"Products and services will
have to be made for China, if they are to match the demand
of the vast number of Chinese consumers in both urban and
rural areas," said Ying Yeh, chairwoman of Kodak Greater
China Region and an honorary chairwoman of the eighth China
Daily CEO Roundtable held under the theme "Address the New
China, the Road Ahead for Multinational Companies," held
on Friday in Hong Kong.
Branding, talent, further localization,
maintaining international service standards, developing
rural areas, a long-term view, readiness to compete with
local companies and working closely with both central and
local governments were the focus of discussion.
At the luncheon held on Friday, 20 China-based
CEOs and senior executives of the world's largest companies
such as HSBC, ExxonMobil, Disney, Wal-Mart, Deloitte, O&M,
3M, Oracle, and Bloomberg in charge of banking, finance,
insurance, consulting, consumer products, media, entertainment,
sport, retail, lifestyle products, energy, and IT, gathered
to address some common but strategic concerns relating to
the challenges and opportunities being brought about by
the development in China of a xiaokang society - one that
is moderately well-off.
While delegates were upbeat about China's
sustained economic growth, Honorary Chairwoman Ying Yeh
stressed that multinationals must be realistic in their
consumer strategies and be aware of government policies
to achieve a mutually beneficial situation. "Do your reality
check as frequently as possible, paying particular attention
to government policies," Ying suggested. The past seven
years were just phenomenal in terms of China's economic
growth, and, as of today, China has overtaken the United
States as the world's number one consumer market, beating
it in four out of five key sectors, apart from energy consumption,
Ying stressed.
However when looking into the relative
income growth between those in urban and rural areas, Ying
cautioned that the income gap has actually widened and this
should be closely monitored.
The Chinese Government's western development
strategy therefore has a lot of implications for multinational
companies. At the very least this means that hidden demand
will be released. "Kodak's business in China's coastal cities
has continued to generate substantial growth for us, but
we are also allocating more resources to development in
the burgeoning second and third-tier cities."
In closing her speech, Ying stressed the
essence of Kodak's branding strategy in the decades to come
in China is to cultivate "a culture that Kodak is part of
consumer's everyday life." She added that the China market
will be far more important than just a big market, it will
be viewed as a strategic resource for global growth in research
and development and skills.
To address the growing needs and income
of rural regions and second-tier cities, the president of
Wal-Mart China, Cassian Cheung, who was also an honorary
chairman of this CEO roundtable, said the company employs
four key strategies to develop its business model for China.
These are choice and convenience, price leadership, logistics
and technology, and localization and training.
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