry. The internet is breaking up. Is that? Is there something? I have not, my friend. And I really feel like a shithead like talk show host. Yeah. And you — you're not even offended. You, you're on my podcast because of the books, not because I...
(00:06:24.53-00:06:37.88 )
- Shaun believes that China is committed to true innovation, not just business model or app innovation.
o So it's really quite exciting when you talk to venture capitalist and entrepreneurs in China right now. They want to do true innovation, not business model innovation anymore, not application innovation like WeChat or Alipay. They want to go into true invention, and it's really quite exciting to see what's going on in China right now.
(00:10:29.56-00:10:49.51)
- Rich claims that China's economy is growing miraculously.
o Fascinating. Yeah. And you know, 70% of China in poverty previously, and now it's less than 1%. Right. It's pretty miraculous. Miraculous growth, and yeah, funnily enough, I heard that a Tibetan monk moved to Beijing and opened up a pizza place, and he said, "Anybody can come in and I can make them one with everything. Thank you. Good night."
(00:31:57.90-00:32:15.98 )
- Shaun shares his standpoint to trust China now because its much better now.
o And so I think from an operating standpoint, trust — don't be blind, but it's a lot better now than it was even just five years ago, where I went into every negotiation or business meeting really worried if I was being cheated. That just doesn't happen as much now.
(00:39:52.04-00:40:07.55)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
Rocky Lee is a well-known business attorney who has a lot of experience and knowledge in China's restricted industries.
In this episode, Rocky talks about how he went to China for a legal assignment and ended up becoming an angel investor. He also talks about how China's market is much more competitive than those in the West.
Key Takeaways:
-Compared to the West, China is changing rapidly.
-Almost every big US company was investing into China.
-In China, any type of business faces hyper-competition in a brutally competitive market.
-China has a really strong D2C market.
-China innovates by shifting to mobile first, as opposed to the United States, which relies on PC legacy.
-China's direct-to-consumer manufacturing is the next big thing.
-WeChat has decimated China's business card industry.
-Mobile banking makes everything instantaneous.
Best Moments:
-Rich and Rocky met at Beijing’s Tech Crunch.
oThat was when they brought out Steve Chan, the founder of YouTube, and they brought out Kevin Systrom, the founder of Instagram, when they were still only on iPhone. They didn't even have an Android version yet. And we were singing karaoke together. Instagram was like the connection from Silicon Valley to China, and it was kind of a big deal.
(00:03:58.32-00:04:14.59)
-Rocky initially didn't believe that even grandparents were using mobile devices, and on Pinduoduo.
oI remember I debated somebody that, "Hey, I don't think the grannies were ever on a mobile device in China. I think you're not thinking about this correctly." I remember telling a VC this, we were debating this. He said, "No, no, no. The grandma and grandpa's going to get on the mobile." I was like, "No, I just don't see that. They can't even see through the bifocal how they going to touch this stuff," right? Sure enough, right? Every grandma, grandpa's on Pinduoduo, right? Everyone's looking for that discount on the mobile. They don't have PC. They've never even used the PC. They probably never even had a landline; they're on their mobile phone, right?
(00:17:29.78-00:17:58.17)
-Rich is amazed by the deals Rocky has done.
oLike, come on. How many goddamn transactions have you not done? Like, that's amazing. These are all like seminal, like huge deals. I love it. I can't even keep track.
(00:38:47.57-00:38:59.55)
-Rocky explains that we benefit from China's glimpses into the future.
oLine Bike was basically taking the scooter model to the US and realizing that, hey, you can't really have people in America on bicycles. It has to be electric. So they have to make a change, right? And that's why you have electric scooters are shared, right? And the team is China, right? So they understand. They've seen it, right? So I guess we have the benefit of having seen some of the future from China because that's the superpower we have, right? We've seen it. And when we first got to China, we had that same superpower, right? We know where China's headed.
(00:50:59.12-00:51:29.73)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
New Zealand's Jade Gray is an entrepreneur who went from "zero" to "hero" in a handful of years.
In this episode, Jade reveals his life change from butcher to co-founder of Gung Ho! He also imparted a few nuggets of wisdom gained along the way in his business ventures.
Key take aways :
-China's essence is all about the depth of their culture, like the calendar, moon cycles, and farming cycles.
-Gung Ho's selling point was that he was truly innovative and creative and wasn't tied down by traditions.
-Off-Piste Provisions is a brand of Plant Technician, a government-funded New Zealand company that makes plant-based meat.
Best moments:
- Rich praises Jade for the great way he treats his employees.
oBut then I saw your staff; basically they were wildly inspired by you. Like you were so in sync with them, and they really, really responded to the culture that you set there. And now I understand more clearly. I never really got that much of a backstory from you, but you were really, like, your entire career basically. Like, you weren't like, quote, unquote, "polluted by the West in a way." You weren't trying to, like, change your western, you know, style to fit in China. You were like, "I'm learning as I go," right?
(00:12:08.14-00:12:37.52)
-
Jade reveals that he was "systems-oriented," which aided in the development of standard operating procedures.
oI think, yeah, I've always been pretty systems-orientated. You know, my father's a grocer. I kind of came through that whole model of, you know, systems and procedures and whatnot. And then, when I was working with, you know, Costco, McDonald's on that meat gig, you know, I was obviously given world class insight into, you know, SOPs and how they run their operation, especially the McDonald's side.
(00:23:37.11- 00:23:56.02) -
Jade Gray reveals his personal business ethos.
oAnd it was awesome, man. I mean, the dream was to run a business in China and not be there. And one of the mantras I built from day one, and it was taken, I think, from EMyth, which is whether the found the bosses there or not, should have no impact on the customer experience. And that was something we built from day one. And that was an IBM I think, takeaway, which when they did systems and, just saying, "Hey, it's systems that deliver the experience, not people, in terms of that consistency of experience. So yeah, man, we did that and, you know, loved them until the business got shaken by that speed of China and I just had to come back.
(00:39:46.69-00:40:19.73)
-When Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu changed the way they played, Gung Ho stopped using the restaurant model and began to come up with new ideas.
oIt was like, "Wow, we're in trouble here." You know, like there's that we can't compete against this in terms of that platform. So we ended up got to a restaurant model, a hybrid delivery restaurant model, to try and bring a service element to our strength of company culture and service, which was getting diluted pretty quick in the delivery space, where it was all about price and speed.
(00:47:26.57-00:47:44.71)
- Jade talks about how well their fundraising has gone, and how Rich has helped.
oAnd, you know, the guys I'm surrounding myself with are the same. And we just did our fundraise, which Rich, you were instrumental in helping me, and I can happy to announce to you here. We closed our fundraising three out within three hours of launching it. So, we got oversubscribed in three hours. I put the email out at 3:20 AM and we oversubscribed at 6:30 AM. So it's awesome, man.
(00:57:15.19-00:57:39.68 )
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
James L. McGregor is an author, businessman, and journalist who has spent the better part of the last quarter century in China. Jim is the chairman of APCO, an international public relations and government relations firm in China. In this episode, Jim talks about his time as a journalist and then businessman in China.
Key Takeaways:
- The Wall Street Journal puts articles in Chinese newspapers and splits the money from advertising. Also, it was the first business news show with a half-hour run on Shanghai TV in China. And the Wall Street Journal has a 24-hour translation operation that translates market news in Beijing.
- China is trying to get more involved with international organizations to show that it has good data security.
- China’s news is divided into three: How great the Chinese Leaders are; How good China country is; and what shitshow the rest of the world is.
Best Moments:
- After Jim and his sister backpacked through China in 1985, Jim made the decision to move there permanently.
o So in '85 with my sister, who was working in refugee camps in Thailand, we backpacked around China for a few weeks, and I came back thinking. This is going to be the country — most important country — in my lifetime. So I convinced my wife, who's also from small town Duluth, Minnesota, and at age 33 we got rid of everything we owned, and moved to Taiwan to learn Mandarin and, you know, start over.
(00:03:13-00:03:35)
-
Jim was hired by the Wall Street Journal when he lived in Taiwan and covered great stories.
o Taiwan was great because we arrived there in '87, and then the Wall Street Journal hired me within a few months because I'd been a reporter in Washington. I had a lot of experience at that time. And then the democracy movement broke out. And so I covered the whole democracy movement and watched the rise of the Min Xin Dang, the DPP, and it was really a fantastic time in Taiwan. Now I still have a very soft spot in my heart for Taiwan. My daughter was born there.
(00:04:40-00:05:07) -
Rich applauds Jim for his 1996 achievements in China.
o Amazing. Yeah, I remember when I first moved to China in '96. I mean, you guys were already a force of nature in the mainland. And, a lot of the alums and people that worked underneath you there, you created kind of like there's a PayPal mafia. I think there's kind of a Dow Jones mafia that came out of that Nexus.
(00:08:17-00:08:35) -
Jim was appointed head of the Foreign Correspondence Club in 1991
o And, you know, I became head of the Foreign Correspondence Club in '91 because I went on a reporting trip to Chengdu, and while I was gone, the other correspondent said, "Let's make him be the president." And I came back. So I was ahead of it.
(00:09:44-00:09:57) -
Rich shares some purpose of his book, “At the Speed of China.”
o because the purpose of this book is that China is an adversary. China is also a competitor. And China's also a cooperation partner, right? It's all three of those. (00:11:44-00:11:55) -
Jim points, Chinese system is working better for China than other Western Democracies.
o Optimism and how their lives have been made so much better and actually, even, you know, look, the Chinese system is working better for China right now than the western democracies are working for our own people. And that is, if we want to compete with China, it's all about home. We got to get our shit together. Because right now, think of all these Chinese young people that go to American universities and have been watching the American political system. Do you think they go home and say, "Boy, I want some of that."
(00:32:14-00:32:41)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes
James L. McGregor is an author, businessman, and journalist who has spent the better part of the last quarter century in China. Jim is the chairman of APCO, an international public relations and government relations firm in China. In this episode, Jim talks about his time as a journalist and then businessman in China.
Key Takeaways:
- The Wall Street Journal puts articles in Chinese newspapers and splits the money from advertising. Also, it was the first business news show with a half-hour run on Shanghai TV in China. And the Wall Street Journal has a 24-hour translation operation that translates market news in Beijing.
- China is trying to get more involved with international organizations to show that it has good data security.
- China’s news is divided into three: How great the Chinese Leaders are; How good China country is; and what shitshow the rest of the world is.
Best Moments:
- After Jim and his sister backpacked through China in 1985, Jim made the decision to move there permanently.
o So in '85 with my sister, who was working in refugee camps in Thailand, we backpacked around China for a few weeks, and I came back thinking. This is going to be the country — most important country — in my lifetime. So I convinced my wife, who's also from small town Duluth, Minnesota, and at age 33 we got rid of everything we owned, and moved to Taiwan to learn Mandarin and, you know, start over.
(00:03:13-00:03:35)
-
Jim was hired by the Wall Street Journal when he lived in Taiwan and covered great stories.
o Taiwan was great because we arrived there in '87, and then the Wall Street Journal hired me within a few months because I'd been a reporter in Washington. I had a lot of experience at that time. And then the democracy movement broke out. And so I covered the whole democracy movement and watched the rise of the Min Xin Dang, the DPP, and it was really a fantastic time in Taiwan. Now I still have a very soft spot in my heart for Taiwan. My daughter was born there.
(00:04:40-00:05:07) -
Rich applauds Jim for his 1996 achievements in China.
o Amazing. Yeah, I remember when I first moved to China in '96. I mean, you guys were already a force of nature in the mainland. And, a lot of the alums and people that worked underneath you there, you created kind of like there's a PayPal mafia. I think there's kind of a Dow Jones mafia that came out of that Nexus.
(00:08:17-00:08:35) -
Jim was appointed head of the Foreign Correspondence Club in 1991
o And, you know, I became head of the Foreign Correspondence Club in '91 because I went on a reporting trip to Chengdu, and while I was gone, the other correspondent said, "Let's make him be the president." And I came back. So I was ahead of it.
(00:09:44-00:09:57) -
Rich shares some purpose of his book, “At the Speed of China.”
o because the purpose of this book is that China is an adversary. China is also a competitor. And China's also a cooperation partner, right? It's all three of those. (00:11:44-00:11:55) -
Jim points, Chinese system is working better for China than other Western Democracies.
o Optimism and how their lives have been made so much better and actually, even, you know, look, the Chinese system is working better for China right now than the western democracies are working for our own people. And that is, if we want to compete with China, it's all about home. We got to get our shit together. Because right now, think of all these Chinese young people that go to American universities and have been watching the American political system. Do you think they go home and say, "Boy, I want some of that."
(00:32:14-00:32:41)
XCD: Post-production, transcript & show notes